“Blessed he who watcheth and keepeth his garments, that he walk not naked, and they see his shame’’.
The Apocalyptic benedictions are not mere ornamental figures of speech, thrown in, as it were, for the ventilation of pious feeling. They are substantial and joyous realities, promising present and future benefits. Thus,
The evolution of the Frog-Sign is continuous with the existence of the Dragon, the Beast, and the False Prophet; and covers the whole period from 1848, till the gathering of the Powers in war with the Ancient of Days. When this result is consummated, “the Sign” will no longer be seen “in the heaven”. When writing upon the subject in 1854, I remarked, that “manifestations from Austria and the Pope are yet wanting to complete the sign. Austria must come into collision with France at last”.
“And the Nave of the Deity was opened in the heaven, and the Ark of his Covenant was seen in his Nave. ”
“The time of the dead” was, not only for the judicial separation and exclusion of the unworthy, and the strengthening, or quickening, of the approved; but for the giving of “the reward to the servants the prophets, and to the saints, even to those who fear the name of the Deity, to the small and to the great.” This testimony shows, that whatever “the reward” may consist in, the righteous do not obtain it until after their re-
“The time of the Dead” is at “the Time of the End” — at the expiration of Daniel’s 1335 days. This appears from the words, “Blessed he that waiteth, and cometh to the 1335 days. But go thou till the end; and thou shalt rest, and arise to thine inheritance at the end of the days” (ch. 12:12,13). To wait and come to these days, is to wait during their course, and to come to their end. Daniel has been thus waiting, but has not yet come to their end.
“The Second Woe has passed away; behold, the Third Woe comes immediately. ”
This was the last demonstration of “the Earth” in its extraordinary agitations. In the prophecy four things are particularly noted as characteristic of the Great Earthquake which consummated the Sixth Trumpet, or Second Woe, namely:
The rest, styled in the text hoi loipoi, the others not of the titled and privileged orders, became terrified. These terrified people composed that inert and patient part of the population of France, on which political experiments were being made. They were the swinish multitude of Catholicism, which still clung to the worship of demonials and the work of men’s hands. The refractory priests were the living deities of these terrified heirs of capture and destruction.
“And in the earthquake seven thousand names of men were put to death.”