to reap; for the harvest of the earth is ripe." I think this angel is God the Father. I know angel means “sent one; " and the Father was, as it were, sent to our world, sent by the justice and holiness of His throne, sent by the dire necessity of the lost. (John xiv. 10.) The voice was the voice of God the Spirit to His Son. "And he that sat on the cloud thrust in his sickle on the earth; and the earth was reaped." Thus we see the Bible, even this rejected, discredited book, does not deal in abstractions; the life came from the white cloud, and the gathering into the garner of the Great Husbandman from the power of the Word. "He shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost, and with fire.”

"And another angel came out from the altar, which had power over fire; and cried with a loud cry to him that had the sharp sickle, saying, Thrust in thy sharp sickle, and gather the clusters of the vine of the earth; for her grapes are fully ripe." This angel is the Holy Spirit; He alone has power over the fire of the inspired Word, which is really what is here intended.

"And the angel thrust in his sickle into the earth, and cast it into the great winepress of the wrath of God." Here it is not the clusters of the vine which are gathered, but "the vine"-the unfruitful vineuprooted, and cast into the great winepress of the wrath of God. "And the winepress was trodden without the city, and blood came out of the winepress,

even unto the horse bridles, by the space of a thousand and six hundred furlongs." These are faint emblems of the pressing, bruising, crushing, grinding of the justice of God when it falls upon the sinner,-“On whomsoever that stone shall fall it will grind him to powder."

The whole of this 14th chapter is a noble example of ministerial ardour, of missionary zeal, the Gospel trumpet sounds clearly, the angel's rapid flight betokens important tidings; ministers of God, not walking through the earth, but flying in holy fervency in the midst of heaven with the everlasting Gospel to preach unto them that dwell on the earth; and let us not mistake the order of these publishers of peace, they are men (xiv. 6, 8, 9, 17), attended, it is true, by an angelic host, by Deity, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost; and so now these powers are as much with us as they will be with them; and our love, zeal, speed, and consecration, should be like theirs. Behold the contrast!

Will no such missionary record as this be published in our world for four thousand years till the sixth and seventh dispensations?

CHAPTER XV.

THIS 15th chapter is a prelude to the pouring out of the seven vials. In reading it we seem admitted, as it were, into "the temple of God," and overawed by the awful, yet cheerful, phenomena that surround us there. It is only by a long and deep acquaintance with prophecy that the mind can work its way into that temple; and then stand calmly, I will not say coolly, no, rapturously upon that "sea of glass," and describe what it has seen there. This vision is almost entrancing; our heaven of earth is one with our heaven above, and we feel that there is bliss begun below. Before entering upon it I would say one word upon the subject of the mind passing from one chamber to another in the temple of truth till it arrives in the holiest of all, attainment and discovery, are not winds of doctrine; but it is the highest proof of an honest heart and purpose to work perseveringly, cautiously, to retract boldly and humbly when we find ourselves in error, and thus to lay hold of fresh light as we ad

vance.

"And I saw another sign in heaven, great and marvellous, seven angels having the seven last plagues ; for in them is filled up the wrath of God." These plagues are perfectly distinct from all the former visions, because they relate to the seven vials,-" Another sign great and marvellous."

Nor do "the seven last plagues mean last in the world's history, but the last seven to be proclaimed by John, and the last closing judgment of all the dispensations,-"Thou must prophesy again" (x. 11); and to the end of the book the prophecies are distinct; but the same seven periods of time are given under different phases," Write the things which thou hast seen, and the things which are, and the things which shall be hereafter" (i. 19). And immediately the Eternal Spirit drew and redrew the seven distinct dispensations,"Whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak : and he will show you things to come." (John xvi. 13.) "It is not for you to know the times or the seasons, which the Father hath put in his own power. But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you." (Acts i. 7, 8.) If this book of the Revelation be not received as inspired, these promises of Christ were not true, and we make Him a liar.

"And I saw as it were a sea of glass mingled with fire and them that had gotten the victory over the beast, and over his image, and over his mark, and over

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the number of his name, stand on the sea of glass, having the harps of God. And they sing the song of Moses the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb, saying, Great and marvellous are thy works, Lord God Almighty; just and true are thy ways, thou King of saints." This may refer to the triumph of Eternal blessedness upon the ocean of God's essential nature; there we shall stand with "the harps of God," and sing the song of victory over the beast, the song of the redeemed; the song of Moses, and the song of the Lamb. (Ex. xv.; Rev. xii. 10.) And as the notes of harmony and of joy break and swell upon the golden sea (xxi. 18, 21), we shall look back upon this life, which is only as a passing vapour, and wonder how its momentary cares could have vexed, how its trifling vexations could ruffle, how its afflictions could move, how its glory could seduce, how its ignominy could oppress, unless the very remembrance of these be lost upon that calm sea of endless delight, and they will Behold, I create new heavens and a new earth: and the former shall not be remembered, nor come into mind." (Isa. lxv. 17.) And "sea of glass " tells us there shall not be a ruffle there.

But these two verses, as relating to this vision of the vials, have another meaning: the "seven angels" of the first verse are the representatives of the priesthood, "the seven stars are the angels of the seven Churches"