salve, that thou mayest see.

19 As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten; be zealous therefore, and repent.

20 Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the

to apply it that they might see. But it is easily perceived that the triplicate of metaphors in this verse are all aimed at the same thing, viz., to convince the church addressed, they were truly in a destitute condition in spiritual things, whatever they might think of themselves; and that Jesus, if they would but listen to his voice, would lead them to such an improvement as they needed.

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19. As many as I love. - The Son of God was specially careful that they should not think he loved them not, because he rebuked and chastened them. He therefore stated, that he rebuked and chastened those whom he loved. This is the principle of the divine administration. "My son, despise not thou the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked of him for whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth;" Heb. xii. 5, 6. Be zealous therefore, and repent. Their sin had been that of lukewarmness. They were called on to be zealous. Zeal is the counterpart of coldness. Paul said, "It is good to be zealously affected always in a good thing;" Gal. iv. 18. The Christian's duty was a good thing; and the Laodiceans therefore were urged to enter into it with zeal, or heartfelt earnestness. They were called on to change their lives specially in regard to this matter of luke

I door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me.

21 To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with

and will sup with him, and he with me.

When a man receives the truth, Jesus is said to take up his abode with him. So we read, in John xiv. 23, "If a man love me, he will keep my words; and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him." The same in substance is found in John's 1st Epistle: "Let that therefore abide in you, which ye have heard from the beginning. If that which ye have heard from the beginning shall remain in you, ye also shall continue in the Son, and in the Father;" ii. 24. In the same sense God is said to dwell with men upon the earth, viz., by the power of his truth.

21. Sit with me in my throne. Some think this refers to distinguished honors to be conferred upon the saints, or believers, in the immortal world. But wherein does it differ from the rewards offered to those of the other six churches who were faithful? Rev. i. 7, 10, 11, 26; iii. 5, 12; -all the figures in these passages refer to the same class of honors. To sit with Christ on his throne, is to reign with him. And where does he reign? Where is his kingdom? Is it not among men? Let it be observed that Jesus promised to his disciples that they should be exalted to thrones when his kingdom was fully set up, provided they followed him in the regeneration and suffered with him. "Ye which have followed me in the regeneration, when the Son of man shall sit in the throne of his glory, ye also shall sit upon twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel;" Matt. xix. 28. Jesus was a spiritual king, and, of

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which I heard, was as it were

the churches, as if meaning the churches at large. The presumption is, that although John addressed only the seven, yet being put as representatives of all the rest, they were all interested in the communications which he made. After he had concluded his communications to the seven churches, he came to the prophetic parts, which seem not to be addressed to those churches, but to the Christian world at large. Nothing more is said in the Apocalypse about the seven churches. The testimony is "to every man that heareth the words of the prophecy of this book;" xxii. 18. ¶I looked. The word here is not to be taken in the ordinary acceptation of merely seeing; but is to be understood as having an insight, after the manner of the prophets, or seers, by which he was enabled to foretell the events which he subsequently described. Door was opened in heaven. - We take the opportunity, in this place, to offer a few remarks on the scriptural, and especially the apocalyptical, sense, of the word heaven. It is put, 1st. For the region of the air, as when we speak of the fowls of heaven; Rev. viii. 13, x. 6; xiii. 13; xiv. 6; xvi. 21; xix. 17; xx. 9. 2d. It is put for the firmament, as when we speak of the sun in heaven, or the stars of heaven; vi. 14; viii. 10; ix. 1; xx. 11. 3d. It is put for the imaginary dwelling-place of God. The firmament is but an imaginary place; and in the same sense heaven may be understood when spoken of as God's dwelling-place. The form of God's existence is altogether mysterious. We do not suppose we are to understand heaven, when spoken of as the dwelling-place of God, to be strictly a locality. It partakes of the metaphorical, the scenical. God, among the ancients, was supposed to dwell in any place where he specially manifested his presence. When Jacob

As

slept upon the ground, on his way towards Haran, he had a vision, and behold, a ladder was seen reaching from the earth to the heaven, on which the angels of God were ascending and descending; and he heard a voice above it saying, "I am the Lord God of Abraham, thy father," &c. He awoke, with the spell of the dream upon him. "Surely (said he) the Lord is in this place, and I knew it not; this is none other but the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven;" Gen. xxviii. 16, 17. though he had said, this is the avenue to God's presence. The Jews of old supposed that God inhabited some spiritual dwelling, (if we may so speak,) which they called eternity, a high and holy place. They also supposed him to dwell in the humble and contrite spirit; Isaiah lvii. 15. This high and holy place, of which the Jews had an indistinct idea, they called heaven. But they held, from the earliest times, that God also dwelt among them. He dwelt beneath the cherubim, at the mercy-seat, upon the ark of the covenant; 2 Kings xix. 15; Psa. lxxx. 1; Isa. xxxvii. 16. In the case before us, it would seem that heaven was put for the supposed dwelling-place of God. This was represented to the Jews, in the temple, by the mercy-seat. By the door opening in heaven, may be understood the opening of the door, or gate, to the mercy-seat. A trumpet talking with me. —' This was the first voice the revelator heard. He had seen no person, but he heard a voice, which seemed to be as if a trumpet had life, and had the power to talk. The meaning is, it was a trumpet-like voice. In the view of the ancient" Hebrews, men could not see God with the outward eye. They could see a representation of him; but it was not supposed they could see God himself; John i. 18; 1 Tim. vi. 16. There was a moral or spiritual sense,

and I will show thee things which must be hereafter.

2 And immediately I was in the Spirit and behold, a throne was set in heaven, and one sat

in which the pure in heart could see him; Matt. v. 8. But though they could not see Jehovah, yet they could hear his voice, as was the case with Adam and Eve in the garden; Gen. iii. 8. So the revelator heard the voice of the trumpet talking with him. We desire to remark once for all, that we regard the scenes described in this chapter to be purely metaphorical, as much so as the account of the temptation of our first parents, in the garden of Eden, by the serpent. He who should seek to interpret the language literally, would have confusion worse confounded. The design of the revelator seems to have been to represent, that he had a special opportunity of approaching the Holy One, and of learning from him the events "which must be hereafter." The imagery is not real, but imaginative. It is a figurative description of the dwelling-place of the High and Holy One. See 2d, 3d, and 4th verses. ¶ Which must be hereafter. - This shows plainly that the prophetic part of the book is about to begin, for which the revelator was specially prepared by the communication with heaven. We were informed in Rev. i. 19, that John was directed to write the things which he had seen, the things which were, and the things which were to be afterward. The latter things are written in those parts of the Apocalypse which we have now approached.

2. Immediately I was in the Spirit. That is, "when the door was opened, and the trumpet voice talked with me, I was immediately in a spiritual frame of mind". -a fit and proper state in which to behold the things which he was to see and describe. TA throne was set in heaven.

This was the first thing he saw after the

door in heaven was opened. ¶ And one sat on the throne. – He saw not the being, and yet the sight impressed him with the fact that there was a being there.

3. Like a jasper and sardine stone. Beautiful, glorious! Such was the appearance. These precious stones had great lustre. But this was not all that contributed to the brilliance of the scene. TA rainbow round about the throne. The description is intended to be of the most gorgeous kind. This description of the throne of God, and of the mysterious Being seated thereon, seems to us to be framed according to the descriptions given by Isaiah and Ezekiel. See the words of the former prophet: “I saw also the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up, and his train filled the temple. Above it stood the seraphims: each one had six wings: with twain he covered his face, and with twain he covered his feet, and with twain he did fly. And one cried unto another, and said, Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord of hosts: the whole earth is full of his glory. And the posts of the door moved at the voice of him that cried, and the house was filled with smoke;" Isa. vi. 1—4. This vision appeared to the prophet to be in the temple; for he said that the train of the Holy One "filled the temple." See also Ezekiel chap. i., especially verses 26-28. "And above the firmament that was over their heads was the likeness of a throne, as the appearance of a sapphire stone, and upon the likeness of the throne was the likeness as the appearance of a man above upon it. And I saw as the color of amber, as the appearance of fire round about within it, from the appearance of his loins even upward, and from the

like unto an emerald.

4 And round about the throne

appearance of his loins even downward, I saw as it were the appearance of fire, and it had brightness round about. As the appearance of the bow that is in the cloud in the day of rain, so was the appearance of the brightness round about. This was the appearance of the likeness of the glory of the Lord. And when I saw it I fell upon my face, and I heard a voice of one that spake." Now we cannot have a doubt that the revelator found his images in the passages we have here quoted. They were not the creations of wild fancy in him; he found them in the sacred books of the Jews. Compare with the above Ezek. x.

This is

4. Four-and-twenty seats. a continuation of the imagery. Fourand-twenty exalted seats, or thrones, are placed around the throne of God. We say thrones, for those who sit on them have crowns upon their heads, as signs that they reign with God. ¶ Four-and-twenty elders. - First of all, who were the elders? What kind of an officer were they? The word itself signifies, a man of age, experience, and dignity. We read of the elders often in the Old Testament, as well as in the New. They were the magistrates, heads, or rulers of the people. Even when the children of Israel were in bondage in Egypt, they seem to have had a kind of government, and there were among them some whom they owned as their teachers and rulers. Moses was directed to confer with them, previously to undertaking the deliverance of the people; Exod. iii. 16-18. These elders were men of experience, wisdom and gravity, and of authority among the people. Afterwards, when it became necessary for Moses to have assistance in governing the people, he was advised to appoint elders for that purpose. "Moreover thou shalt provide out of all the people, able men, such as fear God, men of truth, hating

were four and twenty seats; and upon the seats I saw four

covetousness; and place such over them to be rulers of thousands, and rulers of hundreds, rulers of fifties, and rulers of tens : and let them judge the people at all seasons and it shall be, that every great matter they shall bring unto thee, but every small matter they shall judge so shall it be easier for thyself, and they shall bear the burden with thee;" Exod. xviii. 21, 22. For the commission given to these men, see Deut. i. 16, 17. This appointment was confirmed by the authority of God; see Numb. xi. 16, 17; and these men ruled in conjunction with Moses; Deut. xxvii. 1: "And Moses with the elders of Israel commanded the people, saying, Keep all the commandments which I command you this day." With this explanation we shall be able to understand the matter of the four-and-twenty elders in the passage before us. The form of the court of heaven was made with reference to the God-appointed form of government among the Jews. This form was held sacred in the eyes of the Jews; and how natural was it therefore for the revelator, himself a Hebrew, when painting a scene of the presence of God, and the heavenly court, to describe it after the sacred fashion of the Jews. It is true, we read, in one or two instances, of some slight changes in the government; but a body of elders was always clustered around the chief officer, both in secular and holy matters. We read often of the elders in the New Testament as being the leaders of the Jewish people in their opposition to Jesus and his apostles, as well as other matters. This led the Christians to regard the elders as stiff. necked and rebellious men; but it begat no prejudices in their minds in regard to the office itself. But why was the number twenty-four selected? We read nowhere of that exact number of elders except in the Apoca