s presented. The promise is
made, "And I will give power unto my two witnesses, and they shall
prophesy a thousand two hundred and threescore days, clothed in
sackcloth."[681] The work committed to these witnesses was arduous. Nor
was the finishing of their testimony, in the eyes of the world,
enviable. But manifestly great was to be their gracious reward, when
they should ascend up to heaven in a cloud, and their enemies behold
them. The duty to which they were called, and their high enjoyments to
follow, the little book which John was commanded to eat, contained. It
appeared open in the hand of that mighty angel--the angel Jehovah--come
down from heaven, whose face was as it were the sun, and his feet as
pillars of fire. To assure his servants of the stability of his
covenant, through which is dispensed his all-sufficient grace, and to
prompt them faithfully to perform their high duties, in vision he was
seen clothed with a cloud, and with a rainbow upon his head.[682]

Beauteous is the bow in the cloud in the day of rain. More beauteous
than what is simply material, is it to the mind's eye as a Covenant
sign. The colours of that bow, unfaded throughout all ages, have
continued; and the security of God's covenant is without change. Though
the waters of another flood will not invade the earth, the flood of
Divine wrath will swallow up the world of the ungodly. None of God's
Covenant signs stir them up to duty; and as to each Covenant sign they
continue wilfully blind, to them no final sign of good will appear. But
while by them no token of deliverance will be seen, to the righteous,
the evidence of God's purpose to deliver them will be complete. And when
his enemies, like the men of old time, who, while the flood's
destructive waters advanced, may have fled to the mountains for safety,
will in vain seek deliverance from Divine wrath, his people,
contemplating the evidence of his gracious regard to them, in triumph
will acknowledge,--"Truly in vain is salvation hoped for from the hills,
and from the multitude of mountains; truly in the Lord our God is the
salvation of Israel."[683]

But next was given, the sign of Circumcision. "This is my covenant,
which ye shall keep, between me and you, and thy seed after thee: every
man-child among you shall be circumcised. And ye shall circumcise the
flesh of your foreskin; and it shall be a token of the covenant betwixt
me and you. And he that is eight days old shall be circumcis