The Surrey Tabernacle Expositor. EXPOSITION OF REV. VIII. 7-13. BY MR. JAMES WELLS, MINISTER OF THE SURREY TABERNACLE, Borough Road. "The first angel sounded, and there followed hail and fire mingled with blood, and they were cast upon the earth, and the third part of trees was burnt up, and all green grass was burnt up." Ir is as well if the Lord is pleased so to favor us to understand the meaning of His blessed book in its several parts, as to go on contented in our ignorance. What then is the meaning of the four trumpets spoken of in this chapter, all of which are taken from the Old Testament? The four circum them, and then you have the judgments of God upon their enemies, to restrain them. And hence you will find that there is not in these judgments an entire destruction of nature, but only a destruction of the third part in each case, to denote the Lord restraining them. Now apply this in a threefold way. First, if you have personal adversaries, those of you that know what it is to be put to silence, and to be brought to know something of the Lord Jesus Christ, adversaries, they have their plans, and they and are lovers of Him, if you have personal will carry them out just as far as the Lord pleaseth, and no farther; for the Lord shall pour His judgments upon them, and shall meet them, and shall weaken them in those stances I am about to read are taken from the Old Testament, and especially from those restraints which were put upon Nebuchadnezzar and the Babylonish power. He came in, as you are aware, in the record of the Old Testament, carried the people of God into captivity, and would have an parts essential to the completion of their hilated Israel if he could. But tribulations plan. Pharaoh had his plan, and carried came upon that Babylonish power, to res- and no farther. that plan out as far as the Lord permitted, train it. And hence the angel that sounded, restraint. So that if you have personal This is one idea, then, of simply signifies the testimony of God's adversaries, leave yourself with the Lord, judgment, that the wrath of man shall and He will find a way to stop them, and praise God, and the remainder will he res- make a way for your escape. Second, apply train. So that this hail and fire mingled it to principles, if there be delusive doctrines with blood and so on, is not expressive of abroad, which of course there always have anything against the people of God, but ex-been, they shall go so far and no farther. pressive of those judgments by which their If possible, they should fatally deceive God's adversaries are restrained. This is the way elect, did not God restrain those delusions, we are evidently to understand this trumpet. In the preceding part of the chapter, them out. open the eyes of His people, and bring or rather the beginning of the chapter, we afflictions also of all kinds. Third, it means adversities and have an account of silence in heaven busy amid the afflictions of the people of Satan is very about the space of half an hour." The God. Satan, if he see you ill in the body, heaven there spoken of does not mean the is quite pleased with it; and if he see you heaven of glory, but of course means, as in cast down in mind, is quite pleased with it; other places in this book, the Gospel dis- and if he see adversity in your family, or pensation; and the silence does not mean any particular state of the church at any particular age, but every time the Lord calls a sinner by His grace, that sinner is put to silence, and he remains in that silence this mystic half hour, until the Lord shall come in with His pardoning mercy. And hence said 46 one, mouth, and my lips shall shew forth Thy Open thou my praise." Then secondly, when the people of God are brought into adversity, they are put to silence until the Lord turns their captivity, then is their mouth filled with laughter, and their lips with rejoicing. Here you have, then, in the beginning of this chapter, the people of God in their experiences, and you have the Lord Jesus Christ here at the golden altar interceding for in your circumstances, he is quite pleased "And the second angel sounded, and as it were a Now let us get the history of this. Baby lon in its destruction is called a burnt high as the sun, who can reach me? high mountain; and when the Persians were as the moon, who can reach me? high as rolled in by Cyrus upon Babylon, it was the stars, who can reach me? But there like a burning mountain rolling into that is One above it all. Now, then, to get an national sea; and that so crippled the explanation of this you go to the 13th chappower of the Babylonians that they were ter of Isaiah, where the Lord describing the unable to hold the people of God in bond- destruction of Babylon, speaketh thus:age any longer; for by the rolling in of" The stars of heaven and the constellations this Persian kingdom, here called a burn- thereof shall not give their light;" that is, ing mountain, the gates of Babylon were the Babylonish heavens, that their rulers thrown open, her rivers dried up, and the should be confounded, know not what to do people of God came triumphantly out, to maintain their ground; "the sun shall wended their way towards Jerusalem, built be darkened in his going forth;" same her walls, erected her temple, established thing in substance, the government, so that her service, and praised the name of the tyrannical power was darkened; "and the Lord their God; and there you see just the moon shall not cause her light to shine;" same restraint. Here then, again, was and thus the Babylonish heavens were Babylon overturned. What a God is our darkened altogether; but here it refers only God! All these things are to establish us, to their partial darkness. Thus it is then, and increase us in our faith in Him. friends, whatever adverse powers there are, "And the third angel sounded, and there fell a the Lord smites them so as to restrain them. great star from heaven, burning as it were a But there are stars in heaven that can never lamp, and it fell upon the third part of the rivers, and upon the fountains of waters; and cease to give their light, namely, the prothe name of the star is called Wormwood; and phets of the Lord; there is a sun, namely, the third part of the waters became wormwood, Christ, that never can be smitten, will and many men died of the waters, because they always give light; and there is that moon were made bitter." of the Gospel that will never cease to shine, shall not withdraw its brightness. that So it was that the Lord went on with His judgments upon Babylon. This star means a ruling power-a ruling power fell upon Babylon until Babylon was weakened more and more, and came ultimately to destruction. That's what I understand by the star. And therefore, friends, if there be some ruling power that would crush us, let us fear it not. The Lord will so direct this star of bitterness that it shall not fall upon the people of God, but upon their adversaries. What are we to understand by making the waters bitter? Why, making all departments of life bitter. You know when a despot ascends the throne, and takes people's liberties and lives from them, that makes all the departments oflife bitter, and agreat many lose their lives. But, bless the Lord, amidst all these despotisms and cruelties of men, the Lord will take care of His own; keeping up, then, all through the same idea. "And the fourth angel sounded, and the third part of the sun was smitten, and the third part of the moon, and the third part of the stars; so as the third part of them was darkened, and the day shone not for a third part of it, and the night likewise." Brethren, if you can understand it, here are adverse powers that stand against the people of God, and as the Lord poured out plagues upon Egypt, and thereby weakened Egypt, and in proportion as Egypt was weakened Israel was strengthened, until Egypt was brought down so low that Israel came out from their midst: so the Lord will still protect and deliver His own people. Now if you understand these verses in this way, it will encourage you amidst your troubles and trials to look to the Lord, and to remember there is no power which he has not at immediate command, and however feeble your cry may be to Him for help, His people never did, and they never will, never shall, cry to Him in vain. "And I beheld, and heard an angel flying through the midst of heaven, saying with a loud voice, Woe, woe, woe, to the inhabiters of the earth." The inhabiters of the earth, in contrast to the saints of God, who inhabit heaven, they are raised up to sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. "By reason of the other voices of the trumpet of the three angels, which are yet to sound." Now by the sun, moon, and stars we are Now two of the following trumpets are to understand, in the first place, the govern-judicial trumpets: the third of the following ing powers of Babylon, afterwards any governing powers that would scorch the people of God, that would injure the people of God; and then, while they, any govern ing powers, are trying to injure the people of God, the Lord finds means to reach them. Mark, the sun was smitten. Ah, say these governing powers, we are so lofty; who can reach us? The Lord can. Ah, I am as trumpets is the seventh trumpet, and is the gospel, and yet the gospel is here called a woe trumpet. It is a woe trumpet to the adversary, because the Gospel bears witness. The Gospel will come in at the last day and bear testimony against the ungodly, that they hated it, that they despised it, or that they were enemies to some of the members of Christ. And thus the Gospel, as well as the law, shall be a woe trumpet unto the ungodly. Whereas these judgments are in favour of the saints. "Let Mount Zion rejoice because of Thy judgments." And the seventh trumpet, you find in the 11th chapter, turns the kingdoms of this world, which it did, in the sense there intended, in the apostolic age, into the kingdoms of our God and of His Christ. I am persuaded if we were a little more exercised in this book of the Revelation that its ambiguity would fly from us, and that we should read it with as much ease, and pleasure, and clearness, as we do the Book of Psalms, or the 17th chapter of John. THE 'CHRISTIAN'S CONFLICT TURNED TO TRIUMPH ? BY WILLIAM FLACK, OF WILTON SQUARE AND must it, Lord, for ever be, Aud sitting in the Lamb's blest throne, Of sin subdued, the tempter foiled, "To Him who washed us in His blood," THE LORD'S BEAUTIFUL FLOCK. JEREMIAH XIII. 17-20. "Fear not little flock, it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom."-Luke xii. 32. Oh! flock of all beauty, thou bride of the Lamb! The covenant choice of Jehovah, I am, Predestined and called to the glory above, And pastured through grace on the wealth of His love, Thou beautiful flock! Thou church of the Living One, chaste and complete, With thy sins all forgiven, for glory made meet. Though feeble and erring and marred by thy sin, What glory and beauty, and blessing is thine. Thou beautiful flock: THE SHIPWRECKED MARINER AND THE GOSPEL MINISTER. A Libing Narrative. CHAPTER VI. How utterly inexplicable are many of the ways of God with mortal man; and how true it is that we know but little as regards their ultimate design until we attain the end, the inheritance, the rest that remaineth for the people of God. Here we see through a glass darkly; but then, face to face. Here we know but in part; then shall we know even as we are known, the Whys and Wherefores for every bitter cup we have drunk of by the way. Yet in this timestate how truly sweet and refreshing it is to the really heaven-born soul to be enabled at times to take a calm, a retrospective view of the past, and thus, by an eye of living faith, behold in all the mysterious leadings of Divine Providence, that infinite wisdom, eternal love and mercy, hath not only been concerned but manifest therein, though at the time we knew it not; that the lance which hath made the wound, and the plaster which applied the remedy, hath both wrought together for good. Such an one will see something both of the goodness and glory of God in the face of Christ Jesus, chant out occasionally the song of heaven's redeemed, and gladly acknowledge from his own soul's experience that goodness and mercy hath followed him all the days of his life. But the man that is a stranger to divine teaching, and to the gracious operations of the Holy Ghost in the heart, knows nothing of this sweetness; yea, the sinner dying an hundred years old shall be accursed. But to return to the Lord's dealings with me while afar off: I must inform the reader that I remained on board H.M.S. Birkenhead for a period of nearly two years, the early part of which we were stationed on the coast of Ireland, and were busily engaged in the dangerous work of floating the then noted steam-ship Great Britain, which then lay a comparative wreck on the rocks in Dundrum bay, and in which we eventually succeeded. At this time my mind was occasionally seized with fearfulness and trembling on account of the past, while my base ingratitude to my parents and the lengths to which I had gone in open sin, were subjects of which my natural conscience loudly accused me from time to time, and knowing that a day of retribution must come, when the righteous judgments of God must be poured out upon the ungodly, I was sometimes brought to a state of desperation, and could gladly have wished I had never been born. Aloft or on deck, the pains of hell appeared to have hold upon me, but never for a moment was I humbled down at a sight and sense of the Lord's goodness and mercy toward me. At such times I was powerfully tempted to destroy my own life by jumping overboard just before the paddle wheel, which, as Satan suggested, would strike me on the head and momentarily put an end to my existence. Thanks be unto God, preventing grace restrained. Then when these fiery temptations were over, I would frequently vow and resolve to turn from my evil ways and become, as I then thought, a good, moral, respectable, and religious man, for I had no idea at that time that real and vital godliness consisted in anything more than do and live; and how far I went in this way, and what the result was, the following circumstance will show. After making several unsuccessful attempts to move the wreck of the Great Britain, we left Dundrum bay for the Cove of Cork, where, on our arrival, the ship's company had liberty to go on shore for forty-eight hours. At this time the great temperance advocate, Father Matthew, was in Cork, and I had a very strong impression that if I could but see him, take the pledge of total abstinence, and obtain a blessing by the laying on of hands, that it would be a great preventive to a further course of folly. I accordingly took the steam boat to Cork, a distance of twelve miles, in quest of his holiness, another shipmate accompanying me for the same purpose. But on our arrival in the city we found that his reverence was not at home, but that another of the so-called apostolic successors (though, by the bye, they never enter into matrimonial bonds) was officiating in his stead. This gentleman applauded us for the step we were about to take, assured us of the vital efficacy of the ceremony we about to pass through, and I, poor fool, believed it. My shipmate, however, had not such a robust faith as your humble servant, and accordingly left me and the reverend father to ourselves. But to be brief, suffice it to say, reader, the confession was made, the hand was laid on, the pledge was taken, and the reduced charge of two shillings paid. Oh the blindness of poor mortals unassisted by Divine grace! truly man is but vanity at his best estate. How impotent are all his vows and resolutions, his poor puny fleshly efforts, in the great matter were of God's salvation. Now, reader, for the result, though with a sense of shame I tell it, but to the eternal honour of my God, I returned to my ship intoxicated, my blue jacket sold at the dance house, and every particle of my money gone. Thus as a faithful servant of his sable majesty, did I zealously espouse his cause, while the infernal crew had a high day, and one devil exultingly said to another, "Aha, so would we have it!" But as I wish to be brief in these matters, that I may sooner come to that more vital and effectual work of regeneration by the alene operation of God the Holy Ghost upon the heart, the reader must be content by knowing that I was again sentenced to receive forty-eight lashes. NEMO. DEAR BROTHER WALE,-I stated in my last letter that it was not my intention to take up time with controversy, and decided to give no further reply. But seeing that in your last letter in August's VESSEL you misrepresent me, and then find fault with what I did not write, truth requires that you be corrected. shall confine myself to this one point. I is a statement of how Paul preached the "ministry of reconciliation." Now look at your explanation of the passage, viz., that it meant reconciliation to the crosses and trials the Lord saw fit they should have, to His dealings with them in Providence. My brother, may I not adopt your own words, and say, "This is sad sporting with the word of God to support a theory?' Read the closing part of the chapter again, and say is there one word to justify such an interpretation? and would you have given it if you had not a purpose to serve? I ask, in all honesty, are you satisfied with your own explanation? and in the face of the apostle's own words, "reconciliation To GOD," are you prepared to maintain it was reconciliation to the dealings of God? If I needed anything to confirm my views and convince me that I was right, I have it in this portion of your letter. Your explanation of the verse in question will astonish many, and do more towards opening the eyes of men to see the evils of that one-sided theology, than anything that has been written on the subject; shewing as it does how its advocates must wrest the plain meaning of some portions of the word, in order to make them square with their system. Whatever else may appear, I shall not "OUR YOUNG MEN." DEAR EDITOR,-For the encouragement of other Referring to 2nd Corinthians v. 20., you say, "That must be a bold man that in the face of Paul's declaration that he is writing to saints, contends that he is writing to the world at large;" but who said that any portion of it was addressed to the world at large? Your quotation from my letter is as follows:-"It is clear that Paul was not young men, will you allow me just to give a brief then addressing himself to the Corinthian account of my conversion to God, through the believers, because they were already recon-precious blood of Christ. I can truly say, "My ciled," why stop at the comma after the Redeemer liveth for ever." Since I was fourteen years of age, I have experienced the efficacy of word reconciled, read the remainder of the that blood that taketh away the sins of the world. sentence, "but he is giving an account of Previous to that period I was greatly tempted to what he preached, and how he preached it, stream that passed by my praying mother's destroy myself, by throwing myself into a millin a word, of what his own ministry was." house. Thank God, His grace was sufficient for Where is there anything about writing to me. Oh, sir, when I was brought to a knowledge the world? It was perfectly consistent that of the truth, my heart and soul leapt for joy. Who can tell but those that have experienced the in an epistle to the church, he should refer Divine truth of the blessed Gospel as it is in to the way in which he preached to the Jesus? I shortly afterwards became a Sunday world. school teacher, and through the influence of the Look at the 20th verse again, and you give an address to the children, which was not in superintendent, was persuaded to stand up and will see that in the English version of the vain. He induced me to give other addresses, Bible, the pronoun you is in italics-not in which were listened to both by teachers and scholthe original-omit it, and it reads thus opened a door for me in such a way that I know ars with much profit. God, in His providence, "Now then we are ambassadors for Christ not, by sending me into the country, where I reas though God did beseech by us, we pray ceived a call to preach to a small cause; and dur in Christ's stead be ye reconciled to God." ing my stay there the Lord greatly blessed the Then follows-" For He hath made Him to don, I feel desirous still to carry on my Master's work in my hands. As I am now settled in Lonbe sin for us, who knew no sin, that we work, where the truths are strictly carried out in might be made the righteousness of God accordance with this magazine. If acceptable, I in Him." How plain to "every mind not and conversion, in your next, or at any other will give my whole experience, my conviction, biassed by a pre-conceived theory" that this future time. G. |