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Critical Study of the Bible.

seven angels seven golden bowls full of the madness [appointed] of the God who liveth unto the æons of the sons [the Creator of the everlasting nature of things]. And the sanctuary [from which the judgment angels issued] was filled with smoke out of the glory of God and out of his power; and none was able to enter into the sanctuary until the seven plagues of the seven angels were ended.

The sanctuary of the tabernacle was the place of the mercy seat. But the presence of the Lord in smoke [fiery cloud] indicates his majesty, law, wrath, and judgment: filling the sanctuary of mercy it excludes therefrom, and closes the sanctuary on the scene of judgment or of law, as Moses himself was excluded, when God so manifested his presence and his "fiery law" [law given in fire of glory]. So here: the occasion is one of judgment, on which the sanctuary of mercy is expressively closed with "smoke out of the glory of God and out of his power" until the judgments shall be ended and the cloud retired: when, as in c.xi:19, after the last of judgments, once more "the sanctuary of God in the heaven is opened and there is seen in his sanctuary the ark of his covenant," where the cherubim of glory overshadow the mercy seat.

Then a cloud covered the tent of the congregation, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle. And Moses was not able to enter into the tent of the congregation, because the cloud abode thereon and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle. Ex. 40:35. And Moses went up into the mount, and a cloud covered the mount; and the glory of the Lord abode upon Mount Sinai, and the cloud covered it, six days: and the seventh day, he called unto Moses out of the midst of the cloud. And the sight of the glory of the Lord was like devouring fire on the top of the mount in the eyes of the children of Israel. Ex. 24:15-17. And Mount Sinai was altogether on a smoke, because the Lord descended upon it in fire. Ex. 19:18. The house was filled with a cloud, [even] the house of the Lord; so that the priests could not stand to minister by reason of the cloud: for the glory of the Lord filled the house of God. 2 Ch. 5-13. And the priests could not enter into the house of the Lord, because the glory of the Lord had filled the Lord's house. 2 Ch. 7, 2.

In the year that King Uzziah died I saw also the Lord sitting upon a throne high and lifted up, and his train filled the temple. Above it stood the seraphim: each one had six wings; with twain he covered his face, and with twain he covered his feet, and with twain he did fly. And one cried unto another: and said,

Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord of hosts!
The whole earth is full of his glory!

And the posts of the door moved at the voice of him that cried, and the house was filled with smoke [glory of the Lord]. Then said I, Wo is me! for I am undone; because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips: for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts (Is. 6:1-5.)

And I heard a great voice out of the sanctuary,

[the voice of the God of judgment out of the Holy of Holies and

out of the cloud. "These words the Lord spake out of the midst

The Bowls of Madness, or 7 Last Plagues.

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of the cloud and of the thick darkness, with a great voice." De. 5:22.]

saying to the seven angels, Go ye, and pour out the seven bowls of the madness [appointed] of God upon the earth.

The bowls have already been discussed, in parallelism with the seven trumpets: showing the close analogy and substantial identity of the two series of symbols, only with a further development of the identified facts, in the series now before us. A brief.resummary, therefore, is all that remains to be given at present on the text of chapter xv. And the first went and poured out his bowl upon the earth: and there befell an ugly and painful wound to the men who had the mark of the Beast and who worshipped his image.

The interpretation of this symbol was elucidated by the imagery of the first trumpet: hail and fire mingled with blood and cast upon the earth: and the third part of the trees and all green grass burned up. This is the beginning of the judgments of "madness" poured out upon the domain of the Beast, as represented by "the men" who bear his mark. According to the relation of cause and effect which seems to prevail between the things represented under the trumpets and bowls respectively, the barbaric storm of hail, fire and blood that overwhelmed the civilization of Europe gave to the nascent empire of the Beast (whose prophetic initial date had not yet been fixed historically by the crisis of 754 to 800) that painful wound and chronic sore which may be plausibly recognized in the chaos of warring political fragments and weltering barbarism that introduced the Dark Ages. Considering the "earth" as the symbol of mankind ameliorated by the influence of truth, the interpretation is further recommended, inasmuch as society which the Gospel had begun to ameliorate was cursed by this "madness," and plunged into almost barbaric confusion, ignorance, and moral and social desolation, such as the burning up of every green thing vividly symbolizes.

And the second poured out his bowl into the sea: and it became blood as of a dead man: and every living soul died that was in the sea.

In this case, the parallel visions of the second trumpet and the second bowl are also not only co-incident, but cumulative. While the former quite clearly describes the moral and spiritual desolation of Mohammedanism, under the figure of a great mountain burning with fire cast into the sea and filling it with blood and death; the latter emphasizes the ultimate corruption of human nature, under the same figure that indicates the sanguinary cruelty of Islamism to this day; a figure elsewhere associated with wormwood as the symbol of corrupted truth in its foulest moral development.

And the third poured out his bowl into the rivers and fountains of waters; and it [or they] became blood. And I heard the angel of the waters saying, Righteous art thou who art and who wast,

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Light on the Apocalypse.

the Holy One, in that these things thou didst judge because they poured out blood of saints and prophets; and blood hast thou given them to drink: they deserve it. And I heard the altar say, Yea, O Lord, the God, the Almighty; true and righteous are thy judgments.

The third trumpet and the third bowl inflict one common curse upon the "rivers and the fountains of the waters": well understood to symbolize the sources and streams of spiritual instruction for the people; which by this curse are in the former version of it embittered with wormwood, or depravation of truth, by a fallen star, or "Master in Israel" (or else some fallen teaching): probably the Bishop of Rome and his pantheon of saints, in the place of God: insomuch that spiritually "many men died of the waters"; while under the bowl of “madness" this spiritual depravation matures into its proper fruit of moral corruption, as well as violence, signified by blood.

And the fourth angel poured out his bowl upon the sun; and it was given unto it to scorch men with fire: and men were scorched with great heat; and they blasphemed the name of the God who hath the authority over these plagues; and they repented not to give him glory.

Again, the twin judgments strike the same symbols: the luminaries of heaven, which indicate the ultimate source of spiritual light, or Divine Revelation itself. The first blots out a third part of that light by the eclipse of faith in the Divine Word. The second, the bowl of "madness," again follows up the spiritual evil with its proper moral effect, and something withal of advanced spiritual perversion. This is that falsified fraternism and communism which converts a benign principle of the Gospel itself into a devouring fire of revolt against all superiority, property, authority, and even excellence. The world already feels the scorching, and some are ready to blaspheme the putative source of it. The world will feel it more and more intolerably, and turn more bitterly against all that belongs to "equality and fraternity," while the atheism of the revolt will as heretofore turn bloody hands against the supposed representatives of "the God who hath the authority over these plagues."

And the fifth poured out his bowl upon the throne of the Beast: and his kingdom became darkened; and they gnawed their tongues for pain; and they blasphemed the God of heaven because of their pains and their sores [or wounds]; and they repented not of their deeds.

That which is obvious in this symbol by itself is the direct object of the judgment, viz: the "throne" or authority of the Beast; which being in great measure dissolved, and his kingship "darkened" or obscured, barbarous disorders now overspread and afflict the world, while prevailing impiety turns all the perturbation against God in impenitent revolt. But une parallel vision of the fifth trumpet had filled the usual antecedent office, disclosing the visible cause and nature of all ths calamity. The luminous allegory of the locusts from the bottomless pit, already fully discussed, pp. 340-346, SALVATION, Vol. II., fills up the vague generalities of the bowl vision with specification too apt to what we see about us and before us to escape recognition. [Continued in July number.]

Evangelizaton of The Jews

The Cardinal Issue of the Coming Century..

MONTHLY LETTER BY H. W.

Dearly Beloved Christian Friends:

New York, May, 1901.

Knowing of your interest in the work for the Evangelization of the Jews, we are, by the will of God, privileged to carry on in this city, it is a great pleasure to let you know that the Lord is very good to us and is pleased to increase our usefulness day by day.

All our meetings-four and five weekly-are regularly attended by large numbers of Jews, eager to hear the glorious gospel message of Christ and His endless love, and many, thank God, are daily becoming convinced that Jesus of Nazareth is indeed. their long-awaited Messiah, whom their forefathers rejected. because of their blindness. At one and all of our Friday evening meetings, especially, the crowds were so large that we had to refuse admittance to many Jews who are anxious to hear the gospel, a sign outside the door confronting these people, reading: "The house is full-no more admitted.” This sort of thing is as usual at our Mission in 424 Grand street, as at some of the biggest attractions in the metropolis, and yet there are few in this large Christian world to hear the cry of these people and help provide a much larger meeting hall that is needed. Alas! alas! Who cares whether the Jews become converted or not? If ours were a Mission for Chinese, Italians, Turks, or any other kind of foreigners, flocking in such numbers to hear the truth of Christ, year in and year out, summer and winter alike, unremitted and uninterrupted, there is no doubt that our New York millionaire Christians would fall over each other in haste to provide all the means necessary to build them a large mission house, or provide at least room for all who come. But who cares for the Jews? And of what interest is it to the New York millionaire whether the Jews are evangelized or not? And even if some do feel an interest "from the Christian standpoint," they are afraid to aid (even with an ordinary contribution) a

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Jewish mission, lest they may in so doing offend their rich Jewish neighbors and business associates, who, as is well known, do not approve of "Christian missions" and quickly feel offended if the subject of Christianizing their brethren is approached. The wealthy Hebrews of this city have become such a factor in business, society and politics, that they take it for an insult when any one is trying to "convert" them, or aiding a mission for the conversion of their co-religionists. They assert that they need no conversion, since they stand in all points as high in the public eye and esteem as their Christian neighbors, if not, indeed, higher. And yet, while all this may be true, we have the Master's own word, saying, "He that believeth in Me hath life, he that believeth not in me hath no life;" and more, "He that believeth not is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only-begotten Son of God." This does not exclude the unbelieving Hebrew any more than the commonest of the heathen.

The poor and the common people always heard Jesus gladly, and the same is also true today and right here in our Mission in Grand street. Our people, it is true, are not beggars, or the tramp type, but they are not of the rich and wealthy Jews of this city, either; indeed, I doubt whether one single millionaire Hebrew (and there are many in this city) ever visited our place, These crowds and multitudes of Jews that so regularly attend these, our meetings, are what are termed "the common people.”

Brother Conant's Saturday afternoon Bible class at our Mission keeps on as interestingly as ever. I am now acting as his interpreter and translator from the English into Jewish, and find every class a very profitable one. He has now gone over to the Fulfillment of Old Testament Prophecy as it is found in fact in the New Testament, and at the last two meetings gave the Jews present very valuable instruction and explanations on the Incarnation of the Son of God-the hardest and most difficult thing to understand, for the Jews as a whole.

I am glad to let you know also that we have now the volunteer services of two Christian young ladies who come to the Mission to play the organ and sing gospel hymns to our audiences, hymn books being distributed through the house. The Jews heartily join in the singing of the hymns, their favorite hymns (sung at almost every Friday night meeting) being, “What a Friend We Have in Jesus," "Rock of Ages," "Onward, Christian Soldiers" and "At the Cross Where I First Saw the Light.” You will also be glad to hear that another believing Jew who attended our meetings, and through the preaching of the Word was led to see Christ and feel His love, has become a Christian