"And I heard One Voice out of the Four Horns of the Altar of Gold which is in the sight of the Deity, saying, &c." This is the same altar as that in the scene pictured in Apoc. viii. 3, which may be fitly reproduced here by way of remembrance. "And another angel came and stood by the altar, having a golden censer; and there was given to him many odors, that he might cast for the prayers of all the saints, upon the golden altar which is in sight of the throne. And the smoke of the odors for the prayers of the saints ascended out of the hand of the angel, in the sight of the Deity. And the angel took the censer, and filled it from the fire of the altar, and cast into the earth and there were voices and thunders and lightnings and an earthquake. And the Seven Angels having the seven trumpets prepared themselves that they might sound."

This scene is, as it were, a general preface to the sounding of each of the seven trumpets. That is, each trumpet develops its judgments retributively upon the enemies of the saints, and responsively to their prayers. The prayers of the saints were not to be confined to the apostolic age; but to ascend till Christ the avenger should return. "Men," said Jesus, "ought always to pray, and not to faint." This saying he illustrated by the parable of the unjust judge and the widow, in Luke xviii. 1-8. "Avenge me," said she, "of mine adversary;" but he would not, until wearied by her importunity, he complied to get rid of her complaints. If an unjust judge would do this, "shall not the Deity," the just judge of all the earth, "avenge his own elect, who cry day and night unto him, though he bear long with them? I tell you," said Jesus, "he will avenge them speedily. Nevertheless when the Son of Man cometh, shall he find the faith upon the earth?"

In all apocalyptic times, the elect of the Deity are represented as crying unto him "to judge and avenge their blood on them that dwell upon the earth" (vi. 10). In Apoc. viii. 3-5, the sounding of all the trumpets is dramatically represented as responsive to "the prayers of all the saints;" and consequently, not to the prayers of those saints only who lived between A.D. 324 and A.D. 395; but also to the prayers of the saints living contemporarily with all the trumpets. The successive soundings of the first five trumpets have brought us down to A.D. 933; and we have seen how the safety of the saints was guaranteed by the command of the Angel of the Abyss to his destroying agents to torment only the unsealed. The saints were not to be harmed by the special plagues; for they were "nourished" while the unseated, who were their enemies, were being scourged.

In all the days of their nourishment, which were 1260, their prayers were "ascending out of the angel’s hand in the sight of the Deity." They ascended as sweet odors of the golden altar, for his eyes were always upon the Woman’s place in the wilderness (xii. 14). Her seed had been contemporary with the seals as the four living ones full of eyes; they were co-eval with the first five trumpets as the golden altar; with the sixth, as "the four horns of the altar of gold; and with the seventh trumpet as the four living ones, and in its seventh vial manifestation, as "the nave of the Deity" and "the four and twenty elders sitting upon their thrones" (xi. 16-17; xv. 7). Hence, in all the apocalypse, under one symbol or another, the saints are discerned in position; and that position is always in opposition to "the men who have not the seal of the Deity in their foreheads;" and as constituting no part of the symbols representing their civil and ecclesiastical organizations.

Now, although, according to the pattern in the Mosaic Tabernacle, this living altar of gold has four horns, answering to the four living ones, and four corners of the square, but one spirit pervades the whole. The multitude of the true believers which compose the altar "are of one heart and of one soul" (Acts iv. 32). In singleness of heart -- "with one mind and one mouth they glorified the Deity, even the Father of the Lord Jesus Christ" (Acts ii. 46; Rom. xv. 6). With this spirit of unanimity, resulting from their being sealed in their foreheads with the seal of the living God, they cause their prayers to ascend as burning odors -- as one voice out of the four horns -- and not a distinct and discordant voice from each horn. In "the vision" there was only "one voice." It was the voice of the altar of gold, for it proceeded from the four horns thereof. This voice of prayer said, "Loose the four angels;" and, in the answer to the prayer addressed "to the sixth angel, that had the trumpet," "the four angels were loosed."

This unanimous voice of prayer, ascending from hearts whose faith was more precious than gold which perishes, was addressed, I say, to the sixth angel. This was equivalent to addressing the Father-Deity, whose apocalyptic symbol is "a Lamb as it had been slain, having Seven Horns and Seven Eyes." This represents Omnipotence and Omniscience manifested in flesh that had been slain, and afterwards "justified in spirit." These seven horns and seven eyes, viewed apart from the slain Lamb, represent "the Seven Spirits of the Deity sent forth into all the earth." These seven spirits as sent forth are symbolized by the Seven Angels, who in all the earth sound the seven trumpets. It is the Omnipotent and and Omniscient Spirit, in sevenfold manifestation, that sounds. HE, incarnate in the Lamb, creates powers in the earth, stirs up their ambitions, and impels them on to destinies which they can neither control nor see. "There is no power," says Paul, "but of the Deity;" and when judgments are abroad in a country, the spirit of Yahweh is in an unquiet state (Zech. vi. 8). In the previous trumpets, we have seen illustrations of the terrible nature of the inquietude of the Spirit. The Goths, Huns, Vandals, and Saracens, were embodiments of this unrest. When they acquired motion, they swept as a tornado over the guilty; fell upon them like hail and fire mingled with blood; plunged in among them as a great mountain burning with fire; scathed them as with a burning torch; smote them, darkened them, destroyed them with scorpion-torment, and killed them, as we shall see, with serpents. And all this in vindication of "the truth as it is in Jesus;" in retribution of blasphemy, daemon-worship, and idolatry; and in retaliation of war against the saints, whom they labored, but too successfully, to subdue.

Now, the Spirit created and excited these powers as he operated upon Pharaoh when he hardened his heart; and as he will hereafter operate upon the powers that be now, when he shall put in their hearts to fulfil his will, and to agree, and give their kingdom, or power and strength unto the Eighth Head of the Beast, until his words be fulfilled (xvii. 13,17). It was the same Spirit that inhabited the golden altar, only that it was incarnate in the altar by the truth understood, believed, and obeyed. This incarnation of spirit is holy, and, standing "in the sight of the Deity," as his holy altar, "smokes" with the fragrant odors of enlightened zeal and indignation against "every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of the Deity." With "one voice" this emanation of spirit cries day and night, through the angel of the altar, to be avenged. This cry ascends from spirit, through spirit, to the Eternal Spirit from the truth incarnate in the saints; through "the Lord the Spirit," who makes intercession for them; to the Father of the Lord Jesus Christ. The answer to this cry sets in motion the whole machinery of judgment exhibited in the scenery of the apocalypse, which ultimates in the consummation which completely and thoroughly avenges his elect.

In addressing the sixth angel, then, the Deity was addressed by the "one voice from the four horns of the altar of gold." The Spirit had the trumpet, which he sounded in the loosing of the four angels, in the killing of the Third, and in the overthrow of the Tenth of the City (ix. 15,18; xi. 13); and all of this, a judicial development through seven centuries, in response to that one voice so influential before the throne.

The altar of gold is said to be enopion tou Theou, which I have rendered, "in the sight of the Deity." Literally, enopion signifies in the eye, from en, in, and opi, dative of ops, the eye. The Golden Altar Community is in the eye of the Deity, in the same sense that the twelve tribes of Israel were in his eye when they dwelt in the Holy Land; but, when expelled therefrom by the Assyrians, were said to have been removed out of his sight (2 Kings xvii. 18). The Golden Altar Community have never been "removed out of his sight," as Israel and Judah were. But, can any thing be removed out of the sight of him who sees all things? In a certain sense it can. Now, concerning the Holy Land, by way of illustration, Moses says, in Deut. xi. 12: "It is a land which Yahweh thine Elohim careth for; the eyes of Yahweh thine Elohim are always upon it, from the beginning of the year even unto the end of the year." When, therefore, Israel and Judah were dwelling there, they were in his sight; for his eyes were upon them, being upon the land; but, when expelled, they were not within the landscape, and, therefore, out of his sight. But they are to return from captivity; and then, the prophet says, "in the third day he will raise us up, and we shall live in his sight" (Hos. vi. 2); that is, in the Holy Land. In a like sense, the Golden Altar Community is in his eye, or in his presence, or before him. It is sojourning, and has been for a long series of ages, among the nations, kindreds, and tongues, which have been given over to the Dragon and the Beast, and which have been made drunk by the Mother of Harlots that sits upon them. But in the midst of all these, it is not hidden from his sight. It is before him in all the brightness of fine gold. It is the Altar of gold from which ascends sweet odors in the holy and heavenly in Christ Jesus.