broken and there appears a white horse; and he that sits upon him has a bow, and a wreath of victory is given unto him, and he goes forth conquering and to conquer.' 1 Thus we strike the key-note of our symphony; we give the watchword and war-cry of the Christian army, the Christ going forth conquering and to conquer.' And consistently with this we shall introduce Him again towards the close of our story, riding forth from the opening heaven, crowned with many regal diadems as King of Kings and Lord of Lords, and followed by the armies of heaven riding ' upon white horses, clothed in fine linen, white and clean.' 2 But in the mean time we have to think how we shall represent by fitting symbols the rulers of the Church who succeeded Christ and His Apostles, who acted in His name, who fought their way to supreme power in Western Christendom, and who then, having completely annihilated Paganism, and having established a compact and irresistible Hierarchy, ruthlessly persecuted all, who ventured to resist their authority or attempted to reform their doctrines and morals. Looking back, we can now see that the corruption of the great persecuting Hierarchy of the Middle Ages was mainly the result of the possession by Christians of temporal power, their love of money, and their world-worship. Our Lord and His Apostles predicted this: 'Think not that I am come to send peace on earth: I came not to send peace, but a sword.' 'I know this, that after my departing shall grievous wolves enter in among you, not sparing the flock.' 'Through covetousness shall they with feigned words make merchandise of you.' 5 4 Our Lord and His Apostles predicted these things. We, looking back, see exactly how their words came true; how Christians got possession of the temporal sword in the fourth century; how from that time for many ages they scrupled ' Rev. vi. 2. 2 Rev. xix. 11-14. F 3 St. Matt. x. 34. not to use freely the instrument of carnal warfare to spread the kingdom of the Prince of Peace; how they learned to substitute force for argument, and tried to stamp out in fire and blood every attempt to check the tide of growing corruption. Thus we choose as the symbol of the still conquering, but persecuting Church, another mounted warrior, and we place in his hands the great Imperial sword, and say, when the Second Seal is opened: "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 then, to represent him still further as a mere merchant, selling his spiritual wares to the highest bidder, we place the symbol of worldly traffic in his hand and thus describe him when the Third Seal is broken: Lo, a black horse; and he that sat on him had a pair of balances in his hand,' of whom a voice says, '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.' 2 We know that for many ages preceding the Reformation the Church had reached a pitch of corruption exceeding that of Jerusalem in the days of Christ, and that her rulers had power over Europe, one of the four quarters of the globe; therefore the horse of our next warrior shall have the most loathsome colour for which we can find a name. We know also that Christian princes slew and tortured those whom the rulers of the Church handed over to the secular arm; that there was in those days a great famine of the word of God, and that soul-endangering doctrines were instilled into the minds of men. The Church in such a state, the great full-grown persecuting and anathematising Hierarchy in the ages preceding the Reformation, and even in those following it in many countries, may well be represented by the following symbol, appearing at the breaking of the Fourth Seal: 'Behold, a pale (leprous) horse: and his name that sat on him was Death, and Hades followed with him: And power was given unto them over the fourth part of the earth, to kill with sword, and with famine, and with death, and with the wild beasts of the earth.'1 We shall be expected to say something about the victims of persecution. We are pretending to be prophets, and must therefore have some fitting pictures to represent vividly to our readers the hope of the dying martyr. And so we give a glimpse of the altar of God and of the Martyrs slain as offerings to Him. "When he had opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar of God the souls of them that were slain for the word of God, and for the testimony which they held. . . . 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.' 2 To represent the final catastrophe there is no lack of images in the visions of the Hebrew prophets and the sayings of our Lord. The great earthquake, the falling stars, the darkened sun, the blood-red moon, the terror of sinners great and small on the eve of the judgment—all these symbols have been prepared for us by Joel, Hosea, Isaiah, Jeremiah, and by our Saviour Himself,—we have only to reproduce them upon the opening of the Sixth Seal. And then, when all is over, and the storm has passed away, a deep and unbroken silence may best represent the beginning of eternal peace. And so, When he had opened the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven about the space of half an hour,'3 But when we take a retrospective view of Roman Christendom, we see the picture marked with many strong lines of Divine judgment not only upon the opponents, but also upon the corruptors of the religion of the Great Conqueror. For the sake of completeness, again, we must arrange these in sevens. The account of the fall of Jericho may well suggest to us the introduction of trumpets to announce these judgments, and for this reason also we shall naturally speak of seven trumpets, the first six being preparatory to the final catastrophe of the seventh, when the Great City falls. But before we attempt to symbolise these judgments, the Christian reader will certainly expect us to give him some assurance of the protection and safety of the elect. We therefore introduce an episode for this purpose. We represent the instruments of the last and most universal judgment, a judgment which we intend to describe in greater detail further on, and in connection with symbols which we shall borrow from the Hebrew prophets to represent the great corrupt Hierarchy of Roman Christendom; we describe these as held back by four mighty angels standing upon the four corners of the earth, while another angel seals the servants of God upon their foreheads. We naturally divide the elect of God into two classes: the numbered remnant of the twelve tribes of Israel, and the countless multitudes of the saved from among the Gentiles. These saints we represent as in no way exempted from the sore trials of this life, but as coming out of them all, purified by suffering, exulting with the song of victory, and comforted by God Himself after all their sorrows: "These are they which come out of the great tribulation, and have washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb; . . . and God shall wipe away every tear from their eyes.' 1 Having thus satisfied the reasonable expectation of our Christian reader, we proceed to select symbols for the great Rev. vii. 14-17. judgments which we know to have fallen upon the world for its treatment of Christ's religion. What does the Lord describe as in one sense His Coming, the beginning of judgment? 1 He, whom we declare to be the writer of our prophecy, was to live to see this. 'If I will that he tarry till I come, what is that to thee?' Jesus clearly meant by this that St. John was to survive the fall of Jerusalem. Judgment was to begin with the Jews. They were the first opponents and persecutors of Christians. Have we any difficulty in finding symbols to describe them ? The Baptist suggests a good one: "The axe is laid unto the root of the trees; therefore every tree which bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down and cast into the fire.' 2 Our Saviour adopts this figure when He says of the unfruitful tree in the parable, 'Cut it down: why cumbereth it the ground;' and when He cursed the barren fig tree, and caused it to wither to the very roots. The Baptist suggests fire, and Ezekiel a hail-storm, as the symbols of God's judgment on the unfruitful trees of Israel; therefore, when our First Trumpet sounds to announce the beginning of judgment, we describe a great hail-storm, reminding our readers of one of the plagues of Egypt. For we know that the Roman armies came and destroyed Jerusalem, crucified its inhabitants by thousands around its walls, and eventually scattered the whole race over the face of the earth. And we know that this race still survives; and that our Lord has predicted that it shall not pass away until all His words have been fulfilled. And in the meantime the Jews remain in all our Christian cities, as blasted pines in the forest, warning us of the end of all unfruitful trees. We think therefore that our readers will consider that 2 St. Matt. iii. 10. 1 St. John xxi. 22. |