Why 'this' red on thine apparel ?

And why thy garments like him that treadeth the wine press?

I have trodden the press, alone,

And of the nations no man was with me.

And I trod them in mine anger,

And trampled them in mine indignation.

And their life's-blood spirted on my garments,
And I have stained* all my apparel.

For the day of vengeance was in my heart,
And the year of my redeemed was come.
And I looked, and there was no helper,
And I found myself alone, without an upholder.

And mine own arm hath wrought salvation for me,
And mine indignation hath upholden me.

And I have trodden down the nations in mine anger,
And I have crushed them in my indignation,

And I made their life's-blood to run down on the ground."

So according to Rev. xix. when the great Redeemer, as we may say, is described as entering the field of Armageddon, to tread the wine-press there, in the most restricted application of the figure, he is "clothed with a vesture dipped in blood," It is already described, that "out of his mouth goeth a sharp sword, that with it he should smite the nations: and he shall rule them with a rod of iron," &c. t We may therefore argue, that though the destruction of the mystic Babylon, and of the fourth empire, is contemporaneous with the gathering the armies at Armageddon, yet the stretching forth of the iron sceptre, when the nations, "as the vessels

of a potter, are to be broken to shivers," especially in the judgment of the Roman empire, will rather precede the destruction of their congregated armies, to be "food for the birds of the air and the beasts of the field, on the mountains and plains of Israel."

While Gog of Ezekiel is coming up with all his bands to the destruction of "the land of unwalled villages;" while the emphatic "king" of Daniel "is doing according to his will," and "overflowing the countries;" when the tide, perhaps, rolls back from Egypt, and "he plants the tabernacle of his palaces between the seas in the glorious holy mountain; at that hour, it may be-himself reserved for the last victim-the indignation falls upon the devoted countries. In these countries, symbolized by Edom and Babylon, and sometimes by Sodom and Egypt, no repentance was produced by the late judgments, but, on the contrary, God was "blasphemed because of the hail;" therefore are they compelled to know, and to feel, in their everlasting destruction, that He is Jehovah!

This, then, is "the great and terrible day of the Lord:" and in this manner will it come upon restored Israel, upon the fourth empire, with the nations of the apostolic world, and upon their armies arrayed in Palestine. This, therefore, is "the day when the Son of man is revealed." The general description of this day, though it is big with mercy and glorious deliverance to the faithful remnant of the gospel church, and to the holy seed that shall remain to Israel after the flesh, is awful and terrible

beyond imagination: (Psalm 1. xcvii. 1 Samuel ii. 10. Psalm xxi. Micah i. 3, 4. Isaiah lxvi. 14, &c.)

"El Elohim Jehovah hath spoken,

And called the earth from the rising to the setting sun.

From Zion all clothed in splendour, Elohim has shined forth,

Our Elohim is come, and keepeth not silence.

A fire devoureth before his presence,

And around him a tempest rageth:

He calleth the heavens from above,

And the earth to the judgment of his people," &c.

"Clouds and darkness are round about him,
Justice and judgment are the basis of his throne.

A fire goeth before him,

And consumeth his enemies on every side.

His lightnings illuminated the world,

The earth saw, and was afraid.

The mountains melted like wax at the presence of Jehovah,

At the presence of the Lord of the whole earth.

The heavens have declared his righteousness,
And all the nations have seen his glory!"

"For not by strength can man prevail;

They that contend with Jehovah are broken to pieces.

He thundereth over them in the heavens ;

Jehovah judgeth the utmost parts of the earth.”

"Thy hand reacheth all thine enemies,

Thy right hand reacheth them that hate thee:

Thou puttest them into a furnace of fire,
At the time of thine appearing;

Jehovah swalloweth them up in his wrath

And the fire consumeth them."

"And Jehovah shall cause his glorious voice to be heard, And the alighting of his arm shall be seen:

With angry blast, and flame of devouring fire,

With storm, and torrent, and hailstones."

"For behold, Jehovah will go forth from his place and descend,

And he will tread upon the eminences of the earth;

And the mountains shall melt beneath him,

And the depths shall be broken up;

As wax before the fire,

As waters thrown down a steep."

"And the hand of Jehovah shall be manifested on his

servants,

And his indignation on his enemies :

For behold, Jehovah will come in fire,
And his chariots as a whirlwind!

To recompence in the heat of his anger,
And in his rebuke with flames of fire.

For by fire shall Jehovah execute judgment,
And by his sword, upon all flesh;

And the slain of Jehovah shall be many."

So in the vision of the ancient of days-"His throne was like the fiery flame, and his wheels as burning fire, a fiery stream issued and came forth from before him," &c.* The element of fire or of

* I cannot, with some able expositors, conceive this to be an emblem of any judgment that may pass over us unseen; or to symbolize any thing else than the revelation of the Lord Jesus with his mighty angels in flaming fire. "The ancient of days," in this passage, may be an emblem of "the Second Person," as coming with the glory of the Father; as the emblem of one like a child of man in the clouds of heaven, is an emblem of his coming in his own glory as the Lord Messiah: but I think

heat, in all its various forms and phenomena, whether in the atmosphere, producing storms and tempests, or in the subterraneous regions of the globe, upheaving its solid surface, and bursting asunder its rocky crust, is ever, in the sacred language of scripture, foretold to be the chief instrument of Jehovah's vengeance when he shall appear at the last day of this dispensation. It is the angel that has power over fire that proclaims the judgment of the vintage. * And St. Peter, speaking of the "scoffers" of "the last days," as impiously challenging the promise of the Redeemer's coming, insisting that "all things continue as they were from the foundation of the world," observes,

2 Peter iii. 4. "For this they are willingly ignorant of, that by the word of God the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of the water, and in the water: whereby the world that then was, being overflowed with water, perished; but the heavens and the earth that now are, by the same word are kept in store, reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men.”

it abhorrent of the style of scripture, that any emblem or symbol of the Invisible Deity should be imagined, and more especially, that “ancient of days" should be an epithet for the absolute eternal Godhead, as subsisting in the person of the Father. But, when the Deity in its second person is manifested in his name Jehovah, "He that was, and is to come;"―as the Incarnate One, as Emmanuel, we may number by days. "His goings forth," indeed, in his predestined character, 66 were from of old, from everlasting;" as a gift, when he cometh into the world, "he hath length of days for ever." (Psalm xxi. 4.) "Days upon days wilt thou add unto the king." (Psalm lxi. 6.) the days of heaven." (Psalm lxxxix. 29.) And observe, the original expression in the

"

"His throne" is to be " as Compare Psalm cii. 23, &c. Chaldee, has nothing of the

emphatic character which our translators have given it; it is merely,

one grown old," or "advanced in days." Compare Rev. i. 14.

* Revelation xiv. 18.

I