It is not necessary to dwell upon the figures that are here employed, the _harp_, as connected with the Temple service, being the natural emblem of praise, and the _bowls full of incense_ the emblem of prayer. But it is of importance to observe the _universality_ of the praises and the prayers referred to, for as the language used here of these _men of every tribe, and tongue, and people, and nation_, when they are said to have been made _a kingdom and priests unto our God_, is the same as that of chap. i. 6, we seem entitled to conclude that, even from its very earliest verses, the Apocalypse has the universal Church in view. The song sung by this great multitude, including even the representatives of nature, now "delivered from the bondage of corruption into the liberty of the glory of the children of God,"[125] is wholly different from that of chap. iv. It is a _new song_, for it is the song of the "new creation;" and its burden, it will be observed, is not creation, but redemption by the blood of the Lamb, a redemption through which all partaking of it are raised to a higher glory and a fairer beauty than that enjoyed and exhibited before sin had as yet entered into the world, and when God saw that all that He had made was good. The song was sung, but no sooner was it sung than it awoke a responsive strain from multitudes of which we have not yet heard:-- And I saw, and I heard a voice of many angels round about the throne and the living creatures and the elders: and the number was ten thousands of ten thousands, and thousands of thousands; saying with a great voice, Worthy is the Lamb that hath been slain to receive the power, and riches, and wisdom, and might, and honour, and glory, and blessing (v. 11, 12). These are the angels, who are not within the throne, but _round about the throne and the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders_. Their place is not so near the throne, so near the Lamb. "For not unto angels did He subject the inhabited earth to come, whereof we speak."[126] He subjected it to man, to Him first of all who, having taken upon Him our human nature, and in that nature conquered, was "crowned with glory and honour," but then also to the members of His Body, who shall in due time be exalted to a similar dignity and shall _reign over the earth_. Yet angels rejoice with man and with creation redeemed and purified. They "desire to look into"[127] these things: "There is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner that repenteth."[128] He who was God manifested in flesh "appeared" after His resurrection "to angels;"[129] and, although they have not been purchased with the blood of the slaughtered Lamb, their hearts are filled with livelier ecstasy and their voices swell out into louder praise while the "manifold wisdom of God is made known" to them in their heavenly places.[130]