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 topayμévov, 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 fulWhen 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

ness.

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 strictly a 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

Fuit equus Marti sacer propter usum belli, et quotannis ei Romæ immolabatur.-Facciolati.

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, "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, Orépavos, (stephanos,) wreath, or laurel crown. The diáonua (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

the perfect minuteness of the apocalyptic symbols, and still more to confirm the justice of our reference of this seal to the period we have fixed, we are informed in history, that on Nerva's accession there was introduced a new dynasty to the imperial throne. * Nerva was the first emperor of Cretan family and origin, and his immediate successors were Cretan also.

"And when he had opened the second seal, I heard the second beast say, Come and see. And there went out another horse that was red, and power was given to him that sat thereon to take peace from the earth, and that they should kill one another; and there was given unto him a great sword," (ver. 3, 4.) In this seal, also, the Roman empire (the horse) is the subject of description. Red is the popular and all but universal symbol of bloodshed. The sword, when presented to any one within a circuit of a hundred miles of Rome, at the era referred to in this seal, was equivalent to his appointment or investiture to be Pretorian Prefect. This, therefore, would indicate that the agency employed under this seal was Pretorian. "Killing one another" is the language of civil war. The peace taken from the earth has in the original the definite article, and this shows that the commission issued to the rider was to take away the peace that was created or prevailed during the first seal. Is there any thing recorded in history which exhausts and illustrates these symbols? We appeal to Gibbon. He shows that the bright and happy era which we have just referred to was succeeded by intestine and incessant civil wars. Dion Cassius calls it "a transition from a golden to an iron age." The Pretorian Guards, under their chief, murdered nine Roman emperors in succession; and during a period of sixty years, that is, from the close of the first seal, A. D. 180, to the close of the second seal, A. D. 240, they exercised exterminating cruelties, and created a Roman reign of terror. Gibbon writes-"Their licentious fury was the first symptom and cause of the decline of the Roman empire."

"And when he had opened the third seal, I heard the third beast say, Come and see. And I beheld, and lo a black horse, and he that sat on him had a pair of ba* Quid enim Nerva Cretensi prudentior?-Aurelius Vict.