John says, that the servants of the Deity were sealed from among, or out, of every tribe of Israel’s sons — ek pasesfules huion Israel. This, of course, is metaphorical — a simile comprised in a phrase not according to the primitive meaning of the words.
John says, the angel who had ascended had a seal. It was a remarkable seal, and pertained to “the living Deity,” as opposed to all other deities flourishing in those times which had no life in them. Of course, it was a symbolical seal he saw, and represented something capable of making an impression upon the sealed.
But, beside the four angel-powers standing at the four corners of the earth restraining the four winds thereof, John saw a fifth, or “another angel.” Of this angel, he says, anabanta apo anatoles heliou, having ascended from sun’s rising. He did not see him, as the English version would lead us to suppose, in the act of ascending from sun’s rising; but having ascended at some previous epoch
The arena upon which the predicted operation of sealing the servants of the Deity was to be performed was “the earth and sea.” The reason given why the four angels were to restrain the four winds from blowing to the injury of these, is proof of this. The blowing of the winds upon the earth and sea, by injuring them with the tempests they were capable of exciting, would have rendered the work of sealing impossible.
The Laodicean State is parallel with the Seventh Seal from its opening to the Fall of Babylon after the appearing of “the Ancient of Days.”
A.D. 324 to A.D. 1864-8,
or thereabout.*
See Vol. 1, p. 428
In concluding this section, 1 remark, that it is not within the scope of this exposition to occupy its pages in stating and examining the multitude of opinions and theories that have been broached by the many and various writers that have preceded me in attempts, all of which have proved futile attempts, at apocalyptical interpretation.
How gratifying, then, to the spectator when he beheld a coronal wreath bestowed upon him — "and there was given to him a Stephanos, ” not a diadema.
But John not only saw the coming of this “most happy and prosperous period” in the color of the horse, but he saw a rider upon him. The rider of a horse is one who governs, controls, influences him in all his movements. He is active, while the horse is passive and subject to his will. The Roman horse, or people, in this first seal- period, were to be ridden, or subjected to certain activities, which would result in such a consummation as was indicated by other elements of the figuration.
In regard to the period thus propitiously initiated by the reign of Nerva, Gibbon has remarked that, “were a man called to fix upon an epoch in the history of the world during which the condition of the human race was the most happy and prosperous, he would, without hesitation, name that which elapsed from the death of Domitian to the accession of Commodus,” namely, from A.D. 96, to A.D. 180.
“And 1 saw, and behold, a White Horse, and One sitting upon him having a Bow, and there was given to him a coronal wreath; and he went forth conquering, and that he might conquer. ”