to a spiritual sealing, such as we have seen prophesied of before the destruction of Jerusalem, and other great calamities. And have we not seen just such a sealing in our own day? Has not this angel descended from the East with the seal of the living God, and already sealed thousands before the calamity of the third vial? But I think there is a more literal meaning relating to a later age. The four winds of the earth are four powers, the same as seen by Daniel (vii. 2); the four roots of the great Antichristian powers of the world are intended, the Pagan, the descendants of Esau, which were really originally of the family of Jehovah, and who everywhere throughout prophecy hold a distinct place in the human family. Then the Romish and the Mohammedan powers, I do not know any part of that family-the Antichristian part of it-that does not come under one of these classes. These were all held by the four angels till all the tribes of the true Church were sealed from further harm. The human family divides into two great distinctions. The Israelites in Egypt, being exempted from the last plagues, from darkness, and from the death of the firstborn, were types of these last exemptions of the Church from the remaining vials and wrath of God. "There was a thick darkness in all the land of Egypt. But all the children of Israel had light in their dwellings."

Observe in this sealing of the true Church the beautiful order of the Eternal mind. All the tribes were there; not one missing of those whom God foreknew; not one chance member there to break the harmony of number. If you read carefully this short chapter, you will see a commingling of worlds, of the kingdom of God on earth with the kingdom of God in heaven, with the family on earth, with the family in heaven. Transfiguration marks the chapter, converging points meet, and the kingdom of God is open to the Church on earth as it was to Enoch, when he walked with God, and was not, for God took him; open as it was to Elijah, when he ascended in a chariot of light or fire open as it was to the disciples upon the mount of transfiguration; as it was to Stephen. (Acts

vii. 56.)

;

The blending of the Church militant with the Church triumphant, their united ascription of praise, the long and universal thanksgiving for all the wonders of redemption, as represented from the 9th verse of this 7th chapter, is, I think, one of the most sublime descriptions of the Revelation; it is too beautiful to mar by extract.

We must, from this point in the history of the Church, distinctly bear in mind her exemption from further great judgments, from those which are afterwards seen to fall upon the world; unless we do this it

will be very difficult to understand the remaining parts of this book. "Hurt not the grass of the earth, neither any green thing, neither any tree, but only those men which have not the seal of God in their foreheads" (ix. 4).

The vision of this spiritual sealing under the sixth seal is the resurrection of the Jewish Church, as seen by Ezekiel (xxxvii. 9, 10); and in the Revelation, under the sixth trumpet (ix. 14); under the sixth vial (xvi. 12); and as seen in that glorious vision of Gospel light in the fourteenth chapter. Therefore, how any one can doubt my theory of seven dispensations with this increase of divine life and glory under the sixth and seventh seals, trumpets, and vials, I am at a loss to conceive. Look, again, at the glory under this sixth seal (vii. 14, 16, 17).

CHAPTER VIII.

"AND when he had opened the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven about the space of half-an-hour." (viii. 1.) This seal takes us to the end of the seventh, the last dispensation; its page of history is given under the sixth seal, as the Amen, Amen, in the ascription of praise evidences. (vii. 12.) I have often contemplated that half-hour of silence in heaven. As I compare its solemnity with the absorbing follies and mad pursuits of men, I am confounded at the awful delinquency and stupidity of my own species. Heaven silent! the page of the world's history open to universal gaze! every dark deed, every wily, mean, unworthy deed laid open; all the blackness of hell in this terrene sphere exposed; every false and unjust accusation cleared up; every word that has been ever spoken, known; every sermon that has been ever preached, open; every motive and every heart bared to the light of heaven; every conscience enlightened, but not pardoned; every struggling soul that has overcome, risen from hell to heaven in this life, there; the Bible and its conquest there;

the nature of Him who is "true," acknowledged, felt; the nature of the evil one exposed; truth seen; sin seen; holiness seen; God seen; no anthem may swell the triumph; no trumpet-tongued angel to proclaim the past; Heaven silent! Here is the explanation of the wrong that is suffered here, of all that injustice and confusion that so puzzles us here. God exults in that half-hour; it is present to him now; and is it not present to the believer? does he not exult in it too? The Church will then see what were her privileges; what she might have done; how she, as an instrument, by the power of Christ, might have saved all; the lost will see how they might have been saved; and that half-hour's silence in heaven will justify God in all his dealings with the world. All clear as the mid-day sun, and heaven silent! Not even a thought may traverse the realm of space to break the awe profound; reverence to dumb silence held heaven silent. At the breaking of the first seal, at the opening of this Volume of Life, solemn and awful feelings pervaded heaven,"No man in heaven, nor in earth, neither under the earth, was able to open the book, neither to look thereon." How dark before, how lucid now, and how much more luminous will be the future; the long roll of time will be laid open to universal view. "There was silence in heaven about the space of half-an-hour." Who can reflect for a moment upon the disclosed