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to set aside all question that Jerusalem was intended, see the revelator's adjunct, “where also our Lord was crucified.” The bodies of the witnesses, then, were to lie in the streets of Jerusalem. But how could this be, if the city had been destroyed ? And further on in the description the revelator said, that after three days the spirit of life entered into the witnesses, and they stood upon their feet, and they ascended up to heaven in a cloud, and their enemies beheld them ; “and the same hour was there a great earthquake, and the tenth part of the city fell,” &c., &c. This is the same city, viz., “where our Lord was crucified ;” and how could the revelator have prophesied in this manner, had he not written before the destruction of Jerusalem ? Closely allied to this argument is the one which is founded on the mention of THE TEMPLE in the Apocalypse. As the revelator draws towards the final catastrophe of the Jews, (on our plan of interpreting the Apocalypse,) after the mighty angel had sworn there should be time no longer, he surveyed the temple doomed to destruction. And as it had been carefully measured and laid out when it was built, as described in the prophecy of Ezekiel, so now is it to be measured preparatory to its destruction. Hence says the revelator, “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.” Our Lord himself had said, “Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles;” Luke xxi. 24. To the outer court, called “the court of the Gentiles,” they had always had access, and consequently there was no need of measuring that ; but the holy temple, and especially the area of the altar, had not been profaned by Gentile feet. They are now to be given up to destruction, as well as the people who worshipped before that holy shrine. “Rise and measure the temple of God, and the altar, and them that worship therein.” Does not the revelator speak here of the temple as standing in his day ? If so, must not the Apocalypse have been written before the destruction of Jerusalem 2 The efforts of Titus razed the holy building to the ground. Not one stone was left upon another. How, then, can any person explain the revelator's commission to measure the temple, if he wrote after its utter demolition ? But do we not find prophecies in the Apocalypse of the very event—the DESTRUCTION OF JERUSALEM 2 Does not the revelator quote the very language applied by our Lord to that event 2 his identical metaphors ? Our Lord had said, “Immediately after the tribulation of those days, [he had been speaking of the wars, pestilences, and famines, shall the sun be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken.” He thus described the fall of the Jewish powers. And what saith the revelator 2 “The sun became black as sackcloth of hair, and the moon became as blood, and the stars of heaven fell to the earth,” &c. &c. The terrified victims of these judgments cried, as the revelator described it, “And said to the mountains and rocks, Fall on us, and hide us from the face of him that sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb;” and this also is quoted from a passage of our Lord, in which he was speaking of the judgment that would come on the Jews. For when the Jewish women bewailed and lamented him, as he was led forth to crucifixion, he said, “Daughters of Jerusalem, weep not for me, but weep for yourselves and for your children. For behold the days are coming in which they shall say, Blessed are the barren, &c. &c., Then shall they say to the mountains, Fall on us; and to the hills, Cover us.” How can we, then, avoid the conviction, that the figures employed by the revelator in the sixth chapter of the Apocalypse were designed by him to be applied to the fall of the Jews, and the overthrow of their city ? After our Lord had said

earth, and hath long patience for it, until he receive the early and latter rain. Be ye also patient; establish your hearts; for the coming of the Lord draweth migh;” James v. 7, 8. The time of the coming of the Lord is also represented as the end of the world, or age; 1 Cor. x. 11. “The end of all things;” 1 Pet. iv. 7. To this the revelator agrees; for if we follow him carefully, we shall find, that after he has described, in his peculiar manner, what we take to be the wonders and signs that preceded the destruction of Jerusalem, and as he approaches the great catastrophe of the Jews, he introduces a mighty angel, bearing the marks of the Son of man, who put one foot on the sea, and the other on the land, and lifting up his hand to heaven, swore by Him that liveth forever and ever, “that there should be time no longer;”

x. 6. Does not this exactly agree with the general language of the New Testament concerning the destruction of Jerusalem Do we read of any other event in the New Testament to which this can so well apply 2 To what shall we apply it, if not to that

event 2 Having thus looked at the time of Christ's coming at the destruction of the Jews, let us look, in the next place, at the circumstances attending it. With what pomp, with what circumstance, did the revelator describe the coming of Christ We will listen: ! “Behold, he cometh with clouds; and every eye shall see him, and they also which pierced him, and all kindreds of the earth shall | wail because of him;” i. 7. This is precisely as our Lord himself described his coming to overthrow the Jews. “And then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven; and then || shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory.” Can we resist the conviction that the revelator spoke of the same event with our Lord 2 If the revelator's description does not refer to the coming of Christ at the destruction of Jerusalem, to what event does it refer Observe, there are three points of |

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resemblance : 1st. Christ cometh in the clouds of heaven. 2d. Every eye shall see him. 3d. All the kindreds of the earth shall mourn because of him. All three of these facts are stated in . both passages. It is demonstrated that our Lord referred in his description to his coming at the destruction of Jerusalem; for he adds, immediately, “Verily I say unto you, This generation shall not pass, till all these things be fulfilled.” These words the revelator would not naturally have used, because the event was so near ; but he supplies in the place of them the admonition, “The time is at hand.” We ask again, on the strength of this argument, was not the Apocalypse written before the destruction of Jerusalem 2 But there are other facts to be considered. Nothing is more plain than that Jesus foretold, that when his coming should take place, the kingdom of God should be fully established. “Werily l say unto you, That there be some of them that stand here, which shall not taste of death, till they have seen the kingdom of God come with power;” Mark ix. 1. Luke's language is similar: “I tell you of a truth, there be some standing here, which shall not taste of death, till they see the kingdom of God;" ix. 27. All the New Testament writers looked forward to the establishment of the kingdom of God as near. They spoke of it in almost every form of phraseology. Now, if the revelator spake of that great event as being near at hand, it would seem to show conclusively that he wrote before the destruction of Jerusalem. In the eleventh chapter, in which the revelator brings up his description of the troubles of the Jews to their climax, he says, “The second woe is past; and behold, the third woe cometh quickly. And the seventh angel sounded, [the last of the series, for there was no eighth or ninth angel,] and there were great voices in heaven, saying, The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord and of his Christ, and he shall reign forever and ever.” And to this he adds, “And the four and twenty elders, which sat before

God, fell upon their faces and worshipped God, saying, We give thee thanks, O Lord God Almighty, which art, and wast, and art to come ; because thou hast taken to thee thy great power, and hast reigned ;” xi. 14—17. Is it not reasonable to suppose, that the revelator spoke of the same event to which our Lord referred The kingdom of God came with power, when the kingdoms of this world became the kingdoms of our Lord and of his Christ. Are we not justified, then, in the conclusion that the Apocalypse was written previously to the destruction of Jerusalem 3 Turn we to another fact. Jesus promised his disciples that “In the regeneration, when the Son of man should sit on the throne of his glory, they also should sit upon twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel;” Matt. xix. 28. This metaphor of reigning with Christ is of frequent occurrence in the New Testament. “It is a faithful saying, For if we be dead with him, we shall also live with him; if we suffer, we shall also reign with him : if we deny him, he also will deny us;” 2 Tim. ii. 11, 12. Now, as to the point of Christians reigning with their Master, the revelator treats of it frequently. They reigned when he reigned ; they came to power when he came to power. Jesus told them, when they saw the signs of his coming, to lift up their heads, for their redemption then would be nigh. What does the revelator say about this matter of reigning with Christ 2 “To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with my Father in his throne;” iii. 21. Hence the early Christians were said to be made “kings and priests unto God;” Rev. i. 6; and when they sung the new song, they said, “Thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood, out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation; and hast made us unto our God kings and priests, and we shall reign on the earth;” v. 9, 10. The Gospel reign began in its full power at the destruction of Jerusa. lem; and the reference which we find in the Apocalypse to

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