opposition
when it was strong enough to make a stand. The striking illustration of
this in the Bible is King David. After Saul's death the men of Judah
anointed David king. That was the signal for an immediate attack by the
chief of the forces of Saul's house. And this was succeeded by a long
war, before David was acknowledged as king over all Israel. The
clearing-up storm in his realm lasted a good while before good weather
came.

Here in this Revelation scene we have been looking at our Lord Jesus is
represented as stepping forward to take possession of His realm. It is
natural to expect a storm. This will be a signal to the opposition to
rally all its power. But there can be no question about the outcome of
such a set-to. That storm proves to be a clearing-up storm in the realm.
It is to be followed by such fine moral weather as has not been known
before. But the storm itself proves to be a terrific one for the earth
while it lasts.

The greater part of this little end-book is taken up with a description
of that storm. But before we turn to this book itself and its storm, we
want to get our bearings a bit, so as to understand better what is here.
Revelation is the knot in the end of a big bunch of threads. We shall
understand the knot better by knowing more about the threads before they
are tied into the knot.

The storm area proves to be very large. It takes in the whole earth. The
Bible is a big book in its outlook and grasp. It deals with the whole
earth, and the whole race. The thoughtful Bible student comes to have a
broad outlook, as well as a close lookout about his own front and back
doors.

It is fascinating to study the geography of the Bible. We talk about the
world growing smaller. That refers of course to the rapidity of
transit. It is only within a few hundred years that we have learned of
the earth being round. The Bible map includes practically the whole
world as we have come to know it.

The centre of the world as seen on this map may seem a little
surprising. We Americans _feel_ that the centre of things is here. The
Englishman _knows_ that it is in London; and lately the Germans have had
the same exclusive sort of knowledge about Berlin. The Chinese has long
called his country "the Middle Kingdom," in the sense of its being the
central kingdom about which the rest of the world revolves. But here the
centre is seen to be on the boundary line, practically, between Orient
and Occident, reaching