The second point above mentioned--the aspect worn by the living
creatures--demands also a few remarks, for the view commonly
entertained upon it seems to be erroneous. Misled by the mention of
the _calf_, which is supposed to be the ox, and not the bull-calf,
interpreters have allowed the mode in which they understood this
particular to rule their interpretation of the others. It has been
regarded as the emblem of endurance and of patient labour rather than
of power and rage; while, following the same line of thought, the
_eagle_ has been treated as the king of birds soaring in the blue
vault of heaven rather than as hastening (like the vulture) to his
prey.[97] The whole conception of the cherubim has thus been modified
and shaped in the minds of men under a form altogether different from
that in which it is really presented to us in Scripture. The cherubim
of the Old Testament and the "living creatures" of the New are
supposed to represent "majesty and peerless strength," "patient and
productive industry," and "soaring energy and nimbleness of action."
In reality they rather represent qualities that strike terror into the
hearts of men and suggest the idea of an irresistibly destructive
force. With this view all that is elsewhere said of them corresponds.
They are not simply spoken of as partakers of the favour of God. They
are instruments in the execution of His wrath. When our first parents
were driven from the garden of Eden, they were placed "at the east of
the garden," along with "a flaming sword which turned every way, to
keep the way of the tree of life."[98] When we are introduced to them
in Ezekiel, it is said that "their appearance was like burning coals
of fire, like the appearance of torches: it went up and down among the
living creatures; and the fire was bright, and out of the fire went
forth lightning. And the living creatures ran and returned as the
appearance of a flash of lightning."[99] Similar associations are
connected with them throughout the Apocalypse. The opening of each of
the first four seals, the four that deal with judgments upon the
earth, is immediately followed by a voice, "as it were the noise of
thunder," from one of the four living creatures, saying, Come.[100]
One of them gives to the seven angels "seven golden bowls full of the
wrath of God."[101] And after the destruction of Babylon, when her
smoke is ascending up for ever and ever, and the voice of much people
in heaven calls for praise to Him who hath avenged the blood of His
servants at her hand, they "fall down and worship God that sitteth on
the throne, saying, Amen; Hallelujah."[102] There can be little doubt,
then, as to the meaning of these four living creatures. They are
sharers of the Almighty's holiness, and of that holiness in its more
awful form, as a holiness that cannot look on sin but with abhorrence.
They are the vicegerents of His kingdom. They are assessors by His
side. Their aspect is not that of the sweetness associated with the