sensation, must be suspended, that he might have a perception of the objects presented in vision. As the "spirits of just men made perfect" in glory, in a disembodied state, are still conscious and active; so are we warranted to conceive of souls yet in the body as being in a state analagous,--falling into a trance. (Acts x. 10.) The first object seen by John was a "throne set in heaven," the emblem of sovereignty. "One sat on the throne," who cannot be described, only in an obscure manner by comparison, being "the invisible God, whom no eye hath seen, nor can see." Yet we know with certainty it is the person of the Father, because he is in the next chapter plainly distinguished from "the Lamb." Seated on the throne,--and "in the throne he is greater than the Mediator." A relation between these divine persons was shadowed forth in Egypt between Pharaoh and Joseph. (Gen. xli. 40.) Occupying the throne of the universe, the Father sustains the majesty of the Godhead, and represents the persons of the adorable Trinity; for the idea is equally unscriptural and absurd, that either person appears or acts (_ad extra_) in absolute or essential character. (Is. xlii. 1; John x. 18; xiv. 31.) He that "sat, was ... like a jasper and a sardine stone,"--not like any human form, but in allusion, perhaps, to the Shekinah or visible glory above the mercy-seat in the most holy place, he appeared in the essential purity or holiness of his nature and awful justice,--one "who will by no means clear the guilty." The rainbow is the familiar emblem or "token of the covenant." Its being "round about the throne" teaches us, that God "in wrath remembers mercy." As "green" is the color most pleasing to the natural eye, so is the rainbow of covenant mercy most grateful to the penitent sinner, contemplated by the eye of faith. God is "ever mindful of his covenant." (Ps. cxi. 5.) Ever since the revelation of mercy to fallen man, God deals with mankind, not in essential or absolute character, but by covenant in economical standing. All along since that epoch in the history of this world, "the Father judgeth no man, but hath committed all judgment unto the Son." As yet, however, the Son is not brought upon the stage in the apostle's present view. The Son has his appropriate place in the vision, where he will appear as Mediator. In the conflict to be carried on for twelve hundred and sixty years by the combined powers of earth and hell "against the Lord and his Anointed," we have the agencies exhibited in these two chapters _only on heaven's side_. The opposing hosts will afterwards appear. 4. And round about the throne were four and twenty seats; and upon the seats I saw four and twenty elders sitting, clothed in white raiment; and they had on their heads crowns of gold. 5. And out of the throne proceeded lightnings, and thunderings, and voices: and there were seven lamps of fire burning before the throne, which are the seven spirits of God.