gin), shall shine as the brightness of the firmament; and they that turn many to righteousness, as the stars for ever and ever." And during those times of trouble and persecution, it is said (verse 10), "Many shall be purified, and made white, and tried, but the wicked shall do wickedly, and none of the wicked shall understand, but the wise shall understand." In those days the wicked will be blinded and their hearts hardened, as were the hearts of Pharaoh and his people in the days of old.

THE HARVEST OF THE RIGHTEOUS (REV. 14: 14-16)

"And I looked, and behold a white cloud, and upon the cloud one sat like unto the Son of man, having on his head a golden crown, and in his hand a sharp sickle. And another angel came out of the temple, crying with a loud voice to him that sat on the cloud, Thrust in thy sickle, and reap: for the time is come for thee to reap; for the harvest of the earth is ripe. And he that sat on the cloud thrust in his sickle on the earth; and the earth was reaped."

The righteous who die in the Lord in these times of trouble which are without parallel in Israel's history, constitute a harvest, a harvest of righteous people who suffer by the will of God; for it has been from the beginning God's purpose that the righteous should be made perfect through suffering. If Jesus, though he were a son, yet learned obedience by the things which he suffered and so became the author of eternal salvation for all who obey him, why should not his brethren suffer to gain the crown of life, as well as he? Many therefore have sealed their faith by their blood, wherefore Peter saith, "Beloved, think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened unto you, but rejoice inasmuch as ye are partakers of Christ's sufferings, that, when his glory shall be revealed, ye may be glad also with exceeding joy. Wherefore let them that suffer according to the will of God, commit the keeping of their souls (their persons) to him in well doing as unto a faithful creator."

Therefore those who die in the time of trial by the hand of the enemy and the avenger because they will not worship the beast, neither his image, are pronounced blessed and their good works follow them; and as Jesus died and rose again, so will they soon after rise again to life eternal.

One like unto the Son of man, who wears the crown of gold, reaps the harvest; that is, the enemy could have no power to kill the saints of God except it were given them from above. The angel that cried with a loud voice to him that sat on the white cloud, saying, “Thrust in thy sickle and reap, for the harvest of the earth is ripe," came out of the Temple. This Temple is the body of Christ made perfect, that is to say, he came forth from among the saints in light with the Father's command to thrust in his sickle and reap the harvest of the earth because the harvest was fully ripe.

THE HARVEST OF THE WICKED (REV. 14:17-18)

"And another angel came out of the temple which is in heaven, he also having a sharp sickle. And another angel came out from the altar (Christ is the altar whence he comes forth) which had power over fire; and cried with a loud cry to him that had the sharp sickle, saying, Thrust in thy sharp sickle and gather the clusters of the vine of the earth; for her grapes are fully ripe.”

THE CLUSTERS OF THE VINE OF THE EARTH

There is a harvest for the wicked, as well as a harvest for the righteous, but of a very different character. The righteous are gathered like shocks of corn fully ripe and fit for the master's use, but the wicked are to be trodden down under foot, and perish. The Lord said to Israel by the hand of Jeremiah, "Of old time I have broken thy yoke, and burst thy bands; and thou saidst, I will not transgress (they said this to Joshua); when upon every high hill and under every green tree thou wanderest, playing the harlot. Yet I planted thee a noble vine, wholly a right seed, how then art thou turned into the degenerate plant of a strange vine unto me" (2:20-21).

Again he illustrates by a parable, recorded in the fifth chapter of the prophecies of Isaiah, where it is said, "My well beloved hath a vineyard in a very fruitful hill; and he fenced it, and gathered out the stones thereof, and planted it with the choicest vine, and built a tower in the midst of it, and also made a wine-press therein: and he looked that it should bring forth grapes, and it brought forth wild grapes." The interpretation says, "The vineyard of the Lord of hosts is the house of Israel, and the men of Judah his pleasant plant: and he looked for judgment, but behold oppression; for righteousness, but behold a cry." And now saith the Lord (verse 51), “And now, go to; I will tell you what I will do to my vineyard: I will take away the hedge thereof, and it shall be eaten up: and break down the wall thereof, and it shall be trodden down. And I will lay it waste: it shall not be pruned nor digged: but there shall come up briers and thorns: I will also command the clouds that they rain no rain upon it."

The Lord has already executed judgment upon this vineyard and upon this degenerate plant of a strange vine, in part, but there is to be the second manifestation of the whole house of Israel under the second law, as contained in the Book of Deuteronomy, in the latter days in which they will exceed the degenerate character of the strange vine in the past, when this vineyard for the last time will be trodden under foot and destroyed because of her degeneracy. Therefore Moses in the song of witness, concerning their latter day degeneracy, speaks of the character of this strange vine, the quality of her grapes and the character of her wine in that day, saying, "For their vine is the vine of Sodom, and of Gomorrah; their grapes are grapes of gall, their clusters are bitter: their wine is the poison of dragons, and the cruel venom of asps. Is this not laid up in store with me, and sealed up among my treasures?" The answer is Yes, it is sealed up for the latter day when the Lamb will open the seals and the judgments written therein will be read and executed.

THE GREAT WINE-PRESS OF THE WRATH OF GOD

Those who suppose that the things contained in this book of the prophecy of Christ relate chiefly to what has taken place, and what is yet to take place among the Gentile nations of the earth, and in Gentile countries, experience great difficulty in finding anything there to answer to the strong language that is used in these Scriptures in speaking of the great wine-press of the wrath of God. But when we turn our attention to the house of Israel and God's dealings with them in their former days, ending with the destruction of the Jewish

state and city by Titus; and especially with his future dealings with them in the latter days as pointed out in the prophetic writings of the Old and New Testament Scriptures, then the interpretation of these visions of John become comparatively easy and natural.

The great wine-press, therefore, is the whole house of Israel in the latter days when they have degenerated and turned back again to the iniquities of their ancestors, and the extent of the wine-press is commensurate with the lands that this numerous people will occupy in that day, extending from the entering in at Hamath on the north, to the river of the wilderness on the south, a distance of sixteen hundred furlongs, that is, about two hundred miles.

But Who Will Tread the Wine-press?

He that hath on his vesture and on his thigh a name written, King of Kings, and Lord of Lords, he treadeth the wine-press of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God (Rev. 19:15-16). Therefore when he comes to enter upon that work, the Prophet Isaiah inquires saying (63), "Who is this that cometh from Edom, with dyed garments from Bosrah? this that is glorious in his apparel, travelling in the greatness of his strength?" The answer is, "I that speak in righteousness, mighty to save." The question is asked again, “Wherefore art thou red in thine apparel, and thy garments like him that treadeth in the winefat?" He replies, "I have trodden the wine-press alone; and of the people there was none with me; for I will tread them in mine anger, and trample them in my fury; and their blood shall be sprinkled upon my garments, and I will stain all my raiment. For the day of vengeance is in mine heart, and the year of my redeemed is come; and I looked, and there was none to help; and I wondered that there was none to uphold: therefore mine own arm brought salvation unto me; and my fury, it upheld me. And I will tread down the people in mine anger, and make them drunk in my fury, and I will bring down their strength to the earth."

That the wine-press consists of the people of Israel may be seen from the Lamentations of the Prophet Jeremiah. The sorrowful occasion on which he wrote these Lamentations, these very important and instructive prophecies, was when Josiah, a wise and good king of Judah, fell in battle at Megiddo, which was on this wise: after Josiah's passover and after he had repaired the Temple, Pharaoh Necho King of Egypt went up against the king of Assyria at Carchemish by the river Euphrates, and Josiah went out against him. But he sent ambassadors to him, saying, "What have I to do with thee, thou king of Judah? I come not against thee this day, but against the house wherewith I have war; for God commanded me to make haste: forbear thee from meddling with God who is with me, that he destroy thee not.

"Nevertheless Josiah would not turn his face from him, but disguised himself, that he might fight with him, and hearkened not unto the words of Necho from the mouth of God, and came to fight in the valley of Megiddo. And the archers shot at King Josiah: and the king said to his servants, Have me away; for I am sore wounded. His servants therefore took him out of that chariot, and put him in the second chariot that he had, and brought him to Jerusalem, and he died, and was buried in one of the sepulchres of his fathers: and all Judah and Jerusalem mourned for Josiah. And Jeremiah lamented

for Josiah; and all the singing men and women spake of Josiah in their lamentations to this day, and made them an ordinance in Israel: and behold, they are written in the lamentations" (II Chron. 35: 20-27).

Therefore the Book of the Lamentations was written by the prophet at a time of great sorrow and mourning, and as this great calamity was a symbol of another and a far greater calamity which shall befall the whole house of Israel at another Megiddo in the latter days, called in the Hebrew tongue, Armageddon, therefore while the Lamentations refer incidentally to the calamity that occurred at Megiddo when King Josiah fell, nevertheless they refer chiefly to a far greater and more wide-spread calamity which shall overtake Jerusalem and her people in the future. The Lamentations contain many things that have no reference to the catastrophe at Megiddo, but instead they contain a description of the miseries and calamities of Jerusalem and the people of Israel; so that when we read this book, we have before our minds an account of what God will do in his anger with his rebellious house for the sins of her kings, her prophets and her priests who have, as it is stated in Lamentations (4:14), shed the blood of the just in the midst of her, and polluted themselves with blood so that men could not touch their garments.

Again to show that it is to the latter days that these Lamentations refer, it is said in the first part, "Jerusalem remembered in the day of her affliction and of her miseries, all her pleasant things that she had in the days of old." The standpoint from whence she views these things, therefore, is in the latter days. Again it is said, She remembered not her last end, therefore she came down wonderfully ": If Jerusalem would but remember what Moses and her prophets testify concerning the evils that will befall her at her last end, one would suppose that she would repent.

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Again, speaking of the uncircumcised Gentiles entering into the Temple, when the abomination of desolation is set up there, it is said (1:10), “The adversary hath spread out his hand upon all her pleasant things: for she hath seen that the heathen entered into her sanctuary, whom thou didst command that they should not enter into thy congregation." (Verse 12), "Is it nothing to you, all ye that pass by? Behold, and see if there be any sorrow like unto my sorrow, which is done unto me, wherewith the Lord hath afflicted me in the day of his fierce anger." Again (verse 15), the wine-press of the wrath of God is spoken of, showing who the people are who constitute the wine-press, also the manner in which, and by whom the wine-press is trodden, saying, "The Lord hath trodden under foot all my mighty men in the midst of me." Here the Lord is said to have trodden under foot all their mighty men. In the next passage it is shown how the Lord does this, saying, "He hath called an assembly against me to crush my young men "; and then adds what we have been trying to show, "The Lord hath trodden the virgin, the daughter of Judah, as in a wine-press." And in another place (4: 11-12), "The Lord hath accomplished his fury; he hath poured out his fierce anger, he hath kindled a fire in Zion, and it hath devoured the foundations thereof. The kings of the earth and all the inhabitants of the world would not have believed that the adversary and the enemy should have entered into the gates of Jerusalem."

The Manner of Treading the Wine-press

The Lamentation saith, "The Lord hath trodden all my mighty men in the midst of me." And the means by which the Lord doeth all this, is also stated, "He hath called an assembly against me to crush my young men." These things make it clear as to what the wine-press is, and the means by which it is to be trodden; that is, by the means of an assembly of great nations of which Joel speaks, saying, "The Lord shall utter his voice before his army; for his camp is very great: for he is strong that executeth his word: for the day of the Lord is great and very terrible, and who can abide it." This great army, we have elsewhere shown, is the great army of the Assyrian whom the Lord says shall tread down the people of his wrath like the mire of the streets. The one-third part of the rebellious house is to fall by his sword.

Moreover they are the same people brought to view in the prophecy of Christ as the locusts that came forth out of the smoke of the bottomless pit. And the shapes of the locusts John says, "were like unto horses prepared unto battle." These horses symbolize soldiers; and their riders, the captains that are over them. And when the four commanders, called angels, who are bound in the great river Euphrates, are loosed for an hour, a day, and a month, and a year, it is to slay a third part of men,- or in other words, to tread the winepress of the wrath of God. The Lord speaks by the hand of Ezekiel saying, Son of man, when the land sinneth against me by transgressing grievously, . . . if I bring a sword upon that land, and say, Sword, go through the land; so that I cut off man and beast from it: though these three men (Noah, Daniel, and Job) were in it, as I live, said the Lord God, they shall deliver neither sons nor daughters, but they only shall be delivered themselves."

THE ANGEL THRUST IN HIS SICKLE (REV. 14:19-20)

"And the angel thrust in his sickle into the earth, and gathered the vine of the earth, and cast it into the great wine-press of the wrath of God, and the wine-press was trodden without the city, and blood came out of the wine-press, even unto the horses' bridles, by the space of a thousand and six hundred furlongs."

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"Blood to the Horses' Bridles" (Rev. 14:20)

This passage though figurative yet expresses in the most forcible language the terrible carnage that will be seen in Israel's land when the Lord says, Sword go through the land, and cut off man and beast from it." This language can only be understood by associating it with other figures of speech of like character. For instance in Balaam's prophecy of the latter days he speaks of the invincible power of Israel when they go forth against the nations of the earth, when the Lord goes forth with their armies to battle, saying, "Behold the people shall rise up as a great lion, and lift up himself as a young lion; he shall not lie down until he eat of the prey, and drink the blood of the slain" (Num. 23: 24). But when Israel again in the latter days turns back to the iniquities of their ancestors, and the Lord goes forth no more with their armies but fights against them, when the Lord gathers to himself from among the nations of the earth a great and mighty army to come against his idolatrous