"And I saw an angel come down from heaven, having the key of the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand. And he laid hold on the dragon, that old serpent, which is the Devil, and Satan, and bound him a thousand years, and cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut him up, and set a seal upon him, that he should deceive the nations no more, till the thousand years should be fulfilled; and after that he must be loosed a little season.

"And I saw thrones, and they sat upon them, and judgment was given unto them. And I saw a great white throne, and him that sat on it, from whose face the earth and heaven fled away; and there was no place found for them. And I saw a new heaven and a new earth for the first heaven and first earth were passed away, and there was no more sea. And I John saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a great voice out of heaven, saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God. And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes: and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain; for the former things are passed away.

"And I saw the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus, and for the word of God, and which had not worshipped the beast, neither had received his mark upon their forehead, or in their hands; and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years. This is the first resurrection: blessed and holy is he which hath part in the first resurrection; on such the second death hath no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with him a thousand years. And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened; and another book was opened, which is the Book of life; and the dead were judged out of those things

which were written in the books, according to their works.

"But the rest of the dead lived not AGAIN until the thousand years were finished; and [then] the sea gave up the dead which were in it; and death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them. And when the thousand years are expired Satan shall be loosed out of his prison, and shall go out to deceive the nations which are in the four quarters of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together to battle; the number of whom is as the sand of the sea; and they went up on the breadth of the earth, and compassed the camp of the saints about, and the beloved city; and they were judged, every man according to their works. And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire this is the second death; and whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire; and fire came down from God out of heaven and devoured them: and the devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and false prophet are, and shall be tormented day and night forever and ever.

"And he that sat upon the throne said, Behold, I make all things new. And he said unto me, Write, for these words are true and faithful. And he said unto

me, It is done. I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end. I will give unto him that is athirst of the fountain of the water of life freely. He that overcometh shall inherit all [these] things; and I will be his God, and he shall be my son. But the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone; which [part] is the second death."

This is what I conceive to be a harmony of this part of Revelation. In this view all is plain.

Exposition of Revelation XI.

BY GEO. STORRS.

THE TWO WITNESSES.

"And there was given me a reed like unto a rod : and the angel stood, saying, Rise, and measure the temple of God, and the altar, and them that worship therein. But the court which is without the temple, leave out, and measure it not; for it is given unto the Gentiles; and the holy city shall they tread under foot forty and two months."

"The angel." What angel? Evidently the same that John had described in the tenth chapter. What angel was that? Read the first verse of that chapter. "And I saw another mighty angel come down from heaven, clothed with a cloud: and a rainbow was upon his head, and his face was as it were the sun, and his feet as pillars of fire." Compare this description with first chapter, 15th and 16th verses. "And his feet like unto fine brass, as if they burned in a furnace and his voice as the sound of many waters. And he had in his right hand seven stars and out of his mouth went a sharp two-edged sword: and his countenance was as the sun shineth in his strength."

This person all admit to be the Lord Jesus Christ. Can there be any doubt as to the identity of the person in the first chapter and the angel in the tenth? It seems to me there can be none. This same angel commands John to "measure the temple of God," &c. By the temple of God, though a reference is had to the literal temple at Jerusalem, I understand the church of God. See Ephesians ii. 19—22: "Now, therefore, ye are no more strangers and foreigners,

but fellow-citizens with the saints, and of the household of God; and are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner stone; in whom all the building fitly framed together, groweth unto a holy temple in the Lord; in whom ye also are builded together, for a habitation of God through the Spirit.'

The

This temple was now to be measured. The idea of measuring is to take the dimensions of a thing. This must be done by some rule. The rule, by which to measure the church of God, is the word of God. In this measurement, therefore, that which does not comport with that rule will not come within the temple -it is to be left out—it is the "outer court." courts of the temple, at Jerusalem, were three: the first, called the court of the Gentiles, because the Gentiles were allowed to enter so far and no farther they were not of the Jews, though they came to the same temple. They were properly representatives of nominal professors of Christianity, as the Jews were of real Christians.

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John is not to measure the nominal professors of religion, as they come not within the true church, and will be the greatest persecutors of that church—treading it "under foot" for a specified period. The phrase holy city" is used by the Revelator to denote the true church, or its habitation. See chap. xxi. 2, and xxii. 19. The real church of God was to be trodden under foot, by these Gentiles, in a peculiar sense, 42 months." I have shown, in my exposition of Daniel 7th chap., that "42 months," in prophetic language, is 1260 years; and this treading under foot of the holy city exactly corresponds with the time given to the "little horn" that "made war with the saints." By the Gentiles, then, treading the holy city under foot, we can understand nothing else than the terrible havoc the papal church has made of the true church of God; which bloody work lasted from A. D. 538 to 1798, at

which the popes had carried on their war against dissenters for 1260 years, was abolished. Since that period, the true church has been free from the civil despotism of Papacy.

Verse 3: "And I will give power unto my two witnesses, and they shall prophesy a thousand two hundred and threescore days, clothed in sackcloth."

Here I would remark, first—The same period is occupied by the prophecy of these two witnesses in sackcloth, that the holy city is trodden under foot; and this appears to mark the periods as identical.

Let us now inquire—Whose witnesses are these? "My two witnesses," says the speaker. Who is the speaker? "The angel "—the Lord Jesus Christ, as I have already shown.

What is a witness? It is one who gives testimony. Testimony is oral—that is, a witness testifies to what he knows, by word of mouth—or it is written; this last kind of testimony, in some cases, is stronger than oral. For example: You may produce twenty persons, in court, to prove my indebtedness to you, but if I can produce a receipt, in your hand-writing, that I have paid the alleged debt, your twenty witnesses fall before it, and their entire testimony is outweighed by this one witness.

The witnesses spoken of in the verse under consideration, are Christ's. Let us then inquire who are his two witnesses. Observe, they are not two of his witnesses; but emphatically, " my TWO witnesses." It would not, therefore, be proper to call them men, though men are sometimes called the Lord's witnesses. Let us now look at John v. 31—34, 36—39: "If I bear witness of myself, my witness is not true. There is another that beareth witness of me, and I know that the witness which he witnesseth of me is true. Ye sent unto John, and he bare witness unto the truth. But I receive not testimony from man; but these things I say that ye might be saved. But I have a greater witness than that of John: for the works which the Father hath given me to finish, the same