heaven. I think if we take St. John as our guide-if we accept his revelation as the true revelation—we may see a meaning in the assertion of the divine, and a meaning in the protest of the layman. All is worship there, because all are pursuing the highest good in contemplation and action; because all are referring their thoughts and acts to one centre, instead of scattering and dispersing them by turning to a thousand different centres; because each thinker and each doer is forgetting himself in the object which he has before him, in the work which is committed to him. But if the teacher supposes that there is any monotony of employment there; that any one grave, earnest task which has occupied the student here will be cast aside or broken off there; that any serious work in which men are engaged has not that which corresponds to it and fulfils it there; I would bid him consider well this opening of heaven to the Apostle, and correct by it his own fancies and speculations. The four living creatures, we shall find, are concerning themselves with all the movements and changes in the moral world; the very name of elders denotes that they are exercising the functions and faculties of judgment and direction over spiritual beings and over natural agents. Our worship must always be dreary, if it stands aloof from our daily life; if it does not interpret and transfigure that life. The heavenly worship is continuous

only because growth in knowledge is continuous, and because all free action is continuous. In the many mansions there is room for every form of life; only the shapes of death can be excluded.

IX. I say, then, we have here the Christian Elysium, or Walhalla, or Paradise, that which you are all looking for when your thoughts are calmest and truest; when you are most tormented by the discords of the world around you, and of your own hearts; when you are most sure there must be a harmony without discords; when you long for scope to complete tasks which death will leave unfinished; when you wish to recover affections which have been broken; to know what you have been unable to know; to work bravely; to rest without ceasing to work. I go,' said Hooker on his death-bed-and the words thrill through me more than all the ecstatic phrases that have been reported of such seasons-'I go to a world of order.' It was such a world—I have said already, and we shall find it more hereafter-that St. John was driven to seek by the tumults which were rending in pieces the world around him. Is Nero, is Vitellius, the King of kings, the Lord of lords? that was the question he had to ask himself. And this was the answer. found that the kingdom of heaven, of which his Master had spoken to him as they sat in the ship, and to crowds of people besides him, was indeed a real kingdom; not far

He

off in some distant star; connected by closest relations, by common pursuits and interests, with all that was passing here. It was much to know this; but he who knows so much must crave to know more. What binds together this calm life with our restless life? How can one be brought to act upon the other and to reform it? Will He who sits on that heavenly throne restore those children of earth who are trampled beneath the tyrant that is sitting on the earthly throne? These questions connect the vision of to-day with that which I hope to consider next Sunday; the vision of the book that was sealed with seven seals, and of the Lamb who prevailed to open it.

G

LECTURE V.

THE BOOK WITH SEVEN SEALS.

REV. V.

And I saw in the right hand of Him that sat on the throne a book written within and on the backside, sealed with seven seals. And I saw a strong angel proclaiming with a loud voice, Who is worthy to open the book, and to loose the seals thereof? And no man in heaven, nor in earth, neither under the earth, was able to open the book, neither to look thereon. And I wept much, because no man was found worthy to open and to read the book, neither to look thereon. And one of the elders saith unto me, Weep not: behold, 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 I beheld, and, lo, in the midst of the throne and of the four beasts, and in the midst of the elders, stood 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. And when He had taken the book, the four beasts and four and twenty elders fell down before the Lamb, having every one of them harps, and golden vials full of odours, which are the prayers of saints. And they sung a new song, 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 hast made us unto our God kings and priests: and we shall reign on the earth. And I beheld, and I heard the voice of many angels round about the throne and the beasts and the elders: and the number of them was ten thousand times ten thousand, and thousands of thousands; saying with a loud voice, 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 which is in heaven, and on the earth, and under the earth, and such as are in the sea, and all that are in them, heard I saying, Blessing, and honour, and glory, and power, be unto Him

that sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb for ever and ever. And the four beasts said, Amen. And the four and twenty elders fell down and worshipped Him that liveth for ever and ever.

FOR awhile St. John might be glad to forget all that he had witnessed of strife and turbulence, in that vision. of peace and order. For he knew it was real. That which was shifting and changeable might be fantastic; this could not be. It was the substance which was implied in those vicissitudes. It derived nothing from the mind of the beholder, it imparted steadfastness to his mind. The revelation of a throne upon which sat One in whom was light and no darkness, justice and no caprice, of forms which reflected that light, of rulers who executed that justice, must have been very calming to the spirit of a seer, who had a little before been contemplating the unsteady flickerings of those candlesticks which had been set upon the earth, the imperfect government of those angels who were exhibiting something of the divine righteousness. But if the prophet could forget the earth in gazing upon heaven, these heavenly powers could not. He who sat on the throne could not. Were the thrones below to confess this throne; or to make a dominion of their own, independent of it, contrary to it? If they were to obey it, wha was to produce the obedience? Could it be wrought by a decree? Could rebel wills yield to that?