o the covenant
transaction at Mount Sinai, where the "law" was exhibited as an appendix
to the covenant of grace--"added to the promise." (Gal. iii. 19.) The
reader will find this whole matter set before him, perhaps to his
surprise and delight in Exod. xx. 1-17. The Lord (Jehovah) is the God
(Elohim) of his people. How shall they know that he is _their_ God? By
the law?--No, for that is a rule to all men. They know by the
_testimony_ as distinct from the law. Testimony consists of _facts_.
God's people knew that he was their God, because he "brought them out of
the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage." This was "the doing of
the Lord,"--"the testimony of Jesus Christ." And so it is an important
and precious truth to us at the present day.--"The preface to the Ten
Commandments teacheth us, that God is the Lord (Jehovah) and _our
God_."--This great historical fact is the controlling motive to
acceptable obedience to the moral law. To this, among other truths of
the gospel, every faithful minister will "bear witness" with the apostle
John.

John also bore witness to "all things that he saw," as presented to him
in a succession of visions to the end of this book, in view of some of
which, he "wondered with great admiration." (xvii. 6.)

In the third verse there is a "blessing" pronounced on all such as
"hear, read and keep those things which are written in the words of this
prophecy." A mere reading and hearing of the Apocalypse will not secure
the blessing. It is suspended on the _keeping_. "Blessed is he that
_keepeth_ the sayings of the prophecy of this book." (Ch. xxii. 7.) The
divine and compassionate Author of this prophecy, who "knoweth the end
from the beginning," foresaw the violent and ignorant opposition even to
the _reading_ of it, which would be encountered by those for whose
special direction and comfort it was given. While the "man of sin" would
attempt to deprive the church of the light of the Bible in general, the
great "Antichrist" would join him in special hostility to this book. The
judgment of the former is, that the Bible in the hands of the people
will generate _heresies_; of the latter,--the Apocalypse is so "hard to
be understood" as to be unintelligible. A revelation, and yet
unintelligible! This is very nearly a contradiction. Such sentiments
betray rebellion against the authority, and a reflection upon the wisdom
and beneficence of God. All Christians acknowledge, as Peter says of the
w