During this period the common people could have in their own tongue only a few words or verses of the Scriptures; and for these they were obliged to pay large sums to the clergy, who alone had the ability to translate from the dead languages, or even to read at all. As the services were in Latin the people were starved spiritually.

6:6. And I heard AS IT WERE a voice.-The voice of the Lord Jesus, the Guardian and Caretaker of the true Church. -Matt. 28:20.

In the midst of the four beasts.-"In the midst of the Throne and of the four beasts, and in the midst of the elders, stood a Lamb."-Rev. 5:6.

Say, A measure.-"The word chenix denotes a measure containing one wine quart and a twelfth part of a quart." -Diaglott.

Of wheat.-The true children of the Kingdom.-C137.

For a penny.-"A denarius was the day-wages of a laborer in Palestine (Matt. 20:2, 9)." (Diaglott.) These wages, a little more than a quart of wheat for a day's work, show how great was the effort, in those dark and terrible days, to find some "grains of wheat."-Amos 8:11. And three measures.-Three chenices, three quarts.

Of barley.-Spiritual adulterers and adulteresses, courting the friendship of the world. (Jas. 4:4.) Barley is the symbol of the adulteress as wheat is the symbol of the virgin. Num. 5:15; Hos. 3:1, 2.

For a penny. For a denarius. It was three times as easy to find the faithless as the faithful.

And see thou hurt not the oil.-The supply of the oil, the Holy Spirit of full submission to the will of God was low; the light of the true Church was feeble indeed.

And the wine.-Wine is a symbol of doctrine, true or false, and its accompanying joys. In this case it refers to the true doctrines of the Kingdom. But little knowledge of the coming Kingdom was prevalent then, and the joys of the Church were proportionately small. (See comments on Rev. 2:12-17, synchronous with events of second and third seals.)

Lest it be supposed that the Roman Catholic church is now different from what it once was, and that at present it is holding to the Scriptures, we quote the following from Strength of Will by E. Boyd Barrett, of the Society of the Jesuits, approved by the Roman Catholic censor, Remy Lafort, and approved by John, Cardinal Farley, Archbishop of New York, November 24th, 1915:

"Catholic ascetics teach us, in this matter, first of all to have a clear and definite view of the object we propose to ourselves-let us suppose that it is to overcome

the passion of anger. Now the resolution, 'not to give way to anger would be far too broad and too great. Applying the principle, 'divide et impera,' we content ourselves with resolving 'not to give way to external manifestations of anger.' But here again, our resolution is too broad and too great. We again apply the principle, 'divide et impera,' and resolve 'not to give way to angry retorts.' This resolution is pointed, definite and intelligible-it means that cross and peevish remarks must not occur. A time limit may now be added in order to make the resolution still more well-defined: 'Until the last day of this month I will not make an angry retort.' Possibly, it might be advisable to limit this resolution still more, by conditions of place or circumstance, adding 'in such a place or to such a person, or during such a ceremony.' Simple! All you have to do is to keep dividing.

6:7. And when He had opened the fourth seal.-Disclosing the history of the Papacy in its fourth stage, the period synchronizing with the Thyatira and Sardis epochs. See Rev. 2:18-29; 3:1-6.

I heard the voice of the fourth beast.-Infinite Wisdom. Say, Come and see.-Come and see what would seem to be the most unwise thing the Lord could possibly permit to happen to His Church.

6:8. And I looked, and behold a pale horse. The ghastly and horrible teachings that God's true people must be "exterminated." "The ghastly green of terror and of death. The word is used of grass in Rev. 8:7; 9:4; Mark 6:39."-Cook.

And his name that sat on him was Death.-Still the same rider, the Papacy; and an apt description of its chief claim to recognition during the pre-Reformation period.

"Pope Innocent III. first sent missionaries to the districts in which the doctrines had gained foothold, to preach Romanism, work miracles, etc.; but, finding these efforts unavailing, he proclaimed a crusade against them and offered to all who would engage in it the pardon of all sins and an immediate passport to Heaven without passing through purgatory. With full faith in the pope's power to bestow the promised rewards, half a million menFrench, German and Italian-rallied around the standard of the cross, for the defence of Catholicism and the extinction of heresy. Then followed a series of battles and sieges covering a space of twenty years. The city of Beziers was stormed and taken in 1209, and the citizens, without regard for age or sex, perished by the sword to the number of sixty thousand, as reported by several historians. The blood of those who fled to churches, and

were murdered there by the holy crusaders, drenched the altars and flowed through the streets. It is estimated that one hundred thousand Albigenses fell in one day; and their bodies were heaped together and burned. The clergy thanked God for the work of destruction, and a hymn of praise to God for the glorious victory was composed and sung."-B335.

And Hell followed with him.-All the people killed by the pope went to hell, and he himself went there also; but none of them went to the kind of hell to which the pope thought he was sending them. They went to the Bible hell, which is a place quite different from what is supposed. The average man believes in hell, but thinks few people go there and that nobody knows much about it. The Bible is the only authority on the subject, and no one can know anything about it, aside from the Bible. When we consider Christ's statement that unless a man loves Him more than "father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be My disciple" (Luke 14:26), and reflect that probably not one professed Christian in a hundred has reached either this standard or the other one which He set in the same chapter, that "Whosoever he be of you that forsaketh not all that he hath, he cannot be My disciple" (Luke 14:33), it should make us willing to consider carefully what is to become of the 9,999 out of every 10,000 of earth's population that do not meet these conditions. We all know that "The wicked shall be turned into hell, and all the nations that forget God" (Psa. 9:17); but how many of us know that they will be re-turned there; that the passage, correctly translated, reads, "The wicked shall be returned into hell, all the nations that forget God"-showing that there are nations which go into hell once, come out of hell, learn of God, forget Him and are returned there? We may all know (Jude 11) that Korah, or Core, went to hell; but how many of us know that he was accompanied to this place by his house, with all his household goods, and two other establishments similarly equipped? (Num. 16:32, 33.) We may all know that the Sodomites went to hell (Gen. 19), but how many know that they were accompanied by the city in which they lived and that there are other cities there? (Matt. 11:23.) We may all suppose that many heathen warriors of long ago went to hell, but how many of us know that they took with them their weapons of war, and that their swords are there now, under their heads, with what is left of their bones? (Ezek. 32:27.) We may understand that the wealthy go to hell, but how many know that in the

same place are sheep, gray hairs, worms, dust, trees and water?-Psa. 49:14; Gen. 44:31; Job 17:13-16; Ezek. 31:16.

We may all know that bad men go to hell, but how many of us know that the Ancient Worthies, Jacob and Hezekiah, fully expected to go there, and that faithful Jyed to go there? (Gen. 37:35; Job 14:13.) We may all wish to keep out of hell, but how many of us know that David said there is not a man that liveth that shall deliver his soul from its power, and that Solomon says, thou goest there, whosoever thou art? (Psa. 89:48; Eccl. 9:10.) We may think that those who go to hell go there to stay forever, but how many of us know that Samuel said, "The Lord killeth and maketh alive; He bringeth down to hell and bringeth up" out of hell, and that David said, God has the same power to aid those in hell that He has to bless those in Heaven? 1 Sam. 2:6; Psa. 139:8.) We may think that those who go into hell never come out, and that there is no record that any have come out, yet there are at least two persons in history who have been in hell and come out of hell. One is Jonah, who prayed in hell and was delivered from hell (Jonah 2:2), and the other is Christ, whose soul went to hell, but "His soul was not left in hell," for God raised Him up out of it. (Acts 2:31.) And when Christ came out of hell He brought with Him "The keys of hell" and now has the power and the right to set all its captives free. (Rev. 1:18.) We may suppose that hell is to last forever, but the Prophet speaks of its coming destruction, and John the Revelator says that it is to be made to "deliver up the dead" which are in it, and it, itself, is to be destroyed. (Hosea 13:14; Rev. 20:13.) The last passage cited affords the explanation of the whole subject, for in the margin opposite Rev. 20:13 the translators have explained that the word "hell" means "grave." Reversely, in the margin opposite 1 Cor. 15:55, the translators have explained that "grave" means "hell." The terms are interchangeable and the meaning is the same. In every place foregoing in which the citations appear in italic type, the translators have rendered Sheol or Hades by "grave" or "pit" instead of "hell." In the margins of the old family Bibles, printed before Pastor Russell was born, we are told in seven places, and in both ways, in both the Old Testament and the New, that hell means the grave, and the grave means hell.-Psa. 49:15; 55:15; 86:13; Isa. 14:9; Jonah 2:2; 1 Cor. 15:55; Rev. 20:13.

And power was given unto them.-To his Holiness, the Pope, and all the cardinals, bishops, archbishops, priests, inquisitors, kings and rulers.

Over the fourth part of the earth.-Over Europe, but not over Asia, Africa or America.

To kill with sword, and [with hunger] FAMINE and [with] death.-The destruction of New Creatures by wresting of the Scriptures and their spiritual starvation are here in evidence; but there was also a literal fulfilment. "Human and Satanic ingenuity were taxed to their utmost to invent new and horrible tortures, for both the political and religious opponents of Antichrist; the latter-heretics-being pursued with tenfold fury. Besides the common forms of persecution and death, such as racking, burning, drowning, stabbing, starving and shooting with arrows and guns, fiendish hearts meditated how the most delicate and sensitive parts of the body, capable of the most excruciating pain, could be affected; molten lead was poured into the ears; tongues were cut out and lead poured into the mouths; wheels were arranged with knife blades attached so that the victim could be slowly chopped to pieces; claws and pincers were made red hot and used upon sensitive parts of the body; eyes were gouged out; finger nails were pulled off with red hot irons; holes, by which the victim was tied up, were bored through the heels; some were forced to jump from eminences onto long spikes fixed below, where, quivering with pain, they slowly died. The mouths of some were filled with gunpowder, which, when fired, blew their heads to pieces; others were hammered to pieces on anvils; others, attached to bellows, had air pumped into them until they burst; others were choked to death with mangled pieces of their own bodies; others with urine, excrement, etc., etc."-B346.

And with the beasts of the earth.-The evil govern ments. "Kings and princes who trembled for the security of their crowns, if they to any extent incurred the pope's displeasure, were sworn to exterminate heresy, and those barons who neglected to aid in the work of persecution forfeited their estates. Kings and princes, therefore, were prompt to comply with the mandates of the Papacy, and the barons and their retainers were at their service, to aid in the work of destruction."-B333.

6:9. And when He had opened the fifth seal.-Disclosing the Reformation in the days of Luther. See Rev. 3:7-13.

I saw under the altar.-Altars were originally made of earth. (Ex. 20:24.) To see under the altar is to see underground, in the tomb, the grave. At the bottom of the brazen altar all the blood of the victim was poured.-Lev. 4:7; 8:15; Heb. 8:5; 13:10; Phil. 2:17; 2 Tim. 4:6.

The souls.-The beings of those who had died. These souls were not in Heaven.