Jerusalem." Jesus also speaks of this same people saying, “And he shall send his angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather his elect from the four winds, from the one end of heaven to the other" (Matt. 24:31). This transpires after he comes in the clouds of heaven (which are the saints who come with him), and he sends his angels who are his own brethren, who have been raised to equality with the angels, and so are angels,— to the four winds of heaven with a great sound of a trumpet to gather together his elect, that they may worship the Lord in his holy mount at Jerusalem.

Some of the means which the Lord will employ in that day to gather together the dispersed of Israel who have been scattered in the cloudy and dark day by the evil shepherds of Israel, are spoken of by the Prophet Isaiah in the last chapter of his prophecy, by whose hand the Lord says, “It shall come that I will gather all nations and tongues, and they shall come and see my glory." Now when they have seen the Lord's glory which culminates in the destruction of five-sixths of Gog's vast armies on the mountains of Israel, then the Lord sends the one-sixth part of them which are left to the nations that have not heard of the Lord's fame, nor have seen his glory, and they shall declare his glory among the Gentiles; and as a result of all this, the Gentiles at that time shall bring the outcasts of Israel for an offering to the Lord out of all nations, upon horses and in chariots and in litters (or in coaches), and upon mules, and upon swift beasts to his holy mountain, Jerusalem, saith the Lord, as the children of Israel bring an offering in a clean vessel into the house of the Lord (the Temple).

And the Lord continues concerning these exiles, which have been returned to their own land with so much kindness, saying, " And I will take of them for priests, and for Levites, saith the Lord." That is, he will employ them in the Temple service, as it is said of them in the Revelation, "They shall serve him day and night in his temple" (7:15).

These testimonies show without a doubt who the people are that compose the multitude which no man could number; and while we might multiply many more testimonies on this subject, these will suffice for our present purpose. This multitude, therefore, are not of all nations in the sense of being Gentiles, but as the Lord says to Isaiah, "They shall bring all your brethren for an offering unto the Lord out of all nations, to my holy mountain Jerusalem." 1

And when they come to Jerusalem and are assembled together as a great congregation, and stand there before the throne of the Lord and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes of righteousness with palms of victory in their hands, and when they cry with a loud voice, saying, "Salvation to our God which sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb," then the angels which stand round about the throne, and about the elders and the four beasts, fall down before the throne on their faces and worship God, and respond, saying, "Amen, Blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honour and power be unto our God forever and ever, Amen." The angels, the elders, and the four beasts are all of them immortal. They are all angels

1 The Greek word translated "of " in "of all nations" (Rev. 7:9), means primarily out of " as in the phrases, "Out of Egypt have I called my son," and "called Lazarus out of his grave." So it may properly be translated, as above, a multitude from out of all nations"; that is, Jews brought out from among the nations.

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of God. But the multitude which no man could number are still in the flesh, although clothed in robes of righteousness which they have washed in the blood of the Lamb having believed and obeyed the Gospel in the name of Jesus, and suffered for the truth's sake, as the Lord testifies of them so fully by the hand of the Prophet Ezekiel, and many other prophets.

Any one, therefore, who reads and divides these Scriptures properly will see that the four beasts and four and twenty elders are one class of people, and the great multitude another, as in the case with the one hundred forty and four thousand, of whom it is said, "And they sung as it were a new song before the throne, and before the four beasts, and the elders." The four beasts and the elders therefore are one class of people, and the one hundred forty and four thousand quite another. The one are immortal and in the heavens round about the throne of God, the others are mortal men in the flesh. They are not round about the throne, but they are before the throne, even as Moses said to the congregation of Israel in the land of Moab, saying, "Ye stand this day all of you before the Lord your God, your captains of your tribes, your elders, and your officers, with all the men of Israel, your little ones, your wives, and the stranger that is in your gates, from the hewer of wood to the drawer of thy water."

One of the elders asked John saying, "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 came 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, and serve him day and night in his temple."

This answers to what Isaiah says of them, "I will also take of them for priests and for Levites, saith the Lord, for as the new heavens and the new earth which I will make shall remain before me, so shall your seed and your name remain. 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." Famine shall no more be seen in Israel's land, nor will there be any more oppressing kings who are likened to burning suns in this prophecy, who scorch men with great heat who will not participate with them in their abominations.

"For the Lamb which is in the midst of the throne shall feed them, and shall lead them unto living fountains of waters, and shall wipe away all tears from their eyes." They who live under the reign of Christ in the age to come will want no good thing. They will be free from want and oppression, and will be led by the living fountains of the waters of life, and God will dry their eyes, for the causes of weeping and sorrow will be removed. Therefore thus saith the Lord who redeemed Abraham, concerning the house of Jacob, "Jacob shall not now be ashamed, neither shall his face now wax. pale."

After John was shown these things concerning the sealing of the one hundred forty and four thousand and the return of the multitude which no man could number who had taken refuge among the nations when they fled from the drawn sword and the grievousness of war in their own land, then the opening of the seventh and last seal is announced as follows:

THE SEVENTH SEAL (REV. 8)

And when he had opened the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven about the space of half an hour. And I saw the seven angels which stood before God, and to them were given seven trumpets." The opening of the seven seals furnishes us with an outline of the various forms of judgments that are to be executed upon the rebellious house under the administration of the saints. But it is under the sounding of the seven trumpets of alarm against the defenced cities and against the high towers that these judgments are entered upon and proceeded with, and afterward it is under the pouring out of the seven vials which contain the seven last plagues that the work is finished.

The seven seals, like the seven trumpets, are divided into two parts. The opening of the first four seals manifests four riders who go forth upon horses of different colors, indicative of the different forms of judgment that the riders are to execute in the north and south countries of the land of Israel, and the oracles announced under each seal set forth in words the form of judgment which is indicated by the color of the horses. The first four trumpets indicate chiefly the calamities and evils which will be raised up and inflicted upon the people of Israel from among themselves by civil strife and war, and also between themselves and the fierce kings which God will raise up and place over them to eat the flesh of the fat and to tear their claws in pieces. The remaining three are called "woe trumpets," under which the bottomless pit is opened, and out of the smoke of the pit come forth locusts, the soldiers of the great Assyrian army, who will destroy the sinful nation and lay the pleasant land desolate.

SILENCE IN HEAVEN

Even in the natural world great convulsions in nature, such as earthquakes which rend the mountains and shake the solid ground, are commonly preceded by a great silence and a dead calm which is ominous of what is coming, when the fowls of the mountain and the cattle and wild beasts take alarm, and in consternation hasten away. So also preceding the great day of judgment. before the trumpets sound the alarm of war and desolation against the rebellious house, there is silence in heaven among the redeemed and among the angels of God who are to execute these judgments, and in the earth among the children of men, as Luke says, Men's hearts failing them for fear and for looking after those things which are coming in the earth," and as the Prophet Zephaniah speaks of these things saying, "The great day of the Lord is near, it is near and hasteth greatly, even the voice of the day of the Lord. The mighty man shall cry there bitterly. That day is a day of wrath, a day of trouble and distress, a day of wasteness and desolation, a day of darkness and gloominess, a day of clouds and thick darkness, a day of the trumpet and alarm against the fenced cities and against the high towers. And I will bring distress upon men, and they shall walk like blind men, because they have sinned against the Lord, and their blood shall be poured out as the dust, and their flesh as the dung. Neither their silver nor their gold shall be able to deliver them in the day of the Lord's wrath; but the whole land shall

be devoured by the fire of his jealousy, for he shall make a speedy riddance of all them that dwell in the land" (1: 14-18).

The silence in heaven and in the earth preparatory to the Lord's rising up out of his holy habitation to enter upon the work of judgment is thus spoken of in another Scripture, "Be silent, O all flesh, before the Lord, for he is raised up out of his holy habitation" (Zech. 2: 13); again it is said, "But the Lord is in his holy temple, let all the earth keep silence before him (Hab. 2:20); and in the Psalms it is said, "Thou didst cause judgment to be heard from heaven; the earth feared and was still, when God arose to judgment, to save all the meek of the earth, Selah" (76: 8-9). Again in another Psalm it is written, "Come and behold the works of the Lord, what desolations he hath made in the earth; he maketh wars to cease unto the ends of the earth; he breaketh the bow and cutteth the spear in sunder; he burneth the chariot in the fire. Be still and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the heathen; I will be exalted in the earth" (Ps. 46: 10).

CHRIST, THE GOLDEN ALTAR

Therefore this silence precedes the blasts of the judgment trumpets, and since many of the righteous, as well as the wicked, will be cut off in the consumption determined in the midst of the land, even as the Lord says, "I will cut off from thee the righteous and the wicked" (Ezek. 21:3), and as the righteous are slain by the wicked, calling upon God for deliverance and to be avenged of their enemies, saying, "How long, O Lord, holy and true, dost thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth" (Rev. 6:10), their prayers come up like incense before God. Therefore it is said before the trumpets sound, "And I saw the seven angels which stood before God, and to them were given seven trumpets. And another angel came and stood at the altar having a golden censer, and there was given unto him much incense that he should offer it with the prayers of all saints upon the golden altar which was before the throne, and the smoke of the incense which came with the prayers of the saints ascended up before God out of the angel's hand" (Rev. 8:2-4).

CHRIST A PRIEST AFTER THE ORDER OF MELCHISEDEC

Now before any one can understand aright and correctly interpret these sayings, he must have knowledge of the Melchisedec order of priesthood, and of the patterns of things in the law. Christ is a priest of the order of Melchisedec. He entered upon that priesthood when he was born again from the dead, as it is written of him, "Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten thee "; and again, “Thou art a priest for ever after the order of Melchisedec." (an immortal priest) (Ps. 110:4). This priesthood was ordained and es tablished before the days of Abraham, and its numbers were increased by one when Christ was raised from the dead, and will be further augmented when the body of Christ, the righteous of all ages past, are born from the dead as Christ was, which appears and is clearly taught in the song that the four beasts and four and twenty elders sung when they fell down before the Lamb, having every one of them harps and golden vials full of odors which are the prayers of saints. Therefore it is said they sing 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" (Rev. 5:9-10).

Here the calling and hope and work of those in the resurrection who are redeemed out of every kindred and people and nation, is plainly stated. They are to be employed as kings and priests over mortal men in the earth,— kings and priests of the order of Melchisedec. Kings are appointed to rule over others beneath them. Priests are ordained for the purpose of ministering on behalf of sinners and those who repent and seek pardon from God, through a divinely appointed order of priesthood. Christ is the high priest of the order of Melchisedec. All his brethren will be kings and priests under him, and all the prayers and supplications of those under their supervision they present to the Father through Jesus Christ. He is himself the antitypical golden altar of incense before the throne, the altar upon which the Melchisedec priests offer up the prayers of all saints as a sweet incense before God.

The angel which came and stood at the altar having a golden censer (8:3), is one of Adam's posterity raised to angelic equality, and is therefore an angel and so called. He is a priest of the order of Melchisedec, but he offers much incense which is given to him, with the prayers of all saints, upon the golden altar which was before the throne. That altar is Christ. All prayers reach the Father through him only.

The angels that are engaged in the work of judgment, as they are brought to view in the Book of the Revelation, are angels from among men of our species, and as the angels in former ages were ministering spirits sent forth to minister for those who shall be heirs of salvation, even so in the ages to come will the angels of Adam's race be employed, as Paul in his letter to the Hebrews testifies saying, "For unto the angels hath he not put in subjection the world to come whereof we speak." The world to come is to be placed under the Melchisedec order of priests, consisting of Christ and his brethren. Therefore all persons in times past from the beginning of the world, and during the times of Christ and his apostles, and since,— all who are called to God's kingdom and glory are called to fill the positions of Melchisedec kings and priests in the ages to come under the Lord Jesus Christ, who is Lord of all, and to minister in those ages and generations on behalf of mortal men such as we are at the present time; but before the righteous of past and present times can enter upon that employment, they must be first made perfect by resurrection from the dead as Christ has already been.

Moreover, if these hopes and expectations are not according to the faith and hopes of these times of the various sects and denominations, it is simply because mankind have been deceived by false and ignorant teachers who in the early days of the church corrupted the way of the Lord as the antediluvian sons of God did before the flood, who walked after the vain imaginations of their own evil hearts even as it is now. The world is full of religion, but nearly empty of the true knowledge of God. There are many great revivals in which are developed a high degree of religious feeling, but unfortunately they are attended with a very low degree of scriptural knowledge and true religious intelligence.