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And when he had opened the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven about the space of half an hour, etc. This portion of the dream of John, like other portions, has Jewish elements of thought brought into strange and grotesque combinations. In dreams there are no new objects or elements of thought or emotion, but old ones brought into unique forms by an ungoverned imagination. Whilst they are evermore difficult, if not impossible to interpret, they are at all times available for the illustrating and impressing of truth. The words may be fairly taken to illustrate soul silence. "There was [followed] silence in heaven about the space of half an hour." That is, silence for a time. It is suggested -

I. THAT SOUL SILENCE OFTEN FOLLOWS GREAT EXCITEMENT. The opening of the seals, the unfolding of the wonderful dispensations of the Divine government up to the close of the world's history, must have excited the feelings and strained the faculties of the spectators to an unusual intensity. The soul lake was no longer without a ripple; it was heaved into swelling surges. It is ever so in soul life; after great tumult there comes a calm. This is always and pre-eminently the case with the genuinely faithful and holy. From the storms of remorse, secular anxieties, and social bereavements, the soul of the genuinely Christly rises into a "peace that passeth all understanding." In truth, in the case of all regenerate souls, great excitement is often the condition of peace and tranquillity. It is not until the storms of moral conviction become so terrible that the spirit cries out, "Lord, save, or I perish!" that the omnific voice, "Peace, be still!" will take effect, and there comes a "great calm." Blessed silence this! How grand is such a silence! It is the highest gift of man, nay, Divinity itself.

"How grand is Silence! In her tranquil deeps
What mighty things are born! Thought, Beauty, Faith,
All good; - bright Thought, which springeth forth at once,
Like sudden sunrise; Faith, the angel eyed,

Who takes her rest beside the heart of man,
Serene and still; eternal Beauty, crown'd
With flowers, that with the changing seasons change;
And good of all kinds. Whilst the babbling verse

Of the vain poet frets its restless way,
In stately strength the sage's mind flows on,
Making no noise: - and so, when clamorous crowds
Rush forth, or tedious wits waken the senate-house,

Or some fierce actor stamps upon his stage,
With what a gentle foot doth silent Time
Steal on his everlasting journey!"

(Barry Cornwall)

II. THAT SOUL SILENCE IS OFTEN FOUND ABSORBING WORSHIP. "And I saw the seven angels which stood before God; and to them were given seven trumpets," etc. Here begins a new series of visions. The seven trumpets follow the seven seals, and this series extends to the close of the eleventh chapter. The "seven trumpets" are given to the seven angels or ministers that stand in the presence of God. But it is not with these seven angels or messengers that we have now to do; they will engage our attention further on. Our concern at present is with the angel connected with the altar - "the angel that stood at the altar, having a golden censer; and there was given unto him much incense, that he should offer [add] it with the prayers of all saints upon the golden altar which was before the throne." This symbolical representation of worship is derived from the Jewish temple, and it may illustrate to us the fact:

1. That the prayers of saints on earth are of great practical interest in the spiritual universe.

(1) They are offerings that are acceptable to its Supreme Ruler. "And the smoke of the incense, which came with the prayers of the saints, ascended up before God." True prayer is acceptable to the Infinite Father.

(2) In rendering them acceptable to God, his highest spiritual ministers are deeply engaged. Here is an angel standing towards the altar with a golden censer, receiving incense that he might give it "with the prayers of all saints." Elsewhere, in numerous passages of Holy Writ, angels are represented as rendering spiritual assistance to good men. May they not be constantly doing so by inbreathing those heavenly thoughts that will inspire the soul with the holiest devotions?

2. That the prayers of saints on earth exert an influence on the things of time. We are told, "the angel took the censer, and filled it with fire of the altar, and cast it into the earth: and there were [followed] voices, and thunderings, and lightnings, and an earthquake." The prayers have gone up, and the sprinkling of the ashes earthward symbolize their effects on the earth. What convulsions, what revolutions, the prayers of the saints have effected on this earth ere now! and what they effect now they wilt continue to do. Now, in the midst of all this devotion there would seem to be a period of silence. The profoundest hush, the deepest silence of the soul, are found in worship. Here all its faculties work harmoniously, and all its sympathies flow as a deep river without a ripple on its surface. "The Lord is in his holy temple; let all the earth keep silence before him." The realization of the Divine Presence can never fail to hush the soul into profound tranquillity, and in this tranquillity its grandest possibilities germinate and grow. "Silence," says an illustrious thinker, "is the element in which great things fashion themselves together, that at length they may emerge full formed and majestic into the daylight of life which they are thenceforward to rule."

III. THAT SOUL SILENCE OFTEN SPRINGS FROM HIGH EXPECTANCY. "And the seven angels which had the seven trumpets prepared themselves to sound." And as the angels raised their trumpets to their mouths ready to blow, a breathless expectancy would be excited. In earnest waiting there is generally silence - waiting for the last breath of a friend, waiting for the verdict of a jury which decides the deliverance or the destruction of a human life. Holy souls that now witnessed the scene of the trumpets about to utter a blast felt that great things were coming, that stupendous events were rolling up on the wheels of Providence, and there was "silence in heaven about the space of half an hour." What wonderful things are before us all! Were we all earnestly waiting for these things, waiting for the "manifestation of the sons of God," waiting the advent of him who is to wind up the affairs of the world, how silent should we be! - D.T.

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Parallel Verses

KJV: And when he had opened the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven about the space of half an hour.

WEB: When he opened the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven for about half an hour.