Let us turn to the sublime words of this Apocalypse, proved to have been written by John the Apostle, and as we read, imagine, if we can, that the author himself, and the Christians of the seven Churches of Asia and elsewhere, knew nothing of the miraculous facts of the Gospels and the doctrine of the atonement with which they are inseparably connected; and imagine, if we can, that they were both added, according to our author's hypothesis, to the original and lost Gospels a century later. It is entitled "The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave unto him, to show unto his servants things which must _shortly come to pass_." Among such things--"shortly to come to pass"--affecting the Church, we cannot be wrong in understanding the attack upon Jerusalem by the Romans to be included. If so, the saying of the angel--"Rise and measure the temple of God, and the altar, and them that worship therein," implies that Jerusalem was still standing when the book was written. Also, among the things shortly to come to pass, must be understood the impending judgments on Rome (the mystical Babylon) for the terrible and bloody persecution which had lately happened; for Rome is evidently referred to in the seventeenth chapter, where we read: "Upon her forehead was a name written, Mystery, Babylon the great; and I saw the woman drunken with the blood of the saints and of the martyrs of Jesus." We are left in no uncertainty as to the interpretation of this chapter, for it is given us in the last verse, where we are told--"And the woman which thou sawest is that great city which reigneth over the kings of the earth." "The seven heads are seven mountains on which the woman sitteth. _And there are seven kings, five are fallen, and one is, and the other is_ not yet come." It is all but certain that the kings referred to are--1 Augustus, 2 Tiberius, 3 Caligula, 4 Claudius, 5 Nero, and the 6th, "_which now is_," Galba, who reigned nine months, from 1st May, 68, till 15th January, 69; the 7th, to come next, being Otho, who, when he cometh, must continue a short space. It was but "a short space," for on the 20th of April in the same year Vespasian ascended the throne. The beast which was to appear next is undoubtedly Nero; for though he was dead, Tacitus tells us there was a wide-spread rumour, which created great alarm, that the report of his having committed suicide, when the senate had denounced him, was false. He is said to have been personified by a slave, who took up his abode in an island not far from Patmos. When we think of the Roman coins of that date having on them the words "Nero Cæsar," the Hebrew letters for which are identical with the "six hundred threescore and six," the number of the beast, which "he that hath understanding is to count," we cannot avoid the conclusion that Nero, under the symbol of a beast, is referred to. If this be the correct interpretation, there is no uncertainty about the date and authorship of the book.