and assumed a fiery resplendent color. This corresponds with the description of the whole person, and as the footsteps, or tread of a man, are an admirable index to his character, so here, it well denotes, the strength, firmness, decision, celerity and power of His movements, whether in providence or in grace.

"His voice, as the sound of many waters," marks at once His majesty and power. The roaring of the ocean, the raging of the waves, the rushing of many waters, the rushing of nations, the tumult of an army, and of a popular assembly, are all figurative resemblances in the sacred Scriptures, and in classical writers, having their foundation in nature, and justifying the description John has given of the infinite overpowering majesty and irresistible might of our great Redeemer, whose voice can make the very heavens tremble.

“He held in his right hand seven stars." These were his glorious sceptre. They are explained, v. 20, to mean the angels of the seven Churches. The word angels denotes ambassadors or messengers, and this is the title which the Apostle appropriates for the ministry of reconciliation. They are the ministers or servants of Christ, sent to enlighten the Church, and reflect His glory. As teachers and pastors they are called stars and angels, and are upheld by the mighty hand of Jesus Christ. The ministry and pastoral office are His own ordinances. They are the sceptre of His right hand in the Church, and when found faithful to their trust, as Daniel has predicted, will "shine as the stars for ever and ever."

"Out of His mouth went a sharp two-edged sword." This is the weapon of offence-the instrument of victory, by which He will conquer all His enemies. It was the breathing of the exalted Saviour that John thus described. It appeared to him like the piercing sword of flame, a terrific

symbol of the power of destruction. It corresponds with Daniel's fiery stream that issued and came forth from before the great Ancient of Days, breathing out burning wrath— that "breath of His mouth and brightness of His coming," which are referred to by Paul when he speaks of His coming to destroy the lawless one, the man of sin. In perfect keeping with this was "His countenance which was as the sun shineth in His strength," the most intensely brilliant appearance, such as John already had seen that countenance, when He was transfigured on the mount.

Such was the personal appearance of Jesus Christ. The sight was most appalling. No wonder that John was overwhelmed by it. Paul had been smitten with blindness by the same, and John says, "when I saw Him I fell at His feet as one dead," just as Daniel has told us, he too was affected by the same. "There remained no strength in me, for my comeliness was turned in me into corruption, and I retained no strength." Dan. iii. Such will He appear again, when the sight of Him shall shock a guilty and agonized world, as with electric stroke.

John, fainting away at the sight, placed him for the moment, as it were, among the dead. But he tells us that this same glorious Being "laid His right hand upon me saying, Be not afraid; I am the first," etc., v. 17, 18. The idea may be as truly and more freely expressed, Even the living One, I was indeed dead, but behold I am the living One to all eternity, and I have the keys of Death and Hell. There can be no doubt or possible method of denying who He was, and what He claims to be. He was the crucified Jesus now manifesting Himself as the Lord of life and glory, the eternal self-existent God. John need not fear, when in such infinite condescension he is admonished to dismiss his fears. That same hand that upholds his ministering servants in this world, and makes them His sceptre, or the immediate means

of His sway, and the influence which He exerts in it, shall wake, even the dead to life, by its almighty and life-giving touch. It was as one raised from the dead that John received his commission. "Write thou the things thou seest, (not hast seen,) even the things which are," what he at that moment saw, and what other things should be disclosed to him, in his vision, "the things which shall be after these." As seen in prophetic vision, however, they set forth corresponding events in time. The vision he had already was that of the personal coming of that Lord from Heaven, who now sustains His ministering servants, as the stars in His right hand, or the sparkling diamonds that adorn His sceptre, and shall hereafter wake the dead as he did John from the swoon in which he lay.

Let us learn that

1. The Lord Jesus Christ still exercises in Heaven the office of High Priest. The long robe to his feet was ṣacerdotal.

2. He is specially exercised in watching and protecting those for whom He is concerned. "Walking in the midst;" this phraseology is appropriately adopted in reference to God's care over His people.

3. The visible glory of the personal presence of Christ is indeed preternatural, but not at all incredible. For 1. The angelic messengers appeared with extraordinary powers. 2. Christ Himself had so appeared to John on the Mount. 3. There are agents, or second causes in nature, as the electric fire, that are capable of being employed to secure such displays.

4. The eternal deity of Jesus Christ, v. 18. The person of Christ is the great mystery of the Universe.

5. The certainty of the resurrection, v. 18. He has power over, and is Lord of the invisible state.

THE RICH FOOL.

WHEN We come to the study of the prophetic Scriptures, we are required to decide between two rival schools of interpretation, the literal or grammatical, and the mystical or allegorical. The former profess to come to these Scriptures with the conviction that God means simply and truly what He says; the other come, apparently, with the design of extorting a hidden meaning from them, in harmony with certain conclusions of their own as to what they ought to teach. For example, having arrived at the conclusion that the plain and literal meaning of those passages of Scripture which announce the second coming of Christ and his reign over the earth, is inconsistent with their reasonable expectation of human progress and evangelical success, they are constrained to explain away all such passages as mystically or allegorically, referring to death, or the destruction of Jerusalem, or a revival of religion; just as certain philosophic Christians at Corinth, judging a resurrection from the dead to be absurd and impossible, explained away the language of inspiration in what is called a spiritual sense, as referring to regeneration, and said "that the resurrection is passed already."

This mischievous tampering with the Word of God, with the design of accommodating it to the conclusions of human wisdom or the desires of the natural mind, is by no means limited to the prophetic Scriptures. In fact, we might ask

what doctrine of revelation, or what exhibition of Christian privilege or responsibility has not been frittered away by such a system of interpretation, if it deserves the name? Without referring at present to the mature fruits of the system in Neological speculations and Swedenborgian chimeras, we desire to call attention to the extent to which many who are indeed resting in Christ alone, have been led to make His words of no effect, to their own spiritual detriment and the dishonor of His name. They have connected their own hopes and the hopes of the Church with the systems of this world. They are looking to the scientific and mechanical progress of the age; to the advancement of secular education; to schemes of social and political reform; and at last, they have learned to regard it as the mission of the Church to promote all these, and expect this boasted progress to culminate in the supremacy of the Church, and what they call the conversion of the world. To reconcile all this to the Word of God it is necessary to explain away every thing in it that relates to the hope of the Church and the doom of the present evil world; to the coming of Christ and the establishment of His kingdom. But they cannot stop there, for, in the face of the plainest testimony of Scripture regarding the true place and calling of the Christian, they must find some way of justifying their design to make the most of both worlds; and must neutralize all those plain injunctions of the Word regarding our separation from the world, our abandonment of its honors, pleasures and possessions, our complete freedom from all its cares and entanglements, and our simple and direct dependence on our Heavenly Father. They would regard it as sheer fanaticism, for example, to understand literally and in their plain grammatical import, such injunctions as, "Resist not evil," "Give to him that asketh of thee," "Lay not up for yourselves treasures on