pouring out of the seven vials, it is said, "the temple of the tabernacle of the testimony in heaven was opened:" but observe (ver. 8), "no man was able to enter into the temple, till the seven plagues of the seven angels were fulfilled;" from which we certainly gather, that not until the pouring out of the last vials of wrath, and the blast of the seventh trumpet, shall the victorious saints receive these promises of the Holy Ghost. Till then the church is a wayfaring pilgrim, an unwearied soldier waging warfare for the truth as it is in Jesus Christ, and when she hath overcome the devil, the world, and the flesh, she hath yet another victory to achieve; which is, the victory over death and the grave. And she coucheth low to win that palm into the tomb, into corruption, into dust, the church willingly descendeth, tracking the footsteps of the destroyer through his wasteful region; and having gone into his inmost recesses of destruction, she comes forth thence an unsoiled, eternal, and glorious conqueror of death and the grave, singing, "O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?" And now she hath the immortal food of an immortal life, the hidden manna, which is incorruptible: the body of Christ which is immortal, and by him ever sustained, shall with him ever possess and ever govern the "inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for those who are kept by the power of God, through faith unto salvation, and which is about to be revealed in the last time." THE WHITE STONE. "I will give him a white stone, and in it a new name written, which no man knoweth saving he which receiveth it."-As the former part of the promise hath reference to the temptation of idol meats, with which the church of Pergamos was tried, and carries with it the assurance of a trial which the world knoweth not of, so this latter part hath reference to the indiscriminate and confused communion and mixture of good and evil persons which the easyminded angel of that church permitted to subsist. In remedy of which, Christ doth not advise the purer members to separate and secede from the church, but holdeth out to them the promise of a time when the tares should 1 be separated from the wheat, and the goats from the sheep, and the righteous should enjoy pure and holy communion with one another in the kingdom of his Father. For from the custom of the ancients to acquit by a white stone I interpret the language of the text. When the judges gave their votes as to the innocence or guilt of any person, those who judged him innocent cast in a white stone; those who judged him guilty cast in a black one; and even unto this day the same custom is observed in admitting or rejecting candidates for the privilege of being enrolled members of honourable societies. So common was this amongst the ancients, that the expression, "I gave my vote or voice," being rendered into Greek, is "I threw in my stone." And the word translated by us to vote is literally to stone; as in our language, to reject a candidate is denominated black-balling, from the custom of casting in white and black balls. Of this there occurs one instance in Scripture, " And when they were put to death I gave my voice against them;" literally, " I brought my stone." (Acts xxvi. 16.) Now the promise of a white stone I regard as equivalent to acquittal in the day of judgment. Christ speaketh in his character of Judge, having the law, whose symbol is a sharp two-edged sword, proceeding out of his mouth; and he saith unto the church of Pergamos, Fear not, though I thus appear to you; for in the day of judgment I will give to every one the white stone of acquittal. It is only the wicked who shall not stand in the judgment, nor come into the congregation of the righteous. With the pure I will shew myself pure, and with the froward I will shew myself froward.' So far the interpretation is simple and direct. But now there occurs an expression harder to be understood: "And in the stone a new name written, which no man knoweth saving he that receiveth it." The connexion of this with the preceding part of the promise, and the necessity of it to the completeness thereof, and its appropriateness to the condition of the church of Pergamos, I well discern. It adds to the acquittal of the Judge a sure token which no one can counterfeit, and promises to the saint separation from all hypocrites and dissemblers, from every thing which defileth and maketh a lie. This, to a church defiled and vexed with the inter mixture of the wicked, as was the church of Pergamos, is While thus we interpret the general scope and bearing of the last part of the promise, we feel that this is not enough, and must be confirmed and enlarged by a minute examination of the very words themselves. The name in Scripture signifies and declares the powers and properties of that to which it is appropriated. To be called by the name of the Lord, or to have the name of the Lord called upon us, is a dignity and honour ofttimes referred to in the Old Testament, and promised, in the next chapter of this book, to the church of Philadelphia, after a manner or in a fulness yet unexampled in the history of the church. "I will write upon him my new name." This I consider } as equivalent to the promise that they should share the dignity and honour of Christ in the day of his appearing. There is likewise mention made in chap. vii. of a company who were sealed with the seal of God in their foreheads; which seems to carry a reference to the high priest, who wore upon his forehead a golden plate or coronet, whereon was inscribed "Holiness to the Lord." But in the passage before us there is, I think, a shade of difference from both these, inasmuch as the new name is not written upon the person, but upon the white stone which is given to the person. This peculiarity some derive from the manner of the ancients in casting lots with stones on which were written the names of the persons among whom the lot lay. But to this I object, that the whole tenor of the passage hath no reference whatever to the casting of lots. Others incline to interpret it by the custom among the ancients of appointing persons to offices of trust by the same method of inscribing their names upon a stone or tile. To this also I object, that the name written is not the name of the person, but a new name, descriptive in some way or other of that dignity to which he was to be promoted. Upon the whole, instead of looking for the interpretation of this from ancient customs, I prefer seeking for it in the Scriptures themselves, where this form of speech not unfrequently occurs. For example; in this very book it is said of the New Jerusalem, that it hath "twelve foundations, and in them the names of the twelve Apostles of the Lamb." Now these twelve foundations were twelve stones, and were the same with the twelve stones in the breast-plate of judgment, upon which were engraven the names of the twelve tribes of Israel. What now of mystic virtue was added to these stones by being thus engraven with a name? In the former instance it is signified, that the twelve Apostles are the twelve foundations of the New Jerusalem, the city of God in the latter case, that the twelve Patriarchs or Tribes, or the complete house of Israel, are the Urim and Thummim, the lights and perfections, the breast-plate of judgment to our great High Priest, by whom he shall make his counsels known, and his judgment felt upon the earth in the world to come. Taking the light of these instances of the like kind, where a name is engraven on a stone, to which we might have added others, and particularly the foundationstone of Zachariah, we come to interpret the expression before us. The white stone, we have said, is the stone of acquittal, the test of innocency.-This is its virtue. Now the new name written upon it must be that which gives and preserves to it such a virtue. Whose then is it to acquit and justify in such a manner as no one shall ever gainsay? It is Christ, the Judge, who openeth and no man shutteth, who shutteth and no man openeth; who justifieth and no man condemneth, who condemneth and no man justifieth. The name I should therefore judge to be the name of Christ's hidden ones; that name which no man can counterfeit, because no one knoweth it but He himself, and those to whom he giveth the knowledge of it. If I err not, we have the first fruits of it in that cleanness of the conscience which we receive from Christ by the Holy Ghost; that washing of regeneration, and purifying of the Holy Ghost, which is shed on us abundantly through our Lord Jesus Christ; that baptism which saveth us, not the washing away of the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience towards God; that renewal in knowledge after the image of Him that created us. The faithful in Christ Jesus have now no conscience of sin, have now a conscience void of offence towards God and towards man. This is bestowed on us, as Peter declares (1 Pet. iii. 21), in our baptism, when we receive our Christian name. But in this life it extendeth only to the spirit and the time is yet to come, the blessing is yet future, when the flesh also shall receive this purification; and in that day a new name, answering to this new condition, shall be put upon us. We have now the name of Christ in the spirit; we are the mystical Christ: then we shall have the name of Christ also in the flesh; we shall be the manifest Christ, shining forth for ever with his glory, and for ever exercising his power, and making his goodness to be known and felt. The point, however, of most importance in this part of the Spirit's promise is, that no one knoweth that name but those who receive it; by which I understand that it is a state of being whereof those only are conscious who are exalted thereto just as in the xixth chapter, where Christ re-appears on the stage of this world's affairs, it is said, |