eral in its character, and seems to have been intended to edify the Christian church in general, and strengthen it against the trials and temptations of the future.

STYLE.

As already stated, the style of Revelation is less finished and elegant than that of other portions of the New Testament. The text is less correct, the sentences are sometimes rude and ungrammatical, though frequently energetic and impassioned. It has many Hebrew idioms, and its use of genders, cases, tenses, moods, participles, is not in harmony with the genius of the Greek language. This book stands as a vast mysterious Cathedral with labyrinthine passages, dark underground crypts, high windows, looking out to the sky, and glowing with the faces of saints and angels, and the visible form of the Son of man, full high advanced above them all; horrid gargoyles, grinning from the pillars, capitals and eaves, with mottoes upon the walls of the commandments of God and Christ and resounding through the vast spaces and corridors were the trumpets of archangels and the deep thunders of the judgment day.

OBJECT OF THE BOOK.

The purpose of the author was no doubt an earnest one. He wished to strengthen the faith and purify the lives of his fellow believers under the stress of persecution, and the corrupt tendencies of the times by cheering visions of the better day coming, of the victory of Christ over all his enemies. With this purpose mingled no doubt many popular ideas of the day, many anticipations of temporal power and glory involved in the spiritual success of Christianity. The author was a Jewish Christian, and Christianity was to be a new and better Judaism, and its capital to be a new Jerusalem, and its Messiah to be a more glorious David, conquering and to conquer.

THE REVELATION

OF ST. JOHN THE DIVINE.

CHAPTER I.

The Greetings of the Writer to the Seven Churches and his Commission to them from the Lord.

THE Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave unto him, to shew unto his servants things which must shortly come to pass; and he sent and signified it by his angel unto his servant 2 John: who bare record of the word of God, and of the testi3 mony of Jesus Christ, and of all things that he saw. Blessed is

1. The Revelation of Jesus Christ. The Greek word for Revelation is that, which is translated Apocalypse, and relates as some think to the personal manifestation of Christ then approaching in the destruction of the Hebrew economy, or a revelation of the unfolding career of the kingdom of Christ. One is subjective, and the other is objective, though they really combine more or less in one idea, the coming of the kingdom of Christ, but blended with his personal manifestation. Servants. The Sinaitic MS. reads, "saints." Which must shortly come to pass. This dates the writing of the epistle as occurring shortly before the destruction of Jerusalem. The book of Revelation is therefore simply an expansion of Matt. xxiv., Mark xiii., Luke xxi., and a few passages in the epistles, put upon the framework of a series of Oriental visions, angels,

and symbols, set off with the imagery of the old Hebrew prophets. And he sent and signified it, etc., i. e. the communication which Jesus Christ had received from God of things which were shortly to come to pass, he commissioned his messenger or angel to give to his servant John. His servant John. Not the apostle John, but some Jewish Christian of Asia Minor, probably John the Presbyter or elder.

2. Who bare record, etc. or "witness." The writer therefore according to his statement is simply the channel of communication of the original message of God, the confirmation of it by Christ, and the visions which had been given to him personally. In the last clause of the verse the Sinaitic and Alexandrian MSS. read "of Jesus Christ, what things soever he saw."

3. Blessed is he that readeth, etc.

he that readeth, and they that hear the words of this prophecy, and keep those things which are written therein: for the time is at hand. JOHN to the seven churches which are in Asia: 4 Grace be unto you, and peace, from him which is, and which was, and which is to come; and from the seven Spirits which are before his throne; and from Jesus Christ, who is the faith- 5 ful Witness, and the First-begotten of the dead, and the Prince of the kings of the earth. Unto him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood, and hath made us kings and 6 priests unto God and his Father; to him be glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen. Behold, he cometh with clouds; 7 and every eye shall see him, and they also which pierced him: and all kindreds of the earth shall wail because of him. Even

This beatitude is repeated in various parts of the book, while imprecations are invoked upon those who should alter either by addition or subtraction its contents. For the time is at hand. This is the oft-recurring phrase found elsewhere of the second coming of Christ. Jesus himself had said there were some standing there who would witness it. Matt. xvi. 28.

4. John to the seven churches, etc. The first three verses of the book seem to be a proem to the whole work, while the passage from the fourth verse to the end of the chapter is the special proem to the epistles to the seven churches, contained in chaps. ii. and iii. Asia. This was not the continent of Asia, not yet that single province sometimes called Asia, but that group of provinces in western Asia, called Asia Minor. From him which is, etc. A synonym for a Divine Being, whose eternity is represented by the verbs of the present, past and future. This verb signifies existence, reality, eternal reality, as contradistinguished from the nonexistence and unreality of the heathen deities. Seven spirits. The sacred number seven is used as descriptive of the number of spirits, or ministering angels which waited before the throne of God, as Ariel, Asrael, Gabriel, Michael, Ra

Unto

5, 6. Jesus Christ who is the faithful Witness, or literally martyr, or one bearing his testimony by martyrdom, as suggested by the next clause. First begotten of the dead. The Christology of the book of Revelation teaches most emphatically the created and subordinate character of Jesus. him that loved us, etc. His love and self-sacrifice and the exaltation he gave humanity, are selected as the decisive points to justify the author's ardent doxology. Made us kings and priests unto God, or, "made us to be a kingdom to be priests," etc. This was a favorite common phrase, used to describe the power and sanctity, promised to the children of God. Ex. xix. 6, Is. lxi. 6, Rev. v. 10.

7. Behold he cometh with clouds, etc. The book of Revelation has largely the character of a compilation or gathering up and quotation of sentences and passages from previous Scriptural writers, prophetic and apostolic, as in the present verse. The phrase he cometh with clouds is found in Matt.

8 so, Amen. I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending, saith the Lord, which is, and which was, and which is to 9 come, the Almighty. I John, who also am your brother, and companion in tribulation, and in the kingdom and patience of Jesus Christ, was in the isle that is called Patmos, for the word 10 of God, and for the testimony of Jesus Christ. I was in the Spirit on the Lord's day, and heard behind me a great voice, as of a

trumpet, saying, I am Alpha and Omega, the first and the last: "1 and, What thou seest, write in a book, and send it unto the seven churches which are in Asia; unto Ephesus, and unto Smyrna, and unto Pergamos, and unto Thyatira, and unto Sardis, and unto Philadelphia, and unto Laodicea. And I 12 turned to see the voice that spake with me. And being turned, I saw seven golden candlesticks; and in the midst of the seven 13 candlesticks one like unto the Son of man, clothed with a garment down to the foot, and girt about the paps with a golden girdle. His head and his hairs were white like wool, as white as 14 snow; and his eyes were as a flame of fire; and his feet like 15 unto fine brass, as if they burned in a furnace; and his voice as the sound of many waters. And he had in his right hand 16 seven stars and out of his mouth went a sharp two-edged sword: and his countenance was as the sun shineth in his strength. And when I saw him, I fell at his feet as dead. 17 And he laid his right hand upon me, saying unto me, Fear not; I am the first and the last: I am he that liveth, and was dead; 18

great voice as of a trumpet. Here is our first introduction to one of the peculiar characteristics of the book of Revelation, namely, its love of the gigantic, the Titanic, the terrible, the mystical and unearthly.

II. The Sinaitic and Alexandrian MSS. omit as spurious "I am Alpha and Omega, the first and the last," and Tischendorf excludes it from the text. The writer now receives his commission to send messages to the seven churches, Ephesus, Smyrna, and the rest, a brief account of which will be given in the next two chapters.

12-16. I saw seven golden candlesticks. The sacred number seven is repeated in the book of Revelation from thirty to forty times in various connections. The origin of the sanctity attached to seven, whether due to mathematical, astronomical, or Mosaic associations, is difficult to ascertain, but the fact is sufficiently patent. All the features of this description are intended to heighten its vivid and graphic

17, 18. I fell at his feet as dead. This terrible apparition was, as if he had seen the Eternal himself whom to see and live was impossible. Fear not; I am the first and the last. Tischendorf connects this clause in this way: "I am the first and the last, and he that liveth,” etc. This was descriptive of the work and the being of Christ as covering two worlds, this and the next, and thus giving surety that the work which he had begun, he would complete and crown. Amen. The use of this word is almost characteristic in the book of Revelation, as intended to express