but the seventh trumpet, like the preceding six, covers a period of time; and the transfer of the kingdoms from earthly powers to Him whose right it is to reign, is the principal event to occur in the early years of its sounding; hence this event, to the exclusion of all else, here engages the mind of the prophet. See remarks on verse 19. In the next verse John goes back, and takes up intervening events as follows:

VERSE 18. And the nations were angry, and thy wrath is come, and the time of the dead, that they should be judged, and that thou shouldest give reward unto thy servants the prophets, and to the saints, and them that fear thy name, small and great; and shouldest destroy them which destroy the earth.

"The nations were angry;" commencing with the wonderful revolution in Europe in 1848; and from that outburst of violence among the nations, their anger toward each other, their jealousy and envy, have been increasing ever since. Almost every paper shows the fearful degree to which they are now excited.

"And thy wrath is come." The wrath of God for the present generation is filled up in the seven last plagues, chapter 15: 1, which consequently must here be referred to, and which are soon to be poured out upon the earth.

"And the time of the dead that they should be judged." The great mass of the dead, that is the wicked, are still in their graves after the visitation of the plagues, and the close of this dispensation.

A work of judgment of allotting to each one the punishment due to his crimes-is carried on in reference to them by the saints in conjunction with Christ, during the one thousand years following the first resurrection. 1 Cor. 6: 2; Rev. 20: 4. Inasmuch as this judgment of the dead follows the wrath of God, or seven last plagues, it would seem necessary to refer it to the one thousand years of judgment upon the wicked, above referred to.

"And that thou shouldest give reward unto thy servants the prophets." This carries us forward to the full possession of the heavenly inheritance at the end of the thousand years; for the full reward of the saints is not reached till they enter upon the possession of the new earth.

"And shouldest destroy them which destroy the earth;" referring to the time when all the wicked will be forever devoured by those purifying fires which come down from God out of Heaven upon them, and which melt and renovate the earth. 2 Pet. 3:7; Rev. 20: 9. By this we learn that the seventh trumpet reaches over to the end of the one, thousand years. Momentous, startling, but yet joyous thought! that the trumpet is now sounding which is to see the final destruction of the wicked, and behold the saints clothed in a glorious immortality, safely instated on the earth made new.

Once more the prophet carries us back to the commencement of the trumpet in the following language:

VERSE 19. And the temple of God was opened in Heaven,

and there was seen in his temple the ark of his testament; and there were lightnings, and voices, and thunderings, and an earthquake, and great hail.

Having introduced the seventh trumpet, in verse 15, the first great event that strikes the mind of the seer, is the transfer of the kingdom from earthly to heavenly rule. God takes to him his great power, and forever crushes the rebellion of this revolted earth, establishes Christ upon his own throne, and remains himself supreme over all. This picture being completed, we are pointed back in verse 18, to the state of the nations, the judgment to fall upon them, and the final destiny of both saints and sinners. This field of vision being scanned, we are taken back once more, in the verse now under notice, and our attention called to the close of the ministration of Christ, the last scene in the work of mercy for a guilty world. The temple is opened; the second apartment of the sanctuary is entered. We know it is the holy of holies that is here opened; for the ark is seen, and in that apartment alone the ark was deposited. This took place at the end of the 2300 days, when the sanctuary was to be cleansed, the time when the prophetic periods expired, and the seventh angel commenced to sound. Since then the people of God have seen by faith the open door in Heaven, and the ark of God's testament there. They are endeavoring to keep every precept of the holy law written upon the tables therein deposited. And that the tables of the law are there, just as in the ark in the sanctuary erected

by Moses, is evident from the terms which John uses in describing the ark. He calls it the "ark of his testament." The ark was called the ark of the covenant, or testament, because it was made for the express purpose of containing the tables of the testimony, or ten commandments. Ex. 25:16; 31:18; Deut. 10:2, 5. It was put to no other use, and owed its name solely to the fact that it contained the tables of the law. If the tables were not thereir, it would not be the ark of his (God's) testament, and could not truthfully be so called. Yet John, beholding the ark in Heaven under the sounding of the seventh trumpet, still calls it the "ark of his testament," affording unanswerable proof that the law is still there, unaltered in one jot or tittle from the copy which for a time was committed to the care of men in the typical ark of Moses.

The followers of the prophetic word have also received the reed, and are measuring the temple, the altar, and them that worship therein. Verse 1. They are uttering their last prophecy, before nations, peoples, and tongues. Chap. 10:11. And the drama will soon close with the lightnings, thunderings, voices, an earthquake, and great hail, which will constitute nature's last convulsions.

Chapter XII.

THE GOSPEL CHURCH.

VERSE 1. And there appeared a great wonder in heaven; a woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and upon her head a crown of twelve stars; 2; And she being with child cried, travailing in birth, and pained to be delivered. 3. And there appeared another wonder in heaven; and behold a great red dragon, having seven heads and ten horns, and seven crowns upon his heads.

An elucidation of this portion of the chapter will involve little more than a mere definition of the symbols introduced. This may be given in few words as follows:

"A woman:" the true church. "The sun:" the light and glory of the gospel dispensation. "The moon:" the Mosaic dispensation. As the moon shines with a borrowed light derived from the sun, so the former dispensation shone with a light borrowed from the present. There we had the type and shadow; here we have the antitype and substance. “A crown of twelve stars:" the twelve apostles. "A great red dragon:" Pagan Rome. "Heaven:" the space in which this representation was seen by the apostle. We do not understand that the events here represented to John took place