'the times, and from the prophetic numbers expressly given 'to guide us in the anticipation of these great Gentile judg'ments which are mentioned in Scripture wherever and whenever the coming of the Lord is mentioned."

<

Those who dare to denounce the perverted theology and false dogmas which have led to such results, must be prepared to meet the storm which will be roused against them by what the same writer calls "the British Inquisition, whose ignorance of truth I know to be equalled only by their malice against everything which touched the infalli'bility of their idol PUBLIC OPINION. I mean," he continues, "by the British Inquisition, that court whose ministers and agents carry on their operations in secret; who drag every 'man's most private affairs before the sight of thousands, and seek to mangle and destroy his life as an instructor, trying 'him without a witness, condemning him without a hearing, nor suffering him to speak for himself; intermeddling in things of which they have no knowledge, and cannot on any principle have a jurisdiction; and defacing and deforming the finest beauty and the profoundest wisdom by the rancour of their malice. I mean those who set principle, who set truth, who set justice, who set everything sacred up to sale: I mean the ignorant, unprincipled, unhallowed spirit of criticism, which in this Protestant country is producing as foul effects against truth, and by as dishonest means, as ever 'did the Inquisition of Rome." 1

"Here is wisdom. Let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast: for it is the number of a man; and his number is six hundred and sixty-six."

If we take the numerical value of the Hebrew letters, according to the usual methods of kabbalistic or mystical interpretation, we find this name to signify the offspring of the polluted Pneuma and the inverted Shaddai.

It must be remembered that the denunciations, in the subsequent chapter of Revelation, of those who worship the image of the beast, and have received his mark, do not apply to the ignorant and superstitious masses, but to those who are responsible for the gross perversions and flagrant iniqui

1 Preliminary Discourse to Ben Ezra's work on the Second Advent, by the Rev. Edward Irving, pp. 5 and 22.

THE CROSS OF CHRIST.

377

ties which have characterised the religion, almost ever since it has been called by the name of Christ.

The history of the Roman and Greek Churches is a hideous record of blasphemy and crime, of the most wanton desecration of the name and teaching of Christ, of the foulest hypocrisy, of unbridled lust, and of relentless cruelty. It is only held in check now by the requirements of modern civilisation; but the old spirit is still latent, and in the eastern parts of Europe and west of Asia, Christendom is inferior to most Eastern religions, and in fact scarcely removed from the paganism of the savage. At the same time, among its devotees, as among the devotees of all religions, whether lay or clerical, are to be found the "salt of the earth," whose intuitive instinct it is to discover what is good in their religion, by whatever name it is called, and to practise it. Anti-Christendom abounds in true Christians. Many of these will feel a pang at the idea of giving up the beloved symbol, which has proved so often a solace to them in suffering, and an encouragement to them in effort; but one of the most powerful hindrances to the approach of Christ the Bridegroom, is this constant clinging to the 'cross of Christ the victim.

It is a hindrance for two reasons. One is that the majority of people cling to the contemplation of the sacrifice of Christ, because they believe that by doing so they will escape eternal damnation. In the first place, there is no such thing as eternal damnation; and in the second, if there were, they could not fit themselves for it more aptly than by making use of a perfectly innocent victim, for purely selfish purposes, in order to appease the wrath of an angry God. The stagnant and utterly feeble condition of Christ's Church on earth is well expressed by the line of the popular hymn

"Simply to Thy cross I cling."

To hang on to it like a drowning wretch is considered the highest evidence of piety, and the noblest effort man can make for his afflicted fellow-men. Though it has not been without its value as a moral agent and an emblem of selfsacrifice, it has now become a mere drag to hold man back from the side of his Master, who is thus placed like a magnet

in the remote past to attract Christians backward, or root them to the ground, and the lofty inspirations and high endeavours for humanity of those who love Him thus become paralysed.

But the standard of Christ is floating before us, and not behind us; and on its folds is emblazoned the Dove, the emblem of His Bride, the Sympneumatic Church-and not the Cross.

The second reason why the cross of the victim operates as a hindrance to the approach of the Bridegroom is, that it falsifies our entire conception of Christ as He is now, and His present work, and of our duties in regard to it. He is a conquering warrior, summoning us to the battle which is to precede His nuptials. We get near Him just in the degree in which we realise that this is the case, and, "forgetting 'those things that are behind, and reaching forth to those 'things that are before, press towards the mark for the prize ' of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus."

It is not on the wound that our General received on the first day of His first battle, that we are to fix our minds if we would co-operate with Him, but on the orders which we receive in the struggle in which we are now engaged under His leadership, and in a determination to do or to die, as He did; and by our deaths, if necessary, to help to win salvation for the race.

The last chapters of the Revelation, to which we must now return, describe the overthrow of His enemies, and the descent of His Bride.

CHAPTER XXIII.

THE FOURTEENTH AND FOLLOWING CHAPTERS OF REVELATION INTERPRETED-COLLISION ON EARTH BETWEEN THE SYMPNEUMATIC. AND ANTI-SYMPNEUMATIC FORCES CATASTROPHIC CHANGES IN CONSEQUENCE-THE FATE OF THE SIDDIM-THE TRIUMPH OF THE SAINTS -THE SECOND ADVENT, AND THE DESCENT OF THE BRIDE RE

CAPITULATION.

THE first five verses of the fourteenth chapter have reference entirely to the joys of the saints in the invisible part of our universe, who "were redeemed from among men, being the first-fruits unto God and the Lamb."

The angel that flew in the midst of heaven, having the everlasting gospel to 'preach unto them that dwell on the earth, and to every 'nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people, saying with a 'loud voice, Fear God, and give glory to Him; for the hour ' of His judgment is come," signifies the proclamation of the Sympneuma to man, and the advent thereof.

The angel that follows, saying, "Babylon is fallen, is fallen, that great city, because she made all nations drink of the wine of the wrath of her fornication," signifies the proclamation of the overthrow of anti-Christendom, with its existing ecclesiastical organisations. The expression "wine of the wrath of her fornication" seems to have no sense, on account of its incorrect rendering. It is literally the "wine of the essence of her fornication," and has reference especially to the desecration of the sympneumatic elements contained in the blood of Christ, by the ecclesiastical dogma, which transmutes ordinary wine into His actual blood.

'The same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God" should in the same way mean "of the essence of God";

"which is poured out without mixture into the cup of his indignation" is also a misleading translation, "indignation' meaning more properly" temperament," and referring not to God, but to the temperament of the man who drinks of the essence of God. In other words, these verses signify a collision between the divine pneumatic force and the infernal ecclesiastical one; and the "torment with fire and brimstone" signifies the acute suffering caused by this collision; "torment" meaning literally "testing by suffering," which will overtake every one "who worships the beast or his image, or receives his mark on his forehead or into his hand," and who refuses the gift of sympneumatic life now offered to him.

"Here is the patience of the saints: here are they that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus," signifies the trials which those who have accepted this gift will be called upon to endure.

"And I heard a voice from heaven saying unto me, Write, Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord henceforth, saith the Spirit, for they rest from their labours; and their works do follow them," signifies that those who have received this gift enter the invisible world under different conditions atomically from those who predeceased them, in ignorance of sympneumatic contact. And their works do follow them," signifies that their efforts here receive their full fruition by a perfect sympneumatic union hereafter.

The remainder of the chapter contains an account of judgments to come; but it must be remembered that none of these judgments are in the sense of punishment or vengeance, but are the inevitable results of the infractions of law. The Greek word κpíois, which is usually translated judgment, would be more correctly rendered by a word which did not carry with it the idea of condemnation.

The following chapter refers entirely to the upper region of the invisible portion of our universe. It must be borne in mind that the words "heaven" and "hell" in the Bible always include the upper and lower portions of our world, and sometimes refer to them exclusively.

The seven plagues of the sixth verse are various methods of operation of divine pneumatic force, which, antagonising