I leave this chapter with solemn thoughts, because it sets before us a warfare with ourselves, with the very economy of our daily being, the most difficult part of a Christian's mission upon earth: but he that overcometh, is the voice of the Spirit to all the Churches. CHAPTER XIX. THE 19th chapter is a song of praise and thanksgiving for victory over Babylon the great, and over the Babylon of ourselves. "After these things I heard a great voice of much people in heaven, saying, Alleluia; Salvation, and glory, and honour, and power, unto the Lord our God: for true and righteous are His judgments for He hath judged the great whore, which did corrupt the earth with her fornication, and hath avenged the blood of His servants at her hand. And again they said, Alleluia. And her smoke rose up for ever and ever." See this same judgment proclaimed by Isaiah (xxxiv. 10). "And the four-and-twenty elders and the four beasts fell down and worshipped God that sat on the throne, saying, Amen; Alleluia. And a voice came out of the throne, saying, Praise our God, all ye His servants, and ye that fear Him, both small and great." This grand chorus in heaven seems to shame our fretful vexation because of evil doers; one short day, and we shall swell this Alleluia for ever and "And I heard, as it were, the voice of a great ever. multitude, and as the voice of many waters, and as the voice of mighty thunderings, saying, Alleluia: for the Lord God omnipotent reigneth." This is the only time the word omnipotent is used in Scripture; it does not only mean-all-powerful, but it means, too, that as God exists by an absolute necessity of nature so He contains in Himself a reason and every possible thing sufficient for the existence of all contingent circumstances. Well might heaven swell the strain, and every creature add his loud Amen. And if we would have our hearts and minds assured for the warfare of life, we should weigh well the sentence, "The Lord God omnipotent reigneth." He is to us foreknowledge; His Providence has met every exigency of our lives before we were born; and I have faith and trust in our Great Intercessor as one who prevailed to open the seals the thought should give us confidence. God is unto us wisdom; often when we do not know what we are doing ourselves, we are doing right, it is God in us. He is, too, in us almighty power, omnipotent life, and He ever reigns; He may suffer His servants to fall in the field as John, Stephen, and all the holy apostles did, but still He is omnipotent power and life, and that life and power will overreach the long annals of ages, raise the faithful from the sleep of death, and they will proclaim upon the crystal sea of life eternal their song of salvation and glorious vic : وو tory, "The Lord God Omnipotent reigneth." "To be a God unto thee," was the substance of the everlasting covenant (Gen. xvii. 7); and the elect in Christ are first "born again of the incorruptible seed of the Word of God" (1 Pet. i. 23), then nourished and sustained by "the sincere milk of the Word" (ii. 2), then they are fed with "that bread of life" (John vi. 48, 63), with that "living water" (iv. 9, 10), by "angels' food (Ps. lxxviii. 25; John iv. 32), "until Christ be formed in him" (Gal. iv. 19), until "God dwelleth in him, and he in God" (1 John iv. 15); then they are washed in "the molten sea" of "the Spirit of Truth." "Sanctify them through thy truth: thy Word is truth.” "Ye are clean through the Word." The being thus strengthened, washed, and sanctified must prevail; he cannot fail: “That ye may stand perfect and complete in all the will of God." The life of God thus consummated in the vessel of His purpose must prevail; God is the victor: "To be a God unto thee," "The Lord God Omnipotent reigneth." And the man is blessed in whom God reigns, and the glorified Church will be blessed when God thus reigns, when He is consummated in her; and hence this jubilee in heaven, the glorious beatitude of this chapter: "The Lord God Omnipotent reigneth." Oh, what a glorious foundation is the Gospel of Christ! The earth may rock, and rend, and quake, and fear; the Church upon her bosom may heave and throb, she may be "a reed shaken with the wind," she may be left to conflict with the gates of hell, to feel the hidings of her Father's face; but if she be fighting with "the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God" (Eph. vi. 17), she will shout, Victory! And thus it is that in this Apocalyptic vision the twenty-four elders, the Church, the four beasts, the representatives of the Word, and the seven angels, the preachers of the Word of the truth, are seen in heaven throughout in attitudes of prostration, adoration, thanksgiving, praise, and songs of victory. Let those skulk away in shame who tell us an omnipotent God will work without His Word; those who despise His Word, when He has again and again spoken to them by it; who have answered impiously by their lips and actions, by their bold presumption, "Who is the Lord, that I should fear Him?" "If I had not come and spoken unto them, they had not had sin but now they have no cloke for their sin." (John xv. 22.) "Praise our God, all ye His servants, and ye that fear him, both small and great." : : "Let us be glad and rejoice, and give honour to him for the marriage of the Lamb is come, and his wife hath made herself ready." This is here a very striking expression, "Made herself ready." By the power of truth upon her mind, soul, and spirit, " to her |