Thoughts on the Revelation.
Verses 1, 2. And I saw another mighty angel come down from heaven, clothed with a cloud; and a rainbow was upon his head, and his face was as it were the sun, and his feet as pillars of fire: And he had in his hand a little book open: and he set his right foot upon the sea, and his left foot on the earth. The 10th chapter of Revelation is thrown into the prophecy of the sounding of the seven trumpets, coming between the sixth and seventh of that series. That which is particularly connected with the sounding of the sixth trumpet is recorded in chap. ix. The prophet has other events to introduce before the opening of another trumpet, and takes occasion to do it in the scripture which intervenes to the 15th verse of chap. xi. Among these is the prophecy of chap. x. To establish the chronology of the mission of the angel here introduced, will be the first point in order. "He had in his hand a little book open." It can only be inferred from this language that this book was at some time closed up; and in striking harmony with this, we read of a book in Daniel which was closed up and sealed to a certain time. "But thou, O Daniel, shut up the words and seal the book, even to the time of the end: many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall be increased." Dan. xii, 4. Since this book was closed up only till the time of the end, it follows that at that time the book would be opened; and as its closing was mentioned in prophecy it would be but reasonable to expect that in the predictions of events to take place at the time of the end the opening of this book would be mentioned. There is no book spoken of as closed up and sealed except the book of Daniel's prophecy; and there is no account of the opening of that book unless it be here in the tenth of Revelation. We see furthermore that the contents of these books are the same. The book which Daniel had directions to close up and seal had reference to time: "How long shall it be to the end of these wonders?" And when the angel comes down with the little book open, on which he bases his proclamation, he gives a message in relation to time: "Time shall be no longer." Nothing more could be required to establish the identity of these two books and to show that the little book which the angel had in his hand open, was the book of the prophecy of Daniel. An important point is now determined toward settling the chronology of this angel; for we have seen that the prophecy, more particularly the prophetic periods, of Daniel, were not to be opened till the time of the end; and if this is the book which the angel has in his hand open, it follows that he proclaims his message, this side of the time when the book should be opened, or somewhere this side of the commencement of the time of the end. All that now remains on this point is to ascertain when the time of the end commenced; and the book of Daniel itself furnishes data from which this can be done. In Dan. xi, from verse 30, the papal power is brought to view. In verse 35, we read, "And some of them of understanding shall fall to try them and to purge and make them white, even to the time of the end." Here is brought to view the period of the supremacy of the little horn, during which time the saints, times and laws should be given into his hand, and fall through his persecutions. This is declared to reach to the time of the end. It ended A. D. 1798, where the 1260 years of papal rule expired. There the time of the end commenced, and the book was opened. And since that time many have run to and fro, and knowledge on these points has marvelously increased. The chronology of the angel is further ascertained from the fact that he is identical with the first angel of Rev. xiv. The points of identity between them are easily seen. 1. They both have a special message to proclaim. 2. They both utter their proclamation with a loud voice. 3. They use similar language, both referring to the great Creator, as the maker of heaven and earth, the sea, and the things that are therein. 4. They both proclaim time: one swearing that time shall be no more, and the other proclaiming that the hour of God's judgment has come. But the message of Rev. xiv, 6, is located this side of the commencement of the time of the end. It is a proclamation of the hour of God's judgment come, and hence must have its application to the last generation. Paul did not preach the hour of judgment come: Luther and his co-adjutors did not preach it. Paul reasoned of a judgment to come, indefinitely future; and Luther placed it at least 300 years off in his day. Moreover Paul has warned us against any such preaching as the hour of God's judgment has come, until a certain time. In 2 Thess. ii, 1–3, he says, "Now we beseech you brethren, by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, and by our gathering together unto him, that ye be not soon shaken in mind, or be troubled, neither by spirit nor by word, nor by letter as from us, as that the day of Christ is at hand. Let no man deceive you by any means; for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that son of sin be revealed, the son of perdition," &c. Here Paul introduces to our view the man of sin, the little horn, the papacy, and covers with a caution the whole period of his supremacy, which, as already noticed, was 1260 years, ending 1798. In 1798, therefore, the restriction from proclaiming the day of Christ at hand, ceased; in 1798, the time of the end commenced, and the seal was taken from the little book. Since that period, therefore, the angel goes forth proclaiming the hour of God's judgment come, and since that time, too, the angel takes his stand on sea and land, and swears that time shall be no more. Of their identity there can now be no question; and all the arguments which go to locate the one, are equally effective for the other. We need not enter into any argument here that the present generation has witnessed the fulfillment of these two prophecies. In the Advent preaching more especially from 1840 to 1844, they met a full and circumstantial accomplishment. The position of this angel, one foot upon the sea, and another on the land, denotes the rapid spread of his proclamation by sea and by land. Had this message been designed for only one country, it would have been sufficient for the angel to take his position on the land only. But he has one foot upon the sea; from which we may infer that his mission would extend to the various nations and divisions of the globe. And in beautiful accordance with this we have the fact that the Advent proclamation went to every missionary station in the world. Verses 3, 4. And cried with a loud voice, as when a lion roareth: and when he had cried, seven thunders uttered their voices. And when the seven thunders had uttered their voices, I was about to write; and I heard a voice from heaven saying unto me, Seal up those things which the seven thunders uttered, and write them not. It were vain to speculate to any great length upon the seven thunders, in hope of gaining a definite knowledge of what they uttered. We must acquiesce in the directions given to John concerning them and leave them where he left them, sealed up, unwritten, and consequently to us unknown. There is however a conjecture extant in relation to them which may not inappropriately be mentioned here: It is that what the seven thunders uttered was the experience of the Advent people, embracing their sore disappointment and trial. Something, evidently, was uttered, which it would not be well for the church to know; and for God to have given an inspired record of the Advent movement in advance, would have been simply to defeat that movement which we verily believe was in all its particulars an accomplishment of his purposes, and according to his will. Why then any mention of the seven thunders at all? Following out the above noticed conjecture, the conclusion would be, That we, having met in our history with sudden, mysterious and unexpected events, as startling and strange as thunders from an unclouded sky, might not give up in utter perplexity, inferring as we may that all is in the order and providence of God, since something of this nature was hidden and sealed up from the church. Verses 5, 6. And the angel which I saw stand upon the sea and upon the earth, lifted up his hand to heaven, and sware by him that liveth for ever and ever, who created heaven, and the things that therein are, and the earth, and the things that therein are, and the sea, and the things which are therein, that there should be time no longer. He swears that time shall be no more. What is the meaning of this? Is it that with his message literal time ends, and eternity commences? One of three things it must mean; as there are but three kinds of time to which it can refer: These are literal time, as compared with eternity, probationary time, and prophetic time. The first it cannot mean; for the next verse speaks of the days of the voice of the seventh angel; and chap. xi, 15–19, gives some of the events to take place under his sounding, which transpire in the present state. And it cannot mean probationary time; for that does not cease till Christ closes his work as priest, which is not till the seventh angel has commenced to sound. Rev. xi, 19. It must therefore mean prophetic time. Prophetic time shall be no more; not that time should never be used in a prophetic sense; for the "days of the voice of the seventh angel," spoken of immediately after, doubtless mean the years of the seventh angel; but no prophetic period should extend beyond his message: they should all close there. Arguments on the prophetic periods show that the longest ones do not extend beyond the autumn of 1844. Verse 7. But in the days of the voice of the seventh angel, when he shall begin to sound, the mystery of God should be finished, as he hath declared to his servants the prophets. But in the days of the voice of the seventh angel. This seventh trump is not the last trump, 1 Cor. xv, 52, which wakes the sleeping dead; but it is the seventh of the series of the seven trumpets, and, like the others of the series, occupies days [years] in sounding. In the days when he shall begin to sound the mystery of God shall be finished. Not in the day when he shall begin to sound, not in the very commencement of his sounding; but in the first years of his sounding the mystery of God shall be finished. From the events to take place under its sounding the commencement of the seventh trumpet may be located with sufficient definiteness at the close of the prophetic periods in 1844. Not many years from that date, then, the mystery of God is to be finished. The great event, whatever it is, is right upon us. Some closing and decisive work with whatever of importance and solemnity it bears in its train, is near at hand. There is an importance connected with the finishing of any of the works of God. Such an act marks a solemn and important era. Our Saviour, when expiring upon the cross, cried, It is finished, John xix, 30, and when the great work of mercy for fallen man is completed, it will be announced by a voice from the throne of God, proclaiming in tones which roll like thunder through all the earth, the solemn sentence, It is done! Rev. xvi, 17. It is therefore no uncalled-for solicitude which prompts us to inquire what bearing such events have upon our eternal hopes and interests, and when we read of the finishing of the mystery of God, to ask what that mystery is, and in what its finishing consists. What is the mystery of God? Happily that book which has been given as a lamp to our feet, does not leave us in darkness here. A few direct testimonies will suffice: Eph. i, 9. "Having made known unto us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure which he hath purposed in himself; that in the dispensation of the fullness of times, he might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven and on earth, even in him." Here God's purpose to gather together all into Christ is called the mystery of his will. This is accomplished through the gospel. Eph. vi, 19. "And for me [Paul asks that prayers may be made] that utterance may be given unto me, that I may open my mouth boldly to make known the mystery of the gospel." Here the gospel is declared plainly to be a mystery. It is called in Col. iv, 3, the165mystery of Christ. Eph. iii, 3, 6. "How that by revelation he made known unto me the mystery (as I wrote afore in few words)," &c.; "that the Gentiles should be fellow-heirs and of the same body, and partakers of his promise in Christ by the gospel." Paul here declares that the mystery was made known to him by revelation, as he had before written. Now where has Paul recorded that anything was given him by revelation? and what was it? Turn to Gal. i, 11, 12, and you will find the answer. Paul there says, "But I certify you brethren that the gospel which was preached of me is not after man, for I neither received it of man, neither was I taught it but by the revelation of Jesus Christ." Here Paul tells us plainly what he received through revelation: it was the gospel. In Eph. iii, 5, he calls it the mystery, made known to him by revelation, as he had written before. The Epistle to the Galatians is said to have been written in A. D. 58, and that to the Ephesians in A. D. 64. In view of these testimonies, few will be disposed to deny that the mystery of God is the gospel. It is the same, then, as if the angel had declared, In the days of the voice of the seventh angel when he shall begin to sound, the gospel shall be finished. But what is the finishing of the gospel? Let us first inquire for what it was given? It was given to take out from the nations a people for God's name. Acts xv, 14. Its finishing will of course be the close of this work. It will be finished when the number of God's people are made up, mercy ceases to be offered, and probation closes. The subject is now before us in all its magnitude. Such is the momentous work to be accomplished in the early days of the voice of the seventh angel, who has already been sounding eighteen years. God is not slack; his word is not uncertain; are we ready for the issue? Verses 8–10. And the voice which I heard from heaven spake unto me again, and said, Go, and take the little book which is open in the hand of the angel which standeth upon the sea and upon the earth. And I went unto the angel, and said unto him, Give me the little book. And he said unto me, Take it, and eat it up; and it shall make thy belly [Gr. stomach] bitter, but it shall be in thy mouth sweet as honey. And I took the little book out of the angel's hand, and ate it up; and it was in my mouth sweet as honey: and as soon as I had eaten it my belly was bitter. There are not a few now living who have experienced the striking fulfillment of these verses, in the joy with which they received the Advent message, the honey-like sweetness of the precious truths then brought out, and the bitterness and sorrow that followed when the disappointment, and not the Lord, came, at the appointed time in 1844. A mistake had been made which apparently involved the integrity of the little book they had been eating. What had been so like honey to their taste, suddenly became like wormwood and gall. But those who had patience to endure the digesting process, soon learned that the mistake was only in event, not in time, and that what the angel had given them was not unto death, but to their nourishment and support. See the same facts brought to view under a similar figure in Jer. xv, 16–18. Verse 11. And he said unto me, Thou must prophesy again before many peoples, and nations, and tongues, and kings. John, standing as a representative of the church, here receives from the angel another commission. Another message is to go forth after the time when the first and second messages, as leading proclamations, ceased. In other words, we have here a prophecy of the third angel's message, now, as we believe, being fulfilled. Neither will this work be done in a corner; for it is to go before "many peoples, and nations, and tongues, and kings."