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in time of trouble has always been recognized. times of persecution and bereavement, no book of the Bible is more resorted to. This notwithstanding, to the great majority the Revelation is a sealed book.

Worthy of Our Study:-The difficulty of understanding it has been made an excuse for this almost universal neglect. But the greater the difficulty, the more earnest should we be in our efforts to ascertain its meaning. It is a part of the sacred canon, and it has been well said that the canon would be incomplete without it. It presents momentous truths. It contains the last message of the risen Christ to His Church. To wilfully neglect it, is to insult the Lord.

That there is very little unanimity among interpreters, is too well known for citation here. Readers who lay no claim to scholarship, and who come to the commentaries on the Revelation to get its meaning are often left more perplexed and bewildered. The present effort is modestly pursued in the hope that it may lead more of God's people to a study of this erstwhile neglected message.

Now, it is a mere truism to say that the Book was designed to be understood. Its author assumes that his readers are familiar with his allusions. This was undoubtedly true of the first readers of the Revelation. It should be our aim to ascertain how they understood it.

The very word by which he describes the character of his work ought to encourage every lover of Truth to strive after his meaning. "Revelation" means the unveiling of that which is hidden. This is not a sealed, but an open book. Its author is divinely instructed thus: "Seal not the words of the prophecy of this book; because the time is at hand." (xx: 10.)

Problem of the Book:-The Book gives the solution of a great problem. The fundamental error has

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been to restrict its theme to the Christian era. must widen the circle until it includes the whole history of humanity. The problem of which it treats is older than the author's day, older yet than the Christian era. It involves the long period between Paradise lost and Paradise regained. That problem is the suffering of the righteous. The age-long question is, Why do the righteous suffer, while the wicked flourish as a green bay-tree? The Revelation was written at a time when this question had become more acute than at any previous time in the world's history. Hitherto, long-suffering righteous men had looked forward to the golden age to be ushered in by Messiah's reign. They had been content to suffer and wait. They were filled with hope for the ages to come. But now Messiah had come, and the righteous seemingly never suffered so before. The Church of the Lord Jesus Christ was between the upper and the nether millstones. It was persecuted by both Gentiles and Jews (I. 9 ii.: 9, 10.) Christians were asking the perennial question. What is the answer? The Book of Revelation. The inspired author shows the relation of his age to preceding ages. God's people are engaged in a world-wide, age-long conflict with the forces of evil. The righteous of his day are contributing their part toward the final triumph of righteousness. The Book of Revelation is, in short, the unfolding of the significant truth involved in Gen. iii: 15, "And I will put enmity between thee and the woman and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head and thou shalt bruise his heel."

This is the Divine announcement of the age-long battle between Good and Evil. The persecution by Nero doubtless furnished the immediate background of the Book. Bearing this in mind, and the historical conflict between Good and Evil, with

the ever recurring question, Why do the righteous suffer?-the purpose of the Book of Revelation will be clear. It is a pictorial history of that struggle, a prophecy of the final victory of righteousness, and an exposition of the means by which the victory is secured, viz. :-through sacrifice, which is God's method of eradicating evil.

Subject of the Book:-Taking up this section in detail, we note first the subject of the Book. It is "The Revelation of Jesus Christ." The Book is also called the Apocalypse, a transcription of the Greek word here translated, Revelation. The only place in which it occurs in the Gospels is Luke ii: 32, where "to lighten" might be rendered "for revelation." Our Lord is there spoken of as a light dispelling the darkness which veiled the Gentiles. It occurs thirteen times in Paul's epistles, and three times in First Peter. The word is used in various senses:-IT IS THE UNVEILING OF SOMETHING HIDDEN. This is the sense in which it is used in the only instance in which it occurs in the Gospels, already referred to. Paul speaks of the Gospel as the "revelation of the mystery kept in silence during eternal ages, but now made manifest." (Rom. xvi: 25.) He tells the Ephesians that the participation by the Gentiles of the blessings of the new covenant was made known to him by "revelation." (Eph. iii: 3.) The gospel he preached was received "through revelation of Jesus Christ" (Gal. i: 12), and he went up to Jerusalem "by revelation." (Gal. ii: 2.)

IT IS AN INSIGHT INTO SPIRITUAL TRUTH. Paul prays that Christians may have the "spirit of revelation." (Eph. i: 17.) The gift of revelation was enjoyed in various Christian communities in Apostolic times (I Cor. xiv: 6, 26), and the Apostle Paul enjoyed special "revelations." (2 Cor. xii: 1, 7.)

IT IS ALSO USED IN THE SENSE Lord's second coming.

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"That the proving of your faith, much more precious than gold that perishes, but is proved through fire, may be found unto praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ." (I Peter i: 7.) "Wherefore, girding up the loins of your mind, be sober and hope perfectly for the grace that is to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ." (I Peter i: 13.) There are other instances, but these will suffice.

It is important that this phrase be rightly understood, for our conception of its meaning will determine our interpretation of the whole Book. This is the rock on which the stream of scholarship breaks, and separates at least two schools of interpreters, the Preterist and the Futurist, as far apart as the beginning and the end of the Christian dispensation. According to the Futurist scheme, it only signifies the Second Advent or future manifestation of Jesus Christ. This interpretation leaves the major portion of the Book yet unfulfilled.

It is better to regard the phrase as embracing both the first and last senses. It means the unveiling of Christ, showing us the heavenly side of what in the Acts is the earthly. In the latter, the Christ is invisible, but His works are seen on earth; in the Revelation we are shown the Divine workman at His work. He is the central Figure throughout. It is of Him and His oversight of the Church that the Book speaks. It teaches us that what Jesus began to do (Acts i: 1) while on earth, He continues to do in His exaltation. The phrase "denotes the act of revealing a Divine Mystery and to signify that which is itself revealed." Christ is the Revealer and at the same time the subject of the Revelation. This view of the meaning of the above phrase, however, does not

exclude the larger and ultimate teaching, namely:the return of Christ in power and glory, a truth directly stated as the consummation of the great struggle between Right and Wrong, of which the Book of Revelation treats. (i: 7.)

It is "the Revelation which God gave Him." This does not imply the inferiority of Christ's Person and character, as some imagine, but sets forth His distinctive office as Revealer of God's mysteries. "All things are delivered to me by my Father; and no one knows the Son except the Father; nor does any one know the Father except the Son; and he to whom the Son wills to reveal Him." (Matt. xi: 27.) "No one has ever seen God; God only begotten, who is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared Him." (John i: 18.) Thus it is Christ Who addresses the seven churches (chapters ii-iii), and Who opens the sealed roll. (v: 7, 9.)

God gave Christ the Revelation that He might "show to His (i. e., Christ's) servants, the things which must shortly come to pass."

Light is about to be given here on one of life's greatest problems. We must by no means restrict the application of these words. They have a very wide outlook. Not only apostles and prophets are thought of here, but the Church of Jesus Christ in general. This, then, is as much a message for presentday Christians as for the seer himself. The question regarding in time in which these "things" transpire will be considered the the next chapter, in connection with the announcement of Christ's coming in i 7.

The Author:-There has been much discussion regarding the identity of the author of this Book. Some say it was not John the apostle, but some one who forged his name. There are those who say that it was composed by another in the apostle's name,