ing against this soul-destroying apostacy, which is given in Rev. xiv. 9-12, and which words have a direct reference to the time of persecution which is immediately coming upon us.

The mystery of God, however, in all these at present dark dispensations, will, it is declared, now be "finished," and the whole scheme of salvation, with the reasons of all the events which at present appear to us so inscrutable, be disclosed. The mystery will be finished! And it deserves attention, that it is called "the mystery OF GOD:" and of this I am persuaded, that the more it is unfolded to us, the more we shall see of its deep contrivance, its exact application, and its high design,—the more we shall see of the glorious character of God, of the equity of His government, as well as the sovereignty of his grace: in short the more we see of it—and I imagine the contemplation of it, in connection with the history of redemption, will engage our attention through all eternity-the more we shall see that "Wisdom through all the mystery shines,

And shines in Jesus' face;"

and that it is in all its length, and breadth, and depth, most emphatically THE MYSTERY OF GOD.

"And the voice which I heard from heaven spake unto me again, and said, Go, take the little book which is open in the hand of the angel which standeth upon the sea and upon the earth. And I went unto the angel, and said unto him, Give me the little book. And he said unto me, Take it, and eat it up; and it shall make thy belly bitter, but it shall be in thy mouth sweet as honey. And I took the little book out of the hand of the angel, and ate it up. And it was in my mouth sweet as

honey; and as soon as I had eaten it, my belly was bitter. And he said unto me, Thou must prophesy again before many peoples, and nations, and tongues, and kings." (ch. x. 8-11.)

The first remark I would make on these words is, that the voice which John heard, instructing him respecting the little book which was open, was directly from Heaven, and not through the medium of either one of the living creatures, one of the elders, or of an angel. It shews the importance of the communication. A voice from Heaven first commanded him (ver. 4) not to write what the seven thunders uttered: it now commands him to take the little opened book from the hands of Christ, and eat it up—that is, to digest well its contents. It appears to signify that the business of it was only to be taken in hand by Him whose kingdom it concerned, and of which it was the immediate prelude. And in this view the change of the character in which he appears is very significant. On opening each of the seven seals, it was in that of a Saviour; of our atoning sacrifice; as that of a Lamb that had been slain, because the events to be typified concerned Him as such. But now that the dispensation closes, and He is about to be known to His church in a different character, not as their priest, but their king, he appears clothed in a style suitable to the action to be performed, and in the grandeur of a Divine person. To make the propriety of this transition familiar to our ideas, as it appears in the every-day occurrences of life, it is only to imagine the greatest man of the present age being called upon to perform

duties in the respective offices which he has sustained, or may now sustain, of a commander of armies, of one of the first peers of the realm, or as chancellor of a university; and to consider, for the performance of each, in what different robes, and in what different state, he would make his appearance.

With regard to the command which was given by this voice from heaven, to eat up the little book, it is one that deserves peculiar consideration, from the circumstance that this is the only place in the whole book of Revelation, in which such a thing is particularly directed. In the commencement (ch. i. 3.) it is indeed said, "Blessed is he that readeth, and they that hear the words of this prophecy, and keep the things which are written therein;" but this is general. A special command shews that it must have reference to something of a very important nature, and that the contents of the little book were to be well digested, studied, and understood. "Thy words were found," says the prophet (Jer. xv. 16), "and I did eat them, and thy word was unto me the joy and rejoicing of mine heart." Our Saviour likewise personally uses the same symbolical expression, when He speaks of Himself as "the Bread of Life," in many passages of the sixth of John. In this manner are we here directed to digest the contents of the seventh seal.

And the occasion of the command is important. It is the point of union of the two great lines of prophecy, like the junction of two mighty rivers just before they empty themselves in the wide ocean.

The opened book represents the last act of the Roman Empire under its last head, followed by a "silence in heaven for the space of half an hour." As it is something in the nature of a solemn pause, happening just previous to the common catastrophe of both series of events, perhaps the idea may be conveyed by considering the immediate event, whatever it be that the opening of the book may represent, as something of the nature of a flash of lightning before the seven-fold thunder begins to roll; and that that series of events ends there!

It has generally been imagined that the little opened book contained a great many of the prophecies which follow the tenth chapter-the half-hour's silence not seeming to represent an event of sufficient magnitude to account for the importance attached to it. But this is a gratuitous assumption. It is certain that it marks a prophetical era, representing an equally prominent event in history to any of the other seals, although of an apparently negative character; and that, like them, it will be a hinge on which a new order of things will turn. For instance, if, just previous to the final decisive irretrievable blow being struck, signified by the four winds being let loose, proposals involving all the consequences attending such a catastrophe were to be made to that power which is to be the instrument thereof, no language can express the breathless and anxious suspense, the awful silence which would ensue! This being connected with the last, the only act which the yet-to-be-revived head of the Em

pire* shall have to

requirements of the

perform, would meet all the prophecy. I merely throw out this idea to shew the possibility that the symbolical expression of an hour's silence, considering the half hour chronologically, may imply the ceasing from action for a fortnight, and be an event of unutterable importance.

Howsoever sweet or pleasant such a discovery may be in meditation, the consequences, it is declared, will be bitter. As much as to say, that the effect of this silence will be the most poignant sorrow, and the deepest anguish; as much as to say, that it is the immediate forerunner of the overwhelming and final ruin of which the seven thunders give such most fearful warning.

The remaining verse of the chapter, I conceive implies, that although the series of prophecies signified by the seven seals is now completed, nevertheless the same ground, in other connections and other relations, has to be retraced, and that it will involve the "fates and fortunes" of "many people, and nations, and tongues, and kings;" likewise implying that yet before" the second woe" will be pronounced to be past, he will have to go back, and prophesy of other events bringing them up to this point of time.

Rev. xvii.