slaying all regardless of age or sex. Many Christians were doubtless involved in this indiscriminate slaughter. They were not protected by any special mark from the fury of the invading hordes who devastated Italy and repeatedly sacked Rome. S. Leo the Great succeeded in saving Rome from the Huns under Attila in the year 452. He persuaded Genseric to restrain the Vandals from destroying the city and putting the inhabitants to the sword in 455. Christians who sought sanctuary in their churches were often spared, and the Church flourished in the period under review, but still there must have been a very large number of Christians who participated in the sufferings which overwhelmed the Empire.

5. Καὶ ἤκουσα τοῦ ἀγγέλου τῶν ὑδάτων λέγοντος. Δίκαιος εἶ, ὁ ὢν καὶ ὁ ἦν ὁ ὅσιος, ὅτι ταῦτα ἔκρινας.

5. And I heard the angel of the waters saying, Thou art just, O Lord, who art and who wast, the holy one, because thou hast judged these things.

"The angel of the waters," is a new expression. It cannot apply to any of the angels who poured out the vials of wrath. They are introduced as the "seven angels having the seven last plagues" (R. xv. 1-6). When later any one of them speaks the Seer defines him as of the seven angels who had the seven vials (R. xvii. 1, xxi. 9). Moreover the angels of the vials are in heaven, pouring down the wrath of God, whereas the "angel of the waters" is on earth, and his remarks on the justice of God's judgments are answered by another angel from the altar in heaven. The angel of the waters is not a spiritual Angel. The Seer explains the waters as peoples and nations and tongues (R. xvii. 15). The angel of the waters is the angel of the Church in the third or Pergamus age, which corresponds with the age of the decline and fall of Rome. To him it was said, "These things saith he that hath the sharp twoedged sword, I know where thou dwellest, where the seat of Satan is" (R. ii. 12 f.). The Bishop of Rome was the angel referred to. We may imagine him to be Pope S. Leo. He saw his flock involved in the punishment of idolatrous Rome, and he put up this prayer to heaven, "Thou art just, O Lord. . . because thou hast judged these things.'

6. Οτι αἷμα ἁγίων καὶ προφητῶν ἐξέχεαν, καὶ αἷμα αὐτοῖς έδωκας πεῖν, ἄξιοί εἰσιν.

6. For they have shed the blood of saints and prophets, and thou hast given them blood to drink, for they deserved it.

(S. = δέδωκας.)

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For they, that is the Romans, "have shed the blood of saints and prophets;" where ȧyiwv are Christians generally, and προφητῶν, those who have the word of God-preachers, the ecclesiastical hierarchy. Their souls cried out from "under the altar,” “ dost thou not judge and revenge our blood" (R. vi. 10). We have heard the angel at R. xiv. 7, saying, "The hour of his judgment is come.' We have seen the winepress at R. xiv. 20, "and blood came out of the winepress even up to horses' bridles." The angel of the waters, notwithstanding the sufferings of his flock, proclaims the justice of God's judgments on "the Romans," for they "deserved it." In saying "thou hast given them blood to drink" he expresses metaphorically the effect of the vials: blood is revenged by blood. This application of the lex talionis is repeatedly justified as we go on.

7. Καὶ ἤκουσα τοῦ θυσιαστηρίου λέγοντος, Ναί, Κύριε ὁ Θεὸς ὁ παντοκράτωρ, ἀληθιναὶ καὶ δίκαιαι αἱ κρίσεις σου. 7. And I heard another from the altar saying, Yea, Ο Lord God Almighty, true and just are thy judgments.

Τοῦ θυσιαστηρίου, “of the altar,” the angel who had power over fire, or punishment (R. xiv. 18). He confirms the praise of the angel of the waters, almost in the words of the canticle of Moses and of the Lamb, "True and just are thy ways, O King of ages" (R. xv. 3). Thus heaven and earth bear testimony to the justice of the punishments, past and to come, upon the doomed Empire. Later on, the whole host of heaven cry out, "For true and just are his judgments who hath judged the great harlot " (R. xix. 2).

8. Καὶ ὁ τέταρτος ἐξέχεεν τὴν φιάλην αὐτοῦ ἐπὶ τὸν ἥλιον· καὶ ἐδόθη αὐτῷ καυματίσαι τοὺς ἀνθρώπους ἐν πυρί.

8. And the fourth angel poured out his vial upon the sun, and it was given to him to afflict men with heat and fire.

In R. viii. 12 the fourth angel sounds his trumpet, and the third part of the sun, moon, and stars are smitten. This has

been interpreted to mean the spiritual destitution that fell upon the Israelites. But the foregoing verse appears to apply to the sun literally, for the vial being poured upon the sun, its heat increases: it burns like fire. It is interpreted by the next verse, which shows the effect of the sun's blazing heat.

9. Καὶ ἐκαυματίσθησαν οἱ ἄνθρωποι καῦμα μέγα, καὶ ἐβλασφήμησαν τὸ ὄνομα τοῦ Θεοῦ τοῦ ἔχοντος ἐξουσίαν ἐπὶ τὰς πληγὰς ταύτας, καὶ οὐ μετενόησαν δοῦναι αὐτῷ δόξαν.

9. And men were scorched with great heat, and they blasphemed the name of God who hath power over these plagues, neither did they penance to give him glory.

Here we have the vial interpreted as a plague of heat, which scorched men. Dionysius of Alexandria gives an account of the excessive heat which afflicted a great part of the Roman Empire. He represents the Nile as having dried up. Drought usually accompanies periods of excessive heat, and famine follows drought. "Neither did they penance to give him glory," as applied to idolaters, means that they continued in their worship of strange gods, and despised the Christian God, whose gospel of penance they rejected. It is an echo of "Neither have they done penance" at R. ix. 21, and is probably meant to connect these visions together as pagan punishments, for that is the Seer's plan.

Pagan Rome supplicated her false gods the more, the more she was afflicted. So with reference to the Assyrians, "saith the Lord and my name is continually blasphemed all the day long" (Isa. lii. 5). The Roman idolaters blasphemed the name of God actually as well as by Cæsar worship. They called upon Christians to curse Christ. Pliny the younger stated in his letter to Trajan, "Omnes et imaginem tuam, deorumque simulacra venerati sunt et Christo maledixerunt." Dionysius tells us that in the Decian persecution at Alexandria, "It was impossible for any Christian to go into the streets, even at night, for the mob was shouting that all who would not blaspheme should be burnt." (Jn. Chapman, the Cath. Encyc.) But heat and fire connote all manner of plagues.

10. Καὶ ὁ πέμπτος ἐξέχεεν τὴν φιάλην αὐτοῦ ἐπὶ τὸν θρόνον τοῦ θηρίου, καὶ ἐγένετο ἡ βασιλεία αὐτοῦ ἑσκοτωμένη, καὶ ἐμασῶντο τὰς γλώσσας αὐτῶν ἐκ τοῦ πόνου.

10. And the fifth angel poured out his vial upon the seat of the beast, and his kingdom became dark, and they gnawed their tongues for pain.

The fifth angel poured out his vial upon the throne of the Beast, τὸν θρόνον τοῦ θηρίου, showing that the Beast is a King. His Throne is erected at the seat of Empire. If the Beast be Cæsar, then the seat of the Beast is Rome. We are told in the next chapter, "the seven heads" of the Beast "are seven mountains upon which the woman sitteth. "The woman... is the great city... which has dominion over the kings of the earth." "And on her forehead a name written . . . Babylon the Great" (R. xvii. 9, 18, 5), a combination of indications which spell Rome. Babylon was the mystic name of Rome. Spiritually, Rome could not be made darker. But politically, the brilliancy of Rome, la ville lumière of her day, could be extinguished, and the city plunged in the darkness of despair. Alaric in A.D. 410, Attila, A.D. 451, Genseric, A.D. 455, Odoacer, A.D. 476, and Totila in A.D. 546, captured and pillaged Rome. Procopius tells us that Totila burnt the city down and destroyed the inhabitants. "Genseric repeatedly invaded Italy and plundered the capital" (Gibbon, D. and F. xxxi.). But the whole kingdom, "Barikeia," became dark. Defeat and death and captivity abroad, added to pillage and slaughter in the capital, disorganised the State, and filled the minds of the Senate and people with an abiding gloom. They gnawed their tongues on account of their accumulated sufferings-the bubonic plague, the scorching heat, the drought, the famine, the invasions of barbarous hordes, defeats and bloodshed.

11. Καὶ ἐβλασφήμησαν τὸν Θεὸν τοῦ οὐρανοῦ ἐκ τῶν πόνων αὐτῶν καὶ ἐκ τῶν ἑλκῶν αὐτῶν, καὶ οὐ μετενόησαν ἐκ τῶν ἔργων αὐτῶν.

II. And they blasphemed the God of heaven, because of their pains and wounds, and did not penance from their works.

This is a repetition of verse 9. Like the Egyptians, the Romans hardened their hearts, as plague followed plague. "They did not penance for the work of their hands that they should not adore devils, and idols of gold and silver" connects R. ix. 20 with the above. 'Ex Tv epywv is translated "for the works" at R. ix. 20, here "from their works."

The conduct of the Christian martyrs at R. vi. 15, 17, who feared God and the wrath of the Lamb, in the midst of furious persecution, is in striking contrast with that of the pagans, who blasphemed the more, the more they were punished.

12. Καὶ ὁ ἕκτος ἐξέχεεν τὴν φιάλην αὐτοῦ ἐπὶ τὸν ποταμὸν τὸν μέγαν τὸν Εὐφράτην· καὶ ἐξηράνθη τὸ ὕδωρ αὐτοῦ, ἵνα ἑτοιμασθῇ ἡ ὁδὸς τῶν βασιλέων τῶν ἀπὸ ἀνατολῆς ἡλίου.

12. And the sixth angel poured out his vial upon the great river Euphrates, and dried up the water thereof, that a way might be prepared for the Kings from the rising sun.

We have here an allusion to the same Parthian and Persian wars which were in the Jewish theme, veiled in the figure of the four angels loosed in the great river Euphrates. With characteristic attention to significant details, the Seer makes the sixth trumpet angel correspond with the sixth vial angel in loosing the forces of the Euphrates, ἐπὶ τῷ ποταμῷ τῷ μεγάλῳ Evopáry (R. ix. 14, notes). "The Kings from the rising sun," that is the Kings of the East, who dwelt beyond the Euphrates. were the Parthians and Persians. They were a menace to Rome when the Apocalypse was written. The Seer has to convey to the servants of God in the first century tidings of hostile invasions which would break up the Roman power. The Euphrates was the only possible illustration. Besides, the Prophet Jeremias had predicted this of the enemies of God, "the sword shall devour, and shall be filled, and shall be drunk with their blood, for there is a sacrifice of the Lord God of hosts in the north country by the river Euphrates" (xlvi. 10). We, who are enlightened by history, know that the Euphrates is a symbol of invading hordes from "the north country," from the Danube, as well from the East. But the prophecy, even as regards the Euphrates, was literally and amply fulfilled.

"During the reign of Valerian, Sapor, King of Persia, spread devastation and terror on the borders of the Euphrates. Valerian marched against him, and was defeated, and taken prisoner. The Romans lost a great part of their army in battle by famine and pestilence. Sapor used the Roman Emperor Valerian as his footstool when he mounted his horse. When Valerian died of shame and grief, his skin, stuffed with straw, and formed into the likeness of a human body, was long preserved in one of the great temples of Persia.

"In the reign of Diocletian the Roman army was utterly routed and destroyed by the Persians in the plains of Mesopotamia.