h, rather than from death to life?

One more passage must be quoted, the force of which cannot well be
missed. In the sixth chapter of the Book of the Revelation, S. John
describes the vision which he saw at the opening of the fifth seal. He
saw, he said, "under the altar the souls of them that had been slain for
the word of GOD,--and they cried with a great voice, saying, How long, O
Master, the holy and true, dost Thou not judge and avenge our blood on
them that dwell on the earth?--And it was said unto them, that they
should rest yet for a little while, until their fellow-servants also and
their brethren . . . should be fulfilled." {28} Plainly these souls were
not in heaven, for they bemoaned the long delay, and were bidden to wait
for awhile until some great fulfilment. Where then could they be, if not
on earth, nor yet in heaven? They must have been in the Middle State
between the two, these martyred souls, in Paradise. But they are not
spoken of as in Paradise, or in Abraham's bosom, but as "under the
Altar." Where was this? The Jews spoke of departed souls not only as in
Paradise, and in Abraham's bosom, but also as "under the throne of
Glory." By all these expressions they meant the same thing. S. John,
however, uses a different expression in describing the Intermediate
State, yet one so similar as to lead us to think that in the change he
substitutes a Christian formula for the Jewish, giving it a Christian
shape. As "the throne of Glory" was associated with the Presence of GOD
in the mind of a devout Jew, so the Altar would be as naturally
associated with the Presence of GOD in the mind of a devout Christian.
What, therefore, the "Throne of GOD" was to the Jew, that "the Altar of
GOD" would be to a Christian. For the Altar was to Christian thought the
Throne of GOD. There, at the Christian Altar was commemorated the one
great sacrifice to which all former sacrifices had pointed, and in which
they were all fulfilled. There the communion of Saints was, as in no
other way on earth, realized. There, as by one simultaneous vibration
thrilling through the saintly dead, and the living communicants, the
spiritual bond unites together in one unbroken living Communion, those of
the Church expectant who are departed in the true faith of Christ's Holy
Name, and those of us who are still striving in the Church militant on
earth to perfect our probation. These souls "under the Altar" were still
waiting, and