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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Quiet Talks on the Crowned Christ of
+Revelation, by S. D. Gordon
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Quiet Talks on the Crowned Christ of Revelation
+
+Author: S. D. Gordon
+
+Release Date: October 16, 2007 [EBook #23038]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK QUIET TALKS ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Stephen Hope, Colin Bell, Fox in the Stars and
+the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at
+http://www.pgdp.net
+
+
+
+
+
+
+             QUIET TALKS
+           ON THE CROWNED
+        Christ of Revelation
+                 BY
+            S. D. GORDON
+
+             Author of
+      "Quiet Talks on Power",
+      "Quiet Talks on Prayer",
+"Quiet Talks about Our Lord's Return"
+
+
+
+           [Illustration]
+
+     CHICAGO  NEW YORK  TORONTO
+     FLEMING H. REVELL COMPANY
+       LONDON AND EDINBURGH
+
+
+
+
+         COPYRIGHT, 1914, BY
+       FLEMING H. REVELL COMPANY
+
+     New York: 158 Fifth Avenue
+     Chicago: 17 North Wabash Ave.
+     London: 21 Paternoster Square
+     Edinburgh: 75 Princes Street
+
+
+
+
+PREFACE
+
+
+Crowning the Christ is an intensely practical thing, whether taken in
+the _personal_ sense or the _world_ sense. He has been crowned in the
+upper world. With wondrous patience and graciousness He pleads for the
+personal crowning in our lives. Some day--no one knows just when--He
+will begin to _act_ as the crowned Christ _in all the affairs of our
+earth_.
+
+The initiative of all action to-day on the earth is in man's hands. Some
+day the initiative of _governing_ action on the earth will be in the
+hands of the crowned Christ, even while the personal initiative of each
+man's life will still be in his own hands.
+
+God is intensely practical. Jesus was never concerned about speculation
+nor mere discussion; He was too intent on helping people. The Bible is
+wholly a practical book. It is concerned only with helping us. It does
+not tell us all the truth there is; we shall be constantly learning more
+in the future life. But it does tell us all we need to know now. And its
+purpose in telling us what it does is wholly practical,--to urge us to
+right choice, and to lives that square with the choice. This is the
+purpose that decided just what truth should be told in the Book.
+
+There is one book of the sixty-six devoted wholly to this subject of the
+crowned Christ,--"The Revelation of John." Every one of these books
+touches Him at some angle, and finds its deepest meaning in what He was
+to do and did do, and yields up its secrets only under the touch of His
+hand. But this book, the closing and climax of all, the knot in the end
+of the inspired thread, this deals wholly with the action of the crowned
+Christ.
+
+No book of the sixty-six has seemed so much like a riddle and set so
+many a-guessing. And without doubt much of its meaning will be clear
+only as events work themselves out. Events will prove the only expositor
+of much. But it is with the deep conviction that this is wholly a
+_practical book_, written wholly from a practical point of view, and
+concerned wholly with our practical daily lives, that I have ventured to
+take it up in this series of simple, wholly practical, Quiet Talks. And
+it is only this side of its teachings that will be dealt with here. The
+Book is a street leading into the true overcoming life the Master would
+woo us to.
+
+It is only after many years' study of this Book of the Revelation, and a
+special study the past three years and a little more, that I have
+ventured to put these talks together. And now they are sent out with the
+earnest humble prayer that others may find some little practical help in
+prayerfully reading, as I have found much in prayerfully studying, under
+the Master's gracious faithful touch.
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+
+I.   THE CHRIST CROWNED, THE FACT               9
+
+II.  THE CROWN BOOK                            39
+
+III. A SIGHT OF THE CROWNED CHRIST             63
+
+IV.  A MESSAGE FROM THE CROWNED CHRIST         97
+
+V.   AN ADVANCE STEP IN THE ROYAL PROGRAMME   127
+
+VI. A CLEARING-UP STORM IN THE REALM          151
+
+VII. THE CROWNED CHRIST REIGNING              215
+
+VIII. WATCHING THE HORIZON                    235
+
+
+
+
+I.--THE CHRIST CROWNED, THE FACT
+
+
+ "When God sought a King for His people of old,
+   He went to the fields to find him;
+ A shepherd was he, with his crook and his lute
+   And a following flock behind him.
+
+ "O love of the sheep, O joy of the lute,
+   And the sling and the stone for battle;
+ A shepherd was King, the giant was naught,
+   And the enemy driven like cattle.
+
+ "When God looked to tell of His good will to men,
+   And the Shepherd-King's son whom He gave them;
+ To shepherds, made meek a-caring for sheep,
+   He told of a Christ sent to save them.
+
+ "O love of the sheep, O watch in the night,
+   And the glory, the message, the choir;
+ 'Twas shepherds who saw their King in the straw,
+   And returned with their hearts all on fire.
+
+ "When Christ thought to tell of His love to the world
+   He said to the throng before him,
+ 'The Good Shepherd giveth His life for the sheep--'
+   And away to the cross they bore Him.
+
+ "O love of the sheep, O blood sweat of prayer,
+   O man on the cross, God-forsaken;
+ A shepherd has gone to defend all alone
+   The sheepfold by death overtaken.
+
+ "When God sought a King for His people, for aye,
+   He went to the grave to find him;
+ And a shepherd came back, Death dead in His grasp,
+   And a following flock behind Him.
+
+ "O love of the sheep, O life from the dead,
+   O strength of the faint and the fearing;
+ A shepherd is King, and His Kingdom will come.
+   And the day of His coming is nearing."[1]
+
+
+Coronation Gift.
+
+Christ is crowned. Not in any vague far-fetched meaning, but in the
+plain common-sense meaning of the word, He is _crowned_.
+
+For crowned means put in the place of highest power, with full right to
+exercise that power at will. And when the crucified Jesus went up that
+Olivet day, before the astonished eyes of the disciples, into the
+sightless blue, on the cloud, He was received in the upper world by the
+Father. And He was lifted up into the place of highest honour and
+greatest power. He sat down at the right hand of the Father.[2]
+
+He had said it would be so. Breathing the air thick with bitter hate on
+the night of His trial, He had quietly said to the Jewish rulers that
+even so it would be, bringing at once about His person the bursting of
+the storm of hate.[3] Now His unfaltering trust in His Father has its
+sweet reward.
+
+The Holy Spirit poured out on Pentecost, the birthday of the Church, was
+the gift of the _crowned_ Christ. The rushing sound as of a mighty wind
+that filled all the house, the tongues of flame plainly seen, the bold
+talking to the crowds of foreign Jews of God's mighty power, the
+faithful witnessing about the crucified Jesus in the city that hounded
+Him to death, the convinced crowds openly declaring at the peril of
+their lives their belief in the despised Jesus, the strangely rare
+unselfishness even in money matters, and the winsome graciousness of
+spirit that marked, not only the inner circle, but these greatly
+increased crowds,--all this said one thing in clear unanswerable tones
+of unmistakable power, _Christ is crowned_.[4] For the sending down of
+the Holy Spirit was the act of the crowned Christ.
+
+And every touch of the Holy Spirit's presence within trusting
+hearts,--the sweet peace, the quiet assurance, the longing for purity,
+the drawing away to prayer, the hunger for God's Word, the intense
+desire to have others saved, the passion to please this wondrous God of
+ours,--all these simple marks of the Holy Spirit's presence in our
+hearts, all tell us, and each tells us, in unmistakable tones, that
+Christ is crowned. For this wondrous Spirit within is the gift of the
+crowned Christ.
+
+When Jesus went up from the earth, holding as His sure captive the
+captivity of suffering and death to which He had with such great
+strength yielded, He received gifts, coronation gifts. The Father gave
+Him all. He gave Him the disposal and control of all. This was the
+crowning.
+
+And in His great out-reaching love Christ received these gifts _on
+behalf of men_, His blood brothers. And at once He gave to men, to His
+trusting disciples, the all-inclusive gift, the Holy Spirit, His
+coronation gift.[5] So God came anew to dwell with men as originally
+planned.
+
+This blessed Presence within tells me, by His mere presence, that Christ
+is crowned.
+
+The writers of the New Testament make a chorus of sweet music on this
+chord, ringing out in clear tones the full notes of delight and joy.
+Luke's simple narrative sounds the note four times. Paul swells it out
+with a joyous fulness that grows in volume and intensity as his
+narrowing prison walls shut out more and more the lower lights, and
+centres his upward gaze upon Jesus, "far above all rule, and authority,
+and power, and dominion, and every name that is named," with "all things
+in subjection under His feet."[6] John's special companion and working
+partner, Peter, makes this note blend with and dominate the minor chord
+of suffering for Christ's sake.[7]
+
+The Christian Hebrew who wrote so eloquently to his fellow-countrymen of
+the immense superiority of Jesus and so modestly withheld his own name,
+strikes this note five times with strong, clear touch.[8] He quotes
+that Eighth Psalm, which so wonderfully gives God's own ideal for man's
+mastery over all creation. And then he tells us that in Jesus the ideal
+will yet be fully realized. And that while the whole plan has not yet
+fully worked out as it will, yet _even now_ we see the Jesus who tasted
+death for every one, crowned with glory and honour as part of the plan
+which He carried out in suffering the extreme suffering of death.
+
+And our Lord Jesus Himself, talking out of the glory to the man who was
+His bosom companion on earth, reserves as His last tender plea to us to
+live the overcoming life this--"he that overcometh I will give him to
+sit down with me in my throne as I also overcame and _sat down with my
+Father on His throne_."[9]
+
+And so we find out just what this word crowned means. Jesus was received
+in the upper world, exalted, glorified, made to sit down at the Father's
+right hand, put far above all rule and authority, with a name greater in
+the sweep of its power than any other, and with all things put in
+absolute subjection under His feet. This is the simple, direct meaning
+of the sentence--Christ is crowned.
+
+What a contrast the two faces of that glory cloud saw! The face looking
+down, and the face looking up! The one--the downward face--looked upon a
+cross, a Man hanging there with a mocking crown of thorns without and a
+breaking heart within, scowling priests, jeering crowds, deserting
+disciples, sneering soldiers, weeping women, heart-broken friends, a
+horror of darkness, a cave-tomb under imperial seal, and blackest night
+settling down over all.
+
+The other--the upward face--looked upon a great burst of the upper
+glory, the countless angels singing swelling songs of worship, the
+wondrous winged cherubim, the redeemed hosts from Eden days on
+reverently bowing and exultantly singing, the exquisitely
+soft-green-rainbow-circled throne, the Father's face, once hidden, but
+to be hidden now never again, the _shared_ seat on the Father's
+throne,--what a contrast!
+
+Here crucified--there crowned. Crucified on earth, one of the smaller
+globes of the universe. On the throne of the whole universe of
+globes--crowned! From the lowest depth to the one extreme height. From
+hate's worst to Love's best. From love poured out for men to love
+enthroned for those same men; love triumphant each time, on cross and on
+throne. What a contrast! What a coronation! What a welcome home to a
+throne!
+
+
+The Music of a Name.
+
+It is most intensely interesting to recall that, of course, this is just
+what the very word Christ means,--the Crowned One. We sometimes get so
+used to a word that it is easy to forget its real meaning. The word
+Christ has been used so generally for so many centuries as a _name_
+that we forget that originally it was a title, and not a name.
+
+And it still is a title, though used chiefly as a name. Some day the
+title-meaning will overlap the name-meaning. We may never cease thinking
+of it as a name, but there is a time coming when events will make the
+title-meaning so big as to clear over-shadow our thought and use of it
+as a name.
+
+It helps to recall the distinctive meaning of the words we use for Him
+who walked amongst, and was one of us. Jesus is His _name_. It belongs
+to the _man_. It belongs peculiarly to the thirty-three years and a bit
+more that He was here, even though not exclusively used in that way in
+the Book.
+
+There's a rare threefold sweetness of meaning in that five-lettered
+name. There is the meaning of the old word lying within the name, before
+it became a name, victory, victor, saviour-victor, Jehovah-victor. There
+is the swing and rhythm and murmur of music, glad joyous music, in its
+very beginnings as a common word.
+
+Then it has come to stand wholly for a _personality_, the rarely gentle,
+winsome, strong personality of the Man of Bethlehem and Nazareth, and of
+those crowded service-days. And every memory of His personality sweetens
+and enriches the music in the old word.
+
+And then the deepest significance, the richest rhythm, the sweetest
+melody, come from the meaning His experiences, His life, pressed into
+it. The sympathy, the suffering, the wilderness, the Cross, the
+Resurrection, all the experiences He went through, these give to this
+victory-word, Jesus, a meaning unknown before. They put the name Jesus
+actually above every name in the experiences of tense conflict and
+sweeping victory it stands for. This threefold chording makes music
+never to be broken nor forgotten.
+
+ "There is no name so sweet on earth,
+   No name so sweet in heaven,
+ The name before His wondrous birth,
+   To Christ the Saviour given."
+
+Lord is a title, of course. It was used of one who was a proprietor, an
+owner, or a master. It was commonly used as a title of honour for one in
+superior position, as a leader or teacher. In speaking of Jesus it is
+coupled with the title Christ as an interchangeable word,[10] as well as
+an additional title. But peculiarly it is the _personal title_ given
+Jesus by one who takes Him as his own personal Master,[11] while it
+still retains its broader meaning.
+
+But _Christ_ is peculiarly _the official title_ of Jesus. There is only
+one Christ. Lord is used of men. It is used of both the Father and the
+Holy Spirit, as well as of Jesus. But the name Christ is used of only
+one person, and can mean only that one. There could be only one Christ.
+
+The word or its equivalent was used occasionally in the Old Testament in
+a narrowed sense for the King of Israel, who is reverently spoken of as
+"the Lord's anointed," that is, God's Messiah or Christ.[12]
+
+But the one common thought of it among the Hebrew people, growing ever
+intenser as the Old Testament period merges into the time of the New,
+was that there was one coming, _the_ Messiah, _the_ Christ, God's
+chosen, the one anointed and empowered, to be their Deliverer. The one
+question that sets all hearts a-flutter about the rugged John of the
+deserts was this: "Is he _the_ Christ?"[13] In their thought there was
+only one to whom the title belonged.
+
+And even so it is. Christ is the official title of _the One_ Chosen and
+anointed by God to be ruler over His Hebrew people, and over all the
+race, and the earth, and the universe,--God's King, to reign until all
+have been brought into full allegiance to the great loving Father.[14]
+The Christ is the Crowned One, God's Crowned One. The very word Christ
+tells that Christ is crowned.
+
+
+Our Great Kinsman.
+
+There is an intensely interesting question that crowds its way in here,
+and it proves an immensely practical question, too. _Why_ was Christ
+crowned? We can say at once that this was His due. He was given that
+which belonged to Him in good right. He was reinstated in His former
+position, with all the power and glory that were His before His errand
+to the earth.[15]
+
+Then too this was His vindication after the shameful treatment of earth.
+Before the eyes of all the upper world, both loyal and disloyal eyes,
+this man whom earth hounded so shamelessly is vindicated; He is set
+right by the Father.[16]
+
+But there is yet more than this. It is a more of a sort that concerns
+_us_ very closely, and it sets one's heart a-beating a bit faster. This
+crowning was part of a plan, a plan of which our earth is the centre. It
+was the second great part of a plan of which the suffering and dying
+were the first great part. Both were for the sake of us men and our
+earth-home, and the lower creation.
+
+This is the thing being emphasized in the second great paragraph of the
+Hebrews.[17] Man was made the under-master of the earth and of the lower
+creation, but lost, weakly surrendered, his place of mastery. The new
+Man came to recover for man what had been lost and to realize this
+original lost plan.
+
+And so He became our brother, sharer of our flesh and blood, tempted
+like as we, perfected in His human character by the experiences He went
+through, then tasted to the bitter dregs the death that belongs to our
+sin. And then following that, He was crowned with glory and honour. And
+so He rises to the place of mastery over all that belongs to perfect
+man. So He brings all creation into the glad subjection which is its
+natural happy state. It is for earth's sake, for the race's sake, and
+for the sake of our faithful companions and servants, the whole lower
+creation, that Christ has been crowned.
+
+We think more about the personal meaning to ourselves of His having died
+and risen again. We need to remember, too, this broader meaning. The
+dying and rising secures our salvation personally. The crowning and the
+reigning will work out the redemption of all nature and of the lower
+creation,[18] and this in turn will mean much for men living on the
+earth in the Kingdom time, and for the race as a race.
+
+This leads at once to another question that presses in. What is the
+_domain_ of the crowned Christ? If we take the crowning in the common
+meaning of that word, it means that there is some domain that Christ
+rules over. What is it that He is crowned over?
+
+And the answer is so sweeping as to seem far-away and dreamy to us who
+are living on this sin-hurt earth. He is the crowned Ruler of the whole
+created universe and all intelligent beings in it. He has been placed
+over absolutely every "rule and authority and power and dominion, and
+not only in this present age but in the coming age."[19] There is
+simply no limit in extent to His domain. Everything has been placed in
+subjection to Him and is now subject to His word, and His alone.
+
+There is a striking passage in Philippians that fits in here.[20] In
+speaking of the exaltation of Jesus Christ, Paul is careful to explain
+particularly that every knee would bow, _in the heavens_, and, _on the
+earth_, and _under_ the earth or in the _world below_.
+
+This threefold division is very striking. The heaven things are
+understood at once, and things of the earth sphere. But there is a third
+world to be taken into account, that strange uncanny world of evil
+spirit beings in rebellion against God's authority. It is spoken of
+repeatedly as principalities and powers, indicating numbers and
+organization, dignity, and power.[21] All of this is included in what
+has been placed under Christ's authority.[22]
+
+
+Is Christ Reigning Now?
+
+But there is still another question that has been impatiently pushing
+underneath for some time. And it also is an intensely practical one.
+Does this mean that Christ is actually ruling now over this domain of
+His? How about the affairs on the earth? Are all things here subject to
+Him? Is this the way He would have things go? And some of us think the
+evil spirits seem pretty free in their movements. This present order of
+things that we are living in the thick of, is this the reign of the
+crowned Christ? And some of us feel the stress of things so much that we
+can scarce keep patient for a thoughtful poised answer to our questions.
+
+There are those, and good earnest folk they are, too, who tell us that
+Christ has come, and is constantly coming, more and more, into our
+common life. The higher ideals that are crowding for expression, the
+more spiritual conceptions of man and his brotherly relations, the
+constant striving toward better civilization, the bettering of the
+condition of the poor and less fortunate, the increased recognition of
+men's rights in the complex industrial world, the increasing effort to
+correct evils by legislation, the great moral reforms that are sweeping
+aside the awful liquor curse, and loosening women's bonds, and
+safeguarding young womanhood and children, the newer aggressiveness in
+the missionary propaganda and in much of the activity of the Church,
+even the attempt to humanize and civilize the warfare that in itself is
+stupidly savage and utterly inhuman,--is not all this a coming of Christ
+and of the Christ-spirit into our common life? many ask.
+
+And there is only one answer to such questions, a strong emphatic "yes."
+It surely is the Christ-spirit that moves in all of this. This is a
+coming of Christ; and a blessed coming, too. There was nothing of this
+sort before the Christ-spirit began to sweeten the world's life. And
+there is none of it to-day except in those parts of the world where the
+Christ-spirit influences life.
+
+But--there's a "but"--it proves a blessed but; this is only a crumb or
+two falling from a loaded table. And he who judges Christ by these
+crumbs only, wholesome and toothsome as they are, will have a very
+skimpy conception of Christ.
+
+All of this sort of thing that has come has come very slowly. It has had
+to fight through and in, every step of the way that it has come. Its
+coming has been opposed stubbornly, maliciously, viciously every inch of
+the road, as only those know who are in the thick of the struggle for
+these reforms, panting for breath sometimes.
+
+It is as though a few whiffs of wholesome life-giving air have breathed
+through the cracks and crevices of the breastworks and fortifications of
+evil in which all our common life seems entrenched. But the
+fortifications are still there. If the sweet, wholesome breathing in
+through cracks and crannies has been so blest, what would it be if the
+forces of evil were clean removed from the scene, and the Christ-spirit
+became the whole atmosphere breathed fully and freely without restraint,
+with no bad draughts, and no counter currents to guard and fight
+against?
+
+It would seem like a strange sort of a kingdom if the present is even a
+gradual coming in of the Kingdom. We would seem to be having a new,
+strange sort of a Christ if the present is a sample of His sort of
+reigning. For it may well be thoughtfully doubted if ever there was such
+a condition of feverish unrest in all parts of the world as to-day.
+
+It is most difficult to put your finger on a single spot of the
+world-map that is not being torn and uptorn by unrest in one shape or
+another. Either actual war, or constant studious preparation for war,
+actually never ceases. And it is difficult to say which is the worse of
+the two. The actual war reveals more terribly to our eyes and ears the
+awful cost in treasure and in precious human blood spilled without
+stint. The never-ceasing preparation for war seems actually to cost
+more. In the immense treasure involved, and in blood too, given out, not
+on an occasional battlefield, but in the continual battle of daily life
+to meet the terrible drain of taxation, it costs immensely more. There
+is less of the tragic for the news headings, but not a whit less, rather
+much more, in the slow suffering, the pinched lives, and the awful
+temptations to barter character for bread.
+
+Then there is the continual seething unrest in the industrial world; the
+protests sometimes so strange and startling against social and political
+conditions; the feverish greed for gold, and land, and position; the
+intense pace of all our modern life; the abandonment of home and home
+ideals; the terrific attack against our young womanhood. The political
+pot which gathers into itself all these things, never quits boiling or
+boiling over, in some part of the world, now here, now there. And it
+seems like the greatest achievement of diplomacy when here and there it
+can be kept from boiling clean over, or at least made to boil over less.
+
+It would seem indeed like a queer sort of kingdom if this is a sample.
+Some of us would have less heart in repeating one petition of the old
+daily prayer. And Christ would seem to have quite changed His spirit and
+character if this is a result of His coming.
+
+
+The Greatness of Patience.
+
+And the great simple truth is this, the truth that in the strange mix-up
+of life we easily lose sight of is this: _Christ has not yet taken
+possession of all of His domain_; a part of it still remains to be
+possessed. "We see _not yet_ all things subjected to Him."[23] We are
+living in the "not-yet" interval between the crowning and the actual
+reigning. We are living on the "not-yet" possessed part of His domain.
+
+And the question that comes hot and quick from our lips, even though
+with an attempt at subdued reverence, is this: "Why does He not take
+possession, and untangle the snarl, and right the wrongs, and bring in
+the true rational order of things?" And all the long waiting, the
+soreness of hearts over the part that touches one's own life most
+closely, the shortness of breath in the tensity of the struggle,
+underscore that word "why?"
+
+And the answer to the impatient question reveals all afresh the
+greatness of the love of our Christ. His greatness is shown most in His
+_patience_. But patience is one of the things we men on this old earth
+don't know. It's one of the unknown quantities to us. It can be known
+only by knowing God. For patience is love at its best. Patience is God
+at His best. His is the patience that sees all, and feels all with the
+tender heart that broke once under the load, and yet waits, steadily
+waits, and then waits just a bit longer.
+
+In this He runs the risk of being misunderstood. Men in their stupidity
+constantly mistake strong patience for weakness or indifference or lack
+of a gripping purpose. And God is misunderstood in this, even by His
+trusting children. But, even so, the object to be gained is so great,
+and so near Christ's heart that He waits, strongly waits with a patience
+beyond our comprehension; waits just a bit longer, always just a bit
+longer.
+
+There are two parts to the answer. Jesus the Christ is giving man the
+fullest opportunity. He never interferes with man's right of free
+choice. Man is free to do as he chooses. Every possible means is used to
+influence him to choose right, but the choice itself is always left to
+the man. The present is man's opportunity. The initiative of action on
+the earth is altogether in man's hand. All of God's power is at man's
+disposal; but man must _reach out_ and _take_. This long stretched but
+waiting time is for man's sake, that he may have fullest opportunity.
+The longsuffering of God would woo men.[24]
+
+When at length opportunity comes to its end it will be only because
+things have gotten into such desperate shape, into such an awful fix,
+that at length _for man's sake_ Christ will step into the direct action
+of the earth once again. He will take the leadership of earth into His
+own hands, even while still leaving each man free in his individual
+choice. This is the first part of the answer. The waiting is that man
+may have fullest opportunity.
+
+Then Christ has a great hunger for _willing_ hearts. No words are strong
+enough to tell His longing for a free, glad, joyous surrender to His
+mastery. He could so easily end the present conflict, but He waits that
+men may bring to Him the allegiance of their lives, given of their own
+glad, gracious, voluntary accord. He was a volunteer Saviour. He longs
+for that love that is the bubbling out of a free, full heart.
+
+The best love is only given freely without any compulsion of any sort,
+save only love's sweet compelling. He wants what He gives--the best. And
+so He waits, patiently waits just a bit longer. This is the second bit
+of the answer. The long delay spells out the hunger as well as the
+patience of God's heart. The divine Husbandman is patiently waiting,
+and sending warm sun and soft rains and fragrant dews while waiting.[25]
+
+ "The Husbandman waiteth--
+   The _Husbandman_? Why?
+ For the heart of one servant
+   Who hears not His cry.
+
+ "The Husbandman waiteth--
+   He _waiteth_? What for?
+ For the heart of one servant
+   To love Him yet more.
+
+ "The Husbandman waiteth--
+   Long patience hath He--
+ But He waiteth in hunger--
+   Oh! Is it for thee?"[26]
+
+
+Taking with Your Life.
+
+But--ah! listen, there's a wonderful "but" to put in here. But, while
+waiting _He puts all His limitless power at our disposal_. If that
+simple sentence could be put into letters of living flame, its
+tremendous meaning might burn into our hearts. When Paul piled up phrase
+on phrase in his eager attempt to have his Asiatic friends in and around
+Ephesus take in the limitless power of the ascended Christ, he added the
+significant words, "to the Church."[27] All that power is for the use,
+and at the disposal, of the Church.
+
+The Church was meant to be a unit in spirit in loyalty to her absent
+Lord, wholly under the dominating touch of the Holy Spirit, not only in
+her official actions, but in the lives of the individual members. If she
+were so, no human imagination could take in the startling, revolutionary
+power, softly, subtly, but with resistless sweep, flowing down from the
+crowned Christ, among grateful men.
+
+Not being such a unit it is not possible that that power shall be as
+great in manifestation as was planned and meant. For no individual nor
+group can ever take the place in action of the whole unified body of
+believers, acting as a channel for the power of the crowned Christ. That
+power shall be realized on the earth only when the Church is so unified,
+and at work, under the reigning Christ, from the new headquarters up in
+the heavens.
+
+But meanwhile all of that power is _at the disposal of any disciple of
+Christ_--the humblest--who will simply live in full-faced touch with
+Christ, and who will _take_ of that power as the need comes, and as the
+sovereign Holy Spirit leads.
+
+It is of this, this _personal_ taking, that Paul is speaking when he
+piles up that intense sentence: "able to do _exceeding abundantly above
+all that we ask or think_ according to _the power that worketh in
+us_."[28] The great bother in Paul's day and ever since, and now, is to
+get people to _take_. The power is fairly a-tremble in the air at our
+very finger-tips. And we go limping, crutching along both bodily and
+mentally and in our spiritual leanness.
+
+Those tremendous words of Jesus, "because I go unto the Father," with
+the whole passage in which they occur,[29] must be read in _the light
+shining from the throne_. Only so can they be understood. But then, so
+read, they begin to grip us, and grip us hard, as we see what He really
+meant and means.
+
+He who has the warm, child-like touch of heart with Jesus, that the word
+"believeth" stands for, shall--as the Holy Spirit has full control--do
+the same works as Jesus did, same in kind and in degree, and then shall
+do even greater than Jesus ever did. _Because_ it is now the glorified
+crowned Christ who is doing them through some child of His,
+simple-hearted enough to let Him have full control.
+
+And the means through which He will do them is simple, child-like,
+trusting, humble prayer. The man using the power is on his knees. The
+lower down he gets the more and more freely the power flows down and out
+among men.
+
+As one learns to keep in touch--learns it slowly, stumblingly, with many
+a stupid fall, and many a tremble and quiver--as he learns to keep in
+simple touch with the crowned Christ he will find _all_ the power of
+that Christ coming with a soft surging throb of life wherever needed.
+_We may have all we can take._ But _the taking must be with one's very
+life_. No mere earnest repeating of a creed in Church service will avail
+here. The repeating must be, syllable by syllable, with feet and will,
+with hands and life, in the daily tread where each step is stubbornly
+contested.
+
+This is the bit of truth for the waiting time. This is the song to be
+singing in this present "not-yet" interval. And the song will help cut
+down the length of that "not-yet," until the friction of our lived faith
+shall wear off the "not" and wipe out the "yet," and we shall find the
+crowned Christ a reigning Christ.
+
+For some day this patient waiting crowned Man will rise up from His seat
+at the Father's right hand. He will step directly into the action of
+earth once again. Man will have had his fullest opportunity lengthened
+out to the last notch of his possible use of it. Then we shall see the
+crowned Christ quietly stepping in, taking matters wholly into His own
+hands, and acting in all the affairs of earth as the Crowned One. Then
+He shall reign from sea to sea, and from the Euphrates out to where the
+ends of the earth become a common line on the other side. The Kingdom
+will have come, for the King will be reigning.
+
+The night will be gone. The day has come. The shadows flee. He has come,
+whose presence puts the new day at dawn, with the East all aflame, and
+the fragrant dew glistening gladly on every tender green blade. This
+time of expectancy is over;[30] the time of making real has _come_. Then
+comes the restoration of the old original love plan to earth and beast
+and man.[31]
+
+ "Thou art coming, O my Saviour!
+   Thou art coming, O my King!
+ In thy glory all-transcendent;
+ In thy beauty all resplendent;
+   Well may we rejoice and sing!
+ Coming! In the opening east,
+   Herald brightness slowly swells;
+ Coming, O my glorious Priest,
+   Hear we not thy golden bells?
+
+ "Thou art coming, Thou art coming!
+   We shall meet Thee on Thy way,
+ We shall see Thee, we shall know Thee,
+ We shall bless Thee, we shall show Thee
+   All our hearts could never say!
+ What an anthem that will be,
+ Ringing out our love to Thee;
+ Pouring out our rapture sweet
+ At Thine own all-glorious feet!
+
+ "Thou art coming! Rays of glory,
+   Through the veil Thy death has rent,
+ Touch the mountain and the river
+ With a golden glowing quiver,
+   Thrill of light and music blent.
+ Earth is brightened when this gleam
+ Falls on flower, rock, and stream;
+ Life is brightened when this ray
+ Falls upon its darkest day.
+
+ "Not a cloud and not a shadow,
+   Not a mist and not a tear,
+ Not a sin and not a sorrow,
+ Not a dim and veiled to-morrow,
+   For that sunrise grand and clear!
+ Jesus, Saviour, once with Thee,
+   Nothing else seems worth a thought!
+ Oh, how marvellous will be
+   All the bliss Thy pain hath bought!
+
+ "Thou art coming! At Thy table,
+   We are witnesses of this,
+ While remembering hearts Thou meetest,
+ In communion clearest, sweetest,
+   Earnest of our coming bliss.
+ Showing not Thy death alone,
+   And Thy love exceeding great,
+ But Thy coming and Thy throne,
+   All for which we long and wait.
+
+ "Thou art coming! We are waiting
+   With a hope that cannot fail;
+ Asking not the day or hour,
+ Resting on Thy word of power
+   Anchored safe within the veil,
+ Time appointed may be long,
+   But the vision must be sure;
+ Certainty shall make us strong,
+   Joyful patience can endure!
+
+ "O the joy to see Thee reigning,
+   Thee, my own beloved Lord!
+ Every tongue Thy name confessing,
+ Worship, honor, glory, blessing,
+   Brought to Thee with glad accord!
+ Thee, my Master and my Friend,
+   Vindicated and enthroned!
+ Unto earth's remotest end
+   Glorified, adored, and owned!"[32]
+
+
+Working by the Light of the Throne.
+
+But we are still in the "not-yet" interval. We see not yet all things
+subject to Him. This is still the waiting time. It is the pleading time
+for Him. He pleads for the _personal crowning_ of Himself in our lives,
+that He may reign there and He alone. This is our great opportunity. We
+shall never see its like again, nor anywhere else than on this earth.
+
+In the reigning time that's coming this peculiar opportunity of crowning
+Christ while He still is absent and despised, this will be gone. In the
+upper world they have no such opportunity. There is no opposition there.
+Now and here is the rarest opportunity to put this great waiting patient
+Man on the throne of heart and life, with possessions and ambitions and
+plans all in subjection under His feet.
+
+Every woman knows the name of Brussels lace. The old capital of the low
+countries of Europe has long been famous for its lace. It is of great
+interest to note the conditions under which it is sometimes made. They
+are conditions studiously prepared after long experience. In one of the
+famous lace factories in Brussels there are a number of small rooms
+devoted to the making of some of the most delicate patterns.
+
+Each room is just large enough for a single worker, and is quite dark
+except for one narrow window. The worker sits so that the stream of
+light falls from above directly upon the threads, while he himself sits
+in the darkness. The darkness aids the workman's eyes to see better, and
+to work more skilfully in the narrow line of clear light centred on the
+delicate task. He weaves in the upper light intensified by the
+surrounding gloom, and does exquisite work.
+
+There is a clear line of light _from a throne_ shining down into the
+darkness in which we sit and move. It shines from the face of a crowned
+Man. In the light of that light we can see clearly to do a difficult bit
+of crowning work,--to crown the Christ in our lives and to keep Him
+crowned.
+
+As our eyes follow that line of upper light we may catch glimpses of His
+wondrous Face up there in the glory. So we shall be steadied and cheered
+in the darkness as we stick to our glad crowning work. And so we shall
+move forward on the calendar the day when that thin line of light seen
+now only by watching eyes shall become a burst of glory light seen by
+all eyes.
+
+And this is the thing the crowned Christ is asking of us during this
+waiting time, this "not-yet" interval. He is counting on each of us
+being faithful to Him, our absent Lord, in this.
+
+ "He is counting on you.
+   He has need of your life
+   In the thick of the strife:
+   For that weak one may fall
+   If you fail at His call.
+ He is counting on you,
+ If you fail Him--
+     What then?
+
+ "He is counting on you.
+   On your silver and gold,
+   On that treasure you hold;
+   On that treasure still kept,
+   Though the doubt o'er you swept
+   'Is this gold not _all_ mine?
+   (Lord, I knew it was _Thine_.')
+ He is counting on you,
+ If you fail Him--
+     What then?
+
+ "He is counting on you.
+   On a love that will share
+   In His burden of prayer,
+   For the souls He has bought
+   With His life-blood; and sought
+   Through His sorrow and pain
+   To win 'Home' yet again.
+ He is counting on you,
+ If you fail Him--
+     What then?
+
+ "He is counting on you.
+   On life, money, and prayer;
+   And 'the day shall declare'
+   If you let Him have _all_
+   In response to His call;
+   Or if He in that day
+   To your sorrow must say,
+ 'I had counted on you,
+ But you failed me'--
+     What then?
+
+ "He is counting on you.
+   Oh! the wonder and grace,
+   To look Christ in the face
+   And not be ashamed;
+   For you gave what He claimed,
+   And you laid down your all
+   For His sake--at His call.
+ He had counted on you,
+ And you failed not.
+     What then?"[33]
+
+Ah! Please God, by His grace, we shall not fail in _the ruling purpose_
+of our lives. We may crown Him Lord of all. We _can_. He asks it. We
+surely _will_.
+
+ "With all my powers Him I greet,
+   All subject to His call;
+ And bowing low at His pierced feet
+     _Now_ crown him Lord of all."
+
+
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[1] Joseph Addison Richards.
+
+[2] Mark xvi. 19.
+
+[3] Matthew xxvi. 64.
+
+[4] Acts ii. 33; iii. 13-16; v. 31-32; vii. 55, 56.
+
+[5] Psalm lxviii. 18; Ephesians iv. 8; Acts ii. 33.
+
+[6] Romans viii. 34; Ephesians i. 20-22; Philippians ii. 9-11;
+Colossians iii. 1.
+
+[7] I Peter iii. 22.
+
+[8] Hebrews i. 3; ii. 8-9; viii. 1; x. 12; xii. 2.
+
+[9] Revelation iii. 21.
+
+[10] Acts ii. 36.
+
+[11] Romans x. 9.
+
+[12] I Samuel xvi. 6; xxiv. 6, 10; II Samuel i. 14-16; xix. 21, and
+elsewhere; Psalm xviii. 50, and frequently in Psalms.
+
+[13] John i. 20, 25; Luke iii. 15.
+
+[14] Philippians ii. 10; I Corinthians xv. 24-26.
+
+[15] John xvii. 5; i. 1-3; Colossians i. 15-17.
+
+[16] Matthew xxvi. 64; Acts ii. 22-24, 32-36; Philippians ii. 9-11;
+Hebrews ii. 9.
+
+[17] Hebrews ii. 5-18.
+
+[18] Romans vii. 19-22; Jeremiah ix. 10; xii. 4, 11; xxiii. 10; Genesis
+iii. 17-19; Acts iii. 21.
+
+[19] Ephesians i. 20-22; Hebrews ii. 6-8.
+
+[20] Philippians ii. 9-11.
+
+[21] Ephesians vi. 12; Colossians ii. 15.
+
+[22] Colossians ii. 10; Ephesians iii. 10; iv. 8-10; I Corinthians xv.
+24.
+
+[23] Hebrews ii. 8.
+
+[24] II Peter iii. 8-9; Romans ii. 4; ix. 22; Revelation ii. 21; I Peter
+iii. 20; II Peter iii. 15; Exodus xxxiv. 6-7.
+
+[25] James v. 7.
+
+[26] F. M. N.
+
+[27] Ephesians i. 20-22.
+
+[28] Ephesians iii. 20.
+
+[29] John xiv. 12-14.
+
+[30] Hebrews x. 13.
+
+[31] Acts iii. 21.
+
+[32] Frances Ridley Havergal.
+
+[33] Mrs. Bessie Porter Head.
+
+
+
+
+II.--THE CROWN BOOK
+
+
+ "All hail the power of Jesus' Name!
+   Let angels prostrate fall:
+ Bring forth the royal diadem,
+   And crown Him Lord of all.
+
+ "O that with yonder sacred throng
+   We at His feet may fall,
+ Join in the everlasting song
+   And crown Him Lord of all!
+
+ "With all my powers Him I greet,
+   All subject to His call;
+ And bowing low at His pierced feet,
+   _Now_ crown Him Lord of all.
+
+ "I hail the power of Jesus' Name,
+   Before Him gladly fall,
+ Bring Him my own heart's diadem
+   And crown Him Lord of all!"
+
+
+The Crowning Book.
+
+There is a _crown book_ in this old Book of God,--the Revelation of
+John. It is _the_ crown book, the only one. It is the crown book of the
+sixty-six in two senses. It is the capping climax of the whole
+revelation of God's Word. It gathers up into itself in a peculiar way
+the dominant characteristics of both the Hebrew Old and the Greek New
+Testaments.
+
+And it is the book of the Crown. The King is in action. He Himself gives
+the message of the book to John. He is seen stepping forward to take
+possession of His realm. Then He takes possession. He dispossesses the
+pretender. He reigns over the earth. The Revelation of John is the Crown
+book.
+
+This is the peculiarity of the Revelation in comparison with all the
+other books. Only here is Christ seen exercising His crown rights. From
+end to end of the Old Testament pages, His coming is looked forward to,
+with an eager longing that grows in intensity as the national failure
+grows ever worse.
+
+In the Gospels He comes, but not as He was expected. He is heralded as
+King, and claims to be King. He has all the graciousness of a King in
+ministering to the needs of the people, and all the power of a King in
+His personal touch. But He is rejected by the nation, and goes to the
+Cross, yet still as a King,--a humiliated, crucified King.
+
+In the Acts He is the risen, glorified King seated at the Father's right
+hand in glory, and at work through His followers among men on the earth.
+But it is always in the midst of sharp, bitter opposition. In the
+Epistles He is seen crowned at the Father's right hand, guiding and
+teaching His followers who are still suffering persecution.
+
+But in the Revelation of John all this is changed. There's a sharp,
+decided, advance step. Here He is not only crowned, but stepping
+directly and decisively into the action of the earth in the full
+exercise of His crowned rights and power. It is peculiarly the book of
+the Crown, the royal book, the enthroned Christ exercising fully and
+freely at will His crown rights.
+
+
+Jesus' Bosom Friend.
+
+The book was written by John the disciple and apostle. This is our same
+old friend John, whom we met first that ever-memorable afternoon, down
+by the Jordan River road, when he was introduced to Jesus by the John of
+the deserts, and had his first long, quiet talk with Him.[34] The
+friendship began that day, grew steadily, and never flagged. It was one
+of the few friendships that Jesus had that never knew any lapse nor
+eclipse.
+
+He became, in an outstanding sense, the bosom friend of Jesus. Probably
+it was not because of any special gentleness or amiability on John's
+part, though he may have had something of these traits. It was more
+likely because of the deep, intelligent sympathy between the two, a
+sympathy not only of personality, but deeper and stronger because of a
+mental and spirit likeness growing up between them. It would seem likely
+that John developed a mental grasp, a spirit insight, a student
+thoughtfulness, a steadiness of temperament, and with these, a growing
+understanding of much--at the least--much of Jesus' spirit and ideals
+and vision.
+
+It may quite be that all this came slowly, and grew up out of the
+constant contact with Jesus, and out of the warm personal love between
+the two men; quite likely. Who could live so close to Jesus as he and
+not bear the marks on mind and spirit? The fire that burned so fiercely
+in early years[35] grew into a steady, unflickering flame under the
+influence of that personal friendship.
+
+It seems not unlikely that John belonged to a good family, and had his
+home in Jerusalem. He was clearly on terms of easy intimacy at the
+palace of the High Priest,[36] which in itself would suggest his social
+standing in the city. It was to this man that Jesus, on the Cross,
+committed the care of His mother. And John accepted the trust as a
+tender token of friendship, and took Mary at once to his own home. And
+as Mary remained in Jerusalem at least some time, and John clearly for a
+long time, the home was likely there.
+
+John was one of the chief leaders in Jerusalem during the Pentecost
+days, and after. Peter was the chief spokesman, but John was always
+close by his side. The friendship between the two seems to have been
+close and of long standing. They were sent together by the Master to
+arrange for the supper that memorable betrayal night,[37] and they are
+seen together in the activities in Jerusalem for many years.[38]
+
+It would seem that in later years John left Jerusalem, and made his home
+for the remainder of his life in Ephesus. Doubtless he was led, after
+the years of leadership in the mother Church, to leave the great Jew
+centre, and devote his strength to missionary service in the outside
+Gentile world.
+
+Ephesus was the chief city of the province of Asia, and the natural
+centre of the population and life of the province. John probably worked
+out from Ephesus, preaching throughout the whole district; teaching,
+advising, praying with, and visiting the groups of little Churches
+scattered throughout the province, perhaps founding some, and
+strengthening all. For his work seems to have been, not so much
+evangelizing, but the much more difficult work of teaching, patiently,
+carefully, teaching; a work so essential to the life of any Church. So
+he would be quite familiar with the Churches to which the Revelation
+letters are sent, and would be well known by these people and loved and
+revered by them as a father in the faith.
+
+This personal bit about John is of intensest interest in studying this
+book of his. It was to this man that Jesus could entrust the writing of
+this special message. John could take in what the Master was showing him
+as few, if any others, could. The close, sympathetic friendship made him
+able to take in what his old Friend and Master is now telling him in the
+glory. And he could give it out too, simply, fully, clearly, just as it
+was given to him.
+
+Love can see and grasp, and can obey simply, where mere mental keenness
+fails. There is no tonic for the brain like love in the heart. No brain
+ever does its best work, nor can, until the heart is fired by some
+tender, noble passion. It was to Mary Magdalene who had such reason to
+love tenderly that Jesus showed Himself first after the
+resurrection.[39]
+
+And it is to John, the bosom friend, whose friendship stood the severest
+test where all others failed, that He now shows Himself in glory, and
+entrusts this pleading message, and vision of coming events, and of the
+after glory. He that willeth to do the Master's will shall know surely
+and clearly what that will is. And he that goeth farther yet, and
+willeth to give the tenderest love of his heart, ever kept at summer
+heat, shall know the Master Himself, in present personal touch, and in
+clear and clearing understanding of His coming victorious action and
+crowning glory.
+
+John wrote a Gospel; one chief Epistle, besides the two very brief
+personal letters; and this book of the Revelation. The Gospel and
+Epistles were quite likely written while in Ephesus.
+
+The Gospel was his plea to all men to whom it might come to accept Jesus
+as their personal Saviour. Its characteristic word is "believe." And the
+plan of it is a simple array of incidents about Jesus that would lead
+men to a warm, intelligent belief in Him.
+
+The chief Epistle is written to the little groups of believers scattered
+throughout Asia Minor, and doubtless in the old home district of Judea,
+too. Its characteristic word is "abide." It is an intense plea, by a
+personal friend to abide, steadily, fully, in Christ, in spite of the
+growing defections and difficulties pressing in so close.
+
+The Revelation was written, quite likely, on the island of Patmos while
+all was yet fresh in his mind; or possibly in Ephesus after his release
+from his island prison; or perhaps begun in Patmos and put into its
+final shape in Ephesus. It is written to the little groups of believers
+in and near Ephesus. It is a most intense plea to be personally true to
+the Lord Jesus in the midst of subtle compromise and of bitter
+persecution.
+
+Its characteristic word is "overcome." It speaks much of the opposition
+to be encountered, and tells of greater opposition yet to come, the
+greatest ever known. And it pleads, with every possible promise, and
+every warning of danger, that the true believer set himself against the
+evil tide, at every risk, and every possible personal loss, and so that
+he "overcome" in the Name of the Lord Jesus.
+
+
+Old and New Woven Together.
+
+The language in which the book is written is of intense interest. It is
+so unusual. It combines Hebrew thought and Greek speech. It is as though
+a Hebrew soul were living in a Greek body, and the soul has so dominated
+the body as to make decided changes in it. The thought and imagery, and
+the very words are largely taken over from the Old Testament, much of it
+not being found elsewhere in the New Testament. It is as though the Old
+Testament reaches clear over the intervening space and writes the last
+book of the New as an additional book of the Old, but with distinct
+additions. But all these additions are outgrowths of what is already in
+the Old.
+
+But while the thought and imagery are Hebrew, the language is Greek. But
+scholars note that John's Greek here is different from that of his
+Gospel, and is indeed peculiar to itself, with new grammatical
+adjustments, as though better to express his Hebrew thought. Yet, like
+the Gospel, it is an easy Greek to learn and to understand. It is as
+though the Old Testament were the warp of a new bit of fabric, with the
+New as the shuttle-threads, and yet with such additions as makes the
+pattern stand out much more definite and clear, and the colours in it
+more pronounced. Thus this end-book is a weaving of both Old and New
+into a new bit of fabric, but with a more distinct pattern than either.
+
+This explains the use of the symbolism which is so marked here. The
+picture language of John's Revelation has seemed very puzzling. It has
+seemed like a new language, to which we had neither grammar nor
+dictionary, and the intended meaning of which we could only guess at.
+But this is because we are Westerners and a bit set in our western way.
+And possibly, too, though we dislike to confess it, because we have not
+gotten a clear, simple grasp of this old Book of God as a whole. The
+Bible is an Oriental book, written in the characteristic picture
+language of the Orient.
+
+The truth is that the symbol or picture language is meant to make the
+book _easier of understanding_. We simply need to learn how to read
+picture language, not whimsically, but sensibly according to the laws of
+picture language. The symbolism or picture sees things as they look at
+the moment the picture is taken. The picture is meant to give one
+general distinct impression of the thing being presented, the details of
+the picture being of value only as they give coloring to that one
+general impression. It is concerned, not at all, or only in the most
+incidental way, with the process by which the thing came to the point
+pictured.
+
+There is a rare wisdom in the use of this picture language. It is really
+the common language not of the Orient merely, but of all the world. In
+our western half of the globe it is the language of the street, the
+common crowd, the common exchange of life, and of children. It is the
+language of the primitive peoples of all parts of the world. Everywhere
+the conventionalized book-language is spoken by the few. The picture,
+with its companion, the story, is the universal, the original, the
+natural language of the race.
+
+On the mere human side here is one secret of the freshness of the Bible.
+It is the oldest book in some of its parts, but admitted to be the
+freshest and most modern in its adaptation to modern life. And the
+reason is simple. The pictures give _principles_. Principles don't
+change with the changing of centuries. Rules change. Principles abide.
+Details alter with every generation. Principles of action are as
+unchangeable as human nature, which is ever the same, east and west,
+below the equator, and above.
+
+John's Revelation is naturally full of this picture language, for it is
+a gathering up of the chief threads of the old Oriental Hebrew fabric.
+It will help us understand the meaning if we keep in mind the simple
+rules of this Hebrew picture language.
+
+John, of course, was a Hebrew, born and bred in a Hebrew home, and
+immersed in the old Hebrew Bible from the time of his mother's milk.
+What Greek language and culture had come was a bit of the outer world
+come into his Hebrew home and life. Now in his old age the early memory
+is asserting itself.
+
+Then too it is quite likely that in his imprisonment he had been
+brooding anew over the old prophecies, reviewing afresh events since the
+resurrection of Jesus,--the growth of the Church, and now the severe
+persecution, with himself a prisoner. And while he in no way doubts the
+unseen overruling Hand, yet he is seeking to get a fresh outlook into
+the future from the old prophetic writings.
+
+And through all of this without doubt the Holy Spirit was brooding in
+unusual measure over this man, reviving early memory, bringing to his
+remembrance all things of other days, deepening impressions, bringing
+old facts into new perspective, giving clearer vision, mellowing and
+maturing both mind and heart into fresh plastic openness to further
+truth. And so we have this little book with its Hebrew soul and its
+Greek body.
+
+The meaning of all this is very simple, and yet a meaning of intense
+significance. Here is summed up the whole of the revelation of God's
+Word. Here all the lines of Revelation meet. Almost two thousand years
+of inspiration come to a climax in this little end-book. Psalmist and
+prophet, historian and law-giver, Gospel and Epistle come to a final
+focus point in one simple intense message. The purpose of the book is
+intensely and only practical. Here is the message of the whole Bible to
+Christ's people _for this present interval_ between the Ascension and
+the next great step in our Lord's world-plan.
+
+
+Jesus' Plea to His Friends.
+
+And the message is simply this: put to us with all the intensity of the
+One who gave His very life for us, it is this,--_that we be personally
+true to our Lord Jesus_ during His present absence. This comes as His
+personal request, that, in sweet, stern purity of life, in full glad
+obedience of spirit, in tender freshness of personal devotion, in
+holding absolutely everything, of talents and position and possession,
+subject to His call, and in keeping our eye ever open forward and upward
+for His return, we be true to Him.
+
+He is the Lamb slain. Only through His blood is there salvation for any
+one. He is now allowing man fullest opportunity before He comes to set
+things right. This is the in-between time, much lengthened out. In the
+midst of formalism and subtle compromise, the tangling of ideas and
+issues, and the blurring of vision within His Church, He calls to His
+own blood-bought ones to be true to Himself.
+
+There's a terrific moral storm coming. Wickedness will wax to a worst
+never yet known. Evil will be so aggressive, compromise so radical,
+temptations so subtle and coming with such a rush, and ideals of right
+so blurred and dimmed in the glare of the lower lights, that even those
+of the inner circle will be sorely tried, and many will be deceived.
+Just at the bursting of the worst of the storm the crowned Christ will
+appear. He will come on the clouds before all eyes, take away His own
+out of the storm, then clear the storm by His own touch, and begin the
+new order of things.
+
+The test coming will be terrific. He knows it. And his knowledge makes
+His plea intense that _we be true to Himself_, our beloved, crucified,
+crowned Lord, utterly regardless of consequences to ourselves. So we
+shall "overcome by the blood of the Lamb," and be joined with Him in
+closest intimacy during His coming reign over the earth.
+
+There is a striking thing told us at the very outset of the book;--it is
+a revelation. That is, it is something revealed directly by God. It is
+the only book of the Bible of which we are told plainly and directly
+that it is a revelation.
+
+It is not that the other books do not have the same inspirational
+characteristic. But our attention is explicitly called to the fact that
+this one is, in its entirety, a _direct_ revelation; and not only so,
+but it is a revelation given directly by God to the Lord Jesus, and
+given in person by Him to John. This is significant. It marks out the
+message of the book as of the utmost meaning and importance.
+
+This suggests a need. And the need of something of the sort is plain
+enough, if one think into it. Already in John's day there was a distinct
+break-away from the simplicity and purity of the Gospel, both in the
+Church and in the lives of professed Christians. The messages to the
+Churches of Pergamum and Thyatira and Sardis show clearly that there had
+already begun a rubbing out of the sharp line of distinction between the
+Church and the world. The world spirit was--not creeping in,
+but--walking boldly into the life of the Church.
+
+It is striking to note the thing that leads John to write his First
+Epistle, that is, the alarming conditions among Christ's followers. The
+spirit of compromise seems seeping in at every crevice. And worse yet,
+the spirit of Antichrist, that makes such a savage attack on Jesus, on
+the deity of His person, and the atoning significance of His death, this
+was openly at work among them.[40] These conditions, so familiar to
+those who first read his little Epistle, are the continual underscoring
+of His intense plea for _abiding_.
+
+It is most significant that Jude's intense flame-like Epistle talks
+entirely about conditions within Church circles. Run through it again
+with this fact fresh in mind, and the significance of it stands out in a
+startling way. Peter's Second Epistle reveals the same sort of an
+atmosphere seeping in among the groups of disciples to whom he writes.
+Not only was there doubt and confusion about the meaning of the
+prophetic teachings, but even a sneering and mocking at the teaching
+about the second coming of our Lord.
+
+These are a few indications of how things were in the Church generally
+before the first century had closed. It was a time of confusion and
+compromise. The air was tense. The need was critical. It would seem that
+if ever our Lord would give a simple direct revelation afresh, to His
+people, it would be in just such circumstances. And it reveals to us at
+once how grave things looked to His eyes, and how much depended on His
+followers having a clear understanding of how things would work out,
+that our Lord Jesus does do just this thing,--send a direct revelation
+that would meet just such a need.
+
+
+More Alike than Different.
+
+It is most striking that the conditions of the Church then and to-day
+are so much alike. The line between Church and world is either badly
+blurred, or quite wiped out. And this one fact throws a flood of light
+upon Church conditions. Within the Church, when it comes to the matter
+of what its real purpose of being is, and what the essentials of faith,
+the lines are hopelessly crossed and tangled, even though the surface
+shows so much striving toward at least a seeming unity, and so much
+aggressiveness in action. The common absence of real spiritual power,
+that unmistakable moving, like a breath, of the Spirit of God, is freely
+admitted.
+
+It is a painful fact that membership in a Church no longer gives any
+clue to a man's vital belief, nor even to his moral conduct. There is
+utter confusion about the practical meaning of God's prophetic Word, and
+what the actual outcome of the present order will be; that is, where
+such things are not quite dismissed from consideration. And, stranger
+yet, indifference, or an actual repugnance, to any mention of the Lord's
+return is the common thing. It is not surprising that earnest people are
+bewildered as to just what should be the attitude of one who would ring
+true to the absent Jesus. It hurts to remember that all this is the
+freely admitted commonplace, where such things are seriously spoken of.
+
+Indeed it is of intense interest to note that just this sort of thing
+has marked the whole interval since these early Church days. Broadly the
+same characteristics have marked both world movement and the Church
+movement in this long interval. There is a unity characterizing the age
+since our Lord ascended. There have been differences, very sharp and
+marked, but always they have been differences in degree, now more
+intense, now less. The general characteristics have been the same in
+kind.
+
+The need of the Church in the end of the first century is its need in
+the beginning of the twentieth. Surely the thing of all things needed is
+a simple, clear, understandable revelation direct from our Lord Jesus
+Himself. It was needed then. Clearly it has been needed in every
+generation since then. And one whose pulse is at all sensitive to spirit
+conditions to-day feels that surely it is the thing needed now.
+
+And here it is, a revelation of Himself, crowned in the upper world,
+keeping in closest touch with things down in this world, telling us what
+the outcome is to be, and especially speaking of our attitude toward
+Himself in this present in-between interval.
+
+Usually God's method with man is to give him enough of a revelation of
+Himself in nature, and in His Word, to start him straight, and guide him
+as he goes to school with himself as chief pupil, with all of nature to
+find out and develop, and so to get mastery both of himself and of
+nature and its forces. We recognize this as the best school-teacher
+method for good self-development.
+
+But here something more seems needed. The situation down on the earth
+has gotten badly mixed up. Even though Jesus has been on the earth, and
+has died, and has sent down the Holy Spirit in such irresistible power,
+the situation in the world, and among His disciples, has gotten so
+subtly tangled and intense, the enemy is so viciously and cunningly at
+work, that only one thing will meet the need,--a revelation, a simple,
+direct, warm revelation given us personally by the Lord Jesus Himself.
+And here it is in this little end-book, with its vision of the glorified
+Jesus, its pleading heart-cry to His followers, and its simple but
+tremendous outlook into the future.
+
+It would not be surprising if such a book should be made the subject of
+special attack by the evil one. It is not surprising, though it is
+deeply grievous, that the common idea about this book among Christian
+people is that it is a sort of a puzzle, that it is impossible to get a
+simple, clear, workable understanding of its message. Parts of it are
+conned over tenderly and loved, a paragraph here, a verse there, and so
+on, but a grasp of the one simple message of the book seems not common,
+to put it mildly. No book of the sixty-six has seemed so much like a
+riddle to which no one knew the answer. And without doubt the full
+meaning of much will be quite clear only as events work themselves out.
+Events will be the best exposition of certain parts. But these parts, be
+it keenly noted, are not essential to the grasp of the whole message.
+God is intensely practical. Jesus was too intent on helping people to be
+otherwise than practical. He hasn't changed. He is too tremendously
+wrapped up in the outworking of His plans. The Bible is wholly a
+_practical_ book. And this crowning end of it is intensely and only
+practical. It is with the clear conviction that it is entirely possible
+to get the simple grasp of it that shall steady our steps, and clear our
+understanding, and feed our personal devotion to the absent Jesus, our
+blessed Lord, that these few simple quiet talks have been put together.
+
+
+Doing Leads to Understanding.
+
+The outline of the book is very simple. After the brief introduction[41]
+and personal greeting,[42] there comes the wondrous vision of _the
+glorified Jesus_, and His personal message to John.[43] He is the Living
+One, who _became_ dead for a great purpose, and is now living, never to
+die again. He is seen walking quietly among the groups of his followers,
+with eyes of flame, and heart of love, keeping watch over these, His
+empowered witnesses on earth.
+
+And He tells John that he is to write to the groups of his followers a
+threefold message, a description of Himself as just now seen by John, a
+description of affairs in these Churches as seen by His own eyes, and an
+account of the things that are going to happen on the earth.
+
+Then follows this description of the Churches. It is in a sevenfold
+personal message to His followers on the earth.[44] Then the vision of
+Himself in heaven as He steps directly into the action of the earth to
+take possession of His crown domain.[45] Then comes the account of
+coming happenings. It is a sevenfold view of a terrific moral storm on
+the earth, that will follow this advance step of His in the heavens. It
+is so terrific and includes so much, that it is possible to get a clear
+view of it and its sweep only by looking, now at this feature of it, and
+now at this; now from this angle of vision, and now from this other.
+
+It is the final contesting of Christ's crown claim as He steps forward
+to assert it; the final outburst of evil unrestrainedly storming itself
+out. And it is the clearing-up storm, too. There is ever the shining of
+a clear light just beyond the outer rim of the terrible blackness of the
+storm clouds. This takes up the greater part of the little book,
+including chapter six, to the close of chapter eighteen.
+
+And then there is given briefly the actual coming to earth in glory of
+the crowned Christ;[46] the new order of things under His personal
+reign;[47] a final crisis;[48] and then in a vision of wondrous
+winsomeness, God and men are seen dwelling together as one reunited
+family, though still with a sad burning reminder of the old
+sin-rebellion as part of the picture.[49] And the book closes with
+personal paragraphs to John and to the groups of Churches.[50]
+
+Another of the striking things peculiar to this book is the personal
+plea that it be read and lived up to. At the very front-door step as one
+starts in he is met full in the face with this: "Blessed is _he_ that
+_readeth_, and they that _hear_, (or give careful heed to) the words of
+the prophecy, and _keep_ the things that are written therein."[51]
+
+Here at the very outset is a plea, made to each one into whose hands the
+little book may come, for a reading, and a careful thinking into, and
+then, yet more, a bringing of the whole life up to the line of what is
+found here. The blessing of God will rest peculiarly upon him who heeds
+this threefold plea. That man is moving in the line of the plan of God.
+
+A little past the midway line of the book, all at once, abruptly, in the
+thick of terrible happenings being told, an unexpected voice comes.
+Clearly it is the Lord Jesus Himself speaking. It is as though He were
+standing by all the time throughout all these pages, watching with a
+sleepless concern. Now He speaks out. Listen: "Blessed is he that
+_watcheth_," that keepeth ever on the alert against the subtle
+temptations, and the compromise that fills the very air, "and _keepeth
+his garments_;"[52] sleeplessly, kneefully, takes care that no breath of
+evil get into his heart, no taint of compromise stain his life, no
+suspicion of lukewarmness cool his personal devotion to the absent
+Jesus.
+
+And again, doing sentinel duty at the rear-end, is the same plea.
+"Blessed is he that _keepeth the words_ of the prophecy of this
+book."[53] Reading, heeding, obeying, watching, living up to, this is
+the earnest plea peculiar to this book. Clearly our Lord Jesus desires
+earnestly that it be read. And He expects us to understand it. And He
+pleads with us to live in the light of what He tells us here.
+
+He that willeth to do shall know what he ought to do. He that doeth the
+thing he does know will know more. And that more done will open the door
+yet wider into all the fragrance of a strongly obedient life, and into a
+clear and clearing understanding of the Lord Jesus Himself.
+
+He that brings his life bit by bit up to the level of the earnest plea
+of this special revelation, as bit by bit it opens to him, will find his
+understanding of it wonderfully clearing. Obedience is the organ of
+understanding. Through it there comes clear grasp of the truth.
+
+A single recent illustration of this comes from Korea, that land that
+gives us so much of the romance of missions, as well as so much of its
+pathos. Dr. James S. Gale, of Seoul, tells of a Korean who had travelled
+some hundred miles to confer with him about Christian things. He recited
+to Dr. Gale the whole of the Sermon on the Mount without slip or error.
+After this surprising feat of memory, the missionary said gently that
+memorizing was not enough; the truth must be practised in daily life.
+
+To his surprise the Korean quietly said: "That's the way I _learned_ to
+memorize. I tried to memorize, but it wouldn't stick. So I hit upon this
+plan; I would memorize a verse, then find a heathen neighbour and
+practise the verse on him. Then I found it would stick."
+
+That's the _rule for understanding_ this revelation of Jesus through
+John, as well as all of this inspired Word of God. This rule simply,
+faithfully, followed will open up this little end-book which to many has
+seemed a sealed book. He that "keepeth the things" that are written here
+will find these pages opening to his eyes. He that liveth the truth he
+does understand will understand more and better, and so live in the
+wondrous power of it, and in the sweet presence of Him who gives it to
+us.
+
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[34] John i. 35-42.
+
+[35] Luke ix. 54.
+
+[36] John xviii. 15-16.
+
+[37] Luke xxii. 8.
+
+[38] Acts iii. 1, 3, 4, 11; iv. 13, 19; viii. 14, 25; Galatians ii. 9.
+
+[39] Mark xvi. 9; John xx. 1, 11-18.
+
+[40] I John ii. 18-29; iv. 1-6.
+
+[41] Revelation i. 1-3.
+
+[42] Revelation i. 4-8.
+
+[43] i. 9-20.
+
+[44] Chapters ii. and iii.
+
+[45] Chapters iv. and v.
+
+[46] xix. i-xx. 3.
+
+[47] xx. 4-6.
+
+[48] xx. 7-15.
+
+[49] xxi. i-xxii. 5.
+
+[50] xxii. 6-21.
+
+[51] i. 3.
+
+[52] xvi. 15.
+
+[53] xxii. 7.
+
+
+
+
+III.--A SIGHT OF THE CROWNED CHRIST
+
+(Revelation, Chapter i.)
+
+
+ "Since mine eyes were fixed on Jesus,
+   I've lost sight of all beside,
+ So enchained my spirit's vision,
+   Looking at the Crucified."
+
+
+ "The Lord Christ passed my humble cot:
+ I knew him, yet I knew him not;
+ But as I oft had done before,
+ I hurried through my narrow door
+   To touch His garment's hem.
+
+ "He drew me to a place apart
+ From curious crowd and noisy mart;
+ And as I sat there at His feet
+ I caught the thrill of His heart-beat
+   Beyond His garment's hem.
+
+ "Rare was the bread He broke for me,
+ As wine the words He spoke to me--
+ New life surged in, the old life died....
+ I cannot now be satisfied
+   To touch His garment's hem."[54]
+
+
+Transfigured by a Look.
+
+No one ever had a sight of Christ's face and forgot. No one ever gets a
+sight of Him and gets over it. He is never the same man after that. He
+doesn't want to be the same.
+
+A look into the face of Christ is transforming. You see Him; and you can
+never be the man you have been and be content. A change comes. You want
+a change. You must have it. This longing is the beginning of the deeper
+change. You can never be content again with being the man you have been.
+
+It has always been so. It always will be so. For this is the natural
+thing. In the dawning twilight of Eden God looked into the face of the
+man he had fashioned. He drew very close to him, close enough to breathe
+his own breath into his face. And the man looked out into God's face,
+and took on God's likeness. So he became his own real self, as
+originally planned.
+
+But while man was yet young, sin looked him in the face. And the man
+looked at sin with an evil longing look. And in that look he took in
+some of what he saw. He was marred. The God image was hurt. He was not
+the same man. And he knew it. He felt it. His eyes were never the same
+after that exchange of looks with sin.
+
+But God helped him. He didn't go away. He came closer for the sake of
+the sin-hurt eyes. And whenever man has looked into that wondrous
+God-face, even though seeing dimly and indistinctly, something within
+him makes a great bound. He recognizes the original of his own natural
+self. And he catches fire at the sight. A holy discontent springs up
+within.
+
+ "Couldst thou in vision see
+   Thyself the man God meant,
+ Thou never more couldst be
+   The man thou art--content."
+
+But you have to see Jesus as He was in His humanity to see yourself the
+man God meant. And you have to see Jesus as He is now to see the God who
+meant you to be like Himself.
+
+It has always been so. This has been God's simple method with men He
+would use. He has wooed and then wooed more, and a bit longer, gently,
+persistently, up and away and apart until at last the man's eyes were
+trained away from the lower glare enough to see the real things.
+
+Then in some vision of the night, whose darkness helped hold back the
+lower earth lights, God has looked a man in the face once again. Or,
+perhaps in open day there came to him that which he could not describe.
+But in his inner spirit he knew there was One with him whom yet his
+outer eyes could not see, but who _could_ not be more real if his outer
+eyes did see.
+
+And in that presence there was a mingling of exquisite tenderness and of
+limitless power that was overawing. Inconceivable purity and yet such an
+unspeakable graciousness seemed blended in this presence. And the man
+seeing was melted in his innermost being with the sense of tenderness,
+and bowed in awe to the lowest dust in the sense of overwhelming power.
+Those who have seen will understand how poor the words are to tell the
+story. And those who have not may wonder a bit until they, too, have
+seen.
+
+
+Some Transfigured Men.
+
+This it was that transformed that man of the early dawnlight named
+Enoch, the seventh from Adam. He was the head of the leading family of
+the race, the racial leader. He had lived well on into the seventh
+decade of his life.
+
+Then the change came. He recognized a Presence with him, one day. That
+One unseen by unseeing eyes became real to him and then more real. He
+yielded to His wooing. He companioned with Him daily. This came to be
+the realest thing. And he was transformed by it. He grew constantly less
+like what he had been, and more like what he was originally meant to be,
+like his Companion. Constant contact restored the original likeness. He
+was transformed before men's eyes, changed over from within.
+
+Then one day the transforming forces had gone so far that he was
+transferred to the upper levels, where all _see His face_, and his
+likeness shines out of all faces. He never got over the sight that came
+to him that early day.
+
+It was this that wooed the man of Ur away from his ancestral home to be
+a lonely pilgrim, a stranger among strangers. Nothing less or else could
+have broken the early attachments, the strongest of the East. That
+winsome wooing Presence became to him stronger than the strongest human
+attachments of his family and home land.
+
+This it was that steadied him through the loneliness, the homelessness,
+the disappointments, the long delays, until it was the image of a new
+man, a transformed man, a faith-begotten man, that at length looked at
+him out of the eyes of his only begotten. This it was that steadied him
+through the hardest test of all with that only begotten, the fire test
+on Moriah. And that made the transformation yet fuller. For so he grew
+the liker him to whose presence he insisted on yielding as each test
+came.
+
+So it was with that rare student of Egypt and Arabia. Trained in the
+best that man could give in the University of the Nile, and then further
+trained by absence from man in the University of the Desert, alone with
+sheep and stars, shifting sand and immovable rock, he wasn't ready for
+his task yet. He was well trained but not yet transformed.
+
+The fires had to be kindled, purifying, melting, fusing fires. And only
+fire kindles fire. The fire of the unburnt bush told him first of a new
+kind of fire, uncatalogued on the Nile. The fire of a Presence burned
+daily, not consuming him, but only the dross _in_ him, as he led his
+race from Egypt to Sinai, out from the slavery of men up to the freedom
+of the presence of God. And then for six weeks, twice over, he was in
+the Presence of Flame on the Mount.
+
+This it was that utterly changed him into the strongly gentle, patient,
+tender-hearted, wise man who taught and trained, lived with and led, the
+immature men and women whom God would weld into a nation, a God-nation.
+He never got over those two long visits to the Mount, nor has the world.
+
+It was nothing else than this, long years later, that made the rugged
+man of the deserts brave the traitorous Ahab in his luxurious,
+licentious court. Without it, the sight obscured, the vision lost, he is
+a coward fleeing like a whipped dog before a bad woman, thinking only of
+saving his own skin. It showed himself, his weak, cowardly self, to
+himself.
+
+A fresh vision that early morning in the mouth of the desert cave made
+the yet deeper more radical transformation. That unutterably gentle
+sound of stillness, too exquisite to be told, only to be felt by a
+spirit in tune, _that_ left him not a whit less willing to brave danger
+than before, but made over now into another sort, like him whose
+Presence in the cave so melted him down.
+
+This new, gentled, mellowed, strengthened Elijah reappears in the man
+who received the birthright portion of his spirit. We know the new
+Elijah by the spirit that swayed Elisha. The old spirit, fiercely
+denouncing, calling down fire, slaying the priests, but with no
+grief-broken heart under these stern needful things,--this we think of
+familiarly as the Elijah spirit.
+
+The new spirit, healing, teaching, sympathizing, leading, feeding,
+fathering, the greatness of gentleness and patience, these
+characteristics of Elijah's prophetic heir tell of the deep radical
+transformation by the wondrous unseen Presence that early morning in the
+mouth of the cave. This is the birthright gift of Elijah to Elisha.
+Elijah had a spirit-sight of God, and he never got over it. He became
+like Him into whose face he looked.
+
+
+Heart Stimulant for the Brain.
+
+But time fails, and words fail immensely more, to tell this thing. Let
+him who would know that transforming sight get quietly alone with Isaiah
+in the temple, and on bent knees linger unhurriedly, and listen, and
+watch, and breathe out his prayer, and strongly wait until something of
+the same brooding Presence be discerned that transformed this young
+Hebrew messenger of God.
+
+Then let him get alone with the Moses of the New Testament. For there
+is no man who was so utterly transformed, and so quickly, as the man on
+the Damascus road. The whole course of his character and life was
+radically changed as by a lightning touch. This is the most striking
+illustration of all. No man so reveals in himself the tremendous
+transforming power there is in the sight of the Christ as does this
+high-strung son of the Hebrew race.
+
+But--words are such lame things. They cannot tell the story here. They
+are all one has to use. Yet they'll never be understood except as the
+light of experience shines upon them. When any one attempts to talk of
+such a thing as this of seeing God or Christ, his words seem so poor and
+lame and under the mark by the man who has had something of the vision.
+And they either are meaningless and uninteresting, or else they seem
+overstated, and quite beyond the mark to one who has had no inkling in
+experience of the thing itself.
+
+I recall distinctly the experience of a Danish friend in Copenhagen. She
+had been trying to read in English a certain devotional book, but said
+she couldn't seem to grasp the meaning of the English words. They eluded
+her, and so the book didn't help her much.
+
+Then she went through a time of sore stress of spirit in the sickness
+and death of her mother. A new experience of the nearness of God came to
+her. And then happening--as it seemed--to pick up the English book again
+she was amazed and delighted to find how much better and more quickly
+she knew the words and sensed the meaning.
+
+It is only as the heart is fired that the brain awakens. Experience
+gives the meaning to language. Without experience it is a dead language
+in meaning even though it be one's own mother tongue. Only the man who
+has caught something of the vision of Christ's face can understand the
+strong words used in talking of such a vision.
+
+It is most striking to notice that even when the glory of God's presence
+was hidden beneath human wrappings in Jesus it still could be _felt_.
+Men felt that presence though they knew not just what it was they felt,
+nor why. When the glory came yet closer in the coming of Jesus, it must
+be well covered up for the sake of men's eyes, that they might not go
+blind at once; but its power of attraction could not be wholly hid.
+
+So really human was Jesus in the outer circumstance of His life that His
+brothers of the home couldn't believe he was essentially different from
+themselves. But the attraction of that presence was felt constantly even
+through the human hiding of it.
+
+John of the Wilderness instinctively recognized that here was more than
+the man he saw, and so obeyed His word. The crowds gathered eagerly in
+the Jordan bottoms in even greater numbers than to hear John, drawn by a
+power they felt they must yield to, and did yield to gladly.
+
+From the first the crowds gathered thick about Him, Jewish aristocrat,
+Samaritan half-breed and sinful outcast jostling elbows in their
+eagerness to hear, drawn by a power they could feel, but could not
+understand any more than they could withstand it. The children loved his
+presence and touch.
+
+The bad in life were as resistlessly drawn up to a new life as the
+Greeks were drawn from clear beyond the blue waters of the Hellespont
+into His presence. The crowds were irresistibly drawn to follow on that
+last eventful journey to Jerusalem even while they felt "afraid."
+
+It was the sight of the glory on the Mount that drew faithful John in
+_with_ Jesus, and held him steady that awful night in palace and
+courtyard, and that later brought poor blasphemous Peter back for
+forgiveness. The two walking to Emmaus found their hearts all aflame,
+though they supposed it was only the chance stranger of the roadway they
+listened to.
+
+Even those who hated Him were compelled to recognize the wondrous power
+of His presence. The Nazareth hands that itched to seize Him were
+restrained by His presence as He passed through their midst. Ten times
+did the Jerusalem crowds attempt his life, and ten times were they
+restrained by a power in Him that they could neither understand nor
+withstand.
+
+The men officially empowered to arrest Him return empty-handed,
+confessing the overawing power of His words. That last week the leaders
+that were hotly plotting His death felt the strange restraint of His
+presence while He quietly sat in their very midst, and swayed the
+crowds.
+
+In the garden soldiers and priests alike were felled to the ground by
+the power of His presence. So it always has been. No one has ever had a
+sight of that Face, and gotten used to it, or gotten over it.
+
+
+A Fresh Vision Needed.
+
+But the thing we are specially needing to-day is a sight of Christ _as
+He is now_. It seems a bit strange that we don't get this more. One
+historic Church has Him fastened to a cross, never freed from the old
+fastenings. Another has Him set in picture frame, behind glass. And the
+multitudes prostrate themselves and reverently kiss the glass.
+
+In widely differing Churches He seems quite covered up out of sight by
+classical ritual, beautiful music, and impressive stately service. The
+crowds gather and listen and bow low in hushed stillness. But,
+apparently, _Him they see not_, else how different their conduct as they
+come out, and their lives.
+
+And yet as I have mingled with the worshippers in Catholic Churches in
+the south of Europe, in Greek Churches in Russia, and in congregations
+of the Church of England classed as "high," I have been caught by faces
+here and there in the crowd that clearly were reaching out hungrily for
+_Him_, and were having some sort, some real sort, of touch with Him,
+too. Yet it seemed to be in spite of surroundings. The insistence of
+their hunger pierces through these to Him. He seems hidden from the
+crowd by them.
+
+Scholarly orthodox theologians talk learnedly about Him, but Himself as
+He walked among us and as He is now, Him it would seem that they see
+not, at least not enough to burn through and burn out and burn up and
+send men out aflame with the Jesus-passion. Philosophies about Him that
+are classed as "liberal" and put attractively, yet have nothing of the
+burn in them that reveals Himself.
+
+The more modern Church of the more western world seems to have gotten a
+new lease of aggressiveness in service, a new intensity in activities so
+numerous as to be a bit bewildering sometimes. The wheels whir busily
+and noisily. You feel them. But Him, the unseen presence that makes you
+reverently wrap your face up out of sight, and stand with awed heart to
+listen, _Him_ we seem not to see.
+
+The wondrous quiet Voice that makes your heart burn within you with a
+burning that cleanses and mellows and melts down, _that_ we seem to hear
+only by getting away from the noise of the whirring wheels into some
+quiet corner.
+
+There are in every Church and nation those who seem to have the close
+personal touch with Himself. Their faces and daily lives show the marks.
+Their lips may not say so much, for they who see most can say least of
+what they see. But the marks in the life are unmistakable.
+
+Yet even here the sight of Christ emphasizes chiefly the personal side,
+what He is personally to them. And what a blessed side that is only they
+who know it know. They think of Him as a personal Saviour, and the heart
+glows. They see Him at the Father's right hand interceding, and
+gratefully remember that He will forget no name where there is a
+trusting heart. They think of the Holy Spirit, the other Jesus, Jesus'
+other self, always "alongside to help," alongside _in_side. And they
+practise letting Him work out the Christ-likeness within themselves.
+
+And all this is blessed, only blessed. They see Him in His personal
+relation to themselves. But there's something more than this. No one
+knew more of this blessed personal part than John. But John saw more
+than this on Patmos. He saw Christ _as He is now_.
+
+This is clearly a new sight of Christ. It was new to John. It would seem
+to be new to us. It is new in the pages of this book. It is something
+different from any sight seen before. In the Gospels we see Jesus the
+_Man_. In carpenter shop and little whitewashed stone cottage, in the
+ministering life clear from the Jordan bottoms to the healing touch at
+Gethsemane's gate, and in the suffering clear up to the ninth hour of
+that fateful day He is the _Man_, one of ourselves, though clearly more
+even in His humanity than the humanity we are.
+
+On the Transfiguration Mount the favoured inner three, the leaders, see
+the glory within shining out through the Man. So bewildered are they
+that the chief impression that remains is of a blinding brightness. Yet
+this is up on a high mountain far away from the crowd, and from the
+haunts of men.
+
+As Stephen is being stoned his eyes are opened to see the Son of Man
+standing in glory up at the Father's right hand. The Damascus traveller
+sees an overpowering burst of glory out of the blue and hears a voice
+speaking. In the epistles Paul pictures Him seated at the Father's right
+hand with an authority greater than any other. All the power He has is
+placed at the disposal of His followers on the earth. He Himself is
+above in the glory.[55]
+
+But in this very end of the Book John is given a _new sight of Christ_.
+He sees Him _as He is now_. That is to say, this is the sight of Christ
+as He is now _characteristically_. It is the distinctive sight that
+stands out above all these others.
+
+He _is_ at one's right hand in closest personal relation, through His
+Holy Spirit. He _is_ at the Father's right hand in glory waiting
+expectantly till the time is ripe for the next direct move on the earth.
+But there's more than these. There's a sight of Him that overshadows
+these. It is the characteristic sight that lets us see Him as He is
+peculiarly _now_ in His relation to _affairs on the earth_.
+
+
+Christ as He Is Now.
+
+This new sight of Christ is the heart and soul of this crowning book,
+this end-book of the Book.
+
+It was out of this sight that this end-book grew. It is written wholly
+under the spell of this new sight of Christ. It is a revelation both
+_of_ Jesus Christ and _by_ Jesus Christ; first of, then by.
+
+John begins his story by telling that he had gotten such a revelation,
+and of the special blessing attached to reading and fitting one's life
+to it.[56] Then follows his salutation to those for whom the revelation
+was given, and the book written.[57] It is peculiarly a _Church_ book.
+Its message is not peculiarly for individual followers, but for groups
+of believers gathered together as Churches.
+
+The salutation is absorbed with the One whom he has seen in the vision,
+what He has done for us in shedding His blood, and that He is actually
+coming again. "Behold He cometh with the clouds; and every eye shall see
+Him, and they that pierced Him." The Jew is specifically designated: the
+coming has special significance for the Jewish nation. And all the
+people of the earth shall penitently mourn as they see Him. And then
+like an endorsing signature from the One of whom he is writing comes the
+sentence: "I am the Alpha and the Omega, saith the Lord God, who is and
+who was, and who cometh, the Almighty One."
+
+Then comes the new sight of the crowned Christ.[58] It was on a Lord's
+day. John was on the lonely sea-girt isle of Patmos. He was alone,
+brooding probably over some bit of the Word of God, and about the Jesus
+of whom he had been so earnestly testifying. It was these that had
+brought him to his lonely island prison. These ever burned within him,
+the wondrous written Word, the immensely more wondrous Word made flesh,
+of whom he had written, the Word that was God and became a Man and
+walked the will of God.
+
+And as he brooded he became conscious of the Spirit of God overshadowing
+him, gentle as the soft breeze, noiseless as the fragrant dew, mighty as
+an enveloping presence that filled his being and had possession of him.
+
+Then a voice spake and the tone of authority in it was unmistakable.
+"What thou seest, write." He was to see something. He was to tell what
+he saw. There's a delightful touch of the simplicity of natural speech
+here. He turned to _see_ the _voice_. And he saw Him who was the voice
+of God to him. Then the sight is told in the same simplicity of speech.
+
+There is a group of candlesticks, light-holders, made of gold. And in
+the midst of the group there is some One standing. He is in outer form
+like a _man_. But there is such an overpowering sense of divine glory
+that John falls on his face as one dead. Yet through all this
+overwhelming experience the impression of a man stands unmistakably out.
+
+With keen, quick glance John takes in head and hair, eyes and feet,
+voice and hands, mouth and face. A simple, natural man in every outer
+particular like himself, a brother man, wearing man's garb and girdle.
+This is the first impression indelibly stamped on John's mind.
+
+But there's more, ah, much more than a man in this man! This is the
+stupendous part. There is some One, other than man, and more than man,
+possessing this man. The divine fills the human. It is this sense of the
+glory filling the man that is so overpowering to John.
+
+A glorious presence overshadows the man and shines out of Him, but never
+obliterates nor makes the man less. That indescribable glory within
+shining out through the man magnifies every part of His human being. The
+head and hair are white, not like a pale or painted white, but a
+transparent whiteness, an intense searching, glowing light shining out
+from Him through the human head and hair.
+
+The eyes are as a flame of pure fire, the feet like melting metal
+glowing in fire. And the whole countenance was as the sun in its
+noontime strength shining out of a rainless, cloudless sky. Humanity
+enveloped in deity, yet remaining true, full humanity. God within man
+immeasurably more than man, yet not overwhelming, not disturbing nor
+obliterating, any part of his humanity, rather making every part stand
+out more distinctly.
+
+Is this incidentally a kind of parable? Is it something like this on an
+immensely humbler scale that was meant for us men? God the Holy Spirit
+dwelling in a man. He the chief one, the divine one, yet expressing
+Himself _through_ the man, and doing it fully to meet the need of the
+hour. His presence magnifying, vitalizing, and using every human power,
+yet Himself the dominant personality.
+
+It is most striking to note that this is the same in principle as every
+appearance of God in the Old Testament pages. Sometimes He talked with
+men when there is no suggestion made of any appearance or of what the
+appearance was like. But wherever the appearance is spoken of it is
+always either fire or some touch of the human kind or both.
+
+In Eden He waits and speaks, two human things. He talks with Abraham as
+a man talks, and ratified the covenant by passing fire through the
+pieces of the covenant sacrifice.[59] It is as a simple, natural man
+appearing at Abraham's tent door that He talks about Sodom. It is a
+human voice speaking about Isaac, though no appearance is mentioned.
+Moses sees a flaming bush, and hears a voice in the desert, and sees a
+whole mount aflame while a voice speaks at Sinai.
+
+And so it was always: the fiery presence-cloud in the Wilderness,
+Joshua's Captain taking command, Manoah's angel ascending in the flame
+of the altar, the voice in the night heard by Samuel, the flooding of
+Tabernacle and Temple with the glory-presence, Carmel's fire descending,
+Elijah's "still small voice," Isaiah's vision of glory and the voice,
+Ezekiel's man of flame speaking, and Daniel's, both of the latter two
+akin to this Revelation appearance.
+
+But there is a distinctness and a fulness of description here greater
+than at any previous time, yet the same essential thing as at every
+appearance of God in Old Testament pages. The coming of Jesus among us
+has brought God closer to us and made Him mean more. Jesus was God
+coming closer and in a way that we could understand better and take hold
+of more easily.
+
+
+The Identifying Mark.
+
+But let us reverently look a little closer that we may understand yet
+better. There are certain characteristics of this Man of Fire that are
+allowed to stand sharply out here. We are meant to look at them. This is
+part of the purpose in the heart of Christ in letting us see Him as He
+is here.
+
+The sense of _purity_ is intenser than can be put into words. Fire is
+pure. There is nothing so pure. It resists impurity. It burns it up. It
+is most significant that this is the one thing familiar to us that
+always accompanies the presence of God as He appears to men. It is
+always in fire whether to speak His message of peace and love or to
+remove the impurity of evil.
+
+Our God is a consuming fire. Yet fire only consumes what can't stand its
+flame. The fire reveals purity and makes pure. God is pure. The presence
+within the man looked out in eyes of flame, in a countenance like the
+sun, and feet like molten brass glowing in a furnace. There could be no
+stronger statement of purity than this.
+
+Then there is an overwhelming sense of _authority_. That seems the human
+word to use, though the word seems to tell so much less than John felt.
+John feels it more than he can tell it. He cannot tell it in words. His
+limp figure lying flat on the earth tells what words never can. He had
+seen the glory outshining in the Transfiguration Mount, but this is
+unspeakably beyond that.
+
+There was a voice like a trumpet. It commanded John to write. It says:
+"I _became_ dead, and, behold! I _am_ alive forever more." It is an
+authority over life to yield it up, and over death to put it to death,
+and call life back, never again to be touched by the finger of death. No
+such authority is known among men to-day. And this is further emphasized
+in the quiet words: "I have the _keys_--- the control--of death and of
+the whole spirit world."
+
+But immensely more than all this to John was the intense feeling of
+majesty which completely overpowered him. The sense of authority was
+overwhelming. The items in the description can thus be catalogued, but
+it is impossible to get the overwhelming sense of majestic authority
+that came to John, except as he got it,--by a _sight_, something of a
+sight of this great crowned Christ.
+
+But _who_ is this? Is this not merely Ezekiel's vision repeated?[60] He
+saw just such a vision, one in the likeness of a man, enveloped in fire,
+and sitting on a throne. And the effect was the same as Ezekiel lies
+flat on his face. Is it not the same as Daniel saw?[61] A _man_ clothed
+in linen, aflame with inner fire, and the same authoritative voice, and
+Daniel in a deep sleep of awe-stricken stupor with face on the ground?
+He does indeed seem to be the same. The descriptions tally remarkably.
+
+But listen. He speaks. And the sense of terrifying authority in the
+voice that spake is gentled to John's tense ear in the quiet words that
+come. Like the loving words that came to Daniel's quaking heart is the
+personal message that came to John,--"Fear not." And with the words, as
+ever, come the new sense of stilling peace within. "I am the First and
+the Last, and the Living One."
+
+Still it may be Ezekiel's Man even yet, or Daniel's. But listen: "and I
+_became dead_." Ah! this identifies Him. Now we know for the first time
+that this Man of Flame is Jesus our Brother-man. The cross becomes the
+mark of identification. The form of the words as spoken fits in with the
+sense of authority. With great strength of heart in carrying out a great
+purpose He "_became_ dead."
+
+This is Ezekiel's Man and Daniel's and _more_, unspeakably more. The Man
+they saw has lived amongst us for a generation of time, and then given
+His life clear out for us. He has become more in coming as Jesus. He
+has taken human experience and suffering up into Himself. He was
+Creator. He has become more--Saviour.
+
+There is the same purity and authority speaking out here as there. But
+here is _love_ speaking out as never was spoken out before. Here is love
+_lived_ out; aye, here love is _died_ out, and never living so much as
+when dying. Here is love putting death to death for us. Purity and
+authority fastened on a cross! This is love such as man had never known,
+and God never shown before. Calvary lets us see the love that burned in
+the purity and controlled in the authority.
+
+John's Man is Ezekiel's and Daniel's, but with the love shining out
+through purity and authority, and outshining both. Yet that love is the
+purity and authority combined in action. We don't know love only as we
+know God. And we don't know God only as we know Jesus not living merely
+but pouring out His life for men. This is love--that Man, that God-man,
+but with the God-glory hidden within, using all His authority over His
+life to fasten His purity on a cross with the thorns of our sin, and
+then throttling death and bringing up a new sort of deathless life for
+us. This--He--is love.
+
+
+The Outstanding Characteristic.
+
+But we haven't gotten to the heart of this yet. There is immensely more
+here than even this. The distinctive thing, the characteristic thing in
+this sight of Christ, is yet to be noticed. All of this can be gotten
+from other sights of Christ. But notice now keenly _where this Man of
+Fire is_. For this is the distinctive thing. He is not up in the
+heavens, as in Ezekiel. He has not come on a special errand, as in
+Daniel's experience.[62] He is walking _down on the earth_. His whole
+concern is about affairs on the earth.
+
+But note where He is on earth: not in Jerusalem, the Jew centre; not in
+Rome, the world's ruling centre, nor in Athens or Corinth, the world's
+culture centres. He is seen walking among a small group of candlesticks.
+This is the centre of earth action for Him. This is _the significant
+thing_ of this new sight of Christ. Let us look at it a moment to get at
+the simple significance of the scene.
+
+The candlesticks, we are told, are the Churches, the little groups of
+followers banded together here and there. These small groups of Christ's
+followers are called _candlesticks_ or lampstands.
+
+There is no suggestion yet of their giving any light. No lighted candles
+nor oily wicks are burning and shining. They are only candle_sticks_.
+They are of gold, the most precious metal, but they can give no light,
+they can only hold the light some one else supplies. The Man standing
+amongst them is the light. The whole effect of the sight of Christ here
+is that He is the light. The presence within the man shines out through
+head and eyes and limbs, as light, intense dazzling light, even as the
+sun in his strength.
+
+Here is the distinctive thing. Christ's whole interest centres in the
+earth. All heaven is bending over watching the run of events down here.
+The intensity of His suffering and death tell the intensity of Christ's
+interest in the movement of things on the earth. He has a plan. He has
+put His very life into it. It centres wholly in the affairs of us men
+down here. And it centres in His Church.
+
+This quite upsets our common ideas about the centre of things down here.
+We class London and New York as the great financial centres; Paris and
+Berlin as the great fashion and military centres. Rome is the centre of
+authority of the Catholic Church, and St. Petersburg of the Greek
+Orthodox. The Man who holds all power in His hands, and on whose word
+everything depends, quietly brushes all this aside with scarce a move of
+His hand. The earth-centre of things is the Church. That is, the groups
+of his followers banded together in various parts of the world.
+
+Sometimes it is seen as a magnificent organization intimately connected
+with the machinery of government. Sometimes as very small groups of
+persons with no social standing, despised and reckoned as not worth
+reckoning with. But this is the thing He is depending on for getting out
+to His world. All His plans centre here.
+
+He is the light. The light He gave and gives through nature, and within
+every man's breast, has been awfully darkened through refusal and
+neglect to use it, through stubborn self-will. It is so darkened that
+ofttimes it seems to have been quite put out. His coming amongst us as
+one of ourselves, living our life, dying on our behalf to free us from
+sin, rising again victorious over death, sending His Holy Spirit to make
+all this real and living to each of us,--this is the light at its full
+shining, the flood-light.
+
+He has made a plan for sending this flood-light to every one in every
+part of the earth. That plan centres in His followers. He is the light.
+The Church is the light-bearer, the candlestick. It is to hold _Him_ up
+in such a way that men everywhere can get in direct touch with Him. When
+He is held up, the darkness goes. The darkness can't stand the light.
+This is the immensely significant thing here. This is the sight of
+Christ needed to-day, a sight of Him as He stands _waiting_ on the
+Church to carry out His plan for the earth.
+
+The faithfulness of the Church is not measured by compact organization,
+costly houses of worship, impressive services, eloquent scholarly
+preaching, and a ceaseless round of organized activities. It can be told
+only by how much of the spirit of the Christ who died is carried, in the
+daily life of its individual members, into home and social and
+commercial circles until men are compelled to feel its power in
+conviction of the sin of their own lives.
+
+Nor yet is it told by transplanting the western type of civilization to
+far-away lands, with schools and hospitals and innumerable humanizing
+influences. All this may be blessed. And it will be blessed and blest.
+But it is the incidental thing. It is sure to follow where the Jesus
+light is allowed to shine clearly through and out. It is quite possible
+to have these good things without getting the real Christ. It is quite
+impossible to have Christ Himself without such influences coming, too.
+
+The emphasis must be not on these things, but on Him, Christ. Men need
+Him. He answers the heart longing, and only He can. He changes the
+nature, and nothing else is enough. The Church is to take the loving,
+healing, personal Christ to men in the fulness of His power, and to all
+men. This is the measure of its faithfulness.
+
+
+What Christ Sees.
+
+The tremendous question that crowds in here is this, What does this Man
+of Fire see as He stands among His followers? And He tells us. This is
+why the vision is given. He wants us to see things as they look to His
+eyes of flame.
+
+The Man and His message are one thing here. Chapters one, two, and three
+belong together, and should be held together in our minds. We have put
+the Man and His message as separate talks to get a clearer grasp of
+each. But they are _one_.
+
+Now we recall enough of the message to note this. Five-sevenths of the
+light-holders are in bad shape. The lamps are smoky, badly smoked, and
+cobwebbed. The light is dimmed. It can't get out through the lamp. The
+crowds are standing in the darkness and falling into the ditch by the
+side of the road.
+
+Two-sevenths let the light clearly out. The others are an intermingling
+of light and light obscured, but with the obscurity overcoming the
+other. The net result is an irritating smokiness. And the movement
+unhindered would naturally be toward a steady increase of smoky
+irritation and obscurity until no light can get through. This is what He
+lets us see that He sees.
+
+Now the instinctive thing to do with a smoky lamp irritating nostrils
+and eyes is to put it out. That is the first instinct. The second is to
+trim the wick and do whatever else it needs to correct the smokiness.
+_Yet He waits._ That first natural instinct is restrained. The
+candlesticks are not yet moved out of their place. The light still tries
+to get out through them. The human candlestick may yet do the needful
+trimming and cleaning. With marvellous restraint He _waits_.
+
+It is a tremendous scene that is stretched out here before us,--purity
+and authority combined in One who is standing in the midst of impurity
+and failure. The purity is more intense than we can grasp. The authority
+is greater than any one can realize. The impurity, the failure, are bad
+clear beyond what we can take in. The whole natural instinct here would
+be a _cleansing_, instant and radical, a correcting of the evil. Yet He
+waits. The purity would act through the authority; the authority
+restrains the purity. Love quietly, strongly holds both in check. This
+restraint, this inaction is tremendous.
+
+Why this inaction? this restraint? And the answer is simple, and as
+sweeping as simple. His plan at this stage shall have fullest
+opportunity. His followers will be given full opportunity to the last
+notch of time and the latest possibility of their being yet true.
+
+All the intensity of His love, all the eagerness of His expectancy,[63]
+all the fulness of His plan for the earth, yes all the millions of the
+race, all the misery and ignorance, the sin and darkness, the millions
+of babies being born into wretchedness, and the millions of
+non-Christian women being held in slavery, and the countless numbers in
+every land groping along in a darkness that not only can be felt, but
+that is felt to the hurting point and then past that to the insensitive
+stupor,--all this waits.
+
+With a heart that feels all that any man is feeling and that breaks
+under it, He waits that fullest opportunity shall be given His followers
+to be true. If His Church is set aside it will be only at the last
+moment when her failure is utterly hopeless. If the candlestick is
+removed out of its place, it will be only after it has completely
+removed itself out of all touch with the Light. A candlestick holding
+out no light is an utterly useless thing to the man in the dark.
+
+It is possible for the Church to be a magnificent organization, an
+honoured institution, exerting immense influence in national politics,
+enormously rich in gold and in scholarship and in traditions, and even
+in carrying forward an aggressive missionary propaganda, and yet be
+faithless to its one mission. If the Church should fail in this its one
+mission, then the waiting time is over. The way is clear for the next
+step in the world plan. And a momentous step that would be, beyond our
+power to grasp. But the waiting time still holds out.
+
+This is the simple, tremendous plea of this new sight of the crowned
+Christ as He is shown here. The centre of the universe to Him is this
+earth. The centre of things on the earth is His Church. The centre of
+things in the Church is its giving Jesus the Light out to all the earth.
+
+And if this be the way things looked to His eye at the close of the
+first century, how, think you, do they look at this beginning of the
+twentieth? Has that momentum of movement toward increasing smokiness
+slacked? Is the waiting time nearly run out?
+
+The present is a momentous time. Even men of the world speak of the
+world-wide restlessness as pointing to some impending event of world
+size. And he who is in some sort of simple touch with the spirit world
+can feel the air a-thrill with the possibility of world events
+impending, even while he wonders just what and when.
+
+
+One in the Midst.
+
+It is most striking how it came about that John got this sight of
+Christ. The change was not in Christ's presence, but in John's eyes.
+Christ did not come. He was there. John's eyes were opened. Then he saw
+Him who stands watching and waiting. _Christ is here._ The Man of Fire
+and of restraining love is here on the earth in the midst of His Church
+looking and longing, listening, and feeling.
+
+If only our eyes were opened to see! There standeth One in our midst
+whom we recognize not. Wherever any company of believers banded together
+as a Church to worship and pray and break holy bread are gathered, under
+whatever local name or in connection with whatever Church communion, _He
+stands in the midst_, this crowned Christ of the Patmos Revelation.
+
+Our eyes need treatment. The hinge of the eyelid is in the will and in
+the heart. A bended or bending will opens the eye. A brooding heart
+opens it yet more in spirit vision. Then we shall see Him, _as He is
+now_ in our midst, waiting our obedience.
+
+Those forty days between the resurrection and the ascension are seen to
+be illustrations of this. One can see through this Revelation sight that
+this is one of the chief things the Master is teaching as He still
+lingers on earth in His resurrection body.
+
+Along the old Emmaus road, gathered about the evening meal in the
+twilight, twice in the upper room at Jerusalem, He appears to little
+groups of His faithful followers. Their hearts are burning with the
+thought of Him, they are talking with both tongue and eyes about Him.
+But that He is in their midst is the last thing to come into their
+minds. Then their eyes are opened to see Him in their midst. It was a
+forty-days' session in their training school. Then He said quietly as
+His bodily presence goes up into the blue: "Lo! _I am with you all the
+days until the end._" Their mission and His presence are inseparably
+linked.
+
+And it is striking again to note how John's Gospel ends. The others
+describe the Ascension. John begins his Gospel with Jesus in the bosom
+of the Father before the world was, and ends with Him walking and
+talking with a little group of fishermen along the shore of the waters
+of Galilee's Lake.
+
+This is what the Church needs to-day, a sight of Christ _as He is now_.
+Nothing else can save its life. And nothing less can save its mission
+from utter impending failure.
+
+And yet while the distinctive message here is for the Church, it is an
+individual message, too. It is for each of us. I am the Church, as much
+of it as I am, counted as one. You are the Church. The Church is made up
+of you and me and the rest of us. I must take this message for as much
+of the Church as I am. The Man of Fire is depending on me to be a
+candlestick for His light. It is on me He is patiently waiting to obey
+as fully as He means I should.
+
+And on you.
+
+A recent incident is told of a man whose name is a familiar one in the
+financial world, who died a few years ago. He was the executive head of
+one of our country's great railways. And a man of remarkable largeness
+of insight and grasp, and of unusual power of execution. He dealt in
+hundreds of millions as easily as most of us deal in dollars, and his
+rugged honesty has never been brought into question. His greatest
+achievement bulks big in the material structure of one of our great
+eastern cities.
+
+But his gigantic tasks ran his strength to ebb tide, and then it was
+seen that the tide was running out. As he lay in the sick chamber a
+minister called, whose ministry had touched large numbers of the men in
+the railroad of which the sick man was head, and in the course of
+conversation tactfully asked:
+
+"Are you a Christian, Mr. Blank?"
+
+"Yes," was the quiet, prompt reply that rather surprised the minister.
+
+"How long have you been a Christian, Mr. Blank?"
+
+"Two days," came the answer as promptly and quietly.
+
+Feeling that there was an interesting story under these answers, the
+minister gently pressed the question. Then the story came out.
+
+"You know William, who handles freight out here at ----?" the sick man
+asked.
+
+"Yes."
+
+"He showed me the way."
+
+"William" had been a worthless, drunken man of the "down and out" sort.
+He had been converted at some mission and been radically changed. He had
+gotten employment at one of the freight-handling stations of this
+railroad system. It was rough, hard work, but he had gone at it
+earnestly in his purpose to live an honest life. And in his quiet,
+earnest way he was always seeking a chance to speak to men of Christ as
+a personal Saviour, until he became known throughout that part of the
+system for his simple, earnest piety.
+
+As the sick man realized the seriousness of things for him he had sent
+for this William. The president of the road whose capitalization ran
+into hundreds of millions sent for the rough-handed freight handler. And
+William in his simple, earnest way had pointed the sick man to Christ.
+And the man of millions had made a new sort of transaction. Christ and
+he had an understanding.
+
+And as the sick man told the minister the story he paused, and then
+added, "_I have given my strength to the secondary things._"
+
+This was the judgment of this shrewd man of big affairs as the new light
+had come into his life at its close. Happily he had gotten the
+readjustment of values in time for readjustment of personal
+relationships. But his life's strength was gone.
+
+If we might get the readjustment that would put secondary things in
+second place, and put wrong and useless things clear out, _in time to be
+of some use to our blessed Lord_.
+
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[54] William Norris Burr.
+
+[55] Notably Ephesians i. 20-23.
+
+[56] Revelation i. 1-3.
+
+[57] Revelation i. 4-8.
+
+[58] Revelation i. 9-20.
+
+[59] Genesis xv.
+
+[60] Ezekiel i. 26-28.
+
+[61] Daniel x. 5-9.
+
+[62] Daniel x. 20.
+
+[63] Hebrews x. 13.
+
+
+
+
+IV.--A MESSAGE FROM THE CROWNED CHRIST
+
+(Revelation, Chapters ii and iii)
+
+
+ "The glory of love is brightest when the glory of self is dim,
+ And they have the most compelled me who most have pointed to Him.
+ They have held me, stirred me, swayed me,--I have hung on their
+   every word,
+ Till I fain would arise and follow, not them, not them,--but their
+   Lord!"[64]
+
+
+Patmos Spells Patience.
+
+Patience is strength at its strongest, using all its strength in holding
+back from doing something. Patience is love at flood pleading with
+strength to hold steady in holding back.
+
+The love in the strength insists on waiting a bit longer for the sake of
+the one being waited for. The strength in the love obeys the love
+passion and takes fresh hold in holding back.
+
+Patmos spells out the patience of our Lord Jesus. It tells the strength
+and tenderness of His love. Olivet spelled out His _plan_, His great
+sweeping plan, _through His followers_, for a race. Calvary spelled out
+His _passion_, passion of love, passion of suffering, in dying for a
+race.
+
+Calvary, Olivet, and Patmos are inseparably linked, the gentle slope of
+the Jerusalem hillside, the little mount to its east, and the little
+rocky isle in the far Ægean. Calvary was the passion of love pouring out
+a life for a race. Olivet was the plan of love for telling a race, till
+every one would know the love by the feel. Patmos is the patience of
+love pleading with the should-be tellers of the story to carry out the
+plan, and waiting, and then waiting just a little longer.
+
+Olivet had heard the last word. There the Master had told the disciples
+the plan. All the race was to be told and taught, bit by bit, earnestly,
+repeatedly, patiently, tirelessly, by word and act and life. He Himself
+unseen by outer eyes would always be with them, His supernatural power
+making real and living what they told and taught. This was the plan.
+Olivet was to be the executive of Calvary, bringing home to men and
+making vital to them what had been done there.
+
+Then Jesus went up on the Cloud. And they went out everywhere. And His
+power convincingly went with them just as He had said. Within a
+generation the news and the power had gone together to the outermost rim
+of the world they knew.
+
+They were expecting Him to return as a result of this witnessing of
+theirs. The next time they see His face and hear His voice will be as He
+comes on the Cloud out of the blue. So they understand and believe. This
+is their constant expectancy.
+
+Now that generation has moved off the scene of action. Another
+generation has come in its place, and has almost run its course and
+moved off the scene. And still they are looking forward to and talking
+about His return.
+
+But now to this new generation of His followers something quite
+different comes. Instead of Himself coming in glory there comes another
+last message to them. It fits perfectly into the Olivet message, but
+goes further and says something more.
+
+The Olivet message is about taking the light of the Gospel message out
+everywhere. The Patmos message in its pictured setting of candlesticks
+and Man of Fire and blazing light recognized this as the one thing to be
+done, but says there's something the matter with the candlesticks.
+
+The Olivet word is about taking the message. This Patmos word is about
+the messengers. That one is about the _service_ of His followers; this
+other about their _life_. The life underlies the service. Nothing can so
+hinder and hurt the service as a life not true in itself. Here something
+in the life of the Church is hindering its service. The Master's plan at
+this stage is in danger.
+
+His broader plan extends beyond this Church movement. This is one great
+step to be followed by another. That broader plan had been outlined at
+the first Church Conference, held in Jerusalem. James, the presiding
+officer, said that the carrying of the Gospel to all men was to be
+followed by a national regeneration of the Jews; and then through a
+regenerated Jewish nation there would be a new era of world-wide
+evangelization,[65] and with this the Conference was in agreement.
+
+The leaders among these early disciples are eagerly anticipating Jesus'
+return to carry on the next stage. They understand that what they are
+doing is preparing the way for this next step.
+
+But now instead of returning to carry forward the broader plan here
+comes another message. Apparently things are not going satisfactorily.
+The plan at this stage is in danger, while the Calvary passion back of
+it still burns. Failure is impending. The Master _might_ sweep aside the
+men that are failing, and press on Himself into the next step of His
+plan. For the case is urgent. A race is waiting. The darkness thickens.
+
+But instead He waits. With patience and strength and love beyond our
+power to grasp He waits. This is the setting of the Patmos message, to
+which we now turn.
+
+
+The Unity of the Message.
+
+We must keep our eyes on the Man who is talking. His overawing presence
+gives tremendous meaning to His words. That gentle touch of the right
+hand has no doubt strengthened John even as Daniel was strengthened. And
+he is standing and looking as he listens. But the sight of that wondrous
+Man walking among the candlesticks floods his face and his whole being
+indescribably as he listens to the message spoken.
+
+The overpowering sense of awe, of reality and power, and of the
+tremendous meaning of what is being said never leaves. So he listens.
+So we must listen. So only can we get into the meaning of these words.
+The words will mean only as much as the Man means in the intensity of
+His presence. You must keep your eye on this crowned Christ as you
+listen.
+
+The seven-fold description given us of Christ is the key to these seven
+messages. The partial description beginning each message is seen to fit
+into the particular condition of the Church spoken to. Yet all these
+bits of description must be put together to get the full description. It
+is a seven-fold description of one person.
+
+And so all the messages must be taken together to see the Church as He
+sees it, and to get His message to it. It is one message. A look at the
+seven promises made to the overcomers makes it clear that all seven are
+one promise. It is not that one overcomer receives one thing, and
+another another, but each one gets all of what is mentioned in the
+seven. A rather careful, swift look at these promises makes this clear
+enough.
+
+It is spoken to one Church in seven groups in seven different cities.
+There is one call to repentance, one warning of what will happen to the
+unpenitent at five successive stages, one plea to hear seven times
+repeated, and one blessed result to the overcomer, in a seven-fold
+statement.
+
+And there is just one evil to be recognized and fought. That evil is
+seen to grow from one degree to another, from bad to worse and worst.
+Its emphasis changes from one phase to another. It has shown itself
+differently in different parts of the world, and in different ages
+since, but it is the one evil power, always the same behind the
+different manifestations.
+
+There is rare combination and adaptation in this message. It was meant
+for the Church of that day, and of every day since, and for some future
+day. For it stands as the one message from Christ to His Church between
+Olivet and His return. It is meant distinctively for the Church as a
+whole, and yet it makes an intense personal appeal to each one in the
+Church.
+
+It is spoken to the little groups of Churches in Asia Minor grouping
+about the city of Ephesus, which had been founded by Paul and ministered
+to by John. And without doubt it fitted into the conditions and
+tendencies of those particular seven Churches.
+
+But these are representative of all. Probably any group of seven would
+be representative of all in varying degree. The mother Church at
+Jerusalem is not named, nor the great Gentile missionary Church at
+Antioch. But these messages with their approval and criticism, their
+warning and promise, were meant for all the Church in Asia and Europe
+and Africa at that time.
+
+They are found to fit into the need of the Church scattered throughout
+the world in every generation since then. Always there have been little
+groups that were faithful and true, always some suffering because of
+their faithfulness and remaining faithful in spite of suffering. And
+always those who have been formal, who have companioned with evil, who
+have been swamped by the evil with which they companioned, and those
+practically asleep or dead.
+
+This Patmos message will be found to fit the Church of to-day with
+remarkable accuracy and faithfulness. And the whole probability is in
+favor of finding that it will fit peculiarly the future Church, the
+Church at the end of this present period.
+
+This whole book of the Revelation is peculiarly a Church book. While it
+is full of instruction and plea for our individual lives, yet it is
+distinctively _the_ Church book. It stands out among the books of the
+New Testament as the one book addressed to the Church and to the whole
+Church.
+
+It gives the great bulk of its space to an awful time of persecution
+that is coming to the Church at some future time. This is spoken of
+elsewhere, notably by Jesus in His talk with the disciples on Mount
+Olivet, but it is the chief subject treated here. And it is treated with
+great detail. The name commonly applied to this coming persecution is
+the great tribulation.
+
+It is significant that the book that clearly is distinctively a Church
+book is taken up chiefly with a description of that future persecution.
+It leads to the deep conviction that this book of the Revelation so
+fitted to the need of the Church when spoken, and in every generation
+since, will be found to be peculiarly fitted to that generation of the
+Church that is to pass through this great coming persecution; that is,
+to the Tribulation Church.
+
+It will probably be the mainstay and comfort of those who will insist on
+being true during those awful days, regardless of the suffering
+involved. No book has been more slighted and ignored. It has been called
+by some within the Church of our own generation "the joke of the Bible."
+It will likely come to be the book most studied and loved for its light
+and help in the terribly troublous times ahead. There will be an eager,
+hungry searching for every scrap of information, and for any fresh ray
+of light on its meaning.
+
+
+The Seven-fold Message.
+
+Now this seven-fold message lets us see things through Christ's eyes. He
+is letting them and us see what He sees. The Scottish poet's thoughtful
+lines might well be changed to get the yet better look: "Oh! wad some
+power the giftie gie us, to see oursel's as" _God_ sees us. It would do
+more than free us from blunders and notions. And we are needing more.
+
+Each one of these seven messages begins by our Lord drawing their eyes
+to Himself. This is the thing needed most. And this will give meaning
+and force to the message. They are to be looking at Him as they listen.
+Then He speaks of all the good things He sees. Then of the faulty, weak,
+bad things, in a few simple but unmistakably plain words. No one could
+doubt what He meant.
+
+Then is the pleading call to repent, with the faithful warning of what
+will surely happen if they don't. Then the earnest plea that His words
+be listened to and taken to heart, and the wondrously gracious promise
+held out to those who steadily set themselves against the evil, and who
+get the victory.
+
+Let us look for a moment at each of these Churches as seen by those
+searching eyes of flame.
+
+_Ephesus_ is the centre of the group, the natural leader, the largest
+and most influential, perhaps the mother Church of the group, where Paul
+and John had put in so much time and strength, and whence they reached
+out to these others.
+
+Christ reminds them of His presence in their midst and His control of
+the angel messengers that minister to them. Then he speaks of their good
+deeds, their tireless activity, steadfast endurance, intense zeal for
+the true faith, with special emphasis upon their unwearying
+steadfastness even under sore difficulties, and their hatred of those
+who made compromise with evil so hateful to Himself.
+
+But there is something lacking, the tender personal love for Himself.
+There's intense loyalty to Church and to the faith, but a lack of
+personal love for Himself. And the startling thing is that this is said
+to quite outweight all these good things. They may have these things
+without the love, but they cannot have the love without having these
+things, and at a finer temperature.
+
+And this defect is crucial. If persisted in it is fatal. It will
+actually mean their _rejection as His messenger_. This is the critical
+thing which we seem to have such a hard time getting hold of. The
+essential qualification for true service is the personal attachment to
+our Lord Jesus Himself, that warm heart love which the human heart longs
+for and gives to some one. He longs for this. This is _the_ essential;
+not Church organization nor creed, not zeal for orthodoxy, but warm love
+for a person. Service, witnessing, all the rest, are valuable to Him in
+reaching His world only as they grow out of a tender love for Himself.
+
+And the startling thing is that this privilege and opportunity of
+service is to be taken away _not_ because displeasing to Him, but
+because it fails of the end in view. The candlestick is only removed
+because it is no longer serviceable; it is not giving out the light.
+This earnest, aggressive, orthodox, patiently-enduring Church is to be
+rejected as a light-holder, because it is not holding out the light.
+This is tremendous!
+
+The group in _Smyrna_ is tenderly reminded of the suffering of their
+Lord, for they are filling up what is left behind of His suffering. This
+tells at once the depth of their personal love for Him, nothing could
+tell it more.
+
+They are poor in money and so despised, but rich in faith and so
+precious to Him. They are suffering at the hands of the Jews, who were
+the outspoken, intense, fanatical enemy of the Christians. There is no
+reproach, only earnest encouragement to keep steady even through
+fiercer fires yet to come.
+
+The description of Himself to the _Pergamum_ group is startling. He is
+the one with a sharp two-edged sword. There is something here He must
+fight against. They are frankly told that they have had a hard place to
+witness in, and earnestly commended for being true even in the midst of
+persecution.
+
+But there's something wrong, and it is very serious. It is as wrong and
+bad as it can be. There is actually compromise with evil, partnership
+with the world in its wickedness. The thing is put in the intensest way
+possible by characterizing it as adultery. No stronger language could be
+used to tell how He sees the evil they are guilty of. And they are
+plainly told that He will fight against them. They have made themselves
+His enemy by joining His enemies.
+
+The _Thyatira_ group is reminded of the purity of their Lord, who cannot
+stand impurity but searches it relentlessly out, and pursues it to the
+death. There's a faithful minority here. Their activity and love and
+faith and patience and increasing activity in service are all counted
+carefully over and warmly commended.
+
+But the evil here is much worse. It is put into the gravest language.
+"Thou sufferest the woman _Jezebel_." This is most significant. There is
+no worse character named in the whole Old Testament. She not only
+represented the worst adulterous uncleanness in herself, but she was
+the national leader energetically fostering unclean idolatrous practices
+among the people. Jezebel pulled God's light-holder nation down to the
+lowest moral level it ever reached. She brazenly dominated king and
+people, and remained stubbornly obstinate to the terrible end.
+
+Christ brings _her_ name in here. Again this is tremendous. No more
+terrific parallel could have been made. Here evil characterized as
+adulterous has actually come to a place of leadership in the Church.
+With great longsuffering time has been given that all this might be
+changed, but with Jezebel-like obstinacy it was determined that there
+would be no change. And the inevitable result that will surely follow
+continued obstinacy will be a great tribulation or deadly persecution.
+
+The _Sardis_ group is told that Christ is the centre of all life and
+help, in the control of the Holy Spirit and of the angel messengers.
+There is nothing to commend here. There are some who insist on living
+true lives, but they are a scanty scattered few, not enough to count.
+
+There are some ragged remnants of good, but even these are sickly and
+nearly dead. The Church is well organized, energetic, standing high
+among men, but with an utter absence of spiritual life. The personal
+lives of most are like dirty garments. And the warning is this: He will
+come as a thief, that is unexpectedly, disagreeably, to take away what
+they prize most and leave them stripped and naked.
+
+The longest message is to the group in _Philadelphia_. Christ reminds
+them that He is holy in character, faithful to His promises, having full
+control, and giving opportunity of service as the highest reward of
+faithfulness. This candlestick is giving out light, for it is given yet
+further opportunity of shining.
+
+The chief characteristic of this group is its steady plodding
+faithfulness. They are not spoken of as brilliant or talented, but
+faithful in the midst of opposition. He loves them with the sort of deep
+love drawn out by love freely given. And a special promise is given, a
+significant promise. A great persecution is coming, an awful testing
+time to all the earth. But He will keep them _through_ this unhurt
+because they have been keeping His word so faithfully.
+
+The common reading here is, "I will keep thee _from_ the hour of trial."
+It is quite as accurate to read "through" in place of "from." And there
+is good reason for taking this as the sense here. The word underneath
+here is translated by several different words in other passages.
+
+Where a word in one language may be translated by any one of several
+words the general sense of the passage must decide which one correctly
+expresses the meaning. Here the meaning must be gotten from the whole
+trend of New Testament teaching. Like the Israelites during the plagues
+that came to Egypt these faithful ones will be kept untouched through
+this terrible time that is to come.
+
+The _Laodicea_ group is to be talked to plainly by one who is a true,
+faithful witness in dealing with His people's faults, and who has all
+the authority of God in doing so. This is the second group that actually
+has not one good thing to be commended. There is no false teaching, no
+compromise with evil; they are simply _asleep_. Rich, influential,
+self-satisfied, grown fat and sleek,--so they seem to their neighbours
+and themselves. Wretched, poor, blind, naked,--so they are. And the
+chastening threatened will be of the severe radical sort that strong
+love insists upon.
+
+
+A Heart-breaking Sight.
+
+Here then is the picture of the whole Church as seen by the eyes of
+searching flame. There is a mixture of bad and good, active bad, active
+good, and sleepy indifference. There is a Church within the Church. But
+the bad is bad enough and big enough to endanger seriously the
+usefulness of the whole as a light-bearer.
+
+The glass of the lantern is so smoked and cobwebby that it is more
+useless than useful to the light inside, and the crowd outside in the
+dark. The uselessness threatens what usefulness is left. Smokiness is
+contagious. Cobwebs grow thicker and hold more dust.
+
+Two Churches are true and pure in the midst of sore opposition. Two are
+corrupt in the very worst way. Three, including the leader, are orthodox
+in form, but indifferent to Jesus Himself, or asleep, or dead; three
+degrees of the same thing,--indifference, sleep, death.
+
+In all of these five there are those who, like Ezekiel's companions,
+"sigh and cry over the abominations that are going on," but they are
+helpless to stay the sweep of the tide. They are the salt that is saving
+the lump so far. Even Sodom would have been saved by ten righteous.
+
+It is plainly said to the leader Church that it is no longer of use as a
+candlestick, except a change come. It fails to give out the light. It is
+being carried along, patiently borne with _for its own sake_. It is
+failing at this point in the mission. The smoking flax sending out its
+irritating smoke in place of clear light is not yet quenched. The Holy
+Spirit life within is being sorely grieved, but is not yet put entirely
+out.
+
+And this is only one. Four others are plainly in much worse fix.
+Five-sevenths are failing. That bit of preservative salt would seem to
+be working to its full capacity.
+
+This is the picture given us here by our Lord Himself. John would never
+have dared make such a terrific arraignment of his own accord. It is a
+picture of the whole Church at the beginning of the First century.
+
+How is it at the beginning of the Twentieth? A thousand million people,
+two-thirds of the race, pretty freely supplied with the light of western
+oil and of gunpowder, with the help of the western sewing machine, and
+with the guidance of western learning and skill, but to whom with minor
+exceptions no scant ray of this light has yet gotten, these make answer.
+That smokiness would seem to be rather dense.
+
+The non-Christian crowds in so-called Christian lands, the overwhelming
+majority, to whom the name of Jesus has no more practical meaning than
+other foreign names, Shanghai, or Tokyo, or Calcutta,--these make
+answer. The light doesn't seem to have been able to get through and out
+much, even near the candlestick.
+
+The Church itself, when it has sometimes forgotten its statistical
+tables long enough to look thoughtfully into this old Patmos
+looking-glass, has now and then made answer, in a few of its thoughtful
+leaders, while the rank and file push on absorbed in their Ephesian or
+Sardisian or Thyatiran way.
+
+There's a striking companion bit to this in Ezekiel's vision.[66] That
+messenger to the exiled colony by the Chebar had first of all the vision
+of God that completely overwhelmed him. Then he is taken in spirit to
+Jerusalem, and shown things as they were, through God's eyes. The
+heathen idols were set up in the very temple of God, so actually
+stimulating among the people the horribly gross, unnamable impurities
+connected with their worship. This was done in the open, with no
+pretence at concealment.
+
+Then in the vision he digs "into the wall" to see the hidden things that
+are being done. There he sees every sort of creeping, crawling, slimy,
+repulsive animal pictured on the walls of this secret chamber, and the
+leaders of the people burning incense and worshipping.
+
+This he is told is a picture of the _inner hearts_ of the men who are
+the leaders of the nation. For dramatic intensity it would be hard to
+equal this. The imaginations of their hearts are as the unclean snakes
+and beasts that are found only in the damp, unwholesome slime and ooze
+of swamp and stagnant pond.
+
+And this is God's light-bearing nation to all the earth. And these are
+the leaders! But there's yet worse. The mothers and wives and daughters
+of the nation, the real moulders of the nation's life and character, are
+seen pouring out their very hearts over a heathen idol, with all the
+horrible evil practices included in its worship. And then a group of men
+are shown in the holy temple standing with their backs to God and His
+temple and worshipping the sun.
+
+Under these four items are pointed out the impurity and violence, the
+injustice and oppression, that mark the people. It is the inner heart
+life of the nation that is being pictured so vividly. But in the midst
+of all this are those who are broken-hearted over these conditions. And
+as the time of judgment comes in the vision these are marked and spared,
+though they see the work of judgment on every hand.
+
+Such is the tremendous scene depicted by Ezekiel. It will be seen at
+once what a striking parallel it presents to the scene in this
+Revelation book with the new light-bearer to the nations of the earth.
+One would never dare make such an arraignment of his own accord. It is
+humbling and heart-breaking to the last degree simply to repeat what is
+spoken here by our Lord Himself.
+
+Clearly the Patmos picture is not only of the Church then, but ever
+since, and now. And the simple law of momentum in sliding down hill will
+make it an accurate picture of the Church at the end, the future Church.
+
+The colouring changes at different times in different places, the black
+getting intenser, pot black, and the light shining out more brightly by
+contrast. But the picture remains essentially as painted on Patmos.
+
+The warnings so faithfully given run a sliding scale outward and
+downward in five degrees. If the Church continue as it is, it is told
+here that it will be rejected as a light-holder. Its privilege and
+opportunity as God's messenger will be taken away.[67]
+
+Then Christ will fight against it as an enemy,[68] it will be given over
+to a time of terrible tribulation,[69] it will be treated as prey to be
+robbed and plundered,[70] and it will be rejected, spewed out of the
+mouth, as personally disgusting.[71]
+
+Yet in all this plain speech there is no bitterness, only grief, only
+tender pleading. The plain bluntness is the language of love that yearns
+to save even yet, and that waits with untold patience hoping for a
+change.
+
+
+Wooing Promises.
+
+But it is noticeable that, while the warning is to the corporate Church,
+the plea and promise that persists throughout is to the individual. He
+that is _willing_ to, let him hear and heed and be controlled by the
+Spirit's message.
+
+There are two groups that have remained faithful. There are scattered
+through the other five those who are faithful. And there are no doubt
+many who feel the pull to be true but are yielding to the strong
+undertow of the rising tide by which they are being carried.
+
+The coupled promise and plea that call out so pleadingly to these at the
+close of each message are, "to him that overcometh." This word
+"overcometh" is very significant. It is one of the characteristic notes
+of these messages and indeed of this entire book. It is one of that sort
+of word that sums up a whole situation in itself.
+
+There is opposition. There is conflict because some won't yield to the
+opposition. And the result of the conflict varies. Some are overcome by
+the evil; they go over to the enemy, body and soul. Some wabble. They
+slip along the line of least resistance, secretly holding on to some few
+ragged remnants of convictions, but not letting these affect their
+standing or comfort or particularly their profits.
+
+Some overcome evil. There is struggle tense and continued, quickened
+breath, moist brow, tightened nerves, the stain of blood, a scar here
+and there, and heart-breaking experiences. But they fight on, and
+victory comes. And the evil is less, weakened in its hold on this
+companion and that neighbour. They get the victory over evil.
+
+There's a wondrous promise to these. It is as though the treasure box is
+placed at their disposal. It is a seven-fold promise. Every overcomer
+will receive all that is contained in these seven promises. Note this
+seven-fold promise: He that overcometh will have everlasting life,[72]
+and this is emphasized by the reverse statement, "will not be hurt of
+the second death."[73]
+
+He will be admitted into the sweets of intimate fellowship with his
+Lord, hidden from all save those in this inner circle. And will receive
+a new name, the family name, that is an inheritance in the family of
+God, joint heir with Jesus Christ.[74] He will have the privilege of
+serving with the King in the blessed Kingdom time coming.
+
+And with this goes the word, "I will give him _the morning star_."[75]
+Jesus calls Himself "the bright, the morning star."[76] The morning star
+rises in the dark of night after midnight and ushers in the new day. He
+who is in touch of heart with Jesus as the night deepens to the dawn
+will (probably) have an intimation in his inner spirit of the glad
+coming of the Morning Star that ushers in earth's new day.
+
+The overcomer will be made perfect in character, and find his name not
+only in the family book, but mentioned by Christ personally to His
+Father before the angels.[77] He will be admitted into the innermost
+circle of the King and be reckoned among the dependables.[78] And he
+will have closest fellowship with Christ in the administration of the
+wondrous kingdom.[79]
+
+It will be seen that these promises overlap, the same thing being put
+now positively, now negatively, and being repeated in differing words to
+different groups. Each promise touches the characteristic trait of the
+group spoken of. The Ephesians, who had many things but lacked the vital
+thing, are wooed with the promise of life itself, which is only through
+touch with Jesus Himself.
+
+Smyrna in its suffering is cheered with the prospect of suffering no
+more. The Pergamum overcomer is wooed away from intimacy of friendship
+with evil to intimacy of friendship with the coming King. They who
+resist the evil Jezebel rule in Thyatira will have the privilege of
+ruling with the King. Those in Sardis who hunger and thirst after a pure
+heart will have the longing fully satisfied.
+
+Those who have proven dependable in the trying days in Philadelphia will
+have the exquisite pleasure of being depended upon in the inner circle
+as wholly trustworthy. Those in Laodicea who resist the current and
+insist on letting the knocking pilgrim in for heart fellowship[80] will
+find themselves in fellowship with Him on the throne.
+
+It should be noticed that these promises are one promise, and that that
+is the promise of everlasting life, of a purified perfected character,
+and of the privilege of closest fellowship with the King Himself in the
+coming Kingdom time.
+
+These promises do not take up the matter of rewards for faithfulness in
+service, such as our Lord speaks of in the twin parables of the pounds
+and talents. The things promised here are the results of being saved by
+the blood of Christ. The privilege of fellowship with the King during
+the Kingdom time is included in salvation. All the redeemed will reign
+over the earth.[81]
+
+This is significant. Overcoming would seem to be the decisive evidence
+of faith in Jesus Christ, the faith that receives everlasting life. It
+takes opposition to let you know whether you are willing to accept
+Christ. A man does not know whether he really believes Christ until he
+is opposed in his believing, and opposed to the real hurting point. He
+has just as much faith in Christ as he is willing to declare, and stand
+by, and insist upon, _when he is under fire_. Opposition is the fire
+test. Faith isn't faith unless it can stand the fire test.
+
+
+The Decisive Trait of Faith.
+
+The plain inference here is that he who doesn't overcome shows that he
+really doesn't believe in his heart. And the natural result is that he
+does not receive these things promised. That is, he is not saved because
+he won't accept the Lord Jesus as his Saviour _when it comes to the fire
+test_.
+
+There are without doubt thousands in the Church who will be left behind
+on the earth when our Lord Jesus catches up His own. This does not mean
+necessarily that they will be lost. There will be another opportunity of
+being saved for those living on the earth at that time. The Kingdom will
+be a wonderful time of salvation. There will be a continuous revival of
+the realest sort going on everywhere all the time.
+
+But these would not have the blessed privilege of fellowship with the
+King in the Kingdom, nor the blessedness of fuller resurrection life _at
+this time_. That is reserved for those who by grace have believed on the
+Lord Jesus, during His absence and continued rejection, in spite of the
+fire of opposition.
+
+It is notable that the Thyatiran message speaks of _great tribulation_
+coming to that Church if it continue unchanged. And that the
+Philadelphia Church is to be kept through "the hour of trial, that which
+is to come upon the whole earth." Throughout the Scriptures mention is
+made of a time of persecution coming at the end. The common term for it
+is tribulation. It is called _the great tribulation_. There will be more
+to be said about this again.
+
+It is possible that it will be found that this Patmos message will have
+special significance during that trying time at the end. But it should
+be noted that it fits into the _spirit of opposition_ that is _always_
+found where there is true, faithful witnessing.
+
+The tribulation itself will be the time of intensest opposition carried
+to the extreme of violent persecution. It will be the climax of
+conditions always present, wherever there is faithful witnessing.
+Faithfulness to Christ always arouses opposition.
+
+The test of whether we really accept Christ and believe Him is not in
+anything we say. It is not even in what we are in our lives when all
+goes smoothly. It is in what we are in our lives _when opposed_, when it
+costs criticism, ostracism, petty persecution, or more outright
+persecution. This is our Lord's test of acceptance of Himself.
+
+We have had many definitions of what it means to believe on the Lord
+Jesus Christ. And these have been helpful in clearing the air and
+helping us to a simple acceptance of Him. These definitions have touched
+chiefly the _inner_ part of faith, the part we are conscious of.
+
+Here is another definition. Here is the last word on the subject, the
+authoritative word, from our Lord Jesus Himself. It tells what faith is
+in its outward working, the part the _crowd_ sees. The faith that
+accepts Jesus as Saviour accepts Him also as Lord.
+
+That faith naturally rings true to Him under all circumstances. It rings
+truest and clearest whenever opposition to Him is aroused, whether the
+opposition of indifference, of criticism and sneer, or of persecution.
+
+There are certain commonly accepted things that are in themselves only
+good, but which are not _conclusive_ evidence that we really have saving
+faith in the Saviour. The act of coming into Church membership whether
+by confirmation, by an assent to questions regarding one's personal
+faith, or by being baptized, the fact of membership in the Church, the
+partaking of the Lord's supper, serving as an official of the Church in
+pulpit or pew, faithful attendance, liberal support,--these things are
+only good.
+
+But they do not furnish conclusive evidence of one's acceptance of
+Christ. It is quite possible to be carried along on the common current
+in such things. There is clear evidence that many are. The decisive
+thing, the test thing is this: _how we stand opposition_, the polite,
+sneering sort, the more aggressive sort, or--if it come to that--the
+violent sort. The _fire_ reveals every man's faith if there be any
+there.
+
+There are two fire tests. One is of our faith in Christ, as revealed in
+the frictional fires of opposition. Whoever stands that test is caught
+up into His presence when He comes, or goes at once into His presence if
+our going precede His coming.
+
+The second is of the love-spirit, how far it has been the very breath of
+our life as revealed by the fire of His presence. For the love-spirit
+means personal loyalty to Jesus, purity of heart, holiness of life,
+steadiness of purpose, and the exquisite gentleness of patience in our
+conduct toward all others.
+
+These words of our Lord Jesus are very searching. This Patmos message
+must have been a painful one for Him to give John, and painful for John
+to repeat. It is painful for any one to repeat when its meaning is
+understood. It should send one off into some quiet corner alone on his
+knees with that great "search me" prayer of the Psalmist.[82]
+
+Recently I was told a simple incident of one of the truly great
+Christian men of our generation. He was at the head of one of the
+largest concerns of our country employing thousands of men, but never
+knowing any labor troubles. I remember the impression made on me a few
+years ago at the time of his death, by the remark made to me by two
+different men of this man's city, men that I think did not know each
+other, or maybe very slightly. As I spoke of him each man said in a
+subdued voice, "Oh, everybody in ---- loved Mr. ----!"
+
+This incident was told by his son. The two were on a train together. The
+father rose and went forward to another part of the train. As he went
+out a man sitting opposite came over and spoke to the son. His flashy
+manner of dress and the fact that he seemed to have been drinking
+suggested the sort of man he was. He said to the son:
+
+"Wasn't that Mr. So-and-so?"
+
+"Yes," the son replied.
+
+"Well," the man said, as though talking half to himself, "if there were
+more men like him, there'd be fewer like me."
+
+And he turned to his seat and sat as though absorbed in his thought. The
+son, in speaking of it after his father's death, said it was one of the
+tenderest memories he had of his father.
+
+The common crowd on the street and our Lord Jesus are united in one
+thing: they want _more men like Him_, Jesus our Saviour. Then there'd be
+fewer of the other sort.
+
+
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[64] Ruby T. Weyburn.
+
+[65] Acts xv. 14-18.
+
+[66] Ezekiel viii and ix.
+
+[67] Rev. ii. 5.
+
+[68] Rev. ii. 12-16.
+
+[69] Rev. ii. 22, 23.
+
+[70] Rev. iii. 3.
+
+[71] Rev. iii. 16.
+
+[72] Rev. ii. 7.
+
+[73] Rev. ii. 11.
+
+[74] Rev. ii. 17.
+
+[75] Rev. ii. 26-28.
+
+[76] Rev. xxii. 16.
+
+[77] Rev. iii. 5.
+
+[78] Rev. iii. 12.
+
+[79] Rev. iii. 21.
+
+[80] Rev. iii. 20, 21, with Jeremiah xiv. 8.
+
+[81] Rev. v. 10.
+
+[82] Psalm cxxxix.
+
+
+
+
+V.--AN ADVANCE STEP IN THE ROYAL PROGRAMME
+
+(Revelation, Chapters iv. and v.)
+
+
+ "We are watching, we are waiting,
+   For the bright prophetic day;
+ When the shadows, weary shadows,
+   From the world shall roll away.
+
+ "We are watching, we are waiting,
+   For the star that brings the day;
+ When the night of sin shall vanish,
+   And the shadows melt away.
+
+ "We are watching, we are waiting,
+   For the beauteous King of day;
+ For the chiefest of ten thousand,
+   For the Light, the Truth, the Way.
+
+ "We are waiting for the morning,
+   When the beauteous day is dawning,
+ We are waiting for the morning,
+   For the golden spires of day."[83]
+
+
+A Look into Heaven.
+
+Heaven is a place of intensest and tenderest interest to every one. It
+is true that there is less emphasis on getting to heaven as a result of
+being saved than there was a generation ago. Indeed, no emphasis at all.
+The whole thought now is about our life here on the earth. We think less
+about dying and more about living.
+
+This is true. Yet every one of us has loved ones who have slipped from
+our grasp, and gone from our midst. We think of them. The tenderest
+memories brood over us, and come like a flood sometimes.
+
+We may have the sweet sense of assurance that these loved ones are
+saved. But there is an intense longing at times to know more about them,
+where they are, what they are doing, how much they know of things down
+here. These thoughts _will_ come crowding in upon us.
+
+Now here is some light. _All_ the questions are not answered. But there
+comes clear, sweet light to comfort our hearts during the waiting time
+until we shall be joined with them again. We are given here in John's
+Revelation the first clear, definite glimpse into the upper world. It is
+told us in the language of earth of course. It must be, else we would
+not understand. But clearly there is a glory and happiness clear beyond
+what earthly words can tell.
+
+This is the first glimpse into heaven given us in this old Book of God.
+Jacob wakes up in his dream and sees a ladder set up connecting earth
+and heaven, and the angels going up and returning again while God talks
+with him. It means much to him, but gives us no answer to our questions,
+except to make plain that there is a very real and wondrous world up
+there where our loved ones go.
+
+Moses is up in the mount with God for six weeks nearly, twice over, but
+there is no suggestion of what he may have seen; only the transfiguring
+change in his face, and the strongly gentling change in his character.
+
+Ezekiel finds the heavens opening and sees the vision, so like John's,
+of the wondrous Man. Stephen looks up steadfastly into heaven and sees
+the resplendent glory of God, and the crucified Jesus standing at the
+right hand of God. Paul is caught up into heaven, not improbably at the
+time that his body lay bruised and bleeding and apparently lifeless
+outside Lystra. But the sights he sees and the over-awing glory are too
+much to be told. But here John is taken up in vision into the heavens,
+into the presence of God, and sees much, and tells us what he sees.
+
+It was after the vision of the glorified Man and His message. John is
+sitting thinking on all he has seen and heard, thinking back to Ephesus
+and the other Churches he knew so well. He is wondering perhaps _how_ he
+_can_ tell them what, whom, he has seen; and wondering too how he can
+tell them this message entrusted to him.
+
+The holy spell is still strong upon him, when all at once he noticed
+what looks like a door, a door opened above him in the blue. And as he
+is looking, astonished, that same voice that had been speaking with him
+before speaks again. He is bidden to "come up hither," and he will be
+shown the things that are to happen some time in the future. At once he
+is conscious of that same gentle, enveloping presence of the Holy Spirit
+as before. At once He is up in heaven. And he tells us the scene that
+opens to his eyes.
+
+There is a throne set. What a comfort! There is a _throne_. There is a
+centre of authority and power to our world. This Revelation is
+peculiarly the book of a _throne_. Up yonder above the moral tangle and
+confusion of earth is a reigning throne.
+
+There is One sitting on the throne. That throne is occupied. It has not
+been vacated. Men down here may push God off the throne of their lives,
+and try to push Him out of the affairs of the earth. But He sits on the
+throne above. And that throne dominates the life of the earth. Nothing
+can be done without permission.
+
+John can't describe this one sitting on the throne. The sight is too
+much for his eyes. When the seventy elders of Israel see God, all that
+they can remember is the dazzle of glory in the wonderful pavement under
+His feet. It seems like a pavement of precious stones of sapphire, but
+as clear as crystal. So now all that John can see is some One who seems
+to his eyes like transparent precious stones blazing with light. This is
+the only thing he can think of to tell of what he sees.
+
+
+Rest in the Midst of Unrest.
+
+There is a rainbow around the throne. The radiance of light shining out
+from this One on the throne makes a rainbow. If one wonders how God can
+look down on the misery and sin, the rebellion and wretchedness that
+dominate most of the earth, here is the answer. His finger is never off
+the pulse. He knows all as we never can. And he feels as we never do the
+pain of life, and the discord of earth. The unceasing cry of earth comes
+up in his ears.
+
+But He is controlled by a purpose. It is a purpose of strong patient
+love. _He has made a promise_ that man shall have fullest opportunity
+unchecked by the natural sweeping judgment, that invariable working out
+of sin and wrong. That throne keeps the order of nature working smoothly
+and faithfully for man's sake, holding in restraint the forces that
+would hinder and destroy. The rainbow is the signature to His promise.
+That rainbow is always before His face. That promise has never been
+forgotten. This explains the quietness of the One on the throne, looking
+down on the moral confusion of the race.
+
+But this rainbow is not like the common rainbows that we know. It
+completely encircles the throne. Our rainbows are broken up. They are
+never seen in their completeness. Our lookout on things sees only a
+part; it never sees all. It is never complete. The view of things up
+there is complete. Everything is seen and is seen in its true relation
+to everything else. The throne is the one place of perfect perspective
+and poise.
+
+And this rainbow is all of one colour, a clear, soft emerald-green. We
+know that green is the most restful of all colours. Some colours are
+irritating. Some persons of very sensitive, nervous temperament are even
+made sick by certain colours. And we are all affected more than we know
+in a hurtful way by certain colours. But green is the colour of rest. It
+soothes the eyes and nerves and even the spirit. The rainbow round about
+the throne looked like a quiet, quieting emerald-green. The One on the
+throne is at perfect rest regarding things down here. He knows all. His
+ears hear all, the cry of distress and despair, the defiance and
+arrogance and blasphemy. His eyes see His children down here, creative
+children all of them, prodigal children so many of them, and trusting
+children walking in the shadows. He sees all. And He feels all with His
+great feeling heart.
+
+Yet He is at rest. Do you wonder how He can be? When Jesus saw the
+multitudes He was moved with compassion; He suffered in heart with them,
+for they were as shepherdless sheep, torn and distressed. And the heart
+beating in rhythm with His has as hard a time as He. If He lead you in
+service to some foreign mission land, you see and know and feel as no
+tourist party hurried through the outer fringes ever does or can.
+
+And in Christian lands of the West, and the homeland, in slum as in
+polite circles, in commercial quarters as in the university world, the
+heart that is in touch with Jesus' heart sees and hears and feels and
+senses things as they are under the surface or sticking boldly out
+through the surface. And feels at times as though it can never again be
+at rest.
+
+How can He, on the throne, be so quiet, and be at rest? And there is an
+answer to our burning question, a simple, real answer. _He knows the
+end._ He has a purpose and a plan. The present is only one stage in His
+great plan. This is man's opportunity, and possibly some one's else
+opportunity, too. It is to be followed by something else radically
+different down on this earth.
+
+He is held steady during this time by a great purpose. It is a purpose
+of great, tender love. To His eye looking sleeplessly down there is rest
+even as of emerald-green. And so there will be rest for him who looks
+sleeplessly _up_ to the _throne_ of control, encircled in the emerald
+rainbow of perfect peace. And we can be of best service to Him by
+resting in our hearts, resting in Him, even while working in the thick
+of things as they are down here.
+
+
+They See His Face.
+
+Then John sees twenty-four other thrones round about the central throne.
+And on these there are twenty-four men sitting. These men are wearing
+white garments, and have crowns of gold upon their heads. This is the
+part of intense interest. Who are these? And what does this mean?
+
+What has been said before about picture language, the language of the
+Orient, of childhood, of the common crowd, the universal language, will
+help us here. The Bible is an Oriental book. It talks in picture
+language. This is humanly what gives it such freshness and peculiar
+adaptation. The radical change of circumstances and speech and mode of
+thought in different centuries makes all books antiquated after a
+certain time. This book has the freshness of youth, for in its simple
+picture language it deals in principles. But picture language must be
+held to its simplicity. And something of familiarity with the whole
+range of the Scripture is needful to use the key to the simple picture
+language.
+
+Let us look a bit at the simple scene here. These men are elders, that
+is they are leaders. They represent multitudes of others. Throughout the
+Bible twelve is the number of completeness, both in things and people. A
+complete gathering or throng of people is represented by the number
+twelve. There are twelve tribes of Israel, and so on. This is so
+familiar that it need only be named without further illustration.
+
+There are two great divisions of this Bible, the Old Testament and the
+New. These stand naturally for the two great divisions of time, before
+Christ and after. This division is strongly marked in the Bible, and
+sharply marked in our Christian consciousness. It has been a common
+thing to wonder about the salvation and spiritual knowledge and
+privileges of people who lived before Christ came and died.
+
+Twice twelve make twenty-four. These twenty-four elders represent the
+redeemed ones from both of these great divisions of time. That is to
+say, the picture tells us this. All the people from creation's earliest
+morn up to the present, including the one who went out last from some
+sorrowing family circle, all who have had the touch of heart with God,
+are gathered in the presence of Him who sits on the throne. That is one
+simple thing that stands out clear and sure.
+
+These are represented as _sitting_. The slave or servant never sat in
+his master's presence. Friends sit together. Angels are never spoken of
+as sitting in the presence of God. When our Lord Jesus was received up
+He sat down at the Father's right hand. We are spoken of as seated in
+the heavenly places in Christ Jesus. Sitting together means being on
+terms of intimacy and fellowship. Through the precious blood of our
+Lord Jesus we are all accepted in the Beloved and received and trusted
+as He is.
+
+These elders are clad in white garments. That is one of the familiar
+things spoken of much in this end-book. Part of the promise to those of
+overcoming faith is that they shall be arrayed in white garments, and
+walk with Christ in white.[84] Those who are faulty in the Church are
+urged to get white garments.[85] The martyrs waiting their
+vindication,[86] and the great multitudes who come up out of the
+tribulation are given white raiment.[87] The bride at the joyous
+marriage supper, and the armies following the conquering Christ, are
+clad in fine linen, bright and pure.[88]
+
+We are told that this white linen means a pure life.[89] These garments
+have been washed in the blood of the Lamb.[90] These multitudes have
+been cleansed in the blood of Christ and purified by the Holy Spirit and
+made perfect in purity and holiness as they came up into the presence of
+the Father on the throne.
+
+These elders are wearing golden crowns. This language, too, is familiar.
+The acknowledgment and reward of faithfulness and of service is spoken
+of commonly under this bit of picture talk.[91] The angels are never
+spoken of as being crowned. Christ was crowned, that is received into
+the presence of the Father, as the full recognition of His worthiness
+and of what He had done, and in vindication after the shameful rejection
+by men.
+
+These men and women and children in the Father's presence have been
+rewarded and are being rewarded for their faithfulness in obedience and
+in life. All the struggles and difficulties, the hard road, the
+endurance, the patient suffering for His name's sake, the faithfulness
+in doing the allotted tasks, all these have been noted and acknowledged.
+There is the sweet peace of the Father's approval in all of these before
+the throne.
+
+
+Going to School to God.
+
+And these are sitting on _thrones_. When Jesus was teaching His
+disciples, in the dark days of bitter opposition He wooed them with
+this: "Ye shall sit upon twelve thrones."[92] And a bit later as they
+sat round the supper table on the night of His betrayal, when things are
+getting to the darkest, again He woos them: "Ye may eat and drink at my
+table in my Kingdom; and ye shall sit on thrones."[93] He that
+overcometh is assured of sitting with Christ on His throne.[94]
+
+All the redeemed ones of earth are to have part with Christ in the
+coming Kingdom time. They reign with Him.[95] During this present time
+the countless hosts of angels have a part in ministering to man on the
+earth.[96] Even so during the Kingdom time to come the countless hosts
+of the redeemed will have the sweet privilege of service with Christ and
+on behalf of those on the earth. And it is quite possible that they
+already have a part in such a ministry.
+
+A little farther in the description it is seen that these elders have
+"each one a harp, and golden bowls full of incense, which are the
+prayers of the saints." Heaven is a place of wonderful music. Its very
+atmosphere must be tuned to the rarest rhythmic harmonies. And each one
+has part in the music being made.
+
+And yet more, they are continuing the sweet ministry of intercession
+learned down on earth. This means that they are in touch with earth.
+They know the needs of loved ones and of all, and they have the
+privilege of fellowship in this with Him who ever liveth to make
+intercession.
+
+And there is one other thing we know here at once without being told. If
+a friend tells me that he has a rose garden under the care of a skilled
+gardener, I know without being told that the roses are growing. I at
+once look through my friend's words and see bushes full of roses of all
+colours, some full blown, some half blown, some bursting buds, and some
+just budding. For there is a garden, and a gardener, and sun and rain
+and dew. I know there must be growth and beauty.
+
+Even so we know that the loved ones who have parted from us, are
+growing. They are in the Father's presence, in intimate fellowship. That
+tells me of their growth. That little one who slipped away so young,
+years ago, has been growing in mental powers, in character as well as in
+what down here we call stature, and growing most of all in love. And so
+at the meeting time, in the air or up there, there will be instant
+recognition, as well as instant delight over the growth under such
+wondrous tutorage.
+
+This is the glimpse into the upper world which John sees and is allowed
+to give us here. The redeemed ones of earth of all the ages are in the
+presence of the Father and of the Lord Jesus and of the angels, on terms
+of intimate fellowship, made pure and perfect in character, but always
+growing from more to more, and having a share in blessed ministry. And
+they listen to and have share in making music more exquisite than our
+earthly language can describe.
+
+They understand the wondrous plans for the earth, for now they see all
+things through the Lord Jesus' eyes. They have some part without doubt
+in welcoming those who come to join them, even as they will have part in
+receiving those who are caught up at our Lord's return. And they look
+forward eagerly to the glad time of righting that will come then.
+
+But let us look a bit more at what John sees. Out of the throne are seen
+proceeding lightnings and voices and thunders. Three other times in
+this book it speaks of lightning and voices and thunder.[97] These
+things of course are the familiar accompaniments of a storm. It is
+noticeable that each other time they are named in the book it is in
+connection with some direct action being taken by God in the affairs of
+the earth. And each time there is some added item intensifying the
+scene.
+
+A physical storm is caused by two areas of unequal temperature coming
+together. The storm is the process of coming together and equalizing of
+the atmospheric conditions. The inference here would seem to be that the
+time of action has come to straighten out matters on the earth. The two
+moral atmospheres of heaven and earth seem to be coming into contact,
+and a storm is resulting before clear weather comes. It suggests that
+our Lord Jesus is taking the next direct step in His broader plan.
+
+
+God's Ideal of Creation.
+
+But let us look a little further. In the book's picture language there
+are "seven lamps of fire burning before the throne." These we are
+plainly told "are the seven spirits of God." That is a Hebrew way of
+saying "the perfect spirit of God." This is of intense interest. The
+Holy Spirit is represented as being before the throne.
+
+In the confidential talk with the inner group of disciples on the
+betrayal night, in John's Gospel,[98] Jesus promises that when He has
+ascended up to the Father He will send down the Holy Spirit to them.
+When the Spirit has come down to the disciples He will begin a new
+ministry of witnessing to the world through them.
+
+In the Book of Acts that promise is fulfilled. The Spirit comes down
+with remarkable manifestations on the day of Pentecost. The distinctive
+thing He does is to take possession of a group of men and form them into
+a new witnessing body called the Church. He had dwelt in the nation of
+Israel as a nation, and had been withdrawn from that nation when it
+proved finally faithless to its mission. He had dwelt in individual men
+before and during and after that time.
+
+At Pentecost He is sent down on a new mission. He is to do in men all
+that Jesus has done for them in His life and death and resurrection. But
+the distinctive thing of Pentecost is His forming this new body called
+the Church, through which He begins a new ministry of witnessing to the
+world.
+
+All through the Acts and Epistles He is constantly spoken of as here on
+the earth working in the Church and through it. He in the Church is a
+powerful restraint upon the powers of evil in the world. In
+Thessalonians,[99] Paul has spoken of a day coming when that restraint
+would be withdrawn. The Holy Spirit, the "One that restraineth now," is
+to be taken away.
+
+Now here the Holy Spirit is represented as being, not in the Church, as
+always in the Acts and Epistles, but as being "before the throne." This
+is the second significant thing to note in this scene. This also would
+seem to suggest the beginning of a new order of things.
+
+John goes quietly on with his description. Before the throne he sees a
+great expanse that looks like a sea of clear, bright, beautiful crystal.
+Before the throne and around about the throne are four living creatures
+or creatures of life. These living creatures are of intensest interest.
+They appear throughout the Scriptures from the Garden of Eden in Genesis
+to the very close of this Book of Revelation.
+
+They are also called cherubim and seraphim, that is, cherubs and
+seraphs. They are always associated directly with the immediate presence
+of God,[100] and with His presence-chamber, in the tabernacle,[101] in
+the temple,[102] and in Ezekiel's vision of a new temple,[103] and in
+the thought of the people.[104] There is one possible exception to this,
+where they are seen at the entrance to the Garden of Eden.[105] The
+description of them is most full in Ezekiel. It varies in details, but
+with the essentials always the same.
+
+The general appearance is that of a man, but there are four faces as of
+a man, a lion, an ox or calf, a flying eagle, and sometimes a cherub
+face. They are full of eyes everywhere, and they seem enveloped in the
+pure fire which everywhere is associated with God's own presence. These
+descriptions combined suggest perfection of purity, of intelligence, of
+obedience, and of power.
+
+In this book of the Revelation they are spoken of seven times,[106] that
+is, more frequently than in any other book, though not so fully as in
+Ezekiel. Five times they are leading or joining in the worship of God,
+by men and angels, and twice they are coöperating with the Lamb or the
+angels in what is being done on the earth.
+
+These beautiful, intelligent beings seem to represent the whole animate
+creation, man, the animals intimately associated in service with man,
+those that roam at will, and the birds, and the angels. It would seem as
+though they stand for _God's ideal of creation_, as it was before the
+hurt of sin came, as He holds it in His heart, and as it will be after
+sin has gone. His ideal of a perfect and perfected creation is always in
+His presence and before His face, intelligently and gladly carrying out
+His will, reverently and joyously sounding His praise.
+
+It suggests that He will not rest content until His ideal for the
+creation shall be a sweet, full realization, all sin and rebellion
+removed and all His works uniting in joyous, continuous worship, and
+glad, harmonious obedience.
+
+
+The Significant Book.
+
+All this is interesting; some of it intense in interest. But it is only
+a setting. It is incidental. The chief thing is yet to be told. John had
+been told that he would be shown the things that would come to pass some
+time in the future. We come now to the beginnings of these "things."
+
+The One who is sitting on the throne has a carefully sealed book or
+document in his hand. An angel calls out loudly for any one who is
+qualified to do so to step forward and take the document and break its
+seals. And as John watches intently no one comes forward. No one can be
+found, either in the heaven, in earth, or in the region spoken of as
+under the earth.
+
+At this John is greatly distressed, and weeps much, so he must have
+understood at once just what this meant. And one of the elders comforts
+him with the assurance that there is One who has "_overcome_ to open the
+book, and the seven seals thereof," "the lion of the tribe of Judah."
+This word "overcome" suggests that this one has been in some great
+conflict and has gotten the victory and overcome all opposition. And
+this qualifies Him to take and open the document. He is the only one
+among untold numbers so qualified.
+
+And now John sees this One. He is standing in the very midst of the
+throne surrounded by creatures and elders. We easily recognize this as
+our Lord Jesus. He is a lion in leadership and strength. He is a lamb in
+gentleness of character, and in the sacrificial experience He has been
+through. The marks of death are plainly seen on His person.
+
+As He comes forward He reaches and takes the book out of the hand of the
+One on the throne. He is allowed to take it. His qualification to take
+the document and break its seals is acceptable to the One on the throne.
+
+And as He takes the book there is a remarkable burst of praise and
+adoration that must have made all heaven ring. And those on earth in
+touch of spirit with the scene and its purpose and the Chief Actor would
+surely feel some thrill in the spirit currents of earth.
+
+The outburst of worship is led by the four living creatures and the
+twenty-four elders who fall down before the Lamb and sing a song. What
+music that must be when the untold thousands sing as only redeemed ones
+can sing. Then countless hosts of angels join in and lift the chorus.
+And then there is the creation chorus, every created thing in heaven and
+earth, under the earth, in the sea, absolutely everything seems to join
+in this indescribable music. And the four living creatures say, "Amen."
+And again the elders fall down and worship.
+
+John's distress at the beginning, and now this indescribable outburst of
+praise, tell us that this is something thrilling and significant beyond
+expression. What does this mean, our Lord Jesus taking the sealed
+document preparatory to breaking its seals?
+
+It has been said in a previous talk that every thread woven into the
+fabric of the Old Testament can be found in the fabric of this
+Revelation book. So that if one goes to work patiently he can trace
+every allusion here to something back in these older leaves. This gives
+us the clue to the significance of this remarkable scene.
+
+That clue seems in this case to be found in the book of Jeremiah,
+chapter thirty-two. There is found an allusion to a simple primitive
+custom of the Hebrew people in the exchange of real estate and in taking
+possession of property to which one is entitled.
+
+The old Hebrew custom seems to have been as follows: When property was
+purchased the deed to the new owner was made out in duplicate, an open
+copy and a sealed copy. The open copy was clearly for public
+information, open to all. The sealed copy as clearly belonged only to
+the owner of the property as his evidence of ownership. So it identified
+him as the one named in the open copy.
+
+If a new heir comes to take possession of an estate, or in case of a
+dispute over ownership, the claimant who was adjudged the rightful heir
+or owner would be given the possession of the sealed document or deed.
+And as so attested by the judge or court, he only would be properly
+qualified to "take" the sealed roll, break its seals, read its
+contents, and so formally take possession of the estate, or property.
+
+Now under the symbolism of this old bit of Hebrew custom, our Lord Jesus
+is represented here as stepping forward to take possession of the earth,
+and begin His reign over it. A Hebrew immersed in the old primitive
+customs of his people in Palestine would understand this allusion at
+once, however startled or sceptical he might be as to its significance
+in this connection.
+
+
+Taking Possession.
+
+The language used in the song of praise when our Lord Jesus takes the
+sealed book is significant. They say, "thou art _worthy_," that is, thou
+art _qualified_; thou art the duly attested one with the right to take
+possession. "For thou wast _slain_, and didst purchase unto God with thy
+blood men of every tribe," and so on.
+
+Man had been given the dominion of the earth. He had by obedience to the
+evil one transferred his right to Him who is repeatedly called "the
+prince of this world." Our Lord Jesus _purchased_ men out of their
+slavery back to their original Lord,--with all that was rightfully
+theirs. He has allowed fullest opportunity for all who will to accept
+His Lordship. Now He is about to take possession of the earth on behalf
+of men, and for them.
+
+This is the tremendous significance of what John is shown here as
+something that will take place hereafter. In the scene of the
+candlesticks He is patiently waiting, holding Himself in restraint. Now
+the waiting time is over. He is making the next move in His broader plan
+for the earth.
+
+There is no hint as to the length of interval between the two scenes,
+how long He will wait. There is no suggestion as to when this next move
+will be made. But we are here plainly told that at some time that
+candlestick waiting time will end, and He will take a forward step in
+connection with His plans for the earth. And it should be keenly noticed
+that what follows now in this book of Revelation is the run of events
+that will immediately follow that next step of His.
+
+Yet this step is taken up _in heaven_. The first action of the new move
+will be there. There will be nothing to be seen on the earth to indicate
+the change. Things there will go on as before, eating and drinking,
+buying and selling, marrying and giving in marriage, all unconscious of
+the tremendous events being worked out.
+
+But now the waiting time still waits. Our opportunity is still open. If
+we might only be simple enough to be true to our absent Lord Jesus
+during this waiting time.
+
+A bishop of the American Episcopal Church, widely known for his saintly
+character, his culture, and long years of tireless service, was visiting
+in the South. In the town there lived a judge of wide repute for his
+scholarly learning as well as for his culture and uprightness. Now he
+was seriously ill, and had requested an interview with the bishop.
+
+He asked the bishop to talk to him about personal religion. And the
+clergyman talked to this thoughtful, scholarly judge in choice
+philosophical language about the fatherhood of God, the character of
+Christ, and the essential harmony of man's true nature with God. The
+judge listened attentively for some time.
+
+Then he apologetically interrupted his visitor, and said:
+
+"Bishop, I'm dying. Won't you please talk to me just like you'd talk to
+my black boy, Jim?"
+
+And the bishop could, and did. He told him in simplest talk that he was
+a sinner. Jesus died to save sinners. His blood washes away our sins. We
+must take Christ as a Saviour, just trust Him, as simply as a child
+trusts its mother.
+
+So he talked. And the judge listened. And the tears came, and the peace.
+He came as a child, and trusted, and he knew the peace that passeth
+understanding. It was the simple telling of the simple story of the
+Saviour who died, and the simple, child-like acceptance of that Saviour.
+The scholarly bishop helped the learned judge best, in the crisis of his
+life, by talking as simply as to a child.
+
+If we might only be simple enough to be true to this Jesus who died,
+during the remnant of waiting time that remains.
+
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[83] W. O. Cushing.
+
+[84] Rev. iii. 4-5.
+
+[85] Rev. iii. 18.
+
+[86] Rev. vi. 11.
+
+[87] Rev. vii. 9.
+
+[88] Rev. xix. 8, 14.
+
+[89] Rev. xix. 8.
+
+[90] Rev. vii. 14; xxii. 14.
+
+[91] Rev. ii. 10; iii. 11; I Corinthians ix. 25; II Timothy iv. 8; James
+i. 12; I Peter v. 4.
+
+[92] Matthew xix. 28.
+
+[93] Luke xxii. 30.
+
+[94] Rev. iii. 21.
+
+[95] Rev. v. 10; xx. 4, 6.
+
+[96] Hebrews i. 14 with Daniel vii. 10 and Psalm ciii. 20-21.
+
+[97] Rev. viii. 5; xi. 19; xvi. 18, 21.
+
+[98] John xiv.-xvi.
+
+[99] II Thessalonians ii. 6-7.
+
+[100] Ezekiel i. 4-28; x. 1-22.
+
+[101] Exodus xxv. 17-22; xxxvii. 6-9.
+
+[102] I Kings vi. 23-26; viii. 6-7; II Chronicles iii. 10-14; v. 7-8.
+
+[103] Ezekiel xli. 15-26.
+
+[104] I Samuel iv. 4; II Samuel vi. 2; xxii. 11; I Chronicles xiii. 6;
+Psalm xviii. 10; lxxx. 1; xcix. 1; Isaiah vi. 1-3; xxxvii. 16.
+
+[105] Genesis iii. 24.
+
+[106] iv. 6-9; v. 6, 8, 14; vi. 1, 3, 5, 7; vii. 11; xiv. 3; xv. 7; xix.
+4.
+
+
+
+
+VI.--A CLEARING-UP STORM IN THE REALM
+
+(Revelation, Chapters vi.-viii.)
+
+
+ "God Almighty! King of nations! earth Thy footstool, heaven Thy throne!
+ Thine the greatness, power, and glory, Thine the kingdom, Lord, alone!
+ Life and death are in Thy keeping, and Thy will ordaineth all:
+ From the armies of Thy heavens to an unseen insect's fall.
+
+ "Reigning, guiding, all-commanding, ruling myriad worlds of light;
+ Now exalting, now abasing, none can stay Thy hand of might!
+ Working all things by Thy power, by the counsel of Thy will.
+ Thou art God! enough to know it, and to hear Thy word: 'Be still!'
+
+ "In Thy sovereignty rejoicing, we Thy children bow and praise,
+ For we know that kind and loving, just and true, are all Thy ways.
+ While Thy heart of sovereign mercy, and Thy arm of sovereign might,
+ For our great and strong salvation in Thy sovereign grace unite."
+
+    --FRANCES RIDLEY HAVERGAL.
+
+
+The Area of the Storm.
+
+Goodness arouses evil. Faithfulness to Christ stirs opposition. This is
+a commonplace. A piece of white-hot metal plunged into cold water makes
+a great fuss. Two areas of sharply different temperatures in the
+atmosphere above us coming suddenly together make a storm.
+
+Purity entering an atmosphere of impurity and insisting on staying, and
+on keeping pure, creates a lively disturbance. The tempter was aroused
+to his subtlest effort when Jesus appeared. There is no such demoniac
+activity recorded as when Jesus walked among men.
+
+So crowning a king arouses opposition, if there be opposition. And the
+active taking of the reins of government has intensified the opposition
+when it was strong enough to make a stand. The striking illustration of
+this in the Bible is King David. After Saul's death the men of Judah
+anointed David king. That was the signal for an immediate attack by the
+chief of the forces of Saul's house. And this was succeeded by a long
+war, before David was acknowledged as king over all Israel. The
+clearing-up storm in his realm lasted a good while before good weather
+came.
+
+Here in this Revelation scene we have been looking at our Lord Jesus is
+represented as stepping forward to take possession of His realm. It is
+natural to expect a storm. This will be a signal to the opposition to
+rally all its power. But there can be no question about the outcome of
+such a set-to. That storm proves to be a clearing-up storm in the realm.
+It is to be followed by such fine moral weather as has not been known
+before. But the storm itself proves to be a terrific one for the earth
+while it lasts.
+
+The greater part of this little end-book is taken up with a description
+of that storm. But before we turn to this book itself and its storm, we
+want to get our bearings a bit, so as to understand better what is here.
+Revelation is the knot in the end of a big bunch of threads. We shall
+understand the knot better by knowing more about the threads before they
+are tied into the knot.
+
+The storm area proves to be very large. It takes in the whole earth. The
+Bible is a big book in its outlook and grasp. It deals with the whole
+earth, and the whole race. The thoughtful Bible student comes to have a
+broad outlook, as well as a close lookout about his own front and back
+doors.
+
+It is fascinating to study the geography of the Bible. We talk about the
+world growing smaller. That refers of course to the rapidity of
+transit. It is only within a few hundred years that we have learned of
+the earth being round. The Bible map includes practically the whole
+world as we have come to know it.
+
+The centre of the world as seen on this map may seem a little
+surprising. We Americans _feel_ that the centre of things is here. The
+Englishman _knows_ that it is in London; and lately the Germans have had
+the same exclusive sort of knowledge about Berlin. The Chinese has long
+called his country "the Middle Kingdom," in the sense of its being the
+central kingdom about which the rest of the world revolves. But here the
+centre is seen to be on the boundary line, practically, between Orient
+and Occident, reaching out an embracing arm to each.
+
+We have a broad division of the earth into East and West. The
+differences between the two, in civilization, mode of thought, religion,
+language, and so on, are so radical as to make it seem that there was no
+point of contact. At least this has been emphasized much by western
+writers on the East. We are disturbed just now here in the far West over
+the Oriental, Chinese Japanese and Indian crossing the _far_ boundary
+line between Orient and Occident and coming into the United States and
+Canada.
+
+Yet East and West have always overlapped at the _middle_ boundary line.
+There is a great mixture of races in the strip where the eastern edge of
+the West and the western edge of the East come together. It is the strip
+running roughly north and south where Russia's western border and
+Turkey's touch Germany and Austria and Greece, including the
+never-at-rest Balkan Peninsula. Constantinople sits on the dividing line
+between East and West, with the worst of both civilizations within her
+confines. Here the hemispheres touch and their life currents intermingle
+and flow together.
+
+Scientific research seems to find good evidence that all our European
+civilization, which of course means American too, may have been brought
+over by Eastern immigrants from central Asia long ages ago, Asia coming
+into Europe. Perhaps we Westerners would not despise the Easterners so
+contemptuously and patronizingly if we knew how much we are probably
+indebted to them for our civilization as well as for our Hebrew and
+Christian faith, our Bible, and the Christian restraining bulwarks of
+our common life.
+
+The old common point of contact between Orient and Occident was the
+strip of land forming the western edge of the Orient at the eastern end
+of the Mediterranean. Palestine has been for centuries the common
+roadway of all nations, East and West. No bit of earth has been so
+tramped and trampled by the feet of all nations and races. This has been
+the battlefield of the nations through long centuries. The ends of the
+earth have met here. It is interesting that the waters that wash its
+western shore are called the Mediterranean Sea, that is, the
+_middle-of-the-earth_ sea.
+
+Here then is the centre of the map. It is the centre of all things in
+the Bible. And it has proven to be at the centre of human action through
+history, attested by the very name given to the chief body of water
+there.
+
+Jerusalem, the capital city of this Palestine strip, was the centre of a
+world power in the early ages. It has been the world capital. And it has
+in turn been fought over and conquered by every world power. No city has
+been a world centre of action during as long a stretch of time, and to
+as many different nations.
+
+Out from this centre the action of the Bible reaches north to Russia,
+south to Africa (Ethiopia), east to China (Sinim, Isaiah xlix. 12), and
+west to Spain. That practically includes the world of our day. America
+is of course merely a transplanted seedling of Europe.
+
+Those great Hebrew leaders called prophets had a world outlook. They
+were world messengers. It is intensely interesting to take a piece of
+paper, and pencil a rough map of the nations named in their messages,
+notably Isaiah,[107] Jeremiah,[108] Ezekiel,[109] and Daniel.[110]
+Beginning at Jerusalem and Israel they reach first this way, then that,
+up and down, back and forth, until the whole world of action of that day
+has been touched. They were men of world size. They had a world outlook
+and a world message.
+
+But then God's man always has. The world outlook of Jesus was
+tremendous. And every true disciple of Jesus Christ has the world
+outlook. Grace broadens as well as refining. It is one of the endless
+outworkings of sin that tends toward that narrowing provincialism which
+everywhere hinders so much, and so intensely.
+
+Now in this world map in the Bible geography two cities stand out beyond
+all others, Jerusalem and Babylon; Jerusalem the centre of God's people
+and of God's plans, Babylon the centre of the opposing worldly power.
+These are the two outstanding cities of the Bible world.
+
+Between these two there is an enmity and warfare that is practically
+continuous. Jerusalem comes to be the typical of God's people and power
+and kingdom. Babylon stands out likewise as typical of the power and
+kingdom always and innately opposed to God and to His people. The
+conflict between the two seems irrepressible and irreconcilable. It is
+never out of view.
+
+Babylon has been the centre, under successive dynasties, of a world
+empire, including not only part of Asia, but reaching west to Europe and
+south to Africa. It sat practically in the connecting strip of Orient
+and Occident, ruling over both. In the dim dawn of history a
+God-ignoring, and so really a God-defying and man-exalting movement,
+centred in the city called Babel. And from that time on that city, and
+its successor Babylon, have seemed as though possessed with a spirit of
+antagonism to God and His people. It is as though it were the earthly
+headquarters of the blasphemous unseen evil forces.
+
+This is a simple bit of geography lesson in the Old Testament. This is
+the map that lies ever open in these older pages, with its two capital
+cities marked large. And this indicates the area of the storm, and the
+two central points where its outburst will centre.
+
+
+Studying the Weather Forecast.
+
+It is interesting to find a weather forecast of this storm. The old
+Hebrew prophets were close students of national and world-wide weather
+conditions, and much given to making forecasts of impending storms. Even
+in the New Testament there is this distinct prophetic or foretelling
+strain running throughout. The father of John the Baptist is told of his
+son's birth; and Mary, of the unusual birth of her divine Son. The
+disciples are told of the coming of the Holy Spirit. And Agabus tells of
+a great famine coming. In these instances the fulfilment follows soon
+after the event is foretold.
+
+The destruction of Jerusalem, foretold by Christ, had at least a part of
+its fulfilment in the terrible Titus siege of 70 A.D. Our Lord said that
+He would return to earth in great glory, and that there would come a
+great tribulation to all the earth, and repeated the old prophecy of a
+restoration of the Hebrew kingdom. These have not yet occurred.
+
+But the book of the Revelation is distinctively the prophetic book of
+the New Testament. It deals almost entirely with events that are yet to
+come. It would be natural that it would fit into the prophetic parts of
+the Old Testament. So that one who is somewhat familiar with the
+prophetic books of the Old naturally comes more intelligently to this
+prophetic book of the New.
+
+It is true that most of us have a sense of bewilderment about prophecy.
+We seem to feel that it requires great scholarship and profound study,
+and that an understanding of it is not possible to the common run of
+Christians. And so we largely leave it out as not understandable.
+
+Yet prophecy is simply God's plans for the future, together with a
+revelation of other events which are not in His plan, but which He sees
+will happen in the future. In it He tells us what He means us to
+understand. And more than this, our understanding will have practical
+bearing on our attitude toward evil and compromise. It will affect our
+faith, making it steadier, especially when evil seems triumphant and
+overbearing. It will make our prayer more intelligent and confident.
+
+There are certain things we all know. As we read back into these pages
+we know that the break-up of the Jewish nation, which began with the
+Babylonian Captivity, came to a terrible climax in a complete break-up
+after the rejection of Christ. We know that the other nations commonly
+called Gentiles (_i.e._, the nations) have had supremacy in the earth.
+Israel was at one time acknowledged as the great world power, with many
+subject nations, in Solomon's time.
+
+But Gentile supremacy begins back in the time of these Old Testament
+pages. There is to-day practically no belief that this will ever be
+changed, except perhaps by a stray Jew here and there, who still holds
+to his old Bible, and except by those Christians who discern God's plan,
+and believe both in Him and in it.
+
+In the absence of an understanding of that plan of God, it has been
+common to apply all the glowing prophetic Hebrew promises to the Church.
+The result has been that Israel and the Kingdom have been confused in
+our minds with the Church. And this has become the commonplace in the
+common Church consciousness.
+
+It is quite possible for the person of average good sense to get
+something of a simple, broad grasp of the prophetic books. It involves
+reading _repeatedly_ so as to get familiar with the contents, and
+_rapidly_ so as not to get too much absorbed in details.
+
+It is needful to use a common-sense interpretation in getting at the
+meaning. It is a simple law that one principle of interpretation should
+be applied uniformly and consistently to all parts of any one document.
+If I say arbitrarily, "this part is rhetorical; it doesn't mean just
+what it says, but something else; and this _other_ part means just what
+it says," clearly I am reading my own ideas and prejudices into the
+book.
+
+It is much slower, and takes more pains and patience, to keep at it
+until all parts gradually clear up to us, first this bit, then that,
+until part fits part, and all hang together. But there is great
+fascination in it, and one's reverence for this revelation of God's Word
+grows deeper.
+
+Of course there is rhetorical language here as everywhere. "The Lord is
+my shepherd" is clearly rhetorical. For God is not a shepherd, and I am
+not a sheep, but a man. But under this simple, clearly rhetorical
+language the tender, personal relationship God bears to me is
+beautifully expressed. That such language _is_ rhetorical is clear to
+every mind alike.
+
+And there is a picture language here, such as speaking of purity of
+character as "white garments." The honest, earnest, unprejudiced seeker
+after truth quickly recognizes these, and learns to become skilled in
+discerning what is meant. We come to see that Israel means Israel, not
+the Church. Jerusalem means that city in Judea, and so on.
+
+Of course it is needful that there be an _openmindedness_, a _humble,
+teachable spirit_, willing to accept the real truth, no matter how it
+may shake up one's prejudices and prearranged schemes of thought. And,
+above all, there should be a constant _prayerfulness_ of spirit, to
+learn just what our God is seeking to have us know. Of course there are
+depths here for the scholarly, profound minds. But we ordinary folk can
+get a simple, clear grasp of God's plan and revealed insight into the
+future if we go at it in this thoughtful, prayerful way. And it will be
+a great help to us to do so.
+
+
+Three Great Unfulfilled Events.
+
+Let us take a swift glance at these prophetic books of the Old
+Testament. It helps to remember the natural way in which these prophetic
+books grew up. These prophets were preachers and teachers. Here are some
+people going up to the temple service one day in Jerusalem. As they get
+near the temple they notice a little knot of people standing yonder at a
+corner listening to a man talking earnestly. Isaiah, fresh from the
+presence of God, is talking out of a burning heart to the crowd.
+
+A visitor from another part of the land says curiously to his companion,
+"What's that?" The other replies: "Oh, it's only Isaiah talking to the
+people. He is a good man, that Isaiah, a well-meaning, earnest man, but
+a little too intense, I fear." And they pass on to the temple service.
+By and by Isaiah stops. The moving congregation scatters. He slips
+quietly down to his house, and under the Spirit's holy, brooding
+presence writes down a part of what he has been saying. So there grew up
+the rolls to which his name is attached.
+
+In some such simple, natural way these prophetic books grew up, always
+under the Holy Spirit's guidance and control. They are full of intense
+fire, and of the homely talk of street and market and fireside. There
+are two sorts of these prophets, the preachers like Elijah and Elisha
+and those who wrote as well as spoke, and whose names are preserved in
+these books.
+
+There are seventeen of these little books. They fall easily into four
+groups. The _first group_ contains those belonging in the time before
+the nation was exiled. It is a period of about one hundred and fifty
+years, roughly, beginning in the prosperous reign of Uzziah and running
+up to the time when the nation was taken captive to Babylon. Isaiah is
+the most prominent prophet of this period, and with him are Hosea,
+Micah, and Amos, all of whom may have been personally acquainted; and
+also Zephaniah and Habakkuk.
+
+The _second_ is _the exile group_, Jeremiah preaching in Judah, before
+and during the siege, and to the remnant left behind in the land; and
+Ezekiel and Daniel bearing their witness among the exiles in the foreign
+land.
+
+The _third group_ is made up of those who witnessed after the people are
+allowed to return to their own land again. The writer of the second part
+of Isaiah probably preached to the people as the opportunity came to
+return to Jerusalem.[111] Haggai and Zachariah stirred up the returned
+people to rebuild the temple. Joel and Malachi witnessed probably a
+little later in the same period.
+
+The _fourth_ is the _foreign group_. Obadiah sends a message to the
+neighbouring nation of Edom; and Jonah and Nahum are sent with messages
+to Nineveh. If one will try to make a picture of these people and events
+by reading the historical books, and then watch and listen as the
+prophets talk, it will do much to make these prophetic books full of the
+native atmosphere in which they grew up.
+
+Now there are three things that gradually come to stand out in these
+prophetic books. Much of what is being said is of immediate application.
+It refers plainly to affairs being lived out then. Then certain things
+are plainly fulfilled in the coming of Christ. And again there is a
+great deal that clearly has never been fulfilled but is still future. It
+is the latter part that naturally is of intensest interest.
+
+Now in this latter part, dealing with the future, _three things_ stand
+out clear and sharp above the rest. There is to be judgment upon Israel
+for their iniquities. The changes on this are rung again and again. And
+this stands out as much in the preaching of the Captivity time, and of
+the Return, as before the Captivity. But in the midst of severest
+judgment there will be a _remnant spared_. The tree is cut down, but
+the stump is spared; and there is life in the stump. But above these
+there stand out these three things.
+
+_The first thing_ stands out big. It is the thing the nation never
+forgot. The believing Hebrew still clings to it. The wailers at the wall
+of Jerusalem to-day never forget it. It is this: there is to be a
+_future time of great glory for the nation of Israel in their own loved
+land_.[112] The kingdom is to be restored, but with a glory
+indescribably greater than ever known. This is the bright golden thread,
+thick and strong, running through from end to end.
+
+It will come through that spared remnant. The old stump will put out a
+new shoot. It will be through the coming of a great king, who will prove
+to be their greatest king,[113] and will reign not only over Israel, but
+over all nations as tributary to Israel, with Jerusalem as the capital
+city both of Israel and of the whole earth.[114] At its beginning there
+will be a gathering of Israel from among all the nations where they have
+been scattered.[115] To assist these scattered pilgrims to get to their
+own land, the tongue of the Egyptian sea on the southwest is to be
+destroyed; and the waters of the Euphrates on the extreme east are to be
+so scattered or dried up that men can walk over dry-shod.
+
+When the great king comes there will be genuine penitence among the
+people over their past sins,[116] and they will become a wholly changed
+people.[117] Israel will be a nation converted by the power of the Holy
+Spirit through the conversion of the people individually. There will be
+at this time a resurrection of God's people who have died.[118]
+
+The new reign and kingdom is to be one of great spiritual enlightenment
+to all nations.[119] There will be everywhere a new, remarkable
+openmindedness to God and His truth.[120] And there will be the same
+visible evidence of the presence of God at Jerusalem as when the pillar
+of fire and cloud was with them in the wilderness. That wondrous
+presence-cloud is to be always in view.[121]
+
+This sounds to our ears like the highly coloured visionary dream of some
+over-enthusiastic Hebrew. Yet this is a calm statement of what is found
+here. And be it keenly marked, it is a picture which the godly Hebrew of
+the old time never lost sight of. _This is the first thing_ that stands
+out in these prophetic pages.
+
+_The second thing_ stands out distinctly. Preceding this wondrous
+kingdom _the earth will be visited by terrible judgments_.[122] There is
+an awfully dark shadow before the blaze of light breaks out. A terrific
+storm will come before the sun shines out in its new strength. All
+nations will combine to make war against the Jew. Their forces will be
+gathered at Jerusalem.[123] At the head of the coalition will be a power
+called Babylon.[124] There will come a terrific battle, victory for the
+coalition will seem assured. The sufferings of the Jews will be
+indescribable.
+
+Then there will come a day never after to be forgotten. In the midst of
+the indescribable horrors of that battle, when things are at their worst
+for the Jew, then comes the deliverance. Suddenly Jehovah will appear
+out of the heavens, with a great company of holy ones. His feet will
+stand upon Mount Olivet to the east of Jerusalem. There will be a
+terrible earthquake, and an equally terrific shake-up of the heavenly
+bodies. The luminaries, sun, moon, and stars, will be darkened.[125]
+There will be terrible judgments visited not only upon the earth, but
+upon the evil spirit powers.[126] Repeated emphasis is put upon the
+judgment to be visited upon Babylon.
+
+All this will sound like a veritable fairy tale to many who are not
+familiar with this Book of God; the unlikeliest thing imaginable. Yet
+this is the thing seriously set forth throughout these old prophetic
+pages. I have given a few references in footnotes. But these few
+scattered passages of themselves will not give an adequate conception of
+what these pages hold.
+
+There is all the fascination of a novel, and immensely more and deeper
+fascination than any novel, in reading these prophetic pages repeatedly
+in the way already spoken of till their mere contents become somewhat
+familiar. Then taking paper and pencil, running through again, and
+drawing off patiently and carefully, item after item of these prophecies
+plainly not yet fulfilled, and then slowly and painstakingly put them
+together in what would be a simple, logical order.
+
+It will be helpful, in reading, to remember that it is a common thing
+with these writers to speak of a future thing as already past. It is a
+bit of the intensity that sees the thing that is yet to come as already
+accomplished. And one should discern between the immediate thing that
+may likely occur in that generation and the far-distant thing. A careful
+noting of the language will make the difference clear.
+
+This is the second thing that stands out, the visitation of judgments.
+
+Then there is _a third thing_. This terrible visitation of judgments
+comes in connection with, and at the close of, _a time of great
+persecution of the Jew_ by the nations. Jeremiah speaks of it as the
+time of Jacob's trouble,[127] and the Man of Fire tells Daniel that
+there will be a time of trouble _such as never was since there was a
+nation even to that same time_.[128] This persecution of the Jew, and
+the visitation of judgments on the earth as a deliverance from it, are
+connected with the setting up of the Kingdom.
+
+These are the three things that stand dominantly out in these prophetic
+pages as distinctly-future, the great Jew persecution unprecedented in
+intensity, the visitation of terrible judgments on the earth, and the
+coming of a glorious kingdom. And the three are connected. We know that
+no events have yet taken place that at all satisfy the language used of
+these three connected events.
+
+This is the simple outline of expected coming events with which the
+thoughtful reader of God's Word is supposed to be familiar. The reverent
+student of God's promises and plans and revelations would naturally have
+all this clear and fresh in his mind as he turns to open the pages of
+the prophetic book of the New Testament.
+
+
+Forecast of the Great Storm.
+
+Now it is _of intense interest_ to note that our Lord Jesus speaks of
+these same three things, at much length, and with much emphasis; the
+persecution, the visitation of judgments, and the kingdom. It came to me
+as a great surprise and with startling force when I realized, after
+gathering out this summary from the Old Testament, that the three things
+that stand out so sharply there are the very things Jesus speaks of here
+with such fulness and emphasis.
+
+He puts special emphasis on the time of persecution as of unprecedented
+horror and ferocity. He plainly indicates that this will be directed
+not only against the Jew, but against His own followers. Three times
+this talk of His on Olivet just before His death is given at much
+length.[129] That talk is given to a little group of Jewish disciples
+who have broken with the Jewish leaders, and who become the great
+leaders of the Church formed at Pentecost.
+
+He speaks of that terrible experience as "great tribulation,"[130] "such
+as there hath not been the like from the beginning of the creation which
+God created until now, nor ever shall be."[131] We shall find it spoken
+of in this book of Revelation as "the tribulation, the great one."[132]
+It has come to be spoken of commonly as "the tribulation" and "the great
+tribulation."
+
+With all this fresh in mind, a run back through the Old Testament brings
+out that it is spoken of there much more than we may have realized. The
+warning to Israel, at Sinai, as they made the covenant of allegiance
+with God, of the bitter punishment that would come if they were untrue,
+has seemed many times as though couched in very intense, almost extreme
+language.[133] But it is found to fit into these later descriptions of
+this great tribulation to come. That warning is repeated, in as intense
+words and with a greater fulness, by Moses in his series of farewell
+talks in the Plains of Moab,[134] and it runs through the song he left
+for their use.[135]
+
+The experiences of the people of Israel in Egypt are found to be an
+illustration of the coming experience at the end, great persecution and
+suffering, then great deliverance through a visitation of judgment upon
+their persecutors, and great revelation of God's glory following. And
+the experience of the three young Hebrew exiles in Babylon comes to
+mind. They went through the fire, seven times heated, and they had a
+marvellous deliverance, and then high promotion.[136]
+
+Certain Psalms shine with new light in the light of this terrible truth.
+Chief among these is the Ninety-first. Quite likely it grew up out of
+the experience of Israel at the last before leaving Egypt. It, of
+course, has its practical use in one's daily life. But the vividness and
+intensity of its meaning will probably never be realized as during the
+coming tribulation days. Nor will the exultant note running through the
+nine Psalms immediately following it be appreciated as by those
+experiencing deliverance when the tribulation is over. The Forty-sixth
+Psalm, and the Psalms of praise immediately following it, likewise seem
+to get new light.
+
+It is quite probable that very much, all through this Book of Psalms,
+will be understood and appreciated fully only by the generation of God's
+people that go through the tribulation and know the deliverance
+following. Much of the old Book of God is quite meaningless to the
+Christian who has had no tribulation _experience_. That is, I mean who
+has never known opposition in his Christian faith, or who has slipped
+easily along when there is opposition.
+
+The outstanding features in the Old Testament of this great experience
+are terrible persecution of the Jew, deliverance at the very worst pitch
+of extremity, by a visitation of judgment on their enemies, and by
+Jehovah coming in person for their deliverance; and then the great
+Kingdom following.
+
+The outstanding features spoken of by our Lord Jesus in His Olivet talk
+agree with this, but go much more into detail, especially about the
+tribulation. The tribulation will be _preceded_ by wars, rumors of wars,
+famines, earthquakes, and persecution. There will be many false
+religious teachers, many Christians untrue to their faith, and a great
+increase of wickedness. This is a sort of foreshadowing.
+
+The tribulation itself will find all this enormously intensified. It
+will _begin_ with some astonishing act of blasphemy in the temple in
+Jerusalem, run its terrible course, and close with a series of
+judgment-events, earthquake, heavens shaken, and great distress, ending
+in the visible appearance of the Lord Jesus Himself, out of heaven on
+the clouds. And this will be a signal for great penitential mourning
+among the people on the earth.
+
+This, then, is the simple, broad outline with which the thoughtful
+reader of God's Word would naturally be familiar as he turns to this
+prophetic book at the end to get our Lord's last message to His
+followers.
+
+
+Getting a Broad, Clear Outlook.
+
+As we turn now again to the book of Revelation it will help us to
+remember the general plan followed in its writing. It is like a series
+of dissolving views of the same scene, each of which lets us see the
+same thing from a different point of view.
+
+This is a simple teaching rule for getting a clear grasp of what is
+being taught. We are familiar with it in the Bible. The story of
+creation is told in the first chapter of Genesis, and then told again in
+the second chapter with details not given in the first, the two together
+presenting the complete story. The historical books of Chronicles
+present one view of the kingdom of Israel, the official. The books of
+the Kings give another look at the same period; and the prophetic books
+a wholly different view as seen by these rarely spiritually minded men
+of God. Daniel is shown four visions of future events, all covering the
+same general stretch of events, but with a fuller description, here of
+one part and there of another. The four Gospels are a familiar
+illustration of the same principle in teaching and story-telling. This
+is the plan followed here.
+
+I was impressed anew with the practical value of this method one day in
+St. Petersburg. We had gone to look at the panorama of the siege of
+Sebastopol, then on exhibition in a huge, round building. It will be
+remembered that the British and French allied themselves with Turkey and
+Sardinia in an attempt to restrain the encroachments of Russia on
+Turkish territory. The famous charge of Balaklava, immortalized by
+Tennyson, is remembered as the most stirring event of that war. Its
+chief event was the siege of Sebastopol on the Crimea peninsula, in the
+Black Sea.
+
+At the panorama we stood as though on a high central point in the city
+of Sebastopol, with the view spreading out in all directions. To the
+north lay the harbour with the Russian ships securely bottled in by the
+attacking fleets. To the west a body of French soldiers were retreating,
+hotly pursued by Russian troops, while in the distance British troops
+are hurrying to the relief of the French.
+
+Then we looked east, where the fighting was going on at close range, the
+wounded being carried away and the reserves hastening up to take their
+places. And again we turned to the south, where the battle raged
+fiercest. The face of the commanding officer stood out so vividly. And
+we almost shrank from the fierceness of the fire. And the smell of
+powder almost seemed stifling.
+
+And as I stood brooding afresh on the horrors of inhuman war, I was
+tremendously impressed that only by such successive views could I get
+such a grasp of that memorable siege. I had a more intelligent and
+vivid understanding of it than ever before.
+
+And so it is that we may get a simple, clear, and real grasp of the
+tremendous tribulation time that is coming, that it is presented to us
+in this fashion, first one distinct view, then another, and another,
+till some understanding of the whole begins to get hold of us.
+
+We have seen the Lord Jesus, in the vision in chapters four and five, as
+He comes forward to take an advance step. We have seen the tremendous
+outburst of praise in heaven as He steps forward. This step and scene
+are in heaven. The earth is wholly unaware of it _at that moment_.
+
+Now all that follows is connected directly with that advance step. This
+is the significant thing to get clearly fixed in mind. At the present
+time our Lord Jesus is still walking among the candlestick Churches
+watching and waiting. We are still in that waiting time. The Holy Spirit
+still dwells in the Church on earth.
+
+At some time in the future, no one knows, nor can know, just when, the
+Lord Jesus will rise up in readiness for an advance move. He will
+withdraw the Holy Spirit from the Church up into His presence again
+"before the throne." _Then in connection with this advance step_ there
+will occur on the earth the things spoken of in these pages following.
+This is the tremendous fact to keep clear, the immediate connection
+between these happenings on earth and His new move in heaven.
+
+We come now to these happenings on earth. There are seven distinct views
+given here in this section, chapters six to the end of the book. There
+is a great detail in description which it would be both instructive and
+interesting to study out. But we want to get at the essential things.
+And so we will give our time and thought to these essentials.
+
+Our Lord Jesus is represented as about to take possession of His realm.
+The first step is a dispossessing of the claimants in possession. This
+furnishes the key to what follows. The descriptions are of the process
+of cleaning out the evil forces. At the close of this we find Him taking
+possession (in chapter twenty) and reigning over the earth.
+
+These descriptions make it clear at once that this is the tribulation so
+much spoken of in these preceding pages. What follows fits so into what
+has been spoken of that the identification seems complete. The thing our
+Lord Jesus is revealing here tallies with what He had told John before
+on Olivet.
+
+There comes first a general description of the whole period (chapters
+vi.-vii.). Then follows a description of _how_ these happenings will
+come. It will be through the withdrawal of restraint and so the
+loosening out of evil (chapters viii.-ix.). During this whole period
+there will be a special faithful witnessing on earth, in the midst of
+the riot of evil, to God and His truth (chapter xi.).
+
+A detailed outline of the run of events follows, giving much additional
+information, picturing the rise and characteristics of the leader of the
+tribulation time, and the manner of its close (chapters xii.-xiv.).
+There follows this a description of the judgments and the supreme
+contest with which the period closes (chapters xv.-xvi.). There is a
+description of the organized system of evil, and then of the fall of the
+capital of the system (chapters xvii.-xviii.) And then follows the
+actual coming of our Lord Jesus, the setting up of the kingdom, and
+subsequent events (chapters xix.-xxii.).
+
+
+A General Look at the Storm and Its Close.
+
+We turn now to _the first_ of these.[137] It begins with a crowned One
+seated on a white horse going forth conquering and to conquer. This
+description agrees with the much fuller description of the Lord Jesus
+near the end of the book, as he goes to the earth for the decisive close
+of the tribulation.[138]
+
+This gives fresh emphasis to the fact that what follows is the direct
+result of His advance step. At once there follows on earth a time of
+war, famine, death, and of persecution to the death of God's people.
+There is no hint as to how long this goes on. It is brought to a close
+with an earthquake and an equally terrific disturbance of the heavens,
+the sun, moon, and stars, something unknown before.
+
+The utmost consternation is created on earth. All conditions of men,
+crowned kings, merchant princes, men of autocratic power financially and
+politically and socially, join with the humblest in hiding themselves in
+the great holes made by the earthquake. They feel that the time of
+judgment has come, and they are not ready for it.
+
+The description of their terror tallies remarkably with the prophetic
+language used by Isaiah,[139] even as the whole description fits into
+our Lord's Olivet talk. This is seen to be a general, rapid vision of
+the whole tribulation period.
+
+Then there follows what clearly seems to be a parenthesis fitting in
+just before the great earthquake. The earth and sea have been terribly
+torn up by the earthquake. This parenthesis begins with a command that
+the earth and sea be not hurt until certain things have taken place.
+
+This fits the two events of the parenthesis in just before the ruinous
+earthquake takes place. The two events are of a radically different sort
+from what has just been told. They are thus put by themselves, and the
+run of evil and of judgment upon it, put by itself, so keeping these two
+quite clear, following the general plan of the book.
+
+There are two events in this parenthesis. There is what is called the
+"sealing" of a certain number of the Hebrew tribes _on the earth_.
+Twelve thousand of each tribe are sealed, making a total of one hundred
+and forty-four thousand. The word "seal" is used in two senses in the
+Bible, as a means of fastening up a writing or roll, and, in the New
+Testament, commonly for the presence of the Holy Spirit in a human life.
+
+The seal in this second sense was a mark of ownership. Paul tells us
+that we are sealed with the Holy Spirit,[140] so indicating that we
+belong to the Lord Jesus, who gives us this evidence of His ownership.
+If this simple, natural meaning be taken here, it would mean that at
+this time the Holy Spirit has been poured out upon the Jew. The
+spiritual regeneration spoken of so frequently in the prophetic pages
+takes place at this time.
+
+The significance of the numbers should be noticed. Twelve is the number
+commonly used in the Bible, for corporate completeness, to indicate that
+a group is complete. Twelve times twelve would simply represent a fully
+completed corporate number. That is to say, upon the entire body of Jews
+then living on the earth the Holy Spirit is poured out, thus marking
+them once again as God's peculiar people, restored fully to favour after
+the long national rejection.
+
+The second event is of equally intense interest, indeed to us of
+non-Jewish birth it has yet greater interest. John is up in heaven. It
+is from that point of view that he sees. Now he is suddenly startled.
+All at once there appears before his eyes a group he had not seen
+before. He describes it as a great multitude, actually countless, out of
+all the peoples of the whole earth, a great polyglot polyracial world
+company.
+
+They are clothed in white, holding the conqueror's palm in their hands,
+and singing, making wondrous music. John is getting another taste of the
+music of heaven. And their singing is a signal for a fresh outburst of
+praise by the angels, the elders, and the living creatures. All this
+seems to occur suddenly, this appearance of this new company before the
+throne.
+
+John gazes spellbound, wondering who these are, and where they come
+from, and what this means. And he is told that these are they that come
+out of the tribulation, the great one, down on the earth. Then in a few
+exquisitely tender, heart-touching words their happiness is described.
+
+These two events occur just before the terrible earthquake and the
+shake-up of the earth's heavenly bodies. Just before the judgment that
+closes the tribulation this double event takes place, the conversion of
+the Jews, and the catching away out of the tribulation distress on
+earth, up into the presence of the throne, of the followers of our Lord
+Jesus.
+
+We remember that that great Jew, Paul, was converted by the appearance
+of Jesus in the heavens above him. We remember that in the Olivet talk
+Jesus says that His followers will so be gathered up to Himself at the
+time of His second coming. These two events, taking place here, tell us
+what has happened down on the earth. In his vision John, being in
+heaven, sees these things as they appear from above.
+
+This is the first view of the tribulation. It begins with the moment
+when our Lord Jesus up in heaven begins action, describes the
+characteristics of the tribulation on earth, and closes with the
+national regeneration of Israel, and the catching up from earth of
+Christ's true followers.
+
+
+Evil Let Loose.
+
+The _second view_ runs through chapters eight and nine. Chapters ten and
+eleven to the close of verse thirteen make a distinct parenthesis. And
+then this view is picked up again at eleven, fourteen, and runs to the
+close of that chapter. But this final bit in chapter eleven is merely a
+connecting link with what comes later. Practically the whole of this
+view is in chapters eight and nine.
+
+It closes with an earthquake, so connecting it with the final event in
+the first view. It begins with a period of prolonged silence, which
+would seem to answer to the hush in the great volume of praise in the
+first view, when the Lamb takes the sealed roll. So it carries us back
+to the same starting-point as there.
+
+There is first a striking scene before the throne, where John sees a
+golden altar. On this there is being offered incense, which is said to
+be added to the prayers of all the saints. Incense and prayers rise
+together before God. Then an angel pours some of the fire of this
+prayer-altar into the earth, and a storm follows. So these two views,
+first and second, have another common starting-point, the beginning of a
+storm.
+
+This is a very suggestive scene. The prayers of all the saints, both in
+earth and heaven, have a decided restraining influence over evil down on
+earth at the present time. At the close they will become a decisive
+influence in the cleaning-up process on earth, and the bringing in of
+the new order.
+
+Then follows a fourfold description of distressing events on earth,
+which are caused by fiery influences coming out of the heavens. The
+language used seems to make clear that it is through a loosening out of
+the powers of evil that the tribulation comes.
+
+In the picture language of the vision, "a great mountain burning with
+fire was cast into the sea," with injurious results to water, to life,
+and to shipping. A mountain is a common figure in the Bible for a great
+ruling power. So Israel is called by Isaiah.[141] The seventeenth
+chapter of Revelation speaks of seven kingdoms as seven mountains.[142]
+In Jeremiah, Babylon, which is spoken of repeatedly and typically as
+being the embodiment of evil and of opposition to God, is called: "O
+destroying mountain ... which destroyest all the earth, (I) will make of
+thee a burnt mountain."[143] It speaks here also of "a great star,[144]
+burning as a torch," that fell upon the rivers and makes them bitter as
+wormwood. These two things seem to suggest clearly that the great hurt
+done to sea and vegetation, to all life, and through the obscuring of
+the heavenly lights, is a result directly of the powers of evil having
+been loosened out.
+
+The long restraint upon evil through the presence of the Holy Spirit in
+the Church is now withdrawn in the withdrawal of the Spirit. His
+withdrawal is practically an answer to the tacit prayer both of world
+and Church. That prayer is being answered. The "One" who restraineth has
+been withdrawn. This it is that makes the tribulation on its negative
+side. The awful character of the demons from the pit is so utterly
+beyond human experience up to that time that there seem no adequate
+words to describe them.
+
+The Gospels are full of the awful activity of demons on earth in
+possessing men. In our own land there is not wanting plenty of evidence
+of men horribly possessed by demons. In the older countries of Europe
+this experience is much more marked. But it is in heathen lands that it
+is most marked, where even the very air seems charged with evil forces,
+as though these unseen demons swarmed about.
+
+Yet all this sort of thing is now under restraint. What it will mean to
+have that restraint withdrawn, and the horrid hordes here described free
+to do as they will, no imagination can depict. This is well called the
+first _woe_, and an awful woe it will be. Mercifully there is a time
+limit set on this demon activity.
+
+Following this comes the loosing out of another horde of demons, as
+difficult of description, and yet more terrible. They seem countless,
+yet there is a limit to their numbers. The supreme Hand is never wholly
+withdrawn. These have power to kill as well as to torment. This is the
+second woe. It is most strikingly noticeable that neither of these
+things has influence to make men penitent.
+
+The last item of this view is given in chapter xi. 14-19. The
+announcement is made that the sovereignty of the world is transferred to
+our Lord and His Christ. The temple of God is seen open, and some
+further action takes place, but the detail of it is reserved for another
+view. Such is the terrible sight in the second view of the tribulation
+time. Evil is loosened out, apparently unrestrained, and yet under
+restraint. This it is that makes the tribulation on its positive side.
+
+The parenthesis in the description of this view has been spoken of. It
+runs through chapters ten and eleven to the close of verse thirteen, and
+contains two chief things. The first is a little group of three items.
+There is a fresh description of our Lord Jesus as He is seen standing
+with one foot on the sea and the other upon the earth, and holding a
+little open book. Then seven thunders roar out. John is about to write,
+but is told not to. That terrific storm coming is far greater than can
+be told. Then comes the solemn declaration that there will be no
+further delay, but that at once shall be finished up this terrible time
+of judgment. Then follows a personal word to John. These three items
+make up chapter ten.
+
+
+God's Faithful Witnesses.
+
+Then comes the second thing, in chapter eleven on to verse thirteen,
+which proves to be _the third view_ of the tribulation. It shows that
+during the whole of this tribulation time there will be a special
+faithful witness being borne to God and His truth. As the Holy Spirit is
+being withdrawn from the Church, these two men begin their special
+ministry of witnessing.
+
+The place of that witness will be Jerusalem. But recent events will have
+brought a greatly diversified population to that city from all parts of
+the world. So that the witness becomes world-wide in its immediate
+reach, and probably in the reports of it that go out.
+
+While there is good reason for thinking that these two witnesses may be
+Enoch and Elijah, the two men of Bible record, one before the Flood and
+one after, who were distinctively God's witnesses, and were taken away
+without death, yet it is best not to stop over a matter that has been
+and is apt to be a matter of mere idle speculative talk.[145] The thing
+worthy of note is that as the Holy Spirit's distinctive witness is
+withdrawn there will be these two special witnesses sent to Jerusalem
+for a witness that will be world-wide in its extent and influence. Such
+is God's gracious patience and longsuffering.
+
+These two men are clothed in mourning as a part of their witness. They
+have miraculous power in protecting themselves against attack, and in
+withholding rain, and sending plagues among the people, and in turning
+water into blood, to give force and effect to their testimony. Their
+witness continues through twelve hundred and sixty days.
+
+John had already been told that Jerusalem would be trodden under foot by
+the nations for forty-two months. We are apt to think that it has been
+trodden under foot or desecrated by the nations for an immensely longer
+period. But prophecy never gives any reckoning of time for Israel,
+except when Israel is an organized nation. It is concerned with telling
+Jewish _national_ events.
+
+At this time the Jews have their national organization again in
+Palestine. For forty-two months after the nation has been newly set up
+the city will be so trodden under the desecrating feet of the nations.
+This is the first hint of time we have had. The witnessing and the
+desecration of the holy city will continue side by side for three and a
+half years.
+
+At the end of this period evil will be given full swing over these
+witnesses. They are killed and their bodies left lying in the streets,
+while the international crowds make merry because their tormentors, as
+these two are called, are gone. Then before the terror-stricken gaze of
+these crowds the two men come to life, and are caught up into the
+heavens. Is this the moment when all are caught up? Quite possibly. Then
+comes the terrible earthquake as at the end of the other two views.
+
+The one distinctive thing told here is that during the tribulation, in
+the midst of all the blasphemous reign of unrestrained wickedness, there
+will be the unbroken, faithful witnessing. This seems to explain why the
+account comes as a parenthesis in the account of the awful riot of evil.
+During the worst of the evil there will go on unbroken the faithful,
+gracious testimony of God's truth and love.
+
+
+The Lawless Leader.
+
+_The fourth view_ takes the longest sweep of any, thus far, goes into
+much more detail, and gives much fresh information. It runs through
+chapters twelve to fourteen. In the intensely picturesque language of a
+woman arrayed in the most glorious splendour and dignity and power
+imaginable the nation of Israel is depicted.
+
+This woman is with child. In more intensely dramatic language Satan is
+pictured as standing before the woman waiting to destroy her child as
+soon as born. The child is born, a man-child, who is to rule all the
+nations with autocratic sway. He is caught up to heaven, and his mother
+flees into the wilderness from the serpent. This is the opening action
+of this view.
+
+The meaning lies open on the face. Israel gave birth to the man Jesus,
+who foiled all the attacks of Satan and ascended to heaven. The old
+prophetic characteristic of connecting events far apart without
+reference to intervening time is marked here. The long interval between
+the break-up of the Jew nation and its taking shape again as a nation,
+which has lasted nineteen hundred years roughly, comes between the last
+word of verse five and the first word of verse six.
+
+The prophetic writing takes no reckoning of Israel, except as a nation.
+The woman fleeing into the wilderness is Israel organized again as a
+nation suffering persecution. She is so persecuted for twelve hundred
+and sixty days, but divinely protected and preserved. Such is the first
+act of the drama pictured here.[146]
+
+Then we are told _why_ the woman flees, that is, the explanation of this
+special persecution of the Jew this time.[147] Satan has had his
+headquarters somewhere in the heavens, below God's throne, but above the
+earth. Now, after a conflict, he is cast out of heaven, down to the
+earth. Here is a third event that comes approximately at the beginning
+of the tribulation time, Satan is cast down to the earth.
+
+The Holy Spirit is withdrawn from the Church up to heaven, so removing
+the restraint upon evil. Satan is cast out of heaven and comes down to
+earth. Thus there is a double intensifying of evil on the earth, the
+withdrawal of restraint, and the presence of the evil one himself. And
+as the witness of the Holy Spirit is withdrawn the special witness of
+the two men in Jerusalem begins.
+
+The defeat of Satan in this heavenly conflict draws out a burst of
+praise from the upper hosts. It is because of the great victory of our
+Lord Jesus in His death that this victory is gotten. They overcome
+because of the blood of the Lamb, _and_ the word of their testimony,
+_and_ they loved not their lives unto death,--a threefold cord that
+could never, and can never, be broken or successfully resisted.
+
+This explains the special persecution at this time of the reshaped
+Jewish nation. It is the outburst of the rage of the freshly defeated
+Satan. But the Jew is protected. The armies that would swallow the Jew
+up are swallowed up by the great earthquake that closes the tribulation
+time.
+
+The length of this persecution is put in two different ways, twelve
+hundred and sixty days, and "time, times, and half a time." This latter
+phrase seems to be an old Oriental or Hebrew way of saying a year, two
+years, and half a year. The same length of time is expressed in yet
+another way in the eleventh chapter, forty and two months. The time is
+thus put in three different ways, that we may know surely that it means
+just plain three and a half years of our common time. It is significant
+that the dragon makes war with "the rest" of the woman's seed. This can
+only mean the Church, which of course was born in the Jewish nation.
+This is the first run of events in this view.[148]
+
+Then follows a description of the awful leader of evil during the
+tribulation time.[149] It is significant that, as Satan is cast out of
+heaven down to the earth, this leader appears among men. He has great
+intelligence and power and is the very embodiment of blasphemy. He is
+described as a strange mixture of wild beasts, having the chief
+characteristic strength of each, the cunning of the leopard, the feet of
+the bear, and the mouth of the lion.
+
+He is the personal representative on earth among men of Satan. There is
+something strangely uncanny in the suggestion that he is some former
+leader, who died, and is now raised from the dead. There seems to be
+nothing too daring for Satan to attempt in his impious opposition to
+God. This leader comes into great prominence and power. All the world
+wonders after him. And they worship Satan, who is recognized as giving
+his power to this notorious leader.
+
+He comes to be accepted as the world ruler, and is commonly worshipped
+by the people. And he not only persecutes God's people, but overcomes
+them. A limit of time is set to his sway. It is the same as already
+noted for Jerusalem being desecrated, for God's two witnesses, and for
+the persecution of the Jew, _i.e._, forty and two months, three and a
+half years.
+
+It is striking that in the midst of the description of his terrible
+reign there comes a word that sounds like an echo from those messages to
+the Churches. "If any man hath an ear, let him hear."[150] Then the word
+goes on warning, pleading, and encouraging. In the midst of these
+blasphemous conditions every man must do as he personally decides. He
+may yield to this evil and become a captive of evil, bound hand and
+foot. He may try to use the world's weapons in fighting God's battle,
+but will find himself outmatched in their use. He may rise to the true
+level, and steadfastly cling to his faith, and endure, and by faith be
+victorious in the end.
+
+The description goes on to tell of the blasphemous worship demanded of
+all. This leader has an assistant or lieutenant to whom he deputizes
+great power. He makes an image to his chief, and demands all to worship
+at this shrine. He has supernatural power, that is, devilishly
+supernatural. He performs great miracles, even calling down fire from
+heaven. He gives breath to the image and makes it speak. And he punishes
+with death any one who refuses this blasphemous worship to the leader
+and his image. And every one is required to have a mark on his hand or
+his forehead as indicating his loyalty to the leader. Whoever refuses is
+unable to buy or sell. It is the boycott principle carried to the last
+extreme.
+
+While God's two witnesses are doing miracles by divine power this
+lieutenant is doing them by devilish power. So the fearful account goes
+on. One can easily imagine the vast crowds swayed by the idolatrous
+worship, and the intense suffering and distress among those who insist
+on being steadfast and true in their faith.
+
+Now in the midst of all this terrible scene John is suddenly and
+tremendously startled by something else.[151]
+
+In the vision John is in heaven looking down on these scenes on the
+earth. Now his attention is attracted by a scene that suddenly takes
+place before his eyes in heaven. It is a scene of wondrous winsomeness
+and beauty. It stands out in sharpest contrast with what is going on on
+the earth.
+
+There's a great company standing around the Lord Jesus, before the
+throne. They are singing a wonderful song to the accompaniment of harps,
+which they have. The volume of music is like the voice of many waters,
+or like great thunder. There is a simple, fine description of the
+character of these singers. They are _pure_, and they are _obedient_. In
+their purity they are as undefiled virgins, the highest possible
+statement of purity. And they follow the Lamb unquestioningly
+whithersoever He goeth with fullest obedience.
+
+Who are these, and where have they come from so suddenly, at this
+moment, into the presence of the One on the throne? The description
+tells just what has happened. When things are at their devilish worst
+down on the earth the Lord Jesus has caught up His own from the earth.
+And they have become like Him in character, for now they see Him face to
+face as He is.
+
+This recalls the scene, essentially the same, back in the first view, in
+chapter seven, where the great multitudes are suddenly seen before the
+throne with palm branches, songs, and white garments. It is the same
+company as there. But there is a difference in telling the numbers.
+_There_ they are too many to be counted. _Here_ they are said to be a
+hundred and forty-four thousand. It is symbolical, a picture number,
+the number of full corporate completeness as with the Spirit-baptized
+Jews in chapter seven.
+
+The believers caught up out of the great tribulation have been joined by
+the trusting hearts of all time who have been waiting in the Father's
+presence for this glad day. The number is now complete of all from
+creation's earliest dawn, who by grace have followed fully, regardless
+of hindrance or opposition. This great climax is thus seen by John in
+sudden and sharp contrast with the climax of hellish evil on the earth.
+
+Then John is shown the steps by which this climax is reached.[152]
+Verses six to the close of this chapter seem clearly to be a detail of
+what has gone before, describing the steps by which this climax is
+reached, and then reaching further to the judgment upon the evil. During
+the iniquitous scenes being enacted on earth an angel is seen flying in
+mid-heavens calling to the people on earth, in warning, to give their
+worship and reverence to God only. The gracious wooing of God never
+ceases.
+
+Another angel follows, calling out that the great system of iniquity, in
+which they are enmeshed, is doomed. A third gives solemn warning that
+those who yield to the terrible pressure, and engage in the blasphemous
+worship, will be surely and terribly punished. Again there comes another
+echo of the strain of pleading in the Church messages. In the midst of
+just such conditions as prevail then, the saints can be steady in
+keeping the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus.
+
+And down into the awful persecution being waged comes an encouraging
+voice from heaven. There is special blessing from God on all those who
+remain true, even unto death. There will be sweetest rest for them, and
+their faithful witnessing and suffering shall be all noted and
+acknowledged and rewarded as they come up into the Father's presence.
+
+And then follows the blessed harvest of the righteous whose wonderful
+arrival in heaven has already been told in the opening scene of this
+chapter. And then follows the awful harvest of evil down on the earth,
+the visitation of judgments coming at the very end of the persecution.
+
+So closes this long remarkable view of the tribulation. It connects back
+with the nation of Israel. Its beginning is connected practically with
+the casting of Satan down to earth. It gives a description of the leader
+and the nature of the persecution, and a brief statement of the steps
+with which it ends. And it states in three different ways that the
+length of time involved is three and a half years.
+
+
+A Bitter Cup to Its Dregs.
+
+_The fifth view_[153] is, not of the whole tribulation time as with
+these others, but of only a part, the closing part. It speaks of the
+visitation of judgments, the great climactic battle, and the
+earthquake, with which the period is brought to its end.
+
+It connects at the point in the fourth view[154] where those who have
+been suffering in the tribulation are seen standing before the throne
+singing with harps. It is said that they are singing the song of Moses,
+who had the experience of tribulation and deliverance in Egypt, and the
+song of the Lamb, who went through the worst tribulation experience in
+His contest with Satan and sin on our behalf.
+
+It connects also with the close of the second view,[155] where the
+temple is seen opened and the ark of the covenant is seen. That covenant
+is now to receive further fulfilment. God never forgets His promises and
+agreements. Seven angels have seven golden bowls full of the wrath of
+God. In this way is told the visitation of judgments now described as
+taking place at this time.
+
+In the first view the picture is of _seals_ being broken or opened,
+which indicates the execution of a document. The _trumpets_ of the next
+view indicate a commanding call to action; the seven _thunders_, not
+written, a great storm. These _bowls_ or vials indicate the
+administration of a dose of bitter-tasting medicine. The visitation of
+judgments by God is commonly spoken of in Scripture in this
+language.[156]
+
+Then follows the description of the judgments upon men's persons, and
+everything concerning their life. Men's bodies are diseased, the water
+is unfit to drink, the food supply cut short; they suffer with terrible
+heat, and then darkness. But there is no penitence. The Euphrates is
+said to be dried up, suggesting that it is the great river at or near
+the world's centre of action. So, it is said, the way is prepared for
+the kings that come from the east.
+
+And the prophetic bit in Isaiah comes to mind about men passing over the
+Euphrates at the time of the great gathering of the Jews.[157] As though
+aroused by all this to bitterest opposition there is increased demon
+activity, and through it a great gathering of all nations, at a place
+named in Palestine, for a great battle.
+
+Then a terrible climax comes in the earthquake, with which the first,
+second, and third views closed. It is the worst earthquake ever
+experienced. It centres in "_the_ great city," Babylon, the capital of
+the whole system of wickedness. With the storm is a terrible hail. The
+description tallies with that in the close of the first view,[158] and
+with the vivid prophetic bit in Isaiah ii. 10-22.
+
+There's no suggestion of how much time all this takes. The judgments
+visited on Egypt at the deliverance of Israel are described at much
+greater length, running into ten items. Yet all could have occurred
+within five weeks, allowing for brief intervals. Whether these
+judgments occur in succession, or all at once, or partly in both ways,
+they could all come within a very short time. This fifth view depicts
+the final scene. It gives the visitation of judgments ending the
+tribulation period, describes a great pitched battle, in which all
+nations are involved, and ends with the earthquake. This is the third of
+the three great woes.[159]
+
+_The sixth view_ is of the great system of wickedness in the world,
+through which the tribulation comes, and which is judged at its
+close.[160] The description is full of details of great interest and
+instructiveness, but we can only have time at present for the essential
+thing being taught. The Spirit takes John into a wilderness. To the
+Spirit's eye wherever wickedness has sway, whether vulgar or polished,
+political or commercial, cunning or brazen, it is a wilderness.
+
+Here is shown a woman gorgeously clothed, prodigally bedecked with
+jewels, and having a cup in her hand, made of gold, but full of vile
+filth. Upon her forehead appears a description: "Mystery [or explanation
+of mystery], Babylon the great, the mother of harlots and of the
+abominations of the earth." This woman is riding upon a strange beast;
+it is scarlet-colored, with seven heads and ten horns, and full of
+blasphemous names. This is the startlingly suggestive picture.
+
+Who is this woman? And what is this beast upon which she is seated? The
+whole description taken together suggests that she is meant to stand
+for the whole system of wickedness which has had such sway in the world
+from earliest time until the end. And the beast represents typically the
+dominant governmental powers. The two have always worked together. There
+has been a consistent unity of spirit and of characteristic, and a
+persistent devilishness marking the wickedness in the world throughout
+the ages.
+
+It has been as though there were an unseen spirit power tirelessly at
+work _behind_ all the varied manifestations of evil. The dominant
+characteristic always has been blasphemy of God. It has controlled
+thrones and royal power, and has had unlimited gold at its command. And
+it has always been an enemy, subtle or open, cunning or violent, of God
+and His people.
+
+That system or genius of evil is represented in the Old Testament as
+finding expression in one great political power after another, but
+chiefly in the power of Babylon. Babylon stands typically in these older
+pages, not merely for the great empire of the Euphrates, but for the
+unseen spirit of evil lying behind that power, and making use of it to
+carry through its own foul purposes.
+
+But that unseen evil spirit power has found more than one agency to
+dominate and use. Babylon long since passed off the stage as a political
+factor. But the power of evil has not ceased. It is distressing to note
+another great organization behind and through which the power of evil
+has worked. What is the system that has, for the past sixteen
+centuries, been supported by the various great civil governments?
+
+There is only one answer. It is the organization known as "the Christian
+Church." And the term Church must be taken here in its fullest, broadest
+meaning. Its great main stem historically is the Roman Catholic Church.
+The first great split-off was the Greek Orthodox Church. The Church of
+England was a later break-off. These, with the various government-ally
+supported Churches, and those free of such support, and various ancient
+primitive bodies,--these all together make up the organization known as
+"the Church."
+
+The two symbolical characteristics of this woman and the two dominant
+characteristics of this historical Church are the same. The Church has
+been and is supported almost wholly by the civil governments, and used
+by them in furthering their policies. And it has been active in
+persecuting to death the people of God who would not yield to its
+domination. It has been marked by intolerance of all not yielding to its
+wishes, and especially of the Jew. That intolerance has been carried not
+only to the extreme of blood, but a riot of bloodshed. This is utterly
+heart-breaking to realize and to repeat.
+
+The woman is said to be "drunken (1) with the blood of the saints, and
+(2) with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus." The twofold statement is
+seen to cover the two great periods, before Christ and since. And it
+covers also the two great powers through which the spirit of evil has
+chiefly worked in those two periods. But the name given first in the
+plains of Shinar, and used characteristically of the God-defying power
+of evil, is given here, Babylon. It will be Babylon again at the very
+end after the Church system is overthrown.
+
+It is plainly said that the beast represents the great civil or
+governmental power in its final stage, the shape it will be in at the
+end when these events occur.[161] The chief dominating political power
+of the world will have passed through a succession of changes, seven
+kingdoms successively following each other. At the end there will be a
+combination of some sort, with ten great subdivisions, and one great
+head over all.
+
+But at the last, the civil power will discard the Church, and persecute
+it. The spirit of evil thus gets embodiment typically in the great
+Babylon power, then in the Church, and at the very last, in a coalition
+of civil powers heading up in a new Babylon.
+
+Then follows announcement of the fall of Babylon. The city is regarded
+here as the earthly capital of the organized system of unseen evil
+spirit power at work in the world. The city and the system are
+inseparably allied. The name Babylon is used in the Bible for both
+system and city.
+
+If the question be asked what city is meant here, there can be but one
+answer. From the twelfth of Genesis on the Bible never touches history,
+except as history touches Israel as a nation. A thoughtful review of the
+book makes this clear. And this book of Revelation is a gathering-up of
+Bible threads, and only these. There is only one city in the Bible
+record that answers to the description here, "the great city which
+reigneth over the kings of the earth." "Babylon _the_ great."
+
+But the old Babylon lies in ruins. And its ruined condition has been
+quoted as the fulfilment of the famous passage in Isaiah xiii. 19-22. It
+should be carefully noted that the present conditions at the site of old
+Babylon do not seem to satisfy fully the language of that passage. It
+would seem to be another illustration of the rare use of language in the
+Bible, which adapts a passage accurately to one event, and then to a
+second event, a long time afterward.
+
+This would, of course, involve the rebuilding of the old capital of the
+Euphrates. The reverent student quietly notes the movements taking place
+in that part of the world, but restrains mere curious speculation, as he
+continues fervently to pray, "Thy kingdom come."
+
+This eighteenth chapter of Revelation seems like an echo of that intense
+twenty-first of Isaiah, and indeed of a strain sounding all through the
+prophetic books. One familiar with the old writings is not surprised to
+find this echo; he expects it. No echo of God's voice or purpose is ever
+lost. God never loses any of the threads out of His hand.
+
+
+Hallelujah! He Comes.
+
+_The seventh view_ presents the climax. It includes from chapter
+nineteen to chapter twenty-two, verse five. It presents in full the
+great scene that closes this tribulation period; touches the kingdom in
+a bare word so as to fit it into its place in the scheme of events being
+outlined; and then gives the final wind-up after the Kingdom time is
+over. We want to look now at the portion connected immediately with what
+has just gone before, the description of the wondrous close of the
+tribulation, in chapters nineteen, verse one, to twenty, verse three.
+
+John hears a great outburst of worship and praise in heaven. It
+resembles the outburst back in chapter five, when the Lamb took the
+book. But it is seen to be yet greater than that. Its joy and delight
+seem wholly unbounded. Again the living creatures and the four and
+twenty elders lead the song that bursts out.
+
+John tries to tell how great was the volume of adoring song that fills
+all heaven. It is like the voice of a great multitude, like the waters
+that he had heard many a time breaking in deafening roar on the rocky
+coast of Patmos, like the mighty thunders which he had heard so much in
+these visions.
+
+And the song they sang explains the exuberance of their singing,
+"Hallelujah: for the Lord our God, the Almighty _reigneth_." At last He
+_reigneth_. In the earlier parts of the book God is spoken of as "He
+who is and who was, and _who cometh_."[162] As later events are
+described that last part "who cometh" is significantly dropped.[163]
+Clearly at these points being described He has come. Now the great
+realization bursts out from countless voices, the Lord, our God, the
+Almighty _reigneth_!
+
+And John is bidden to write the words whose refrain has filled such a
+place in hymns and devout speech, "Blessed are they that are bidden to
+the marriage supper of the Lamb." And the one who seems to be serving as
+John's guide puts peculiar emphasis on all that is being revealed by
+saying, "these are true words of God."
+
+John is so overwhelmed that he falls down to worship this one. And then
+he finds that this is one of his own redeemed brothers of the earth. And
+as He quietly bids John give his worship to One only, He adds very
+significant words: "the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy."
+The whole genius and soul of all this wealth of prophecy is to point men
+to our Lord Jesus Christ, God to us.
+
+And now comes the event toward which the ages have looked. _The heavens
+open._ And _our Lord Jesus appears_ coming in glory to earth. At last He
+comes. There's a wonderful description. He comes as a conqueror, riding
+forth to judge the earth righteously, and to make war on evil. His eyes
+are as a flame of fire, and upon His head many diadems. He has a name
+indicating that He is all alone in the experiences He has been through,
+and in His character. He comes as King of kings and Lord of lords, to
+rule all the earth with a new absolutism, to right all wrongs, and visit
+the indignant wrath of God upon all sin.
+
+As He appears an angel gives warning of what is coming. In words that
+are an echo of Ezekiel's, long centuries before, he calls to all the
+scavenger birds of the earth that haunt battlefields to come to a great
+feasting time.[164] And John sees the vast armies of the nations of the
+earth all gathered together for a last mighty battle, under the
+leadership of the great leader of lawlessness and his lieutenant.
+
+And the utter impotence of their struggle against God is revealed in the
+quietness and brevity with which their defeat and capture are told.
+Satan's great earth leader and his chief who deceived the people with
+his miraculous power, both are taken and forever put away. And then
+Satan himself is chained and fastened securely in the abyss. Such is the
+tremendous consummation quietly told in a few lines. And then follows
+the setting up of the glorious kingdom on earth.
+
+Whatever the immediate circumstances under which the Second Psalm was
+penned, it will be readily seen how it fits into this situation at the
+end.
+
+ "Why do the nations tumultuously assemble,
+ And the peoples meditate a vain thing?
+ The kings of the earth set themselves,
+ And the rulers take counsel together,
+ Against Jehovah and against His Anointed, saying,
+ 'Let us break their bonds asunder,
+ And cast away their cords from us.'"
+
+But their efforts seem so puny, and the result so one-sided, that
+
+ "He that sitteth in the heavens will laugh:
+ The Lord will have them in derision."
+
+And we remember that, in these Revelation pages, it is always with the
+sword of His mouth that the Lord Jesus is said to fight, as we read on:
+
+ "Then will He _speak_ unto them in His wrath,
+ And vex [or trouble] them in His sore displeasure; [saying]
+ 'Yet I have set _my_ King
+ Upon my holy hill of Zion.'"
+
+Then the Son speaks:
+
+ "I will tell of the decree:
+ Jehovah said unto me, 'thou art my Son;
+ This day have I begotten thee.
+ Ask of me and I will give thee the nations for thine inheritance,
+ And the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession.
+ Thou shalt break them with a rod of iron;
+ Thou shalt dash them in pieces like a potter's vessel.'"
+
+And the writer of the Psalms closed with a word of earnest counsel to
+the kings of earth:
+
+ "Now therefore be wise, O ye kings:
+ Be instructed, ye judges of the earth.
+ Serve Jehovah with fear,
+ And rejoice with trembling [awe],
+ Kiss the Son, lest He be angry, and ye perish in the way,
+ For His wrath will soon be kindled.
+ Blessed are all they that take refuge in Him."
+
+Thus it is seen that these seven views describe (1) the general
+characteristics of the tribulation time; (2) the way in which it comes,
+that is, by the withdrawal of restraint and so the loosing of evil; (3)
+the faithful witness being borne throughout the period; (4) the great
+evil leader and the character of the persecution he wages; (5) the
+visitation of judgments upon earth with the great gathering of nations
+to battle against God; (6) the world system of evil; and (7) the coming
+of our Lord Jesus to judge evil and set up the kingdom.
+
+
+Still He Waits.
+
+It will at once be noted that these things group up, naturally and
+easily, under _three headings_. First, there is a terrible _persecution_
+of God's people. This will end in a _visitation_ of _judgments_,
+including great plagues. There will be a gathering of the armies of all
+nations, and a great battle. It will end in a decisive defeat for them
+by the personal coming of the Lord Jesus, and will be accompanied by a
+terrific earthquake and an equally terrific shake-up of the heavenly
+bodies connected with the earth, sun, moon, and stars. Then comes the
+establishment of the _Kingdom of God_ upon earth. These three things
+stand dominantly out.
+
+It comes as a surprise to one who has not been thinking especially about
+it, to find how these three things are the same three that stood out so
+prominently at the close of the study of future items in the old
+prophetic books. It is natural that it should be so, of course, since
+the Book of God is one in its essential unity.
+
+But there is a great fascination in finding the parts to come together
+so simply and naturally. As we gather up the Old Testament pages these
+three things sift out and group together as distinctly not yet
+fulfilled, and so future. As we listen to our Lord Jesus talking, again
+these same three items are emphasized by Him. And now the same three are
+found here.
+
+Dr. A. F. Schauffler tells of a striking experience he had in connection
+with his mission work in New York City. A letter came to him from a
+stranger in Germany. It said: "I know you are a city missionary. I am
+sending a trunk in your care. Inclosed in this letter you will find a
+piece of paper cut. A man will come and present to you a piece of paper
+matching this piece. Please give him the trunk." And enclosed in the
+letter was a piece of paper cut in zigzags.
+
+Letter and paper were laid away to await developments. Some weeks later
+a stranger came in and presented a queerly cut piece of paper, saying:
+"I think you have a piece that matches this." Dr. Schauffler got out his
+piece of paper, laid the two side by side, found that they matched, and
+said to his visitor: "There's your trunk."
+
+Even so these prophetic pages of the New Testament are found to fit
+exactly the pages of the Old, written centuries before. It is not
+surprising, however. One hand cut the paper into two pieces in Germany,
+and naturally they fitted when put together in New York. One Hand has
+guided the men writing in both Old and New.
+
+When Jeremiah was first called to his work as God's messenger he was
+shown in vision the branch of an almond tree. The almond tree is the
+earliest of all trees to wake from its winter's sleep at the first hint
+of spring warmth coming. And so it was called the "watching" or
+"watcher" tree. Then God said to Jeremiah: "Even so, I eagerly watch
+over my word to bring it to life and fruitage at the very earliest
+opportunity."[165] And so the word of this watching God and its
+fulfilment match, regardless of the thing we call time, even running
+into centuries.
+
+And it is very helpful for those of us who have had a sort of dread of
+prophecy as of a vague something that we can't understand, to find after
+all how simple it is. Just three great items stand out of these
+prophetic pages that are waiting fulfilment.
+
+Such is the seven-fold view, which is taken up almost wholly with the
+clearing-up storm in the King's realm. But all this is still future. We
+are still in that waiting time. Our Lord Jesus still stands among the
+candlesticks. Still He is waiting for His Church to be faithful. He
+still waits for each of us who is a bit of His Church. He is depending
+on us to be faithful, by His grace, day by day, during this waiting
+time. And while He waits _all His limitless power is at our disposal_,
+as we follow His leading. We may take as much as we need. But the taking
+must be with the life.
+
+A dear missionary friend told of a simple experience that meant much to
+him. We were walking together in the town in Korea where his mission
+work is. His school was the centre of the recent troublous times in
+Korea, and the storm seemed to rage about his own person at its
+outburst. As we talked all his native teachers and several of his older
+students were in prison. The experience he told me was of earlier days
+in this country, but had come back to his memory as a great refreshment
+during the troublous times.
+
+He was a professor in a small college in our Middle West. Special funds
+were being raised, for extension. He was to ask a certain man of wealth
+for a large donation. He planned and prayed much, and at last went to
+see the man in another city by appointment. He had a keen sense of the
+responsibility of his task.
+
+As he entered the building where the man's office was he was greeted
+cordially by a young man whom he remembered as a former student, to whom
+he had been friendly in some time of minor need. But he had not
+connected him in his mind with this wealthy man, whose son he was. Now
+as the former student learned of his professor friend's errand, he said
+with all the confidence of a son on good terms with his father:
+
+"Come right in; father's here."
+
+As they stepped into the man's office the son said, simply:
+
+"Father, this is an old friend of mine. He's all right. Give him
+whatever he wants."
+
+And the father, busy at his desk, with barely a look at the appointed
+visitor, reached one hand over for his checkbook, and simply said:
+
+"How much do you want?"
+
+My friend, taken completely by surprise at the unexpected turn of
+events, managed to name the large sum he had been thinking and praying
+over so much. And before he could quite recover from his surprise, he
+found himself outside walking up the street with the coveted check in
+his pocket, praising God for such an answer to his prayers. It had been
+years before, but as we walked and talked it all came back with a fresh
+flush of feeling.
+
+The present is a waiting time. It may seem to some as though they are in
+the wilderness. Clear and distinct comes a quiet voice:
+
+"What'll you have? Whatever you choose to ask, for My Son's sake."
+
+May we reach out to take as much as He is reaching down to give. But the
+taking must be with the life.
+
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[107] Isaiah xiii.-xxiv.
+
+[108] Jeremiah xlvi.-li.
+
+[109] Ezekiel xxv.-xxxii., xxxviii.-xxxix.
+
+[110] Daniel, throughout, notably vii.-xii.
+
+[111] The book of Isaiah falls naturally into two parts, chapters
+i.-xl., and xli.-lxvi. The historical allusions in each make it quite
+clear that these two parts belong in two periods far apart. One hundred
+and eighty years intervene between the close of the time stated in
+Isaiah's first chapter as the period of his ministry and the beginning
+of the return from exile into which the second part fits.
+
+But the full inspiration of the second part is in no wise affected. This
+rarely Spirit-controlled man modestly or unconsciously withholds his
+name from his writings. And they are grouped by the old Hebrew compilers
+with those of Isaiah.
+
+[112] Isaiah ii. 2-4.
+
+[113] Isaiah xi. 1-9; xxxii. 1-6.
+
+[114] Micah iv. 1-8.
+
+[115] Isaiah xi. 11-16; xxvii. 12-13.
+
+[116] Zechariah xii. 10-14.
+
+[117] Jeremiah xxxi. 8-19, 33, 34.
+
+[118] Isaiah xxvi. 19; Daniel xii. 2.
+
+[119] Micah iv. 1-2.
+
+[120] Isaiah xxv. 7
+
+[121] Isaiah iv. 2-5.
+
+[122] Isaiah xxiv. 1-13, 17-20; ii. 12-19; Micah vii. 15-17.
+
+[123] Zechariah xii. 1-9; xiv. 1-2.
+
+[124] Isaiah xiii. 1-13.
+
+[125] Zechariah xiv. 1-8.
+
+[126] Isaiah xxiv. 21-22; xxvii. 1.
+
+[127] Jeremiah xxx. 7-8.
+
+[128] Daniel xii. 1.
+
+[129] Matthew xxiv.-xxv; Mark xiii; Luke xxi.
+
+[130] Matthew xxiv. 21, 29.
+
+[131] Mark xiii. 19.
+
+[132] Revelation vii. 14 literally.
+
+[133] Leviticus xxvi. 14-39.
+
+[134] Deuteronomy xxviii. 15-68.
+
+[135] Deuteronomy xxxii.
+
+[136] Daniel iii.
+
+[137] Chapters vi.-vii.
+
+[138] Chapter xix.
+
+[139] Isaiah ii. 10-22.
+
+[140] II Corinthians i. 22; Ephesians i. 13; iv. 30.
+
+[141] Isaiah ii. 2.
+
+[142] Revelation xvii. 9-10.
+
+[143] Jeremiah li. 25.
+
+[144] Revelation viii. 10, see also ix. 1; Isaiah xiv. 12-15.
+
+[145] In regard to Elijah, see Malachi iv. 5-6. John the Baptist came in
+the spirit and power of Elijah, and of him our Lord said, "this is he
+who was to come."
+
+Yet the events of judgment spoken of in Malachi did not take place when
+John the Baptist and Jesus came. The events spoken of prophetically in
+connection with His coming are divided into two groups, those of
+graciousness, finding fulfilment at the first coming, those of judgment
+followed by graciousness, at the second coming. So John the Baptist
+fulfils the Elijah part at the first of these two; in all probability
+Elijah himself at the second part, _i.e._, "before the great and
+_terrible_ day of Jehovah come."
+
+In regard to Enoch, the passage in Jude, verse 14, is of significance.
+The language, "Enoch prophesied, ... the Lord _came_, etc.," is probably
+spoken in the sense, familiar in the Bible, of a future action seen as
+already done. Here Enoch is spoken of as prophesying or preaching, _not_
+to the people before the Flood, but to a certain class of men belonging
+to Jude's generation, that is to the Church generation. The likeliest
+meaning of the words is that Enoch, the seventh and so on, _will_
+prophesy, saying, "behold the Lord _cometh_," and so on to close of
+verse 15.
+
+[146] Revelation xii. 1-6.
+
+[147] Revelation xii. 7-17.
+
+[148] Revelation xii.
+
+[149] Revelation xiii.
+
+[150] Chapter xiii. 9-10.
+
+[151] Revelation xiv. 1-5.
+
+[152] Revelation xiv. 6-20.
+
+[153] Revelation xv.-xvi.
+
+[154] Revelation xiv. 1-5.
+
+[155] Revelation xi. 19.
+
+[156] Psalm xi. 6; lx. 3; lxxv. 8; Job xxi. 20; Isaiah li. 17, 22, 23;
+Jeremiah xxv. 15-17; Ezekiel xxiii. 31-33; Habakkuk ii. 16; Zechariah
+xii. 2.
+
+[157] Isaiah xi. 15-16.
+
+[158] Revelation vi. 15-17.
+
+[159] Revelation xi. 14.
+
+[160] Chapters xvii. and xviii.
+
+[161] Revelation xvii. 8-12.
+
+[162] Revelation i. 4, 8; iv. 8.
+
+[163] Revelation xi. 17; xvi. 5.
+
+[164] Ezekiel xxxix. 17-20.
+
+[165] Jeremiah i. 11-12.
+
+
+
+
+VII.--THE CROWNED CHRIST REIGNING
+
+(Revelation, Chapters xx: 4-xxii.)
+
+
+      "On this side of the river and on that was the tree of life,
+      bearing twelve fruits."
+
+ "A garden is a lovesome thing, God wot!
+         Rose plot,
+         Fringed pool,
+         Ferned grot--
+   The veriest school
+ Of peace; and yet the fool
+   Contends that God is not--
+ Not God! in gardens! when the eve is cool?
+   Nay, but I have a sign;
+ 'Tis very sure God walks in mine."
+
+
+Day Is Coming.
+
+It's a long lane that has no turning. Every valley leads up a hillside
+to a hilltop. Every storm ends in sunshine at the last. Every night runs
+out; the dawn _will_ break; the new day comes; the shadows flee before
+the new shining. The battle for right will end in victory, and in a
+decisive victory. There'll be no draw here. Faith wins at last. It's
+been a long night of fighting. Sometimes it seems endless.
+
+The man in the thick of the fight, with moist brow, and clenched hand,
+and quick breath and throbbing heart, sometimes sobs out the prayer, "O
+Lord, how long before the night is over, and the dawn breaks?" And
+quietly through the smoke and din of the conflict a still, small voice
+says, "Steady, my child, steady; the day is surely coming, and with day
+victory; steady, steady a bit longer."
+
+Now here in vision the fight is over, the victory won. And God's visions
+always become realities. The vision is yet for the appointed time, and
+it panteth breathlessly toward the realization, and will not fail nor
+delay. Though it tarry, wait for it; it will certainly come on time; it
+will not be late.[166]
+
+In the seventh view the kingdom follows immediately that decisive
+conflict and the putting of Satan out of the way for the time being. The
+redeemed ones at once begin their blessed service of fellowship with the
+King in reigning over the kingdom. Emphasis is placed on the fact that
+at this time there has been a resurrection of believers. And these
+resurrected ones join with those caught up without death in
+administering the kingdom. This kingdom is said to last for a thousand
+years, that length of time being named only here, and here six times.
+
+There is much talk in our day about the kingdom. All Christendom has
+been repeating for nineteen centuries the petition, "Thy kingdom come."
+It will be of intense and practical interest to see just what the
+kingdom is, as pictured in the Bible. It is barely mentioned in this
+place in Revelation, to fit it into its place in the scheme of future
+events being outlined.
+
+But it is the chief theme in these old prophetic pages, around which all
+others group. Immediate historical events furnish the setting, but there
+is a continual swinging to the coming future greatness. The yellow
+glory-light of the coming kingdom is never out of the prophetic sky.
+Jeremiah is the one most absorbed in the boiling of the political pot of
+his own strenuous time, but even he, at times, lifts his head and gets
+such a glimpse of the coming kingdom as causes him to mix some rose
+tincture with the jet black ink he habitually uses.
+
+
+The Kingdom Picture.
+
+Let us look briefly at the kingdom picture of these older pages. Its
+capital is Jerusalem, which becomes the world capital. It will be the
+joy of the whole earth. Israel will be the first nation of the earth, to
+which all others will be tributary. But it will be not the Israel of
+these old pages, nor the Jew as he is known characteristically
+throughout history. Israel will be a new nation, made new in character
+by the power of the Holy Spirit. The winsome picture of the baptized
+crowds at Pentecost gives an inkling of the spirit that will sway the
+new nation.[167] They will be a nation of radiant faces and thrilled
+hearts.
+
+The effect of this upon all other nations is marked. Through Israel's
+regeneration and new leadership, every other nation is to know a new
+spirit life. The outpouring of the Holy Spirit upon Israel is to be
+followed by an outpouring upon _all_ flesh. Pentecost is merely a
+beginning of what is to be universal. There will be a widespread
+voluntary coming to Israel for religious instruction. She becomes the
+world's teacher until the knowledge of God covers the whole earth as the
+waters cover the sea. But all this will be purely a voluntary movement
+among the nations. There will be war no longer, but universal peace.
+
+There's one part of the picture specially comforting. That vast
+majority, _the poor_, will be specially guarded and cared for. There
+will be no hungry people, nor cold, nor poorly clad; no unemployed
+begging for a chance to earn a dry crust, and no workers fighting for a
+fair share of the fruit of their toil. But there are yet tenderer
+touches on the canvas. Broken hearts will be healed, prison doors
+unhung, broken family circles complete again.
+
+A recent issue of The Sunday School Times tells a simple, touching
+incident of a mission hall in Korea. A Korean woman living in the
+country heard of the wonderful things happening there, and came to town
+to find out for herself, and get some help. But she didn't know where
+the hall was, nor what name it was called. So she inquired on the
+streets for the place where they _cured the broken heart_. And at once
+she was directed to the mission hall. That sort of thing will become a
+blessed commonplace in the beginning of the kingdom time.
+
+Then there are certain radical changes in _nature_. Splendid rivers of
+waters are to flow through or by Jerusalem, suggesting radical changes
+in the formation of the land there. That fortress city, on the hilltop,
+Jerusalem, becomes as the world's metropolis, a mighty city, with rivers
+floating a world's commerce. The light of sun and moon will be greatly
+intensified, so influencing the fertility of the earth. Before their
+healing light and heat, in the newly tempered atmosphere, all poisonous
+growths, the blight of drought, and suffering of untempered heat, will
+disappear.
+
+And with this goes a change in the _animal_ creation. Hate will be gone.
+And so beasts that are dreaded because of their ferocity and treachery
+and poisonous power will be wholly changed. There will be mutual
+cessation of cruelty to animals by man, and of danger to man by animals,
+for all hate and violence will be gone.
+
+And some one raises his eyebrows sceptically and says, ironically, "What
+fairy tale, what skipper's yarn, is this?" Well, I frankly confess that
+I don't know anything about this matter, except what I find in this old
+Book of God. But I confess, too, that I try studiously to get a
+common-sense, poised, Spirit-enlightened understanding of what this Book
+does tell. And then I accept it, and go by it, regardless of
+probabilities or improbabilities. It may seem like a fairy tale, yet it
+is only the picture of the coming kingdom soberly set forth in these old
+pages.
+
+As we turn to the Gospel pages we find the kingdom to be the chief thing
+Jesus is talking about. The Gospel days are sample days of the kingdom
+in the personal blessings bestowed. Read through these accounts of blind
+eyes opened, the lame walking, the maimed made whole, the dumb singing,
+the distressed in whatever way relieved, the ignorant instructed, the
+sinful wooed, and the bad of heart and life being blessedly changed.
+
+All this is a taste of the kingdom. Jesus was wooing men to accept King
+and kingdom. To-day, as in all Church time, bodily healing is a
+privilege for those who can take it, and a gift for the rare few who can
+be entrusted with it. In these Gospel pages it was freely bestowed on
+multitudes, and the gift exercised with power by many. Even so it will
+be in the kingdom time.
+
+Most of the parables are found to be connected in their first meaning
+with explaining about the kingdom. The kingdom will follow the law of
+growth that is common in nature, sowing, waiting, cultivating, and
+reaping.[168] Its influence will spread gradually until all feel its
+presence and power.[169] It must meet and deal with the obstacles
+presented by different men's temperaments and dispositions and
+temptations.[170] There will be opposition, gradually overcome, but
+never fully.[171] Many will be carried along by the current of the day.
+It will be a good current, for righteousness will be the common thing
+then. But in their hearts many will long for something else, something
+different.[172]
+
+But to many, the new blessed kingdom message will come as a treasure
+accidentally stumbled upon, not being looked for, but now valued as very
+precious.[173] To others it will come as _the_ thing they have been
+eagerly seeking for, and which satisfies the deepest yearnings.[174] One
+who has had any touch with the pathetic yearning of years found in
+non-Christian lands can better appreciate the results of this kind in
+these glad coming days.
+
+The _characteristic spirit_ of the kingdom stands sharply out in
+contrast with the dominant spirit of our own time. The kingdom is said
+to belong peculiarly to those who are "poor in spirit," in whom
+self-assertion and pride have quite gone out, leaving them humble and
+lowly in heart. The meek will inherit the earth, and will take down all
+the walls and fences, for all conditions of life are radically changed.
+The penitent man or woman will be freely received regardless of their
+past, while the proud will find the doorway too low for their unbending
+heads.[175]
+
+Rewards in the kingdom will not be given as a matter of merit, as in our
+present endless cutting and rivalry, but will be thought of wholly as
+evidence of the graciousness of the King.[176] And yet more striking,
+the rewards given will be the privilege of serving, some more, some
+less, according as they have become skilled in serving.[177] He who
+serves most truly will be given preferment.[178] The thing prized above
+all else will be glad obedience to the King.
+
+It will be seen that the kingdom is to be a time of world-wide
+evangelization. Indeed this is _the purpose_ of the kingdom. There are
+two periods of world-wide evangelization in our Lord's planning. The
+present is the Church time of such evangelizing. This is, of course, the
+true main objective of the Church. This is the reason for the Church's
+existence, to take the message of a crucified risen Christ to all men,
+that so the way may be prepared for His return, and through that for the
+next period of evangelizing.
+
+The kingdom period of world-wide evangelization is under radically
+different conditions. Then the evil one will be removed from the scene
+of action, the Holy Spirit will have been poured out upon all flesh, and
+so the moral veil now upon men's eyes will be removed. The Jews, with
+all their characteristic aggressiveness and perseverance, now
+intensified by the Holy Spirit's presence, will be a nation of
+missionaries to all the earth. The redeemed ones in their resurrection
+bodies will have the blessed privilege of helping. And over all will be
+the presence and supervision of the King, our Lord Jesus Himself. That
+will be world-wide evangelization in earnest.
+
+Such is a faint glimpse given in both Old and New Testaments of the
+kingdom spoken of in these Revelation pages in such few words. Almost
+the whole Bible lies back of those few words. What a time it will be for
+this old earth! With renewed fervour our hearts repeat, "Thy kingdom
+come."
+
+
+The Final Crisis of Choice.
+
+But it is made clear at once to John that the kingdom is not an end in
+itself. It is a means to an end, a wonderful means to a blessed end. It
+is startling to find that after that long blessed reign the evil one is
+to be loosed out of his prison-abyss. This seems at first flush too
+startling to be credible. But on reflection the reason becomes plain,
+and reveals the strength as well as the tenderness of God's love.
+
+All through the kingdom time there are those who are in heart opposed to
+this new order of things. They long for the leeks and onions and garlic
+of the old eating. There will be some yielding only a feigned allegiance
+to the King.[179] That dragnet of the parable has gathered some fish
+that didn't want to be caught, and want a chance to get away to their
+own native waters again.[180] The tares of another parable are left in
+with the wheat until the end reveals which is real wheat and which
+really tares.[181]
+
+The one thing God longs for is love. And that only is love which is the
+free outpouring of the heart. He longs for love as our free choice. This
+is the image of God in which we have all been made. We are most like God
+in _power_, in the right of free choice. We are most like Him in
+_character_ when we use our power as He uses His; when we choose what
+He chooses for us. And so there must be a final time of sifting and
+choosing.
+
+Here is the strength of love, that dares loose Satan out that so we must
+choose in the face of opposition. For faith isn't faith except it can
+stand the fire test, the friction fire test of opposition. Here is the
+tenderness of love, that longs to have a return love as pure and free as
+its own, and so gives fullest opportunity for it to be revealed and to
+grow.
+
+So Satan is loosed out for his tempting work. And another great world
+crisis comes, and another great settlement; this the final one. The
+devil, his beastly Antichrist and false prophet, are put out of the way
+forever.
+
+A great dazzling throne is set. And One sits on it with a face of
+indescribable glory. Then comes the second resurrection, of all those
+not included in the first resurrection a thousand years before. This is
+a judgment of _all who have died_, with the exception already noted. The
+judgment of the living spoken of in Matthew, twenty-five, probably is in
+connection with the closing scene of the great crisis, just before this
+judgment of the resurrected dead, or possibly in connection with this
+judgment. This is the final judgment.
+
+Gladness and distress mingle in reading the account: gladness that the
+contest, age long, is over; distress to find that for some there is what
+is described briefly but with terrible intensity, in the words, "the
+lake of fire." Yet there is still comfort in noting the language used
+of these,--"_if any_."[182] It is not the language of a great
+multitude, but rather of an incorrigible scattered and scant minority.
+
+
+Home at Last.
+
+And now for the seventh time in this last vision John says, "I saw." Bit
+by bit the view opens up before his eyes, from the coming of the Lord
+Jesus out of the opened heavens, on and on, until now the final view of
+all bursts in a winsome glory before his astonished, delighted eyes.
+
+God's own ideal, that He has been carrying in His heart, is pictured.
+That ideal is that He and man shall dwell together as a family. The
+ideal is not a Church nor a Kingdom. These are merely great means to a
+greater end. The ideal is the family, all dwelling together in sweetest
+harmony and content, with a common board, and a common fireside in the
+twilight of the day, and all the sweet fellowship that these stand for.
+
+John sees a new heaven and a new earth, the old heaven and earth gone,
+and with them the separation of the wide sea gone forever, too. He sees
+the holy city, Jerusalem, made over new, coming down out of the new
+heavens to man's new dwelling-place, the new earth. It presents a
+wondrous, joyous appearance as of a bride adorned for her husband.
+
+Then a great voice out of the throne speaks of this ideal in the heart
+of God for Himself and His friend, man. "Look! God has pitched His tent
+down amongst men, and they shall be His peoples, and He will be their
+God." He will live with them as a Father-mother-God, personally caring
+for each one, Himself wiping away every tear from every eye. A single
+tear and a single pair of eyes will be enough to claim His personal
+attention at once.
+
+His presence insures the absence forever of death, and mourning, and
+pain, and crying. The dirge music has sung its last song. The minor
+chords are gone. All the old things of a sorrowful sort are quite gone.
+And as John looks He that sitteth on the throne makes the glad
+announcement, "_Behold, I make all things new._" And John is bidden to
+write all this, for "_these words are faithful and true_."
+
+And again the One on the throne seems to look eagerly forward to His
+ideal as already actually accomplished: "They are come to pass." And to
+let John feel the certainty of it all He says, "I am the Alpha and the
+Omega, the beginning and the end." The power that has done all from
+creation's morn will complete all clear to the end.
+
+And then the tenderness of that highest love which finds expression in
+the personal touch comes out in the next words: "I will give unto him
+that is athirst of the fountain of life freely." The smallest need of
+any one will have His personal thought and attention, and they shall
+have the best there is, and have it in abundance.
+
+And the old pleading that runs like a strain of music throughout these
+pages comes again: "He that _overcometh_ shall inherit these things. I
+will be His God, and he shall be my son," and so entitled to the
+inheritance.
+
+Then plainly, clearly, with all the honesty of love, comes the warning
+of the terrible outcome for those who refuse His tender love. It is most
+significant that this most winsome picture at the end of the book
+contains the dark, black shadows, which remain in the picture at the
+end.
+
+All this is spoken directly to John by God Himself. It is not sent by an
+angel, or by a redeemed human messenger. It comes to John direct with
+all the force and tenderness of a word spoken to him out of the very
+heart of God.
+
+And now an angel carries John off to let him see this that is called
+both a bride and a city. And from the top of a high mountain John looks
+out and sees a most wonderful city, coming down out of heaven from God,
+filled and flooded with the glory of God.
+
+And the best language that earth knows anything about is used in the
+attempt to describe this city ideal. Its dimensions are perfect in
+proportion and in their outer relations. Its foundations are adorned
+with the costliest, most precious stones, the walls are built of jasper,
+and each gate is one immense pearl; but the city itself is builded of a
+gold as transparent as pure glass. Israel and the Church are as sweet
+memories of past days, recalled now by gates and foundations.
+
+But these are passed by in noting the outshining glory of the presence
+of God. In the simple language which has become so imbedded in the heart
+and imagination of the Church, "the city hath no need of the sun,
+neither of the moon, to shine on it; for the glory of God did lighten
+it, and the Lamb is the light thereof." And the winsome description goes
+on. The nations walk in this wondrous light of God's presence, and the
+kings of earth bring glad tribute of their glory into it. "And the gates
+thereof shall in no wise be shut by day, for there shall be no night
+there." "And there shall in no wise enter into it anything unclean, or
+he that doeth an abomination and a lie, but only they that are written
+in the Lamb's book of life."
+
+In the midst of the city is a river of water of life clear as sparkling
+crystal, flowing out from the throne of God and of the Lamb. On each
+side of the river is the tree of life yielding continual fruitage. And
+the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations.
+
+And the heart never fails to respond with a quickened beat to the lines:
+"His servants shall serve Him; and _they shall see His face_; and His
+name shall be in their foreheads;"--that is, His character shall shine
+out of their faces. "And there shall be no night there; and they need no
+candle, neither light of the sun; for the Lord God giveth them light.
+And they shall reign forever and ever."
+
+Such is the heart-touching, heart-gripping tale of God's ideal for man,
+His creature and companion and friend. All the best that the city
+stands for of human life, and all the best that the country, typified in
+the garden, stands for, are forever blessedly joined. And in the
+midst--_Himself_, and gathered about Him His redeemed ones, as children
+about a father, in a union and fellowship cemented by the heart's blood
+of God, never more to be put asunder.
+
+
+The Master's Last Words.
+
+And John closes the book with a few personal paragraphs. The vision is
+complete. Now come the closing words. For the third time John is
+solemnly assured, "these words are faithful and true." And again comes
+the voice as of some One always standing by as John is being shown,
+"Behold, I come quickly." And again the words with which the book begins
+come to seal all its impressions,--blessed is he that reads, and
+prayerfully seeks to understand the simple message, and who sets himself
+to live his life in the light of this simple tremendous message.
+
+And John is significantly told _not_ to _seal up_ the message. Daniel
+had been told to seal up the message given him, for it would not come to
+pass until the latter days after great intervening events had taken
+place.[183] But there are no intervening events before this message is
+to come true. It has been possible for the fulfilment to come in any
+generation since John saw and wrote. It is yet more possible, growing
+distinctly toward the probable, that these things shall come in our
+generation. The words remain open, waiting an expectant fulfilment. They
+are not to be sealed up but openly proclaimed, for the time when it is
+possible for these things to work out is at hand. This is a present
+practical issue.
+
+And meanwhile, during these days of the waiting time each one who reads
+or listens, however reluctantly, to the message, will follow the bent of
+his own deliberate choice, but with ever increasing intensity. The pure
+will become more pure; the bad yet worse. There's no standing still as
+we listen.
+
+And again come the solemnly repeated words: "Behold, I come quickly."
+His coming is the next step in the great plan. There were then, and
+there are now, no great intervening events to be worked out, and waited
+for. His coming is imminent. It is a thing to be expected. And He brings
+with Him the wages due each one.
+
+And like the signature of certification at the book's beginning,[184]
+comes now the personal signature at its close: "I am the Alpha and the
+Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end." So He
+personally certifies to us the absolute accuracy and reliability of this
+message.
+
+And with the signature come again the gracious pleading and warning
+intermingled. Any one who will may wash his robes in the fountain
+provided, and may eat of the life-giving tree, and come unto the
+God-lit city. And equally clear it is that any who insist on doing so
+may remain outside unwashed. Each one is free to do as he wills.
+
+And once again comes the emphatic, solemn announcement of the accuracy
+and dependability of this message of John's Revelation: "_I, Jesus_,
+have sent mine angel to testify unto you these things for the Churches."
+It is distinctively a Church message, and comes with all the direct
+authority of our Lord Jesus Himself. And He patiently reminds us of His
+authority,--I am both root and offspring of David, both before him and
+after him. I am the bright, the morning star, that rises while it is yet
+night and brings in the new day.
+
+And again the spirit of winsome pleading breaks out to those unwashed
+ones who insist on staying outside the gate. Both the Spirit and the
+whole company of washed ones say "come." And let him that heareth that
+sweet word pass it out to those farther away until the last man hears
+and feels. And let them know that anybody at all who is thirsty may come
+freely and drink of the river of the water of life.
+
+And yet once again comes the peculiar certifying of the contents of this
+Revelation message, and a solemn warning against any interfering with
+its meaning. Jesus says,--I hereby certify unto every man that hears the
+words of the prophecy of this book: if any man add to them, making them
+mean something else than I intend, God shall add unto him the plagues
+that are written in this book: and if any man shall take away, or
+lessen the meaning, God shall take away his part from the tree of life
+and out of the holy city. It comes as a very solemn warning.
+
+And yet once more comes the emphatic assurance both of the reliability
+of the book itself, and of the certainty of its great central
+message,--"He who testifieth these things saith, '_yea, I come
+quickly_.'"
+
+And John fervently adds, "Amen; come, Lord Jesus." And so says every
+heart in tune with His heart who is coming.
+
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[166] Habakkuk ii. 3.
+
+[167] Acts ii. 44-47; iv. 32-34.
+
+[168] Mark iv. 26-29. Matthew xiii. 31-32.
+
+[169] Matthew xiii. 33.
+
+[170] Matthew xiii. 3-9, 18-23.
+
+[171] Matthew xiii. 24-30.
+
+[172] Matthew xiii. 47-50.
+
+[173] Matthew xiii. 44.
+
+[174] Matthew xiii. 45-46.
+
+[175] Matthew xxi. 31.
+
+[176] Matthew xx. 1-16.
+
+[177] Luke xix. 11-27.
+
+[178] Matthew xx. 25-28.
+
+[179] Psalm xviii. 44; lxvi. 3; lxxxi. 15; note marginal readings.
+
+[180] Matthew xiii. 47-50.
+
+[181] Matthew xiii. 24-30, 36-43.
+
+[182] Revelation xx. 15.
+
+[183] Daniel xii. 4, 9.
+
+[184] Revelation i. 8.
+
+
+
+
+VIII.--WATCHING THE HORIZON
+
+
+ "Thy Kingdom Come."
+
+ "Thou art coming! We are waiting
+   With a hope that cannot fail;
+ Asking not the day or hour,
+ Resting on Thy word of power,
+   Anchored safe within the veil.
+ Time appointed may be long,
+   But the vision must be sure:
+ Certainty shall make us strong,
+   Joyful patience must endure.
+
+ "O the joy to see Thee reigning,
+   Thee, my own beloved Lord!
+ Every tongue Thy name confessing,
+ Worship, honour, glory, blessing,
+   Brought to Thee with glad accord!
+ Thee, my Master and my Friend,
+   Vindicated and enthroned!
+ Unto earth's remotest end
+   Glorified, adored, and owned."
+
+     --FRANCES RIDLEY HAVERGAL.
+
+
+The Thrill of Expectancy.
+
+Watching reveals character and makes it. It means wakefulness, an ideal,
+a purpose, and a hopeful expectancy. Some people only look. Their
+eyelids are not shut. Something passes before the eye. They look, but
+they rarely see.
+
+It takes a soul to see. It needs a spirit awake to see out through the
+eye, and see into persons and events passing by, and see forward to what
+is coming to-morrow. Some sleep. The body is awake in daytime. They walk
+and talk and eat, buy and sell, count money and hoard it. But their eyes
+are never lifted to the outer horizon. They are settled in an even,
+contented round. Their spirits sleep.
+
+A wakefulness of spirit to the time and its need, an ideal clear and
+high of what should be, a purpose strong and masterful that holds the
+life up toward the ideal, an expectancy eager, brave, steady; an eye
+fixed intently on some One unseen,--this is what watching means. It
+reveals character. It makes character. It reaches out strong spirit
+hands, and brings nearer and sooner the thing watched for.
+
+Watching has always been a characteristic of the men God has used. He
+used them because He could. They were of use. Their spirit made them
+serviceable. Their watching opened the way for fellowship of spirit and
+partnership in action. It put them in tune with Him who never slumbers
+nor sleeps, and who watches over His pledged word, to bring it to pass
+at the earliest possible hour.
+
+The watcher sings. His favourite song is "I will lift up mine eyes." He
+sees what is coming. He sees _Him_ who sits beyond the horizon of our
+common outlook. And seeing Him grows this sort of expectancy, and the
+expectancy becomes the controlling thing.
+
+It was this sort of expectancy that made Abraham a pilgrim at
+seventy-five, and that grew deep the pilgrim trait of patient endurance
+through the weary twilight years till the promised heir came, and even
+beyond that, wove the finest texture into his character when the
+severest test came.
+
+It was this expectancy that drew Moses away from the court life of
+Egypt, and the possible prospect of wearing imperial purple, to become
+the leader of a straggling crowd of slaves. And it held him steady on
+through long years, wilderness travel, criticism, and non-appreciation,
+on and on, till Nebo's top was climbed. He endured as seeing Him who was
+invisible to the unseeing eyes of the crowds at His side.
+
+Such expectancy has steadied every leader for God, in these old pages
+from first to last, young Joseph in the dungeon, Joshua in the glare of
+the limelight, into which he was suddenly thrust, and ruddy-faced
+singing David fleeing and hiding for his life from the javelin of Saul.
+It was the clear-seeing eye of Isaiah and Jeremiah in the homeland, and
+of Ezekiel and Daniel among the weeping exiles, that kept the heart of
+the nation warm with the vision of what was surely coming. The thrill of
+expectancy runs through the pages of this old Hebrew classic. Its light
+is never out of the eye, nor its alluring out of earshot.
+
+When Jesus walked among men expectation ran high. When He was killed the
+gloom of the three days was the gloom of a bright light suddenly put
+out. The darkness was intensified by the light that had been shining.
+Then there came a new sort of expectancy, higher, finer, of the inner
+spirit. This Jesus was coming back, in all the glory of the old
+prophetic vision, made realer by the personal touch these men knew, and
+this new expectancy puts all the paper of the New Testament a-tremble
+with delight. It is the light that lighteth every page and epistle,
+every contested path of witness, and every hour of suffering because of
+faith.
+
+The Church of these New Testament pages is _a watching Church_. The
+expectancy of the Lord Jesus' return is the north star of their sky. It
+never swerves. All the rest revolves around it. They see everything else
+in relation to this. Their going into all the world and preaching to
+every creature was not simply for men's conversion: that surely: but
+beyond that, it was to bring the Christ back for the next step in His
+world programme. He would come and set up His kingdom, and then through
+the kingdom would come a yet wider, farther-reaching world
+evangelizing.[185] This expectancy controlled their life and activity.
+Through their faithful world witnessing He would come.
+
+And as the knot is put on the end of the thread of revelation the very
+knotted thread seems aglow with the glory of what is coming. The Bible
+from end to end is a-thrill with expectancy, a hopeful watching for
+something, aye, _for some One_.
+
+
+A Calendar of Events.
+
+We have been looking a bit closely at this knot in the end, the threads
+composing it. Now we want to gather up all that we have been going over
+with the light that comes from the other pages, so as to have some sort
+of a simple, clear grasp of the truth. This will help our eyesight. We
+can watch the horizon better. Our eyes will be steadier in the glare of
+the lower lights, and sharper to see in the spells of darkness that get
+thicker now and then.
+
+It is interesting to notice that this book of the Revelation is a
+calendar book. That is to say, it is not a calendar of dates but of
+events. It gives coming events in the order in which they will occur.
+Its table of contents becomes an outline of coming events. There is the
+Man of Fire standing among the candlesticks. Then comes an hour when He
+advances to the next step in His programme. Then, step by step, there
+follow the occurrences until the kingdom is actually here. And then the
+after events, when the kingdom's work is done.
+
+It turns out that this thing of our Lord's return cuts a wider swath
+than we are apt to think, if we don't stop to think. That is because of
+_Who it is_ that is coming. An event takes on the size of the chief
+person concerned. This Lord Jesus is the One through whom our world was
+made in the early time, when there were no calendars. So His coming
+naturally concerns the whole world. It concerns the system of evil in
+which the world is entangled, and the evil spirit world so closely
+interlocked with our own.
+
+Then our Lord Jesus came amongst us as a man. He came as a Jewish man,
+and to the Jewish nation. So His coming concerns the Jew and the Jewish
+capital, Jerusalem. When He sent down His executive, the Holy Spirit, a
+new organization was formed, the Church. So His coming concerns the
+Church, and concerns it very intimately, for it is spoken of as a body
+of which He is the head. When Jesus came it was to die for a world and
+to redeem a world. And so His coming concerns the future plans of the
+earth and the race.
+
+Yet though His coming has such a broad sweep, it is quite possible to
+get a grasp of the few essential items in the programme. And this will
+make our footing steadier, our vision clearer, our praying more
+confident, and our soul-winning and witnessing warmer and truer. We turn
+now to try to get this simple, helpful understanding.
+
+The present is the time of the candlesticks. The Man of Fire is in our
+midst unperceived. The unseen Eyes of Flame see. Our Lord Jesus still
+waits, and depends on the faithfulness of His Church. The light is still
+shining out. The dark places are getting some light. The light has not
+yet wholly failed to get out through the human lantern to the crowd in
+the dark.
+
+The characteristics of this waiting time, so long prolonged, are plainly
+put. In the outer world there will be an increasing lawlessness and
+disregard of every sort of restraint, and an increasing power of
+organization and centralization. There will be an increasing getting
+together for more effective action.
+
+In the Church world there will be an increasing formalism, a compromise
+with evil and with the world spirit. There will be a decrease of warm
+personal devotion to the Lord Jesus as the controlling motive power. And
+there will be a growing inclination to make light of, or ignore, or jeer
+at, the idea of the Lord Jesus' return.
+
+As this period wears on toward its close, and so on toward the events to
+follow, there will be a coming together of the Jews scattered throughout
+the world in an attempt to regain Palestine and reconstitute the Hebrew
+nation there with its temple and old sacrificial ritual. These are the
+three chief tendencies that will characterize the present waiting time
+preceding the group of coming events.
+
+The decisive index-finger, that this present period is actually coming
+to its close, will be this movement among the Jews. The movement to
+regain control of Palestine may rise and fall back, gain and lose again.
+But some day it will come to its head. By some arrangement with the
+nations concerned the Jewish nation will actually be set up again in
+Palestine, and the building of the temple in Jerusalem begun. This will
+be the decisive indication. This is an unfailing index-finger. The hands
+of the clock are moving then toward the striking of the hour. Soon the
+sands will be run out and the hour-glass turned.
+
+
+The Beginning of the End.
+
+At some time soon after that point is reached _two unseen events will
+occur_, that is, unseen on earth. Roughly, it will be three and a half
+years after, though the whole tendency of the Scripture is to discourage
+the figuring of _exact_ time. Yet information is given that the outlook
+may be intelligent. These events are unseen on the earth. They take
+place in heaven.
+
+The Holy Spirit will be withdrawn from the Church. He will not be
+withdrawn from individuals. He abode in men before the Church was
+formed, and will after the Church has cast Him out. He is withdrawn only
+because He has been practically and wholly cast out.
+
+The Lord Jesus, who sent Him down to form the Church and witness through
+it, will withdraw Him from the Church. The candlestick has moved out of
+all touch with the light. And now the light is withdrawn, and so the
+candlestick moved out of its place as the light-bearer. This is probably
+the advance step taken by our Lord Jesus that marks the beginning of the
+end.
+
+At the same time there occurs a conflict of spirit forces up in the
+heavens. While the earth seems to be Satan's chief place of activity,
+yet his headquarters are up in the heavens, that is, somewhere below the
+throne of God and above the earth. This conflict is against him and his
+spirit forces. It is led by Michael, the archangel. It results in Satan
+and his host being cast out of the heavens and down to the earth.
+
+It is significant that as the Holy Spirit goes up, this conflict
+follows, and Satan is cast out and down. Is it the Holy Spirit's return
+there that precipitates this conflict, and defeat for Satan? It would
+seem not improbable. So the moral situation on the earth is intensified
+doubly. The blessed Holy Spirit, with all His power of restraint over
+evil, is withdrawn. The evil spirit, with all his power of intensifying
+evil, is cast down in person to the earth. These are the two unseen
+events marking the advance move of the end time.
+
+There will be nothing on earth _at the moment_ to indicate that these
+tremendous events have happened. There is no suggestion of how much time
+is involved. Time is a matter of earth's calculation. Quite possibly
+_we_ would speak of these events as occurring in a very brief time,
+perhaps an instant of our reckoning. These are the two events unseen on
+the earth.
+
+At the same time there will begin _two events seen taking place on
+earth_. The first is the coming to the front of a man, a terrible leader
+of the forces of unrighteousness. Paul speaks of him as "the Lawless
+One." John's name for him is "the Antichrist." He becomes the human
+representative or incarnation of Satan. As Satan is cast down out of the
+heavens this leader comes to the front on earth.
+
+He seems to have official position at the head of some great coalition
+of nations, with a wide area of authority. He seems to be some former
+notable leader known in history, who died, but is now brought back to
+life again by Satan's supernatural power.
+
+As he forges to the front there follows on earth a horrible time of war,
+famine, pestilence, death, and persecution. He arbitrarily breaks the
+agreement with the Jews under which they have re-established their
+nation, and begins a terrible persecution of them. He sets up in the
+temple a blasphemous image, and requires that all people shall worship
+it. This strikes not only at the Jew, but at the Christian as well.
+
+At one stroke of genius he compels absolutely universal attention to his
+command by forbidding the doing of any business except by those willing
+to worship the image. Those refusing the worship are killed. He will
+have an assistant doing wonderful miracles by Satanic power to deceive
+and persuade the people. During this time there is a loosing out on the
+earth of countless hordes of unseen demons to torment men.
+
+All this continues for three and a half years. The time is stated in
+three different ways to make quite clear just how long is meant. This is
+the first of the two seen events. It centres at Jerusalem and seems to
+reach out practically to all the earth.
+
+The second event is significant. During all this terrible time of
+persecution and blasphemy and the riot of evil, there will be two men in
+Jerusalem preaching the Gospel of the Lord Jesus, and calling on men to
+repent. As an emphasis of their witness against the awful wickedness
+current they will be clothed in mourning. They will have miraculous
+power to attest their witness, and to protect themselves against attacks
+upon their lives. The great crowds of many nationalities in Jerusalem
+will make their witness practically world-wide in its direct as well as
+its indirect influence.
+
+This also continues for three and a half years. As the Holy Spirit is
+withdrawn from the Church as the witness of the Lord Jesus, these two
+special witnesses appear. In His great faithfulness and patience God
+never leaves Himself without a witness. This is the second event seen on
+earth. These two, evil at its worst, and God's special witnesses, run
+along side by side, both centring in Jerusalem.
+
+
+The Climax--He Comes.
+
+Then there comes _a group of four events_. And these four are very
+closely associated together in point of time. They occur at the close of
+the period of persecution and wickedness. Indeed, it is their occurrence
+that brings the close. Yet the exact time when they happen is left quite
+uncertain.
+
+And this clearly is another bit of the tendency in the record to keep
+our thought on the main events, and not on figuring out time. We are to
+keep to the essentials and be wary of mere speculation. For the sake of
+clearness I am putting these four events separately, but this does not
+mean that some of them may not be occurring at the same moment, or that
+all may not come within a very brief time. We simply do not know. It
+looks as though we are not meant to know.
+
+There is _a Jew event_. The Holy Spirit comes down upon the nation of
+Jews in simple, tremendous, converting power. This is put in connection
+with the coming down out of the heavens on a cloud of the Lord Jesus. It
+seems to be this sight of their great Kinsman, Jesus, whom they
+crucified, that is used by the Holy Spirit to strike penitence to their
+stubborn hearts. Literally a nation is born again in a day. It will be
+with the whole nation as it was with Saul on the Damascus road, as
+sudden and unexpected, as startling and as radical; as sudden and
+unexpected an appearance of Jesus, as startling to the Jews, as radical
+in the absolute spirit transformation.
+
+There is _a Church event_. And here the word Church is used to describe
+all believers in the Lord Jesus. That will be a much sifted and
+chastened company of people. This event is also connected with the open,
+visible coming of the Lord Jesus, out of the upper blue, before all
+eyes. It affects two separate companies of believers. The bodies of all
+believers who have died will be raised out of their graves, inhabited
+again by those who lived in them. Then the living believers shall have a
+transforming touch upon their bodies. And the two companies shall be
+caught up into the air into the presence of the Lord Jesus.
+
+As they come into His presence there will be a purifying and perfecting
+of character, and an adjustment of relations with Him. There is no
+suggestion of how much time is involved. We naturally think of things as
+taking place through so much time. Our limitations in this regard will
+be gone then. It may be what we now call instantaneous.
+
+There is _a world event_. There will come to the earth and to men a
+visitation of terrible judgments, affecting men's bodies, the sea and
+rivers, vegetation, an intensifying of the sun's heat, and possibly a
+terrible darkness--in short, affecting everything concerning man and
+life on the earth. There will be a great gathering of the armies of the
+nations at a place in Palestine. Again there is no suggestion of how
+much time this visitation of judgments runs through, nor this gathering
+for battle.
+
+Then there is _the_ event, _the great climax event_, the actual coming
+of the Lord Jesus, out of the heavens, down to the earth. At the moment
+when He comes the Jews will be in the midst of a terrible siege in
+Jerusalem. Against the city will be assembled the armies of the nations.
+The city will be taken, the looting and ravaging already begun.
+
+Then suddenly, out of the blue above, the Lord Jesus comes in a great
+blaze of blinding light, accompanied by great numbers. He will come to
+Olivet. With the coming will be a terrible earthquake, such as the earth
+has never known.
+
+It is a striking geological fact that the greatest "fault," or break in
+the earth's surface, is found in Palestine, running north and south from
+Antioch on the Orontes down even into Africa. But this earthquake will
+affect very wide areas, including the city of Babylon, which will be
+shaken to utter destruction. That earthquake will make radical changes
+in the formation of the earth's surface in Palestine.
+
+At the same time there will be an equally terrific shake-up in the
+heavenly bodies, the sun, moon, and stars. The effect of both these upon
+the vast panic-stricken multitudes will be most pitiable. They will call
+upon the upheaved rocks to hide them from the wrath of God.
+
+These are the four events occurring at this time. They are grouped
+together. It seems impossible to say first this, then that. They are
+grouped. The great essential thing standing out is that our Lord Jesus'
+coming will be at a terrible climax of evil. There will be partial
+judgment visited on the earth. The system of evil will be wholly
+overthrown. The Jews will be converted as a nation by the Holy Spirit.
+The Church will be caught away out of the distress, and will have part
+with our Lord Jesus in His coming.
+
+It should again be noticed that in all this there are no time notes,
+except as to the length of this tribulation time. The persecution of the
+Jew and desecration of Jerusalem, the time of the two witnesses, and the
+sway of the Antichrist, each runs through three and a half years. There
+are no time notes whatever for the present waiting-time. And though the
+length of the tribulation itself is stated, yet it should be noted that
+the exact time of the Lord Jesus' actual return still remains quite
+undetermined.
+
+In Daniel's prophecy there are four events spoken of as occurring at
+this time, and each is measured from the time when the sacrifices are
+stopped and the chief desecrating act in the temple begins. The
+tribulation runs for three and a half years. Thirty days later comes
+some glad event not specified further. Seventy-five days later there
+comes another glad event, and two years ten months and twenty days later
+the complete cleansing of the temple. Each of these portions of time is
+measured from the same starting point. This would suggest a period of
+readjustment after the Antichrist is slain, running through almost three
+years. All these time notes are of a year of three hundred and sixty
+days, not our common calendar year of three hundred and sixty-five and a
+fraction days.
+
+There comes the period called the kingdom. Its capital is Jerusalem. The
+regenerated nation of Israel becomes the first nation of the earth, with
+all other nations tributary. Israel's leadership is a blessed one in its
+spiritual influence over all others. The Jews are a missionary nation,
+whose one passion is to make the knowledge of God known throughout the
+earth.
+
+The redeemed ones of all the earth through all times will reign _over_
+the earth in fellowship with the King, the Lord Jesus. In their
+resurrection bodies, with all present bodily restrictions and
+limitations gone, they will have a blessed share in the new earth
+ministry.
+
+The purpose of the kingdom is world-wide evangelization, but with all
+the conditions radically changed. Satan, with all evil spirits, is
+removed from the scene of action. The nation of Jews, baptized by the
+Holy Spirit, is the missionary force, under the direction and help of
+the Church. The Holy Spirit will have been poured out upon all flesh,
+making all peculiarly open to the truth.
+
+What a wonderful time of continual revival it will be! But that much
+abused word "revival" will have its sweet, original meaning restored. It
+will mean a re-living, a new life of the Spirit coming, that will
+naturally include the body, too.
+
+
+Intelligent Watching.
+
+Such are the events, near and far, which some day will come up over the
+horizon of our common life, ushering in a new day. And we are bidden by
+our Lord Jesus to _watch_. We watch for Him, and for anything that tells
+us His coming is nearing.
+
+Watching means wakefulness, an ideal, a purpose, an expectancy, and a
+daily life under the control of wakefulness, ideal, purpose, and
+expectancy. That our Lord Jesus will actually come to this old earth and
+reign, this is the ideal. That we shall, by grace, be true to Him in
+everything, day by day, during this waiting-time, this is the purpose.
+That _we_ shall indeed see Him come, and be caught up into His presence
+without death, this is the expectancy.
+
+That this shall all be a real thing to us, _controlling_ all our
+relationships, our gold, and our life, and that we shall reverently,
+thoughtfully seek to understand what He has told us about it, this is
+the wakefulness. This is what watching means. Our bodies may be asleep,
+our brains and hands absorbed in the day's task, but our hearts can be
+awake for the sound ahead of the coming of His feet.
+
+"But how can you watch for Him if there are intervening events?" So the
+question came to me this summer by a thoughtful, godly minister who
+looks for His coming. And I said: "Because His coming is one of a little
+group of events which cluster about His coming."
+
+The crowd stands watching at the railway station in England to see the
+king's train come in. Yet they know that before it comes the
+pilot-engine will come, running ahead about so many minutes to insure
+the safety of the way. The coming of the pilot-engine heightens the
+intensity of watching, for now soon the king will come.
+
+The watcher in the sick-chamber, weary with the long night's anxious
+vigil, goes to the east window to see if day is coming. There comes a
+bare lighting-up in the east, just a slight lessening of the darkness
+that is everywhere. But even this much brings a sigh of relief. The sun
+itself may not be seen for two hours or more. But you know without
+looking at the clock that the sun is coming and is near. Its presence
+near sends the light far ahead.
+
+When the trees begin to send out swelling bud and tender green leaf and
+catkin, we know summer is coming, even though the chill is in the air,
+and the night may even now bring a touch of the white of frost. "Even so
+ye also _when ye see these things_ know that _He_ is nigh, even at the
+doors."[186]
+
+There's something intensely practical about this thing of watching. I
+mean the intelligent watching that a thoughtful study of God's Word
+promotes. There is a striking sentence used in describing some of the
+men that rallied to David during the clearing-up storm that preceded his
+reign. It is said of certain of the tribe of Issachar that they "_had
+understanding of the times_ to know what Israel ought to do" in the
+matter of making David the accepted king over the realm.[187] Their
+thoughtful study and judgment of the time made them wise leaders of
+action.
+
+There is a similar significant word spoken to Daniel in the final vision
+in which these end events are being disclosed. And we recall that the
+speaker is He for whose coming we look. He says, "They that are _wise_
+shall _understand_."[188] Daniel had prayerfully set himself to
+understand God's will for his people.[189] When the wonderful vision was
+given him in answer to his patient study and continued prayer, the Man
+of Fire who came to him said, "Now I am come to make thee _understand_."
+
+It is wise, by thoughtful, prayerful study of God's Word, to try to
+understand what He has told us. Not to do so is not wise. And more, it
+will become increasingly needful that others be taught as these events
+draw on. Daniel is told in this same connection that "They that are wise
+shall instruct many."[190]
+
+The opening words of the Revelation, and especially the closing
+paragraphs, emphasize this same thing. The revelation is given that we
+may read and understand and hold our lives true to this vision. This
+thing is intensely practical. Indeed, it is _the_ practical thing for
+our day. We _can_ understand the simple essentials revealed here. Our
+Lord Jesus earnestly desires us to do so. Surely we will, for His sake.
+
+
+A Spirit Sensitiveness.
+
+The thoughtful watching that grows out of an understanding of our Lord's
+plans influences subtly and mightily one's whole life. It deepens
+wondering reverence for the Lord Jesus Himself, His present power and
+personal glory sitting up yonder in the indescribable glory of the
+Father's presence, and His patience and strength in this waiting-time.
+It draws out a depth and tenderness of personal love for Himself and of
+devotion to Him.
+
+There comes to be a keenly acute conscience about evil, and about
+compromise with evil; and yet with it a sanity of judgment on particular
+questions arising, and a gentle consideration for others who see
+otherwise, or think they do. Evil grows in subtlety and in
+aggressiveness in our day, and probably will yet more. It seeks
+especially to make inroads among God's professing people. Yet evil is
+evil. Its true inwardness is quickly revealed by adding a "d" at the
+beginning of the word. And it grows increasingly repugnant in whatever
+guise, as we come to study more its inner spirit as revealed in these
+disclosures of the end times.
+
+Then, too, this watching affects one's judgment of, and attitude toward,
+Christian service, and toward movements in the Christian world. The
+getting-together spirit is getting more and more into Church circles.
+The fervent heart repeats constantly our Lord's prayer, "that they may
+all be one." Yet it becomes clear that there may be movements toward
+union that are not of the Holy Spirit's initiation, and that cannot have
+his approval.
+
+It is not enough to do good. That may prove to be a low level of action.
+_The_ thing is to find out what God has planned, and fit into that, with
+all the warmth of one's being. His will is always good, and better, and
+best. The good thing may not be the thing He has planned and wants done.
+
+It becomes increasingly clear that our Lord Jesus is a great general. He
+has the whole campaign of action mapped out, and every detail of it
+thought into and thought out. As one comes to learn more of His plans,
+and Himself as a planner, there comes to be _a passion for doing His
+will_. One moves from the old position of working for God up to the
+position of so fitting in that _God works through us_.
+
+And there comes to be a consciousness that He is doing immensely more
+through the things we do than we are conscious of. So in all Church
+activity there comes to be a reaching out in spirit to discern what _He_
+wants done, and putting all the strength into that.
+
+Then, too, one's thought of foreign missionary service undergoes a
+change. The actual taking of the message of Christ to those who haven't
+heard comes to have first place. Educational work and medical and
+humanitarian, and the like, in missionary service, are seen to be wisely
+used when held strictly in place as a means to a direct end. And their
+value is judged wholly by their being a means of bringing those whom
+they touch face to face with the Christ that died.
+
+It seems to be possible to spend fifty years and more establishing
+mission work in the city centres of a foreign-mission country, and all
+good, blessed work; and yet have the great mass of that country's
+population in utter ignorance of the Gospel message and its power.
+
+As the Holy Spirit is allowed control increasingly, there comes to be a
+better understanding of God's purposes and of His plans, an earnest
+coöperation in the Church movement for making Christ known to all men
+everywhere, a faithfulness in all the circle of one's own home Church,
+and a warm personal winning of men to know the Lord Jesus as their
+Saviour.
+
+So it is seen that watching for our Lord's return affects one's whole
+life in an intensely practical way. It deepens faith in _Him_. It leads
+to an _intelligent detachment_ in social and commercial and even Church
+circles, while making an increase of thoughtful regard for others. It
+purifies the personal life. It chastens and deepens and gentles the
+personal character.
+
+It seems very striking and very strange that when Jesus was born there
+are just two persons named, outside the immediate circle, who seemed to
+have the spirit instinct that recognized who He was. There was a man
+living in Jerusalem whose name was Simeon. Who was he? rich? poor?
+cultured? of lowly station? No one knows. But whoever he was, he had
+cultivated close walk with God. That's clear. And into his inner spirit
+came the conviction that the Christ promised for ages, so long waited
+for, the Christ was now coming, and _he would see Him_.
+
+And a similar story is told of the woman called Anna. These two were in
+that simple touch of heart with God that could in spirit sense the
+coming of the Christ. There may have been others. We are not told. But
+the emphasis remains on the fact that few seemed to discern the working
+out of God's tremendous plan.
+
+Will it be so again? It would surely seem that intelligent watching
+would make one sensitive in spirit to coming events. Yet there would
+ever be a mingling of deepest reverence, and a thoughtful caution
+regarding mere speculation, while the fervent prayer that Jesus taught
+is daily repeated, "Thy kingdom come."
+
+And John's closing Revelation prayer constantly breathes out, "Even so,
+come, Lord Jesus."
+
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[185] Acts iii. 20-21; xv. 14-18.
+
+[186] Matthew xxiv. 33.
+
+[187] 1 Chronicles xii. 32.
+
+[188] Daniel xii. 10.
+
+[189] Daniel viii. 15-17; ix. 1-2; x. 1-3, 11-14.
+
+[190] Daniel xi. 33.
+
+PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
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+
+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Quiet Talks on the Crowned Christ of
+Revelation, by S. D. Gordon
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Quiet Talks on the Crowned Christ of Revelation
+
+Author: S. D. Gordon
+
+Release Date: October 16, 2007 [EBook #23038]
+
+Language: English
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+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
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+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK QUIET TALKS ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Stephen Hope, Colin Bell, Fox in the Stars and
+the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at
+http://www.pgdp.net
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+</pre>
+
+
+<div class="title-page bbox">
+<div class="bbox"><h1><a name="Page_3" id="Page_3"></a>QUIET TALKS<br />
+<small>ON THE CROWNED</small><br />
+<i>Christ of Revelation</i></h1></div>
+<div class="bbox" style="margin-top: 0.5em;">
+<h3 style="font-style: italic; margin-top: 3em;">BY</h3>
+<h2 style="font-style: italic">S.&nbsp;D. GORDON</h2>
+
+<p class="publisher-location" style="margin-top:5em;"><i>NEW YORK &nbsp;&nbsp; CHICAGO &nbsp;&nbsp; TORONTO</i></p>
+<p class="publisher-name">FLEMING H. REVELL COMPANY</p>
+<p class="publisher-location"><i>LONDON AND EDINBURGH</i></p>
+</div></div>
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<p class="center"><a name="Page_4" id="Page_4"></a>Copyright, 1914, by<br />
+FLEMING H. REVELL COMPANY</p>
+
+<p class="center" style="margin-top: 5em;">New York: 158 Fifth Avenue<br />
+Chicago: 17 North Wabash Ave.<br />
+London: 21 Paternoster Square<br />
+Edinburgh: 75 Princes Street
+</p>
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_5" id="Page_5">[Page 5]</a></span></p>
+<h2><a name="PREFACE" id="PREFACE"></a>PREFACE</h2>
+
+
+<p>Crowning the Christ is an intensely practical
+thing, whether taken in the <i>personal</i> sense or the
+<i>world</i> sense. He has been crowned in the upper
+world. With wondrous patience and graciousness
+He pleads for the personal crowning in our
+lives. Some day&mdash;no one knows just when&mdash;He
+will begin to <i>act</i> as the crowned Christ <i>in all
+the affairs of our earth</i>.</p>
+
+<p>The initiative of all action to-day on the earth
+is in man's hands. Some day the initiative of
+<i>governing</i> action on the earth will be in the hands
+of the crowned Christ, even while the personal
+initiative of each man's life will still be in his own
+hands.</p>
+
+<p>God is intensely practical. Jesus was never
+concerned about speculation nor mere discussion;
+He was too intent on helping people. The Bible
+is wholly a practical book. It is concerned only
+with helping us. It does not tell us all the truth
+there is; we shall be constantly learning more
+in the future life. But it does tell us all we need
+to know now. And its purpose in telling us what
+it does is wholly practical,&mdash;to urge us to right
+choice, and to lives that square with the choice.
+This is the purpose that decided just what truth
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_6" id="Page_6">[Page 6]</a></span>should be told in the Book.</p>
+
+<p>There is one book of the sixty-six devoted
+wholly to this subject of the crowned Christ,&mdash;&quot;The
+Revelation of John.&quot; Every one of these
+books touches Him at some angle, and finds its
+deepest meaning in what He was to do and did
+do, and yields up its secrets only under the touch
+of His hand. But this book, the closing and climax
+of all, the knot in the end of the inspired
+thread, this deals wholly with the action of the
+crowned Christ.</p>
+
+<p>No book of the sixty-six has seemed so much
+like a riddle and set so many a-guessing. And
+without doubt much of its meaning will be clear
+only as events work themselves out. Events will
+prove the only expositor of much. But it is with
+the deep conviction that this is wholly a <i>practical
+book</i>, written wholly from a practical point of
+view, and concerned wholly with our practical
+daily lives, that I have ventured to take it up in
+this series of simple, wholly practical, Quiet
+Talks. And it is only this side of its teachings
+that will be dealt with here. The Book is a street
+leading into the true overcoming life the Master
+would woo us to.</p>
+
+<p>It is only after many years' study of this Book
+of the Revelation, and a special study the past
+three years and a little more, that I have ventured
+to put these talks together. And now they are
+sent out with the earnest humble prayer that
+others may find some little practical help in
+prayerfully reading, as I have found much in
+prayerfully studying, under the Master's gracious
+faithful touch.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<p><span class="pagenum">
+<a name="Page_7" id="Page_7">[Page 7]</a></span></p>
+<h2><a name="CONTENTS" id="CONTENTS"></a>CONTENTS</h2>
+
+<div class="contents">
+<ul class="toc">
+<li>I.<span class="TOCchapterTitle">The Christ Crowned, the Fact</span><span class="ralign"><a href="#Page_9">9</a></span></li>
+<li>II.<span class="TOCchapterTitle">The Crown Book</span><span class="ralign"><a href="#Page_39">39</a></span></li>
+<li>III.<span class="TOCchapterTitle">A Sight of the Crowned Christ</span><span class="ralign"><a href="#Page_63">63</a></span></li>
+<li>IV.<span class="TOCchapterTitle">A Message From the Crowned Christ</span><span class="ralign"><a href="#Page_97">97</a></span></li>
+<li>V.<span class="TOCchapterTitle">An Advance Step in the Royal Programme</span><span class="ralign"><a href="#Page_127">127</a></span></li>
+<li>VI.<span class="TOCchapterTitle">A Clearing-up Storm in the Realm</span><span class="ralign"><a href="#Page_151">151</a></span></li>
+<li>VII.<span class="TOCchapterTitle">The Crowned Christ Reigning</span><span class="ralign"><a href="#Page_215">215</a></span></li>
+<li>VIII.<span class="TOCchapterTitle">Watching the Horizon</span><span class="ralign"><a href="#Page_235">235</a></span></li>
+</ul></div>
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_9" id="Page_9">[Page 9]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2><a name="I_THE_CHRIST_CROWNED_THE_FACT" id="I_THE_CHRIST_CROWNED_THE_FACT"></a>I.&mdash;THE CHRIST CROWNED, THE FACT</h2>
+
+
+<div class="poem"><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_10" id="Page_10">[Page 10]</a></span>
+&quot;When God sought a King for His people of old,<br />
+<span class="i1">He went to the fields to find him;</span><br />
+A shepherd was he, with his crook and his lute<br />
+<span class="i1">And a following flock behind him.</span><br />
+</p><p>
+&quot;O love of the sheep, O joy of the lute,<br />
+<span class="i1">And the sling and the stone for battle;</span><br />
+A shepherd was King, the giant was naught,<br />
+<span class="i1">And the enemy driven like cattle.</span><br />
+</p><p>
+&quot;When God looked to tell of His good will to men,<br />
+<span class="i1">And the Shepherd-King's son whom He gave them;</span><br />
+To shepherds, made meek a-caring for sheep,<br />
+<span class="i1">He told of a Christ sent to save them.</span><br />
+</p><p>
+&quot;O love of the sheep, O watch in the night,<br />
+<span class="i1">And the glory, the message, the choir;</span><br />
+'Twas shepherds who saw their King in the straw,<br />
+<span class="i1">And returned with their hearts all on fire.</span><br />
+</p><p>
+&quot;When Christ thought to tell of His love to the world<br />
+<span class="i1">He said to the throng before him,</span><br />
+'The Good Shepherd giveth His life for the sheep&mdash;'<br />
+<span class="i1">And away to the cross they bore Him.</span><br />
+</p><p>
+&quot;O love of the sheep, O blood sweat of prayer,<br />
+<span class="i1">O man on the cross, God-forsaken;</span><br />
+A shepherd has gone to defend all alone<br />
+<span class="i1">The sheepfold by death overtaken.</span><br />
+</p><p>
+&quot;When God sought a King for His people, for aye,<br />
+<span class="i1">He went to the grave to find him;</span><br />
+And a shepherd came back, Death dead in His grasp,<br />
+<span class="i1">And a following flock behind Him.</span><br />
+</p>
+<div class="sidenote"><p>[1] Joseph Addison Richards.</p></div>
+<p>&quot;O love of the sheep, O life from the dead,<br />
+<span class="i1">O strength of the faint and the fearing;</span><br />
+A shepherd is King, and His Kingdom will come.<br />
+<span class="i1">And the day of His coming is nearing.&quot;&nbsp;<a name="FNanchor_1_1" id="FNanchor_1_1"></a><span class="snlabel">[1]</span></span><br />
+</p></div>
+<p>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_11" id="Page_11">[Page 11]</a></span>
+</p>
+<h4>Coronation Gift.</h4>
+
+<p>Christ is crowned. Not in any vague far-fetched
+meaning, but in the plain common-sense
+meaning of the word, He is <i>crowned</i>.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote"><p>[2] Mark xvi. 19.</p></div><p>For crowned means put in the place of highest
+power, with full right to exercise that power at
+will. And when the crucified Jesus went up that
+Olivet day, before the astonished eyes of the disciples,
+into the sightless blue, on the cloud, He
+was received in the upper world by the Father.
+And He was lifted up into the place of highest
+honour and greatest power. He sat down at the
+right hand of the Father.<a name="FNanchor_2_2" id="FNanchor_2_2"></a><span class="snlabel">[2]</span></p>
+
+<div class="sidenote"><p>[3] Matthew xxvi. 64.</p></div><p>He had said it would be so. Breathing the air
+thick with bitter hate on the night of His trial,
+He had quietly said to the Jewish rulers that
+even so it would be, bringing at once about His
+person the bursting of the storm of hate.<a name="FNanchor_3_3" id="FNanchor_3_3"></a><span class="snlabel">[3]</span> Now
+His unfaltering trust in His Father has its sweet
+reward.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote"><p>[4] Acts ii. 33; iii. 13-16; v. 31-32; vii. 55, 56.</p></div><p>The Holy Spirit poured out on Pentecost, the
+birthday of the Church, was the gift of the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_12" id="Page_12">[Page 12]</a></span>
+<i>crowned</i> Christ. The rushing sound as of a mighty
+wind that filled all the house, the tongues of flame
+plainly seen, the bold talking to the crowds of
+foreign Jews of God's mighty power, the faithful
+witnessing about the crucified Jesus in the
+city that hounded Him to death, the convinced
+crowds openly declaring at the peril of their lives
+their belief in the despised Jesus, the strangely
+rare unselfishness even in money matters, and
+the winsome graciousness of spirit that marked,
+not only the inner circle, but these greatly
+increased crowds,&mdash;all this said one thing in
+clear unanswerable tones of unmistakable power,
+<i>Christ is crowned</i>.<a name="FNanchor_4_4" id="FNanchor_4_4"></a><span class="snlabel">[4]</span> For the sending down
+of the Holy Spirit was the act of the crowned
+Christ.</p>
+
+<p>And every touch of the Holy Spirit's presence
+within trusting hearts,&mdash;the sweet peace, the quiet
+assurance, the longing for purity, the drawing
+away to prayer, the hunger for God's Word,
+the intense desire to have others saved, the passion
+to please this wondrous God of ours,&mdash;all
+these simple marks of the Holy Spirit's presence
+in our hearts, all tell us, and each tells us, in
+unmistakable tones, that Christ is crowned. For
+this wondrous Spirit within is the gift of the
+crowned Christ.</p>
+
+<p>When Jesus went up from the earth, holding
+as His sure captive the captivity of suffering
+and death to which He had with such great
+strength yielded, He received gifts, coronation
+gifts. The Father gave Him all. He gave Him<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_13" id="Page_13">[Page 13]</a></span>
+the disposal and control of all. This was the
+crowning.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote"><p>[5] Psalm lxviii. 18; Ephesians iv. 8; Acts ii. 33.</p></div><p>And in His great out-reaching love Christ received
+these gifts <i>on behalf of men</i>, His blood
+brothers. And at once He gave to men, to His
+trusting disciples, the all-inclusive gift, the Holy
+Spirit, His coronation gift.<a name="FNanchor_5_5" id="FNanchor_5_5"></a><span class="snlabel">[5]</span> So God came anew
+to dwell with men as originally planned.</p>
+
+<p>This blessed Presence within tells me, by His
+mere presence, that Christ is crowned.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote"><p>[6] Romans viii. 34; Ephesians i. 20-22; Philippians ii.
+9-11; Colossians iii. 1.</p><p>[7] I Peter iii. 22.</p></div><p>The writers of the New Testament make a
+chorus of sweet music on this chord, ringing
+out in clear tones the full notes of delight and
+joy. Luke's simple narrative sounds the note
+four times. Paul swells it out with a joyous fulness
+that grows in volume and intensity as his
+narrowing prison walls shut out more and more
+the lower lights, and centres his upward gaze
+upon Jesus, &quot;far above all rule, and authority,
+and power, and dominion, and every name that
+is named,&quot; with &quot;all things in subjection under
+His feet.&quot;<a name="FNanchor_6_6" id="FNanchor_6_6"></a><span class="snlabel">[6]</span> John's special companion and working
+partner, Peter, makes this note blend with and
+dominate the minor chord of suffering for
+Christ's sake.<a name="FNanchor_7_7" id="FNanchor_7_7"></a><span class="snlabel">[7]</span></p>
+
+<div class="sidenote"><p>[8] Hebrews i. 3; ii. 8-9; viii. 1; x. 12; xii. 2.</p></div><p>The Christian Hebrew who wrote so eloquently
+to his fellow-countrymen of the immense superiority
+of Jesus and so modestly withheld his own
+name, strikes this note five times with strong,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_14" id="Page_14">[Page 14]</a></span>
+clear touch.<a name="FNanchor_8_8" id="FNanchor_8_8"></a><span class="snlabel">[8]</span> He quotes that Eighth Psalm,
+which so wonderfully gives God's own ideal for
+man's mastery over all creation. And then he
+tells us that in Jesus the ideal will yet be fully
+realized. And that while the whole plan has not
+yet fully worked out as it will, yet <i>even now</i> we
+see the Jesus who tasted death for every one,
+crowned with glory and honour as part of the
+plan which He carried out in suffering the extreme
+suffering of death.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote"><p>[9] Revelation iii. 21.</p></div><p>And our Lord Jesus Himself, talking out of
+the glory to the man who was His bosom companion
+on earth, reserves as His last tender plea
+to us to live the overcoming life this&mdash;&quot;he that
+overcometh I will give him to sit down with me
+in my throne as I also overcame and <i>sat
+down with my Father on His throne</i>.&quot;<a name="FNanchor_9_9" id="FNanchor_9_9"></a><span class="snlabel">[9]</span></p>
+
+<p>And so we find out just what this word
+crowned means. Jesus was received in the upper
+world, exalted, glorified, made to sit down at the
+Father's right hand, put far above all rule and
+authority, with a name greater in the sweep of
+its power than any other, and with all things
+put in absolute subjection under His feet. This
+is the simple, direct meaning of the sentence&mdash;Christ
+is crowned.</p>
+
+<p>What a contrast the two faces of that glory
+cloud saw! The face looking down, and the face
+looking up! The one&mdash;the downward face&mdash;looked
+upon a cross, a Man hanging there with
+a mocking crown of thorns without and a break<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_15" id="Page_15">[Page 15]</a></span>ing
+heart within, scowling priests, jeering crowds,
+deserting disciples, sneering soldiers, weeping
+women, heart-broken friends, a horror of darkness,
+a cave-tomb under imperial seal, and blackest
+night settling down over all.</p>
+
+<p>The other&mdash;the upward face&mdash;looked upon a
+great burst of the upper glory, the countless
+angels singing swelling songs of worship, the
+wondrous winged cherubim, the redeemed hosts
+from Eden days on reverently bowing and exultantly
+singing, the exquisitely soft-green-rainbow-circled
+throne, the Father's face, once hidden,
+but to be hidden now never again, the <i>shared</i>
+seat on the Father's throne,&mdash;what a contrast!</p>
+
+<p>Here crucified&mdash;there crowned. Crucified on
+earth, one of the smaller globes of the universe.
+On the throne of the whole universe of globes&mdash;crowned!
+From the lowest depth to the one extreme
+height. From hate's worst to Love's best.
+From love poured out for men to love enthroned
+for those same men; love triumphant each time,
+on cross and on throne. What a contrast! What
+a coronation! What a welcome home to a
+throne!</p>
+
+<h4>The Music of a Name.</h4>
+
+<p>It is most intensely interesting to recall that,
+of course, this is just what the very word Christ
+means,&mdash;the Crowned One. We sometimes get
+so used to a word that it is easy to forget its
+real meaning. The word Christ has been used so
+generally for so many centuries as a <i>name</i> that<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_16" id="Page_16">[Page 16]</a></span>
+we forget that originally it was a title, and not a
+name.</p>
+
+<p>And it still is a title, though used chiefly as a
+name. Some day the title-meaning will overlap
+the name-meaning. We may never cease thinking
+of it as a name, but there is a time coming
+when events will make the title-meaning so big
+as to clear over-shadow our thought and use of it
+as a name.</p>
+
+<p>It helps to recall the distinctive meaning of
+the words we use for Him who walked amongst,
+and was one of us. Jesus is His <i>name</i>. It belongs
+to the <i>man</i>. It belongs peculiarly to the
+thirty-three years and a bit more that He was
+here, even though not exclusively used in that
+way in the Book.</p>
+
+<p>There's a rare threefold sweetness of meaning
+in that five-lettered name. There is the
+meaning of the old word lying within the
+name, before it became a name, victory, victor,
+saviour-victor, Jehovah-victor. There is the
+swing and rhythm and murmur of music, glad
+joyous music, in its very beginnings as a common
+word.</p>
+
+<p>Then it has come to stand wholly for a <i>personality</i>,
+the rarely gentle, winsome, strong
+personality of the Man of Bethlehem and Nazareth,
+and of those crowded service-days. And
+every memory of His personality sweetens and
+enriches the music in the old word.</p>
+
+<p>And then the deepest significance, the richest
+rhythm, the sweetest melody, come from the
+meaning His experiences, His life, pressed into<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_17" id="Page_17">[Page 17]</a></span>
+it. The sympathy, the suffering, the wilderness,
+the Cross, the Resurrection, all the experiences
+He went through, these give to this victory-word,
+Jesus, a meaning unknown before. They
+put the name Jesus actually above every name
+in the experiences of tense conflict and sweeping
+victory it stands for. This threefold chording
+makes music never to be broken nor forgotten.</p>
+
+<p>
+&quot;There is no name so sweet on earth,<br />
+<span class="i1">No name so sweet in heaven,</span><br />
+The name before His wondrous birth,<br />
+<span class="i1">To Christ the Saviour given.&quot;</span><br />
+</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote"><p>[10] Acts ii. 36.</p><p>[11] Romans x. 9.</p></div><p>Lord is a title, of course. It was used of one
+who was a proprietor, an owner, or a master. It
+was commonly used as a title of honour for one
+in superior position, as a leader or teacher. In
+speaking of Jesus it is coupled with the title
+Christ as an interchangeable word,<a name="FNanchor_10_10" id="FNanchor_10_10"></a><span class="snlabel">[10]</span> as well as
+an additional title. But peculiarly it is the <i>personal
+title</i> given Jesus by one who takes Him
+as his own personal Master,<a name="FNanchor_11_11" id="FNanchor_11_11"></a><span class="snlabel">[11]</span> while it still retains
+its broader meaning.</p>
+
+<p>But <i>Christ</i> is peculiarly <i>the official title</i> of
+Jesus. There is only one Christ. Lord is used
+of men. It is used of both the Father and the
+Holy Spirit, as well as of Jesus. But the name
+Christ is used of only one person, and can mean
+only that one. There could be only one Christ.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote"><p>[12] I Samuel xvi. 6; xxiv. 6, 10; II Samuel i. 14-16;
+xix. 21, and elsewhere; Psalm xviii. 50, and frequently
+in Psalms.</p></div><p>The word or its equivalent was used occasionally
+in the Old Testament in a narrowed sense<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_18" id="Page_18">[Page 18]</a></span>
+for the King of Israel, who is reverently spoken
+of as &quot;the Lord's anointed,&quot; that is, God's Messiah
+or Christ.<a name="FNanchor_12_12" id="FNanchor_12_12"></a><span class="snlabel">[12]</span></p>
+
+<div class="sidenote"><p>[13] John i. 20, 25; Luke iii. 15.</p></div><p>But the one common thought of it among the
+Hebrew people, growing ever intenser as the Old
+Testament period merges into the time of the
+New, was that there was one coming, <i>the</i> Messiah,
+<i>the</i> Christ, God's chosen, the one anointed
+and empowered, to be their Deliverer. The one
+question that sets all hearts a-flutter about the
+rugged John of the deserts was this: &quot;Is he <i>the</i>
+Christ?&quot;<a name="FNanchor_13_13" id="FNanchor_13_13"></a><span class="snlabel">[13]</span> In their thought there was only one
+to whom the title belonged.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote"><p>[14] Philippians ii. 10; I Corinthians xv. 24-26.</p></div><p>And even so it is. Christ is the official title
+of <i>the One</i> Chosen and anointed by God to be
+ruler over His Hebrew people, and over all the
+race, and the earth, and the universe,&mdash;God's
+King, to reign until all have been brought into
+full allegiance to the great loving Father.<a name="FNanchor_14_14" id="FNanchor_14_14"></a><span class="snlabel">[14]</span> The
+Christ is the Crowned One, God's Crowned One.
+The very word Christ tells that Christ is
+crowned.</p>
+
+<h4>Our Great Kinsman.</h4>
+
+<div class="sidenote"><p>[15] John xvii. 5; i. 1-3; Colossians i. 15-17.</p></div><p>There is an intensely interesting question that
+crowds its way in here, and it proves an immensely
+practical question, too. <i>Why</i> was Christ
+crowned? We can say at once that this was His<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_19" id="Page_19">[Page 19]</a></span>
+due. He was given that which belonged to Him
+in good right. He was reinstated in His former
+position, with all the power and glory that were
+His before His errand to the earth.<a name="FNanchor_15_15" id="FNanchor_15_15"></a><span class="snlabel">[15]</span></p>
+
+<div class="sidenote"><p>[16] Matthew xxvi. 64; Acts ii. 22-24, 32-36; Philippians
+ii. 9-11; Hebrews ii. 9.</p></div><p>Then too this was His vindication after the
+shameful treatment of earth. Before the eyes of
+all the upper world, both loyal and disloyal eyes,
+this man whom earth hounded so shamelessly is
+vindicated; He is set right by the Father.<a name="FNanchor_16_16" id="FNanchor_16_16"></a><span class="snlabel">[16]</span></p>
+
+<p>But there is yet more than this. It is a more of
+a sort that concerns <i>us</i> very closely, and it sets
+one's heart a-beating a bit faster. This crowning
+was part of a plan, a plan of which our earth
+is the centre. It was the second great part of
+a plan of which the suffering and dying were the
+first great part. Both were for the sake of us
+men and our earth-home, and the lower creation.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote"><p>[17] Hebrews ii. 5-18.</p></div><p>This is the thing being emphasized in the second
+great paragraph of the Hebrews.<a name="FNanchor_17_17" id="FNanchor_17_17"></a><span class="snlabel">[17]</span> Man was
+made the under-master of the earth and of the
+lower creation, but lost, weakly surrendered, his
+place of mastery. The new Man came to recover
+for man what had been lost and to realize
+this original lost plan.</p>
+
+<p>And so He became our brother, sharer of our
+flesh and blood, tempted like as we, perfected
+in His human character by the experiences He
+went through, then tasted to the bitter dregs the
+death that belongs to our sin. And then follow<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_20" id="Page_20">[Page 20]</a></span>ing
+that, He was crowned with glory and honour.
+And so He rises to the place of mastery
+over all that belongs to perfect man. So He
+brings all creation into the glad subjection
+which is its natural happy state. It is for
+earth's sake, for the race's sake, and for the
+sake of our faithful companions and servants,
+the whole lower creation, that Christ has been
+crowned.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote"><p>[18] Romans vii. 19-22; Jeremiah ix. 10; xii. 4, 11; xxiii.
+10; Genesis iii. 17-19; Acts iii. 21.</p></div><p>We think more about the personal meaning to
+ourselves of His having died and risen again.
+We need to remember, too, this broader meaning.
+The dying and rising secures our salvation personally.
+The crowning and the reigning will
+work out the redemption of all nature and of the
+lower creation,<a name="FNanchor_18_18" id="FNanchor_18_18"></a><span class="snlabel">[18]</span> and this in turn will mean much
+for men living on the earth in the Kingdom time,
+and for the race as a race.</p>
+
+<p>This leads at once to another question that
+presses in. What is the <i>domain</i> of the crowned
+Christ? If we take the crowning in the common
+meaning of that word, it means that there
+is some domain that Christ rules over. What
+is it that He is crowned over?</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote"><p>[19] Ephesians i. 20-22; Hebrews ii. 6-8.</p></div><p>And the answer is so sweeping as to seem
+far-away and dreamy to us who are living on this
+sin-hurt earth. He is the crowned Ruler of the
+whole created universe and all intelligent beings
+in it. He has been placed over absolutely every
+&quot;rule and authority and power and dominion,
+and not only in this present age but in the com<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21">[Page 21]</a></span>ing
+age.&quot;<a name="FNanchor_19_19" id="FNanchor_19_19"></a><span class="snlabel">[19]</span> There is simply no limit in extent
+to His domain. Everything has been placed in
+subjection to Him and is now subject to His
+word, and His alone.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote"><p>[20] Philippians ii. 9-11.</p></div><p>There is a striking passage in Philippians that
+fits in here.<a name="FNanchor_20_20" id="FNanchor_20_20"></a><span class="snlabel">[20]</span> In speaking of the exaltation of
+Jesus Christ, Paul is careful to explain particularly
+that every knee would bow, <i>in the heavens</i>,
+and, <i>on the earth</i>, and <i>under</i> the earth or in the
+<i>world below</i>.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote"><p>[21] Ephesians vi. 12; Colossians ii. 15.</p><p>[22] Colossians ii. 10; Ephesians iii. 10; iv. 8-10;
+I Corinthians xv. 24.</p></div><p>This threefold division is very striking. The
+heaven things are understood at once, and things
+of the earth sphere. But there is a third world
+to be taken into account, that strange uncanny
+world of evil spirit beings in rebellion against
+God's authority. It is spoken of repeatedly as
+principalities and powers, indicating numbers and
+organization, dignity, and power.<a name="FNanchor_21_21" id="FNanchor_21_21"></a><span class="snlabel">[21]</span> All of this is
+included in what has been placed under Christ's
+authority.<a name="FNanchor_22_22" id="FNanchor_22_22"></a><span class="snlabel">[22]</span></p>
+
+<h4>Is Christ Reigning Now?</h4>
+
+<p>But there is still another question that has been
+impatiently pushing underneath for some time.
+And it also is an intensely practical one. Does
+this mean that Christ is actually ruling now over
+this domain of His? How about the affairs on<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_22" id="Page_22">[Page 22]</a></span>
+the earth? Are all things here subject to Him?
+Is this the way He would have things go? And
+some of us think the evil spirits seem pretty free
+in their movements. This present order of things
+that we are living in the thick of, is this the reign
+of the crowned Christ? And some of us feel the
+stress of things so much that we can scarce keep
+patient for a thoughtful poised answer to our
+questions.</p>
+
+<p>There are those, and good earnest folk they
+are, too, who tell us that Christ has come, and
+is constantly coming, more and more, into our
+common life. The higher ideals that are crowding
+for expression, the more spiritual conceptions
+of man and his brotherly relations, the constant
+striving toward better civilization, the bettering of
+the condition of the poor and less fortunate, the
+increased recognition of men's rights in the complex
+industrial world, the increasing effort to
+correct evils by legislation, the great moral reforms
+that are sweeping aside the awful liquor
+curse, and loosening women's bonds, and safeguarding
+young womanhood and children, the
+newer aggressiveness in the missionary propaganda
+and in much of the activity of the Church,
+even the attempt to humanize and civilize the
+warfare that in itself is stupidly savage and utterly
+inhuman,&mdash;is not all this a coming of Christ
+and of the Christ-spirit into our common life?
+many ask.</p>
+
+<p>And there is only one answer to such questions,
+a strong emphatic &quot;yes.&quot; It surely is the
+Christ-spirit that moves in all of this. This is a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_23" id="Page_23">[Page 23]</a></span>
+coming of Christ; and a blessed coming, too.
+There was nothing of this sort before the Christ-spirit
+began to sweeten the world's life. And
+there is none of it to-day except in those parts
+of the world where the Christ-spirit influences
+life.</p>
+
+<p>But&mdash;there's a &quot;but&quot;&mdash;it proves a blessed but;
+this is only a crumb or two falling from a loaded
+table. And he who judges Christ by these
+crumbs only, wholesome and toothsome as they
+are, will have a very skimpy conception of
+Christ.</p>
+
+<p>All of this sort of thing that has come has come
+very slowly. It has had to fight through and
+in, every step of the way that it has come. Its
+coming has been opposed stubbornly, maliciously,
+viciously every inch of the road, as only those
+know who are in the thick of the struggle for
+these reforms, panting for breath sometimes.</p>
+
+<p>It is as though a few whiffs of wholesome life-giving
+air have breathed through the cracks and
+crevices of the breastworks and fortifications of
+evil in which all our common life seems entrenched.
+But the fortifications are still there.
+If the sweet, wholesome breathing in through
+cracks and crannies has been so blest, what would
+it be if the forces of evil were clean removed
+from the scene, and the Christ-spirit became the
+whole atmosphere breathed fully and freely without
+restraint, with no bad draughts, and no counter
+currents to guard and fight against?</p>
+
+<p>It would seem like a strange sort of a kingdom
+if the present is even a gradual coming in of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_24" id="Page_24">[Page 24]</a></span>
+the Kingdom. We would seem to be having a
+new, strange sort of a Christ if the present is a
+sample of His sort of reigning. For it may well
+be thoughtfully doubted if ever there was such
+a condition of feverish unrest in all parts of the
+world as to-day.</p>
+
+<p>It is most difficult to put your finger on a single
+spot of the world-map that is not being torn
+and uptorn by unrest in one shape or another.
+Either actual war, or constant studious preparation
+for war, actually never ceases. And it is
+difficult to say which is the worse of the two.
+The actual war reveals more terribly to our eyes
+and ears the awful cost in treasure and in precious
+human blood spilled without stint. The
+never-ceasing preparation for war seems actually
+to cost more. In the immense treasure involved,
+and in blood too, given out, not on an occasional
+battlefield, but in the continual battle of daily life
+to meet the terrible drain of taxation, it costs immensely
+more. There is less of the tragic for
+the news headings, but not a whit less, rather
+much more, in the slow suffering, the pinched
+lives, and the awful temptations to barter character
+for bread.</p>
+
+<p>Then there is the continual seething unrest
+in the industrial world; the protests sometimes
+so strange and startling against social and political
+conditions; the feverish greed for gold, and land,
+and position; the intense pace of all our modern
+life; the abandonment of home and home ideals;
+the terrific attack against our young womanhood.
+The political pot which gathers into itself all<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_25" id="Page_25">[Page 25]</a></span>
+these things, never quits boiling or boiling over,
+in some part of the world, now here, now there.
+And it seems like the greatest achievement of
+diplomacy when here and there it can be kept
+from boiling clean over, or at least made to boil
+over less.</p>
+
+<p>It would seem indeed like a queer sort of
+kingdom if this is a sample. Some of us would
+have less heart in repeating one petition of the
+old daily prayer. And Christ would seem to have
+quite changed His spirit and character if this is
+a result of His coming.</p>
+
+<h4>The Greatness of Patience.</h4>
+
+<div class="sidenote"><p>[23] Hebrews ii. 8.</p></div><p>And the great simple truth is this, the truth
+that in the strange mix-up of life we easily lose
+sight of is this: <i>Christ has not yet taken possession
+of all of His domain</i>; a part of it still remains
+to be possessed. &quot;We see <i>not yet</i> all things subjected
+to Him.&quot;<a name="FNanchor_23_23" id="FNanchor_23_23"></a><span class="snlabel">[23]</span> We are living in the &quot;not-yet&quot;
+interval between the crowning and the
+actual reigning. We are living on the &quot;not-yet&quot;
+possessed part of His domain.</p>
+
+<p>And the question that comes hot and quick
+from our lips, even though with an attempt at
+subdued reverence, is this: &quot;Why does He not
+take possession, and untangle the snarl, and right
+the wrongs, and bring in the true rational order
+of things?&quot; And all the long waiting, the soreness
+of hearts over the part that touches one's
+own life most closely, the shortness of breath in<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_26" id="Page_26">[Page 26]</a></span>
+the tensity of the struggle, underscore that word
+&quot;why?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>And the answer to the impatient question reveals
+all afresh the greatness of the love of our
+Christ. His greatness is shown most in His
+<i>patience</i>. But patience is one of the things we
+men on this old earth don't know. It's one of
+the unknown quantities to us. It can be known
+only by knowing God. For patience is love at
+its best. Patience is God at His best. His is
+the patience that sees all, and feels all with the
+tender heart that broke once under the load, and
+yet waits, steadily waits, and then waits just a
+bit longer.</p>
+
+<p>In this He runs the risk of being misunderstood.
+Men in their stupidity constantly mistake
+strong patience for weakness or indifference
+or lack of a gripping purpose. And God is
+misunderstood in this, even by His trusting children.
+But, even so, the object to be gained is
+so great, and so near Christ's heart that He
+waits, strongly waits with a patience beyond our
+comprehension; waits just a bit longer, always
+just a bit longer.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote"><p>[24] II Peter iii. 8-9; Romans ii. 4; ix. 22; Revelation
+ii. 21; I Peter iii. 20; II Peter iii. 15; Exodus xxxiv.
+6-7.</p></div><p>There are two parts to the answer. Jesus the
+Christ is giving man the fullest opportunity. He
+never interferes with man's right of free choice.
+Man is free to do as he chooses. Every possible
+means is used to influence him to choose right, but
+the choice itself is always left to the man. The
+present is man's opportunity. The initiative of
+action on the earth is altogether in man's hand.
+All of God's power is at man's disposal; but man<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_27" id="Page_27">[Page 27]</a></span>
+must <i>reach out</i> and <i>take</i>. This long stretched
+but waiting time is for man's sake, that he may
+have fullest opportunity. The longsuffering of
+God would woo men.<a name="FNanchor_24_24" id="FNanchor_24_24"></a><span class="snlabel">[24]</span></p>
+
+<p>When at length opportunity comes to its end
+it will be only because things have gotten into
+such desperate shape, into such an awful fix, that
+at length <i>for man's sake</i> Christ will step into the
+direct action of the earth once again. He will
+take the leadership of earth into His own hands,
+even while still leaving each man free in his
+individual choice. This is the first part of the
+answer. The waiting is that man may have fullest
+opportunity.</p>
+
+<p>Then Christ has a great hunger for <i>willing</i>
+hearts. No words are strong enough to tell His
+longing for a free, glad, joyous surrender to His
+mastery. He could so easily end the present conflict,
+but He waits that men may bring to Him
+the allegiance of their lives, given of their own
+glad, gracious, voluntary accord. He was a volunteer
+Saviour. He longs for that love that is
+the bubbling out of a free, full heart.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote"><p>[25] James v. 7.</p></div><p>The best love is only given freely without any
+compulsion of any sort, save only love's sweet
+compelling. He wants what He gives&mdash;the best.
+And so He waits, patiently waits just a bit longer.
+This is the second bit of the answer. The long
+delay spells out the hunger as well as the patience
+of God's heart. The divine Husbandman is pa<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_28" id="Page_28">[Page 28]</a></span>tiently
+waiting, and sending warm sun and soft
+rains and fragrant dews while waiting.<a name="FNanchor_25_25" id="FNanchor_25_25"></a><span class="snlabel">[25]</span></p>
+
+<div class="poem"><p class="stanza">
+&quot;The Husbandman waiteth&mdash;<br />
+<span class="i1">The <i>Husbandman</i>? Why?</span><br />
+For the heart of one servant<br />
+<span class="i1">Who hears not His cry.</span><br />
+</p><p class="stanza">
+&quot;The Husbandman waiteth&mdash;<br />
+<span class="i1">He <i>waiteth</i>? What for?</span><br />
+For the heart of one servant<br />
+<span class="i1">To love Him yet more.</span><br />
+</p>
+<div class="sidenote"><p>[26] F.&nbsp;M.&nbsp;N.</p></div>
+<p class="stanza">
+&quot;The Husbandman waiteth&mdash;<br />
+<span class="i1">Long patience hath He&mdash;</span><br />
+But He waiteth in hunger&mdash;<br />
+<span class="i1">Oh! Is it for thee?"<a name="FNanchor_26_26" id="FNanchor_26_26"></a><span class="snlabel">[26]</span></span>
+</p></div>
+
+<h4>Taking with Your Life.</h4>
+
+<div class="sidenote"><p>[27] Ephesians i. 20-22.</p></div><p>But&mdash;ah! listen, there's a wonderful &quot;but&quot; to
+put in here. But, while waiting <i>He puts all His
+limitless power at our disposal</i>. If that simple
+sentence could be put into letters of living flame,
+its tremendous meaning might burn into our
+hearts. When Paul piled up phrase on phrase
+in his eager attempt to have his Asiatic friends
+in and around Ephesus take in the limitless power
+of the ascended Christ, he added the significant
+words, &quot;to the Church.&quot;<a name="FNanchor_27_27" id="FNanchor_27_27"></a><span class="snlabel">[27]</span> All that power is for
+the use, and at the disposal, of the Church.</p>
+
+<p>The Church was meant to be a unit in spirit
+in loyalty to her absent Lord, wholly under the
+dominating touch of the Holy Spirit, not only<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_29" id="Page_29">[Page 29]</a></span>
+in her official actions, but in the lives of the individual
+members. If she were so, no human
+imagination could take in the startling, revolutionary
+power, softly, subtly, but with resistless
+sweep, flowing down from the crowned Christ,
+among grateful men.</p>
+
+<p>Not being such a unit it is not possible that that
+power shall be as great in manifestation as was
+planned and meant. For no individual nor group
+can ever take the place in action of the whole
+unified body of believers, acting as a channel
+for the power of the crowned Christ. That power
+shall be realized on the earth only when the
+Church is so unified, and at work, under the
+reigning Christ, from the new headquarters up
+in the heavens.</p>
+
+<p>But meanwhile all of that power is <i>at the disposal
+of any disciple of Christ</i>&mdash;the humblest&mdash;who
+will simply live in full-faced touch with
+Christ, and who will <i>take</i> of that power as the
+need comes, and as the sovereign Holy Spirit
+leads.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote"><p>[28] Ephesians iii. 20.</p></div><p>It is of this, this <i>personal</i> taking, that Paul is
+speaking when he piles up that intense sentence:
+&quot;able to do <i>exceeding abundantly above all that
+we ask or think</i> according to <i>the power that worketh
+in us</i>.&quot;<a name="FNanchor_28_28" id="FNanchor_28_28"></a><span class="snlabel">[28]</span> The great bother in Paul's day and
+ever since, and now, is to get people to <i>take</i>. The
+power is fairly a-tremble in the air at our very
+finger-tips. And we go limping, crutching along
+both bodily and mentally and in our spiritual
+leanness.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_30" id="Page_30">[Page 30]</a></span></p>
+
+<div class="sidenote"><p>[29] John xiv. 12-14.</p></div><p>Those tremendous words of Jesus, &quot;because
+I go unto the Father,&quot; with the whole passage in
+which they occur,<a name="FNanchor_29_29" id="FNanchor_29_29"></a><span class="snlabel">[29]</span> must be read in <i>the light shining
+from the throne</i>. Only so can they be understood.
+But then, so read, they begin to grip us,
+and grip us hard, as we see what He really meant
+and means.</p>
+
+<p>He who has the warm, child-like touch of heart
+with Jesus, that the word &quot;believeth&quot; stands for,
+shall&mdash;as the Holy Spirit has full control&mdash;do the
+same works as Jesus did, same in kind and in
+degree, and then shall do even greater than Jesus
+ever did. <i>Because</i> it is now the glorified crowned
+Christ who is doing them through some child
+of His, simple-hearted enough to let Him have
+full control.</p>
+
+<p>And the means through which He will do them
+is simple, child-like, trusting, humble prayer. The
+man using the power is on his knees. The lower
+down he gets the more and more freely the power
+flows down and out among men.</p>
+
+<p>As one learns to keep in touch&mdash;learns it
+slowly, stumblingly, with many a stupid fall, and
+many a tremble and quiver&mdash;as he learns to keep
+in simple touch with the crowned Christ he will
+find <i>all</i> the power of that Christ coming with a
+soft surging throb of life wherever needed. <i>We
+may have all we can take.</i> But <i>the taking must
+be with one's very life</i>. No mere earnest repeating
+of a creed in Church service will avail here.
+The repeating must be, syllable by syllable, with
+feet and will, with hands and life, in the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_31" id="Page_31">[Page 31]</a></span>
+daily tread where each step is stubbornly
+contested.</p>
+
+<p>This is the bit of truth for the waiting time.
+This is the song to be singing in this present
+&quot;not-yet&quot; interval. And the song will help cut
+down the length of that &quot;not-yet,&quot; until the friction
+of our lived faith shall wear off the &quot;not&quot;
+and wipe out the &quot;yet,&quot; and we shall find the
+crowned Christ a reigning Christ.</p>
+
+<p>For some day this patient waiting crowned
+Man will rise up from His seat at the Father's
+right hand. He will step directly into the action
+of earth once again. Man will have had his fullest
+opportunity lengthened out to the last notch
+of his possible use of it. Then we shall see the
+crowned Christ quietly stepping in, taking matters
+wholly into His own hands, and acting in all the
+affairs of earth as the Crowned One. Then He
+shall reign from sea to sea, and from the Euphrates
+out to where the ends of the earth become
+a common line on the other side. The
+Kingdom will have come, for the King will be
+reigning.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote"><p>[30] Hebrews x. 13.</p><p>[31] Acts iii. 21.</p></div><p>The night will be gone. The day has come.
+The shadows flee. He has come, whose presence
+puts the new day at dawn, with the East
+all aflame, and the fragrant dew glistening gladly
+on every tender green blade. This time of expectancy
+is over;<a name="FNanchor_30_30" id="FNanchor_30_30"></a><span class="snlabel">[30]</span> the time of making real has
+<i>come</i>. Then comes the restoration of the old
+original love plan to earth and beast and man.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_32" id="Page_32">[Page 32]</a></span><a name="FNanchor_31_31" id="FNanchor_31_31"></a><span class="snlabel">[31]</span></p>
+
+<div class="poem">
+<p>
+&quot;Thou art coming, O my Saviour!<br />
+<span class="i1">Thou art coming, O my King!</span><br />
+In thy glory all-transcendent;<br />
+In thy beauty all resplendent;<br />
+<span class="i1">Well may we rejoice and sing!</span><br />
+Coming! In the opening east,<br />
+<span class="i1">Herald brightness slowly swells;</span><br />
+Coming, O my glorious Priest,<br />
+<span class="i1">Hear we not thy golden bells?</span><br />
+</p><p>
+&quot;Thou art coming, Thou art coming!<br />
+<span class="i1">We shall meet Thee on Thy way,</span><br />
+We shall see Thee, we shall know Thee,<br />
+We shall bless Thee, we shall show Thee<br />
+<span class="i1">All our hearts could never say!</span><br />
+What an anthem that will be,<br />
+Ringing out our love to Thee;<br />
+Pouring out our rapture sweet<br />
+At Thine own all-glorious feet!<br />
+</p><p>
+&quot;Thou art coming! Rays of glory,<br />
+<span class="i1">Through the veil Thy death has rent,</span><br />
+Touch the mountain and the river<br />
+With a golden glowing quiver,<br />
+<span class="i1">Thrill of light and music blent.</span><br />
+Earth is brightened when this gleam<br />
+Falls on flower, rock, and stream;<br />
+Life is brightened when this ray<br />
+Falls upon its darkest day.<br />
+</p><p>
+&quot;Not a cloud and not a shadow,<br />
+<span class="i1">Not a mist and not a tear,</span><br />
+Not a sin and not a sorrow,<br />
+Not a dim and veiled to-morrow,<br />
+<span class="i1">For that sunrise grand and clear!</span><br />
+Jesus, Saviour, once with Thee,<br />
+<span class="i1">Nothing else seems worth a thought!</span><br />
+Oh, how marvellous will be<br />
+<span class="i1">All the bliss Thy pain hath bought!</span><br />
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_33" id="Page_33">[Page 33]</a></span><br />
+&quot;Thou art coming! At Thy table,<br />
+<span class="i1">We are witnesses of this,</span><br />
+While remembering hearts Thou meetest,<br />
+In communion clearest, sweetest,<br />
+<span class="i1">Earnest of our coming bliss.</span><br />
+Showing not Thy death alone,<br />
+<span class="i1">And Thy love exceeding great,</span><br />
+But Thy coming and Thy throne,<br />
+<span class="i1">All for which we long and wait.</span><br />
+</p><p>
+&quot;Thou art coming! We are waiting<br />
+<span class="i1">With a hope that cannot fail;</span><br />
+Asking not the day or hour,<br />
+Resting on Thy word of power<br />
+<span class="i1">Anchored safe within the veil,</span><br />
+Time appointed may be long,<br />
+<span class="i1">But the vision must be sure;</span><br />
+Certainty shall make us strong,<br />
+<span class="i1">Joyful patience can endure!</span><br />
+</p>
+<div class="sidenote"><p>[32] Frances Ridley Havergal.</p></div>
+<p>
+&quot;O the joy to see Thee reigning,<br />
+<span class="i1">Thee, my own beloved Lord!</span><br />
+Every tongue Thy name confessing,<br />
+Worship, honor, glory, blessing,<br />
+<span class="i1">Brought to Thee with glad accord!</span><br />
+Thee, my Master and my Friend,<br />
+<span class="i1">Vindicated and enthroned!</span><br />
+Unto earth's remotest end<br />
+<span class="i1">Glorified, adored, and owned!"<a name="FNanchor_32_32" id="FNanchor_32_32"></a><span class="snlabel">[32]</span></span><br />
+</p></div>
+
+<h4>Working by the Light of the Throne.</h4>
+
+<p>But we are still in the &quot;not-yet&quot; interval. We
+see not yet all things subject to Him. This is
+still the waiting time. It is the pleading time
+for Him. He pleads for the <i>personal crowning</i>
+of Himself in our lives, that He may reign there<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_34" id="Page_34">[Page 34]</a></span>
+and He alone. This is our great opportunity.
+We shall never see its like again, nor anywhere
+else than on this earth.</p>
+
+<p>In the reigning time that's coming this peculiar
+opportunity of crowning Christ while He still is
+absent and despised, this will be gone. In the
+upper world they have no such opportunity.
+There is no opposition there. Now and here is
+the rarest opportunity to put this great waiting
+patient Man on the throne of heart and life,
+with possessions and ambitions and plans all in
+subjection under His feet.</p>
+
+<p>Every woman knows the name of Brussels
+lace. The old capital of the low countries of
+Europe has long been famous for its lace. It
+is of great interest to note the conditions under
+which it is sometimes made. They are conditions
+studiously prepared after long experience.
+In one of the famous lace factories in Brussels
+there are a number of small rooms devoted to the
+making of some of the most delicate patterns.</p>
+
+<p>Each room is just large enough for a single
+worker, and is quite dark except for one narrow
+window. The worker sits so that the stream
+of light falls from above directly upon the threads,
+while he himself sits in the darkness. The darkness
+aids the workman's eyes to see better, and to
+work more skilfully in the narrow line of clear
+light centred on the delicate task. He weaves
+in the upper light intensified by the surrounding
+gloom, and does exquisite work.</p>
+
+<p>There is a clear line of light <i>from a throne</i>
+shining down into the darkness in which we sit<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_35" id="Page_35">[Page 35]</a></span>
+and move. It shines from the face of a crowned
+Man. In the light of that light we can see clearly
+to do a difficult bit of crowning work,&mdash;to crown
+the Christ in our lives and to keep Him crowned.</p>
+
+<p>As our eyes follow that line of upper light we
+may catch glimpses of His wondrous Face up
+there in the glory. So we shall be steadied and
+cheered in the darkness as we stick to our glad
+crowning work. And so we shall move forward
+on the calendar the day when that thin line of
+light seen now only by watching eyes shall become
+a burst of glory light seen by all eyes.</p>
+
+<p>And this is the thing the crowned Christ is
+asking of us during this waiting time, this &quot;not-yet&quot;
+interval. He is counting on each of us
+being faithful to Him, our absent Lord, in this.</p>
+
+<div class="poem">
+<p>
+&quot;He is counting on you.<br />
+<span class="i1">He has need of your life</span><br />
+<span class="i1">In the thick of the strife:</span><br />
+<span class="i1">For that weak one may fall</span><br />
+<span class="i1">If you fail at His call.</span><br />
+He is counting on you,<br />
+If you fail Him&mdash;<br />
+<span class="i2">What then?</span><br />
+</p><p>
+&quot;He is counting on you.<br />
+<span class="i1">On your silver and gold,</span><br />
+<span class="i1">On that treasure you hold;</span><br />
+<span class="i1">On that treasure still kept,</span><br />
+<span class="i1">Though the doubt o'er you swept</span><br />
+<span class="i1">'Is this gold not <i>all</i> mine?</span><br />
+<span class="i1">(Lord, I knew it was <i>Thine</i>.')</span><br />
+He is counting on you,<br />
+If you fail Him&mdash;<br />
+<span class="i2">What then?</span><br />
+</p>
+<p>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_36" id="Page_36">[Page 36]</a></span><br />
+&quot;He is counting on you.<br />
+<span class="i1">On a love that will share</span><br />
+<span class="i1">In His burden of prayer,</span><br />
+<span class="i1">For the souls He has bought</span><br />
+<span class="i1">With His life-blood; and sought</span><br />
+<span class="i1">Through His sorrow and pain</span><br />
+<span class="i1">To win 'Home' yet again.</span><br />
+He is counting on you,<br />
+If you fail Him&mdash;<br />
+<span class="i2">What then?</span><br />
+</p>
+<p>
+&quot;He is counting on you.<br />
+<span class="i1">On life, money, and prayer;</span><br />
+<span class="i1">And 'the day shall declare'</span><br />
+<span class="i1">If you let Him have <i>all</i></span><br />
+<span class="i1">In response to His call;</span><br />
+<span class="i1">Or if He in that day</span><br />
+<span class="i1">To your sorrow must say,</span><br />
+'I had counted on you,<br />
+But you failed me'&mdash;<br />
+<span class="i2">What then?</span><br />
+</p>
+<div class="sidenote"><p>[33] Mrs. Bessie Porter Head.</p></div>
+<p>
+&quot;He is counting on you.<br />
+<span class="i1">Oh! the wonder and grace,</span><br />
+<span class="i1">To look Christ in the face</span><br />
+<span class="i1">And not be ashamed;</span><br />
+<span class="i1">For you gave what He claimed,</span><br />
+<span class="i1">And you laid down your all</span><br />
+<span class="i1">For His sake&mdash;at His call.</span><br />
+He had counted on you,<br />
+And you failed not.<br />
+<span class="i2">What then?&quot;<a name="FNanchor_33_33" id="FNanchor_33_33"></a><span class="snlabel">[33]</span></span><br />
+</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>Ah! Please God, by His grace, we shall not
+fail in <i>the ruling purpose</i> of our lives. We may<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_37" id="Page_37">[Page 37]</a></span>
+crown Him Lord of all. We <i>can</i>. He asks it.
+We surely <i>will</i>.</p>
+
+<div class="poem">
+<p>
+&quot;With all my powers Him I greet,<br />
+<span class="i1">All subject to His call;</span><br />
+And bowing low at His pierced feet<br />
+<span class="i2"><i>Now</i> crown him Lord of all.&quot;</span><br />
+</p>
+</div>
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_39" id="Page_39">[Page 39]</a></span></p>
+<h2><a name="II_THE_CROWN_BOOK" id="II_THE_CROWN_BOOK"></a>II.&mdash;THE CROWN BOOK</h2>
+
+
+<div class="poem">
+<p>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_40" id="Page_40">[Page 40]</a></span>
+&quot;All hail the power of Jesus' Name!<br />
+<span class="i1">Let angels prostrate fall:</span><br />
+Bring forth the royal diadem,<br />
+<span class="i1">And crown Him Lord of all.</span><br />
+</p><p>
+&quot;O that with yonder sacred throng<br />
+<span class="i1">We at His feet may fall,</span><br />
+Join in the everlasting song<br />
+<span class="i1">And crown Him Lord of all!</span><br />
+</p><p>
+&quot;With all my powers Him I greet,<br />
+<span class="i1">All subject to His call;</span><br />
+And bowing low at His pierced feet,<br />
+<span class="i1"><i>Now</i> crown Him Lord of all.</span><br />
+</p><p>
+&quot;I hail the power of Jesus' Name,<br />
+<span class="i1">Before Him gladly fall,</span><br />
+Bring Him my own heart's diadem<br />
+<span class="i1">And crown Him Lord of all!&quot;</span><br /></p>
+</div>
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_41" id="Page_41">[Page 41]</a></span></p>
+
+<h4>The Crowning Book.</h4>
+
+<p>There is a <i>crown book</i> in this old Book of
+God,&mdash;the Revelation of John. It is <i>the</i> crown
+book, the only one. It is the crown book of the
+sixty-six in two senses. It is the capping climax
+of the whole revelation of God's Word. It gathers
+up into itself in a peculiar way the dominant
+characteristics of both the Hebrew Old and the
+Greek New Testaments.</p>
+
+<p>And it is the book of the Crown. The King
+is in action. He Himself gives the message of
+the book to John. He is seen stepping forward
+to take possession of His realm. Then He takes
+possession. He dispossesses the pretender. He
+reigns over the earth. The Revelation of John is
+the Crown book.</p>
+
+<p>This is the peculiarity of the Revelation in
+comparison with all the other books. Only here
+is Christ seen exercising His crown rights. From
+end to end of the Old Testament pages, His coming
+is looked forward to, with an eager longing
+that grows in intensity as the national failure
+grows ever worse.</p>
+
+<p>In the Gospels He comes, but not as He was
+expected. He is heralded as King, and claims
+to be King. He has all the graciousness of a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_42" id="Page_42">[Page 42]</a></span>
+King in ministering to the needs of the people,
+and all the power of a King in His personal
+touch. But He is rejected by the nation, and
+goes to the Cross, yet still as a King,&mdash;a humiliated,
+crucified King.</p>
+
+<p>In the Acts He is the risen, glorified King
+seated at the Father's right hand in glory, and
+at work through His followers among men on
+the earth. But it is always in the midst of sharp,
+bitter opposition. In the Epistles He is seen
+crowned at the Father's right hand, guiding and
+teaching His followers who are still suffering
+persecution.</p>
+
+<p>But in the Revelation of John all this is
+changed. There's a sharp, decided, advance step.
+Here He is not only crowned, but stepping directly
+and decisively into the action of the earth
+in the full exercise of His crowned rights and
+power. It is peculiarly the book of the Crown,
+the royal book, the enthroned Christ exercising
+fully and freely at will His crown rights.</p>
+
+<h4>Jesus' Bosom Friend.</h4>
+
+<div class="sidenote"><p>[34] John i. 35-42.</p></div><p>The book was written by John the disciple and
+apostle. This is our same old friend John, whom
+we met first that ever-memorable afternoon, down
+by the Jordan River road, when he was introduced
+to Jesus by the John of the deserts, and
+had his first long, quiet talk with Him.<a name="FNanchor_34_34" id="FNanchor_34_34"></a><span class="snlabel">[34]</span> The
+friendship began that day, grew steadily, and
+never flagged. It was one of the few friendships<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_43" id="Page_43">[Page 43]</a></span>
+that Jesus had that never knew any lapse nor
+eclipse.</p>
+
+<p>He became, in an outstanding sense, the bosom
+friend of Jesus. Probably it was not because of
+any special gentleness or amiability on John's part,
+though he may have had something of these traits.
+It was more likely because of the deep, intelligent
+sympathy between the two, a sympathy not only
+of personality, but deeper and stronger because
+of a mental and spirit likeness growing up between
+them. It would seem likely that John developed
+a mental grasp, a spirit insight, a student
+thoughtfulness, a steadiness of temperament, and
+with these, a growing understanding of much&mdash;at
+the least&mdash;much of Jesus' spirit and ideals and
+vision.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote"><p>[35] Luke ix. 54.</p></div><p>It may quite be that all this came slowly, and
+grew up out of the constant contact with Jesus,
+and out of the warm personal love between the
+two men; quite likely. Who could live so close
+to Jesus as he and not bear the marks on mind
+and spirit? The fire that burned so fiercely
+in early years<a name="FNanchor_35_35" id="FNanchor_35_35"></a><span class="snlabel">[35]</span> grew into a steady, unflickering
+flame under the influence of that personal friendship.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote"><p>[36] John xviii. 15-16.</p></div><p>It seems not unlikely that John belonged to a
+good family, and had his home in Jerusalem. He
+was clearly on terms of easy intimacy at the
+palace of the High Priest,<a name="FNanchor_36_36" id="FNanchor_36_36"></a><span class="snlabel">[36]</span> which in itself would
+suggest his social standing in the city. It was to
+this man that Jesus, on the Cross, committed the
+care of His mother. And John accepted the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_44" id="Page_44">[Page 44]</a></span>
+trust as a tender token of friendship, and took
+Mary at once to his own home. And as Mary
+remained in Jerusalem at least some time, and
+John clearly for a long time, the home was likely
+there.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote"><p>[37] Luke xxii. 8.</p><p>[38] Acts iii. 1, 3, 4, 11; iv. 13, 19; viii. 14, 25; Galatians
+ii. 9.</p></div><p>John was one of the chief leaders in Jerusalem
+during the Pentecost days, and after. Peter
+was the chief spokesman, but John was always
+close by his side. The friendship between the
+two seems to have been close and of long standing.
+They were sent together by the Master to
+arrange for the supper that memorable betrayal
+night,<a name="FNanchor_37_37" id="FNanchor_37_37"></a><span class="snlabel">[37]</span> and they are seen together in the activities
+in Jerusalem for many years.<a name="FNanchor_38_38" id="FNanchor_38_38"></a><span class="snlabel">[38]</span></p>
+
+<p>It would seem that in later years John left Jerusalem,
+and made his home for the remainder
+of his life in Ephesus. Doubtless he was led,
+after the years of leadership in the mother
+Church, to leave the great Jew centre, and devote
+his strength to missionary service in the outside
+Gentile world.</p>
+
+<p>Ephesus was the chief city of the province of
+Asia, and the natural centre of the population
+and life of the province. John probably worked
+out from Ephesus, preaching throughout the
+whole district; teaching, advising, praying with,
+and visiting the groups of little Churches scattered
+throughout the province, perhaps founding
+some, and strengthening all. For his work seems
+to have been, not so much evangelizing, but the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_45" id="Page_45">[Page 45]</a></span>
+much more difficult work of teaching, patiently,
+carefully, teaching; a work so essential to the life
+of any Church. So he would be quite familiar
+with the Churches to which the Revelation letters
+are sent, and would be well known by these people
+and loved and revered by them as a father in
+the faith.</p>
+
+<p>This personal bit about John is of intensest
+interest in studying this book of his. It was
+to this man that Jesus could entrust the writing
+of this special message. John could take in what
+the Master was showing him as few, if any others,
+could. The close, sympathetic friendship
+made him able to take in what his old Friend
+and Master is now telling him in the glory. And
+he could give it out too, simply, fully, clearly,
+just as it was given to him.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote"><p>[39] Mark xvi. 9; John xx. 1, 11-18.</p></div><p>Love can see and grasp, and can obey simply,
+where mere mental keenness fails. There
+is no tonic for the brain like love in the heart.
+No brain ever does its best work, nor can, until
+the heart is fired by some tender, noble passion.
+It was to Mary Magdalene who had such reason
+to love tenderly that Jesus showed Himself first
+after the resurrection.<a name="FNanchor_39_39" id="FNanchor_39_39"></a><span class="snlabel">[39]</span></p>
+
+<p>And it is to John, the bosom friend, whose
+friendship stood the severest test where all others
+failed, that He now shows Himself in glory, and
+entrusts this pleading message, and vision of coming
+events, and of the after glory. He that willeth
+to do the Master's will shall know surely
+and clearly what that will is. And he that goeth<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_46" id="Page_46">[Page 46]</a></span>
+farther yet, and willeth to give the tenderest love
+of his heart, ever kept at summer heat, shall know
+the Master Himself, in present personal touch,
+and in clear and clearing understanding of His
+coming victorious action and crowning glory.</p>
+
+<p>John wrote a Gospel; one chief Epistle, besides
+the two very brief personal letters; and this book
+of the Revelation. The Gospel and Epistles were
+quite likely written while in Ephesus.</p>
+
+<p>The Gospel was his plea to all men to whom
+it might come to accept Jesus as their personal
+Saviour. Its characteristic word is &quot;believe.&quot;
+And the plan of it is a simple array of incidents
+about Jesus that would lead men to a warm, intelligent
+belief in Him.</p>
+
+<p>The chief Epistle is written to the little groups
+of believers scattered throughout Asia Minor,
+and doubtless in the old home district of Judea,
+too. Its characteristic word is &quot;abide.&quot; It is
+an intense plea, by a personal friend to abide,
+steadily, fully, in Christ, in spite of the growing
+defections and difficulties pressing in so close.</p>
+
+<p>The Revelation was written, quite likely, on the
+island of Patmos while all was yet fresh in his
+mind; or possibly in Ephesus after his release
+from his island prison; or perhaps begun in
+Patmos and put into its final shape in Ephesus.
+It is written to the little groups of believers in
+and near Ephesus. It is a most intense plea to
+be personally true to the Lord Jesus in the midst
+of subtle compromise and of bitter persecution.</p>
+
+<p>Its characteristic word is &quot;overcome.&quot; It
+speaks much of the opposition to be encountered,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_47" id="Page_47">[Page 47]</a></span>
+and tells of greater opposition yet to come, the
+greatest ever known. And it pleads, with every
+possible promise, and every warning of danger,
+that the true believer set himself against the evil
+tide, at every risk, and every possible personal
+loss, and so that he &quot;overcome&quot; in the Name
+of the Lord Jesus.</p>
+
+<h4>Old and New Woven Together.</h4>
+
+<p>The language in which the book is written is
+of intense interest. It is so unusual. It combines
+Hebrew thought and Greek speech. It is
+as though a Hebrew soul were living in a Greek
+body, and the soul has so dominated the body as
+to make decided changes in it. The thought and
+imagery, and the very words are largely taken
+over from the Old Testament, much of it not
+being found elsewhere in the New Testament. It
+is as though the Old Testament reaches clear
+over the intervening space and writes the last
+book of the New as an additional book of the
+Old, but with distinct additions. But all these
+additions are outgrowths of what is already in
+the Old.</p>
+
+<p>But while the thought and imagery are Hebrew,
+the language is Greek. But scholars note
+that John's Greek here is different from that
+of his Gospel, and is indeed peculiar to itself,
+with new grammatical adjustments, as though
+better to express his Hebrew thought. Yet, like
+the Gospel, it is an easy Greek to learn and to
+understand. It is as though the Old Testament<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_48" id="Page_48">[Page 48]</a></span>
+were the warp of a new bit of fabric, with the
+New as the shuttle-threads, and yet with such
+additions as makes the pattern stand out much
+more definite and clear, and the colours in it
+more pronounced. Thus this end-book is a weaving
+of both Old and New into a new bit of
+fabric, but with a more distinct pattern than
+either.</p>
+
+<p>This explains the use of the symbolism which
+is so marked here. The picture language of
+John's Revelation has seemed very puzzling. It
+has seemed like a new language, to which we had
+neither grammar nor dictionary, and the intended
+meaning of which we could only guess at. But
+this is because we are Westerners and a bit set
+in our western way. And possibly, too, though
+we dislike to confess it, because we have not
+gotten a clear, simple grasp of this old Book of
+God as a whole. The Bible is an Oriental book,
+written in the characteristic picture language of
+the Orient.</p>
+
+<p>The truth is that the symbol or picture
+language is meant to make the book <i>easier of
+understanding</i>. We simply need to learn how to
+read picture language, not whimsically, but sensibly
+according to the laws of picture language. The
+symbolism or picture sees things as they look at
+the moment the picture is taken. The picture
+is meant to give one general distinct impression
+of the thing being presented, the details of
+the picture being of value only as they give coloring
+to that one general impression. It is concerned,
+not at all, or only in the most incidental<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_49" id="Page_49">[Page 49]</a></span>
+way, with the process by which the thing came
+to the point pictured.</p>
+
+<p>There is a rare wisdom in the use of this picture
+language. It is really the common language
+not of the Orient merely, but of all the world.
+In our western half of the globe it is the language
+of the street, the common crowd, the common
+exchange of life, and of children. It is the
+language of the primitive peoples of all parts
+of the world. Everywhere the conventionalized
+book-language is spoken by the few. The picture,
+with its companion, the story, is the universal,
+the original, the natural language of the
+race.</p>
+
+<p>On the mere human side here is one secret
+of the freshness of the Bible. It is the oldest
+book in some of its parts, but admitted to be
+the freshest and most modern in its adaptation
+to modern life. And the reason is simple. The
+pictures give <i>principles</i>. Principles don't change
+with the changing of centuries. Rules change.
+Principles abide. Details alter with every generation.
+Principles of action are as unchangeable
+as human nature, which is ever the same,
+east and west, below the equator, and above.</p>
+
+<p>John's Revelation is naturally full of this picture
+language, for it is a gathering up of the
+chief threads of the old Oriental Hebrew fabric.
+It will help us understand the meaning if we keep
+in mind the simple rules of this Hebrew picture
+language.</p>
+
+<p>John, of course, was a Hebrew, born and
+bred in a Hebrew home, and immersed in the old<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_50" id="Page_50">[Page 50]</a></span>
+Hebrew Bible from the time of his mother's
+milk. What Greek language and culture had
+come was a bit of the outer world come into his
+Hebrew home and life. Now in his old age the
+early memory is asserting itself.</p>
+
+<p>Then too it is quite likely that in his imprisonment
+he had been brooding anew over the old
+prophecies, reviewing afresh events since the
+resurrection of Jesus,&mdash;the growth of the Church,
+and now the severe persecution, with himself a
+prisoner. And while he in no way doubts the
+unseen overruling Hand, yet he is seeking to get
+a fresh outlook into the future from the old
+prophetic writings.</p>
+
+<p>And through all of this without doubt the
+Holy Spirit was brooding in unusual measure
+over this man, reviving early memory, bringing
+to his remembrance all things of other days,
+deepening impressions, bringing old facts into
+new perspective, giving clearer vision, mellowing
+and maturing both mind and heart into fresh
+plastic openness to further truth. And so we
+have this little book with its Hebrew soul and
+its Greek body.</p>
+
+<p>The meaning of all this is very simple, and yet
+a meaning of intense significance. Here is
+summed up the whole of the revelation of God's
+Word. Here all the lines of Revelation meet.
+Almost two thousand years of inspiration come
+to a climax in this little end-book. Psalmist and
+prophet, historian and law-giver, Gospel and
+Epistle come to a final focus point in one simple
+intense message. The purpose of the book is in<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_51" id="Page_51">[Page 51]</a></span>tensely
+and only practical. Here is the message
+of the whole Bible to Christ's people <i>for this
+present interval</i> between the Ascension and the
+next great step in our Lord's world-plan.</p>
+
+<h4>Jesus' Plea to His Friends.</h4>
+
+<p>And the message is simply this: put to us with
+all the intensity of the One who gave His very
+life for us, it is this,&mdash;<i>that we be personally true
+to our Lord Jesus</i> during His present absence.
+This comes as His personal request, that, in sweet,
+stern purity of life, in full glad obedience of
+spirit, in tender freshness of personal devotion,
+in holding absolutely everything, of talents and
+position and possession, subject to His call, and
+in keeping our eye ever open forward and upward
+for His return, we be true to Him.</p>
+
+<p>He is the Lamb slain. Only through His
+blood is there salvation for any one. He is now
+allowing man fullest opportunity before He comes
+to set things right. This is the in-between time,
+much lengthened out. In the midst of formalism
+and subtle compromise, the tangling of ideas
+and issues, and the blurring of vision within His
+Church, He calls to His own blood-bought ones
+to be true to Himself.</p>
+
+<p>There's a terrific moral storm coming. Wickedness
+will wax to a worst never yet known.
+Evil will be so aggressive, compromise so radical,
+temptations so subtle and coming with such a
+rush, and ideals of right so blurred and dimmed
+in the glare of the lower lights, that even those<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_52" id="Page_52">[Page 52]</a></span>
+of the inner circle will be sorely tried, and many
+will be deceived. Just at the bursting of the
+worst of the storm the crowned Christ will appear.
+He will come on the clouds before all
+eyes, take away His own out of the storm, then
+clear the storm by His own touch, and begin
+the new order of things.</p>
+
+<p>The test coming will be terrific. He knows it.
+And his knowledge makes His plea intense that
+<i>we be true to Himself</i>, our beloved, crucified,
+crowned Lord, utterly regardless of consequences
+to ourselves. So we shall &quot;overcome by the
+blood of the Lamb,&quot; and be joined with Him in
+closest intimacy during His coming reign over
+the earth.</p>
+
+<p>There is a striking thing told us at the very
+outset of the book;&mdash;it is a revelation. That is,
+it is something revealed directly by God. It is
+the only book of the Bible of which we are told
+plainly and directly that it is a revelation.</p>
+
+<p>It is not that the other books do not have the
+same inspirational characteristic. But our attention
+is explicitly called to the fact that this
+one is, in its entirety, a <i>direct</i> revelation; and
+not only so, but it is a revelation given directly
+by God to the Lord Jesus, and given in person by
+Him to John. This is significant. It marks out
+the message of the book as of the utmost meaning
+and importance.</p>
+
+<p>This suggests a need. And the need of something
+of the sort is plain enough, if one think
+into it. Already in John's day there was a distinct
+break-away from the simplicity and purity<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_53" id="Page_53">[Page 53]</a></span>
+of the Gospel, both in the Church and in the lives
+of professed Christians. The messages to the
+Churches of Pergamum and Thyatira and Sardis
+show clearly that there had already begun a
+rubbing out of the sharp line of distinction between
+the Church and the world. The world
+spirit was&mdash;not creeping in, but&mdash;walking boldly
+into the life of the Church.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote"><p>[40] I John ii. 18-29; iv. 1-6.</p></div><p>It is striking to note the thing that leads John
+to write his First Epistle, that is, the alarming
+conditions among Christ's followers. The spirit
+of compromise seems seeping in at every crevice.
+And worse yet, the spirit of Antichrist, that
+makes such a savage attack on Jesus, on the
+deity of His person, and the atoning significance
+of His death, this was openly at work among
+them.<a name="FNanchor_40_40" id="FNanchor_40_40"></a><span class="snlabel">[40]</span> These conditions, so familiar to those
+who first read his little Epistle, are the continual
+underscoring of His intense plea for
+<i>abiding</i>.</p>
+
+<p>It is most significant that Jude's intense flame-like
+Epistle talks entirely about conditions within
+Church circles. Run through it again with
+this fact fresh in mind, and the significance of
+it stands out in a startling way. Peter's Second
+Epistle reveals the same sort of an atmosphere
+seeping in among the groups of disciples to
+whom he writes. Not only was there doubt and
+confusion about the meaning of the prophetic
+teachings, but even a sneering and mocking at
+the teaching about the second coming of our
+Lord.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_54" id="Page_54">[Page 54]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>These are a few indications of how things were
+in the Church generally before the first century
+had closed. It was a time of confusion and compromise.
+The air was tense. The need was
+critical. It would seem that if ever our Lord
+would give a simple direct revelation afresh, to
+His people, it would be in just such circumstances.
+And it reveals to us at once how
+grave things looked to His eyes, and how much
+depended on His followers having a clear understanding
+of how things would work out, that our
+Lord Jesus does do just this thing,&mdash;send a direct
+revelation that would meet just such a
+need.</p>
+
+<h4>More Alike than Different.</h4>
+
+<p>It is most striking that the conditions of the
+Church then and to-day are so much alike. The
+line between Church and world is either badly
+blurred, or quite wiped out. And this one fact
+throws a flood of light upon Church conditions.
+Within the Church, when it comes to the matter
+of what its real purpose of being is, and what the
+essentials of faith, the lines are hopelessly
+crossed and tangled, even though the surface
+shows so much striving toward at least a seeming
+unity, and so much aggressiveness in action.
+The common absence of real spiritual power,
+that unmistakable moving, like a breath, of the
+Spirit of God, is freely admitted.</p>
+
+<p>It is a painful fact that membership in a
+Church no longer gives any clue to a man's vital
+belief, nor even to his moral conduct. There is<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_55" id="Page_55">[Page 55]</a></span>
+utter confusion about the practical meaning of
+God's prophetic Word, and what the actual
+outcome of the present order will be; that is,
+where such things are not quite dismissed from
+consideration. And, stranger yet, indifference,
+or an actual repugnance, to any mention of the
+Lord's return is the common thing. It is not
+surprising that earnest people are bewildered
+as to just what should be the attitude of one
+who would ring true to the absent Jesus. It
+hurts to remember that all this is the freely admitted
+commonplace, where such things are seriously
+spoken of.</p>
+
+<p>Indeed it is of intense interest to note that just
+this sort of thing has marked the whole interval
+since these early Church days. Broadly the same
+characteristics have marked both world movement
+and the Church movement in this long
+interval. There is a unity characterizing the age
+since our Lord ascended. There have been differences,
+very sharp and marked, but always they
+have been differences in degree, now more intense,
+now less. The general characteristics have
+been the same in kind.</p>
+
+<p>The need of the Church in the end of the first
+century is its need in the beginning of the twentieth.
+Surely the thing of all things needed is
+a simple, clear, understandable revelation direct
+from our Lord Jesus Himself. It was needed
+then. Clearly it has been needed in every generation
+since then. And one whose pulse is at
+all sensitive to spirit conditions to-day feels that
+surely it is the thing needed now.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_56" id="Page_56">[Page 56]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>And here it is, a revelation of Himself,
+crowned in the upper world, keeping in closest
+touch with things down in this world, telling us
+what the outcome is to be, and especially speaking
+of our attitude toward Himself in this present
+in-between interval.</p>
+
+<p>Usually God's method with man is to give him
+enough of a revelation of Himself in nature, and
+in His Word, to start him straight, and guide
+him as he goes to school with himself as chief
+pupil, with all of nature to find out and develop,
+and so to get mastery both of himself and of
+nature and its forces. We recognize this as
+the best school-teacher method for good self-development.</p>
+
+<p>But here something more seems needed. The
+situation down on the earth has gotten badly
+mixed up. Even though Jesus has been on the
+earth, and has died, and has sent down the Holy
+Spirit in such irresistible power, the situation in
+the world, and among His disciples, has gotten so
+subtly tangled and intense, the enemy is so
+viciously and cunningly at work, that only one
+thing will meet the need,&mdash;a revelation, a simple,
+direct, warm revelation given us personally by
+the Lord Jesus Himself. And here it is in this
+little end-book, with its vision of the glorified
+Jesus, its pleading heart-cry to His followers, and
+its simple but tremendous outlook into the future.</p>
+
+<p>It would not be surprising if such a book should
+be made the subject of special attack by the evil
+one. It is not surprising, though it is deeply<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_57" id="Page_57">[Page 57]</a></span>
+grievous, that the common idea about this book
+among Christian people is that it is a sort of a
+puzzle, that it is impossible to get a simple, clear,
+workable understanding of its message. Parts of
+it are conned over tenderly and loved, a paragraph
+here, a verse there, and so on, but a grasp
+of the one simple message of the book seems not
+common, to put it mildly. No book of the sixty-six
+has seemed so much like a riddle to which
+no one knew the answer. And without doubt the
+full meaning of much will be quite clear only as
+events work themselves out. Events will be the
+best exposition of certain parts. But these parts,
+be it keenly noted, are not essential to the grasp
+of the whole message. God is intensely
+practical. Jesus was too intent on helping people
+to be otherwise than practical. He hasn't
+changed. He is too tremendously wrapped up
+in the outworking of His plans. The Bible is
+wholly a <i>practical</i> book. And this crowning end
+of it is intensely and only practical. It is with
+the clear conviction that it is entirely possible to
+get the simple grasp of it that shall steady our
+steps, and clear our understanding, and feed our
+personal devotion to the absent Jesus, our blessed
+Lord, that these few simple quiet talks have been
+put together.</p>
+
+<h4>Doing Leads to Understanding.</h4>
+
+<div class="sidenote"><p>[41] Revelation i. 1-3.</p><p>[42] Revelation i. 4-8.</p><p>[43] i. 9-20.</p></div><p>The outline of the book is very simple. After
+the brief introduction<a name="FNanchor_41_41" id="FNanchor_41_41"></a><span class="snlabel">[41]</span> and personal greeting,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_58" id="Page_58">[Page 58]</a></span><a name="FNanchor_42_42" id="FNanchor_42_42"></a><span class="snlabel">[42]</span>
+there comes the wondrous vision of <i>the glorified
+Jesus</i>, and His personal message to John.<a name="FNanchor_43_43" id="FNanchor_43_43"></a><span class="snlabel">[43]</span> He
+is the Living One, who <i>became</i> dead for a great
+purpose, and is now living, never to die again.
+He is seen walking quietly among the groups of
+his followers, with eyes of flame, and heart of
+love, keeping watch over these, His empowered
+witnesses on earth.</p>
+
+<p>And He tells John that he is to write to the
+groups of his followers a threefold message,
+a description of Himself as just now seen by
+John, a description of affairs in these Churches
+as seen by His own eyes, and an account of
+the things that are going to happen on the
+earth.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote"><p>[44] Chapters ii. and iii.</p><p>[45] Chapters iv. and v.</p></div><p>Then follows this description of the Churches.
+It is in a sevenfold personal message to His
+followers on the earth.<a name="FNanchor_44_44" id="FNanchor_44_44"></a><span class="snlabel">[44]</span> Then the vision of
+Himself in heaven as He steps directly into the
+action of the earth to take possession of His
+crown domain.<a name="FNanchor_45_45" id="FNanchor_45_45"></a><span class="snlabel">[45]</span> Then comes the account of
+coming happenings. It is a sevenfold view of a
+terrific moral storm on the earth, that will follow
+this advance step of His in the heavens. It is so
+terrific and includes so much, that it is possible
+to get a clear view of it and its sweep only by
+looking, now at this feature of it, and now at
+this; now from this angle of vision, and now
+from this other.</p>
+
+<p>It is the final contesting of Christ's crown
+claim as He steps forward to assert it; the final<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_59" id="Page_59">[Page 59]</a></span>
+outburst of evil unrestrainedly storming itself
+out. And it is the clearing-up storm, too. There
+is ever the shining of a clear light just beyond
+the outer rim of the terrible blackness of the
+storm clouds. This takes up the greater part
+of the little book, including chapter six, to the
+close of chapter eighteen.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote"><p>[46] xix. i-xx. 3.</p><p>[47] xx. 4-6.</p><p>[48] xx. 7-15.</p><p>[49] xxi. i-xxii. 5.</p><p>[50] xxii. 6-21.</p></div><p>And then there is given briefly the actual coming
+to earth in glory of the crowned Christ;<a name="FNanchor_46_46" id="FNanchor_46_46"></a><span class="snlabel">[46]</span>
+the new order of things under His personal
+reign;<a name="FNanchor_47_47" id="FNanchor_47_47"></a><span class="snlabel">[47]</span> a final crisis;<a name="FNanchor_48_48" id="FNanchor_48_48"></a><span class="snlabel">[48]</span> and then in a vision of
+wondrous winsomeness, God and men are seen
+dwelling together as one reunited family, though
+still with a sad burning reminder of the old sin-rebellion
+as part of the picture.<a name="FNanchor_49_49" id="FNanchor_49_49"></a><span class="snlabel">[49]</span> And the book
+closes with personal paragraphs to John and to
+the groups of Churches.<a name="FNanchor_50_50" id="FNanchor_50_50"></a><span class="snlabel">[50]</span></p>
+
+<div class="sidenote"><p>[51] i. 3.</p></div><p>Another of the striking things peculiar to
+this book is the personal plea that it be read
+and lived up to. At the very front-door step as
+one starts in he is met full in the face with this:
+&quot;Blessed is <i>he</i> that <i>readeth</i>, and they that <i>hear</i>,
+(or give careful heed to) the words of the
+prophecy, and <i>keep</i> the things that are written
+therein.&quot;<a name="FNanchor_51_51" id="FNanchor_51_51"></a><span class="snlabel">[51]</span></p>
+
+<p>Here at the very outset is a plea, made to
+each one into whose hands the little book may
+come, for a reading, and a careful thinking into,
+and then, yet more, a bringing of the whole
+life up to the line of what is found here.
+The blessing of God will rest peculiarly<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_60" id="Page_60">[Page 60]</a></span>
+upon him who heeds this threefold plea.
+That man is moving in the line of the plan of
+God.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote"><p>[52] xvi. 15.</p></div><p>A little past the midway line of the book, all
+at once, abruptly, in the thick of terrible happenings
+being told, an unexpected voice comes.
+Clearly it is the Lord Jesus Himself speaking. It
+is as though He were standing by all the time
+throughout all these pages, watching with a sleepless
+concern. Now He speaks out. Listen:
+&quot;Blessed is he that <i>watcheth</i>,&quot; that keepeth ever
+on the alert against the subtle temptations, and
+the compromise that fills the very air, &quot;and
+<i>keepeth his garments</i>;&quot;<a name="FNanchor_52_52" id="FNanchor_52_52"></a><span class="snlabel">[52]</span> sleeplessly, kneefully,
+takes care that no breath of evil get into his heart,
+no taint of compromise stain his life, no suspicion
+of lukewarmness cool his personal devotion to
+the absent Jesus.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote"><p>[53] xxii. 7.</p></div><p>And again, doing sentinel duty at the rear-end,
+is the same plea. &quot;Blessed is he that <i>keepeth the
+words</i> of the prophecy of this book.&quot;<a name="FNanchor_53_53" id="FNanchor_53_53"></a><span class="snlabel">[53]</span> Reading,
+heeding, obeying, watching, living up to, this is
+the earnest plea peculiar to this book. Clearly
+our Lord Jesus desires earnestly that it be read.
+And He expects us to understand it. And He
+pleads with us to live in the light of what He
+tells us here.</p>
+
+<p>He that willeth to do shall know what he ought
+to do. He that doeth the thing he does know
+will know more. And that more done will open
+the door yet wider into all the fragrance of a
+strongly obedient life, and into a clear and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_61" id="Page_61">[Page 61]</a></span>
+clearing understanding of the Lord Jesus Himself.</p>
+
+<p>He that brings his life bit by bit up to the level
+of the earnest plea of this special revelation, as
+bit by bit it opens to him, will find his understanding
+of it wonderfully clearing. Obedience is
+the organ of understanding. Through it there
+comes clear grasp of the truth.</p>
+
+<p>A single recent illustration of this comes from
+Korea, that land that gives us so much of the
+romance of missions, as well as so much of its
+pathos. Dr. James S. Gale, of Seoul, tells of a
+Korean who had travelled some hundred miles
+to confer with him about Christian things. He
+recited to Dr. Gale the whole of the Sermon
+on the Mount without slip or error. After
+this surprising feat of memory, the missionary
+said gently that memorizing was not
+enough; the truth must be practised in daily
+life.</p>
+
+<p>To his surprise the Korean quietly said:
+&quot;That's the way I <i>learned</i> to memorize. I tried
+to memorize, but it wouldn't stick. So I hit upon
+this plan; I would memorize a verse, then find a
+heathen neighbour and practise the verse on him.
+Then I found it would stick.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>That's the <i>rule for understanding</i> this revelation
+of Jesus through John, as well as all of this
+inspired Word of God. This rule simply, faithfully,
+followed will open up this little end-book
+which to many has seemed a sealed book. He
+that &quot;keepeth the things&quot; that are written here
+will find these pages opening to his eyes. He<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_62" id="Page_62">[Page 62]</a></span>
+that liveth the truth he does understand will
+understand more and better, and so live in the
+wondrous power of it, and in the sweet presence
+of Him who gives it to us.</p>
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_63" id="Page_63">[Page 63]</a></span></p>
+<h2><a name="III_A_SIGHT_OF_THE_CROWNED_CHRIST" id="III_A_SIGHT_OF_THE_CROWNED_CHRIST"></a>III.&mdash;A SIGHT OF THE CROWNED CHRIST</h2>
+
+<p class="center">(Revelation, Chapter i.)</p>
+
+
+<div class="poem">
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_64" id="Page_64">[Page 64]</a></span>
+&quot;Since mine eyes were fixed on Jesus,<br />
+<span class="i1">I've lost sight of all beside,</span><br />
+So enchained my spirit's vision,<br />
+<span class="i1">Looking at the Crucified.&quot;</span><br />
+</p>
+</div>
+
+<div class="poem">
+<p>
+&quot;The Lord Christ passed my humble cot:<br />
+I knew him, yet I knew him not;<br />
+But as I oft had done before,<br />
+I hurried through my narrow door<br />
+<span class="i1">To touch His garment's hem.</span><br />
+</p><p>
+&quot;He drew me to a place apart<br />
+From curious crowd and noisy mart;<br />
+And as I sat there at His feet<br />
+I caught the thrill of His heart-beat<br />
+<span class="i1">Beyond His garment's hem.</span><br />
+</p>
+<div class="sidenote"><p>[54] William Norris Burr.</p></div>
+<p>
+&quot;Rare was the bread He broke for me,<br />
+As wine the words He spoke to me&mdash;<br />
+New life surged in, the old life died....<br />
+I cannot now be satisfied<br />
+<span class="i1">To touch His garment's hem.&quot;<a name="FNanchor_54_54" id="FNanchor_54_54"></a><span class="snlabel">[54]</span></span><br />
+</p></div>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_65" id="Page_65">[Page 65]</a></span></p>
+<h4>Transfigured by a Look.</h4>
+
+<p>No one ever had a sight of Christ's face and
+forgot. No one ever gets a sight of Him and
+gets over it. He is never the same man after
+that. He doesn't want to be the same.</p>
+
+<p>A look into the face of Christ is transforming.
+You see Him; and you can never be the man
+you have been and be content. A change comes.
+You want a change. You must have it. This
+longing is the beginning of the deeper change.
+You can never be content again with being the
+man you have been.</p>
+
+<p>It has always been so. It always will be so.
+For this is the natural thing. In the dawning
+twilight of Eden God looked into the face of the
+man he had fashioned. He drew very close to
+him, close enough to breathe his own breath into
+his face. And the man looked out into God's face,
+and took on God's likeness. So he became his
+own real self, as originally planned.</p>
+
+<p>But while man was yet young, sin looked him
+in the face. And the man looked at sin with an
+evil longing look. And in that look he took in<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_66" id="Page_66">[Page 66]</a></span>
+some of what he saw. He was marred. The
+God image was hurt. He was not the same man.
+And he knew it. He felt it. His eyes were
+never the same after that exchange of looks with
+sin.</p>
+
+<p>But God helped him. He didn't go away. He
+came closer for the sake of the sin-hurt eyes.
+And whenever man has looked into that wondrous
+God-face, even though seeing dimly and
+indistinctly, something within him makes a great
+bound. He recognizes the original of his own
+natural self. And he catches fire at the sight. A
+holy discontent springs up within.</p>
+
+<div class="poem">
+<p>
+&quot;Couldst thou in vision see<br />
+<span class="i1">Thyself the man God meant,</span><br />
+Thou never more couldst be<br />
+<span class="i1">The man thou art&mdash;content.&quot;</span><br />
+</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>But you have to see Jesus as He was in His
+humanity to see yourself the man God meant.
+And you have to see Jesus as He is now to see
+the God who meant you to be like Himself.</p>
+
+<p>It has always been so. This has been God's
+simple method with men He would use. He has
+wooed and then wooed more, and a bit longer,
+gently, persistently, up and away and apart
+until at last the man's eyes were trained away
+from the lower glare enough to see the real
+things.</p>
+
+<p>Then in some vision of the night, whose darkness
+helped hold back the lower earth lights,
+God has looked a man in the face once again. Or,
+perhaps in open day there came to him that<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_67" id="Page_67">[Page 67]</a></span>
+which he could not describe. But in his inner
+spirit he knew there was One with him whom
+yet his outer eyes could not see, but who <i>could</i>
+not be more real if his outer eyes did see.</p>
+
+<p>And in that presence there was a mingling of
+exquisite tenderness and of limitless power that
+was overawing. Inconceivable purity and yet
+such an unspeakable graciousness seemed blended
+in this presence. And the man seeing was melted
+in his innermost being with the sense of tenderness,
+and bowed in awe to the lowest dust in
+the sense of overwhelming power. Those who
+have seen will understand how poor the words
+are to tell the story. And those who have
+not may wonder a bit until they, too, have
+seen.</p>
+
+<h4>Some Transfigured Men.</h4>
+
+<p>This it was that transformed that man of the
+early dawnlight named Enoch, the seventh from
+Adam. He was the head of the leading family of
+the race, the racial leader. He had lived well on
+into the seventh decade of his life.</p>
+
+<p>Then the change came. He recognized a
+Presence with him, one day. That One unseen
+by unseeing eyes became real to him and then
+more real. He yielded to His wooing. He companioned
+with Him daily. This came to be the
+realest thing. And he was transformed by it.
+He grew constantly less like what he had been,
+and more like what he was originally meant to
+be, like his Companion. Constant contact re<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_68" id="Page_68">[Page 68]</a></span>stored
+the original likeness. He was transformed
+before men's eyes, changed over from
+within.</p>
+
+<p>Then one day the transforming forces had
+gone so far that he was transferred to the upper
+levels, where all <i>see His face</i>, and his likeness
+shines out of all faces. He never got over the
+sight that came to him that early day.</p>
+
+<p>It was this that wooed the man of Ur away
+from his ancestral home to be a lonely pilgrim, a
+stranger among strangers. Nothing less or else
+could have broken the early attachments, the
+strongest of the East. That winsome wooing
+Presence became to him stronger than the strongest
+human attachments of his family and home
+land.</p>
+
+<p>This it was that steadied him through the
+loneliness, the homelessness, the disappointments,
+the long delays, until it was the image of
+a new man, a transformed man, a faith-begotten
+man, that at length looked at him out of the eyes
+of his only begotten. This it was that steadied
+him through the hardest test of all with that
+only begotten, the fire test on Moriah. And that
+made the transformation yet fuller. For so he
+grew the liker him to whose presence he insisted
+on yielding as each test came.</p>
+
+<p>So it was with that rare student of Egypt and
+Arabia. Trained in the best that man could give
+in the University of the Nile, and then further
+trained by absence from man in the University
+of the Desert, alone with sheep and stars, shifting
+sand and immovable rock, he wasn't ready for<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_69" id="Page_69">[Page 69]</a></span>
+his task yet. He was well trained but not yet
+transformed.</p>
+
+<p>The fires had to be kindled, purifying, melting,
+fusing fires. And only fire kindles fire. The
+fire of the unburnt bush told him first of a new
+kind of fire, uncatalogued on the Nile. The fire
+of a Presence burned daily, not consuming him,
+but only the dross <i>in</i> him, as he led his race
+from Egypt to Sinai, out from the slavery of men
+up to the freedom of the presence of God. And
+then for six weeks, twice over, he was in the
+Presence of Flame on the Mount.</p>
+
+<p>This it was that utterly changed him into the
+strongly gentle, patient, tender-hearted, wise man
+who taught and trained, lived with and led, the
+immature men and women whom God would
+weld into a nation, a God-nation. He never got
+over those two long visits to the Mount, nor has
+the world.</p>
+
+<p>It was nothing else than this, long years later,
+that made the rugged man of the deserts brave
+the traitorous Ahab in his luxurious, licentious
+court. Without it, the sight obscured, the vision
+lost, he is a coward fleeing like a whipped dog
+before a bad woman, thinking only of saving
+his own skin. It showed himself, his weak,
+cowardly self, to himself.</p>
+
+<p>A fresh vision that early morning in the mouth
+of the desert cave made the yet deeper more
+radical transformation. That unutterably gentle
+sound of stillness, too exquisite to be told, only
+to be felt by a spirit in tune, <i>that</i> left him not a
+whit less willing to brave danger than before,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_70" id="Page_70">[Page 70]</a></span>
+but made over now into another sort, like him
+whose Presence in the cave so melted him down.</p>
+
+<p>This new, gentled, mellowed, strengthened Elijah
+reappears in the man who received the birthright
+portion of his spirit. We know the new
+Elijah by the spirit that swayed Elisha. The old
+spirit, fiercely denouncing, calling down fire,
+slaying the priests, but with no grief-broken heart
+under these stern needful things,&mdash;this we think
+of familiarly as the Elijah spirit.</p>
+
+<p>The new spirit, healing, teaching, sympathizing,
+leading, feeding, fathering, the greatness of gentleness
+and patience, these characteristics of Elijah's
+prophetic heir tell of the deep radical transformation
+by the wondrous unseen Presence that
+early morning in the mouth of the cave. This is
+the birthright gift of Elijah to Elisha. Elijah
+had a spirit-sight of God, and he never got over
+it. He became like Him into whose face he
+looked.</p>
+
+<h4>Heart Stimulant for the Brain.</h4>
+
+<p>But time fails, and words fail immensely more,
+to tell this thing. Let him who would know that
+transforming sight get quietly alone with Isaiah
+in the temple, and on bent knees linger unhurriedly,
+and listen, and watch, and breathe out his
+prayer, and strongly wait until something of
+the same brooding Presence be discerned that
+transformed this young Hebrew messenger of
+God.</p>
+
+<p>Then let him get alone with the Moses of the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_71" id="Page_71">[Page 71]</a></span>
+New Testament. For there is no man who was
+so utterly transformed, and so quickly, as the
+man on the Damascus road. The whole course
+of his character and life was radically changed
+as by a lightning touch. This is the most striking
+illustration of all. No man so reveals in himself
+the tremendous transforming power there
+is in the sight of the Christ as does this high-strung
+son of the Hebrew race.</p>
+
+<p>But&mdash;words are such lame things. They cannot
+tell the story here. They are all one has
+to use. Yet they'll never be understood except
+as the light of experience shines upon them.
+When any one attempts to talk of such a thing as
+this of seeing God or Christ, his words seem so
+poor and lame and under the mark by the man
+who has had something of the vision. And they
+either are meaningless and uninteresting, or else
+they seem overstated, and quite beyond the mark
+to one who has had no inkling in experience of
+the thing itself.</p>
+
+<p>I recall distinctly the experience of a Danish
+friend in Copenhagen. She had been trying to
+read in English a certain devotional book, but
+said she couldn't seem to grasp the meaning of
+the English words. They eluded her, and so the
+book didn't help her much.</p>
+
+<p>Then she went through a time of sore stress
+of spirit in the sickness and death of her mother.
+A new experience of the nearness of God came
+to her. And then happening&mdash;as it seemed&mdash;to
+pick up the English book again she was amazed
+and delighted to find how much better and more<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_72" id="Page_72">[Page 72]</a></span>
+quickly she knew the words and sensed the meaning.</p>
+
+<p>It is only as the heart is fired that the brain
+awakens. Experience gives the meaning to language.
+Without experience it is a dead language
+in meaning even though it be one's own mother
+tongue. Only the man who has caught something
+of the vision of Christ's face can understand
+the strong words used in talking of such
+a vision.</p>
+
+<p>It is most striking to notice that even when
+the glory of God's presence was hidden beneath
+human wrappings in Jesus it still could be <i>felt</i>.
+Men felt that presence though they knew not
+just what it was they felt, nor why. When the
+glory came yet closer in the coming of Jesus, it
+must be well covered up for the sake of men's
+eyes, that they might not go blind at once; but
+its power of attraction could not be wholly hid.</p>
+
+<p>So really human was Jesus in the outer circumstance
+of His life that His brothers of the
+home couldn't believe he was essentially different
+from themselves. But the attraction of that
+presence was felt constantly even through the
+human hiding of it.</p>
+
+<p>John of the Wilderness instinctively recognized
+that here was more than the man he saw,
+and so obeyed His word. The crowds gathered
+eagerly in the Jordan bottoms in even greater
+numbers than to hear John, drawn by a power
+they felt they must yield to, and did yield to
+gladly.</p>
+
+<p>From the first the crowds gathered thick about<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_73" id="Page_73">[Page 73]</a></span>
+Him, Jewish aristocrat, Samaritan half-breed
+and sinful outcast jostling elbows in their eagerness
+to hear, drawn by a power they could feel,
+but could not understand any more than they
+could withstand it. The children loved his presence
+and touch.</p>
+
+<p>The bad in life were as resistlessly drawn up
+to a new life as the Greeks were drawn from
+clear beyond the blue waters of the Hellespont
+into His presence. The crowds were irresistibly
+drawn to follow on that last eventful
+journey to Jerusalem even while they felt
+&quot;afraid.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>It was the sight of the glory on the Mount
+that drew faithful John in <i>with</i> Jesus, and held
+him steady that awful night in palace and courtyard,
+and that later brought poor blasphemous
+Peter back for forgiveness. The two walking to
+Emmaus found their hearts all aflame, though
+they supposed it was only the chance stranger
+of the roadway they listened to.</p>
+
+<p>Even those who hated Him were compelled to
+recognize the wondrous power of His presence.
+The Nazareth hands that itched to seize Him
+were restrained by His presence as He passed
+through their midst. Ten times did the Jerusalem
+crowds attempt his life, and ten times were
+they restrained by a power in Him that they
+could neither understand nor withstand.</p>
+
+<p>The men officially empowered to arrest Him
+return empty-handed, confessing the overawing
+power of His words. That last week the leaders
+that were hotly plotting His death felt the strange<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_74" id="Page_74">[Page 74]</a></span>
+restraint of His presence while He quietly sat
+in their very midst, and swayed the crowds.</p>
+
+<p>In the garden soldiers and priests alike were
+felled to the ground by the power of His presence.
+So it always has been. No one has ever
+had a sight of that Face, and gotten used to it,
+or gotten over it.</p>
+
+<h4>A Fresh Vision Needed.</h4>
+
+<p>But the thing we are specially needing to-day
+is a sight of Christ <i>as He is now</i>. It seems a
+bit strange that we don't get this more. One historic
+Church has Him fastened to a cross, never
+freed from the old fastenings. Another has Him
+set in picture frame, behind glass. And the multitudes
+prostrate themselves and reverently kiss
+the glass.</p>
+
+<p>In widely differing Churches He seems quite
+covered up out of sight by classical ritual, beautiful
+music, and impressive stately service. The
+crowds gather and listen and bow low in hushed
+stillness. But, apparently, <i>Him they see not</i>, else
+how different their conduct as they come out, and
+their lives.</p>
+
+<p>And yet as I have mingled with the worshippers
+in Catholic Churches in the south of Europe,
+in Greek Churches in Russia, and in congregations
+of the Church of England classed as &quot;high,&quot;
+I have been caught by faces here and there in the
+crowd that clearly were reaching out hungrily
+for <i>Him</i>, and were having some sort, some real
+sort, of touch with Him, too. Yet it seemed to be<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_75" id="Page_75">[Page 75]</a></span>
+in spite of surroundings. The insistence of their
+hunger pierces through these to Him. He seems
+hidden from the crowd by them.</p>
+
+<p>Scholarly orthodox theologians talk learnedly
+about Him, but Himself as He walked among us
+and as He is now, Him it would seem that they
+see not, at least not enough to burn through and
+burn out and burn up and send men out aflame
+with the Jesus-passion. Philosophies about Him
+that are classed as &quot;liberal&quot; and put attractively,
+yet have nothing of the burn in them that reveals
+Himself.</p>
+
+<p>The more modern Church of the more western
+world seems to have gotten a new lease of
+aggressiveness in service, a new intensity in activities
+so numerous as to be a bit bewildering
+sometimes. The wheels whir busily and noisily.
+You feel them. But Him, the unseen presence
+that makes you reverently wrap your face up
+out of sight, and stand with awed heart to listen,
+<i>Him</i> we seem not to see.</p>
+
+<p>The wondrous quiet Voice that makes your
+heart burn within you with a burning that
+cleanses and mellows and melts down, <i>that</i> we
+seem to hear only by getting away from the noise
+of the whirring wheels into some quiet corner.</p>
+
+<p>There are in every Church and nation those
+who seem to have the close personal touch with
+Himself. Their faces and daily lives show the
+marks. Their lips may not say so much, for they
+who see most can say least of what they see. But
+the marks in the life are unmistakable.</p>
+
+<p>Yet even here the sight of Christ emphasizes<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_76" id="Page_76">[Page 76]</a></span>
+chiefly the personal side, what He is personally
+to them. And what a blessed side that is only
+they who know it know. They think of Him as
+a personal Saviour, and the heart glows. They
+see Him at the Father's right hand interceding,
+and gratefully remember that He will forget no
+name where there is a trusting heart. They think
+of the Holy Spirit, the other Jesus, Jesus' other
+self, always &quot;alongside to help,&quot; alongside <i>in</i>side.
+And they practise letting Him work out the
+Christ-likeness within themselves.</p>
+
+<p>And all this is blessed, only blessed. They see
+Him in His personal relation to themselves. But
+there's something more than this. No one knew
+more of this blessed personal part than John.
+But John saw more than this on Patmos. He saw
+Christ <i>as He is now</i>.</p>
+
+<p>This is clearly a new sight of Christ. It was
+new to John. It would seem to be new to us.
+It is new in the pages of this book. It is something
+different from any sight seen before. In
+the Gospels we see Jesus the <i>Man</i>. In carpenter
+shop and little whitewashed stone cottage, in the
+ministering life clear from the Jordan bottoms to
+the healing touch at Gethsemane's gate, and in
+the suffering clear up to the ninth hour of that
+fateful day He is the <i>Man</i>, one of ourselves,
+though clearly more even in His humanity than
+the humanity we are.</p>
+
+<p>On the Transfiguration Mount the favoured
+inner three, the leaders, see the glory within
+shining out through the Man. So bewildered are
+they that the chief impression that remains is of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_77" id="Page_77">[Page 77]</a></span>
+a blinding brightness. Yet this is up on a high
+mountain far away from the crowd, and from
+the haunts of men.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote"><p>[55] Notably Ephesians i. 20-23.</p></div><p>As Stephen is being stoned his eyes are opened
+to see the Son of Man standing in glory up at the
+Father's right hand. The Damascus traveller
+sees an overpowering burst of glory out of the
+blue and hears a voice speaking. In the epistles
+Paul pictures Him seated at the Father's right
+hand with an authority greater than any other.
+All the power He has is placed at the disposal of
+His followers on the earth. He Himself is above
+in the glory.<a name="FNanchor_55_55" id="FNanchor_55_55"></a><span class="snlabel">[55]</span></p>
+
+<p>But in this very end of the Book John is given
+a <i>new sight of Christ</i>. He sees Him <i>as He is
+now</i>. That is to say, this is the sight of Christ
+as He is now <i>characteristically</i>. It is the distinctive
+sight that stands out above all these others.</p>
+
+<p>He <i>is</i> at one's right hand in closest personal
+relation, through His Holy Spirit. He <i>is</i> at the
+Father's right hand in glory waiting expectantly
+till the time is ripe for the next direct move on
+the earth. But there's more than these. There's
+a sight of Him that overshadows these. It is
+the characteristic sight that lets us see Him as
+He is peculiarly <i>now</i> in His relation to <i>affairs on
+the earth</i>.</p>
+
+<h4>Christ as He Is Now.</h4>
+
+<p>This new sight of Christ is the heart and soul
+of this crowning book, this end-book of the Book.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_78" id="Page_78">[Page 78]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>It was out of this sight that this end-book
+grew. It is written wholly under the spell of
+this new sight of Christ. It is a revelation both
+<i>of</i> Jesus Christ and <i>by</i> Jesus Christ; first of,
+then by.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote"><p>[56] Revelation i. 1-3.</p><p>[57] Revelation i. 4-8.</p></div><p>John begins his story by telling that he had
+gotten such a revelation, and of the special blessing
+attached to reading and fitting one's life to it.<a name="FNanchor_56_56" id="FNanchor_56_56"></a><span class="snlabel">[56]</span>
+Then follows his salutation to those for whom
+the revelation was given, and the book written.<a name="FNanchor_57_57" id="FNanchor_57_57"></a><span class="snlabel">[57]</span>
+It is peculiarly a <i>Church</i> book. Its message is
+not peculiarly for individual followers, but for
+groups of believers gathered together as
+Churches.</p>
+
+<p>The salutation is absorbed with the One whom
+he has seen in the vision, what He has done for
+us in shedding His blood, and that He is actually
+coming again. &quot;Behold He cometh with the
+clouds; and every eye shall see Him, and they
+that pierced Him.&quot; The Jew is specifically designated:
+the coming has special significance for
+the Jewish nation. And all the people of the
+earth shall penitently mourn as they see Him.
+And then like an endorsing signature from the
+One of whom he is writing comes the sentence:
+&quot;I am the Alpha and the Omega, saith the Lord
+God, who is and who was, and who cometh, the
+Almighty One.&quot;</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote"><p>[58] Revelation i. 9-20.</p></div><p>Then comes the new sight of the crowned
+Christ.<a name="FNanchor_58_58" id="FNanchor_58_58"></a><span class="snlabel">[58]</span> It was on a Lord's day. John was on<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_79" id="Page_79">[Page 79]</a></span>
+the lonely sea-girt isle of Patmos. He was alone,
+brooding probably over some bit of the Word of
+God, and about the Jesus of whom he had been
+so earnestly testifying. It was these that had
+brought him to his lonely island prison. These
+ever burned within him, the wondrous written
+Word, the immensely more wondrous Word
+made flesh, of whom he had written, the Word
+that was God and became a Man and walked
+the will of God.</p>
+
+<p>And as he brooded he became conscious of the
+Spirit of God overshadowing him, gentle as the
+soft breeze, noiseless as the fragrant dew, mighty
+as an enveloping presence that filled his being
+and had possession of him.</p>
+
+<p>Then a voice spake and the tone of authority
+in it was unmistakable. &quot;What thou seest,
+write.&quot; He was to see something. He was to
+tell what he saw. There's a delightful touch of
+the simplicity of natural speech here. He turned
+to <i>see</i> the <i>voice</i>. And he saw Him who was the
+voice of God to him. Then the sight is told in
+the same simplicity of speech.</p>
+
+<p>There is a group of candlesticks, light-holders,
+made of gold. And in the midst of the group
+there is some One standing. He is in outer
+form like a <i>man</i>. But there is such an overpowering
+sense of divine glory that John falls on his
+face as one dead. Yet through all this overwhelming
+experience the impression of a man
+stands unmistakably out.</p>
+
+<p>With keen, quick glance John takes in head and
+hair, eyes and feet, voice and hands, mouth and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_80" id="Page_80">[Page 80]</a></span>
+face. A simple, natural man in every outer particular
+like himself, a brother man, wearing
+man's garb and girdle. This is the first impression
+indelibly stamped on John's mind.</p>
+
+<p>But there's more, ah, much more than a man
+in this man! This is the stupendous part. There
+is some One, other than man, and more than
+man, possessing this man. The divine fills the
+human. It is this sense of the glory filling the
+man that is so overpowering to John.</p>
+
+<p>A glorious presence overshadows the man and
+shines out of Him, but never obliterates nor
+makes the man less. That indescribable glory
+within shining out through the man magnifies
+every part of His human being. The head and
+hair are white, not like a pale or painted white,
+but a transparent whiteness, an intense searching,
+glowing light shining out from Him through
+the human head and hair.</p>
+
+<p>The eyes are as a flame of pure fire, the feet
+like melting metal glowing in fire. And the
+whole countenance was as the sun in its noontime
+strength shining out of a rainless, cloudless
+sky. Humanity enveloped in deity, yet remaining
+true, full humanity. God within man immeasurably
+more than man, yet not overwhelming,
+not disturbing nor obliterating, any part of
+his humanity, rather making every part stand
+out more distinctly.</p>
+
+<p>Is this incidentally a kind of parable? Is it
+something like this on an immensely humbler
+scale that was meant for us men? God the Holy
+Spirit dwelling in a man. He the chief one,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_81" id="Page_81">[Page 81]</a></span>
+the divine one, yet expressing Himself <i>through</i>
+the man, and doing it fully to meet the need of
+the hour. His presence magnifying, vitalizing,
+and using every human power, yet Himself the
+dominant personality.</p>
+
+<p>It is most striking to note that this is the
+same in principle as every appearance of God in
+the Old Testament pages. Sometimes He talked
+with men when there is no suggestion made of
+any appearance or of what the appearance was
+like. But wherever the appearance is spoken
+of it is always either fire or some touch of the
+human kind or both.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote"><p>[59] Genesis xv.</p></div><p>In Eden He waits and speaks, two human
+things. He talks with Abraham as a man talks,
+and ratified the covenant by passing fire through
+the pieces of the covenant sacrifice.<a name="FNanchor_59_59" id="FNanchor_59_59"></a><span class="snlabel">[59]</span> It is as
+a simple, natural man appearing at Abraham's
+tent door that He talks about Sodom. It is a
+human voice speaking about Isaac, though no
+appearance is mentioned. Moses sees a flaming
+bush, and hears a voice in the desert, and sees
+a whole mount aflame while a voice speaks at
+Sinai.</p>
+
+<p>And so it was always: the fiery presence-cloud
+in the Wilderness, Joshua's Captain taking command,
+Manoah's angel ascending in the flame of
+the altar, the voice in the night heard by Samuel,
+the flooding of Tabernacle and Temple with
+the glory-presence, Carmel's fire descending,
+Elijah's &quot;still small voice,&quot; Isaiah's vision of
+glory and the voice, Ezekiel's man of flame speak<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_82" id="Page_82">[Page 82]</a></span>ing,
+and Daniel's, both of the latter two akin to
+this Revelation appearance.</p>
+
+<p>But there is a distinctness and a fulness of
+description here greater than at any previous
+time, yet the same essential thing as at every
+appearance of God in Old Testament pages. The
+coming of Jesus among us has brought God
+closer to us and made Him mean more. Jesus
+was God coming closer and in a way that we
+could understand better and take hold of more
+easily.</p>
+
+<h4>The Identifying Mark.</h4>
+
+<p>But let us reverently look a little closer that
+we may understand yet better. There are certain
+characteristics of this Man of Fire that are
+allowed to stand sharply out here. We are
+meant to look at them. This is part of the
+purpose in the heart of Christ in letting us see
+Him as He is here.</p>
+
+<p>The sense of <i>purity</i> is intenser than can be put
+into words. Fire is pure. There is nothing so
+pure. It resists impurity. It burns it up. It
+is most significant that this is the one thing familiar
+to us that always accompanies the presence
+of God as He appears to men. It is always in
+fire whether to speak His message of peace and
+love or to remove the impurity of evil.</p>
+
+<p>Our God is a consuming fire. Yet fire only
+consumes what can't stand its flame. The fire
+reveals purity and makes pure. God is pure.
+The presence within the man looked out in eyes<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_83" id="Page_83">[Page 83]</a></span>
+of flame, in a countenance like the sun, and feet
+like molten brass glowing in a furnace. There
+could be no stronger statement of purity than
+this.</p>
+
+<p>Then there is an overwhelming sense of
+<i>authority</i>. That seems the human word to use,
+though the word seems to tell so much less than
+John felt. John feels it more than he can tell
+it. He cannot tell it in words. His limp figure
+lying flat on the earth tells what words never
+can. He had seen the glory outshining in the
+Transfiguration Mount, but this is unspeakably
+beyond that.</p>
+
+<p>There was a voice like a trumpet. It commanded
+John to write. It says: &quot;I <i>became</i> dead,
+and, behold! I <i>am</i> alive forever more.&quot; It is an
+authority over life to yield it up, and over death
+to put it to death, and call life back, never again
+to be touched by the finger of death. No such
+authority is known among men to-day. And this
+is further emphasized in the quiet words: &quot;I
+have the <i>keys</i>&mdash;- the control&mdash;of death and of the
+whole spirit world.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>But immensely more than all this to John was
+the intense feeling of majesty which completely
+overpowered him. The sense of authority was
+overwhelming. The items in the description can
+thus be catalogued, but it is impossible to get
+the overwhelming sense of majestic authority that
+came to John, except as he got it,&mdash;by a <i>sight</i>,
+something of a sight of this great crowned
+Christ.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote"><p>[60] Ezekiel i. 26-28.</p><p>[61] Daniel x. 5-9.</p></div><p>But <i>who</i> is this? Is this not merely Ezekiel's<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_84" id="Page_84">[Page 84]</a></span>
+vision repeated?<a name="FNanchor_60_60" id="FNanchor_60_60"></a><span class="snlabel">[60]</span> He saw just such a vision,
+one in the likeness of a man, enveloped in fire,
+and sitting on a throne. And the effect was the
+same as Ezekiel lies flat on his face. Is it not
+the same as Daniel saw?<a name="FNanchor_61_61" id="FNanchor_61_61"></a><span class="snlabel">[61]</span> A <i>man</i> clothed in
+linen, aflame with inner fire, and the same authoritative
+voice, and Daniel in a deep sleep of
+awe-stricken stupor with face on the ground?
+He does indeed seem to be the same. The descriptions
+tally remarkably.</p>
+
+<p>But listen. He speaks. And the sense of terrifying
+authority in the voice that spake is gentled
+to John's tense ear in the quiet words that come.
+Like the loving words that came to Daniel's
+quaking heart is the personal message that came
+to John,&mdash;&quot;Fear not.&quot; And with the words, as
+ever, come the new sense of stilling peace within.
+&quot;I am the First and the Last, and the Living
+One.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Still it may be Ezekiel's Man even yet, or
+Daniel's. But listen: &quot;and I <i>became dead</i>.&quot;
+Ah! this identifies Him. Now we know for the
+first time that this Man of Flame is Jesus our
+Brother-man. The cross becomes the mark of
+identification. The form of the words as spoken
+fits in with the sense of authority. With great
+strength of heart in carrying out a great purpose
+He &quot;<i>became</i> dead.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>This is Ezekiel's Man and Daniel's and <i>more</i>,
+unspeakably more. The Man they saw has lived
+amongst us for a generation of time, and then
+given His life clear out for us. He has be<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_85" id="Page_85">[Page 85]</a></span>come
+more in coming as Jesus. He has taken
+human experience and suffering up into Himself.
+He was Creator. He has become more&mdash;Saviour.</p>
+
+<p>There is the same purity and authority speaking
+out here as there. But here is <i>love</i> speaking
+out as never was spoken out before. Here is
+love <i>lived</i> out; aye, here love is <i>died</i> out, and
+never living so much as when dying. Here is
+love putting death to death for us. Purity and
+authority fastened on a cross! This is love
+such as man had never known, and God never
+shown before. Calvary lets us see the love that
+burned in the purity and controlled in the
+authority.</p>
+
+<p>John's Man is Ezekiel's and Daniel's, but with
+the love shining out through purity and authority,
+and outshining both. Yet that love is the
+purity and authority combined in action. We
+don't know love only as we know God. And
+we don't know God only as we know Jesus not
+living merely but pouring out His life for men.
+This is love&mdash;that Man, that God-man, but with
+the God-glory hidden within, using all His
+authority over His life to fasten His purity on a
+cross with the thorns of our sin, and then throttling
+death and bringing up a new sort of deathless
+life for us. This&mdash;He&mdash;is love.</p>
+
+<h4>The Outstanding Characteristic.</h4>
+
+<div class="sidenote"><p>[62] Daniel x. 20.</p></div><p>But we haven't gotten to the heart of this
+yet. There is immensely more here than even<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_86" id="Page_86">[Page 86]</a></span>
+this. The distinctive thing, the characteristic
+thing in this sight of Christ, is yet to be noticed.
+All of this can be gotten from other sights of
+Christ. But notice now keenly <i>where this Man
+of Fire is</i>. For this is the distinctive thing. He
+is not up in the heavens, as in Ezekiel. He has
+not come on a special errand, as in Daniel's experience.<a name="FNanchor_62_62" id="FNanchor_62_62"></a><span class="snlabel">[62]</span>
+He is walking <i>down on the earth</i>.
+His whole concern is about affairs on the earth.</p>
+
+<p>But note where He is on earth: not in Jerusalem,
+the Jew centre; not in Rome, the world's
+ruling centre, nor in Athens or Corinth, the
+world's culture centres. He is seen walking
+among a small group of candlesticks. This is
+the centre of earth action for Him. This is <i>the
+significant thing</i> of this new sight of Christ. Let
+us look at it a moment to get at the simple significance
+of the scene.</p>
+
+<p>The candlesticks, we are told, are the Churches,
+the little groups of followers banded together
+here and there. These small groups of Christ's
+followers are called <i>candlesticks</i> or lampstands.</p>
+
+<p>There is no suggestion yet of their giving any
+light. No lighted candles nor oily wicks are
+burning and shining. They are only candle<i>sticks</i>.
+They are of gold, the most precious metal, but
+they can give no light, they can only hold the
+light some one else supplies. The Man standing
+amongst them is the light. The whole effect of
+the sight of Christ here is that He is the
+light. The presence within the man shines out
+through head and eyes and limbs, as light, in<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_87" id="Page_87">[Page 87]</a></span>tense
+dazzling light, even as the sun in his
+strength.</p>
+
+<p>Here is the distinctive thing. Christ's whole
+interest centres in the earth. All heaven is
+bending over watching the run of events down
+here. The intensity of His suffering and death
+tell the intensity of Christ's interest in the movement
+of things on the earth. He has a plan. He
+has put His very life into it. It centres wholly
+in the affairs of us men down here. And it centres
+in His Church.</p>
+
+<p>This quite upsets our common ideas about the
+centre of things down here. We class London
+and New York as the great financial centres;
+Paris and Berlin as the great fashion and military
+centres. Rome is the centre of authority
+of the Catholic Church, and St. Petersburg of the
+Greek Orthodox. The Man who holds all power
+in His hands, and on whose word everything
+depends, quietly brushes all this aside with scarce
+a move of His hand. The earth-centre of things
+is the Church. That is, the groups of his followers
+banded together in various parts of the
+world.</p>
+
+<p>Sometimes it is seen as a magnificent organization
+intimately connected with the machinery
+of government. Sometimes as very small groups
+of persons with no social standing, despised and
+reckoned as not worth reckoning with. But this
+is the thing He is depending on for getting out
+to His world. All His plans centre here.</p>
+
+<p>He is the light. The light He gave and gives
+through nature, and within every man's breast,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_88" id="Page_88">[Page 88]</a></span>
+has been awfully darkened through refusal and
+neglect to use it, through stubborn self-will. It
+is so darkened that ofttimes it seems to have
+been quite put out. His coming amongst us as
+one of ourselves, living our life, dying on our
+behalf to free us from sin, rising again victorious
+over death, sending His Holy Spirit to
+make all this real and living to each of us,&mdash;this
+is the light at its full shining, the flood-light.</p>
+
+<p>He has made a plan for sending this flood-light
+to every one in every part of the earth.
+That plan centres in His followers. He is the
+light. The Church is the light-bearer, the candlestick.
+It is to hold <i>Him</i> up in such a way that
+men everywhere can get in direct touch with
+Him. When He is held up, the darkness goes.
+The darkness can't stand the light. This is the
+immensely significant thing here. This is the
+sight of Christ needed to-day, a sight of Him as
+He stands <i>waiting</i> on the Church to carry out
+His plan for the earth.</p>
+
+<p>The faithfulness of the Church is not measured
+by compact organization, costly houses of
+worship, impressive services, eloquent scholarly
+preaching, and a ceaseless round of organized
+activities. It can be told only by how much of
+the spirit of the Christ who died is carried, in the
+daily life of its individual members, into home
+and social and commercial circles until men are
+compelled to feel its power in conviction of the
+sin of their own lives.</p>
+
+<p>Nor yet is it told by transplanting the western
+type of civilization to far-away lands, with schools<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_89" id="Page_89">[Page 89]</a></span>
+and hospitals and innumerable humanizing influences.
+All this may be blessed. And it will
+be blessed and blest. But it is the incidental
+thing. It is sure to follow where the Jesus light
+is allowed to shine clearly through and out. It
+is quite possible to have these good things without
+getting the real Christ. It is quite impossible
+to have Christ Himself without such influences
+coming, too.</p>
+
+<p>The emphasis must be not on these things, but
+on Him, Christ. Men need Him. He answers
+the heart longing, and only He can. He changes
+the nature, and nothing else is enough. The
+Church is to take the loving, healing, personal
+Christ to men in the fulness of His power, and
+to all men. This is the measure of its faithfulness.</p>
+
+<h4>What Christ Sees.</h4>
+
+<p>The tremendous question that crowds in here
+is this, What does this Man of Fire see as He
+stands among His followers? And He tells us.
+This is why the vision is given. He wants us
+to see things as they look to His eyes of flame.</p>
+
+<p>The Man and His message are one thing here.
+Chapters one, two, and three belong together,
+and should be held together in our minds. We
+have put the Man and His message as separate
+talks to get a clearer grasp of each. But they
+are <i>one</i>.</p>
+
+<p>Now we recall enough of the message to note
+this. Five-sevenths of the light-holders are in<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_90" id="Page_90">[Page 90]</a></span>
+bad shape. The lamps are smoky, badly smoked,
+and cobwebbed. The light is dimmed. It can't
+get out through the lamp. The crowds are standing
+in the darkness and falling into the ditch by
+the side of the road.</p>
+
+<p>Two-sevenths let the light clearly out. The
+others are an intermingling of light and light
+obscured, but with the obscurity overcoming the
+other. The net result is an irritating smokiness.
+And the movement unhindered would naturally
+be toward a steady increase of smoky irritation
+and obscurity until no light can get through.
+This is what He lets us see that He sees.</p>
+
+<p>Now the instinctive thing to do with a smoky
+lamp irritating nostrils and eyes is to put it out.
+That is the first instinct. The second is to trim
+the wick and do whatever else it needs to correct
+the smokiness. <i>Yet He waits.</i> That first natural
+instinct is restrained. The candlesticks are not
+yet moved out of their place. The light still tries
+to get out through them. The human candlestick
+may yet do the needful trimming and cleaning.
+With marvellous restraint He <i>waits</i>.</p>
+
+<p>It is a tremendous scene that is stretched out
+here before us,&mdash;purity and authority combined
+in One who is standing in the midst of impurity
+and failure. The purity is more intense
+than we can grasp. The authority is greater
+than any one can realize. The impurity, the
+failure, are bad clear beyond what we can take
+in. The whole natural instinct here would be a
+<i>cleansing</i>, instant and radical, a correcting of the
+evil. Yet He waits. The purity would act<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_91" id="Page_91">[Page 91]</a></span>
+through the authority; the authority restrains the
+purity. Love quietly, strongly holds both in
+check. This restraint, this inaction is tremendous.</p>
+
+<p>Why this inaction? this restraint? And the
+answer is simple, and as sweeping as simple.
+His plan at this stage shall have fullest opportunity.
+His followers will be given full opportunity
+to the last notch of time and the latest
+possibility of their being yet true.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote"><p>[63] Hebrews x. 13.</p></div><p>All the intensity of His love, all the eagerness
+of His expectancy,<a name="FNanchor_63_63" id="FNanchor_63_63"></a><span class="snlabel">[63]</span> all the fulness of His plan
+for the earth, yes all the millions of the race, all
+the misery and ignorance, the sin and darkness,
+the millions of babies being born into wretchedness,
+and the millions of non-Christian women
+being held in slavery, and the countless numbers
+in every land groping along in a darkness that
+not only can be felt, but that is felt to the hurting
+point and then past that to the insensitive
+stupor,&mdash;all this waits.</p>
+
+<p>With a heart that feels all that any man is feeling
+and that breaks under it, He waits that fullest
+opportunity shall be given His followers to be
+true. If His Church is set aside it will be only
+at the last moment when her failure is utterly
+hopeless. If the candlestick is removed out of
+its place, it will be only after it has completely
+removed itself out of all touch with the Light.
+A candlestick holding out no light is an utterly
+useless thing to the man in the dark.</p>
+
+<p>It is possible for the Church to be a magnifi<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_92" id="Page_92">[Page 92]</a></span>cent
+organization, an honoured institution, exerting
+immense influence in national politics, enormously
+rich in gold and in scholarship and in
+traditions, and even in carrying forward an aggressive
+missionary propaganda, and yet be faithless
+to its one mission. If the Church should fail
+in this its one mission, then the waiting time is
+over. The way is clear for the next step in the
+world plan. And a momentous step that would
+be, beyond our power to grasp. But the waiting
+time still holds out.</p>
+
+<p>This is the simple, tremendous plea of this
+new sight of the crowned Christ as He is shown
+here. The centre of the universe to Him is
+this earth. The centre of things on the earth
+is His Church. The centre of things in the
+Church is its giving Jesus the Light out to all
+the earth.</p>
+
+<p>And if this be the way things looked to His
+eye at the close of the first century, how, think
+you, do they look at this beginning of the twentieth?
+Has that momentum of movement toward
+increasing smokiness slacked? Is the waiting
+time nearly run out?</p>
+
+<p>The present is a momentous time. Even
+men of the world speak of the world-wide restlessness
+as pointing to some impending event
+of world size. And he who is in some sort of
+simple touch with the spirit world can feel the
+air a-thrill with the possibility of world events
+impending, even while he wonders just what and
+when.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_93" id="Page_93">[Page 93]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>One in the Midst.</p>
+
+<p>It is most striking how it came about that
+John got this sight of Christ. The change was
+not in Christ's presence, but in John's eyes.
+Christ did not come. He was there. John's eyes
+were opened. Then he saw Him who stands
+watching and waiting. <i>Christ is here.</i> The Man
+of Fire and of restraining love is here on the
+earth in the midst of His Church looking and
+longing, listening, and feeling.</p>
+
+<p>If only our eyes were opened to see! There
+standeth One in our midst whom we recognize
+not. Wherever any company of believers banded
+together as a Church to worship and pray and
+break holy bread are gathered, under whatever
+local name or in connection with whatever
+Church communion, <i>He stands in the midst</i>, this
+crowned Christ of the Patmos Revelation.</p>
+
+<p>Our eyes need treatment. The hinge of the
+eyelid is in the will and in the heart. A bended
+or bending will opens the eye. A brooding heart
+opens it yet more in spirit vision. Then we shall
+see Him, <i>as He is now</i> in our midst, waiting our
+obedience.</p>
+
+<p>Those forty days between the resurrection and
+the ascension are seen to be illustrations of this.
+One can see through this Revelation sight that
+this is one of the chief things the Master is
+teaching as He still lingers on earth in His resurrection
+body.</p>
+
+<p>Along the old Emmaus road, gathered about
+the evening meal in the twilight, twice in the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_94" id="Page_94">[Page 94]</a></span>
+upper room at Jerusalem, He appears to little
+groups of His faithful followers. Their hearts
+are burning with the thought of Him, they are
+talking with both tongue and eyes about Him.
+But that He is in their midst is the last thing to
+come into their minds. Then their eyes are
+opened to see Him in their midst. It was a forty-days'
+session in their training school. Then He
+said quietly as His bodily presence goes up into
+the blue: &quot;Lo! <i>I am with you all the days until
+the end.</i>&quot; Their mission and His presence are
+inseparably linked.</p>
+
+<p>And it is striking again to note how John's
+Gospel ends. The others describe the Ascension.
+John begins his Gospel with Jesus in the bosom
+of the Father before the world was, and ends
+with Him walking and talking with a little group
+of fishermen along the shore of the waters of
+Galilee's Lake.</p>
+
+<p>This is what the Church needs to-day, a sight
+of Christ <i>as He is now</i>. Nothing else can save
+its life. And nothing less can save its mission
+from utter impending failure.</p>
+
+<p>And yet while the distinctive message here is
+for the Church, it is an individual message, too.
+It is for each of us. I am the Church, as much
+of it as I am, counted as one. You are the
+Church. The Church is made up of you and me
+and the rest of us. I must take this message for
+as much of the Church as I am. The Man of
+Fire is depending on me to be a candlestick
+for His light. It is on me He is patiently waiting
+to obey as fully as He means I should.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_95" id="Page_95">[Page 95]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>And on you.</p>
+
+<p>A recent incident is told of a man whose name
+is a familiar one in the financial world, who died
+a few years ago. He was the executive head of
+one of our country's great railways. And a
+man of remarkable largeness of insight and grasp,
+and of unusual power of execution. He dealt
+in hundreds of millions as easily as most of us
+deal in dollars, and his rugged honesty has never
+been brought into question. His greatest achievement
+bulks big in the material structure of one
+of our great eastern cities.</p>
+
+<p>But his gigantic tasks ran his strength to ebb
+tide, and then it was seen that the tide was running
+out. As he lay in the sick chamber a minister
+called, whose ministry had touched large
+numbers of the men in the railroad of which the
+sick man was head, and in the course of conversation
+tactfully asked:</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Are you a Christian, Mr. Blank?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Yes,&quot; was the quiet, prompt reply that rather
+surprised the minister.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;How long have you been a Christian, Mr.
+Blank?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Two days,&quot; came the answer as promptly
+and quietly.</p>
+
+<p>Feeling that there was an interesting story
+under these answers, the minister gently pressed
+the question. Then the story came out.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You know William, who handles freight out
+here at &mdash;&mdash;?&quot; the sick man asked.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Yes.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;He showed me the way.&quot;<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_96" id="Page_96">[Page 96]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>&quot;William&quot; had been a worthless, drunken
+man of the &quot;down and out&quot; sort. He had been
+converted at some mission and been radically
+changed. He had gotten employment at one of
+the freight-handling stations of this railroad system.
+It was rough, hard work, but he had gone
+at it earnestly in his purpose to live an honest
+life. And in his quiet, earnest way he was always
+seeking a chance to speak to men of Christ
+as a personal Saviour, until he became known
+throughout that part of the system for his simple,
+earnest piety.</p>
+
+<p>As the sick man realized the seriousness of
+things for him he had sent for this William.
+The president of the road whose capitalization
+ran into hundreds of millions sent for the rough-handed
+freight handler. And William in his
+simple, earnest way had pointed the sick man
+to Christ. And the man of millions had made
+a new sort of transaction. Christ and he had
+an understanding.</p>
+
+<p>And as the sick man told the minister the story
+he paused, and then added, &quot;<i>I have given my
+strength to the secondary things.</i>&quot;</p>
+
+<p>This was the judgment of this shrewd man of big
+affairs as the new light had come into his life at
+its close. Happily he had gotten the readjustment
+of values in time for readjustment of personal
+relationships. But his life's strength was gone.</p>
+
+<p>If we might get the readjustment that would
+put secondary things in second place, and put
+wrong and useless things clear out, <i>in time to be
+of some use to our blessed Lord</i>.
+</p>
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_97" id="Page_97">[Page 97]</a></span></p>
+<h2><a name="IV_A_MESSAGE_FROM_THE_CROWNED_CHRIST" id="IV_A_MESSAGE_FROM_THE_CROWNED_CHRIST"></a>IV.&mdash;A MESSAGE FROM THE CROWNED CHRIST</h2>
+
+<p class="center">(Revelation, Chapters ii and iii)</p>
+
+
+<div class="poem">
+<div class="sidenote"><p>[64] Ruby T. Weyburn.</p></div>
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_98" id="Page_98">[Page 98]</a></span>
+&quot;The glory of love is brightest when the glory of self is dim,<br />
+And they have the most compelled me who most have pointed to Him.<br />
+They have held me, stirred me, swayed me,&mdash;I have hung on their every word,<br />
+Till I fain would arise and follow, not them, not them,&mdash;but their Lord!&quot;<a name="FNanchor_64_64" id="FNanchor_64_64"></a><span class="snlabel">[64]</span></p></div>
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_99" id="Page_99">[Page 99]</a></span></p>
+
+<h4>Patmos Spells Patience.</h4>
+
+<p>Patience is strength at its strongest, using all
+its strength in holding back from doing something.
+Patience is love at flood pleading with
+strength to hold steady in holding back.</p>
+
+<p>The love in the strength insists on waiting a
+bit longer for the sake of the one being waited
+for. The strength in the love obeys the love
+passion and takes fresh hold in holding back.</p>
+
+<p>Patmos spells out the patience of our Lord
+Jesus. It tells the strength and tenderness of
+His love. Olivet spelled out His <i>plan</i>, His great
+sweeping plan, <i>through His followers</i>, for a race.
+Calvary spelled out His <i>passion</i>, passion of love,
+passion of suffering, in dying for a race.</p>
+
+<p>Calvary, Olivet, and Patmos are inseparably
+linked, the gentle slope of the Jerusalem hillside,
+the little mount to its east, and the little rocky
+isle in the far &AElig;gean. Calvary was the passion
+of love pouring out a life for a race. Olivet
+was the plan of love for telling a race, till every
+one would know the love by the feel. Patmos is
+the patience of love pleading with the should-be<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_100" id="Page_100">[Page 100]</a></span>
+tellers of the story to carry out the plan, and
+waiting, and then waiting just a little longer.</p>
+
+<p>Olivet had heard the last word. There the
+Master had told the disciples the plan. All the
+race was to be told and taught, bit by bit, earnestly,
+repeatedly, patiently, tirelessly, by word
+and act and life. He Himself unseen by outer
+eyes would always be with them, His supernatural
+power making real and living what they told
+and taught. This was the plan. Olivet was to
+be the executive of Calvary, bringing home to
+men and making vital to them what had been
+done there.</p>
+
+<p>Then Jesus went up on the Cloud. And they
+went out everywhere. And His power convincingly
+went with them just as He had said. Within
+a generation the news and the power had gone
+together to the outermost rim of the world they
+knew.</p>
+
+<p>They were expecting Him to return as a result
+of this witnessing of theirs. The next time they
+see His face and hear His voice will be as He
+comes on the Cloud out of the blue. So they
+understand and believe. This is their constant
+expectancy.</p>
+
+<p>Now that generation has moved off the scene
+of action. Another generation has come in its
+place, and has almost run its course and moved
+off the scene. And still they are looking forward
+to and talking about His return.</p>
+
+<p>But now to this new generation of His followers
+something quite different comes. Instead
+of Himself coming in glory there comes another<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_101" id="Page_101">[Page 101]</a></span>
+last message to them. It fits perfectly into the
+Olivet message, but goes further and says something
+more.</p>
+
+<p>The Olivet message is about taking the light
+of the Gospel message out everywhere. The
+Patmos message in its pictured setting of candlesticks
+and Man of Fire and blazing light recognized
+this as the one thing to be done, but says
+there's something the matter with the candlesticks.</p>
+
+<p>The Olivet word is about taking the message.
+This Patmos word is about the messengers. That
+one is about the <i>service</i> of His followers; this
+other about their <i>life</i>. The life underlies the
+service. Nothing can so hinder and hurt the
+service as a life not true in itself. Here something
+in the life of the Church is hindering its
+service. The Master's plan at this stage is in
+danger.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote"><p>[65] Acts xv. 14-18.</p></div><p>His broader plan extends beyond this Church
+movement. This is one great step to be followed
+by another. That broader plan had been outlined
+at the first Church Conference, held in
+Jerusalem. James, the presiding officer, said
+that the carrying of the Gospel to all men was
+to be followed by a national regeneration of the
+Jews; and then through a regenerated Jewish nation
+there would be a new era of world-wide
+evangelization,<a name="FNanchor_65_65" id="FNanchor_65_65"></a><span class="snlabel">[65]</span> and with this the Conference was
+in agreement.</p>
+
+<p>The leaders among these early disciples are
+eagerly anticipating Jesus' return to carry on the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_102" id="Page_102">[Page 102]</a></span>
+next stage. They understand that what they
+are doing is preparing the way for this next
+step.</p>
+
+<p>But now instead of returning to carry forward
+the broader plan here comes another
+message. Apparently things are not going satisfactorily.
+The plan at this stage is in danger,
+while the Calvary passion back of it still burns.
+Failure is impending. The Master <i>might</i> sweep
+aside the men that are failing, and press on Himself
+into the next step of His plan. For the case
+is urgent. A race is waiting. The darkness
+thickens.</p>
+
+<p>But instead He waits. With patience and
+strength and love beyond our power to grasp He
+waits. This is the setting of the Patmos message,
+to which we now turn.</p>
+
+<h4>The Unity of the Message.</h4>
+
+<p>We must keep our eyes on the Man who is
+talking. His overawing presence gives tremendous
+meaning to His words. That gentle touch
+of the right hand has no doubt strengthened John
+even as Daniel was strengthened. And he is
+standing and looking as he listens. But the sight
+of that wondrous Man walking among the candlesticks
+floods his face and his whole being
+indescribably as he listens to the message
+spoken.</p>
+
+<p>The overpowering sense of awe, of reality
+and power, and of the tremendous meaning of
+what is being said never leaves. So he listens.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_103" id="Page_103">[Page 103]</a></span>
+So we must listen. So only can we get into the
+meaning of these words. The words will mean
+only as much as the Man means in the intensity
+of His presence. You must keep your eye on
+this crowned Christ as you listen.</p>
+
+<p>The seven-fold description given us of Christ
+is the key to these seven messages. The partial
+description beginning each message is seen to
+fit into the particular condition of the Church
+spoken to. Yet all these bits of description must
+be put together to get the full description. It is
+a seven-fold description of one person.</p>
+
+<p>And so all the messages must be taken together
+to see the Church as He sees it, and to get His
+message to it. It is one message. A look at the
+seven promises made to the overcomers makes
+it clear that all seven are one promise. It is not
+that one overcomer receives one thing, and another
+another, but each one gets all of what is
+mentioned in the seven. A rather careful, swift
+look at these promises makes this clear enough.</p>
+
+<p>It is spoken to one Church in seven groups
+in seven different cities. There is one call to
+repentance, one warning of what will happen to
+the unpenitent at five successive stages, one plea
+to hear seven times repeated, and one blessed
+result to the overcomer, in a seven-fold statement.</p>
+
+<p>And there is just one evil to be recognized and
+fought. That evil is seen to grow from one degree
+to another, from bad to worse and worst.
+Its emphasis changes from one phase to another.
+It has shown itself differently in dif<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_104" id="Page_104">[Page 104]</a></span>ferent
+parts of the world, and in different ages
+since, but it is the one evil power, always the
+same behind the different manifestations.</p>
+
+<p>There is rare combination and adaptation in
+this message. It was meant for the Church of
+that day, and of every day since, and for some
+future day. For it stands as the one message
+from Christ to His Church between Olivet and
+His return. It is meant distinctively for the
+Church as a whole, and yet it makes an intense
+personal appeal to each one in the Church.</p>
+
+<p>It is spoken to the little groups of Churches
+in Asia Minor grouping about the city of Ephesus,
+which had been founded by Paul and ministered
+to by John. And without doubt it fitted
+into the conditions and tendencies of those particular
+seven Churches.</p>
+
+<p>But these are representative of all. Probably
+any group of seven would be representative of all
+in varying degree. The mother Church at Jerusalem
+is not named, nor the great Gentile missionary
+Church at Antioch. But these messages
+with their approval and criticism, their warning
+and promise, were meant for all the Church in
+Asia and Europe and Africa at that time.</p>
+
+<p>They are found to fit into the need of the
+Church scattered throughout the world in every
+generation since then. Always there have been
+little groups that were faithful and true, always
+some suffering because of their faithfulness and
+remaining faithful in spite of suffering. And
+always those who have been formal, who have
+companioned with evil, who have been swamped<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_105" id="Page_105">[Page 105]</a></span>
+by the evil with which they companioned, and
+those practically asleep or dead.</p>
+
+<p>This Patmos message will be found to fit the
+Church of to-day with remarkable accuracy and
+faithfulness. And the whole probability is in
+favor of finding that it will fit peculiarly the
+future Church, the Church at the end of this
+present period.</p>
+
+<p>This whole book of the Revelation is peculiarly
+a Church book. While it is full of instruction
+and plea for our individual lives, yet it is
+distinctively <i>the</i> Church book. It stands out
+among the books of the New Testament as the
+one book addressed to the Church and to the
+whole Church.</p>
+
+<p>It gives the great bulk of its space to an awful
+time of persecution that is coming to the Church
+at some future time. This is spoken of elsewhere,
+notably by Jesus in His talk with the disciples
+on Mount Olivet, but it is the chief subject
+treated here. And it is treated with great
+detail. The name commonly applied to this coming
+persecution is the great tribulation.</p>
+
+<p>It is significant that the book that clearly is
+distinctively a Church book is taken up chiefly
+with a description of that future persecution. It
+leads to the deep conviction that this book of the
+Revelation so fitted to the need of the Church
+when spoken, and in every generation since,
+will be found to be peculiarly fitted to that generation
+of the Church that is to pass through
+this great coming persecution; that is, to the
+Tribulation Church.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_106" id="Page_106">[Page 106]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>It will probably be the mainstay and comfort
+of those who will insist on being true during
+those awful days, regardless of the suffering
+involved. No book has been more slighted and
+ignored. It has been called by some within the
+Church of our own generation &quot;the joke of the
+Bible.&quot; It will likely come to be the book
+most studied and loved for its light and help in
+the terribly troublous times ahead. There will
+be an eager, hungry searching for every scrap
+of information, and for any fresh ray of light
+on its meaning.</p>
+
+<h4>The Seven-fold Message.</h4>
+
+<p>Now this seven-fold message lets us see things
+through Christ's eyes. He is letting them and us
+see what He sees. The Scottish poet's thoughtful
+lines might well be changed to get the yet better
+look: &quot;Oh! wad some power the giftie gie us,
+to see oursel's as&quot; <i>God</i> sees us. It would do
+more than free us from blunders and notions.
+And we are needing more.</p>
+
+<p>Each one of these seven messages begins by
+our Lord drawing their eyes to Himself. This
+is the thing needed most. And this will give
+meaning and force to the message. They are
+to be looking at Him as they listen. Then He
+speaks of all the good things He sees. Then of
+the faulty, weak, bad things, in a few simple but
+unmistakably plain words. No one could doubt
+what He meant.</p>
+
+<p>Then is the pleading call to repent, with the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_107" id="Page_107">[Page 107]</a></span>
+faithful warning of what will surely happen if
+they don't. Then the earnest plea that His words
+be listened to and taken to heart, and the wondrously
+gracious promise held out to those who
+steadily set themselves against the evil, and who
+get the victory.</p>
+
+<p>Let us look for a moment at each of these
+Churches as seen by those searching eyes of
+flame.</p>
+
+<p><i>Ephesus</i> is the centre of the group, the natural
+leader, the largest and most influential, perhaps
+the mother Church of the group, where
+Paul and John had put in so much time and
+strength, and whence they reached out to these
+others.</p>
+
+<p>Christ reminds them of His presence in their
+midst and His control of the angel messengers
+that minister to them. Then he speaks of their
+good deeds, their tireless activity, steadfast endurance,
+intense zeal for the true faith, with
+special emphasis upon their unwearying steadfastness
+even under sore difficulties, and their
+hatred of those who made compromise with evil
+so hateful to Himself.</p>
+
+<p>But there is something lacking, the tender personal
+love for Himself. There's intense loyalty
+to Church and to the faith, but a lack of personal
+love for Himself. And the startling thing is
+that this is said to quite outweight all these
+good things. They may have these things without
+the love, but they cannot have the love without
+having these things, and at a finer temperature.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_108" id="Page_108">[Page 108]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>And this defect is crucial. If persisted in it
+is fatal. It will actually mean their <i>rejection
+as His messenger</i>. This is the critical thing
+which we seem to have such a hard time getting
+hold of. The essential qualification for true service
+is the personal attachment to our Lord Jesus
+Himself, that warm heart love which the human
+heart longs for and gives to some one. He longs
+for this. This is <i>the</i> essential; not Church organization
+nor creed, not zeal for orthodoxy, but
+warm love for a person. Service, witnessing,
+all the rest, are valuable to Him in reaching His
+world only as they grow out of a tender love for
+Himself.</p>
+
+<p>And the startling thing is that this privilege
+and opportunity of service is to be taken away
+<i>not</i> because displeasing to Him, but because it
+fails of the end in view. The candlestick is only
+removed because it is no longer serviceable;
+it is not giving out the light. This earnest, aggressive,
+orthodox, patiently-enduring Church is
+to be rejected as a light-holder, because it is not
+holding out the light. This is tremendous!</p>
+
+<p>The group in <i>Smyrna</i> is tenderly reminded of
+the suffering of their Lord, for they are filling
+up what is left behind of His suffering. This
+tells at once the depth of their personal love for
+Him, nothing could tell it more.</p>
+
+<p>They are poor in money and so despised, but
+rich in faith and so precious to Him. They are
+suffering at the hands of the Jews, who were the
+outspoken, intense, fanatical enemy of the Christians.
+There is no reproach, only earnest en<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_109" id="Page_109">[Page 109]</a></span>couragement
+to keep steady even through fiercer
+fires yet to come.</p>
+
+<p>The description of Himself to the <i>Pergamum</i>
+group is startling. He is the one with a sharp
+two-edged sword. There is something here He
+must fight against. They are frankly told that
+they have had a hard place to witness in, and earnestly
+commended for being true even in the
+midst of persecution.</p>
+
+<p>But there's something wrong, and it is very
+serious. It is as wrong and bad as it can be.
+There is actually compromise with evil, partnership
+with the world in its wickedness. The
+thing is put in the intensest way possible by
+characterizing it as adultery. No stronger language
+could be used to tell how He sees the
+evil they are guilty of. And they are plainly
+told that He will fight against them. They have
+made themselves His enemy by joining His
+enemies.</p>
+
+<p>The <i>Thyatira</i> group is reminded of the purity
+of their Lord, who cannot stand impurity but
+searches it relentlessly out, and pursues it to
+the death. There's a faithful minority here.
+Their activity and love and faith and patience
+and increasing activity in service are all counted
+carefully over and warmly commended.</p>
+
+<p>But the evil here is much worse. It is put
+into the gravest language. &quot;Thou sufferest the
+woman <i>Jezebel</i>.&quot; This is most significant.
+There is no worse character named in the whole
+Old Testament. She not only represented the
+worst adulterous uncleanness in herself, but she<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_110" id="Page_110">[Page 110]</a></span>
+was the national leader energetically fostering
+unclean idolatrous practices among the people.
+Jezebel pulled God's light-holder nation down to
+the lowest moral level it ever reached. She
+brazenly dominated king and people, and remained
+stubbornly obstinate to the terrible
+end.</p>
+
+<p>Christ brings <i>her</i> name in here. Again this
+is tremendous. No more terrific parallel could
+have been made. Here evil characterized as
+adulterous has actually come to a place of leadership
+in the Church. With great longsuffering
+time has been given that all this might be
+changed, but with Jezebel-like obstinacy it was
+determined that there would be no change. And
+the inevitable result that will surely follow continued
+obstinacy will be a great tribulation or
+deadly persecution.</p>
+
+<p>The <i>Sardis</i> group is told that Christ is the
+centre of all life and help, in the control of the
+Holy Spirit and of the angel messengers. There
+is nothing to commend here. There are some
+who insist on living true lives, but they are a
+scanty scattered few, not enough to count.</p>
+
+<p>There are some ragged remnants of good, but
+even these are sickly and nearly dead. The
+Church is well organized, energetic, standing
+high among men, but with an utter absence of
+spiritual life. The personal lives of most are
+like dirty garments. And the warning is this:
+He will come as a thief, that is unexpectedly,
+disagreeably, to take away what they prize most
+and leave them stripped and naked.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_111" id="Page_111">[Page 111]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>The longest message is to the group in <i>Philadelphia</i>.
+Christ reminds them that He is holy
+in character, faithful to His promises, having
+full control, and giving opportunity of service
+as the highest reward of faithfulness. This candlestick
+is giving out light, for it is given yet
+further opportunity of shining.</p>
+
+<p>The chief characteristic of this group is its
+steady plodding faithfulness. They are not
+spoken of as brilliant or talented, but faithful
+in the midst of opposition. He loves them with
+the sort of deep love drawn out by love freely
+given. And a special promise is given, a significant
+promise. A great persecution is coming,
+an awful testing time to all the earth. But He
+will keep them <i>through</i> this unhurt because they
+have been keeping His word so faithfully.</p>
+
+<p>The common reading here is, &quot;I will keep thee
+<i>from</i> the hour of trial.&quot; It is quite as accurate
+to read &quot;through&quot; in place of &quot;from.&quot; And
+there is good reason for taking this as the
+sense here. The word underneath here is
+translated by several different words in other
+passages.</p>
+
+<p>Where a word in one language may be translated
+by any one of several words the general
+sense of the passage must decide which one correctly
+expresses the meaning. Here the meaning
+must be gotten from the whole trend of New
+Testament teaching. Like the Israelites during
+the plagues that came to Egypt these faithful ones
+will be kept untouched through this terrible time
+that is to come.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_112" id="Page_112">[Page 112]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>The <i>Laodicea</i> group is to be talked to plainly
+by one who is a true, faithful witness in dealing
+with His people's faults, and who has all the
+authority of God in doing so. This is the second
+group that actually has not one good thing to be
+commended. There is no false teaching, no
+compromise with evil; they are simply <i>asleep</i>.
+Rich, influential, self-satisfied, grown fat and
+sleek,&mdash;so they seem to their neighbours and
+themselves. Wretched, poor, blind, naked,&mdash;so
+they are. And the chastening threatened will be
+of the severe radical sort that strong love insists
+upon.</p>
+
+<h4>A Heart-breaking Sight.</h4>
+
+<p>Here then is the picture of the whole Church
+as seen by the eyes of searching flame. There is
+a mixture of bad and good, active bad, active
+good, and sleepy indifference. There is a Church
+within the Church. But the bad is bad enough
+and big enough to endanger seriously the usefulness
+of the whole as a light-bearer.</p>
+
+<p>The glass of the lantern is so smoked and
+cobwebby that it is more useless than useful
+to the light inside, and the crowd outside in the
+dark. The uselessness threatens what usefulness
+is left. Smokiness is contagious. Cobwebs
+grow thicker and hold more dust.</p>
+
+<p>Two Churches are true and pure in the midst
+of sore opposition. Two are corrupt in the very
+worst way. Three, including the leader, are orthodox
+in form, but indifferent to Jesus Himself,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_113" id="Page_113">[Page 113]</a></span>
+or asleep, or dead; three degrees of the same
+thing,&mdash;indifference, sleep, death.</p>
+
+<p>In all of these five there are those who, like
+Ezekiel's companions, &quot;sigh and cry over the
+abominations that are going on,&quot; but they are
+helpless to stay the sweep of the tide. They
+are the salt that is saving the lump so far. Even
+Sodom would have been saved by ten righteous.</p>
+
+<p>It is plainly said to the leader Church that it
+is no longer of use as a candlestick, except a
+change come. It fails to give out the light. It
+is being carried along, patiently borne with <i>for
+its own sake</i>. It is failing at this point in the
+mission. The smoking flax sending out its
+irritating smoke in place of clear light is not
+yet quenched. The Holy Spirit life within is
+being sorely grieved, but is not yet put entirely
+out.</p>
+
+<p>And this is only one. Four others are plainly
+in much worse fix. Five-sevenths are failing.
+That bit of preservative salt would seem to be
+working to its full capacity.</p>
+
+<p>This is the picture given us here by our Lord
+Himself. John would never have dared make
+such a terrific arraignment of his own accord.
+It is a picture of the whole Church at the beginning
+of the First century.</p>
+
+<p>How is it at the beginning of the Twentieth?
+A thousand million people, two-thirds of the
+race, pretty freely supplied with the light of
+western oil and of gunpowder, with the help of
+the western sewing machine, and with the guidance
+of western learning and skill, but to whom<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_114" id="Page_114">[Page 114]</a></span>
+with minor exceptions no scant ray of this light
+has yet gotten, these make answer. That smokiness
+would seem to be rather dense.</p>
+
+<p>The non-Christian crowds in so-called Christian
+lands, the overwhelming majority, to whom
+the name of Jesus has no more practical meaning
+than other foreign names, Shanghai, or Tokyo,
+or Calcutta,&mdash;these make answer. The light
+doesn't seem to have been able to get through
+and out much, even near the candlestick.</p>
+
+<p>The Church itself, when it has sometimes forgotten
+its statistical tables long enough to look
+thoughtfully into this old Patmos looking-glass,
+has now and then made answer, in a few of its
+thoughtful leaders, while the rank and file push
+on absorbed in their Ephesian or Sardisian or
+Thyatiran way.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote"><p>[66] Ezekiel viii and ix.</p></div><p>There's a striking companion bit to this in
+Ezekiel's vision.<a name="FNanchor_66_66" id="FNanchor_66_66"></a><span class="snlabel">[66]</span> That messenger to the exiled
+colony by the Chebar had first of all the vision
+of God that completely overwhelmed him. Then
+he is taken in spirit to Jerusalem, and shown
+things as they were, through God's eyes. The
+heathen idols were set up in the very temple of
+God, so actually stimulating among the people the
+horribly gross, unnamable impurities connected
+with their worship. This was done in the open,
+with no pretence at concealment.</p>
+
+<p>Then in the vision he digs &quot;into the wall&quot;
+to see the hidden things that are being done.
+There he sees every sort of creeping, crawling,
+slimy, repulsive animal pictured on the walls of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_115" id="Page_115">[Page 115]</a></span>
+this secret chamber, and the leaders of the people
+burning incense and worshipping.</p>
+
+<p>This he is told is a picture of the <i>inner hearts</i>
+of the men who are the leaders of the nation.
+For dramatic intensity it would be hard to equal
+this. The imaginations of their hearts are as
+the unclean snakes and beasts that are found
+only in the damp, unwholesome slime and ooze
+of swamp and stagnant pond.</p>
+
+<p>And this is God's light-bearing nation to all
+the earth. And these are the leaders! But
+there's yet worse. The mothers and wives and
+daughters of the nation, the real moulders of
+the nation's life and character, are seen pouring
+out their very hearts over a heathen idol, with
+all the horrible evil practices included in its worship.
+And then a group of men are shown
+in the holy temple standing with their backs
+to God and His temple and worshipping the
+sun.</p>
+
+<p>Under these four items are pointed out the
+impurity and violence, the injustice and oppression,
+that mark the people. It is the inner heart
+life of the nation that is being pictured so vividly.
+But in the midst of all this are those who
+are broken-hearted over these conditions. And
+as the time of judgment comes in the vision these
+are marked and spared, though they see the work
+of judgment on every hand.</p>
+
+<p>Such is the tremendous scene depicted by
+Ezekiel. It will be seen at once what a striking
+parallel it presents to the scene in this Revelation
+book with the new light-bearer to the na<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_116" id="Page_116">[Page 116]</a></span>tions
+of the earth. One would never dare make
+such an arraignment of his own accord. It is
+humbling and heart-breaking to the last degree
+simply to repeat what is spoken here by our Lord
+Himself.</p>
+
+<p>Clearly the Patmos picture is not only of
+the Church then, but ever since, and now. And
+the simple law of momentum in sliding down hill
+will make it an accurate picture of the Church
+at the end, the future Church.</p>
+
+<p>The colouring changes at different times in different
+places, the black getting intenser, pot
+black, and the light shining out more brightly
+by contrast. But the picture remains essentially
+as painted on Patmos.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote"><p>[67] Rev. ii. 5.</p></div><p>The warnings so faithfully given run a sliding
+scale outward and downward in five degrees.
+If the Church continue as it is, it is told here
+that it will be rejected as a light-holder. Its
+privilege and opportunity as God's messenger will
+be taken away.<a name="FNanchor_67_67" id="FNanchor_67_67"></a><span class="snlabel">[67]</span></p>
+
+<div class="sidenote"><p>[68] Rev. ii. 12-16.</p><p>[69] Rev. ii. 22, 23.</p><p>[70] Rev. iii. 3.</p><p>[71] Rev. iii. 16.</p></div><p>Then Christ will fight against it as an enemy,<a name="FNanchor_68_68" id="FNanchor_68_68"></a><span class="snlabel">[68]</span>
+it will be given over to a time of terrible tribulation,<a name="FNanchor_69_69" id="FNanchor_69_69"></a><span class="snlabel">[69]</span>
+it will be treated as prey to be robbed and
+plundered,<a name="FNanchor_70_70" id="FNanchor_70_70"></a><span class="snlabel">[70]</span> and it will be rejected, spewed out
+of the mouth, as personally disgusting.<a name="FNanchor_71_71" id="FNanchor_71_71"></a><span class="snlabel">[71]</span></p>
+
+<p>Yet in all this plain speech there is no bitterness,
+only grief, only tender pleading. The plain
+bluntness is the language of love that yearns
+to save even yet, and that waits with untold patience
+hoping for a change.</p><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_117" id="Page_117">[Page 117]</a></span></p>
+
+<h4>Wooing Promises.</h4>
+
+<p>But it is noticeable that, while the warning is
+to the corporate Church, the plea and promise
+that persists throughout is to the individual. He
+that is <i>willing</i> to, let him hear and heed and be
+controlled by the Spirit's message.</p>
+
+<p>There are two groups that have remained
+faithful. There are scattered through the other
+five those who are faithful. And there are no
+doubt many who feel the pull to be true but are
+yielding to the strong undertow of the rising
+tide by which they are being carried.</p>
+
+<p>The coupled promise and plea that call out
+so pleadingly to these at the close of each message
+are, &quot;to him that overcometh.&quot; This word
+&quot;overcometh&quot; is very significant. It is one of
+the characteristic notes of these messages and
+indeed of this entire book. It is one of that
+sort of word that sums up a whole situation in
+itself.</p>
+
+<p>There is opposition. There is conflict because
+some won't yield to the opposition. And the
+result of the conflict varies. Some are overcome
+by the evil; they go over to the enemy, body and
+soul. Some wabble. They slip along the line
+of least resistance, secretly holding on to some
+few ragged remnants of convictions, but not letting
+these affect their standing or comfort or
+particularly their profits.</p>
+
+<p>Some overcome evil. There is struggle tense
+and continued, quickened breath, moist brow,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_118" id="Page_118">[Page 118]</a></span>
+tightened nerves, the stain of blood, a scar here
+and there, and heart-breaking experiences. But
+they fight on, and victory comes. And the evil
+is less, weakened in its hold on this companion
+and that neighbour. They get the victory over
+evil.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote"><p>[72] Rev. ii. 7.</p><p>[73] Rev. ii. 11.</p></div><p>There's a wondrous promise to these. It is as
+though the treasure box is placed at their disposal.
+It is a seven-fold promise. Every overcomer
+will receive all that is contained in
+these seven promises. Note this seven-fold
+promise: He that overcometh will have everlasting
+life,<a name="FNanchor_72_72" id="FNanchor_72_72"></a><span class="snlabel">[72]</span> and this is emphasized by the
+reverse statement, &quot;will not be hurt of the second
+death.&quot;<a name="FNanchor_73_73" id="FNanchor_73_73"></a><span class="snlabel">[73]</span></p>
+
+<div class="sidenote"><p>[74] Rev. ii. 17.</p></div><p>He will be admitted into the sweets of intimate
+fellowship with his Lord, hidden from all
+save those in this inner circle. And will receive
+a new name, the family name, that is an
+inheritance in the family of God, joint heir with
+Jesus Christ.<a name="FNanchor_74_74" id="FNanchor_74_74"></a><span class="snlabel">[74]</span> He will have the privilege of
+serving with the King in the blessed Kingdom
+time coming.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote"><p>[75] Rev. ii. 26-28.</p><p>[76] Rev. xxii. 16.</p></div><p>And with this goes the word, &quot;I will give
+him <i>the morning star</i>.&quot;<a name="FNanchor_75_75" id="FNanchor_75_75"></a><span class="snlabel">[75]</span> Jesus calls Himself
+&quot;the bright, the morning star.&quot;<a name="FNanchor_76_76" id="FNanchor_76_76"></a><span class="snlabel">[76]</span> The morning
+star rises in the dark of night after midnight and
+ushers in the new day. He who is in touch of
+heart with Jesus as the night deepens to the
+dawn will (probably) have an intimation in his<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_119" id="Page_119">[Page 119]</a></span>
+inner spirit of the glad coming of the Morning
+Star that ushers in earth's new day.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote"><p>[77] Rev. iii. 5.</p><p>[78] Rev. iii. 12.</p><p>[79] Rev. iii. 21.</p></div><p>The overcomer will be made perfect in character,
+and find his name not only in the family
+book, but mentioned by Christ personally to
+His Father before the angels.<a name="FNanchor_77_77" id="FNanchor_77_77"></a><span class="snlabel">[77]</span> He will be admitted
+into the innermost circle of the King
+and be reckoned among the dependables.<a name="FNanchor_78_78" id="FNanchor_78_78"></a><span class="snlabel">[78]</span>
+And he will have closest fellowship with
+Christ in the administration of the wondrous
+kingdom.<a name="FNanchor_79_79" id="FNanchor_79_79"></a><span class="snlabel">[79]</span></p>
+
+<p>It will be seen that these promises overlap,
+the same thing being put now positively, now
+negatively, and being repeated in differing words
+to different groups. Each promise touches the
+characteristic trait of the group spoken of. The
+Ephesians, who had many things but lacked
+the vital thing, are wooed with the promise of
+life itself, which is only through touch with
+Jesus Himself.</p>
+
+<p>Smyrna in its suffering is cheered with the
+prospect of suffering no more. The Pergamum
+overcomer is wooed away from intimacy of
+friendship with evil to intimacy of friendship
+with the coming King. They who resist the evil
+Jezebel rule in Thyatira will have the privilege
+of ruling with the King. Those in Sardis who
+hunger and thirst after a pure heart will have
+the longing fully satisfied.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote"><p>[80] Rev. iii. 20, 21, with Jeremiah xiv. 8.</p></div><p>Those who have proven dependable in the
+trying days in Philadelphia will have the exquisite
+pleasure of being depended upon in the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_120" id="Page_120">[Page 120]</a></span>
+inner circle as wholly trustworthy. Those in
+Laodicea who resist the current and insist on letting
+the knocking pilgrim in for heart fellowship<a name="FNanchor_80_80" id="FNanchor_80_80"></a><span class="snlabel">[80]</span>
+will find themselves in fellowship with
+Him on the throne.</p>
+
+<p>It should be noticed that these promises are
+one promise, and that that is the promise of everlasting
+life, of a purified perfected character,
+and of the privilege of closest fellowship with
+the King Himself in the coming Kingdom time.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote"><p>[81] Rev. v. 10.</p></div><p>These promises do not take up the matter
+of rewards for faithfulness in service, such as
+our Lord speaks of in the twin parables of the
+pounds and talents. The things promised here
+are the results of being saved by the blood of
+Christ. The privilege of fellowship with the
+King during the Kingdom time is included in
+salvation. All the redeemed will reign over the
+earth.<a name="FNanchor_81_81" id="FNanchor_81_81"></a><span class="snlabel">[81]</span></p>
+
+<p>This is significant. Overcoming would seem
+to be the decisive evidence of faith in Jesus
+Christ, the faith that receives everlasting life.
+It takes opposition to let you know whether you
+are willing to accept Christ. A man does not
+know whether he really believes Christ until
+he is opposed in his believing, and opposed to
+the real hurting point. He has just as much
+faith in Christ as he is willing to declare, and
+stand by, and insist upon, <i>when he is under fire</i>.
+Opposition is the fire test. Faith isn't faith
+unless it can stand the fire test.</p>
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_121" id="Page_121">[Page 121]</a></span></p>
+
+<h4>The Decisive Trait of Faith.</h4>
+
+<p>The plain inference here is that he who doesn't
+overcome shows that he really doesn't believe in
+his heart. And the natural result is that he does
+not receive these things promised. That is, he
+is not saved because he won't accept the Lord
+Jesus as his Saviour <i>when it comes to the fire
+test</i>.</p>
+
+<p>There are without doubt thousands in the
+Church who will be left behind on the earth when
+our Lord Jesus catches up His own. This does
+not mean necessarily that they will be lost.
+There will be another opportunity of being saved
+for those living on the earth at that time. The
+Kingdom will be a wonderful time of salvation.
+There will be a continuous revival of the realest
+sort going on everywhere all the time.</p>
+
+<p>But these would not have the blessed privilege
+of fellowship with the King in the Kingdom,
+nor the blessedness of fuller resurrection
+life <i>at this time</i>. That is reserved for those who
+by grace have believed on the Lord Jesus, during
+His absence and continued rejection, in spite of
+the fire of opposition.</p>
+
+<p>It is notable that the Thyatiran message speaks
+of <i>great tribulation</i> coming to that Church if it
+continue unchanged. And that the Philadelphia
+Church is to be kept through &quot;the hour of trial,
+that which is to come upon the whole earth.&quot;
+Throughout the Scriptures mention is made of a
+time of persecution coming at the end. The<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_122" id="Page_122">[Page 122]</a></span>
+common term for it is tribulation. It is called
+<i>the great tribulation</i>. There will be more to be
+said about this again.</p>
+
+<p>It is possible that it will be found that this
+Patmos message will have special significance
+during that trying time at the end. But it should
+be noted that it fits into the <i>spirit of opposition</i>
+that is <i>always</i> found where there is true,
+faithful witnessing.</p>
+
+<p>The tribulation itself will be the time of intensest
+opposition carried to the extreme of violent
+persecution. It will be the climax of conditions
+always present, wherever there is faithful
+witnessing. Faithfulness to Christ always
+arouses opposition.</p>
+
+<p>The test of whether we really accept Christ
+and believe Him is not in anything we say. It
+is not even in what we are in our lives when
+all goes smoothly. It is in what we are in our
+lives <i>when opposed</i>, when it costs criticism, ostracism,
+petty persecution, or more outright persecution.
+This is our Lord's test of acceptance
+of Himself.</p>
+
+<p>We have had many definitions of what it means
+to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. And these
+have been helpful in clearing the air and helping
+us to a simple acceptance of Him. These
+definitions have touched chiefly the <i>inner</i> part of
+faith, the part we are conscious of.</p>
+
+<p>Here is another definition. Here is the last
+word on the subject, the authoritative word,
+from our Lord Jesus Himself. It tells what
+faith is in its outward working, the part the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_123" id="Page_123">[Page 123]</a></span>
+<i>crowd</i> sees. The faith that accepts Jesus as
+Saviour accepts Him also as Lord.</p>
+
+<p>That faith naturally rings true to Him under
+all circumstances. It rings truest and clearest
+whenever opposition to Him is aroused, whether
+the opposition of indifference, of criticism and
+sneer, or of persecution.</p>
+
+<p>There are certain commonly accepted things
+that are in themselves only good, but which are
+not <i>conclusive</i> evidence that we really have saving
+faith in the Saviour. The act of coming
+into Church membership whether by confirmation,
+by an assent to questions regarding one's
+personal faith, or by being baptized, the fact
+of membership in the Church, the partaking of
+the Lord's supper, serving as an official of the
+Church in pulpit or pew, faithful attendance, liberal
+support,&mdash;these things are only good.</p>
+
+<p>But they do not furnish conclusive evidence
+of one's acceptance of Christ. It is quite possible
+to be carried along on the common current
+in such things. There is clear evidence that
+many are. The decisive thing, the test thing is
+this: <i>how we stand opposition</i>, the polite, sneering
+sort, the more aggressive sort, or&mdash;if it come
+to that&mdash;the violent sort. The <i>fire</i> reveals every
+man's faith if there be any there.</p>
+
+<p>There are two fire tests. One is of our faith
+in Christ, as revealed in the frictional fires of
+opposition. Whoever stands that test is caught
+up into His presence when He comes, or goes
+at once into His presence if our going precede
+His coming.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_124" id="Page_124">[Page 124]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>The second is of the love-spirit, how far it
+has been the very breath of our life as revealed
+by the fire of His presence. For the love-spirit
+means personal loyalty to Jesus, purity of heart,
+holiness of life, steadiness of purpose, and the
+exquisite gentleness of patience in our conduct
+toward all others.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote"><p>[82] Psalm cxxxix.</p></div><p>These words of our Lord Jesus are very
+searching. This Patmos message must have been
+a painful one for Him to give John, and painful
+for John to repeat. It is painful for any one
+to repeat when its meaning is understood. It
+should send one off into some quiet corner alone
+on his knees with that great &quot;search me&quot; prayer
+of the Psalmist.<a name="FNanchor_82_82" id="FNanchor_82_82"></a><span class="snlabel">[82]</span></p>
+
+<p>Recently I was told a simple incident of one
+of the truly great Christian men of our generation.
+He was at the head of one of the largest
+concerns of our country employing thousands
+of men, but never knowing any labor troubles. I
+remember the impression made on me a few
+years ago at the time of his death, by the remark
+made to me by two different men of this
+man's city, men that I think did not know each
+other, or maybe very slightly. As I spoke of
+him each man said in a subdued voice, &quot;Oh,
+everybody in &mdash;&mdash; loved Mr. &mdash;&mdash;!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>This incident was told by his son. The two
+were on a train together. The father rose and
+went forward to another part of the train. As
+he went out a man sitting opposite came over
+and spoke to the son. His flashy manner of dress<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_125" id="Page_125">[Page 125]</a></span>
+and the fact that he seemed to have been drinking
+suggested the sort of man he was. He said
+to the son:</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Wasn't that Mr. So-and-so?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Yes,&quot; the son replied.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Well,&quot; the man said, as though talking half
+to himself, &quot;if there were more men like him,
+there'd be fewer like me.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>And he turned to his seat and sat as though
+absorbed in his thought. The son, in speaking of
+it after his father's death, said it was one of the
+tenderest memories he had of his father.</p>
+
+<p>The common crowd on the street and our
+Lord Jesus are united in one thing: they want
+<i>more men like Him</i>, Jesus our Saviour. Then
+there'd be fewer of the other sort.</p>
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_127" id="Page_127">[Page 127]</a></span></p>
+<h2><a name="V_AN_ADVANCE_STEP_IN_THE_ROYAL_PROGRAMME" id="V_AN_ADVANCE_STEP_IN_THE_ROYAL_PROGRAMME"></a>V.&mdash;AN ADVANCE STEP IN THE ROYAL PROGRAMME</h2>
+
+<p class="center">(Revelation, Chapters iv. and v.)</p>
+
+<div class="poem">
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_128" id="Page_128">[Page 128]</a></span>
+&quot;We are watching, we are waiting,<br />
+<span class="i1">For the bright prophetic day;</span><br />
+When the shadows, weary shadows,<br />
+<span class="i1">From the world shall roll away.</span><br />
+</p><p>
+&quot;We are watching, we are waiting,<br />
+<span class="i1">For the star that brings the day;</span><br />
+When the night of sin shall vanish,<br />
+<span class="i1">And the shadows melt away.</span><br />
+</p><p>
+&quot;We are watching, we are waiting,<br />
+<span class="i1">For the beauteous King of day;</span><br />
+For the chiefest of ten thousand,<br />
+<span class="i1">For the Light, the Truth, the Way.</span><br />
+</p>
+<div class="sidenote"><p>[83] W.&nbsp;O. Cushing.</p></div>
+<p>
+&quot;We are waiting for the morning,<br />
+<span class="i1">When the beauteous day is dawning,</span><br />
+We are waiting for the morning,<br />
+<span class="i1">For the golden spires of day.&quot;<a name="FNanchor_83_83" id="FNanchor_83_83"></a><span class="snlabel">[83]</span></span>
+</p></div>
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_129" id="Page_129">[Page 129]</a></span></p>
+
+<h4>A Look into Heaven.</h4>
+
+<p>Heaven is a place of intensest and tenderest
+interest to every one. It is true that there is
+less emphasis on getting to heaven as a result
+of being saved than there was a generation ago.
+Indeed, no emphasis at all. The whole thought
+now is about our life here on the earth. We
+think less about dying and more about living.</p>
+
+<p>This is true. Yet every one of us has loved
+ones who have slipped from our grasp, and gone
+from our midst. We think of them. The tenderest
+memories brood over us, and come like
+a flood sometimes.</p>
+
+<p>We may have the sweet sense of assurance
+that these loved ones are saved. But there is
+an intense longing at times to know more about
+them, where they are, what they are doing, how
+much they know of things down here. These
+thoughts <i>will</i> come crowding in upon us.</p>
+
+<p>Now here is some light. <i>All</i> the questions are
+not answered. But there comes clear, sweet
+light to comfort our hearts during the waiting
+time until we shall be joined with them again.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_130" id="Page_130">[Page 130]</a></span>
+We are given here in John's Revelation the first
+clear, definite glimpse into the upper world. It
+is told us in the language of earth of course.
+It must be, else we would not understand. But
+clearly there is a glory and happiness clear beyond
+what earthly words can tell.</p>
+
+<p>This is the first glimpse into heaven given
+us in this old Book of God. Jacob wakes up
+in his dream and sees a ladder set up connecting
+earth and heaven, and the angels going up and
+returning again while God talks with him. It
+means much to him, but gives us no answer to
+our questions, except to make plain that there
+is a very real and wondrous world up there where
+our loved ones go.</p>
+
+<p>Moses is up in the mount with God for six
+weeks nearly, twice over, but there is no suggestion
+of what he may have seen; only the
+transfiguring change in his face, and the strongly
+gentling change in his character.</p>
+
+<p>Ezekiel finds the heavens opening and sees
+the vision, so like John's, of the wondrous Man.
+Stephen looks up steadfastly into heaven and sees
+the resplendent glory of God, and the crucified
+Jesus standing at the right hand of God. Paul
+is caught up into heaven, not improbably at the
+time that his body lay bruised and bleeding and
+apparently lifeless outside Lystra. But the
+sights he sees and the over-awing glory are too
+much to be told. But here John is taken up in
+vision into the heavens, into the presence of God,
+and sees much, and tells us what he sees.</p>
+
+<p>It was after the vision of the glorified Man and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_131" id="Page_131">[Page 131]</a></span>
+His message. John is sitting thinking on all he
+has seen and heard, thinking back to Ephesus
+and the other Churches he knew so well. He is
+wondering perhaps <i>how</i> he <i>can</i> tell them what,
+whom, he has seen; and wondering too how he
+can tell them this message entrusted to him.</p>
+
+<p>The holy spell is still strong upon him, when
+all at once he noticed what looks like a door, a
+door opened above him in the blue. And as he is
+looking, astonished, that same voice that had
+been speaking with him before speaks again. He
+is bidden to &quot;come up hither,&quot; and he will be
+shown the things that are to happen some time
+in the future. At once he is conscious of that
+same gentle, enveloping presence of the Holy
+Spirit as before. At once He is up in heaven.
+And he tells us the scene that opens to his
+eyes.</p>
+
+<p>There is a throne set. What a comfort! There
+is a <i>throne</i>. There is a centre of authority and
+power to our world. This Revelation is peculiarly
+the book of a <i>throne</i>. Up yonder above
+the moral tangle and confusion of earth is a
+reigning throne.</p>
+
+<p>There is One sitting on the throne. That
+throne is occupied. It has not been vacated.
+Men down here may push God off the throne
+of their lives, and try to push Him out of the
+affairs of the earth. But He sits on the throne
+above. And that throne dominates the life of the
+earth. Nothing can be done without permission.</p>
+
+<p>John can't describe this one sitting on the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_132" id="Page_132">[Page 132]</a></span>
+throne. The sight is too much for his eyes.
+When the seventy elders of Israel see God, all
+that they can remember is the dazzle of glory
+in the wonderful pavement under His feet. It
+seems like a pavement of precious stones of
+sapphire, but as clear as crystal. So now all
+that John can see is some One who seems to his
+eyes like transparent precious stones blazing with
+light. This is the only thing he can think of
+to tell of what he sees.</p>
+
+<h4>Rest in the Midst of Unrest.</h4>
+
+<p>There is a rainbow around the throne. The
+radiance of light shining out from this One on
+the throne makes a rainbow. If one wonders
+how God can look down on the misery and sin,
+the rebellion and wretchedness that dominate
+most of the earth, here is the answer. His finger
+is never off the pulse. He knows all as we never
+can. And he feels as we never do the pain of
+life, and the discord of earth. The unceasing cry
+of earth comes up in his ears.</p>
+
+<p>But He is controlled by a purpose. It is a
+purpose of strong patient love. <i>He has made
+a promise</i> that man shall have fullest opportunity
+unchecked by the natural sweeping judgment,
+that invariable working out of sin and wrong.
+That throne keeps the order of nature working
+smoothly and faithfully for man's sake, holding
+in restraint the forces that would hinder and
+destroy. The rainbow is the signature to His
+promise. That rainbow is always before His<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_133" id="Page_133">[Page 133]</a></span>
+face. That promise has never been forgotten.
+This explains the quietness of the One on the
+throne, looking down on the moral confusion of
+the race.</p>
+
+<p>But this rainbow is not like the common rainbows
+that we know. It completely encircles the
+throne. Our rainbows are broken up. They are
+never seen in their completeness. Our lookout on
+things sees only a part; it never sees all. It is
+never complete. The view of things up there is
+complete. Everything is seen and is seen in its
+true relation to everything else. The throne is
+the one place of perfect perspective and poise.</p>
+
+<p>And this rainbow is all of one colour, a clear,
+soft emerald-green. We know that green is the
+most restful of all colours. Some colours are
+irritating. Some persons of very sensitive, nervous
+temperament are even made sick by certain
+colours. And we are all affected more than we
+know in a hurtful way by certain colours. But
+green is the colour of rest. It soothes the eyes
+and nerves and even the spirit. The rainbow
+round about the throne looked like a quiet, quieting
+emerald-green. The One on the throne is at
+perfect rest regarding things down here. He
+knows all. His ears hear all, the cry of distress
+and despair, the defiance and arrogance and blasphemy.
+His eyes see His children down here,
+creative children all of them, prodigal children
+so many of them, and trusting children walking
+in the shadows. He sees all. And He feels all
+with His great feeling heart.</p>
+
+<p>Yet He is at rest. Do you wonder how He<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_134" id="Page_134">[Page 134]</a></span>
+can be? When Jesus saw the multitudes He was
+moved with compassion; He suffered in heart
+with them, for they were as shepherdless sheep,
+torn and distressed. And the heart beating in
+rhythm with His has as hard a time as He. If
+He lead you in service to some foreign mission
+land, you see and know and feel as no tourist
+party hurried through the outer fringes ever does
+or can.</p>
+
+<p>And in Christian lands of the West, and the
+homeland, in slum as in polite circles, in commercial
+quarters as in the university world, the
+heart that is in touch with Jesus' heart sees and
+hears and feels and senses things as they are under
+the surface or sticking boldly out through
+the surface. And feels at times as though it can
+never again be at rest.</p>
+
+<p>How can He, on the throne, be so quiet, and
+be at rest? And there is an answer to our burning
+question, a simple, real answer. <i>He knows
+the end.</i> He has a purpose and a plan. The
+present is only one stage in His great plan. This
+is man's opportunity, and possibly some one's
+else opportunity, too. It is to be followed by
+something else radically different down on this
+earth.</p>
+
+<p>He is held steady during this time by a great
+purpose. It is a purpose of great, tender love.
+To His eye looking sleeplessly down there is rest
+even as of emerald-green. And so there will be
+rest for him who looks sleeplessly <i>up</i> to the
+<i>throne</i> of control, encircled in the emerald rainbow
+of perfect peace. And we can be of best<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_135" id="Page_135">[Page 135]</a></span>
+service to Him by resting in our hearts, resting
+in Him, even while working in the thick of things
+as they are down here.</p>
+
+<h4>They See His Face.</h4>
+
+<p>Then John sees twenty-four other thrones
+round about the central throne. And on these
+there are twenty-four men sitting. These men
+are wearing white garments, and have crowns of
+gold upon their heads. This is the part of intense
+interest. Who are these? And what does
+this mean?</p>
+
+<p>What has been said before about picture language,
+the language of the Orient, of childhood,
+of the common crowd, the universal language,
+will help us here. The Bible is an Oriental book.
+It talks in picture language. This is humanly
+what gives it such freshness and peculiar adaptation.
+The radical change of circumstances and
+speech and mode of thought in different centuries
+makes all books antiquated after a certain
+time. This book has the freshness of youth, for
+in its simple picture language it deals in principles.
+But picture language must be held to
+its simplicity. And something of familiarity
+with the whole range of the Scripture is needful
+to use the key to the simple picture language.</p>
+
+<p>Let us look a bit at the simple scene here.
+These men are elders, that is they are leaders.
+They represent multitudes of others. Throughout
+the Bible twelve is the number of completeness,
+both in things and people. A complete<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_136" id="Page_136">[Page 136]</a></span>
+gathering or throng of people is represented by
+the number twelve. There are twelve tribes of
+Israel, and so on. This is so familiar that
+it need only be named without further illustration.</p>
+
+<p>There are two great divisions of this Bible,
+the Old Testament and the New. These stand
+naturally for the two great divisions of time, before
+Christ and after. This division is strongly
+marked in the Bible, and sharply marked in our
+Christian consciousness. It has been a common
+thing to wonder about the salvation and spiritual
+knowledge and privileges of people who lived before
+Christ came and died.</p>
+
+<p>Twice twelve make twenty-four. These
+twenty-four elders represent the redeemed ones
+from both of these great divisions of time. That
+is to say, the picture tells us this. All the people
+from creation's earliest morn up to the present,
+including the one who went out last from some
+sorrowing family circle, all who have had the
+touch of heart with God, are gathered in the
+presence of Him who sits on the throne. That is
+one simple thing that stands out clear and sure.</p>
+
+<p>These are represented as <i>sitting</i>. The slave
+or servant never sat in his master's presence.
+Friends sit together. Angels are never spoken
+of as sitting in the presence of God. When our
+Lord Jesus was received up He sat down at the
+Father's right hand. We are spoken of as seated
+in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus. Sitting
+together means being on terms of intimacy and
+fellowship. Through the precious blood of our<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_137" id="Page_137">[Page 137]</a></span>
+Lord Jesus we are all accepted in the Beloved and
+received and trusted as He is.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote"><p>[84] Rev. iii. 4-5.</p><p>[85] Rev. iii. 18.</p><p>[86] Rev. vi. 11.</p><p>[87] Rev. vii. 9.</p><p>[88] Rev. xix. 8, 14.</p></div><p>These elders are clad in white garments. That
+is one of the familiar things spoken of much
+in this end-book. Part of the promise to those
+of overcoming faith is that they shall be arrayed
+in white garments, and walk with Christ in
+white.<a name="FNanchor_84_84" id="FNanchor_84_84"></a><span class="snlabel">[84]</span> Those who are faulty in the Church are
+urged to get white garments.<a name="FNanchor_85_85" id="FNanchor_85_85"></a><span class="snlabel">[85]</span> The martyrs
+waiting their vindication,<a name="FNanchor_86_86" id="FNanchor_86_86"></a><span class="snlabel">[86]</span> and the great multitudes
+who come up out of the tribulation are
+given white raiment.<a name="FNanchor_87_87" id="FNanchor_87_87"></a><span class="snlabel">[87]</span> The bride at the joyous
+marriage supper, and the armies following the
+conquering Christ, are clad in fine linen, bright
+and pure.<a name="FNanchor_88_88" id="FNanchor_88_88"></a><span class="snlabel">[88]</span></p>
+
+<div class="sidenote"><p>[89] Rev. xix. 8.</p><p>[90] Rev. vii. 14; xxii. 14.</p></div><p>We are told that this white linen means a pure
+life.<a name="FNanchor_89_89" id="FNanchor_89_89"></a><span class="snlabel">[89]</span> These garments have been washed in the
+blood of the Lamb.<a name="FNanchor_90_90" id="FNanchor_90_90"></a><span class="snlabel">[90]</span> These multitudes have been
+cleansed in the blood of Christ and purified by
+the Holy Spirit and made perfect in purity and
+holiness as they came up into the presence of the
+Father on the throne.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote"><p>[91] Rev. ii. 10; iii. 11; I Corinthians ix. 25; II Timothy
+iv. 8; James i. 12; I Peter v. 4.</p></div><p>These elders are wearing golden crowns. This
+language, too, is familiar. The acknowledgment
+and reward of faithfulness and of service is
+spoken of commonly under this bit of picture
+talk.<a name="FNanchor_91_91" id="FNanchor_91_91"></a><span class="snlabel">[91]</span> The angels are never spoken of as being
+crowned. Christ was crowned, that is received<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_138" id="Page_138">[Page 138]</a></span>
+into the presence of the Father, as the full recognition
+of His worthiness and of what He had
+done, and in vindication after the shameful rejection
+by men.</p>
+
+<p>These men and women and children in the
+Father's presence have been rewarded and are
+being rewarded for their faithfulness in obedience
+and in life. All the struggles and difficulties,
+the hard road, the endurance, the patient
+suffering for His name's sake, the faithfulness
+in doing the allotted tasks, all these have been
+noted and acknowledged. There is the sweet
+peace of the Father's approval in all of these
+before the throne.</p>
+
+<h4>Going to School to God.</h4>
+
+<div class="sidenote"><p>[92] Matthew xix. 28.</p><p>[93] Luke xxii. 30.</p><p>[94] Rev. iii. 21.</p></div><p>And these are sitting on <i>thrones</i>. When Jesus
+was teaching His disciples, in the dark days of
+bitter opposition He wooed them with this: &quot;Ye
+shall sit upon twelve thrones.&quot;<a name="FNanchor_92_92" id="FNanchor_92_92"></a><span class="snlabel">[92]</span> And a bit later
+as they sat round the supper table on the night
+of His betrayal, when things are getting to the
+darkest, again He woos them: &quot;Ye may eat
+and drink at my table in my Kingdom; and ye
+shall sit on thrones.&quot;<a name="FNanchor_93_93" id="FNanchor_93_93"></a><span class="snlabel">[93]</span> He that overcometh is
+assured of sitting with Christ on His throne.<a name="FNanchor_94_94" id="FNanchor_94_94"></a><span class="snlabel">[94]</span></p>
+
+<div class="sidenote"><p>[95] Rev. v. 10; xx. 4, 6.</p><p>[96] Hebrews i. 14 with Daniel vii. 10 and Psalm ciii.
+20-21.</p></div><p>All the redeemed ones of earth are to have
+part with Christ in the coming Kingdom time.
+They reign with Him.<a name="FNanchor_95_95" id="FNanchor_95_95"></a><span class="snlabel">[95]</span> During this present time
+the countless hosts of angels have a part in min<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_139" id="Page_139">[Page 139]</a></span>istering
+to man on the earth.<a name="FNanchor_96_96" id="FNanchor_96_96"></a><span class="snlabel">[96]</span> Even so during
+the Kingdom time to come the countless hosts
+of the redeemed will have the sweet privilege of
+service with Christ and on behalf of those on the
+earth. And it is quite possible that they already
+have a part in such a ministry.</p>
+
+<p>A little farther in the description it is seen
+that these elders have &quot;each one a harp, and
+golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers
+of the saints.&quot; Heaven is a place of wonderful
+music. Its very atmosphere must be tuned
+to the rarest rhythmic harmonies. And each one
+has part in the music being made.</p>
+
+<p>And yet more, they are continuing the sweet
+ministry of intercession learned down on earth.
+This means that they are in touch with earth.
+They know the needs of loved ones and of all,
+and they have the privilege of fellowship in
+this with Him who ever liveth to make intercession.</p>
+
+<p>And there is one other thing we know here
+at once without being told. If a friend tells me
+that he has a rose garden under the care of a
+skilled gardener, I know without being told that
+the roses are growing. I at once look through
+my friend's words and see bushes full of roses
+of all colours, some full blown, some half blown,
+some bursting buds, and some just budding. For
+there is a garden, and a gardener, and sun and
+rain and dew. I know there must be growth
+and beauty.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_140" id="Page_140">[Page 140]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Even so we know that the loved ones who have
+parted from us, are growing. They are in the
+Father's presence, in intimate fellowship. That
+tells me of their growth. That little one who
+slipped away so young, years ago, has been growing
+in mental powers, in character as well as in
+what down here we call stature, and growing
+most of all in love. And so at the meeting time,
+in the air or up there, there will be instant recognition,
+as well as instant delight over the growth
+under such wondrous tutorage.</p>
+
+<p>This is the glimpse into the upper world which
+John sees and is allowed to give us here. The
+redeemed ones of earth of all the ages are in
+the presence of the Father and of the Lord
+Jesus and of the angels, on terms of intimate
+fellowship, made pure and perfect in character,
+but always growing from more to more, and
+having a share in blessed ministry. And they
+listen to and have share in making music more
+exquisite than our earthly language can describe.</p>
+
+<p>They understand the wondrous plans for the
+earth, for now they see all things through the
+Lord Jesus' eyes. They have some part without
+doubt in welcoming those who come to join
+them, even as they will have part in receiving
+those who are caught up at our Lord's return.
+And they look forward eagerly to the glad time
+of righting that will come then.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote"><p>[97] Rev. viii. 5; xi. 19; xvi. 18, 21.</p></div><p>But let us look a bit more at what John sees.
+Out of the throne are seen proceeding lightnings
+and voices and thunders. Three other times in<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_141" id="Page_141">[Page 141]</a></span>
+this book it speaks of lightning and voices and
+thunder.<a name="FNanchor_97_97" id="FNanchor_97_97"></a><span class="snlabel">[97]</span> These things of course are the familiar
+accompaniments of a storm. It is noticeable
+that each other time they are named in the
+book it is in connection with some direct action
+being taken by God in the affairs of the earth.
+And each time there is some added item intensifying
+the scene.</p>
+
+<p>A physical storm is caused by two areas of unequal
+temperature coming together. The storm
+is the process of coming together and equalizing
+of the atmospheric conditions. The inference
+here would seem to be that the time of action
+has come to straighten out matters on the earth.
+The two moral atmospheres of heaven and earth
+seem to be coming into contact, and a storm
+is resulting before clear weather comes. It suggests
+that our Lord Jesus is taking the next
+direct step in His broader plan.</p>
+
+<h4>God's Ideal of Creation.</h4>
+
+<p>But let us look a little further. In the book's
+picture language there are &quot;seven lamps of fire
+burning before the throne.&quot; These we are plainly
+told &quot;are the seven spirits of God.&quot; That is a
+Hebrew way of saying &quot;the perfect spirit of
+God.&quot; This is of intense interest. The Holy
+Spirit is represented as being before the throne.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote"><p>[98] John xiv.-xvi.</p></div><p>In the confidential talk with the inner group of
+disciples on the betrayal night, in John's Gospel,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_142" id="Page_142">[Page 142]</a></span><a name="FNanchor_98_98" id="FNanchor_98_98"></a><span class="snlabel">[98]</span>
+Jesus promises that when He has ascended up
+to the Father He will send down the Holy Spirit
+to them. When the Spirit has come down to
+the disciples He will begin a new ministry of
+witnessing to the world through them.</p>
+
+<p>In the Book of Acts that promise is fulfilled.
+The Spirit comes down with remarkable manifestations
+on the day of Pentecost. The distinctive
+thing He does is to take possession of a
+group of men and form them into a new witnessing
+body called the Church. He had dwelt
+in the nation of Israel as a nation, and had been
+withdrawn from that nation when it proved finally
+faithless to its mission. He had dwelt in individual
+men before and during and after that
+time.</p>
+
+<p>At Pentecost He is sent down on a new mission.
+He is to do in men all that Jesus has
+done for them in His life and death and resurrection.
+But the distinctive thing of Pentecost
+is His forming this new body called the Church,
+through which He begins a new ministry of witnessing
+to the world.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote"><p>[99] II Thessalonians ii. 6-7.</p></div><p>All through the Acts and Epistles He is constantly
+spoken of as here on the earth working
+in the Church and through it. He in the Church
+is a powerful restraint upon the powers of evil
+in the world. In Thessalonians,<a name="FNanchor_99_99" id="FNanchor_99_99"></a><span class="snlabel">[99]</span> Paul has
+spoken of a day coming when that restraint
+would be withdrawn. The Holy Spirit, the
+&quot;One that restraineth now,&quot; is to be taken away.</p>
+
+<p>Now here the Holy Spirit is represented as<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_143" id="Page_143">[Page 143]</a></span>
+being, not in the Church, as always in the Acts
+and Epistles, but as being &quot;before the throne.&quot;
+This is the second significant thing to note in
+this scene. This also would seem to suggest the
+beginning of a new order of things.</p>
+
+<p>John goes quietly on with his description. Before
+the throne he sees a great expanse that looks
+like a sea of clear, bright, beautiful crystal. Before
+the throne and around about the throne are
+four living creatures or creatures of life. These
+living creatures are of intensest interest. They
+appear throughout the Scriptures from the Garden
+of Eden in Genesis to the very close of this
+Book of Revelation.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote"><p>[100] Ezekiel i. 4-28; x. 1-22.</p><p>[101] Exodus xxv. 17-22; xxxvii. 6-9.</p><p>[102] I Kings vi. 23-26; viii. 6-7; II Chronicles iii. 10-14;
+v. 7-8.</p><p>[103] Ezekiel xli. 15-26.</p><p>[104] I Samuel iv. 4; II Samuel vi. 2; xxii. 11;
+I Chronicles xiii. 6; Psalm xviii. 10; lxxx. 1; xcix. 1;
+Isaiah vi. 1-3; xxxvii. 16.</p><p>[105] Genesis iii. 24.</p></div><p>They are also called cherubim and seraphim,
+that is, cherubs and seraphs. They are always
+associated directly with the immediate presence
+of God,<a name="FNanchor_100_100" id="FNanchor_100_100"></a><span class="snlabel">[100]</span> and with His presence-chamber, in the
+tabernacle,<a name="FNanchor_101_101" id="FNanchor_101_101"></a><span class="snlabel">[101]</span> in the temple,<a name="FNanchor_102_102" id="FNanchor_102_102"></a><span class="snlabel">[102]</span> and in Ezekiel's
+vision of a new temple,<a name="FNanchor_103_103" id="FNanchor_103_103"></a><span class="snlabel">[103]</span> and in the thought of
+the people.<a name="FNanchor_104_104" id="FNanchor_104_104"></a><span class="snlabel">[104]</span> There is one possible exception to
+this, where they are seen at the entrance to the
+Garden of Eden.<a name="FNanchor_105_105" id="FNanchor_105_105"></a><span class="snlabel">[105]</span> The description of them is
+most full in Ezekiel. It varies in details, but
+with the essentials always the same.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_144" id="Page_144">[Page 144]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>The general appearance is that of a man, but
+there are four faces as of a man, a lion, an ox
+or calf, a flying eagle, and sometimes a cherub
+face. They are full of eyes everywhere, and they
+seem enveloped in the pure fire which everywhere
+is associated with God's own presence. These
+descriptions combined suggest perfection of
+purity, of intelligence, of obedience, and of
+power.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote"><p>[106] iv. 6-9; v. 6, 8, 14; vi. 1, 3, 5, 7; vii. 11; xiv. 3;
+xv. 7; xix. 4.</p></div><p>In this book of the Revelation they are spoken
+of seven times,<a name="FNanchor_106_106" id="FNanchor_106_106"></a><span class="snlabel">[106]</span> that is, more frequently than
+in any other book, though not so fully as in
+Ezekiel. Five times they are leading or joining
+in the worship of God, by men and angels, and
+twice they are co&ouml;perating with the Lamb or the
+angels in what is being done on the earth.</p>
+
+<p>These beautiful, intelligent beings seem to represent
+the whole animate creation, man, the animals
+intimately associated in service with man,
+those that roam at will, and the birds, and the
+angels. It would seem as though they stand for
+<i>God's ideal of creation</i>, as it was before the hurt
+of sin came, as He holds it in His heart, and as
+it will be after sin has gone. His ideal of a
+perfect and perfected creation is always in His
+presence and before His face, intelligently and
+gladly carrying out His will, reverently and joyously
+sounding His praise.</p>
+
+<p>It suggests that He will not rest content until
+His ideal for the creation shall be a sweet, full
+realization, all sin and rebellion removed and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_145" id="Page_145">[Page 145]</a></span>
+all His works uniting in joyous, continuous worship,
+and glad, harmonious obedience.</p>
+
+<h4>The Significant Book.</h4>
+
+<p>All this is interesting; some of it intense in
+interest. But it is only a setting. It is incidental.
+The chief thing is yet to be told. John
+had been told that he would be shown the things
+that would come to pass some time in the future.
+We come now to the beginnings of these
+&quot;things.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The One who is sitting on the throne has a
+carefully sealed book or document in his hand.
+An angel calls out loudly for any one who is
+qualified to do so to step forward and take the
+document and break its seals. And as John
+watches intently no one comes forward. No one
+can be found, either in the heaven, in earth,
+or in the region spoken of as under the earth.</p>
+
+<p>At this John is greatly distressed, and weeps
+much, so he must have understood at once just
+what this meant. And one of the elders comforts
+him with the assurance that there is One
+who has &quot;<i>overcome</i> to open the book, and the
+seven seals thereof,&quot; &quot;the lion of the tribe of
+Judah.&quot; This word &quot;overcome&quot; suggests that
+this one has been in some great conflict and has
+gotten the victory and overcome all opposition.
+And this qualifies Him to take and open the
+document. He is the only one among untold
+numbers so qualified.</p>
+
+<p>And now John sees this One. He is standing<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_146" id="Page_146">[Page 146]</a></span>
+in the very midst of the throne surrounded by
+creatures and elders. We easily recognize this
+as our Lord Jesus. He is a lion in leadership and
+strength. He is a lamb in gentleness of character,
+and in the sacrificial experience He has
+been through. The marks of death are plainly
+seen on His person.</p>
+
+<p>As He comes forward He reaches and takes
+the book out of the hand of the One on the
+throne. He is allowed to take it. His qualification
+to take the document and break its seals is
+acceptable to the One on the throne.</p>
+
+<p>And as He takes the book there is a remarkable
+burst of praise and adoration that must have
+made all heaven ring. And those on earth in
+touch of spirit with the scene and its purpose
+and the Chief Actor would surely feel some thrill
+in the spirit currents of earth.</p>
+
+<p>The outburst of worship is led by the four living
+creatures and the twenty-four elders who fall
+down before the Lamb and sing a song. What
+music that must be when the untold thousands
+sing as only redeemed ones can sing. Then
+countless hosts of angels join in and lift the
+chorus. And then there is the creation chorus,
+every created thing in heaven and earth, under
+the earth, in the sea, absolutely everything seems
+to join in this indescribable music. And the four
+living creatures say, &quot;Amen.&quot; And again the
+elders fall down and worship.</p>
+
+<p>John's distress at the beginning, and now this
+indescribable outburst of praise, tell us that this
+is something thrilling and significant beyond ex<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_147" id="Page_147">[Page 147]</a></span>pression.
+What does this mean, our Lord Jesus
+taking the sealed document preparatory to breaking
+its seals?</p>
+
+<p>It has been said in a previous talk that every
+thread woven into the fabric of the Old Testament
+can be found in the fabric of this Revelation
+book. So that if one goes to work patiently
+he can trace every allusion here to something
+back in these older leaves. This gives us the
+clue to the significance of this remarkable
+scene.</p>
+
+<p>That clue seems in this case to be found in
+the book of Jeremiah, chapter thirty-two. There
+is found an allusion to a simple primitive custom
+of the Hebrew people in the exchange of real
+estate and in taking possession of property to
+which one is entitled.</p>
+
+<p>The old Hebrew custom seems to have been as
+follows: When property was purchased the deed
+to the new owner was made out in duplicate, an
+open copy and a sealed copy. The open copy
+was clearly for public information, open to all.
+The sealed copy as clearly belonged only to the
+owner of the property as his evidence of ownership.
+So it identified him as the one named in
+the open copy.</p>
+
+<p>If a new heir comes to take possession of an
+estate, or in case of a dispute over ownership,
+the claimant who was adjudged the rightful heir
+or owner would be given the possession of the
+sealed document or deed. And as so attested
+by the judge or court, he only would be properly
+qualified to &quot;take&quot; the sealed roll, break its<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_148" id="Page_148">[Page 148]</a></span>
+seals, read its contents, and so formally take
+possession of the estate, or property.</p>
+
+<p>Now under the symbolism of this old bit of
+Hebrew custom, our Lord Jesus is represented
+here as stepping forward to take possession of
+the earth, and begin His reign over it. A
+Hebrew immersed in the old primitive customs
+of his people in Palestine would understand this
+allusion at once, however startled or sceptical he
+might be as to its significance in this connection.</p>
+
+<h4>Taking Possession.</h4>
+
+<p>The language used in the song of praise when
+our Lord Jesus takes the sealed book is significant.
+They say, &quot;thou art <i>worthy</i>,&quot; that is,
+thou art <i>qualified</i>; thou art the duly attested one
+with the right to take possession. &quot;For thou
+wast <i>slain</i>, and didst purchase unto God with
+thy blood men of every tribe,&quot; and so on.</p>
+
+<p>Man had been given the dominion of the earth.
+He had by obedience to the evil one transferred
+his right to Him who is repeatedly called &quot;the
+prince of this world.&quot; Our Lord Jesus <i>purchased</i>
+men out of their slavery back to their
+original Lord,&mdash;with all that was rightfully
+theirs. He has allowed fullest opportunity for
+all who will to accept His Lordship. Now He
+is about to take possession of the earth on behalf
+of men, and for them.</p>
+
+<p>This is the tremendous significance of what
+John is shown here as something that will take
+place hereafter. In the scene of the candlesticks<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_149" id="Page_149">[Page 149]</a></span>
+He is patiently waiting, holding Himself in restraint.
+Now the waiting time is over. He is
+making the next move in His broader plan for
+the earth.</p>
+
+<p>There is no hint as to the length of interval
+between the two scenes, how long He will wait.
+There is no suggestion as to when this next move
+will be made. But we are here plainly told that
+at some time that candlestick waiting time will
+end, and He will take a forward step in connection
+with His plans for the earth. And it should
+be keenly noticed that what follows now in this
+book of Revelation is the run of events that will
+immediately follow that next step of His.</p>
+
+<p>Yet this step is taken up <i>in heaven</i>. The first
+action of the new move will be there. There
+will be nothing to be seen on the earth to indicate
+the change. Things there will go on as
+before, eating and drinking, buying and selling,
+marrying and giving in marriage, all unconscious
+of the tremendous events being worked out.</p>
+
+<p>But now the waiting time still waits. Our
+opportunity is still open. If we might only be
+simple enough to be true to our absent Lord
+Jesus during this waiting time.</p>
+
+<p>A bishop of the American Episcopal Church,
+widely known for his saintly character, his culture,
+and long years of tireless service, was visiting
+in the South. In the town there lived a
+judge of wide repute for his scholarly learning
+as well as for his culture and uprightness. Now
+he was seriously ill, and had requested an interview
+with the bishop.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_150" id="Page_150">[Page 150]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>He asked the bishop to talk to him about personal
+religion. And the clergyman talked to this
+thoughtful, scholarly judge in choice philosophical
+language about the fatherhood of God,
+the character of Christ, and the essential harmony
+of man's true nature with God. The judge
+listened attentively for some time.</p>
+
+<p>Then he apologetically interrupted his visitor,
+and said:</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Bishop, I'm dying. Won't you please talk
+to me just like you'd talk to my black boy,
+Jim?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>And the bishop could, and did. He told him
+in simplest talk that he was a sinner. Jesus died
+to save sinners. His blood washes away our
+sins. We must take Christ as a Saviour, just
+trust Him, as simply as a child trusts its
+mother.</p>
+
+<p>So he talked. And the judge listened. And
+the tears came, and the peace. He came as a
+child, and trusted, and he knew the peace that
+passeth understanding. It was the simple telling
+of the simple story of the Saviour who died, and
+the simple, child-like acceptance of that Saviour.
+The scholarly bishop helped the learned judge
+best, in the crisis of his life, by talking as simply
+as to a child.</p>
+
+<p>If we might only be simple enough to be true
+to this Jesus who died, during the remnant of
+waiting time that remains.</p>
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_151" id="Page_151">[Page 151]</a></span></p>
+<h2><a name="VI_A_CLEARING-UP_STORM_IN_THE_REALM" id="VI_A_CLEARING-UP_STORM_IN_THE_REALM"></a>VI.&mdash;A CLEARING-UP STORM IN THE REALM</h2>
+
+<p class="center">(Revelation, Chapters vi.-viii.)</p>
+
+
+<div class="poem">
+<p>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_152" id="Page_152">[Page 152]</a></span>
+&quot;God Almighty! King of nations! earth Thy footstool, heaven Thy throne!<br />
+Thine the greatness, power, and glory, Thine the kingdom, Lord, alone!<br />
+Life and death are in Thy keeping, and Thy will ordaineth all:<br />
+From the armies of Thy heavens to an unseen insect's fall.<br />
+</p><p>
+&quot;Reigning, guiding, all-commanding, ruling myriad worlds of light;<br />
+Now exalting, now abasing, none can stay Thy hand of might!<br />
+Working all things by Thy power, by the counsel of Thy will.<br />
+Thou art God! enough to know it, and to hear Thy word: 'Be still!'<br />
+</p><p>
+&quot;In Thy sovereignty rejoicing, we Thy children bow and praise,<br />
+For we know that kind and loving, just and true, are all Thy ways.<br />
+While Thy heart of sovereign mercy, and Thy arm of sovereign might,<br />
+For our great and strong salvation in Thy sovereign grace unite.&quot;<br />
+<br />
+<span class="i4">&mdash;<span class="smcap">Frances Ridley Havergal</span>.</span><br /></p></div>
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_153" id="Page_153">[Page 153]</a></span></p>
+
+<h4>The Area of the Storm.</h4>
+
+<p>Goodness arouses evil. Faithfulness to Christ
+stirs opposition. This is a commonplace. A
+piece of white-hot metal plunged into cold water
+makes a great fuss. Two areas of sharply different
+temperatures in the atmosphere above us
+coming suddenly together make a storm.</p>
+
+<p>Purity entering an atmosphere of impurity and
+insisting on staying, and on keeping pure, creates
+a lively disturbance. The tempter was aroused
+to his subtlest effort when Jesus appeared. There
+is no such demoniac activity recorded as when
+Jesus walked among men.</p>
+
+<p>So crowning a king arouses opposition, if there
+be opposition. And the active taking of the reins
+of government has intensified the opposition
+when it was strong enough to make a stand. The
+striking illustration of this in the Bible is King
+David. After Saul's death the men of Judah
+anointed David king. That was the signal for
+an immediate attack by the chief of the forces
+of Saul's house. And this was succeeded by
+a long war, before David was acknowledged as<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_154" id="Page_154">[Page 154]</a></span>
+king over all Israel. The clearing-up storm in
+his realm lasted a good while before good
+weather came.</p>
+
+<p>Here in this Revelation scene we have been
+looking at our Lord Jesus is represented as stepping
+forward to take possession of His realm.
+It is natural to expect a storm. This will be
+a signal to the opposition to rally all its power.
+But there can be no question about the outcome
+of such a set-to. That storm proves to be a
+clearing-up storm in the realm. It is to be followed
+by such fine moral weather as has not been
+known before. But the storm itself proves to
+be a terrific one for the earth while it lasts.</p>
+
+<p>The greater part of this little end-book is taken
+up with a description of that storm. But before
+we turn to this book itself and its storm,
+we want to get our bearings a bit, so as to understand
+better what is here. Revelation is the
+knot in the end of a big bunch of threads. We
+shall understand the knot better by knowing
+more about the threads before they are tied into
+the knot.</p>
+
+<p>The storm area proves to be very large. It
+takes in the whole earth. The Bible is a big
+book in its outlook and grasp. It deals with
+the whole earth, and the whole race. The
+thoughtful Bible student comes to have a broad
+outlook, as well as a close lookout about his
+own front and back doors.</p>
+
+<p>It is fascinating to study the geography of the
+Bible. We talk about the world growing smaller.
+That refers of course to the rapidity of transit.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_155" id="Page_155">[Page 155]</a></span>
+It is only within a few hundred years that we
+have learned of the earth being round. The
+Bible map includes practically the whole world
+as we have come to know it.</p>
+
+<p>The centre of the world as seen on this map
+may seem a little surprising. We Americans
+<i>feel</i> that the centre of things is here. The Englishman
+<i>knows</i> that it is in London; and lately
+the Germans have had the same exclusive sort
+of knowledge about Berlin. The Chinese has
+long called his country &quot;the Middle Kingdom,&quot;
+in the sense of its being the central kingdom
+about which the rest of the world revolves. But
+here the centre is seen to be on the boundary
+line, practically, between Orient and Occident,
+reaching out an embracing arm to each.</p>
+
+<p>We have a broad division of the earth into
+East and West. The differences between the
+two, in civilization, mode of thought, religion,
+language, and so on, are so radical as to make
+it seem that there was no point of contact. At
+least this has been emphasized much by western
+writers on the East. We are disturbed just now
+here in the far West over the Oriental, Chinese
+Japanese and Indian crossing the <i>far</i> boundary
+line between Orient and Occident and coming
+into the United States and Canada.</p>
+
+<p>Yet East and West have always overlapped
+at the <i>middle</i> boundary line. There is a great
+mixture of races in the strip where the eastern
+edge of the West and the western edge of the
+East come together. It is the strip running
+roughly north and south where Russia's west<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_156" id="Page_156">[Page 156]</a></span>ern
+border and Turkey's touch Germany and
+Austria and Greece, including the never-at-rest
+Balkan Peninsula. Constantinople sits on the
+dividing line between East and West, with the
+worst of both civilizations within her confines.
+Here the hemispheres touch and their life currents
+intermingle and flow together.</p>
+
+<p>Scientific research seems to find good evidence
+that all our European civilization, which
+of course means American too, may have been
+brought over by Eastern immigrants from central
+Asia long ages ago, Asia coming into Europe.
+Perhaps we Westerners would not despise
+the Easterners so contemptuously and patronizingly
+if we knew how much we are probably
+indebted to them for our civilization as well as
+for our Hebrew and Christian faith, our Bible,
+and the Christian restraining bulwarks of our
+common life.</p>
+
+<p>The old common point of contact between
+Orient and Occident was the strip of land forming
+the western edge of the Orient at the eastern
+end of the Mediterranean. Palestine has been
+for centuries the common roadway of all nations,
+East and West. No bit of earth has been so
+tramped and trampled by the feet of all nations
+and races. This has been the battlefield
+of the nations through long centuries. The ends
+of the earth have met here. It is interesting
+that the waters that wash its western shore
+are called the Mediterranean Sea, that is, the
+<i>middle-of-the-earth</i> sea.</p>
+
+<p>Here then is the centre of the map. It is the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_157" id="Page_157">[Page 157]</a></span>
+centre of all things in the Bible. And it has
+proven to be at the centre of human action
+through history, attested by the very name given
+to the chief body of water there.</p>
+
+<p>Jerusalem, the capital city of this Palestine
+strip, was the centre of a world power in the
+early ages. It has been the world capital. And
+it has in turn been fought over and conquered
+by every world power. No city has been a
+world centre of action during as long a stretch
+of time, and to as many different nations.</p>
+
+<p>Out from this centre the action of the Bible
+reaches north to Russia, south to Africa (Ethiopia),
+east to China (Sinim, Isaiah xlix. 12), and
+west to Spain. That practically includes the
+world of our day. America is of course merely
+a transplanted seedling of Europe.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote"><p>[107] Isaiah xiii.-xxiv.</p><p>[108] Jeremiah xlvi.-li.</p><p>[109] Ezekiel xxv.-xxxii., xxxviii.-xxxix.</p><p>[110] Daniel, throughout, notably vii.-xii.</p></div><p>Those great Hebrew leaders called prophets
+had a world outlook. They were world messengers.
+It is intensely interesting to take a
+piece of paper, and pencil a rough map of the
+nations named in their messages, notably Isaiah,<a name="FNanchor_107_107" id="FNanchor_107_107"></a><span class="snlabel">[107]</span>
+Jeremiah,<a name="FNanchor_108_108" id="FNanchor_108_108"></a><span class="snlabel">[108]</span> Ezekiel,<a name="FNanchor_109_109" id="FNanchor_109_109"></a><span class="snlabel">[109]</span> and Daniel.<a name="FNanchor_110_110" id="FNanchor_110_110"></a><span class="snlabel">[110]</span> Beginning at
+Jerusalem and Israel they reach first this way,
+then that, up and down, back and forth, until
+the whole world of action of that day has been
+touched. They were men of world size. They
+had a world outlook and a world message.</p>
+
+<p>But then God's man always has. The world
+outlook of Jesus was tremendous. And every<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_158" id="Page_158">[Page 158]</a></span>
+true disciple of Jesus Christ has the world outlook.
+Grace broadens as well as refining. It is
+one of the endless outworkings of sin that tends
+toward that narrowing provincialism which
+everywhere hinders so much, and so intensely.</p>
+
+<p>Now in this world map in the Bible geography
+two cities stand out beyond all others,
+Jerusalem and Babylon; Jerusalem the centre
+of God's people and of God's plans, Babylon
+the centre of the opposing worldly power. These
+are the two outstanding cities of the Bible
+world.</p>
+
+<p>Between these two there is an enmity and
+warfare that is practically continuous. Jerusalem
+comes to be the typical of God's people and
+power and kingdom. Babylon stands out likewise
+as typical of the power and kingdom always
+and innately opposed to God and to His
+people. The conflict between the two seems
+irrepressible and irreconcilable. It is never out
+of view.</p>
+
+<p>Babylon has been the centre, under successive
+dynasties, of a world empire, including not only
+part of Asia, but reaching west to Europe and
+south to Africa. It sat practically in the connecting
+strip of Orient and Occident, ruling over
+both. In the dim dawn of history a God-ignoring,
+and so really a God-defying and man-exalting
+movement, centred in the city called
+Babel. And from that time on that city, and
+its successor Babylon, have seemed as though
+possessed with a spirit of antagonism to God
+and His people. It is as though it were the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_159" id="Page_159">[Page 159]</a></span>
+earthly headquarters of the blasphemous unseen
+evil forces.</p>
+
+<p>This is a simple bit of geography lesson in
+the Old Testament. This is the map that lies
+ever open in these older pages, with its two
+capital cities marked large. And this indicates
+the area of the storm, and the two central points
+where its outburst will centre.</p>
+
+<h4>Studying the Weather Forecast.</h4>
+
+<p>It is interesting to find a weather forecast of
+this storm. The old Hebrew prophets were
+close students of national and world-wide
+weather conditions, and much given to making
+forecasts of impending storms. Even in the
+New Testament there is this distinct prophetic
+or foretelling strain running throughout. The
+father of John the Baptist is told of his son's
+birth; and Mary, of the unusual birth of her
+divine Son. The disciples are told of the coming
+of the Holy Spirit. And Agabus tells of a
+great famine coming. In these instances the
+fulfilment follows soon after the event is foretold.</p>
+
+<p>The destruction of Jerusalem, foretold by
+Christ, had at least a part of its fulfilment in
+the terrible Titus siege of 70 <span class="smcap">a.d.</span> Our Lord said
+that He would return to earth in great glory,
+and that there would come a great tribulation
+to all the earth, and repeated the old prophecy
+of a restoration of the Hebrew kingdom. These
+have not yet occurred.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_160" id="Page_160">[Page 160]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>But the book of the Revelation is distinctively
+the prophetic book of the New Testament. It
+deals almost entirely with events that are yet to
+come. It would be natural that it would fit into
+the prophetic parts of the Old Testament. So
+that one who is somewhat familiar with the
+prophetic books of the Old naturally comes more
+intelligently to this prophetic book of the New.</p>
+
+<p>It is true that most of us have a sense of bewilderment
+about prophecy. We seem to feel
+that it requires great scholarship and profound
+study, and that an understanding of it is not
+possible to the common run of Christians. And
+so we largely leave it out as not understandable.</p>
+
+<p>Yet prophecy is simply God's plans for the
+future, together with a revelation of other events
+which are not in His plan, but which He sees
+will happen in the future. In it He tells us what
+He means us to understand. And more than
+this, our understanding will have practical bearing
+on our attitude toward evil and compromise.
+It will affect our faith, making it steadier, especially
+when evil seems triumphant and overbearing.
+It will make our prayer more intelligent
+and confident.</p>
+
+<p>There are certain things we all know. As
+we read back into these pages we know that the
+break-up of the Jewish nation, which began with
+the Babylonian Captivity, came to a terrible climax
+in a complete break-up after the rejection
+of Christ. We know that the other nations
+commonly called Gentiles (<i>i.e.</i>, the nations) have
+had supremacy in the earth. Israel was at one<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_161" id="Page_161">[Page 161]</a></span>
+time acknowledged as the great world power,
+with many subject nations, in Solomon's time.</p>
+
+<p>But Gentile supremacy begins back in the
+time of these Old Testament pages. There is
+to-day practically no belief that this will ever
+be changed, except perhaps by a stray Jew here
+and there, who still holds to his old Bible, and
+except by those Christians who discern God's
+plan, and believe both in Him and in it.</p>
+
+<p>In the absence of an understanding of that
+plan of God, it has been common to apply all
+the glowing prophetic Hebrew promises to the
+Church. The result has been that Israel and
+the Kingdom have been confused in our minds
+with the Church. And this has become the commonplace
+in the common Church consciousness.</p>
+
+<p>It is quite possible for the person of average
+good sense to get something of a simple, broad
+grasp of the prophetic books. It involves reading
+<i>repeatedly</i> so as to get familiar with the
+contents, and <i>rapidly</i> so as not to get too much
+absorbed in details.</p>
+
+<p>It is needful to use a common-sense interpretation
+in getting at the meaning. It is a simple
+law that one principle of interpretation should
+be applied uniformly and consistently to all parts
+of any one document. If I say arbitrarily, &quot;this
+part is rhetorical; it doesn't mean just what it
+says, but something else; and this <i>other</i> part
+means just what it says,&quot; clearly I am reading
+my own ideas and prejudices into the book.</p>
+
+<p>It is much slower, and takes more pains and
+patience, to keep at it until all parts gradually<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_162" id="Page_162">[Page 162]</a></span>
+clear up to us, first this bit, then that, until
+part fits part, and all hang together. But there
+is great fascination in it, and one's reverence
+for this revelation of God's Word grows deeper.</p>
+
+<p>Of course there is rhetorical language here as
+everywhere. &quot;The Lord is my shepherd&quot; is
+clearly rhetorical. For God is not a shepherd,
+and I am not a sheep, but a man. But under
+this simple, clearly rhetorical language the tender,
+personal relationship God bears to me is
+beautifully expressed. That such language <i>is</i>
+rhetorical is clear to every mind alike.</p>
+
+<p>And there is a picture language here, such
+as speaking of purity of character as &quot;white
+garments.&quot; The honest, earnest, unprejudiced
+seeker after truth quickly recognizes these, and
+learns to become skilled in discerning what is
+meant. We come to see that Israel means
+Israel, not the Church. Jerusalem means that
+city in Judea, and so on.</p>
+
+<p>Of course it is needful that there be an <i>openmindedness</i>,
+a <i>humble, teachable spirit</i>, willing to
+accept the real truth, no matter how it may shake
+up one's prejudices and prearranged schemes of
+thought. And, above all, there should be a constant
+<i>prayerfulness</i> of spirit, to learn just what
+our God is seeking to have us know. Of course
+there are depths here for the scholarly, profound
+minds. But we ordinary folk can get a simple,
+clear grasp of God's plan and revealed insight
+into the future if we go at it in this thoughtful,
+prayerful way. And it will be a great help
+to us to do so.</p>
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_163" id="Page_163">[Page 163]</a></span></p>
+
+<h4>Three Great Unfulfilled Events.</h4>
+
+<p>Let us take a swift glance at these prophetic
+books of the Old Testament. It helps to remember
+the natural way in which these prophetic
+books grew up. These prophets were preachers
+and teachers. Here are some people going up
+to the temple service one day in Jerusalem. As
+they get near the temple they notice a little knot
+of people standing yonder at a corner listening
+to a man talking earnestly. Isaiah, fresh from
+the presence of God, is talking out of a burning
+heart to the crowd.</p>
+
+<p>A visitor from another part of the land says
+curiously to his companion, &quot;What's that?&quot; The
+other replies: &quot;Oh, it's only Isaiah talking to
+the people. He is a good man, that Isaiah, a
+well-meaning, earnest man, but a little too intense,
+I fear.&quot; And they pass on to the temple
+service. By and by Isaiah stops. The moving
+congregation scatters. He slips quietly down
+to his house, and under the Spirit's holy, brooding
+presence writes down a part of what he has
+been saying. So there grew up the rolls to
+which his name is attached.</p>
+
+<p>In some such simple, natural way these
+prophetic books grew up, always under the Holy
+Spirit's guidance and control. They are full of
+intense fire, and of the homely talk of street
+and market and fireside. There are two sorts
+of these prophets, the preachers like Elijah
+and Elisha and those who wrote as well as<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_164" id="Page_164">[Page 164]</a></span>
+spoke, and whose names are preserved in these
+books.</p>
+
+<p>There are seventeen of these little books.
+They fall easily into four groups. The <i>first
+group</i> contains those belonging in the time before
+the nation was exiled. It is a period of about
+one hundred and fifty years, roughly, beginning
+in the prosperous reign of Uzziah and running
+up to the time when the nation was taken captive
+to Babylon. Isaiah is the most prominent
+prophet of this period, and with him are Hosea,
+Micah, and Amos, all of whom may have been
+personally acquainted; and also Zephaniah and
+Habakkuk.</p>
+
+<p>The <i>second</i> is <i>the exile group</i>, Jeremiah
+preaching in Judah, before and during the siege,
+and to the remnant left behind in the land; and
+Ezekiel and Daniel bearing their witness among
+the exiles in the foreign land.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote"><p>[111] The book of Isaiah falls naturally into two parts,
+chapters i.-xl., and xli.-lxvi. The historical allusions
+in each make it quite clear that these two parts belong
+in two periods far apart. One hundred and eighty
+years intervene between the close of the time stated in
+Isaiah's first chapter as the period of his ministry and
+the beginning of the return from exile into which the
+second part fits.
+</p>
+<p>
+But the full inspiration of the second part is in
+no wise affected. This rarely Spirit-controlled man
+modestly or unconsciously withholds his name from his
+writings. And they are grouped by the old Hebrew
+compilers with those of Isaiah.</p></div><p>The <i>third group</i> is made up of those who witnessed
+after the people are allowed to return
+to their own land again. The writer of the
+second part of Isaiah probably preached to the
+people as the opportunity came to return to
+Jerusalem.<a name="FNanchor_111_111" id="FNanchor_111_111"></a><span class="snlabel">[111]</span> Haggai and Zachariah stirred up<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_165" id="Page_165">[Page 165]</a></span>
+the returned people to rebuild the temple. Joel
+and Malachi witnessed probably a little later
+in the same period.</p>
+
+<p>The <i>fourth</i> is the <i>foreign group</i>. Obadiah
+sends a message to the neighbouring nation of
+Edom; and Jonah and Nahum are sent with
+messages to Nineveh. If one will try to make
+a picture of these people and events by reading
+the historical books, and then watch and listen
+as the prophets talk, it will do much to make
+these prophetic books full of the native atmosphere
+in which they grew up.</p>
+
+<p>Now there are three things that gradually
+come to stand out in these prophetic books.
+Much of what is being said is of immediate application.
+It refers plainly to affairs being lived
+out then. Then certain things are plainly fulfilled
+in the coming of Christ. And again there
+is a great deal that clearly has never been
+fulfilled but is still future. It is the latter part
+that naturally is of intensest interest.</p>
+
+<p>Now in this latter part, dealing with the future,
+<i>three things</i> stand out clear and sharp above
+the rest. There is to be judgment upon Israel
+for their iniquities. The changes on this are
+rung again and again. And this stands out as
+much in the preaching of the Captivity time,
+and of the Return, as before the Captivity. But
+in the midst of severest judgment there will be<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_166" id="Page_166">[Page 166]</a></span>
+a <i>remnant spared</i>. The tree is cut down, but
+the stump is spared; and there is life in the
+stump. But above these there stand out these
+three things.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote"><p>[112] Isaiah ii. 2-4.</p></div><p><i>The first thing</i> stands out big. It is the thing
+the nation never forgot. The believing Hebrew
+still clings to it. The wailers at the wall of
+Jerusalem to-day never forget it. It is this:
+there is to be a <i>future time of great glory for
+the nation of Israel in their own loved land</i>.<a name="FNanchor_112_112" id="FNanchor_112_112"></a><span class="snlabel">[112]</span>
+The kingdom is to be restored, but with a glory
+indescribably greater than ever known. This is
+the bright golden thread, thick and strong, running
+through from end to end.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote"><p>[113] Isaiah xi. 1-9; xxxii. 1-6.</p><p>[114] Micah iv. 1-8.</p><p>[115] Isaiah xi. 11-16; xxvii. 12-13.</p></div><p>It will come through that spared remnant.
+The old stump will put out a new shoot. It
+will be through the coming of a great king,
+who will prove to be their greatest king,<a name="FNanchor_113_113" id="FNanchor_113_113"></a><span class="snlabel">[113]</span> and
+will reign not only over Israel, but over all
+nations as tributary to Israel, with Jerusalem
+as the capital city both of Israel and of the
+whole earth.<a name="FNanchor_114_114" id="FNanchor_114_114"></a><span class="snlabel">[114]</span> At its beginning there will be a
+gathering of Israel from among all the nations
+where they have been scattered.<a name="FNanchor_115_115" id="FNanchor_115_115"></a><span class="snlabel">[115]</span> To assist these
+scattered pilgrims to get to their own land, the
+tongue of the Egyptian sea on the southwest is
+to be destroyed; and the waters of the Euphrates
+on the extreme east are to be so scattered or
+dried up that men can walk over dry-shod.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote"><p>[116] Zechariah xii. 10-14.</p><p>[117] Jeremiah xxxi. 8-19, 33, 34.</p><p>[118] Isaiah xxvi. 19; Daniel xii. 2.</p></div><p>When the great king comes there will be
+genuine penitence among the people over their<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_167" id="Page_167">[Page 167]</a></span>
+past sins,<a name="FNanchor_116_116" id="FNanchor_116_116"></a><span class="snlabel">[116]</span> and they will become a wholly changed
+people.<a name="FNanchor_117_117" id="FNanchor_117_117"></a><span class="snlabel">[117]</span> Israel will be a nation converted by
+the power of the Holy Spirit through the conversion
+of the people individually. There will
+be at this time a resurrection of God's people
+who have died.<a name="FNanchor_118_118" id="FNanchor_118_118"></a><span class="snlabel">[118]</span></p>
+
+<div class="sidenote"><p>[119] Micah iv. 1-2.</p><p>[120] Isaiah xxv. 7</p><p>[121] Isaiah iv. 2-5.</p></div><p>The new reign and kingdom is to be one of
+great spiritual enlightenment to all nations.<a name="FNanchor_119_119" id="FNanchor_119_119"></a><span class="snlabel">[119]</span>
+There will be everywhere a new, remarkable
+openmindedness to God and His truth.<a name="FNanchor_120_120" id="FNanchor_120_120"></a><span class="snlabel">[120]</span> And
+there will be the same visible evidence of the
+presence of God at Jerusalem as when the pillar
+of fire and cloud was with them in the wilderness.
+That wondrous presence-cloud is to be
+always in view.<a name="FNanchor_121_121" id="FNanchor_121_121"></a><span class="snlabel">[121]</span></p>
+
+<p>This sounds to our ears like the highly coloured
+visionary dream of some over-enthusiastic
+Hebrew. Yet this is a calm statement of what
+is found here. And be it keenly marked, it is
+a picture which the godly Hebrew of the old
+time never lost sight of. <i>This is the first thing</i>
+that stands out in these prophetic pages.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote"><p>[122] Isaiah xxiv. 1-13, 17-20; ii. 12-19; Micah vii. 15-17.</p><p>[123] Zechariah xii. 1-9; xiv. 1-2.</p><p>[124] Isaiah xiii. 1-13.</p></div><p><i>The second thing</i> stands out distinctly. Preceding
+this wondrous kingdom <i>the earth will be
+visited by terrible judgments</i>.<a name="FNanchor_122_122" id="FNanchor_122_122"></a><span class="snlabel">[122]</span> There is an
+awfully dark shadow before the blaze of light
+breaks out. A terrific storm will come before
+the sun shines out in its new strength. All<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_168" id="Page_168">[Page 168]</a></span>
+nations will combine to make war against the
+Jew. Their forces will be gathered at Jerusalem.<a name="FNanchor_123_123" id="FNanchor_123_123"></a><span class="snlabel">[123]</span>
+At the head of the coalition will be a
+power called Babylon.<a name="FNanchor_124_124" id="FNanchor_124_124"></a><span class="snlabel">[124]</span> There will come a terrific
+battle, victory for the coalition will seem
+assured. The sufferings of the Jews will be
+indescribable.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote"><p>[125] Zechariah xiv. 1-8.</p><p>[126] Isaiah xxiv. 21-22; xxvii. 1.</p></div><p>Then there will come a day never after to be
+forgotten. In the midst of the indescribable
+horrors of that battle, when things are at their
+worst for the Jew, then comes the deliverance.
+Suddenly Jehovah will appear out of the heavens,
+with a great company of holy ones. His feet
+will stand upon Mount Olivet to the east of
+Jerusalem. There will be a terrible earthquake,
+and an equally terrific shake-up of the heavenly
+bodies. The luminaries, sun, moon, and stars,
+will be darkened.<a name="FNanchor_125_125" id="FNanchor_125_125"></a><span class="snlabel">[125]</span> There will be terrible judgments
+visited not only upon the earth, but upon
+the evil spirit powers.<a name="FNanchor_126_126" id="FNanchor_126_126"></a><span class="snlabel">[126]</span> Repeated emphasis is
+put upon the judgment to be visited upon
+Babylon.</p>
+
+<p>All this will sound like a veritable fairy tale
+to many who are not familiar with this Book
+of God; the unlikeliest thing imaginable. Yet
+this is the thing seriously set forth throughout
+these old prophetic pages. I have given a few
+references in footnotes. But these few scattered
+passages of themselves will not give an
+adequate conception of what these pages hold.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_169" id="Page_169">[Page 169]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>There is all the fascination of a novel, and
+immensely more and deeper fascination than any
+novel, in reading these prophetic pages repeatedly
+in the way already spoken of till their mere
+contents become somewhat familiar. Then taking
+paper and pencil, running through again, and
+drawing off patiently and carefully, item after
+item of these prophecies plainly not yet fulfilled,
+and then slowly and painstakingly put
+them together in what would be a simple, logical
+order.</p>
+
+<p>It will be helpful, in reading, to remember
+that it is a common thing with these writers
+to speak of a future thing as already past. It
+is a bit of the intensity that sees the thing that
+is yet to come as already accomplished. And
+one should discern between the immediate thing
+that may likely occur in that generation and the
+far-distant thing. A careful noting of the language
+will make the difference clear.</p>
+
+<p>This is the second thing that stands out, the
+visitation of judgments.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote"><p>[127] Jeremiah xxx. 7-8.</p><p>[128] Daniel xii. 1.</p></div><p>Then there is <i>a third thing</i>. This terrible
+visitation of judgments comes in connection
+with, and at the close of, <i>a time of great persecution
+of the Jew</i> by the nations. Jeremiah
+speaks of it as the time of Jacob's trouble,<a name="FNanchor_127_127" id="FNanchor_127_127"></a><span class="snlabel">[127]</span> and
+the Man of Fire tells Daniel that there will be
+a time of trouble <i>such as never was since there
+was a nation even to that same time</i>.<a name="FNanchor_128_128" id="FNanchor_128_128"></a><span class="snlabel">[128]</span> This persecution
+of the Jew, and the visitation of judgments
+on the earth as a deliverance from it,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_170" id="Page_170">[Page 170]</a></span>
+are connected with the setting up of the
+Kingdom.</p>
+
+<p>These are the three things that stand dominantly
+out in these prophetic pages as distinctly-future,
+the great Jew persecution unprecedented
+in intensity, the visitation of terrible judgments
+on the earth, and the coming of a glorious kingdom.
+And the three are connected. We know
+that no events have yet taken place that at all
+satisfy the language used of these three connected
+events.</p>
+
+<p>This is the simple outline of expected coming
+events with which the thoughtful reader of God's
+Word is supposed to be familiar. The reverent
+student of God's promises and plans and revelations
+would naturally have all this clear and fresh
+in his mind as he turns to open the pages of the
+prophetic book of the New Testament.</p>
+
+<h4>Forecast of the Great Storm.</h4>
+
+<p>Now it is <i>of intense interest</i> to note that our
+Lord Jesus speaks of these same three things,
+at much length, and with much emphasis; the
+persecution, the visitation of judgments, and
+the kingdom. It came to me as a great surprise
+and with startling force when I realized, after
+gathering out this summary from the Old Testament,
+that the three things that stand out so
+sharply there are the very things Jesus speaks
+of here with such fulness and emphasis.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote"><p>[129] Matthew xxiv.-xxv; Mark xiii; Luke xxi.</p></div><p>He puts special emphasis on the time of persecution
+as of unprecedented horror and ferocity.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_171" id="Page_171">[Page 171]</a></span>
+He plainly indicates that this will be directed
+not only against the Jew, but against His own
+followers. Three times this talk of His on
+Olivet just before His death is given at much
+length.<a name="FNanchor_129_129" id="FNanchor_129_129"></a><span class="snlabel">[129]</span> That talk is given to a little group of
+Jewish disciples who have broken with the Jewish
+leaders, and who become the great leaders of
+the Church formed at Pentecost.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote"><p>[130] Matthew xxiv. 21, 29.</p><p>[131] Mark xiii. 19.</p><p>[132] Revelation vii. 14 literally.</p></div><p>He speaks of that terrible experience as
+&quot;great tribulation,&quot;<a name="FNanchor_130_130" id="FNanchor_130_130"></a><span class="snlabel">[130]</span> &quot;such as there hath not
+been the like from the beginning of the creation
+which God created until now, nor ever shall
+be.&quot;<a name="FNanchor_131_131" id="FNanchor_131_131"></a><span class="snlabel">[131]</span> We shall find it spoken of in this book
+of Revelation as &quot;the tribulation, the great
+one.&quot;<a name="FNanchor_132_132" id="FNanchor_132_132"></a><span class="snlabel">[132]</span> It has come to be spoken of commonly
+as &quot;the tribulation&quot; and &quot;the great tribulation.&quot;</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote"><p>[133] Leviticus xxvi. 14-39.</p><p>[134] Deuteronomy xxviii. 15-68.</p><p>[135] Deuteronomy xxxii.</p></div><p>With all this fresh in mind, a run back through
+the Old Testament brings out that it is spoken
+of there much more than we may have realized.
+The warning to Israel, at Sinai, as they made
+the covenant of allegiance with God, of the bitter
+punishment that would come if they were untrue,
+has seemed many times as though couched
+in very intense, almost extreme language.<a name="FNanchor_133_133" id="FNanchor_133_133"></a><span class="snlabel">[133]</span> But
+it is found to fit into these later descriptions of
+this great tribulation to come. That warning is
+repeated, in as intense words and with a greater
+fulness, by Moses in his series of farewell talks<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_172" id="Page_172">[Page 172]</a></span>
+in the Plains of Moab,<a name="FNanchor_134_134" id="FNanchor_134_134"></a><span class="snlabel">[134]</span> and it runs through the
+song he left for their use.<a name="FNanchor_135_135" id="FNanchor_135_135"></a><span class="snlabel">[135]</span></p>
+
+<div class="sidenote"><p>[136] Daniel iii.</p></div><p>The experiences of the people of Israel in
+Egypt are found to be an illustration of the
+coming experience at the end, great persecution
+and suffering, then great deliverance through a
+visitation of judgment upon their persecutors,
+and great revelation of God's glory following.
+And the experience of the three young Hebrew
+exiles in Babylon comes to mind. They went
+through the fire, seven times heated, and they
+had a marvellous deliverance, and then high
+promotion.<a name="FNanchor_136_136" id="FNanchor_136_136"></a><span class="snlabel">[136]</span></p>
+
+<p>Certain Psalms shine with new light in the
+light of this terrible truth. Chief among these
+is the Ninety-first. Quite likely it grew up out
+of the experience of Israel at the last before
+leaving Egypt. It, of course, has its practical
+use in one's daily life. But the vividness and
+intensity of its meaning will probably never be
+realized as during the coming tribulation days.
+Nor will the exultant note running through the
+nine Psalms immediately following it be appreciated
+as by those experiencing deliverance when
+the tribulation is over. The Forty-sixth Psalm,
+and the Psalms of praise immediately following
+it, likewise seem to get new light.</p>
+
+<p>It is quite probable that very much, all through
+this Book of Psalms, will be understood and
+appreciated fully only by the generation of God's
+people that go through the tribulation and know<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_173" id="Page_173">[Page 173]</a></span>
+the deliverance following. Much of the old Book
+of God is quite meaningless to the Christian who
+has had no tribulation <i>experience</i>. That is, I
+mean who has never known opposition in his
+Christian faith, or who has slipped easily along
+when there is opposition.</p>
+
+<p>The outstanding features in the Old Testament
+of this great experience are terrible persecution
+of the Jew, deliverance at the very worst
+pitch of extremity, by a visitation of judgment
+on their enemies, and by Jehovah coming in person
+for their deliverance; and then the great
+Kingdom following.</p>
+
+<p>The outstanding features spoken of by our
+Lord Jesus in His Olivet talk agree with this,
+but go much more into detail, especially about
+the tribulation. The tribulation will be <i>preceded</i>
+by wars, rumors of wars, famines, earthquakes,
+and persecution. There will be many false religious
+teachers, many Christians untrue to their
+faith, and a great increase of wickedness. This
+is a sort of foreshadowing.</p>
+
+<p>The tribulation itself will find all this enormously
+intensified. It will <i>begin</i> with some astonishing
+act of blasphemy in the temple in
+Jerusalem, run its terrible course, and close
+with a series of judgment-events, earthquake,
+heavens shaken, and great distress, ending in the
+visible appearance of the Lord Jesus Himself,
+out of heaven on the clouds. And this will be
+a signal for great penitential mourning among
+the people on the earth.</p>
+
+<p>This, then, is the simple, broad outline with<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_174" id="Page_174">[Page 174]</a></span>
+which the thoughtful reader of God's Word
+would naturally be familiar as he turns to this
+prophetic book at the end to get our Lord's last
+message to His followers.</p>
+
+<h4>Getting a Broad, Clear Outlook.</h4>
+
+<p>As we turn now again to the book of Revelation
+it will help us to remember the general plan
+followed in its writing. It is like a series of dissolving
+views of the same scene, each of which
+lets us see the same thing from a different point
+of view.</p>
+
+<p>This is a simple teaching rule for getting a
+clear grasp of what is being taught. We are
+familiar with it in the Bible. The story of creation
+is told in the first chapter of Genesis, and
+then told again in the second chapter with details
+not given in the first, the two together presenting
+the complete story. The historical books
+of Chronicles present one view of the kingdom
+of Israel, the official. The books of the Kings
+give another look at the same period; and the
+prophetic books a wholly different view as seen
+by these rarely spiritually minded men of God.
+Daniel is shown four visions of future events,
+all covering the same general stretch of events,
+but with a fuller description, here of one part
+and there of another. The four Gospels are a
+familiar illustration of the same principle in
+teaching and story-telling. This is the plan followed
+here.</p>
+
+<p>I was impressed anew with the practical value<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_175" id="Page_175">[Page 175]</a></span>
+of this method one day in St. Petersburg. We
+had gone to look at the panorama of the siege
+of Sebastopol, then on exhibition in a huge,
+round building. It will be remembered that the
+British and French allied themselves with Turkey
+and Sardinia in an attempt to restrain the
+encroachments of Russia on Turkish territory.
+The famous charge of Balaklava, immortalized
+by Tennyson, is remembered as the most stirring
+event of that war. Its chief event was the
+siege of Sebastopol on the Crimea peninsula, in
+the Black Sea.</p>
+
+<p>At the panorama we stood as though on a
+high central point in the city of Sebastopol, with
+the view spreading out in all directions. To
+the north lay the harbour with the Russian ships
+securely bottled in by the attacking fleets. To
+the west a body of French soldiers were retreating,
+hotly pursued by Russian troops, while
+in the distance British troops are hurrying to
+the relief of the French.</p>
+
+<p>Then we looked east, where the fighting was
+going on at close range, the wounded being carried
+away and the reserves hastening up to take
+their places. And again we turned to the south,
+where the battle raged fiercest. The face of the
+commanding officer stood out so vividly. And
+we almost shrank from the fierceness of the fire.
+And the smell of powder almost seemed stifling.</p>
+
+<p>And as I stood brooding afresh on the horrors
+of inhuman war, I was tremendously impressed
+that only by such successive views could I get
+such a grasp of that memorable siege. I had<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_176" id="Page_176">[Page 176]</a></span>
+a more intelligent and vivid understanding of
+it than ever before.</p>
+
+<p>And so it is that we may get a simple, clear,
+and real grasp of the tremendous tribulation
+time that is coming, that it is presented to us
+in this fashion, first one distinct view, then another,
+and another, till some understanding of
+the whole begins to get hold of us.</p>
+
+<p>We have seen the Lord Jesus, in the vision in
+chapters four and five, as He comes forward
+to take an advance step. We have seen the tremendous
+outburst of praise in heaven as He
+steps forward. This step and scene are in
+heaven. The earth is wholly unaware of it
+<i>at that moment</i>.</p>
+
+<p>Now all that follows is connected directly
+with that advance step. This is the significant
+thing to get clearly fixed in mind. At the present
+time our Lord Jesus is still walking among
+the candlestick Churches watching and waiting.
+We are still in that waiting time. The Holy
+Spirit still dwells in the Church on earth.</p>
+
+<p>At some time in the future, no one knows,
+nor can know, just when, the Lord Jesus will
+rise up in readiness for an advance move. He
+will withdraw the Holy Spirit from the Church
+up into His presence again &quot;before the throne.&quot;
+<i>Then in connection with this advance step</i> there
+will occur on the earth the things spoken of in
+these pages following. This is the tremendous
+fact to keep clear, the immediate connection
+between these happenings on earth and His new
+move in heaven.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_177" id="Page_177">[Page 177]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>We come now to these happenings on earth.
+There are seven distinct views given here in
+this section, chapters six to the end of the book.
+There is a great detail in description which it
+would be both instructive and interesting to
+study out. But we want to get at the essential
+things. And so we will give our time and
+thought to these essentials.</p>
+
+<p>Our Lord Jesus is represented as about to
+take possession of His realm. The first step is
+a dispossessing of the claimants in possession.
+This furnishes the key to what follows. The
+descriptions are of the process of cleaning out
+the evil forces. At the close of this we find Him
+taking possession (in chapter twenty) and reigning
+over the earth.</p>
+
+<p>These descriptions make it clear at once that
+this is the tribulation so much spoken of in these
+preceding pages. What follows fits so into what
+has been spoken of that the identification seems
+complete. The thing our Lord Jesus is revealing
+here tallies with what He had told John before
+on Olivet.</p>
+
+<p>There comes first a general description of the
+whole period (chapters vi.-vii.). Then follows a
+description of <i>how</i> these happenings will come.
+It will be through the withdrawal of restraint
+and so the loosening out of evil (chapters viii.-ix.).
+During this whole period there will be a
+special faithful witnessing on earth, in the midst
+of the riot of evil, to God and His truth (chapter
+xi.).</p>
+
+<p>A detailed outline of the run of events fol<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_178" id="Page_178">[Page 178]</a></span>lows,
+giving much additional information, picturing
+the rise and characteristics of the leader of
+the tribulation time, and the manner of its close
+(chapters xii.-xiv.). There follows this a description
+of the judgments and the supreme contest
+with which the period closes (chapters xv.-xvi.).
+There is a description of the organized
+system of evil, and then of the fall of the capital
+of the system (chapters xvii.-xviii.) And then
+follows the actual coming of our Lord Jesus, the
+setting up of the kingdom, and subsequent events
+(chapters xix.-xxii.).</p>
+
+<h4>A General Look at the Storm and Its Close.</h4>
+
+<div class="sidenote"><p>[137] Chapters vi.-vii.</p><p>[138] Chapter xix.</p></div><p>We turn now to <i>the first</i> of these.<a name="FNanchor_137_137" id="FNanchor_137_137"></a><span class="snlabel">[137]</span> It begins
+with a crowned One seated on a white horse
+going forth conquering and to conquer. This
+description agrees with the much fuller description
+of the Lord Jesus near the end of the book,
+as he goes to the earth for the decisive close of
+the tribulation.<a name="FNanchor_138_138" id="FNanchor_138_138"></a><span class="snlabel">[138]</span></p>
+
+<p>This gives fresh emphasis to the fact that
+what follows is the direct result of His advance
+step. At once there follows on earth a time
+of war, famine, death, and of persecution to the
+death of God's people. There is no hint as to
+how long this goes on. It is brought to a close
+with an earthquake and an equally terrific disturbance
+of the heavens, the sun, moon, and
+stars, something unknown before.</p>
+
+<p>The utmost consternation is created on earth.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_179" id="Page_179">[Page 179]</a></span>
+All conditions of men, crowned kings, merchant
+princes, men of autocratic power financially and
+politically and socially, join with the humblest
+in hiding themselves in the great holes made by
+the earthquake. They feel that the time of judgment
+has come, and they are not ready for it.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote"><p>[139] Isaiah ii. 10-22.</p></div><p>The description of their terror tallies remarkably
+with the prophetic language used by
+Isaiah,<a name="FNanchor_139_139" id="FNanchor_139_139"></a><span class="snlabel">[139]</span> even as the whole description fits into
+our Lord's Olivet talk. This is seen to be a
+general, rapid vision of the whole tribulation
+period.</p>
+
+<p>Then there follows what clearly seems to be
+a parenthesis fitting in just before the great
+earthquake. The earth and sea have been terribly
+torn up by the earthquake. This parenthesis
+begins with a command that the earth and
+sea be not hurt until certain things have taken
+place.</p>
+
+<p>This fits the two events of the parenthesis in
+just before the ruinous earthquake takes place.
+The two events are of a radically different sort
+from what has just been told. They are thus
+put by themselves, and the run of evil and of
+judgment upon it, put by itself, so keeping these
+two quite clear, following the general plan of
+the book.</p>
+
+<p>There are two events in this parenthesis.
+There is what is called the &quot;sealing&quot; of a certain
+number of the Hebrew tribes <i>on the earth</i>.
+Twelve thousand of each tribe are sealed, making
+a total of one hundred and forty-four thousand.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_180" id="Page_180">[Page 180]</a></span>
+The word &quot;seal&quot; is used in two senses in the
+Bible, as a means of fastening up a writing or
+roll, and, in the New Testament, commonly for
+the presence of the Holy Spirit in a human life.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote"><p>[140] II Corinthians i. 22; Ephesians i. 13; iv. 30.</p></div><p>The seal in this second sense was a mark of
+ownership. Paul tells us that we are sealed with
+the Holy Spirit,<a name="FNanchor_140_140" id="FNanchor_140_140"></a><span class="snlabel">[140]</span> so indicating that we belong
+to the Lord Jesus, who gives us this evidence of
+His ownership. If this simple, natural meaning
+be taken here, it would mean that at this time
+the Holy Spirit has been poured out upon the
+Jew. The spiritual regeneration spoken of so
+frequently in the prophetic pages takes place at
+this time.</p>
+
+<p>The significance of the numbers should be noticed.
+Twelve is the number commonly used
+in the Bible, for corporate completeness, to indicate
+that a group is complete. Twelve times
+twelve would simply represent a fully completed
+corporate number. That is to say, upon the
+entire body of Jews then living on the earth
+the Holy Spirit is poured out, thus marking them
+once again as God's peculiar people, restored
+fully to favour after the long national rejection.</p>
+
+<p>The second event is of equally intense interest,
+indeed to us of non-Jewish birth it has yet
+greater interest. John is up in heaven. It is
+from that point of view that he sees. Now he
+is suddenly startled. All at once there appears
+before his eyes a group he had not seen before.
+He describes it as a great multitude, actually
+countless, out of all the peoples of the whole<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_181" id="Page_181">[Page 181]</a></span>
+earth, a great polyglot polyracial world company.</p>
+
+<p>They are clothed in white, holding the conqueror's
+palm in their hands, and singing, making
+wondrous music. John is getting another taste
+of the music of heaven. And their singing is a
+signal for a fresh outburst of praise by the
+angels, the elders, and the living creatures. All
+this seems to occur suddenly, this appearance of
+this new company before the throne.</p>
+
+<p>John gazes spellbound, wondering who these
+are, and where they come from, and what this
+means. And he is told that these are they that
+come out of the tribulation, the great one, down
+on the earth. Then in a few exquisitely tender,
+heart-touching words their happiness is described.</p>
+
+<p>These two events occur just before the terrible
+earthquake and the shake-up of the earth's
+heavenly bodies. Just before the judgment that
+closes the tribulation this double event takes
+place, the conversion of the Jews, and the catching
+away out of the tribulation distress on
+earth, up into the presence of the throne, of the
+followers of our Lord Jesus.</p>
+
+<p>We remember that that great Jew, Paul, was
+converted by the appearance of Jesus in the
+heavens above him. We remember that in the
+Olivet talk Jesus says that His followers will
+so be gathered up to Himself at the time of His
+second coming. These two events, taking place
+here, tell us what has happened down on the
+earth. In his vision John, being in heaven, sees
+these things as they appear from above.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_182" id="Page_182">[Page 182]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>This is the first view of the tribulation. It
+begins with the moment when our Lord Jesus
+up in heaven begins action, describes the characteristics
+of the tribulation on earth, and closes
+with the national regeneration of Israel, and
+the catching up from earth of Christ's true
+followers.</p>
+
+<h4>Evil Let Loose.</h4>
+
+<p>The <i>second view</i> runs through chapters eight
+and nine. Chapters ten and eleven to the close
+of verse thirteen make a distinct parenthesis.
+And then this view is picked up again at eleven,
+fourteen, and runs to the close of that chapter.
+But this final bit in chapter eleven is merely a
+connecting link with what comes later. Practically
+the whole of this view is in chapters eight
+and nine.</p>
+
+<p>It closes with an earthquake, so connecting it
+with the final event in the first view. It begins
+with a period of prolonged silence, which would
+seem to answer to the hush in the great volume
+of praise in the first view, when the Lamb takes
+the sealed roll. So it carries us back to the same
+starting-point as there.</p>
+
+<p>There is first a striking scene before the
+throne, where John sees a golden altar. On this
+there is being offered incense, which is said to
+be added to the prayers of all the saints. Incense
+and prayers rise together before God.
+Then an angel pours some of the fire of this
+prayer-altar into the earth, and a storm follows.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_183" id="Page_183">[Page 183]</a></span>
+So these two views, first and second, have another
+common starting-point, the beginning of a
+storm.</p>
+
+<p>This is a very suggestive scene. The prayers
+of all the saints, both in earth and heaven, have
+a decided restraining influence over evil down
+on earth at the present time. At the close
+they will become a decisive influence in the
+cleaning-up process on earth, and the bringing
+in of the new order.</p>
+
+<p>Then follows a fourfold description of distressing
+events on earth, which are caused by
+fiery influences coming out of the heavens. The
+language used seems to make clear that it is
+through a loosening out of the powers of evil
+that the tribulation comes.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote"><p>[141] Isaiah ii. 2.</p><p>[142] Revelation xvii. 9-10.</p><p>[143] Jeremiah li. 25.</p><p>[144] Revelation viii. 10, see also ix. 1; Isaiah xiv. 12-15.</p></div><p>In the picture language of the vision, &quot;a great
+mountain burning with fire was cast into the
+sea,&quot; with injurious results to water, to life,
+and to shipping. A mountain is a common
+figure in the Bible for a great ruling power. So
+Israel is called by Isaiah.<a name="FNanchor_141_141" id="FNanchor_141_141"></a><span class="snlabel">[141]</span> The seventeenth
+chapter of Revelation speaks of seven kingdoms
+as seven mountains.<a name="FNanchor_142_142" id="FNanchor_142_142"></a><span class="snlabel">[142]</span> In Jeremiah, Babylon,
+which is spoken of repeatedly and typically as
+being the embodiment of evil and of opposition
+to God, is called: &quot;O destroying mountain ...
+which destroyest all the earth, (I) will make of
+thee a burnt mountain.&quot;<a name="FNanchor_143_143" id="FNanchor_143_143"></a><span class="snlabel">[143]</span> It speaks here also
+of &quot;a great star,<a name="FNanchor_144_144" id="FNanchor_144_144"></a><span class="snlabel">[144]</span> burning as a torch,&quot; that fell<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_184" id="Page_184">[Page 184]</a></span>
+upon the rivers and makes them bitter as
+wormwood. These two things seem to suggest
+clearly that the great hurt done to sea and
+vegetation, to all life, and through the obscuring
+of the heavenly lights, is a result directly
+of the powers of evil having been loosened
+out.</p>
+
+<p>The long restraint upon evil through the presence
+of the Holy Spirit in the Church is now
+withdrawn in the withdrawal of the Spirit. His
+withdrawal is practically an answer to the tacit
+prayer both of world and Church. That prayer
+is being answered. The &quot;One&quot; who restraineth
+has been withdrawn. This it is that makes the
+tribulation on its negative side. The awful character
+of the demons from the pit is so utterly
+beyond human experience up to that time that
+there seem no adequate words to describe
+them.</p>
+
+<p>The Gospels are full of the awful activity of
+demons on earth in possessing men. In our own
+land there is not wanting plenty of evidence of
+men horribly possessed by demons. In the older
+countries of Europe this experience is much
+more marked. But it is in heathen lands that
+it is most marked, where even the very air seems
+charged with evil forces, as though these unseen
+demons swarmed about.</p>
+
+<p>Yet all this sort of thing is now under restraint.
+What it will mean to have that restraint
+withdrawn, and the horrid hordes here described
+free to do as they will, no imagination can depict.
+This is well called the first <i>woe</i>, and an<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_185" id="Page_185">[Page 185]</a></span>
+awful woe it will be. Mercifully there is a time
+limit set on this demon activity.</p>
+
+<p>Following this comes the loosing out of another
+horde of demons, as difficult of description,
+and yet more terrible. They seem countless,
+yet there is a limit to their numbers. The supreme
+Hand is never wholly withdrawn. These
+have power to kill as well as to torment. This
+is the second woe. It is most strikingly noticeable
+that neither of these things has influence
+to make men penitent.</p>
+
+<p>The last item of this view is given in chapter
+xi. 14-19. The announcement is made that the
+sovereignty of the world is transferred to our
+Lord and His Christ. The temple of God is seen
+open, and some further action takes place, but
+the detail of it is reserved for another view.
+Such is the terrible sight in the second view of
+the tribulation time. Evil is loosened out, apparently
+unrestrained, and yet under restraint.
+This it is that makes the tribulation on its positive
+side.</p>
+
+<p>The parenthesis in the description of this view
+has been spoken of. It runs through chapters
+ten and eleven to the close of verse thirteen, and
+contains two chief things. The first is a little
+group of three items. There is a fresh description
+of our Lord Jesus as He is seen standing
+with one foot on the sea and the other upon
+the earth, and holding a little open book. Then
+seven thunders roar out. John is about to write,
+but is told not to. That terrific storm coming
+is far greater than can be told. Then comes the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_186" id="Page_186">[Page 186]</a></span>
+solemn declaration that there will be no further
+delay, but that at once shall be finished up this
+terrible time of judgment. Then follows a personal
+word to John. These three items make up
+chapter ten.</p>
+
+<h4>God's Faithful Witnesses.</h4>
+
+<p>Then comes the second thing, in chapter eleven
+on to verse thirteen, which proves to be <i>the third
+view</i> of the tribulation. It shows that during the
+whole of this tribulation time there will be a
+special faithful witness being borne to God and
+His truth. As the Holy Spirit is being withdrawn
+from the Church, these two men begin
+their special ministry of witnessing.</p>
+
+<p>The place of that witness will be Jerusalem.
+But recent events will have brought a greatly
+diversified population to that city from all parts
+of the world. So that the witness becomes
+world-wide in its immediate reach, and probably
+in the reports of it that go out.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote"><p>[145] In regard to Elijah, see Malachi iv. 5-6. John the
+Baptist came in the spirit and power of Elijah, and
+of him our Lord said, &quot;this is he who was to come.&quot;
+</p><p>
+Yet the events of judgment spoken of in Malachi did
+not take place when John the Baptist and Jesus came.
+The events spoken of prophetically in connection with
+His coming are divided into two groups, those of
+graciousness, finding fulfilment at the first coming, those
+of judgment followed by graciousness, at the second
+coming. So John the Baptist fulfils the Elijah part at
+the first of these two; in all probability Elijah himself
+at the second part, <i>i.e.</i>, &quot;before the great and <i>terrible</i>
+day of Jehovah come.&quot;
+</p><p>
+In regard to Enoch, the passage in Jude, verse 14,
+is of significance. The language, &quot;Enoch prophesied,
+... the Lord <i>came</i>, etc.,&quot; is probably spoken in the
+sense, familiar in the Bible, of a future action seen
+as already done. Here Enoch is spoken of as prophesying
+or preaching, <i>not</i> to the people before the Flood,
+but to a certain class of men belonging to Jude's generation,
+that is to the Church generation. The likeliest
+meaning of the words is that Enoch, the seventh
+and so on, <i>will</i> prophesy, saying, &quot;behold the Lord
+<i>cometh</i>,&quot; and so on to close of verse 15.</p></div>
+<p>While there is good reason for thinking that
+these two witnesses may be Enoch and Elijah,
+the two men of Bible record, one before the
+Flood and one after, who were distinctively
+God's witnesses, and were taken away without
+death, yet it is best not to stop over a matter
+that has been and is apt to be a matter of mere
+idle speculative talk.<a name="FNanchor_145_145" id="FNanchor_145_145"></a><span class="snlabel">[145]</span> The thing worthy of note<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_187" id="Page_187">[Page 187]</a></span>
+is that as the Holy Spirit's distinctive witness
+is withdrawn there will be these two special witnesses
+sent to Jerusalem for a witness that will
+be world-wide in its extent and influence. Such
+is God's gracious patience and longsuffering.</p>
+
+<p>These two men are clothed in mourning as a
+part of their witness. They have miraculous
+power in protecting themselves against attack,
+and in withholding rain, and sending plagues
+among the people, and in turning water into
+blood, to give force and effect to their testimony.
+Their witness continues through twelve
+hundred and sixty days.</p>
+
+<p>John had already been told that Jerusalem
+would be trodden under foot by the nations for<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_188" id="Page_188">[Page 188]</a></span>
+forty-two months. We are apt to think that
+it has been trodden under foot or desecrated by
+the nations for an immensely longer period. But
+prophecy never gives any reckoning of time for
+Israel, except when Israel is an organized nation.
+It is concerned with telling Jewish <i>national</i>
+events.</p>
+
+<p>At this time the Jews have their national organization
+again in Palestine. For forty-two
+months after the nation has been newly set up
+the city will be so trodden under the desecrating
+feet of the nations. This is the first hint of
+time we have had. The witnessing and the desecration
+of the holy city will continue side by
+side for three and a half years.</p>
+
+<p>At the end of this period evil will be given
+full swing over these witnesses. They are killed
+and their bodies left lying in the streets, while
+the international crowds make merry because
+their tormentors, as these two are called, are
+gone. Then before the terror-stricken gaze of
+these crowds the two men come to life, and are
+caught up into the heavens. Is this the moment
+when all are caught up? Quite possibly.
+Then comes the terrible earthquake as at the
+end of the other two views.</p>
+
+<p>The one distinctive thing told here is that
+during the tribulation, in the midst of all the
+blasphemous reign of unrestrained wickedness,
+there will be the unbroken, faithful witnessing.
+This seems to explain why the account comes as
+a parenthesis in the account of the awful riot
+of evil. During the worst of the evil there will<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_189" id="Page_189">[Page 189]</a></span>
+go on unbroken the faithful, gracious testimony
+of God's truth and love.</p>
+
+<h4>The Lawless Leader.</h4>
+
+<p><i>The fourth view</i> takes the longest sweep of
+any, thus far, goes into much more detail, and
+gives much fresh information. It runs through
+chapters twelve to fourteen. In the intensely
+picturesque language of a woman arrayed in the
+most glorious splendour and dignity and power
+imaginable the nation of Israel is depicted.</p>
+
+<p>This woman is with child. In more intensely
+dramatic language Satan is pictured as standing
+before the woman waiting to destroy her child
+as soon as born. The child is born, a man-child,
+who is to rule all the nations with autocratic
+sway. He is caught up to heaven, and his
+mother flees into the wilderness from the serpent.
+This is the opening action of this view.</p>
+
+<p>The meaning lies open on the face. Israel
+gave birth to the man Jesus, who foiled all the
+attacks of Satan and ascended to heaven. The
+old prophetic characteristic of connecting events
+far apart without reference to intervening time
+is marked here. The long interval between the
+break-up of the Jew nation and its taking shape
+again as a nation, which has lasted nineteen
+hundred years roughly, comes between the last
+word of verse five and the first word of verse
+six.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote"><p>[146] Revelation xii. 1-6.</p></div><p>The prophetic writing takes no reckoning of
+Israel, except as a nation. The woman fleeing<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_190" id="Page_190">[Page 190]</a></span>
+into the wilderness is Israel organized again as
+a nation suffering persecution. She is so persecuted
+for twelve hundred and sixty days, but
+divinely protected and preserved. Such is the
+first act of the drama pictured here.<a name="FNanchor_146_146" id="FNanchor_146_146"></a><span class="snlabel">[146]</span></p>
+
+<div class="sidenote"><p>[147] Revelation xii. 7-17.</p></div><p>Then we are told <i>why</i> the woman flees, that
+is, the explanation of this special persecution
+of the Jew this time.<a name="FNanchor_147_147" id="FNanchor_147_147"></a><span class="snlabel">[147]</span> Satan has had his headquarters
+somewhere in the heavens, below God's
+throne, but above the earth. Now, after a conflict,
+he is cast out of heaven, down to the earth.
+Here is a third event that comes approximately
+at the beginning of the tribulation time, Satan
+is cast down to the earth.</p>
+
+<p>The Holy Spirit is withdrawn from the Church
+up to heaven, so removing the restraint upon
+evil. Satan is cast out of heaven and comes
+down to earth. Thus there is a double intensifying
+of evil on the earth, the withdrawal of
+restraint, and the presence of the evil one himself.
+And as the witness of the Holy Spirit is
+withdrawn the special witness of the two men in
+Jerusalem begins.</p>
+
+<p>The defeat of Satan in this heavenly conflict
+draws out a burst of praise from the upper hosts.
+It is because of the great victory of our Lord
+Jesus in His death that this victory is gotten.
+They overcome because of the blood of the
+Lamb, <i>and</i> the word of their testimony, <i>and</i>
+they loved not their lives unto death,&mdash;a threefold
+cord that could never, and can never, be
+broken or successfully resisted.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_191" id="Page_191">[Page 191]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>This explains the special persecution at this
+time of the reshaped Jewish nation. It is the
+outburst of the rage of the freshly defeated
+Satan. But the Jew is protected. The armies
+that would swallow the Jew up are swallowed up
+by the great earthquake that closes the tribulation
+time.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote"><p>[148] Revelation xii.</p></div><p>The length of this persecution is put in two
+different ways, twelve hundred and sixty days,
+and &quot;time, times, and half a time.&quot; This latter
+phrase seems to be an old Oriental or Hebrew
+way of saying a year, two years, and half
+a year. The same length of time is expressed
+in yet another way in the eleventh chapter, forty
+and two months. The time is thus put in three
+different ways, that we may know surely that it
+means just plain three and a half years of our
+common time. It is significant that the dragon
+makes war with &quot;the rest&quot; of the woman's
+seed. This can only mean the Church, which
+of course was born in the Jewish nation. This
+is the first run of events in this view.<a name="FNanchor_148_148" id="FNanchor_148_148"></a><span class="snlabel">[148]</span></p>
+
+<div class="sidenote"><p>[149] Revelation xiii.</p></div><p>Then follows a description of the awful leader
+of evil during the tribulation time.<a name="FNanchor_149_149" id="FNanchor_149_149"></a><span class="snlabel">[149]</span> It is significant
+that, as Satan is cast out of heaven down
+to the earth, this leader appears among men.
+He has great intelligence and power and is the
+very embodiment of blasphemy. He is described
+as a strange mixture of wild beasts, having the
+chief characteristic strength of each, the cunning
+of the leopard, the feet of the bear, and the mouth
+of the lion.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_192" id="Page_192">[Page 192]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>He is the personal representative on earth
+among men of Satan. There is something
+strangely uncanny in the suggestion that he is
+some former leader, who died, and is now raised
+from the dead. There seems to be nothing too
+daring for Satan to attempt in his impious opposition
+to God. This leader comes into great
+prominence and power. All the world wonders
+after him. And they worship Satan, who is recognized
+as giving his power to this notorious
+leader.</p>
+
+<p>He comes to be accepted as the world ruler,
+and is commonly worshipped by the people. And
+he not only persecutes God's people, but overcomes
+them. A limit of time is set to his sway.
+It is the same as already noted for Jerusalem
+being desecrated, for God's two witnesses, and
+for the persecution of the Jew, <i>i.e.</i>, forty and
+two months, three and a half years.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote"><p>[150] Chapter xiii. 9-10.</p></div><p>It is striking that in the midst of the description
+of his terrible reign there comes a word that
+sounds like an echo from those messages to the
+Churches. &quot;If any man hath an ear, let him
+hear.&quot;<a name="FNanchor_150_150" id="FNanchor_150_150"></a><span class="snlabel">[150]</span> Then the word goes on warning, pleading,
+and encouraging. In the midst of these
+blasphemous conditions every man must do as
+he personally decides. He may yield to this evil
+and become a captive of evil, bound hand and
+foot. He may try to use the world's weapons
+in fighting God's battle, but will find himself
+outmatched in their use. He may rise to the
+true level, and steadfastly cling to his faith,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_193" id="Page_193">[Page 193]</a></span>
+and endure, and by faith be victorious in the
+end.</p>
+
+<p>The description goes on to tell of the blasphemous
+worship demanded of all. This leader
+has an assistant or lieutenant to whom he deputizes
+great power. He makes an image to his
+chief, and demands all to worship at this shrine.
+He has supernatural power, that is, devilishly
+supernatural. He performs great miracles, even
+calling down fire from heaven. He gives breath
+to the image and makes it speak. And he punishes
+with death any one who refuses this blasphemous
+worship to the leader and his image.
+And every one is required to have a mark on his
+hand or his forehead as indicating his loyalty
+to the leader. Whoever refuses is unable to
+buy or sell. It is the boycott principle carried
+to the last extreme.</p>
+
+<p>While God's two witnesses are doing miracles
+by divine power this lieutenant is doing them
+by devilish power. So the fearful account goes
+on. One can easily imagine the vast crowds
+swayed by the idolatrous worship, and the intense
+suffering and distress among those who
+insist on being steadfast and true in their faith.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote"><p>[151] Revelation xiv. 1-5.</p></div><p>Now in the midst of all this terrible scene
+John is suddenly and tremendously startled by
+something else.<a name="FNanchor_151_151" id="FNanchor_151_151"></a><span class="snlabel">[151]</span></p>
+
+<p>In the vision John is in heaven looking down
+on these scenes on the earth. Now his attention
+is attracted by a scene that suddenly takes
+place before his eyes in heaven. It is a scene<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_194" id="Page_194">[Page 194]</a></span>
+of wondrous winsomeness and beauty. It stands
+out in sharpest contrast with what is going on
+on the earth.</p>
+
+<p>There's a great company standing around the
+Lord Jesus, before the throne. They are singing
+a wonderful song to the accompaniment of
+harps, which they have. The volume of music is
+like the voice of many waters, or like great
+thunder. There is a simple, fine description of
+the character of these singers. They are <i>pure</i>,
+and they are <i>obedient</i>. In their purity they are
+as undefiled virgins, the highest possible statement
+of purity. And they follow the Lamb unquestioningly
+whithersoever He goeth with
+fullest obedience.</p>
+
+<p>Who are these, and where have they come
+from so suddenly, at this moment, into the presence
+of the One on the throne? The description
+tells just what has happened. When things are
+at their devilish worst down on the earth the
+Lord Jesus has caught up His own from the
+earth. And they have become like Him in character,
+for now they see Him face to face as He
+is.</p>
+
+<p>This recalls the scene, essentially the same,
+back in the first view, in chapter seven, where the
+great multitudes are suddenly seen before the
+throne with palm branches, songs, and white
+garments. It is the same company as there.
+But there is a difference in telling the numbers.
+<i>There</i> they are too many to be counted. <i>Here</i>
+they are said to be a hundred and forty-four
+thousand. It is symbolical, a picture number,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_195" id="Page_195">[Page 195]</a></span>
+the number of full corporate completeness as
+with the Spirit-baptized Jews in chapter seven.</p>
+
+<p>The believers caught up out of the great
+tribulation have been joined by the trusting
+hearts of all time who have been waiting in the
+Father's presence for this glad day. The number
+is now complete of all from creation's earliest
+dawn, who by grace have followed fully,
+regardless of hindrance or opposition. This
+great climax is thus seen by John in sudden
+and sharp contrast with the climax of hellish
+evil on the earth.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote"><p>[152] Revelation xiv. 6-20.</p></div><p>Then John is shown the steps by which this
+climax is reached.<a name="FNanchor_152_152" id="FNanchor_152_152"></a><span class="snlabel">[152]</span> Verses six to the close of
+this chapter seem clearly to be a detail of what
+has gone before, describing the steps by which
+this climax is reached, and then reaching further
+to the judgment upon the evil. During the
+iniquitous scenes being enacted on earth an
+angel is seen flying in mid-heavens calling to the
+people on earth, in warning, to give their worship
+and reverence to God only. The gracious
+wooing of God never ceases.</p>
+
+<p>Another angel follows, calling out that the
+great system of iniquity, in which they are enmeshed,
+is doomed. A third gives solemn warning
+that those who yield to the terrible pressure,
+and engage in the blasphemous worship, will be
+surely and terribly punished. Again there comes
+another echo of the strain of pleading in the
+Church messages. In the midst of just such
+conditions as prevail then, the saints can be<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_196" id="Page_196">[Page 196]</a></span>
+steady in keeping the commandments of God
+and the faith of Jesus.</p>
+
+<p>And down into the awful persecution being
+waged comes an encouraging voice from heaven.
+There is special blessing from God on all those
+who remain true, even unto death. There will
+be sweetest rest for them, and their faithful
+witnessing and suffering shall be all noted and
+acknowledged and rewarded as they come up into
+the Father's presence.</p>
+
+<p>And then follows the blessed harvest of the
+righteous whose wonderful arrival in heaven
+has already been told in the opening scene of
+this chapter. And then follows the awful harvest
+of evil down on the earth, the visitation of
+judgments coming at the very end of the persecution.</p>
+
+<p>So closes this long remarkable view of the
+tribulation. It connects back with the nation
+of Israel. Its beginning is connected practically
+with the casting of Satan down to earth. It
+gives a description of the leader and the nature
+of the persecution, and a brief statement of the
+steps with which it ends. And it states in three
+different ways that the length of time involved
+is three and a half years.</p>
+
+<h4>A Bitter Cup to Its Dregs.</h4>
+
+<div class="sidenote"><p>[153] Revelation xv.-xvi.</p></div><p><i>The fifth view</i><a name="FNanchor_153_153" id="FNanchor_153_153"></a><span class="snlabel">[153]</span> is, not of the whole tribulation
+time as with these others, but of only a
+part, the closing part. It speaks of the visitation
+of judgments, the great climactic battle,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_197" id="Page_197">[Page 197]</a></span>
+and the earthquake, with which the period is
+brought to its end.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote"><p>[154] Revelation xiv. 1-5.</p></div><p>It connects at the point in the fourth view<a name="FNanchor_154_154" id="FNanchor_154_154"></a><span class="snlabel">[154]</span>
+where those who have been suffering in the tribulation
+are seen standing before the throne singing
+with harps. It is said that they are singing the
+song of Moses, who had the experience of tribulation
+and deliverance in Egypt, and the song
+of the Lamb, who went through the worst
+tribulation experience in His contest with Satan
+and sin on our behalf.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote"><p>[155] Revelation xi. 19.</p></div><p>It connects also with the close of the second
+view,<a name="FNanchor_155_155" id="FNanchor_155_155"></a><span class="snlabel">[155]</span> where the temple is seen opened and the
+ark of the covenant is seen. That covenant is
+now to receive further fulfilment. God never
+forgets His promises and agreements. Seven
+angels have seven golden bowls full of the wrath
+of God. In this way is told the visitation of
+judgments now described as taking place at this
+time.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote"><p>[156] Psalm xi. 6; lx. 3; lxxv. 8; Job xxi. 20; Isaiah li.
+17, 22, 23; Jeremiah xxv. 15-17; Ezekiel xxiii. 31-33;
+Habakkuk ii. 16; Zechariah xii. 2.</p></div><p>In the first view the picture is of <i>seals</i> being
+broken or opened, which indicates the execution
+of a document. The <i>trumpets</i> of the next view
+indicate a commanding call to action; the seven
+<i>thunders</i>, not written, a great storm. These
+<i>bowls</i> or vials indicate the administration of a
+dose of bitter-tasting medicine. The visitation of
+judgments by God is commonly spoken of in
+Scripture in this language.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_198" id="Page_198">[Page 198]</a></span><a name="FNanchor_156_156" id="FNanchor_156_156"></a><span class="snlabel">[156]</span></p>
+
+<p>Then follows the description of the judgments
+upon men's persons, and everything concerning
+their life. Men's bodies are diseased, the water
+is unfit to drink, the food supply cut short; they
+suffer with terrible heat, and then darkness. But
+there is no penitence. The Euphrates is said to
+be dried up, suggesting that it is the great river
+at or near the world's centre of action. So, it is
+said, the way is prepared for the kings that come
+from the east.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote"><p>[157] Isaiah xi. 15-16.</p></div><p>And the prophetic bit in Isaiah comes to mind
+about men passing over the Euphrates at the
+time of the great gathering of the Jews.<a name="FNanchor_157_157" id="FNanchor_157_157"></a><span class="snlabel">[157]</span> As
+though aroused by all this to bitterest opposition
+there is increased demon activity, and through
+it a great gathering of all nations, at a place
+named in Palestine, for a great battle.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote"><p>[158] Revelation vi. 15-17.</p></div><p>Then a terrible climax comes in the earthquake,
+with which the first, second, and third
+views closed. It is the worst earthquake ever
+experienced. It centres in &quot;<i>the</i> great city,&quot;
+Babylon, the capital of the whole system of
+wickedness. With the storm is a terrible hail.
+The description tallies with that in the close of
+the first view,<a name="FNanchor_158_158" id="FNanchor_158_158"></a><span class="snlabel">[158]</span> and with the vivid prophetic bit
+in Isaiah ii. 10-22.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote"><p>[159] Revelation xi. 14.</p></div><p>There's no suggestion of how much time all
+this takes. The judgments visited on Egypt at
+the deliverance of Israel are described at much
+greater length, running into ten items. Yet all
+could have occurred within five weeks, allowing
+for brief intervals. Whether these judgments<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_199" id="Page_199">[Page 199]</a></span>
+occur in succession, or all at once, or partly in
+both ways, they could all come within a very
+short time. This fifth view depicts the final
+scene. It gives the visitation of judgments ending
+the tribulation period, describes a great
+pitched battle, in which all nations are involved,
+and ends with the earthquake. This is the third
+of the three great woes.<a name="FNanchor_159_159" id="FNanchor_159_159"></a><span class="snlabel">[159]</span></p>
+
+<div class="sidenote"><p>[160] Chapters xvii. and xviii.</p></div><p><i>The sixth view</i> is of the great system of wickedness
+in the world, through which the tribulation
+comes, and which is judged at its close.<a name="FNanchor_160_160" id="FNanchor_160_160"></a><span class="snlabel">[160]</span>
+The description is full of details of great interest
+and instructiveness, but we can only have time
+at present for the essential thing being taught.
+The Spirit takes John into a wilderness. To the
+Spirit's eye wherever wickedness has sway,
+whether vulgar or polished, political or commercial,
+cunning or brazen, it is a wilderness.</p>
+
+<p>Here is shown a woman gorgeously clothed,
+prodigally bedecked with jewels, and having a
+cup in her hand, made of gold, but full of vile
+filth. Upon her forehead appears a description:
+&quot;Mystery [or explanation of mystery], Babylon
+the great, the mother of harlots and of
+the abominations of the earth.&quot; This woman is
+riding upon a strange beast; it is scarlet-colored,
+with seven heads and ten horns, and full of blasphemous
+names. This is the startlingly suggestive
+picture.</p>
+
+<p>Who is this woman? And what is this beast
+upon which she is seated? The whole description
+taken together suggests that she is meant<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_200" id="Page_200">[Page 200]</a></span>
+to stand for the whole system of wickedness
+which has had such sway in the world from
+earliest time until the end. And the beast represents
+typically the dominant governmental powers.
+The two have always worked together.
+There has been a consistent unity of spirit and
+of characteristic, and a persistent devilishness
+marking the wickedness in the world throughout
+the ages.</p>
+
+<p>It has been as though there were an unseen
+spirit power tirelessly at work <i>behind</i> all the
+varied manifestations of evil. The dominant
+characteristic always has been blasphemy of God.
+It has controlled thrones and royal power, and
+has had unlimited gold at its command. And it
+has always been an enemy, subtle or open, cunning
+or violent, of God and His people.</p>
+
+<p>That system or genius of evil is represented
+in the Old Testament as finding expression in
+one great political power after another, but
+chiefly in the power of Babylon. Babylon stands
+typically in these older pages, not merely for the
+great empire of the Euphrates, but for the unseen
+spirit of evil lying behind that power, and
+making use of it to carry through its own foul
+purposes.</p>
+
+<p>But that unseen evil spirit power has found
+more than one agency to dominate and use.
+Babylon long since passed off the stage as a
+political factor. But the power of evil has not
+ceased. It is distressing to note another great
+organization behind and through which the power
+of evil has worked. What is the system that<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_201" id="Page_201">[Page 201]</a></span>
+has, for the past sixteen centuries, been supported
+by the various great civil governments?</p>
+
+<p>There is only one answer. It is the organization
+known as &quot;the Christian Church.&quot; And
+the term Church must be taken here in its fullest,
+broadest meaning. Its great main stem historically
+is the Roman Catholic Church. The
+first great split-off was the Greek Orthodox
+Church. The Church of England was a later
+break-off. These, with the various government-ally
+supported Churches, and those free of such
+support, and various ancient primitive bodies,&mdash;these
+all together make up the organization
+known as &quot;the Church.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The two symbolical characteristics of this
+woman and the two dominant characteristics of
+this historical Church are the same. The Church
+has been and is supported almost wholly by the
+civil governments, and used by them in furthering
+their policies. And it has been active in
+persecuting to death the people of God who
+would not yield to its domination. It has been
+marked by intolerance of all not yielding to its
+wishes, and especially of the Jew. That intolerance
+has been carried not only to the extreme of
+blood, but a riot of bloodshed. This is utterly
+heart-breaking to realize and to repeat.</p>
+
+<p>The woman is said to be &quot;drunken (1) with
+the blood of the saints, and (2) with the blood
+of the martyrs of Jesus.&quot; The twofold statement
+is seen to cover the two great periods, before
+Christ and since. And it covers also the
+two great powers through which the spirit of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_202" id="Page_202">[Page 202]</a></span>
+evil has chiefly worked in those two periods.
+But the name given first in the plains of Shinar,
+and used characteristically of the God-defying
+power of evil, is given here, Babylon. It will be
+Babylon again at the very end after the Church
+system is overthrown.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote"><p>[161] Revelation xvii. 8-12.</p></div><p>It is plainly said that the beast represents the
+great civil or governmental power in its final
+stage, the shape it will be in at the end when
+these events occur.<a name="FNanchor_161_161" id="FNanchor_161_161"></a><span class="snlabel">[161]</span> The chief dominating political
+power of the world will have passed
+through a succession of changes, seven kingdoms
+successively following each other. At the end
+there will be a combination of some sort, with
+ten great subdivisions, and one great head over
+all.</p>
+
+<p>But at the last, the civil power will discard the
+Church, and persecute it. The spirit of evil thus
+gets embodiment typically in the great Babylon
+power, then in the Church, and at the very last,
+in a coalition of civil powers heading up in a
+new Babylon.</p>
+
+<p>Then follows announcement of the fall of
+Babylon. The city is regarded here as the
+earthly capital of the organized system of unseen
+evil spirit power at work in the world. The
+city and the system are inseparably allied. The
+name Babylon is used in the Bible for both system
+and city.</p>
+
+<p>If the question be asked what city is meant
+here, there can be but one answer. From the
+twelfth of Genesis on the Bible never touches<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_203" id="Page_203">[Page 203]</a></span>
+history, except as history touches Israel as a
+nation. A thoughtful review of the book makes
+this clear. And this book of Revelation is a
+gathering-up of Bible threads, and only these.
+There is only one city in the Bible record that
+answers to the description here, &quot;the great city
+which reigneth over the kings of the earth.&quot;
+&quot;Babylon <i>the</i> great.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>But the old Babylon lies in ruins. And its
+ruined condition has been quoted as the fulfilment
+of the famous passage in Isaiah xiii. 19-22.
+It should be carefully noted that the present
+conditions at the site of old Babylon do not seem
+to satisfy fully the language of that passage.
+It would seem to be another illustration of the
+rare use of language in the Bible, which adapts
+a passage accurately to one event, and then to a
+second event, a long time afterward.</p>
+
+<p>This would, of course, involve the rebuilding
+of the old capital of the Euphrates. The reverent
+student quietly notes the movements taking
+place in that part of the world, but restrains mere
+curious speculation, as he continues fervently
+to pray, &quot;Thy kingdom come.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>This eighteenth chapter of Revelation seems
+like an echo of that intense twenty-first of Isaiah,
+and indeed of a strain sounding all through the
+prophetic books. One familiar with the old writings
+is not surprised to find this echo; he expects
+it. No echo of God's voice or purpose is
+ever lost. God never loses any of the threads out
+of His hand.</p>
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_204" id="Page_204">[Page 204]</a></span></p>
+
+<h4>Hallelujah! He Comes.</h4>
+
+<p><i>The seventh view</i> presents the climax. It includes
+from chapter nineteen to chapter twenty-two,
+verse five. It presents in full the great scene
+that closes this tribulation period; touches the
+kingdom in a bare word so as to fit it into its
+place in the scheme of events being outlined;
+and then gives the final wind-up after the Kingdom
+time is over. We want to look now at the
+portion connected immediately with what has
+just gone before, the description of the wondrous
+close of the tribulation, in chapters nineteen,
+verse one, to twenty, verse three.</p>
+
+<p>John hears a great outburst of worship and
+praise in heaven. It resembles the outburst
+back in chapter five, when the Lamb took the
+book. But it is seen to be yet greater than
+that. Its joy and delight seem wholly unbounded.
+Again the living creatures and the
+four and twenty elders lead the song that bursts
+out.</p>
+
+<p>John tries to tell how great was the volume of
+adoring song that fills all heaven. It is like
+the voice of a great multitude, like the waters
+that he had heard many a time breaking in
+deafening roar on the rocky coast of Patmos,
+like the mighty thunders which he had heard so
+much in these visions.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote"><p>[162] Revelation i. 4, 8; iv. 8.</p><p>[163] Revelation xi. 17; xvi. 5.</p></div><p>And the song they sang explains the exuberance
+of their singing, &quot;Hallelujah: for the Lord
+our God, the Almighty <i>reigneth</i>.&quot; At last He
+<i>reigneth</i>. In the earlier parts of the book God<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_205" id="Page_205">[Page 205]</a></span>
+is spoken of as &quot;He who is and who was, and
+<i>who cometh</i>.&quot;<a name="FNanchor_162_162" id="FNanchor_162_162"></a><span class="snlabel">[162]</span> As later events are described
+that last part &quot;who cometh&quot; is significantly
+dropped.<a name="FNanchor_163_163" id="FNanchor_163_163"></a><span class="snlabel">[163]</span> Clearly at these points being described
+He has come. Now the great realization
+bursts out from countless voices, the Lord,
+our God, the Almighty <i>reigneth</i>!</p>
+
+<p>And John is bidden to write the words whose
+refrain has filled such a place in hymns and
+devout speech, &quot;Blessed are they that are bidden
+to the marriage supper of the Lamb.&quot; And
+the one who seems to be serving as John's guide
+puts peculiar emphasis on all that is being revealed
+by saying, &quot;these are true words of
+God.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>John is so overwhelmed that he falls down
+to worship this one. And then he finds that
+this is one of his own redeemed brothers of the
+earth. And as He quietly bids John give his
+worship to One only, He adds very significant
+words: &quot;the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of
+prophecy.&quot; The whole genius and soul of all
+this wealth of prophecy is to point men to our
+Lord Jesus Christ, God to us.</p>
+
+<p>And now comes the event toward which the
+ages have looked. <i>The heavens open.</i> And <i>our
+Lord Jesus appears</i> coming in glory to earth. At
+last He comes. There's a wonderful description.
+He comes as a conqueror, riding forth to judge
+the earth righteously, and to make war on evil.
+His eyes are as a flame of fire, and upon His<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_206" id="Page_206">[Page 206]</a></span>
+head many diadems. He has a name indicating
+that He is all alone in the experiences He has
+been through, and in His character. He comes
+as King of kings and Lord of lords, to rule all
+the earth with a new absolutism, to right all
+wrongs, and visit the indignant wrath of God
+upon all sin.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote"><p>[164] Ezekiel xxxix. 17-20.</p></div><p>As He appears an angel gives warning of
+what is coming. In words that are an echo of
+Ezekiel's, long centuries before, he calls to
+all the scavenger birds of the earth that haunt
+battlefields to come to a great feasting time.<a name="FNanchor_164_164" id="FNanchor_164_164"></a><span class="snlabel">[164]</span>
+And John sees the vast armies of the nations of
+the earth all gathered together for a last mighty
+battle, under the leadership of the great leader
+of lawlessness and his lieutenant.</p>
+
+<p>And the utter impotence of their struggle
+against God is revealed in the quietness and
+brevity with which their defeat and capture are
+told. Satan's great earth leader and his chief
+who deceived the people with his miraculous
+power, both are taken and forever put away.
+And then Satan himself is chained and fastened
+securely in the abyss. Such is the tremendous
+consummation quietly told in a few lines. And
+then follows the setting up of the glorious kingdom
+on earth.</p>
+
+<p>Whatever the immediate circumstances under
+which the Second Psalm was penned, it will be
+readily seen how it fits into this situation at the
+end.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_207" id="Page_207">[Page 207]</a></span></p>
+
+<div class="poem">
+<p>
+&quot;Why do the nations tumultuously assemble,<br />
+And the peoples meditate a vain thing?<br />
+The kings of the earth set themselves,<br />
+And the rulers take counsel together,<br />
+Against Jehovah and against His Anointed, saying,<br />
+'Let us break their bonds asunder,<br />
+And cast away their cords from us.'&quot;<br />
+</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>But their efforts seem so puny, and the result
+so one-sided, that</p>
+
+<div class="poem">
+<p>
+&quot;He that sitteth in the heavens will laugh:<br />
+The Lord will have them in derision.&quot;<br />
+</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>And we remember that, in these Revelation
+pages, it is always with the sword of His mouth
+that the Lord Jesus is said to fight, as we read
+on:</p>
+
+<div class="poem">
+<p>
+&quot;Then will He <i>speak</i> unto them in His wrath,<br />
+And vex [or trouble] them in His sore displeasure; [saying]<br />
+'Yet I have set <i>my</i> King<br />
+Upon my holy hill of Zion.'&quot;<br />
+</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>Then the Son speaks:</p>
+
+<div class="poem">
+<p>
+&quot;I will tell of the decree:<br />
+Jehovah said unto me, 'thou art my Son;<br />
+This day have I begotten thee.<br />
+Ask of me and I will give thee the nations for thine inheritance,<br />
+And the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession.<br />
+Thou shalt break them with a rod of iron;<br />
+Thou shalt dash them in pieces like a potter's vessel.'&quot;<br />
+</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>And the writer of the Psalms closed with a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_208" id="Page_208">[Page 208]</a></span>
+word of earnest counsel to the kings of earth:</p>
+
+<div class="poem">
+<p>
+&quot;Now therefore be wise, O ye kings:<br />
+Be instructed, ye judges of the earth.<br />
+Serve Jehovah with fear,<br />
+And rejoice with trembling [awe],<br />
+Kiss the Son, lest He be angry, and ye perish in the way,<br />
+For His wrath will soon be kindled.<br />
+Blessed are all they that take refuge in Him.&quot;<br />
+</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>Thus it is seen that these seven views describe
+(1) the general characteristics of the tribulation
+time; (2) the way in which it comes, that
+is, by the withdrawal of restraint and so the
+loosing of evil; (3) the faithful witness being
+borne throughout the period; (4) the great evil
+leader and the character of the persecution he
+wages; (5) the visitation of judgments upon
+earth with the great gathering of nations to
+battle against God; (6) the world system of evil;
+and (7) the coming of our Lord Jesus to judge
+evil and set up the kingdom.</p>
+
+<h4>Still He Waits.</h4>
+
+<p>It will at once be noted that these things group
+up, naturally and easily, under <i>three headings</i>.
+First, there is a terrible <i>persecution</i> of God's
+people. This will end in a <i>visitation</i> of <i>judgments</i>,
+including great plagues. There will be
+a gathering of the armies of all nations, and a
+great battle. It will end in a decisive defeat for
+them by the personal coming of the Lord Jesus,
+and will be accompanied by a terrific earthquake<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_209" id="Page_209">[Page 209]</a></span>
+and an equally terrific shake-up of the heavenly
+bodies connected with the earth, sun, moon, and
+stars. Then comes the establishment of the
+<i>Kingdom of God</i> upon earth. These three things
+stand dominantly out.</p>
+
+<p>It comes as a surprise to one who has not been
+thinking especially about it, to find how these
+three things are the same three that stood out
+so prominently at the close of the study of
+future items in the old prophetic books. It is
+natural that it should be so, of course, since the
+Book of God is one in its essential unity.</p>
+
+<p>But there is a great fascination in finding the
+parts to come together so simply and naturally.
+As we gather up the Old Testament pages these
+three things sift out and group together as distinctly
+not yet fulfilled, and so future. As we
+listen to our Lord Jesus talking, again these same
+three items are emphasized by Him. And now
+the same three are found here.</p>
+
+<p>Dr. A.&nbsp;F. Schauffler tells of a striking experience
+he had in connection with his mission work
+in New York City. A letter came to him from
+a stranger in Germany. It said: &quot;I know you
+are a city missionary. I am sending a trunk in
+your care. Inclosed in this letter you will find
+a piece of paper cut. A man will come and present
+to you a piece of paper matching this piece.
+Please give him the trunk.&quot; And enclosed in
+the letter was a piece of paper cut in zigzags.</p>
+
+<p>Letter and paper were laid away to await developments.
+Some weeks later a stranger came<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_210" id="Page_210">[Page 210]</a></span>
+in and presented a queerly cut piece of paper,
+saying: &quot;I think you have a piece that matches
+this.&quot; Dr. Schauffler got out his piece of paper,
+laid the two side by side, found that they
+matched, and said to his visitor: &quot;There's your
+trunk.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Even so these prophetic pages of the New
+Testament are found to fit exactly the pages of
+the Old, written centuries before. It is not surprising,
+however. One hand cut the paper into
+two pieces in Germany, and naturally they fitted
+when put together in New York. One Hand has
+guided the men writing in both Old and New.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote"><p>[165] Jeremiah i. 11-12.</p></div><p>When Jeremiah was first called to his work
+as God's messenger he was shown in vision the
+branch of an almond tree. The almond tree is
+the earliest of all trees to wake from its winter's
+sleep at the first hint of spring warmth
+coming. And so it was called the &quot;watching&quot;
+or &quot;watcher&quot; tree. Then God said to Jeremiah:
+&quot;Even so, I eagerly watch over my word to
+bring it to life and fruitage at the very earliest
+opportunity.&quot;<a name="FNanchor_165_165" id="FNanchor_165_165"></a><span class="snlabel">[165]</span> And so the word of this watching
+God and its fulfilment match, regardless of
+the thing we call time, even running into centuries.</p>
+
+<p>And it is very helpful for those of us who have
+had a sort of dread of prophecy as of a vague
+something that we can't understand, to find after
+all how simple it is. Just three great items stand
+out of these prophetic pages that are waiting fulfilment.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_211" id="Page_211">[Page 211]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Such is the seven-fold view, which is taken up
+almost wholly with the clearing-up storm in the
+King's realm. But all this is still future. We
+are still in that waiting time. Our Lord Jesus
+still stands among the candlesticks. Still He is
+waiting for His Church to be faithful. He still
+waits for each of us who is a bit of His Church.
+He is depending on us to be faithful, by His
+grace, day by day, during this waiting time. And
+while He waits <i>all His limitless power is at our
+disposal</i>, as we follow His leading. We may
+take as much as we need. But the taking must
+be with the life.</p>
+
+<p>A dear missionary friend told of a simple experience
+that meant much to him. We were
+walking together in the town in Korea where
+his mission work is. His school was the centre
+of the recent troublous times in Korea, and
+the storm seemed to rage about his own person
+at its outburst. As we talked all his native
+teachers and several of his older students were
+in prison. The experience he told me was of
+earlier days in this country, but had come back
+to his memory as a great refreshment during
+the troublous times.</p>
+
+<p>He was a professor in a small college in our
+Middle West. Special funds were being raised,
+for extension. He was to ask a certain man
+of wealth for a large donation. He planned
+and prayed much, and at last went to see the
+man in another city by appointment. He had
+a keen sense of the responsibility of his
+task.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_212" id="Page_212">[Page 212]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>As he entered the building where the man's
+office was he was greeted cordially by a young
+man whom he remembered as a former student,
+to whom he had been friendly in some time of
+minor need. But he had not connected him in
+his mind with this wealthy man, whose son he
+was. Now as the former student learned of his
+professor friend's errand, he said with all the
+confidence of a son on good terms with his
+father:</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Come right in; father's here.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>As they stepped into the man's office the son
+said, simply:</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Father, this is an old friend of mine. He's
+all right. Give him whatever he wants.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>And the father, busy at his desk, with barely
+a look at the appointed visitor, reached one
+hand over for his checkbook, and simply
+said:</p>
+
+<p>&quot;How much do you want?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>My friend, taken completely by surprise at
+the unexpected turn of events, managed to name
+the large sum he had been thinking and praying
+over so much. And before he could quite recover
+from his surprise, he found himself outside
+walking up the street with the coveted check in
+his pocket, praising God for such an answer to
+his prayers. It had been years before, but as
+we walked and talked it all came back with a
+fresh flush of feeling.</p>
+
+<p>The present is a waiting time. It may seem
+to some as though they are in the wilderness.
+Clear and distinct comes a quiet voice:<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_213" id="Page_213">[Page 213]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>&quot;What'll you have? Whatever you choose to
+ask, for My Son's sake.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>May we reach out to take as much as He is
+reaching down to give. But the taking must be
+with the life.</p>
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_215" id="Page_215">[Page 215]</a></span></p>
+<h2><a name="VII_THE_CROWNED_CHRIST_REIGNING" id="VII_THE_CROWNED_CHRIST_REIGNING"></a>VII.&mdash;THE CROWNED CHRIST REIGNING</h2>
+
+<p class="center">(Revelation, Chapters xx: 4-xxii.)</p>
+
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_216" id="Page_216">[Page 216]</a></span>
+&quot;On this side of the river and on that was the tree
+of life, bearing twelve fruits.&quot;</p></div>
+
+
+
+<div class="poem">
+<p>
+&quot;A garden is a lovesome thing, God wot!<br />
+<span class="i4">Rose plot,</span><br />
+<span class="i4">Fringed pool,</span><br />
+<span class="i4">Ferned grot&mdash;</span><br />
+<span class="i1">The veriest school</span><br />
+Of peace; and yet the fool<br />
+<span class="i1">Contends that God is not&mdash;</span><br />
+Not God! in gardens! when the eve is cool?<br />
+<span class="i1">Nay, but I have a sign;</span><br />
+'Tis very sure God walks in mine.&quot;<br /></p>
+</div>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_217" id="Page_217">[Page 217]</a></span></p>
+
+<h4>Day Is Coming.</h4>
+
+<p>It's a long lane that has no turning. Every
+valley leads up a hillside to a hilltop. Every
+storm ends in sunshine at the last. Every night
+runs out; the dawn <i>will</i> break; the new day
+comes; the shadows flee before the new shining.
+The battle for right will end in victory, and in a
+decisive victory. There'll be no draw here.
+Faith wins at last. It's been a long night of
+fighting. Sometimes it seems endless.</p>
+
+<p>The man in the thick of the fight, with moist
+brow, and clenched hand, and quick breath and
+throbbing heart, sometimes sobs out the prayer,
+&quot;O Lord, how long before the night is over,
+and the dawn breaks?&quot; And quietly through
+the smoke and din of the conflict a still, small
+voice says, &quot;Steady, my child, steady; the day
+is surely coming, and with day victory; steady,
+steady a bit longer.&quot;</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote"><p>[166] Habakkuk ii. 3.</p></div><p>Now here in vision the fight is over, the victory
+won. And God's visions always become
+realities. The vision is yet for the appointed
+time, and it panteth breathlessly toward the real<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_218" id="Page_218">[Page 218]</a></span>ization,
+and will not fail nor delay. Though it
+tarry, wait for it; it will certainly come on time;
+it will not be late.<a name="FNanchor_166_166" id="FNanchor_166_166"></a><span class="snlabel">[166]</span></p>
+
+<p>In the seventh view the kingdom follows immediately
+that decisive conflict and the putting
+of Satan out of the way for the time being. The
+redeemed ones at once begin their blessed service
+of fellowship with the King in reigning over
+the kingdom. Emphasis is placed on the fact
+that at this time there has been a resurrection
+of believers. And these resurrected ones join
+with those caught up without death in administering
+the kingdom. This kingdom is said to
+last for a thousand years, that length of time
+being named only here, and here six times.</p>
+
+<p>There is much talk in our day about the kingdom.
+All Christendom has been repeating for
+nineteen centuries the petition, &quot;Thy kingdom
+come.&quot; It will be of intense and practical interest
+to see just what the kingdom is, as pictured
+in the Bible. It is barely mentioned in
+this place in Revelation, to fit it into its place in
+the scheme of future events being outlined.</p>
+
+<p>But it is the chief theme in these old prophetic
+pages, around which all others group. Immediate
+historical events furnish the setting, but
+there is a continual swinging to the coming
+future greatness. The yellow glory-light of the
+coming kingdom is never out of the prophetic
+sky. Jeremiah is the one most absorbed in the
+boiling of the political pot of his own strenuous
+time, but even he, at times, lifts his head and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_219" id="Page_219">[Page 219]</a></span>
+gets such a glimpse of the coming kingdom
+as causes him to mix some rose tincture with
+the jet black ink he habitually uses.</p>
+
+<h4>The Kingdom Picture.</h4>
+
+<div class="sidenote"><p>[167] Acts ii. 44-47; iv. 32-34.</p></div><p>Let us look briefly at the kingdom picture of
+these older pages. Its capital is Jerusalem,
+which becomes the world capital. It will be the
+joy of the whole earth. Israel will be the first
+nation of the earth, to which all others will be
+tributary. But it will be not the Israel of these
+old pages, nor the Jew as he is known characteristically
+throughout history. Israel will be a
+new nation, made new in character by the power
+of the Holy Spirit. The winsome picture of the
+baptized crowds at Pentecost gives an inkling of
+the spirit that will sway the new nation.<a name="FNanchor_167_167" id="FNanchor_167_167"></a><span class="snlabel">[167]</span> They
+will be a nation of radiant faces and thrilled
+hearts.</p>
+
+<p>The effect of this upon all other nations is
+marked. Through Israel's regeneration and new
+leadership, every other nation is to know a new
+spirit life. The outpouring of the Holy Spirit
+upon Israel is to be followed by an outpouring
+upon <i>all</i> flesh. Pentecost is merely a beginning
+of what is to be universal. There will be a
+widespread voluntary coming to Israel for religious
+instruction. She becomes the world's
+teacher until the knowledge of God covers the
+whole earth as the waters cover the sea. But
+all this will be purely a voluntary movement<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_220" id="Page_220">[Page 220]</a></span>
+among the nations. There will be war no longer,
+but universal peace.</p>
+
+<p>There's one part of the picture specially comforting.
+That vast majority, <i>the poor</i>, will be
+specially guarded and cared for. There will be
+no hungry people, nor cold, nor poorly clad; no
+unemployed begging for a chance to earn a dry
+crust, and no workers fighting for a fair share
+of the fruit of their toil. But there are yet
+tenderer touches on the canvas. Broken hearts
+will be healed, prison doors unhung, broken
+family circles complete again.</p>
+
+<p>A recent issue of The Sunday School Times
+tells a simple, touching incident of a mission
+hall in Korea. A Korean woman living in the
+country heard of the wonderful things happening
+there, and came to town to find out for herself,
+and get some help. But she didn't know
+where the hall was, nor what name it was called.
+So she inquired on the streets for the place where
+they <i>cured the broken heart</i>. And at once she
+was directed to the mission hall. That sort of
+thing will become a blessed commonplace in the
+beginning of the kingdom time.</p>
+
+<p>Then there are certain radical changes in
+<i>nature</i>. Splendid rivers of waters are to flow
+through or by Jerusalem, suggesting radical
+changes in the formation of the land there. That
+fortress city, on the hilltop, Jerusalem, becomes
+as the world's metropolis, a mighty city, with
+rivers floating a world's commerce. The light
+of sun and moon will be greatly intensified, so
+influencing the fertility of the earth. Before<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_221" id="Page_221">[Page 221]</a></span>
+their healing light and heat, in the newly tempered
+atmosphere, all poisonous growths, the
+blight of drought, and suffering of untempered
+heat, will disappear.</p>
+
+<p>And with this goes a change in the <i>animal</i>
+creation. Hate will be gone. And so beasts
+that are dreaded because of their ferocity and
+treachery and poisonous power will be wholly
+changed. There will be mutual cessation of
+cruelty to animals by man, and of danger to
+man by animals, for all hate and violence will
+be gone.</p>
+
+<p>And some one raises his eyebrows sceptically
+and says, ironically, &quot;What fairy tale, what
+skipper's yarn, is this?&quot; Well, I frankly confess
+that I don't know anything about this matter,
+except what I find in this old Book of God.
+But I confess, too, that I try studiously to get
+a common-sense, poised, Spirit-enlightened understanding
+of what this Book does tell. And
+then I accept it, and go by it, regardless of probabilities
+or improbabilities. It may seem like a
+fairy tale, yet it is only the picture of the
+coming kingdom soberly set forth in these old
+pages.</p>
+
+<p>As we turn to the Gospel pages we find the
+kingdom to be the chief thing Jesus is talking
+about. The Gospel days are sample days of the
+kingdom in the personal blessings bestowed.
+Read through these accounts of blind eyes
+opened, the lame walking, the maimed made
+whole, the dumb singing, the distressed in whatever
+way relieved, the ignorant instructed, the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_222" id="Page_222">[Page 222]</a></span>
+sinful wooed, and the bad of heart and life being
+blessedly changed.</p>
+
+<p>All this is a taste of the kingdom. Jesus was
+wooing men to accept King and kingdom. To-day,
+as in all Church time, bodily healing is a
+privilege for those who can take it, and a gift
+for the rare few who can be entrusted with it.
+In these Gospel pages it was freely bestowed on
+multitudes, and the gift exercised with power by
+many. Even so it will be in the kingdom time.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote"><p>[168] Mark iv. 26-29. Matthew xiii. 31-32.</p><p>[169] Matthew xiii. 33.</p><p>[170] Matthew xiii. 3-9, 18-23.</p><p>[171] Matthew xiii. 24-30.</p><p>[172] Matthew xiii. 47-50.</p></div><p>Most of the parables are found to be connected
+in their first meaning with explaining about the
+kingdom. The kingdom will follow the law of
+growth that is common in nature, sowing, waiting,
+cultivating, and reaping.<a name="FNanchor_168_168" id="FNanchor_168_168"></a><span class="snlabel">[168]</span> Its influence will
+spread gradually until all feel its presence and
+power.<a name="FNanchor_169_169" id="FNanchor_169_169"></a><span class="snlabel">[169]</span> It must meet and deal with the obstacles
+presented by different men's temperaments
+and dispositions and temptations.<a name="FNanchor_170_170" id="FNanchor_170_170"></a><span class="snlabel">[170]</span> There will
+be opposition, gradually overcome, but never
+fully.<a name="FNanchor_171_171" id="FNanchor_171_171"></a><span class="snlabel">[171]</span> Many will be carried along by the current
+of the day. It will be a good current, for
+righteousness will be the common thing then.
+But in their hearts many will long for something
+else, something different.<a name="FNanchor_172_172" id="FNanchor_172_172"></a><span class="snlabel">[172]</span></p>
+
+<div class="sidenote"><p>[173] Matthew xiii. 44.</p><p>[174] Matthew xiii. 45-46.</p></div><p>But to many, the new blessed kingdom message
+will come as a treasure accidentally
+stumbled upon, not being looked for, but now
+valued as very precious.<a name="FNanchor_173_173" id="FNanchor_173_173"></a><span class="snlabel">[173]</span> To others it will come<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_223" id="Page_223">[Page 223]</a></span>
+as <i>the</i> thing they have been eagerly seeking for,
+and which satisfies the deepest yearnings.<a name="FNanchor_174_174" id="FNanchor_174_174"></a><span class="snlabel">[174]</span> One
+who has had any touch with the pathetic yearning
+of years found in non-Christian lands can
+better appreciate the results of this kind in these
+glad coming days.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote"><p>[175] Matthew xxi. 31.</p></div><p>The <i>characteristic spirit</i> of the kingdom
+stands sharply out in contrast with the dominant
+spirit of our own time. The kingdom is said to
+belong peculiarly to those who are &quot;poor in
+spirit,&quot; in whom self-assertion and pride have
+quite gone out, leaving them humble and lowly
+in heart. The meek will inherit the earth, and
+will take down all the walls and fences, for all
+conditions of life are radically changed. The
+penitent man or woman will be freely received
+regardless of their past, while the proud will
+find the doorway too low for their unbending
+heads.<a name="FNanchor_175_175" id="FNanchor_175_175"></a><span class="snlabel">[175]</span></p>
+
+<div class="sidenote"><p>[176] Matthew xx. 1-16.</p><p>[177] Luke xix. 11-27.</p><p>[178] Matthew xx. 25-28.</p></div><p>Rewards in the kingdom will not be given as a
+matter of merit, as in our present endless cutting
+and rivalry, but will be thought of wholly
+as evidence of the graciousness of the King.<a name="FNanchor_176_176" id="FNanchor_176_176"></a><span class="snlabel">[176]</span>
+And yet more striking, the rewards given will
+be the privilege of serving, some more, some less,
+according as they have become skilled in serving.<a name="FNanchor_177_177" id="FNanchor_177_177"></a><span class="snlabel">[177]</span>
+He who serves most truly will be given
+preferment.<a name="FNanchor_178_178" id="FNanchor_178_178"></a><span class="snlabel">[178]</span> The thing prized above all else
+will be glad obedience to the King.</p>
+
+<p>It will be seen that the kingdom is to be<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_224" id="Page_224">[Page 224]</a></span>
+a time of world-wide evangelization. Indeed
+this is <i>the purpose</i> of the kingdom. There are
+two periods of world-wide evangelization in our
+Lord's planning. The present is the Church
+time of such evangelizing. This is, of course,
+the true main objective of the Church. This is
+the reason for the Church's existence, to take the
+message of a crucified risen Christ to all men,
+that so the way may be prepared for His return,
+and through that for the next period of evangelizing.</p>
+
+<p>The kingdom period of world-wide evangelization
+is under radically different conditions.
+Then the evil one will be removed from the
+scene of action, the Holy Spirit will have been
+poured out upon all flesh, and so the moral veil
+now upon men's eyes will be removed. The
+Jews, with all their characteristic aggressiveness
+and perseverance, now intensified by the Holy
+Spirit's presence, will be a nation of missionaries
+to all the earth. The redeemed ones in their
+resurrection bodies will have the blessed privilege
+of helping. And over all will be the presence
+and supervision of the King, our Lord Jesus
+Himself. That will be world-wide evangelization
+in earnest.</p>
+
+<p>Such is a faint glimpse given in both Old and
+New Testaments of the kingdom spoken of in
+these Revelation pages in such few words. Almost
+the whole Bible lies back of those few
+words. What a time it will be for this old earth!
+With renewed fervour our hearts repeat, &quot;Thy
+kingdom come.&quot;</p>
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_225" id="Page_225">[Page 225]</a></span></p>
+
+<h4>The Final Crisis of Choice.</h4>
+
+<p>But it is made clear at once to John that the
+kingdom is not an end in itself. It is a means
+to an end, a wonderful means to a blessed end.
+It is startling to find that after that long blessed
+reign the evil one is to be loosed out of his prison-abyss.
+This seems at first flush too startling to
+be credible. But on reflection the reason becomes
+plain, and reveals the strength as well as the
+tenderness of God's love.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote"><p>[179] Psalm xviii. 44; lxvi. 3; lxxxi. 15; note marginal
+readings.</p><p>[180] Matthew xiii. 47-50.</p><p>[181] Matthew xiii. 24-30, 36-43.</p></div><p>All through the kingdom time there are those
+who are in heart opposed to this new order of
+things. They long for the leeks and onions and
+garlic of the old eating. There will be some
+yielding only a feigned allegiance to the King.<a name="FNanchor_179_179" id="FNanchor_179_179"></a><span class="snlabel">[179]</span>
+That dragnet of the parable has gathered some
+fish that didn't want to be caught, and want a
+chance to get away to their own native waters
+again.<a name="FNanchor_180_180" id="FNanchor_180_180"></a><span class="snlabel">[180]</span> The tares of another parable are left
+in with the wheat until the end reveals which
+is real wheat and which really tares.<a name="FNanchor_181_181" id="FNanchor_181_181"></a><span class="snlabel">[181]</span></p>
+
+<p>The one thing God longs for is love. And
+that only is love which is the free outpouring
+of the heart. He longs for love as our free
+choice. This is the image of God in which we
+have all been made. We are most like God in
+<i>power</i>, in the right of free choice. We are most
+like Him in <i>character</i> when we use our power
+as He uses His; when we choose what He<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_226" id="Page_226">[Page 226]</a></span>
+chooses for us. And so there must be a final
+time of sifting and choosing.</p>
+
+<p>Here is the strength of love, that dares loose
+Satan out that so we must choose in the face of
+opposition. For faith isn't faith except it can
+stand the fire test, the friction fire test of opposition.
+Here is the tenderness of love, that longs
+to have a return love as pure and free as its own,
+and so gives fullest opportunity for it to be revealed
+and to grow.</p>
+
+<p>So Satan is loosed out for his tempting work.
+And another great world crisis comes, and another
+great settlement; this the final one. The
+devil, his beastly Antichrist and false prophet,
+are put out of the way forever.</p>
+
+<p>A great dazzling throne is set. And One sits
+on it with a face of indescribable glory. Then
+comes the second resurrection, of all those not
+included in the first resurrection a thousand years
+before. This is a judgment of <i>all who have died</i>,
+with the exception already noted. The judgment
+of the living spoken of in Matthew, twenty-five,
+probably is in connection with the closing
+scene of the great crisis, just before this judgment
+of the resurrected dead, or possibly in connection
+with this judgment. This is the final
+judgment.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote"><p>[182] Revelation xx. 15.</p></div><p>Gladness and distress mingle in reading the
+account: gladness that the contest, age long, is
+over; distress to find that for some there is what
+is described briefly but with terrible intensity,
+in the words, &quot;the lake of fire.&quot; Yet there is
+still comfort in noting the language used of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_227" id="Page_227">[Page 227]</a></span>
+these,&mdash;&quot;<i>if any</i>.&quot;<a name="FNanchor_182_182" id="FNanchor_182_182"></a><span class="snlabel">[182]</span> It is not the language of a
+great multitude, but rather of an incorrigible
+scattered and scant minority.</p>
+
+<h4>Home at Last.</h4>
+
+<p>And now for the seventh time in this last
+vision John says, &quot;I saw.&quot; Bit by bit the view
+opens up before his eyes, from the coming of the
+Lord Jesus out of the opened heavens, on and
+on, until now the final view of all bursts in a
+winsome glory before his astonished, delighted
+eyes.</p>
+
+<p>God's own ideal, that He has been carrying
+in His heart, is pictured. That ideal is that He
+and man shall dwell together as a family. The
+ideal is not a Church nor a Kingdom. These
+are merely great means to a greater end.
+The ideal is the family, all dwelling together
+in sweetest harmony and content, with a
+common board, and a common fireside in the
+twilight of the day, and all the sweet fellowship
+that these stand for.</p>
+
+<p>John sees a new heaven and a new earth, the
+old heaven and earth gone, and with them the
+separation of the wide sea gone forever, too.
+He sees the holy city, Jerusalem, made over new,
+coming down out of the new heavens to man's
+new dwelling-place, the new earth. It presents a
+wondrous, joyous appearance as of a bride
+adorned for her husband.</p>
+
+<p>Then a great voice out of the throne speaks<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_228" id="Page_228">[Page 228]</a></span>
+of this ideal in the heart of God for Himself and
+His friend, man. &quot;Look! God has pitched His
+tent down amongst men, and they shall be His
+peoples, and He will be their God.&quot; He will
+live with them as a Father-mother-God, personally
+caring for each one, Himself wiping away
+every tear from every eye. A single tear and a
+single pair of eyes will be enough to claim His
+personal attention at once.</p>
+
+<p>His presence insures the absence forever of
+death, and mourning, and pain, and crying. The
+dirge music has sung its last song. The minor
+chords are gone. All the old things of a sorrowful
+sort are quite gone. And as John looks
+He that sitteth on the throne makes the glad
+announcement, &quot;<i>Behold, I make all things new.</i>&quot;
+And John is bidden to write all this, for &quot;<i>these
+words are faithful and true</i>.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>And again the One on the throne seems to
+look eagerly forward to His ideal as already
+actually accomplished: &quot;They are come to
+pass.&quot; And to let John feel the certainty of it
+all He says, &quot;I am the Alpha and the Omega,
+the beginning and the end.&quot; The power that
+has done all from creation's morn will complete
+all clear to the end.</p>
+
+<p>And then the tenderness of that highest love
+which finds expression in the personal touch
+comes out in the next words: &quot;I will give unto
+him that is athirst of the fountain of life freely.&quot;
+The smallest need of any one will have His personal
+thought and attention, and they shall have
+the best there is, and have it in abundance.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_229" id="Page_229">[Page 229]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>And the old pleading that runs like a strain
+of music throughout these pages comes again:
+&quot;He that <i>overcometh</i> shall inherit these things.
+I will be His God, and he shall be my son,&quot; and
+so entitled to the inheritance.</p>
+
+<p>Then plainly, clearly, with all the honesty of
+love, comes the warning of the terrible outcome
+for those who refuse His tender love. It is most
+significant that this most winsome picture at the
+end of the book contains the dark, black shadows,
+which remain in the picture at the end.</p>
+
+<p>All this is spoken directly to John by God
+Himself. It is not sent by an angel, or by a
+redeemed human messenger. It comes to John
+direct with all the force and tenderness of a
+word spoken to him out of the very heart of God.</p>
+
+<p>And now an angel carries John off to let him
+see this that is called both a bride and a city.
+And from the top of a high mountain John looks
+out and sees a most wonderful city, coming down
+out of heaven from God, filled and flooded with
+the glory of God.</p>
+
+<p>And the best language that earth knows anything
+about is used in the attempt to describe
+this city ideal. Its dimensions are perfect in
+proportion and in their outer relations. Its
+foundations are adorned with the costliest, most
+precious stones, the walls are built of jasper,
+and each gate is one immense pearl; but the city
+itself is builded of a gold as transparent as pure
+glass. Israel and the Church are as sweet memories
+of past days, recalled now by gates and
+foundations.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_230" id="Page_230">[Page 230]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>But these are passed by in noting the outshining
+glory of the presence of God. In the simple
+language which has become so imbedded in the
+heart and imagination of the Church, &quot;the
+city hath no need of the sun, neither of the
+moon, to shine on it; for the glory of God did
+lighten it, and the Lamb is the light thereof.&quot;
+And the winsome description goes on. The nations
+walk in this wondrous light of God's presence,
+and the kings of earth bring glad tribute
+of their glory into it. &quot;And the gates thereof
+shall in no wise be shut by day, for there shall
+be no night there.&quot; &quot;And there shall in no wise
+enter into it anything unclean, or he that doeth
+an abomination and a lie, but only they that are
+written in the Lamb's book of life.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>In the midst of the city is a river of water of
+life clear as sparkling crystal, flowing out from
+the throne of God and of the Lamb. On each
+side of the river is the tree of life yielding continual
+fruitage. And the leaves of the tree were
+for the healing of the nations.</p>
+
+<p>And the heart never fails to respond with a
+quickened beat to the lines: &quot;His servants shall
+serve Him; and <i>they shall see His face</i>; and His
+name shall be in their foreheads;&quot;&mdash;that is, His
+character shall shine out of their faces. &quot;And
+there shall be no night there; and they need no
+candle, neither light of the sun; for the Lord
+God giveth them light. And they shall reign
+forever and ever.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Such is the heart-touching, heart-gripping tale
+of God's ideal for man, His creature and com<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_231" id="Page_231">[Page 231]</a></span>panion
+and friend. All the best that the city
+stands for of human life, and all the best that the
+country, typified in the garden, stands for, are
+forever blessedly joined. And in the midst&mdash;<i>Himself</i>,
+and gathered about Him His redeemed
+ones, as children about a father, in a union and
+fellowship cemented by the heart's blood of God,
+never more to be put asunder.</p>
+
+<h4>The Master's Last Words.</h4>
+
+<p>And John closes the book with a few personal
+paragraphs. The vision is complete. Now come
+the closing words. For the third time John is
+solemnly assured, &quot;these words are faithful and
+true.&quot; And again comes the voice as of some
+One always standing by as John is being shown,
+&quot;Behold, I come quickly.&quot; And again the words
+with which the book begins come to seal all its
+impressions,&mdash;blessed is he that reads, and prayerfully
+seeks to understand the simple message,
+and who sets himself to live his life in the light
+of this simple tremendous message.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote"><p>[183] Daniel xii. 4, 9.</p></div><p>And John is significantly told <i>not</i> to <i>seal up</i> the
+message. Daniel had been told to seal up the
+message given him, for it would not come to pass
+until the latter days after great intervening
+events had taken place.<a name="FNanchor_183_183" id="FNanchor_183_183"></a><span class="snlabel">[183]</span> But there are no intervening
+events before this message is to come true.
+It has been possible for the fulfilment to come in
+any generation since John saw and wrote. It is
+yet more possible, growing distinctly toward the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_232" id="Page_232">[Page 232]</a></span>
+probable, that these things shall come in our
+generation. The words remain open, waiting
+an expectant fulfilment. They are not to be
+sealed up but openly proclaimed, for the time
+when it is possible for these things to work out
+is at hand. This is a present practical issue.</p>
+
+<p>And meanwhile, during these days of the waiting
+time each one who reads or listens, however
+reluctantly, to the message, will follow the bent
+of his own deliberate choice, but with ever increasing
+intensity. The pure will become more
+pure; the bad yet worse. There's no standing
+still as we listen.</p>
+
+<p>And again come the solemnly repeated words:
+&quot;Behold, I come quickly.&quot; His coming is the
+next step in the great plan. There were then,
+and there are now, no great intervening events
+to be worked out, and waited for. His coming
+is imminent. It is a thing to be expected.
+And He brings with Him the wages due each
+one.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote"><p>[184] Revelation i. 8.</p></div><p>And like the signature of certification at the
+book's beginning,<a name="FNanchor_184_184" id="FNanchor_184_184"></a><span class="snlabel">[184]</span> comes now the personal signature
+at its close: &quot;I am the Alpha and the
+Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and
+the end.&quot; So He personally certifies to us the
+absolute accuracy and reliability of this message.</p>
+
+<p>And with the signature come again the
+gracious pleading and warning intermingled.
+Any one who will may wash his robes in the
+fountain provided, and may eat of the life-giving<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_233" id="Page_233">[Page 233]</a></span>
+tree, and come unto the God-lit city. And
+equally clear it is that any who insist on doing
+so may remain outside unwashed. Each one is
+free to do as he wills.</p>
+
+<p>And once again comes the emphatic, solemn
+announcement of the accuracy and dependability
+of this message of John's Revelation: &quot;<i>I, Jesus</i>,
+have sent mine angel to testify unto you these
+things for the Churches.&quot; It is distinctively a
+Church message, and comes with all the direct
+authority of our Lord Jesus Himself. And He
+patiently reminds us of His authority,&mdash;I am
+both root and offspring of David, both before
+him and after him. I am the bright, the morning
+star, that rises while it is yet night and brings
+in the new day.</p>
+
+<p>And again the spirit of winsome pleading
+breaks out to those unwashed ones who insist on
+staying outside the gate. Both the Spirit and
+the whole company of washed ones say &quot;come.&quot;
+And let him that heareth that sweet word pass
+it out to those farther away until the last man
+hears and feels. And let them know that anybody
+at all who is thirsty may come freely and
+drink of the river of the water of life.</p>
+
+<p>And yet once again comes the peculiar certifying
+of the contents of this Revelation message,
+and a solemn warning against any interfering
+with its meaning. Jesus says,&mdash;I hereby certify
+unto every man that hears the words of the
+prophecy of this book: if any man add to them,
+making them mean something else than I intend,
+God shall add unto him the plagues that<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_234" id="Page_234">[Page 234]</a></span>
+are written in this book: and if any man shall
+take away, or lessen the meaning, God shall
+take away his part from the tree of life and out
+of the holy city. It comes as a very solemn
+warning.</p>
+
+<p>And yet once more comes the emphatic assurance
+both of the reliability of the book itself,
+and of the certainty of its great central message,&mdash;&quot;He
+who testifieth these things saith, '<i>yea, I
+come quickly</i>.'&quot;</p>
+
+<p>And John fervently adds, &quot;Amen; come, Lord
+Jesus.&quot; And so says every heart in tune with
+His heart who is coming.</p>
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+
+<p>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_235" id="Page_235">[Page 235]</a></span></p>
+<h2><a name="VIII_WATCHING_THE_HORIZON" id="VIII_WATCHING_THE_HORIZON"></a>VIII.&mdash;WATCHING THE HORIZON</h2>
+
+<div class="poem">
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_236" id="Page_236">[Page 236]</a></span></p>
+<p><span class="i3">&quot;Thy Kingdom Come.&quot;</span></p>
+
+<p>
+&quot;Thou art coming! We are waiting<br />
+<span class="i1">With a hope that cannot fail;</span><br />
+Asking not the day or hour,<br />
+Resting on Thy word of power,<br />
+<span class="i1">Anchored safe within the veil.</span><br />
+Time appointed may be long,<br />
+<span class="i1">But the vision must be sure:</span><br />
+Certainty shall make us strong,<br />
+<span class="i1">Joyful patience must endure.</span><br />
+</p><p>
+&quot;O the joy to see Thee reigning,<br />
+<span class="i1">Thee, my own beloved Lord!</span><br />
+Every tongue Thy name confessing,<br />
+Worship, honour, glory, blessing,<br />
+<span class="i1">Brought to Thee with glad accord!</span><br />
+Thee, my Master and my Friend,<br />
+<span class="i1">Vindicated and enthroned!</span><br />
+Unto earth's remotest end<br />
+<span class="i1">Glorified, adored, and owned.&quot;</span><br />
+</p><p>
+<span class="i4">&mdash;<span class="smcap">Frances Ridley Havergal.</span></span><br /></p>
+</div>
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_237" id="Page_237">[Page 237]</a></span></p>
+
+<h4>The Thrill of Expectancy.</h4>
+
+<p>Watching reveals character and makes it. It
+means wakefulness, an ideal, a purpose, and a
+hopeful expectancy. Some people only look.
+Their eyelids are not shut. Something passes
+before the eye. They look, but they rarely see.</p>
+
+<p>It takes a soul to see. It needs a spirit awake
+to see out through the eye, and see into persons
+and events passing by, and see forward to what
+is coming to-morrow. Some sleep. The body
+is awake in daytime. They walk and talk and
+eat, buy and sell, count money and hoard it.
+But their eyes are never lifted to the outer
+horizon. They are settled in an even, contented
+round. Their spirits sleep.</p>
+
+<p>A wakefulness of spirit to the time and its
+need, an ideal clear and high of what should be,
+a purpose strong and masterful that holds the
+life up toward the ideal, an expectancy eager,
+brave, steady; an eye fixed intently on some One
+unseen,&mdash;this is what watching means. It reveals
+character. It makes character. It reaches
+out strong spirit hands, and brings nearer and
+sooner the thing watched for.</p>
+
+<p>Watching has always been a characteristic of
+the men God has used. He used them because<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_238" id="Page_238">[Page 238]</a></span>
+He could. They were of use. Their spirit made
+them serviceable. Their watching opened the
+way for fellowship of spirit and partnership in
+action. It put them in tune with Him who never
+slumbers nor sleeps, and who watches over His
+pledged word, to bring it to pass at the earliest
+possible hour.</p>
+
+<p>The watcher sings. His favourite song is &quot;I
+will lift up mine eyes.&quot; He sees what is coming.
+He sees <i>Him</i> who sits beyond the horizon of our
+common outlook. And seeing Him grows this
+sort of expectancy, and the expectancy becomes
+the controlling thing.</p>
+
+<p>It was this sort of expectancy that made Abraham
+a pilgrim at seventy-five, and that grew
+deep the pilgrim trait of patient endurance
+through the weary twilight years till the promised
+heir came, and even beyond that, wove the finest
+texture into his character when the severest test
+came.</p>
+
+<p>It was this expectancy that drew Moses away
+from the court life of Egypt, and the possible
+prospect of wearing imperial purple, to become
+the leader of a straggling crowd of slaves. And
+it held him steady on through long years, wilderness
+travel, criticism, and non-appreciation, on
+and on, till Nebo's top was climbed. He endured
+as seeing Him who was invisible to the
+unseeing eyes of the crowds at His side.</p>
+
+<p>Such expectancy has steadied every leader for
+God, in these old pages from first to last, young
+Joseph in the dungeon, Joshua in the glare of the
+limelight, into which he was suddenly thrust,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_239" id="Page_239">[Page 239]</a></span>
+and ruddy-faced singing David fleeing and hiding
+for his life from the javelin of Saul. It was
+the clear-seeing eye of Isaiah and Jeremiah in
+the homeland, and of Ezekiel and Daniel among
+the weeping exiles, that kept the heart of the
+nation warm with the vision of what was surely
+coming. The thrill of expectancy runs through
+the pages of this old Hebrew classic. Its light is
+never out of the eye, nor its alluring out of earshot.</p>
+
+<p>When Jesus walked among men expectation
+ran high. When He was killed the gloom of the
+three days was the gloom of a bright light suddenly
+put out. The darkness was intensified
+by the light that had been shining. Then there
+came a new sort of expectancy, higher, finer, of
+the inner spirit. This Jesus was coming back,
+in all the glory of the old prophetic vision, made
+realer by the personal touch these men knew,
+and this new expectancy puts all the paper of the
+New Testament a-tremble with delight. It is
+the light that lighteth every page and epistle,
+every contested path of witness, and every hour
+of suffering because of faith.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote"><p>[185] Acts iii. 20-21; xv. 14-18.</p></div><p>The Church of these New Testament pages is
+<i>a watching Church</i>. The expectancy of the
+Lord Jesus' return is the north star of their sky.
+It never swerves. All the rest revolves around
+it. They see everything else in relation to this.
+Their going into all the world and preaching to
+every creature was not simply for men's conversion:
+that surely: but beyond that, it was to
+bring the Christ back for the next step in His<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_240" id="Page_240">[Page 240]</a></span>
+world programme. He would come and set up
+His kingdom, and then through the kingdom
+would come a yet wider, farther-reaching world
+evangelizing.<a name="FNanchor_185_185" id="FNanchor_185_185"></a><span class="snlabel">[185]</span> This expectancy controlled their
+life and activity. Through their faithful world
+witnessing He would come.</p>
+
+<p>And as the knot is put on the end of the
+thread of revelation the very knotted thread
+seems aglow with the glory of what is coming.
+The Bible from end to end is a-thrill with expectancy,
+a hopeful watching for something, aye,
+<i>for some One</i>.</p>
+
+<h4>A Calendar of Events.</h4>
+
+<p>We have been looking a bit closely at this
+knot in the end, the threads composing it. Now
+we want to gather up all that we have been going
+over with the light that comes from the other
+pages, so as to have some sort of a simple, clear
+grasp of the truth. This will help our eyesight.
+We can watch the horizon better. Our eyes
+will be steadier in the glare of the lower lights,
+and sharper to see in the spells of darkness that
+get thicker now and then.</p>
+
+<p>It is interesting to notice that this book of the
+Revelation is a calendar book. That is to say,
+it is not a calendar of dates but of events. It
+gives coming events in the order in which they
+will occur. Its table of contents becomes an
+outline of coming events. There is the Man
+of Fire standing among the candlesticks. Then<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_241" id="Page_241">[Page 241]</a></span>
+comes an hour when He advances to the next
+step in His programme. Then, step by step,
+there follow the occurrences until the kingdom is
+actually here. And then the after events, when
+the kingdom's work is done.</p>
+
+<p>It turns out that this thing of our Lord's return
+cuts a wider swath than we are apt to
+think, if we don't stop to think. That is because
+of <i>Who it is</i> that is coming. An event takes
+on the size of the chief person concerned. This
+Lord Jesus is the One through whom our
+world was made in the early time, when there
+were no calendars. So His coming naturally
+concerns the whole world. It concerns the system
+of evil in which the world is entangled, and
+the evil spirit world so closely interlocked with
+our own.</p>
+
+<p>Then our Lord Jesus came amongst us as a
+man. He came as a Jewish man, and to the
+Jewish nation. So His coming concerns the
+Jew and the Jewish capital, Jerusalem. When
+He sent down His executive, the Holy Spirit, a
+new organization was formed, the Church. So
+His coming concerns the Church, and concerns
+it very intimately, for it is spoken of as a body
+of which He is the head. When Jesus came it
+was to die for a world and to redeem a world.
+And so His coming concerns the future plans of
+the earth and the race.</p>
+
+<p>Yet though His coming has such a broad
+sweep, it is quite possible to get a grasp of the
+few essential items in the programme. And this
+will make our footing steadier, our vision clearer,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_242" id="Page_242">[Page 242]</a></span>
+our praying more confident, and our soul-winning
+and witnessing warmer and truer. We turn
+now to try to get this simple, helpful understanding.</p>
+
+<p>The present is the time of the candlesticks.
+The Man of Fire is in our midst unperceived.
+The unseen Eyes of Flame see. Our Lord Jesus
+still waits, and depends on the faithfulness of
+His Church. The light is still shining out. The
+dark places are getting some light. The light
+has not yet wholly failed to get out through the
+human lantern to the crowd in the dark.</p>
+
+<p>The characteristics of this waiting time, so
+long prolonged, are plainly put. In the outer
+world there will be an increasing lawlessness
+and disregard of every sort of restraint, and an
+increasing power of organization and centralization.
+There will be an increasing getting together
+for more effective action.</p>
+
+<p>In the Church world there will be an increasing
+formalism, a compromise with evil and
+with the world spirit. There will be a decrease
+of warm personal devotion to the Lord Jesus
+as the controlling motive power. And there will
+be a growing inclination to make light of, or
+ignore, or jeer at, the idea of the Lord Jesus'
+return.</p>
+
+<p>As this period wears on toward its close, and
+so on toward the events to follow, there will be
+a coming together of the Jews scattered throughout
+the world in an attempt to regain Palestine
+and reconstitute the Hebrew nation there with
+its temple and old sacrificial ritual. These<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_243" id="Page_243">[Page 243]</a></span>
+are the three chief tendencies that will characterize
+the present waiting time preceding the
+group of coming events.</p>
+
+<p>The decisive index-finger, that this present
+period is actually coming to its close, will be this
+movement among the Jews. The movement to
+regain control of Palestine may rise and fall
+back, gain and lose again. But some day it will
+come to its head. By some arrangement with
+the nations concerned the Jewish nation will
+actually be set up again in Palestine, and the
+building of the temple in Jerusalem begun. This
+will be the decisive indication. This is an unfailing
+index-finger. The hands of the clock
+are moving then toward the striking of the hour.
+Soon the sands will be run out and the hour-glass
+turned.</p>
+
+<h4>The Beginning of the End.</h4>
+
+<p>At some time soon after that point is reached
+<i>two unseen events will occur</i>, that is, unseen on
+earth. Roughly, it will be three and a half years
+after, though the whole tendency of the Scripture
+is to discourage the figuring of <i>exact</i> time.
+Yet information is given that the outlook may be
+intelligent. These events are unseen on the
+earth. They take place in heaven.</p>
+
+<p>The Holy Spirit will be withdrawn from the
+Church. He will not be withdrawn from individuals.
+He abode in men before the Church
+was formed, and will after the Church has cast
+Him out. He is withdrawn only because He has
+been practically and wholly cast out.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_244" id="Page_244">[Page 244]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>The Lord Jesus, who sent Him down to form
+the Church and witness through it, will withdraw
+Him from the Church. The candlestick
+has moved out of all touch with the light. And
+now the light is withdrawn, and so the candlestick
+moved out of its place as the light-bearer.
+This is probably the advance step taken by our
+Lord Jesus that marks the beginning of the end.</p>
+
+<p>At the same time there occurs a conflict of
+spirit forces up in the heavens. While the earth
+seems to be Satan's chief place of activity, yet his
+headquarters are up in the heavens, that is,
+somewhere below the throne of God and above
+the earth. This conflict is against him and his
+spirit forces. It is led by Michael, the archangel.
+It results in Satan and his host being cast
+out of the heavens and down to the earth.</p>
+
+<p>It is significant that as the Holy Spirit goes
+up, this conflict follows, and Satan is cast out
+and down. Is it the Holy Spirit's return there
+that precipitates this conflict, and defeat for
+Satan? It would seem not improbable. So the
+moral situation on the earth is intensified doubly.
+The blessed Holy Spirit, with all His power of
+restraint over evil, is withdrawn. The evil spirit,
+with all his power of intensifying evil, is cast
+down in person to the earth. These are the two
+unseen events marking the advance move of the
+end time.</p>
+
+<p>There will be nothing on earth <i>at the moment</i>
+to indicate that these tremendous events have
+happened. There is no suggestion of how much
+time is involved. Time is a matter of earth's<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_245" id="Page_245">[Page 245]</a></span>
+calculation. Quite possibly <i>we</i> would speak of
+these events as occurring in a very brief time,
+perhaps an instant of our reckoning. These are
+the two events unseen on the earth.</p>
+
+<p>At the same time there will begin <i>two events
+seen taking place on earth</i>. The first is the coming
+to the front of a man, a terrible leader of
+the forces of unrighteousness. Paul speaks of
+him as &quot;the Lawless One.&quot; John's name for
+him is &quot;the Antichrist.&quot; He becomes the human
+representative or incarnation of Satan. As
+Satan is cast down out of the heavens this
+leader comes to the front on earth.</p>
+
+<p>He seems to have official position at the head
+of some great coalition of nations, with a wide
+area of authority. He seems to be some former
+notable leader known in history, who died, but
+is now brought back to life again by Satan's
+supernatural power.</p>
+
+<p>As he forges to the front there follows on
+earth a horrible time of war, famine, pestilence,
+death, and persecution. He arbitrarily breaks
+the agreement with the Jews under which they
+have re-established their nation, and begins a
+terrible persecution of them. He sets up in the
+temple a blasphemous image, and requires that
+all people shall worship it. This strikes not
+only at the Jew, but at the Christian as well.</p>
+
+<p>At one stroke of genius he compels absolutely
+universal attention to his command by forbidding
+the doing of any business except by those willing
+to worship the image. Those refusing the worship
+are killed. He will have an assistant doing<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_246" id="Page_246">[Page 246]</a></span>
+wonderful miracles by Satanic power to deceive
+and persuade the people. During this time there
+is a loosing out on the earth of countless hordes
+of unseen demons to torment men.</p>
+
+<p>All this continues for three and a half years.
+The time is stated in three different ways to
+make quite clear just how long is meant. This
+is the first of the two seen events. It centres
+at Jerusalem and seems to reach out practically
+to all the earth.</p>
+
+<p>The second event is significant. During all
+this terrible time of persecution and blasphemy
+and the riot of evil, there will be two men in
+Jerusalem preaching the Gospel of the Lord
+Jesus, and calling on men to repent. As an
+emphasis of their witness against the awful
+wickedness current they will be clothed in
+mourning. They will have miraculous power to
+attest their witness, and to protect themselves
+against attacks upon their lives. The great
+crowds of many nationalities in Jerusalem will
+make their witness practically world-wide in its
+direct as well as its indirect influence.</p>
+
+<p>This also continues for three and a half years.
+As the Holy Spirit is withdrawn from the
+Church as the witness of the Lord Jesus, these
+two special witnesses appear. In His great
+faithfulness and patience God never leaves Himself
+without a witness. This is the second event
+seen on earth. These two, evil at its worst, and
+God's special witnesses, run along side by side,
+both centring in Jerusalem.</p>
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_247" id="Page_247">[Page 247]</a></span></p>
+
+<h4>The Climax&mdash;He Comes.</h4>
+
+<p>Then there comes <i>a group of four events</i>.
+And these four are very closely associated together
+in point of time. They occur at the close
+of the period of persecution and wickedness. Indeed,
+it is their occurrence that brings the close.
+Yet the exact time when they happen is left
+quite uncertain.</p>
+
+<p>And this clearly is another bit of the tendency
+in the record to keep our thought on the main
+events, and not on figuring out time. We are
+to keep to the essentials and be wary of mere
+speculation. For the sake of clearness I am putting
+these four events separately, but this does
+not mean that some of them may not be occurring
+at the same moment, or that all may not
+come within a very brief time. We simply do
+not know. It looks as though we are not meant
+to know.</p>
+
+<p>There is <i>a Jew event</i>. The Holy Spirit comes
+down upon the nation of Jews in simple, tremendous,
+converting power. This is put in connection
+with the coming down out of the heavens
+on a cloud of the Lord Jesus. It seems to be
+this sight of their great Kinsman, Jesus, whom
+they crucified, that is used by the Holy Spirit
+to strike penitence to their stubborn hearts. Literally
+a nation is born again in a day. It will
+be with the whole nation as it was with Saul
+on the Damascus road, as sudden and unexpected,
+as startling and as radical; as sudden and
+unexpected an appearance of Jesus, as startling<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_248" id="Page_248">[Page 248]</a></span>
+to the Jews, as radical in the absolute spirit
+transformation.</p>
+
+<p>There is <i>a Church event</i>. And here the word
+Church is used to describe all believers in the
+Lord Jesus. That will be a much sifted and
+chastened company of people. This event is
+also connected with the open, visible coming of
+the Lord Jesus, out of the upper blue, before all
+eyes. It affects two separate companies of believers.
+The bodies of all believers who have
+died will be raised out of their graves, inhabited
+again by those who lived in them. Then
+the living believers shall have a transforming
+touch upon their bodies. And the two companies
+shall be caught up into the air into the presence
+of the Lord Jesus.</p>
+
+<p>As they come into His presence there will
+be a purifying and perfecting of character, and
+an adjustment of relations with Him. There
+is no suggestion of how much time is involved.
+We naturally think of things as taking place
+through so much time. Our limitations in this
+regard will be gone then. It may be what we
+now call instantaneous.</p>
+
+<p>There is <i>a world event</i>. There will come to
+the earth and to men a visitation of terrible judgments,
+affecting men's bodies, the sea and rivers,
+vegetation, an intensifying of the sun's heat, and
+possibly a terrible darkness&mdash;in short, affecting
+everything concerning man and life on the earth.
+There will be a great gathering of the armies of
+the nations at a place in Palestine. Again there
+is no suggestion of how much time this visita<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_249" id="Page_249">[Page 249]</a></span>tion
+of judgments runs through, nor this gathering
+for battle.</p>
+
+<p>Then there is <i>the</i> event, <i>the great climax event</i>,
+the actual coming of the Lord Jesus, out of the
+heavens, down to the earth. At the moment
+when He comes the Jews will be in the midst
+of a terrible siege in Jerusalem. Against the
+city will be assembled the armies of the nations.
+The city will be taken, the looting and ravaging
+already begun.</p>
+
+<p>Then suddenly, out of the blue above, the
+Lord Jesus comes in a great blaze of blinding
+light, accompanied by great numbers. He will
+come to Olivet. With the coming will be a terrible
+earthquake, such as the earth has never
+known.</p>
+
+<p>It is a striking geological fact that the greatest
+&quot;fault,&quot; or break in the earth's surface, is
+found in Palestine, running north and south from
+Antioch on the Orontes down even into Africa.
+But this earthquake will affect very wide areas,
+including the city of Babylon, which will be
+shaken to utter destruction. That earthquake
+will make radical changes in the formation of
+the earth's surface in Palestine.</p>
+
+<p>At the same time there will be an equally terrific
+shake-up in the heavenly bodies, the sun,
+moon, and stars. The effect of both these upon
+the vast panic-stricken multitudes will be most
+pitiable. They will call upon the upheaved rocks
+to hide them from the wrath of God.</p>
+
+<p>These are the four events occurring at this
+time. They are grouped together. It seems im<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_250" id="Page_250">[Page 250]</a></span>possible
+to say first this, then that. They are
+grouped. The great essential thing standing out
+is that our Lord Jesus' coming will be at a terrible
+climax of evil. There will be partial judgment
+visited on the earth. The system of evil
+will be wholly overthrown. The Jews will be
+converted as a nation by the Holy Spirit. The
+Church will be caught away out of the distress,
+and will have part with our Lord Jesus in His
+coming.</p>
+
+<p>It should again be noticed that in all this there
+are no time notes, except as to the length of this
+tribulation time. The persecution of the Jew
+and desecration of Jerusalem, the time of the
+two witnesses, and the sway of the Antichrist,
+each runs through three and a half years. There
+are no time notes whatever for the present
+waiting-time. And though the length of the
+tribulation itself is stated, yet it should be noted
+that the exact time of the Lord Jesus' actual
+return still remains quite undetermined.</p>
+
+<p>In Daniel's prophecy there are four events
+spoken of as occurring at this time, and each
+is measured from the time when the sacrifices
+are stopped and the chief desecrating act in the
+temple begins. The tribulation runs for three
+and a half years. Thirty days later comes some
+glad event not specified further. Seventy-five
+days later there comes another glad event, and
+two years ten months and twenty days later the
+complete cleansing of the temple. Each of these
+portions of time is measured from the same
+starting point. This would suggest a period of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_251" id="Page_251">[Page 251]</a></span>
+readjustment after the Antichrist is slain, running
+through almost three years. All these
+time notes are of a year of three hundred and
+sixty days, not our common calendar year of
+three hundred and sixty-five and a fraction
+days.</p>
+
+<p>There comes the period called the kingdom.
+Its capital is Jerusalem. The regenerated nation
+of Israel becomes the first nation of the earth,
+with all other nations tributary. Israel's leadership
+is a blessed one in its spiritual influence over
+all others. The Jews are a missionary nation,
+whose one passion is to make the knowledge of
+God known throughout the earth.</p>
+
+<p>The redeemed ones of all the earth through
+all times will reign <i>over</i> the earth in fellowship
+with the King, the Lord Jesus. In their resurrection
+bodies, with all present bodily restrictions
+and limitations gone, they will have a
+blessed share in the new earth ministry.</p>
+
+<p>The purpose of the kingdom is world-wide
+evangelization, but with all the conditions radically
+changed. Satan, with all evil spirits, is
+removed from the scene of action. The nation
+of Jews, baptized by the Holy Spirit, is the
+missionary force, under the direction and help
+of the Church. The Holy Spirit will have been
+poured out upon all flesh, making all peculiarly
+open to the truth.</p>
+
+<p>What a wonderful time of continual revival it
+will be! But that much abused word &quot;revival&quot;
+will have its sweet, original meaning restored.
+It will mean a re-living, a new life of the Spirit<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_252" id="Page_252">[Page 252]</a></span>
+coming, that will naturally include the body,
+too.</p>
+
+<h4>Intelligent Watching.</h4>
+
+<p>Such are the events, near and far, which some
+day will come up over the horizon of our common
+life, ushering in a new day. And we are
+bidden by our Lord Jesus to <i>watch</i>. We watch
+for Him, and for anything that tells us His coming
+is nearing.</p>
+
+<p>Watching means wakefulness, an ideal, a purpose,
+an expectancy, and a daily life under the
+control of wakefulness, ideal, purpose, and expectancy.
+That our Lord Jesus will actually
+come to this old earth and reign, this is the ideal.
+That we shall, by grace, be true to Him in everything,
+day by day, during this waiting-time, this
+is the purpose. That <i>we</i> shall indeed see Him
+come, and be caught up into His presence without
+death, this is the expectancy.</p>
+
+<p>That this shall all be a real thing to us, <i>controlling</i>
+all our relationships, our gold, and our
+life, and that we shall reverently, thoughtfully
+seek to understand what He has told us about it,
+this is the wakefulness. This is what watching
+means. Our bodies may be asleep, our brains
+and hands absorbed in the day's task, but our
+hearts can be awake for the sound ahead of
+the coming of His feet.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;But how can you watch for Him if there are
+intervening events?&quot; So the question came
+to me this summer by a thoughtful, godly min<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_253" id="Page_253">[Page 253]</a></span>ister
+who looks for His coming. And I said:
+&quot;Because His coming is one of a little group of
+events which cluster about His coming.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The crowd stands watching at the railway
+station in England to see the king's train come
+in. Yet they know that before it comes the pilot-engine
+will come, running ahead about so many
+minutes to insure the safety of the way. The
+coming of the pilot-engine heightens the intensity
+of watching, for now soon the king will
+come.</p>
+
+<p>The watcher in the sick-chamber, weary with
+the long night's anxious vigil, goes to the east
+window to see if day is coming. There comes
+a bare lighting-up in the east, just a slight lessening
+of the darkness that is everywhere. But
+even this much brings a sigh of relief. The sun
+itself may not be seen for two hours or more.
+But you know without looking at the clock that
+the sun is coming and is near. Its presence near
+sends the light far ahead.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote"><p>[186] Matthew xxiv. 33.</p></div><p>When the trees begin to send out swelling
+bud and tender green leaf and catkin, we know
+summer is coming, even though the chill is in
+the air, and the night may even now bring a
+touch of the white of frost. &quot;Even so ye also
+<i>when ye see these things</i> know that <i>He</i> is nigh,
+even at the doors.&quot;<a name="FNanchor_186_186" id="FNanchor_186_186"></a><span class="snlabel">[186]</span></p>
+
+<div class="sidenote"><p>[187] 1 Chronicles xii. 32.</p></div><p>There's something intensely practical about
+this thing of watching. I mean the intelligent
+watching that a thoughtful study of God's Word
+promotes. There is a striking sentence used in<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_254" id="Page_254">[Page 254]</a></span>
+describing some of the men that rallied to David
+during the clearing-up storm that preceded his
+reign. It is said of certain of the tribe of
+Issachar that they &quot;<i>had understanding of the
+times</i> to know what Israel ought to do&quot; in the
+matter of making David the accepted king over
+the realm.<a name="FNanchor_187_187" id="FNanchor_187_187"></a><span class="snlabel">[187]</span> Their thoughtful study and judgment
+of the time made them wise leaders of
+action.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote"><p>[188] Daniel xii. 10.</p><p>[189] Daniel viii. 15-17; ix. 1-2; x. 1-3, 11-14.</p></div><p>There is a similar significant word spoken to
+Daniel in the final vision in which these end
+events are being disclosed. And we recall that
+the speaker is He for whose coming we look.
+He says, &quot;They that are <i>wise</i> shall <i>understand</i>.&quot;<a name="FNanchor_188_188" id="FNanchor_188_188"></a><span class="snlabel">[188]</span>
+Daniel had prayerfully set himself to
+understand God's will for his people.<a name="FNanchor_189_189" id="FNanchor_189_189"></a><span class="snlabel">[189]</span> When the
+wonderful vision was given him in answer to his
+patient study and continued prayer, the Man of
+Fire who came to him said, &quot;Now I am come
+to make thee <i>understand</i>.&quot;</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote"><p>[190] Daniel xi. 33.</p></div><p>It is wise, by thoughtful, prayerful study of
+God's Word, to try to understand what He has
+told us. Not to do so is not wise. And more,
+it will become increasingly needful that others
+be taught as these events draw on. Daniel
+is told in this same connection that &quot;They that
+are wise shall instruct many.&quot;<a name="FNanchor_190_190" id="FNanchor_190_190"></a><span class="snlabel">[190]</span></p>
+
+<p>The opening words of the Revelation, and especially
+the closing paragraphs, emphasize this
+same thing. The revelation is given that we<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_255" id="Page_255">[Page 255]</a></span>
+may read and understand and hold our lives
+true to this vision. This thing is intensely
+practical. Indeed, it is <i>the</i> practical thing for
+our day. We <i>can</i> understand the simple essentials
+revealed here. Our Lord Jesus earnestly
+desires us to do so. Surely we will, for His
+sake.</p>
+
+<h4>A Spirit Sensitiveness.</h4>
+
+<p>The thoughtful watching that grows out of
+an understanding of our Lord's plans influences
+subtly and mightily one's whole life. It deepens
+wondering reverence for the Lord Jesus Himself,
+His present power and personal glory sitting
+up yonder in the indescribable glory of the
+Father's presence, and His patience and strength
+in this waiting-time. It draws out a depth and
+tenderness of personal love for Himself and of
+devotion to Him.</p>
+
+<p>There comes to be a keenly acute conscience
+about evil, and about compromise with evil; and
+yet with it a sanity of judgment on particular
+questions arising, and a gentle consideration for
+others who see otherwise, or think they do. Evil
+grows in subtlety and in aggressiveness in our
+day, and probably will yet more. It seeks especially
+to make inroads among God's professing
+people. Yet evil is evil. Its true inwardness is
+quickly revealed by adding a &quot;d&quot; at the beginning
+of the word. And it grows increasingly
+repugnant in whatever guise, as we come to study
+more its inner spirit as revealed in these disclosures
+of the end times.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_256" id="Page_256">[Page 256]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Then, too, this watching affects one's judgment
+of, and attitude toward, Christian service,
+and toward movements in the Christian world.
+The getting-together spirit is getting more and
+more into Church circles. The fervent heart repeats
+constantly our Lord's prayer, &quot;that they
+may all be one.&quot; Yet it becomes clear that there
+may be movements toward union that are not
+of the Holy Spirit's initiation, and that cannot
+have his approval.</p>
+
+<p>It is not enough to do good. That may prove
+to be a low level of action. <i>The</i> thing is to find
+out what God has planned, and fit into that, with
+all the warmth of one's being. His will is always
+good, and better, and best. The good thing
+may not be the thing He has planned and wants
+done.</p>
+
+<p>It becomes increasingly clear that our Lord
+Jesus is a great general. He has the whole campaign
+of action mapped out, and every detail
+of it thought into and thought out. As one comes
+to learn more of His plans, and Himself as a
+planner, there comes to be <i>a passion for doing
+His will</i>. One moves from the old position of
+working for God up to the position of so fitting
+in that <i>God works through us</i>.</p>
+
+<p>And there comes to be a consciousness that He
+is doing immensely more through the things we
+do than we are conscious of. So in all Church
+activity there comes to be a reaching out in spirit
+to discern what <i>He</i> wants done, and putting all
+the strength into that.</p>
+
+<p>Then, too, one's thought of foreign missionary<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_257" id="Page_257">[Page 257]</a></span>
+service undergoes a change. The actual taking
+of the message of Christ to those who haven't
+heard comes to have first place. Educational
+work and medical and humanitarian, and the
+like, in missionary service, are seen to be wisely
+used when held strictly in place as a means to
+a direct end. And their value is judged wholly
+by their being a means of bringing those whom
+they touch face to face with the Christ that
+died.</p>
+
+<p>It seems to be possible to spend fifty years
+and more establishing mission work in the city
+centres of a foreign-mission country, and all
+good, blessed work; and yet have the great mass
+of that country's population in utter ignorance
+of the Gospel message and its power.</p>
+
+<p>As the Holy Spirit is allowed control increasingly,
+there comes to be a better understanding
+of God's purposes and of His plans, an earnest
+co&ouml;peration in the Church movement for making
+Christ known to all men everywhere, a faithfulness
+in all the circle of one's own home
+Church, and a warm personal winning of men
+to know the Lord Jesus as their Saviour.</p>
+
+<p>So it is seen that watching for our Lord's return
+affects one's whole life in an intensely practical
+way. It deepens faith in <i>Him</i>. It leads to
+an <i>intelligent detachment</i> in social and commercial
+and even Church circles, while making an
+increase of thoughtful regard for others. It
+purifies the personal life. It chastens and deepens
+and gentles the personal character.</p>
+
+<p>It seems very striking and very strange that<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_258" id="Page_258">[Page 258]</a></span>
+when Jesus was born there are just two persons
+named, outside the immediate circle, who seemed
+to have the spirit instinct that recognized who
+He was. There was a man living in Jerusalem
+whose name was Simeon. Who was he? rich?
+poor? cultured? of lowly station? No one
+knows. But whoever he was, he had cultivated
+close walk with God. That's clear. And into his
+inner spirit came the conviction that the Christ
+promised for ages, so long waited for, the Christ
+was now coming, and <i>he would see Him</i>.</p>
+
+<p>And a similar story is told of the woman called
+Anna. These two were in that simple touch of
+heart with God that could in spirit sense the
+coming of the Christ. There may have been
+others. We are not told. But the emphasis
+remains on the fact that few seemed to discern
+the working out of God's tremendous plan.</p>
+
+<p>Will it be so again? It would surely seem
+that intelligent watching would make one sensitive
+in spirit to coming events. Yet there would
+ever be a mingling of deepest reverence, and a
+thoughtful caution regarding mere speculation,
+while the fervent prayer that Jesus taught is
+daily repeated, &quot;Thy kingdom come.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>And John's closing Revelation prayer constantly
+breathes out, &quot;Even so, come, Lord
+Jesus.&quot;</p>
+
+<p style="font-size: 80%; text-align: center; margin-top: 3em;">PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA</p>
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+<pre>
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Quiet Talks on the Crowned Christ of
+Revelation, by S. D. Gordon
+
+*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK QUIET TALKS ***
+
+***** This file should be named 23038-h.htm or 23038-h.zip *****
+This and all associated files of various formats will be found in:
+        http://www.gutenberg.org/2/3/0/3/23038/
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@@ -0,0 +1,7045 @@
+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Quiet Talks on the Crowned Christ of
+Revelation, by S. D. Gordon
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Quiet Talks on the Crowned Christ of Revelation
+
+Author: S. D. Gordon
+
+Release Date: October 16, 2007 [EBook #23038]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK QUIET TALKS ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Stephen Hope, Colin Bell, Fox in the Stars and
+the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at
+http://www.pgdp.net
+
+
+
+
+
+
+             QUIET TALKS
+           ON THE CROWNED
+        Christ of Revelation
+                 BY
+            S. D. GORDON
+
+             Author of
+      "Quiet Talks on Power",
+      "Quiet Talks on Prayer",
+"Quiet Talks about Our Lord's Return"
+
+
+
+           [Illustration]
+
+     CHICAGO  NEW YORK  TORONTO
+     FLEMING H. REVELL COMPANY
+       LONDON AND EDINBURGH
+
+
+
+
+         COPYRIGHT, 1914, BY
+       FLEMING H. REVELL COMPANY
+
+     New York: 158 Fifth Avenue
+     Chicago: 17 North Wabash Ave.
+     London: 21 Paternoster Square
+     Edinburgh: 75 Princes Street
+
+
+
+
+PREFACE
+
+
+Crowning the Christ is an intensely practical thing, whether taken in
+the _personal_ sense or the _world_ sense. He has been crowned in the
+upper world. With wondrous patience and graciousness He pleads for the
+personal crowning in our lives. Some day--no one knows just when--He
+will begin to _act_ as the crowned Christ _in all the affairs of our
+earth_.
+
+The initiative of all action to-day on the earth is in man's hands. Some
+day the initiative of _governing_ action on the earth will be in the
+hands of the crowned Christ, even while the personal initiative of each
+man's life will still be in his own hands.
+
+God is intensely practical. Jesus was never concerned about speculation
+nor mere discussion; He was too intent on helping people. The Bible is
+wholly a practical book. It is concerned only with helping us. It does
+not tell us all the truth there is; we shall be constantly learning more
+in the future life. But it does tell us all we need to know now. And its
+purpose in telling us what it does is wholly practical,--to urge us to
+right choice, and to lives that square with the choice. This is the
+purpose that decided just what truth should be told in the Book.
+
+There is one book of the sixty-six devoted wholly to this subject of the
+crowned Christ,--"The Revelation of John." Every one of these books
+touches Him at some angle, and finds its deepest meaning in what He was
+to do and did do, and yields up its secrets only under the touch of His
+hand. But this book, the closing and climax of all, the knot in the end
+of the inspired thread, this deals wholly with the action of the crowned
+Christ.
+
+No book of the sixty-six has seemed so much like a riddle and set so
+many a-guessing. And without doubt much of its meaning will be clear
+only as events work themselves out. Events will prove the only expositor
+of much. But it is with the deep conviction that this is wholly a
+_practical book_, written wholly from a practical point of view, and
+concerned wholly with our practical daily lives, that I have ventured to
+take it up in this series of simple, wholly practical, Quiet Talks. And
+it is only this side of its teachings that will be dealt with here. The
+Book is a street leading into the true overcoming life the Master would
+woo us to.
+
+It is only after many years' study of this Book of the Revelation, and a
+special study the past three years and a little more, that I have
+ventured to put these talks together. And now they are sent out with the
+earnest humble prayer that others may find some little practical help in
+prayerfully reading, as I have found much in prayerfully studying, under
+the Master's gracious faithful touch.
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+
+I.   THE CHRIST CROWNED, THE FACT               9
+
+II.  THE CROWN BOOK                            39
+
+III. A SIGHT OF THE CROWNED CHRIST             63
+
+IV.  A MESSAGE FROM THE CROWNED CHRIST         97
+
+V.   AN ADVANCE STEP IN THE ROYAL PROGRAMME   127
+
+VI. A CLEARING-UP STORM IN THE REALM          151
+
+VII. THE CROWNED CHRIST REIGNING              215
+
+VIII. WATCHING THE HORIZON                    235
+
+
+
+
+I.--THE CHRIST CROWNED, THE FACT
+
+
+ "When God sought a King for His people of old,
+   He went to the fields to find him;
+ A shepherd was he, with his crook and his lute
+   And a following flock behind him.
+
+ "O love of the sheep, O joy of the lute,
+   And the sling and the stone for battle;
+ A shepherd was King, the giant was naught,
+   And the enemy driven like cattle.
+
+ "When God looked to tell of His good will to men,
+   And the Shepherd-King's son whom He gave them;
+ To shepherds, made meek a-caring for sheep,
+   He told of a Christ sent to save them.
+
+ "O love of the sheep, O watch in the night,
+   And the glory, the message, the choir;
+ 'Twas shepherds who saw their King in the straw,
+   And returned with their hearts all on fire.
+
+ "When Christ thought to tell of His love to the world
+   He said to the throng before him,
+ 'The Good Shepherd giveth His life for the sheep--'
+   And away to the cross they bore Him.
+
+ "O love of the sheep, O blood sweat of prayer,
+   O man on the cross, God-forsaken;
+ A shepherd has gone to defend all alone
+   The sheepfold by death overtaken.
+
+ "When God sought a King for His people, for aye,
+   He went to the grave to find him;
+ And a shepherd came back, Death dead in His grasp,
+   And a following flock behind Him.
+
+ "O love of the sheep, O life from the dead,
+   O strength of the faint and the fearing;
+ A shepherd is King, and His Kingdom will come.
+   And the day of His coming is nearing."[1]
+
+
+Coronation Gift.
+
+Christ is crowned. Not in any vague far-fetched meaning, but in the
+plain common-sense meaning of the word, He is _crowned_.
+
+For crowned means put in the place of highest power, with full right to
+exercise that power at will. And when the crucified Jesus went up that
+Olivet day, before the astonished eyes of the disciples, into the
+sightless blue, on the cloud, He was received in the upper world by the
+Father. And He was lifted up into the place of highest honour and
+greatest power. He sat down at the right hand of the Father.[2]
+
+He had said it would be so. Breathing the air thick with bitter hate on
+the night of His trial, He had quietly said to the Jewish rulers that
+even so it would be, bringing at once about His person the bursting of
+the storm of hate.[3] Now His unfaltering trust in His Father has its
+sweet reward.
+
+The Holy Spirit poured out on Pentecost, the birthday of the Church, was
+the gift of the _crowned_ Christ. The rushing sound as of a mighty wind
+that filled all the house, the tongues of flame plainly seen, the bold
+talking to the crowds of foreign Jews of God's mighty power, the
+faithful witnessing about the crucified Jesus in the city that hounded
+Him to death, the convinced crowds openly declaring at the peril of
+their lives their belief in the despised Jesus, the strangely rare
+unselfishness even in money matters, and the winsome graciousness of
+spirit that marked, not only the inner circle, but these greatly
+increased crowds,--all this said one thing in clear unanswerable tones
+of unmistakable power, _Christ is crowned_.[4] For the sending down of
+the Holy Spirit was the act of the crowned Christ.
+
+And every touch of the Holy Spirit's presence within trusting
+hearts,--the sweet peace, the quiet assurance, the longing for purity,
+the drawing away to prayer, the hunger for God's Word, the intense
+desire to have others saved, the passion to please this wondrous God of
+ours,--all these simple marks of the Holy Spirit's presence in our
+hearts, all tell us, and each tells us, in unmistakable tones, that
+Christ is crowned. For this wondrous Spirit within is the gift of the
+crowned Christ.
+
+When Jesus went up from the earth, holding as His sure captive the
+captivity of suffering and death to which He had with such great
+strength yielded, He received gifts, coronation gifts. The Father gave
+Him all. He gave Him the disposal and control of all. This was the
+crowning.
+
+And in His great out-reaching love Christ received these gifts _on
+behalf of men_, His blood brothers. And at once He gave to men, to His
+trusting disciples, the all-inclusive gift, the Holy Spirit, His
+coronation gift.[5] So God came anew to dwell with men as originally
+planned.
+
+This blessed Presence within tells me, by His mere presence, that Christ
+is crowned.
+
+The writers of the New Testament make a chorus of sweet music on this
+chord, ringing out in clear tones the full notes of delight and joy.
+Luke's simple narrative sounds the note four times. Paul swells it out
+with a joyous fulness that grows in volume and intensity as his
+narrowing prison walls shut out more and more the lower lights, and
+centres his upward gaze upon Jesus, "far above all rule, and authority,
+and power, and dominion, and every name that is named," with "all things
+in subjection under His feet."[6] John's special companion and working
+partner, Peter, makes this note blend with and dominate the minor chord
+of suffering for Christ's sake.[7]
+
+The Christian Hebrew who wrote so eloquently to his fellow-countrymen of
+the immense superiority of Jesus and so modestly withheld his own name,
+strikes this note five times with strong, clear touch.[8] He quotes
+that Eighth Psalm, which so wonderfully gives God's own ideal for man's
+mastery over all creation. And then he tells us that in Jesus the ideal
+will yet be fully realized. And that while the whole plan has not yet
+fully worked out as it will, yet _even now_ we see the Jesus who tasted
+death for every one, crowned with glory and honour as part of the plan
+which He carried out in suffering the extreme suffering of death.
+
+And our Lord Jesus Himself, talking out of the glory to the man who was
+His bosom companion on earth, reserves as His last tender plea to us to
+live the overcoming life this--"he that overcometh I will give him to
+sit down with me in my throne as I also overcame and _sat down with my
+Father on His throne_."[9]
+
+And so we find out just what this word crowned means. Jesus was received
+in the upper world, exalted, glorified, made to sit down at the Father's
+right hand, put far above all rule and authority, with a name greater in
+the sweep of its power than any other, and with all things put in
+absolute subjection under His feet. This is the simple, direct meaning
+of the sentence--Christ is crowned.
+
+What a contrast the two faces of that glory cloud saw! The face looking
+down, and the face looking up! The one--the downward face--looked upon a
+cross, a Man hanging there with a mocking crown of thorns without and a
+breaking heart within, scowling priests, jeering crowds, deserting
+disciples, sneering soldiers, weeping women, heart-broken friends, a
+horror of darkness, a cave-tomb under imperial seal, and blackest night
+settling down over all.
+
+The other--the upward face--looked upon a great burst of the upper
+glory, the countless angels singing swelling songs of worship, the
+wondrous winged cherubim, the redeemed hosts from Eden days on
+reverently bowing and exultantly singing, the exquisitely
+soft-green-rainbow-circled throne, the Father's face, once hidden, but
+to be hidden now never again, the _shared_ seat on the Father's
+throne,--what a contrast!
+
+Here crucified--there crowned. Crucified on earth, one of the smaller
+globes of the universe. On the throne of the whole universe of
+globes--crowned! From the lowest depth to the one extreme height. From
+hate's worst to Love's best. From love poured out for men to love
+enthroned for those same men; love triumphant each time, on cross and on
+throne. What a contrast! What a coronation! What a welcome home to a
+throne!
+
+
+The Music of a Name.
+
+It is most intensely interesting to recall that, of course, this is just
+what the very word Christ means,--the Crowned One. We sometimes get so
+used to a word that it is easy to forget its real meaning. The word
+Christ has been used so generally for so many centuries as a _name_
+that we forget that originally it was a title, and not a name.
+
+And it still is a title, though used chiefly as a name. Some day the
+title-meaning will overlap the name-meaning. We may never cease thinking
+of it as a name, but there is a time coming when events will make the
+title-meaning so big as to clear over-shadow our thought and use of it
+as a name.
+
+It helps to recall the distinctive meaning of the words we use for Him
+who walked amongst, and was one of us. Jesus is His _name_. It belongs
+to the _man_. It belongs peculiarly to the thirty-three years and a bit
+more that He was here, even though not exclusively used in that way in
+the Book.
+
+There's a rare threefold sweetness of meaning in that five-lettered
+name. There is the meaning of the old word lying within the name, before
+it became a name, victory, victor, saviour-victor, Jehovah-victor. There
+is the swing and rhythm and murmur of music, glad joyous music, in its
+very beginnings as a common word.
+
+Then it has come to stand wholly for a _personality_, the rarely gentle,
+winsome, strong personality of the Man of Bethlehem and Nazareth, and of
+those crowded service-days. And every memory of His personality sweetens
+and enriches the music in the old word.
+
+And then the deepest significance, the richest rhythm, the sweetest
+melody, come from the meaning His experiences, His life, pressed into
+it. The sympathy, the suffering, the wilderness, the Cross, the
+Resurrection, all the experiences He went through, these give to this
+victory-word, Jesus, a meaning unknown before. They put the name Jesus
+actually above every name in the experiences of tense conflict and
+sweeping victory it stands for. This threefold chording makes music
+never to be broken nor forgotten.
+
+ "There is no name so sweet on earth,
+   No name so sweet in heaven,
+ The name before His wondrous birth,
+   To Christ the Saviour given."
+
+Lord is a title, of course. It was used of one who was a proprietor, an
+owner, or a master. It was commonly used as a title of honour for one in
+superior position, as a leader or teacher. In speaking of Jesus it is
+coupled with the title Christ as an interchangeable word,[10] as well as
+an additional title. But peculiarly it is the _personal title_ given
+Jesus by one who takes Him as his own personal Master,[11] while it
+still retains its broader meaning.
+
+But _Christ_ is peculiarly _the official title_ of Jesus. There is only
+one Christ. Lord is used of men. It is used of both the Father and the
+Holy Spirit, as well as of Jesus. But the name Christ is used of only
+one person, and can mean only that one. There could be only one Christ.
+
+The word or its equivalent was used occasionally in the Old Testament in
+a narrowed sense for the King of Israel, who is reverently spoken of as
+"the Lord's anointed," that is, God's Messiah or Christ.[12]
+
+But the one common thought of it among the Hebrew people, growing ever
+intenser as the Old Testament period merges into the time of the New,
+was that there was one coming, _the_ Messiah, _the_ Christ, God's
+chosen, the one anointed and empowered, to be their Deliverer. The one
+question that sets all hearts a-flutter about the rugged John of the
+deserts was this: "Is he _the_ Christ?"[13] In their thought there was
+only one to whom the title belonged.
+
+And even so it is. Christ is the official title of _the One_ Chosen and
+anointed by God to be ruler over His Hebrew people, and over all the
+race, and the earth, and the universe,--God's King, to reign until all
+have been brought into full allegiance to the great loving Father.[14]
+The Christ is the Crowned One, God's Crowned One. The very word Christ
+tells that Christ is crowned.
+
+
+Our Great Kinsman.
+
+There is an intensely interesting question that crowds its way in here,
+and it proves an immensely practical question, too. _Why_ was Christ
+crowned? We can say at once that this was His due. He was given that
+which belonged to Him in good right. He was reinstated in His former
+position, with all the power and glory that were His before His errand
+to the earth.[15]
+
+Then too this was His vindication after the shameful treatment of earth.
+Before the eyes of all the upper world, both loyal and disloyal eyes,
+this man whom earth hounded so shamelessly is vindicated; He is set
+right by the Father.[16]
+
+But there is yet more than this. It is a more of a sort that concerns
+_us_ very closely, and it sets one's heart a-beating a bit faster. This
+crowning was part of a plan, a plan of which our earth is the centre. It
+was the second great part of a plan of which the suffering and dying
+were the first great part. Both were for the sake of us men and our
+earth-home, and the lower creation.
+
+This is the thing being emphasized in the second great paragraph of the
+Hebrews.[17] Man was made the under-master of the earth and of the lower
+creation, but lost, weakly surrendered, his place of mastery. The new
+Man came to recover for man what had been lost and to realize this
+original lost plan.
+
+And so He became our brother, sharer of our flesh and blood, tempted
+like as we, perfected in His human character by the experiences He went
+through, then tasted to the bitter dregs the death that belongs to our
+sin. And then following that, He was crowned with glory and honour. And
+so He rises to the place of mastery over all that belongs to perfect
+man. So He brings all creation into the glad subjection which is its
+natural happy state. It is for earth's sake, for the race's sake, and
+for the sake of our faithful companions and servants, the whole lower
+creation, that Christ has been crowned.
+
+We think more about the personal meaning to ourselves of His having died
+and risen again. We need to remember, too, this broader meaning. The
+dying and rising secures our salvation personally. The crowning and the
+reigning will work out the redemption of all nature and of the lower
+creation,[18] and this in turn will mean much for men living on the
+earth in the Kingdom time, and for the race as a race.
+
+This leads at once to another question that presses in. What is the
+_domain_ of the crowned Christ? If we take the crowning in the common
+meaning of that word, it means that there is some domain that Christ
+rules over. What is it that He is crowned over?
+
+And the answer is so sweeping as to seem far-away and dreamy to us who
+are living on this sin-hurt earth. He is the crowned Ruler of the whole
+created universe and all intelligent beings in it. He has been placed
+over absolutely every "rule and authority and power and dominion, and
+not only in this present age but in the coming age."[19] There is
+simply no limit in extent to His domain. Everything has been placed in
+subjection to Him and is now subject to His word, and His alone.
+
+There is a striking passage in Philippians that fits in here.[20] In
+speaking of the exaltation of Jesus Christ, Paul is careful to explain
+particularly that every knee would bow, _in the heavens_, and, _on the
+earth_, and _under_ the earth or in the _world below_.
+
+This threefold division is very striking. The heaven things are
+understood at once, and things of the earth sphere. But there is a third
+world to be taken into account, that strange uncanny world of evil
+spirit beings in rebellion against God's authority. It is spoken of
+repeatedly as principalities and powers, indicating numbers and
+organization, dignity, and power.[21] All of this is included in what
+has been placed under Christ's authority.[22]
+
+
+Is Christ Reigning Now?
+
+But there is still another question that has been impatiently pushing
+underneath for some time. And it also is an intensely practical one.
+Does this mean that Christ is actually ruling now over this domain of
+His? How about the affairs on the earth? Are all things here subject to
+Him? Is this the way He would have things go? And some of us think the
+evil spirits seem pretty free in their movements. This present order of
+things that we are living in the thick of, is this the reign of the
+crowned Christ? And some of us feel the stress of things so much that we
+can scarce keep patient for a thoughtful poised answer to our questions.
+
+There are those, and good earnest folk they are, too, who tell us that
+Christ has come, and is constantly coming, more and more, into our
+common life. The higher ideals that are crowding for expression, the
+more spiritual conceptions of man and his brotherly relations, the
+constant striving toward better civilization, the bettering of the
+condition of the poor and less fortunate, the increased recognition of
+men's rights in the complex industrial world, the increasing effort to
+correct evils by legislation, the great moral reforms that are sweeping
+aside the awful liquor curse, and loosening women's bonds, and
+safeguarding young womanhood and children, the newer aggressiveness in
+the missionary propaganda and in much of the activity of the Church,
+even the attempt to humanize and civilize the warfare that in itself is
+stupidly savage and utterly inhuman,--is not all this a coming of Christ
+and of the Christ-spirit into our common life? many ask.
+
+And there is only one answer to such questions, a strong emphatic "yes."
+It surely is the Christ-spirit that moves in all of this. This is a
+coming of Christ; and a blessed coming, too. There was nothing of this
+sort before the Christ-spirit began to sweeten the world's life. And
+there is none of it to-day except in those parts of the world where the
+Christ-spirit influences life.
+
+But--there's a "but"--it proves a blessed but; this is only a crumb or
+two falling from a loaded table. And he who judges Christ by these
+crumbs only, wholesome and toothsome as they are, will have a very
+skimpy conception of Christ.
+
+All of this sort of thing that has come has come very slowly. It has had
+to fight through and in, every step of the way that it has come. Its
+coming has been opposed stubbornly, maliciously, viciously every inch of
+the road, as only those know who are in the thick of the struggle for
+these reforms, panting for breath sometimes.
+
+It is as though a few whiffs of wholesome life-giving air have breathed
+through the cracks and crevices of the breastworks and fortifications of
+evil in which all our common life seems entrenched. But the
+fortifications are still there. If the sweet, wholesome breathing in
+through cracks and crannies has been so blest, what would it be if the
+forces of evil were clean removed from the scene, and the Christ-spirit
+became the whole atmosphere breathed fully and freely without restraint,
+with no bad draughts, and no counter currents to guard and fight
+against?
+
+It would seem like a strange sort of a kingdom if the present is even a
+gradual coming in of the Kingdom. We would seem to be having a new,
+strange sort of a Christ if the present is a sample of His sort of
+reigning. For it may well be thoughtfully doubted if ever there was such
+a condition of feverish unrest in all parts of the world as to-day.
+
+It is most difficult to put your finger on a single spot of the
+world-map that is not being torn and uptorn by unrest in one shape or
+another. Either actual war, or constant studious preparation for war,
+actually never ceases. And it is difficult to say which is the worse of
+the two. The actual war reveals more terribly to our eyes and ears the
+awful cost in treasure and in precious human blood spilled without
+stint. The never-ceasing preparation for war seems actually to cost
+more. In the immense treasure involved, and in blood too, given out, not
+on an occasional battlefield, but in the continual battle of daily life
+to meet the terrible drain of taxation, it costs immensely more. There
+is less of the tragic for the news headings, but not a whit less, rather
+much more, in the slow suffering, the pinched lives, and the awful
+temptations to barter character for bread.
+
+Then there is the continual seething unrest in the industrial world; the
+protests sometimes so strange and startling against social and political
+conditions; the feverish greed for gold, and land, and position; the
+intense pace of all our modern life; the abandonment of home and home
+ideals; the terrific attack against our young womanhood. The political
+pot which gathers into itself all these things, never quits boiling or
+boiling over, in some part of the world, now here, now there. And it
+seems like the greatest achievement of diplomacy when here and there it
+can be kept from boiling clean over, or at least made to boil over less.
+
+It would seem indeed like a queer sort of kingdom if this is a sample.
+Some of us would have less heart in repeating one petition of the old
+daily prayer. And Christ would seem to have quite changed His spirit and
+character if this is a result of His coming.
+
+
+The Greatness of Patience.
+
+And the great simple truth is this, the truth that in the strange mix-up
+of life we easily lose sight of is this: _Christ has not yet taken
+possession of all of His domain_; a part of it still remains to be
+possessed. "We see _not yet_ all things subjected to Him."[23] We are
+living in the "not-yet" interval between the crowning and the actual
+reigning. We are living on the "not-yet" possessed part of His domain.
+
+And the question that comes hot and quick from our lips, even though
+with an attempt at subdued reverence, is this: "Why does He not take
+possession, and untangle the snarl, and right the wrongs, and bring in
+the true rational order of things?" And all the long waiting, the
+soreness of hearts over the part that touches one's own life most
+closely, the shortness of breath in the tensity of the struggle,
+underscore that word "why?"
+
+And the answer to the impatient question reveals all afresh the
+greatness of the love of our Christ. His greatness is shown most in His
+_patience_. But patience is one of the things we men on this old earth
+don't know. It's one of the unknown quantities to us. It can be known
+only by knowing God. For patience is love at its best. Patience is God
+at His best. His is the patience that sees all, and feels all with the
+tender heart that broke once under the load, and yet waits, steadily
+waits, and then waits just a bit longer.
+
+In this He runs the risk of being misunderstood. Men in their stupidity
+constantly mistake strong patience for weakness or indifference or lack
+of a gripping purpose. And God is misunderstood in this, even by His
+trusting children. But, even so, the object to be gained is so great,
+and so near Christ's heart that He waits, strongly waits with a patience
+beyond our comprehension; waits just a bit longer, always just a bit
+longer.
+
+There are two parts to the answer. Jesus the Christ is giving man the
+fullest opportunity. He never interferes with man's right of free
+choice. Man is free to do as he chooses. Every possible means is used to
+influence him to choose right, but the choice itself is always left to
+the man. The present is man's opportunity. The initiative of action on
+the earth is altogether in man's hand. All of God's power is at man's
+disposal; but man must _reach out_ and _take_. This long stretched but
+waiting time is for man's sake, that he may have fullest opportunity.
+The longsuffering of God would woo men.[24]
+
+When at length opportunity comes to its end it will be only because
+things have gotten into such desperate shape, into such an awful fix,
+that at length _for man's sake_ Christ will step into the direct action
+of the earth once again. He will take the leadership of earth into His
+own hands, even while still leaving each man free in his individual
+choice. This is the first part of the answer. The waiting is that man
+may have fullest opportunity.
+
+Then Christ has a great hunger for _willing_ hearts. No words are strong
+enough to tell His longing for a free, glad, joyous surrender to His
+mastery. He could so easily end the present conflict, but He waits that
+men may bring to Him the allegiance of their lives, given of their own
+glad, gracious, voluntary accord. He was a volunteer Saviour. He longs
+for that love that is the bubbling out of a free, full heart.
+
+The best love is only given freely without any compulsion of any sort,
+save only love's sweet compelling. He wants what He gives--the best. And
+so He waits, patiently waits just a bit longer. This is the second bit
+of the answer. The long delay spells out the hunger as well as the
+patience of God's heart. The divine Husbandman is patiently waiting,
+and sending warm sun and soft rains and fragrant dews while waiting.[25]
+
+ "The Husbandman waiteth--
+   The _Husbandman_? Why?
+ For the heart of one servant
+   Who hears not His cry.
+
+ "The Husbandman waiteth--
+   He _waiteth_? What for?
+ For the heart of one servant
+   To love Him yet more.
+
+ "The Husbandman waiteth--
+   Long patience hath He--
+ But He waiteth in hunger--
+   Oh! Is it for thee?"[26]
+
+
+Taking with Your Life.
+
+But--ah! listen, there's a wonderful "but" to put in here. But, while
+waiting _He puts all His limitless power at our disposal_. If that
+simple sentence could be put into letters of living flame, its
+tremendous meaning might burn into our hearts. When Paul piled up phrase
+on phrase in his eager attempt to have his Asiatic friends in and around
+Ephesus take in the limitless power of the ascended Christ, he added the
+significant words, "to the Church."[27] All that power is for the use,
+and at the disposal, of the Church.
+
+The Church was meant to be a unit in spirit in loyalty to her absent
+Lord, wholly under the dominating touch of the Holy Spirit, not only in
+her official actions, but in the lives of the individual members. If she
+were so, no human imagination could take in the startling, revolutionary
+power, softly, subtly, but with resistless sweep, flowing down from the
+crowned Christ, among grateful men.
+
+Not being such a unit it is not possible that that power shall be as
+great in manifestation as was planned and meant. For no individual nor
+group can ever take the place in action of the whole unified body of
+believers, acting as a channel for the power of the crowned Christ. That
+power shall be realized on the earth only when the Church is so unified,
+and at work, under the reigning Christ, from the new headquarters up in
+the heavens.
+
+But meanwhile all of that power is _at the disposal of any disciple of
+Christ_--the humblest--who will simply live in full-faced touch with
+Christ, and who will _take_ of that power as the need comes, and as the
+sovereign Holy Spirit leads.
+
+It is of this, this _personal_ taking, that Paul is speaking when he
+piles up that intense sentence: "able to do _exceeding abundantly above
+all that we ask or think_ according to _the power that worketh in
+us_."[28] The great bother in Paul's day and ever since, and now, is to
+get people to _take_. The power is fairly a-tremble in the air at our
+very finger-tips. And we go limping, crutching along both bodily and
+mentally and in our spiritual leanness.
+
+Those tremendous words of Jesus, "because I go unto the Father," with
+the whole passage in which they occur,[29] must be read in _the light
+shining from the throne_. Only so can they be understood. But then, so
+read, they begin to grip us, and grip us hard, as we see what He really
+meant and means.
+
+He who has the warm, child-like touch of heart with Jesus, that the word
+"believeth" stands for, shall--as the Holy Spirit has full control--do
+the same works as Jesus did, same in kind and in degree, and then shall
+do even greater than Jesus ever did. _Because_ it is now the glorified
+crowned Christ who is doing them through some child of His,
+simple-hearted enough to let Him have full control.
+
+And the means through which He will do them is simple, child-like,
+trusting, humble prayer. The man using the power is on his knees. The
+lower down he gets the more and more freely the power flows down and out
+among men.
+
+As one learns to keep in touch--learns it slowly, stumblingly, with many
+a stupid fall, and many a tremble and quiver--as he learns to keep in
+simple touch with the crowned Christ he will find _all_ the power of
+that Christ coming with a soft surging throb of life wherever needed.
+_We may have all we can take._ But _the taking must be with one's very
+life_. No mere earnest repeating of a creed in Church service will avail
+here. The repeating must be, syllable by syllable, with feet and will,
+with hands and life, in the daily tread where each step is stubbornly
+contested.
+
+This is the bit of truth for the waiting time. This is the song to be
+singing in this present "not-yet" interval. And the song will help cut
+down the length of that "not-yet," until the friction of our lived faith
+shall wear off the "not" and wipe out the "yet," and we shall find the
+crowned Christ a reigning Christ.
+
+For some day this patient waiting crowned Man will rise up from His seat
+at the Father's right hand. He will step directly into the action of
+earth once again. Man will have had his fullest opportunity lengthened
+out to the last notch of his possible use of it. Then we shall see the
+crowned Christ quietly stepping in, taking matters wholly into His own
+hands, and acting in all the affairs of earth as the Crowned One. Then
+He shall reign from sea to sea, and from the Euphrates out to where the
+ends of the earth become a common line on the other side. The Kingdom
+will have come, for the King will be reigning.
+
+The night will be gone. The day has come. The shadows flee. He has come,
+whose presence puts the new day at dawn, with the East all aflame, and
+the fragrant dew glistening gladly on every tender green blade. This
+time of expectancy is over;[30] the time of making real has _come_. Then
+comes the restoration of the old original love plan to earth and beast
+and man.[31]
+
+ "Thou art coming, O my Saviour!
+   Thou art coming, O my King!
+ In thy glory all-transcendent;
+ In thy beauty all resplendent;
+   Well may we rejoice and sing!
+ Coming! In the opening east,
+   Herald brightness slowly swells;
+ Coming, O my glorious Priest,
+   Hear we not thy golden bells?
+
+ "Thou art coming, Thou art coming!
+   We shall meet Thee on Thy way,
+ We shall see Thee, we shall know Thee,
+ We shall bless Thee, we shall show Thee
+   All our hearts could never say!
+ What an anthem that will be,
+ Ringing out our love to Thee;
+ Pouring out our rapture sweet
+ At Thine own all-glorious feet!
+
+ "Thou art coming! Rays of glory,
+   Through the veil Thy death has rent,
+ Touch the mountain and the river
+ With a golden glowing quiver,
+   Thrill of light and music blent.
+ Earth is brightened when this gleam
+ Falls on flower, rock, and stream;
+ Life is brightened when this ray
+ Falls upon its darkest day.
+
+ "Not a cloud and not a shadow,
+   Not a mist and not a tear,
+ Not a sin and not a sorrow,
+ Not a dim and veiled to-morrow,
+   For that sunrise grand and clear!
+ Jesus, Saviour, once with Thee,
+   Nothing else seems worth a thought!
+ Oh, how marvellous will be
+   All the bliss Thy pain hath bought!
+
+ "Thou art coming! At Thy table,
+   We are witnesses of this,
+ While remembering hearts Thou meetest,
+ In communion clearest, sweetest,
+   Earnest of our coming bliss.
+ Showing not Thy death alone,
+   And Thy love exceeding great,
+ But Thy coming and Thy throne,
+   All for which we long and wait.
+
+ "Thou art coming! We are waiting
+   With a hope that cannot fail;
+ Asking not the day or hour,
+ Resting on Thy word of power
+   Anchored safe within the veil,
+ Time appointed may be long,
+   But the vision must be sure;
+ Certainty shall make us strong,
+   Joyful patience can endure!
+
+ "O the joy to see Thee reigning,
+   Thee, my own beloved Lord!
+ Every tongue Thy name confessing,
+ Worship, honor, glory, blessing,
+   Brought to Thee with glad accord!
+ Thee, my Master and my Friend,
+   Vindicated and enthroned!
+ Unto earth's remotest end
+   Glorified, adored, and owned!"[32]
+
+
+Working by the Light of the Throne.
+
+But we are still in the "not-yet" interval. We see not yet all things
+subject to Him. This is still the waiting time. It is the pleading time
+for Him. He pleads for the _personal crowning_ of Himself in our lives,
+that He may reign there and He alone. This is our great opportunity. We
+shall never see its like again, nor anywhere else than on this earth.
+
+In the reigning time that's coming this peculiar opportunity of crowning
+Christ while He still is absent and despised, this will be gone. In the
+upper world they have no such opportunity. There is no opposition there.
+Now and here is the rarest opportunity to put this great waiting patient
+Man on the throne of heart and life, with possessions and ambitions and
+plans all in subjection under His feet.
+
+Every woman knows the name of Brussels lace. The old capital of the low
+countries of Europe has long been famous for its lace. It is of great
+interest to note the conditions under which it is sometimes made. They
+are conditions studiously prepared after long experience. In one of the
+famous lace factories in Brussels there are a number of small rooms
+devoted to the making of some of the most delicate patterns.
+
+Each room is just large enough for a single worker, and is quite dark
+except for one narrow window. The worker sits so that the stream of
+light falls from above directly upon the threads, while he himself sits
+in the darkness. The darkness aids the workman's eyes to see better, and
+to work more skilfully in the narrow line of clear light centred on the
+delicate task. He weaves in the upper light intensified by the
+surrounding gloom, and does exquisite work.
+
+There is a clear line of light _from a throne_ shining down into the
+darkness in which we sit and move. It shines from the face of a crowned
+Man. In the light of that light we can see clearly to do a difficult bit
+of crowning work,--to crown the Christ in our lives and to keep Him
+crowned.
+
+As our eyes follow that line of upper light we may catch glimpses of His
+wondrous Face up there in the glory. So we shall be steadied and cheered
+in the darkness as we stick to our glad crowning work. And so we shall
+move forward on the calendar the day when that thin line of light seen
+now only by watching eyes shall become a burst of glory light seen by
+all eyes.
+
+And this is the thing the crowned Christ is asking of us during this
+waiting time, this "not-yet" interval. He is counting on each of us
+being faithful to Him, our absent Lord, in this.
+
+ "He is counting on you.
+   He has need of your life
+   In the thick of the strife:
+   For that weak one may fall
+   If you fail at His call.
+ He is counting on you,
+ If you fail Him--
+     What then?
+
+ "He is counting on you.
+   On your silver and gold,
+   On that treasure you hold;
+   On that treasure still kept,
+   Though the doubt o'er you swept
+   'Is this gold not _all_ mine?
+   (Lord, I knew it was _Thine_.')
+ He is counting on you,
+ If you fail Him--
+     What then?
+
+ "He is counting on you.
+   On a love that will share
+   In His burden of prayer,
+   For the souls He has bought
+   With His life-blood; and sought
+   Through His sorrow and pain
+   To win 'Home' yet again.
+ He is counting on you,
+ If you fail Him--
+     What then?
+
+ "He is counting on you.
+   On life, money, and prayer;
+   And 'the day shall declare'
+   If you let Him have _all_
+   In response to His call;
+   Or if He in that day
+   To your sorrow must say,
+ 'I had counted on you,
+ But you failed me'--
+     What then?
+
+ "He is counting on you.
+   Oh! the wonder and grace,
+   To look Christ in the face
+   And not be ashamed;
+   For you gave what He claimed,
+   And you laid down your all
+   For His sake--at His call.
+ He had counted on you,
+ And you failed not.
+     What then?"[33]
+
+Ah! Please God, by His grace, we shall not fail in _the ruling purpose_
+of our lives. We may crown Him Lord of all. We _can_. He asks it. We
+surely _will_.
+
+ "With all my powers Him I greet,
+   All subject to His call;
+ And bowing low at His pierced feet
+     _Now_ crown him Lord of all."
+
+
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[1] Joseph Addison Richards.
+
+[2] Mark xvi. 19.
+
+[3] Matthew xxvi. 64.
+
+[4] Acts ii. 33; iii. 13-16; v. 31-32; vii. 55, 56.
+
+[5] Psalm lxviii. 18; Ephesians iv. 8; Acts ii. 33.
+
+[6] Romans viii. 34; Ephesians i. 20-22; Philippians ii. 9-11;
+Colossians iii. 1.
+
+[7] I Peter iii. 22.
+
+[8] Hebrews i. 3; ii. 8-9; viii. 1; x. 12; xii. 2.
+
+[9] Revelation iii. 21.
+
+[10] Acts ii. 36.
+
+[11] Romans x. 9.
+
+[12] I Samuel xvi. 6; xxiv. 6, 10; II Samuel i. 14-16; xix. 21, and
+elsewhere; Psalm xviii. 50, and frequently in Psalms.
+
+[13] John i. 20, 25; Luke iii. 15.
+
+[14] Philippians ii. 10; I Corinthians xv. 24-26.
+
+[15] John xvii. 5; i. 1-3; Colossians i. 15-17.
+
+[16] Matthew xxvi. 64; Acts ii. 22-24, 32-36; Philippians ii. 9-11;
+Hebrews ii. 9.
+
+[17] Hebrews ii. 5-18.
+
+[18] Romans vii. 19-22; Jeremiah ix. 10; xii. 4, 11; xxiii. 10; Genesis
+iii. 17-19; Acts iii. 21.
+
+[19] Ephesians i. 20-22; Hebrews ii. 6-8.
+
+[20] Philippians ii. 9-11.
+
+[21] Ephesians vi. 12; Colossians ii. 15.
+
+[22] Colossians ii. 10; Ephesians iii. 10; iv. 8-10; I Corinthians xv.
+24.
+
+[23] Hebrews ii. 8.
+
+[24] II Peter iii. 8-9; Romans ii. 4; ix. 22; Revelation ii. 21; I Peter
+iii. 20; II Peter iii. 15; Exodus xxxiv. 6-7.
+
+[25] James v. 7.
+
+[26] F. M. N.
+
+[27] Ephesians i. 20-22.
+
+[28] Ephesians iii. 20.
+
+[29] John xiv. 12-14.
+
+[30] Hebrews x. 13.
+
+[31] Acts iii. 21.
+
+[32] Frances Ridley Havergal.
+
+[33] Mrs. Bessie Porter Head.
+
+
+
+
+II.--THE CROWN BOOK
+
+
+ "All hail the power of Jesus' Name!
+   Let angels prostrate fall:
+ Bring forth the royal diadem,
+   And crown Him Lord of all.
+
+ "O that with yonder sacred throng
+   We at His feet may fall,
+ Join in the everlasting song
+   And crown Him Lord of all!
+
+ "With all my powers Him I greet,
+   All subject to His call;
+ And bowing low at His pierced feet,
+   _Now_ crown Him Lord of all.
+
+ "I hail the power of Jesus' Name,
+   Before Him gladly fall,
+ Bring Him my own heart's diadem
+   And crown Him Lord of all!"
+
+
+The Crowning Book.
+
+There is a _crown book_ in this old Book of God,--the Revelation of
+John. It is _the_ crown book, the only one. It is the crown book of the
+sixty-six in two senses. It is the capping climax of the whole
+revelation of God's Word. It gathers up into itself in a peculiar way
+the dominant characteristics of both the Hebrew Old and the Greek New
+Testaments.
+
+And it is the book of the Crown. The King is in action. He Himself gives
+the message of the book to John. He is seen stepping forward to take
+possession of His realm. Then He takes possession. He dispossesses the
+pretender. He reigns over the earth. The Revelation of John is the Crown
+book.
+
+This is the peculiarity of the Revelation in comparison with all the
+other books. Only here is Christ seen exercising His crown rights. From
+end to end of the Old Testament pages, His coming is looked forward to,
+with an eager longing that grows in intensity as the national failure
+grows ever worse.
+
+In the Gospels He comes, but not as He was expected. He is heralded as
+King, and claims to be King. He has all the graciousness of a King in
+ministering to the needs of the people, and all the power of a King in
+His personal touch. But He is rejected by the nation, and goes to the
+Cross, yet still as a King,--a humiliated, crucified King.
+
+In the Acts He is the risen, glorified King seated at the Father's right
+hand in glory, and at work through His followers among men on the earth.
+But it is always in the midst of sharp, bitter opposition. In the
+Epistles He is seen crowned at the Father's right hand, guiding and
+teaching His followers who are still suffering persecution.
+
+But in the Revelation of John all this is changed. There's a sharp,
+decided, advance step. Here He is not only crowned, but stepping
+directly and decisively into the action of the earth in the full
+exercise of His crowned rights and power. It is peculiarly the book of
+the Crown, the royal book, the enthroned Christ exercising fully and
+freely at will His crown rights.
+
+
+Jesus' Bosom Friend.
+
+The book was written by John the disciple and apostle. This is our same
+old friend John, whom we met first that ever-memorable afternoon, down
+by the Jordan River road, when he was introduced to Jesus by the John of
+the deserts, and had his first long, quiet talk with Him.[34] The
+friendship began that day, grew steadily, and never flagged. It was one
+of the few friendships that Jesus had that never knew any lapse nor
+eclipse.
+
+He became, in an outstanding sense, the bosom friend of Jesus. Probably
+it was not because of any special gentleness or amiability on John's
+part, though he may have had something of these traits. It was more
+likely because of the deep, intelligent sympathy between the two, a
+sympathy not only of personality, but deeper and stronger because of a
+mental and spirit likeness growing up between them. It would seem likely
+that John developed a mental grasp, a spirit insight, a student
+thoughtfulness, a steadiness of temperament, and with these, a growing
+understanding of much--at the least--much of Jesus' spirit and ideals
+and vision.
+
+It may quite be that all this came slowly, and grew up out of the
+constant contact with Jesus, and out of the warm personal love between
+the two men; quite likely. Who could live so close to Jesus as he and
+not bear the marks on mind and spirit? The fire that burned so fiercely
+in early years[35] grew into a steady, unflickering flame under the
+influence of that personal friendship.
+
+It seems not unlikely that John belonged to a good family, and had his
+home in Jerusalem. He was clearly on terms of easy intimacy at the
+palace of the High Priest,[36] which in itself would suggest his social
+standing in the city. It was to this man that Jesus, on the Cross,
+committed the care of His mother. And John accepted the trust as a
+tender token of friendship, and took Mary at once to his own home. And
+as Mary remained in Jerusalem at least some time, and John clearly for a
+long time, the home was likely there.
+
+John was one of the chief leaders in Jerusalem during the Pentecost
+days, and after. Peter was the chief spokesman, but John was always
+close by his side. The friendship between the two seems to have been
+close and of long standing. They were sent together by the Master to
+arrange for the supper that memorable betrayal night,[37] and they are
+seen together in the activities in Jerusalem for many years.[38]
+
+It would seem that in later years John left Jerusalem, and made his home
+for the remainder of his life in Ephesus. Doubtless he was led, after
+the years of leadership in the mother Church, to leave the great Jew
+centre, and devote his strength to missionary service in the outside
+Gentile world.
+
+Ephesus was the chief city of the province of Asia, and the natural
+centre of the population and life of the province. John probably worked
+out from Ephesus, preaching throughout the whole district; teaching,
+advising, praying with, and visiting the groups of little Churches
+scattered throughout the province, perhaps founding some, and
+strengthening all. For his work seems to have been, not so much
+evangelizing, but the much more difficult work of teaching, patiently,
+carefully, teaching; a work so essential to the life of any Church. So
+he would be quite familiar with the Churches to which the Revelation
+letters are sent, and would be well known by these people and loved and
+revered by them as a father in the faith.
+
+This personal bit about John is of intensest interest in studying this
+book of his. It was to this man that Jesus could entrust the writing of
+this special message. John could take in what the Master was showing him
+as few, if any others, could. The close, sympathetic friendship made him
+able to take in what his old Friend and Master is now telling him in the
+glory. And he could give it out too, simply, fully, clearly, just as it
+was given to him.
+
+Love can see and grasp, and can obey simply, where mere mental keenness
+fails. There is no tonic for the brain like love in the heart. No brain
+ever does its best work, nor can, until the heart is fired by some
+tender, noble passion. It was to Mary Magdalene who had such reason to
+love tenderly that Jesus showed Himself first after the
+resurrection.[39]
+
+And it is to John, the bosom friend, whose friendship stood the severest
+test where all others failed, that He now shows Himself in glory, and
+entrusts this pleading message, and vision of coming events, and of the
+after glory. He that willeth to do the Master's will shall know surely
+and clearly what that will is. And he that goeth farther yet, and
+willeth to give the tenderest love of his heart, ever kept at summer
+heat, shall know the Master Himself, in present personal touch, and in
+clear and clearing understanding of His coming victorious action and
+crowning glory.
+
+John wrote a Gospel; one chief Epistle, besides the two very brief
+personal letters; and this book of the Revelation. The Gospel and
+Epistles were quite likely written while in Ephesus.
+
+The Gospel was his plea to all men to whom it might come to accept Jesus
+as their personal Saviour. Its characteristic word is "believe." And the
+plan of it is a simple array of incidents about Jesus that would lead
+men to a warm, intelligent belief in Him.
+
+The chief Epistle is written to the little groups of believers scattered
+throughout Asia Minor, and doubtless in the old home district of Judea,
+too. Its characteristic word is "abide." It is an intense plea, by a
+personal friend to abide, steadily, fully, in Christ, in spite of the
+growing defections and difficulties pressing in so close.
+
+The Revelation was written, quite likely, on the island of Patmos while
+all was yet fresh in his mind; or possibly in Ephesus after his release
+from his island prison; or perhaps begun in Patmos and put into its
+final shape in Ephesus. It is written to the little groups of believers
+in and near Ephesus. It is a most intense plea to be personally true to
+the Lord Jesus in the midst of subtle compromise and of bitter
+persecution.
+
+Its characteristic word is "overcome." It speaks much of the opposition
+to be encountered, and tells of greater opposition yet to come, the
+greatest ever known. And it pleads, with every possible promise, and
+every warning of danger, that the true believer set himself against the
+evil tide, at every risk, and every possible personal loss, and so that
+he "overcome" in the Name of the Lord Jesus.
+
+
+Old and New Woven Together.
+
+The language in which the book is written is of intense interest. It is
+so unusual. It combines Hebrew thought and Greek speech. It is as though
+a Hebrew soul were living in a Greek body, and the soul has so dominated
+the body as to make decided changes in it. The thought and imagery, and
+the very words are largely taken over from the Old Testament, much of it
+not being found elsewhere in the New Testament. It is as though the Old
+Testament reaches clear over the intervening space and writes the last
+book of the New as an additional book of the Old, but with distinct
+additions. But all these additions are outgrowths of what is already in
+the Old.
+
+But while the thought and imagery are Hebrew, the language is Greek. But
+scholars note that John's Greek here is different from that of his
+Gospel, and is indeed peculiar to itself, with new grammatical
+adjustments, as though better to express his Hebrew thought. Yet, like
+the Gospel, it is an easy Greek to learn and to understand. It is as
+though the Old Testament were the warp of a new bit of fabric, with the
+New as the shuttle-threads, and yet with such additions as makes the
+pattern stand out much more definite and clear, and the colours in it
+more pronounced. Thus this end-book is a weaving of both Old and New
+into a new bit of fabric, but with a more distinct pattern than either.
+
+This explains the use of the symbolism which is so marked here. The
+picture language of John's Revelation has seemed very puzzling. It has
+seemed like a new language, to which we had neither grammar nor
+dictionary, and the intended meaning of which we could only guess at.
+But this is because we are Westerners and a bit set in our western way.
+And possibly, too, though we dislike to confess it, because we have not
+gotten a clear, simple grasp of this old Book of God as a whole. The
+Bible is an Oriental book, written in the characteristic picture
+language of the Orient.
+
+The truth is that the symbol or picture language is meant to make the
+book _easier of understanding_. We simply need to learn how to read
+picture language, not whimsically, but sensibly according to the laws of
+picture language. The symbolism or picture sees things as they look at
+the moment the picture is taken. The picture is meant to give one
+general distinct impression of the thing being presented, the details of
+the picture being of value only as they give coloring to that one
+general impression. It is concerned, not at all, or only in the most
+incidental way, with the process by which the thing came to the point
+pictured.
+
+There is a rare wisdom in the use of this picture language. It is really
+the common language not of the Orient merely, but of all the world. In
+our western half of the globe it is the language of the street, the
+common crowd, the common exchange of life, and of children. It is the
+language of the primitive peoples of all parts of the world. Everywhere
+the conventionalized book-language is spoken by the few. The picture,
+with its companion, the story, is the universal, the original, the
+natural language of the race.
+
+On the mere human side here is one secret of the freshness of the Bible.
+It is the oldest book in some of its parts, but admitted to be the
+freshest and most modern in its adaptation to modern life. And the
+reason is simple. The pictures give _principles_. Principles don't
+change with the changing of centuries. Rules change. Principles abide.
+Details alter with every generation. Principles of action are as
+unchangeable as human nature, which is ever the same, east and west,
+below the equator, and above.
+
+John's Revelation is naturally full of this picture language, for it is
+a gathering up of the chief threads of the old Oriental Hebrew fabric.
+It will help us understand the meaning if we keep in mind the simple
+rules of this Hebrew picture language.
+
+John, of course, was a Hebrew, born and bred in a Hebrew home, and
+immersed in the old Hebrew Bible from the time of his mother's milk.
+What Greek language and culture had come was a bit of the outer world
+come into his Hebrew home and life. Now in his old age the early memory
+is asserting itself.
+
+Then too it is quite likely that in his imprisonment he had been
+brooding anew over the old prophecies, reviewing afresh events since the
+resurrection of Jesus,--the growth of the Church, and now the severe
+persecution, with himself a prisoner. And while he in no way doubts the
+unseen overruling Hand, yet he is seeking to get a fresh outlook into
+the future from the old prophetic writings.
+
+And through all of this without doubt the Holy Spirit was brooding in
+unusual measure over this man, reviving early memory, bringing to his
+remembrance all things of other days, deepening impressions, bringing
+old facts into new perspective, giving clearer vision, mellowing and
+maturing both mind and heart into fresh plastic openness to further
+truth. And so we have this little book with its Hebrew soul and its
+Greek body.
+
+The meaning of all this is very simple, and yet a meaning of intense
+significance. Here is summed up the whole of the revelation of God's
+Word. Here all the lines of Revelation meet. Almost two thousand years
+of inspiration come to a climax in this little end-book. Psalmist and
+prophet, historian and law-giver, Gospel and Epistle come to a final
+focus point in one simple intense message. The purpose of the book is
+intensely and only practical. Here is the message of the whole Bible to
+Christ's people _for this present interval_ between the Ascension and
+the next great step in our Lord's world-plan.
+
+
+Jesus' Plea to His Friends.
+
+And the message is simply this: put to us with all the intensity of the
+One who gave His very life for us, it is this,--_that we be personally
+true to our Lord Jesus_ during His present absence. This comes as His
+personal request, that, in sweet, stern purity of life, in full glad
+obedience of spirit, in tender freshness of personal devotion, in
+holding absolutely everything, of talents and position and possession,
+subject to His call, and in keeping our eye ever open forward and upward
+for His return, we be true to Him.
+
+He is the Lamb slain. Only through His blood is there salvation for any
+one. He is now allowing man fullest opportunity before He comes to set
+things right. This is the in-between time, much lengthened out. In the
+midst of formalism and subtle compromise, the tangling of ideas and
+issues, and the blurring of vision within His Church, He calls to His
+own blood-bought ones to be true to Himself.
+
+There's a terrific moral storm coming. Wickedness will wax to a worst
+never yet known. Evil will be so aggressive, compromise so radical,
+temptations so subtle and coming with such a rush, and ideals of right
+so blurred and dimmed in the glare of the lower lights, that even those
+of the inner circle will be sorely tried, and many will be deceived.
+Just at the bursting of the worst of the storm the crowned Christ will
+appear. He will come on the clouds before all eyes, take away His own
+out of the storm, then clear the storm by His own touch, and begin the
+new order of things.
+
+The test coming will be terrific. He knows it. And his knowledge makes
+His plea intense that _we be true to Himself_, our beloved, crucified,
+crowned Lord, utterly regardless of consequences to ourselves. So we
+shall "overcome by the blood of the Lamb," and be joined with Him in
+closest intimacy during His coming reign over the earth.
+
+There is a striking thing told us at the very outset of the book;--it is
+a revelation. That is, it is something revealed directly by God. It is
+the only book of the Bible of which we are told plainly and directly
+that it is a revelation.
+
+It is not that the other books do not have the same inspirational
+characteristic. But our attention is explicitly called to the fact that
+this one is, in its entirety, a _direct_ revelation; and not only so,
+but it is a revelation given directly by God to the Lord Jesus, and
+given in person by Him to John. This is significant. It marks out the
+message of the book as of the utmost meaning and importance.
+
+This suggests a need. And the need of something of the sort is plain
+enough, if one think into it. Already in John's day there was a distinct
+break-away from the simplicity and purity of the Gospel, both in the
+Church and in the lives of professed Christians. The messages to the
+Churches of Pergamum and Thyatira and Sardis show clearly that there had
+already begun a rubbing out of the sharp line of distinction between the
+Church and the world. The world spirit was--not creeping in,
+but--walking boldly into the life of the Church.
+
+It is striking to note the thing that leads John to write his First
+Epistle, that is, the alarming conditions among Christ's followers. The
+spirit of compromise seems seeping in at every crevice. And worse yet,
+the spirit of Antichrist, that makes such a savage attack on Jesus, on
+the deity of His person, and the atoning significance of His death, this
+was openly at work among them.[40] These conditions, so familiar to
+those who first read his little Epistle, are the continual underscoring
+of His intense plea for _abiding_.
+
+It is most significant that Jude's intense flame-like Epistle talks
+entirely about conditions within Church circles. Run through it again
+with this fact fresh in mind, and the significance of it stands out in a
+startling way. Peter's Second Epistle reveals the same sort of an
+atmosphere seeping in among the groups of disciples to whom he writes.
+Not only was there doubt and confusion about the meaning of the
+prophetic teachings, but even a sneering and mocking at the teaching
+about the second coming of our Lord.
+
+These are a few indications of how things were in the Church generally
+before the first century had closed. It was a time of confusion and
+compromise. The air was tense. The need was critical. It would seem that
+if ever our Lord would give a simple direct revelation afresh, to His
+people, it would be in just such circumstances. And it reveals to us at
+once how grave things looked to His eyes, and how much depended on His
+followers having a clear understanding of how things would work out,
+that our Lord Jesus does do just this thing,--send a direct revelation
+that would meet just such a need.
+
+
+More Alike than Different.
+
+It is most striking that the conditions of the Church then and to-day
+are so much alike. The line between Church and world is either badly
+blurred, or quite wiped out. And this one fact throws a flood of light
+upon Church conditions. Within the Church, when it comes to the matter
+of what its real purpose of being is, and what the essentials of faith,
+the lines are hopelessly crossed and tangled, even though the surface
+shows so much striving toward at least a seeming unity, and so much
+aggressiveness in action. The common absence of real spiritual power,
+that unmistakable moving, like a breath, of the Spirit of God, is freely
+admitted.
+
+It is a painful fact that membership in a Church no longer gives any
+clue to a man's vital belief, nor even to his moral conduct. There is
+utter confusion about the practical meaning of God's prophetic Word, and
+what the actual outcome of the present order will be; that is, where
+such things are not quite dismissed from consideration. And, stranger
+yet, indifference, or an actual repugnance, to any mention of the Lord's
+return is the common thing. It is not surprising that earnest people are
+bewildered as to just what should be the attitude of one who would ring
+true to the absent Jesus. It hurts to remember that all this is the
+freely admitted commonplace, where such things are seriously spoken of.
+
+Indeed it is of intense interest to note that just this sort of thing
+has marked the whole interval since these early Church days. Broadly the
+same characteristics have marked both world movement and the Church
+movement in this long interval. There is a unity characterizing the age
+since our Lord ascended. There have been differences, very sharp and
+marked, but always they have been differences in degree, now more
+intense, now less. The general characteristics have been the same in
+kind.
+
+The need of the Church in the end of the first century is its need in
+the beginning of the twentieth. Surely the thing of all things needed is
+a simple, clear, understandable revelation direct from our Lord Jesus
+Himself. It was needed then. Clearly it has been needed in every
+generation since then. And one whose pulse is at all sensitive to spirit
+conditions to-day feels that surely it is the thing needed now.
+
+And here it is, a revelation of Himself, crowned in the upper world,
+keeping in closest touch with things down in this world, telling us what
+the outcome is to be, and especially speaking of our attitude toward
+Himself in this present in-between interval.
+
+Usually God's method with man is to give him enough of a revelation of
+Himself in nature, and in His Word, to start him straight, and guide him
+as he goes to school with himself as chief pupil, with all of nature to
+find out and develop, and so to get mastery both of himself and of
+nature and its forces. We recognize this as the best school-teacher
+method for good self-development.
+
+But here something more seems needed. The situation down on the earth
+has gotten badly mixed up. Even though Jesus has been on the earth, and
+has died, and has sent down the Holy Spirit in such irresistible power,
+the situation in the world, and among His disciples, has gotten so
+subtly tangled and intense, the enemy is so viciously and cunningly at
+work, that only one thing will meet the need,--a revelation, a simple,
+direct, warm revelation given us personally by the Lord Jesus Himself.
+And here it is in this little end-book, with its vision of the glorified
+Jesus, its pleading heart-cry to His followers, and its simple but
+tremendous outlook into the future.
+
+It would not be surprising if such a book should be made the subject of
+special attack by the evil one. It is not surprising, though it is
+deeply grievous, that the common idea about this book among Christian
+people is that it is a sort of a puzzle, that it is impossible to get a
+simple, clear, workable understanding of its message. Parts of it are
+conned over tenderly and loved, a paragraph here, a verse there, and so
+on, but a grasp of the one simple message of the book seems not common,
+to put it mildly. No book of the sixty-six has seemed so much like a
+riddle to which no one knew the answer. And without doubt the full
+meaning of much will be quite clear only as events work themselves out.
+Events will be the best exposition of certain parts. But these parts, be
+it keenly noted, are not essential to the grasp of the whole message.
+God is intensely practical. Jesus was too intent on helping people to be
+otherwise than practical. He hasn't changed. He is too tremendously
+wrapped up in the outworking of His plans. The Bible is wholly a
+_practical_ book. And this crowning end of it is intensely and only
+practical. It is with the clear conviction that it is entirely possible
+to get the simple grasp of it that shall steady our steps, and clear our
+understanding, and feed our personal devotion to the absent Jesus, our
+blessed Lord, that these few simple quiet talks have been put together.
+
+
+Doing Leads to Understanding.
+
+The outline of the book is very simple. After the brief introduction[41]
+and personal greeting,[42] there comes the wondrous vision of _the
+glorified Jesus_, and His personal message to John.[43] He is the Living
+One, who _became_ dead for a great purpose, and is now living, never to
+die again. He is seen walking quietly among the groups of his followers,
+with eyes of flame, and heart of love, keeping watch over these, His
+empowered witnesses on earth.
+
+And He tells John that he is to write to the groups of his followers a
+threefold message, a description of Himself as just now seen by John, a
+description of affairs in these Churches as seen by His own eyes, and an
+account of the things that are going to happen on the earth.
+
+Then follows this description of the Churches. It is in a sevenfold
+personal message to His followers on the earth.[44] Then the vision of
+Himself in heaven as He steps directly into the action of the earth to
+take possession of His crown domain.[45] Then comes the account of
+coming happenings. It is a sevenfold view of a terrific moral storm on
+the earth, that will follow this advance step of His in the heavens. It
+is so terrific and includes so much, that it is possible to get a clear
+view of it and its sweep only by looking, now at this feature of it, and
+now at this; now from this angle of vision, and now from this other.
+
+It is the final contesting of Christ's crown claim as He steps forward
+to assert it; the final outburst of evil unrestrainedly storming itself
+out. And it is the clearing-up storm, too. There is ever the shining of
+a clear light just beyond the outer rim of the terrible blackness of the
+storm clouds. This takes up the greater part of the little book,
+including chapter six, to the close of chapter eighteen.
+
+And then there is given briefly the actual coming to earth in glory of
+the crowned Christ;[46] the new order of things under His personal
+reign;[47] a final crisis;[48] and then in a vision of wondrous
+winsomeness, God and men are seen dwelling together as one reunited
+family, though still with a sad burning reminder of the old
+sin-rebellion as part of the picture.[49] And the book closes with
+personal paragraphs to John and to the groups of Churches.[50]
+
+Another of the striking things peculiar to this book is the personal
+plea that it be read and lived up to. At the very front-door step as one
+starts in he is met full in the face with this: "Blessed is _he_ that
+_readeth_, and they that _hear_, (or give careful heed to) the words of
+the prophecy, and _keep_ the things that are written therein."[51]
+
+Here at the very outset is a plea, made to each one into whose hands the
+little book may come, for a reading, and a careful thinking into, and
+then, yet more, a bringing of the whole life up to the line of what is
+found here. The blessing of God will rest peculiarly upon him who heeds
+this threefold plea. That man is moving in the line of the plan of God.
+
+A little past the midway line of the book, all at once, abruptly, in the
+thick of terrible happenings being told, an unexpected voice comes.
+Clearly it is the Lord Jesus Himself speaking. It is as though He were
+standing by all the time throughout all these pages, watching with a
+sleepless concern. Now He speaks out. Listen: "Blessed is he that
+_watcheth_," that keepeth ever on the alert against the subtle
+temptations, and the compromise that fills the very air, "and _keepeth
+his garments_;"[52] sleeplessly, kneefully, takes care that no breath of
+evil get into his heart, no taint of compromise stain his life, no
+suspicion of lukewarmness cool his personal devotion to the absent
+Jesus.
+
+And again, doing sentinel duty at the rear-end, is the same plea.
+"Blessed is he that _keepeth the words_ of the prophecy of this
+book."[53] Reading, heeding, obeying, watching, living up to, this is
+the earnest plea peculiar to this book. Clearly our Lord Jesus desires
+earnestly that it be read. And He expects us to understand it. And He
+pleads with us to live in the light of what He tells us here.
+
+He that willeth to do shall know what he ought to do. He that doeth the
+thing he does know will know more. And that more done will open the door
+yet wider into all the fragrance of a strongly obedient life, and into a
+clear and clearing understanding of the Lord Jesus Himself.
+
+He that brings his life bit by bit up to the level of the earnest plea
+of this special revelation, as bit by bit it opens to him, will find his
+understanding of it wonderfully clearing. Obedience is the organ of
+understanding. Through it there comes clear grasp of the truth.
+
+A single recent illustration of this comes from Korea, that land that
+gives us so much of the romance of missions, as well as so much of its
+pathos. Dr. James S. Gale, of Seoul, tells of a Korean who had travelled
+some hundred miles to confer with him about Christian things. He recited
+to Dr. Gale the whole of the Sermon on the Mount without slip or error.
+After this surprising feat of memory, the missionary said gently that
+memorizing was not enough; the truth must be practised in daily life.
+
+To his surprise the Korean quietly said: "That's the way I _learned_ to
+memorize. I tried to memorize, but it wouldn't stick. So I hit upon this
+plan; I would memorize a verse, then find a heathen neighbour and
+practise the verse on him. Then I found it would stick."
+
+That's the _rule for understanding_ this revelation of Jesus through
+John, as well as all of this inspired Word of God. This rule simply,
+faithfully, followed will open up this little end-book which to many has
+seemed a sealed book. He that "keepeth the things" that are written here
+will find these pages opening to his eyes. He that liveth the truth he
+does understand will understand more and better, and so live in the
+wondrous power of it, and in the sweet presence of Him who gives it to
+us.
+
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[34] John i. 35-42.
+
+[35] Luke ix. 54.
+
+[36] John xviii. 15-16.
+
+[37] Luke xxii. 8.
+
+[38] Acts iii. 1, 3, 4, 11; iv. 13, 19; viii. 14, 25; Galatians ii. 9.
+
+[39] Mark xvi. 9; John xx. 1, 11-18.
+
+[40] I John ii. 18-29; iv. 1-6.
+
+[41] Revelation i. 1-3.
+
+[42] Revelation i. 4-8.
+
+[43] i. 9-20.
+
+[44] Chapters ii. and iii.
+
+[45] Chapters iv. and v.
+
+[46] xix. i-xx. 3.
+
+[47] xx. 4-6.
+
+[48] xx. 7-15.
+
+[49] xxi. i-xxii. 5.
+
+[50] xxii. 6-21.
+
+[51] i. 3.
+
+[52] xvi. 15.
+
+[53] xxii. 7.
+
+
+
+
+III.--A SIGHT OF THE CROWNED CHRIST
+
+(Revelation, Chapter i.)
+
+
+ "Since mine eyes were fixed on Jesus,
+   I've lost sight of all beside,
+ So enchained my spirit's vision,
+   Looking at the Crucified."
+
+
+ "The Lord Christ passed my humble cot:
+ I knew him, yet I knew him not;
+ But as I oft had done before,
+ I hurried through my narrow door
+   To touch His garment's hem.
+
+ "He drew me to a place apart
+ From curious crowd and noisy mart;
+ And as I sat there at His feet
+ I caught the thrill of His heart-beat
+   Beyond His garment's hem.
+
+ "Rare was the bread He broke for me,
+ As wine the words He spoke to me--
+ New life surged in, the old life died....
+ I cannot now be satisfied
+   To touch His garment's hem."[54]
+
+
+Transfigured by a Look.
+
+No one ever had a sight of Christ's face and forgot. No one ever gets a
+sight of Him and gets over it. He is never the same man after that. He
+doesn't want to be the same.
+
+A look into the face of Christ is transforming. You see Him; and you can
+never be the man you have been and be content. A change comes. You want
+a change. You must have it. This longing is the beginning of the deeper
+change. You can never be content again with being the man you have been.
+
+It has always been so. It always will be so. For this is the natural
+thing. In the dawning twilight of Eden God looked into the face of the
+man he had fashioned. He drew very close to him, close enough to breathe
+his own breath into his face. And the man looked out into God's face,
+and took on God's likeness. So he became his own real self, as
+originally planned.
+
+But while man was yet young, sin looked him in the face. And the man
+looked at sin with an evil longing look. And in that look he took in
+some of what he saw. He was marred. The God image was hurt. He was not
+the same man. And he knew it. He felt it. His eyes were never the same
+after that exchange of looks with sin.
+
+But God helped him. He didn't go away. He came closer for the sake of
+the sin-hurt eyes. And whenever man has looked into that wondrous
+God-face, even though seeing dimly and indistinctly, something within
+him makes a great bound. He recognizes the original of his own natural
+self. And he catches fire at the sight. A holy discontent springs up
+within.
+
+ "Couldst thou in vision see
+   Thyself the man God meant,
+ Thou never more couldst be
+   The man thou art--content."
+
+But you have to see Jesus as He was in His humanity to see yourself the
+man God meant. And you have to see Jesus as He is now to see the God who
+meant you to be like Himself.
+
+It has always been so. This has been God's simple method with men He
+would use. He has wooed and then wooed more, and a bit longer, gently,
+persistently, up and away and apart until at last the man's eyes were
+trained away from the lower glare enough to see the real things.
+
+Then in some vision of the night, whose darkness helped hold back the
+lower earth lights, God has looked a man in the face once again. Or,
+perhaps in open day there came to him that which he could not describe.
+But in his inner spirit he knew there was One with him whom yet his
+outer eyes could not see, but who _could_ not be more real if his outer
+eyes did see.
+
+And in that presence there was a mingling of exquisite tenderness and of
+limitless power that was overawing. Inconceivable purity and yet such an
+unspeakable graciousness seemed blended in this presence. And the man
+seeing was melted in his innermost being with the sense of tenderness,
+and bowed in awe to the lowest dust in the sense of overwhelming power.
+Those who have seen will understand how poor the words are to tell the
+story. And those who have not may wonder a bit until they, too, have
+seen.
+
+
+Some Transfigured Men.
+
+This it was that transformed that man of the early dawnlight named
+Enoch, the seventh from Adam. He was the head of the leading family of
+the race, the racial leader. He had lived well on into the seventh
+decade of his life.
+
+Then the change came. He recognized a Presence with him, one day. That
+One unseen by unseeing eyes became real to him and then more real. He
+yielded to His wooing. He companioned with Him daily. This came to be
+the realest thing. And he was transformed by it. He grew constantly less
+like what he had been, and more like what he was originally meant to be,
+like his Companion. Constant contact restored the original likeness. He
+was transformed before men's eyes, changed over from within.
+
+Then one day the transforming forces had gone so far that he was
+transferred to the upper levels, where all _see His face_, and his
+likeness shines out of all faces. He never got over the sight that came
+to him that early day.
+
+It was this that wooed the man of Ur away from his ancestral home to be
+a lonely pilgrim, a stranger among strangers. Nothing less or else could
+have broken the early attachments, the strongest of the East. That
+winsome wooing Presence became to him stronger than the strongest human
+attachments of his family and home land.
+
+This it was that steadied him through the loneliness, the homelessness,
+the disappointments, the long delays, until it was the image of a new
+man, a transformed man, a faith-begotten man, that at length looked at
+him out of the eyes of his only begotten. This it was that steadied him
+through the hardest test of all with that only begotten, the fire test
+on Moriah. And that made the transformation yet fuller. For so he grew
+the liker him to whose presence he insisted on yielding as each test
+came.
+
+So it was with that rare student of Egypt and Arabia. Trained in the
+best that man could give in the University of the Nile, and then further
+trained by absence from man in the University of the Desert, alone with
+sheep and stars, shifting sand and immovable rock, he wasn't ready for
+his task yet. He was well trained but not yet transformed.
+
+The fires had to be kindled, purifying, melting, fusing fires. And only
+fire kindles fire. The fire of the unburnt bush told him first of a new
+kind of fire, uncatalogued on the Nile. The fire of a Presence burned
+daily, not consuming him, but only the dross _in_ him, as he led his
+race from Egypt to Sinai, out from the slavery of men up to the freedom
+of the presence of God. And then for six weeks, twice over, he was in
+the Presence of Flame on the Mount.
+
+This it was that utterly changed him into the strongly gentle, patient,
+tender-hearted, wise man who taught and trained, lived with and led, the
+immature men and women whom God would weld into a nation, a God-nation.
+He never got over those two long visits to the Mount, nor has the world.
+
+It was nothing else than this, long years later, that made the rugged
+man of the deserts brave the traitorous Ahab in his luxurious,
+licentious court. Without it, the sight obscured, the vision lost, he is
+a coward fleeing like a whipped dog before a bad woman, thinking only of
+saving his own skin. It showed himself, his weak, cowardly self, to
+himself.
+
+A fresh vision that early morning in the mouth of the desert cave made
+the yet deeper more radical transformation. That unutterably gentle
+sound of stillness, too exquisite to be told, only to be felt by a
+spirit in tune, _that_ left him not a whit less willing to brave danger
+than before, but made over now into another sort, like him whose
+Presence in the cave so melted him down.
+
+This new, gentled, mellowed, strengthened Elijah reappears in the man
+who received the birthright portion of his spirit. We know the new
+Elijah by the spirit that swayed Elisha. The old spirit, fiercely
+denouncing, calling down fire, slaying the priests, but with no
+grief-broken heart under these stern needful things,--this we think of
+familiarly as the Elijah spirit.
+
+The new spirit, healing, teaching, sympathizing, leading, feeding,
+fathering, the greatness of gentleness and patience, these
+characteristics of Elijah's prophetic heir tell of the deep radical
+transformation by the wondrous unseen Presence that early morning in the
+mouth of the cave. This is the birthright gift of Elijah to Elisha.
+Elijah had a spirit-sight of God, and he never got over it. He became
+like Him into whose face he looked.
+
+
+Heart Stimulant for the Brain.
+
+But time fails, and words fail immensely more, to tell this thing. Let
+him who would know that transforming sight get quietly alone with Isaiah
+in the temple, and on bent knees linger unhurriedly, and listen, and
+watch, and breathe out his prayer, and strongly wait until something of
+the same brooding Presence be discerned that transformed this young
+Hebrew messenger of God.
+
+Then let him get alone with the Moses of the New Testament. For there
+is no man who was so utterly transformed, and so quickly, as the man on
+the Damascus road. The whole course of his character and life was
+radically changed as by a lightning touch. This is the most striking
+illustration of all. No man so reveals in himself the tremendous
+transforming power there is in the sight of the Christ as does this
+high-strung son of the Hebrew race.
+
+But--words are such lame things. They cannot tell the story here. They
+are all one has to use. Yet they'll never be understood except as the
+light of experience shines upon them. When any one attempts to talk of
+such a thing as this of seeing God or Christ, his words seem so poor and
+lame and under the mark by the man who has had something of the vision.
+And they either are meaningless and uninteresting, or else they seem
+overstated, and quite beyond the mark to one who has had no inkling in
+experience of the thing itself.
+
+I recall distinctly the experience of a Danish friend in Copenhagen. She
+had been trying to read in English a certain devotional book, but said
+she couldn't seem to grasp the meaning of the English words. They eluded
+her, and so the book didn't help her much.
+
+Then she went through a time of sore stress of spirit in the sickness
+and death of her mother. A new experience of the nearness of God came to
+her. And then happening--as it seemed--to pick up the English book again
+she was amazed and delighted to find how much better and more quickly
+she knew the words and sensed the meaning.
+
+It is only as the heart is fired that the brain awakens. Experience
+gives the meaning to language. Without experience it is a dead language
+in meaning even though it be one's own mother tongue. Only the man who
+has caught something of the vision of Christ's face can understand the
+strong words used in talking of such a vision.
+
+It is most striking to notice that even when the glory of God's presence
+was hidden beneath human wrappings in Jesus it still could be _felt_.
+Men felt that presence though they knew not just what it was they felt,
+nor why. When the glory came yet closer in the coming of Jesus, it must
+be well covered up for the sake of men's eyes, that they might not go
+blind at once; but its power of attraction could not be wholly hid.
+
+So really human was Jesus in the outer circumstance of His life that His
+brothers of the home couldn't believe he was essentially different from
+themselves. But the attraction of that presence was felt constantly even
+through the human hiding of it.
+
+John of the Wilderness instinctively recognized that here was more than
+the man he saw, and so obeyed His word. The crowds gathered eagerly in
+the Jordan bottoms in even greater numbers than to hear John, drawn by a
+power they felt they must yield to, and did yield to gladly.
+
+From the first the crowds gathered thick about Him, Jewish aristocrat,
+Samaritan half-breed and sinful outcast jostling elbows in their
+eagerness to hear, drawn by a power they could feel, but could not
+understand any more than they could withstand it. The children loved his
+presence and touch.
+
+The bad in life were as resistlessly drawn up to a new life as the
+Greeks were drawn from clear beyond the blue waters of the Hellespont
+into His presence. The crowds were irresistibly drawn to follow on that
+last eventful journey to Jerusalem even while they felt "afraid."
+
+It was the sight of the glory on the Mount that drew faithful John in
+_with_ Jesus, and held him steady that awful night in palace and
+courtyard, and that later brought poor blasphemous Peter back for
+forgiveness. The two walking to Emmaus found their hearts all aflame,
+though they supposed it was only the chance stranger of the roadway they
+listened to.
+
+Even those who hated Him were compelled to recognize the wondrous power
+of His presence. The Nazareth hands that itched to seize Him were
+restrained by His presence as He passed through their midst. Ten times
+did the Jerusalem crowds attempt his life, and ten times were they
+restrained by a power in Him that they could neither understand nor
+withstand.
+
+The men officially empowered to arrest Him return empty-handed,
+confessing the overawing power of His words. That last week the leaders
+that were hotly plotting His death felt the strange restraint of His
+presence while He quietly sat in their very midst, and swayed the
+crowds.
+
+In the garden soldiers and priests alike were felled to the ground by
+the power of His presence. So it always has been. No one has ever had a
+sight of that Face, and gotten used to it, or gotten over it.
+
+
+A Fresh Vision Needed.
+
+But the thing we are specially needing to-day is a sight of Christ _as
+He is now_. It seems a bit strange that we don't get this more. One
+historic Church has Him fastened to a cross, never freed from the old
+fastenings. Another has Him set in picture frame, behind glass. And the
+multitudes prostrate themselves and reverently kiss the glass.
+
+In widely differing Churches He seems quite covered up out of sight by
+classical ritual, beautiful music, and impressive stately service. The
+crowds gather and listen and bow low in hushed stillness. But,
+apparently, _Him they see not_, else how different their conduct as they
+come out, and their lives.
+
+And yet as I have mingled with the worshippers in Catholic Churches in
+the south of Europe, in Greek Churches in Russia, and in congregations
+of the Church of England classed as "high," I have been caught by faces
+here and there in the crowd that clearly were reaching out hungrily for
+_Him_, and were having some sort, some real sort, of touch with Him,
+too. Yet it seemed to be in spite of surroundings. The insistence of
+their hunger pierces through these to Him. He seems hidden from the
+crowd by them.
+
+Scholarly orthodox theologians talk learnedly about Him, but Himself as
+He walked among us and as He is now, Him it would seem that they see
+not, at least not enough to burn through and burn out and burn up and
+send men out aflame with the Jesus-passion. Philosophies about Him that
+are classed as "liberal" and put attractively, yet have nothing of the
+burn in them that reveals Himself.
+
+The more modern Church of the more western world seems to have gotten a
+new lease of aggressiveness in service, a new intensity in activities so
+numerous as to be a bit bewildering sometimes. The wheels whir busily
+and noisily. You feel them. But Him, the unseen presence that makes you
+reverently wrap your face up out of sight, and stand with awed heart to
+listen, _Him_ we seem not to see.
+
+The wondrous quiet Voice that makes your heart burn within you with a
+burning that cleanses and mellows and melts down, _that_ we seem to hear
+only by getting away from the noise of the whirring wheels into some
+quiet corner.
+
+There are in every Church and nation those who seem to have the close
+personal touch with Himself. Their faces and daily lives show the marks.
+Their lips may not say so much, for they who see most can say least of
+what they see. But the marks in the life are unmistakable.
+
+Yet even here the sight of Christ emphasizes chiefly the personal side,
+what He is personally to them. And what a blessed side that is only they
+who know it know. They think of Him as a personal Saviour, and the heart
+glows. They see Him at the Father's right hand interceding, and
+gratefully remember that He will forget no name where there is a
+trusting heart. They think of the Holy Spirit, the other Jesus, Jesus'
+other self, always "alongside to help," alongside _in_side. And they
+practise letting Him work out the Christ-likeness within themselves.
+
+And all this is blessed, only blessed. They see Him in His personal
+relation to themselves. But there's something more than this. No one
+knew more of this blessed personal part than John. But John saw more
+than this on Patmos. He saw Christ _as He is now_.
+
+This is clearly a new sight of Christ. It was new to John. It would seem
+to be new to us. It is new in the pages of this book. It is something
+different from any sight seen before. In the Gospels we see Jesus the
+_Man_. In carpenter shop and little whitewashed stone cottage, in the
+ministering life clear from the Jordan bottoms to the healing touch at
+Gethsemane's gate, and in the suffering clear up to the ninth hour of
+that fateful day He is the _Man_, one of ourselves, though clearly more
+even in His humanity than the humanity we are.
+
+On the Transfiguration Mount the favoured inner three, the leaders, see
+the glory within shining out through the Man. So bewildered are they
+that the chief impression that remains is of a blinding brightness. Yet
+this is up on a high mountain far away from the crowd, and from the
+haunts of men.
+
+As Stephen is being stoned his eyes are opened to see the Son of Man
+standing in glory up at the Father's right hand. The Damascus traveller
+sees an overpowering burst of glory out of the blue and hears a voice
+speaking. In the epistles Paul pictures Him seated at the Father's right
+hand with an authority greater than any other. All the power He has is
+placed at the disposal of His followers on the earth. He Himself is
+above in the glory.[55]
+
+But in this very end of the Book John is given a _new sight of Christ_.
+He sees Him _as He is now_. That is to say, this is the sight of Christ
+as He is now _characteristically_. It is the distinctive sight that
+stands out above all these others.
+
+He _is_ at one's right hand in closest personal relation, through His
+Holy Spirit. He _is_ at the Father's right hand in glory waiting
+expectantly till the time is ripe for the next direct move on the earth.
+But there's more than these. There's a sight of Him that overshadows
+these. It is the characteristic sight that lets us see Him as He is
+peculiarly _now_ in His relation to _affairs on the earth_.
+
+
+Christ as He Is Now.
+
+This new sight of Christ is the heart and soul of this crowning book,
+this end-book of the Book.
+
+It was out of this sight that this end-book grew. It is written wholly
+under the spell of this new sight of Christ. It is a revelation both
+_of_ Jesus Christ and _by_ Jesus Christ; first of, then by.
+
+John begins his story by telling that he had gotten such a revelation,
+and of the special blessing attached to reading and fitting one's life
+to it.[56] Then follows his salutation to those for whom the revelation
+was given, and the book written.[57] It is peculiarly a _Church_ book.
+Its message is not peculiarly for individual followers, but for groups
+of believers gathered together as Churches.
+
+The salutation is absorbed with the One whom he has seen in the vision,
+what He has done for us in shedding His blood, and that He is actually
+coming again. "Behold He cometh with the clouds; and every eye shall see
+Him, and they that pierced Him." The Jew is specifically designated: the
+coming has special significance for the Jewish nation. And all the
+people of the earth shall penitently mourn as they see Him. And then
+like an endorsing signature from the One of whom he is writing comes the
+sentence: "I am the Alpha and the Omega, saith the Lord God, who is and
+who was, and who cometh, the Almighty One."
+
+Then comes the new sight of the crowned Christ.[58] It was on a Lord's
+day. John was on the lonely sea-girt isle of Patmos. He was alone,
+brooding probably over some bit of the Word of God, and about the Jesus
+of whom he had been so earnestly testifying. It was these that had
+brought him to his lonely island prison. These ever burned within him,
+the wondrous written Word, the immensely more wondrous Word made flesh,
+of whom he had written, the Word that was God and became a Man and
+walked the will of God.
+
+And as he brooded he became conscious of the Spirit of God overshadowing
+him, gentle as the soft breeze, noiseless as the fragrant dew, mighty as
+an enveloping presence that filled his being and had possession of him.
+
+Then a voice spake and the tone of authority in it was unmistakable.
+"What thou seest, write." He was to see something. He was to tell what
+he saw. There's a delightful touch of the simplicity of natural speech
+here. He turned to _see_ the _voice_. And he saw Him who was the voice
+of God to him. Then the sight is told in the same simplicity of speech.
+
+There is a group of candlesticks, light-holders, made of gold. And in
+the midst of the group there is some One standing. He is in outer form
+like a _man_. But there is such an overpowering sense of divine glory
+that John falls on his face as one dead. Yet through all this
+overwhelming experience the impression of a man stands unmistakably out.
+
+With keen, quick glance John takes in head and hair, eyes and feet,
+voice and hands, mouth and face. A simple, natural man in every outer
+particular like himself, a brother man, wearing man's garb and girdle.
+This is the first impression indelibly stamped on John's mind.
+
+But there's more, ah, much more than a man in this man! This is the
+stupendous part. There is some One, other than man, and more than man,
+possessing this man. The divine fills the human. It is this sense of the
+glory filling the man that is so overpowering to John.
+
+A glorious presence overshadows the man and shines out of Him, but never
+obliterates nor makes the man less. That indescribable glory within
+shining out through the man magnifies every part of His human being. The
+head and hair are white, not like a pale or painted white, but a
+transparent whiteness, an intense searching, glowing light shining out
+from Him through the human head and hair.
+
+The eyes are as a flame of pure fire, the feet like melting metal
+glowing in fire. And the whole countenance was as the sun in its
+noontime strength shining out of a rainless, cloudless sky. Humanity
+enveloped in deity, yet remaining true, full humanity. God within man
+immeasurably more than man, yet not overwhelming, not disturbing nor
+obliterating, any part of his humanity, rather making every part stand
+out more distinctly.
+
+Is this incidentally a kind of parable? Is it something like this on an
+immensely humbler scale that was meant for us men? God the Holy Spirit
+dwelling in a man. He the chief one, the divine one, yet expressing
+Himself _through_ the man, and doing it fully to meet the need of the
+hour. His presence magnifying, vitalizing, and using every human power,
+yet Himself the dominant personality.
+
+It is most striking to note that this is the same in principle as every
+appearance of God in the Old Testament pages. Sometimes He talked with
+men when there is no suggestion made of any appearance or of what the
+appearance was like. But wherever the appearance is spoken of it is
+always either fire or some touch of the human kind or both.
+
+In Eden He waits and speaks, two human things. He talks with Abraham as
+a man talks, and ratified the covenant by passing fire through the
+pieces of the covenant sacrifice.[59] It is as a simple, natural man
+appearing at Abraham's tent door that He talks about Sodom. It is a
+human voice speaking about Isaac, though no appearance is mentioned.
+Moses sees a flaming bush, and hears a voice in the desert, and sees a
+whole mount aflame while a voice speaks at Sinai.
+
+And so it was always: the fiery presence-cloud in the Wilderness,
+Joshua's Captain taking command, Manoah's angel ascending in the flame
+of the altar, the voice in the night heard by Samuel, the flooding of
+Tabernacle and Temple with the glory-presence, Carmel's fire descending,
+Elijah's "still small voice," Isaiah's vision of glory and the voice,
+Ezekiel's man of flame speaking, and Daniel's, both of the latter two
+akin to this Revelation appearance.
+
+But there is a distinctness and a fulness of description here greater
+than at any previous time, yet the same essential thing as at every
+appearance of God in Old Testament pages. The coming of Jesus among us
+has brought God closer to us and made Him mean more. Jesus was God
+coming closer and in a way that we could understand better and take hold
+of more easily.
+
+
+The Identifying Mark.
+
+But let us reverently look a little closer that we may understand yet
+better. There are certain characteristics of this Man of Fire that are
+allowed to stand sharply out here. We are meant to look at them. This is
+part of the purpose in the heart of Christ in letting us see Him as He
+is here.
+
+The sense of _purity_ is intenser than can be put into words. Fire is
+pure. There is nothing so pure. It resists impurity. It burns it up. It
+is most significant that this is the one thing familiar to us that
+always accompanies the presence of God as He appears to men. It is
+always in fire whether to speak His message of peace and love or to
+remove the impurity of evil.
+
+Our God is a consuming fire. Yet fire only consumes what can't stand its
+flame. The fire reveals purity and makes pure. God is pure. The presence
+within the man looked out in eyes of flame, in a countenance like the
+sun, and feet like molten brass glowing in a furnace. There could be no
+stronger statement of purity than this.
+
+Then there is an overwhelming sense of _authority_. That seems the human
+word to use, though the word seems to tell so much less than John felt.
+John feels it more than he can tell it. He cannot tell it in words. His
+limp figure lying flat on the earth tells what words never can. He had
+seen the glory outshining in the Transfiguration Mount, but this is
+unspeakably beyond that.
+
+There was a voice like a trumpet. It commanded John to write. It says:
+"I _became_ dead, and, behold! I _am_ alive forever more." It is an
+authority over life to yield it up, and over death to put it to death,
+and call life back, never again to be touched by the finger of death. No
+such authority is known among men to-day. And this is further emphasized
+in the quiet words: "I have the _keys_--- the control--of death and of
+the whole spirit world."
+
+But immensely more than all this to John was the intense feeling of
+majesty which completely overpowered him. The sense of authority was
+overwhelming. The items in the description can thus be catalogued, but
+it is impossible to get the overwhelming sense of majestic authority
+that came to John, except as he got it,--by a _sight_, something of a
+sight of this great crowned Christ.
+
+But _who_ is this? Is this not merely Ezekiel's vision repeated?[60] He
+saw just such a vision, one in the likeness of a man, enveloped in fire,
+and sitting on a throne. And the effect was the same as Ezekiel lies
+flat on his face. Is it not the same as Daniel saw?[61] A _man_ clothed
+in linen, aflame with inner fire, and the same authoritative voice, and
+Daniel in a deep sleep of awe-stricken stupor with face on the ground?
+He does indeed seem to be the same. The descriptions tally remarkably.
+
+But listen. He speaks. And the sense of terrifying authority in the
+voice that spake is gentled to John's tense ear in the quiet words that
+come. Like the loving words that came to Daniel's quaking heart is the
+personal message that came to John,--"Fear not." And with the words, as
+ever, come the new sense of stilling peace within. "I am the First and
+the Last, and the Living One."
+
+Still it may be Ezekiel's Man even yet, or Daniel's. But listen: "and I
+_became dead_." Ah! this identifies Him. Now we know for the first time
+that this Man of Flame is Jesus our Brother-man. The cross becomes the
+mark of identification. The form of the words as spoken fits in with the
+sense of authority. With great strength of heart in carrying out a great
+purpose He "_became_ dead."
+
+This is Ezekiel's Man and Daniel's and _more_, unspeakably more. The Man
+they saw has lived amongst us for a generation of time, and then given
+His life clear out for us. He has become more in coming as Jesus. He
+has taken human experience and suffering up into Himself. He was
+Creator. He has become more--Saviour.
+
+There is the same purity and authority speaking out here as there. But
+here is _love_ speaking out as never was spoken out before. Here is love
+_lived_ out; aye, here love is _died_ out, and never living so much as
+when dying. Here is love putting death to death for us. Purity and
+authority fastened on a cross! This is love such as man had never known,
+and God never shown before. Calvary lets us see the love that burned in
+the purity and controlled in the authority.
+
+John's Man is Ezekiel's and Daniel's, but with the love shining out
+through purity and authority, and outshining both. Yet that love is the
+purity and authority combined in action. We don't know love only as we
+know God. And we don't know God only as we know Jesus not living merely
+but pouring out His life for men. This is love--that Man, that God-man,
+but with the God-glory hidden within, using all His authority over His
+life to fasten His purity on a cross with the thorns of our sin, and
+then throttling death and bringing up a new sort of deathless life for
+us. This--He--is love.
+
+
+The Outstanding Characteristic.
+
+But we haven't gotten to the heart of this yet. There is immensely more
+here than even this. The distinctive thing, the characteristic thing in
+this sight of Christ, is yet to be noticed. All of this can be gotten
+from other sights of Christ. But notice now keenly _where this Man of
+Fire is_. For this is the distinctive thing. He is not up in the
+heavens, as in Ezekiel. He has not come on a special errand, as in
+Daniel's experience.[62] He is walking _down on the earth_. His whole
+concern is about affairs on the earth.
+
+But note where He is on earth: not in Jerusalem, the Jew centre; not in
+Rome, the world's ruling centre, nor in Athens or Corinth, the world's
+culture centres. He is seen walking among a small group of candlesticks.
+This is the centre of earth action for Him. This is _the significant
+thing_ of this new sight of Christ. Let us look at it a moment to get at
+the simple significance of the scene.
+
+The candlesticks, we are told, are the Churches, the little groups of
+followers banded together here and there. These small groups of Christ's
+followers are called _candlesticks_ or lampstands.
+
+There is no suggestion yet of their giving any light. No lighted candles
+nor oily wicks are burning and shining. They are only candle_sticks_.
+They are of gold, the most precious metal, but they can give no light,
+they can only hold the light some one else supplies. The Man standing
+amongst them is the light. The whole effect of the sight of Christ here
+is that He is the light. The presence within the man shines out through
+head and eyes and limbs, as light, intense dazzling light, even as the
+sun in his strength.
+
+Here is the distinctive thing. Christ's whole interest centres in the
+earth. All heaven is bending over watching the run of events down here.
+The intensity of His suffering and death tell the intensity of Christ's
+interest in the movement of things on the earth. He has a plan. He has
+put His very life into it. It centres wholly in the affairs of us men
+down here. And it centres in His Church.
+
+This quite upsets our common ideas about the centre of things down here.
+We class London and New York as the great financial centres; Paris and
+Berlin as the great fashion and military centres. Rome is the centre of
+authority of the Catholic Church, and St. Petersburg of the Greek
+Orthodox. The Man who holds all power in His hands, and on whose word
+everything depends, quietly brushes all this aside with scarce a move of
+His hand. The earth-centre of things is the Church. That is, the groups
+of his followers banded together in various parts of the world.
+
+Sometimes it is seen as a magnificent organization intimately connected
+with the machinery of government. Sometimes as very small groups of
+persons with no social standing, despised and reckoned as not worth
+reckoning with. But this is the thing He is depending on for getting out
+to His world. All His plans centre here.
+
+He is the light. The light He gave and gives through nature, and within
+every man's breast, has been awfully darkened through refusal and
+neglect to use it, through stubborn self-will. It is so darkened that
+ofttimes it seems to have been quite put out. His coming amongst us as
+one of ourselves, living our life, dying on our behalf to free us from
+sin, rising again victorious over death, sending His Holy Spirit to make
+all this real and living to each of us,--this is the light at its full
+shining, the flood-light.
+
+He has made a plan for sending this flood-light to every one in every
+part of the earth. That plan centres in His followers. He is the light.
+The Church is the light-bearer, the candlestick. It is to hold _Him_ up
+in such a way that men everywhere can get in direct touch with Him. When
+He is held up, the darkness goes. The darkness can't stand the light.
+This is the immensely significant thing here. This is the sight of
+Christ needed to-day, a sight of Him as He stands _waiting_ on the
+Church to carry out His plan for the earth.
+
+The faithfulness of the Church is not measured by compact organization,
+costly houses of worship, impressive services, eloquent scholarly
+preaching, and a ceaseless round of organized activities. It can be told
+only by how much of the spirit of the Christ who died is carried, in the
+daily life of its individual members, into home and social and
+commercial circles until men are compelled to feel its power in
+conviction of the sin of their own lives.
+
+Nor yet is it told by transplanting the western type of civilization to
+far-away lands, with schools and hospitals and innumerable humanizing
+influences. All this may be blessed. And it will be blessed and blest.
+But it is the incidental thing. It is sure to follow where the Jesus
+light is allowed to shine clearly through and out. It is quite possible
+to have these good things without getting the real Christ. It is quite
+impossible to have Christ Himself without such influences coming, too.
+
+The emphasis must be not on these things, but on Him, Christ. Men need
+Him. He answers the heart longing, and only He can. He changes the
+nature, and nothing else is enough. The Church is to take the loving,
+healing, personal Christ to men in the fulness of His power, and to all
+men. This is the measure of its faithfulness.
+
+
+What Christ Sees.
+
+The tremendous question that crowds in here is this, What does this Man
+of Fire see as He stands among His followers? And He tells us. This is
+why the vision is given. He wants us to see things as they look to His
+eyes of flame.
+
+The Man and His message are one thing here. Chapters one, two, and three
+belong together, and should be held together in our minds. We have put
+the Man and His message as separate talks to get a clearer grasp of
+each. But they are _one_.
+
+Now we recall enough of the message to note this. Five-sevenths of the
+light-holders are in bad shape. The lamps are smoky, badly smoked, and
+cobwebbed. The light is dimmed. It can't get out through the lamp. The
+crowds are standing in the darkness and falling into the ditch by the
+side of the road.
+
+Two-sevenths let the light clearly out. The others are an intermingling
+of light and light obscured, but with the obscurity overcoming the
+other. The net result is an irritating smokiness. And the movement
+unhindered would naturally be toward a steady increase of smoky
+irritation and obscurity until no light can get through. This is what He
+lets us see that He sees.
+
+Now the instinctive thing to do with a smoky lamp irritating nostrils
+and eyes is to put it out. That is the first instinct. The second is to
+trim the wick and do whatever else it needs to correct the smokiness.
+_Yet He waits._ That first natural instinct is restrained. The
+candlesticks are not yet moved out of their place. The light still tries
+to get out through them. The human candlestick may yet do the needful
+trimming and cleaning. With marvellous restraint He _waits_.
+
+It is a tremendous scene that is stretched out here before us,--purity
+and authority combined in One who is standing in the midst of impurity
+and failure. The purity is more intense than we can grasp. The authority
+is greater than any one can realize. The impurity, the failure, are bad
+clear beyond what we can take in. The whole natural instinct here would
+be a _cleansing_, instant and radical, a correcting of the evil. Yet He
+waits. The purity would act through the authority; the authority
+restrains the purity. Love quietly, strongly holds both in check. This
+restraint, this inaction is tremendous.
+
+Why this inaction? this restraint? And the answer is simple, and as
+sweeping as simple. His plan at this stage shall have fullest
+opportunity. His followers will be given full opportunity to the last
+notch of time and the latest possibility of their being yet true.
+
+All the intensity of His love, all the eagerness of His expectancy,[63]
+all the fulness of His plan for the earth, yes all the millions of the
+race, all the misery and ignorance, the sin and darkness, the millions
+of babies being born into wretchedness, and the millions of
+non-Christian women being held in slavery, and the countless numbers in
+every land groping along in a darkness that not only can be felt, but
+that is felt to the hurting point and then past that to the insensitive
+stupor,--all this waits.
+
+With a heart that feels all that any man is feeling and that breaks
+under it, He waits that fullest opportunity shall be given His followers
+to be true. If His Church is set aside it will be only at the last
+moment when her failure is utterly hopeless. If the candlestick is
+removed out of its place, it will be only after it has completely
+removed itself out of all touch with the Light. A candlestick holding
+out no light is an utterly useless thing to the man in the dark.
+
+It is possible for the Church to be a magnificent organization, an
+honoured institution, exerting immense influence in national politics,
+enormously rich in gold and in scholarship and in traditions, and even
+in carrying forward an aggressive missionary propaganda, and yet be
+faithless to its one mission. If the Church should fail in this its one
+mission, then the waiting time is over. The way is clear for the next
+step in the world plan. And a momentous step that would be, beyond our
+power to grasp. But the waiting time still holds out.
+
+This is the simple, tremendous plea of this new sight of the crowned
+Christ as He is shown here. The centre of the universe to Him is this
+earth. The centre of things on the earth is His Church. The centre of
+things in the Church is its giving Jesus the Light out to all the earth.
+
+And if this be the way things looked to His eye at the close of the
+first century, how, think you, do they look at this beginning of the
+twentieth? Has that momentum of movement toward increasing smokiness
+slacked? Is the waiting time nearly run out?
+
+The present is a momentous time. Even men of the world speak of the
+world-wide restlessness as pointing to some impending event of world
+size. And he who is in some sort of simple touch with the spirit world
+can feel the air a-thrill with the possibility of world events
+impending, even while he wonders just what and when.
+
+
+One in the Midst.
+
+It is most striking how it came about that John got this sight of
+Christ. The change was not in Christ's presence, but in John's eyes.
+Christ did not come. He was there. John's eyes were opened. Then he saw
+Him who stands watching and waiting. _Christ is here._ The Man of Fire
+and of restraining love is here on the earth in the midst of His Church
+looking and longing, listening, and feeling.
+
+If only our eyes were opened to see! There standeth One in our midst
+whom we recognize not. Wherever any company of believers banded together
+as a Church to worship and pray and break holy bread are gathered, under
+whatever local name or in connection with whatever Church communion, _He
+stands in the midst_, this crowned Christ of the Patmos Revelation.
+
+Our eyes need treatment. The hinge of the eyelid is in the will and in
+the heart. A bended or bending will opens the eye. A brooding heart
+opens it yet more in spirit vision. Then we shall see Him, _as He is
+now_ in our midst, waiting our obedience.
+
+Those forty days between the resurrection and the ascension are seen to
+be illustrations of this. One can see through this Revelation sight that
+this is one of the chief things the Master is teaching as He still
+lingers on earth in His resurrection body.
+
+Along the old Emmaus road, gathered about the evening meal in the
+twilight, twice in the upper room at Jerusalem, He appears to little
+groups of His faithful followers. Their hearts are burning with the
+thought of Him, they are talking with both tongue and eyes about Him.
+But that He is in their midst is the last thing to come into their
+minds. Then their eyes are opened to see Him in their midst. It was a
+forty-days' session in their training school. Then He said quietly as
+His bodily presence goes up into the blue: "Lo! _I am with you all the
+days until the end._" Their mission and His presence are inseparably
+linked.
+
+And it is striking again to note how John's Gospel ends. The others
+describe the Ascension. John begins his Gospel with Jesus in the bosom
+of the Father before the world was, and ends with Him walking and
+talking with a little group of fishermen along the shore of the waters
+of Galilee's Lake.
+
+This is what the Church needs to-day, a sight of Christ _as He is now_.
+Nothing else can save its life. And nothing less can save its mission
+from utter impending failure.
+
+And yet while the distinctive message here is for the Church, it is an
+individual message, too. It is for each of us. I am the Church, as much
+of it as I am, counted as one. You are the Church. The Church is made up
+of you and me and the rest of us. I must take this message for as much
+of the Church as I am. The Man of Fire is depending on me to be a
+candlestick for His light. It is on me He is patiently waiting to obey
+as fully as He means I should.
+
+And on you.
+
+A recent incident is told of a man whose name is a familiar one in the
+financial world, who died a few years ago. He was the executive head of
+one of our country's great railways. And a man of remarkable largeness
+of insight and grasp, and of unusual power of execution. He dealt in
+hundreds of millions as easily as most of us deal in dollars, and his
+rugged honesty has never been brought into question. His greatest
+achievement bulks big in the material structure of one of our great
+eastern cities.
+
+But his gigantic tasks ran his strength to ebb tide, and then it was
+seen that the tide was running out. As he lay in the sick chamber a
+minister called, whose ministry had touched large numbers of the men in
+the railroad of which the sick man was head, and in the course of
+conversation tactfully asked:
+
+"Are you a Christian, Mr. Blank?"
+
+"Yes," was the quiet, prompt reply that rather surprised the minister.
+
+"How long have you been a Christian, Mr. Blank?"
+
+"Two days," came the answer as promptly and quietly.
+
+Feeling that there was an interesting story under these answers, the
+minister gently pressed the question. Then the story came out.
+
+"You know William, who handles freight out here at ----?" the sick man
+asked.
+
+"Yes."
+
+"He showed me the way."
+
+"William" had been a worthless, drunken man of the "down and out" sort.
+He had been converted at some mission and been radically changed. He had
+gotten employment at one of the freight-handling stations of this
+railroad system. It was rough, hard work, but he had gone at it
+earnestly in his purpose to live an honest life. And in his quiet,
+earnest way he was always seeking a chance to speak to men of Christ as
+a personal Saviour, until he became known throughout that part of the
+system for his simple, earnest piety.
+
+As the sick man realized the seriousness of things for him he had sent
+for this William. The president of the road whose capitalization ran
+into hundreds of millions sent for the rough-handed freight handler. And
+William in his simple, earnest way had pointed the sick man to Christ.
+And the man of millions had made a new sort of transaction. Christ and
+he had an understanding.
+
+And as the sick man told the minister the story he paused, and then
+added, "_I have given my strength to the secondary things._"
+
+This was the judgment of this shrewd man of big affairs as the new light
+had come into his life at its close. Happily he had gotten the
+readjustment of values in time for readjustment of personal
+relationships. But his life's strength was gone.
+
+If we might get the readjustment that would put secondary things in
+second place, and put wrong and useless things clear out, _in time to be
+of some use to our blessed Lord_.
+
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[54] William Norris Burr.
+
+[55] Notably Ephesians i. 20-23.
+
+[56] Revelation i. 1-3.
+
+[57] Revelation i. 4-8.
+
+[58] Revelation i. 9-20.
+
+[59] Genesis xv.
+
+[60] Ezekiel i. 26-28.
+
+[61] Daniel x. 5-9.
+
+[62] Daniel x. 20.
+
+[63] Hebrews x. 13.
+
+
+
+
+IV.--A MESSAGE FROM THE CROWNED CHRIST
+
+(Revelation, Chapters ii and iii)
+
+
+ "The glory of love is brightest when the glory of self is dim,
+ And they have the most compelled me who most have pointed to Him.
+ They have held me, stirred me, swayed me,--I have hung on their
+   every word,
+ Till I fain would arise and follow, not them, not them,--but their
+   Lord!"[64]
+
+
+Patmos Spells Patience.
+
+Patience is strength at its strongest, using all its strength in holding
+back from doing something. Patience is love at flood pleading with
+strength to hold steady in holding back.
+
+The love in the strength insists on waiting a bit longer for the sake of
+the one being waited for. The strength in the love obeys the love
+passion and takes fresh hold in holding back.
+
+Patmos spells out the patience of our Lord Jesus. It tells the strength
+and tenderness of His love. Olivet spelled out His _plan_, His great
+sweeping plan, _through His followers_, for a race. Calvary spelled out
+His _passion_, passion of love, passion of suffering, in dying for a
+race.
+
+Calvary, Olivet, and Patmos are inseparably linked, the gentle slope of
+the Jerusalem hillside, the little mount to its east, and the little
+rocky isle in the far AEgean. Calvary was the passion of love pouring out
+a life for a race. Olivet was the plan of love for telling a race, till
+every one would know the love by the feel. Patmos is the patience of
+love pleading with the should-be tellers of the story to carry out the
+plan, and waiting, and then waiting just a little longer.
+
+Olivet had heard the last word. There the Master had told the disciples
+the plan. All the race was to be told and taught, bit by bit, earnestly,
+repeatedly, patiently, tirelessly, by word and act and life. He Himself
+unseen by outer eyes would always be with them, His supernatural power
+making real and living what they told and taught. This was the plan.
+Olivet was to be the executive of Calvary, bringing home to men and
+making vital to them what had been done there.
+
+Then Jesus went up on the Cloud. And they went out everywhere. And His
+power convincingly went with them just as He had said. Within a
+generation the news and the power had gone together to the outermost rim
+of the world they knew.
+
+They were expecting Him to return as a result of this witnessing of
+theirs. The next time they see His face and hear His voice will be as He
+comes on the Cloud out of the blue. So they understand and believe. This
+is their constant expectancy.
+
+Now that generation has moved off the scene of action. Another
+generation has come in its place, and has almost run its course and
+moved off the scene. And still they are looking forward to and talking
+about His return.
+
+But now to this new generation of His followers something quite
+different comes. Instead of Himself coming in glory there comes another
+last message to them. It fits perfectly into the Olivet message, but
+goes further and says something more.
+
+The Olivet message is about taking the light of the Gospel message out
+everywhere. The Patmos message in its pictured setting of candlesticks
+and Man of Fire and blazing light recognized this as the one thing to be
+done, but says there's something the matter with the candlesticks.
+
+The Olivet word is about taking the message. This Patmos word is about
+the messengers. That one is about the _service_ of His followers; this
+other about their _life_. The life underlies the service. Nothing can so
+hinder and hurt the service as a life not true in itself. Here something
+in the life of the Church is hindering its service. The Master's plan at
+this stage is in danger.
+
+His broader plan extends beyond this Church movement. This is one great
+step to be followed by another. That broader plan had been outlined at
+the first Church Conference, held in Jerusalem. James, the presiding
+officer, said that the carrying of the Gospel to all men was to be
+followed by a national regeneration of the Jews; and then through a
+regenerated Jewish nation there would be a new era of world-wide
+evangelization,[65] and with this the Conference was in agreement.
+
+The leaders among these early disciples are eagerly anticipating Jesus'
+return to carry on the next stage. They understand that what they are
+doing is preparing the way for this next step.
+
+But now instead of returning to carry forward the broader plan here
+comes another message. Apparently things are not going satisfactorily.
+The plan at this stage is in danger, while the Calvary passion back of
+it still burns. Failure is impending. The Master _might_ sweep aside the
+men that are failing, and press on Himself into the next step of His
+plan. For the case is urgent. A race is waiting. The darkness thickens.
+
+But instead He waits. With patience and strength and love beyond our
+power to grasp He waits. This is the setting of the Patmos message, to
+which we now turn.
+
+
+The Unity of the Message.
+
+We must keep our eyes on the Man who is talking. His overawing presence
+gives tremendous meaning to His words. That gentle touch of the right
+hand has no doubt strengthened John even as Daniel was strengthened. And
+he is standing and looking as he listens. But the sight of that wondrous
+Man walking among the candlesticks floods his face and his whole being
+indescribably as he listens to the message spoken.
+
+The overpowering sense of awe, of reality and power, and of the
+tremendous meaning of what is being said never leaves. So he listens.
+So we must listen. So only can we get into the meaning of these words.
+The words will mean only as much as the Man means in the intensity of
+His presence. You must keep your eye on this crowned Christ as you
+listen.
+
+The seven-fold description given us of Christ is the key to these seven
+messages. The partial description beginning each message is seen to fit
+into the particular condition of the Church spoken to. Yet all these
+bits of description must be put together to get the full description. It
+is a seven-fold description of one person.
+
+And so all the messages must be taken together to see the Church as He
+sees it, and to get His message to it. It is one message. A look at the
+seven promises made to the overcomers makes it clear that all seven are
+one promise. It is not that one overcomer receives one thing, and
+another another, but each one gets all of what is mentioned in the
+seven. A rather careful, swift look at these promises makes this clear
+enough.
+
+It is spoken to one Church in seven groups in seven different cities.
+There is one call to repentance, one warning of what will happen to the
+unpenitent at five successive stages, one plea to hear seven times
+repeated, and one blessed result to the overcomer, in a seven-fold
+statement.
+
+And there is just one evil to be recognized and fought. That evil is
+seen to grow from one degree to another, from bad to worse and worst.
+Its emphasis changes from one phase to another. It has shown itself
+differently in different parts of the world, and in different ages
+since, but it is the one evil power, always the same behind the
+different manifestations.
+
+There is rare combination and adaptation in this message. It was meant
+for the Church of that day, and of every day since, and for some future
+day. For it stands as the one message from Christ to His Church between
+Olivet and His return. It is meant distinctively for the Church as a
+whole, and yet it makes an intense personal appeal to each one in the
+Church.
+
+It is spoken to the little groups of Churches in Asia Minor grouping
+about the city of Ephesus, which had been founded by Paul and ministered
+to by John. And without doubt it fitted into the conditions and
+tendencies of those particular seven Churches.
+
+But these are representative of all. Probably any group of seven would
+be representative of all in varying degree. The mother Church at
+Jerusalem is not named, nor the great Gentile missionary Church at
+Antioch. But these messages with their approval and criticism, their
+warning and promise, were meant for all the Church in Asia and Europe
+and Africa at that time.
+
+They are found to fit into the need of the Church scattered throughout
+the world in every generation since then. Always there have been little
+groups that were faithful and true, always some suffering because of
+their faithfulness and remaining faithful in spite of suffering. And
+always those who have been formal, who have companioned with evil, who
+have been swamped by the evil with which they companioned, and those
+practically asleep or dead.
+
+This Patmos message will be found to fit the Church of to-day with
+remarkable accuracy and faithfulness. And the whole probability is in
+favor of finding that it will fit peculiarly the future Church, the
+Church at the end of this present period.
+
+This whole book of the Revelation is peculiarly a Church book. While it
+is full of instruction and plea for our individual lives, yet it is
+distinctively _the_ Church book. It stands out among the books of the
+New Testament as the one book addressed to the Church and to the whole
+Church.
+
+It gives the great bulk of its space to an awful time of persecution
+that is coming to the Church at some future time. This is spoken of
+elsewhere, notably by Jesus in His talk with the disciples on Mount
+Olivet, but it is the chief subject treated here. And it is treated with
+great detail. The name commonly applied to this coming persecution is
+the great tribulation.
+
+It is significant that the book that clearly is distinctively a Church
+book is taken up chiefly with a description of that future persecution.
+It leads to the deep conviction that this book of the Revelation so
+fitted to the need of the Church when spoken, and in every generation
+since, will be found to be peculiarly fitted to that generation of the
+Church that is to pass through this great coming persecution; that is,
+to the Tribulation Church.
+
+It will probably be the mainstay and comfort of those who will insist on
+being true during those awful days, regardless of the suffering
+involved. No book has been more slighted and ignored. It has been called
+by some within the Church of our own generation "the joke of the Bible."
+It will likely come to be the book most studied and loved for its light
+and help in the terribly troublous times ahead. There will be an eager,
+hungry searching for every scrap of information, and for any fresh ray
+of light on its meaning.
+
+
+The Seven-fold Message.
+
+Now this seven-fold message lets us see things through Christ's eyes. He
+is letting them and us see what He sees. The Scottish poet's thoughtful
+lines might well be changed to get the yet better look: "Oh! wad some
+power the giftie gie us, to see oursel's as" _God_ sees us. It would do
+more than free us from blunders and notions. And we are needing more.
+
+Each one of these seven messages begins by our Lord drawing their eyes
+to Himself. This is the thing needed most. And this will give meaning
+and force to the message. They are to be looking at Him as they listen.
+Then He speaks of all the good things He sees. Then of the faulty, weak,
+bad things, in a few simple but unmistakably plain words. No one could
+doubt what He meant.
+
+Then is the pleading call to repent, with the faithful warning of what
+will surely happen if they don't. Then the earnest plea that His words
+be listened to and taken to heart, and the wondrously gracious promise
+held out to those who steadily set themselves against the evil, and who
+get the victory.
+
+Let us look for a moment at each of these Churches as seen by those
+searching eyes of flame.
+
+_Ephesus_ is the centre of the group, the natural leader, the largest
+and most influential, perhaps the mother Church of the group, where Paul
+and John had put in so much time and strength, and whence they reached
+out to these others.
+
+Christ reminds them of His presence in their midst and His control of
+the angel messengers that minister to them. Then he speaks of their good
+deeds, their tireless activity, steadfast endurance, intense zeal for
+the true faith, with special emphasis upon their unwearying
+steadfastness even under sore difficulties, and their hatred of those
+who made compromise with evil so hateful to Himself.
+
+But there is something lacking, the tender personal love for Himself.
+There's intense loyalty to Church and to the faith, but a lack of
+personal love for Himself. And the startling thing is that this is said
+to quite outweight all these good things. They may have these things
+without the love, but they cannot have the love without having these
+things, and at a finer temperature.
+
+And this defect is crucial. If persisted in it is fatal. It will
+actually mean their _rejection as His messenger_. This is the critical
+thing which we seem to have such a hard time getting hold of. The
+essential qualification for true service is the personal attachment to
+our Lord Jesus Himself, that warm heart love which the human heart longs
+for and gives to some one. He longs for this. This is _the_ essential;
+not Church organization nor creed, not zeal for orthodoxy, but warm love
+for a person. Service, witnessing, all the rest, are valuable to Him in
+reaching His world only as they grow out of a tender love for Himself.
+
+And the startling thing is that this privilege and opportunity of
+service is to be taken away _not_ because displeasing to Him, but
+because it fails of the end in view. The candlestick is only removed
+because it is no longer serviceable; it is not giving out the light.
+This earnest, aggressive, orthodox, patiently-enduring Church is to be
+rejected as a light-holder, because it is not holding out the light.
+This is tremendous!
+
+The group in _Smyrna_ is tenderly reminded of the suffering of their
+Lord, for they are filling up what is left behind of His suffering. This
+tells at once the depth of their personal love for Him, nothing could
+tell it more.
+
+They are poor in money and so despised, but rich in faith and so
+precious to Him. They are suffering at the hands of the Jews, who were
+the outspoken, intense, fanatical enemy of the Christians. There is no
+reproach, only earnest encouragement to keep steady even through
+fiercer fires yet to come.
+
+The description of Himself to the _Pergamum_ group is startling. He is
+the one with a sharp two-edged sword. There is something here He must
+fight against. They are frankly told that they have had a hard place to
+witness in, and earnestly commended for being true even in the midst of
+persecution.
+
+But there's something wrong, and it is very serious. It is as wrong and
+bad as it can be. There is actually compromise with evil, partnership
+with the world in its wickedness. The thing is put in the intensest way
+possible by characterizing it as adultery. No stronger language could be
+used to tell how He sees the evil they are guilty of. And they are
+plainly told that He will fight against them. They have made themselves
+His enemy by joining His enemies.
+
+The _Thyatira_ group is reminded of the purity of their Lord, who cannot
+stand impurity but searches it relentlessly out, and pursues it to the
+death. There's a faithful minority here. Their activity and love and
+faith and patience and increasing activity in service are all counted
+carefully over and warmly commended.
+
+But the evil here is much worse. It is put into the gravest language.
+"Thou sufferest the woman _Jezebel_." This is most significant. There is
+no worse character named in the whole Old Testament. She not only
+represented the worst adulterous uncleanness in herself, but she was
+the national leader energetically fostering unclean idolatrous practices
+among the people. Jezebel pulled God's light-holder nation down to the
+lowest moral level it ever reached. She brazenly dominated king and
+people, and remained stubbornly obstinate to the terrible end.
+
+Christ brings _her_ name in here. Again this is tremendous. No more
+terrific parallel could have been made. Here evil characterized as
+adulterous has actually come to a place of leadership in the Church.
+With great longsuffering time has been given that all this might be
+changed, but with Jezebel-like obstinacy it was determined that there
+would be no change. And the inevitable result that will surely follow
+continued obstinacy will be a great tribulation or deadly persecution.
+
+The _Sardis_ group is told that Christ is the centre of all life and
+help, in the control of the Holy Spirit and of the angel messengers.
+There is nothing to commend here. There are some who insist on living
+true lives, but they are a scanty scattered few, not enough to count.
+
+There are some ragged remnants of good, but even these are sickly and
+nearly dead. The Church is well organized, energetic, standing high
+among men, but with an utter absence of spiritual life. The personal
+lives of most are like dirty garments. And the warning is this: He will
+come as a thief, that is unexpectedly, disagreeably, to take away what
+they prize most and leave them stripped and naked.
+
+The longest message is to the group in _Philadelphia_. Christ reminds
+them that He is holy in character, faithful to His promises, having full
+control, and giving opportunity of service as the highest reward of
+faithfulness. This candlestick is giving out light, for it is given yet
+further opportunity of shining.
+
+The chief characteristic of this group is its steady plodding
+faithfulness. They are not spoken of as brilliant or talented, but
+faithful in the midst of opposition. He loves them with the sort of deep
+love drawn out by love freely given. And a special promise is given, a
+significant promise. A great persecution is coming, an awful testing
+time to all the earth. But He will keep them _through_ this unhurt
+because they have been keeping His word so faithfully.
+
+The common reading here is, "I will keep thee _from_ the hour of trial."
+It is quite as accurate to read "through" in place of "from." And there
+is good reason for taking this as the sense here. The word underneath
+here is translated by several different words in other passages.
+
+Where a word in one language may be translated by any one of several
+words the general sense of the passage must decide which one correctly
+expresses the meaning. Here the meaning must be gotten from the whole
+trend of New Testament teaching. Like the Israelites during the plagues
+that came to Egypt these faithful ones will be kept untouched through
+this terrible time that is to come.
+
+The _Laodicea_ group is to be talked to plainly by one who is a true,
+faithful witness in dealing with His people's faults, and who has all
+the authority of God in doing so. This is the second group that actually
+has not one good thing to be commended. There is no false teaching, no
+compromise with evil; they are simply _asleep_. Rich, influential,
+self-satisfied, grown fat and sleek,--so they seem to their neighbours
+and themselves. Wretched, poor, blind, naked,--so they are. And the
+chastening threatened will be of the severe radical sort that strong
+love insists upon.
+
+
+A Heart-breaking Sight.
+
+Here then is the picture of the whole Church as seen by the eyes of
+searching flame. There is a mixture of bad and good, active bad, active
+good, and sleepy indifference. There is a Church within the Church. But
+the bad is bad enough and big enough to endanger seriously the
+usefulness of the whole as a light-bearer.
+
+The glass of the lantern is so smoked and cobwebby that it is more
+useless than useful to the light inside, and the crowd outside in the
+dark. The uselessness threatens what usefulness is left. Smokiness is
+contagious. Cobwebs grow thicker and hold more dust.
+
+Two Churches are true and pure in the midst of sore opposition. Two are
+corrupt in the very worst way. Three, including the leader, are orthodox
+in form, but indifferent to Jesus Himself, or asleep, or dead; three
+degrees of the same thing,--indifference, sleep, death.
+
+In all of these five there are those who, like Ezekiel's companions,
+"sigh and cry over the abominations that are going on," but they are
+helpless to stay the sweep of the tide. They are the salt that is saving
+the lump so far. Even Sodom would have been saved by ten righteous.
+
+It is plainly said to the leader Church that it is no longer of use as a
+candlestick, except a change come. It fails to give out the light. It is
+being carried along, patiently borne with _for its own sake_. It is
+failing at this point in the mission. The smoking flax sending out its
+irritating smoke in place of clear light is not yet quenched. The Holy
+Spirit life within is being sorely grieved, but is not yet put entirely
+out.
+
+And this is only one. Four others are plainly in much worse fix.
+Five-sevenths are failing. That bit of preservative salt would seem to
+be working to its full capacity.
+
+This is the picture given us here by our Lord Himself. John would never
+have dared make such a terrific arraignment of his own accord. It is a
+picture of the whole Church at the beginning of the First century.
+
+How is it at the beginning of the Twentieth? A thousand million people,
+two-thirds of the race, pretty freely supplied with the light of western
+oil and of gunpowder, with the help of the western sewing machine, and
+with the guidance of western learning and skill, but to whom with minor
+exceptions no scant ray of this light has yet gotten, these make answer.
+That smokiness would seem to be rather dense.
+
+The non-Christian crowds in so-called Christian lands, the overwhelming
+majority, to whom the name of Jesus has no more practical meaning than
+other foreign names, Shanghai, or Tokyo, or Calcutta,--these make
+answer. The light doesn't seem to have been able to get through and out
+much, even near the candlestick.
+
+The Church itself, when it has sometimes forgotten its statistical
+tables long enough to look thoughtfully into this old Patmos
+looking-glass, has now and then made answer, in a few of its thoughtful
+leaders, while the rank and file push on absorbed in their Ephesian or
+Sardisian or Thyatiran way.
+
+There's a striking companion bit to this in Ezekiel's vision.[66] That
+messenger to the exiled colony by the Chebar had first of all the vision
+of God that completely overwhelmed him. Then he is taken in spirit to
+Jerusalem, and shown things as they were, through God's eyes. The
+heathen idols were set up in the very temple of God, so actually
+stimulating among the people the horribly gross, unnamable impurities
+connected with their worship. This was done in the open, with no
+pretence at concealment.
+
+Then in the vision he digs "into the wall" to see the hidden things that
+are being done. There he sees every sort of creeping, crawling, slimy,
+repulsive animal pictured on the walls of this secret chamber, and the
+leaders of the people burning incense and worshipping.
+
+This he is told is a picture of the _inner hearts_ of the men who are
+the leaders of the nation. For dramatic intensity it would be hard to
+equal this. The imaginations of their hearts are as the unclean snakes
+and beasts that are found only in the damp, unwholesome slime and ooze
+of swamp and stagnant pond.
+
+And this is God's light-bearing nation to all the earth. And these are
+the leaders! But there's yet worse. The mothers and wives and daughters
+of the nation, the real moulders of the nation's life and character, are
+seen pouring out their very hearts over a heathen idol, with all the
+horrible evil practices included in its worship. And then a group of men
+are shown in the holy temple standing with their backs to God and His
+temple and worshipping the sun.
+
+Under these four items are pointed out the impurity and violence, the
+injustice and oppression, that mark the people. It is the inner heart
+life of the nation that is being pictured so vividly. But in the midst
+of all this are those who are broken-hearted over these conditions. And
+as the time of judgment comes in the vision these are marked and spared,
+though they see the work of judgment on every hand.
+
+Such is the tremendous scene depicted by Ezekiel. It will be seen at
+once what a striking parallel it presents to the scene in this
+Revelation book with the new light-bearer to the nations of the earth.
+One would never dare make such an arraignment of his own accord. It is
+humbling and heart-breaking to the last degree simply to repeat what is
+spoken here by our Lord Himself.
+
+Clearly the Patmos picture is not only of the Church then, but ever
+since, and now. And the simple law of momentum in sliding down hill will
+make it an accurate picture of the Church at the end, the future Church.
+
+The colouring changes at different times in different places, the black
+getting intenser, pot black, and the light shining out more brightly by
+contrast. But the picture remains essentially as painted on Patmos.
+
+The warnings so faithfully given run a sliding scale outward and
+downward in five degrees. If the Church continue as it is, it is told
+here that it will be rejected as a light-holder. Its privilege and
+opportunity as God's messenger will be taken away.[67]
+
+Then Christ will fight against it as an enemy,[68] it will be given over
+to a time of terrible tribulation,[69] it will be treated as prey to be
+robbed and plundered,[70] and it will be rejected, spewed out of the
+mouth, as personally disgusting.[71]
+
+Yet in all this plain speech there is no bitterness, only grief, only
+tender pleading. The plain bluntness is the language of love that yearns
+to save even yet, and that waits with untold patience hoping for a
+change.
+
+
+Wooing Promises.
+
+But it is noticeable that, while the warning is to the corporate Church,
+the plea and promise that persists throughout is to the individual. He
+that is _willing_ to, let him hear and heed and be controlled by the
+Spirit's message.
+
+There are two groups that have remained faithful. There are scattered
+through the other five those who are faithful. And there are no doubt
+many who feel the pull to be true but are yielding to the strong
+undertow of the rising tide by which they are being carried.
+
+The coupled promise and plea that call out so pleadingly to these at the
+close of each message are, "to him that overcometh." This word
+"overcometh" is very significant. It is one of the characteristic notes
+of these messages and indeed of this entire book. It is one of that sort
+of word that sums up a whole situation in itself.
+
+There is opposition. There is conflict because some won't yield to the
+opposition. And the result of the conflict varies. Some are overcome by
+the evil; they go over to the enemy, body and soul. Some wabble. They
+slip along the line of least resistance, secretly holding on to some few
+ragged remnants of convictions, but not letting these affect their
+standing or comfort or particularly their profits.
+
+Some overcome evil. There is struggle tense and continued, quickened
+breath, moist brow, tightened nerves, the stain of blood, a scar here
+and there, and heart-breaking experiences. But they fight on, and
+victory comes. And the evil is less, weakened in its hold on this
+companion and that neighbour. They get the victory over evil.
+
+There's a wondrous promise to these. It is as though the treasure box is
+placed at their disposal. It is a seven-fold promise. Every overcomer
+will receive all that is contained in these seven promises. Note this
+seven-fold promise: He that overcometh will have everlasting life,[72]
+and this is emphasized by the reverse statement, "will not be hurt of
+the second death."[73]
+
+He will be admitted into the sweets of intimate fellowship with his
+Lord, hidden from all save those in this inner circle. And will receive
+a new name, the family name, that is an inheritance in the family of
+God, joint heir with Jesus Christ.[74] He will have the privilege of
+serving with the King in the blessed Kingdom time coming.
+
+And with this goes the word, "I will give him _the morning star_."[75]
+Jesus calls Himself "the bright, the morning star."[76] The morning star
+rises in the dark of night after midnight and ushers in the new day. He
+who is in touch of heart with Jesus as the night deepens to the dawn
+will (probably) have an intimation in his inner spirit of the glad
+coming of the Morning Star that ushers in earth's new day.
+
+The overcomer will be made perfect in character, and find his name not
+only in the family book, but mentioned by Christ personally to His
+Father before the angels.[77] He will be admitted into the innermost
+circle of the King and be reckoned among the dependables.[78] And he
+will have closest fellowship with Christ in the administration of the
+wondrous kingdom.[79]
+
+It will be seen that these promises overlap, the same thing being put
+now positively, now negatively, and being repeated in differing words to
+different groups. Each promise touches the characteristic trait of the
+group spoken of. The Ephesians, who had many things but lacked the vital
+thing, are wooed with the promise of life itself, which is only through
+touch with Jesus Himself.
+
+Smyrna in its suffering is cheered with the prospect of suffering no
+more. The Pergamum overcomer is wooed away from intimacy of friendship
+with evil to intimacy of friendship with the coming King. They who
+resist the evil Jezebel rule in Thyatira will have the privilege of
+ruling with the King. Those in Sardis who hunger and thirst after a pure
+heart will have the longing fully satisfied.
+
+Those who have proven dependable in the trying days in Philadelphia will
+have the exquisite pleasure of being depended upon in the inner circle
+as wholly trustworthy. Those in Laodicea who resist the current and
+insist on letting the knocking pilgrim in for heart fellowship[80] will
+find themselves in fellowship with Him on the throne.
+
+It should be noticed that these promises are one promise, and that that
+is the promise of everlasting life, of a purified perfected character,
+and of the privilege of closest fellowship with the King Himself in the
+coming Kingdom time.
+
+These promises do not take up the matter of rewards for faithfulness in
+service, such as our Lord speaks of in the twin parables of the pounds
+and talents. The things promised here are the results of being saved by
+the blood of Christ. The privilege of fellowship with the King during
+the Kingdom time is included in salvation. All the redeemed will reign
+over the earth.[81]
+
+This is significant. Overcoming would seem to be the decisive evidence
+of faith in Jesus Christ, the faith that receives everlasting life. It
+takes opposition to let you know whether you are willing to accept
+Christ. A man does not know whether he really believes Christ until he
+is opposed in his believing, and opposed to the real hurting point. He
+has just as much faith in Christ as he is willing to declare, and stand
+by, and insist upon, _when he is under fire_. Opposition is the fire
+test. Faith isn't faith unless it can stand the fire test.
+
+
+The Decisive Trait of Faith.
+
+The plain inference here is that he who doesn't overcome shows that he
+really doesn't believe in his heart. And the natural result is that he
+does not receive these things promised. That is, he is not saved because
+he won't accept the Lord Jesus as his Saviour _when it comes to the fire
+test_.
+
+There are without doubt thousands in the Church who will be left behind
+on the earth when our Lord Jesus catches up His own. This does not mean
+necessarily that they will be lost. There will be another opportunity of
+being saved for those living on the earth at that time. The Kingdom will
+be a wonderful time of salvation. There will be a continuous revival of
+the realest sort going on everywhere all the time.
+
+But these would not have the blessed privilege of fellowship with the
+King in the Kingdom, nor the blessedness of fuller resurrection life _at
+this time_. That is reserved for those who by grace have believed on the
+Lord Jesus, during His absence and continued rejection, in spite of the
+fire of opposition.
+
+It is notable that the Thyatiran message speaks of _great tribulation_
+coming to that Church if it continue unchanged. And that the
+Philadelphia Church is to be kept through "the hour of trial, that which
+is to come upon the whole earth." Throughout the Scriptures mention is
+made of a time of persecution coming at the end. The common term for it
+is tribulation. It is called _the great tribulation_. There will be more
+to be said about this again.
+
+It is possible that it will be found that this Patmos message will have
+special significance during that trying time at the end. But it should
+be noted that it fits into the _spirit of opposition_ that is _always_
+found where there is true, faithful witnessing.
+
+The tribulation itself will be the time of intensest opposition carried
+to the extreme of violent persecution. It will be the climax of
+conditions always present, wherever there is faithful witnessing.
+Faithfulness to Christ always arouses opposition.
+
+The test of whether we really accept Christ and believe Him is not in
+anything we say. It is not even in what we are in our lives when all
+goes smoothly. It is in what we are in our lives _when opposed_, when it
+costs criticism, ostracism, petty persecution, or more outright
+persecution. This is our Lord's test of acceptance of Himself.
+
+We have had many definitions of what it means to believe on the Lord
+Jesus Christ. And these have been helpful in clearing the air and
+helping us to a simple acceptance of Him. These definitions have touched
+chiefly the _inner_ part of faith, the part we are conscious of.
+
+Here is another definition. Here is the last word on the subject, the
+authoritative word, from our Lord Jesus Himself. It tells what faith is
+in its outward working, the part the _crowd_ sees. The faith that
+accepts Jesus as Saviour accepts Him also as Lord.
+
+That faith naturally rings true to Him under all circumstances. It rings
+truest and clearest whenever opposition to Him is aroused, whether the
+opposition of indifference, of criticism and sneer, or of persecution.
+
+There are certain commonly accepted things that are in themselves only
+good, but which are not _conclusive_ evidence that we really have saving
+faith in the Saviour. The act of coming into Church membership whether
+by confirmation, by an assent to questions regarding one's personal
+faith, or by being baptized, the fact of membership in the Church, the
+partaking of the Lord's supper, serving as an official of the Church in
+pulpit or pew, faithful attendance, liberal support,--these things are
+only good.
+
+But they do not furnish conclusive evidence of one's acceptance of
+Christ. It is quite possible to be carried along on the common current
+in such things. There is clear evidence that many are. The decisive
+thing, the test thing is this: _how we stand opposition_, the polite,
+sneering sort, the more aggressive sort, or--if it come to that--the
+violent sort. The _fire_ reveals every man's faith if there be any
+there.
+
+There are two fire tests. One is of our faith in Christ, as revealed in
+the frictional fires of opposition. Whoever stands that test is caught
+up into His presence when He comes, or goes at once into His presence if
+our going precede His coming.
+
+The second is of the love-spirit, how far it has been the very breath of
+our life as revealed by the fire of His presence. For the love-spirit
+means personal loyalty to Jesus, purity of heart, holiness of life,
+steadiness of purpose, and the exquisite gentleness of patience in our
+conduct toward all others.
+
+These words of our Lord Jesus are very searching. This Patmos message
+must have been a painful one for Him to give John, and painful for John
+to repeat. It is painful for any one to repeat when its meaning is
+understood. It should send one off into some quiet corner alone on his
+knees with that great "search me" prayer of the Psalmist.[82]
+
+Recently I was told a simple incident of one of the truly great
+Christian men of our generation. He was at the head of one of the
+largest concerns of our country employing thousands of men, but never
+knowing any labor troubles. I remember the impression made on me a few
+years ago at the time of his death, by the remark made to me by two
+different men of this man's city, men that I think did not know each
+other, or maybe very slightly. As I spoke of him each man said in a
+subdued voice, "Oh, everybody in ---- loved Mr. ----!"
+
+This incident was told by his son. The two were on a train together. The
+father rose and went forward to another part of the train. As he went
+out a man sitting opposite came over and spoke to the son. His flashy
+manner of dress and the fact that he seemed to have been drinking
+suggested the sort of man he was. He said to the son:
+
+"Wasn't that Mr. So-and-so?"
+
+"Yes," the son replied.
+
+"Well," the man said, as though talking half to himself, "if there were
+more men like him, there'd be fewer like me."
+
+And he turned to his seat and sat as though absorbed in his thought. The
+son, in speaking of it after his father's death, said it was one of the
+tenderest memories he had of his father.
+
+The common crowd on the street and our Lord Jesus are united in one
+thing: they want _more men like Him_, Jesus our Saviour. Then there'd be
+fewer of the other sort.
+
+
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[64] Ruby T. Weyburn.
+
+[65] Acts xv. 14-18.
+
+[66] Ezekiel viii and ix.
+
+[67] Rev. ii. 5.
+
+[68] Rev. ii. 12-16.
+
+[69] Rev. ii. 22, 23.
+
+[70] Rev. iii. 3.
+
+[71] Rev. iii. 16.
+
+[72] Rev. ii. 7.
+
+[73] Rev. ii. 11.
+
+[74] Rev. ii. 17.
+
+[75] Rev. ii. 26-28.
+
+[76] Rev. xxii. 16.
+
+[77] Rev. iii. 5.
+
+[78] Rev. iii. 12.
+
+[79] Rev. iii. 21.
+
+[80] Rev. iii. 20, 21, with Jeremiah xiv. 8.
+
+[81] Rev. v. 10.
+
+[82] Psalm cxxxix.
+
+
+
+
+V.--AN ADVANCE STEP IN THE ROYAL PROGRAMME
+
+(Revelation, Chapters iv. and v.)
+
+
+ "We are watching, we are waiting,
+   For the bright prophetic day;
+ When the shadows, weary shadows,
+   From the world shall roll away.
+
+ "We are watching, we are waiting,
+   For the star that brings the day;
+ When the night of sin shall vanish,
+   And the shadows melt away.
+
+ "We are watching, we are waiting,
+   For the beauteous King of day;
+ For the chiefest of ten thousand,
+   For the Light, the Truth, the Way.
+
+ "We are waiting for the morning,
+   When the beauteous day is dawning,
+ We are waiting for the morning,
+   For the golden spires of day."[83]
+
+
+A Look into Heaven.
+
+Heaven is a place of intensest and tenderest interest to every one. It
+is true that there is less emphasis on getting to heaven as a result of
+being saved than there was a generation ago. Indeed, no emphasis at all.
+The whole thought now is about our life here on the earth. We think less
+about dying and more about living.
+
+This is true. Yet every one of us has loved ones who have slipped from
+our grasp, and gone from our midst. We think of them. The tenderest
+memories brood over us, and come like a flood sometimes.
+
+We may have the sweet sense of assurance that these loved ones are
+saved. But there is an intense longing at times to know more about them,
+where they are, what they are doing, how much they know of things down
+here. These thoughts _will_ come crowding in upon us.
+
+Now here is some light. _All_ the questions are not answered. But there
+comes clear, sweet light to comfort our hearts during the waiting time
+until we shall be joined with them again. We are given here in John's
+Revelation the first clear, definite glimpse into the upper world. It is
+told us in the language of earth of course. It must be, else we would
+not understand. But clearly there is a glory and happiness clear beyond
+what earthly words can tell.
+
+This is the first glimpse into heaven given us in this old Book of God.
+Jacob wakes up in his dream and sees a ladder set up connecting earth
+and heaven, and the angels going up and returning again while God talks
+with him. It means much to him, but gives us no answer to our questions,
+except to make plain that there is a very real and wondrous world up
+there where our loved ones go.
+
+Moses is up in the mount with God for six weeks nearly, twice over, but
+there is no suggestion of what he may have seen; only the transfiguring
+change in his face, and the strongly gentling change in his character.
+
+Ezekiel finds the heavens opening and sees the vision, so like John's,
+of the wondrous Man. Stephen looks up steadfastly into heaven and sees
+the resplendent glory of God, and the crucified Jesus standing at the
+right hand of God. Paul is caught up into heaven, not improbably at the
+time that his body lay bruised and bleeding and apparently lifeless
+outside Lystra. But the sights he sees and the over-awing glory are too
+much to be told. But here John is taken up in vision into the heavens,
+into the presence of God, and sees much, and tells us what he sees.
+
+It was after the vision of the glorified Man and His message. John is
+sitting thinking on all he has seen and heard, thinking back to Ephesus
+and the other Churches he knew so well. He is wondering perhaps _how_ he
+_can_ tell them what, whom, he has seen; and wondering too how he can
+tell them this message entrusted to him.
+
+The holy spell is still strong upon him, when all at once he noticed
+what looks like a door, a door opened above him in the blue. And as he
+is looking, astonished, that same voice that had been speaking with him
+before speaks again. He is bidden to "come up hither," and he will be
+shown the things that are to happen some time in the future. At once he
+is conscious of that same gentle, enveloping presence of the Holy Spirit
+as before. At once He is up in heaven. And he tells us the scene that
+opens to his eyes.
+
+There is a throne set. What a comfort! There is a _throne_. There is a
+centre of authority and power to our world. This Revelation is
+peculiarly the book of a _throne_. Up yonder above the moral tangle and
+confusion of earth is a reigning throne.
+
+There is One sitting on the throne. That throne is occupied. It has not
+been vacated. Men down here may push God off the throne of their lives,
+and try to push Him out of the affairs of the earth. But He sits on the
+throne above. And that throne dominates the life of the earth. Nothing
+can be done without permission.
+
+John can't describe this one sitting on the throne. The sight is too
+much for his eyes. When the seventy elders of Israel see God, all that
+they can remember is the dazzle of glory in the wonderful pavement under
+His feet. It seems like a pavement of precious stones of sapphire, but
+as clear as crystal. So now all that John can see is some One who seems
+to his eyes like transparent precious stones blazing with light. This is
+the only thing he can think of to tell of what he sees.
+
+
+Rest in the Midst of Unrest.
+
+There is a rainbow around the throne. The radiance of light shining out
+from this One on the throne makes a rainbow. If one wonders how God can
+look down on the misery and sin, the rebellion and wretchedness that
+dominate most of the earth, here is the answer. His finger is never off
+the pulse. He knows all as we never can. And he feels as we never do the
+pain of life, and the discord of earth. The unceasing cry of earth comes
+up in his ears.
+
+But He is controlled by a purpose. It is a purpose of strong patient
+love. _He has made a promise_ that man shall have fullest opportunity
+unchecked by the natural sweeping judgment, that invariable working out
+of sin and wrong. That throne keeps the order of nature working smoothly
+and faithfully for man's sake, holding in restraint the forces that
+would hinder and destroy. The rainbow is the signature to His promise.
+That rainbow is always before His face. That promise has never been
+forgotten. This explains the quietness of the One on the throne, looking
+down on the moral confusion of the race.
+
+But this rainbow is not like the common rainbows that we know. It
+completely encircles the throne. Our rainbows are broken up. They are
+never seen in their completeness. Our lookout on things sees only a
+part; it never sees all. It is never complete. The view of things up
+there is complete. Everything is seen and is seen in its true relation
+to everything else. The throne is the one place of perfect perspective
+and poise.
+
+And this rainbow is all of one colour, a clear, soft emerald-green. We
+know that green is the most restful of all colours. Some colours are
+irritating. Some persons of very sensitive, nervous temperament are even
+made sick by certain colours. And we are all affected more than we know
+in a hurtful way by certain colours. But green is the colour of rest. It
+soothes the eyes and nerves and even the spirit. The rainbow round about
+the throne looked like a quiet, quieting emerald-green. The One on the
+throne is at perfect rest regarding things down here. He knows all. His
+ears hear all, the cry of distress and despair, the defiance and
+arrogance and blasphemy. His eyes see His children down here, creative
+children all of them, prodigal children so many of them, and trusting
+children walking in the shadows. He sees all. And He feels all with His
+great feeling heart.
+
+Yet He is at rest. Do you wonder how He can be? When Jesus saw the
+multitudes He was moved with compassion; He suffered in heart with them,
+for they were as shepherdless sheep, torn and distressed. And the heart
+beating in rhythm with His has as hard a time as He. If He lead you in
+service to some foreign mission land, you see and know and feel as no
+tourist party hurried through the outer fringes ever does or can.
+
+And in Christian lands of the West, and the homeland, in slum as in
+polite circles, in commercial quarters as in the university world, the
+heart that is in touch with Jesus' heart sees and hears and feels and
+senses things as they are under the surface or sticking boldly out
+through the surface. And feels at times as though it can never again be
+at rest.
+
+How can He, on the throne, be so quiet, and be at rest? And there is an
+answer to our burning question, a simple, real answer. _He knows the
+end._ He has a purpose and a plan. The present is only one stage in His
+great plan. This is man's opportunity, and possibly some one's else
+opportunity, too. It is to be followed by something else radically
+different down on this earth.
+
+He is held steady during this time by a great purpose. It is a purpose
+of great, tender love. To His eye looking sleeplessly down there is rest
+even as of emerald-green. And so there will be rest for him who looks
+sleeplessly _up_ to the _throne_ of control, encircled in the emerald
+rainbow of perfect peace. And we can be of best service to Him by
+resting in our hearts, resting in Him, even while working in the thick
+of things as they are down here.
+
+
+They See His Face.
+
+Then John sees twenty-four other thrones round about the central throne.
+And on these there are twenty-four men sitting. These men are wearing
+white garments, and have crowns of gold upon their heads. This is the
+part of intense interest. Who are these? And what does this mean?
+
+What has been said before about picture language, the language of the
+Orient, of childhood, of the common crowd, the universal language, will
+help us here. The Bible is an Oriental book. It talks in picture
+language. This is humanly what gives it such freshness and peculiar
+adaptation. The radical change of circumstances and speech and mode of
+thought in different centuries makes all books antiquated after a
+certain time. This book has the freshness of youth, for in its simple
+picture language it deals in principles. But picture language must be
+held to its simplicity. And something of familiarity with the whole
+range of the Scripture is needful to use the key to the simple picture
+language.
+
+Let us look a bit at the simple scene here. These men are elders, that
+is they are leaders. They represent multitudes of others. Throughout the
+Bible twelve is the number of completeness, both in things and people. A
+complete gathering or throng of people is represented by the number
+twelve. There are twelve tribes of Israel, and so on. This is so
+familiar that it need only be named without further illustration.
+
+There are two great divisions of this Bible, the Old Testament and the
+New. These stand naturally for the two great divisions of time, before
+Christ and after. This division is strongly marked in the Bible, and
+sharply marked in our Christian consciousness. It has been a common
+thing to wonder about the salvation and spiritual knowledge and
+privileges of people who lived before Christ came and died.
+
+Twice twelve make twenty-four. These twenty-four elders represent the
+redeemed ones from both of these great divisions of time. That is to
+say, the picture tells us this. All the people from creation's earliest
+morn up to the present, including the one who went out last from some
+sorrowing family circle, all who have had the touch of heart with God,
+are gathered in the presence of Him who sits on the throne. That is one
+simple thing that stands out clear and sure.
+
+These are represented as _sitting_. The slave or servant never sat in
+his master's presence. Friends sit together. Angels are never spoken of
+as sitting in the presence of God. When our Lord Jesus was received up
+He sat down at the Father's right hand. We are spoken of as seated in
+the heavenly places in Christ Jesus. Sitting together means being on
+terms of intimacy and fellowship. Through the precious blood of our
+Lord Jesus we are all accepted in the Beloved and received and trusted
+as He is.
+
+These elders are clad in white garments. That is one of the familiar
+things spoken of much in this end-book. Part of the promise to those of
+overcoming faith is that they shall be arrayed in white garments, and
+walk with Christ in white.[84] Those who are faulty in the Church are
+urged to get white garments.[85] The martyrs waiting their
+vindication,[86] and the great multitudes who come up out of the
+tribulation are given white raiment.[87] The bride at the joyous
+marriage supper, and the armies following the conquering Christ, are
+clad in fine linen, bright and pure.[88]
+
+We are told that this white linen means a pure life.[89] These garments
+have been washed in the blood of the Lamb.[90] These multitudes have
+been cleansed in the blood of Christ and purified by the Holy Spirit and
+made perfect in purity and holiness as they came up into the presence of
+the Father on the throne.
+
+These elders are wearing golden crowns. This language, too, is familiar.
+The acknowledgment and reward of faithfulness and of service is spoken
+of commonly under this bit of picture talk.[91] The angels are never
+spoken of as being crowned. Christ was crowned, that is received into
+the presence of the Father, as the full recognition of His worthiness
+and of what He had done, and in vindication after the shameful rejection
+by men.
+
+These men and women and children in the Father's presence have been
+rewarded and are being rewarded for their faithfulness in obedience and
+in life. All the struggles and difficulties, the hard road, the
+endurance, the patient suffering for His name's sake, the faithfulness
+in doing the allotted tasks, all these have been noted and acknowledged.
+There is the sweet peace of the Father's approval in all of these before
+the throne.
+
+
+Going to School to God.
+
+And these are sitting on _thrones_. When Jesus was teaching His
+disciples, in the dark days of bitter opposition He wooed them with
+this: "Ye shall sit upon twelve thrones."[92] And a bit later as they
+sat round the supper table on the night of His betrayal, when things are
+getting to the darkest, again He woos them: "Ye may eat and drink at my
+table in my Kingdom; and ye shall sit on thrones."[93] He that
+overcometh is assured of sitting with Christ on His throne.[94]
+
+All the redeemed ones of earth are to have part with Christ in the
+coming Kingdom time. They reign with Him.[95] During this present time
+the countless hosts of angels have a part in ministering to man on the
+earth.[96] Even so during the Kingdom time to come the countless hosts
+of the redeemed will have the sweet privilege of service with Christ and
+on behalf of those on the earth. And it is quite possible that they
+already have a part in such a ministry.
+
+A little farther in the description it is seen that these elders have
+"each one a harp, and golden bowls full of incense, which are the
+prayers of the saints." Heaven is a place of wonderful music. Its very
+atmosphere must be tuned to the rarest rhythmic harmonies. And each one
+has part in the music being made.
+
+And yet more, they are continuing the sweet ministry of intercession
+learned down on earth. This means that they are in touch with earth.
+They know the needs of loved ones and of all, and they have the
+privilege of fellowship in this with Him who ever liveth to make
+intercession.
+
+And there is one other thing we know here at once without being told. If
+a friend tells me that he has a rose garden under the care of a skilled
+gardener, I know without being told that the roses are growing. I at
+once look through my friend's words and see bushes full of roses of all
+colours, some full blown, some half blown, some bursting buds, and some
+just budding. For there is a garden, and a gardener, and sun and rain
+and dew. I know there must be growth and beauty.
+
+Even so we know that the loved ones who have parted from us, are
+growing. They are in the Father's presence, in intimate fellowship. That
+tells me of their growth. That little one who slipped away so young,
+years ago, has been growing in mental powers, in character as well as in
+what down here we call stature, and growing most of all in love. And so
+at the meeting time, in the air or up there, there will be instant
+recognition, as well as instant delight over the growth under such
+wondrous tutorage.
+
+This is the glimpse into the upper world which John sees and is allowed
+to give us here. The redeemed ones of earth of all the ages are in the
+presence of the Father and of the Lord Jesus and of the angels, on terms
+of intimate fellowship, made pure and perfect in character, but always
+growing from more to more, and having a share in blessed ministry. And
+they listen to and have share in making music more exquisite than our
+earthly language can describe.
+
+They understand the wondrous plans for the earth, for now they see all
+things through the Lord Jesus' eyes. They have some part without doubt
+in welcoming those who come to join them, even as they will have part in
+receiving those who are caught up at our Lord's return. And they look
+forward eagerly to the glad time of righting that will come then.
+
+But let us look a bit more at what John sees. Out of the throne are seen
+proceeding lightnings and voices and thunders. Three other times in
+this book it speaks of lightning and voices and thunder.[97] These
+things of course are the familiar accompaniments of a storm. It is
+noticeable that each other time they are named in the book it is in
+connection with some direct action being taken by God in the affairs of
+the earth. And each time there is some added item intensifying the
+scene.
+
+A physical storm is caused by two areas of unequal temperature coming
+together. The storm is the process of coming together and equalizing of
+the atmospheric conditions. The inference here would seem to be that the
+time of action has come to straighten out matters on the earth. The two
+moral atmospheres of heaven and earth seem to be coming into contact,
+and a storm is resulting before clear weather comes. It suggests that
+our Lord Jesus is taking the next direct step in His broader plan.
+
+
+God's Ideal of Creation.
+
+But let us look a little further. In the book's picture language there
+are "seven lamps of fire burning before the throne." These we are
+plainly told "are the seven spirits of God." That is a Hebrew way of
+saying "the perfect spirit of God." This is of intense interest. The
+Holy Spirit is represented as being before the throne.
+
+In the confidential talk with the inner group of disciples on the
+betrayal night, in John's Gospel,[98] Jesus promises that when He has
+ascended up to the Father He will send down the Holy Spirit to them.
+When the Spirit has come down to the disciples He will begin a new
+ministry of witnessing to the world through them.
+
+In the Book of Acts that promise is fulfilled. The Spirit comes down
+with remarkable manifestations on the day of Pentecost. The distinctive
+thing He does is to take possession of a group of men and form them into
+a new witnessing body called the Church. He had dwelt in the nation of
+Israel as a nation, and had been withdrawn from that nation when it
+proved finally faithless to its mission. He had dwelt in individual men
+before and during and after that time.
+
+At Pentecost He is sent down on a new mission. He is to do in men all
+that Jesus has done for them in His life and death and resurrection. But
+the distinctive thing of Pentecost is His forming this new body called
+the Church, through which He begins a new ministry of witnessing to the
+world.
+
+All through the Acts and Epistles He is constantly spoken of as here on
+the earth working in the Church and through it. He in the Church is a
+powerful restraint upon the powers of evil in the world. In
+Thessalonians,[99] Paul has spoken of a day coming when that restraint
+would be withdrawn. The Holy Spirit, the "One that restraineth now," is
+to be taken away.
+
+Now here the Holy Spirit is represented as being, not in the Church, as
+always in the Acts and Epistles, but as being "before the throne." This
+is the second significant thing to note in this scene. This also would
+seem to suggest the beginning of a new order of things.
+
+John goes quietly on with his description. Before the throne he sees a
+great expanse that looks like a sea of clear, bright, beautiful crystal.
+Before the throne and around about the throne are four living creatures
+or creatures of life. These living creatures are of intensest interest.
+They appear throughout the Scriptures from the Garden of Eden in Genesis
+to the very close of this Book of Revelation.
+
+They are also called cherubim and seraphim, that is, cherubs and
+seraphs. They are always associated directly with the immediate presence
+of God,[100] and with His presence-chamber, in the tabernacle,[101] in
+the temple,[102] and in Ezekiel's vision of a new temple,[103] and in
+the thought of the people.[104] There is one possible exception to this,
+where they are seen at the entrance to the Garden of Eden.[105] The
+description of them is most full in Ezekiel. It varies in details, but
+with the essentials always the same.
+
+The general appearance is that of a man, but there are four faces as of
+a man, a lion, an ox or calf, a flying eagle, and sometimes a cherub
+face. They are full of eyes everywhere, and they seem enveloped in the
+pure fire which everywhere is associated with God's own presence. These
+descriptions combined suggest perfection of purity, of intelligence, of
+obedience, and of power.
+
+In this book of the Revelation they are spoken of seven times,[106] that
+is, more frequently than in any other book, though not so fully as in
+Ezekiel. Five times they are leading or joining in the worship of God,
+by men and angels, and twice they are cooeperating with the Lamb or the
+angels in what is being done on the earth.
+
+These beautiful, intelligent beings seem to represent the whole animate
+creation, man, the animals intimately associated in service with man,
+those that roam at will, and the birds, and the angels. It would seem as
+though they stand for _God's ideal of creation_, as it was before the
+hurt of sin came, as He holds it in His heart, and as it will be after
+sin has gone. His ideal of a perfect and perfected creation is always in
+His presence and before His face, intelligently and gladly carrying out
+His will, reverently and joyously sounding His praise.
+
+It suggests that He will not rest content until His ideal for the
+creation shall be a sweet, full realization, all sin and rebellion
+removed and all His works uniting in joyous, continuous worship, and
+glad, harmonious obedience.
+
+
+The Significant Book.
+
+All this is interesting; some of it intense in interest. But it is only
+a setting. It is incidental. The chief thing is yet to be told. John had
+been told that he would be shown the things that would come to pass some
+time in the future. We come now to the beginnings of these "things."
+
+The One who is sitting on the throne has a carefully sealed book or
+document in his hand. An angel calls out loudly for any one who is
+qualified to do so to step forward and take the document and break its
+seals. And as John watches intently no one comes forward. No one can be
+found, either in the heaven, in earth, or in the region spoken of as
+under the earth.
+
+At this John is greatly distressed, and weeps much, so he must have
+understood at once just what this meant. And one of the elders comforts
+him with the assurance that there is One who has "_overcome_ to open the
+book, and the seven seals thereof," "the lion of the tribe of Judah."
+This word "overcome" suggests that this one has been in some great
+conflict and has gotten the victory and overcome all opposition. And
+this qualifies Him to take and open the document. He is the only one
+among untold numbers so qualified.
+
+And now John sees this One. He is standing in the very midst of the
+throne surrounded by creatures and elders. We easily recognize this as
+our Lord Jesus. He is a lion in leadership and strength. He is a lamb in
+gentleness of character, and in the sacrificial experience He has been
+through. The marks of death are plainly seen on His person.
+
+As He comes forward He reaches and takes the book out of the hand of the
+One on the throne. He is allowed to take it. His qualification to take
+the document and break its seals is acceptable to the One on the throne.
+
+And as He takes the book there is a remarkable burst of praise and
+adoration that must have made all heaven ring. And those on earth in
+touch of spirit with the scene and its purpose and the Chief Actor would
+surely feel some thrill in the spirit currents of earth.
+
+The outburst of worship is led by the four living creatures and the
+twenty-four elders who fall down before the Lamb and sing a song. What
+music that must be when the untold thousands sing as only redeemed ones
+can sing. Then countless hosts of angels join in and lift the chorus.
+And then there is the creation chorus, every created thing in heaven and
+earth, under the earth, in the sea, absolutely everything seems to join
+in this indescribable music. And the four living creatures say, "Amen."
+And again the elders fall down and worship.
+
+John's distress at the beginning, and now this indescribable outburst of
+praise, tell us that this is something thrilling and significant beyond
+expression. What does this mean, our Lord Jesus taking the sealed
+document preparatory to breaking its seals?
+
+It has been said in a previous talk that every thread woven into the
+fabric of the Old Testament can be found in the fabric of this
+Revelation book. So that if one goes to work patiently he can trace
+every allusion here to something back in these older leaves. This gives
+us the clue to the significance of this remarkable scene.
+
+That clue seems in this case to be found in the book of Jeremiah,
+chapter thirty-two. There is found an allusion to a simple primitive
+custom of the Hebrew people in the exchange of real estate and in taking
+possession of property to which one is entitled.
+
+The old Hebrew custom seems to have been as follows: When property was
+purchased the deed to the new owner was made out in duplicate, an open
+copy and a sealed copy. The open copy was clearly for public
+information, open to all. The sealed copy as clearly belonged only to
+the owner of the property as his evidence of ownership. So it identified
+him as the one named in the open copy.
+
+If a new heir comes to take possession of an estate, or in case of a
+dispute over ownership, the claimant who was adjudged the rightful heir
+or owner would be given the possession of the sealed document or deed.
+And as so attested by the judge or court, he only would be properly
+qualified to "take" the sealed roll, break its seals, read its
+contents, and so formally take possession of the estate, or property.
+
+Now under the symbolism of this old bit of Hebrew custom, our Lord Jesus
+is represented here as stepping forward to take possession of the earth,
+and begin His reign over it. A Hebrew immersed in the old primitive
+customs of his people in Palestine would understand this allusion at
+once, however startled or sceptical he might be as to its significance
+in this connection.
+
+
+Taking Possession.
+
+The language used in the song of praise when our Lord Jesus takes the
+sealed book is significant. They say, "thou art _worthy_," that is, thou
+art _qualified_; thou art the duly attested one with the right to take
+possession. "For thou wast _slain_, and didst purchase unto God with thy
+blood men of every tribe," and so on.
+
+Man had been given the dominion of the earth. He had by obedience to the
+evil one transferred his right to Him who is repeatedly called "the
+prince of this world." Our Lord Jesus _purchased_ men out of their
+slavery back to their original Lord,--with all that was rightfully
+theirs. He has allowed fullest opportunity for all who will to accept
+His Lordship. Now He is about to take possession of the earth on behalf
+of men, and for them.
+
+This is the tremendous significance of what John is shown here as
+something that will take place hereafter. In the scene of the
+candlesticks He is patiently waiting, holding Himself in restraint. Now
+the waiting time is over. He is making the next move in His broader plan
+for the earth.
+
+There is no hint as to the length of interval between the two scenes,
+how long He will wait. There is no suggestion as to when this next move
+will be made. But we are here plainly told that at some time that
+candlestick waiting time will end, and He will take a forward step in
+connection with His plans for the earth. And it should be keenly noticed
+that what follows now in this book of Revelation is the run of events
+that will immediately follow that next step of His.
+
+Yet this step is taken up _in heaven_. The first action of the new move
+will be there. There will be nothing to be seen on the earth to indicate
+the change. Things there will go on as before, eating and drinking,
+buying and selling, marrying and giving in marriage, all unconscious of
+the tremendous events being worked out.
+
+But now the waiting time still waits. Our opportunity is still open. If
+we might only be simple enough to be true to our absent Lord Jesus
+during this waiting time.
+
+A bishop of the American Episcopal Church, widely known for his saintly
+character, his culture, and long years of tireless service, was visiting
+in the South. In the town there lived a judge of wide repute for his
+scholarly learning as well as for his culture and uprightness. Now he
+was seriously ill, and had requested an interview with the bishop.
+
+He asked the bishop to talk to him about personal religion. And the
+clergyman talked to this thoughtful, scholarly judge in choice
+philosophical language about the fatherhood of God, the character of
+Christ, and the essential harmony of man's true nature with God. The
+judge listened attentively for some time.
+
+Then he apologetically interrupted his visitor, and said:
+
+"Bishop, I'm dying. Won't you please talk to me just like you'd talk to
+my black boy, Jim?"
+
+And the bishop could, and did. He told him in simplest talk that he was
+a sinner. Jesus died to save sinners. His blood washes away our sins. We
+must take Christ as a Saviour, just trust Him, as simply as a child
+trusts its mother.
+
+So he talked. And the judge listened. And the tears came, and the peace.
+He came as a child, and trusted, and he knew the peace that passeth
+understanding. It was the simple telling of the simple story of the
+Saviour who died, and the simple, child-like acceptance of that Saviour.
+The scholarly bishop helped the learned judge best, in the crisis of his
+life, by talking as simply as to a child.
+
+If we might only be simple enough to be true to this Jesus who died,
+during the remnant of waiting time that remains.
+
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[83] W. O. Cushing.
+
+[84] Rev. iii. 4-5.
+
+[85] Rev. iii. 18.
+
+[86] Rev. vi. 11.
+
+[87] Rev. vii. 9.
+
+[88] Rev. xix. 8, 14.
+
+[89] Rev. xix. 8.
+
+[90] Rev. vii. 14; xxii. 14.
+
+[91] Rev. ii. 10; iii. 11; I Corinthians ix. 25; II Timothy iv. 8; James
+i. 12; I Peter v. 4.
+
+[92] Matthew xix. 28.
+
+[93] Luke xxii. 30.
+
+[94] Rev. iii. 21.
+
+[95] Rev. v. 10; xx. 4, 6.
+
+[96] Hebrews i. 14 with Daniel vii. 10 and Psalm ciii. 20-21.
+
+[97] Rev. viii. 5; xi. 19; xvi. 18, 21.
+
+[98] John xiv.-xvi.
+
+[99] II Thessalonians ii. 6-7.
+
+[100] Ezekiel i. 4-28; x. 1-22.
+
+[101] Exodus xxv. 17-22; xxxvii. 6-9.
+
+[102] I Kings vi. 23-26; viii. 6-7; II Chronicles iii. 10-14; v. 7-8.
+
+[103] Ezekiel xli. 15-26.
+
+[104] I Samuel iv. 4; II Samuel vi. 2; xxii. 11; I Chronicles xiii. 6;
+Psalm xviii. 10; lxxx. 1; xcix. 1; Isaiah vi. 1-3; xxxvii. 16.
+
+[105] Genesis iii. 24.
+
+[106] iv. 6-9; v. 6, 8, 14; vi. 1, 3, 5, 7; vii. 11; xiv. 3; xv. 7; xix.
+4.
+
+
+
+
+VI.--A CLEARING-UP STORM IN THE REALM
+
+(Revelation, Chapters vi.-viii.)
+
+
+ "God Almighty! King of nations! earth Thy footstool, heaven Thy throne!
+ Thine the greatness, power, and glory, Thine the kingdom, Lord, alone!
+ Life and death are in Thy keeping, and Thy will ordaineth all:
+ From the armies of Thy heavens to an unseen insect's fall.
+
+ "Reigning, guiding, all-commanding, ruling myriad worlds of light;
+ Now exalting, now abasing, none can stay Thy hand of might!
+ Working all things by Thy power, by the counsel of Thy will.
+ Thou art God! enough to know it, and to hear Thy word: 'Be still!'
+
+ "In Thy sovereignty rejoicing, we Thy children bow and praise,
+ For we know that kind and loving, just and true, are all Thy ways.
+ While Thy heart of sovereign mercy, and Thy arm of sovereign might,
+ For our great and strong salvation in Thy sovereign grace unite."
+
+    --FRANCES RIDLEY HAVERGAL.
+
+
+The Area of the Storm.
+
+Goodness arouses evil. Faithfulness to Christ stirs opposition. This is
+a commonplace. A piece of white-hot metal plunged into cold water makes
+a great fuss. Two areas of sharply different temperatures in the
+atmosphere above us coming suddenly together make a storm.
+
+Purity entering an atmosphere of impurity and insisting on staying, and
+on keeping pure, creates a lively disturbance. The tempter was aroused
+to his subtlest effort when Jesus appeared. There is no such demoniac
+activity recorded as when Jesus walked among men.
+
+So crowning a king arouses opposition, if there be opposition. And the
+active taking of the reins of government has intensified the opposition
+when it was strong enough to make a stand. The striking illustration of
+this in the Bible is King David. After Saul's death the men of Judah
+anointed David king. That was the signal for an immediate attack by the
+chief of the forces of Saul's house. And this was succeeded by a long
+war, before David was acknowledged as king over all Israel. The
+clearing-up storm in his realm lasted a good while before good weather
+came.
+
+Here in this Revelation scene we have been looking at our Lord Jesus is
+represented as stepping forward to take possession of His realm. It is
+natural to expect a storm. This will be a signal to the opposition to
+rally all its power. But there can be no question about the outcome of
+such a set-to. That storm proves to be a clearing-up storm in the realm.
+It is to be followed by such fine moral weather as has not been known
+before. But the storm itself proves to be a terrific one for the earth
+while it lasts.
+
+The greater part of this little end-book is taken up with a description
+of that storm. But before we turn to this book itself and its storm, we
+want to get our bearings a bit, so as to understand better what is here.
+Revelation is the knot in the end of a big bunch of threads. We shall
+understand the knot better by knowing more about the threads before they
+are tied into the knot.
+
+The storm area proves to be very large. It takes in the whole earth. The
+Bible is a big book in its outlook and grasp. It deals with the whole
+earth, and the whole race. The thoughtful Bible student comes to have a
+broad outlook, as well as a close lookout about his own front and back
+doors.
+
+It is fascinating to study the geography of the Bible. We talk about the
+world growing smaller. That refers of course to the rapidity of
+transit. It is only within a few hundred years that we have learned of
+the earth being round. The Bible map includes practically the whole
+world as we have come to know it.
+
+The centre of the world as seen on this map may seem a little
+surprising. We Americans _feel_ that the centre of things is here. The
+Englishman _knows_ that it is in London; and lately the Germans have had
+the same exclusive sort of knowledge about Berlin. The Chinese has long
+called his country "the Middle Kingdom," in the sense of its being the
+central kingdom about which the rest of the world revolves. But here the
+centre is seen to be on the boundary line, practically, between Orient
+and Occident, reaching out an embracing arm to each.
+
+We have a broad division of the earth into East and West. The
+differences between the two, in civilization, mode of thought, religion,
+language, and so on, are so radical as to make it seem that there was no
+point of contact. At least this has been emphasized much by western
+writers on the East. We are disturbed just now here in the far West over
+the Oriental, Chinese Japanese and Indian crossing the _far_ boundary
+line between Orient and Occident and coming into the United States and
+Canada.
+
+Yet East and West have always overlapped at the _middle_ boundary line.
+There is a great mixture of races in the strip where the eastern edge of
+the West and the western edge of the East come together. It is the strip
+running roughly north and south where Russia's western border and
+Turkey's touch Germany and Austria and Greece, including the
+never-at-rest Balkan Peninsula. Constantinople sits on the dividing line
+between East and West, with the worst of both civilizations within her
+confines. Here the hemispheres touch and their life currents intermingle
+and flow together.
+
+Scientific research seems to find good evidence that all our European
+civilization, which of course means American too, may have been brought
+over by Eastern immigrants from central Asia long ages ago, Asia coming
+into Europe. Perhaps we Westerners would not despise the Easterners so
+contemptuously and patronizingly if we knew how much we are probably
+indebted to them for our civilization as well as for our Hebrew and
+Christian faith, our Bible, and the Christian restraining bulwarks of
+our common life.
+
+The old common point of contact between Orient and Occident was the
+strip of land forming the western edge of the Orient at the eastern end
+of the Mediterranean. Palestine has been for centuries the common
+roadway of all nations, East and West. No bit of earth has been so
+tramped and trampled by the feet of all nations and races. This has been
+the battlefield of the nations through long centuries. The ends of the
+earth have met here. It is interesting that the waters that wash its
+western shore are called the Mediterranean Sea, that is, the
+_middle-of-the-earth_ sea.
+
+Here then is the centre of the map. It is the centre of all things in
+the Bible. And it has proven to be at the centre of human action through
+history, attested by the very name given to the chief body of water
+there.
+
+Jerusalem, the capital city of this Palestine strip, was the centre of a
+world power in the early ages. It has been the world capital. And it has
+in turn been fought over and conquered by every world power. No city has
+been a world centre of action during as long a stretch of time, and to
+as many different nations.
+
+Out from this centre the action of the Bible reaches north to Russia,
+south to Africa (Ethiopia), east to China (Sinim, Isaiah xlix. 12), and
+west to Spain. That practically includes the world of our day. America
+is of course merely a transplanted seedling of Europe.
+
+Those great Hebrew leaders called prophets had a world outlook. They
+were world messengers. It is intensely interesting to take a piece of
+paper, and pencil a rough map of the nations named in their messages,
+notably Isaiah,[107] Jeremiah,[108] Ezekiel,[109] and Daniel.[110]
+Beginning at Jerusalem and Israel they reach first this way, then that,
+up and down, back and forth, until the whole world of action of that day
+has been touched. They were men of world size. They had a world outlook
+and a world message.
+
+But then God's man always has. The world outlook of Jesus was
+tremendous. And every true disciple of Jesus Christ has the world
+outlook. Grace broadens as well as refining. It is one of the endless
+outworkings of sin that tends toward that narrowing provincialism which
+everywhere hinders so much, and so intensely.
+
+Now in this world map in the Bible geography two cities stand out beyond
+all others, Jerusalem and Babylon; Jerusalem the centre of God's people
+and of God's plans, Babylon the centre of the opposing worldly power.
+These are the two outstanding cities of the Bible world.
+
+Between these two there is an enmity and warfare that is practically
+continuous. Jerusalem comes to be the typical of God's people and power
+and kingdom. Babylon stands out likewise as typical of the power and
+kingdom always and innately opposed to God and to His people. The
+conflict between the two seems irrepressible and irreconcilable. It is
+never out of view.
+
+Babylon has been the centre, under successive dynasties, of a world
+empire, including not only part of Asia, but reaching west to Europe and
+south to Africa. It sat practically in the connecting strip of Orient
+and Occident, ruling over both. In the dim dawn of history a
+God-ignoring, and so really a God-defying and man-exalting movement,
+centred in the city called Babel. And from that time on that city, and
+its successor Babylon, have seemed as though possessed with a spirit of
+antagonism to God and His people. It is as though it were the earthly
+headquarters of the blasphemous unseen evil forces.
+
+This is a simple bit of geography lesson in the Old Testament. This is
+the map that lies ever open in these older pages, with its two capital
+cities marked large. And this indicates the area of the storm, and the
+two central points where its outburst will centre.
+
+
+Studying the Weather Forecast.
+
+It is interesting to find a weather forecast of this storm. The old
+Hebrew prophets were close students of national and world-wide weather
+conditions, and much given to making forecasts of impending storms. Even
+in the New Testament there is this distinct prophetic or foretelling
+strain running throughout. The father of John the Baptist is told of his
+son's birth; and Mary, of the unusual birth of her divine Son. The
+disciples are told of the coming of the Holy Spirit. And Agabus tells of
+a great famine coming. In these instances the fulfilment follows soon
+after the event is foretold.
+
+The destruction of Jerusalem, foretold by Christ, had at least a part of
+its fulfilment in the terrible Titus siege of 70 A.D. Our Lord said that
+He would return to earth in great glory, and that there would come a
+great tribulation to all the earth, and repeated the old prophecy of a
+restoration of the Hebrew kingdom. These have not yet occurred.
+
+But the book of the Revelation is distinctively the prophetic book of
+the New Testament. It deals almost entirely with events that are yet to
+come. It would be natural that it would fit into the prophetic parts of
+the Old Testament. So that one who is somewhat familiar with the
+prophetic books of the Old naturally comes more intelligently to this
+prophetic book of the New.
+
+It is true that most of us have a sense of bewilderment about prophecy.
+We seem to feel that it requires great scholarship and profound study,
+and that an understanding of it is not possible to the common run of
+Christians. And so we largely leave it out as not understandable.
+
+Yet prophecy is simply God's plans for the future, together with a
+revelation of other events which are not in His plan, but which He sees
+will happen in the future. In it He tells us what He means us to
+understand. And more than this, our understanding will have practical
+bearing on our attitude toward evil and compromise. It will affect our
+faith, making it steadier, especially when evil seems triumphant and
+overbearing. It will make our prayer more intelligent and confident.
+
+There are certain things we all know. As we read back into these pages
+we know that the break-up of the Jewish nation, which began with the
+Babylonian Captivity, came to a terrible climax in a complete break-up
+after the rejection of Christ. We know that the other nations commonly
+called Gentiles (_i.e._, the nations) have had supremacy in the earth.
+Israel was at one time acknowledged as the great world power, with many
+subject nations, in Solomon's time.
+
+But Gentile supremacy begins back in the time of these Old Testament
+pages. There is to-day practically no belief that this will ever be
+changed, except perhaps by a stray Jew here and there, who still holds
+to his old Bible, and except by those Christians who discern God's plan,
+and believe both in Him and in it.
+
+In the absence of an understanding of that plan of God, it has been
+common to apply all the glowing prophetic Hebrew promises to the Church.
+The result has been that Israel and the Kingdom have been confused in
+our minds with the Church. And this has become the commonplace in the
+common Church consciousness.
+
+It is quite possible for the person of average good sense to get
+something of a simple, broad grasp of the prophetic books. It involves
+reading _repeatedly_ so as to get familiar with the contents, and
+_rapidly_ so as not to get too much absorbed in details.
+
+It is needful to use a common-sense interpretation in getting at the
+meaning. It is a simple law that one principle of interpretation should
+be applied uniformly and consistently to all parts of any one document.
+If I say arbitrarily, "this part is rhetorical; it doesn't mean just
+what it says, but something else; and this _other_ part means just what
+it says," clearly I am reading my own ideas and prejudices into the
+book.
+
+It is much slower, and takes more pains and patience, to keep at it
+until all parts gradually clear up to us, first this bit, then that,
+until part fits part, and all hang together. But there is great
+fascination in it, and one's reverence for this revelation of God's Word
+grows deeper.
+
+Of course there is rhetorical language here as everywhere. "The Lord is
+my shepherd" is clearly rhetorical. For God is not a shepherd, and I am
+not a sheep, but a man. But under this simple, clearly rhetorical
+language the tender, personal relationship God bears to me is
+beautifully expressed. That such language _is_ rhetorical is clear to
+every mind alike.
+
+And there is a picture language here, such as speaking of purity of
+character as "white garments." The honest, earnest, unprejudiced seeker
+after truth quickly recognizes these, and learns to become skilled in
+discerning what is meant. We come to see that Israel means Israel, not
+the Church. Jerusalem means that city in Judea, and so on.
+
+Of course it is needful that there be an _openmindedness_, a _humble,
+teachable spirit_, willing to accept the real truth, no matter how it
+may shake up one's prejudices and prearranged schemes of thought. And,
+above all, there should be a constant _prayerfulness_ of spirit, to
+learn just what our God is seeking to have us know. Of course there are
+depths here for the scholarly, profound minds. But we ordinary folk can
+get a simple, clear grasp of God's plan and revealed insight into the
+future if we go at it in this thoughtful, prayerful way. And it will be
+a great help to us to do so.
+
+
+Three Great Unfulfilled Events.
+
+Let us take a swift glance at these prophetic books of the Old
+Testament. It helps to remember the natural way in which these prophetic
+books grew up. These prophets were preachers and teachers. Here are some
+people going up to the temple service one day in Jerusalem. As they get
+near the temple they notice a little knot of people standing yonder at a
+corner listening to a man talking earnestly. Isaiah, fresh from the
+presence of God, is talking out of a burning heart to the crowd.
+
+A visitor from another part of the land says curiously to his companion,
+"What's that?" The other replies: "Oh, it's only Isaiah talking to the
+people. He is a good man, that Isaiah, a well-meaning, earnest man, but
+a little too intense, I fear." And they pass on to the temple service.
+By and by Isaiah stops. The moving congregation scatters. He slips
+quietly down to his house, and under the Spirit's holy, brooding
+presence writes down a part of what he has been saying. So there grew up
+the rolls to which his name is attached.
+
+In some such simple, natural way these prophetic books grew up, always
+under the Holy Spirit's guidance and control. They are full of intense
+fire, and of the homely talk of street and market and fireside. There
+are two sorts of these prophets, the preachers like Elijah and Elisha
+and those who wrote as well as spoke, and whose names are preserved in
+these books.
+
+There are seventeen of these little books. They fall easily into four
+groups. The _first group_ contains those belonging in the time before
+the nation was exiled. It is a period of about one hundred and fifty
+years, roughly, beginning in the prosperous reign of Uzziah and running
+up to the time when the nation was taken captive to Babylon. Isaiah is
+the most prominent prophet of this period, and with him are Hosea,
+Micah, and Amos, all of whom may have been personally acquainted; and
+also Zephaniah and Habakkuk.
+
+The _second_ is _the exile group_, Jeremiah preaching in Judah, before
+and during the siege, and to the remnant left behind in the land; and
+Ezekiel and Daniel bearing their witness among the exiles in the foreign
+land.
+
+The _third group_ is made up of those who witnessed after the people are
+allowed to return to their own land again. The writer of the second part
+of Isaiah probably preached to the people as the opportunity came to
+return to Jerusalem.[111] Haggai and Zachariah stirred up the returned
+people to rebuild the temple. Joel and Malachi witnessed probably a
+little later in the same period.
+
+The _fourth_ is the _foreign group_. Obadiah sends a message to the
+neighbouring nation of Edom; and Jonah and Nahum are sent with messages
+to Nineveh. If one will try to make a picture of these people and events
+by reading the historical books, and then watch and listen as the
+prophets talk, it will do much to make these prophetic books full of the
+native atmosphere in which they grew up.
+
+Now there are three things that gradually come to stand out in these
+prophetic books. Much of what is being said is of immediate application.
+It refers plainly to affairs being lived out then. Then certain things
+are plainly fulfilled in the coming of Christ. And again there is a
+great deal that clearly has never been fulfilled but is still future. It
+is the latter part that naturally is of intensest interest.
+
+Now in this latter part, dealing with the future, _three things_ stand
+out clear and sharp above the rest. There is to be judgment upon Israel
+for their iniquities. The changes on this are rung again and again. And
+this stands out as much in the preaching of the Captivity time, and of
+the Return, as before the Captivity. But in the midst of severest
+judgment there will be a _remnant spared_. The tree is cut down, but
+the stump is spared; and there is life in the stump. But above these
+there stand out these three things.
+
+_The first thing_ stands out big. It is the thing the nation never
+forgot. The believing Hebrew still clings to it. The wailers at the wall
+of Jerusalem to-day never forget it. It is this: there is to be a
+_future time of great glory for the nation of Israel in their own loved
+land_.[112] The kingdom is to be restored, but with a glory
+indescribably greater than ever known. This is the bright golden thread,
+thick and strong, running through from end to end.
+
+It will come through that spared remnant. The old stump will put out a
+new shoot. It will be through the coming of a great king, who will prove
+to be their greatest king,[113] and will reign not only over Israel, but
+over all nations as tributary to Israel, with Jerusalem as the capital
+city both of Israel and of the whole earth.[114] At its beginning there
+will be a gathering of Israel from among all the nations where they have
+been scattered.[115] To assist these scattered pilgrims to get to their
+own land, the tongue of the Egyptian sea on the southwest is to be
+destroyed; and the waters of the Euphrates on the extreme east are to be
+so scattered or dried up that men can walk over dry-shod.
+
+When the great king comes there will be genuine penitence among the
+people over their past sins,[116] and they will become a wholly changed
+people.[117] Israel will be a nation converted by the power of the Holy
+Spirit through the conversion of the people individually. There will be
+at this time a resurrection of God's people who have died.[118]
+
+The new reign and kingdom is to be one of great spiritual enlightenment
+to all nations.[119] There will be everywhere a new, remarkable
+openmindedness to God and His truth.[120] And there will be the same
+visible evidence of the presence of God at Jerusalem as when the pillar
+of fire and cloud was with them in the wilderness. That wondrous
+presence-cloud is to be always in view.[121]
+
+This sounds to our ears like the highly coloured visionary dream of some
+over-enthusiastic Hebrew. Yet this is a calm statement of what is found
+here. And be it keenly marked, it is a picture which the godly Hebrew of
+the old time never lost sight of. _This is the first thing_ that stands
+out in these prophetic pages.
+
+_The second thing_ stands out distinctly. Preceding this wondrous
+kingdom _the earth will be visited by terrible judgments_.[122] There is
+an awfully dark shadow before the blaze of light breaks out. A terrific
+storm will come before the sun shines out in its new strength. All
+nations will combine to make war against the Jew. Their forces will be
+gathered at Jerusalem.[123] At the head of the coalition will be a power
+called Babylon.[124] There will come a terrific battle, victory for the
+coalition will seem assured. The sufferings of the Jews will be
+indescribable.
+
+Then there will come a day never after to be forgotten. In the midst of
+the indescribable horrors of that battle, when things are at their worst
+for the Jew, then comes the deliverance. Suddenly Jehovah will appear
+out of the heavens, with a great company of holy ones. His feet will
+stand upon Mount Olivet to the east of Jerusalem. There will be a
+terrible earthquake, and an equally terrific shake-up of the heavenly
+bodies. The luminaries, sun, moon, and stars, will be darkened.[125]
+There will be terrible judgments visited not only upon the earth, but
+upon the evil spirit powers.[126] Repeated emphasis is put upon the
+judgment to be visited upon Babylon.
+
+All this will sound like a veritable fairy tale to many who are not
+familiar with this Book of God; the unlikeliest thing imaginable. Yet
+this is the thing seriously set forth throughout these old prophetic
+pages. I have given a few references in footnotes. But these few
+scattered passages of themselves will not give an adequate conception of
+what these pages hold.
+
+There is all the fascination of a novel, and immensely more and deeper
+fascination than any novel, in reading these prophetic pages repeatedly
+in the way already spoken of till their mere contents become somewhat
+familiar. Then taking paper and pencil, running through again, and
+drawing off patiently and carefully, item after item of these prophecies
+plainly not yet fulfilled, and then slowly and painstakingly put them
+together in what would be a simple, logical order.
+
+It will be helpful, in reading, to remember that it is a common thing
+with these writers to speak of a future thing as already past. It is a
+bit of the intensity that sees the thing that is yet to come as already
+accomplished. And one should discern between the immediate thing that
+may likely occur in that generation and the far-distant thing. A careful
+noting of the language will make the difference clear.
+
+This is the second thing that stands out, the visitation of judgments.
+
+Then there is _a third thing_. This terrible visitation of judgments
+comes in connection with, and at the close of, _a time of great
+persecution of the Jew_ by the nations. Jeremiah speaks of it as the
+time of Jacob's trouble,[127] and the Man of Fire tells Daniel that
+there will be a time of trouble _such as never was since there was a
+nation even to that same time_.[128] This persecution of the Jew, and
+the visitation of judgments on the earth as a deliverance from it, are
+connected with the setting up of the Kingdom.
+
+These are the three things that stand dominantly out in these prophetic
+pages as distinctly-future, the great Jew persecution unprecedented in
+intensity, the visitation of terrible judgments on the earth, and the
+coming of a glorious kingdom. And the three are connected. We know that
+no events have yet taken place that at all satisfy the language used of
+these three connected events.
+
+This is the simple outline of expected coming events with which the
+thoughtful reader of God's Word is supposed to be familiar. The reverent
+student of God's promises and plans and revelations would naturally have
+all this clear and fresh in his mind as he turns to open the pages of
+the prophetic book of the New Testament.
+
+
+Forecast of the Great Storm.
+
+Now it is _of intense interest_ to note that our Lord Jesus speaks of
+these same three things, at much length, and with much emphasis; the
+persecution, the visitation of judgments, and the kingdom. It came to me
+as a great surprise and with startling force when I realized, after
+gathering out this summary from the Old Testament, that the three things
+that stand out so sharply there are the very things Jesus speaks of here
+with such fulness and emphasis.
+
+He puts special emphasis on the time of persecution as of unprecedented
+horror and ferocity. He plainly indicates that this will be directed
+not only against the Jew, but against His own followers. Three times
+this talk of His on Olivet just before His death is given at much
+length.[129] That talk is given to a little group of Jewish disciples
+who have broken with the Jewish leaders, and who become the great
+leaders of the Church formed at Pentecost.
+
+He speaks of that terrible experience as "great tribulation,"[130] "such
+as there hath not been the like from the beginning of the creation which
+God created until now, nor ever shall be."[131] We shall find it spoken
+of in this book of Revelation as "the tribulation, the great one."[132]
+It has come to be spoken of commonly as "the tribulation" and "the great
+tribulation."
+
+With all this fresh in mind, a run back through the Old Testament brings
+out that it is spoken of there much more than we may have realized. The
+warning to Israel, at Sinai, as they made the covenant of allegiance
+with God, of the bitter punishment that would come if they were untrue,
+has seemed many times as though couched in very intense, almost extreme
+language.[133] But it is found to fit into these later descriptions of
+this great tribulation to come. That warning is repeated, in as intense
+words and with a greater fulness, by Moses in his series of farewell
+talks in the Plains of Moab,[134] and it runs through the song he left
+for their use.[135]
+
+The experiences of the people of Israel in Egypt are found to be an
+illustration of the coming experience at the end, great persecution and
+suffering, then great deliverance through a visitation of judgment upon
+their persecutors, and great revelation of God's glory following. And
+the experience of the three young Hebrew exiles in Babylon comes to
+mind. They went through the fire, seven times heated, and they had a
+marvellous deliverance, and then high promotion.[136]
+
+Certain Psalms shine with new light in the light of this terrible truth.
+Chief among these is the Ninety-first. Quite likely it grew up out of
+the experience of Israel at the last before leaving Egypt. It, of
+course, has its practical use in one's daily life. But the vividness and
+intensity of its meaning will probably never be realized as during the
+coming tribulation days. Nor will the exultant note running through the
+nine Psalms immediately following it be appreciated as by those
+experiencing deliverance when the tribulation is over. The Forty-sixth
+Psalm, and the Psalms of praise immediately following it, likewise seem
+to get new light.
+
+It is quite probable that very much, all through this Book of Psalms,
+will be understood and appreciated fully only by the generation of God's
+people that go through the tribulation and know the deliverance
+following. Much of the old Book of God is quite meaningless to the
+Christian who has had no tribulation _experience_. That is, I mean who
+has never known opposition in his Christian faith, or who has slipped
+easily along when there is opposition.
+
+The outstanding features in the Old Testament of this great experience
+are terrible persecution of the Jew, deliverance at the very worst pitch
+of extremity, by a visitation of judgment on their enemies, and by
+Jehovah coming in person for their deliverance; and then the great
+Kingdom following.
+
+The outstanding features spoken of by our Lord Jesus in His Olivet talk
+agree with this, but go much more into detail, especially about the
+tribulation. The tribulation will be _preceded_ by wars, rumors of wars,
+famines, earthquakes, and persecution. There will be many false
+religious teachers, many Christians untrue to their faith, and a great
+increase of wickedness. This is a sort of foreshadowing.
+
+The tribulation itself will find all this enormously intensified. It
+will _begin_ with some astonishing act of blasphemy in the temple in
+Jerusalem, run its terrible course, and close with a series of
+judgment-events, earthquake, heavens shaken, and great distress, ending
+in the visible appearance of the Lord Jesus Himself, out of heaven on
+the clouds. And this will be a signal for great penitential mourning
+among the people on the earth.
+
+This, then, is the simple, broad outline with which the thoughtful
+reader of God's Word would naturally be familiar as he turns to this
+prophetic book at the end to get our Lord's last message to His
+followers.
+
+
+Getting a Broad, Clear Outlook.
+
+As we turn now again to the book of Revelation it will help us to
+remember the general plan followed in its writing. It is like a series
+of dissolving views of the same scene, each of which lets us see the
+same thing from a different point of view.
+
+This is a simple teaching rule for getting a clear grasp of what is
+being taught. We are familiar with it in the Bible. The story of
+creation is told in the first chapter of Genesis, and then told again in
+the second chapter with details not given in the first, the two together
+presenting the complete story. The historical books of Chronicles
+present one view of the kingdom of Israel, the official. The books of
+the Kings give another look at the same period; and the prophetic books
+a wholly different view as seen by these rarely spiritually minded men
+of God. Daniel is shown four visions of future events, all covering the
+same general stretch of events, but with a fuller description, here of
+one part and there of another. The four Gospels are a familiar
+illustration of the same principle in teaching and story-telling. This
+is the plan followed here.
+
+I was impressed anew with the practical value of this method one day in
+St. Petersburg. We had gone to look at the panorama of the siege of
+Sebastopol, then on exhibition in a huge, round building. It will be
+remembered that the British and French allied themselves with Turkey and
+Sardinia in an attempt to restrain the encroachments of Russia on
+Turkish territory. The famous charge of Balaklava, immortalized by
+Tennyson, is remembered as the most stirring event of that war. Its
+chief event was the siege of Sebastopol on the Crimea peninsula, in the
+Black Sea.
+
+At the panorama we stood as though on a high central point in the city
+of Sebastopol, with the view spreading out in all directions. To the
+north lay the harbour with the Russian ships securely bottled in by the
+attacking fleets. To the west a body of French soldiers were retreating,
+hotly pursued by Russian troops, while in the distance British troops
+are hurrying to the relief of the French.
+
+Then we looked east, where the fighting was going on at close range, the
+wounded being carried away and the reserves hastening up to take their
+places. And again we turned to the south, where the battle raged
+fiercest. The face of the commanding officer stood out so vividly. And
+we almost shrank from the fierceness of the fire. And the smell of
+powder almost seemed stifling.
+
+And as I stood brooding afresh on the horrors of inhuman war, I was
+tremendously impressed that only by such successive views could I get
+such a grasp of that memorable siege. I had a more intelligent and
+vivid understanding of it than ever before.
+
+And so it is that we may get a simple, clear, and real grasp of the
+tremendous tribulation time that is coming, that it is presented to us
+in this fashion, first one distinct view, then another, and another,
+till some understanding of the whole begins to get hold of us.
+
+We have seen the Lord Jesus, in the vision in chapters four and five, as
+He comes forward to take an advance step. We have seen the tremendous
+outburst of praise in heaven as He steps forward. This step and scene
+are in heaven. The earth is wholly unaware of it _at that moment_.
+
+Now all that follows is connected directly with that advance step. This
+is the significant thing to get clearly fixed in mind. At the present
+time our Lord Jesus is still walking among the candlestick Churches
+watching and waiting. We are still in that waiting time. The Holy Spirit
+still dwells in the Church on earth.
+
+At some time in the future, no one knows, nor can know, just when, the
+Lord Jesus will rise up in readiness for an advance move. He will
+withdraw the Holy Spirit from the Church up into His presence again
+"before the throne." _Then in connection with this advance step_ there
+will occur on the earth the things spoken of in these pages following.
+This is the tremendous fact to keep clear, the immediate connection
+between these happenings on earth and His new move in heaven.
+
+We come now to these happenings on earth. There are seven distinct views
+given here in this section, chapters six to the end of the book. There
+is a great detail in description which it would be both instructive and
+interesting to study out. But we want to get at the essential things.
+And so we will give our time and thought to these essentials.
+
+Our Lord Jesus is represented as about to take possession of His realm.
+The first step is a dispossessing of the claimants in possession. This
+furnishes the key to what follows. The descriptions are of the process
+of cleaning out the evil forces. At the close of this we find Him taking
+possession (in chapter twenty) and reigning over the earth.
+
+These descriptions make it clear at once that this is the tribulation so
+much spoken of in these preceding pages. What follows fits so into what
+has been spoken of that the identification seems complete. The thing our
+Lord Jesus is revealing here tallies with what He had told John before
+on Olivet.
+
+There comes first a general description of the whole period (chapters
+vi.-vii.). Then follows a description of _how_ these happenings will
+come. It will be through the withdrawal of restraint and so the
+loosening out of evil (chapters viii.-ix.). During this whole period
+there will be a special faithful witnessing on earth, in the midst of
+the riot of evil, to God and His truth (chapter xi.).
+
+A detailed outline of the run of events follows, giving much additional
+information, picturing the rise and characteristics of the leader of the
+tribulation time, and the manner of its close (chapters xii.-xiv.).
+There follows this a description of the judgments and the supreme
+contest with which the period closes (chapters xv.-xvi.). There is a
+description of the organized system of evil, and then of the fall of the
+capital of the system (chapters xvii.-xviii.) And then follows the
+actual coming of our Lord Jesus, the setting up of the kingdom, and
+subsequent events (chapters xix.-xxii.).
+
+
+A General Look at the Storm and Its Close.
+
+We turn now to _the first_ of these.[137] It begins with a crowned One
+seated on a white horse going forth conquering and to conquer. This
+description agrees with the much fuller description of the Lord Jesus
+near the end of the book, as he goes to the earth for the decisive close
+of the tribulation.[138]
+
+This gives fresh emphasis to the fact that what follows is the direct
+result of His advance step. At once there follows on earth a time of
+war, famine, death, and of persecution to the death of God's people.
+There is no hint as to how long this goes on. It is brought to a close
+with an earthquake and an equally terrific disturbance of the heavens,
+the sun, moon, and stars, something unknown before.
+
+The utmost consternation is created on earth. All conditions of men,
+crowned kings, merchant princes, men of autocratic power financially and
+politically and socially, join with the humblest in hiding themselves in
+the great holes made by the earthquake. They feel that the time of
+judgment has come, and they are not ready for it.
+
+The description of their terror tallies remarkably with the prophetic
+language used by Isaiah,[139] even as the whole description fits into
+our Lord's Olivet talk. This is seen to be a general, rapid vision of
+the whole tribulation period.
+
+Then there follows what clearly seems to be a parenthesis fitting in
+just before the great earthquake. The earth and sea have been terribly
+torn up by the earthquake. This parenthesis begins with a command that
+the earth and sea be not hurt until certain things have taken place.
+
+This fits the two events of the parenthesis in just before the ruinous
+earthquake takes place. The two events are of a radically different sort
+from what has just been told. They are thus put by themselves, and the
+run of evil and of judgment upon it, put by itself, so keeping these two
+quite clear, following the general plan of the book.
+
+There are two events in this parenthesis. There is what is called the
+"sealing" of a certain number of the Hebrew tribes _on the earth_.
+Twelve thousand of each tribe are sealed, making a total of one hundred
+and forty-four thousand. The word "seal" is used in two senses in the
+Bible, as a means of fastening up a writing or roll, and, in the New
+Testament, commonly for the presence of the Holy Spirit in a human life.
+
+The seal in this second sense was a mark of ownership. Paul tells us
+that we are sealed with the Holy Spirit,[140] so indicating that we
+belong to the Lord Jesus, who gives us this evidence of His ownership.
+If this simple, natural meaning be taken here, it would mean that at
+this time the Holy Spirit has been poured out upon the Jew. The
+spiritual regeneration spoken of so frequently in the prophetic pages
+takes place at this time.
+
+The significance of the numbers should be noticed. Twelve is the number
+commonly used in the Bible, for corporate completeness, to indicate that
+a group is complete. Twelve times twelve would simply represent a fully
+completed corporate number. That is to say, upon the entire body of Jews
+then living on the earth the Holy Spirit is poured out, thus marking
+them once again as God's peculiar people, restored fully to favour after
+the long national rejection.
+
+The second event is of equally intense interest, indeed to us of
+non-Jewish birth it has yet greater interest. John is up in heaven. It
+is from that point of view that he sees. Now he is suddenly startled.
+All at once there appears before his eyes a group he had not seen
+before. He describes it as a great multitude, actually countless, out of
+all the peoples of the whole earth, a great polyglot polyracial world
+company.
+
+They are clothed in white, holding the conqueror's palm in their hands,
+and singing, making wondrous music. John is getting another taste of the
+music of heaven. And their singing is a signal for a fresh outburst of
+praise by the angels, the elders, and the living creatures. All this
+seems to occur suddenly, this appearance of this new company before the
+throne.
+
+John gazes spellbound, wondering who these are, and where they come
+from, and what this means. And he is told that these are they that come
+out of the tribulation, the great one, down on the earth. Then in a few
+exquisitely tender, heart-touching words their happiness is described.
+
+These two events occur just before the terrible earthquake and the
+shake-up of the earth's heavenly bodies. Just before the judgment that
+closes the tribulation this double event takes place, the conversion of
+the Jews, and the catching away out of the tribulation distress on
+earth, up into the presence of the throne, of the followers of our Lord
+Jesus.
+
+We remember that that great Jew, Paul, was converted by the appearance
+of Jesus in the heavens above him. We remember that in the Olivet talk
+Jesus says that His followers will so be gathered up to Himself at the
+time of His second coming. These two events, taking place here, tell us
+what has happened down on the earth. In his vision John, being in
+heaven, sees these things as they appear from above.
+
+This is the first view of the tribulation. It begins with the moment
+when our Lord Jesus up in heaven begins action, describes the
+characteristics of the tribulation on earth, and closes with the
+national regeneration of Israel, and the catching up from earth of
+Christ's true followers.
+
+
+Evil Let Loose.
+
+The _second view_ runs through chapters eight and nine. Chapters ten and
+eleven to the close of verse thirteen make a distinct parenthesis. And
+then this view is picked up again at eleven, fourteen, and runs to the
+close of that chapter. But this final bit in chapter eleven is merely a
+connecting link with what comes later. Practically the whole of this
+view is in chapters eight and nine.
+
+It closes with an earthquake, so connecting it with the final event in
+the first view. It begins with a period of prolonged silence, which
+would seem to answer to the hush in the great volume of praise in the
+first view, when the Lamb takes the sealed roll. So it carries us back
+to the same starting-point as there.
+
+There is first a striking scene before the throne, where John sees a
+golden altar. On this there is being offered incense, which is said to
+be added to the prayers of all the saints. Incense and prayers rise
+together before God. Then an angel pours some of the fire of this
+prayer-altar into the earth, and a storm follows. So these two views,
+first and second, have another common starting-point, the beginning of a
+storm.
+
+This is a very suggestive scene. The prayers of all the saints, both in
+earth and heaven, have a decided restraining influence over evil down on
+earth at the present time. At the close they will become a decisive
+influence in the cleaning-up process on earth, and the bringing in of
+the new order.
+
+Then follows a fourfold description of distressing events on earth,
+which are caused by fiery influences coming out of the heavens. The
+language used seems to make clear that it is through a loosening out of
+the powers of evil that the tribulation comes.
+
+In the picture language of the vision, "a great mountain burning with
+fire was cast into the sea," with injurious results to water, to life,
+and to shipping. A mountain is a common figure in the Bible for a great
+ruling power. So Israel is called by Isaiah.[141] The seventeenth
+chapter of Revelation speaks of seven kingdoms as seven mountains.[142]
+In Jeremiah, Babylon, which is spoken of repeatedly and typically as
+being the embodiment of evil and of opposition to God, is called: "O
+destroying mountain ... which destroyest all the earth, (I) will make of
+thee a burnt mountain."[143] It speaks here also of "a great star,[144]
+burning as a torch," that fell upon the rivers and makes them bitter as
+wormwood. These two things seem to suggest clearly that the great hurt
+done to sea and vegetation, to all life, and through the obscuring of
+the heavenly lights, is a result directly of the powers of evil having
+been loosened out.
+
+The long restraint upon evil through the presence of the Holy Spirit in
+the Church is now withdrawn in the withdrawal of the Spirit. His
+withdrawal is practically an answer to the tacit prayer both of world
+and Church. That prayer is being answered. The "One" who restraineth has
+been withdrawn. This it is that makes the tribulation on its negative
+side. The awful character of the demons from the pit is so utterly
+beyond human experience up to that time that there seem no adequate
+words to describe them.
+
+The Gospels are full of the awful activity of demons on earth in
+possessing men. In our own land there is not wanting plenty of evidence
+of men horribly possessed by demons. In the older countries of Europe
+this experience is much more marked. But it is in heathen lands that it
+is most marked, where even the very air seems charged with evil forces,
+as though these unseen demons swarmed about.
+
+Yet all this sort of thing is now under restraint. What it will mean to
+have that restraint withdrawn, and the horrid hordes here described free
+to do as they will, no imagination can depict. This is well called the
+first _woe_, and an awful woe it will be. Mercifully there is a time
+limit set on this demon activity.
+
+Following this comes the loosing out of another horde of demons, as
+difficult of description, and yet more terrible. They seem countless,
+yet there is a limit to their numbers. The supreme Hand is never wholly
+withdrawn. These have power to kill as well as to torment. This is the
+second woe. It is most strikingly noticeable that neither of these
+things has influence to make men penitent.
+
+The last item of this view is given in chapter xi. 14-19. The
+announcement is made that the sovereignty of the world is transferred to
+our Lord and His Christ. The temple of God is seen open, and some
+further action takes place, but the detail of it is reserved for another
+view. Such is the terrible sight in the second view of the tribulation
+time. Evil is loosened out, apparently unrestrained, and yet under
+restraint. This it is that makes the tribulation on its positive side.
+
+The parenthesis in the description of this view has been spoken of. It
+runs through chapters ten and eleven to the close of verse thirteen, and
+contains two chief things. The first is a little group of three items.
+There is a fresh description of our Lord Jesus as He is seen standing
+with one foot on the sea and the other upon the earth, and holding a
+little open book. Then seven thunders roar out. John is about to write,
+but is told not to. That terrific storm coming is far greater than can
+be told. Then comes the solemn declaration that there will be no
+further delay, but that at once shall be finished up this terrible time
+of judgment. Then follows a personal word to John. These three items
+make up chapter ten.
+
+
+God's Faithful Witnesses.
+
+Then comes the second thing, in chapter eleven on to verse thirteen,
+which proves to be _the third view_ of the tribulation. It shows that
+during the whole of this tribulation time there will be a special
+faithful witness being borne to God and His truth. As the Holy Spirit is
+being withdrawn from the Church, these two men begin their special
+ministry of witnessing.
+
+The place of that witness will be Jerusalem. But recent events will have
+brought a greatly diversified population to that city from all parts of
+the world. So that the witness becomes world-wide in its immediate
+reach, and probably in the reports of it that go out.
+
+While there is good reason for thinking that these two witnesses may be
+Enoch and Elijah, the two men of Bible record, one before the Flood and
+one after, who were distinctively God's witnesses, and were taken away
+without death, yet it is best not to stop over a matter that has been
+and is apt to be a matter of mere idle speculative talk.[145] The thing
+worthy of note is that as the Holy Spirit's distinctive witness is
+withdrawn there will be these two special witnesses sent to Jerusalem
+for a witness that will be world-wide in its extent and influence. Such
+is God's gracious patience and longsuffering.
+
+These two men are clothed in mourning as a part of their witness. They
+have miraculous power in protecting themselves against attack, and in
+withholding rain, and sending plagues among the people, and in turning
+water into blood, to give force and effect to their testimony. Their
+witness continues through twelve hundred and sixty days.
+
+John had already been told that Jerusalem would be trodden under foot by
+the nations for forty-two months. We are apt to think that it has been
+trodden under foot or desecrated by the nations for an immensely longer
+period. But prophecy never gives any reckoning of time for Israel,
+except when Israel is an organized nation. It is concerned with telling
+Jewish _national_ events.
+
+At this time the Jews have their national organization again in
+Palestine. For forty-two months after the nation has been newly set up
+the city will be so trodden under the desecrating feet of the nations.
+This is the first hint of time we have had. The witnessing and the
+desecration of the holy city will continue side by side for three and a
+half years.
+
+At the end of this period evil will be given full swing over these
+witnesses. They are killed and their bodies left lying in the streets,
+while the international crowds make merry because their tormentors, as
+these two are called, are gone. Then before the terror-stricken gaze of
+these crowds the two men come to life, and are caught up into the
+heavens. Is this the moment when all are caught up? Quite possibly. Then
+comes the terrible earthquake as at the end of the other two views.
+
+The one distinctive thing told here is that during the tribulation, in
+the midst of all the blasphemous reign of unrestrained wickedness, there
+will be the unbroken, faithful witnessing. This seems to explain why the
+account comes as a parenthesis in the account of the awful riot of evil.
+During the worst of the evil there will go on unbroken the faithful,
+gracious testimony of God's truth and love.
+
+
+The Lawless Leader.
+
+_The fourth view_ takes the longest sweep of any, thus far, goes into
+much more detail, and gives much fresh information. It runs through
+chapters twelve to fourteen. In the intensely picturesque language of a
+woman arrayed in the most glorious splendour and dignity and power
+imaginable the nation of Israel is depicted.
+
+This woman is with child. In more intensely dramatic language Satan is
+pictured as standing before the woman waiting to destroy her child as
+soon as born. The child is born, a man-child, who is to rule all the
+nations with autocratic sway. He is caught up to heaven, and his mother
+flees into the wilderness from the serpent. This is the opening action
+of this view.
+
+The meaning lies open on the face. Israel gave birth to the man Jesus,
+who foiled all the attacks of Satan and ascended to heaven. The old
+prophetic characteristic of connecting events far apart without
+reference to intervening time is marked here. The long interval between
+the break-up of the Jew nation and its taking shape again as a nation,
+which has lasted nineteen hundred years roughly, comes between the last
+word of verse five and the first word of verse six.
+
+The prophetic writing takes no reckoning of Israel, except as a nation.
+The woman fleeing into the wilderness is Israel organized again as a
+nation suffering persecution. She is so persecuted for twelve hundred
+and sixty days, but divinely protected and preserved. Such is the first
+act of the drama pictured here.[146]
+
+Then we are told _why_ the woman flees, that is, the explanation of this
+special persecution of the Jew this time.[147] Satan has had his
+headquarters somewhere in the heavens, below God's throne, but above the
+earth. Now, after a conflict, he is cast out of heaven, down to the
+earth. Here is a third event that comes approximately at the beginning
+of the tribulation time, Satan is cast down to the earth.
+
+The Holy Spirit is withdrawn from the Church up to heaven, so removing
+the restraint upon evil. Satan is cast out of heaven and comes down to
+earth. Thus there is a double intensifying of evil on the earth, the
+withdrawal of restraint, and the presence of the evil one himself. And
+as the witness of the Holy Spirit is withdrawn the special witness of
+the two men in Jerusalem begins.
+
+The defeat of Satan in this heavenly conflict draws out a burst of
+praise from the upper hosts. It is because of the great victory of our
+Lord Jesus in His death that this victory is gotten. They overcome
+because of the blood of the Lamb, _and_ the word of their testimony,
+_and_ they loved not their lives unto death,--a threefold cord that
+could never, and can never, be broken or successfully resisted.
+
+This explains the special persecution at this time of the reshaped
+Jewish nation. It is the outburst of the rage of the freshly defeated
+Satan. But the Jew is protected. The armies that would swallow the Jew
+up are swallowed up by the great earthquake that closes the tribulation
+time.
+
+The length of this persecution is put in two different ways, twelve
+hundred and sixty days, and "time, times, and half a time." This latter
+phrase seems to be an old Oriental or Hebrew way of saying a year, two
+years, and half a year. The same length of time is expressed in yet
+another way in the eleventh chapter, forty and two months. The time is
+thus put in three different ways, that we may know surely that it means
+just plain three and a half years of our common time. It is significant
+that the dragon makes war with "the rest" of the woman's seed. This can
+only mean the Church, which of course was born in the Jewish nation.
+This is the first run of events in this view.[148]
+
+Then follows a description of the awful leader of evil during the
+tribulation time.[149] It is significant that, as Satan is cast out of
+heaven down to the earth, this leader appears among men. He has great
+intelligence and power and is the very embodiment of blasphemy. He is
+described as a strange mixture of wild beasts, having the chief
+characteristic strength of each, the cunning of the leopard, the feet of
+the bear, and the mouth of the lion.
+
+He is the personal representative on earth among men of Satan. There is
+something strangely uncanny in the suggestion that he is some former
+leader, who died, and is now raised from the dead. There seems to be
+nothing too daring for Satan to attempt in his impious opposition to
+God. This leader comes into great prominence and power. All the world
+wonders after him. And they worship Satan, who is recognized as giving
+his power to this notorious leader.
+
+He comes to be accepted as the world ruler, and is commonly worshipped
+by the people. And he not only persecutes God's people, but overcomes
+them. A limit of time is set to his sway. It is the same as already
+noted for Jerusalem being desecrated, for God's two witnesses, and for
+the persecution of the Jew, _i.e._, forty and two months, three and a
+half years.
+
+It is striking that in the midst of the description of his terrible
+reign there comes a word that sounds like an echo from those messages to
+the Churches. "If any man hath an ear, let him hear."[150] Then the word
+goes on warning, pleading, and encouraging. In the midst of these
+blasphemous conditions every man must do as he personally decides. He
+may yield to this evil and become a captive of evil, bound hand and
+foot. He may try to use the world's weapons in fighting God's battle,
+but will find himself outmatched in their use. He may rise to the true
+level, and steadfastly cling to his faith, and endure, and by faith be
+victorious in the end.
+
+The description goes on to tell of the blasphemous worship demanded of
+all. This leader has an assistant or lieutenant to whom he deputizes
+great power. He makes an image to his chief, and demands all to worship
+at this shrine. He has supernatural power, that is, devilishly
+supernatural. He performs great miracles, even calling down fire from
+heaven. He gives breath to the image and makes it speak. And he punishes
+with death any one who refuses this blasphemous worship to the leader
+and his image. And every one is required to have a mark on his hand or
+his forehead as indicating his loyalty to the leader. Whoever refuses is
+unable to buy or sell. It is the boycott principle carried to the last
+extreme.
+
+While God's two witnesses are doing miracles by divine power this
+lieutenant is doing them by devilish power. So the fearful account goes
+on. One can easily imagine the vast crowds swayed by the idolatrous
+worship, and the intense suffering and distress among those who insist
+on being steadfast and true in their faith.
+
+Now in the midst of all this terrible scene John is suddenly and
+tremendously startled by something else.[151]
+
+In the vision John is in heaven looking down on these scenes on the
+earth. Now his attention is attracted by a scene that suddenly takes
+place before his eyes in heaven. It is a scene of wondrous winsomeness
+and beauty. It stands out in sharpest contrast with what is going on on
+the earth.
+
+There's a great company standing around the Lord Jesus, before the
+throne. They are singing a wonderful song to the accompaniment of harps,
+which they have. The volume of music is like the voice of many waters,
+or like great thunder. There is a simple, fine description of the
+character of these singers. They are _pure_, and they are _obedient_. In
+their purity they are as undefiled virgins, the highest possible
+statement of purity. And they follow the Lamb unquestioningly
+whithersoever He goeth with fullest obedience.
+
+Who are these, and where have they come from so suddenly, at this
+moment, into the presence of the One on the throne? The description
+tells just what has happened. When things are at their devilish worst
+down on the earth the Lord Jesus has caught up His own from the earth.
+And they have become like Him in character, for now they see Him face to
+face as He is.
+
+This recalls the scene, essentially the same, back in the first view, in
+chapter seven, where the great multitudes are suddenly seen before the
+throne with palm branches, songs, and white garments. It is the same
+company as there. But there is a difference in telling the numbers.
+_There_ they are too many to be counted. _Here_ they are said to be a
+hundred and forty-four thousand. It is symbolical, a picture number,
+the number of full corporate completeness as with the Spirit-baptized
+Jews in chapter seven.
+
+The believers caught up out of the great tribulation have been joined by
+the trusting hearts of all time who have been waiting in the Father's
+presence for this glad day. The number is now complete of all from
+creation's earliest dawn, who by grace have followed fully, regardless
+of hindrance or opposition. This great climax is thus seen by John in
+sudden and sharp contrast with the climax of hellish evil on the earth.
+
+Then John is shown the steps by which this climax is reached.[152]
+Verses six to the close of this chapter seem clearly to be a detail of
+what has gone before, describing the steps by which this climax is
+reached, and then reaching further to the judgment upon the evil. During
+the iniquitous scenes being enacted on earth an angel is seen flying in
+mid-heavens calling to the people on earth, in warning, to give their
+worship and reverence to God only. The gracious wooing of God never
+ceases.
+
+Another angel follows, calling out that the great system of iniquity, in
+which they are enmeshed, is doomed. A third gives solemn warning that
+those who yield to the terrible pressure, and engage in the blasphemous
+worship, will be surely and terribly punished. Again there comes another
+echo of the strain of pleading in the Church messages. In the midst of
+just such conditions as prevail then, the saints can be steady in
+keeping the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus.
+
+And down into the awful persecution being waged comes an encouraging
+voice from heaven. There is special blessing from God on all those who
+remain true, even unto death. There will be sweetest rest for them, and
+their faithful witnessing and suffering shall be all noted and
+acknowledged and rewarded as they come up into the Father's presence.
+
+And then follows the blessed harvest of the righteous whose wonderful
+arrival in heaven has already been told in the opening scene of this
+chapter. And then follows the awful harvest of evil down on the earth,
+the visitation of judgments coming at the very end of the persecution.
+
+So closes this long remarkable view of the tribulation. It connects back
+with the nation of Israel. Its beginning is connected practically with
+the casting of Satan down to earth. It gives a description of the leader
+and the nature of the persecution, and a brief statement of the steps
+with which it ends. And it states in three different ways that the
+length of time involved is three and a half years.
+
+
+A Bitter Cup to Its Dregs.
+
+_The fifth view_[153] is, not of the whole tribulation time as with
+these others, but of only a part, the closing part. It speaks of the
+visitation of judgments, the great climactic battle, and the
+earthquake, with which the period is brought to its end.
+
+It connects at the point in the fourth view[154] where those who have
+been suffering in the tribulation are seen standing before the throne
+singing with harps. It is said that they are singing the song of Moses,
+who had the experience of tribulation and deliverance in Egypt, and the
+song of the Lamb, who went through the worst tribulation experience in
+His contest with Satan and sin on our behalf.
+
+It connects also with the close of the second view,[155] where the
+temple is seen opened and the ark of the covenant is seen. That covenant
+is now to receive further fulfilment. God never forgets His promises and
+agreements. Seven angels have seven golden bowls full of the wrath of
+God. In this way is told the visitation of judgments now described as
+taking place at this time.
+
+In the first view the picture is of _seals_ being broken or opened,
+which indicates the execution of a document. The _trumpets_ of the next
+view indicate a commanding call to action; the seven _thunders_, not
+written, a great storm. These _bowls_ or vials indicate the
+administration of a dose of bitter-tasting medicine. The visitation of
+judgments by God is commonly spoken of in Scripture in this
+language.[156]
+
+Then follows the description of the judgments upon men's persons, and
+everything concerning their life. Men's bodies are diseased, the water
+is unfit to drink, the food supply cut short; they suffer with terrible
+heat, and then darkness. But there is no penitence. The Euphrates is
+said to be dried up, suggesting that it is the great river at or near
+the world's centre of action. So, it is said, the way is prepared for
+the kings that come from the east.
+
+And the prophetic bit in Isaiah comes to mind about men passing over the
+Euphrates at the time of the great gathering of the Jews.[157] As though
+aroused by all this to bitterest opposition there is increased demon
+activity, and through it a great gathering of all nations, at a place
+named in Palestine, for a great battle.
+
+Then a terrible climax comes in the earthquake, with which the first,
+second, and third views closed. It is the worst earthquake ever
+experienced. It centres in "_the_ great city," Babylon, the capital of
+the whole system of wickedness. With the storm is a terrible hail. The
+description tallies with that in the close of the first view,[158] and
+with the vivid prophetic bit in Isaiah ii. 10-22.
+
+There's no suggestion of how much time all this takes. The judgments
+visited on Egypt at the deliverance of Israel are described at much
+greater length, running into ten items. Yet all could have occurred
+within five weeks, allowing for brief intervals. Whether these
+judgments occur in succession, or all at once, or partly in both ways,
+they could all come within a very short time. This fifth view depicts
+the final scene. It gives the visitation of judgments ending the
+tribulation period, describes a great pitched battle, in which all
+nations are involved, and ends with the earthquake. This is the third of
+the three great woes.[159]
+
+_The sixth view_ is of the great system of wickedness in the world,
+through which the tribulation comes, and which is judged at its
+close.[160] The description is full of details of great interest and
+instructiveness, but we can only have time at present for the essential
+thing being taught. The Spirit takes John into a wilderness. To the
+Spirit's eye wherever wickedness has sway, whether vulgar or polished,
+political or commercial, cunning or brazen, it is a wilderness.
+
+Here is shown a woman gorgeously clothed, prodigally bedecked with
+jewels, and having a cup in her hand, made of gold, but full of vile
+filth. Upon her forehead appears a description: "Mystery [or explanation
+of mystery], Babylon the great, the mother of harlots and of the
+abominations of the earth." This woman is riding upon a strange beast;
+it is scarlet-colored, with seven heads and ten horns, and full of
+blasphemous names. This is the startlingly suggestive picture.
+
+Who is this woman? And what is this beast upon which she is seated? The
+whole description taken together suggests that she is meant to stand
+for the whole system of wickedness which has had such sway in the world
+from earliest time until the end. And the beast represents typically the
+dominant governmental powers. The two have always worked together. There
+has been a consistent unity of spirit and of characteristic, and a
+persistent devilishness marking the wickedness in the world throughout
+the ages.
+
+It has been as though there were an unseen spirit power tirelessly at
+work _behind_ all the varied manifestations of evil. The dominant
+characteristic always has been blasphemy of God. It has controlled
+thrones and royal power, and has had unlimited gold at its command. And
+it has always been an enemy, subtle or open, cunning or violent, of God
+and His people.
+
+That system or genius of evil is represented in the Old Testament as
+finding expression in one great political power after another, but
+chiefly in the power of Babylon. Babylon stands typically in these older
+pages, not merely for the great empire of the Euphrates, but for the
+unseen spirit of evil lying behind that power, and making use of it to
+carry through its own foul purposes.
+
+But that unseen evil spirit power has found more than one agency to
+dominate and use. Babylon long since passed off the stage as a political
+factor. But the power of evil has not ceased. It is distressing to note
+another great organization behind and through which the power of evil
+has worked. What is the system that has, for the past sixteen
+centuries, been supported by the various great civil governments?
+
+There is only one answer. It is the organization known as "the Christian
+Church." And the term Church must be taken here in its fullest, broadest
+meaning. Its great main stem historically is the Roman Catholic Church.
+The first great split-off was the Greek Orthodox Church. The Church of
+England was a later break-off. These, with the various government-ally
+supported Churches, and those free of such support, and various ancient
+primitive bodies,--these all together make up the organization known as
+"the Church."
+
+The two symbolical characteristics of this woman and the two dominant
+characteristics of this historical Church are the same. The Church has
+been and is supported almost wholly by the civil governments, and used
+by them in furthering their policies. And it has been active in
+persecuting to death the people of God who would not yield to its
+domination. It has been marked by intolerance of all not yielding to its
+wishes, and especially of the Jew. That intolerance has been carried not
+only to the extreme of blood, but a riot of bloodshed. This is utterly
+heart-breaking to realize and to repeat.
+
+The woman is said to be "drunken (1) with the blood of the saints, and
+(2) with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus." The twofold statement is
+seen to cover the two great periods, before Christ and since. And it
+covers also the two great powers through which the spirit of evil has
+chiefly worked in those two periods. But the name given first in the
+plains of Shinar, and used characteristically of the God-defying power
+of evil, is given here, Babylon. It will be Babylon again at the very
+end after the Church system is overthrown.
+
+It is plainly said that the beast represents the great civil or
+governmental power in its final stage, the shape it will be in at the
+end when these events occur.[161] The chief dominating political power
+of the world will have passed through a succession of changes, seven
+kingdoms successively following each other. At the end there will be a
+combination of some sort, with ten great subdivisions, and one great
+head over all.
+
+But at the last, the civil power will discard the Church, and persecute
+it. The spirit of evil thus gets embodiment typically in the great
+Babylon power, then in the Church, and at the very last, in a coalition
+of civil powers heading up in a new Babylon.
+
+Then follows announcement of the fall of Babylon. The city is regarded
+here as the earthly capital of the organized system of unseen evil
+spirit power at work in the world. The city and the system are
+inseparably allied. The name Babylon is used in the Bible for both
+system and city.
+
+If the question be asked what city is meant here, there can be but one
+answer. From the twelfth of Genesis on the Bible never touches history,
+except as history touches Israel as a nation. A thoughtful review of the
+book makes this clear. And this book of Revelation is a gathering-up of
+Bible threads, and only these. There is only one city in the Bible
+record that answers to the description here, "the great city which
+reigneth over the kings of the earth." "Babylon _the_ great."
+
+But the old Babylon lies in ruins. And its ruined condition has been
+quoted as the fulfilment of the famous passage in Isaiah xiii. 19-22. It
+should be carefully noted that the present conditions at the site of old
+Babylon do not seem to satisfy fully the language of that passage. It
+would seem to be another illustration of the rare use of language in the
+Bible, which adapts a passage accurately to one event, and then to a
+second event, a long time afterward.
+
+This would, of course, involve the rebuilding of the old capital of the
+Euphrates. The reverent student quietly notes the movements taking place
+in that part of the world, but restrains mere curious speculation, as he
+continues fervently to pray, "Thy kingdom come."
+
+This eighteenth chapter of Revelation seems like an echo of that intense
+twenty-first of Isaiah, and indeed of a strain sounding all through the
+prophetic books. One familiar with the old writings is not surprised to
+find this echo; he expects it. No echo of God's voice or purpose is ever
+lost. God never loses any of the threads out of His hand.
+
+
+Hallelujah! He Comes.
+
+_The seventh view_ presents the climax. It includes from chapter
+nineteen to chapter twenty-two, verse five. It presents in full the
+great scene that closes this tribulation period; touches the kingdom in
+a bare word so as to fit it into its place in the scheme of events being
+outlined; and then gives the final wind-up after the Kingdom time is
+over. We want to look now at the portion connected immediately with what
+has just gone before, the description of the wondrous close of the
+tribulation, in chapters nineteen, verse one, to twenty, verse three.
+
+John hears a great outburst of worship and praise in heaven. It
+resembles the outburst back in chapter five, when the Lamb took the
+book. But it is seen to be yet greater than that. Its joy and delight
+seem wholly unbounded. Again the living creatures and the four and
+twenty elders lead the song that bursts out.
+
+John tries to tell how great was the volume of adoring song that fills
+all heaven. It is like the voice of a great multitude, like the waters
+that he had heard many a time breaking in deafening roar on the rocky
+coast of Patmos, like the mighty thunders which he had heard so much in
+these visions.
+
+And the song they sang explains the exuberance of their singing,
+"Hallelujah: for the Lord our God, the Almighty _reigneth_." At last He
+_reigneth_. In the earlier parts of the book God is spoken of as "He
+who is and who was, and _who cometh_."[162] As later events are
+described that last part "who cometh" is significantly dropped.[163]
+Clearly at these points being described He has come. Now the great
+realization bursts out from countless voices, the Lord, our God, the
+Almighty _reigneth_!
+
+And John is bidden to write the words whose refrain has filled such a
+place in hymns and devout speech, "Blessed are they that are bidden to
+the marriage supper of the Lamb." And the one who seems to be serving as
+John's guide puts peculiar emphasis on all that is being revealed by
+saying, "these are true words of God."
+
+John is so overwhelmed that he falls down to worship this one. And then
+he finds that this is one of his own redeemed brothers of the earth. And
+as He quietly bids John give his worship to One only, He adds very
+significant words: "the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy."
+The whole genius and soul of all this wealth of prophecy is to point men
+to our Lord Jesus Christ, God to us.
+
+And now comes the event toward which the ages have looked. _The heavens
+open._ And _our Lord Jesus appears_ coming in glory to earth. At last He
+comes. There's a wonderful description. He comes as a conqueror, riding
+forth to judge the earth righteously, and to make war on evil. His eyes
+are as a flame of fire, and upon His head many diadems. He has a name
+indicating that He is all alone in the experiences He has been through,
+and in His character. He comes as King of kings and Lord of lords, to
+rule all the earth with a new absolutism, to right all wrongs, and visit
+the indignant wrath of God upon all sin.
+
+As He appears an angel gives warning of what is coming. In words that
+are an echo of Ezekiel's, long centuries before, he calls to all the
+scavenger birds of the earth that haunt battlefields to come to a great
+feasting time.[164] And John sees the vast armies of the nations of the
+earth all gathered together for a last mighty battle, under the
+leadership of the great leader of lawlessness and his lieutenant.
+
+And the utter impotence of their struggle against God is revealed in the
+quietness and brevity with which their defeat and capture are told.
+Satan's great earth leader and his chief who deceived the people with
+his miraculous power, both are taken and forever put away. And then
+Satan himself is chained and fastened securely in the abyss. Such is the
+tremendous consummation quietly told in a few lines. And then follows
+the setting up of the glorious kingdom on earth.
+
+Whatever the immediate circumstances under which the Second Psalm was
+penned, it will be readily seen how it fits into this situation at the
+end.
+
+ "Why do the nations tumultuously assemble,
+ And the peoples meditate a vain thing?
+ The kings of the earth set themselves,
+ And the rulers take counsel together,
+ Against Jehovah and against His Anointed, saying,
+ 'Let us break their bonds asunder,
+ And cast away their cords from us.'"
+
+But their efforts seem so puny, and the result so one-sided, that
+
+ "He that sitteth in the heavens will laugh:
+ The Lord will have them in derision."
+
+And we remember that, in these Revelation pages, it is always with the
+sword of His mouth that the Lord Jesus is said to fight, as we read on:
+
+ "Then will He _speak_ unto them in His wrath,
+ And vex [or trouble] them in His sore displeasure; [saying]
+ 'Yet I have set _my_ King
+ Upon my holy hill of Zion.'"
+
+Then the Son speaks:
+
+ "I will tell of the decree:
+ Jehovah said unto me, 'thou art my Son;
+ This day have I begotten thee.
+ Ask of me and I will give thee the nations for thine inheritance,
+ And the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession.
+ Thou shalt break them with a rod of iron;
+ Thou shalt dash them in pieces like a potter's vessel.'"
+
+And the writer of the Psalms closed with a word of earnest counsel to
+the kings of earth:
+
+ "Now therefore be wise, O ye kings:
+ Be instructed, ye judges of the earth.
+ Serve Jehovah with fear,
+ And rejoice with trembling [awe],
+ Kiss the Son, lest He be angry, and ye perish in the way,
+ For His wrath will soon be kindled.
+ Blessed are all they that take refuge in Him."
+
+Thus it is seen that these seven views describe (1) the general
+characteristics of the tribulation time; (2) the way in which it comes,
+that is, by the withdrawal of restraint and so the loosing of evil; (3)
+the faithful witness being borne throughout the period; (4) the great
+evil leader and the character of the persecution he wages; (5) the
+visitation of judgments upon earth with the great gathering of nations
+to battle against God; (6) the world system of evil; and (7) the coming
+of our Lord Jesus to judge evil and set up the kingdom.
+
+
+Still He Waits.
+
+It will at once be noted that these things group up, naturally and
+easily, under _three headings_. First, there is a terrible _persecution_
+of God's people. This will end in a _visitation_ of _judgments_,
+including great plagues. There will be a gathering of the armies of all
+nations, and a great battle. It will end in a decisive defeat for them
+by the personal coming of the Lord Jesus, and will be accompanied by a
+terrific earthquake and an equally terrific shake-up of the heavenly
+bodies connected with the earth, sun, moon, and stars. Then comes the
+establishment of the _Kingdom of God_ upon earth. These three things
+stand dominantly out.
+
+It comes as a surprise to one who has not been thinking especially about
+it, to find how these three things are the same three that stood out so
+prominently at the close of the study of future items in the old
+prophetic books. It is natural that it should be so, of course, since
+the Book of God is one in its essential unity.
+
+But there is a great fascination in finding the parts to come together
+so simply and naturally. As we gather up the Old Testament pages these
+three things sift out and group together as distinctly not yet
+fulfilled, and so future. As we listen to our Lord Jesus talking, again
+these same three items are emphasized by Him. And now the same three are
+found here.
+
+Dr. A. F. Schauffler tells of a striking experience he had in connection
+with his mission work in New York City. A letter came to him from a
+stranger in Germany. It said: "I know you are a city missionary. I am
+sending a trunk in your care. Inclosed in this letter you will find a
+piece of paper cut. A man will come and present to you a piece of paper
+matching this piece. Please give him the trunk." And enclosed in the
+letter was a piece of paper cut in zigzags.
+
+Letter and paper were laid away to await developments. Some weeks later
+a stranger came in and presented a queerly cut piece of paper, saying:
+"I think you have a piece that matches this." Dr. Schauffler got out his
+piece of paper, laid the two side by side, found that they matched, and
+said to his visitor: "There's your trunk."
+
+Even so these prophetic pages of the New Testament are found to fit
+exactly the pages of the Old, written centuries before. It is not
+surprising, however. One hand cut the paper into two pieces in Germany,
+and naturally they fitted when put together in New York. One Hand has
+guided the men writing in both Old and New.
+
+When Jeremiah was first called to his work as God's messenger he was
+shown in vision the branch of an almond tree. The almond tree is the
+earliest of all trees to wake from its winter's sleep at the first hint
+of spring warmth coming. And so it was called the "watching" or
+"watcher" tree. Then God said to Jeremiah: "Even so, I eagerly watch
+over my word to bring it to life and fruitage at the very earliest
+opportunity."[165] And so the word of this watching God and its
+fulfilment match, regardless of the thing we call time, even running
+into centuries.
+
+And it is very helpful for those of us who have had a sort of dread of
+prophecy as of a vague something that we can't understand, to find after
+all how simple it is. Just three great items stand out of these
+prophetic pages that are waiting fulfilment.
+
+Such is the seven-fold view, which is taken up almost wholly with the
+clearing-up storm in the King's realm. But all this is still future. We
+are still in that waiting time. Our Lord Jesus still stands among the
+candlesticks. Still He is waiting for His Church to be faithful. He
+still waits for each of us who is a bit of His Church. He is depending
+on us to be faithful, by His grace, day by day, during this waiting
+time. And while He waits _all His limitless power is at our disposal_,
+as we follow His leading. We may take as much as we need. But the taking
+must be with the life.
+
+A dear missionary friend told of a simple experience that meant much to
+him. We were walking together in the town in Korea where his mission
+work is. His school was the centre of the recent troublous times in
+Korea, and the storm seemed to rage about his own person at its
+outburst. As we talked all his native teachers and several of his older
+students were in prison. The experience he told me was of earlier days
+in this country, but had come back to his memory as a great refreshment
+during the troublous times.
+
+He was a professor in a small college in our Middle West. Special funds
+were being raised, for extension. He was to ask a certain man of wealth
+for a large donation. He planned and prayed much, and at last went to
+see the man in another city by appointment. He had a keen sense of the
+responsibility of his task.
+
+As he entered the building where the man's office was he was greeted
+cordially by a young man whom he remembered as a former student, to whom
+he had been friendly in some time of minor need. But he had not
+connected him in his mind with this wealthy man, whose son he was. Now
+as the former student learned of his professor friend's errand, he said
+with all the confidence of a son on good terms with his father:
+
+"Come right in; father's here."
+
+As they stepped into the man's office the son said, simply:
+
+"Father, this is an old friend of mine. He's all right. Give him
+whatever he wants."
+
+And the father, busy at his desk, with barely a look at the appointed
+visitor, reached one hand over for his checkbook, and simply said:
+
+"How much do you want?"
+
+My friend, taken completely by surprise at the unexpected turn of
+events, managed to name the large sum he had been thinking and praying
+over so much. And before he could quite recover from his surprise, he
+found himself outside walking up the street with the coveted check in
+his pocket, praising God for such an answer to his prayers. It had been
+years before, but as we walked and talked it all came back with a fresh
+flush of feeling.
+
+The present is a waiting time. It may seem to some as though they are in
+the wilderness. Clear and distinct comes a quiet voice:
+
+"What'll you have? Whatever you choose to ask, for My Son's sake."
+
+May we reach out to take as much as He is reaching down to give. But the
+taking must be with the life.
+
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[107] Isaiah xiii.-xxiv.
+
+[108] Jeremiah xlvi.-li.
+
+[109] Ezekiel xxv.-xxxii., xxxviii.-xxxix.
+
+[110] Daniel, throughout, notably vii.-xii.
+
+[111] The book of Isaiah falls naturally into two parts, chapters
+i.-xl., and xli.-lxvi. The historical allusions in each make it quite
+clear that these two parts belong in two periods far apart. One hundred
+and eighty years intervene between the close of the time stated in
+Isaiah's first chapter as the period of his ministry and the beginning
+of the return from exile into which the second part fits.
+
+But the full inspiration of the second part is in no wise affected. This
+rarely Spirit-controlled man modestly or unconsciously withholds his
+name from his writings. And they are grouped by the old Hebrew compilers
+with those of Isaiah.
+
+[112] Isaiah ii. 2-4.
+
+[113] Isaiah xi. 1-9; xxxii. 1-6.
+
+[114] Micah iv. 1-8.
+
+[115] Isaiah xi. 11-16; xxvii. 12-13.
+
+[116] Zechariah xii. 10-14.
+
+[117] Jeremiah xxxi. 8-19, 33, 34.
+
+[118] Isaiah xxvi. 19; Daniel xii. 2.
+
+[119] Micah iv. 1-2.
+
+[120] Isaiah xxv. 7
+
+[121] Isaiah iv. 2-5.
+
+[122] Isaiah xxiv. 1-13, 17-20; ii. 12-19; Micah vii. 15-17.
+
+[123] Zechariah xii. 1-9; xiv. 1-2.
+
+[124] Isaiah xiii. 1-13.
+
+[125] Zechariah xiv. 1-8.
+
+[126] Isaiah xxiv. 21-22; xxvii. 1.
+
+[127] Jeremiah xxx. 7-8.
+
+[128] Daniel xii. 1.
+
+[129] Matthew xxiv.-xxv; Mark xiii; Luke xxi.
+
+[130] Matthew xxiv. 21, 29.
+
+[131] Mark xiii. 19.
+
+[132] Revelation vii. 14 literally.
+
+[133] Leviticus xxvi. 14-39.
+
+[134] Deuteronomy xxviii. 15-68.
+
+[135] Deuteronomy xxxii.
+
+[136] Daniel iii.
+
+[137] Chapters vi.-vii.
+
+[138] Chapter xix.
+
+[139] Isaiah ii. 10-22.
+
+[140] II Corinthians i. 22; Ephesians i. 13; iv. 30.
+
+[141] Isaiah ii. 2.
+
+[142] Revelation xvii. 9-10.
+
+[143] Jeremiah li. 25.
+
+[144] Revelation viii. 10, see also ix. 1; Isaiah xiv. 12-15.
+
+[145] In regard to Elijah, see Malachi iv. 5-6. John the Baptist came in
+the spirit and power of Elijah, and of him our Lord said, "this is he
+who was to come."
+
+Yet the events of judgment spoken of in Malachi did not take place when
+John the Baptist and Jesus came. The events spoken of prophetically in
+connection with His coming are divided into two groups, those of
+graciousness, finding fulfilment at the first coming, those of judgment
+followed by graciousness, at the second coming. So John the Baptist
+fulfils the Elijah part at the first of these two; in all probability
+Elijah himself at the second part, _i.e._, "before the great and
+_terrible_ day of Jehovah come."
+
+In regard to Enoch, the passage in Jude, verse 14, is of significance.
+The language, "Enoch prophesied, ... the Lord _came_, etc.," is probably
+spoken in the sense, familiar in the Bible, of a future action seen as
+already done. Here Enoch is spoken of as prophesying or preaching, _not_
+to the people before the Flood, but to a certain class of men belonging
+to Jude's generation, that is to the Church generation. The likeliest
+meaning of the words is that Enoch, the seventh and so on, _will_
+prophesy, saying, "behold the Lord _cometh_," and so on to close of
+verse 15.
+
+[146] Revelation xii. 1-6.
+
+[147] Revelation xii. 7-17.
+
+[148] Revelation xii.
+
+[149] Revelation xiii.
+
+[150] Chapter xiii. 9-10.
+
+[151] Revelation xiv. 1-5.
+
+[152] Revelation xiv. 6-20.
+
+[153] Revelation xv.-xvi.
+
+[154] Revelation xiv. 1-5.
+
+[155] Revelation xi. 19.
+
+[156] Psalm xi. 6; lx. 3; lxxv. 8; Job xxi. 20; Isaiah li. 17, 22, 23;
+Jeremiah xxv. 15-17; Ezekiel xxiii. 31-33; Habakkuk ii. 16; Zechariah
+xii. 2.
+
+[157] Isaiah xi. 15-16.
+
+[158] Revelation vi. 15-17.
+
+[159] Revelation xi. 14.
+
+[160] Chapters xvii. and xviii.
+
+[161] Revelation xvii. 8-12.
+
+[162] Revelation i. 4, 8; iv. 8.
+
+[163] Revelation xi. 17; xvi. 5.
+
+[164] Ezekiel xxxix. 17-20.
+
+[165] Jeremiah i. 11-12.
+
+
+
+
+VII.--THE CROWNED CHRIST REIGNING
+
+(Revelation, Chapters xx: 4-xxii.)
+
+
+      "On this side of the river and on that was the tree of life,
+      bearing twelve fruits."
+
+ "A garden is a lovesome thing, God wot!
+         Rose plot,
+         Fringed pool,
+         Ferned grot--
+   The veriest school
+ Of peace; and yet the fool
+   Contends that God is not--
+ Not God! in gardens! when the eve is cool?
+   Nay, but I have a sign;
+ 'Tis very sure God walks in mine."
+
+
+Day Is Coming.
+
+It's a long lane that has no turning. Every valley leads up a hillside
+to a hilltop. Every storm ends in sunshine at the last. Every night runs
+out; the dawn _will_ break; the new day comes; the shadows flee before
+the new shining. The battle for right will end in victory, and in a
+decisive victory. There'll be no draw here. Faith wins at last. It's
+been a long night of fighting. Sometimes it seems endless.
+
+The man in the thick of the fight, with moist brow, and clenched hand,
+and quick breath and throbbing heart, sometimes sobs out the prayer, "O
+Lord, how long before the night is over, and the dawn breaks?" And
+quietly through the smoke and din of the conflict a still, small voice
+says, "Steady, my child, steady; the day is surely coming, and with day
+victory; steady, steady a bit longer."
+
+Now here in vision the fight is over, the victory won. And God's visions
+always become realities. The vision is yet for the appointed time, and
+it panteth breathlessly toward the realization, and will not fail nor
+delay. Though it tarry, wait for it; it will certainly come on time; it
+will not be late.[166]
+
+In the seventh view the kingdom follows immediately that decisive
+conflict and the putting of Satan out of the way for the time being. The
+redeemed ones at once begin their blessed service of fellowship with the
+King in reigning over the kingdom. Emphasis is placed on the fact that
+at this time there has been a resurrection of believers. And these
+resurrected ones join with those caught up without death in
+administering the kingdom. This kingdom is said to last for a thousand
+years, that length of time being named only here, and here six times.
+
+There is much talk in our day about the kingdom. All Christendom has
+been repeating for nineteen centuries the petition, "Thy kingdom come."
+It will be of intense and practical interest to see just what the
+kingdom is, as pictured in the Bible. It is barely mentioned in this
+place in Revelation, to fit it into its place in the scheme of future
+events being outlined.
+
+But it is the chief theme in these old prophetic pages, around which all
+others group. Immediate historical events furnish the setting, but there
+is a continual swinging to the coming future greatness. The yellow
+glory-light of the coming kingdom is never out of the prophetic sky.
+Jeremiah is the one most absorbed in the boiling of the political pot of
+his own strenuous time, but even he, at times, lifts his head and gets
+such a glimpse of the coming kingdom as causes him to mix some rose
+tincture with the jet black ink he habitually uses.
+
+
+The Kingdom Picture.
+
+Let us look briefly at the kingdom picture of these older pages. Its
+capital is Jerusalem, which becomes the world capital. It will be the
+joy of the whole earth. Israel will be the first nation of the earth, to
+which all others will be tributary. But it will be not the Israel of
+these old pages, nor the Jew as he is known characteristically
+throughout history. Israel will be a new nation, made new in character
+by the power of the Holy Spirit. The winsome picture of the baptized
+crowds at Pentecost gives an inkling of the spirit that will sway the
+new nation.[167] They will be a nation of radiant faces and thrilled
+hearts.
+
+The effect of this upon all other nations is marked. Through Israel's
+regeneration and new leadership, every other nation is to know a new
+spirit life. The outpouring of the Holy Spirit upon Israel is to be
+followed by an outpouring upon _all_ flesh. Pentecost is merely a
+beginning of what is to be universal. There will be a widespread
+voluntary coming to Israel for religious instruction. She becomes the
+world's teacher until the knowledge of God covers the whole earth as the
+waters cover the sea. But all this will be purely a voluntary movement
+among the nations. There will be war no longer, but universal peace.
+
+There's one part of the picture specially comforting. That vast
+majority, _the poor_, will be specially guarded and cared for. There
+will be no hungry people, nor cold, nor poorly clad; no unemployed
+begging for a chance to earn a dry crust, and no workers fighting for a
+fair share of the fruit of their toil. But there are yet tenderer
+touches on the canvas. Broken hearts will be healed, prison doors
+unhung, broken family circles complete again.
+
+A recent issue of The Sunday School Times tells a simple, touching
+incident of a mission hall in Korea. A Korean woman living in the
+country heard of the wonderful things happening there, and came to town
+to find out for herself, and get some help. But she didn't know where
+the hall was, nor what name it was called. So she inquired on the
+streets for the place where they _cured the broken heart_. And at once
+she was directed to the mission hall. That sort of thing will become a
+blessed commonplace in the beginning of the kingdom time.
+
+Then there are certain radical changes in _nature_. Splendid rivers of
+waters are to flow through or by Jerusalem, suggesting radical changes
+in the formation of the land there. That fortress city, on the hilltop,
+Jerusalem, becomes as the world's metropolis, a mighty city, with rivers
+floating a world's commerce. The light of sun and moon will be greatly
+intensified, so influencing the fertility of the earth. Before their
+healing light and heat, in the newly tempered atmosphere, all poisonous
+growths, the blight of drought, and suffering of untempered heat, will
+disappear.
+
+And with this goes a change in the _animal_ creation. Hate will be gone.
+And so beasts that are dreaded because of their ferocity and treachery
+and poisonous power will be wholly changed. There will be mutual
+cessation of cruelty to animals by man, and of danger to man by animals,
+for all hate and violence will be gone.
+
+And some one raises his eyebrows sceptically and says, ironically, "What
+fairy tale, what skipper's yarn, is this?" Well, I frankly confess that
+I don't know anything about this matter, except what I find in this old
+Book of God. But I confess, too, that I try studiously to get a
+common-sense, poised, Spirit-enlightened understanding of what this Book
+does tell. And then I accept it, and go by it, regardless of
+probabilities or improbabilities. It may seem like a fairy tale, yet it
+is only the picture of the coming kingdom soberly set forth in these old
+pages.
+
+As we turn to the Gospel pages we find the kingdom to be the chief thing
+Jesus is talking about. The Gospel days are sample days of the kingdom
+in the personal blessings bestowed. Read through these accounts of blind
+eyes opened, the lame walking, the maimed made whole, the dumb singing,
+the distressed in whatever way relieved, the ignorant instructed, the
+sinful wooed, and the bad of heart and life being blessedly changed.
+
+All this is a taste of the kingdom. Jesus was wooing men to accept King
+and kingdom. To-day, as in all Church time, bodily healing is a
+privilege for those who can take it, and a gift for the rare few who can
+be entrusted with it. In these Gospel pages it was freely bestowed on
+multitudes, and the gift exercised with power by many. Even so it will
+be in the kingdom time.
+
+Most of the parables are found to be connected in their first meaning
+with explaining about the kingdom. The kingdom will follow the law of
+growth that is common in nature, sowing, waiting, cultivating, and
+reaping.[168] Its influence will spread gradually until all feel its
+presence and power.[169] It must meet and deal with the obstacles
+presented by different men's temperaments and dispositions and
+temptations.[170] There will be opposition, gradually overcome, but
+never fully.[171] Many will be carried along by the current of the day.
+It will be a good current, for righteousness will be the common thing
+then. But in their hearts many will long for something else, something
+different.[172]
+
+But to many, the new blessed kingdom message will come as a treasure
+accidentally stumbled upon, not being looked for, but now valued as very
+precious.[173] To others it will come as _the_ thing they have been
+eagerly seeking for, and which satisfies the deepest yearnings.[174] One
+who has had any touch with the pathetic yearning of years found in
+non-Christian lands can better appreciate the results of this kind in
+these glad coming days.
+
+The _characteristic spirit_ of the kingdom stands sharply out in
+contrast with the dominant spirit of our own time. The kingdom is said
+to belong peculiarly to those who are "poor in spirit," in whom
+self-assertion and pride have quite gone out, leaving them humble and
+lowly in heart. The meek will inherit the earth, and will take down all
+the walls and fences, for all conditions of life are radically changed.
+The penitent man or woman will be freely received regardless of their
+past, while the proud will find the doorway too low for their unbending
+heads.[175]
+
+Rewards in the kingdom will not be given as a matter of merit, as in our
+present endless cutting and rivalry, but will be thought of wholly as
+evidence of the graciousness of the King.[176] And yet more striking,
+the rewards given will be the privilege of serving, some more, some
+less, according as they have become skilled in serving.[177] He who
+serves most truly will be given preferment.[178] The thing prized above
+all else will be glad obedience to the King.
+
+It will be seen that the kingdom is to be a time of world-wide
+evangelization. Indeed this is _the purpose_ of the kingdom. There are
+two periods of world-wide evangelization in our Lord's planning. The
+present is the Church time of such evangelizing. This is, of course, the
+true main objective of the Church. This is the reason for the Church's
+existence, to take the message of a crucified risen Christ to all men,
+that so the way may be prepared for His return, and through that for the
+next period of evangelizing.
+
+The kingdom period of world-wide evangelization is under radically
+different conditions. Then the evil one will be removed from the scene
+of action, the Holy Spirit will have been poured out upon all flesh, and
+so the moral veil now upon men's eyes will be removed. The Jews, with
+all their characteristic aggressiveness and perseverance, now
+intensified by the Holy Spirit's presence, will be a nation of
+missionaries to all the earth. The redeemed ones in their resurrection
+bodies will have the blessed privilege of helping. And over all will be
+the presence and supervision of the King, our Lord Jesus Himself. That
+will be world-wide evangelization in earnest.
+
+Such is a faint glimpse given in both Old and New Testaments of the
+kingdom spoken of in these Revelation pages in such few words. Almost
+the whole Bible lies back of those few words. What a time it will be for
+this old earth! With renewed fervour our hearts repeat, "Thy kingdom
+come."
+
+
+The Final Crisis of Choice.
+
+But it is made clear at once to John that the kingdom is not an end in
+itself. It is a means to an end, a wonderful means to a blessed end. It
+is startling to find that after that long blessed reign the evil one is
+to be loosed out of his prison-abyss. This seems at first flush too
+startling to be credible. But on reflection the reason becomes plain,
+and reveals the strength as well as the tenderness of God's love.
+
+All through the kingdom time there are those who are in heart opposed to
+this new order of things. They long for the leeks and onions and garlic
+of the old eating. There will be some yielding only a feigned allegiance
+to the King.[179] That dragnet of the parable has gathered some fish
+that didn't want to be caught, and want a chance to get away to their
+own native waters again.[180] The tares of another parable are left in
+with the wheat until the end reveals which is real wheat and which
+really tares.[181]
+
+The one thing God longs for is love. And that only is love which is the
+free outpouring of the heart. He longs for love as our free choice. This
+is the image of God in which we have all been made. We are most like God
+in _power_, in the right of free choice. We are most like Him in
+_character_ when we use our power as He uses His; when we choose what
+He chooses for us. And so there must be a final time of sifting and
+choosing.
+
+Here is the strength of love, that dares loose Satan out that so we must
+choose in the face of opposition. For faith isn't faith except it can
+stand the fire test, the friction fire test of opposition. Here is the
+tenderness of love, that longs to have a return love as pure and free as
+its own, and so gives fullest opportunity for it to be revealed and to
+grow.
+
+So Satan is loosed out for his tempting work. And another great world
+crisis comes, and another great settlement; this the final one. The
+devil, his beastly Antichrist and false prophet, are put out of the way
+forever.
+
+A great dazzling throne is set. And One sits on it with a face of
+indescribable glory. Then comes the second resurrection, of all those
+not included in the first resurrection a thousand years before. This is
+a judgment of _all who have died_, with the exception already noted. The
+judgment of the living spoken of in Matthew, twenty-five, probably is in
+connection with the closing scene of the great crisis, just before this
+judgment of the resurrected dead, or possibly in connection with this
+judgment. This is the final judgment.
+
+Gladness and distress mingle in reading the account: gladness that the
+contest, age long, is over; distress to find that for some there is what
+is described briefly but with terrible intensity, in the words, "the
+lake of fire." Yet there is still comfort in noting the language used
+of these,--"_if any_."[182] It is not the language of a great
+multitude, but rather of an incorrigible scattered and scant minority.
+
+
+Home at Last.
+
+And now for the seventh time in this last vision John says, "I saw." Bit
+by bit the view opens up before his eyes, from the coming of the Lord
+Jesus out of the opened heavens, on and on, until now the final view of
+all bursts in a winsome glory before his astonished, delighted eyes.
+
+God's own ideal, that He has been carrying in His heart, is pictured.
+That ideal is that He and man shall dwell together as a family. The
+ideal is not a Church nor a Kingdom. These are merely great means to a
+greater end. The ideal is the family, all dwelling together in sweetest
+harmony and content, with a common board, and a common fireside in the
+twilight of the day, and all the sweet fellowship that these stand for.
+
+John sees a new heaven and a new earth, the old heaven and earth gone,
+and with them the separation of the wide sea gone forever, too. He sees
+the holy city, Jerusalem, made over new, coming down out of the new
+heavens to man's new dwelling-place, the new earth. It presents a
+wondrous, joyous appearance as of a bride adorned for her husband.
+
+Then a great voice out of the throne speaks of this ideal in the heart
+of God for Himself and His friend, man. "Look! God has pitched His tent
+down amongst men, and they shall be His peoples, and He will be their
+God." He will live with them as a Father-mother-God, personally caring
+for each one, Himself wiping away every tear from every eye. A single
+tear and a single pair of eyes will be enough to claim His personal
+attention at once.
+
+His presence insures the absence forever of death, and mourning, and
+pain, and crying. The dirge music has sung its last song. The minor
+chords are gone. All the old things of a sorrowful sort are quite gone.
+And as John looks He that sitteth on the throne makes the glad
+announcement, "_Behold, I make all things new._" And John is bidden to
+write all this, for "_these words are faithful and true_."
+
+And again the One on the throne seems to look eagerly forward to His
+ideal as already actually accomplished: "They are come to pass." And to
+let John feel the certainty of it all He says, "I am the Alpha and the
+Omega, the beginning and the end." The power that has done all from
+creation's morn will complete all clear to the end.
+
+And then the tenderness of that highest love which finds expression in
+the personal touch comes out in the next words: "I will give unto him
+that is athirst of the fountain of life freely." The smallest need of
+any one will have His personal thought and attention, and they shall
+have the best there is, and have it in abundance.
+
+And the old pleading that runs like a strain of music throughout these
+pages comes again: "He that _overcometh_ shall inherit these things. I
+will be His God, and he shall be my son," and so entitled to the
+inheritance.
+
+Then plainly, clearly, with all the honesty of love, comes the warning
+of the terrible outcome for those who refuse His tender love. It is most
+significant that this most winsome picture at the end of the book
+contains the dark, black shadows, which remain in the picture at the
+end.
+
+All this is spoken directly to John by God Himself. It is not sent by an
+angel, or by a redeemed human messenger. It comes to John direct with
+all the force and tenderness of a word spoken to him out of the very
+heart of God.
+
+And now an angel carries John off to let him see this that is called
+both a bride and a city. And from the top of a high mountain John looks
+out and sees a most wonderful city, coming down out of heaven from God,
+filled and flooded with the glory of God.
+
+And the best language that earth knows anything about is used in the
+attempt to describe this city ideal. Its dimensions are perfect in
+proportion and in their outer relations. Its foundations are adorned
+with the costliest, most precious stones, the walls are built of jasper,
+and each gate is one immense pearl; but the city itself is builded of a
+gold as transparent as pure glass. Israel and the Church are as sweet
+memories of past days, recalled now by gates and foundations.
+
+But these are passed by in noting the outshining glory of the presence
+of God. In the simple language which has become so imbedded in the heart
+and imagination of the Church, "the city hath no need of the sun,
+neither of the moon, to shine on it; for the glory of God did lighten
+it, and the Lamb is the light thereof." And the winsome description goes
+on. The nations walk in this wondrous light of God's presence, and the
+kings of earth bring glad tribute of their glory into it. "And the gates
+thereof shall in no wise be shut by day, for there shall be no night
+there." "And there shall in no wise enter into it anything unclean, or
+he that doeth an abomination and a lie, but only they that are written
+in the Lamb's book of life."
+
+In the midst of the city is a river of water of life clear as sparkling
+crystal, flowing out from the throne of God and of the Lamb. On each
+side of the river is the tree of life yielding continual fruitage. And
+the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations.
+
+And the heart never fails to respond with a quickened beat to the lines:
+"His servants shall serve Him; and _they shall see His face_; and His
+name shall be in their foreheads;"--that is, His character shall shine
+out of their faces. "And there shall be no night there; and they need no
+candle, neither light of the sun; for the Lord God giveth them light.
+And they shall reign forever and ever."
+
+Such is the heart-touching, heart-gripping tale of God's ideal for man,
+His creature and companion and friend. All the best that the city
+stands for of human life, and all the best that the country, typified in
+the garden, stands for, are forever blessedly joined. And in the
+midst--_Himself_, and gathered about Him His redeemed ones, as children
+about a father, in a union and fellowship cemented by the heart's blood
+of God, never more to be put asunder.
+
+
+The Master's Last Words.
+
+And John closes the book with a few personal paragraphs. The vision is
+complete. Now come the closing words. For the third time John is
+solemnly assured, "these words are faithful and true." And again comes
+the voice as of some One always standing by as John is being shown,
+"Behold, I come quickly." And again the words with which the book begins
+come to seal all its impressions,--blessed is he that reads, and
+prayerfully seeks to understand the simple message, and who sets himself
+to live his life in the light of this simple tremendous message.
+
+And John is significantly told _not_ to _seal up_ the message. Daniel
+had been told to seal up the message given him, for it would not come to
+pass until the latter days after great intervening events had taken
+place.[183] But there are no intervening events before this message is
+to come true. It has been possible for the fulfilment to come in any
+generation since John saw and wrote. It is yet more possible, growing
+distinctly toward the probable, that these things shall come in our
+generation. The words remain open, waiting an expectant fulfilment. They
+are not to be sealed up but openly proclaimed, for the time when it is
+possible for these things to work out is at hand. This is a present
+practical issue.
+
+And meanwhile, during these days of the waiting time each one who reads
+or listens, however reluctantly, to the message, will follow the bent of
+his own deliberate choice, but with ever increasing intensity. The pure
+will become more pure; the bad yet worse. There's no standing still as
+we listen.
+
+And again come the solemnly repeated words: "Behold, I come quickly."
+His coming is the next step in the great plan. There were then, and
+there are now, no great intervening events to be worked out, and waited
+for. His coming is imminent. It is a thing to be expected. And He brings
+with Him the wages due each one.
+
+And like the signature of certification at the book's beginning,[184]
+comes now the personal signature at its close: "I am the Alpha and the
+Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end." So He
+personally certifies to us the absolute accuracy and reliability of this
+message.
+
+And with the signature come again the gracious pleading and warning
+intermingled. Any one who will may wash his robes in the fountain
+provided, and may eat of the life-giving tree, and come unto the
+God-lit city. And equally clear it is that any who insist on doing so
+may remain outside unwashed. Each one is free to do as he wills.
+
+And once again comes the emphatic, solemn announcement of the accuracy
+and dependability of this message of John's Revelation: "_I, Jesus_,
+have sent mine angel to testify unto you these things for the Churches."
+It is distinctively a Church message, and comes with all the direct
+authority of our Lord Jesus Himself. And He patiently reminds us of His
+authority,--I am both root and offspring of David, both before him and
+after him. I am the bright, the morning star, that rises while it is yet
+night and brings in the new day.
+
+And again the spirit of winsome pleading breaks out to those unwashed
+ones who insist on staying outside the gate. Both the Spirit and the
+whole company of washed ones say "come." And let him that heareth that
+sweet word pass it out to those farther away until the last man hears
+and feels. And let them know that anybody at all who is thirsty may come
+freely and drink of the river of the water of life.
+
+And yet once again comes the peculiar certifying of the contents of this
+Revelation message, and a solemn warning against any interfering with
+its meaning. Jesus says,--I hereby certify unto every man that hears the
+words of the prophecy of this book: if any man add to them, making them
+mean something else than I intend, God shall add unto him the plagues
+that are written in this book: and if any man shall take away, or
+lessen the meaning, God shall take away his part from the tree of life
+and out of the holy city. It comes as a very solemn warning.
+
+And yet once more comes the emphatic assurance both of the reliability
+of the book itself, and of the certainty of its great central
+message,--"He who testifieth these things saith, '_yea, I come
+quickly_.'"
+
+And John fervently adds, "Amen; come, Lord Jesus." And so says every
+heart in tune with His heart who is coming.
+
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[166] Habakkuk ii. 3.
+
+[167] Acts ii. 44-47; iv. 32-34.
+
+[168] Mark iv. 26-29. Matthew xiii. 31-32.
+
+[169] Matthew xiii. 33.
+
+[170] Matthew xiii. 3-9, 18-23.
+
+[171] Matthew xiii. 24-30.
+
+[172] Matthew xiii. 47-50.
+
+[173] Matthew xiii. 44.
+
+[174] Matthew xiii. 45-46.
+
+[175] Matthew xxi. 31.
+
+[176] Matthew xx. 1-16.
+
+[177] Luke xix. 11-27.
+
+[178] Matthew xx. 25-28.
+
+[179] Psalm xviii. 44; lxvi. 3; lxxxi. 15; note marginal readings.
+
+[180] Matthew xiii. 47-50.
+
+[181] Matthew xiii. 24-30, 36-43.
+
+[182] Revelation xx. 15.
+
+[183] Daniel xii. 4, 9.
+
+[184] Revelation i. 8.
+
+
+
+
+VIII.--WATCHING THE HORIZON
+
+
+ "Thy Kingdom Come."
+
+ "Thou art coming! We are waiting
+   With a hope that cannot fail;
+ Asking not the day or hour,
+ Resting on Thy word of power,
+   Anchored safe within the veil.
+ Time appointed may be long,
+   But the vision must be sure:
+ Certainty shall make us strong,
+   Joyful patience must endure.
+
+ "O the joy to see Thee reigning,
+   Thee, my own beloved Lord!
+ Every tongue Thy name confessing,
+ Worship, honour, glory, blessing,
+   Brought to Thee with glad accord!
+ Thee, my Master and my Friend,
+   Vindicated and enthroned!
+ Unto earth's remotest end
+   Glorified, adored, and owned."
+
+     --FRANCES RIDLEY HAVERGAL.
+
+
+The Thrill of Expectancy.
+
+Watching reveals character and makes it. It means wakefulness, an ideal,
+a purpose, and a hopeful expectancy. Some people only look. Their
+eyelids are not shut. Something passes before the eye. They look, but
+they rarely see.
+
+It takes a soul to see. It needs a spirit awake to see out through the
+eye, and see into persons and events passing by, and see forward to what
+is coming to-morrow. Some sleep. The body is awake in daytime. They walk
+and talk and eat, buy and sell, count money and hoard it. But their eyes
+are never lifted to the outer horizon. They are settled in an even,
+contented round. Their spirits sleep.
+
+A wakefulness of spirit to the time and its need, an ideal clear and
+high of what should be, a purpose strong and masterful that holds the
+life up toward the ideal, an expectancy eager, brave, steady; an eye
+fixed intently on some One unseen,--this is what watching means. It
+reveals character. It makes character. It reaches out strong spirit
+hands, and brings nearer and sooner the thing watched for.
+
+Watching has always been a characteristic of the men God has used. He
+used them because He could. They were of use. Their spirit made them
+serviceable. Their watching opened the way for fellowship of spirit and
+partnership in action. It put them in tune with Him who never slumbers
+nor sleeps, and who watches over His pledged word, to bring it to pass
+at the earliest possible hour.
+
+The watcher sings. His favourite song is "I will lift up mine eyes." He
+sees what is coming. He sees _Him_ who sits beyond the horizon of our
+common outlook. And seeing Him grows this sort of expectancy, and the
+expectancy becomes the controlling thing.
+
+It was this sort of expectancy that made Abraham a pilgrim at
+seventy-five, and that grew deep the pilgrim trait of patient endurance
+through the weary twilight years till the promised heir came, and even
+beyond that, wove the finest texture into his character when the
+severest test came.
+
+It was this expectancy that drew Moses away from the court life of
+Egypt, and the possible prospect of wearing imperial purple, to become
+the leader of a straggling crowd of slaves. And it held him steady on
+through long years, wilderness travel, criticism, and non-appreciation,
+on and on, till Nebo's top was climbed. He endured as seeing Him who was
+invisible to the unseeing eyes of the crowds at His side.
+
+Such expectancy has steadied every leader for God, in these old pages
+from first to last, young Joseph in the dungeon, Joshua in the glare of
+the limelight, into which he was suddenly thrust, and ruddy-faced
+singing David fleeing and hiding for his life from the javelin of Saul.
+It was the clear-seeing eye of Isaiah and Jeremiah in the homeland, and
+of Ezekiel and Daniel among the weeping exiles, that kept the heart of
+the nation warm with the vision of what was surely coming. The thrill of
+expectancy runs through the pages of this old Hebrew classic. Its light
+is never out of the eye, nor its alluring out of earshot.
+
+When Jesus walked among men expectation ran high. When He was killed the
+gloom of the three days was the gloom of a bright light suddenly put
+out. The darkness was intensified by the light that had been shining.
+Then there came a new sort of expectancy, higher, finer, of the inner
+spirit. This Jesus was coming back, in all the glory of the old
+prophetic vision, made realer by the personal touch these men knew, and
+this new expectancy puts all the paper of the New Testament a-tremble
+with delight. It is the light that lighteth every page and epistle,
+every contested path of witness, and every hour of suffering because of
+faith.
+
+The Church of these New Testament pages is _a watching Church_. The
+expectancy of the Lord Jesus' return is the north star of their sky. It
+never swerves. All the rest revolves around it. They see everything else
+in relation to this. Their going into all the world and preaching to
+every creature was not simply for men's conversion: that surely: but
+beyond that, it was to bring the Christ back for the next step in His
+world programme. He would come and set up His kingdom, and then through
+the kingdom would come a yet wider, farther-reaching world
+evangelizing.[185] This expectancy controlled their life and activity.
+Through their faithful world witnessing He would come.
+
+And as the knot is put on the end of the thread of revelation the very
+knotted thread seems aglow with the glory of what is coming. The Bible
+from end to end is a-thrill with expectancy, a hopeful watching for
+something, aye, _for some One_.
+
+
+A Calendar of Events.
+
+We have been looking a bit closely at this knot in the end, the threads
+composing it. Now we want to gather up all that we have been going over
+with the light that comes from the other pages, so as to have some sort
+of a simple, clear grasp of the truth. This will help our eyesight. We
+can watch the horizon better. Our eyes will be steadier in the glare of
+the lower lights, and sharper to see in the spells of darkness that get
+thicker now and then.
+
+It is interesting to notice that this book of the Revelation is a
+calendar book. That is to say, it is not a calendar of dates but of
+events. It gives coming events in the order in which they will occur.
+Its table of contents becomes an outline of coming events. There is the
+Man of Fire standing among the candlesticks. Then comes an hour when He
+advances to the next step in His programme. Then, step by step, there
+follow the occurrences until the kingdom is actually here. And then the
+after events, when the kingdom's work is done.
+
+It turns out that this thing of our Lord's return cuts a wider swath
+than we are apt to think, if we don't stop to think. That is because of
+_Who it is_ that is coming. An event takes on the size of the chief
+person concerned. This Lord Jesus is the One through whom our world was
+made in the early time, when there were no calendars. So His coming
+naturally concerns the whole world. It concerns the system of evil in
+which the world is entangled, and the evil spirit world so closely
+interlocked with our own.
+
+Then our Lord Jesus came amongst us as a man. He came as a Jewish man,
+and to the Jewish nation. So His coming concerns the Jew and the Jewish
+capital, Jerusalem. When He sent down His executive, the Holy Spirit, a
+new organization was formed, the Church. So His coming concerns the
+Church, and concerns it very intimately, for it is spoken of as a body
+of which He is the head. When Jesus came it was to die for a world and
+to redeem a world. And so His coming concerns the future plans of the
+earth and the race.
+
+Yet though His coming has such a broad sweep, it is quite possible to
+get a grasp of the few essential items in the programme. And this will
+make our footing steadier, our vision clearer, our praying more
+confident, and our soul-winning and witnessing warmer and truer. We turn
+now to try to get this simple, helpful understanding.
+
+The present is the time of the candlesticks. The Man of Fire is in our
+midst unperceived. The unseen Eyes of Flame see. Our Lord Jesus still
+waits, and depends on the faithfulness of His Church. The light is still
+shining out. The dark places are getting some light. The light has not
+yet wholly failed to get out through the human lantern to the crowd in
+the dark.
+
+The characteristics of this waiting time, so long prolonged, are plainly
+put. In the outer world there will be an increasing lawlessness and
+disregard of every sort of restraint, and an increasing power of
+organization and centralization. There will be an increasing getting
+together for more effective action.
+
+In the Church world there will be an increasing formalism, a compromise
+with evil and with the world spirit. There will be a decrease of warm
+personal devotion to the Lord Jesus as the controlling motive power. And
+there will be a growing inclination to make light of, or ignore, or jeer
+at, the idea of the Lord Jesus' return.
+
+As this period wears on toward its close, and so on toward the events to
+follow, there will be a coming together of the Jews scattered throughout
+the world in an attempt to regain Palestine and reconstitute the Hebrew
+nation there with its temple and old sacrificial ritual. These are the
+three chief tendencies that will characterize the present waiting time
+preceding the group of coming events.
+
+The decisive index-finger, that this present period is actually coming
+to its close, will be this movement among the Jews. The movement to
+regain control of Palestine may rise and fall back, gain and lose again.
+But some day it will come to its head. By some arrangement with the
+nations concerned the Jewish nation will actually be set up again in
+Palestine, and the building of the temple in Jerusalem begun. This will
+be the decisive indication. This is an unfailing index-finger. The hands
+of the clock are moving then toward the striking of the hour. Soon the
+sands will be run out and the hour-glass turned.
+
+
+The Beginning of the End.
+
+At some time soon after that point is reached _two unseen events will
+occur_, that is, unseen on earth. Roughly, it will be three and a half
+years after, though the whole tendency of the Scripture is to discourage
+the figuring of _exact_ time. Yet information is given that the outlook
+may be intelligent. These events are unseen on the earth. They take
+place in heaven.
+
+The Holy Spirit will be withdrawn from the Church. He will not be
+withdrawn from individuals. He abode in men before the Church was
+formed, and will after the Church has cast Him out. He is withdrawn only
+because He has been practically and wholly cast out.
+
+The Lord Jesus, who sent Him down to form the Church and witness through
+it, will withdraw Him from the Church. The candlestick has moved out of
+all touch with the light. And now the light is withdrawn, and so the
+candlestick moved out of its place as the light-bearer. This is probably
+the advance step taken by our Lord Jesus that marks the beginning of the
+end.
+
+At the same time there occurs a conflict of spirit forces up in the
+heavens. While the earth seems to be Satan's chief place of activity,
+yet his headquarters are up in the heavens, that is, somewhere below the
+throne of God and above the earth. This conflict is against him and his
+spirit forces. It is led by Michael, the archangel. It results in Satan
+and his host being cast out of the heavens and down to the earth.
+
+It is significant that as the Holy Spirit goes up, this conflict
+follows, and Satan is cast out and down. Is it the Holy Spirit's return
+there that precipitates this conflict, and defeat for Satan? It would
+seem not improbable. So the moral situation on the earth is intensified
+doubly. The blessed Holy Spirit, with all His power of restraint over
+evil, is withdrawn. The evil spirit, with all his power of intensifying
+evil, is cast down in person to the earth. These are the two unseen
+events marking the advance move of the end time.
+
+There will be nothing on earth _at the moment_ to indicate that these
+tremendous events have happened. There is no suggestion of how much time
+is involved. Time is a matter of earth's calculation. Quite possibly
+_we_ would speak of these events as occurring in a very brief time,
+perhaps an instant of our reckoning. These are the two events unseen on
+the earth.
+
+At the same time there will begin _two events seen taking place on
+earth_. The first is the coming to the front of a man, a terrible leader
+of the forces of unrighteousness. Paul speaks of him as "the Lawless
+One." John's name for him is "the Antichrist." He becomes the human
+representative or incarnation of Satan. As Satan is cast down out of the
+heavens this leader comes to the front on earth.
+
+He seems to have official position at the head of some great coalition
+of nations, with a wide area of authority. He seems to be some former
+notable leader known in history, who died, but is now brought back to
+life again by Satan's supernatural power.
+
+As he forges to the front there follows on earth a horrible time of war,
+famine, pestilence, death, and persecution. He arbitrarily breaks the
+agreement with the Jews under which they have re-established their
+nation, and begins a terrible persecution of them. He sets up in the
+temple a blasphemous image, and requires that all people shall worship
+it. This strikes not only at the Jew, but at the Christian as well.
+
+At one stroke of genius he compels absolutely universal attention to his
+command by forbidding the doing of any business except by those willing
+to worship the image. Those refusing the worship are killed. He will
+have an assistant doing wonderful miracles by Satanic power to deceive
+and persuade the people. During this time there is a loosing out on the
+earth of countless hordes of unseen demons to torment men.
+
+All this continues for three and a half years. The time is stated in
+three different ways to make quite clear just how long is meant. This is
+the first of the two seen events. It centres at Jerusalem and seems to
+reach out practically to all the earth.
+
+The second event is significant. During all this terrible time of
+persecution and blasphemy and the riot of evil, there will be two men in
+Jerusalem preaching the Gospel of the Lord Jesus, and calling on men to
+repent. As an emphasis of their witness against the awful wickedness
+current they will be clothed in mourning. They will have miraculous
+power to attest their witness, and to protect themselves against attacks
+upon their lives. The great crowds of many nationalities in Jerusalem
+will make their witness practically world-wide in its direct as well as
+its indirect influence.
+
+This also continues for three and a half years. As the Holy Spirit is
+withdrawn from the Church as the witness of the Lord Jesus, these two
+special witnesses appear. In His great faithfulness and patience God
+never leaves Himself without a witness. This is the second event seen on
+earth. These two, evil at its worst, and God's special witnesses, run
+along side by side, both centring in Jerusalem.
+
+
+The Climax--He Comes.
+
+Then there comes _a group of four events_. And these four are very
+closely associated together in point of time. They occur at the close of
+the period of persecution and wickedness. Indeed, it is their occurrence
+that brings the close. Yet the exact time when they happen is left quite
+uncertain.
+
+And this clearly is another bit of the tendency in the record to keep
+our thought on the main events, and not on figuring out time. We are to
+keep to the essentials and be wary of mere speculation. For the sake of
+clearness I am putting these four events separately, but this does not
+mean that some of them may not be occurring at the same moment, or that
+all may not come within a very brief time. We simply do not know. It
+looks as though we are not meant to know.
+
+There is _a Jew event_. The Holy Spirit comes down upon the nation of
+Jews in simple, tremendous, converting power. This is put in connection
+with the coming down out of the heavens on a cloud of the Lord Jesus. It
+seems to be this sight of their great Kinsman, Jesus, whom they
+crucified, that is used by the Holy Spirit to strike penitence to their
+stubborn hearts. Literally a nation is born again in a day. It will be
+with the whole nation as it was with Saul on the Damascus road, as
+sudden and unexpected, as startling and as radical; as sudden and
+unexpected an appearance of Jesus, as startling to the Jews, as radical
+in the absolute spirit transformation.
+
+There is _a Church event_. And here the word Church is used to describe
+all believers in the Lord Jesus. That will be a much sifted and
+chastened company of people. This event is also connected with the open,
+visible coming of the Lord Jesus, out of the upper blue, before all
+eyes. It affects two separate companies of believers. The bodies of all
+believers who have died will be raised out of their graves, inhabited
+again by those who lived in them. Then the living believers shall have a
+transforming touch upon their bodies. And the two companies shall be
+caught up into the air into the presence of the Lord Jesus.
+
+As they come into His presence there will be a purifying and perfecting
+of character, and an adjustment of relations with Him. There is no
+suggestion of how much time is involved. We naturally think of things as
+taking place through so much time. Our limitations in this regard will
+be gone then. It may be what we now call instantaneous.
+
+There is _a world event_. There will come to the earth and to men a
+visitation of terrible judgments, affecting men's bodies, the sea and
+rivers, vegetation, an intensifying of the sun's heat, and possibly a
+terrible darkness--in short, affecting everything concerning man and
+life on the earth. There will be a great gathering of the armies of the
+nations at a place in Palestine. Again there is no suggestion of how
+much time this visitation of judgments runs through, nor this gathering
+for battle.
+
+Then there is _the_ event, _the great climax event_, the actual coming
+of the Lord Jesus, out of the heavens, down to the earth. At the moment
+when He comes the Jews will be in the midst of a terrible siege in
+Jerusalem. Against the city will be assembled the armies of the nations.
+The city will be taken, the looting and ravaging already begun.
+
+Then suddenly, out of the blue above, the Lord Jesus comes in a great
+blaze of blinding light, accompanied by great numbers. He will come to
+Olivet. With the coming will be a terrible earthquake, such as the earth
+has never known.
+
+It is a striking geological fact that the greatest "fault," or break in
+the earth's surface, is found in Palestine, running north and south from
+Antioch on the Orontes down even into Africa. But this earthquake will
+affect very wide areas, including the city of Babylon, which will be
+shaken to utter destruction. That earthquake will make radical changes
+in the formation of the earth's surface in Palestine.
+
+At the same time there will be an equally terrific shake-up in the
+heavenly bodies, the sun, moon, and stars. The effect of both these upon
+the vast panic-stricken multitudes will be most pitiable. They will call
+upon the upheaved rocks to hide them from the wrath of God.
+
+These are the four events occurring at this time. They are grouped
+together. It seems impossible to say first this, then that. They are
+grouped. The great essential thing standing out is that our Lord Jesus'
+coming will be at a terrible climax of evil. There will be partial
+judgment visited on the earth. The system of evil will be wholly
+overthrown. The Jews will be converted as a nation by the Holy Spirit.
+The Church will be caught away out of the distress, and will have part
+with our Lord Jesus in His coming.
+
+It should again be noticed that in all this there are no time notes,
+except as to the length of this tribulation time. The persecution of the
+Jew and desecration of Jerusalem, the time of the two witnesses, and the
+sway of the Antichrist, each runs through three and a half years. There
+are no time notes whatever for the present waiting-time. And though the
+length of the tribulation itself is stated, yet it should be noted that
+the exact time of the Lord Jesus' actual return still remains quite
+undetermined.
+
+In Daniel's prophecy there are four events spoken of as occurring at
+this time, and each is measured from the time when the sacrifices are
+stopped and the chief desecrating act in the temple begins. The
+tribulation runs for three and a half years. Thirty days later comes
+some glad event not specified further. Seventy-five days later there
+comes another glad event, and two years ten months and twenty days later
+the complete cleansing of the temple. Each of these portions of time is
+measured from the same starting point. This would suggest a period of
+readjustment after the Antichrist is slain, running through almost three
+years. All these time notes are of a year of three hundred and sixty
+days, not our common calendar year of three hundred and sixty-five and a
+fraction days.
+
+There comes the period called the kingdom. Its capital is Jerusalem. The
+regenerated nation of Israel becomes the first nation of the earth, with
+all other nations tributary. Israel's leadership is a blessed one in its
+spiritual influence over all others. The Jews are a missionary nation,
+whose one passion is to make the knowledge of God known throughout the
+earth.
+
+The redeemed ones of all the earth through all times will reign _over_
+the earth in fellowship with the King, the Lord Jesus. In their
+resurrection bodies, with all present bodily restrictions and
+limitations gone, they will have a blessed share in the new earth
+ministry.
+
+The purpose of the kingdom is world-wide evangelization, but with all
+the conditions radically changed. Satan, with all evil spirits, is
+removed from the scene of action. The nation of Jews, baptized by the
+Holy Spirit, is the missionary force, under the direction and help of
+the Church. The Holy Spirit will have been poured out upon all flesh,
+making all peculiarly open to the truth.
+
+What a wonderful time of continual revival it will be! But that much
+abused word "revival" will have its sweet, original meaning restored. It
+will mean a re-living, a new life of the Spirit coming, that will
+naturally include the body, too.
+
+
+Intelligent Watching.
+
+Such are the events, near and far, which some day will come up over the
+horizon of our common life, ushering in a new day. And we are bidden by
+our Lord Jesus to _watch_. We watch for Him, and for anything that tells
+us His coming is nearing.
+
+Watching means wakefulness, an ideal, a purpose, an expectancy, and a
+daily life under the control of wakefulness, ideal, purpose, and
+expectancy. That our Lord Jesus will actually come to this old earth and
+reign, this is the ideal. That we shall, by grace, be true to Him in
+everything, day by day, during this waiting-time, this is the purpose.
+That _we_ shall indeed see Him come, and be caught up into His presence
+without death, this is the expectancy.
+
+That this shall all be a real thing to us, _controlling_ all our
+relationships, our gold, and our life, and that we shall reverently,
+thoughtfully seek to understand what He has told us about it, this is
+the wakefulness. This is what watching means. Our bodies may be asleep,
+our brains and hands absorbed in the day's task, but our hearts can be
+awake for the sound ahead of the coming of His feet.
+
+"But how can you watch for Him if there are intervening events?" So the
+question came to me this summer by a thoughtful, godly minister who
+looks for His coming. And I said: "Because His coming is one of a little
+group of events which cluster about His coming."
+
+The crowd stands watching at the railway station in England to see the
+king's train come in. Yet they know that before it comes the
+pilot-engine will come, running ahead about so many minutes to insure
+the safety of the way. The coming of the pilot-engine heightens the
+intensity of watching, for now soon the king will come.
+
+The watcher in the sick-chamber, weary with the long night's anxious
+vigil, goes to the east window to see if day is coming. There comes a
+bare lighting-up in the east, just a slight lessening of the darkness
+that is everywhere. But even this much brings a sigh of relief. The sun
+itself may not be seen for two hours or more. But you know without
+looking at the clock that the sun is coming and is near. Its presence
+near sends the light far ahead.
+
+When the trees begin to send out swelling bud and tender green leaf and
+catkin, we know summer is coming, even though the chill is in the air,
+and the night may even now bring a touch of the white of frost. "Even so
+ye also _when ye see these things_ know that _He_ is nigh, even at the
+doors."[186]
+
+There's something intensely practical about this thing of watching. I
+mean the intelligent watching that a thoughtful study of God's Word
+promotes. There is a striking sentence used in describing some of the
+men that rallied to David during the clearing-up storm that preceded his
+reign. It is said of certain of the tribe of Issachar that they "_had
+understanding of the times_ to know what Israel ought to do" in the
+matter of making David the accepted king over the realm.[187] Their
+thoughtful study and judgment of the time made them wise leaders of
+action.
+
+There is a similar significant word spoken to Daniel in the final vision
+in which these end events are being disclosed. And we recall that the
+speaker is He for whose coming we look. He says, "They that are _wise_
+shall _understand_."[188] Daniel had prayerfully set himself to
+understand God's will for his people.[189] When the wonderful vision was
+given him in answer to his patient study and continued prayer, the Man
+of Fire who came to him said, "Now I am come to make thee _understand_."
+
+It is wise, by thoughtful, prayerful study of God's Word, to try to
+understand what He has told us. Not to do so is not wise. And more, it
+will become increasingly needful that others be taught as these events
+draw on. Daniel is told in this same connection that "They that are wise
+shall instruct many."[190]
+
+The opening words of the Revelation, and especially the closing
+paragraphs, emphasize this same thing. The revelation is given that we
+may read and understand and hold our lives true to this vision. This
+thing is intensely practical. Indeed, it is _the_ practical thing for
+our day. We _can_ understand the simple essentials revealed here. Our
+Lord Jesus earnestly desires us to do so. Surely we will, for His sake.
+
+
+A Spirit Sensitiveness.
+
+The thoughtful watching that grows out of an understanding of our Lord's
+plans influences subtly and mightily one's whole life. It deepens
+wondering reverence for the Lord Jesus Himself, His present power and
+personal glory sitting up yonder in the indescribable glory of the
+Father's presence, and His patience and strength in this waiting-time.
+It draws out a depth and tenderness of personal love for Himself and of
+devotion to Him.
+
+There comes to be a keenly acute conscience about evil, and about
+compromise with evil; and yet with it a sanity of judgment on particular
+questions arising, and a gentle consideration for others who see
+otherwise, or think they do. Evil grows in subtlety and in
+aggressiveness in our day, and probably will yet more. It seeks
+especially to make inroads among God's professing people. Yet evil is
+evil. Its true inwardness is quickly revealed by adding a "d" at the
+beginning of the word. And it grows increasingly repugnant in whatever
+guise, as we come to study more its inner spirit as revealed in these
+disclosures of the end times.
+
+Then, too, this watching affects one's judgment of, and attitude toward,
+Christian service, and toward movements in the Christian world. The
+getting-together spirit is getting more and more into Church circles.
+The fervent heart repeats constantly our Lord's prayer, "that they may
+all be one." Yet it becomes clear that there may be movements toward
+union that are not of the Holy Spirit's initiation, and that cannot have
+his approval.
+
+It is not enough to do good. That may prove to be a low level of action.
+_The_ thing is to find out what God has planned, and fit into that, with
+all the warmth of one's being. His will is always good, and better, and
+best. The good thing may not be the thing He has planned and wants done.
+
+It becomes increasingly clear that our Lord Jesus is a great general. He
+has the whole campaign of action mapped out, and every detail of it
+thought into and thought out. As one comes to learn more of His plans,
+and Himself as a planner, there comes to be _a passion for doing His
+will_. One moves from the old position of working for God up to the
+position of so fitting in that _God works through us_.
+
+And there comes to be a consciousness that He is doing immensely more
+through the things we do than we are conscious of. So in all Church
+activity there comes to be a reaching out in spirit to discern what _He_
+wants done, and putting all the strength into that.
+
+Then, too, one's thought of foreign missionary service undergoes a
+change. The actual taking of the message of Christ to those who haven't
+heard comes to have first place. Educational work and medical and
+humanitarian, and the like, in missionary service, are seen to be wisely
+used when held strictly in place as a means to a direct end. And their
+value is judged wholly by their being a means of bringing those whom
+they touch face to face with the Christ that died.
+
+It seems to be possible to spend fifty years and more establishing
+mission work in the city centres of a foreign-mission country, and all
+good, blessed work; and yet have the great mass of that country's
+population in utter ignorance of the Gospel message and its power.
+
+As the Holy Spirit is allowed control increasingly, there comes to be a
+better understanding of God's purposes and of His plans, an earnest
+cooeperation in the Church movement for making Christ known to all men
+everywhere, a faithfulness in all the circle of one's own home Church,
+and a warm personal winning of men to know the Lord Jesus as their
+Saviour.
+
+So it is seen that watching for our Lord's return affects one's whole
+life in an intensely practical way. It deepens faith in _Him_. It leads
+to an _intelligent detachment_ in social and commercial and even Church
+circles, while making an increase of thoughtful regard for others. It
+purifies the personal life. It chastens and deepens and gentles the
+personal character.
+
+It seems very striking and very strange that when Jesus was born there
+are just two persons named, outside the immediate circle, who seemed to
+have the spirit instinct that recognized who He was. There was a man
+living in Jerusalem whose name was Simeon. Who was he? rich? poor?
+cultured? of lowly station? No one knows. But whoever he was, he had
+cultivated close walk with God. That's clear. And into his inner spirit
+came the conviction that the Christ promised for ages, so long waited
+for, the Christ was now coming, and _he would see Him_.
+
+And a similar story is told of the woman called Anna. These two were in
+that simple touch of heart with God that could in spirit sense the
+coming of the Christ. There may have been others. We are not told. But
+the emphasis remains on the fact that few seemed to discern the working
+out of God's tremendous plan.
+
+Will it be so again? It would surely seem that intelligent watching
+would make one sensitive in spirit to coming events. Yet there would
+ever be a mingling of deepest reverence, and a thoughtful caution
+regarding mere speculation, while the fervent prayer that Jesus taught
+is daily repeated, "Thy kingdom come."
+
+And John's closing Revelation prayer constantly breathes out, "Even so,
+come, Lord Jesus."
+
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[185] Acts iii. 20-21; xv. 14-18.
+
+[186] Matthew xxiv. 33.
+
+[187] 1 Chronicles xii. 32.
+
+[188] Daniel xii. 10.
+
+[189] Daniel viii. 15-17; ix. 1-2; x. 1-3, 11-14.
+
+[190] Daniel xi. 33.
+
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