Testament, that the primary teaching of prophecy has often not voiced its deeper message, that God’s thought has mostly proved wider than man’s first apprehension; so that in our reading of the prophets we are not limited to the primary application, however important it may be, but should strive rather to grasp the broader sweep and deeper thought made plain by the fuller development of the divine purpose—the general meaning for the whole church in all time rather than the particular meaning for one age or generation. This consideration we will find of great value in dealing with the generic and flexile forms of imagery contained in the symbols of the Apocalypse, where in attending to a multiplicity of detail the deeper and broader thought may so easily be misapprehended or even entirely escape our notice. The visions of the Apocalypse are generally conceded to belong to the latter part of the first century, and manifestly relate in main portion to the then future, whether near or far, of the church of Christ in the world, for they pertain to a profoundly impressive prophetic experience. The divine path of God’s people among the nations is beheld in symbol, type, and figure, ever leading on to victory through Jesus Christ his Son and our Lord; the church and the world are seen engaged in a multiform and deadly conflict, while the consummation is depicted in the fall of evil and the ruin of nature wrought by sin; and the triumph of the holy is set forth in a vision of complete restoration to the divine presence amid the beauty of a new world and the glories of the New Jerusalem—an outcome never once in doubt, for God rules through all and wins. And though in this ever changing picture the conditions of the early church and of the first century are constantly reflected in every part, yet the representative character of the whole may be clearly seen. Indeed one cannot but be impressed with the fine insight and spirit of reserve which is manifested by John throughout the book, in avoiding such explanations as might serve to narrow the visions to a purely local and temporary perspective, thereby evidencing that he had risen to a truly prophetic view, and that to his mind the visions belonged to a wider horizon as well as to the nearer limit of his own day. For whatever application or fulfilment these may have had, and surely _did_ have, in the period in which they were given, has not exhausted their meaning. To the ear that is open to God’s voice they have a lesson and significance that belong alike to the past, the present, and the future, a perennial freshness that time can neither fade nor destroy, for they manifest the principles of the divine government which abide for all the ages.