mountains," and say to
the mountains and rocks, "Fall on us and hide us from the face of him
that sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb: for the
great day of his wrath is come; and who shall be able to stand?" This is
the time that the martyrs looked forward to when they cried, "How long,
O Lord, holy and true, dost thou not judge and avenge our blood on them
that dwell on the earth?" A large portion of the Apocalypse is occupied
with the history of these persecuting powers, civil and ecclesiastical.
It is their dominacy that constitutes the long period of tribulation to
the church, when the witnesses prophesy in sackcloth and the faithful
are ground into the dust by the feet of these proud oppressors as they
stand in the high places of the earth. But the cries of the slaughtered
saints have ascended to the throne as incense; God speaks; the judgments
of Heaven descend upon these lofty ones; and a voice from heaven
declares, "They have shed the blood of saints and prophets, and _thou
hast given them blood to drink_; for they are worthy."

This is surely a striking combination of symbols, and the way they are
arranged would indicate that their fulfilment occupied a considerable
period of time. First we have a great earthquake, afterwards the
darkening of the sun and the moon, with the falling of the stars, and
finally the dissolution of the heavens themselves, with the sweeping
away of mountains and islands. This description covers the same period
as that described under the seven last plagues, beginning with certain
fearful revolutions in which the nations that had slaughtered the
millions of God's people were given "blood to drink," and ending finally
in "the great day of his wrath" that shall sweep them from their
positions eternally. The full explanation of these events can not at
present be appreciated by the reader, therefore I reserve it for the
future, to be more fully developed under other symbols.

In these six seals we have a vivid outline of mighty events, political
and ecclesiastical, extending from the earliest stage of Christianity to
the end of time. This description in advance was no mere human
production. No human foresight would have detected, and no mortal mind
would have conceived, events so wonderful and so farreaching in their
character. Any other history would sooner have been imagined. It takes
divine wisdom to understand the true position of the church in the
present, and she c