"And a second time they said, Hallelu Yah!"

The word deuteron, a second lime, implies a first time, with an interval between the first and second. There is doubtless something intended in the information that they, the much people in the heaven a second time, said Hallelu YAH. Why did they say it in the first instance? They tell us that it was because YAH had judged the Great Harlot, and had avenged the blood of His servants in destroying her; in other words, because of the successful issue of the Second Angel's mission announced in Apoc. 14:8. The Hallel was Praise to YAH, because he had caused the fall of the Great City Babylon, which had made all nations drink of the wine of the intenseness of her spiritual fornication.

But the judgment given to the saints, as the Elohistic agents of the all-powerful YAH, was not finished with the fall of the capital and government of the Roman Babylon. "The Remnant" still remained to be "slain with the sword of the King of kings" (ch. 19:21,16): "the kings of the earth", the merchants ruined by the wreck of their State-ship, and all its passengers and crew, who bewailed and lamented the harlot's destruction; and who could not, therefore, join in the celebration of her Destroyer's praise; but cordially hated and blasphemed Him in their anguish (ch 16:21)   all these were yet unconquered. As hard of heart as the old Egyptian government, the greatest manifestation of power fails to subdue their pride and haughtiness, so long as they can arm their peoples, and marshal their hosts in the field of battle. "Their wickedness is great", too great to be forgiven. The Deity, therefore, hardens their hearts as vessels fitted for destruction; and thereby insures the execution of his purpose upon them. He puts it into their hearts to fulfill his will, until His predictions shall be fulfilled (ch. 17:7). This work of judgment has to be executed by the Seven-Horned Lamb and his companions, after they have said Hallelu YAH the first time, and before they say it the "second time". The mission of the Third Angel has to be discharged between the first and second Hallelu YAH. The third angel executes his vengeance upon the Harlot's survivors and sympathizers (ch. 14:9-11; 16:20,21; 17:14-the smoke of whose torment ascendeth unto the aions of the aeons (ch. 14:11; 19:3) - until the worshippers and sympathizers of the Beast, and the Governments of Europe are completely and thoroughly subdued; and their kingdoms have become the kingdoms of YAH and of his Anointed Bride (ch. 11:15).

It will be remembered that inch. 18:20, there is an exhortation, saying, "Rejoice over her, 0 heaven, and ye holy apostles and prophets, for the Deity hath punished your condemnation by her". This exhortation is responded to by the "much people in the heaven". They are the "heaven"' that rejoices, and gives utterance with "a great voice" to the Hallelu YAH for the first time. They did not raise the great Hallelu Yah voice when they first established the throne on Mount Zion. Their great enemy, the Roman Babylon, is then unbroken. They had first to destroy her before they could praise YAH, and ascribe to him the glory, honor, and power of her desolation. And being destroyed, is there not great fitness in the celebration of the event in the Capital of the Great King? When Napoleon the Great fell from his high estate, all the capitals of the kings he had dethroned celebrated his catastrophe with joy. So also in Washington and other principal cities on the fall of Richmond and the Confederacy. How much greater will the rejoicing be in the Capital of the New Government, when they who, in the days of their flesh, were cruelly tormented and slain by the Roman Power, are able to say, "she is no more, and shall be found no more at all!" They will acknowledge that the judgments of YAH are true and righteous: and Himself entitled to the loftiest praise. The celebration will be grand, and the earnest of the second not far remote.

But before they can Apocalyptically say Hallelu YAR, a second time, all those things must be accomplished which are represented in this nineteenth chapter from the eleventh verse to the end. The four-and-twenty elders and the four living ones, the representatives of the saints before the throne, will then be able to say the Hallelu YAH, a second time; and to append to it the final "Amen!" for, it is written, "they fell down, and did homage to the Deity that sits on the throne, saying, AMEN; Hallelu YAH! "This fourth verse of our present chapter is synchronical with ch. 5:14, which points to the time when "every creature" shall say, in deed and in truth, "Blessing, and honor, and glory, and power be to him that sitteth upon the throne and unto the Lamb for the aeons of the aeons". To which the four living ones respond "Amen!" When this "Amen" is pronounced by them, "the war of the great day of the all-powerful Deity" will be ended. The judgment given to the saints will have been fully executed. The "it is done" of the seventh vial will have been attained. There will no longer be any Eighth Head and Ten Horns; the False Prophet will have disappeared in the fiery lake; the Dragon will have been chained in the abyss; and no dominions will be left to dispute the sovereignty of the King of kings, from the Euphrates to the ends of the earth - "all nations shall serve him; and call him blessed" (Psa. 72:11,17). All this is Apocalyptically implied in the "Amen" of the four-and-twenty elders, and the four living ones. They will co-join with it the Hallelu YAR in its second time utterance, because all these vast and glorious results are referable only to Him "who made the heaven, and earth, and the sea, and the fountains of waters" (ch. 14:7; Zech. 4:6).

But to the Hallelu YAH of our sixth verse, the voice of the great multitude, and the voice of the many waters, and the voice of the mighty thunderings do not prefix "Amen". Theirs is the utterance of the Hallelu YAH of the first time. There are no thunders connected with the "AMEN; Ha/lelu YAH;" for all that succeeds this celebration is "Glory to the Deity in the highest heaven, over the earth peace and good will to men". The Hal/elu YAH of the first time not only celebrates the ruin of the great harlot, and the prevailing of the Omnipotent, but gives the reason why they, the "heaven, and the holy apostles, and prophets" slain by her, are able to respond to the exhortation to "rejoice over her". They say, "we can rejoice and exult, and we have given the glory to him; for the marriage of the Lamb hath come, and his betrothed hath made herself  ready And to her it hath been given that she may have been clothed with fine linen pure and resplendent; for the fine linen is the righteous actions of the saints". All this had been done in Teman, and before the Bride had been established upon Mount Zion. It is true that the English Version reads differently. It renders the verb chairomen and agalliome-tha, and domen, as imperatives instead of subjunctives; and elthe, as a present instead of a past tense: and peribaletai, a clothing to be effected that "she should be arrayed". But this is all incorrect, and anachronistic. The betrothed had made herself ready by deeds of righteousness; on account of which she had been married or united to the Lamb, in being invested with the clothing of incorruption. This enabled her constituents, "the heaven, and the holy apostles and prophets" to rejoice and exult; and they needed not to be exhorted to "give honor" to YAR; for, as they say, "we have given the glory to him". Their investment with the fine linen of incorruption, as the reward according to their pure and resplendent works, was preliminary to judgment being given them for execution upon the Great Harlot and the ten-horned Scarlet Beast that carried her. They had been clothed, and had thereby been made invincible; but it was not until the occasion of the first Hallelu YAR celebration, commemorating the destruction of the Great Harlot, that the prowess of the Omnipotent YAH, in concert with His previously prepared Bride, was celebrated by the "much people in the heaven".

This first Hallelu YAH will be a great festival. John was commanded to write, and to say, "Blessed are they who have been called," or invited, "to the feast of the marriage of the Lamb". There will be two classes that will be blessed; the first consisting of those who, having believed the gospel of the kingdom, been immersed, and thenceforth continued patiently in well-doing till death, have been restored to life; and subsequently, on account of the purity and brightness of their character in Christ, clothed upon with the fine linen of incorruption: and the second class consisting of the "many waters," or peoples, who may have already become joined to YAR as the subjects of his dominion. These, then, blessed in Abraham and his Seed, partake of "the feast of fat things, a feast of wines on the lees, of fat things full of marrow, of wines on the lees well refined, made by YARWEH Tz'vaoth in Mount Zion". The destruction of the Great Harlot corrupter of the earth, will prepare many people for the reception of the light. The veil spread over them will be removed; and they will be able to "buy wine and milk without money and without price" (Isa. 25:6,7; 55:1). Thus a new world will be in process of development, the heavens of which will be the blessed brethren of the Lord Jesus; and the earth thereof, the "many waters" of their dominion; the voice of each ascending in praise of YAHWEH Elohim, the all-powerful, because he hath prevailed (verse 6).

"And he said to me," saith John, "these are the true words of the Deity" - these words delivered to John by the angel, at whose feet he prostrated himself to do him homage. But the angel, or bearer of the words, forbade the reverence, and said, "l am thy fellow-servant, and of thy brethren that have the testimony of Jesus: do homage to the Deity: for the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of the prophecy". These words are parallel with ch. 22:7-10, and refer to the time of the fulfillment of the promise, "Behold I come suddenly," or "as a thief'. John and the Angel in the scene personate the Brethren of Christ. They were the fellow-servants, brethren, and prophets, who keep the sayings of the Apocalyptic prophecy - who keep in memory the sayings, and who keep them in the sense of executing the judgments of the seventh vial. The angel's refusal of John's adoration was a direct rebuke of those professors who, in the days of the apostles, were beguiling themselves and others of their reward, in a voluntary humility and worshipping of angels (Col. 2:18)-a rebuke which would make the Apocalypse itself quite distasteful to them. The angel's declaration in the scene, indicated that the class he represented was restored to life; for he says he was of them. John and he meet in "the time of the dead", and see and hear the things of the prophecy in their fulfillment, which they were before acquainted with only in vision when the Apocalypse was communicated in Patmos. John had not yet attained to the angelic nature; if he had he would not have dramatically prostrated himself before the angel to do him reverence. All who are "equal to the angels" fall down before the throne, and do homage only to the Deity after the example of their representatives, the twenty-four elders, and the four living ones in the fourth and fifth chapters, and in ch. 11:16,17 of this wonderful book.