attained to the highest degree of moral perfection, and who have been rewarded with the greatest amount of intellectual enlightment. They have acquired the most complete knowledge of the divine nature and character, and the clearest conceptions of God's goodness, wisdom, and power, as displayed in the works of creation and providence, and in a more especial manner in the great work of the redemption of mankind. Their thoughts of the Deity are therefore higher, purer, and more intensely affectionate than are those of other men. They have more for which to render thanks, and a livelier sense of gratitude for which to find expression; so lively, indeed, and so ardent, that their own efforts to clothe it in words are vain; and they therefore with a willing heart learn from the Lamb that new song, in which he teaches them to convey their thanks and praise. They only can learn it; for they alone can penetrate its meaning, and they alone feel those intense emotions which it is designed to express.

The character of these 144,000 is farther unfolded to us in the fourth and fifth verses-" These are they which were not defiled with women; for they are virgins. These are they which follow the Lamb whithersoever he goeth. These were redeemed from among men, being the first fruits unto God and the Lamb, and in their mouth was found no guile; for they are without fault before the throne of God."

In this description we have a beautiful sketch of the perfect Christian character. At the same time we must guard ourselves against taking up its language in a strictly literal sense. More especially the first clause. To penetrate the true meaning of this passage, we must bear in mind that the genuine spiritual church of Christ is, in Scripture, denominated his bride and his spouse, while that portion of the outward church, which consists of mere nominal Christians-of false and hypocritical teachers and professors, is denominated a prostitute-a metaphor which we shall afterwards find developed at large. Hence all those composing the true spiritual church-the virgin espoused to Christ are spiritually chaste; while those, who are members of the prostitute, that has fallen away from her allegiance, are spiritually unchaste. Thus we find St. Paul addressing the Corinthians in these terms (2 Cor. chap. xi., vers. 2 and 3). "For I am jealous over you, with a godly jealousy; for I have espoused you to one husband, that I may present you, as a chaste virgin, to Christ. But I fear lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve, through his subtilty, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ."

Here we find the whole body of Christian converts, married

and unmarried, described as a chaste virgin espoused to one husband. Nay, we learn that among those who were thus regarded as spiritually chaste, were many who had been carnally unchaste. For, after describing the gross unchastity and wickedness which prevailed among the Gentiles, St. Paul says,—“ And such were some of you; but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God."

These quotations furnish a key to the meaning of the passage before us, for we must bear in mind that the character here given to the 144,000 is not that which they exhibited during the whole of their mortal career, but that to which they attained after they were redeemed from the earth. This is rendered evident from its being said of them that "they were without fault, before the throne of God."

That spiritual chastity-a mind not corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ-is what is here meant, will become further evident when we consider that the taking of this passage literally would amount to an exclusion from among the number of these excellent of the earth, of all married persons-an idea quite repugnant to the doctrines taught in Scripture; for it is there declared that marriage is honourable in all, and the bed undefiled; that both bishops and deacons should be each the husband of one wife, so that they may set an example of every Christian virtue, in every relation of life. It would be to exclude from the Christian character a class of virtues of the very highest order -the faithful performance of the duties of husbands and parents, the former being exhorted to love their wives, even as Christ the Church, the latter to train up their children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. These duties are, in their bearing on the welfare of society, second to none, and he that excludes himself from the discharge of them withdraws himself from one of the most important spheres of usefulness on earth, and denies himself the privilege of directly adding to the number of the redeemed. Celibacy is a virtue only in those peculiar cases where a man, after the example of St. Paul, abstains from marriage for the sole purpose of devoting himself with more disengagedness of spirit and freedom from encumbrance to the work of distant and dangerous missionary enterprize. Nevertheless, we may learn, from the example of St. Peter, that a due discharge of even those difficult and dangerous duties is not incompatible with the married state. Except, then, for the purpose of engaging in distant missionary enterprize, the abstaining from matrimony, so far from being a virtue, is really a mere shrinking from responsibility, and involves a neglect of Christian duties

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of the highest order, and which have the most important influence on the welfare of the human race. A due discharge of the duties of husband and father is indicated by St. Paul as the best preparation, and the surest test of fitness for being a bishop of the Church; for, after pointing out that a bishop ought to show a good example as a husband and a father, he adds, 1 Tim. iii. 5, "for if a man know not how to rule his own house, how shall he take care of the Church of God." We accordingly find him foretelling, as one of the signs of the apostasy of the latter times, that the false teachers should be men "having their conscience seared as with a hot iron, forbidding to marry, and commanding to abstain from meats," (1 Tim. iv. 2—3).

From all these passages it is evident that the married state is not inconsistent with the Christian perfection specified in the first clause of this description of the character of the 144,000. He would be a bold man who would assert that Moses, called by pre-eminence the servant of God, or the Apostle Peter, whom our Lord himself pronounced to be supremely blest, was unworthy to be classed among those first-fruits of the redeemed, merely because each of these distinguished individuals had a wife.

This metaphor, then, of corporeal chastity must be held to indicate that spiritual chastity which is not corrupted from the simplicity which is in Christ, and also that victory over all fleshly desires which is achieved by those who are united to Christ by faith, who, although they may have once been such, as St. Paul describes his Gentile converts to have originally been, have subsequently been washed and purified in the blood of the Lamb, and so been presented as a chaste virgin to Christ.

We are further informed that these 144,000 are the attendants or followers of the Lamb, whithersoever he goeth. This clause is capable of two interpretations. It may mean that these are imitators of the Lamb in all his ways, following his example in every particular. Or, regarding the 144,000 as a representative symbol, it may mean that these symbolize the attendants of the Lamb whithersoever he goeth. According to this view, the Lamb is represented as traversing the earth accompanied by a large number of followers. We might, therefore, understand the Lamb as symbolizing not only the person of Christ, viewed in his human nature, but the Christian doctrine, especially that portion of it which relates to the sacrificial death and atonement of Christ, typified by the Lamb slain in sacrifice. The 144,000, again, would represent those instrumental in spreading the pure Christian doctrines throughout the earth.

In forming a judgment upon this point, it must be borne in

mind that, in the interpretation of emblems it is the usage of the sacred writers to say, not "these signify or represent" so and so, but "these are" so and so. Thus in explaining the emblems of the stars and the candlesticks, it is said, "the seven stars are the angels of the seven churches, and the seven candlesticks are the seven churches." In like manner, in explaining the symbol of the countless multitude in white robes, and having palms in their hands, standing before the throne, the elder says: "These are they who came out of great tribulation," etc. To the same effect our Lord himself, when he presented to his disciples the broken bread and the cup of wine, said, "This is my body, broken for you; this is the new testament in my blood." In all these instances it is evident that the meaning is, "these symbolize the seven angels and the seven churches;" these represent those who came out of great tribulation;" "this is an emblem of my broken body, this a symbol of the new testament in my blood." In the case before us, the form of expression employed in the Greek fully warrants this mode of interpretation; and the meaning of the original would perhaps be best rendered as follows: "These represent all who were not defiled with women; for they represent virgins; these represent the followers of the Lamb, whithersover he goeth."

We have no more reason to suppose the 144,000 to have been individuals actually existing at the time of the vision, than we have to imagine that the multitude in white robes were actually existing individuals. Both assemblages were emblems, the countless multitude being a type of the whole body of the redeemed, the more restricted number 144,000 being a type of those most distinguished for Christian principle, and most devoted to the service of their Great Master. Whithersoever the Lamb goes, he will always be followed by such. Into whatsoever part of the world Christ designs to carry his doctrine, there will always be a devoted band of missionaries ready to convey to the erring and the ignorant the glad tidings of great joy. The followers of the Lamb, then, here mentioned, appear to be not the mere imitators of the Lamb; for every Christian must follow the example of his Master; but the missionaries of Christ, his personal attendants, who accompany him in his migration into the domains of moral darkness and spiritual death. Of all such this select band of 144,000 is an appropriate type, for such are the select members of the Christian brotherhood-the picked men-the bodyguard, as it were, of the army of the Lord of Hosts.

They are accordingly farther described as having been "purchased from among men-an offering of first-fruits to God and the

Lamb." We are not to understand this expression as meaning that they were purchased first in order of time, but that they were the prime, or most excellent part of the human harvest, those of whom the Messiah, in the sixteenth Psalm, is represented as speaking in the most approving terms, calling them "the saints that are in the earth, the excellent, in whom is all my delight." The idea of the harvest of the human race we find farther developed towards the end of this chapter, and this mention of the offering of first-fruits is an obvious allusion to what follows.

We should probably fall into a great error were we to suppose that the number 144,000 here specified is intended to represent the precise number of individuals who shall possess the character here assigned to them. It is much more likely that this specification of a number is designed to convey merely the general idea that, in the future state, there is to be a selection of the most approved saints, upon whom special honours are to be conferred that the whole body of the redeemed are not to be placed on an equal footing, but that every man is to be rewarded "according to his work." The same truth of a gradation of excellence and a corresponding gradation of rank is indicated in our Saviour's promise made to his disciples that, in the future state, they shall sit on thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel, and shall be admitted to hold immediate and familiar intercourse with himself. The representation, therefore, of the most excellent of the redeemed by a specific number in immediate attendance on the Lamb, most probably indicates no more than this general principle, that those who have been distinguished by the highest and purest Christian attainments in this life shall be selected to fill the highest offices in the future life, and have conferred upon them the greatest honour, being regarded as the first-fruits of the redeemed.

In the fifth verse, we have the completion of the character of the first-fruits of the human harvest. "And in their mouth was found no guile; for they are without fault before the throne of God." These expressions render it very evident that this was the character of these saints, not during their whole lives, but in their perfect state, after their complete redemption and sanctification. Jude, in his epistle to the Christian converts, addresses them as those "that are sanctified by God the Father, and preserved in Jesus Christ," and in his concluding ascription he says, "Now unto him that is able to keep you from falling, and to preseut you faultless before the presence of his glory, with exceeding joy, to the only wise God, our Saviour, be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now