the conflict will terminate only in the extermination of
one of the parties. (Gen. iii. 15; Rev. xx. 10.)

10. I was in the Spirit on the Lord's day, and heard behind me a great
voice, as of a trumpet,

Ver. 10.--The beloved disciple had often "tasted the good word of God,"
while the bosom-companion of Christ in the time of his ministry on
earth: His "heart burned within him." (Luke xxiv. 32.) Especially had
this been his happy experience on the holy Sabbath. Now that his
condition is solitary, being by violence "driven out from the
inheritance of the Lord," (1 Sam. xxvi. 19,) his gracious Master favours
him with a special visit. Did he not say to his disciples while he was
yet with them,--"I will not leave you comfortless? I will come to you."
(John xiv. 18.) The Comforter was promised to supply the want of the
Saviour's bodily presence, (v. 16,) and now John is "in the Spirit," and
it is "the Lord's day,"--the Christian Sabbath. We may well suppose this
disciple never was happier, no, not when he was "leaning on Jesus'
bosom." He would not now envy the emperor or any of his persecutors in
all their outward peace and prosperity. He was in an ecstasy,--"whether
in the body or out of the body he could not tell:" but his soul was
susceptible of the impressions of Christ's love, and of the intimations
of his sovereign will. "Shall I hide from Abraham the thing which I do?"
(Gen. xviii. 17.) "Surely the Lord God will do nothing, but he revealeth
his secret unto his servants the prophets." (Amos iii. 7.) John does not
boast as Balaam,--"falling into a trance, but having his eyes open:" yet
he heard and saw as distinctly and clearly as if his perceptions had
come through the medium of his bodily ears and eyes. "He heard behind
him a great voice as of a trumpet," not to alarm, but to engage
attention.

11. Saying, I am Alpha and Omega; the first and the last: and, What thou
seest, write in a book, and send it unto the seven churches which are in
Asia; unto Ephesus, and unto Smyrna, and unto Pergamos, and unto
Thyatira, and unto Sardis, and unto Philadelphia, and unto Laodicea.

V. 11.--Christ speaks, asserting his eternity, and consequently his
equality with the Father. This book being written in the Greek language,
our Saviour names and appropriates to himself the first and last letters
of the alphabet in that language, and gives the interpretation,--"the
first and the last," as in v. 8. John is directed to write and s