f all the earth. The work
here enjoined was to be performed by his legitimate successors.

The reed is the symbol of the word of God. It is of the same import as
Zechariah's "measuring line." (ch. ii. 1,) and to be used for the same
purpose--"to measure Jerusalem," the temple; for both are emblematical
of the church of God. The "temple, altar and worshippers," are emblems
of the church, her doctrines, worship and membership, tried by the
Scriptures--the "reed." There are Gentiles who worship in the outer
court, treading under foot both it and the city. These are formal,
immoral, idolatrous professors of Christianity. They are rejected by God
as reprobate, and by his command to be "cast out" from the fellowship of
his people,--authoritatively excommunicated by those to whom Jesus
Christ has given the key of discipline.

Here then, at the disclosing of the contents of the little open book, it
is manifest that John goes back from the sixth trumpet in the
seventeenth century, when the Eastern section of the Roman empire was
subverted, by the Othmans, and gives us another view of society in
Christendom cotemporaneously with the trumpets. It follows necessarily
that the little book does not rank, as some imagine, under any one
trumpet; much less does it comprehend all the remaining chapters of the
Apocalypse, as others vainly suppose. This matter will receive
increasing confirmation as we advance.

Those who worship within the temple and those who worship without, are
evidently distinguished from each other. They differ in character tested
by the word of God, in fellowship, as authoritatively separated
according to the rule of the same word: for whereas the gentile
worshippers are so numerous as to crowd both the outer court and the
city, the measured worshippers are all included within the confines of
the temple, (Song iv. 12.) _Measuring_ is equivalent to the _sealing_ of
the servants of God in the seventh chapter; and imports that they are
secured from the sins and plagues of their time. The period of the
apostacy from God is fixed to "forty and two months." According to
Jewish mode of reckoning, a day for a year, (Num. xiv. 34; Dan. ix. 24,)
the whole period is 1260 years. Each month has thirty days. Multiply
forty-two by thirty, and we have 1260. The _same_ period of time,--not
merely an equal period, is otherwise expressed by the prophet Daniel
thus: "time, times, and a half." (ch. xii. 7.) That is, 360, the number
o