"And I saw at the right of Him seated upon the throne a Scroll that had been written within and on the outside, sealed up with Seven Seals." (v. 1).    

It is scarcely necessary to remark that the occupant of the throne is the Deity, likened in chap. iv. 3, to a jasper and a sardine stone, emblematic of Spirit manifested in flesh. That chapter gives no intimation of this flesh having ever tasted of death; but in the fifth this great fact is brought out in connection with the scroll, as we shall see hereafter.

On the right of the manifested Deity was a scroll. It was written within and on the outside; and was sealed up. This was, doubtless, related to the same document as that referred to in Dan. xii. 4,9 where it is written, "Shut up the words, and seal the book till the time of the end;" and "the words are closed up and sealed till the time of the end." Daniel was not informed with how many seals, or if by one only it was sealed up; but simply that it was sealed. It was all the same to him whether it was sealed up with one seal or many; for a scroll closed and sealed up is unreadable till unrolled, and the sealing is opened. The catastrophe, or final series of events, revealed to Daniel belonged "to the time of the end." He was instructed to look forward to that period, to which pertains the apocalyptic "hour of judgment," for the termination of the wonders and times treated of in his book, or scroll. What had been communicated to him was principally concerning his people and his holy city. He had heard that the Saints were to be overcome by the Little Horn of the Fourth Beast that has Eyes and Mouth; and that their subjugation was to continue until the Ancient of Days came with a cloud of attendants numbered by "a thousand thousands and ten thousand times ten thousand," when the judgment would sit, and the fourth beast in body, head and horns should be destroyed by the burning flame of wrath proceeding from the cherubic throne of Deity. All this he had heard; nevertheless, there was a mystery closed up and sealed against his scrutiny that needed explication. What did that Little Horn with his Eyes like a man, and a mouth speaking great words against the Most High signify? Was the Ancient of Days by whom they were to be destroyed, Deity or angel; if the former, how manifested? If the latter, who was he? Who was that Son of Man brought before the Ancient of Days, to whom universal dominion upon earth is given? How could the conquered saints take the Kingdom under the whole heaven from the four beasts? These, and many other questions would suggest themselves to Daniel, which would only put him to grief, and place him beside the apostle John, who "shed many tears because no one was found worthy (and therefore able) to unroll and to read the scroll, nor to see it" (v. 4). When Daniel saw the vision of his seventh chapter he said he "was grieved in spirit in the midst of the body, and the visions of his head troubled him;" and even after the meaning of what he saw was interpreted, he says his cogitations still troubled him much, and his countenance was changed. Thus if John and Daniel had been both in Patmos together studying "the matter" they would have been companions in tribulation consequent upon their fruitless investigations, and endeavors to unclose the words, and to unseal the scroll seen by the prophet in the first and third of Belshatzar’s reign, and in the third of Cyrus the Persian King. Nor would their grief have been assuaged until this day had the scroll at the right of Deity manifested in flesh, and occupying the throne, been withheld. John could have instructed Daniel concerning the Ancient of Days and the Son of Man; he could have enlarged his views concerning the Saints; and have given him skill and understanding in the mystery of the gospel preached to Abraham; but as to the relations of the saints to the then existing government; the taking out of the way that which hindered the revelation of "The King who should do according to his own will," and in his empire should honor a blaspheming god unknown to his pagan predecessors; as to the rise of the ten horns; the development of the Saracen and Turkish powers; the pouring out of that determined upon the desolator of the Holy Land and City; the coming of the Ancient of Days in power; the resurrection; the war of the great day of the Omnipotent; the co-operation of the Saints; the establishment of the Kingdom; and so forth; as to all these things John could give Daniel no connected and intelligible account. They were all written within and on the outside of that notable scroll on the right of the throne, or place of almighty power. In vision, or spirit, John looked wistfully upon that scroll, closely rolled up and exuberantly sealed. Daniel would have looked wistfully at it too; and so would all the saints, both their contemporaries and ours. And if all this company could have occupied synchronously with John his position in the vision, and their feelings could have been simultaneously expressed, on hearing the question "Who is worthy to unroll the scroll, and to loose its seals?" unreplied to by a solitary response; there would have been a universal lamentation and shedding of tears abundantly. In saying this, I speak of the Saints of all ages and generations who are such in reality, and not merely in pretense. The saints of the Deity, or "his servants," who are such in deed and in truth, like John, take a deep interest in "the things of the spirit," and earnestly desire and diligently endeavor to "know the truth" of all "matters" the Deity has condescended to reveal. They seek to know the true import, the real meaning, of them all; and if they do not succeed, it is a source of much anxiety and restlessness of mind. But saints so called who have a name like many in the ancient Sardis, "that they live, but are dead," would have seen the scroll at the right of power, and though they should have heard with John, "that no one was able in heaven, nor upon the earth, nor under the earth, to unroll the scroll, nor to see it," would have been far from joining him in "shedding many tears, because no one was found worthy to unroll and to read the scroll, nor to see it." Saints of this sort flourish in overwhelming multitudes in the present time. They might possibly so far have respected the presence of the apostle as not to have laughed at his "weakness;" but behind his back, they hesitate not to laugh to scorn those who are interested in this scroll, and seek to understand, or "see it." They regard such as hairbrained and frantic fanatics, and exclaim in vast astonishment at their presumption. To them the scroll is "covered with a dense and thick veil of ignorance," which only the presumptuous and reckless would essay to lift or put aside. In holding these sentiments they condemn the weeping of the apostle. What sense in his shedding many tears because no one could interpret such a document as they esteem it -- a book calculated only to addle or dement the brains of all who try to understand it? Certainly none. In effect, then, they condemn the lamentation of the apostle: and prove to a demonstration, that they are not in fellowship with him; nor, by consequence, "with the Father, and with his son Jesus Christ," (1 John i. 3). Hence, the apostle in the vision does not represent saints of their class. In the apocalyptic drama he symbolizes no such impious professors. If a multitude of weepers had been introduced into the scenic representation instead of one tear-shedding apostle, the apocalypse-despising crowd would have found no standing room among them. Such profane and scoffing pietists could have no more place there, than as cherubic eyes in the four Living Ones, when the unrolling of the scroll, and the unloosing of the seals, will be complete. No, not these, but his own class, is symbolized or represented by John in the vision of this fifth chapter. He acts for those in fellowship with the apostles and prophets as these would have acted had they heard the proclamation of the vision in the time before the Lion of Judah’s tribe was announced as the unroller of the scroll, and looser of the seals. His dramatic weeping argues, and indeed indicates, "the joy unspeakable and full of glory" characteristic of his class, the saints, in their "full assurance of faith and hope" that "all power has been given to him in heaven and upon earth" to unroll the scroll, and to loose the seals thereof; and that consequently, there is no throne, dominion, principality, nor power in the political firmament that can successfully contend against him; nor kindred, tongue, nation, tribe nor people, that can preserve their independence of the sovereignty of Judah and Israel’s King. In the ratio of the lamentation is the intensity of the joy by implication. Sensible men do not "shed many tears" over trifles. Hence, though it is not said that John was glad with exceeding joy when he heard that one was found who was able to unroll the scroll, read and see it, it is nevertheless implied, seeing that he was so movingly affected on the contrary supposition. That scroll, symbolical of its contents, must certainly have been inestimable which could be unrolled only by one in all the Universe deemed of worthiness sufficient by the Lord of heaven and earth. Its denouement, or unravelling of its subject matter, was to put John and all in fellowship with him, in possession of the great salvation -- of the kingdom promised to those who are "rich in faith;" hence, to understand this denouement and to know that the Lord Jesus will carry it through, and establish it so that "it cannot be moved," would develop the voices of this fifth chapter which are expressive of loud shouting for joy on the part of all who utter them.

These things being premised, I proceed to remark that the scroll at the right hand of power, occupying symbolically the place of Christ’s present position, is all that section of the Apocalypse embraced in the seven seals. It does not contain the epistles to the seven ecclesias in Asia. In John’s day, the subject matter of these letters was ha eisi, "the things which are;" but, in our time, they are the things which were; yet is the are and the were connected as the acorn and the widespreading oak. The reader will remember the Spirit’s division of the Apocalypse, or "Revelation of Jesus Anointed which the Deity gave to him," in chap. i. 19. There John was told to write ha eides, "the things seen;" ha eisi, "the things extant;" and ha mellei ginesthai, "the things to be." The Apocalypse, in the largest sense of the word, is the writing John executed in obedience to this command, and comprehends all these three classes of things. The things he had seen at the time of the order to "write," were the things he saw when, in spirit, or vision, he was in the Lord’s Day, the day when He comes in power and great glory, the account of which is in the first chapter, from the tenth verse to the eighteenth inclusive. The second class of things, or things which are, were those things charged upon the seven ecclesias in the epistles contained in the second and third chapters, and which, instead of being suppressed by the Spirit’s reprobation of them, grew vigorously until they became a great and deadly upas, overshadowing the whole territory of Daniel’s fourth beast dominion, miscalled "Christendom," as at this day. Hence John’s ha eisi, or things extant, in the ecclesias named, were the "inside" seeds of things which afterwards became "THE CHURCH BY LAW ESTABLISHED" -- an establishment consisting of the nauseous sputa ejected from the Spirit’s mouth when the apostasy had attained its Laodicean development at the incipient loosing of the seventh seal. Its patrons, who by it had their wealth and honor, styled it "THE HOLY APOSTOLIC CATHOLIC CHURCH," and do symbolize it at this day by a woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and angels crowning her with a crown of twelve stars. [See the frontispiece of a book published by E. Dunigan and Bros., New York, styled "The Glories of Mary."] The three ecclesiastical divisions of "Christendom" -- Greek, Latin, and Protestant -- contend earnestly for what their champions regard as the honor of this title. Each section would appropriate it exclusively to itself, but this exclusive appropriation is still in abeyance, and likely so to be interminably; for, as they have not been able to settle the controversy in fifteen centuries and a half, they are not likely so to do in the few years remaining of "the times of the Gentiles," when the loosing of the seventh seal will be complete.

But there were also written in the seven epistles certain predictions of ha mellei ginesthai, "things which shall be," meta tauta, "after these things" -- the iniquities of the second class of things shall be consummated. Jezebel would be clothed with the sun and give birth to the Man-child of Sin; and her children, the Harlots and Abominations of chapter seventeen, would become rich by her, and develop "the depths of the Satan as they teach;" but then, it was predicted in what the Spirit said to the ecclesias, that professors should have "a tribulation ten days;" that He would "fight against them with the sword of his mouth;" that He would cast them into a bed . . . "into great tribulation, and kill them with death;" that He would "come on them as a thief;" that He would "make them come and worship before the feet of those who keep his word, and have not denied his name;" and that professors of the Satan’s synagogue -- professors not scripturally in Christ, and those who walk after the flesh -- "shall know that he has loved the true believers" whom they despise; that He would bring "the hour of trial upon the whole habitable to try them that dwell upon the earth," and that, being "lukewarm," He would "spue them out of his mouth."

But, beside these threatenings against professors of christianity pretending to be apostles, or "successors of apostles," "Jews," and spiritually "rich and increased in goods, and in need of nothing," as in all the ages and generations of the Apostasy concurrent with the seventh seal, as at this day: but who, both "divines" and people, are apocalyptically denounced as "liars," holding with the teaching and practices of the Nikolaitanes, which the Spirit hates; as "the Synagogue of the Satan;" "holding the teaching of Balaam" in mass-sacrifices to images, and the fornication of a marriage-forbidding hierarchy; as "the woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess, teaching and seducing God’s servants to practice abomination; as the Satan;" as "having the name that they live while really dead;" and as "wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked." Besides the threatenings against these, the apocalyptic epistles abound in promises of a glorious destiny to those who "overcome." These are described as those "who cannot bear them who are evil," and who try claimants to apostolicity and inward Jewship, and in default of scriptural proof reject them as "liars." They are described as those who "have borne and had patience, and for the Spirit’s name sake have labored and not fainted;" as rich in faith and faithful unto death; as Antipas, who holds fast the name and has not denied the faith of the Spirit; as those whose "last works are more than the first;" as the "few names" in the midst of a christian community in a dying state, or "ready to die," who have "not defiled their garments;" as those who have "kept the word and not denied the name of the Spirit;" and as those who are "zealous, and hear the Spirit’s voice; and hearing, respond to his voice, and open the door of their mind and affections to his entering in. These are they who overcome the wicked one," and the false prophets of the world, whom the world heareth (1 John iv. 1,4,5; ii. 14). They are "born of the Deity," and therefore "overcome the world" by their faith. They all believe in His promises with an intelligent faith, and that Jesus is His first-begotten -- the Chief of His many sons -- through whom alone the scroll can be unrolled, and the loosing of its seven seals effected (1 John v. 4,5).

To these, then, who are the heirs of victory, the epistles to the seven apocalyptic ecclesias teem with promises of abounding glory. The Spirit testifies in them that they shall "eat of the wood of life in the midst of the paradise of Deity;" that a coronal wreath of life shall crown them; that they shall receive a white pebble with a new name engraved upon it, known only to the receiver; that they shall have dominion over the nations, and govern them with an iron sceptre; that the imperial and regal constitution of the world shall break to pieces as the potter’s clay vessels; that those who get the victory over the world shall receive the Morning Star; that they shall be clothed in white garments, and their names openly confessed by the Life-imparting Spirit in the presence of his Father and his angels; that they shall be eternal pillars in the temple of Deity; that the Quickening Spirit (1 Cor. xv. 45; 2 Cor. iii. 17) shall engrave them with the name of his Deity, and the name of the city of his Deity, the New Jerusalem, which descendeth out of the heaven from his Deity, even his new name; and that they shall sit with him in his throne after the example of what shall obtain in relation to himself and his Father’s throne.

Here, then, are threatenings and promises -- threatenings for spurious professors and apostates within, and for persecutors of the saints without; and glorious promises for those who gain the victory over their own lusts and the seductions of the world by faith. These were the things to be -- the things of the third class which the apocalyptic epistles affirmed but did not unroll. They give no explanation concerning the how and the when the vision symbolical of the Lord’s Day, or "the things seen" of John, in chap. i, and "the things which shall be," or the threatenings and promises, shall be developed. A revelation, then, was needed to exhibit the when and the how of the threatenings and the promises, and this need was amply supplied by the scroll at the right hand of power, written within and on the outside, and sealed up with seven seals. It was placed in the vision at the right hand of power, or, as it is expressed in the text, "at the right of Him seated upon the throne," to signify that none but the Omnipotent in manifestation was "able" or powerful enough to unroll it and loose its seals. Gabriel, whose name signifies Mighty One of Power, "who stands in the presence of Deity," had been employed to give Daniel skill and understanding in the vision and matter communicated to him in the third year of Belshatzar (Dan. viii. 16; ix. 21; Luke i. 19); but Gabriel was not worthy, able, or powerful enough to give John skill and understanding in the matter of the scroll; for, says John, "no one was able in the heaven, nor upon the earth, nor under the earth, to unroll the scroll, nor to see it."

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