The episode of the sealed ones is a vision of consolation, that is introduced as a digression between the sixth [pg 135] and seventh seals, elaborating the idea of redemption inwrought with judgment, and showing the safety, even in the midst of tribulation, of God's people who are divinely sealed, as also the certainty of their final reward. It is given for the encouragement of tried and suffering Christians who cannot understand why they suffer, and as an answer to the question in ch. 6:17, “who shall be able to stand?” i. e. in the midst of such judgment as is depicted under the sixth seal. There is, of course, a manifest element of consolation for the saints in the contents of the seals themselves, as indicated above, viz. the certainty of victory under the first, the divine limitation and control signified in the second, third, and fourth, the promise of peace and reward in the fifth, of vindication and judgment in the sixth, and of the heavenly rest in the seventh; but this word of comfort receives such a distinct reinforcement and emphasis in the episode interposed as to indicate clearly its purpose. The blessed consolation for God's people in all ages given in the book of Revelation has not, perhaps, been sufficiently emphasized in the past,405 yet this has always made it a cherished message for those in affliction. The episode is found to consist of two parts, corresponding in some degree to the two dispensations, the Old and the New, the first setting forth the surety of salvation in the divine choice out of Israel (v. 1-8), and the second the fulness of salvation in the restoration to the divine presence of the entire body of the redeemed out of all nations (v. 9-17), the two together manifesting the consoling thought that redemption triumphs in the midst of judgment.
The first part of the episode shows Israel's share in the sure and unfailing results of God's elective and redemptive purpose, and through this the wider truth that God seals and keeps all his own (cf. Ezek. 9:1-6).406
At the bidding of another angel who ascends from the sunrising as the sign that he brings light and hope, [pg 136] and who bears the seal of the living God as the token of his authority, “the four angels to whom it was given to hurt the earth and the sea” restrain the winds, which are apparently those of destruction and judgment, until the act of sealing has been accomplished: the symbol of the delay of God's final judgment upon the world until all his chosen ones are sealed, i. e. are marked as the subjects of redemption, or until his redemptive purpose is complete—the choice beginning with Israel. Four, the earth number, is the number of the angels, corners, and winds in the vision, indicating the world-wide character of the judgment; and the sealing is upon earth, though apparently not to be thought of as occurring in any particular point of time, and not therefore to be placed, as by some, just preceding the final judgment, for in a wider sense the sealing stands as a symbol of redemption as a whole, viewed in effect as a process concurrent with the trials of the seals, and illustrated by its operation in Israel.407 The time of holding back the winds is the entire period of divine grace, and the sealing shows the brighter side of the former picture of trial and suffering—God is ever doing what he did in Israel.
The redeemed are sealed upon the forehead, the sign of the visible and personal ownership of Christ, but the act of sealing is not revealed; as the act of God it is hidden, and only the number of the sealed is given, a hundred and forty-four thousand, i. e. the square of twelve, the national number, multiplied by a thousand, the cube of ten, the number of completeness,—twelve thousand from each tribe, or twelve, the number of the tribes of Israel, multiplied by a thousand, the number of heavenly completeness: the symbol of a vast, complete, but indefinite number chosen from the people of Israel and kept unto eternal life as the first-fruits unto God and the Lamb, the true or ideal people of Israel, who are in a sense representative of all the redeemed. Other interpreters, accepting the apocalyptic-traditional view of late writers, regard the first section of the episode (v. [pg 137] 1-8) as a reproduction in form or substance from a Jewish apocalypse, while the second section (v. 9-17), where there is so manifest an expansion of the horizon, is the Christian development of the same idea, showing how the older vision may be understood in our time.408 Such views evidently have strong attraction for the modern mind, but it may well be doubted whether such a view solves as many difficulties as it creates, for it assumes the existence of documents that have no evidence on which to rest except the theory which assumes them.
In this section is presented a view of all the glorified in heaven, showing the world-wide results of redemption, and the ultimate felicity of the redeemed, a scene of triumph in vivid contrast with the trials and sufferings of the church upon earth, and a striking illustration of the difference which Christ has brought about through his atoning work.409
With the opening of the second part of the episode there is a sudden expansion of the horizon; every barrier of race and nation has disappeared, and a triumphant multitude of the saved from all peoples, a company which no man could number, far surpassing that of Israel, is seen standing before the throne and before the Lamb, arrayed in white robes, the symbol of purity,410 and having palms in their hands, the token of joy as well as victory (cf. I Macc. 13.51), and perhaps, also, as a sign of triumphant homage to the Lamb. The use of palms in the Feast of Tabernacles may have been foremost in thought here, but we need not confine the significance of the figure to the Jewish symbolism of joy. It probably includes all the ideas connected with palms that were familiar to the thought of the time, without regard to their origin; for it is not justifiable to assume that the Apocalypse contains no ideas borrowed from heathen antiquity, but moves exclusively within the circle of sacred, that is, Jewish imagery and symbols.411 This represents an opinion [pg 138] which in the light of later studies in Apocalyptic cannot be maintained, though manifestly everything has been assimilated by the Jewish conception, from whatever source it may have been derived. The phase of the vision presented in the ninth verse, affords a view of the redeemed church in its fulness, the multitude of the saved from both covenants now joined in one body in which no distinction of race or nation exists, a view much wider in its scope than the former one of the sealing.412
Many commentators, it must be recognized, view this passage differently (v. 4-9), and maintain the full identity of the hundred and forty-four thousand and the great multitude by a somewhat strained exegesis, making the hundred and forty-four thousand the symbol of the Christian church.413 In the interpretation of such symbols, however, we must always allow a latitude of view, for different interpretations appeal with varying force to different minds; and it should be remembered in holding the view accepted in this work, that while the symbol is taken from the case of Israel, and is therefore correctly interpreted as applying primarily to the people of Israel, yet it is not Jews as distinguished from Gentiles that are meant, but the saints of the Old Testament as distinguished from those of the New, the few in contrast with the many; and that in a wider sense the figure symbolizes salvation as a whole, represented here by a part in which it is shown to be effective, the main idea being salvation made certain and efficient by the divine act of sealing, while in the great multitude the symbol is that of salvation become world-wide in its results. The question of the identity of the two groups is therefore subordinate, and cannot be regarded as of any special importance.
It may be well at this point, in view of the great and radiant multitude of the redeemed, the innumerable company out of all nations and tribes and peoples and tongues, who stand before the throne and join in the cry of “Salvation unto our God ... and unto the Lamb” (v. 10), for us to emphasize the wide-spread and triumphant effect of the gospel in the world of men which is here [pg 139] foreshown. It has been too often asserted by modern critics that the outlook of the Revelation is narrow and Jewish, and its view limited and discouraging. As against this it is well to remember the lesson of these verses, as well as that of many other similar passages throughout the book (cf. chs. 5:9; 21:24; 22:7, et al.). We should also clearly see that the Revelation from its nature and purpose deals chiefly with the plan of God for the ages, and with the causes and events which lead on to the end of the world, and that therefore its essential message is not addressed to evangelistic effort or to missionary enterprise, but to faith in God when days are dark and storms fill the sky, and to preparation for meeting him in a fairer world when earthly days are done. Yet the book just as clearly shows that the divine plan both includes and prepares for the essentially world-wide and universal mission of Christianity; and the message of the gospel to every creature is repeated and emphasized throughout in such a way as to make plain that the great work and chief purpose of the Kingdom of God in the earth is to redeem and to save the lost. And surely this important truth should never be left out of view in our perusal of the book.
The whole body of the redeemed, the saved out of both covenants, the united company which no man could number, that includes both Jews and Gentiles, is heard unitedly to cry with a loud voice, “Salvation unto our God ... and unto the Lamb”, i. e. salvation is attributed unto God and the Lamb414 (the Salvation Chorus), while all the heavenly court join them in a seven-fold symphony of praise. This is the last in a series of growing doxologies. In ch. 1:6 the praise ascribed is twofold, in ch. 4:11 it is threefold, in ch. 5:13 it is fourfold, and now in ch. 7:12 it is sevenfold—“Blessing, and glory, and wisdom, and thanksgiving, and honor, and power, and might, be unto our God forever and ever”. It should also be noted that in the Salvation Chorus, for the first of three times in the book, salvation is ascribed by a voice from heaven to God, or to God and to Christ, viz. in chs. 7:10; 12:10; and 19:1.
John's attention is at this point specially directed to the triumphant company that is before the throne of God by one of the elders (v. 13f.)415 in order to emphasize that they of that company have come victorious out of the great tribulation of the earthly life, and therefore they are ever before the throne serving God day and night in his temple, i. e. in the ναὸς, the shrine of the temple in heaven, and sharing in the exceeding blessedness of the divine presence as their great reward. “And he that sitteth on the throne shall spread his tabernacle over them ... and God shall wipe away every tear from their eyes.”416 It is not likely that by the great tribulation in v. 14 is meant a special period of trial such as is implied in ch. 3:10, and by the words of our Lord in Mat. 24:21, but rather the world-tribulation that belongs to the earthly life of the Christian throughout all time, “the tribulation of Jesus” (ch. 1:9) in which John felt that he had a share. Some, however, think that it is the same period of trial referred to before as preceding the end of the world.417 Thus with a prophetic view of the redeemed before the throne the episode closes, and the seventh seal is opened (ch. 8:1).
The vision of the seven trumpets sets forth in pictorial form a divine proclamation of the judgments of God upon the sinful world, especially those to be experienced throughout the prospective history of mankind until the final consummation of all things. It consists of another group of seven that are parallel in a certain sense to the vision of the seals, covering like them the path of the ages, but that form a separate series complete in themselves and that are issued for a different purpose, the seals specially manifesting God's care of his people in the midst of trial, while the trumpets reveal the divine punishment visited upon the sinful. These two lines of judgment are conceived of as occurring mainly [pg 141] in the same period, but looked at from another point of view: or, perhaps, it might better be said, that we have here another group of seven which follow the whole course of history and develop a new line of divinely ordered occurrences that neither follow nor precede, but are quite independent of any time-relation to the preceding series of the seals. The number of the trumpets, like that of the seals, is intended to indicate the completeness of the series, for seven is the number of completeness. They are general indications of God's judgments, and though particular events may be partial fulfilments, the complete fulfilment is in all time.418
In a short intervening section preparatory to the trumpets, we are shown that the prayers of the saints lead to the manifestation of divine wrath against sin. These verses, it may be said, form a transition from the vision of the seals to that of the trumpets, and are in fact included by some under the seventh seal, though not properly belonging to it. The former vision reaches a fitting close in the period of eternal rest which is looked upon under the seventh seal, and we wait in the quiet that it brings, expecting the end to be announced at once. But instead of that a further vision is revealed to the seer, and we again traverse the course of history by a different path to its ending. In another series of seven under the trumpets the punishment of the ungodly is reviewed, and divine wrath is seen to fall upon the heads of the sinful. This succeeding series of trumpet visions is introduced by verses two to six in the eighth chapter.
The incense is added unto the prayers of all the saints which are thus typically purified, and they are straightway presented before the throne of God in heaven. Incense was the symbol of prayer under the Old Testament, but it becomes here, by a further development of the symbol, the vehicle for bearing the prayers to the throne, and the action apparently follows the form of the Jewish ritual worship. An angel standing over the brazen altar of sacrifice, takes fire from it in [pg 142] a golden censer or fire-pan, and much incense is then given him to add unto the prayers of all the saints, evidently for their purification and that he may offer them at the golden altar of incense which is before the throne of God. Completing this action, the angel returns again to the brazen altar to take fire from it that he may cast it as the symbol of judgment upon the earth (cf. Ezek. 10:2f). Others, however, think that only one altar, that of incense, is referred to in the action.419 In either case the worship of the Old Testament is the basis of the figure, though the scene is laid in heaven. “And there followed thunders, and voices, and lightnings, and an earthquake”, the tokens of God's presence and of the approaching divine judgment.
To the seven angels are given seven trumpets with charge of the series of impending woes; and the angels put the trumpets to their lips ready to sound, mention of which is made in order to emphasize the importance to be attached to their action as angels who stand before God. Their position implies special service, and their number doubtless indicates the perfection of their ministry.420 The trumpet, which was the common instrument for public announcement, and often connected with the idea of judgment,421 may be here intended to recall its use at the fall of Jericho (Josh. 6:4f). The seven angels may also be taken to represent the whole body of angel ministrants who serve before God, just as the seven churches symbolize the whole church.
The sounding of the trumpets represents the proclamation of signal and destructive judgments upon the ungodly world. The form of these judgments in the vision was adapted to current conceptions of great calamities, and may be regarded as symbolizing all the [pg 143] terrible woes in store for all the wicked in all the ages—wide world-pictures of the divine purpose of punishment. The latter half of the first century was marked by many terrible visitations, such as earthquakes, famines, and plagues, and it should not be thought strange to find these events reflected in such a book as the Apocalypse at a time when they were fresh in the public mind. That they had some such source is evident, for the graphic descriptions of appalling disaster by earthquake in Martinique (1901), and in Messina (1908), have served to illumine many passages in the Revelation, as have also other similar occurrences previously known. These judgments in the visions constitute not only the divine means of punishment, but become the divine test of character, revealing the essential nature of evil men; for the effect of the judgments, unlike that of the seals, falls mainly upon the evil.
The sounding of the first trumpet is followed by hail and fire mingled in blood cast upon the earth: the symbol of disaster visited upon the land, and men punished by such means as in the days of Pharaoh,—for fire is a symbol of the divine presence and wrath, and the blood indicates the destructive effects about to be wrought upon both the animate and inanimate creation for the chastisement of man. The resemblance of the first four judgments of the trumpets and also of the vials to the plagues of Egypt, is too manifest to escape the attention of any careful reader of Scripture, and affords a ready proof of their representative character. These well-known historic incidents of judgment, belonging to the birth-period of the Hebrew nation, which are so deeply inwrought in the Old Testament story, and whose significance was so well understood, become the ready types of other judgments that are sent with a similar purpose and that belong to the divine order, but the intimate nature of which it was not the divine purpose to disclose. They are widely suggestive of God's power over things the most permanent and stable. The destruction of but a third part of the objects affected as the result of the trumpet series, represents a limited judgment, not an actual third but a fractional portion destroyed, a great but not the greater part. The earth, the sea, the rivers, and the heavenly bodies, on which the [pg 144] first four judgments fall, are parts of a fourfold division of the universe which is common in this book, and are intended to designate the entire created world, both here and in the vision of the vials.422 In this comprehensive designation the earth, or the land, was thought of as the nourishing mother and the dwelling-place of man; the sea as the agent and arena of commerce; the rivers as the seat of cities, the centres of population, the arteries of trade, and the source of water supply; and the heavenly bodies as the source of light, and as the rulers of destiny—together representing in common thought the great things of life to the world of men. Disaster to these, the sources of wealth and well-being, has always been among Oriental nations the type of all that is most terrible.
The sounding of the second trumpet is followed by, as it were, a great mountain burning with fire cast into the sea, thereby working widespread ruin: the symbol of disaster visited upon the sea, one part of creation which is used as God's agent for punishing mankind. To move a mountain was a token of divine power, and it was blazing with fire as a sign of the divine presence and wrath—another Sinai in effect flung into the sea. This striking figure of a mountain of fire was perhaps suggested to John's mind by a volcano, with which he must have become familiar while resident in Asia; but attention is directed more particularly in these visions, especially the first four, to the effect produced rather than to the means used, whether hail and fire, or a mountain, or a star, or the smiting of the planets.423 The effect produced is one of great terror, though the way in which it applies to men is left to be inferred, and is not attempted to be described. Such an incident was well adapted to the thought of the first century, and could not but strike terror in the mind of the beholder because of the complete helplessness of men in the presence of such a disaster. It presents a wide field for thought, the limits of which are not defined. It is in fact one way of saying that God will make all nature to strive against man because of sin.
The sounding of the third trumpet is followed by the falling of a great star from heaven, called Wormwood, upon the waters, burning as a torch and making them bitter: the symbol of disaster visited upon the rivers and fountains of waters, still another part of creation, as an act of divine judgment upon sinful men who dwell by the waters. As under the former trumpets only a third part was affected: “And many men died of the waters, because they were made bitter.” The falling of a star was regarded as a sign of some great disaster about to happen, and is here apparently intended to be typical of judgment sent from heaven, while the name Wormwood signifies the bitterness of the trouble which it entails upon men. But beyond this all is indefinite, a quality characteristic of Apocalyptic which often heightens rather than lessens the general effect. The bitter waters expressed the moral bitterness that men must taste because of their sin: the wide result is thus covered by an unspoken appeal to thought through a significant symbol.
The sounding of the fourth trumpet is followed by the smiting of the sun, moon, and stars: the symbol of disaster visited upon the heavenly bodies, not only destroying their light but inflicting a punishment peculiarly terrifying to the Oriental mind because of the occult influence which these bodies were supposed to exert upon the future destinies of men. We need not necessarily regard John as personally sharing in this opinion, but only as using the language and appealing to the thought of his time, as in the preceding reference to the falling star. He seems to look upon these strange occurrences mainly as signs of the divine purpose, as “wonders in the heavens and in the earth” (Joel 2:30) through which God wrought in manifesting his will. The evils resulting from this visitation in the vision, as in the former judgments, are suggested rather than named; but they lie before the mind in a haunting way to be filled in by a vivid imagination with scenes of terror and wrath.
At this point an eagle (not an angel, as in the Authorized Version), the symbol of carnage, appears flying [pg 146] high in mid-heaven, crying, “Woe! Woe! Woe!” and indicating by its rapid flight and thrice repeated call of terror the swiftness of the three coming woes of the remaining trumpets.424 Also three, the number of the spiritual in contrast with the material, serves to indicate the sphere to which these judgments belong. These three, the fifth, sixth, and seventh, are often called the “woe-trumpets”, and their effects are visited directly upon men, not indirectly through natural objects as under the preceding four of the series.
The sounding of the fifth trumpet is followed by a vision of a star from heaven, fallen unto earth, the symbolic representation of Satan cast out of heaven for his sin, and by smoke as of a great furnace enveloping a swarm of locusts that ascend from the pit of the abyss, the present dwelling-place of Satan and the familiar haunt of demons: the symbol of disaster to men through Satan and his multitudinous host, “the spiritual hosts of wickedness” (Eph. 6:12), the demons from the pit. These are permitted to torment men, producing bitter anguish for five months, the usual life of the locust, and the symbol of an incomplete or limited period of time, which may here refer to the time of man's existence upon the earth. Five, the half of ten the complete number, is a symbol of incompleteness or indefiniteness. The invading army of locusts is a well-known figure of widespread disaster, as in the prophecy of Joel (ch. 2:1-11). In accordance with general apocalyptic usage the pit of the abyss is regarded as the present abode of the Devil and his angels, and is conceived of as a vast subterranean depth connecting with the surface of the earth by a great shaft or well which can be opened or closed from above, and the entrance to which may be locked or unlocked by a key.425 That which at first seems to be a cloud of smoke proves to be teeming with forms of life, an evident token of the hidden nature of the source of evil. The power of the locusts is directed immediately against the wicked, such men as have not the seal of God on their foreheads, while their sting seems to be the type of the poison of sin which they infuse into [pg 147] the veins of men, and the torment which they inflict to refer to the visitation of sins that bring terrible punishment upon the offenders so that men prefer death rather than life. The description of the locusts as “like unto horses prepared for war etc.”, is a realistic touch intended to heighten the sense of terror, but not to identify them with any objects in human experience. Also the statement that “their faces were as men's faces”, implies only that they were like men in appearance, though some think this points to human agents. The star is here used in a quite different sense from that under the third trumpet,—for to insist that all objects must have a single symbolism, and that the star must mean the same in every case, i. e. a person, there as well as here, is to neglect one of the clearest lessons of Apocalyptic. Here it is a personification or symbol of Satan (Isa. 14:12), the angel of the abyss, who is named Apollyon,426 i. e. one who causes perdition to mankind, or in Hebrew, Abaddon, i. e. the destroyer, a sufficient identification for the reader of the Old Testament. The awful woe that the world of evil men suffers at the hands of Satan and his legions is the ideal content of this trumpet; and we notice that the severity of the judgments seems to increase as they progress toward the end. The first woe is now declared to be past (v. 12), but two others are foretold as yet to come.
The sounding of the sixth trumpet is followed by the loosing of four angels from the bed of the Euphrates (which is done at the bidding of a voice from the four horns427 of the golden altar of incense that is before God, and underneath which are the souls of them that had been slain for the Word of God—evidently a divine command) who had been prepared for an appointed time, even “for the hour and day and month and year, that they should kill the third part of men” from the earth, and by the coming of a vast invading army of horsemen, the double square of a myriad, or two hundred millions [pg 148] in all, the largest number used in the Apocalypse, the type of an innumerable multitude, which apparently act under direction of the four angels, and destroy a third part of men from the earth:428 the symbol of disaster to men through the world-forces of heathenism, which are under direction of the world-rulers of the darkness (Eph. 6:12). The unbinding of the angels is the symbol of evil let loose among men, for the angels are evil as is indicated by their being bound, by their number, and by the place of their imprisonment, i. e. the binding is the symbol of divine restraint until the appointed time; their number is four, the earth number, indicating that they belong to this world which is usually thought of as evil; and the Euphrates, the place where they are bound, is the old seat of the world-power, and the representative of heathenism with its multitudinous host. The evils inflicted by the heathen nations upon mankind, especially the evils of war with their concomitant results, are here indicated by this forceful figure; yet these, though deep and terrible, entirely fail to turn the rest of men, who escape death, from idol worship and its attendant impurities—a marvelous forecast of the path of history, for the heathen powers have time and again become the agents of woe to mankind, yet the people have not awakened to the true source of their sorrow in idolatry. The description of the horses and of their riders in the vision is purely an ideal one, intended to make them the objects of greatest terror, a true Oriental touch, appealing to the vivid Eastern imagination as such figures do with us to the minds of children. The woes of men at the hands of heathen nations is the evident content of this trumpet, as is clearly indicated in the twentieth verse of the chapter. At this point the second woe is declared to be past, and the third to be about to come quickly (ch. 11:14); but between them intervenes a vision of divine help, and of the value of the church's witness (ch. 10:1-11:13).
This view of the fifth and sixth trumpets seems to meet more fully the statements of the text than other views, and to conform best to the general character of the [pg 149] whole series; for notwithstanding the recognized obscurity of the trumpet visions, we can surely discern divine judgments for wrongdoing in the first four, under forms of physical evil visited upon the natural creation, and in the remaining three, manifestations of moral evil visited upon men for their sin. That the pit or abyss points to demoniacal forces, and the Euphrates to human agencies, is sufficiently evident without discussion.429 The application of the incidents of the fifth and sixth trumpets to Mohammedans and Turks by some of the historical school, who have even interpreted the tails of the horses as a prophetic reference to these well-known symbols of authority used by Turkish Pashas, is a curious example of capricious fancy. The fact that the events predicted under the sixth trumpet find a wide exemplification in the incursions of Turk and Mohammedan, Goth and Vandal, is only a clearer proof of their ideal character. And it is surely better to leave these highly wrought imaginative symbols of the trumpets, with their deep suggestiveness of appalling forms of coming evil, in the vague indefiniteness in which we find them, rather than to mar their beauty by weak and narrow interpretations.
[The Episode IIIb, which in this work is given after the seventh trumpet, occurs at the present point in the vision covering chs. 10:1 to 11:13. The connection is resumed in ch. 11:14, for the second woe found in that verse belongs in order of thought at the close of the sixth trumpet, the intervening part being parenthetical—see the Scripture text as paragraphed in this volume].
The sounding of the seventh trumpet is followed by great voices in heaven, declaring that the kingdom of the world is now become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ;430 by the elders praising God that the time of judgment and reward has come (the Victory Chorus); by the ark of the covenant, the token of God's abiding presence, being revealed in the opened temple in heaven—a traditional sign in the later Judaism of [pg 150] the coming of the Messiah;431 and by lightnings, voices, thunders, and an earthquake with great hail, the necessary accompaniments in Jewish thought of the great and final day of wrath: the multiple symbol of the final judgment, and of the glorious triumph of God's kingdom. The contents of the seventh trumpet are not fully developed, perhaps because they are too great for description, but in it we reach the climax and issue of the whole process of judgment that is exhibited in the series, the full and final establishment of the kingdom. The result is viewed in its entirety, and the millennial period of victory is not brought separately into view. The unveiling of the ark of covenant mercy and the ushering in of the kingdom close the vision, and constitute an informal transition to the vision of conflict through which the triumph has been effected.
If we now rapidly recall the whole course of the seven trumpets, we can see how with progressive movement they increase in severity as they go forward; the judgments they prefigure fall first upon the land, and then consecutively upon the sea, upon the fountains of water, and upon the heavenly bodies, as signs of God's judgment upon the physical universe, and thus upon men who in their earthly lives form part of the natural world; then with the fifth trumpet the judgments take a wider trend, and point to and include the setting free of numberless demonic forces of evil from the pit of the abyss to prey upon men, and under the sixth trumpet the loosing of the multitudinous world-forces of heathenism from the banks of the Euphrates to bring world-wide judgments upon the race, thus preparing the way for the blowing of the seventh trumpet which ushers in the day of cumulative wrath upon sin, and the final triumph of God's kingdom. This onward progress of the plan of the ages is only broken by a passing view of the possibility of recovery for men in the episode of the angel and the book, and of the two witnesses, which follows. The whole sweep of the judgments of the trumpets, in the view of Apocalyptic perspective, is toward the end of the present world and the triumph of righteousness in the final judgment. There the redeemed are left with God in his glorious kingdom; the after life is not attempted to be described; its blessings are evidently [pg 151] too great for our present comprehension. But the triumph would not be so definite, without the vision of conflict which follows, for it presents the path to victory through prevailing trial and opposition as ever leading on to complete and final triumph in the end, that is to be realized in the glorious presence of the Lamb who is revealed as standing upon Mount Zion in the midst of the redeemed.