us forget that the sea hath said concerning Wisdom: "It is not with me."

2. And the beast which I saw was like unto a leopard, and his feet were as the feet of a bear, and his mouth as the mouth of a lion: and the dragon gave him his power, and his seat, and great authority.

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This Apocalyptic beast combines in its one aspect features of three distinct and successive beasts of Daniel's vision: "Behold, the four winds of the heaven strove upon the great sea. And four great beasts came up from the sea, diverse one from another. The first was like a lion, and had eagle's wings I beheld till the wings thereof were plucked, and it was lifted up from the earth, and made stand upon the feet as a man, and a man's heart was given to it. And behold another beast, a second, like to a bear, and it raised up itself on one side, and it had three ribs in the mouth of it between the teeth of it and they said thus unto it, Arise, devour much flesh. After this I beheld, and lo another, like a leopard, which had upon the back of it four wings of a fowl; the beast had also four heads; and dominion was given to it. After this I saw in the night visions, and behold a fourth beast, dreadful and terrible, and strong exceedingly; and it had great iron teeth it devoured and brake in pieces, and stamped the residue with the feet of it: and it was diverse from all the beasts that were before it; and it had ten horns. I considered the horns, and, behold, there came up among them another little horn, before whom there were three of the first horns plucked up by the roots: and, behold, in this horn were eyes like the eyes of man, and a mouth speaking great things."

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Daniel's vision has been expounded as concerning the successive empires of Babylon, Persia, Greece; personified respectively as lion, bear, leopard. The fourth yet more mysteriously appalling beast stands over to what was then and may still be the future. St. John's vision may haply already concern ourselves, or at any rate will concern others like us. Its lesson is for all and is for me.

Whatever this Apocalyptic beast may prove in fulness of time, it exhibits some likeness to that world, flesh, devil, which are my daily antagonists; of which I must daily, hourly, momentarily beware.

The world is like a leopard. Beautiful but spotted; soft, graceful, sportive, yet a devourer, a destroyer. "A leopard shall watch over their cities." Nor can the leopard change

his spots. "Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world. And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the Will of God abideth for ever."

The flesh is like a bear. Its hug is deadly. "How long wilt thou sleep, O sluggard? when wilt thou arise out of thy sleep? Yet a little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to sleep: so shall thy poverty come as one that travelleth, and thy want as an armed man." The bear treads with his whole foot upon the earth, and his gross aspect is prominently of the earth earthy.

The devil is like a lion: as a roaring lion he walketh about seeking whom he may devour. He is as a lion's whelp lurking in secret places. "Rescue my soul from their destructions, my darling from the lions."

World, flesh, devil, comprise all sources and varieties of my temptations. Repelling these three wherever found, I shall not fail to repel them even if in my own mortal day they appear concentrated into one ghastly head, one obscene monster.

On the other hand: if I succumb to them separately, how shall I cope with them should they rise up against me as one?

But that word the world is frequently used to denote a great portion of the human race. How little must I love the world? How much may I love it ?-Love it to the fulness of thy heart's desire, so thou love it with self-sacrifice; for thus to love it is after the Mind of God, the Pattern of Christ: "God so loved the world, that He gave His Only Begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life. For God sent not His Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through Him might be saved." Love is alone the worthy law of love:

All other laws have pre-supposed a taint :
Love is the law from kindled saint to saint,
From lamb to lamb, from tender dove to dove.
Love is the motive of all things that move

Harmonious by free will without constraint :
Love learns and teaches: love shall man acquaint
With all he lacks, which all his lack is love.

Because Love is the fountain, I discern

The stream as love: for what but love should flow
From fountain Love? not bitter from the sweet!

I ignorant, have I laid claim to know?

Oh teach me, Love, such knowledge as is meet
For one to know who is fain to love and learn.

This world is not my orchard for fruit or my garden for flowers. It is however my only field whence to raise a harvest. What is the world? Wherein resides its harmfulness, snare, pollution? Left to itself it is neither harmful, ensnaring, nor polluting. It becomes all this as the passive agent, passive vehicle if I may so call it, of the devil, man's outside tempter, and of the flesh, man's inside tempter. There is no inherent evil in cedar and vermilion, horses and chariots, purple and fine linen; nay, nor in sumptuous fare, in down, silk, apes, ivory, or peacocks. St. Peter himself objects not to hair, gold, apparel, but to women's misuse of them. An alabaster box of precious ointment becomes good or bad simply according to the use it is put to. Through envy of the devil death came into the world, and man hath sought out many inventions; but the heavens and the earth, and all the host of them when made and finished were beheld to be "very good."

Lord Jesus, everywhere and always inspire us to refuse the evil and to choose the good; and I beseech Thee, give us grace never to judge our neighbour rashly, whilst one by one we ourselves endeavour to learn and perform Thy Will.

Christ exchanged heaven for earth to enable man to exchange earth for heaven. Hast Thou done that for me, and will I not do this for Thee?

"The dragon gave him his power, and his seat, and great authority"-constituting him, so to say, diabolical viceroy. The flesh is even now such a viceroy, having the world for a throne, while the devil keeps out of sight ruling by deputy.— Or the world is a stage, the flesh an actor, the devil prompter and scene-shifter.

3. And I saw one of his heads as it were wounded to death; and his deadly wound was healed: and all the world wondered after the beast.

Again we are reminded that any and not only the final Antichrist may appear as a pseudo-Christ. This death-wound so healed that a sort of life survives, seems a hideous mockery of the All-Holy Death and Resurrection. "Surely in vain the net is spread in the sight of any bird."

"All the world wondered after the beast."-What go they out for to see? If a reed, a broken reed, "the staff of this bruised reed . . . on which if a man lean, it will go into his hand, and pierce it." If a man clothed in soft raiment, a courtier of the prince of this world; like prince, like courtier. If a prophet, less than a prophet, a lying prophet.

"A wonderful and horrible thing is committed in the land; the prophets prophesy falsely, and the priests bear rule by their means; and My people love to have it so and what will ye do in the end thereof?"

It is a time-long and world-wide curiosity, time-long at least so far as we know the tendencies of fallen human nature, this which wonders after the monstrous and the inexplicable.

I must beware lest my own curiosity be morbid, perverse, unbridled. To-day the monstrous may be simply abnormal, to-morrow it may be "the mystery of iniquity." To-day the inexplicable may be a secret of nature, to-morrow a secret of hell. O my soul, come not thou into such a secret! “All darkness shall be hid in his secret places: a fire not blown shall consume him; it shall go ill with him that is left in his tabernacle. The heaven shall reveal his iniquity; and the earth shall rise up against him."

Likewise I must beware lest my study of holy subjects degenerate into curious investigation instead of pious exercise. Lest I wonder after my risen Saviour instead of adoring Him. Which God for His gracious sake forbid !

4. And they worshipped the dragon which gave power unto the beast: and they worshipped the beast, saying, Who is like unto the beast? who is able to make war with him?

Once more a point of distorted, degraded resemblance. "Who is like unto the beast?" as it were the "Michael" of besotted blasphemy.

"And they worshipped. . . ."-This impious worship seems to be worship without any reference to goodness. World and devil worship paid by flesh: curiosity and comparative weakness worshipping unexplained power. "Who is able to make war with him? In a like spirit spoke Goliath when "he stood and cried unto the armies of Israel, and said unto them, Why are ye come out to set your battle in array? am not I a Philistine, and ye servants to Saul? choose you a man for you, and let him come down to me. If he be able to fight with me, and to kill me, then will we be your servants: but if I prevail against him, and kill him, then shall ye be our servants, and serve us. And the Philistine said, I defy the armies of Israel this day; give me a man, that we may fight together."

"Who is able . . . ?" "Yea, if God will, things which are not are able to bring to nought things which are. Loving fear befits the creature toward the Creator: craven fear befits

Ponder Isaiah's Divine

not the creature toward the creature. message: "I, even I, am He that comforteth you: who art thou, that thou shouldest be afraid of a man that shall die, and of the son of man which shall be made as grass; and forgettest the Lord thy Maker, that hath stretched forth the heavens, and laid the foundations of the earth; and hast feared continually every day because of the fury of the oppressor, as if he were ready to destroy? and where is the fury of the oppressor?" Ponder Daniel's prophecy interpreted touching Antiochus Epiphanes, that Antichrist of the elder dispensation : "And in the latter time of their kingdom, when the transgressors are come to the full, a king of fierce countenance, and understanding dark sentences, shall stand up. And his power shall be mighty, but not by his own power and he shall destroy wonderfully, and shall prosper, and practise, and shall destroy the mighty and the holy people. And through his policy also he shall cause craft to prosper in his hand; and he shall magnify himself in his heart, and by peace shall destroy many: he shall also stand up against the Prince of princes; but he shall be broken without hand."

5. And there was given unto him a mouth speaking great things and blasphemies; and power was given unto him to continue forty and two months.

Turning for a moment from the ultra-human element in these appalling revelations, I consider the parallel case of a human "excessive sinner": his primary gifts, like all gifts, are from God. His mouth might speak truly great things, even the Divine praises. With his power he might like Jacob prevail to work wonders by prayer. His prefixed period he might so use as to extend it into the long life for ever and ever. To deny this would be to deny his free will, and so his accountability. To admit it shows me that every degree of sin is a step in that direction where this one of whom we now are reading occupies an advanced station.

"Hazael said, But what, is thy servant a dog, that he should do this great thing?" Nevertheless on the morrow" he

took the first step.

O Lord Jesus, Who knowest the number of our sins that they are more in number than the hairs of our head, give us grace henceforward to walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise, redeeming the time because the days are evil.

"Forty and two months."-The former period, the same suggestion. If the periods be successive, how long-drawn is