covetousness shall they with feigned words make merchandise of you: whose judgment now of a long time lingereth not, and their damnation slumbereth not." The object of this tract being predictive rather than doctrinal, I shall not enter upon the moral characteristics, only noticing the remarkable way in which the false teachers are spoken of as merchants. This puts in its true light the "sorceries" of Revelation xviii., as the merchandise with which the mystic Babylon trafficked in exchange for the worldly goods there enumerated.

THE PREDICTIONS IN THE APOCALYPSE. THE first four chapters of the Apocalypse form a book in themselves. Chapter i. gives us the person of Christ and the symbols of the Church, together with introductory matter. Chapters ii. and iii., in seven epistles to particular Churches, give the Spirit's voice to all Churches. Chapter iv. is a symbolic vision of the millennial state.

We then enter upon a heavenly vision symbolising the present condition of paradise, in which the saints express their hope of reigning on the earth. We have then the opening of the seals, down to the sixth. Before the opening of the seventh, a vision is given of the sealing of the Lord's faithful ones on earth, and of the blessedness of the spirits of just men made perfect in paradise. Then the seventh seal is opened, introducing

the seven trumpets, extending to the millennial kingdom, which goes down to chapter xi.

Chapters xi., xii., and xiii. are generally synchronous, describing-(xi.) the temple aspect of the Church; (xii.) the Papal fall; (xiii.) the Imperial and Papal associate history.

Chapter xiv. opens with a heavenly vision, preparatory to four remarkable ones which belong to our times.

Chapter xv. is another heavenly vision, showing the interest taken by the saints in paradise in the outpouring of judgments on earth.

Then follow the seven last plagues in chapter xvi. Chapters xvii. and xviii. give us the character and history of Rome as the mystic Babylon.

Chapter xix. describes the accompaniments of the invasion of Judea by Gog.

Chapter xx., the establishment of the millennial kingdom, ending in the judgment of the great white throne.

Chapter xxi. 1, describes the final glory, and then, from ver. 2, gives an episode enlarging on some features of the establishment of the millennial reign.

Viewing the Apocalypse as a revelation of what was to happen during the times of the Gentiles and then onwards, we have the true aspect of the seals, the trumpets, and the woes. They are the Lord's dealings with the Gentile nations. Let us recall to the reader's attention God's revelation of Himself to the Gentiles, beginning with Nebuchadnezzar. We have already seen how clearly and fully He revealed Himself in and to the Babylonian Empire. As soon as the Persian Empire

succeeded, there was an additional manifestation of God, and that through the Persian monarch. Under the Grecian kingdoms He had caused His Word to be circulated in the universal language of literature. But it was reserved to the Roman power to be the unwilling instrument of crucifying the Lord of glory. For a time the empire was adverse, but after no long time it professed Christianity. To the Gentiles was granted an additional volume of revelation, so that the nations were put under a greatly increased responsibility. As in the former three it was visions of empire, so is it in this latter; but as Daniel's vision of the four beasts introduced the Papal persecution of the saints, and the coming of the Son of man, and in his vision of the ram and the he-goat he saw the Mohammedan defilement of "the place of the sanctuary," so in these apocalyptic visions we have the history of Gentile empire, intermingled with that of the two Little Horns.

Those visions were introduced by one unfolding the great subject of the investiture of the Son of man with all power in heaven and earth. Without such a vision the others would be incomplete. The four beasts of Daniel are seen by St John restored to reason. They do homage to Him that sitteth upon the throne. In this they are the antitype of Nebuchadnezzar in his recovery of reason. These observations enable us to see the propriety of each of the beasts successively calling attention to each of the first four visions. As this book is not intended to be a minute commentary on the Apocalypse, but only an outline of the times of the Gentiles, I shall

not enter into the details of the respective visions. This I have done in a separate commentary on the Apocalypse, which is nearly ready for the press.

THE OPENING OF THE SEALS.

THE first seal, when opened, disclosed a white horse with a rider sitting upon him, who went forth conquering and to conquer. The bow in the rider's hand indicated his warlike character, and the white horse his victorious These symbolised the Roman empire in its first

success.

career of victory.

The opening of the second seal unfolded a red horse, whose rider took away peace from among men, and filled the empire with internecine slaughter.

Without entering into precise chronological dates, which the elucidation of the vision does not require, it is enough to observe that this symbolises that period of imperial history when there was so much contest for the throne, involving so great an amount of bloodshed.

The third seal applies to that awful period of famine which so desolated the empire.

There then follows the fourth seal, giving a terrible view of the subsequent period of pestilence.

These characteristics of imperial history are noted by the ordinary secular historians of the empire.

The scene then changes. It is no longer a rider upon

a horse, but ecclesiastical symbols. There is an altar and martyrdom, and a cry for vengeance.

"And when He had opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of them that were slain for the Word of God, and for the testimony which they held: and they cried with a loud voice, saying, How long, O Lord, holy and true, dost Thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth? And white robes were

given unto every one of them;

and it was said unto

them, that they should rest yet for a little season, until their fellow-servants also, and their brethren, that should be killed as they were, should be fulfilled."

In the language of symbols, an altar with blood would represent the martyr's stake, as St Paul says, "I am now ready to be poured out, and the time of my departure is at hand" (2 Tim. iv. 6). In the same symbolical language, "souls" are the martyrs' blood, "The life of all flesh is the blood thereof "-Greek yux-(Lev. xvii. 14).

It is not the martyrs in heaven personally crying for vengeance, but their blood on earth doing so, like that of Abel. They were, principally, the martyrs under Diocletian, immediately preceding the nominal conversion of the empire to Christianity. The answer is remarkable in its reference to the martyrs under the Papacy. The white robes given to them are seen in their spotlessness in the vision in the seventh chapter.

The opening of the sixth seal reveals the judgments upon the Western Roman Empire. Rome had become the mistress of the world, but her very success ended in