appropriate here, as what was to be revealed was, in general, to be presented to the _sight_ by sensible tokens or symbols. ¶ _Things which must shortly come to pass._ Not _all_ the things that will occur, but such as it was deemed of importance for his people to be made acquainted with. Nor is it certainly implied that all the things that _are_ communicated would shortly come to pass, or would soon occur. Some of them might perhaps lie in the distant future, and still it might be true that there were those which were revealed in connection with them, which soon would occur. The word rendered “_things_” (ἅ) is a pronoun, and might be rendered _what_; “he showed to his servants _what things_ were about to occur,” not implying that he showed _all_ the things that would happen, but such as he judged to be needful that his people should know. The word would naturally embrace those things which, in the circumstances, were most desirable to be known. The phrase rendered “must come to pass” (δεῖ γενέσθαι), would imply more than mere futurity. The word used (δεῖ) means _it needs_, _there is need of_, and implies that there is some kind of _necessity_ that the event should occur. That necessity may either arise from the felt _want_ of anything, as where it is absent or wanting, Xen. _Cyr._ iv. 10; ib. vii. 5, 9; or from the nature of the case, or from a sense of duty, as Mat. xvi. 21, “Jesus began to show to his disciples that he _must go_ (δεῖ ἀπελθεῖν) to Jerusalem” (comp. Mat. xxvi. 35; Mar. xiv. 31; Lu. ii. 49); or the necessity may exist, because a thing is right and just, meaning that it _ought_ to be done, as Lu. xiii. 14, “There are six days in which men _ought_ to work” (δεῖ ἐργάζεσθαι). “And _ought not_ this woman (οὐκ ἴδει), whom Satan hath bound, &c., be loosed from this bond,” Lu. xiii. 16 (comp. Mar. xiii. 14; Jn. iv. 20; Ac. v. 11, 29; 2 Ti. ii. 6; Mat. xviii. 33; xxv. 27); or the necessity may be that it is conformable to the divine arrangement, or is made necessary by divine appointment, as in Jn. iii. 14, “As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so _must_ (δεῖ) the Son of man be lifted up.” “For as yet they knew not the Scriptures, that he _must_ (δεῖ) rise again from the dead,” Jn. xx. 9; comp. Ac. iv. 12; xiv. 22, _et al._ In the passage before us, it is implied that there was some _necessity_ that the things referred to should occur. They were not the result of chance, they were not fortuitous. It is not, however, stated what was the ground of the necessity; whether because there was a want of something to complete a great arrangement, or because it was right and proper in existing circumstances, or because such was the divine appointment. They were events which, on some account, _must_ certainly occur, and which, therefore, it was important should be made known. The real ground of the necessity, probably, was founded in the design of God in redemption. He intended to carry out his great plans in