The Reading which is Blessed.

REVELATION I. 1-3.

"The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave unto him, to shew unto his servants things which must shortly come to pass; and he sent and signified it by his angel unto his servant John:

"Who bare record of the word of God, and of the testimony of Jesus Christ, and of all things that he saw.

"Blessed is he that readeth, and they that hear the words of this prophecy, and keep those things which are written therein: for the time is at hand."

Reader,

We live in "troublous" and "perilous' times. It is many years since there has been so much in the aspect of public affairs to raise anxious thoughts, as there is at the present day.*

We are always apt to exaggerate the importance of events that happen in our own times. I do not forget that. But I cannot retract what I have just written. I look around me at the things now going on in the world. I look forward to the possible future. And as I look I feel that I am justified in speaking of our

*Written in 1855.

times as "perilous" and "troublous."

I appeal to the judgment of all who observe the history of their own day. "Is there not a cause?"

There are three heavy judgments which God can send upon a nation,-the sword, the pestilence, and the famine. These three have fallen heavily upon our country within the last twenty-two years. Cholera, that mysterious scourge, has thrice visited the land, each time sweeping off its thousands, and each time baffling the skill of the most eminent physicians. The Irish famine has thinned the population of one of the fairest portions of the queen's dominions, and made us acquainted with miseries which before we had hardly conceived. A war with Russia, now happily concluded, has caused an awful expenditure of English blood and money,- —a war, be it remembered, which began about the holy places at Jerusalem, ‚—a war, be it remembered, which was closely bound up with the mysterious wasting away of the Mahometan power. Surely these signs of the times deserve no common notice. They should make us say with Habakkuk, "I will stand upon my watch and set me upon my tower, and will watch to see what He will say unto me." (Hab. ii. 1.) They should make us cry with Daniel, "O my Lord, what shall be the end of these things?" (Dan. xii. 8.)

But one thing, at all events, is clear, and that is the duty incumbent on Christians to search more diligently than ever the prophetical Scriptures. Let us not be like the Jews at the first advent, blind to the hand of God, and the fulfilment of His purposes in all that is going on in the world. Let us rather remember that the

word of prophecy is given to be "a light shining in a dark place, until the day dawn, and the day-star arise.” (2 Pet. i. 19.) Let us walk much in that light. Let us search "what and what manner of time the Spirit of Christ in the prophets did signify, when He testified before the sufferings of Christ, and the glory that should follow." (1 Pet. i. 11.) Let us compare prophecies fulfilled with prophecies unfulfilled, and endeavour to make the one illustrate the other. Let us strive, above all, to obtain clear views of the things yet to be expected, both in the church and the world, before the end comes, and time shall be no more.

With such feelings I now invite you to enter on the consideration of the verses of Scripture, which stand at the head of this tract. Those verses, I need hardly remind you, are the preface or opening words of the Book of Revelation. May the blessing which is specially promised to the readers and hearers of this book be with all into whose hands this tract may fall!

Reader, there are three points to which I desire to call your attention :

I. The general character of the Book of Revelation.

II. The arguments commonly used to deter men from reading it.

III. The many useful lessons which the study of it is calculated to teach.

I. The general character of the Book of Revelation. The Book of Revelation differs widely from any other

book of the Old or New Testaments. In many respects

it is unlike the rest of the Bible. and majestic peculiarity about it.

There is a solemn It stands alone.

It is peculiar in the dignity with which it begins. The very first verse prepares the reader for something extraordinary-for a book even more directly from God, if possible, than one written under the plenary inspiration of the Holy Ghost. It is called, "The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave unto Him, to shew unto His servants things which must shortly come to pass, and He sent and signified it by His angel unto His servant John."

It is peculiar in the subject matter which it contains. It contains less of doctrinal and practical Christianity, in proportion to its length, than any book of the New Testament. With few exceptions, its pages are filled with prophecies,-prophecies of the widest range, extending, it seems to me, from the time of John, to the very end of the world-prophecies embracing a vast number of events, spreading over the whole "times of the Gentiles," and covering the mighty interval between the destruction of the first Jerusalem and the descent of the new Jerusalem from heaven-prophecies of most universal importance, having reference not only to the condition and prospects of the believing Church, but also of the unconverted world.

It is peculiar in the style and dress in which its subject matter is clothed. With the exception of the 2nd and 3rd chapters, the greater part of the book is composed of visions which the apostle John saw in the spirit. In these visions the vast range of the Church's history was

revealed to him under emblems, figures, allegories, symbols, and similitudes. Of the great majority of these symbols and emblems the meaning is not revealed. The general characteristics of these visions are much alike. All are marked by a vastness, a grandeur, a majesty, a life, a force, a boldness, a sublimity, entirely unparalleled in any human writings. The door opened in heaven-the voice like a trumpet speaking—the sea of glass like crystal-the seven seals-the seven trumpets -the seven vials-the four angels holding the four winds the mighty angel with a face like the sun, his right foot on the sea, his left on the earth-the woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet-the great red dragon having seven heads and ten horns— the beast that rose out of the sea-the mighty earthquake the destruction of Babylon-the summoning of the fowls of heaven to the supper of the great Godthe binding of Satan-the great white throne-the last judgment-the descent of the New Jerusalem from heaven-the description of the glorious city-who can read such things without being struck by them? Who can study them and avoid the conclusion-"this is written with the finger of God? ”

Such is the general character of the Book of Revelation. Such is the book which you are emphatically told, it is "blessed" to read. I will only offer two general remarks on the symbolical style in which the book is composed, and then pass on.

One remark is, that you must not regard the use of smybolical language as entirely peculiar to the Book of Revelation. You will find it in other parts of Scripture.