And one of the elders saith, etc. St. John is first shown Christ as Head of his Church, ruling here on earth. This his first vision. Then he is transported to heaven, and sees the throne set there, and its attendants and their worship. Then the coming forth of the Son of God, and the representation of his mediatorial sovereignty. But first there is the vision of the throne of God, for he is the Source and End of all authority. God was and shall be "all in all." But his power is seen in this vision as delegated to Christ as Mediator. For this vision -

I. SYMBOLIZES THE MEDIATORIAL POWER OF CHRIST. It does this by representing:

1. The Lamb in the act of taking the book out of the hand of him that sat on the throne. Note the book in God's hand; the challenge of the angel, unanswered; and St. John's distress thereat. But now the Lamb prevails, etc. The meaning of the book, or roll, is the plan or policy of a state, the will and purpose of a ruler. God speaks of his book; of blotting out names therefrom. Scribes were important personages because of their agency in preparing such decrees. The taking of the book, therefore, is as when a minister of state in our days receives his portfolio; it signifies his commission to know, comprehend, and execute the counsels and decrees therein contained. Thus, as receiving his commission, the vision represents our Lord.

2. The origin of his mediatorial power. It was derived from the Father. Christ ever afiirmed that he "received of the Father," that he came "not to do his own will, but the will of him that sent him;" Christ was "the Man whom he had ordained;" "God hath spoken unto us by his Son;" "All things are committed unto me of my Father," etc. The mystery of the Trinity is perhaps insoluble by us, but as to the truth of the doctrine, it pervades, not this vision only, but the whole Bible.

3. The nature of it. The vision represents Christ as One that was capable of, and had suffered, death. He was, therefore, human as well as Divine. His human origin as well as his Divine glory are both shown, and because he was the God-Man he became Mediator between God and man.

4. The exercise of his mediatorial power. This by his taking the book and loosing the seals thereof, whereupon, as each seal is opened, that which he thus discloses is at once begun to be accomplished. The Apocalypse discloses the fate and fortunes of the Church, and of the world as related to it. Information and reserve characterize these disclosures. They tell of a great struggle, in which all creatures engage; that it is for moral ends, and centres round man. Hell and its plans and apparent triumphs are shown; also her overthrow, and at last the full redemption of the Church and the establishment of the kingdom of God. Now, all this Christ not only reveals, but executes. For this he has the seven horns of omnipotent might, and the seven eyes of omniscient wisdom. But it is in their execution that the Divine purposes are fully revealed. As yet we know but parts of them. The apostles only knew the Scriptures when, not before, they were fulfilled. And how vast is:

5. The extent of his power! It is over all physical and all moral natures; over the present and the future; over the grave and death; over angels and devils; over every soul in every land, age, and condition. All are subject unto him. God "left nothing that is not put under him" (1 Corinthians 15.). And:

6. Its final end and completions. It has such an end. The very idea of a "book" is that of something which comes to an end, which is for a definite and limited purpose. Christ must reign, not forever, but "till he bath put all things under his feet." Then cometh the end (cf. 1 Corinthians 15:24-28). The book is a definite thing. The existing systems of grace and providence are not everlasting; they subserve ends beyond and higher than themselves; they are but preliminary and initiative; their completion is yet hidden, and will fill and brighten eternity. Further, the vision -

II. EXHIBITS THE BASIS ON WHICH HIS MEDIATORIAL POWER RESTS, He "prevailed," but by right, not by force; in virtue of his being:

1. The Lion of the tribe of Judah. (Genesis 49:9.) Hence his right was from his office, the position it was predicted he should fill. And his life and his conquest over Satan, sin, man, death, all verified the truth of Jacob's dying prophecy.

2. The Root of David. Hence, by descent also, as Heir of him to whom God's promises of universal rule had been given. But chiefly because he was:

3. The Lamb slain. Thus the pre-eminent right secured by his atonement is set forth. The Lamb is the Centre of heaven. Hence his cross claims his crown; the sufferings of Christ, the glory that should follow. The term "worthy" is used in reference to this right thus obtained. The cross affirms every principle of moral law. As all creation is for moral ends, so supremely is the cross of Christ. He is worthy because he was slain.

III. REVEALS THE RESULTS CONTEMPLATED BY HIS MEDIATORIAL POWER. They are four.

1. To set forth the glory of the Son of God. See the adoration of the Lamb, how intense, how universal, how unceasing. All things are for him, as they are by him. All men are to "honour the Son, even as they honour the Father." And by his mediation this glory is secured. He had glory before the world was. But he has far more now, and yet more shall be his. He is seen amid all the confusions and calamities of life to be our one Hope and Stay. "Christ is all and in all," and so is he glorified.

2. To secure the accomplishment of man's redemption. "Thou hast redeemed us:" so the heavenly choirs sing over and over again. And Christ has his redeemed. See how the Church is described: as the bride; heir; joint heir with Christ; kings; priests unto God; his body, etc. Yes, Christ hath redeemed us.

3. To demonstrate the unity of the Divine counsels and the progressive character of the Divine works. The mediatorial system is not external to, but part of the system of, the universe. It is essential to its moral order and bound up with all its history. Sin was an inroad upon, and an invasion, violation, and disruption of, the Divine rule. Inevitable if the gift of free will was to be granted as it was; and hence some means for the reparation of this great disaster had to be found, and for the demonstration of the consistency of the wise, the holy, and the all-loving God. All human sin, protracted so awfully and so wearily age after age, is yet but an episode in the course of the Divine administration; like as a war is but an episode in the history of a nation. And the mediation of Christ is the method of God for undoing the evil man's sin has wrought.

4. To issue in the glory of the Father and to show this as the end and aim of all things. "That God may be all in all:" such is its chief end; as for each one of us, so for all human history, and all the Divine dealings with us in Christ our Lord. Let us by self surrender to Christ fall in with that blessed purpose, and so one day rejoice in its perfect fulfilment. (Adapted from notes of sermon by late Rev. G. Steward, of Newcastle.) - S.C.

I. THE COMPLACENCY WITH WHICH CHRIST LOOKS BACK ON HIS OWN ATONING WORK AND SUFFERINGS.

II. THE PERPETUAL EFFICACY OF THE SAVIOUR'S SACRIFICE.

III. THE CONTINUED IDENTITY OF CHRIST'S PERSON AS GOD-MAN MEDIATOR.

IV. REDEMPTION IS THE GRAND THEME OF ADORATION FOR UNREDEEMED ANGELS AS WELL AS FOR THE REDEEMED FAMILY OF GOD.

V. THE PRE-EMINENT DIGNITY AND BLISS OF THE RANSOMED SAINTS.

VI. THE UNITY WHICH PERVADES THE HEAVENLY RANKS.

VII. THE VISION SEEMS INTENDED TO PREPARE THE CHURCH ON EARTH FOR HER OWN SUFFERINGS, AND RECONCILE HER TO HER APPROACHING TRIBULATION.

(J. R. Macduff, D. D.)

I. First let us understand THE ATTITUDE AND POSITION OF THE ANGELS. They are round about the throne of God, around the elders — that is, the Church — and around the living creatures. They are, therefore, the sentinels and the guardians of Divine and human things. So they stand equally around the emblem of eternal power, around the fourfold forms of life, around its drudgery as well as its ambition, and around the Church, distressed and broken and divided and betrayed. No thought of fear dims the lustre of their eyes, nor lessens the precision and the emphasis of their song. And it is worthy of notice that they secure ample leisure for worship. It is a lesson that ought not to be lost upon our hurrying age. Thank heaven, there are still secluded corners of our land where the shriek of steam-engines, the clamour of crowded streets, the driving of pulse and brain, is unknown; where the valleys laugh and sing with the standing corn, where the hilltops are silent as the seas, and where jaded brains may shape some thought of God. But heaven is busy too, and there is work enough to be accomplished. There are sinners lost in the wilds of the hill, and in loathsome dens of the city, who will need to be brought home. There are claims and needs and dangers of the Church the world over — energies to be cherished, works to be encouraged, impurities to be purged, sorrows and disappointments to be assuaged. And with all these interests in hand their eye is upon the throne, for here only do angels and men alike behold, and thence only receive the interpretation of life and the wisdom and guidance for work. And well were it, not only for its honesty, but even more for its progress, if the commerce of England and Scotland and Ireland were directed by the laws which abide in God. Only those who obey can worship, and only those who rightly worship can truly live. And so —

II. The central thought of the angels, like that of the Church, was THE WORTHINESS OF CHRIST. "Worthy is the Lamb that was slain." And as it was in the mind of the Church, so here again this worthiness is associated with sacrifice. For most men suffer only when they must, and they fail to perceive that sacrifice at once tests what we are, and makes us what we ought to be. In this way Christ's sacrifice proved His essential worth, and, beyond this, proves to-day His permanent worth to His people. It is not His power alone. That never elicits adoration. It is the goodness that reigns paramount within Him which men worship and love.

III. THE RESPONSE OF CREATION. The poet of Palestine had said, many a year before St. John lived, that there is neither speech nor language throughout the earth in which the voice of the firmament is not heard. "The songs of the spheres" was another method of expressing the same truth. The sky vibrates with praise as the great stars stand out in their places. "Earth, with its thousand voices," said Coleridge, "praises God." And while these call to man, whatever his tongue or his worship, man the world round feels that he must respond. He cannot help worshipping. Under the gaslight, and in the heated atmosphere of some remote meeting-place in the big town, he may lustily proclaim that God is nothing to him. But when the gas is out and the cheering companions are gone, when he is alone on the mountain-side, and the thunder booms out its terror above and the lightning flashes death around him, a voice within answers the voices without, and the infidel is compelled to pray. And as man must worship, so his worship adopts a more expansive form than that which angels take as yet (Revelation 7:12). His eyes, too, are indeed filled with the image of the Lamb. What mind can forget Calvary and Olivet? But away beyond the present fact he contemplates the continuous recognition, and age upon age he hears the same hymn. And further yet, and fuller, the worship of the Lamb broadens into the worship of the Godhead. It is offered to "Him that sitteth upon the throne." And it expresses the spiritual history of every saint. We see ourselves in this hymn. When first our life lay before us, and we took it up and placed it upon the altar of God's salvation, Jesus Christ was all, was everything to us. Then as faith deepened and threw up the greater and stronger life, we saw Jesus in all things. And then we beheld the love of the Father to be as great and tender as the love of the Son, and the strength of the Holy Ghost gathered round us and within us, and God in His blessed Trinity embraced all things.

(W. M. Johnston, M. A.)

I. THE HOMAGE HERE REPRESENTED AS RENDERED TO THE SAVIOUR BY THE ANGELIC HOSTS.

1. Angels are the worshippers to whom our attention is more particularly directed in the text.

2. The nature of the homage which they render Him. The particulars here specified relate rather to the natural than the moral attributes of our Saviour, to His greatness rather than His goodness; that is, to His prerogatives and glories which He most obscured in His humbled state, or of which He then emptied Himself, as the Scripture expresses it.

3. The ground of this homage. As a person inherently possessed of all Divine excellences and glories, the Son of God, in common with the Father, has an incontestable title to the worship and obedience of the heavenly hosts. He has a further claim as the author and preserver of their existence, and as the source and dispenser of all their happiness. It is not, however, on this ground, strong as it is, that the homage manifested in the text is rendered Him. Look to the passage and you will at once perceive that the basis on which the Son of God is worshipped, both by the representatives of the Church and by the angelic hosts, is His death or sacrifice. But does the death of Christ give Him any new or peculiar claims to the homage of the heavenly hierarchies who are not immediately interested in its benefits? Unquestionably it does, and some of these claims it is not difficult to discover. His death was not only in itself the most extraordinary event that ever took place, it afforded incomparably the most magnificent display that ever was exhibited of generosity and kindness, of compassion and tenderness. It is an essential part of true excellence to admire excellence in another, and the admiration ought to be proportioned to the measure of excellence displayed. What a resistless impulse, then, must it communicate to the adoration and praise of the holy angels, to contemplate the death of the Son of God. Recollect next the display of the Divine character and perfections exhibited in the death of Christ, and you will see in it another reason to ampel the hosts of heaven to honour and adore Him. Consider, again, that while the death of Christ contributes so much to advance the honour of God, it contributes not less to promote the happiness of man. "They rejoice over one sinner that repenteth." In further illustration of this topic, I might add that it is the opinion of the great Mr. Howe, and of some other eminent divines, that angels, though not redeemed by Christ, are confirmed in happiness in consequence of their union to Him. It is further certain that in Him angels and saints are united in one harmonious and happy association, and that it has pleased the Father by Him to reconcile all things unto Himself; by Him, I say, whether they be things in earth or things in heaven." And these wonderful arrangements furnish angels with another reason to worship and serve "the Lamb that was slain."

II. THE ARGUMENT SUGGESTED BY THEIR CONDUCT TO INDUCE US TO RENDER THE LAMB A SIMILAR HOMAGE.

1. We have a direct and personal interest in His death. If His matchless love excites, as well it may, the admiration even of creatures not immediately interested, and impels them "to prepare new honours for His name," what words can express the claims which He has to our admiration, gratitude, and praise?

2. We are still in circumstances of danger. Many and formidable are the enemies who seek our ruin, numerous and painful are the toils and hardships we must encounter ere we reach our "Father's loved abode." There is one, and only one, who can protect you amid your multitudinous dangers, and bring you to the land which you wish to reach. "Jesus Christ, the captain of salvation, having been made perfect through sufferings, will conduct you to glory," if only you will confide in Him. What an argument to love and trust, to adore and praise Him!

3. I might remark that, allowing He has conferred on angels higher capacities and higher joys, our happiness has been procured by Him at a price far more costly. To communicate to angels existence and happiness required nothing more than a simple volition of His irresistible will, a single word of His omnipotent voice. It was not thus that the happiness of the apostate race could be restored, that the redemption of our lost world was to be achieved.Lessons:

1. How inconceivably glorious must heaven be, and how worthy of our earnest desire and our constant pursuit!

2. How reasonable that we should render Divine honours to the Lord Jesus.

3. How important that we cultivate a love to the exercises of heaven.

4. This subject suggests a test by which we may ascertain whether we are fit for heaven. To ascertain your meetness for heaven you have then only to inquire whether you take delight in devotional exercises and in holy pursuits and enjoyments.

5. This subject shows us the folly of the irreligious. Think of heaven with all its joys and splendours. Contrast with this hell with its horrors, a place of outer darkness and of gnashing of teeth.

(R. Balmer, D. D.)

I. CONTEMPLATE CHRIST AS HE IS REPRESENTED UNDER THE CHARACTER OF A LAMB. The lamb is an appropriate symbol of innocence and meekness. Never were the lamb-like virtues brought to so severe a test, and never were they so strikingly portrayed. A recluse in his cell may reason justly on the duties of forbearance and forgiveness, but it is difficult to carry into practice the dictates of sober solitude, yet Jesus gave not only the theory but the practice of every possible virtue.

II. MEDITATE ON THE DEATH OF CHRIST.

1. He was slain decretively in the purposes of Jehovah.

2. He was slain emblematically by the sacrifices under the Levitical dispensation.

3. He was slain instrumentally by the hands of the Jews.

4. He was slain really by the justice of God for the sins of His people.

III. CELEBRATE HIS PRAISE.

1. He is worthy of the trust and confidence of His people.

2. He is worthy of the adoration and praise of the redeemed spirits above.

3. He is worthy the adoration of the purest intelligences of the universe.

4. He is worthy of the final conquest of the world.

(T. Adkins.)

I. THE WONDERFUL PERSON of the glorious sufferer will furnish occasion of unceasing admiration to the great multitude before the throne.

II. The multitude before the throne will have occasion to give glory to the great Redeemer when they contemplate THE MYSTERIOUS NATURE OF HIS SUFFERINGS.

III. Similar acknowledgments will be called forth when the saints in heaven remember THEIR SINS as the procuring cause of the Saviour's sufferings.

IV. The sufferings of the Redeemer are considered by the multitude before the throne as the result of A PLAN CONTRIVED BY THE INFINITE WISDOM OF GOD in His eternal counsels.

V. The sufferings of the Redeemer are considered by the multitude before the throne as the genuine effect of His OWN UNCONTROLLED AND SOVEREIGN PLEASURE. To Himself alone, and to the free exercise of His own good will, this act of grace and humiliation must be referred.

VI. The sufferings of the Redeemer are considered by those who stand around the throne as affording THE BRIGHTEST MANIFESTATION OF THE DIVINE PERFECTIONS.

VII. The sufferings of the Redeemer present new occasion of admiration and triumph to the multitude before the throne, because thereby REDEMPTION IS COMPLETELY PURCHASED.

(John Russell.)

1. The sacrifice of Christ has had the effect of developing the hidden perfections and glories of God in what may be considered their Christian and evangelical aspect, both in the Church above and in the Church below, consequently all glory is due to Christ upon this principle.

2. The elementary state cud high reward of heaven is the result of our Saviour's work, and consequently the glory must be due to Him.

3. The relationship in which the triumphant Church will stand to her Lord will induce these sentiments, and lead to this triumphant song. In what relationship does He stand to us here? "God with us." In what relation does He appear to the Church above? "God with them."

(J. Dixon.)

I. BECAUSE HE IS THE ORIGINAL PROPRIETOR OF IT. The gold that any man holds in his hands is his in a very secondary sense; his property a few years ago was in the possession of others, and a few years hence it will pass from him into other hands. All material wealth belongs to Christ.

II. BECAUSE HE HAS ENABLED YOU TO PROCURE IT. Why have you wealth more than others? Has it come to you through heirdom, legacy, or your own industry? In either case you have it through Christ.

III. BECAUSE HE GIVES YOU THE QUALIFICATION TO ENJOY IT. Who gave you the unmiserly spirit, the bodily health, the mental capacity by which you can enjoy your riches?

IV. BECAUSE HE WILL MAKE THE BEST USE OF IT.

1. The best use of it for yourselves. There is no better investment. Your contributions to Him serve you in many ways.

(1)Serve to test your character.

(2)Serve to detach you from materialism.

(3)Serve to ennoble your character. It is a great thing to be trusted, to be thrown upon your honour. Christ trusts you.

2. The best use of it for the world. When you are gone Christ's Church will be here working with the means you have entrusted to it, and working to spread truth, virtue, and happiness through the world.

(Homilist.)

No other duty is enjoined so often in the Scriptures as praise. The Bible is full of music. The woods in the summer days are not so full of bird-notes as this sacred book is of voices of song. Christian life can realise the Divine thought for it only by being songful. The old fable of the harp of Memnon, that it began to breathe out sweet music the moment the morning light swept its chords, has its true fulfil. ment in the human soul, which, the instant the light of Divine love breaks upon it gives forth notes of gladness and praise.

(J. R. Miller, D. D.).