(Revelation 7:9-17)

THE VISION OF THE PALM-BEARING MULTITUDE—UNCERTAINTY OF COMMENTATORS AS TO WHO THEY ARE—NOT FIRST CLASS SAINTS—NOT THE SEALED ONES—NOT THE CHURCH GENERAL—HARDLY ANY RESURRECTED ONES AMONG THEM—ARE RANSOMED MEN—PEOPLE WHO LIVED IN THE JUDGMENT TIME—THE "LEFT" WHEN THE CHURCH WAS TAKEN—THEIR CONVERSION AND FINAL BLESSEDNESS—HIGHER BLESSINGS THAN THEIRS.

Rev. 7:9-17. (Revised Text.) After these things I saw, and behold, a great multitude which no one could number, out of every nation, and [of all] tribes, and peoples, and tongues, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, and palm-branches in their bands; and they cry with a great voice, saying, The salvation [be ascribed] to our God who sitteth on the throne, and to the Lamb. And all the angels were standing around the throne, and the elders, and the four living ones, and they fell before the throne on their faces and worshipped God, saying, Amen, the blessing, and the glory, and the wisdom, and the thanksgiving, and the honour, and the power, and the might, be to our God unto the ages of the ages. Amen.

And one of the elders answered, saying unto me, These that are arrayed in the white robes, who are they? and whence came they? And I said unto him, My lord, thou knowest. And he said (to me), These are they that come out of the tribulation, the great [one]; and they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. On this account they are before the throne of God, and serve him day and night in his temple; and he that sitteth on the throne [Codex Sinaiticus: knows them] shall tabernacle over them. They shall not hunger any more, nor yet thirst any more; neither shall the sunlight on them, no, nor any scorching heat: because the Lamb which is in the midst of the throne is their shepherd, and shall lead them to fountains of waters of life, and God shall wipe away every tear out of their eyes.

Three visions are embraced in the results of the breaking of the sixth seal: first, the prodigious commotions which fill the world with consternation; second, the sealing of the 144,000; and here, the multitude of palm-bearers before the throne. The first two of this particular series relate to the earth and to people in the flesh; the one which we are now to consider relates to heaven and to people in heaven. What it presents is subsequent in time, both to the great shaking and the gracious sealing. The great and terrible Day of the Lord is not one ordinary day of twelve or twenty-four hours. All these seals, and the varied occurrences under them, belong to that day; but it is very manifest that each of them covers a continuous period of months and years. The vision now before us refers to one section in a series of successive judicial wonders.

The rapt apostle is in heaven. He was called thither at a very early stage of these successive visions, and from thence he contemplates all that he narrates after the beginning of the fourth chapter. It was from heaven that he beheld the shaking and the sealing; and from the same point of observation he sees this company of palm-bearers. They stand before the throne, and before the Lamb. They shout and praise God for their redemption. The angels form a grand circle around them; the throne, with the Living ones and the Elders, as described in the fourth chapter, being in the centre. They are arrayed in bright robes, are acknowledged as servants of God, and pronounced forever free from tribulation, and from whatever might distress them or interfere with their blessedness.

The picture would seem to be a very plain one, and one easy to be understood. There was also such a particular announcement of the history and character of the multitude in view, that there would appear to be no room for difficulty in this regard. And yet, on all the prevalent systems of Apocalyptic interpretation, the question of the Elder: "Who are they? and whence came they?" is still the great question to be decided. Indeed, there is scarcely one point with reference to these palm-bearers upon which expositors are agreed. It is generally acknowledged that they are, or represent, children of men, who had a deal of trouble in their day, and are some way related to the family of the redeemed; but whether people in the flesh on earth, or disembodied spirits in the intermediate state, or risen and glorified saints in their heavenly home, is matter of mere dreamy opinion, indifferently debated, and in no way settled. And from what I have seen upon the subject, I would take it as a crucial point to try the consistency of any proposed method of interpreting the Apocalypse, whether it has capacity satisfactorily to dispose of this palm-bearing multitude.

Some have taken these palm-bearers to be the early Christians, victorious over the sorrows and persecutions which afflicted the Church in the first ages. Others see in them a symbol of the prosperity which came to the Church by the conversion of the Emperor Constantine; or of the vast accessions which were made to the Church under his and subsequent reigns; or of the exalted and happy state of the Church in a fancied millennium yet to be realized in this world. Others take these palm-bearers to be the spirits of the redeemed, anterior to the resurrection; others, the 144,000 sealed ones of the preceding vision, exalted to their final glory; others, the whole body of the Church of all ages; others, the Church of the Gentiles; some the Church on earth; some the Church in resurrection glory; some the Church in some ceremony of recognition by Christ in heaven; and some a mere poetic adumbration of victory for the Gospel, without definite significance or application. A greater chaos of opinions and fancies is scarcely to be found on any other distinct subject presented in the Scriptures, than that which exists upon this. There is no alternative, therefore, if we would at all ascertain the truth, but to go back to first principles, and find out some method of explaining this whole Book, which will take in these palm-bearers, in the place at which they appear, in harmony with all the statements given concerning them, and with all that goes before and follows after.

On the plain and simple principles upon which we have conducted this exposition thus far, we cannot well fail to reach results of a definite and solid character, needing no far-fetched and doubtful substructure to bring us to them, and so direct that the plainest understanding may judge of their worthiness to be accepted as the real truth meant to be set forth.

It is sometimes profitable to consider questions negatively. It serves to narrow the inquiry, and to free and clear the subject for more direct solution and settlement. And this method seems to be called for in this case. In order, therefore, to decide rightly who these palm-bearers are, I will first show who they are not.

1. Evidently they are not the first and highest class of redeemed men. As we have seen in the fourth and fifth chapters, there is a body of ransomed ones, glorified, crowned, and promoted to preeminent dignity in heaven, where the apostle beheld and heard them before the book was taken, and hence in advance of all the judgment plagues developed under the seals. These are the Elders and the Living ones, redeemed out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation—the seniors in glory, and highest of all the saints—crowned with golden crowns, and related to the throne as none others. No sooner had John seen the judgment throne set, than he also saw other thrones around it, and these princely Elders seated on them, ready to take part in the solemn adjudications about to be visited upon the earth; and also Living ones conjoined with the throne, and sharing in the administration of its decrees. These same Elders and Living ones appear again in the vision before us, occupying the same nearness to the throne and the same royal dignity in which the seer first beheld them. They are distinguished in various particulars from the palm-bearing multitude. They sit; the palm-bearers stand. They have crowns and thrones; the palm-bearers have neither. They appeared in their places and received their rewards before the sorrows of judgment began; the palm-bearers only come to their place before the throne after the judgment has progressed to the sixth seal. The Elders were in heaven before "the hour of trial" came, being "accounted worthy to escape all these things;" the palm-bearers were in that "trial," and only reach heaven "out of the tribulation, the great one." The Elders and Living ones are "Kings and Priests;" the palm-bearers are connected with the same general company, but only in the capacity of servants. It is therefore, a great mistake to confound these palm-bearers with the highest order of saints.

2. Equally erroneous is it, to identify these palm-bearers with the sealed ones of the preceding vision. The sealed ones consist of a definite and ascertained number; but these palm-bearers are uncounted and numberless. The sealed ones are all Israelites, blood-descendants of the patriarch Jacob; but these palm-bearers are described as "out of every nation, and [of all] tribes, and peoples, and tongues." The sealing of the sealed ones had reference to their preservation through storms of judgment upon men on earth, which storms are only let loose under the seventh seal; but these palm-bearers are already in heaven before the seventh seal is touched. Besides, in a subsequent vision, in chap. 14, we find this particular 144,000 again, in their own distinct character, and only then, at that late period, introduced into their glorified estate. It is, therefore, most unreasonable, and forever irreconcilable with the record, to take these palm-bearers and the 144,000 sealed ones as one and the same body. They are as different as time, place, and characterizing circumstances can make two classes of people.

3. Neither do these palm-bearers represent the Church universal at the end of the great tribulation. We have that in the 20th chapter, in its own proper place, and including all these several separate classes of the redeemed. I have seen it put forth by an otherwise creditable writer, and upon the authority of the vision now before us, that there is no such thing as a rapture of the Church before the great tribulation; that these palm-bearers show us the Church in final salvation; and that they all pass under the great tribulation, and only come to glory through it. But he is sadly mistaken in every point of this statement. Where do the gold-crowned Elders and Living ones come from, if there is no rapture of the Church before the great tribulation? They are glorified saints, clearly identified as such, in chapters 4 and 5; and they are glorified and crowned before the great judgment tribulation begins, being saved from that "hour of trial." And where is the proof that these palm-bearers represent the Church at all? They are not called the Church, or any part of it. The Church—the Ecclesia—in its proper New Testament acceptation, ends its earthly course with what was represented by "the seven churches," and is never heard of again in all the Apocalypse, after the third chapter, except as it appears in the Elders and Living ones in glory. There still are believers, saints, and witnesses for God, who subsequently attain to high and glorious places in the Divine Kingdom; but they are not "the Church of the firstborn,"—the only proper Church,—which receives its judgment, and whose true members are apportioned their heavenly dignities, before a single seal is broken, and hence some time before this palm-bearing multitude appears before the throne.

Besides, if there is no rapture of the Church until the final termination of the judgment troubles, and all the saints together only then are introduced into glory, how shall we account for John's mental questionings and uncertainties with reference to these palm-bearers? If they represent the finally complete Church, did he not know that the Church was to be thus exalted and glorified? Was he so ignorant of the character and destiny of that chosen body of which he was an apostle and a chief, as not to know it, or whence it came, upon encountering it in heaven? Would it not be a sorry impeachment of his apostolic character and enlightenment, besides very stupid and unreasonable, to proceed on such an assumption, or on anything which involves it? The manifest fact that he was perplexed and in doubt with reference to these palm-bearers, and that the Elder interfered to solve his questionings, proves that they are not the Church proper, but the Church of the after-born, if of the Church at all; that is, a body of saved ones, with a history and place peculiarly their own, and not as yet exactly understood by the apostle.

Still further, it is a false gloss upon the Elder's words, to understand them as if these palm-bearers had passed through the entire duration of the judgment troubles before reaching the position in which John beholds them. The language corresponds with the order of succession in these several visions, and suggests, if it does not imply, that these palm-bearers cease to be in the great tribulation before its final termination. It is not said that they pass through it, but that they come out of it, thus leaving it behind them to run on after they are gone.

Some argue, indeed, that "the great tribulation" is realized only under the seventh seal, during the murderous domination of the Beast and the False Prophet; and that as these palm-bearers "come out of the tribulation, the great one," we must necessarily throw this vision forward, and nearer to the extremity at which all tribulation ends. But this also is a mistake. That which the Scriptures describe as "the great tribulation," though inseparably linked with the Judgment, is made up of more than one blast. There is a tide in it, dividing it into sections. There was a prelibation of it in the destruction of Jerusalem and the Jewish state, as that was also a prelibation of the Judgment itself. And though the highest stress and fulness of the great tribulation are realized under the seventh seal with its trumpets and vials, we have the testimony of Christ himself, that mighty gusts of its power are expended before the opening of the sixth seal. The darkening of the sun, the obscuration of the moon, the falling of the stars, and the shaking of the whole system of nature, described in Matthew 24:29, and Mark 13:24, are precisely identical with the great physical prodigies which John beheld at the opening of the sixth seal, and are the great characteristics of the sixth seal. And yet, in both instances, these occurrences are located by the Saviour "after" and "immediately after," very sore and awful tribulation, which is necessarily embraced in, though it does not exhaust, that "great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be." (Matt. 24:21.) We thus have it scripturally ascertained, that "the tribulation, the great one," partly precedes, as well as partly succeeds, the breaking of the sixth seal. These palm-bearers could therefore be in it and come out of it, and still be transferred to heaven before the last dregs of it are poured out upon the guilty world.

Referring back to the second, third, fourth, and fifth seals—to the red horseman, taking peace from the earth and filling it with strife, havoc, and bloodshed—to the black horse of scarcity and famine—to the livid horse, with death-plague on his back and greedy hell at his heels, overrunning the world—and to the persecution and butchery of men for their faithful testimony for God under the fifth seal—we behold an accumulation of sufferings and horrors which, if they belong not to the Great Tribulation of the judgment times, I know not how to place or what to call. And as these palm-bearers do not appear upon the heavenly scene until after the opening of the sixth seal, they must needs have been partakers in these dreadful trials, and hence are rightly described as coming out of "the tribulation, the great one," though translated and in heaven before its last blasts smite the guilty world.

Our position thus stands firm, that these palm-bearers do not represent the Church general at the end of all tribulation, or anywhere else.

4. It is doubtful, even, whether there are any resurrected people at all among this multitude. There may be such, but there is no proof to that effect. There is nothing said about resurrection, and nothing which necessarily involves it. A rapture or translation, like that of Enoch or Elijah, is implied; for these people are in heaven, and have received their places and rewards; but it is not intimated that any of them had ever died. They are to hunger and thirst no more; but it is not added that they shall die no more. To those under the fifth seal, who had lost their lives for Christ, the word was that they must rest as disembodied souls under the altar, until others of their brethren should be slain as they had been. But we read of no more such slaying of witnesses for the truth before the opening of the seventh seal. This would seem to imply that no resurrection occurs between the fifth and the seventh seals. It is but a remote implication, and cannot be regarded as conclusive; but if correct, it precludes the possibility of any resurrected ones being among this palm-bearing multitude. At any rate, as all of them come "out of the tribulation, the great one," there can be no resurrected ones included, except such as died during the great tribulation time.

We thus find our inquiry greatly narrowed, and ourselves far on the way to a satisfactory understanding of the whole matter. I therefore proceed to state more positively who these palm-bearers are, and whence they come.

1. They are ransomed human beings. They were once sinners and sufferers on the earth, and members of its tribes and peoples. They were cleansed and sanctified by the blood of Jesus. They ascribe their salvation to God and to the Lamb. Whether they be rated with the Church proper, or not, they are by nature of the stock of Adam, and by grace of the family of the redeemed.

2. They are people who were living on the earth in the period of the Judgment. The great tribulation times are everywhere inseparably linked with the judgment times (see Dan. 12, Matt. 24, Mark 13, Rev. 1:7); and this whole multitude is made up of those who come out of the great tribulation. This is positively stated by the hierophant Elder, and so recorded by John. It is therefore true, and no man is at liberty to question it. There are other saved ones, of several classes, who subsequently come out of the afterparts of this great tribulation—the 144,000, for instance, the two witnesses, and those which refuse to worship the Beast or to receive his mark—but they are not of this particular company.

Some make a great deal of the allusion to the number of these palm-bearers, and might perhaps bring this forward against their being contemporaries in one particular period of the world's history. But Dr. Hengstenberg has well observed that, "this magnifying of the numbers here to something beyond all bounds," is not legitimate. The Jews constitute a very small fraction of the people now living, or that will be living when the judgment comes. And yet, the few elect and sealed from among them, as beheld in the preceding vision, make up a multitude which the Apostle did not pretend to count. He "heard the number" of them; otherwise, even that company would have been numberless to him. And if we add to that number, in proportion as all nations, peoples, kindreds, and tongues exceed the Jewish population, we will necessarily have a body sufficiently large to answer all the terms of the description before us. When John speaks of these palm-bearers as "a great multitude which no one could number," he speaks relatively, not absolutely. (Compare his language in John 21:25.) And if we add to the number of the sealed ones, but twenty-five for one, we will have more than 4,000,000 of people, who, if viewed in one congregation, as in this vision, would be vastly in excess of the capacity of one man to count, and hence "a great multitude which no one could number." And when we consider the import of the opening of the first seal, the moral and spiritual revolution which it sets forth in vast masses of mankind, and the continuous ongoing of these conquests, judgment-aided, under all the subsequent seals, there certainly is no just reason for hesitating to believe, that by the time the end of the sixth seal is reached, there will be people enough, won from the half-christianity, lukewarmness, unbelief, and sins in which the beginning of the judgment found them, to make up even "a great multitude which no man could number." At any rate, we are not to allow reasonings of our own, upon expressions altogether indefinite, to stand against the clear and positive Divine statement, that all these palm-bearers come out of the great tribulation, and hence must of necessity have lived upon the earth contemporaneously in the judgment time.

3. They are people whom the judgment found unprepared, and who consequently were "left" when the rapture of the Church took place. The Scriptures are everywhere very particular in forewarning us that the day of the Lord shall come as a thief in the night—that it will come as a snare on all them that dwell on the earth—that the great mass of men, and even of the professing Church, shall be overtaken by it unawares—and that, "in that night, there shall be two in one bed," one of whom "shall be taken, and the other left;" and "two grinding at the mill," one of whom "shall be taken, and the other left; "and two in the field, one of whom "shall be taken, and the other left." The representations are also very clear, that great will be the number of those who will thus be "left." Indeed, the intimations are, that so few will be found ready, and waiting for their Lord, that their removal will cause no very noticeable depletion in the population of the earth. The great body of the professed Church of that day will be "left," as well as the entire community not of the Church; for "when the Son of man cometh, shall he find faith on the earth?" And to all that are then found unready, and are "left," gone forever will be the privileges and honours of "the Church of the firstborn! "Gone, the crowns, the thrones, the princedoms of eternity, which are now so freely offered to every hearer of the Gospel! Gone, to return no more, all hope and opportunity of regaining the lost prize of immortal kingship and dominion! Grovelling worldlings, profane blasphemers, blinded sceptics, may not understand it, and, for the most part, go on in their sins; but, for millions upon millions, "there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth." In place of invitations to heavenly rulership, will be judgment pangs; and in place of the joyous day of God's long-suffering, will be the dark waves of the great tribulation.

But, even then, not yet everything will be lost. The crown will be gone, but salvation may still be attained. There will then be no more heavenly thrones to be distributed, but there will still be palms to be secured. The pains of the great tribulation will then have to be endured, but there will remain a possibility of coming out of it, before it culminates in eternal perdition. And many, whose repentance comes, alas, too late for eternity's higher glories, will turn themselves in sorrowful earnestness to that Saviour whose sublimer offers they let slip for this paltry and perishing world. "For when God's judgments are in the earth, the inhabitants of the world will learn righteousness." (Isa. 16:9.)

Not by any means all, who are "left" when the Church is translated, will thus turn unto the Lord. The corrupt world will continue to be the same base and God-defiant world, until the waves of hell go over it forever. "Many shall be purified, and made white, and tried; but the wicked shall do wickedly." (Dan. 12:10.) As the calamities thicken and deepen, evil will become more out-breaking, and rush with giant strides to its final consummation. But, amid much painful disappointment, regretful tears, and great tribulation, Laodiceans, who thought they were rich, and increased in goods, and had need of nothing, will discover how wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked they were the while, and repent, and profit by their chastenings, and find salvation, though having lost their crowns; and many more, who would not give themselves to Jesus in order to be eternal Kings, will learn to think themselves happy to follow him in the fires of judgment, if they may only be servants in the kingdom of heaven. And these are they whom John here beholds "standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, and palms in their hands."

All this is latently contained in what is recorded of these palm-bearers. "These are they that come out of the tribulation, the great one; and they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. On this account they are before the throne of God, and serve him day and night in his temple." Having been "left" when the elect were "taken," John would naturally be surprised to find them in heaven. Having come under the judgment pains, he would naturally infer that heaven was not for them. Hence his silent astonishment at beholding so large a company of after-comers exalted into the presence of God; and hence the special explanation of the Elder.

It is one of Christ's messages from heaven to his people on earth: "Behold, I come as a thief. Blessed is he that watcheth, and keepeth his garments." (Rev. 16:15.) The implication of the Elder's words is, that these people had failed to comply with these conditions, while the judgment delayed; but were worldly in their temper, had their "garments spotted by the flesh," and so were without right to the promises. Making themselves at home in the ways, and thinking, and emoluments of this world, of course they had no claim on heaven. The Apostle was, therefore, justly surprised to see them in heaven. But the Elder explains it. Having been cut off from the Church of the firstborn, and made to feel their failure by the fierceness of judgment sorrows, they came to a better mind. Their spotted garments they washed in the blood of the Lamb. Their false philosophizing they gave up for the simplicities of the faith; and the truths they once accounted fanaticism, they found to their sorrow and at length confessed to be realities. And by the depths of their penitence, amid the pains of the great tribulation, and by the sorrowful earnestness of their seeking unto Jesus in the last extremities, they obtained forgiveness, and were recovered from their sins. "On this account," the Elder says, they are saved, though out of the fires of judgment;—admitted into heaven, even though they have lost their places among the crowned ones;—permitted to stand "before the throne of God," though they have no thrones for themselves;—made servants in God's house, though not of the high order of royal sons.

Having, then, ascertained who these Palm-bearers are, the next point to be considered is their blessedness. We have not the time now for such a discussion of it as it deserves; but a few observations are demanded, before dismissing the subject.

1. They are in heaven. This is a great thing to say of any one. It is to be in the enjoyment of an estate, by the side of which all the exaltation, honour and glory this world can bestow, shrinks into utter nothingness. Lazarus in heaven, is a far sublimer picture than that of any rich man on earth, however royally clad, or sumptuously luxuriant in worldly possessions. "Oh, if I can only get to heaven! "is often the highest ejaculation of the noblest and purest hearts. And this goal of pious longing, these Palm-bearers have reached. They are where the gold-crowned Elders and the glorious Living ones are. They are where the holy angels stand round them in serried ranks of glory upon glory. They are where the Almighty's throne is located, where God is, and where the Lamb shows Himself in all His sublime benignity and power.

They are where the pure worship ascends forever in the presence of eternal Godhead, and the Amens to every strain of adoration come in from principalities and powers. They are in Heaven! True, they have no crowns, no thrones, no dominion. True, they stand while some others sit, and serve while others reign. True, they come in after all the royal places of the firstborn are filled. But still, they are in Heaven!—bright, beautiful, lovely, untainted, imperishable, Heaven!

2. They are "before the throne of God,"—that throne which John saw set in heaven, encircled with an iris of emerald, and filled by Him whose appearance is like crystalline and smokeless flame; that throne around which all other thrones are stationed, and out of which go forth the lightnings, and voices, and thunders of the eternal forces. They are not joined to the throne, as the Living ones; nor associated with its Occupant in subregencies, like the Elders; but they are in the presence of it, before it, near it;—nearer even than the angels. To be admitted into the presence of the King, to be permitted to stand before the throne when the King is there in the majesty and state of His eternal dominion, and to be allowed to remain in such a station permanently, is an honour not be despised. It was the high distinction of David to stand before King Saul, after that victory over Goliath. It is a privilege which is awarded to none but those who find favour in the King's sight. And these Palm-bearers "stand before the throne, and before the Lamb."

3. They are "clothed in white robes." They wear the garments of saints—they are attired in unspotted righteousness and faultless splendour, acquired through the Saviour's blood. They were sinners once, but they are holy now. They were naked once, but they are clothed now; and their clothing is the pure and shining raiment of heaven. To be free from sin!—to be sure that our hearts are clean!—to be released forever from the soils of earth and its corruptions!—to be clothed with the unsullied purity of the spiritually perfect!—is the deepest, greatest, heaviest sigh of every child of God! But these Palm-bearers realize what it is to have these yearnings satisfied. They have robes; and those robes are spotless bright, having been washed and whited in the blood of the Lamb.

4. They have "palm branches in their hands." The joy of the feast of tabernacles is theirs. God ordained for his ancient people that, after the harvest was gathered, they should take the branches of palm trees, and dwell in booths, and rejoice before Him, as the Lord that brought them up out of Egypt. And so we read in Nehemiah, that "all the congregation of them that were come again out of the captivity," as they found written in the law, fetched olive-branches, and palm-branches, and branches of thick trees, to make booths, and sat under the booths, "and there was very great gladness." These seasons were the most joyous, exultant and bright, observed by the Israelitish people. They were times when everything glittered and thrilled with deep, pure, and lively joy. And these palm-branches in the hands of this white-robed multitude connect with the ancient feast of tabernacles, and bespeak gladdest exultation over their deliverance. To this also answers the further description, which represents them as "crying with a great voice, saying, The Salvation [be ascribed] to our God who sitteth upon the throne, and to the Lamb; "whilst angels, and Elders, and Living ones fall down on their faces in reverent adoration, and answer: "Amen, the blessing, and the glory, and the wisdom, and the thanksgiving, and the honour, and the power, and the might, be to our God, unto the ages of the ages. Amen."

5. They serve day and night in the temple of God. This shows them to be no longer subject to the clogs and weariness of mortal life, but glorified, and in the immortal state. John saw no temple in the New Jerusalem; but the New Jerusalem is not all of heaven. There is a celestial temple as well as an earthly one. Jesus, in this very Apocalypse, gives the promise: "Him that overcometh will I make a pillar in the temple of my God, and he shall go no more out." (Chap. 3:12.) And in that temple these Palm-bearers serve continually. In what their services consist, is not told us; but they are services befitting saints and the glory of heaven, and such as give ample exercise to all their glorified capacities and powers.

6. Nor are they without God's distinct and favourable acknowledgment. "He that sitteth on the throne knows them;" or, as in other copies of the text, He "shall spread his tent upon them," "tabernacle over them." As the Shekinah brooded over the pilgrim Hebrews by day and by night, the glorious symbol of the Divine presence, protection, and favour, so these Palm-bearers abide under the shadow of the Almighty. As in the final consummation the tabernacle of God shall be with men, and he shall tabernacle with them, and they shall be his people, and God Himself shall be with them as their God; so shall His pavilion cover these Palm-bearers, and they shall be His people, and He will be their God.

7. "They shall not hunger any more, nor yet thirst any more; neither shall the sun light on them, no, nor any scorching heat." Oh, to be delivered from the straits, and wants, and painful necessities of mortal life!—to be released from these earthly burdens, vicissitudes, and deaths!—to find some blessed homestead, where these aching, wasting, dying natures may once know what it is to have abiding rest! Man's anguished spirit knows no intenser hunger and thirst then this. But what we all thus yearn for, is the everlasting possession of these saints. Once they felt the weight of famine, the plague of drought, the fires of trial, and the burdens of toil; but, gone forever, now, are all "the burdens that galled, and the cares that oppressed them."

And the reason why they fare so happily, as stated by the Elder, is, "because the Lamb which is in the midst of the throne is their shepherd, and shall lead them to fountains of waters of life, and God shall wipe away every tear out of their eyes."

O the blessedness, the peace, the comfort, the everlasting satisfaction, which is the portion of these Palm-bearers! Our souls thrill with the mere contemplation of it! What must it then be to possess it—to feel it to be our own—to enjoy it without let or hindrance forever! A home so happy, a rest so glorious, a place so high, a bliss so exquisite and enduring, would not be too dearly purchased at a cost of all the pains of the great tribulation. It is verily the very mount of transfiguration to which we are carried by this theme. We feel ourselves overshadowed with the cloud of brightness. We cannot open even our drowsy eyes to the scene, but our lips mutter: "Lord, it is good for us to be here." Fain would we set up our tabernacles where we might ever contemplate the blaze of living glory. Here we would sit forever viewing bliss so great, so true, so high. This glorious Lamb! This glorious throne! These glorious ones with their glorious crowns! This effulgence of gracious Godhead! These sinless splendours! These eternal consolations! These holy services! These smiles of favour beaming from the King! These never-withering palms! These eve'r-shining robes! These ever-thrilling songs! These ever-flowing springs of never-failing life! These joy-speaking eyes which never weep, and singing lips which never thirst, and uplifted hands which never tire, and comforts from God as a mother would comfort the child she loves, and sorrow and sighing forever fled away! O blessed, blessed, blessed contemplation!

And yet, this is only an inferior part of Heaven. There are higher dignities and sublimer joys. "It doth not yet appear what we shall be;" but, as golden crowns exceed palm-branches, and kings are above servants, and the possession of a throne is more than to stand before one, even by so much is the heavenly estate held out to us greater than that of these Palm-bearers.

I know not, O I know not,

What royal joys are there!

What radiancy of glory,

What light beyond compare!

And when I fain would sing them,

My spirit fails and faints;

And vainly would it imago

The possessions of the saints.

But, from these high scenes, we must go down again into the common world, where tears, sin and death still hold dominion. Duties, and pains, and trials await us there; and often we may grow faint and weary under them. Let us, then, go to them, humbler, wiser, and better men, determined to do, and bear, and wait, and watch, till the Master says, It is enough. But, let us not omit to carry with us the strengthening, quickening, and purifying inspiration of what we have seen and learned this night. These Palm-bearers reached their blessedness through the pains of the great tribulation; but to us is offered a better and higher portion than theirs, and without the judgment sorrows which they were made to feel. If we will but keep our garments, and the word of Christ's patience, and work, and watch, and pray, as He has given command, His word is out to keep us from the hour of trial which shall come upon the lukewarm, the worldly-minded, and the unbelieving in that day, now so near at hand. Let us then know and improve our privileges, and ever press toward the mark for the prize of our high calling; remembering the words of the Lord Jesus, how he said: "Behold, I come quickly; hold fast that thou hast, that no man take thy crown."

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