that day, it is said of this king, who is, at the time here spoken of, in alliance with the fourth beast,— it is said of him, “He shall speak great words against the Most High, and think to change times and laws, and they shall be given into his hand until a time, times, and the dividing of time," and it is at this time that the Ancient of days comes, and the judgment sits upon Jew and Gentile. And this august spectacle will be manifest above the holy land when, as Daniel says, the Ancient of days shall sit, "whose garment was white as snow, and the hair of his head like the pure wool, his throne was like the fiery flame, and his wheels (angels) as burning fire. A fiery stream issued and came forth from before him, thousand thousands ministered unto him, and ten thousand times ten thousand stood before him; the judgment was set and the books were opened." These books are not opened whereby to judge the myriads who come with the Ancient of days, among whom are the translated and resurrected saints, and his Son Jesus Christ, for these will already have entered upon their glory and into the joys of their Lord. But these books will contain the judgments written against the inhabitants of the earth, especially the rebellious house of Israel, who in that day will have fallen away again into the iniquities of their ancestors.

Now this view of the judgment as seen by Daniel in the visions of his head upon his bed, is amplified, and many more features are introduced, in the visions of the Prophet Ezekiel (chapter 1), who also saw visions of God by the Spirit, by which the heavens were opened to him, and he saw the Ancient of days sitting upon his throne, and all the hosts of heaven present, and those of them who had been redeemed by the blood of Christ represented in four divisions, under the symbols of four living creatures, which are called in the testimony of Jesus Christ, four beasts, and are described in the visions of John as the living creatures were described by Ezekiel. From the description of the four beasts by John, and by the description of the four living creatures by Ezekiel, it is manifest that they symbolize the same thing, and from what is said of them in the Revelation (5:8-10), they are proved to be glorified saints, redeemed out of every kindred and tongue and people and nation, by the blood of the Lamb, who had made them unto their God, kings and priests, and they also declare their future work, saying, "We shall reign on the earth."

In the visions of John he sees four beasts, and he says also that he beheld and heard the voice of many angels round about the throne, and the beasts and the elders, and he speaks of their number in the aggregate, but John says nothing of wheels, while Ezekiel speaks of the four living creatures and the wheels that he saw, but says nothing of angels. And as John and Ezekiel saw the same things in vision, though in a somewhat varied form, it is evident that the angels spoken of by John, and the wheels spoken of by Ezekiel, are one and the same thing. This is manifest from the words of Ezekiel, who calls the four living creatures cherubims, and says of them that their whole body, and their backs, and their hands, and their wings, and the wheels were full of eyes round about, showing that the angels, with the saints, will be the eyes of the Lord in every place, beholding the evil and the good among the children of men.

The angels will be employed in connection with the saints, but not over them, for says Paul," Unto the angels hath he not put in subjection the world to come whereof we speak." But says Ezekiel in chapter 10, "When the cherubims went, the wheels went by them, and when the cherubims lifted up their wings to mount up from the earth, the same wheels turned not also from beside them; when they stood, these stood; and when they were lifted up, these lifted up themselves also, for the spirit of the living creature was in them." This is according to the doctrine that Jesus taught, saying in reply to the Sadducees, "They that shall be accounted worthy to obtain that world. and the resurrection from the dead, die no more, but are as the angels of God in heaven." The same spirit of life and immortality will animate the saints and angels alike in the resurrection.

Now the principal object that we have in view at this time in referring especially to these visions of Ezekiel is to show the relative condition of things. in the heavens and things in the earth at the time of the judgment, for Ezekiel had visions of both at the same time, for while he saw the Ancient of days sitting upon his throne, and the cherubims of glory and the angels, under the symbol of wheels, which were present to coöperate in the work of judgment, he at the same time saw the condition of affairs among the children of men upon the earth below, just as they are, and not in the forms of figures and similitudes; whereas in the prophecy of Christ, John in his visions saw, not only the things in the heavens in the forms of figures and similitudes, but also the things in the earth among mortal men. Therefore the visions of John are doubly difficult to understand and interpret; but with the aid of Ezekiel's visions and plain descriptions of things in the earth just as they obtain among the children of Israel in the flesh at the time of judgment, we have a key whereby to understand the same things, as they are displayed by John in forms of signs and figures.

A RESURRECTION AT DIFFERENT PERIODS

It will be observed that Paul, in writing to the Corinthians, in his first letter where he speaks so fully of the resurrection and the translation of the righteous, that in that place he says nothing about the resurrection of the wicked. And also when he writes his first letter to the Thessalonians, in chapter four he speaks of the same things, but says nothing there either about the resurrection of the wicked. But at a latter period Christ comes to punish the wicked. That coming of the day of Christ is not before the revelation of the man of sin (that profane and wicked prince of Israel who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped, so that he, as God, sitteth in the Temple of God, showing himself that he is God), but it is after it. (The man of sin appears first, completes his career of wickedness, and is finally destroyed at the coming of the Lord.) This coming Paul speaks of in the first chapter of this second letter to the Thessalonians, in the following words, "To you who are troubled, rest with us; when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with his saints and mighty angels in flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, who shall be punished with everlasting de

struction from the presence of the Lord, and the glory of his power, when he shall come to be glorified in his saints, and to be admired in all them that believe in that day."

This coming of Christ, and the great day of the Lord, is after the little horn has fulfilled his times of making war upon the saints of the Most High for a time, times, and a half, or 1260 days, commencing with the taking away of the daily sacrifice and placing in its stead the abomination of desolation; and 1335 days from that same starting point there will be a resurrection of the just and the unjust, even as it is testified (Dan. 12:2) saying, “ And many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt." This is referred to again in verse 12.

The righteous that are raised at this point of time appear to be those that were put to death under the reign of the little horn, or man of sin, which continues for three years and a half, and who are referred to in the Revelation (20:4) as follows, " And I saw the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus, and for the word of God, and which had not worshipped the beast, neither his image, neither had received his mark upon their foreheads, or in their hands, and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years."

At this time as shown by the testimony of Daniel, and by the testimony of Jesus Christ, there will be a resurrection of just and unjust persons, but there is no translation of the righteous living at this resurrection, for the reason that the righteous living at this time will continue to live on in the flesh and will constitute the beginning of the new nation of Israel under the new covenant, for whom Michael stands up. He will restrain the ravages of the king of Israel who does according to his will, and the righteous that have not been slain by him during these times of trouble such as never were since there was a nation, even to that same time, shall be delivered, every one that shall be found written in the book; or as the prophet Isaiah testifies, saying, “And it shall come to pass that he that is left in Zion, and he that remaineth in Jerusalem, shall be called holy, even every one that is written among the living in Jerusalem." The 144,000 must needs be comprehended in that number.

Therefore the announcement which we made on another page we think we have fully established; namely, that the things which the Lord said must shortly come to pass, as set forth in this revelation and prophecy, are things to be manifested in the earth subsequent to the resurrection and translation of the body of Christ in the latter days, and that the scenes of the judgment as laid in this prophecy, such as the Father sitting in judgment delivering the little book containing the judgments written into the hand of the Lamb, and the opening of the seven seals thereof, and the sounding of the seven trumpets, and the pouring out of the seven vials containing the seven last plagues, and the fall of mystical Babylon, are all things which are yet to arise in the future, and therefore can only be interpreted by the prophecies of the Old and New Testament Scriptures, and not by human or profane histories, ancient or modern. These facts we shall show more fully as we advance with the interpretation of the testimony of Jesus.

THE SALUTATION (REV. 1:4-6)

"John to the seven churches which are in Asia, Grace be unto you, and peace, from him which is, and which was, and which is to come, and from the seven spirits which are before his throne; and from Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness, and the first-begotten of the dead, and the prince of the kings of the earth. Unto him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood, and hath made us kings and priests unto God and his Father, to him be glory and dominion for ever and ever, Amen." This salutation to the seven churches in Asia, saying, "Grace and peace unto you," proceeds from three sources: first, from the Father himself, which is and which was, and which is to come; and second, from the seven spirits which are before his throne; and third, from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness.

FIRST. THE SALUTATION OF THE FATHER HIMSELF

This salutation carries with it an important doctrine, and therefore instead of saying in plain language that it comes from the Father, it is said to proceed from him "which is, and which was, and which is to come." Again (4:6-8) it is said, "And round about the throne were four beasts full of eyes before and behind,— and they rest not day nor night, saying, Holy, Holy, Lord God Almighty, which was, and is, and is to come."

Again, John was shown as it were a sea of glass before the throne, and them which had gotten the victory over the beast, and over his image, and over his mark, and over the number of his name, stand on the sea of glass, having the harps of God, and they sing the song of Moses the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb, saying, "Great and marvellous are thy works, Lord God Almighty; just and true are thy ways, thou King of saints. Who shall not fear thee, O Lord, and glorify thy name? for thou only art holy, for all nations shall come and worship before thee, for thy judgments are made manifest." This is what Moses and the Lamb (the prophet like unto Moses) say in this song, of the Father, of him who sits upon the throne, calling him by his proper titles including his memorial name, "Lord God Almighty," and they say of him, "Who shall not fear thee, O Lord, and glorify thy name? for thou only art holy"; and the four beasts (the glorified saints) say as above, "Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty, which was, and is, and is to come." These titles and sayings, to be properly understood, refer us back to the revelation which God made of himself, especially in the days of the patriarchs, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. And in the day when God brought the seed of Abraham his friend out of Egypt by the hand of Moses, the Lord said. to Moses (Exod. 6:3), "I appeared unto Abraham, unto Isaac, and unto Jacob, by the name of God Almighty, but by my name Jehovah was I not known to them."

The Lord appeared to Abraham to make a covenant with him, a covenant which covers the whole work of human redemption and embodies all the mighty works which God did in delivering the children of Israel out of the bondage of Egypt with a high hand and an uplifted arm. by signs and miracles

and wonders such as had never before been seen in all the earth. It also covers what he did when he raised up another prophet like unto Moses, unto the people of Israel, in whose mouth he put his word, and by whose hand he wrought signs and miracles and mighty wonders, who went about doing good, and healing all that were oppressed of the Devil, whom he raised from the dead and showed openly, and in whom he showed the hope of man's salvation and immortality by resurrection from the dead. Moreover, it also covers all the mighty works that God will yet do in the latter days in executing the judg ments written, both upon Jew and Gentile; and in the resurrection of the just and unjust, and in the reign of Christ and his brethren in the earth over the whole house of Israel and the nations, until the last enemy, death, shall be destroyed, when God shall have put down all rule and authority by the hand of his Son whom he hath made strong for himself. This will be accomplished at the end of the thousand years' reign, when the thousand generations also shall have fully run their course, for the covenant made with Abraham by the word and oath of God is to continue for a thousand generations.

Now in view, therefore, of the fact that all God's mighty works of human redemption with the families of the earth from the time of Abraham to the end, and in putting down all rule and all authority and power that his will may be done in the earth, as it is done in heaven,- I say in view of the fact that all these things are comprehended in, and guaranteed by the covenant that God made with Abraham, God declared his name to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, a name that would cover all these things and set forth his ability to carry into execution and perform them to the last jot and tittle. By that name God made himself known to Abraham, the father of the faithful, as it is recorded in the seventeenth chapter of the Book of Genesis, saying, “And when Abraham was ninety years old, and nine, the Lord appeared to Abram, and said unto him, I am the Almighty God. Walk before me and be thou perfect, and I will make my covenant with thee, and will multiply thee exceedingly. And Abraham fell on his face, and God talked with him saying, As for me, behold my covenant is with thee, and thou shalt be a father of many nations. Neither shall thy name any more be called Abram, but thy name shall be Abraham, for a father of many nations have I made thee."

Therefore when God made promises to Abram and embodied them into a covenant, and then proclaimed to Abram his name which signified his ability to perform what he had promised, saying, "I am the Almighty God," he at the same time changed Abram's name from the one he had to one that should express his faith and hope, saying, "Thy name shall be Abraham, for a father of many nations have I made thee."

Now Paul says, touching Abraham's faith in God's ability to do what his name "God Almighty" imports, "For when the Lord brought him forth abroad, and said to him, Look now toward heaven and tell the stars, if thou be able to number them, and he said unto him, So shall thy seed be, and Abram believed in the Lord, and the Lord counted it to him for righteousness"; commenting on this, Paul says of Abraham, "Who against hope believed in hope that he might become the father of many nations, according to that which was spoken. So shall thy seed be. And being not weak in faith, he considered not his own body now dead, when he was about an hundred years