COPYRIGHT, 1886, BY ANSON D. F. RANDOLPH & COMPANY. EDWARD O. JENKINS' SONS, 20 North William St., New York. PREFACE Blessed is he that readeth and they that hear the words of the prophecy, and keep the things written therein, for the time is near.-REV. i. 3. THIS Surely ought to be an all-constraining motive to the study of the Apocalypse, and all-sufficient evidence that it was intended to be understood. Yet hitherto, as is well known, it has been almost as a sealed book to multitudes of God's dear children. Hence the aim of the present work is to render it intelligible, interesting, and edifying, not only to scholars, but also and no less to plain and simple-minded readers. The author has not been discouraged by previous failures, because, as it seems to him, they were the inevitable consequence of erroneous views of the general character and object of the book, namely, that it was mainly intended to represent historical events, whereas, according to the view here taken, it represents truths, ideas,—and events in so far only as they exemplify these ideas. Consequently many of his interpretations are entirely new, such as those of the First Seal, the Fifth and Sixth Trumpets, and the Two Witnesses; and almost all of them are more or less different from any that have ever before been given. He has been guided also by the following clews: 1. Interpretations of the leading symbols by the Apocalyptist himself, some of which have hitherto been strangely overlooked, as in the case of the First Seal; 2. References to other places in the Bible where the same symbols occur, and where their meaning is either given or easily determined; 3. Consistency, the symbols being almost constantly used each in the same sense, and varying only as they are intended to reflect different shades of the same ideas; 4. Analogy between the natural and spiritual worlds, such as underlies the Lord's parables, and all other Scriptural images. The author's special qualification for his work is what may be called a lifelong study and practice in the interpretation of the symbols of the Jewish, Christian, Hindoo, Greek, Roman, with more or less of the Egyptian, Scandinavian, and other religions. For correction. of the Greek text he has relied chiefly upon the critical labors of Dean Alford, the Revisers of the New Testament, and the Rev. Dr. Craven in Lange's Commentary, which last can hardly be overestimated. He submits to Biblical Greek scholars his rendering of the text in the few cases where it differs from preceding translations, as in the word to pay uέvov (Rev. v. 6). In order to keep the work within readable limits, he has been constrained to exclude a multitude of details and side-issues, which will suggest themselves to intelligent readers, and to diverge as little as possible from the main stream of light which the Apocalypse pours upon the ocean of God's purposes, government, and providence, the history of the church and the world, and the final triumph of good over evil. He has seldom thought it necessary to refer by name to the few authors from whom he has quoted. In fine, the work is so unlike everything hitherto published on the subject that he is not without hope of its attracting the attention of those who are competent to judge of its merits and defects, and that so it may prove the more helpful to many who love the Sacred Oracles. NEWARK N. J., 1886. |