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mountains," and say 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?" This is the time that the martyrs looked forward to when they cried, "How long, O Lord, holy and true, dost thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth?" A large portion of the Apocalypse is occupied with the history of these persecuting powers, civil and ecclesiastical. It is their dominacy that constitutes the long period of tribulation to the church, when the witnesses prophesy in sackcloth and the faithful are ground into the dust by the feet of these proud oppressors as they stand in the high places of the earth. But the cries of the slaughtered saints have ascended to the throne as incense; God speaks; the judgments of Heaven descend upon these lofty ones; and a voice from heaven declares, "They have shed the blood of saints and prophets, and _thou hast given them blood to drink_; for they are worthy." This is surely a striking combination of symbols, and the way they are arranged would indicate that their fulfilment occupied a considerable period of time. First we have a great earthquake, afterwards the darkening of the sun and the moon, with the falling of the stars, and finally the dissolution of the heavens themselves, with the sweeping away of mountains and islands. This description covers the same period as that described under the seven last plagues, beginning with certain fearful revolutions in which the nations that had slaughtered the millions of God's people were given "blood to drink," and ending finally in "the great day of his wrath" that shall sweep them from their positions eternally. The full explanation of these events can not at present be appreciated by the reader, therefore I reserve it for the future, to be more fully developed under other symbols. In these six seals we have a vivid outline of mighty events, political and ecclesiastical, extending from the earliest stage of Christianity to the end of time. This description in advance was no mere human production. No human foresight would have detected, and no mortal mind would have conceived, events so wonderful and so farreaching in their character. Any other history would sooner have been imagined. It takes divine wisdom to understand the true position of the church in the present, and she c
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