/109/ "AND WHEN he had opened the second seal, I heard the second beast say, Come and see. 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."

This singular pronoun, here stands for all who are engaged in this work. A red horse went out when the second seal was opened. We have again to ask the Lord for the meaning of the Vision. He says it is a persecuting spirit, a red one, that is warring against the spirit of peace, to drive it from the earth. And those persons engaged in this bloody work were men; there is no figure about it. And there was given unto those persons that were engaged in moving or urging forward this red, bloody spirit, a great sword. How great? The sword of the Roman Empire-- the then reigning power of the world--was placed in the hands of those that withstood the gospel. It was truly a bloody spirit, a red spirit, a persecuting spirit.

And John just as clearly points out the persecution under pagan Rome, as a historian of the nineteenth century could have done it. When the great sword of the Roman Empire was unsheathed against the gospel, it was symbolized by the red horse, a bloody, persecuting spirit--the rider meaning all those that were on the side of this persecuting spirit, guiding and moving it on.

"The second beast said, Come and see." The second /110/quarter of the world said, Come and see. And now history tells us that this dreadful persecution spread not only over Asia, the first quarter of the world, but along the northern coasts of Africa, and the southern shores of the Mediterranean sea, where churches were thickly scattered, did persecution rage also. That is a historic truth. Not only is our attention called to Asia to see the power of the red horse, but to another division of the world; persecution rages in two quarters of the world, the first and second divisions. The first beast, or first quarter of the world, did not say, Come and see, when the second seal was opened; it had called attention already, and we are looking. The other only joins in with it to call attention to the opening of the second seal. I sometimes illustrate, and say that some years since, there was a call for a regiment of men to go to Mexico to fight the battles of our country; and after 3 while I remember there was a call for another regiment, but they did not send the first one home when the second was sent out,--it was an additional force; and after a while a call was made for a third regiment, but neither the first nor second came home. When the second beast has called attention, the first call does not cease; the second is an additional voice joining in with the first. Now, I think persons can understand my plain, simple illustration. Our attention is called to two quarters of tho world for the fulfillment of this second seal--the red horse, the bloody spirit, the bloody persecution.

"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 he that sat on him had a pair of balances in his hand. 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."

O, what a vision! From beyond the opened heavens, /111/ when the third seal is opened, a black horse comes out, and the third quarter of the world calls attention with the first and second to what is witnessed--to the vision of the black horse. What does this signify? Something in which three quarters of the world are concerned. It is only another quarter joined in with the first and second, to call attention to the fulfillment of the vision of the third seal. The third quarter is Europe. This seal has reference to Asia, Africa and Europe. But it was a black horse this time. I have now in my library a work that says the opinion of some is, that the vision of the black horse signified a time of famine; that there would be a very dry time--the earth would be parched, and but little grain raised; that grain would be very scarce and very high priced, and that the Lord God of heaven was giving in his valedictory to the world--a revelation that there was going to be a great famine! Who can believe it? Does it require a revelation from God to John, in Patmos, to make people know there will be famines occasionally? There have been famines since the days of Abraham. Jesus said, in the twenty-fourth chapter of Matthew: "There shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in divers places." And a new revelation was not needed to make known what Jesus had already said. I think he was mistaken, my brother.

I turned to read another man's views on the subject. He said he thought the vision of the black horse and the opening of the third seal, signified a time of great plenty. The one that thought it meant famine, proved it from the fact that the horse was black. The one that thought it signified a time of great plenty, proved it from the fact that it said, " hurt not the oil and the wine"--the oil and wine meaning the good things of this life, as used in the Psalms of David. They both proved their points pretty well, didn't they? But it would be hard for both of them /112/ to be right. It made me think of the old preacher's discourse when he misquoted this text. He could not read very well, and instead of reading "balances in his hand," he read, "a pair of bellowses in his hand," and preached a whole discourse on it. He got a wrong start, and kept on wrong. However, he did pretty well, for he said the blacksmith with his bellows would blow, and blow, and blow, until a very little spark would kindle up a great flame, and weld two pieces of metal together, and mold them into any shape he liked. He said it was an illustration of the grace of God, for, like a bellows, it would blow, and blow, and blow upon the little spark of love in the sinner's heart, until it would unite him to Christ, and mold him into the image of Jesus! When he was done, one of his auditors said to him, "You made a mistake in the text." "O, surely not !" He requested him to look, and it was "balances," instead of ·'bellowses." The old preacher begged him not to say anything about it, as he declared he had made a much better discourse on the bellows than he could have done on the balances! I thought a little that way about these writers I was speaking of. They started wrong, but made pretty good arguments on both sides, and were precisely opposite to each other.

We will ask the Lord what it means. He says to the prophet we have already named: These four colors are four spirits,--not visions of famine or time of plenty. The black horse was the prevailing spirit that was to follow immediately after the bloody persecuting spirit that is designated in the opening of the second seal. It was a spirit of darkness, a black spirit, and it was to exert an influence on three quarters of the world; for the third quarter joins in with the first and second, and says, Come and see, the spirit of darkness prevailing over the three quarters, or the then settled world. And is it true? Yes; immediately following it commences. In the fourth century /113/ of the Christian dispensation, the spirit of darkness commences; and it has been prevailing for century after century since that time--the dreadful incubus, the crushing nightmare of the long dark age John saw coming. We call it the Dark Ages--the black horse--and it followed the pagan Roman persecution. It is a historic truth. The Bible says, the meaning of the black horse is a spirit of darkness; and we find it historically fulfilled. John did not tell of it after it took place, but before; and it spread over three quarters of the world until it had blotted out the last ray of light--almost. And John tells us how that darkness is brought about. The rider on the black horse, the persons that were influencing or aiding to move on this power of darkness, are here spoken of as one, because they are engaged in the one dark work." I heard a voice say, A measure of wheat for a penny, and three measures of barley for a penny ; "but while you are selling wheat and barley for a penny a measure, do not stint or hurt the oil and the wine;--showing conclusively that, by wheat and barley is meant something more than grain; for the oil and wine mean the good things of this life. What wheat was it they were selling for a penny? The precious wheat that Jesus spoke of, in one of his parables, in the thirteenth chapter of Matthew: "Behold a sower went forth to sow." But what did he sow? Jesus explained the parable and said, the Sower was the Son of man, and the seed was the Word of the kingdom. Have we anything more than that? Yes; in another parable Jesus said the good sower sowed wheat in his field. The Word of the kingdom is called wheat. It was not the children of the kingdom, the people, that Jesus sowed. Did Jesus sow the people down? It was the Word of the kingdom that made them the children of the kingdom; and it was as true as that John's vision was from God, that this did take place. This commenced soon after the Nicene Council, /114/ and the preachers commenced making merchandise of the Word of the Lord. They sold a measure, and a very small one too, a little of the Word of the Lord, for a, penny--for so much money--and they said more than that. It is not meet that the common people should have it, or read it, but we will sell them measures of it for money; we will give them so much of the Word of the Lord in small measures for so much money. It is dangerous for them to handle it for themselves; but we will measure it out to them, and let them have, for so much, three times as much of our views or comments, our tripple-hulled barley, for the same amount of money. It is literally true--a historic fact. And thus they made merchandise of the wheat, the good seed--the Word of the kingdom; and in that way they introduced a famine sure enough-- the famine that one of the lesser prophets spoke of: " A famine, not of bread, but of my Word, saith the Lord." They introduced, in this way, the dreadful famine of God's Word--for twelve hundred years. It was a black horse indeed, and it spread its dark powers over Europe and the parts of Africa where the gospel had been preached, and over Asia Minor; and the third beast said: "Look at the miserable iniquity of these men that are making merchandise of the Word of the Lord, and bringing in the powers of darkness!" They are all dead, you think. Do you? A man that would say yet, in the nineteenth century, that he will only preach if he get so much for it, is still a penny merchant--if he could be. Pretty hard. I heard one man say, " I can make a thousand dollars clear money in my store and on my farm,"--he was worth ten or fifteen thousand, and was a preacher too;--if they will give me a thousand dollars I will preach for them; and if they don't they may go to the devil, for me." He was a penny merchant, my brother, if he could have been. And that man was able to preach if he never received one cent for /115/ it; but he would not do it. Now, I think that a man that loves the Lord as be should do, and can preach--that loves poor dying mortals as he ought to, and has means to enable him to support his family and preach, and can preach-- ought to do it for the sake of dying mortals, and saving souls in heaven, and for Christ's sake, if he never gets a cent for it. I do not say that the brethren ought not to give a man something, but he ought to preach anyhow. But I do think, my brethren and sisters' that the poor man that can preach, and has not the means to support his family without help, ought to be helped; and I do think that the church that will let him labor for the support of his family, and have to quit preaching in order to do it, will be--I almost said damned for letting him work with his hands. "That is hard on both sides." Pretty hard, but true. We want no penny merchants; Lord save us from them! John saw that state of things in the opening of the third seal. He said it was the spirit of darkness prevailing in three quarters of the world--by the Bible definition--and it was brought about in the way named, by making merchandise of the good seed, and taking it from the people. One thing I want to name: they can not now do what they did then; they can not take the Bible from us now,--thank the Lord for it,--in this land. We will keep it, and if they do n't want to preach unless we pay them well for it, we will read the Bible for ourselves. I know that we ought to send it to the dark, benighted lands of earth, and preachers with it; we can do that and we will. They can not crush us now as they did at the time when John saw this black horse coming out.

I now call your attention to the opening of the fourth seal:

"And when he had opened the fourth seal," I heard the fourth beast say, Come and see? Now, let me pause a moment. Did I not prove, in one of my lectures, that /116/ America was the fourth beast--the fourth quarter of the world--the flying eagle? What, now, does John see when the fourth seal is opened? I will read it, as we are getting into a tight place. I want to get into all the tight places I can, to prove that God is in the matter. "I looked, and beheld a pale horse; and his name that sat on him was Death." It was a pale spirit, a spirit of anguish, a spirit of dismay, a spirit of terror, a spirit of death. John says, "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."--These powers that are guiding the pale horse and urging him forward--the spirit of death prevailing; and here John describes one scene that transpired in the dark ages, after fully noticing the seals in order as successively opened; gives a view of the dreadful Inquisition of the dark ages; says they killed Christians with the sword, they killed them with hunger, they starved them to death in the dark ages--the twelfth, thirteenth, and fourteenth centuries. They killed them with death--put them on the rack, and to the torture, until every joint was dislocated; put them on the griddles and fried them with slow fires until they died; tortured them in every way that human malice, wickedness or human hate could invent; threw them to the wild beasts; exulted and shouted and clapped their hands for joy while they were being torn to pieces. Did you ever read Fox's Book of Martyrs? John describes just what Fox has written in his history of the Martyrs: they killed them with the sword; they killed them with death in all its horrid forms. Here is one of the tight places we are getting into. Was this a settled country in the days of the Inquisition? Was there a fourth beast to say, (dome and see? It is historical, isn't it, my brother? Was this land known to the world in tile days of the Inquisition--in the twelfth, thirteenth, /117/ and fourteenth centuries? ["Not to the enlightened part of it."] How could the fourth beast say, Come and see, when there was no fourth beast or quarter? Ah! that is a hard one, and it would have been an insurmountable one if it had been in the Book; but it is not in the Book. The Lord God of heaven and Jesus, knew as well there would be no fourth quarter of the world known at the time he was speaking of as we know it now.

It is not said that the fourth beast said, Come and see. When the first seal was opened, the first beast said, Come and see; for Asia was a settled country at that time. When the second seal was opened, the second beast said, Come and see; for Africa was a settled country at that time. When the third seal was opened and the dark ages ushered in, the third beast said, Come and see; for Europe was a settled country then. But when the fourth seal was opened, John did not say the fourth beast said, Come and see. He said: "I heard the voice of the fourth beast," or the language of this country, which shows conclusively that he meant to convey the idea that the fourth beast was not yet in existence in the days of the Inquisition. It is so in every version, and in the original--the voice of the fourth beast. How did he hear the voice of the fourth beast? He heard the voice of the suffering martyrs, that said, men ought not to be put to death for reading the Bible; men that were being slain for the Word of God said, It is wrong to persecute men for conscience sake. Every martyr dying in the Inquisition, said men ought to be allowed to read the scriptures for themselves, and to worship God according to his Word. Is that the voice of this nation? Praise the Lord! it is the foundation upon which it rests. Long before this country was known to civilized man, the language of this nation was heard ringing from the lips of the dying martyrs in the days of the Inquisition. That is the language of our /118/ country. Men ought not to be persecuted for reading the Bible and worshiping God according to his Word. And it was heard long before it was a nation. The same language that we speak, religiously, was heard from the martyrs in the days of the Inquisition; and I have sometimes said, that if I had no other evidence that John was inspired by the Spirit of God to write, this would be enough to satisfy me. Why did he not say the fourth beast said, Come and see? Because God knew this land would not be known; but he said he heard the language of the nation; and sure enough, when the nation is born, it speaks the very language the martyrs uttered then.

"And when he had opened the fifth seal"--I heard the fifth beast? No! there are no more persons to call. And here is another positive proof that the four beasts are the whole human family. "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;"--persons just spoken of in the other seal. And they were nothing but wind? No, sir; he did not say so; but I heard a foolish preacher say it,--at least I thought he was foolish. "I saw the souls of them that were slain for the Word of God, and for the testimony which they held." And they were electricity? No, sir; not that. I heard one man say that all the soul or spirit a human being had, was the air he breathed; but I thank my Father in heaven that Jesus has given us a revelation that is comforting on that subject. He here presents, in the opening of the fifth seal, the souls of them that laid down their lives for "the Word of God, and the testimony which they held." And when the fifth seal is opened, John declares he saw the souls under the altar. And the~sr were unconscious? No; he did not say that. He said they cried with a loud voice. And it was the wind? No; I do not think so. There was articulation /119/ --something understood,--they were saying, "How long, O, Lord, holy and true, cost thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth?" Showing that it was after death and before the resurrection, that they were conscious--between death and the resurrection. One preacher said it was the voice of Abel's blood, crying to God; and he had no idea that Abel's blood could talk. Well, but Abel's soul was alive too-- likely; I have not a doubt of it. But, then, there is a difference between this case and that of Abel's blood,--it is plainer, stronger, and more positive. There is a consciousness between death and the resurrection; they asked the Lord how long it would be until he avenged their blood on them that dwelt on the earth. It was before the resurrection, for men were still dwelling on the earth. "And white robes were given to them"--to those souls. To say that white robes were given to the wind, or to electricity, would not make right good nonsense, would it? "And it was said unto them, that they should rest yet for a little season." They could talk; they knew there was a God; they addressed him, and he spoke unto them, and said, "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." You have been killed for the witness of Jesus, for the Word of God; rest now, the Lord says, with your white robes on, your righteousness with you. Remain quiet now a little while, until the last martyr dies for my name; and then the Lord's fury will be poured out on the ungodly.

What else could have been done, after he told us that Christians died in the dark ages for the witness of Jesus, but to tell their condition--that they were still conscious. It is so reasonable that it should be named just here, that the man that reads it can not help seeing the propriety of putting it in. Brother, if you die fighting for /120/ Jesus, you will not be unconscious; you will know the work you have done, unless Jesus has deceived you; and you don't think the Lord has deceived us, do you, my brother, my sister?

"And I beheld when he had opened the sixth seal, and, lo, there u as a great earthquake; and the sun became black as sackcloth of hair, and the moon became as blood; 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; and the heavens departed as a scroll when it is rolled together; and every mountain and island were moved out of their places: And the kings of the earth, and the great men, and the rich men, and the chief captains, and the mighty men, and every bondman, and every freeman, hid themselves in the dens and in the rocks of the mountains; And said to the mountains and rocks, Fall on us, and hide us from the face of him that sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb: For the great day of his wrath is come; and who shall be able to stand?"

When the sixth seal was opened, John felt the solid earth tremble; he saw the sun, the king of day, clothed in darkness, and made black as sackcloth of hair, and the moon suddenly seemed to be converted to a great ball of blood. The stars came tumbling down to earth, like figs would fall from a fig-tree when shaken by a mighty wind. The sky passed away and disappeared, and every mountain and island was moved out of its place; and the kings of the earth, the gr eat men, the rich men, and the chief captains, are frightened, and all men hide themselves in the dens and rocks of mountains, and call for something to secure them from the face of him that sits on the throne, that declares the day of his wrath has come. What does it all signify? Has the end of the world come? O, no, we have not done with the sixth seal yet, and we know it /121/ has no reference to the judgment day or the end of the world, from the feet that he tells of a great many more things, in this same sixth seal, that are to take place after this, and that could not take place after the end of the world. I know we sometimes exhort, and pour this out into the sinner's ear, and tell him that when the Lord comes and the world ends, he will call for rocks and mountains to fall on him; but he will not do it, my brethren and sisters; there is no hiding when the Lord comes. We will stand before his great white throne, and before his eyes, which are like a dame of fire. In this vision, John said they hid themselves in the dens and rocks of the mountains. They will not do that when the world ends; there will be no rocks and mountains to hide in. The sun never has turned black, and never will while time lasts, literally. The moon sometimes looks red, I know; but it will never turn to blood, literally. The stars of heaven never did and never will fall to the earth, literally. We must understand it figuratively, then. The sky never will part asunder, and the heavens pass away, literally. I know that one writer said, some time since, that he thought the meteoric shower of 1833 was what John alluded to here. I recollect very well, about two o'clock in the morning, an old Revolutionary soldier, in front of my door, was crying at the top of his voice, "Wake up, neighbors, wake up; the Lord is coming, the stars of heaven are falling!" I got up and looked out; and it looked as if every star might be tumbling down to the earth. It was the grandest sight I ever saw; and stubborn sinners that never had been on their knees before, were, some of them, on their knees in the street praying. I knew it was not the fulfillment of John's Vision: the moon did not look like blood, and the sun rose as beautiful and bright the next morning as I ever saw it in my life. It was not black, the earth did not shake, no mountain moved and the next night every star /122/ was in its place, and had been all the night before. Some few careless souls were praying, I know; but some were merry and cheerful as ever, some were timid, and some were not. For my own part, I always pray, and did not feel in any more danger then than to-night. "I saw "-- stars literally falling? That was not it,--it is foolish to think so. Stars can not fall to this earth. What are the facts? In the opening of the fifth seal, John advances not one step in the history; he only tells the state of the dead, and takes up history where he left off in the fourth. The dreadful shock in the days of the Crusade, and in the days of Ghengiskan, when the earthly powers were shaken to their centers, when the world of mankind were drenched in human gore, when nearly twenty million people perished in a few short years, was the earthquake he felt; and they had succeeded in putting out the Sun of Righteousness--the Church's Sun. The Bible was made in the thirteenth century, and in part of the fourteenth, as black as sackcloth of hair. It was chained down; and that light that was to give light to the Lord's people is blotted out indeed in a dead language that no man--no common person--can read. It is taken from the people, and the earth (the moon) is drenched in blood; and down come tho bright men of the religious world, tumbling down to earthly politics. They are the stars; the stars of heaven are these stars that Jesus said were the messengers of the churches, or the conspicuous men in the churches. And while they have made the sun of the religious heavens black--blotted out the Bible light--and drenched the world in blood, the illustrious men that filled conspicuous places in the Church of Christ, tumbled down to earthly things; and the shock goes on. The whirlwind comes out of the north, and, still raging, it goes on increasing more and more. In the days of Luther, the Word of the Lord begins to shake the nations terribly; and it will shake on, and keep shaking, /123/ until every kingdom and empire is moved out of its place. These mountains and islands mean governments of earth. I will prove that after a while And the very next sentence proves it. John said, the kings of the earth were frightened, their kingdoms were tottering, governments were shaking and moving. Are they not shifting and changing now? and have they not been for a few centuries past? Has not the Word of the Lord been shaking terribly the nations since it has been shining too brightly for earthly kings, earthly monarchs? And their greedy grasp after earthly power has caused them to form alliances for the protection of their earthly governments. Not long since, Turkey formed an alliance with France and England for protection against the Russian government. The kings of the earth are affrighted now, and hiding from the face of the Son of the living God, or trying to hide. The next sentence proves I am right in what I said of this terrible convulsion of the nations. When the sixth seal is opened, it includes a long period of a great many centuries. It reaches from the tumbling down of the conspicuous men of the Church, in the days of the Crusades, down to our time; and the shaking is still going on until every kingdom and government is moved out of its place; it goes on a little further. In the darkest dark of the dark ages, the Church itself was rolled up out of the way, and was invisible to man. I say the real Church of Christ was folded up. I will prove it.

And after these thing--after the end of the world? No; after all this shaking, and hiding, and star-falling, and sun-darkening, after all these, "I saw four angels standing on the four corners of the earth, holding the four winds of the earth, that the winds should not blow on the earth. nor on the sea, nor on any tree. And I saw another angel ascending from the east, having the seal of the living God: and he cried with a loud voice to the four angels, to whom /124/ it was given to hurt the earth and the sea, saying, Hurt not the earth, neither the sea, nor the trees;" that is, do not destroy the nations yet--they are shaking and tottering now; but do not destroy the powers or kingdoms of earth "till we have sealed the servants of our God in their foreheads."

This seal. Do you know what it is? It is the blessed Bible. Says one, "I think it is the Holy Spirit." So it is; but the impression is made by the Bible. Paul says, in the first chapter of his second letter to the Corinthians, "You are sealed with the Holy Spirit." And in the first chapter of his letter to the Ephesians--"In whom ye also trusted, after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation: in whom also, after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that Holy Spirit of promise." We use, by a figure of speech, that which makes the impression for the impression itself; as we sometimes say, the county seal is in the clerk's office; but it is that which makes the impression called the seal. That which makes the impression is called the seal in this case. John looks in the midst of this mighty shock of nations, and sees an angel coming with the Bible; in the midst of all this shaking, along comes the Word of the living God, and the voice says, "Do not destroy the nations until they have the privilege of hearing and understanding the gospel. Then, if they acknowledge Jesus, all will be well; but if they do not, he will throw them into the wine-press of his wrath and grind them to powder. Wait until they are sealed in their foreheads. until they understand the Word of the Lord. Man's intellect is in his forehead; a man of no forehead has no intellect. It is equivalent to saying what Jesus did in his parable in the thirteenth chapter of Matthew, when he said, they that hear his word, and understand it, receive it into good and honest hearts understandingly, are the ones that bring forth fruit--that are meet for the Master's /125/ use. And it is said, Do not overturn the nations yet, until they have the privilege of hearing and understanding the Word of the Lord; and it is coming to them now. The angel is carrying the Bible now; nations are shaking, trembling, and tottering now; and the Lord spares them until they have the privilege of hearing his Word and understanding it.

That is not all. He said of the Jews, there were twelve thousand sealed of each of the twelve tribes--one hundred and forty-four thousand of the Jews, understanding the scriptures, the Word of the Lord. A definite for an indefinite number--meaning the whole nation of the Jews; for Paul says, in the eleventh chapter of his letter to the Romans, "And so all Israel shall be saved;" and the prophet Isaiah says, in the eleventh chapter, eleventh verse, that in the Christian dispensation the Lord "would set his hand again the second time to recover the remnant of his people, which shall be left, from Assyria, and from Egypt, and from Pathros, and from Cush, and from Elam, and from Shinar, and from Hamath, and from the islands of the sea." And in the sixteenth verse of the same chapter, "There shall be a highway for the remnant of his people, which shall be left, from Assyria; like as it was to Israel in the day that he came up out of the land of Egypt."

Then I add--nationally, of course--they came up as a nation.

"After this I beheld, and lo, a great multitude, which no man could number, of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues, stood before the throne, and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, and palms in their hands." This multitude before the throne is John's sea of glass, of which he spoke in the fourth chapter. He there said, a sea of glass was before the throne; and here states that it is an innumerable multitude before the throne /126/ The part of the family of the Lord who had passed over the Jordan of death, of which Paul speaks in the twelfth chapter of his letter to the Hebrews, when he said the Christians here had come to the general assembly, to the Church of the First-born, to an innumerable company of angels, and to the spirits of just men made perfect;-- showing that the Lord's family is divided into two parts only by the Jordan of death; and that, in fact, it is but one family--part on earth and part in heaven. And this part of the family of the Lord which were before the throne, with their long white robes on (the righteousness of saints) appeared to John in the Vision like a sea of glass, as clear as crystal, as the nations here on earth looked to him in vision like a sea of water; and all the angels stood round about the throne, and the elders and the four beasts, and fell before the throne on their faces and worshiped God, saying, Amen: Blessing, and glory, and wisdom, and thanksgiving, and honor, and power, and might, be unto our God, for ever and ever.

We see that the four beasts and the four and twenty elders spoken of in the fourth chapter, and also in the fifth, said to be saints on earth, are introduced at the close of the sixth seal; showing conclusively that the fourth and fifth chapters have reference to things which are to transpire at the close of the opening of the sixth seal; to that period of time when the Jews shall have received the Word of the Lord, and unite with the Gentile Christians in one family of Christ on earth.

"And one of the elders answered, and said unto me, what are these which are arrayed in white robes? and whence came they? And I said unto him, sir, thou knowest. And he said unto me, These are they which ca ne out of great tribulation, and have washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. Therefore are they before the throne of God (just where John /127/ saw the sea of glass), and serve him day and night in his temple: and he that sitteth on the throne shall dwell among them. They shall hunger no more, neither thirst any more: neither shall the sun light on them, nor any heat. For the Lamb, which is in the midst of the throne, shall feed them, and shall lead them unto living fountains of waters: and God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes." They are not, then, on this earth, in this world, but are free from all its sorrows: where they never thirst, and have no need of the light of the sun; they have all tears wiped from their eyes; they have crossed the Jordan of death, and are dwelling with God, and standing before his throne.