ence to war. It is an evil. But it is a necessary evil to the attainment of that which is good. So those who take part in war are not here condemned, nor anywhere else in Scripture. It is those who are the occasion of offenses.

6:6. "A quart of wheat for a dollar."

The word translated a dollar was the average day's wage of an ordinary laborer and of a soldier. And so we think the nearest general equivalent among us to-day is a dollar.

The amount of food here mentioned was the amount of food sufficient to support a man for a day. This was a terribly high price for food. It suggests a very great scarcity as the result of a famine.

6:8. "A pale horse . . . Death."

Hades follows ready to gather up the slain.

This scene is the darkest and most terrible. Single forms of death were before revealed. Now the great king of terrors himself appears. This scene gathers up in itself all the awfulness of the past scenes. It is the central scene of the seven and it is the darkest. It is the midnight of sorrows and acquaintance with grief. And so we often find the middle things of life particularly dark. So Bunyan places his valley of the shadow of death just midway between the wicket gate and the golden city. Dante seems to work from the same sort of hint and found his obscure wood and wanderings just midway along the road of life.

The vision deepens in its central scene, like the horror of darkness in Abraham's vision.

The voice which is now heard is not the cry of a groan

ing world. It is the call of the oppressed and troubled Church. Where is the promise of that early vision of victory? The opening of this fifth seal is the answer. The Church must follow her Lord. As the glowing vision of Bethlehem with its "peace on the earth to men of good will," gave way to Gethsemane and the cry " My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?" so the glowing dream of a quick conquest over all evil in the earth must leave Christ's true followers and in its place must rise up the reality of an agonizing, persecuted Church, and the voice of its anguish must be heard: "How long, O Master!

The seals, then, are the tokens that the victory of Christ's Church must be like her Lord's, a victory through apparent failure and certain death.

The two visions of this chapter 1-8; 9-17, each introduced by the same phrase, extend the opening of the sixth seal very considerably beyond that of the others. But they are really episodical.

The winds are emblems of trouble and judgment.

7:4. "And I heard the number of those who were sealed."

There is always an appropriate symbolism in the numbers of the Apocalypse. Twelve is used as the number of those who in every age have been called out to witness for some truth which the world needed. The twelve tribes of Israel were the appointed witnesses of a pure theology and a pure morality in the darkest days of idolatry and sensual license. The twelve Apostles became the inheritors of a similar, though higher, spiritual work. The number twelve, then, stands for a world witness of divine truth. The

twelve multiplied by twelve, or the one hundred and fortyfour thousand represent the growth into full numbers of the choice ones of God.

The arrangement of the names is significant. Of course they are here meant to signify the tribes of the true Israel of God. Judah comes first and Benjamin last. The other ten are included in them as an envelope stanza.

7:9.

"After this I saw, and lo, a great throng."

These are the same as those last seen, but under different conditions. Those were seen in tribulation. The sealing was a sign of security amid their trials. It was, as it were, the Church's Passover. These are celebrating their triumph. It is now, as it were, the Church's Feast of Tabernacles.

Here is another sublime and holy chorus. This is the voice of rejoicing and salvation which is in the tents of the righteous. For the Lord, who is their strength and song, has become their salvation (Psalm 118: 14).

7:11.

"And all the angels were standing round the throne. . . saying: Amen.”

The great concourse of angels now add their "Amen" to the cry of the "purchased possession," and at once break out into a sevenfold ascription of praise.

The sevenfold doxology is specially appropriate here because it implies a divine completeness, for it is in this vision we are shown the close of the Church's agony.

8: 1.

"And when he opened the Seventh Seal."

The visions of the seals are associated with the contents of the roll (chap. 5: 1, 2). The book represents God's

purposes and principles of government in relation to the history of the world. The openings of the seals show us some typical scenes in the course of the world's history which are unfoldings of principles and truths in the great Book of Life.

8:2. "And I saw."

The series of visions which is now introduced extend to the close of the eleventh chapter.

There is a marked correspondence of arrangement between these and the visions of the seals. As there, so here, there are introduced two subordinate visions towards the end of the series. The sixth seal was followed by the vision of the hundred and forty-four thousand and then by the unnumbered throng (7: 1-8; 7: 9-17). The sixth trumpet is followed by the vision of the little book and of the seven thunders, and then by the measurement of the Temple (10: 1-11; II: I-14).

The general intention of these interposed visions is similar. In both cases they give us an insight into the inmost life of the Church. The main visions give us more external aspects. The interposed visions show us the inner and more spiritual aspects. The openings of the seals show us the great outer features of world and Church history. The interposed visions of chapter seven show us the calm and the strength of the people of God. It is the same with the visions of the trumpets. The main visions give us the trumpet voices of God's manifold providences summoning the world to surrender to him. The subsidiary visions point to the witness and work of the true children of God and the more secret growth of the Church of Christ.

Another similarity between the seals and the trumpets is in the separation between the first four and the last three.

The first four trumpets, like the first four seals, are grouped together. The first four seals are introduced by the cry: "Come." The first four trumpets are followed by judgments on natural objects, while the last three are introduced by the thrice repeated cry of "Woe," and have so been called the "Woe Trumpets."

But while there is this correspondence of arrangement, the general import of the visions is very different. In the seventh seal we are brought to the eternal quiet of God's presence. We have been taught that the Church may find her way a thorny one but peace comes at last. After the seventh trumpet, however, it is not simply peace but triumph we are assured of.

The visions are not to be thought of as scenes of events chronologically succeeding each other. The one set shows us the way through trouble to rest. The other shows the way through conflict to triumph. The one set shows us the troubles which befall the Church because of the world. The other shows us the trouble which falls on the world because the Church is advancing to the conquest like Israel of old to the possession of the promised land.

8:2.

"The seven angels who stand before God."

These represent the complete circle of God's power in judgment. They are not to be taken literally. For just as the seven spirits are but symbols of the complete and manifold influences of the one Holy Spirit, the third person in the Trinity, so the seven angels are symbols of that complete and varied messenger force which God has continually at his command.

Seven trumpets.

The trumpet was used of old to summon the people to