The Face of the Deep (on Revelation); Poems

" Thou art worthy to take the book, and to open the seals thereof: for Thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God by Thy Blood." — Our dear Lord is indeed everything to us. Here He stands before us altogether lovely both as our Redeemer and as our Example.

He Who opens to mortal ken that Book of overwhelming judgments, mighty marvels, joys inconceivable, is the Same Who first tested by experience our wants and capacities, our strength and weakness. Well may He know whereof we are made Who assumed our flesh; and remember that we are but dust Who, though it was not possible for Him to see corruption, lay down in a grave. He Who speaks to us is one of ourselves, infinitely above us indeed, yet none the less on our level; incomparably unlike, yet essentially like us. He is in sympathy with us, He loves us, He has sacrificed Himself for us.

Any of us then who being older or better taught or placed by Providence on any other vantage ground, are called upon to educate or guide a neighbour; as Aquila and Priscilla were promoted to instruct the highly-gifted zealous Apollos, — any of us so empowered may here learn from our Master opening the Sealed Book what graces ought to adorn us while exercising our privilege: sympathy, love, on occasion self-sacrifice.

We learn this, inasmuch as Christ Himself is here acclaimed "worthy" to unfold God's dealings, because ("for") He was slain and redeemed us to God by His Blood.

Lord Jesus Merciful and Patient, grant us grace, I beseech Thee, ever to teach in a teachable spirit; learning along with those we teach, and learning from them whenever Thou So pleasest. Word of God, speak to us, speak by us, what Thou wilt. Wisdom of God, instruct us, instruct by us if and whom Thou wilt. Eternal Truth, reveal Thyself to us, reveal Thyself by us in whatsoever measure Thou wilt.

" It is written in the prophets, And they shall be all taught of God."

Lord Jesus, the price of my Redemption was Thy Blood, Thy Life. Help me to love Thee.

Its voicelessness of self-contempt and blame: Nor suffer harp and palm and aureole Of multitudes who praise Thee at the goal,

Nor blazing Seraphs utterly to outflame The spark that flies up from each earthly coal. My price Thy priceless Blood; and therefore I

That good things love me in their love of Thee: I comprehend not why Thou lovedst me

With Thy so mighty Love; but this I know, No man hath greater love than thus to die.

" Hast redeemed us to God."' — " What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own? For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's."

Let not the thing formed say to Him that formed it, Why hast Thou made me thus? — It pleased Christ to redeem us whole, whence we know that our whole being is capable of serving God acceptably. Our body, our soul, our spirit, all are His and endowed for His service.

The body is a burden. "The corruptible body presseth down the soul, and the earthly tabernacle weigheth down the mind that museth upon many things." But for it we should escape aches, pains, death: this is its least and lowest burdensomeness. But for it we should abide impervious to sundry temptations, and not merely impervious but absolutely irre spective of them: this is an incalculable augment of its burden. Moreover we are certified that flesh and blood cannot inherit the Kingdom of God: so that after lifelong toil and trouble in cherishing and disciplining this burdensome body, it must be " changed " before man can arrive at perfection.

'But Thou, Lord Christ, didst bear a heavier burden for our sake, even our guilt: a burden incapable of salutary discipline; intolerable to us who incurred it, and were it possible (as it would seem) all but intolerable to Thee. Thus didst Thou for us, for me. Love bore Thy burden which was mine: love, Thou sustaining me, shall bear my burden which is my own.

And since it is "to God" that we are redeemed, our very dust may well be dear in our own sight as it is in His.

" Out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation." — Kindred, tongue, people, nation, will not (it appears) be obliterated from the Communion of Saints. Since in that blessed company similarities and varieties will alike become bonds of affection, motives of sympathy, we see as in a glass what they should even now already be to us who are militant here on earth. For earth holds heaven in the bud; our per fection there has to be developed out of our imperfection here; neither in heaven nor on earth, neither to-day nor to morrow, neither by God nor by man, will grapes be gathered of thorns, or figs of thistles.

By grace love of kindred learns to embrace the whole human family. Language discriminates into groups; whilst speech, man's universal heritage, by grace brings home to our hearts the world-width of brotherhood. By grace the concentrated, I dwell among mine own people, expands until we also say with delighted welcome, Thy people shall be my people. By grace nations become bound and welded together in the unifying Presence of God (see Zech. viii. 20 — 23).

By grace; but not by nature. Now even kindred often lack warmth, tongues make discord, peoples encroach on one another, nations learn and practise war. — Lord, forgive and help us.

A lesson against antipathies. Every kindred, every tongue, every people, every nation, promises to be represented there and associate there: French with Germans, Italians with Austrians, English with Irish, whites with blacks, all ranks with all ranks, all men with all men, — an alarum against antipathies!

Saints are ready to receive all sinners: all sinners are not ready to receive saints. Abraham doubtless would have re ceived into his bosom Dives his " son " as well as Lazarus: it was Dives who having held aloof from Lazarus in one world, was set down still more aloof from him in the other.

Much of earth will find no entrance into heaven. Not sin alone: things which here have been allowable, inevitable, even expedient, will yet have to perish in the using.

To cling tenaciously to such as these is disproportionate, to cling passionately is idolatrous. God, Who alone can, help us to refrain our soul and keep it low like as a child that is weaned from his mother.

Meanwhile, — if what I dwell upon, picture to myself, turn to, crave after, am overjoyed at possessing or acquiring, cannot be comforted in lacking or losing, be after all no more than something which must perish in the using; my own words condemn me.

From worshipping and serving the creature more than the Creator; from striving to serve two masters;

From laying up treasure for ourselves without being rich toward God j from laying up treasures on earth and not in heaven;

From building on the sand and not on the rock; from gaining though it were the whole world and losing our own soul; Deliver us, Lord Jesus.

From cleaving to anything apart from Thee; from loving anything in compatible with Thee;

Until the day break and the shadows flee away; until we awake up after Thy likeness and are satisfied therewith;

They throng from the east and the west, The north and the south with a song; To golden abodes of their rest They throng.

Eternity stretches out long: Time, brief at its worst or its best, Will quit them of ruin and wrong.

A palm for their weakness made strong! As doves breast all winds to their nest, They throng.

"And hast made us unto our God kings and priests." — Christ the King of kings hath kings for subjects; Christ the High Priest for ever hath priests for ministers; kings and priests unto His Father and our Father, unto His God and our God. Peaceable kings, infallible priests.

Lord, give us grace to seek peace and ensue it, holding fast Thy truth in a pure conscience; to serve Thee meekly on earth, gloriously in heaven, well pleasingly now and for ever more. For our Redeemer's sake. Amen.

"And we shall reign on the earth." — Now, a trial; then, a reward. Now all earthly thrones are so far like King Herod's that from them, as from the basest seat, one single step leads to worms and corruption. Now earthly crowns are indeed of gold and precious stones but, like one of yore, load as it were a talent's weight on the head of the wearer. Not so the far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory awaiting the better life in Christ's triumphant kingdom. Thrones not precarious, crowns not burdensome, in an universal peace: Ephraim no more envying Judah, nor Judah vexing Ephraim.

11. And I beheld, and I heard the voice of many angels round about the Throne and the beasts and the elders: and the number of them was ten thousand times ten thousand, and thousands of thousands;

Thought fails before "the number of them": no simile, no symbol, conveys it to me. I suppose if every single thing I have ever looked upon had been an Angel, yet all together they might not sum up " the number of the fourth part " of that celestial holy nation. Around the Throne and the Living Creatures and the Elders they form a ring more glorious than of fiery opals, they form a garland more lovely than of roses.

How know I that they are lovely and glorious? — I a sinner know it, because certified that they have never sinned. Created loveliness and lustre can be defaced by sin only. Every faith fully good creature abides in its degree as a mirror of God.

I dwell hopefully and aspiringly on the assurance that man having been made a little lower than the Angels will one day be made equal to them. But who are mounting to such promotion? Not I, if I grudge them their present exceeding highness, — if I would lower superiority to my baseness, instead of by help of grace ascending to its level, — if wincing under inferiority I rankle against excellence. David exhorts us not to fret ourselves because of evil-doers: alas! he writes not down to the standard of those who fret themselves because of the upright.

Lord Jesus, Who for love of us wast once made a little lower than Thine own Angels; make us, I pray Thee, for love of Thee sacrificers of self, delighters in goodness, companions of all who fear Thee: lest we should never see Thee as Thou art, nor have part and lot with Thee.

"Round about." — In heavenly assemblies to encircle is as it were to embrace, to embrace is to love. Created love finite although unnumbered embraces its Creator, while abiding within the Everlasting Arms which above, around, underneath, hold it in the embrace of Infinite Uncreated Love.

Lord God Almighty, suffer us not to withdraw from the embrace of Thy Love. Thy Love our consolation, Thy strong Love our safeguard, we sorely need. For oftentimes our contrarieties chill human love, leaving us lonely as sparrow on housetop, owl in desert, pelican in wilderness. Lord of Patience and Consolation, deign to fetch us back out of the loneliness of our perversity into meek charity with all. Then will our desolation not be wholly desolate, though we bear the reproach of our youth alone with Thee and keeping silence. For Jesus Christ's sake, ever Patient. Amen.

12. Saying with a loud voice, Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honour, and glory, and blessing.

" Saying." — The Elders sang, the Angels say. Throughout this Book of Revelation it is invariably (if I mistake not) the redeemed who sing. Nor elsewhere in Holy Scripture do I recall any mention of angelic songs; unless we except " The morning stars sang together," or "Sing, O ye heavens... Sing, O heavens." Yet who can think of Angels and not associate them with heavenly harmonies? Perhaps their speech is song.

The Angels render glory to the Lamb inasmuch as He was slain. Unlike the elders they say not wherefore, but are content simply to ascribe to Him all worthiness. They form the outer ring, others the inner. Thus standing without, they worship Him for gifts which He receives haply for others rather than for them. It is enough for them to fulfil His commandments, hearken unto the voice of His words, do His pleasure. As friends of the Bridegroom they stand without, rejoicing greatly because of the Bridegroom's voice: this their joy therefore is fulfilled.

In unselfed ecstasy they exult in that which is another man's, thereby glorifying God with that which is their own. Exalted on so eminent a pinnacle of the Temple they stand firm and cast not themselves down.

Grace does its natural work in upholding the upright: its •supernatural work (if I may so say) in upraising the fallen. This it does for us, that for them.

O Lord their God and ours, while Thou wilt and to whatsoever point Thou wilt make Thy holy Angels excel and shame us by gifts and glories: only let not Thy grace multiplied towards ourselves bear in us less fruit of love. For Jesus Christ's sake, slain for us. Amen.

Lord Jesus, Who wert pleased to Hve for us; make us righteous: to die for us; make us holy: to rise again for us; make us glorious.

God the Son once of free will assumed the form of a servant, therefore and for evermore is He worthy of power, — once for our sakes He became poor, therefore of riches, — once He thought as a child, therefore of wisdom, — once He was slain through weakness, therefore of strength, — once He endured the Cross, therefore of glory, — once, yea many times He was contradicted, reviled, blasphemed, therefore of blessing.

As Son of God these were always His in plenitude of per fection. As Son of Man He earned and receives them: for Himself, but not for Himself alone; for Himself as Head of mankind, for mankind as His members.

We must be congruous members of our Divine Head if we desire to share His beatitude; we must tread the same steps if we aspire to the same goal. Wherefore to serve becomes a privilege; to lack, an endowment; to think simply, a profitable exercise; to be sensible of weakness, a safeguard; to undergo shame, a medicine; to endure provocations, a stimulus to prayer.

This reverses the world's judgment; but the world and its lust are to pass away.

As the froth and the spray Of the hollow-billowed sea, As what was and shall not be,

13. And every creature which is in heaven, and on the earth, and under the earth, and such as are in the sea, and all that are in them, heard I saying, Blessing, and honour, and glory, and power, be unto Him that sitteth upon the Throne, and unto the Lamb for ever and ever.

Absolute unanimity amongst all creatures. Though one have more, another less, all swell the hymn of unalloyed, unabated triumph. If stones also are crying out, it is not because any in heaven or on earth hold their peace: if those who still draw mortal breath speak, they supersede not voices from under the earth and from the sea. The present heaven and present earth must pass away, but meanwhile they praise God: the sea must be no more to-morrow, yet to-day it magnifies its Maker.

Since all Holy Scriptures are written for our learning, this thirteenth verse cannot but be meet for us to ponder over. And it strikes me that whoever conscientiously and unflinch ingly puts and keeps himself in harmony with this text, must find that for practical purposes even predestination itself is shorn of difficulties and terrors. For here we behold things transitory in company with things permanent uplifting praises: the former utilizing for praise the only time they have; the latter for identical praise anticipating the eternity which awaits them. This is to take our Master at His word when He said: " Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself." This is with Job to hold fast integrity come what may. This is with Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego to silence the adversary: " O Nebu chadnezzar, we are not careful to answer thee in this matter. If it be so, our God Whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and He will deliver us out of thine hand, O king. But if not, be it known unto thee, O king, that we will not serve thy gods, nor worship the golden image which thou hast set up."

"Go thou thy way till the end be."

For " power " the Revised Version substitutes " dominion," thereby recalling very pointedly our risen Lord's words to the eleven; in which passage the Authorized Version again uses "power," which the Revised Version replaces by " authority ": — " All power is given unto Me in heaven and in earth. Go ye therefore, and teach all nations... and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world."

"Unto Him that sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb." — Lord Jesus, as Thou with the Eternal Father and the Eternal Spirit art One in Thy Godhead, deign, I pray Thee, to be One with Them in our humble apprehension and love; that we may believe and feel that there is One Lord, One God, One Love, wherein to repose our hearts, souls, spirits. Amen.

" For ever and ever." — The Greek words (see margin of Revised Version) mean literally " unto the ages of the ages." This seems to condescend to our rooted habit of computation, measurement, estimate. An age we can realize: an age of ages (where each year is represented by an age?) we can in some sort imagine: and the vague undefined plural number conveys to us endlessness. Yet (if it be not irreverent to think so) I fancy that to some " for ever and ever," or, as I suppose one might equally express it, " for always and always," might appear if not more like endlessness yet to be more like eternity, if such a distinction may be assumed: because eternity having neither beginning nor middle nor end, seems to exhibit dura tion without sequence.

But in this passage where " unto the ages of the ages " is the phrase actually employed, I observe its adaptation to the matter in hard. All creatures, having had a beginning, speak in character if speaking with a birthright sense of time. And the Eternal Son of God, to Whom as Lamb of God the praise is addressed, had under that aspect even He Himself likewise a beginning: " When the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth His Son, made of a woman, made under the law, to redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons."

Chant thy sweetest, gladdest best at once; Sun thyself to-day, keep peace and smile;

14. And the four beasts said, Amen. And the four and twenty elders fell down and worshipped Him that liveth for ever and ever.

These Living Creatures which appear as if in some sort a compendium of animated nature, answer "Amen" — itself a summing up of "praise. The Throne whereon He sitteth Who judgeth right, answers by their voice " Amen " to all His decrees and to all which He permits. Strength in the " Lion," acceptableness in the " Calf," intelligence in the " Man," lofti-. ness in the "Eagle," every good gift and every perfect gift answers "Amen," to the praise and glory of the Father of Lights whence they came down.

Amen, O Lord: "dust to dust" also ascribeth to Thee glory. From the ends of the earth, from a heart in heaviness, from a "mouth in the dust " by foretaste of death, glory be to God on high, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

We who have no door set open before us into visible Heaven, may yet look in with St. John's eyes. And if with his heart as well as with his eyes, then shall we too be rapt into celestial regions and among harmonies superhuman. With Elders our spirits may already fall prostrate in worship, with Living Creatures our wills may at once and for ever answer Amen.

Amen, which signifies both So it is and So be it. God for Jesus' sake grant us grace now and for evermore to answer Amen to His perfect Will and Ways.

1. And I saw when the Lamb opened one of the seals, and I heard as it were the noise of thunder, one of the four beasts saying, Come and see.

He who had been redeemed by the Blood of the Lamb, he in whose stead Christ had died, he whom Jesus loved, " saw when the Lamb opened one of the seals." What that Wise Master and Gracious Lord did St. John could endure to behold, how ever awful, terrible, overwhelming in the result. He could endure because he was beloved and because he loved.

Lord, me also Thou hast redeemed by Thy Blood, in my stead also Thou hast died, me also Thou lovest (for which sinner hast Thou not loved?); yet I exceedingly fear and quake lest I should fall away. Thou hast not ceased to be my Wise Master and my Gracious Lord; Thou lovest as Thou hast ever loved; alas, it is I who love not as St. John loved.

Son of God, have mercy upon us. O Lord, let Thy mercy be showered upon us. O Lord, have mercy upon us; have mercy upon us.

Love still is Love, and cloeth all things well, Whether he show me heaven or hell,

Love still is Love, tho' He should say, " Depart," And break my incorrigible heart,

Love still is Love, is Love, if He should say, " Come " on that uttermost dread day,

" Opened one of the seals." — Not the whole seven at once; not forthwith to recompense all, or to make an end of all consuming as in a moment. Rather as it were remonstrating with mankind again and again: " The day of the Lord is great and very terrible; and who can abide it? Therefore also now, saith the Lord, turn ye even to Me with all your heart," — and saying especially concerning the elect, as of old concerning Israel: " In measure when it shooteth forth, Thou wilt debate with it: He stayeth His rough wind in the day of the east wind."

So the waters of the Deluge mounted stage by stage, affording time not for the bitterness of death only, but also (please God!) for the salutary bitterness of repentance in sight of death.

O Merciful Redeemer, grant us repentance early in the morning, repentance at the third hour, at the sixth hour, at the ninth hour. O Most Merciful Saviour, grant us repentance at the eleventh hour; grant us the eleventh hour for repentance. According to Thy Mercy saving us, Thou Who hast died our death and paid our penalty.

" As it were the noise of thunder." — That is, as appears, the voice of one of the Living Creatures. If we may assume that these speak in the order in which they are first named, then this thunderous voice appertains to him of the leonine aspect, with whom such a sound seems congruous. I have read how the natural lion setting his face toward the ground utters a tre mendous reverberant roar far reaching and appalling: this celestial " Lion " now sets his face earthwards and summons all within hearing to " Come and see." For surely his word is not to St. John exclusively, but through him to us upon whom the ends of the world are come.

But if those four "Living Creatures" rest not day and night, saying, " Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord God Almighty, Which Was, and Is, and Is to come ": how is it that one after another they now say " Come and see "? Perhaps partly to show us that charitable work interrupts not the flow of adoration. [Yet in such a case I must not be rash to utter anything with my mouth: for these are problems of heaven, while I am upon earth; therefore should my words be few.]

O Lord, Who hast proclaimed by Thy servant, " Come and see," blessed is the man whom Thou choosest and receivest unto Thee. Show us, I beseech Thee, wonderful things in Thy righteousness, O God of our salvation: Thou that art the hope of all the ends of the earth. For Jesus Christ's sake.

St. Paul has written: " Let the woman learn in silence with all subjection. But I suffer not a woman to teach." Yet else where he wrote: " I call to remembrance the unfeigned faith... which dwelt first in thy grandmother Lois, and thy mother Eunice."

To expound prophecy lies of course beyond my power, and not within my wish. But the symbolic forms of prophecy being set before all eyes, must be so set for some purpose: to inves tigate them may not make us wise as serpents; yet ought by promoting faith, fear, hope, love, to aid in making us harmless as doves. " Write the vision, and make it plain upon tables, that he may run that readeth it ": — God helping us, we all great and small can and will run.

A commentator I have turned to explains the remainder of this chapter as referring to the establishment on earth of Christ's Kingdom, and to successive events in the history of imperial Rome. But since in Holy Scripture personage after personage, crisis after crisis, judgment after judgment, becomes at various points typical of some greater personage, crisis, judgment, thereafter to be looked for: I venture to trust that throughout this Book of Revelations underlying or parallel with the primary meaning, is often discernible a further signification which may be unfolded to us even while the other continues occult.

Nor surely need an ignorant man be accounted any great loser (so long as ignorance be his misfortune, not his fault) if Bible history becomes less his chronicle, of individuals and nations than his parable of Christ and mankind. Abel will speak better things than ever when he is lost sight of in Christ. Isaac will be glorified when by his submission to death Christ is manifested and remembered. Moses will be sufficed when the Prophet like unto him supersedes him. Melchizedek and Aaron will vanish gloriously when by them Christ stands revealed: so David before his Son and Lord: so Solomon before the Sole Builder and Maker. The Paschal Lamb, the Scapegoat, will have fulfilled their end when they lead a wor shipper to Christ: the Day of Atonement will avail him to whom it shadows forth Good Friday. The Deluge engulfing the old world, the eternal fire of the Cities of the pkiin, the fall of Jericho, of Assyria, of Babylon, the rejection of ancient Israel, will make wise unto salvation him to whom they bring home the final Day of account; and who with condemned Achan gives God the glory, and with ruined Manasseh betakes himself to penitence and prayer.

Glory be to Thee O God, with Whom are the treasures of wisdom and knowledge, and Who impartest to every man severally as Thou wilt. Glory be to Thee in the Church by Christ Jesus for ever and ever.

2. And I saw, and behold a white horse: and He that sat on him had a bow; and a crown was given unto Him: and He went forth conquering, and to conquer.

This verse, having been interpreted of our Blessed Lord and of the outset of His Gospel, harmonizes with the Psalmist's apostrophe: " Gird Thy sword upon Thy thigh, O Most Mighty, with Thy glory and Thy majesty. And in Thy majesty ride prosperously because of truth and meekness tind righteousness; and Thy right hand shall teach Thee terrible things. Thine arrows are sharp in the heart of the King's enemies; whereby the people fall under Thee." Elisha also prophesied victory to Israel, in the words: " The arrow of the Lord's deliverance "; thus suggesting a type of this vision.

The horse (agent or vehicle of the rider) is white, the sign of innocence; showing how above His fellows our Lord is He Who, never doing evil that good may come, works by pure un mixed good to a good end. Horses were allowed only under restriction to ancient Israel; but now we see one_ advanced to signal honour; and are thus reminded that all things whereby they can serve God are lawful to Christians, who must not call any such creature common or unclean. The bow recalls to us the paternal blessing of Joseph, himself a hero of purity and eminent type of Christ: " Joseph is a fruitful bough, even a fruitful bough by a well: whose branches run over the wall: the archers have sorely grieved him, and shot at him, and hated him: but his bow abode in strength, and the arms of his hands were made strong by the hands of the Mighty God of Jacob; {from thence is the Shepherd, the stone of Israel:) even by the God of thy father, Who shall help thee; and by the Almighty, Who shall bless thee with blessings of heaven above, blessings of the deep that lieth under, blessings of the breasts, and of the womb: the blessings of thy father have prevailed above the blessings of my progenitors unto the utmost bound of the everlasting hills: they shall be on the head of Joseph, and on the crown of the head of him that was separate from his brethren." And again Job's protest of integrity which exhibits him also as a type of Christ, by its mention of diadem (though here the word is crown) and bow accords with the present vision: " When the ear heard me, then it blessed me; and when the eye saw me, it gave witness to me: because I delivered the poor that cried, and the fatherless, and him that had none to help him. The blessing of him that was ready to perish came upon me: and I caused the widow's heart to sing for joy. I put on righteousness, and it clothed me: my judg ment was as a robe and a diadem. I was eyes to the blind, and feet was I to the lame. I was a father to the poor: and the cause which I knew not I searched out. And I brake the jaws of the wicked, and plucked the spoil out of his teeth... My glory was fresh in me, and my bow was renewed in my hand."

u And a crown was given unto Him." — Christ is the Priest Whose Self-oblation has found acceptance, the Captain Whose arm has brought salvation to His followers: " put the holy crown upon the mitre." This Crown given appears to be not the inalienable Crown of Supreme Divine Majesty, but rather the Crown of reinstated Human Royalty awarded by God to Man. It is the Crown of the only One born of woman Who in absolute perfection has striven lawfully and run well. It is the Mediatorial Crown honoured in heaven and on earth,

But receiveth He no Crown except from God? Yes, verily. " Go forth, O ye daughters of Zion, and behold King Solomon with the crown wherewith his mother crowned him in the day of his espousals, and in the day of the gladness of his heart." Redeemed humanity crowns her beloved Son and Champion as her King for ever. Christ being God and Man is constituted between God and men the indissoluble link on whom descend blessings of heaven above, to Whom ascend blessings of the deep that lieth under, blessings unto the utmost bound of the everlasting hills.

Moreover inspired wisdom teaches us that " a virtuous woman is a crown to her husband." Which suggests that in the Mystical Marriage between Christ and the Church (whereof each earthly marriage is emblematic) the Bride is " crown " to the Bridegroom, accounted by His love not disgrace or drawback, but dignity and complement. "How great is His Goodness, and how great is His Beauty! "

" But she that maketh ashamed is as rottenness in his bones." For not only do all the members in the One Body influence each other, but even the Divine head is honoured or dishonoured by them. Christ keep us, keep me, from being " as rottenness."

Lord, of Whom a certain young man worshipping Thee once asked, What lack I yet? — we now worshipping Thee are bold rather to ask, Whatlackest Thou? Inasmuch as Thou hast said, Give Me thy heart: Lord, only grant us grace to give our hearts to Thee; and hold Thou them fast. Then in Thy good pleasure shall we lack nothing.

" And He went forth conquering and to conquer." — Experi ence attests conquering; faith protests and to conquer. Experi ence bears noble witness; but faith yet more noble, meets God as it were half-way and becomes His herald.

Experience follows and gives thanks; faith precedes and offers praise. Experience keeps pace with time; faith out stripping time forestalls eternity.

Faith is the Elias of virtues, girt up and running before her advancing King. Faith is the St. John Baptist of graces, her joy fulfilled without sight.

" And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity."

Experience bows a sweet contented face, Still setting to her seal that God is true: Beneath the sun, she knows, is nothing new;

Winds, rivers, man's still recommencing race: — While Hope beyond earth's circle strains her view, Past sun and moon and rain and rainbow too,

Experience saith, " My God doth all tilings well " j And for the morrow taketh little care,

Such peace and patience garrison her soul: — While Hope who never yet hath eyed the goal, With arms flung forth and backward floating hair

This Who goeth forth conquering and to conquer is He, " Whose goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting." Before there was any to resist His Will He went forth to bless in the lovely work of creation. He went forth for His own sake and for His creature's sake.

But evil having marred all, He again went forth for His o\vn sake and for ours conquering and lo conquer. He went forth from heaven to Bethlehem, from Jerusalem to Calvary without the gate, from the Sepulchre by way of Olivet back to Heaven. As He went He conquered sin and death for us, and then sat down on the Right Hand of the Majesty on High.

Now once more He goes forth, for us indeed but also with us one by one, to conquer sin and death in each separate human soul. He conquers with us; He offers not to conquer without us: "He hath showed thee, O man, what is good."

Neither lias it pleased Him to conquer the heathen for His inheritance without the co-operation of their elder brethren in Christ. Some Christians are called to become literal Evangel ists, and every Christian is at the least a minor missionary: example preaches more powerfully than words, intercession converts as mightily as sermons, alms supply the sinews of that war whose weapons are not carnal.

If all our forefathers had preached adequately by word and by example, wrestled in intercession, invested liberally in alms, spent themselves in missionary enterprise or at least in missionary zeal, doubtless Christ would have gone forth mightily with them to annex nations and races. It might have come to pass as Isaiah records: " The isles saw it, and feared; the ends of the earth were afraid, drew near, and came. They helped every cne his neighbour; and every one said to his brother, Be of good courage."

If our forefathers had then lived worthy of their vocation, tVius it might have been. If we their children will now live worthy of ours, thus it yet may be.

My God, Thou Who secst, knowest, siftest souls: how dare I look elsewhere and not within for cowardice, scandal, in consistency, while Thou takest account of me and understandest me altogether?

3. And when He had opened the second seal, I heard the second beast say, Come and see.

The second living Creature resembled a Calf, one of the animals devoted to sacrifice, and thus an emblem of mercy. He summons St. John to contemplate an awful vision, as it would seem a mighty scourge sent in judgment. Yet is it mercy that gives the call, even while the sight is appalling to flesh and blood.

Lord Jesus, while we tremble at Thy wrath, uphold us to confide in Thy mercy: for they that hope in Thee shall not be ashamed.

4. And there went out another horse that was red: and power was given to him that sat thereon to take peace from the earth, and that they should kill one another: and there was given unto him a great sword.

Red, the tint of blood; the horse and his rider seem an impersonation of bloodshed. Our comfort is that the power was given and the great sword given; recalling our Lord's own word to Pilate: "Thou couldest have no power at all against Me, except it were given thee from above."

Moreover, all follows: nothing now can precede, any more than it ever could outrun, our Saviour. Whatever Red Sea we are passing through or have still to pass, He has passed through it before us: even He Who in vision was beheld as red in His apparel when He made the depths of the sea a way for the ransomed to pass over.

Is there any peace under that domination ordained " to take peace from the earth "? There remains that peace which the world neither gives nor takes away. Nothing happens irre spective of God's Will; no sword can be unsheathed, unless He first have said: " Sword, go through the land."

Once too our Lord declared: " I came not to send peace, but a sword." Yet a sword of Christ's sending brings peace when welcomed for His sake and faced in His strength. Or even though the sword be Satan's sword, yet to ourselves it will become the sword of the Lord if whilst being slain we trust in Him.

But alas! for those who "kill one another" filling up the measure of their fathers. Haman brought enlargement and great joy to captive Israel, nevertheless he with his sons miserably perished.

It is no part of duty to call that small which the Voice of Inspiration calls great. " Great " is the sword predicted: great must be the Church's searchings of heart if she would be prepared with weapons not carnal to cope with and over come that sword. Of yore " for the divisions of Reuben there were great searchings of heart ": we too have shameful divisions to our incalculable loss and hindrance, and woe is us if we undergo not proportionate self-searchings. "Let us search and try our ways, and turn again to the Lord. Let us lift up our heart with our hands unto God in the heavens."

"If a kingdom be divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand. And if a house be divided against itself, that house cannot stand."

Tho' a tempest rage around and rage above, Tempest beyond tempest far as eye can see:

That it simply heeds its mourning inward Dove, Dove which craves contented for a home to be Set amid the myrtles or an olive grove.

Dove-eyed Love contemplates the Twelve-fruited Tree, Marks the bowing palms which worship as they move;

5. And when He had opened the third seal, I heard the third beast say, Come and see. And I beheld, and lo a black horse; and lie that sat on Mm had a pair of balances in his hand.

The third Living Creature exhibiting " a face as a man " summons his human brother (and with him humankind at large) to view the black horse and his rider. If the Calf may be interpreted as symbolizing Divine Compassion, the Man suggests (in this context) an embodiment if not of human yet still of fellow-creaturely sympathy.

If it becomes celestial creatures not of our blood to concern themselves for us; surely we ourselves of one common stock, one common family, should plan and pray and yearn over each other. The coming scourge has been interpreted as chastising man not directly in his spiritual nature, but through the flesh. For the black horse and his rider are viewed as a figure of famine.

Behold a funeral traversing earth! " And they shall pass through it, hardly bestead and hungry: and it shall come to pass that when they shall be hungry, they shall fret themselves,... and look upward. And they shall look unto the earth; and behold trouble and darkness, dimness of anguish; and they shall be driven to darkness."

But first let us note these Balances, the established insignia of Justice. Injustice never has a voice in the counsels of Providence: Justice always, except when silenced by Mercy. Which Mercy, whilst to us sinners gratuitous, is yet Justice and not Mercy to Him Who has taken our place, paid our penalty, made good our deficiency; even to Christ. To Whom be all gratitude, praise, love, for ever and ever.

To resume. The balances suggest scarcity short of literal nullity: hunger, but not necessarily starvation. Scarcity imposes frugality, exactness; a gathering up of fragments, with thanksgiving because there remain fragments to gather. No waste, latitude, margin; no self-pampering can be tolerated, but only a sustained self-denial: self must be stinted, selfish ness starved, to give to him that needeth.

And as the poor never cease out of the land and are in various degrees standing representatives of famine, this selfstinting seems after all to be the rule and standard of right living; not a desperate exceptional resource, but a regular, continual, plain duty.

When the pinch of famine comes they will be prepared to bear it who already for charity's sake have learned and practised to suffer hunger. They who have kept the Fast of God's choosing by dealing their bread to the hungry will even in extremity know Whom they have trusted: " Although the fig tree shall not blossom, neither shall fruit be in the vines; the labour of the olive shall fail, and the fields shall yield no meat; the flock shall be cut off from the fold, and there shall be no herd in the stalls: yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will joy in the God of my salvation."

Yea, Thou gavest drink to slake my thirst: O Lord, what love gift can I offer Thee Who hast loved me first? —

Give them drink, for love of them and Me: Love them as I loved ihee, when Bread I i.:ai<e In pure love of thee. —

Love Thee, seek Thee, in them; wait and pray: Yet would I love Thyself, Lord, face to face, Heart to heart, one day. —

Fill thy heart and hand to them and Me: To-morrow thou shall ask. and shall not ask Half I keep for thee.

An eminent physician once told me that there are people who would benefit in health by fasting: a secondary motive, yet surely not an unlawful one. To perform a duty from a motive which is not wrong, may prove a step towards performing it from the motive which is right. To leave it unperformed seems the last contrivance adapted to result in its performance.

6. And I heard a voice in the midst of the four beasts say, A measure of wheat for a penny, and three measures of barley for a penny; and see thou hurt not the oil and the wine.

Whatever historical circumstances may here be indicated, the "Voice " which from the midst of the four Living Creatures speaks authoritatively, tempering judgment with mercy, may safely be listened to by us as the Divine Voice: for the Living Creatures are described as in the midst of the Throne and round about the Throne, and He is set in the Throne that judgeth right.

Discipline therefore, not inevitable destruction, may be confidently looked for, except we be reprobate: at the utmost "the destruction of the flesh, that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus."

A parable and prophecy of such severe tenderness was ages before vouchsafed through the Prophet Hosea: " Then said the Lord unto me, Go yet, love a woman beloved of her friend, yet an adulteress, according to the love of the Lord toward the children of Israel, who look to other gods, and love flagons of wine. So I bought her to me for fifteen pieces of silver, and for an homer of barley, and an half homer of barley: and I said unto her, Thou shalt abide for me many days... For the children of Israel shall abide many days without a king,.and without a prince, and without a sacrifice, and without an image, and without an ephod, and without teraphim: afterward shall the children of Israel return, and seek the Lord their God, and David their king; and shall fear the Lord and His goodness in the latter days." And earlier still Moses had declared to Israel assembled on the threshold of Canaan: " He humbled thee, and suffered thee to hunger, and fed thee with manna, which thou knewest not, neither did thy fathers know; that He might make thee know that man doth not live by bread only, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of the Lord doth man live " — with a portion of which text our Blessed Saviour deigned to confute Satan in the wilderness.

" A measure of wheat for a penny, and three measures of barley for a penny." — A literal scarcity of material food: spiritual food cannot so be purchased: " Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters, and he that hath no money; come ye, buy, and eat; yea, come, buy wine and milk without money and without price."

The next following clause in the verse under consideration we may hopefully appropriate as guarding our spiritual interests: " See thou hurt not the oil and the wine." Oil is a symbol of that " Unction from the Holy One " bestowed upon us when by Baptism we begin to live: Wine suggests that blessed life-sustaining Sacrament which verily and indeed feeds the faithful with the Body and Blood of Christ.

Happy we, if come what will that Table is still prepared before us against them that trouble us: if the Anointing Oil is not withheld from our children, nor from us our Cup of Blessing. " The Lord is my Shepherd; I shall not want."

If pursuing further such thoughts it be lawful to consider this " Oil " and " Wine " as symbolic not only of the gifts but also of the Divine Givers, Who indeed give Themselves: then may we reinforce hope by tenderness of grateful love, if so be the word "hurt" intimates how God the Son and God the Holy Spirit vouchsafe to account Themselves as of one Heart and one Mind with the Communion of Saints; so that what hurts the elect in some inscrutable sense hurts Them, after the manner of Christ's own express words: " Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou Me?" — and in harmony with the Apostolick injunction: " Grieve not the Holy Spirit of God."

Nevertheless the Prophet Amos predicted one period of surpassing famine: " Behold, the days come, saith the_ Lord God, that I will send a famine in the land, rot a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the Lord: and they shall wander from sea to sea, and from the north even to the east, they shall run to and fro to seek the word of the Lord, and shall not find it. In that day shall the fair virgins and young men faint for thirst."

From such extremity God preserve us, or out of such extremity God recover us, for the all-availing sake of His Son Jesus. Amen.

7. And when He had opened the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth beast say, Come and see.

This fourth amongst the Living Creatures appears to be the one " like a flying Eagle " assigned of old to St. John as his evangelical symbol.

Not merely like an eagle, but like a flying eagle; one soaring or prompt to soar sunwards relinquishing earth for heaven, mounting with ever-renewed strength, " forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before." Well may this lofty and gracious creature be the one to summon the Eagle of the Apostolick College to behold: for dread is the vision about to pass by, intolerable to flesh and blood, endurable only by men whose citizenship is already in heaven.

Yet by them gazed upon, dwelt upon, desired, embraced; because they know that man cannot fully live except first he die. Therefore with a good courage they say " to corruption, Thou art my father: to the worm, Thou art my mother, and my sister." Therefore not bound with fetters and chains, but as free among the dead they oftentimes keep holy-day among the tombs, cleaving unto Christ the Resurrection and the Life, if by any means they may attain unto the resurrection of the dead.

O Lord God Omniscient, I thank Thee on behalf of all those who have not felt or who no longer are called to endure the pnng of bereavement. I thank Thee for ourselves, who humbly trust that some we love rest safely in Paradise. Whom grant us grace to follow. In the Name of Jesus Christ.

8. And I looked, and behold a pale horse: and his name that sat on him was Death, and Hell followed with him. And power was given unto them over the fourth part of the earth, to kill with sword, and with hunger, and with death, and with the beasts of the earth.

Pallor of a visible death, as whiteness of leprosy is whiteness of death: leprosy is a type of sin, and the wages of sin is death. " Before their face the people shall be much pained: all faces shall gather blackness."

But not necessarily blackness of darkness for ever. Death appears mounted on a horse, not on a throne: he arrives, he passes by. And albeit there is one event to the righteous and to the wicked; yet the righteous even while rendering to Death the things that are Death's enter their protest: " Rejoice not against me, O mine enemy: when I fall, I shall arise: when I sit in darkness, the Lord shall be a light unto me. I will bear the indignation of the Lord, because I have sinned against Him, until He plead my cause, and execute judgment for me: He will bring me forth to the light, and I shall behold His righteousness."

"And Hell followed with him."— Hell, otherwise Hades: Hades the coffin of mortality, the cradle of immortality. ** An end is come, the end is come: it watcheth for thee; behold, it is come."

Hades follows Death. Death reaps, Hades garners: Death reaps, to sow; Hades garneis, to reproduce.

Our tender Lord encourages the faithful: "I say unto you My friends, Be not afraid of them that kill the body, and after that have no more that they can do." Death then is one of those whom saints need not fear. And Hades includes Paradise.

Hades the intermediate abode appears (at least by a fanciful conjecture) to be fitly illuminated by intermediate light, twilight (otherwise, 'tween light). Twilight is one of two things: evening twilight is the dying of light into darkness: morning twilight, the vanishing of darkness into light.

God grant that to us it may prove the vanishing of darkness into light, for the True Light's sake, Jesus Christ.

"There is hope in thine end" — and my own fault it will be if there is not hope in mine.

How know I that it looms lovely that land I have never seen, With morning-glories and heartease and unexampled With neither heat nor cold in the balm-redolent air? Some of this, not all, I know: but this is so: Christ is there.

How know I that blessedness befalls who dwell in Paradise, The outwearied hearts refreshing, rekindling the worn-out eyes; All souls singing, seeing, rejoicing everywhere? Nay, much more than this I know: for this is so: Christ is there.

O Lord Chiist Whom having not seen I love and desire to love, O Lord Christ Who lookest on me uncomely yet still Thy dove, Take me to Thee in Paradise, Thine own made fair: For whatever else I know, this thing is so: Thou art there.

" And power was given unto them over the fourth part of the earth." — Once again our comfort is that the power v& given; the Giver regulates the gift. "What? shall we receive good at the hand of God, and shall we not receive evil? " said holy Job: and in this we are expressly certified that he sinned not with his lips. But for such an assurance and for other passages of Holy Scripture one might have hesitated to call anything of God's sending evil.

The "power" extended "over the fourth part of the earth," but no further. Not over the whole earth, nor at all into the other world; nor indeed under the earth, where is God's Acre. It is a surface scourge: kiss the rod, and thoti shall abide as the profound sea whoso surface is lashed and ploughed by winds, but whose depths repose in unbroken calm.

" Behold, a sower went forth to sow; and when he sowed, some seeds... fell upon stony places, where they had not much earth: and forthwith they sprung up, because they had no deepness of earth: and when the sun was up, they were scorched; and because they had no root, they withered away... He that received the seed into stony places, the same is he that heareth the word, and anon with joy receiveth it; yet hath he not root in himself, but dureth for awhile: for when tribulation or persecution ariseth because of the word, by and by he is offended."

Gladness of saints is gladness evermore: Send on thy hope, send on thy will before

Stir up His praises if the flesh would sway, Exalt His praises if the world press sore, Peal out His praises if black Satan roar

Devil and Death and Hades, threefold cord Not quickly broken, front thee to thy face;

Front thou them with a face of tenfold flint: Shout for the battle, David! never stint Body or breath or blood, but proof in grace Die for thy Lord, as once for thee thy Lord.

" To kill with sword,... hunger,... death (or as in the margin pestilence),... beasts of the earth." — Ezekiel delivers a corresponding prophecy: — "The word of the Lord came again to me, saying, Son of man, when the land sinneth against Me by trespassing grievously, then will I stretch out Mine hand upon it, and will break the staff of the bread thereof, and will send famine upon it, and will cut off man and beast from it... If I cause noisome beasts to pass through the land, and they spoil it, so that it be desolate, that no man may pass through because of the beasts:... Or if I bring a sword upon that land, and say, Sword, go through the land; so that I cut off man and beast from it:... Or if I send a pestilence into that land, and pour out My fury upon it in blood, to cut off from it man and beast: though Noah, Daniel, and Job, were in it, as I live, saith the Lord God, they shall deliver neither son nor daughter; they shall but deliver thdr own souls by their righteousness. For thus saith the Lord God. How much more when I send My four sore judgments upon Jerusalem, the sword, and the famine, and the noisome beast, and the pestilence, to cut off from it man and beast? "

If we may argue from the fuller prophecy to the briefer, we admit in both (because in one) what the Psalmist recognized and declared of old: " No man may deliver his brother: nor make agreement unto God for him; for it cost more to redeem their souls: so that he must let that alone for ever; yea, though he live long: and see not the grave." This famili ir Prayer Book translation differs from the Bible Version; but if I may here safely follow it. it darkly and in part by a negative affirms a Divine Mystery. For what " no man " can do, Christ did; and therefore cannot but be God as well as man. And He did it not by living long and not seeing the grave, to which no covenanted redemptive virtue was attached; but by being cut off out of the land of the living and making his grave with the wicked.

True, the scourge threatened by Ezekiel, revealed to St. John, is temporal, not eternal; but since Noah, Daniel, Job, availed not for the lesser salvation, much more could they not avail for the greater.

What, Lord, have we then nothing but Thee? — Nothing out of Me, all in Me. — Amen, Lord.

" Evil shall hunt the wicked person to overthrow him ": — but all in vain would it hunt the righteous man; who being even as the Mount Sion which may not be removed but standeth fast for ever, echoes St. Paul's witness: " Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?... Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him that loved us. For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord."

The sword has had its will of many a martyr, and yet has despatched him to glory. Fasting devotees practise themselves aforetime in famine. Pestilence damages not him who is content to fall into the hand of the Lord. Prayer makes itself heard out of the lien's mouth or from among the horns of the unicorns. No antagonist can disconcert him to whom to live is Christ and to die gain.

From the venomous crooked serpent, from the roaring lion, from the dragon and his angels,

9. And when He had opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of them that were slain for the word of God, and for the testimony which they held:

" Do ye not know that... they which wait at the altar are partakers with the altar?"

These blessed martyrs verily waited at the Altar when once they were offered up as a whole burnt offering to God; and now St. John beholds them "partakers with the Altar": so identified with the Altar, that all which thenceforward is offered thereon may be said to be offered likewise upon the sacrifice and service of their faith.

All who are united to Christ are thereby united to one another. The Communion of Saints flows in one continuous stream from the One Fountain Head; descends as one unbroken chain link by link from that irremovable ancttor of our only hope, the Cross of Christ.

The holy fear which to-day despises earthly terrors, mirrors and memorializes the holy fear of our fathers and mothers in the faith; holy courage, their courage; heavenly love, their love. A martyr of this generation is spiritual descendant of the martyrs of yore: even as (may I not say, evidently?) St. Paul under the Roman sword was true son to St. Stephen who had interceded for him amid the Judsean stones.

" I saw... the souls of them that were s'ain for the word of God, and for the testimony which they held." — This most noble qualification applies to St. James, own brother of St. John, and to others amongst his familiar friends. But as before so now again we find not on either side any trace of human recognition, of human tenderness.

Perhaps this is for our sakes, lest we should presume so to people heaven with our own cherished dead as to turn them into idols in the very shrine and Presence of Christ.

Since he that keepeth his life shall lose it, it may be that oftentimes to keep our beloved would be to lose them. " Perhaps he therefore departed for a season, that thou j-houldest receive him for ever." " Lord, all my desire is be '"ore Thee."

It is not death, O Christ, to die for Thee: Nor is that silence of a silent land Which speaks Thy praise so all may understand:

Thyself Who Wast and Art and Art to Be; Thyself, more lovely than the lovely band Of saints who worship Thee on either hand

Death is not death, and therefore do I hope: Nor silence silence; and I therefore sing

Every tree after its kind: the One Cross has ramified into unnumbered crosses. Every seed after its kind: the Corn of Wheat which died is replenishing the world-wide harvestfield.

Christ is Head of the Church: should a martyred Head have a pampered body? Lord Jesus, grant us grace to keep Easter Eve to-day and Easter Day to-morrow.

over and over again: they only who have held, held fast, held out, are they who shall come up with acceptance on God's Altar. Courage, patience, — woe is me! Yet, Lord, Thou canst make us, make me, courageous and patient. Amen.

If I have wisdom, and then even because I am a coward, I shall choose the less risk rather than the greater, the less torment rather than the greater.

If I have wisdom, and then even because I am impatient, I shall put up with the whip lest I incur the scorpion.

10. And they cried with a loud voice, saying, How long-, 0 Lord, holy and true, dost Thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth?

" Vengeance is Mine; I will repay, saith the Lord." Those \vho are indefectibly of one mind and one will with God Almighty thirst and cry out for His just judgment and righteous vengeance.

Can these be they who in mortal life were ready to lay down that life for their brethren? Yea, these same are they once the "all things to ail men" if by any means they might save some; the echoes of Christ in intercession, the mirrors of Christ in self-sacrifice.

Like Christ they became by grace, like Christ they cannot but remain on the threshold of glory and throughout the unending triumph of His Glory. What Christ is, that in their several proportions they too must be: according to His promise: ''If any man serve Me, let him follow Me; and where I am, there shall also My servant be ": — there not merely in celestial locality, but doubtless in spiritualized will and illumination of wisdom likewise.

0 Lord, now is my soul troubled, and what shall I say? Father, save us from that hour; but for this cause hast Thou revealed that hour. Father, glorify Thy Name. While there is yet time, while there is yet hope, Lord, remember Jesus and all His trouble for our sakes, for love of us. I plead Jesus I plead only Jesus. Amen.

"Holy and True." — "Yea, let God be true, but every man a liar; as it is written, That Thou mightest be justified in Thy sayings, and mightest overcome when Thou art judged.... Is God unrighteous Who taketh vengeance?... God forbid: for then how shall God judge the world? "

1 know not what besetment hinders my neighbour, but in some degree I know what hinders myself.

I quail before God's Holiness because I am not holy, before His Truth because I am not true. " God is love ": and I am of a different mind from God, not because of my excess of love but because of my defect of love.

O God All-True our Redeemer, compassionate us and con form us unto Thy Truth in righteousness.

O God All-Holy, All-True, All-Loving, Three Persons in One Godhead, we are they for whom Jesus was born and died and rose again and ascended into heaven, for whom He intercedes, whom He will judge. Behold us, consider us, succour us. I take refuge in the supreme Name of Jesus.

" On them that dwell on the earth." — They say not, On them that slew us; but, On them that dwell on the earth. Whoever then would clean escape from under their ban, can so do by ceasing to be a dweller and becoming a stranger and pilgrim upon earth. This road of safety lies open to all, to murderers of martyrs as freely as to succourers of saints. For either by innocence or by penitence any and every soul can quit earth and betake itself to Heaven.

And with how warm a heart the Martyrs do forgive and welcome their slayers is exemplified by St. James the Great: who (at least according to a legend) having by his superhuman sanctity of demeanour converted his accuser, received him with a kiss of peace; after which they suffered death together.

11. And white robes were given unto every one of them; and it was said unto them, that they should rest yet for a little season, until their fellow-servants also and their brethren, that should be killed as they were, should be fulfilled.

" He shall grow as the lily." Whiteness of purity, greenness of hope, fragrance of aspiration, a comely aspect, a head uplifted: once in their passion the martyrs became as lilies among thorns, and now in their rest they are beautiful as lilies in the garden of their Beloved. Is it not " to gather lilies " when He takes home His own unto Himself? Is it not to feed " among the lilies " when He sups with them and they with Him?

" Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil

not, neither do they spin: and yet I say unto you, That even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these."

" White robes were given unto every one of them." — Israel in the wilderness gathering Manna " gathered, some more, some less. And when they did mete it with an omer, he that gathered much had nothing over, and he that gathered little had no lack." Similarly these elect souls have pre sumably not laboured all alike: some have borne the burden and heat of a long day, some have wrought but one hour; yet in the sphere of their acceptance these have no lack and those nothing over. All are absolutely accepted, absolutely sancti fied, absolutely perfected.

Does it follow that all the robes are on a par? This point is not revealed. All are white: yet for aught we know one and another may differ in glory like stars, in beauty like flowers. However this may be, let not our eye be evil because God is good: those robes are given, and it is lawful for Him to do what He will with His own. Blessed be He Who freely gave every grace which He invests with glory, and freely bestows every glory wherewith He adorns grace.

" So then it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that sheweth mercy."

" And it was said unto them that they should rest yet for a little season." — In this world vehement desire is restless, in that better world it can rest. "Their strength is to sit still."

" A little season." — Already about eighteen centuries. But eternity dwarfs all time: that which will end may be prolonged, but cannot be long.

" Fellow-servants... brethren ", — designations of affec tion. And what their disembodied lovers look forward to with approval is that they be " killed." For martyrs know by experience that to die for Christ brings an accession of life; and saints of every degree in honour prefer one another. " There is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear," not for self alone but for others also. " In the sight of the unwise they seemed to die: and their departure is taken for misery, and their going from us to be utter destruction; but they are in peace." To be killed in Christ's cause is to be "fulfilled."

" All the rivers run into the sea; yet the sea is not full." Man is a still wider sea, a still deeper ocean, a more insatiable abyss: this life and the resources of this life can never fill him. As one has proposed, expressing a thought too daring for me cf myself to have entertained or uttered: The vast bed of ocean corresponds with the ocean whereof it is the bed: so man's vast emptiness corresponds with the Immensity of God Who fills him; they correspond, God having fulness where man hath emptiness.

" Fellow-servants," one in duty: " brethren," one in love. Soul by soul each individual fulfilled, until the entire pre destined number be fulfilled.

The generations of mankind shall not pass away, nor heaven and earth pass away, till all be fulfilled. Time must endure, eternity must stand back, till all be fulfilled.

Fulfil God's Will, and thou shalt be of the number of the fulfilled. I also, He prospering me. Amen.

Once slain for Him Who first was slain for them, Now made alive in Him for evermore, All luminous and lovely in their gore With no more buffeting winds or tides to item, The Martyrs look for New Jerusalem;

And cry " How long?" remembering all they boi'c, " How long?" with heart and eyes sent on before Toward consummated throne and diadem. " How long?" White robes are given to their desire; " How long?" deep rest that is and is to be; With a great promise of the oncoming host, Loves to their love and fires to flank their fire: So rest they, worshipping incessantly

12. And I beheld when He had opened the sixth seal, and, lo, there was a great earthquake; and the sun be came black as sackcloth of hair, and the moon became as blood;

Darkness and earthquake waited on our Lord's Passion and Death: "the sun was darkened " and " the earth did quake." If on a saving Passion and life-restoring Death, how much more on a vain passion and destruction-preluding death! " Great " now is the earthquake; the sun now becomes " black as sackcloth of hair." The done done, and the undone left undone, earth is preparing to pass away, and she quakes. We know not whether the sun is passing away, or whether he will be relit.

That we know, this we know not: that concerns ourselves, this concerns us not. Practical utility, not idle amusement, appears to be one widely applicable rule according to which we are instructed or left ignorant. No good thing (but not, nothing whatever) will God withhold from them that walk uprightly.

O God All-Wise, let us not be as our mother Eve who thought to hanker after good knowledge denied, when in truth she hankered after evil knowledge kept back.

O God All-Good, let us not be as our father Adam who was not deceived, but rejected good and chose evil.

O God All-Merciful, we plead our only hope of mercy, Jesus, the Second Adam, made of a woman. Amen.

The sun being a figure of Christ (a figure authorized by the Bible) concerning whom Pilate said justly, " Behold the Man! " may presumably be in some sort a figure also of mankind. As a figure of Christ, its face was darkened at the Crucifixion, and is once more darkened towards the reprobate: as a figure of man, when all the tribes of the earth go mourning to their death it too puts on mourning. The luminous sun then is an emblem of the Living Christ and of all who live in Him: the lightless sun is an emblem of the Dying Christ, of Christ hiding His face from the incorrigible, and of all who die cut off from Him.

Now the moon is not mentioned in the Gospel narratives of the Crucifixion. Because the sun sets forth Christ, the moon which is that sun's mirror and follower cannot but set forth the Church. And the Church was not (so to say) born so early as the day of Calvary; but by the end of the world she is even mature. Then therefore, though not till then, she appears unextinguished in heaven while the world is departing into darkness; and exhibits her proper glory " as blood," for all her glory accrues to her through the Blood of the Lamb. [I trust such a train of thought is permissible.]

13. And the stars of Heaven fell unto the earth, even as a fig tree casteth her untimely figs, when she is shaken of a mighty wind.

The Son of Sirach observes: " All things are double one against another." This suggests that everything cognizable by the senses may be utilized as symbol or parable.

To such an exercise certain minds seem strongly drawn. Their horizon thereby recedes, depth is deepened, height heightened, width widened. Underlying any measurable depth, overtopping such height, encompassing such width, they apprehend That which nothing underlies, nothing overtops, nothing encompasses. To them matter suggests the imma terial; time eternity. "One day telleth another: and one night certifieth another." Their world expands, and with their

The Tender Master Who adjusts our load, help us, whatever it amount to, to bear it: the Wise Master Who appoints our lot, help us, whatever it involve, to conform to it. And this with a cheerful hope: because it is " not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think anything as of ourselves; but our sufficiency is of God."

"The stars of heaven fell unto the earth." — He Who knoweth the number of the stars and calleth them all by their names, He alone can " loose the bands of Orion." Neither sparrow nor star shall fall to the ground without our Father, and we are of more value than many sparrows.

Meteors and shooting-stars rehearse to successive generations that great and terrible day. Nor can so much as one single unripe fig drop without sounding an alarm in our holy mountain. The fig tree bears last year's fruit and this year's fruit together, the ripe with the unripe: the unripe readily fall away, the ripe abide.

"A mighty wind." — But even the winds hear and obey God's word. He maketh the weight for them, and out of His treasuries He bringeth them: as after the Deluge to assuage the waters; as at the Red Sea to open a passage to Israel; as travelling from the wilderness to sift Job; as across heaven to bring rain when earth languished under Ahab; as rending the mountains to instruct Elijah; as resuscitating the dead before the eyes of Ezekiel; as arresting Jonah to the intent that he might return into the way of righteousness. " There fore will we not fear." Or if still we fear, let us lay hold on that promise: " A Man shall be as an hiding-place from the wind." Yea, Lord Jesus, hide us as Thou hast promised.

"THOU SHALT HEAR A VOICE BEHIND THEE." It was not warning that our fathers lacked,

It is not warning that we lack to-day. The Voice that cried, still cries: " Rise up and act: Watch alway, — watch and pray, — watch alvvay, —

Alas, goodwill is what we lack to-day. O gracious Voice, grant grace that all may act, Watch and act, — watch and pray, — watch alway.

14. And the heaven departed as a scroll when it is rolled together; and every mountain and island were moved out of their places.

Once, years ago in Normandy after a day of flooding rain, I beheld the clouds roll up and depart and the auspicious sky reappear. Once in crossing the Spliigen I beheld that moving of the mists which gives back to sight a vanished world. Those veils of heaven and earth removed, beauty came to light. What will it be to see this same visible heaven itself removed and unimaginable beauty brought to light in glory and terror! auspicious to the elect, by aliens unendurable.

As a scroll rolled up the heavens shall depart. Meanwhile they are spread out above all humankind as an open scroll declaring the Glory of God.

David perused the open scroll to good purpose: " O Lord our Lord, how excellent is Thy Name in all the earth! Who hast set Thy glory above the heavens.... When I consider Thy heavens, the work of Thy fingers, the moon and the stars, which Thou hast ordained; what is man, that Thou art mind ful of him? and the son of man, that Thou visitest him?... O Lord our Lord, how excellent is Thy Name in all the earth! "

Alas, O Lord God, we are not thus with Thee. Yet hast Thou made with us an everlasting covenant ordered in all things and sure in Jesus Christ. He is all our salvation, and even if we apprehend it not He is all our desire: for His sake make Thou us to grow in grace and in the saving knowledge of Thee. Amen.

" Every mountain and island were moved out of their places." — Faith, whose is the promise to remove mountains, will not fear " though the earth be removed, and though the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea; though the waters thereof roar and be troubled, though the mountains shake with the swelling thereof."

Faith will not fear. Hope will look up and lift up the head. If now they abide, then also may they abide: yet neither now nor then except in company with love. Faith surmounts fear. Hope overbalances fear. Love casts out fear.

"Behold, He taketh up the isles as a very little thing." "According to their deeds, accordingly He will repay, fury to His adversaries, recompence to His enemies; to the islands He will repay recompence." Nevertheless " He shall deliver the island of the innocent: and it is delivered by the pureness of thine hands."

England, our beloved England, seems naturally included in one or other of the foregoing texts. Innocence would avail for her protection; but who among her millions dare challenge