LECTURE VI.

THE SEALS OPENED.

REV. VI.

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 beasts 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. 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. 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 balances in his hand. And I heard a voice in the midst of the four beasts say, A measure of wheat for a penny, and three measures of barley for a penny; and see thou hurt not the oil and the wine. And when He had opened the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth beast say, Come and see. And I looked, and behold a pale horse; and his name that sat on him was Death, and Hell followed with him. And power was given unto them over the fourth part of the earth, to kill with sword, and with hunger, and with death, and with the beasts of the earth. 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 fellowservants also and their brethren, that should be killed as they were, should be fulfilled. And I beheld when He had opened the sixth seal, and, lo, there was a great earthquake; and the sun became black as sackcloth of hair, and the moon became as blood; and the stars of heaven fell unto the earth, even as a fig tree casteth

her untimely figs, when she is shaken of a mighty wind. And the heaven departed as a scroll when it is rolled together; and every mountain and island were moved out of their places. And the kings of the earth, and the great men, and the rich men, and the chief captains, and the mighty men, and every bondman, and every free man, hid themselves in the dens and in the rocks of the mountains; and said to the mountains and rocks, Fall on us, and hide us from the face of Him that sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb; for the great day of His wrath is come; and who shall be able to stand? MUCH has been said respecting these seals. There has been great diligence in commentators to fix what seal was opened in one age, what in another, what remain to be opened in our own days or in days to come. As I find no times alluded to in the prophecy, I shall speak of none, and imagine none. It seems to me that if we follow the words exactly, they will tell us more of what we want to know than if we substitute any of our own for them.

I. The Lamb has been revealed in the midst of the throne, and in the midst of the elders, and in the midst of the four living creatures. The Lamb is said to have the seven horns of power, the seven eyes of wisdom. As He opens the first seal, the prophet 'hears as it were the noise of thunder, and one of the living creatures says, Come and see.' This divine creature we must assume to be the Lion of the previous vision. He presents that aspect of the divine nature which we commonly oppose to the lamblike. That is not the doctrine of the Apocalypse. He that sits on the throne is fully manifested

in Him who was slain. The power of the lion is as much His as the weakness of the calf. The question to be determined is this: Is the root of power, of that power which actually does rule the world, of that power which all shall one day confess, self-will or self-sacrifice? Does one of them or the other express the will and being of God? To that question all others are subordinate.

II. '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.'

Another symbol is presented to us here which will be repeated often in this chapter. Man's dominion over the horse has been as much to the Arabian in the desert as to the Greek of the Ionic city, the type of his dominion over all the animals, the sign and pledge that he is himself of a higher origin. The hero is educated by the Centaur; his own characteristic title is the horsetamer. In the book of Zechariah, to which I shall have to refer in a later part of this sermon for another purpose —which, in some respects, is more closely related to the book of the Apocalypse than any other book of the Old Testament-there is a vision of a chariot with red horses, of another with black horses, of a third with white horses, of a fourth with grisled and bay horses. These are described to him as the four spirits of the heavens, which go forth from standing before the Lord

of all the earth. The black horses' go forth to the north country: and the white go forth after them: and the grisled go forth toward the south country. The bay seek go to and fro through the earth.'

to

Such language belonged, I apprehend, peculiarly to the time of Zechariah, the time after Judæa had sunk into a portion of the great empire, and when it was rising again into the dignity of a nation. Zechariah had been charging his countrymen to rise and build the temple; he had been showing them how its ordinances. were witnesses, how Joshua, its high-priest, and Zerubbabel, its lawgiver, were witnesses, that not outward. might, but God's Spirit is supreme. He had been speaking of a polity grounded on the opposite principle to this, which had its first home and its full development in the plain of Shinar. Then he passes to the vision of the horses which went forth into different lands. He could not, I conceive, any longer be content to think only of his own land as cared for by God, as watched over by Him. He felt more than ever that it had a vocation of its own; that to maintain its distinctness was the greatest of all duties, as it was the divinest of gifts. But the more he felt its pre-eminence, the more he was obliged to contemplate the other nations as having distinct callings, distinct powers, however these might be abused. They might not know the

highest God, Him from whom all power came, that was the lesson with which the Jew was to bless them. He could only do so while he saw every energy or faculty which those nations put forth-even if they made it an excuse for self-exaltation or for idolatry— as a divine energy or faculty, as a 'spirit of heaven going forth from the Lord of the whole earth.'

When therefore the Lamb breaks the first seal, and when the Lion calls on the prophet to come and see what form then presents itself, I apprehend he gives him a light on the nature and issue of conquest, which he needed especially in his generation, and which every man has needed in his own generation. What meant those wonderful conquests of Asiatic monarchs; of the Macedonians; still more of the Romans, to whom all had bowed down? Did they prove, as they seemed to prove, that a Lion God was reigning; that power came forth from him; and that all were to be trampled under the feet of these white horses? No! it was not so; the power itself was not destructive; not even earthly; but divine. The Lamb was the Lord; the Lion was his servant. In time it would be shown for whom these conquests had been won; not for the Asiatic, not for the Macedonian, not for the Roman; not for self-willed, arbitrary dominion at all; but for Him who was slain and who lives.