5 And I heard the angel of the waters say, Thou art righteous, O Lord, which art, and

wast, and shalt be, because thou has judged thus.

6 For they have shed the

Those who wish to look further at this matter are referred to the paragraph on the angelology of the Apocalypse, and the classification of the angels, as given in the note under v. 2. T Thou art righteous, O Lord, &c., because thou hast judged thus. - The substance of this was sung by the Gentile Christians who stood on the sea of glass: "Great and marvellous are thy works, Lord God Almighty; just and true are thy ways, thou King of saints. Who shall not fear thee, O Lord, and glorify thy name? For thou only art holy: for all nations shall come and worship before thee; for thy judgments are made manifest;" xv. 3, 4. God, whose existence filled the

Austin in his first books, De Civitate Dei, written on purpose to defend the Christian religion from that charge which was laid upon it, that it brought down all judgments upon the empire. Which being false, as it was urged by the heathens to the prejudice of Christianity, viz., that the judgments came for that sin of permitting Christianity in the empire, and contempt of their idol-worship; so was it most true, that for the heathens standing out and persecuting the Christian faith, most heavy wasting judgments were come upon them." So far Dr. Hammond; and how signal a proof does he furnish that the Roman Empire was judged. The heathen writers themselves acknowledged it; but the wor-present, the past, and the future, was shippers of the beast, in their great blindness, knew not that their own wickedness was the cause of these judgments, but attributed their troubles to the existence of Christianity in the empire, which had excited the wrath of their deities against them. ¶ Water became blood. See what we have said on this subject under the preceding verse.

5. Angel of the waters. - This was one of the angels of the elements. The Jews had a tradition that to the different good angels were assigned different stations, duties and charges. The language of the Apocalypse, in frequent cases, is based on these suppositions. Hence we read of the four angels who had charge of the four winds; vii. 1. Another had "power over fire;" xiv. 18; another presided over the altar; xvi. 7; and so the angel standing in the sun was the one who presided over the orb of day; xix. 17. The imaginary being called "the angel of the waters," is introduced, in order to bring out, in a way corresponding to the style the revelator employed, the solemn truths expressed in the words he uttered.

just and righteous in the midst of his judgments. The persecutors had shed the blood of saints and prophets, and God had sent upon them sore judgments.

6. Shed the blood of saints and prophets. — - This they were truly accused of, as the reader will see, if he peruse xi. 7; xii. 17; xiii. 7, 15. The Jews shed the blood of God's servants very freely; and the Romans did the same. The memory of Nero has been rendered infamous throughout the world, for his murder of the innocent, unof fending Christians. Having set fire, as it is said, to the city of Rome, he managed to throw the odium of that execrable action upon the Christians, and thereby excited the public indignation against them to the highest degree. He gratified his own malice, and the malice of the populace which he had himself inflamed, by putting the Christians to tortures and to death. Some were covered with the skins of wild beasts and worried to death by dogs, and others were fastened to crosses and wrapped up in combustible garments and set fire to, that the darkness of the night might be no barrier

blood of saints and prophets, | to drink; for they are worthy. and thou hast given them blood

to the spectacle of their dreadful sufferings. For such scenes as these, Nero, it is said, lent his own gardens; and exhibited at the same time the public diversions of the circus, sometimes himself driving a chariot, and sometimes standing as a spectator, while the groans of burning men and women resounded in his ears. This persecution abated, and the church had a respite for a short time, when the wrath of the enemies of Christ broke forth again under the reign of Domitian. A third persecution began about A. D. 100, under Trajan; and other trials of the same kind under his successors, so that before the conversion of Constantine, the first Roman emperor who embraced Christianity, ten general persecutions of the church have been enumerated. How true was it, then, that the Romans had shed the blood of saints and prophets. Given them blood to drink. This was a strong expression to show that the judgments of God fell upon them for their cruelties a hyperbole like that in xiv. 20" And blood came out of the wine-press, even unto the horse-bridles, by the space of a thousand and six hundred furlongs." God promised to avenge the blood of his servants upon the Jews; Matt. xxiii. 34–36; so here he declares his judgments, in the same manner, upon the Romans. See vi. 10, and compare with xviii. 24, and xix. 2. All this was according to the ancient prediction, Gen. ix. 6: "Whoso sheddeth man's blood, by man shall his blood be shed." God employs men as agents of his will. He punished the Romans by the troubles which came upon them in various parts of the empire, especially by the wars and bloodshed they had to encounter, and which they would in all probability have avoided, had they lived according to the requirements of justice and benevolence. National sins require national punishments, as individual

7 And I heard another out

sins require individual punishments. These judgments are sometimes dreadful, yet in all of them we are permitted to believe God has a kind and good end in view. He punishes his creatures according to their de serts. None are punished except those who are worthy of punishment. "Thou hast given them blood to drink, for they are worthy." They deserved it, and they were treated according to their works. This is the principle on which the divine administration proceeds. See Psa. lxii. 12; Matt. xvi. 27; Rev. xx. 12; xxii. 12.

7. Even so, Lord God Almighty. The voice from the altar is represented as acquiescing in the judgments. This voice is introduced in order to give the revelator occasion to say what follows. ¶ True and righteous are thy judgments. - One of the cardinal principles of all sound theology is, that God is righteous in all his ways

as righteous in his judgments as in his mercies. He always has a good end in view. He never punishes unnecessarily, nor more severely than is consistent with his character as the Father of men. Every act is founded on the eternal principles of rectitude, for he cannot do wrong. The prophets were accustomed to speak of judgments as a bitter or disagreeable draught; and hence came the expressions, "the wine of the wrath of God;" and "the cup of his indignation." In judgments of great severity, God was said to feed men with their own flesh, and make them drunk with their own blood. See Deut. xxxii. 42, 43; and Isa. xlix. 26. God judgeth righteously; Jer. xi. 20; 1 Peter ii. 23. From his very nature he cannot do otherwise. All his judgments, therefore, are true and righteous. The sacred writers represent God as an avenger; 1 Thess. iv. 6: he is terrible; Psa. xlvii. 2: he is a God of judgment; Isa. xxx. 18. His judgments at times are indeed awful, inscrutable,

of the altar say, Even so, Lord | eous are thy judgments. God Almighty, true and right

and may well be called a great deep; Psa. xxxvi. 6. But none of these descriptions are intended by the sacred writers to contradict the essential attributes of the Deity. God's great and leading attribute is his goodness, or rectitude. Again and again do the sacred writers declare that he is righteous; and hence no description of his judgments should lead us to attribute anything unrighteous to him; Exod. ix. 27; 2 Chron. xii. 6; Psa. cxxix. 4; cxlv. 17; Lam. i. 18; Dan. ix. 14. The Lord is gracious; 1 Peter ii. 3. He is good; Psalms xxxiv. 8; c. 5; cxxxv. 3; cxlv. 9; Jer. xxxiii. 11; Nah. i. 7. "He is merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and plenteous in mercy. He will not always chide; neither will he keep his anger forever. He hath not dealt with us after our sins; nor rewarded us according to our iniquities. For as the heaven is high above the earth, so great is his mercy toward them that fear him. As far as the east is from the west, so far hath he removed our transgressions from us. Like as a father pitieth his children, so the Lord pitieth them that fear him;" Psa. ciii. 8-13. He will never cast away from his presence the mourning, penitent soul, nor shut the door of mercy against the sinful, nor prevent them, if they desire, from returning to him. "If his children forsake my law, and walk not in my judgments; if they break my statutes, and keep not my commandments; then will I visit their transgressions with the rod, and their iniquity with stripes. Nevertheless, my loving-kindness will I not utterly take from him, nor suffer my faithfulness to fail;" Psa. lxxxix. 30-33. Such is the government of our Godsuch is his tender mercy. How beautifully and forcibly does Micah say, "Who is a God like unto thee, that pardoneth iniquity, and passeth by the transgression of the remnant of his heritage? he retaineth not his anger

8 And the fourth angel poured

forever, because he delighteth in mercy. He will turn again, he will have compassion upon us; he will subdue our iniquities; and thou wilt cast all their sins into the depths of the sea. Thou wilt perform the truth to Jacob, and the mercy to Abraham, which thou hast sworn unto our fathers from the days of old;" vii. 18-20. "Whom the Lord loveth he correcteth;" Prov. iii. 12. The title which is preëminently applied to God in the New Testament is that of Father. "To give our views of God in one word, we believe in his parental character. We ascribe to him not only the name but the disposition and principles of a father - we believe that he has a father's concern for his creatures; a father's desire for their improvement; a father's equity in proportioning his commands to their powers; a father's joy in their progress; a father's readiness to receive the penitent; and a father's justice [a father's justice] for the incorrigible. We look upon this world as a place of education, in which he is training men by mercies and sufferings; by aids and temptations; by means and opportunities of various virtues; by trials of principle; by the conflicts of reason and passion; by a discipline suited to free and moral beings; for union with himself, and for a sublime and ever-growing virtue in heaven."-(Dr. Channing's Baltimore sermon.) God, then, is truly merciful and gracious; Psa. cxi. 4; cxlv. 8; full of compassion, slow to anger, and of great kindness; Eph. ii. 4. He is long-suffering, very pitiful, and of tender mercy; Numb. xiv. 18; Nah. i. 3; Jas. v. 11. He will punish the wicked, all the wicked, faithfully, adequately, but will not violate the principles of his nature, which have now been described, and which are so frequently and earnestly recognized and asserted by the writers both of the Old and New Testaments. Although in one sense his judgments

out his vial upon the seat of the beast; and his kingdom was full of darkness; and they gnawed their tongues for pain,

11 And blasphemed the God of heaven, because of their pains

and their sores, and repented not of their deeds.

12 And the sixth angel poured out his vial upon the great river Euphrates; and the water thereof was dried up, that the

different the condition between the worshippers of the beast, and the servants of Jesus. The former had no rest, day nor night; xiv. 11; they were maddened with pain; xvi. 10. But the latter were blessed, while their enemies were destroyed; they rested from their labors, and their works accompanied them wheresoever they went.

central point of the empire. Where was the seat of the beast? or the place of his power? Was it not the imperial city? Full of darkness. - The kingdom of the beast was full of darkness, like the darkness of Egypt that might be felt. ¶ Gnawed their tongues. The anguish of the worshippers of the beast is represented as very great; they had no rest day nor night, as was foretold, xiv. 11. They gnawed their tongues for their pain. This is one of the most forcible figures to describe intense pain that the mind can conceive. In some awful diseases, the sick man gnaws his tongue. It is a horrid spectacle, and, thank God, is seen but seldom. There have been cases, in which the unhappy subject, suffering great pain, accompanied by delirium, has gnawed his tongue until it bore no resemblance to what it was once. This figure is even more forcible, we think, than that of "gnashing the teeth," which occurs several times in the gospels, though they are parallel expressions. The language is not to be construed literally. It is clearly meta-drances to the approach of the opposphorical. If such were the consequences attributable to the suffering of the wrath of God, if men were made as it were mad, or delirious, by it, how properly was it represented in xiv. 10, by the wine of the wrath of God, which inflames and intoxicates men, and drives their reason away.

11. Blasphemed the God of heaven. So great was the pain represented to be, that the sufferers lost all patience, and broke out in blasphemy against the Almighty; but they did not repent of their deeds. Their hearts, like Pharaoh's, were hardened. They persisted in their wickedness. See the remarks on ver. 9. How

12. Great river Euphrates. - Euphrates is called "the great river" in other parts of the Scriptures; see Gen. xv. 18; Deut. i. 7; Joshua i. 4. It was the eastern boundary of the land given to the seed of Abraham; see the texts already referred to, and Deut. xi. 24; 1 Chron. v. 9. When the Israelites were conquered by the Romans, the Euphrates became the eastern boundary of the empire, and they never extended their conquests beyond this. The sixth angel is represented, therefore, as pouring out his vial on that river, that the waters thereof might be dried up, and that the way of the kings of the east might be prepared, that is, that all hin

ing armies might be taken away, and that they might march on into Syria, and hasten the fall of the Roman power. The revelator, perhaps, drew this figure from the early history of his countrymen, for God divided the Red Sea for them to pass through. The Nile, also, is represented as being divided, that the Jews returning to their country might pass through dry shod, Isa. xi. 15, -a figure like the one occurring in the verse before us. The figure of the drying up of rivers is sometimes used to represent great drought and want; in fact, we know that the smaller rivers are sometimes totally dry in a time of great drought.