The seventh seal includes the seven trumpets. What a contrast that pause must have been .to the jubilant songs of the great multitude! In the Jewish temple, we are told, the musical instruments and chanting resounded during the offering of the sacrifices, which occupied the first part of the service; but at the offering of the incense a solemn silence was observed, Ps. 62:1. The people prayed quietly without, at the time of incense. What a glimpse is here afforded ‘of the intercession of our great High Priest! The smoke of the incense of his great merit arises with the prayers of the saints. Pray on, believer, though your voice be feeble, and so much imperfection mingles with

your efforts to serve God. The incense of Christ’s intercession is fragrant enough to make even you acceptable.

The four first trumpets include the devastation of natural objects. The dumb creation, and even the earth itself, suffers for man’s sin. Think of the horses wounded in battle, dying in long agony; of vast tracks of country once smiling, with harvest becoming a wilderness; of the soil compelled to produce the ingredients of poisoning and intoxication. Poor Mother Earth! Goethe said that he could hear her sighing as a captive for redemption.

Revelation 9:1-11. This chapter reminds us of the prophet Joel who, under the imagery of a swarm of locusts, depicted the coming invasion of hostile nations. Whether these warriors are intended for barbarian hordes which swept over the Roman Empire previous to its fall, or whether they represent the Saracens, between whose appearance and the details of this vision there is much in common, is not within our province to determine. The point which specially concerns us is that only those escaped who had received the imprint of God’s seal. Of old the destroying angel passed over the houses, on the lintels of which the blood was visible.

But there are spiritual foes, against whose invasion we must seek the sealing of God’s Spirit. “Grieve not the Holy Spirit of God, in whom ye'were sealed unto , the day of redemption,” Eph. 4:30. What is impressed with the royal seal is under special protection; and when temptation assails you, you may assuredly claim’ that divine protection, which shall surround you as an impenetrable shield. “The angel of the Lord encampeth round about them that fear him, and delivereth them,” Ps. 34:7. We fight not against flesh and blood, but against wicked spirits in heavenly places, and only the spiritual can secure for us immunity against the spirit-