How animated the language, sublime the conception, and
awe-inspiring the sentiment here! Time is annihilated! The end is seen
from the beginning, and all eyes are directed to the sovereign Judge of
the world, as he comes in majesty to fix the final destiny of all the
children of Adam! These have constituted only two classes sincere world
began. "Every eye shall see him," but the eye will affect the heart very
differently. The hearts of some, with holy Job, will be filled with joy
unspeakable, (Job xix. 26, 27;) but others, with mercenary Balaam, will
be inspired with terror and dismay. (Num. xxiv. 17.) Of "them that
pierced him," who shall be able to abide his indignation? Judas,
Caiaphas, Herod and his men of war; Pontius Pilate, and all who have
consented to the counsel and deed of them, "must appear before his
judgment seat." "All kindreds of the earth," covering all the
combinations of "Antichrist" during the definite period of twelve
hundred and sixty years, "shall wail because of him," (Rev. xiv. 10,
11.) Assured of the equity of Messiah's judgment, the apostle, in the
exercise of "like precious faith with all them that believe," subjoins
his hearty assent,--"Even so, Amen:" "So let all thine enemies perish, O
Lord." Doubtless the design of the Holy Spirit in this verse is to
furnish ground of encouragement to those who were to be engaged in the
protracted conflict with the powers of darkness foreshadowed in the
prophecy of this book.

8. I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending, saith the Lord,
which is, and which was, and which is to come, the Almighty.

Ver. 8.--The same divine person, to whom the apostle directs the
doxology in the 6th verse, is introduced in the 8th: that is, the Lord
Christ. He claims eternity and omnipotence. He describes himself here in
the _very words_ which in the 4th verse are descriptive of the eternal
subsistence of the person of the Father. "Alpha and Omega," the first
and last letters of the Greek alphabet, are explained in the
words,--"the beginning and the ending." This language is not to be
understood as expressing or defining the duration of the Godhead only;
but it points also to the divine purpose and providence. To the same
purpose speaks our Redeemer under the name of Wisdom:--"The Lord (the
Father) possessed me in the beginning (head, purpose) of his way, before
his works of old." (Prov. viii. 22.) In joint counsel with the Father,
ere the wheels of time began