their circumstances and characters, gave occasion for the largest variety of reproof, admonition, and encouragement; and thus, as Christian Churches, were designed to be, in future, the sources of influence in the conversion and sanctification of men. Thus those messages to the seven Churches of Asia, became an appropriate and important part of a book which was to be the last communica tion of the Saviour to the world, previous to his final appearing. In those messages of Christ, believers, and especially Christian Churches, hear what the Spirit would say to them; their constancy is commended, their zeal approved, their heresies are denounced, their backslidings chided, and the utmost variety of illustration is employed in setting forth the future happiness of those who shall be found faithful. On days of fasting and prayer observed by churches, there is no portion of the Bible to which pastors and Christians more naturally turn for spiritual instruction, than to the first chapters of the Apocalypse. We feel irresistibly, that this was so designed. Leviticus, and the Epistle to the Hebrews are not more appropriate to their end, than these chapters were to constitute a part in the last book of the Bible.

After these things, "a door was opened in Heaven." A throne was set there," and one sat on the throne. And he that sat was, to look upon, like a jasper and a sardine stone; and there was a rainbow round about the throne, in sight like unto an emerald." The white-robed elders, the mingled lightnings, thunders, and voices, the lamps burning before the throne, the throne supported by four living things, each the head of a race in the animal king dom, and then the chorus of praise, and the acts of reverent worship by the heavenly hosts, all are intended to heighten and assist our conceptions of Heaven. Yet who will take a single feature of that emblazoned imagery, and venture to give to it a confident interpretation, any further than its meaning obviously strikes the mind? What painter would dare to put that scenery on canvass? Who would not feel offended if he did? The grand effect of the whole is, to fill us with new thoughts of Heaven. It is as though, when this book was written, the weary race of men had come to a place in their earthly pilgrimage, where some far-seeing eye descried the indistinct shapes of the celestial world, not sufficiently defined to gratify curiosity, but such as to excite courage and hope, and to make the children of God, in all future time, look upward with assurance of final victory and reward.

We have never sympathized with that mode of interpreting the Apocalypse, which represents it somewhat as the pot of manna in the ark, whose significancy and interest consisted only in its historical nature, its reference to something past. We believe that every part of the Apocalypse is useful, even at the present day; and was intended to be so, as much as any other part of the Bible. It is not like an aloe which has bloomed, and cannot bloom again, within the life-time of the human race. It is rather like the tree of life, with twelve manner of fruits, and which yields its fruit every month, and the leaves of which are for the healing of the nations. For there is not, at the present day, a political commotion, or revolution, but the Church of God may be seen turning the leaves of that book; and though unable to say what chapter and verse refer to the passing event, yet animated by the triumphal marches and songs of the heavenly armies, and the sight of Christ at their head, receiving new assurance that he whose right it is, will reign, and the dominion be given to his saints.

We should be satisfied to place in the hands of the humble and pious reader of this book, the following guide, which we believe will suffice to make him acquainted with the main design of the Revelation.

1. The messages of Christ to the seven Churches of Asia, are to be regarded as his last instructions to Christian Churches in all ages of the world, and should be read by pastors and Churches accordingly. 2. Much of the remaining part of the book is designed to encourage the people of God, with the assurance that error, and superstition, and oppression, and whatever vexes the Church, will be destroyed; and that the Church will be saved from the hand of her enemies, and be exalted to incomparable excellence and glory in the world to come. 3. There is to be a long period on earth, during which religion is universally to prevail. 4. The final object of the book is to set forth future and everlasting happiness and misery, as the portion of men according to their deeds. Language faints and fails in the effort to depict the scenes of heavenly bliss; it is equally awe-struck in its delineations of future woe. No part of the Word of God gives us more affecting views of future retribution, than the closing chapters of the Apocalypse.

If, in addition to this short and simple analysis, it be required that we give a key to the meaning of the book in detail, for exam

ple, that we point out the meaning of the woman and her manchild, and fix the time of the battle of Armageddon, or of the seventh trumpet, we must plead ignorance. While the whole book is intended to be at some time perfectly understood, we take the ground that the object of the book is not merely to give information, but to make impressions; and those impressions are in some instances, secured better by a degree of obscurity as to the dates, the persons of the drama, and the events referred to in the book.

One thing cannot fail to interest the pious reader, as a providential arrangement, in placing this book at the close of the sacred canon. It is probable that readers generally regard the threatening against those who add to, or take from, "the words which are written in this book," as applicable to the whole volume of Scripture. Though to the mind of some German critic, who looks at the books of the Bible as so many separate productions, this is absurd, the believer in plenary inspiration, and in the providence of God with regard to the canon of Scripture, cannot resist the feeling that the Holy Ghost had a design in placing that caution and threatening at the close of the last book in the Bible, rather than at the close of the Pentateuch, or the Gospels. There is a fair constructive application of those words to the whole volume of Scripture. This remark will be regarded as destitute of critical and literary propriety, by some who reject every thing like double sense in the interpretation of the Scriptures, and who do not feel, as Lord Bacon says, that they have a "germinant meaning." We believe that they have; and while we are as far as any from the fanciful methods of interpretation on the part of the allegorizers, we do believe that the Word of God was intended to apply in every possible circumstance and event of life; and that the words of David in the nineteenth Psalm, are as true of the Bible as of the sun: "There is nothing hid from the heat thereof." We feel at liberty, in reading the last chapter of the Apocalypse, to feel that it was intended to be the peroration of the Word of God; that the last chapter of Revelation was meant to be the last chapter of the Bible.

We commend this wonderful book to the re-perusal of our Christian friends; indeed, to all, of every character and age. Its partial obscurity, and the feeling that in some places it is to them, at present, a sealed book with regard to certain details,

should not deter them from reading it. They will read it, we believe, with more pleasure, if they take it up with the understanding, that they are not required nor expected to solve the vast questions which commentators have raised with regard to it. As we might look from the shore upon a tempest at sea, the surf mountain high, the ships distressed and wrecked, and hear the howl of the blast, and see the heavens, air, and sea commingled in the storm, and yet be ignorant of the name and nation of that ship which we perceive dashing to pieces on the rocks, and of the hour when the storm began, or when it will cease, so would we read parts of the Apocalypse; and our ignorance of the time, the persons, the precise event, signified in any particular chapter, and what nation or power that is, which is represented as driving headlong to destruction, should not detract from the impression of the might, and the avenging justice of God. We do not ask to know when that angel will descend from Heaven, having the key of the bottomless pit, and a great chain in his hand. Nor do we care to ask the meaning of the number of the beast, nor whether the Roman letters which stand for 666, make the word Lateinos, and indicate the seat of the Beast. We are satisfied with knowing that his rise was noted by the all-seeing eye, and that the number of his months is with God. In times past, some of us have read the Apocalypse with Newton, Faber, and others in our minds, and have tried to test the accuracy of their dates, and theories of explanation. We have grown older, and in the mean time, we hope, in this respect at least, a little wiser. We read the Apocalypse now somewhat as we witness a thunder-storm, and look at a rainbow, without making our interest depend wholly on knowing where the lightning struck, how far distant the cloud is, as indicated by the number of seconds between the flash and the peal, or on being able to determine between what capes or hills the rainbow spans the horizon, or with what radius it could be measured. We would read the Apocalypse more as Christians should, more as heirs of heaven; and less as critics, or literary

men.

We were much interested not long since, on reading the last chapter, in noticing one thing which had always before escaped our observation. We refer to it as an illustration of the spiritual power and interest of the book, when read without any system in the mind to be verified or disputed. "In the midst of the street

of it, and on either side of the river, was there the tree of life." In the first place, it appears from these words, that a single isolated tree is not meant, but a species of tree, for the tree was on either side of the river. Secondly, the occurrence of trees in the midst of the streets of Heaven, is the point to which we alluded, and this suggests the most interesting reflections. We are not ignorant that some, commenting on this passage, have laid down the plan of the New Jerusalem with great exactness and angularity. They tell us that the river runs through the midst. of the street; and that the two banks of the river are lined, each with a row of trees. They remind us of Amsterdam. We prefer to think, that these trees are not disposed in such merely convenient position; but that they stand in groves, and are in the midst of the street, not necessarily following the course of the river, like old willows. Trees in the streets of Heaven! Then of course there are no burdens there, to be drawn from place to place. Wings there are for wheels. Instead of labor, and the busy throng of anxious men, shade and repose are in the streets of Heaven; but here streets are for toil, for funerals. Some of our friends, our children, repose in that shade; labor, care, sorrow, with them are passed away; and while this dim Apocalypse is the only window through which we see, darkly, the outlines of heavenly beauty and glory, they have not only the full vision of God, but revelations of future and eternal things which no mortal has ever conceived. To them, in their advancing knowledge, are continually addressed those words of the angel to John: "Come up hither." They are carried away to points of higher and still higher vision, till earth and time, with their riches, and honors, and pleasures, and sorrows, are the merest trifles. If we are on the road which they travelled, soon with them we shall stand on their high places.

Some of the closing words of the Revelation make us feel as we do on listening to a bell in a country village, tolling for evening worship, while the people are seen slowly entering the house of prayer, and every stroke is ready to be the last. We love the calm, solemn sound of these words, which are the last written appeal which God will make to men: "The Spirit and the bride say, Come; and let him that heareth, say, Come; and let him that is athirst come; and whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely.'