The Multitude Before the Throne

The Multitude Before the Throne

(No. 3403)

A SERMON PUBLISHED ON THURSDAY, APRIL 23, 1914.

DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,

AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.

"After this Ibeheld, and lo, a great multitude, which no man could
number, of allnations, tribes, people and tongues stood before the
Throne, and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, and palms in
their hands, and cried with a loud voice, saying, Salvation to our God
which sits upon the Throne, and unto the Lamb." Revelation 7:9,10.

IT seems as though a dash of wonderment thrilled through his soul and a
flame of admiration burst from his tongue, when John exclaims, "After
this I beheld, and lor He had already seen much. His attention was
fixed. His thoughts were strained. All of a sudden, then, a fresh scene
breaks on his view and he betrays his surprise. At what, you say?
Evidently he was astonished that the vision was not yet complete. Ah,
Brothers and Sisters! In order to understand the deep things of God, we
need to be patient in our contemplation. Had John turned away his eyes,
relaxed his study, or withdrawn his gaze from the marvelous panorama,
he would not have seen the better part of his vision! As a Jew, when he
had seen the twelve tribes pass before him, he might have been tempted
to say, "It is enough! There is a remnant according to the election of
Grace in Israel! Lord, Your servant is content! I would now open my
eyes again to earth and forget these mysteries." This is what many have
done practically when they have been looking at a Gospel Truth. They
have not been desirous to see it all, though glad enough to see some
part of the Truth of God which seemed to suit their prejudice–they
have taken their eyes away from the excellent glory before they have
seen the whole of the Truth, as though they were afraid of discovering
too much, as though they were always glad not to learn anything beyond,
for fear it would not square with what they had learned before! John,
however, being patient and taught of God, continued to look–and when
the august assembly of the 144,000 had passed before him, he saw a far
greater multitude of the Gentile race and he heard from them a louder
song than he had heard from the chosen multitude before, as they said,
"Salvation to our God who sits upon the Throne and unto the Lamb." Be
steadfast, then, you searchers into the Truths of God. Look long! Look
earnest! Ask the Lord to let you see as much as you may. Then that
petition being granted, comfort yourselves with this reflection, "What
you know not now you shall know hereafter." Some things He will not
tell you because you cannot bear them now, but let there be nothing hid
from you because your interest flags and you do not wish to see it! Be
willing to learn and let your eyes be open to see the whole of the
Truth which Jesus would reveal. Turning, then, to the vision described
in our text, the first thing in it that we ought to meditate upon is–

I. THE GREAT CENTER OF THE HEAVENLY WORLD.

It seems that all the saints and angels that John saw surrounded one
common rallying place–the Throne of God and of the Lamb. They were not
broken up into groups, some of them considering this subject, and
others investigating that. They were not divided into parties, some
calling themselves by one name, and some by another. All in one group
they stood, though their number was beyond all human count, and every
eye was directed to one common object–yes, and every heart went with
every eye–and every tongue sounded the same song, and that a song of
adoration to the same One who was the center of all!

Does not this teach us that God is the very center of Heaven We might
have guessed this, for He is center of all the new creation. Even now
all those that are born-again live in Him, inheriting all the blessings
of eternal life in their union to Christ, and their fellowship with
Him. From Him they derive all their light–to Him and upon Him they
reflect all the light, again, giving all the glory unto Him from whom
they received all the Grace. He who built Heaven, He who supports
Heaven, He who chose every inhabitant in Heaven, He who fashioned every
inhabitant for Heaven, He who bought every inhabitant of Heaven with
His precious blood, He who is the Father of all and the Friend of all,
may well be the center of all joy, of all observation, and of all
worship in the eternal world!

Note, however, particularly, that the center of the heavenly worship is
not God in the act of Creation, but God upon the Throne. Divine
Sovereignty is the very center of Heaven! John saw God on the Throne.
Here, below, if we speak upon

Divine Sovereignty too plainly, we have to encounter the objections of
many who pronounce it a hard saying and ask "Who can bear it?" That the
Potter shall have power over the clay to do as He wills with each lump,
that He should have mercy upon whom He will have mercy, and do as He
wills with His own, grates harshly on their ears! I know it is because
hearts are hard upon earth, for in that place where every heart is
right with God, they are all too glad to let Him sway the scepter. This
is the very crown of their song–"The Lord God Omnipotent reigns." His
will is their supreme delight. They understand that His will, despotic
as it may seem, and unquestioned by any creature, is a will of mercy,
of tenderness, of wisdom, of holiness, and of truth! Therefore, they
pay their adorations to Him as King of kings and Lord of lords. This is
a peculiar subject of their joy–that God has a Throne, that He sits
upon it and that He rules over all things, and all things do His
bidding. The central thought of Heaven, then, is Divine Sovereignty.

You will remark that we are told there was also the Lamb upon the
Throne–as if to teach us that even in Heaven, the glory of the
reigning God, working all things according to the counsels of His will,
were a sight all too bright even for those pure spirits, unless they
saw side by side with Him the Substitute, the Lamb of God! They see
Jesus still under the form of a Sin-Bearer, Jesus represented by the
symbolic emblem of a Lamb, a Lamb that had been slain, Jesus the
Sufferer, Jesus the Crucified, Jesus who once died for sin and has
forever put it away by His blood. Oh, my Brothers and Sisters, how I
love these two doctrines as I see them side by side–God, a Sovereign,
makes me tremble–Christ, the Lamb, makes me rejoice with trembling!
God, a Sovereign, overawes me! I take off my shoes, like Moses at the
burning bush, but the Lamb has a voice that bids me draw near and have
fellowship even with the God who is a consuming fire!

Oh, how much this ought to be the object of our thoughts on earth,
seeing that it is the main object of their thoughts in Heaven! We have
often heard statements made by persons of what they mean to do in
Heaven. I read in a biography the other day of one who had not told
another person certain feelings of his, as he meant to tell them in the
other world. Believe me, we shall have something better to do than
discourse of trifles in that upper sphere! We may even dismiss that
stanza of Dr. Watts–

"And with transporting joy, recount The labors of our feet"

It is but a poetic fiction! What are "the labors of our feet" that they
should engross our attention? The reigning God will absorb our
thoughts! How we can serve Him, the Supreme, will occupy our minds! The
Lamb who once upon the Cross was slain, but now upon His Throne does
reign–how we can make the universe resound with His praises, how we
can fly at His bidding, if He wills, from world to world, and proclaim
the matchless story of His love! How we may be able to make known to
angels, principalities and powers in the heavenly places the manifold
wisdom of God–this, it seems to me, will engross our attention far
more than any of the trifling circumstances of time, or any of the
occurrences that were connected with our pilgrimage here below! Oh,
dear Brothers and Sisters, let us, while we are sojourning on earth,
keep God upon the Throne uppermost in our hearts and so school
ourselves in heavenly contemplation. Let us keep Christ uppermost with
us in our meditations, in our conversations and in our actions. Let us
be God's men! Let us be Christ's men! God upon the Throne, Christ the
Lamb upon the Throne–let this be our central attraction. Let us count
it to be our pleasure to live here, as it will be our superlative
pleasure to live forever hereafter, as worshippers who do homage before
the Throne of God and the Lamb! We have seen the Divine Center, now,
let us carefully mark– II. THE DIVINE CIRCLE–the living throng that
surrounded the Throne of God.

They are mentioned as "a multitude that no man can number." This leads
me to remark–although I cannot find words to fitly express the
thought–that I will call it the sociality of God. He was God over all,
blessed forever, self-existent, independent, needing no creature to
assist Him, or to add to His Glory or His happiness. But He chose to
create worlds–how many we can never guess. The revelations of
astronomy seem to tell us that He made them as lavishly as men might
cast seed when they sow it broadcast over many acres. There they
glitter in the expanse of space, and for all we know, every one of them
filled with happy beings! We cannot tell. But God would not be alone.
He willed not to be alone. He delighted in the habitable parts of the
worlds that He chose to make. If you confine your view but to this
world, you may discern that He would not be alone. He made this planet.
He fitted it up to be the abode of living creatures. The Divine Being
has been pleased to create all sorts and forms of beauty and of
life–from the tiny animalcule that finds an ocean in a drop of water,
up to the leviathan that makes the very deep to boil like a pot and
causes the waves thereof to be hoary with his mighty lashings. God was
pleased to make the eagle to fly aloft in the heavens and the fish to
cut the deep. All these creatures He has fed for many generations. Upon
all these He looks with interest and compassion. He hears the young
ravens when they cry. What a boundless Creation! If every separate
world that He has made has such an amazing catalog of life, what
multitudes of creatures now cluster round about the great Eternal One!
He dwelt alone,but He chose not to be alone. And now He has built His
house and filled His mighty chambers with many mansions into which He
has been pleased to put a thousand forms of life. And then He said
within Himself, "I will make a creature different from all the rest I
have made as yet–it shall be a spirit that can converse with
me–intelligent, immortal." And He created those first-born sons of
light. I know not how many they may be, but our Covenant God, Father,
Son, and Spirit formed servants suitable for the higher will and
loftier behests in the cherubim and seraphim whom He made to be like
flames of fire and who cheerfully flash to do His bidding. And then,
last of all, He said–and here, the Divine Unity comes into counsel
with itself–"Let Us make man after Our own image," and He made a
strange creature, matchless and altogether unique–part of which was
taken from the ground and kindred with the soil, which might die if it
sinned, but another part of which was immaterial, fitted to tenant any
of the spheres in the great universe and should exist forever– a
spirit made in the image of God! So He made us and at this day, despite
sin which seemed to rob God of all His newborn servants and sons, whom
He had created in the loins of Adam, He has a multitude that no man can
number, who are nearer to Him than even angels are, associates and
friends with Christ, His Son, brought into union with Christ, married
to Him. Is it not a marvelous subject if one could dive into it, this
social Character of the Divine Being, that He willed not to be alone,
that He still continues to constantly surround Himself with ten
thousand times ten thousand spirits whom He ordains to bless? Oh, that
I might be among them! Does not each one of you say so? Oh, that I
might tread the courts of His house! To be but a hired servant within
His gates might well content me, but oh, if I might be His son and as
His child, might draw near to Him!–how would I bless that glorious
Being from whom I sprang and into whose bosom I would leap back
again–the source of my life, the sum total of my bliss, my God, my
All! Think that thought over another time. I leave it with you.

Another thought rises out of the text. If there shall be in Heaven a
multitude surpassing all human arithmetic, out of all nations, and
tribes, and peoples, and tongues, how certain the Gospel is to achieve
yet a great success. We are always fretting. We are in a great hurry
for results. We are impatient of the issue, for we cannot see how the
Kingdom of God will come and gladly would we want to hasten the wheels
of our Lord's chariot. Well, but our fears may be put aside and our
disquietude may be allayed when we remember that as surely as Jehovah
lives, Christ must see of the travail of His soul–and He shall see of
it in the ultimate salvation of a number out of all nations that are
beyond all human count! Patience, my Brothers and Sisters, patience,
but diligence! Let us work at the same time that we wait. Let us serve,
for the cause is in good hands. The pleasure of the Lord shall prosper
in the hands of Christ! He shall not have died in vain! He shall not
lose the purchase of His blood! A countless multitude must be saved! As
surely as He bought them, so surely will He wash them in the blood
which He shed on their behalf! Perhaps the day of the Church's great
growth will come when she returns to something like her primitive mode
of warfare. Those who first went out to convert the world were but a
handful of men–one room contained them all–yet within a few years
there was not a nation upon earth that had not heard the Gospel! Even
to the remotest isles the Truth of Jesus had been carried, and who were
the men who carried it? Brothers, they were men who never framed a
syllogism–men who never embellished a sermon with rhetorical art! For
the most part, they were men who spoke only the language of the common
people–spoke it, I doubt not, earnestly, but certainly not according
to the lordly rhetoric of the schools. They were not men who strove to
be intellectual. They were not deep thinkers. They were not profoundly
learned. They were men who knew but this one thing–that a Savior had
come into the world and that they were intent to tell men about Him!
They spoke of this and of this only in burning words with tender
feelings and fervent appeals to the conscience. But now-a-days, indeed,
we are told that the world is to be converted by logic! That it is to
be reasonedout of its sins! That it is to be enlightened by the tapers
of human intellect until the darkness of Hell shall be scattered!
Believe me, we are on the wrong tack if we think this! It is not so!
"Not by might, nor by power, but by My Spirit, says the Lord of Hosts,"
and the Spirit works with the simple Gospel, and only with the simple
Gospel! When we get back to this conviction and return to this
practice, we shall begin to see the countless multitudes flocking first
to the Church on earth and afterwards to the Church above. I will ask
you, my Brothers and Sisters here who have been converted, how were you
saved? How were you converted? Was it by learning? Was it by the flash
of some glorious speech of some mighty master of rhetoric? I confess
that if I were converted to God–and I trust I was–it was through the
ministration of a very simple, humble, uneducated man. I believe the
confession of the most of God's children will be such as gives the
glory to the Gospel, and not to the preacher's skill, art or intellect.
If you have received comfort, and if you have received light, these
things have come to you by the means of one who could not claim the
glory, for he was but an earthen vessel–the excellence of the power
was conspicuously of God and not of him! Oh, Spirit of God, bring back
Your Church to a belief in the Gospel! Bring back her ministers to
preach it once again withthe Holy Spirit, and not striving after wit
and learning. Then shall we see Your arm made bare, O God, in the eyes
of all the people, and the myriads shall be brought to rally round the
Throne of God and the Lamb! The Gospel must succeed! It shall succeed!
It cannot be prevented from succeeding–a multitude that no man can
number must be saved!

Kindly allow me to continue on the same point the Divine circle in
Heaven. Notice the variety. "Out of every nation and tribe, and people,
and tongue." How did John know that? I suppose as he looked at them, he
could tell where they come from. There is individuality in Heaven,
depend upon it! Every seed will have its own body. There will sit down
in Heaven not three unknown patriarchs, but Abraham–you will know him!
Isaac–you will know him! And Jacob–you will know him! There will be
in Heaven not a company of persons, all struck off alike so that you
cannot tell who is who, but they will be out of every nation, and
tribe, and people, and tongue. I say not that they will speak the
language they spoke on earth, but I do say that there will be certain
idiosyncrasies and peculiar marks about them that will permit the
onlooker to know, as John knew, that they are not all of one nation,
but of all nations, tribes, people and tongues. I like this. The very
charm of nature is its variety. If all flowers were alike, where were
the glorious crown of summer? And if all bodies in the Resurrection
world, or even all spirits in the disembodied state could all be
precisely one like another, the very beauty of Heaven would be extinct
in a degree. No, there they are from different tribes, nations, peoples
and tongues–and this betokens individuality and gives us hope that we
shall know each other in Heaven even as we are known!

Yet a unity about them, for they all wore white robes, and they all
carried palms, and they all sang the same song. There are twelve gates
to the New Jerusalem, but they all lead to the same city, and there is
the same center. There were twelve foundations, but they were all laid
on the one Foundation. So they may be many views and notions of truth
that we may hold, but they must all be bottomed on Christ Jesus and
founded there. And if they are, we shall all meet in the better land.
There is a variety in Heaven, yet there is a unity of experience, and a
unity in the gratitude they feel. May you and I be there to help to
increase the variety and to certify the unity of the heavenly throng!
And now for a few words of running comment on the description given
of–

III. THE SACRED COMPANY, THEMSELVES, which will supply us with a third
point. They "stood before the Throne, and before the Lamb, clothed with
white robes, and palms in their hands." That they stood is not meant to
teach us that they do not sit or rest in Heaven, for they always rest
in Heaven. But they stand–that is to say–they are confirmed, they are
established, they are secure. Their feet shall never slide. They stand
in no slippery places. They stand before the Throne of God! It is the
posture of action–they stand like soldiers ready for the march–like
servants who but need to have it said to them, "Go," and they go. Oh,
that we could on earth realize this posture of Heaven! The Lord hold us
up that we may stand–may our feet never slide–and oh, that we might
stand with loins girt ready for whatever He shall bid us do! Alas, we
need often to shake ourselves, for we lie upon the bed of sloth and we
are given to slumber. If we would be like those are who see His face,
we should always stand and watch, that whatever the Master says to us,
we would be ready to obey.

That they stood "before the Throne" shows that they are in the
immediate Presence of God. They are not excluded from His Presence,
they are not at a distance, but they behold His Glory to peculiar
advantage and He is near to them in a remarkably gracious and glorious
manner. They stand before the Throne of God. Yes, and this is the charm
of Heaven, to dwell in the Presence of God! You have tasted, then,
something of what Heaven means, my dear Brothers and Sisters. Sometimes
you have been near to Christ and in full fellowship with Him you have
sipped of the golden cup from which you shall drink forever! You have
tasted of immortal fruit that shall furnish your everlasting food. This
is Heaven– forever to behold His face, forever to stand like a
courtier in the very court, itself, like a favorite before the
Throne–not in the outer courts–not in the court of the Gentiles, but
inside the veil, before the Throne, within the glorious mystery, the
sanctum sanctorum, in the Holy of Holies, right where God, Himself, is!
There shall we stand forever and forever!

That they were "clothed with white robes'" is not a little significant.
Nakedness was revealed to man by sin. Before the time when he sinned,
he was naked and not ashamed. But then he strove to make himself a
dress and the fig leaf was the result. But Christ has come in and
clothed us–clothed us completely. The robes spoken of here seem to
have covered them from head to foot. They were "clothed with white
robes"–not partly clad, but altogether clad in them. Oh, how comely
that righteousness of Christ which He has worked for us, and worked in
us wherewith we shall be clothed when we stand before the eternal
Throne of God! Brothers and Sisters, rejoice to put it on tonight!
Rejoice to feel that His blood and righteousness, even now–

"Your beauty are your glorious dress."

Anticipate the time when you shall be admired of men and of angels,
attired in that complete garment. These robes are said to be "white
robes"–white to indicate purity–and "they are without fault before
the Throne of God." White–as distinctive of their priestly order, "for
they are kings and priests unto God forever and ever." White–as an
emblem of triumph, for now they are victors over every foe.

But why and how came those robes to be white? Their robes are white
because His robes were red–His robes I say. Oh, how the angels gazed
with astonishment, and asked with eagerness, as they saw Him come back
from Calvary, "Why are Your garments red? Why are You red in Your
apparel as one that has trodden the winepress?" And He answered, "I
have trodden the winepress alone, and of the people there was none with
Me." Because the Savior bled and dyed His garments with His own blood
for us, therefore, filthy as the saints' garments once were, they are
now robed in pure immaculate white, whiter than any fuller could make
them, glistening like the sun!

Oh, the joy of being there! May it soon come to us! It will! It may
come now, while yet we are talking here–

"Soon may the hand be stretched And dumb the mouth that lisps this
faltering strain."

But if it were so, then sudden death would be sudden glory! Are you
sure, each one of you, that it would be so? Would your departure out of
this life be your entrance into the eternal life? Would the shutting of
these poor eyes be the opening of nobler optics upon a brighter scene?
Believer, it would be so with you! Then why are you afraid to die? No,
rather, be willing at any time to gather up your feet into the bed and
die–your father's God to meet–where the white-robed company see His
face!

To complete the description, we will only remark that the palms in
their hands may refer to their observing that great feast of the Lord,
the feast of tabernacles, when the harvest of the earth is complete,
when the sabbathism that remains to the people of God is attained and
the pleasures which are at God's right hand forevermore are
realized–for so of old it was ordained, as we read in Leviticus–that
at this festival the Israelites should take palm branches in their
hands and rejoice before the Lord their God. This seems to have been
the acme of felicity in their sacred year.

I wish I had the power to describe this glorious circle–those bright
ones before the Throne, that you could see them! I think, as I look
upon them, that I can see even now the Apostolic band. I mark the
goodly fellowship of the Prophets. I think I see the martyrs with their
ruby crowns. Do not I see the ministers and confessors of Christ, some
of my own kith and kin that have gone before me–the Covenanters who
bled in Scotland, and the heroes of Smithfield? There they stand, and
listen!–how they sing! None shall excel them in their song of praise.
You have a mother there, perhaps–a sister, or a brother, or your
grandfather who, years ago "went over to the majority" to sing among
that countless multitude. Oh, if I could but have a vision of all that
will be there within the next hundred years, would I see myself, and
would I see all this company there? Oh, if it were possible, I would
gladly translate you all to Heaven at once–from the Tabernacle to the
Temple, from this place where we sing His praises at His footstool to
the place where we will sing them to His face more sweetly and more
loudly by far! Not one of you, oh, not one of you would we have absent!
Though, Friend, you may be out of sight, and almost out of hearing, one
who has just managed to crowd in among the multitude that throng this
house–oh, may you with all the rest of us have a place among His
chosen–and may none of you find your name left out when He, for them,
shall call! Are you believing in Jesus? If so, you should be there! Are
you an unbeliever? If you die as you are, you must be driven from His
Presence–you must be destroyed from the glory of His power–all the
joy and bliss that make up life must be crushed out of you and you must
live banished from Him forever! And now to close. It seems that–

IV. THIS GOODLY COMPANY WHO SURROUNDED THE CENTRAL THRONE OF GOD WERE
ENGAGED

IN SONG.

They "cried with a loud voice, saying, Salvation to our GOD which sits
upon the Throne and unto the Lamb." I was reading the other day a book
containing the life of a very excellent Primitive Methodist minister,
and I was greatly amused to find in his diary an allusion to myself. He
says, "Went to Stroud to hear Mr. Spurgeon. He is a rank Calvinist, but
a good man." I was pleased to find that I was a good man, and I was
equally pleased to find that I was a rank Calvin-ist! And when I came
to review the book I was obliged to say that our Brother was quite
correct about my being a rank Calvinist, and we believed that he was
one, too, now that he has gone to Heaven! They are all Calvinists
there! Every soul of them! They may have been Armenians on
earth–thousands and millions of them were–but they are not after they
get there, for here is their song, "Salvation unto our God which sits
upon the Throne." That is all my Calvinism. I am sure that is what
Calvin preached, what Augustine preached, what Paul preached, what
Christ would have us preach!

And this is what they sing in Heaven–"Salvation unto our God which
sits upon the Throne and unto the Lamb." They sing in Heaven that it
was God that planned salvation, 'twas God that ordained them to
salvation, 'twas God that gave them salvation, 'twas the Lamb that
brought them salvation, 'twas all of God that that salvation was
carried on, and all of God that their salvation was ever perfected!
They do not, one of them, say, "Stop, now! Salvation unto our God, yes,
but still, free will had a hand in it." Oh, no, no, no! There never was
a soul in Heaven that ever thought that! They all feel, when they get
there, that although God never violated their free wills, yet He made
them willing in the day of His power, and that it was His Free Grace
that brought them to come and love the Savior! I am sure, if the verse
were given out in Heaven, that we sometimes sing at Communion, they
would sing it there–

"'Twas all of Your Grace we were made to obey,

While others were suffered to go

The road which by nature we chose as our way,

And which leads to the chambers of woe." And I think they would sing
that other verse that we sing at the Lord's Table–

"Why was I made to hear Your voice,

And enter while there's room,

While thousands make a wretched choice,

And rather starve than come?

'Twas the same love that spread the feast,

That kindly forced me in,

Else I had still refused to taste,

And perished in my sin."

This is how they sing in Heaven, then. It is salvation–salvation all
of Grace! Salvation of which the glory, from first to last, must all be
given to God, and to God alone. They exclude themselves! They give no
boasting to themselves. They do not say, "Salvation unto our better
nature; salvation to our choicer Grace." No, no! But all unto the Lord,
all unto the Lord from first to last! Well, Brothers and Sisters, some
of us will not have to change our note much when we get there, for that
has been the burden of our song here! It has been the theme of our
ministry from our youth up, "Salvation is of the Lord." We have learned
it somewhere in the same college as that in which Jonah learned that
old Calvinistic theology. He had to go into the whale's belly to learn
it, and when he came out, he said, "Salvation is of the Lord." And we,
too, in sharp afflictions, pains, and griefs have had to learn it and
have it burned into us! And we never believed it more thoroughly in our
lives than we do now, that if a sinner is saved, it is God's work that
saves him–and God must have all the glory of it.

I pray the Lord to convince any poor needy soul that there is salvation
in Him–and enable that poor soul now to come and take it–take it by a
simple act of faith. You have not got to save yourselves. Christ has
saved you. You have but to trust Him and you are saved. There is
nothing for you to do–nothing for you to be, but simply to be
nothing– and to let Christ be All-in-All to you, to look and live,
for–

"There's life in a look at the Crucified One."

God grant that you may look, and so be among the countless throng who
shall sing His praises forever and ever! Amen.

EXPOSITION BY C. H. SPURGEON: REVELATION 7.

Verse 1. Andafter these things I saw four angels standing on the four
corners of the earth, holding the four winds of the earth, that the
wind should not blow on the earth, nor on the sea, nor on any tree. A
perfect calm there must be till God's people are saved. Not a leaf
shall stir to do them damage. Not a dash of foam upon the waters–no
movement of wind, or sea, or tree.

2, 3. And I saw another angel ascending from the east, having the seal
of the living God: and he cried with a loud voice to the four angels to
whom it was given to hurt the earth and the sea. Saying, Hurt not the
earth neither the sea, nor the trees till we have sealed the servants
of our God on their foreheads. Everything exists for the servants of
God! Creation is but a scaffold for the Church–and when God's Church
is finished, then all may be taken down–but not till then.

4, 5. And I heard the number of them which were sealed: and there were
sealed an hundred and forty and four thousand of all the tribes of the
children of Israel. Of the tribe of Judah were sealed twelve thousand.
Of the tribe of Reuben were sealed twelve thousand. The order is not
that of nature, but of Grace, otherwise Reuben would have come first.
And the election of God is not according to birth or blood, but
according to His Sovereign will. Judah, then Reuben.

5-8. Of the tribe of Gad were sealed twelve thousand. Of the tribe of
Asher were sealed twelve thousand. Of the tribe of Naphtali were sealed
twelve thousand. Of the tribe of Manasseh were sealed twelve thousand.
Of the tribe of Levi were sealed twelve thousand. Of the tribe of
Issachar were sealed twelve thousand. Of the tribe of Zabulon were
sealed twelve thousand. Of the tribe of Joseph were sealed twelve
thousand And of the last and least tribe, still the same.

8. Of the tribe of Benjamin were sealed twelve thousand. I think many
Believers belong to the tribe of Benjamin– doubting fearing, little in
faith and confidence–but Benjamin still has his men.

9. After this I beheld The Gentile Church.

9. And, lo, a great multitude, which no man could number, of all
nations, and tribes, and people, and tongues. It will do some people
good to see that sight, for they fancy that all the saints go to their
place of worship! There are no good people anywhere except those that
think exactly as they do. So they seem to fancy. Oh, that their eyes
were opened a little, for I am afraid that some Christians are very
much like the mouse that had always lived in a box and on some grand
occasion climbed up to the edge of the box. He looked over and saw the
vast area of the cupboard, and said, "I had no idea the world was as
big as that!" And yet it had never been outside the cupboard even then.
Oh, for eyes that could see a sight like this! "After this, I beheld,
and lo, a great multitude which no man could number" (we can count
pretty high, too) "of all nations, and tribes, and people, and
tongues."

9. Stood before the Throne, and before the Lamb, clothed with white
robes.Perfectly pure–perfectly happy– arrayed like priests and
conquerors, for they had "palms in their hands."

9-11. And palms in their hands. And cried with a loud voice saying,
Salvation to our God who sits upon the Throne, and unto the Lamb. And
all the angels stood round about the Thron. In the outer ring and about
the elders that represent the Church, who stand in the inner ring,
nearest to Christ and nearest akin to the Son of Man.

11, 12. And about the elders and four beasts, and fell before the
Throne on their faces, and worshipped God, saying, Amen: Blessing and
glory, and wisdom, and thanksgiving, and honor, and power, and might be
unto our God forever and ever Amen. Grand ascriptions of praise to make
the worship perfect, as all worship should be which is presented to
God–as all worship will be when we shall once get to Heaven.

13. And one of the elders answered, saying unto me, Who are fhese.?This
vast crowd–who are these? 13-17. Who are arrayed in white robes? And
where did they come from? And I said unto him, Sir, you know. And he
said to me, These are they who came out of the great tribulation, and
have washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.
Therefore are they before the Throne ofGod, andserve Him day andnight
in His Temple: andHe who sits on the Throne shall dwell among them.
They shall hunger no more, neither thirst anymore; neither shall the
sun light on them, nor any heat. For the Lamb who is in the midst of
the Throne shall feed them, and shall lead them unto living fountains
of waters: and God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes.