In 1845, page 388, we read:

      This very sublime and mysterious portion of the apostolic writings seems to be as necessary to the completion of the Christian revelation as the contents of it are captivating and interesting to every sincere Christian. Had the sacred writings of the New Institution closed with the epistle of Jude, or with that of John to sister Electa, every one, yell read in the Jewish records, must have regarded the Christian Scriptures as incomplete, if not imperfect. The Jewish Scriptures, [207] like the Pentateuch, begin with history and end with prophecy. This is, indeed, the plan of all the different departments of revelation. The merely perceptive, didactic, and exhortatory portions of the Bible, occupy but a small space compared with its history and prophecy. Both volumes of the sacred writings commence and end alike. The historian opens and the prophet closes the divine communications to Jews and Christians. There are, then, some good reasons why the book called the Apocalypse should be placed at the close of the last message which Heaven has vouchsafed to man. We thank kind Heaven that we have both the beginning and the end of the Christian Institution in this volume.

      That this divine communication should be much read and much pondered seems to be so evident from the benediction pronounced in the beginning of it, as to need no argument to enforce it:--"Blessed is he that readeth, and they that hear the words of this prophecy, and keep those things which are written therein." If the blessing had been confined to those only who understand and comprehend it all, then, indeed, it would have been enjoyed by no one from the days of John to the present hour. But the reading and practicing of the things enjoined in this book, so far as they are understood, has always been accompanied with the blessing promised. That it is more or less intelligible to all sincere and attentive students of it, is, moreover, to be presumed both from its exordium and its conclusion, from the injunction to read it, and the consolation promised to those that keep its sayings.

      Notwithstanding a thousand abortive efforts to comprehend it all, and a thousand failures to satisfactorily explain certain passages in this book, there has been derived from it very much light as to the future destiny of Christianity and the world. We may also add that much successful and important effort to bless the world by the Bible, has been both prompted and guided by the indications of the divine purposes and plans, gleaned from the assiduous and devout examination of it. So that, notwithstanding all the discouragements thrown in our way by weak and positive dogmatists, and visionary speculators upon the contents of this book, we are still strongly inclined to the opinion that the Revelation concerning the kingdom of Jesus Christ, presented to us in the visions of John, has paramount claims upon the church to devote to it much calm, prayerful, and unbiased study and examination.

      I am not proposing to add to the general stock of knowledge already possessed on this book by the Christian Church, by any new light that I am now presuming to throw upon the sublime and awful subjects on which it treats. I only purpose to assist the students of Christian prophecy by a few suggestions on the plan and method of the [208] Apocalypse, and by discriminating, as far as we have certain knowledge, the fulfilled from the yet unfulfilled portions of the book. Though in this effort we may not be able to advance one step beyond the van of the most enlightened interpreters, though we could not even greatly assist the present school of apocalyptic students in advancing to the highest class of interpreters; still it might be a service full of reward and honor, could we only induce a great many Christians to enter the school of the prophets, and to learn to understand what the Spirit intimates to us of the awful and glorious destinies of the human race. In the hope of inspiring some of our contemporaries with the desire to understand, and of aiding others who are seeking to comprehend these gracious developments of human destiny, I shall first undertake to examine the plan and method of the Apocalypse.

      The TITLE of the book, in the first place, demands a moment's attention. Romanists and others call it, "The Revelation of Saint John the Divine." But this, like many other names imposed on parts of the holy oracles, as well as on the things contained in them, is as wanting in good sense and good taste as in divine authority. In the short preface prefixed to the Book by the writer of it, it is styled, "A Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave unto him to show unto his servants things which must shortly come to pass." It is, then, a revelation of things future from its date; some of which were immediately to come to pass, while others were as remote as the end of the world. Were we to condense this divine title, found in the text itself, we should call it, "A REVELATION OF FUTURE EVENTS, ADDRESSED TO THE SERVANTS OF GOD, COMMUNICATED BY JESUS CHRIST THROUGH HIS SERVANT JOHN."

      Next to the title comes the preface. John presents all the communications made to him in one letter addressed to the seven Asiatic churches. Hence the Apocalypse is one great epistle; and, indeed, it might well be called THE FOURTH EPISTLE OF JOHN, as any one of the three is called First, Second, or Third. It is one great letter; the first period of which is "John to the seven congregations which are in Asia: Grace to you, and peace from him who is, and who was, and who is to come, and from the seven spirits before his throne--even from Jesus Christ the faithful witness, the first born from the dead, and the Prince of the kings of the earth." And this last period is, "The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen."

      In this grand letter, written by John, are found seven special epistles dictated by Jesus Christ, and addressed to each one of these Asiatic communities. Thus John addresses one letter to all the seven, while in that letter are found seven short epistles severally addressed to each of the communities by Jesus Christ himself. [209]

      The method adopted by John is as simple and rational as could be imagined. In the first chapter he directly addresses the seven churches, giving an account of himself, his location in Patmos, and the cause of it, with the scenes that there transpired on a certain Lord's day. He especially informs them that he was commanded by the Lord to write what he saw and what he heard of the things which were then existing, and of the things which were afterwards coming to pass. In the next two chapters we have a copy of the letters addressed to Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamos, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia, and Laodicea.

      The fourth and fifth chapters state the preparation for the developments of the things then future. Here we have a vision. John was in the spirit when these celestial scenes passed before him. He saw a door opened in heaven, and had an invitation to ascend into the presence of the Lord. Immediately, he adds, I was in the spirit, and, I presume, like Paul, "was caught away into the third heaven," in obedience to the command, "Come up hither, and I will show thee things which must be hereafter:" for it is in reference to this precept that he immediately adds, "I WAS IN THE SPIRIT." The scenes there presented to his view, are, indeed, unearthly and divine; and his description of them is transcendently animating and transporting.

      A celestial throne of high state is erected, and the Father Almighty is seated in it. Earth's brightest and most radiant gems lend their most brilliant rays of beauty and glory to adumbrate the splendors of His Majesty. The jasper and the sardius, with an emerald rainbow, mingling every color that adorns earth or heaven, conspire with all their powers to set forth his peerless eminence. Four and twenty inferior thrones, at proper distance, encircle the awful throne of the Eternal, pouring forth its floods of light and glory upon them all. These, after reflecting upon each other their respective glories, send back again to their unwasting fountain all that beauty and grandeur which they have received from it. On these four and twenty thrones sat the grand peers of heaven in senatorial majesty, adorned in the snow-white raiment of absolute purity, each having his majestic brow encircled with a crown of gold. From the central throne perpetually issued coruscations of the most vivid lightnings, accompanied with mighty thunderings and overwhelming voices. Seven lamps of celestial brilliancy flamed before the throne, symbols of the seven spirits of God, and shed their holy light upon a sea of glass, of more than crystal brightness, spreading its unmeasured waves of glory far beyond the horizon of angelic vision. In the circular interval between the four and twenty senatorial thrones stood at proper intervals corresponding with our cardinal points, four living seraphim, creatures of no earthly resemblance, having each six wings, and covered within and [210] without with eyes of soul-piercing brightness. These four combined the courage of the lion, the patience of the ox, the sagacity of man, and the towering fleetness and lofty genius of the eagle. These were all engaged in a rapture of worship at the moment John in spirit drew near. The seraphim sang, "Holy, holy, holy Lord God Almighty, who wast, and art, and who art yet to come!" The four and twenty elders fall prostrate before the throne, and cast their crowns at his feet, exclaiming, "Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory, and honor, and power: for thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created." Such are the solemn and sublime preparations antecedent to the opening of the Christian Church and its mighty fortunes.

      The fifth chapter opens with a view of the eternal God, holding in his right hand a roll of parchment, written on both sides, seven times encompassing a roller, and sealed as often with a seal on one of its ends. A mighty angel, herald of that day, standing before him, challenges the whole created universe to present some one capable of breaking the seven seals and reading the seven rolls of that most mysterious parchment inscribed with the entire annals of the Christian Church and the human race. But no man in heaven, nor in earth, neither under the earth, "was able to break the seal," unrol the parchment, and read its awful lines replete with the fortunes of the world. So enrapt was John and so eager to know, that, on hearing no one speak, and on seeing no one advance of all created intellects, celestial, terrestrial, or infernal, he burst into a flood of tears. But while in this mournful agony, a celestial senator stooping from his throne, said, "WEEP NOT; Behold the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has prevailed" to open the rolls of time and read its wondrous developments. Then appeared the Lamb, bearing the scars of death upon his person, yet living and having seven horns and seven eyes--perfect power and perfect knowledge of all things, past, and to come. Majestically advancing towards the central throne of the universe, he stretches forth his hand and receives the mystic volume. No sooner is he seen turning round to open the first seal, than all the celestial ranks and orders--angels, principalities, and powers--prostrate themselves before the Lamb: "And they sang a new song, saying, 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 out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation; and hast made us unto our God kings and priests: and we shall reign on the earth. And I beheld, and I heard the voice of many angels round about the throne, and the living creatures, and the elders; and the number of them was ten thousand times ten thousand, and thousands of thousands; saying with a loud voice, Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power, and riches, and [211] wisdom, and strength, and honor, and glory, and blessing. And every creature which is in heaven, and on the earth, and such as are in the sea, and all that are in them, heard I saying, Blessing, and honor, and glory, and power, be unto him that sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb for ever and ever. And the four living creatures said, So LET IT BE. And the four and twenty elders fell down and worshipped him that liveth for ever and ever."

      Thus have we seen (thanks to the Father Almighty!) the volumes of providence and of moral government, replete with the church's destiny, committed to Jesus Christ. This verifies the title of the book--"A Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave to him to show unto his servants things which must shortly come to pass." The Lord has the rolls of time in his hand; for he alone could open them. His is the power and the intelligence, and he alone can reveal the future. "All the treasures of wisdom and knowledge are in him." To his throne of Grace and to his Apocalypse, let us look for all we desire to know, that we ought to know, of the things that are, and of the things which are yet to come to pass.

      We shall now read and examine the sixth chapter, having for the present disposed of the first five. In this no less than six seals are opened. The Lamb stands between the four seraphim and the throne of God. He is above them all. He takes into his right hand the roll. He holds it up before the universe. Then breaks the first seal, and unrolls one fold of the curious volume. At that instant stands forth one of the seraphim, and with a loud voice summonses the attention of the universe to the mysterious inscription, saying, "Come and see." What is it? A milk-white horse, whose puissant rider is the Messiah himself, goes forth with his faithful followers to subdue the nations with the sceptre of his grace, or the rod of his anger. He has one crown upon his head, a bow in his hand, and a quiver full of arrows by his side, and his course is onward, "conquering and to conquer." That we have not mistaken the first seal, we shall now prove by a development that comes out of the last, or seventh seal, when the eventful campaign is coming to a close. It is found in chap. xix., verses 11-16, "And I saw heaven opened, and behold a white horse; and he that sat upon him was called Faithful and True, and in righteousness he doth judge and make war. His eyes were as a flame of fire, and on his head were many crowns: and he had a name written that no man knew, but he himself. And he was clothed with a vesture dipped in blood: and his name is called The Word of God. And the armies which were in heaven followed him upon white horses, clothed in fine linen, white and clean. And out of his mouth goeth a sharp sword, that with it he should smite the nations: and he shall rule them with a rod of iron: and he treadeth the wine-press of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty [212] God. And he hath on his vesture and on his thigh a name written, KING OF KINGS, AND LORD OF LORDS."

      He is in the field from the first to the end of the seventh seal. If he does not appear in them all, he is at work in them all, fighting by the sharp two-edged sword with which he smites the nations, against those who will not have him to rule over them, and still extending the victories of his love. All the symbols of this passage show that the Messiah is the person who mounted the white horse, having then but one crown, now returning covered with the blood of his enemies, and wearing the trophies of a thousand battles. Well did Isaiah say of, him, chap. lxiii. 1-6, "Who is this that cometh from Edom, with dyed garments from Bozrah? this that is glorious in his apparel, traveling in the greatness of his strength? I that speak in righteousness mighty to save. Wherefore art thou red in thine apparel, and thy garments like him that treadeth in the winefat? I have trodden the wine-press alone; and of the people there was none with me: for I will tread them in mine anger, and trample them in my fury, and their blood shall be sprinkled upon my garments, and I will stain all my raiment. For the day of vengeance is in my heart, and the year of my redeemed is come. And I looked, and there was none to help; and I wondered that there was none to uphold: therefore mine own Am brought salvation unto me; and my fury, it upheld me. And I will tread down the people in mine anger, and make them drunk in my fury, and I will bring down their strength to the earth."

      The first act of the first seal and the last act of the seventh seal are most unquestionably applicable to the Messiah, and to him only; and indicate, very clearly, what is intended in the Apocalypse, and therefore impart great assurance to those who view the treatise as indicative of the conflicts between King Jesus and Tiberias Cesar in some one of his Pagan or Papal successors, and of the various mutations and fortunes of a two thousand years' war between Christ and Belial--between his kingdom and the world.

      I need not go into a prosing detail of the particular calamities to which the Christian Church was subjected down to the time Constantine, set forth under the figures of the three next seals. I need not give the history of the red or war-horse of the Cesars. They soon drew the sword. They called for the blood of Christians. That oracle of the Messiah was fully verified in them. They unsheathed the sword, and they perished with the sword. Our Captain commences his pacific and conciliatory career mounted on a milk-white steed. The Cesars mounted first the red horse of war; then the black horse of famine; and finally the pale horse of death. The ten, more or less, Pagan persecutions of the Christians, are most clearly and strikingly set forth under these appropriate and intelligible symbols. Any one who makes [213] himself well acquainted with the history of the first centuries of Christianity, and carefully reads Gibbon's "Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire," will feel the most satisfactory evidence that the Pagan persecutions are here set forth with an especial reference to the sufferings of the Christians and of the world under that idolatrous and wicked government. Each of the four seraphim attends in succession on the opening of the four seals, three of which develop the general character of the cruelties of the opposition.

      The fifth seal represents the souls of slaughtered myriads of Christians as congregated under the celestial altar, invoking vengeance on their enemies, and imploring mercy upon the earth, with the answers given them from their Chief.

      The sixth seal presents great commotions in the Roman heavens and earth. The sun of the Cesars is covered with sackcloth, and their moon is baptized in blood. Their stars fall from their firmament, and the earth reels to and fro like a drunken man. Their political heavens are rolled up like a scroll, and the mountains and islands are moved out of their places. The whole population is in terror and alarm. The government is changed. Swarms of Barbarians for a series of years spread ruin and desolation over all their realms. Kings and princes, the rich and the noble, with the poor and the ignoble, the bond and the free, are overwhelmed in trouble and dismay--the consequences of their former tyranny and their hostility to the name of the Messiah. Pagan Rome is in name, in form, and profession, no more. Christianity, in name at least, triumphs over avowed Paganism, and thenceforth the character and position of the parties lately engaged in hostile array are changed.

      The seventh chapter continues the developments of the sixth seal. The four angels, ministers that command the forces of earth, that are ultimately to sweep from the earth with the besom of destruction those that oppressed the Christians, are for some time to hold the tempests of wrath in their hands till the saints are all sealed, that they may escape the impending evils about to overwhelm the world. Of the twelve tribes (a definite number put for an indefinite), some one hundred and forty-four thousand are sealed for deliverance. An innumerable host of saints of all nations are now seen standing before the throne, uniting with all the celestial hosts in an ecstacy of admiration and worship--giving glory to God for their salvation and deliverance from their enemies, and for the triumphs of justice and truth over unrighteousness and falsehood.

      The six seals, then, cover the whole period of the church's trials under the tyranny of those spirits and principles that first opposed the Messiah and his Apostles. Still there are yet in store for the Roman Empire innumerable woes to be developed under the seventh [214] seal. That power yet exists in new forms and combinations, waiting for a day of complete and perpetual desolation.

[A. C.]      

      The period of the six seals numbers the days of Pagan Rome so far as she opposed the rising empire of the King Messiah. The church, and not the Roman Empire, is the special object of the calamities inflicted during the first three centuries of the Christian era. The seventh seal is comprehensive of all the fortunes of the world and the church to the end of the awful career of Papal Rome. It reaches to the second coming of the Messiah. Indeed, it embraces the sequel of human history under the remedial system. The developments of the seventh seal constitute the main burthen of the revelation of Jesus Christ. It grasps the annals of almost seventeen centuries, and therefore it includes the fortunes of the Roman Empire from the days of Constantine till the fall of Babylon, or the utter ruin of Papal Rome.

      The dismemberment of that empire because of its assaults upon the Christian church, and the calamities consequent thereupon, occupy six of the seven "trumpets." The gradual fall of the empire by the terrific irruptions of the Goths, the Vandals, the Huns, and the Lombards, during a period of something less than one hundred and fifty years, and extending to the overthrow of the last of the emperors by Odoacer, A. D. 476, engross the first four trumpets. There are not wanting some of the most learned and gifted interpreters of prophecy, most conversant, too, with both political and ecclesiastic history, who assign the first trumpet to Alaric the Goth, A. D. 400; the second to Genseric the Vandal, the maritime depredator, A. D. 420; the third to Atila the Hun, that fiercest scourge of Heaven on Pagan Rome, A. D. 450; the fourth to Odoacer the king of the Heruli, A. D. 476. Still no prudent and learned expositor of the symbols would confine these trumpets exclusively to the doings of any four individual depredators. Hordes after hordes of these northern thunderbolts of war made irruptions upon the ill-fated empire of Rome, and wave after wave of indignation passed over it, until the empire was overwhelmed with floods of Goths and Vandals, of Huns and Lombards, that left behind them a fearful desolation.

      After these accumulated woes, those of the Saracens and Turks ensued, and with a mighty sweep of wrath reached from A. D. 612 to the overthrow of Constantinople, A. D. 1453, which entirely destroyed the eastern section of the Roman Empire. Some of our contemporaries assign to the Saracen invasion a period of one hundred and fifty years, from 612 to 762, and give the prophecy of the hour, the day, the month, and the year--a period of three hundred and seventy-six years and one hundred and six days, to the Turks--from the ascendency of Togrul Beg, head of the Mahometan realm, to the fall [215] of the city of Constantine, A. D. 1453. Although I gave substantially these views of the Apocalypse in a course of lectures delivered to the church in Wellsburg, some twenty years ago, and have since that time seen them several times advanced by very eminent expositors, both in Europe and America, I should not lay much stress upon the exact assignment of particular persons to particular events, or of particular events to particular persons. Nor is the evidence of the special details of each seal or of each trumpet so satisfactorily clear and demonstrative as to leave no shadow of doubt of the exact harmony of the symbol or prophecy and the event. We therefore prefer to assign to a period--a well-marked and definite period, all that belongs to the seals, the trumpets, the vials, etc., rather than to find for each seal and for each trumpet a precise accomplishment in well ascertained historic facts and documents.

      When, however, we remember that the blast of a trumpet was the well known and clearly established symbol of the proclamation of war, and of victory in war, we can not doubt that while the seven seals include all the secrets in the book, and that six of the seven indicate the fortunes of the church under Pagan Rome, and the calamities accruing in consequence to the empire--the trumpets intimate the progressive destruction of the Pagan form of imperial Rome to make way for the rise and development of the Man of Sin, whose full growth was hindered while yet Pagan idolatry was the religion of the empire.

      A sort of interlude in this splendid poem or picturesque representation of the mysterious future occupies the seventh chapter. The eighth opens to us a new scene. Portentous of the sublime and awful developments of the seventh seal, there was a profound silence in heaven for half an hour. Divine worship was performed at the golden altar of incense, when an angel cast down upon the earth a censer full of flaming incense, which was followed by voices, thunderings, lightnings, and an earthquake. Then commence the seven blasts of the trumpet-bearing angels.

      These seven angels belong to the seventh seal, but by no means exhaust its developments. Six of the seven depict the crash of Pagan Rome, as before intimated--interrupted, however, by other scenes afterwards developed by special symbols. While, then, the first six seals display the sufferings of the church under the Roman persecutors, the first six trumpets represent the sufferings of these Roman enemies of the church, by the desolating hordes of the North, who distributed the empire among themselves in the form of ten kingdoms--fragments of the Roman Empire.

      The seventh angel, like the seventh seal, is the most comprehensive of them all. During the awful blasts of his indignation seven vials [216] full of wrath are poured out upon a monster that sprung up out of the wreck of Pagan Rome, an amalgamation of Judaism, Paganism, and Christianity. This new monster--this anomalous compound of idolatry, law, and gospel, reduced to a system, though the most conflicting and jarring elements, has been most singularly compacted, maintained, and controlled by one mystic person called the BEAST--the Pope, or universal sire of a multitudinous brood--a mongrel progeny, neither Jews nor Christians, neither Pagans nor Turks; but a combination of all creeds, traditions, opinions, and rites, more characteristically called "PAPISTS" than anything else.

      The Papal institution of Catholic errors has spread clouds of darkness and error over the whole face of Christendom, and has left unscathed no farm of religion to which the cognomen Christian has been affixed. So that Protestantism itself, in its most prominent and by law established branches, is, in fact, but reformed Popery, though avowing principles which, if carried out, would revolutionize and convert the world. This monster of iniquity occupies considerable space in the Apocalypse. His rise, progress, and ruin, are the subjects of several special symbols. Indeed, his mystic Holiness is himself with his worshippers, a main actor in the drama, and a main subject of prophecy.

      The seventh angel, however, announces the catastrophe, and intimates the subordination of all the nations of the girth to the sceptre of the Messiah. This is done in the eleventh chapter of the Apocalypse, after sundry episodes have been introduced, and after several subordinate symbols have been developed; amongst which are the THREE WOES, the SEVEN THUNDERS, the LITTLE BOOK, and the TWO WITNESSES. But the full import of this trumpet reaches to the end of the volume. The prophet arranges his communications under the three leading classes of seven seals, seven trumpets and seven vials; often, however, interrupted with matters somewhat foreign, yet still connected with these leading visions. A very characteristic feature lot the plan of the Apocalypse is its assortment of events more with regard to the class of symbols employed than to the chronological order of the events themselves. For example, seven seals contain all the revelation given to the church. Six of these are opened in immediate sequence, and the remainder of the book belongs to the seventh. Under the seventh seal first come the seven trumpets. Six of these sound in rapid succession, and occupy, with some episodes, only a part of three short chapters. Under the seventh trumpet "the mystery of God is finished;" or to quote the whole sentence, "And the angel which I saw stand upon the sea and upon the earth, lifted up his hand to heaven, and sware by Him that liveth for ever and ever, who created heaven and the things therein, the earth and the things [217] therein, the sea and the things therein, that there should be time no longer"--or, should be no longer delay;--"but in the days of the voice of the seventh angel, when he shall begin to sound the mystery of God should be finished as he has declared to his servants the prophets" (x. 5-7). While the sixth angel was sounding another angel came down from heaven, of surpassing glory, standing both on the sea and on the earth, and cried with a tremendous voice; at the close of which seven mysterious thunders uttered their voices. This is that angel who sware that while the seventh angel sounded, the secrets of divine government and providence concerning the, church should be fully developed.

      The remaining future of the church's destiny is therefore all hid in the seventh trumpet. Under the seventh trumpet stand forth seven other angels, having each a golden vial filled with indignation, about to be poured upon the apostate church. These seven vials extend to the fall of Babylon. After which but one other angel appears in the drama of the church's destiny. He has the key of the bottomless pit in one hand, and a mighty chain in the other. He seizes the dragon, that old serpent, the devil and Satan, and binds him a thousand years, and seals him up in that bottomless gulf. Then comes the first resurrection and the triumph of the saints. What follows are but details of the church's history and glory--the last conflict of Satan, and the final judgment.

      The seventh seal, the seventh trumpet, the seventh vial, in their respective classes, are those of superlative interest to the church. The seventh seal contains seven trumpets and seven vials, with all that is subsequent to the desolations of the mystery of iniquity and the first resurrection.

      Various digressions or episodes occur in these developments. These give special views of peculiar mystic personages and events necessary to a clear intelligence of what is detailed under the three great classes of seals, trumpets, and vials. Of these special mystic personages we may hereafter speak.

A. C.      

Sources:

1. Alexander Campbell. "The Plan and Method of the Apocalypse." The Millennial Harbinger 16 (September 1845): 388-395.

2. ----------. "The Plan and Method of the Apocalypse.--No. II." The Millennial Harbinger 16 (October 1845): 467-471.

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