other side had been likewise read. The book seen by the seer and thus constructed, had seven seals attached to it-seals, that serve to indicate that they were secret, and also seals, to indicate that they were to be broken or opened. Each seal was the compendium of a distinct prophecy of events and circumstances to evolve. Various theories have been given by way of explanation; the most celebrated are those of Cunninghame of Lainshaw, and Elliott. The first six seals contain the history of the temporal glory and decline of Rome Pagan, the most illustrious empire of the ancient earth. This is my strong, and I think demonstrable conviction. The first six trumpets, which are comprehended in the seventh seal, contain the desolation of Rome Christian by the Goths, the Saracens, and the Turks. The first six vials, which are comprehended in the seventh trumpet, embody the events that occurred subsequent to the breaking forth of the great European revolution in 1793. Thus the twenty-one apocalyptic symbols, the seven seals, the seven trumpets, and the seven vials, represent in succession the progress of the church along the obstructions of time, her vicissitudes of experience, her trials, her cruel mockings, her perils, and her final triumph and permanent prosperity, contemporaneously with overwhelming judgments on the nations, and on the apostacy. John says, verse 4,-"I wept much, because no man was found worthy to open and to read the book." The sacred seer thus showed an earnest and anxious desire to understand unfulfilled prophecy, and thereby to learn things that were to come. Such desire was not sinful, nay, within the proper limits it was as dutiful as it was blessed. If no symbol had been exhibited significant of events to come, he would have had no right to inquire, "for secret things belong unto the Lord." But as a symbol was shown him, it was the instinct of nature and the evidence of grace to seek reverently and humbly after its significance, for "things revealed belong to us and to our children;" but we are not left to conjecture on the nature of this curiosity, for one of the elders showed it was lawful when he said unto him, "Weep not, 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 on John looking up he saw "in the midst of the throne 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." Thus, Jesus of Nazareth, the Saviour of sinners, in the exercise of his prophetic office, represented by seven eyes, the great symbol of omniscience, and by the seven horns, the symbol of omnipotent power, and in virtue of his perfect atonement and its perpetual efficacy as "the Lamb slain," broke the seals, and opened the book, and unveiled for us its wonderful contents. He is now as ever the Lion of the tribe of Judah, that is, strength and royalty, power and jurisdiction combined. He is now also as ever the root of all being, the fountain of all life. He is seated on the throne; but even the lustre of that throne cannot conceal the lowliness and loveliness of the most interesting spectacle in glory, the Lamb slain. The word éopayμévov, here rendered "as it had been slain," means literally killed in sacrifice, and as if just newly so killed, and conveys beyond the power of English to express the continual freshness and applicability of the atoning and expiatory efficacy of the blood of Christ, and teaches us the precious truth, that there is the same virtue in the atonement this very moment as there was when that atonement was first made. Years do not waste its virtue, and the successive millions that have drawn from it do not exhaust its fulness. When the Lamb had thus taken the book, and stood ready to open it, the four living creatures and the four and twenty elders, being designed to represent the first-fruits and precursors of the redeemed in glory, sung a new song with harps, and golden vials full of incense, which are the prayers of, literally, the holy ones, that is, themselves; and they sang a new song, (v. 9,) 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 the angels also took up the flying strains and, according to their experience and

nature, sang, ten thousand times ten thousand, and thousands of thousands being their number, "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 in heaven, and on the earth, and under the earth, and such as are in the sea, added, Blessing, and honour, and glory, and power, be unto him that sitteth upon the throne, even unto the Lamb for ever and ever." There was displayed on this august occasion, on Christ's part, a new manifestation of his character, a new evolution of his glory; and they that beheld it, in order to express the all but inexpressible feeling stirred within them by that new and glorious apocalypse, sung a new song-its theme, atoning blood

its key-note, redeeming love-its harmony, the sustained and blended voices of adoring spirits—and the choir that sang it, the redeemed tenantry of heaven and earth, the angels of the sky, and the grateful inmates of the ocean and the air. Thus it is now, and thus it will be for ever. The songs of psalmists praise him-the harps of prophets praise him-the records of evangelists and the eloquence of apostles praise him-the seals, the trumpets, and the vials praise him-the glorious company of the apostles praise him-the goodly fellowship of the prophets praise him-the noble army of martyrs praise him the past, the present, and the future praise him-all things bear the impress of his love-exhibit the evidence and the influence of his wisdom and the inspiration of his power, and become the organs of the ceaseless manifestation of his glory..

Chap. vi. begins with the opening of the first seal, "And I saw when the Lamb opened one of the seals, and I heard, as it were the noise of thunder, one of the four living creatures, saying, Come and see. And I saw, and behold a white horse; and he that sat on him had a bow; and a crown was given unto him, and he went forth conquering and to conquer." The first four seals have one great characteristic in common, viz. the symbol of a horse. It is the basis of each. This must indicate something which they share in common. Is there any clue to the solution of this symbol suggested by its his

torical, or national, or local import? There is. Almost every nation has some emblem as its national exponent and characteristic. Thus the thistle is the symbol of Scotland; the rose, of England; and the shamrock, of Ireland. These are the national hieroglyphs. Were any one to write an apocalyptic history of Ireland, for instance, during the last twelvemonths, he would probably write, that the shamrock lost much of its verdure, and ultimately withered and died in the autumn of 1846, but that it recovered all its pristine beauty in the course of 1847; and no one acquainted with the literal historical facts would be likely to mistake the meaning of such an allusion. Now the horse was as strictly the national emblem of Rome as the thistle is of Scotland, the rose of England, or the lily of France, or the shamrock of Ireland. Medals are still in existence with alto-relievo figures of the horse, and the word ROMA inscribed below. The Romans also called themselves Gens Mavortia, that is, the people of Mars, and the horse, in their mythology, was sacred to Mars. Thus, therefore, there can be little doubt, that the four first seals refer to and represent the Roman empire in its pagan state. The colours of the horses point out its successive stages of prosperity, suffering, conquest, or decay-the riders on the horses represent the agents employed to bring about its various phases or conditions-and the crown, the bow, and the balance represent the class, or family, or nation, to which these agents respectively belonged. By adhering to these very natural explanations, we shall be able to open up much that would be otherwise enigmatical, if not impenetrable, and to show consistency where all would be confusion.

The colour of the first horse-viz. white-indicates a state of prosperity, victory, and expansion, as the characteristic of the Roman empire during the period comprehended in this seal. White is the common symbol of prosperity; and in triumphal processions the Roman horses were covered with white. The meaning of this symbol is therefore plain, and its application obvious. Now, was there any period beginning at the date of this vision, signalized by such marked prosperity as is here

The

symbolically set forth? There was. During the reigns. of Nerva, Trajan, Adrian, and the two Antonines, a period commencing A. D. 97, and closing A. D. 180, the Roman empire experienced a condition of almost unclouded national prosperity: Trajan's victories were so numerous and splendid that he was called the Roman Alexander; and Trajan's column stands to this day, a retrospective monument of the splendour of his reign. Gibbon, in this, as in most other instances, unconsciously and undesignedly furnishes in his history evidence of the truth of prophecy. "The empire," he says, 66 was governed by wisdom and virtue, unstained by civil blood, undisturbed by revolution. The period when the human race was most happy extended from the death of Domitian to the accession of Commodus." The crown upon the rider's head indicates that imperial agency was the source of this state of happiness, and that we are right in fixing the era indicated by this seal in the first and second centuries, is made still more clear by referring to the original Greek word here translated crown, OTÉpavos, (stephanos,) that is, the laurel crown. diádnμa (diadema) was not worn till centuries afterwards, and the allusion therefore to the laurel crown, and not to the diadem, is corroborative evidence of the correctness of the chronology, or periodal history, illustrative of this seal. In the rider's hand was a bow, a symbol which long perplexed apocalyptic commentators; Mr. Elliott alone seems to have reached the true solution of it, and on the same pervading principle on which he has so consistently prosecuted his researches, viz. that the symbols were always selected with a reference to the age, the country, or the manners and customs of the people. Crete was the chief ancient place that was celebrated for the manufacture of bows, so much so, that Cretan bows were as popular in Rome as Sheffield cutlery or Staffordshire earthenwares are throughout Europe. One proof of the meaning of the bow employed as a symbol is found in a Greek epigram on a female, with an explanation which assigns her a magpie to denote her loquacity, a cup her drunkenness, and a bow to show that she was a Cretan by birth. As if to exhibit