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The

Leading Homily.

VOICES AND VISIONS FROM ETERNITY.

"I WAS IN THE SPIRIT ON THE LORD'S DAY, AND HEARD BEHIND ME A GREAT VOICE, AS OF A TRUMPET, SAYING, I AM ALPHA AND OMEGA, THE FIRST AND THE LAST AND, WHAT THOU SEEST, WRITE IN A BOOK, AND SEND IT UNTO THE SEVEN CHURCHES WHICH ARE IN ASIA; UNTO EPHESUS, AND UNTO SMYRNA, AND UNTO PERGAMOS, AND UNTO THYATIRA, AND UNTO SARDIS, AND UNTO PHILADELPHIA, AND UNTO LAODICEA," &c.— Revelation ii. 10-17.

ONCERNING this vision, and, indeed, nearly all the visions recorded in this Apocalypse, there are three . facts to be predicated at the outset. First: It is What is here reported as heard and seen by John, was not seen by his bodily eye, or heard by his bodily It was, I consider, a purely mental vision.

mental.

ear.

It is one of the characteristic attributes and distinctions of man that he can see and hear objects that come not within the range of his senses. Though the eagle is reported to have a keen and far-reaching eye, and has borne its pinions into the region of sunny azure, it has no glimpse of the spirit domain; whereas a man who may be even sightless and deaf, has the power of seeing wonderful things and hearing wonderful things. The sightless bard of England lived in a bright world; his genius bore him. aloft into regions where there was no cloud. These mental

visions are of two classes, the voluntary and the involuntary. The former are the productions of creative genius, the latter are those dreams of the night when deep sleep falls on man. Mental visions are not necessarily illusions. They are often more real than those of the physical, they come farther into the depths of our being, and convey to us impressions of things of which material phenomena are but the effects and expressions. Concerning this vision, notice-Secondly: It is credible. Had it been reported that John saw with the outward eye, and heard with the outward ear the things here reported, the report could not have been believed. The objects are so unique, so incongruous with all that is natural, so grotesque, and, we may say, so monstrous and unæsthetic, that we could not believe a man who said he saw them with his outward eye. A being "clothed with a garment down to the foot, and girt about the paps with a golden girdle. His head and his hairs were white like wool, as white as snow; and his eyes were as a flame of fire; and his feet like unto fine brass, as if they burned in a furnace; and his voice as the sound of many waters. And he had in his right hand seven stars: and out of his mouth went a sharp two-edged sword: and his countenance was as the sun shineth in his strength." Who could believe a man who said he beheld these with his bodily eye? But as a mental vision it is credible enough. What -grotesque shapes appear to us in dreams, what strange monstrosities rise to our mental eye! The deities that arose out of the imagination of Nineveh, Greece, and India, and throughout the whole domain of heathendom, were as unnatural and incoherent in their forms as the aspects of the Son of Man before us. The reports of mental visions, however extraordinary, are credible, men believe in them. Concerning this vision-Thirdly: It is symbolic. It has a deep spiritual meaning, it adumbrates mighty lessons, it is a picture of eternal realities. What are the great truths here symbolised? That a wonderful voice from eternity comes to man, a wonderful personage from eternity appears to man, and wonderful impressions from eternity are made upon Notice

man.

I. That a wonderful VOICE from eternity COMES to man. "I

was in the spirit on the Lord's day, and heard behind me a great voice, as of a trumpet." We are told also that the voice that came to John was "as the sound of many waters." The spiritual condition of John when the voice came is worthy of note. He was "in the spirit." This means, I trow, something more than being in the spirit in a moral sense, in the spirit of heavenly loyalty and devotion. In this condition all true men are, they are led by the spirit, they walk by the spirit. It is being in an elevated state of mind, a kind of ecstasy in which a man is lifted out of himself, in which, like Paul, he is taken up to heaven, and sees and hears things unutterable. He was in such a condition as this at a certain period here called "the Lord's day." All men who are in the spirit in the moral sense, in the sense of vital godliness, feel and regard all days as "the Lord's day." But the days of spiritual ecstacies and transports are ever special. Perhaps the first day of the week is here referred to, the day of our Saviour's resurrection from the dead. Probably the association of that wonderful day served to raise his soul into this ecstatic state. Concerning the voice that came to him when in this state, it was marked by two things

First: The voice was marked by clearness. "A great voice, as of a trumpet." The voice was clear, loud, strong, as a trumpet. It was a voice to which he could not close his ears if he wished to, its clarion notes rang into him.

Secondly: The voice was marked by fulness. "As the sound of many waters." "Daniel described the voice of the Ancient of Days as the voice of a multitude (Dan. x. 6): but the voice of the multitude was in earlier Hebrew writings compared to the sound of the waves of the sea, which the voice of the Lord could alone subdue (Ps. lxv. 7; xciii. 4.). This image the evangelist adopts to describe the voice of Christ, strong and majestic amid the Babel sounds of earth. That voice whose word stilled the sea sounds as the waves of the sea which St. John heard Him rebuke." Is there any voice in nature equal to the voice of the old ocean, majestic, full, continuous, drowning all other sounds? The clamour and the din of a thousand armies on the shore are lost amidst the roar of the incoming waves.