trumpet will usher in the season of final vengeance upon the ungodly; and that, when the last trumpet shall sound, the Divine forbearance will have been exhausted, God will arise to finish the work and cut it short in righteousness; yea, that a short work will the Lord then make upon the earth' (Rom. ix. 28).

And if, before the sounding of the first of the woe-trumpets, the loud and warning voice of the eagle was heard, we are not to wonder if, shortly before the sounding of the last woe-trumpet, a mighty angel should appear upon the scene, and a louder voice of warning fall upon the ear of the listening Apostle.

a

In our authorized version this angel, who would seem to descend from heaven when the appointed season of Divine forbearance and delay, connected with the judgments under the sixth trumpet, was about to close, and who cried with a loud voice as when a lion roareth,' is represented as swearing that there shall be time no longer.' It is, however, now generally allowed that the Greek word xpóvos, here rendered 'time,' should rather be translated 'delay.' This change is very important, not only as showing the reality of such a connection between the transactions described in the 10th and 11th chapters of the Apocalypse, that the oath in the former against all further delay is to teach us to interpret literally the 42 months and 1260 days of the latter, but also as affording internal evidence of no inconsiderable weight in favour of the Divine origin of these visions. For the oath-assurance against further delay is pronounced by a personage of such awful majesty, in a manner so solemn and emphatic, and under such peculiar circumstances, as to be wholly inconsistent with any other view than this-viz., that a very long and distressing delay had been previously permitted by the Divine wisdom to try the faith and patience of the Church and to manifest the greatness of the Divine long-suffering and forbearance. And the great consummation so long deferred is doubtless that which follows the voice of the seventh angel,-- The kingdom of the world is become the kingdom of our Lord and his Christ.' b Now, although the lan

The emphatic clause, there shall be no more delay,' seems to teach us, not only that a very long and marvellous delay had already taken place, but also that this previous delay is very much longer than the period which is to elapse from the supposed time (in the chronology of the vision) of the utterance of the angel's oath to the sounding of the seventh trumpet. And thus, if we believe that the oath precedes the appearance of the witnesses, we cannot suppose that their testimony extends through twelve hundred and sixty years. Hence we do not appear to be at liberty to think with some commentators, that the slaughter of these witnesses happened in A.D. 1686; or, with others, that it occurred A.D. 1514. For we must thus believe that the angelic oath is to be considered (on the year-day theory) as having been pronounced so early as in A.D. 426, or even so early as A.D. 254.

Dr. Tregelles reads the singular instead of the plural form; and translates, 'The sovereignty of the world is become our Lord's and his Christ's.'

с

guage of Jesus to his disciples, on more than one occasion, might lead the Church to suppose that even a few generations might pass away ere all the tribes of men should be brought to acknowledge and submit to this Gospel, yet nothing that he said on this subject could be tortured into the remotest indication that at least eighteen centuries would intervene between his ascension and the universal triumph of his name and truth over the earth, or that more than fifteen centuries would elapse from the cessation of imperial pagan persecution to the universal establishment of Messiah's kingdom. It will, however, be allowed that the intensely emphatic language and manner of the mighty angel's oath is in no degree inconsistent with the long and marvellous delay of so many previous centuries. And thus the solemn clause in the oath of him who, standing upon the sea and the earth, lifted up his hand to heaven, and sware by him that liveth for ever and ever, who created the heaven and the things that are therein, and the earth and the things that are therein, and the sea and the things that are therein, that there should be delay no longer,' may be fairly regarded by the devout Christian reader as a Divine prediction, uttered in the days of the Apostle, that a long and wearisome delay, very far beyond all human calculation or expectation, would intervene between the time in which the vision was seen by the Apostle, and the subjection of the world to Messiah's royal power. And, as we know that this implied Divine prediction has been fulfilled, we may not unreasonably receive its fulfilment as an argument in favour of the Divine origin of the Apocalyptic visions, in which this prediction is found.

We are not, of course, to understand the angel as announcing that not another week or month is to elapse, or that no other painful and distressing events are to befal the Church, previous to the voice of the seventh angel, and the actual finishing of the mystery of God; yet he may be understood as assuring the Apostle that the short remaining interval will not really deserve the name of delay, and that all the events yet to occur will wear the character of a right-onward and rapid advance towards the destined termination. And, in agreement with the apparent purport of the angel's oath-viz., that no further interval of delay beyond that which the Divine wisdom shall deem to be absolutely necessary, is to intervene before the voice of the seventh angel,

The mighty angel of Rev. xi. 1, as glorious as mighty, would seem to be the Lord Jesus; and this appearing may shadow forth the approach of the commencement of the time when Michael shall stand up, the great prince which standeth for the children of thy (Daniel's) people.' And it may be in fulfilment of Daniel's prediction (xii. 1) that the Lord Jesus, as Michael, leads his host against the dragon. The oath recorded in Dan. xii. 7, has special reference to Israel's final deliverance, 'when God shall have accomplished to scatter the power of the holy people.'

we read soon after, in the next chapter, of such comparatively brief periods as 42 months, and 1260 days. And after the ascension of the two witnesses, it is added, "The second woe is past; behold the third woe cometh quickly. And the seventh angel sounded (see ch. x. 11), and there were great voices in heaven, saying, The kingdom of this world is become our Lord's and his Christ's, and he shall reign for ever and ever' (Rev. xi. 14, 15).

6

It must not be forgotten that the mighty angel had declared (x. 7) that in the days of the voice of the seventh angel, when he should sound, the mystery of God shall be finished, as he hath given glad tidings (εunyyéλise) to his servants the prophets.' There were prophets, as well as apostles, under the Gospel dispensation (Eph. ii. 20; and iii. 5); but we are rather to understand the angel as speaking of the Hebrew prophets of the Old Testament, when he testifies that through them God hath given the glad tidings of the coming kingdom and glory (see Acts iii. 21). It will be enough to quote one of these predictions, from Micah (iv. 7), although as a Jewish prophet, living many centuries before the Spirit's revelation to the Church of the mystery of Christ (Eph. iii. 4, 5), he especially speaks of the Jewish subjects of that kingdom, which he, nevertheless, knew (iv. 1, 3) was to be a worldwide sovereignty,- And I will make her that halted a remnant, and her that was cast off a strong nation; and the Lord shall reign over them in Mount Zion from henceforth, even for ever.' Then will the long and mysteriously-permitted reign and triumph of sin and Satan in this our fallen world-a fact which is not only one among the mysteries of God, but which may be regarded, in connection with the means of redemption, as the mystery of God-give place to the triumphant and holy sovereignty of our Lord and his Christ.'

Now we might surely expect, reasoning from the analogy of Scripture, that the leading character of such events as should be deemed in the Divine wisdom necessary to intervene between the angel's oath and the voice of the seventh trumpet would be twofold, comprehending both a triumphant oppression, almost unprecedented, of the people of God by his enemies, and also such an

d It certainly would seem that we must interpret figuratively the hour, and day, and mouth, and year,' of Rev. ix. 15. But it appears to the writer that the language of the angel's oath in ch. x. 6, absolutely constrains us to interpret literally the 1260 days and 42 months of the eleventh chapter of the Apocalypse. The mention of so small a portion of time as an hour encourages the idea of a symbolical expression of duration. Forty-two months are sufficient for the accomplishment of much. Twelve hundred and sixty days will include the period between Napoleon's crossing the Niemen (June 4, 1812) to invade Russia, and his arrival at St. Helena, Nov. 30, 1815.

overwhelming testimony in their sight of his power and Godhead, as should leave them utterly without excuse for their impiety, and thus justify him not only in blessing and rewarding his servants, but also in inflicting final and destructive vengeance upon the unbelieving and scornful opposers.

Nor is this expectation disappointed on a further perusal of the prophetic record. For when we proceed to inquire what were the leading events which occurred after the oath, and before the seventh trumpet, we find them described in the former portion of the 11th chapter. We there read of the measuring (by the Apostle) of the temple of God with its worshippers-of the treading under foot (i. e. the victorious possession) of the Holy City by the Gentiles, forty-and-two months-and of the ministry, death, and resurrection of the two witnesses. The history of these witnesses is not brought before us as an isolated and separate matter, but is evidently connected (by the conjunction with which it begins) with the immediately preceding verses which speak of the temple and Holy City. And (also) I will give (power) unto my two witnesses, and they shall prophesy a thousand two hundred and three score days, clothed in sackcloth.' There is thus a strong presumption that these 1260 days of testimony are closely connected in the Divine purposes with the 42 months of the degradation and oppression of the Holy City. We are not, however, authorized to think that these two periods begin and end together, although the latter portion of the one may be contemporaneous with the former portion of the other. If we are to suppose that the oppression of the Holy City does not terminate before the destruction of the beast and false prophet, then it would seem plain that the death and resurrection of the witnesses must occur before the deliverance of the Holy City from Gentile oppression; and, therefore, that their testimony must have commenced some time before the giving over of the Holy City into the power of the Gentile conqueror.

Would not the theories, which assume that the two witnesses have already testified and been slain, be greatly confirmed if the language of the prophetic narrative (Rev. xi. 5, 6) were the very reverse of what it is—i. e., if it described these witnesses, not as invulnerable and armed with superhuman power during the 1260 days of their testimony, but as unsuccessfully resisting and struggling against mighty persecutors during this period, and almost always constrained to seek their safety in flight and concealment ?

f Dr. Bloomfield observes on the word TaThoovo, in Rev. xi. 2: 'Dean Woodhouse and Dr. Burton object to our common version, "they shall tread under foot," and take the sense to be, "shall walk in, frequent," as Isa. i. 22, compared with Ps. xlv. 4. But the most learned commentators take πατήσουσι for καταπατήσουσι or iẞpioovoi, as did our translators. In the Syriac version, the same expression is used as had been employed at Matt. vii. 6, of the trampling under foot of the pearls by the swine.'

In the hand of the angel who pronounced the oath-assurance that there should be delay no longer,' was a little book open. John was commanded to receive this from the angel, who gives it to the Apostle, with this injunction,- Take it, and eat it up: it shall make thy belly bitter, but it shall be in thy mouth sweet as honey.' That this was a little book or codicil, and that it was open in the angel's hand, and given by him to the Apostle, may be designed to teach us, not only that its contents were brief, but also that these were immediately to be revealed to John, and through him to the Church. That it made his belly bitter, though sweet as honey in his mouth,' would seem to indicate that, however glorious the final consummation, there was much of a painful and distressing character with reference to the suffering of the Church and the temporary triumph of her enemies, in the information conveyed by the little book. It may therefore be reasonably inferred that the events of the 11th chapter are, in regard to the (terrestrial) chronology of the vision, immediately subsequent to the descent of the mighty angel in the tenth; that when John begins again to prophesy, he immediately announces what he had just learned from the little book; and that the temporary triumphs of the persecutors of the truth of the Gospel will form a portion of that which is thus communicated. It will thus at once be concluded that the former part (at least) of the 11th chapter was derived from this source; and a highly esteemed commentator (with whom the writer agrees) is of opinion that the contents of the little book or codicil extend to the end of the fourteenth verse of this chapter.

And here, in attempting to offer an explanation of the first and second verses of the 11th chapter of the Apocalypse, the following introductory remark may not be unnecessary. We are not to take for granted that the terms in which the component parts of a prediction like that contained in these two verses are expressed, must be all entirely figurative, or all entirely literal. No judicious person can for a moment expect to find in the inspired word a confused mingling of the one with the other. It is however quite conceivable that in the different portions of a command and announcement such as we find in these verses, figurative and literal terms may be so employed, without being crudely intermingled, that a plain and sincere student of the prophetic Scriptures, who reverently prays for Divine teaching and illumination, cannot easily be led into error in this respect. The passage now under our consideration is-' And there was given me a reed like unto a rod; and the angel stood, saying, Rise and measure the temple of God, and the altar, and them that are therein. But the court, which is without the temple, leave out, and measure it not; for it