1.
And I saw when the Lamb opened one of the seals, and I heard, as it were the noise of thunder, one of the four beasts saying, Come and see.
2.
And I saw, and behold a white horse: and he that sat on him had a bow; and a crown was given unto him: and he went forth conquering, and to conquer.
3.
And when he had opened the second seal, I heard the second beast say, Come and see.
4.
And there went out another horse that was red: and power was given to him that sat thereon to take peace from the earth, and that they should kill one another: and there was given unto him a great sword.
5.
And when he had opened the third seal, I heard the third beast say, Come and see. And I beheld, and lo a black horse; and he that sat on him had a pair of balances in his hand.
6.
And I heard a voice in the midst of the four beasts say, A measure of wheat for a penny, and three measures of barley for a penny; and see thou hurt not the oil and the wine.
7.
And when he had opened the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth beast say, Come and see.
8.
And I looked, and behold a pale horse: and his name that sat on him was Death, and Hell followed with him. And power was given unto them over the fourth part of the earth, to kill with sword, and with hunger, and with death, and with the beasts of the earth.
DEATH
‘Behold a pale horse: and his name that sat on him was Death.’
Revelation 6:8
There are times when the near presence and the invincible power of death are felt with peculiar solemnity. What St. John saw in apocalyptic vision we see in solemn and often startling reality.
I. The ride of death.
( a) It is long. Death has been with us as long as man has been on the globe.
( b) It is powerful. Death triumphs now over everything and everybody. The sovereign on the throne; the peasant in the cottage must alike come under its power.
II. The fight with death.—Yet for the Christian death has lost its terrors because of the resurrection of the Lord of life. He confers on all that freely and fully acccept Him as their Saviour and Lord a life—
( a) Which is spiritual and therefore real.
( b) Which is holy and therefore noble and blessed.
( c) Which is eternal. What we call death is only the passage into a brighter and ampler life.
III. The final overthrow of death.—That glorious time will come when Jesus Christ shall reign, and when all enemies shall be subdued beneath His feet. And the last enemy that shall be destroyed is death.
9.
And when he had opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of them that were slain for the word of God, and for the testimony which they held:
10.
And they cried with a loud voice, saying, How long, O Lord, holy and true, dost thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth?
11.
And white robes were given unto every one of them; and it was said unto them, that they should rest yet for a little season, until their fellowservants also and their brethren, that should be killed as they were, should be fulfilled.
12.
And I beheld when he had opened the sixth seal, and, lo, there was a great earthquake; and the sun became black as sackcloth of hair, and the moon became as blood;
13.
And the stars of heaven fell unto the earth, even as a fig tree casteth her untimely figs, when she is shaken of a mighty wind.
14.
And the heaven departed as a scroll when it is rolled together; and every mountain and island were moved out of their places.
15.
And the kings of the earth, and the great men, and the rich men, and the chief captains, and the mighty men, and every bondman, and every free man, hid themselves in the dens and in the rocks of the mountains;
16.
And said to the mountains and rocks, Fall on us, and hide us from the face of him that sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb:
THE WRATH OF THE LAMB
‘The wrath of the Lamb.’
Revelation 6:16
We should not allow the sympathy, the gentleness, the compassion, the loving humanity of Jesus, as we find Him portrayed in the Gospels, to blind us to the fact that there is such a thing, after all, as the ‘wrath of the Lamb.’ ‘The wrath of the Lamb’! The words suggest a somewhat painful line of thought.
God is incapable of change. And such as God was in the times of the older dispensation, such is He now to us who live in the clearer light and fuller privileges of the dispensation of the Spirit.
I. It was unavoidable that the sterner side of the Divine character should be first turned to the human race. Men had to be educated in the knowledge of sin before they could come to understand their true position; before they could appreciate their need of God’s help, as well as the necessity of an entire and perfect submission to God’s will.
II. With regard to the present dispensation—that of Christianity—the process may be said to be reversed. We have the love first and the severity afterwards; or, as perhaps I ought to put it, we have the evidence that the Divine nature—which is full of compassion and tender mercy, which continually invites, persuades, even beseeches, the sinner to approach it in confidence and trust—has yet in it a capability of righteous indignation, in fact of wrath, most formidable to those who persist in refusing compliance with its claims and acceptance of its invitations.
III. There is something in the nature of man himself which corresponds with this twofold aspect of the character of God, and enables us to understand it. I will suppose you to have heard of some frightful crime. Now what is your feeling? It is one of fierce, fiery indignation, which demands the immediate and condign punishment of the offender. There is that in you which will not be quieted—which will not be satisfied—until the criminal has met with his deserts.
—Rev. Prebendary Gordon Calthrop.
17.
For the great day of his wrath is come; and who shall be able to stand?