ooking sleeplessly down there is rest
even as of emerald-green. And so there will be rest for him who looks
sleeplessly _up_ to the _throne_ of control, encircled in the emerald
rainbow of perfect peace. And we can be of best service to Him by
resting in our hearts, resting in Him, even while working in the thick
of things as they are down here.

They See His Face.

Then John sees twenty-four other thrones round about the central throne.
And on these there are twenty-four men sitting. These men are wearing
white garments, and have crowns of gold upon their heads. This is the
part of intense interest. Who are these? And what does this mean?

What has been said before about picture language, the language of the
Orient, of childhood, of the common crowd, the universal language, will
help us here. The Bible is an Oriental book. It talks in picture
language. This is humanly what gives it such freshness and peculiar
adaptation. The radical change of circumstances and speech and mode of
thought in different centuries makes all books antiquated after a
certain time. This book has the freshness of youth, for in its simple
picture language it deals in principles. But picture language must be
held to its simplicity. And something of familiarity with the whole
range of the Scripture is needful to use the key to the simple picture
language.

Let us look a bit at the simple scene here. These men are elders, that
is they are leaders. They represent multitudes of others. Throughout the
Bible twelve is the number of completeness, both in things and people. A
complete gathering or throng of people is represented by the number
twelve. There are twelve tribes of Israel, and so on. This is so
familiar that it need only be named without further illustration.

There are two great divisions of this Bible, the Old Testament and the
New. These stand naturally for the two great divisions of time, before
Christ and after. This division is strongly marked in the Bible, and
sharply marked in our Christian consciousness. It has been a common
thing to wonder about the salvation and spiritual knowledge and
privileges of people who lived before Christ came and died.

Twice twelve make twenty-four. These twenty-four elders represent the
redeemed ones from both of these great divisions of time. That is to
say, the picture tells us this. All the people from creation's earliest
morn up to the present, including the one who went out last from some
s