small and great; and shouldest destroy them which destroy the earth. And the temple of God was opened in heaven, and there was seen in his temple the ark of his testament: and there were lightnings, and voices, and thunderings, and an earthquake, and great hail."

The first terms here presented for our consideration are— "And there were great voices in heaven, saying, The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord and of his Christ; and he shall reign for ever and ever." These voices, not being uttered in the sanctuary, should be found to have had their echo on the earth, and to have been proclaimed amidst, not by, the ruling powers, as shown by "the voices" being in heaven, not proceeding from heaven. In the absence of any direct notification of the time, or the locality in which the proclamation would be heard, we must pass on, not only with the question still undecided as to whether the opening figurations of the seventh trumpet refer to the first or to the eighteenth centuries, but also with the utmost circumspection imposed, inasmuch as, whilst "the voices " incline us at once to adopt the earlier epoch in which Christianity was first introduced, an historic illustration of the exaltation of the Lord's kingdom is not wholly precluded by the circumstances of the later period.

The next terms are, "And the four and twenty elders, which sat before God on their seats, fell upon their faces, and worshipped God, saying, We give thee thanks, O Lord God Almighty, which art, and wast, and art to come; because thou hast taken to thee thy great power, and hast reigned. And the nations were angry, and thy wrath is come, and the time of the dead, that they should be judged, and that thou shouldest give reward unto thy servants the prophets, and to the saints, and them that fear thy name, small and great, and shouldest destroy them which destroy the earth."

The scene of this representation is shown by the presence of "the four and twenty elders which sat before God," to have been in the sanctuary whereby the majestic utterances of those elders become a commentary, invested with the

authority of the great Jehovah, on the power and destiny of the kingdom proclaimed by the preceding voices-ever, in conjunction with the elders themselves, an unseen characterising presidency during the subsequent delineations of its fortunes. As such, though inviting remark from time to time, these utterances, of themselves, do not necessarily impose an immediate, or any direct historic illustration. We must not fail to see, however, amongst others of a most interesting nature, shortly forthcoming, the indication of the commencing epoch of the seventh trumpet's figurations, which is afforded in a manner so simple, comprehensive, and definite, as not only to relieve us from our previous uncertainty on this point, but also to demand our most reverent admiration.

The Evangelist, it will be observed, introduces "the four and twenty elders" as symbolic beings not now seen by him for the first time (" And the four and twenty elders which sat before God,") so that we are at once referred to the heavenly company, previously presented to us, assembled around the throne of God to behold the continuous prefigurations consequent on the opening of the seals of the book by the Lamb. As this assemblage, in addition to the symbolic presence of the great Jehovah, and of the Lamb, consisted of four and twenty elders, four beasts, or more properly four living creatures, and many angels, the mention of the presence of the four and twenty elders only on this occasion is an Apocalyptic peculiarity of sufficient importance, not only to require investigation, but also to justify a repetition of the former vision, notwithstanding that it has, together with such interpreting remarks as were then deemed necessary, been already given in vol. i., p. 14. The vision is thus recorded in chapters iv. and v. :

"After this I looked, and, behold, a door was opened in heaven and the first voice which I heard was as it were of a trumpet talking with me; which said, Come up hither, and I will show thee things which must be hereafter. And immediately I was in the spirit: and, behold, a throne was set in heaven, and one sat on the throne. And he that sat was to look upon like a jasper and a sardine stone: and

there was a rainbow round about the throne, in sight like unto an emerald. And round about the throne were four and twenty seats: and upon the seats I saw four and twenty elders sitting, clothed in white raiment; and they had on their heads crowns of gold. And out of the throne proceeded lightnings and thunderings and voices: and there were seven lamps of fire burning before the throne, which are the seven Spirits of God. And before the throne there was a sea of glass like unto crystal: and in the midst of the throne, and round about the throne, were four beasts full of eyes before and behind. And the first beast was like a lion, and the second beast like a calf, and the third beast had a face as a man, and the fourth beast was like a flying eagle. And the four beasts had each of them six wings about him; and they were full of eyes within: and they rest not day and night, saying, Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty, which was, and is, and is to come. And when those beasts give glory and honour and thanks to him that sat on the throne, who liveth for ever and ever, the four and twenty elders fall down before him that sat on the throne, and worship him that liveth for ever and ever, and cast their crowns before the throne, saying, Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honour and power: for thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created. And I saw in the right hand of him that sat on the throne a book written within and on the backside, sealed with seven seals. And I saw a strong angel proclaiming with a loud voice, Who is worthy to open the book, and to loose the seals thereof? And no man in heaven, nor in earth, neither under the earth, was able to open the book, neither to look thereon. And I wept much, because no man was found worthy to open and to read the book, neither to look thereon. And one of the elders saith unto me, Weep not: behold, the Lion of the tribe of Juda, the Root of David, hath prevailed to open the book, and to loose the seven seals thereof. And I beheld, and, lo, in the midst of the throne and of the four beasts, and in the midst of the elders, stood a Lamb as it had been slain, having seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven Spirits of God sent forth

into all the earth. And he came and took the book out of the right hand of him that sat upon the throne. And when he had taken the book, the four beasts and four and twenty elders fell down before the Lamb, having every one of them harps, and golden vials full of odours, which are the prayers of saints. And they sung a new song, saying, Thou art worthy to take the book, and to open the seals thereof: for thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation; And hast made us unto our God kings and priests and we shall reign on the earth. And I beheld, and I heard the voice of many angels round about the throne and the beasts and the elders: and the number of them was ten thousand times ten thousand, and thousands of thousands, saying with a loud voice, Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honour, and glory, and blessing. And every creature which is in heaven, and on the earth, and under the earth, and such as are in the sea, and all that are in them, heard I saying, Blessing, and honour, and glory, and power, be unto him that sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb for ever and ever. And the four beasts said, Amen. And the four and twenty elders fell down and worshipped him that liveth for ever and ever."

To enable us to benefit by any new light which the examination of the Apocalyptic peculiarity under notice may reveal, the interpreting remarks made on this vision may be also repeated. Extracting from vol. i. pp. 16 to 19, we have :—

"A glorious vision-full of instruction-an epitome of gospel truth, not announced verbally, as heretofore, but by visible representation. In the one who sat upon the throne may be at once recognised the great Jehovah, the God of heaven and earth, by the glory attending His presence; by the rainbow, the memorial of God's covenant of grace, round about the throne; by the lightnings, thunderings, and voices proceeding from the throne; and by similar representations of His presence recorded by Isaiah and Ezekiel.

"In the Lamb as it had been slain, is seen the symbolic manifestation of the crucified Saviour, not now

represented in His priestly character, as in the former vision, but in His sacrificial, atoning, and mediatorial characters; the Lamb symbolizing His sacrificial; the seven horns His atoning, the blood of the sin-offering of the Jewish people sprinkled on the horns of the altar being accepted as an atonement; and the seven eyes, declared to be the seven spirits of God sent forth into all the earth, symbolizing His mediatorial character between God and man; and in which combined characters, He is seen to gather His church from the earth and to present it perfect before God, as denoted by the seven lamps of fire burning before the throne: for whereas in the former vision the church on earth is symbolized by seven candlesticks or lamp sconces only, with Christ in their midst overseeing them as their High Priest, the church is now represented in heaven before the throne of God, not by seven lamp sconces, but by seven lamps, with the seven spirits of God, previously sent forth, observe, into the earth from the Lamb, in them and illuminating them-so that we have here strikingly denoted, precisely in the spirit of bible testimony, not only God as the first great cause and Judge of all, but also the fulfilment of the promised efficacy of the Holy Spirit to restore fallen man to God's favour and presence, and the glorious result of that power to the church to be due to Christ as its Priest, Sacrifice, Atonement, and Mediator.

"In the four and twenty elders may be at once recognised, by their white raiment and golden crowns, the royal priesthood of 1 Peter ii. 9, Ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood;' and in the four living creatures, the illustration of Christ's declaration Luke xx. 35, 36, 'They which shall be counted worthy to obtain that world and the resurrection from the dead, are equal unto the angels,' for, as in the somewhat similar vision of Ezekiel, the four living creatures similarly represented therein, are stated, Ezek. x. 20, to have been known by him to be cherubim, and as the bible notices of cherubim denote their agencies to be angelic, as in the case of the cherubim guarding against Adam's return to Paradise after his expulsion, and again in the figurings of the sanctuary, their bending over the mercy seat, whereby man had again access to the source of life, so we may con