The seven seals; or, the development of good and evil in human history.
"And I saw when the Lamb opened one of the seals, and I heard, as it were the noise of thunder, one of the four beasts saying, Come and see," etc. In this chapter we have the breaking open of six of the seals of that mystic roll containing the Divine plan of the government of the world, and as held in the bands of Christ who is the great Expounder. The opening of these seals suggests to our notice and presses on our attention the constant development of good and evil in human history. Notice—
I. THE DEVELOPMENT OF GOOD IN HUMAN HISTORY. By the good, I mean the true, the beautiful, and the right. Good and evil are here working among the moral tenants of this planet; perhaps it is not so in other planets. In heaven there is good, and good only; in hell, evil, and perhaps evil only; but on the earth the two are at work simultaneously, constantly, and everywhere. Taking the conquering hero as going forth on the "white horse" as an illustration of the right and the good on this earth, it is suggested:
1. That the good is embodied in a personal life. "Behold a white horse, and he that sat on him [thereon]." The right in this world is not a mere abstraction, it is embodied in human life. In Christ this was so in perfect kind and degree. "Grace and truth came by Jesus Christ." He was the Right—incarnate, breathing, living, acting; and this, not only during his corporeal life here, but in all his disciples through all times. He is in them; he is the conquering Hero destroying the works of the devil.
2. That the good embodied in a personal life is aggressive in its action. "And he went [came] forth conquering, and to conquer." Right is an invading force; it is ever making aggressions on the wrong. This is according to its very essence. Wherever the sunbeams break, darkness departs; so with the right, it is always conquering. Wonderful are the conquests it has achieved in past ages, and its victories are still proceeding, and will proceed until it becomes the might of the world. This right is not something elsewhere, it is here; not something that has been, but something that is and shall be. The supreme King of righteousness is constantly proceeding on his triumphant march, and one day "every knee shall bow to him, and every tongue confess." In its aggressiveness it moves:
II. THE DEVELOPMENT OF EVIL IN HUMAN HISTORY. I take the passage as giving illustrations of five great evils at work in human life.
1. War. "And there went out another horse that was red ['and another horse came forth, a red horse']: and power was given to him that sat thereon [and it was given to him] to take peace from the earth, and that they should kill [slay] one another: and there was given unto him a great sword." Mutual murder, man destroying his brother. This evil refers to no particular period or place; it has been going on from the days of Cain and Abel through all times even unto this hour. The spirit of murder burns throughout the race. The "red horse" is ever on the gallop. His ruthless tramp echoes through all souls and communities. "Whence come wars? Come they not from your lusts?" etc. Alas! that there should be found in a country calling itself Christian governments that should be feeding and fattening this "red horse" of rapine and bloodshed.
2. Indigence. "I beheld, and lo [I saw, and behold] a black horse: and he that sat on him [thereon] had a pair of balances [a balance] in his hand. And I heard [as it, were] a voice in the midst of the four beasts [living creatures] say, A measure of wheat for a penny, and three measures of barley for a penny." "Whilst making food scarce, do not make it so that a choenix (a day's provision of wheat, variously estimated at two or three pints) shall not be got for a penny. Famine generally follows the sword. Ordinarily from sixteen to twenty measures were given for a denarius" (Fausset). The state of want here described means no more than that the whole of a man's labour is exhausted in the purchase of the bread required for one day; and this certainly does not amount to that indigence which prevails amongst thousands of our countrymen who are starving for bread where wealth and luxury abound. This evil, then, like the others, is not confined to any age or clime, but is here and everywhere. Let every man trace this national indigence to its true source.
3. Mortality. "Behold a pale horse: and his name that sat on him was Death, and Hell [Hades] followed with him. And power was given [there was given authority] unto them over the fourth part of the earth, to kill [slay] with sword, and with hunger [famine], and with death, and with the beasts [wild beasts] of the earth." "The colour pallid or livid," says Bishop Carpenter, "is that deadly greenish hue which is the unmistakable token of the approach of death. The rider is Death, not a particular form of death, but Death himself. Attending him, and ready to gather up the slain, is Hades. The fourth seal is the darkest and the most terrible. Single forms of death (war and famine) were revealed in the earlier seals; now that the great king of terrors himself appears, and in his hand are gathered all forms of death—war, plague, famine, pestilence. For the second time the word 'death' is used it must be taken in a subordinate sense, as a particular form of death, such as plague or pestilence." This mortality is, then, another evil confined to no period or place. Death reigned from Adam to Moses, and from Moses to Christ, and from Christ to this hour. Men are dying everywhere—all are dying. With every breath I draw, some one falls.
4. Martyrdom. "I saw under [underneath] the altar the souls of them that were [had been] slain for the Word of God, and for the testimony which they held: and they cried with a loud [great] voice, saying, How long, O Lord [Master, the], holy and true, dost thou not judge and avenge our blood?" Who is the martyr? The words suggest:
5. Physical convulsion. "And I beheld when he had opened the sixth seal, and, lo, there was a great earthquake; and the sun became black as sackcloth of hair, and the moon became as blood," etc. Observe:
"Oh, it is monstrous! monstrous!
Methought the billows spoke, and told me of it;
The winds did sing it to me; and the thunder,
That deep and dreadful organ-pipe, pronounced
The name of Prosper: it did pass my trespass."
(Shakespeare.)
CONCLUSION. In these "seals," then, we have human history. We need not puzzle ourselves about the meaning of the utterances in this chapter, or search for some mystic meaning. It is full of current events occurring in all times and lands, and we are here commanded to study them. At each event some living creature, some Divine messenger in the spiritual empire, says, "Come and see." "Come and see" the triumphant Hero of the good, going forth on the white horse conquering, and to conquer; mark the aspect, the movements, and the progress of good in the world in which you live; take heart and speed it on. "Come and see" the red horse, the spirit of murder and bloodshed, that is creating discords and fightings everywhere, rifling families and communities of all concord, filling the air with the cries of the dying, and the wails of the widow and the orphan. Come and study the demon of war; study it in order to destroy it. "Come and see" the black horse trampling in the dust the food which Heaven has provided, and which man requires, thus leaving millions to starve. Study this national poverty until you realize the true causes and apply the true cure. "Come and see" the pale horse hurrying through the world, visiting in his turn every individual, family, community, nation, trampling underfoot all men, regardless of character, age, position, nation. Study death, its moral causes, its final issues. "Come and see" "the souls of those who were slain for the Word of God." Study martyrdom, despise the persecutors, and honour their victims. "Come and see" the great physical convulsions of nature. Study the physical phenomena of the world, and cultivate that love for the God in all, who is over all, and that confidence in his love, wisdom, and power which will enable you to be calm and triumphant in the most terrible physical convulsions, enabling you to sing—
"God is our Refuge and Strength,
A very present Help in trouble;
Therefore will not we fear,
Though the earth be removed,
And though the mountains be carried
Into the midst of the sea;
Though the waters thereof roar and be troubled,
Though the mountains shake with the swelling thereof."
Brothers, who shall tell the seals that will be broken open in our book of destiny during the year? Ere we commenced our existence, all pertaining to our life through all the ages we have to run was mapped out and registered, even in minutest detail, in the Divine roll of destiny. All the events of our lives are but the breaking of the seals of that book. With every fresh event, every new effort, some fresh seal is broken. What seals are yet to be broken? what Divine archetypes are yet to be embodied? what latent forces are yet to be developed? What these ears have yet to hear, these eyes have yet to see, this mind yet to conceive, this heart yet to experience! "Go thou thy way till the end be: for thou shalt rest, and stand in thy lot at the end of the days."—D.T.
Departed martyrs.
"And when he had opened," etc. By common consent this is a sketch of departed martyrs, i.e. men "that were slain for the Word of God, and for the testimony which they held." If they bad been slain for anything else they would not have been martyrs.
I. THEY LIVE IN SACRED SECURITY. "I saw under the altar the souls of them." The "souls," not the bodies; the bodies had been destroyed, their ashes were left Souls can exist apart from the body—a wonderful fact this. These souls were "under the altar." They were in a position of sacred security. No one could touch them there, safe forever from their persecutors.
II. THEY LIVE IN EARNEST CONSCIOUSNESS. They have an earnest consciousness of the past. "How long, O Lord, most holy and true." They remember the earth, remember the cruelties they received on the earth, and long, not maliciously, but benevolently, for justice being done to their persecutors. No doubt their desire was that God should strike such a moral conviction into their hearts on account of their wickedness that would lead them to repentance.
III. THEY LIVE IN HOLY GRANDEUR. "White robes were given to them." Or more probably, "a white robe," emblem of purity and conquest.
"Their blood is shed
In confirmation of the noblest claim—
Our claim to feed upon immortal truth,
To walk with God, to be divinely free
To soar and to anticipate the skies.
Yet few remember them. They lived unknown
Till persecution dragged them into fame,
And chased them up to heaven. Their ashes flew
No marble tells us whither. With their names
No bard embalms and sanctifies his song.
And history, so warm on meaner themes,
Is cold on this. She execrates, indeed,
The tyranny that doomed them to the fire,
But gives the glorious sufferers little praise."
(Cowper.)
D.T.
The wonders of the last day.
"And the kings of the earth," etc. The last day, the day of days, will be a day of wonders. The words indicate three of the wonders of that day.
I. MEN DREADING THE FACE OF CHRIST. "The face of him that sitteth on the throne." Here are men preferring annihilation to a sight of that face. What is the matter with that face? It was, indeed, the human face Divine, the serenest, the loveliest, the kindliest face ever seen on earth. It was a face whose expression towards men was, "Come unto me," etc. What change has come over it now? Why are men afraid of it now? Their guilty consciences have made that face terrific. The sight of that face will call up such memories of their ingratitude, their folly, their impiety, as will make existence intolerable.
II. THE LAMB WROUGHT INTO WRATH. "The wrath of the Lamb." How strange and unnatural is this! The wrath of love is the most terrible of wrath.
1. It implies the greatest moral enormity in the object of it. The wrath of malign natures is soon kindled, is capricious, often rages without reason. But when love is indignant, there must be fearful enormity in the object.
2. It exerts most agonizing influence upon the conscience of its object. The anger of malign natures seldom touches the conscience of its victim, but often awakens contempt and defiance. Not so when love is indignant; the indignation of love is crushing. What power on earth is so withering as the indignation of a parent who is essentially benevolent and loving?
3. It is unquenchable until tile reasons for its existence are removed. The wrath of malign natures often burns itself out, but the wrath of love is a determined opposition to evil.
III. HUMANITY CRYING FOR ANNIHILATION. "And the kings of the earth, and the great men … hid themselves in the dens and in the rocks of the mountains; and said to the mountains and the rocks, Fall on us, and hide us," etc. Love of life is the strongest instinct in human nature, and hence the dread of death. Here is the chief and first of all dreads. What will men not give away to avoid death? But what a change now! They earnestly cry for that which they dreaded! They cry for annihilation.
1. The cry is earnest. "Mountains and rocks." The language breathes earnestness. Existence has become intolerable. It is a curse that can no longer be borne.
2. The cry is general. "The kings of the earth, the great men, the rich men, and the chief captains, the mighty men, every bondman and every free," etc. The conquerors of the world, the iron masters of nations, men whose names struck terror through ages, now quail in agony and cry for extinction.
3. The cry is fruitless. They cry to the "mountains and rocks." What can they do for them? Can they hear them? Have they hearts to feel? No; insensitive, immovable, these remain amid the wildest shrieks. But were they to fall on them would they crush them? The material universe cannot crush a soul. It is an inextinguishable spark. God alone can quench a soul.—D.T.