ters of the Apocalypse. And in this prolonged
and eventful conflict we may with Moses, "turn aside and see this great
sight, why the bush is not burnt." (Exod. iii. 3.) The Lord was in the
bush, and "greater is he that is in them than he that is in the world."
(1 John iv. 4.) This will appear in the following chapter.

CHAPTER XIV.

As the 13th chapter contains the most full and graphic description of
the great apostacy, so in this chapter we have the other party described
which protested against that apostacy. It is a concise history of the
two witnesses in holy and happy fellowship with Christ, when he had
rejected the heathenized church, because of her unholy league with the
beast of the bottomless pit, (ch. xi. 2, 7.) The contrast between the
"sealed" ones here, and those who bore the "mark of the beast," is very
noticeable. This fact suggests that the parties are _cotemporary_.
Besides, it is evident that this company of 144,000 are the legitimate
successors of those sealed in ch. vii. 4-8; or rather, from the
perpetual identity of the covenant society as a moral person, we may
view this company as the same with the sealed ones of the seventh
chapter, the two witnesses of the eleventh chapter, and as in the
wilderness in the 12th chapter. Political bias caused a learned
expositor to interpret the third angel of this chapter as a symbol of
the prelatic church of England! and a similar bias, or _modern_ charity,
induced another to distinguish between the "two witnesses" and the
144,000. To the unbiased and enlightened mind it is obvious that instead
of the 144,000 symbolizing the "pious people,--in the different branches
of the Christian church"--all true Christians; they are in fact
distinguished from _true Christians_, as 144,000 from "a great multitude
... who had washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the
Lamb," (ch. vii. 9, 14.)

As the Antichrist, after his first development in the world, appeared in
diverse forms of organization, thereby more effectually to deceive them
that dwell on the earth, yet still preserved his moral identity, so the
faithful servants of Christ are presented in corresponding attitudes and
aspects, to oppose and counteract his diabolical policy and tyranny; yet
always preserving their proper identity during the whole period of 1260
years.

The process of "sealing the servants of God in their foreheads," (ch.
vii. 4-8,) took place under the _sixth_ seal before