Bible.
It is the oldest book in some of its parts, but admitted to be the
freshest and most modern in its adaptation to modern life. And the
reason is simple. The pictures give _principles_. Principles don't
change with the changing of centuries. Rules change. Principles abide.
Details alter with every generation. Principles of action are as
unchangeable as human nature, which is ever the same, east and west,
below the equator, and above.

John's Revelation is naturally full of this picture language, for it is
a gathering up of the chief threads of the old Oriental Hebrew fabric.
It will help us understand the meaning if we keep in mind the simple
rules of this Hebrew picture language.

John, of course, was a Hebrew, born and bred in a Hebrew home, and
immersed in the old Hebrew Bible from the time of his mother's milk.
What Greek language and culture had come was a bit of the outer world
come into his Hebrew home and life. Now in his old age the early memory
is asserting itself.

Then too it is quite likely that in his imprisonment he had been
brooding anew over the old prophecies, reviewing afresh events since the
resurrection of Jesus,--the growth of the Church, and now the severe
persecution, with himself a prisoner. And while he in no way doubts the
unseen overruling Hand, yet he is seeking to get a fresh outlook into
the future from the old prophetic writings.

And through all of this without doubt the Holy Spirit was brooding in
unusual measure over this man, reviving early memory, bringing to his
remembrance all things of other days, deepening impressions, bringing
old facts into new perspective, giving clearer vision, mellowing and
maturing both mind and heart into fresh plastic openness to further
truth. And so we have this little book with its Hebrew soul and its
Greek body.

The meaning of all this is very simple, and yet a meaning of intense
significance. Here is summed up the whole of the revelation of God's
Word. Here all the lines of Revelation meet. Almost two thousand years
of inspiration come to a climax in this little end-book. Psalmist and
prophet, historian and law-giver, Gospel and Epistle come to a final
focus point in one simple intense message. The purpose of the book is
intensely and only practical. Here is the message of the whole Bible to
Christ's people _for this present interval_ between the Ascension and
the next great step in our Lord's world-plan.

Jesus' Plea to His Friends.