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destruction of the infidel Antichrist at the battle of Armageddon.

No doubt can be entertained but that both these symbols are taken from the prophecies of Zechariah, as recorded in the fourth chapter of that book, to which, therefore, we now refer for further light upon this interesting portion of our prophecy.

Now, the prophet Zechariah saw only one candlestick in the vision; whereas it is said of the two witnesses that they were two candlesticks. This difference would seem to imply that, when the vision was given to the prophet, the second form of witness-viz., that of the Holy Ghostwas not then given in the form of a distinct ecclesiastical dispensation to man; but, the spiritual dispensation having commenced when the apostle John wrote, it was as consonant with the truth that he should see two candlesticks as that the prophet Zechariah should see only one.

In the vision, two olive trees are represented to be standing, the one on the right hand of a golden candlestick and the other on the left, pouring golden oil from their branches into a bowl, which communicated its contents directly to two main golden pipes; to which two golden pipes were attached seven other several pipes (see marginal reading), through which seven

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A REPRESENTATION OF THE GOLDEN CANDLESTICK WHICH THE PROPHET ZECHARIAH SAW. (ZECH. IV.)

[Vide page 230, vol. iii.]

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subsidiary pipes the oil is supposed to be conveyed to the seven lamps. We are justified in the conclusion that these seven minor pipes were not of gold, from the omission of this adjective in the description; whereas it is expressly said of the candlestick itself, and the two pipes which were directly connected with the bowl that contained the oil, that these were of gold. The expression applied to these two golden pipes is also very remarkable, if we adopt the marginal reading; for the original, translated "through" in the text, is there rendered "BY THE HAND OF, which would seem to imply, irrespectively of any argument arising out of the interpretation of the symbol itself, that these pipes signified men in a ministry-the hand, as an emblem, being always significant of man's active agency.

The simple idea which a pipe or tube conveys to the mind is, that it is a conductor; and we should naturally attach this meaning to the symbol, even did not the prophecy expressly inform us, through the attendant angel, that this was the design of these two sets of pipes in the symbolic vision given to the prophet; so that the combined figure which was presented to Zechariah was that of two olive trees pouring oil into a bowl, which discharged its contents into two main golden pipes, from which seven minor

pipes communicated the oil to the seven lamps.*

It is indisputable that oil is the emblem of the Holy Ghost in His manifestation in and through man, and consequently the olive tree, which produces the oil, and in the figure signifies its origin and source, must mean the Holy Ghost Himself. We learn also from the vision which preceded, as well as from the seven epistles themselves addressed by our Lord to the seven Churches in Asia, recorded in the first three chapters of the Apocalyse, that the candlestick

Some think that this symbolic vision of the golden candlestick represents the oil from the branches of the two olive trees as dropping, first, into the two golden pipes, which then empty themselves into the bowl; so that the oil would be, on such an explanation of the figure, communicated from the bowl to the seven several pipes, and not, as we have supposed, directly from the two golden pipes: but either arrangement of the symbol alike conducts us to the same interpretation, the spirit of which is, that the vision presents two distinct and separate sets of pipes, and that the risen and glorified saints, who are symbolized by the two golden pipes, receive directly the oil of the Holy Ghost, and then convey it in the figure to the seven several pipes, or Church on earth. Nor does it in the least degree affect our explanation of the prophecy, whether the bowl, as in the one case, first receives the oil; or whether, as in the other, the two golden pipes are its first receptacle; since both views of the original figure agree that the two pipes receive the oil before, and as a means whereby it is communicated to, the subsidiary pipes, and through these to the lamps in the candlestick. The bowl in either case doubtless signifies-containing ministries.

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