FIFTH SEAL.

And when he had opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of them that were slain for the Word of God, and for the testimony which they held: And they cried with a loud voice, saying, How long, O Lord, holy and true, dost Thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth? And white robes were given unto every one of them; and it was said unto them, that they should rest yet for a little season, until their fel. low-servants also and their brethren, that should be killed as they were, should be fulfilled" (Revelation vi. 9, 10, 11).

HISTORICAL FULFILMENT-A.D. 1517-72 to 1793. Cry of the Martyrs at the Reformation period, culminating in the Massacre of St. Bartholomew, followed by a period of waiting expectancy until the day of vengeance.

EXPLANATION OF THE SYMBOLS.

The prophetic scene is here shifted from earth to heaven, and the climax of the visible Church's degeneracy and desolation is indicated to be now reached. In answer to the martyrs' cry for retributive judgment, it is declared that an interval of a little season or chronos is yet to elapse before the final day of vengeance. But a prophetic chronos signifies 360 years,*

All year-day expositors understand a time, times, and a half time, i.e. 3 times, to be equal to 1,260 years, and the word a time to mean a year, i.e. 360 days literally, but 360 years mystically. In Greek either kairos or chronos is used to express a time; chronos, which here in Revelation vi. 11, is translated season, is translated time in Revelation x. 6; Matthew ii. 7; xxv. 19; Luke i. 57; Acts i. 7; kairos is translated time in Revelation xii. 14, and season in Acts i. 7; xxiv. 25. Thus kairos and chronos are equivalent and interchangeable terms, each of them being sometimes translated time and sometimes season. Bickersteth in his "Guide to the Prophecies" (chap. 14, page 183), speaking on Revelation x. 6, There shall be a time no longer," i.e. 360 years no longer (from the Reformation), says "A CHRONOS

as Bickersteth and others have long ago pointed out; therefore the expression a little chronos denotes a period rather shorter and less than 360 years. Hence this cry of the martyrs is indicated to be uttered somewhere between 300 and 360 years before 1890, which, from all the chronological dates, appears to be the approximate year of the consummation.

In accordance with this conclusion, we find that precisely from the commencement of Luther's Reformation in 1517 until the Massacre of St. Bartholomew's Day in 1572 there was, on the whole, the severest half-century of persecutions ever known, and which naturally arose from papal bigotry and intolerance striving to their utmost to crush the Reformation. Taking A.D. 1550 as the middle point and height of this half-century of persecution, we find that it is 340 years a little chronos, i.e., a short 360 yearsfrom 1550 to the consummation about A.D. 1890. The greatest persecution in England was from 1553 to 1558, in Queen Mary's reign.

D. N. Lord, who, in common with Cuninghame, M. Habershon, J. Hooper, E. Bickersteth, E. Huntingford, and others, commences this fifth seal about the period of the Reformation, makes the following excellent remarks regarding the cry of the martyrs :

"The cry of the martyrs is an appeal to the faithfulness of Christ to fulfil the promises of a speedy ad

IS ELSEWHERE USED IN REVELATION vi. 11, APPARENTLY IN THE SAME SENSE OF 360 YEARS: the Greek word used in time, times, and half a time (Revelation xii. 14) is kairos; there is a manifest analogy between the two words kairos and chronos; chronos is used, when an interval of delay has to occur (chroniddzei, delayeth, Matthew xxiv. 48; polun chronon, a long time, Matthew xxv. 19). Either of them may be equally significant of a precise period."