[96] Rom. viii. 21. [97] Job ix. 26. [98] Gen. iii. 24. [99] Ezek. i. 13, 14. [100] Chap. vi. 1, 3, 5, 7. [101] Chap. xv. 7. [102] Chap. xix. 4. [103] Exod. xxv. 20. [104] Ps. xviii. 10. [105] _The Apocalypse, with Notes and Reflections_, p. 69. [106] Ps. cxlviii. 1-3. [107] Ezek. ii. 9, 10. [108] John i. 45. [109] Gen. xlix. 9. [110] Isa. xi. 1. [111] 1 Chron. xxviii. 4. [112] Col. i. 26. [113] 1 John ii. 8. [114] Hos. vi. 2, 3. [115] John i. 36. [116] John xix. 36. [117] The point now spoken of has been doubted. A full discussion of it by the present writer will be found in _The Expositor_ for July and August, 1877. [118] John xix. 30. [119] Chap. i. 18. [120] Chap. i. 18. [121] 1 Pet. i. 11 [122] Col. iii. 11. [123] Col. i. 15-20. [124] Rom. ix. 5. [125] Rom. viii. 21. [126] Heb. ii. 5. [127] 1 Pet. i. 12. [128] Luke xv. 10. [129] 1 Tim. iii. 16. [130] Eph. iii. 10. [131] Ps. xlvi. 1-7. CHAPTER IV. _THE SEALED ROLL OPENED._ REV. vi. With the sixth chapter of the Apocalypse the main action of the book may be said properly to begin. Three sections of the seven into which it is divided have already passed under our notice. The fourth section, extending from chap. vi. 1 to chap. xviii. 24, is intended to bring before us the struggle of the Church, the judgment of God upon her enemies, and her final victory. No detail of historical events in which these things are fulfilled need be looked for. We are to be directed rather to the sources whence the trials spring, and to the principles by which the victory is gained. At this point in the unfolding of the visions it is generally thought that there is a pause, an interval of quietness however brief, and a hush of expectation on the part both of the Seer himself and of all the heavenly witnesses of the wondrous drama. But there seems to be no foundation for such an impression in the text; and it is more in keeping alike with the language of this particular passage and with the general probabilities of the case to imagine that the "lightnings and voices and thunders," spoken of in chap. iv. 5 as proceeding out of the throne, continue to re-echo over the scene, filling the hearts of the spectators with that sense of awe which they are naturally fitted to awaken. We have to meet the Lord in judgment. We are to behold the Lamb as "the Lion of the tribe of Judah;" and when He so appears, "the mountains flow down at His presence."[132] The Lamb then, who had, in the previous chapter, taken the book out of the hand of Him that sat upon the throne, is now to open it, part by part, seal by seal:-- And I saw when the Lamb opened one of the seven seals, and I heard one of the four living creatures saying as with a voice of thunder, Come (vi. 1).