XXIV

THE BIBLE.

(XII.) THE APOCALYPSE

"I JESUS have sent mine angel to testify unto you these things in the churches. I am the root and the offspring of David, and the bright and morning star.-Revelation xxii. 16.

WE come to-day to the last book of the New Testament and of the Bible, the Revelation of St. John. It is on the whole the most difficult book in the Bible; and this probably is the reason why so little of it is appointed to be read in church, the epistle for to-day being one of the most striking of the passages which we are thus accustomed to hear. There is good reason to hope that before long its chapters will take their place in our service as second lessons like the chapters of every other book of the New Testament. But meanwhile every one can read it for himself in his own Bible; and the more he reads it, the better will it be for him if he reads it with an open heart and a desire to find in it light from above to lighten the darkness of his own life.

No one who reads in that spirit will find the book

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of Revelation unprofitable reading merely because there are hundreds of things there which he does not understand, and can never hope to understand. The power with which it lays bare the world above, and the world beneath, and in a measure the world to come, is not lost for us by any mere want of understanding. Those words near the end of the book, "Let him that is athirst come" may be applied to our treatment of the book. Those who are athirst for the water of life will find the water of life springing bright and clear and plentiful there. Those who have no thirst for the water of life, and only care to amuse themselves with the sound of the words, had better leave the book alone.

The book of Revelation is not only difficult, but difficult for every one. Some of you may have come across books written in the present day which profess to explain it all. I cannot say that I think the explanations are generally worth much; nay, they are, as a rule, not even on the right track, so that there is very little to be learnt from them. But neither do I feel competent to give you in their place anything more than a few hints which may enable you to approach the book in a right spirit. We have hitherto been looking at the books of the Bible chiefly as parts of one great book. That is also the safest way of approaching the Revelation of St. John. We have found the pith of the whole Bible to be God making Himself known to man; and assuredly we shall find the same character in this the last utterance of His written word.

First let us consider the place which the Revelation of St. John holds in the New Testament. You will remember that what marks out the New Testament from the Old is that in it God speaks through His Son. You will remember also that in the first four books of the New Testament-the Gospels-we have the simple, naked message of God conveyed to us by a four-fold picture of the Son Himself, His birth, His life with its ministry of word and deed, His sufferings and death, and His glorious resurrection. There nothing comes between us and Him; we are not troubled with doctrines or preachings about Him; we are simply bidden to look on Christ and learn of Him, and believe that in so doing we are learning what it most concerns us to know about the Lord Almighty, since He Himself has said, "He that hath seen me hath seen the Father." You will remember that in the three other groups of books God is still teaching us through His blessed Son, but not through His Son alone; rather through the impression which His Son made upon His faithful followers in that first age. You will remember that Christ's ascension into heaven was followed by His sending of the Holy Ghost, and that the coming of the Holy Ghost was also the foundation of the Church, the body of Christ, the outward and visible bearer of His presence on earth. You will remember that in the Acts of the Apostles we had a picture of the steps by which the Church grew in numbers and width and independence, receiving freely into itself men of all nations, and showing by its acts

and the acts of the apostles who ruled it the true life of men who believe in a crucified and risen Son of God. Lastly, you will remember that in the Epistles we found the express teaching given by the apostles sometimes to the whole Church universal, sometimes to the churches of single places, sometimes to the rulers of churches; sometimes to private Christians. This was the teaching which they gave by letter when they were consulted about difficult matters of doctrine or practice, or when they saw for themselves that warnings or encouragements or instructions were greatly needed. we found the same character in a new form. teaching of the Church of Christ by the apostles of Christ, who were filled with the spirit of Christ, is one of the instruments by which God helps us to understand what Christ was and is, and to apply that understanding to our own use.

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We now come to a third way in which the Spirit takes of the things of Christ and shows them to us through the apostles and through the Church; and that is by way of prophecy. We do not hear so much of prophecy in the New Testament as in the Old, but still we do hear of it now and then. Last Sunday we heard how, among the gifts which Christ in that age gave his Church were prophets as well as apostles and evangelists; and there are many signs that the power of prophecy wrought mightily in the daily life of that generation, But we have only one book of prophecy, and that is a peculiar one. It contains within itself epistles or letters to seven churches: so far it shows its con

nexion with the new time, and reminds us that it was meant to serve just as practical purposes as the letters of St. Paul or the other apostles. But the rest of it is made up almost wholly of visions. The teaching is clothed in bodily forms; its motto is "Come and see." In this respect the prophecies of the Old Testament of which it chiefly reminds us are those of Daniel, and then in a less degree of Zechariah and Ezekiel. It is not merely a prophecy, but it belongs to the most prophetic of all kinds of prophecy-it is a revelation, that is, an unveiling. It draws aside the curtains which bound our view in ordinary times. In each direction where our sight is apt to be stopped short a new world is opened before us-the heaven above us, the bottomless pit beneath us, the future end to which all things move. The strife between good and evil, about which we are so miserably indifferent both in our own hearts and in the world around us, is seen to be no light, unimportant matter, since it is part of a mighty warfare in the world of spirits. The lesson of Christ's own life is shown to be

repeated in the life of His Church. As He passed through suffering to glory, so must they who bear His name. If the cruel world seems too strong for them now, they are reminded that it seemed too strong for Christ when His soul was poured out on the Cross; and so His return to life and glory is the pledge of what God has prepared for them who are faithful unto death. Every power of evil is seen to be surely doomed at last, and so we are bidden endure always and hope always, for the end is sure.