f purity than this.

Then there is an overwhelming sense of _authority_. That seems the human
word to use, though the word seems to tell so much less than John felt.
John feels it more than he can tell it. He cannot tell it in words. His
limp figure lying flat on the earth tells what words never can. He had
seen the glory outshining in the Transfiguration Mount, but this is
unspeakably beyond that.

There was a voice like a trumpet. It commanded John to write. It says:
"I _became_ dead, and, behold! I _am_ alive forever more." It is an
authority over life to yield it up, and over death to put it to death,
and call life back, never again to be touched by the finger of death. No
such authority is known among men to-day. And this is further emphasized
in the quiet words: "I have the _keys_--- the control--of death and of
the whole spirit world."

But immensely more than all this to John was the intense feeling of
majesty which completely overpowered him. The sense of authority was
overwhelming. The items in the description can thus be catalogued, but
it is impossible to get the overwhelming sense of majestic authority
that came to John, except as he got it,--by a _sight_, something of a
sight of this great crowned Christ.

But _who_ is this? Is this not merely Ezekiel's vision repeated?[60] He
saw just such a vision, one in the likeness of a man, enveloped in fire,
and sitting on a throne. And the effect was the same as Ezekiel lies
flat on his face. Is it not the same as Daniel saw?[61] A _man_ clothed
in linen, aflame with inner fire, and the same authoritative voice, and
Daniel in a deep sleep of awe-stricken stupor with face on the ground?
He does indeed seem to be the same. The descriptions tally remarkably.

But listen. He speaks. And the sense of terrifying authority in the
voice that spake is gentled to John's tense ear in the quiet words that
come. Like the loving words that came to Daniel's quaking heart is the
personal message that came to John,--"Fear not." And with the words, as
ever, come the new sense of stilling peace within. "I am the First and
the Last, and the Living One."

Still it may be Ezekiel's Man even yet, or Daniel's. But listen: "and I
_became dead_." Ah! this identifies Him. Now we know for the first time
that this Man of Flame is Jesus our Brother-man. The cross becomes the
mark of identification. The form of the words as spoken fits in with the
sense of authority. With great strength of