eral "binding" and "loosing"; for as we have already stated, perhaps at no period of his existence was he more strenuous in his opposition, but this was only secondary in importance to the Christian victory. Great advances in the Kingdom of God such as that witnessed in the apostolic age, when vast numbers of people are affected, have often been followed by reaction and apostasy. In the instance under consideration the "falling away" of II Thess. ii: 3 was contemporaneous with the "loosing" of Satan. (Rev. xx: 3. Cf. II Thessalonians ii: 8.) But God's true people are they who "endure to the end." (Matt. xxiv: 13.) These are not affected by the revelation of "the lawless one."

The "Beheaded" and "the rest of the dead":In distinguishing between the "souls of the beheaded" and "the rest of the dead" regard must be paid to the relations in which these classes are viewed. The former "live and reign with Christ," the latter "lived not until the thousand years should be finished." Between the fall of the sixth head of the "beast" and the rise of the seventh all is quiet, so to speak. The rise of the seventh head is equivalent to the loosing of Satan after the "thousand years." Then comes the final battle. Satan and "the rest of the dead" (spiritually dead) go against the camp of the saints, they who "live" and reign with Christ. In plain language, the Seer has reference to the spiritual and unspiritual, and as men are regarded from the view-point of eternity, the accident of death (physical) does not enter into the conception. Those who have part in "the first resurrection" include the righteous militant, as well as the righteous triumphant; while "the rest of the dead" include the unspiritual living as well as the impenitent dead. Thus we are taught the status of the only classes of humanity the Bible knows,-the right

eous and the wicked. The righteous "live and reign." The wicked are "dead." The former have part in the "first resurrection," the latter experience the "second death, the lake of fire." The "second death" is not something that is remote, affecting men only beyond the grave. It involves the present state of the wilfully wicked on the earth, as well as those who have died in their guilt. A little amplification will make this clearer. The Scriptures speak of the unregenerate as "dead in trespasses and sins" (Eph. ii: 1), and of their need of the new birth. (John iii: 3.) Christ came to give "life." (John x: 10.) Speaking then along this line, humanity is naturally in the state of the first death. The "second death" is this state intensified. It is that moral condition at which men arrive who wilfully and persistently reject the proffered mercies of God. There is progress downwards as well as upwards, and when men become fixed in their evil habits they are dangerously near the "second death," and are likely to earn the epithet applied by Jude to false teachers "trees twice dead." (Jude 12.) This interpretation of the "second death" obviates the necessity of a literal interpretation of "the lake of fire." This phrase occurs frequently in the closing chapters of the Revelation. It is an echo of what fell from the lips of Christ regarding the destiny of the finally impenitent. The "lake of fire" is that spoken of as a place "where their worm dieth not and the fire is not quenched." (Mk. ix: 48; Isa. lxvi: 24.) "Depart from Me, accursed, into the eternal fire, prepared for the Devil and his angels." (Matt. xxv: 41.) It is the "Gehenna" of the Scriptures, the Valley of Hinnom, the place just outside Jerusalem where the offal of the city was cast to be burned. Day and night it flamed forth, thus offering a ready symbol of the per

manent fate of the wicked. It is the thought of final rejection, and not the manner of punishment, that is set forth in all these references.

PART V.

Conclusion (xx:7; xxii:21).

CHAPTER XVII.

JUDGMENT OF SATAN AND THE DEAD.

Revelation xx:7-15.

And when the thousand years are finished, Satan shall be loosed out of his prison, and shall come forth to deceive the nations which are in the four corners of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together to the war: the number of whom is as the sand of the sea. And they went up over the breadth of the earth, and compassed the camp of the saints about, and the beloved city: and fire came down out of heaven, and devoured them. And the devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where are also the beast and the false prophet; and they shall be tormented day and night for ever and

ever.

And I saw a great white throne, and him that sat upon it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away; and there was found no place for them. And I saw the dead, the great and the small, standing before the throne; and books were

opened; and another book was opened, which is the book of life: and the dead were judged out of the things which were written in the books, according to their works. And the sea gave up the dead which were in it; and death and Hades gave up the dead which were in them: and they were judged every man according to their works. And death and Hades were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death, even the lake of fire. And if any was not found written in the book of life, he was cast into the lake of fire.

We have reached the last grand division in the author's scheme. Like a diamond with several facets, the subject has been presented in its various phases until we have viewed it from all conceivable points. First, we have a rapid survey of the whole problem (vi-vii), then a more detailed treatment as the problem affected the "chosen people." (viii-xii.) Following

this we have been shown the contemporary aspect. (xiii-xx: 6.) It has resulted in the destruction of the two beasts. The author now resumes the general features, showing how Satan, now without vicegerent or secondary agencies, is finally overcome, and how the victory over Evil ushers in the new heaven and the new earth.

"Loosed a little time":-It should not be difficult to see that the author is still dealing with conditions in the world as it is today. The "loosing" of Satan is his way of accounting for the prevalence of evil during the Christian dispensation in spite of the triumph of Christ and the share His followers, even during their earthly pilgrimage, have in it.

The names "Gog and Magog" appear in Ezek. xxxviii-xxxix, where, however, we read "Gog, the land of Magog." From Gen. x: 2 we learn that Magog was a son of Japheth, father of the Gentiles as dis

tinguished from the race of Shem, Gog being "the chief prince of Meshech and Tubal" (Ezek. xxxviii: 2), who were also sons of Japheth. Josephus declared that the Scythians, the general name given by Herodotus to the northern races beyond the Caucasian range, were the descendants of Magog. (Antt. i: 63.) From B. C. 633 to B. C. 605 there were various Western expeditions undertaken by the Scythians, in one of which Judea was threatened with devastation. Although the historical books of the Old Testament are silent on this matter, there is clear evidence of it in Jer. iv and in Zeph., while the name Scythopolis, given to ancient Bethshean (Jud. i: 7) on the highway between Nineveh and Egypt perpetuated the memory of the event.

This terrible irruption, which left such traces and memories behind, supplied Ezekiel with a background for his vision of Gog and Magog, where his language implies that these names symbolized the enmity of the world to the people of God, having been the subjects of earlier prophecy. (Ezek. xxxviii: 17.)

All through the Revelation the Seer has been using past historical events to illustrate his meaning. Once more he borrows from Ezekiel, in greater detail, the imagery which served him in xix: 17, in order to set forth the destruction of Satan and his hosts in their last assault on the City of God. Consistently with the thought already expressed of Satan's manifestations of himself in the "dragon" and "beast," we must regard this "little time" as synonymous with the reign of the "seventh head" or "ten horns." Roughly speaking, this covers the whole of the Christian dispensation.

Care must be taken not to literalize here. We must sympathize with the writer's motive if we are to catch his meaning. This is descriptive language, and to