Francis John Bodfield Hooper
Published: 2015-06-04
Total Pages: 543
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Excerpt from The Revelation of Jesus Christ by John, Vol. 1 of 2 The Frontispiece ia intended to aerve the following pnrpoaeB. 1.To exhibit the structure of the Revelation at a glance. Inside the outer pointed hand are the two aymbolization Bof the Church of Christ;, as described ia Cs. i-iii, and Ce. xxi-xxii. At the top is the High Priest, holding in his hand the seven stars, and walking in the midst of the seven caodlesticks. At the bottom is the new Jerusalem, coming down ont of heaven towards the great and high mountain. As these two are symbols of the one Church at different epochs, they are connected together. Inside the inner band is the scene of judgment in heaven, as described ia Cs. iv-v, and resumed inC. xx;11-15. As these two passages relate to what is for substance one scene, ihb symbols above and below the roll are connected together by the myriads of myriads of angels (v;11). In the lower part of the Conrt of judgment, two departures from the symbolical description may be observed. The great white throne (xx;11) ia left out, and sheep and goats are introduced. The former has been omitted, partly because the space at command did not admit of its introduction, and partly because the throne in the upper part is substantially identical with it. The latter have been inserted from Matt, zxv; 33, as forming the best mode of symbolically representing the dead, the righteous and the unrighteous. In like manner, the cubical shape of the new Jerusalem has been sacrificed to pictorial effect; and in some respects one or two of the other symbols have been adapted to piotolial representation, and the space at command. In the middle of the scene of judgment, the opened roll with seven seals symholizes the evidence, which is brought before the Court In the four outer comers of the Frontispiece are symbolical representations of the heathen, which are without the Church in the four comers of the earth (xx;8). The four severally represent (T).B ahhaiiish, (Ii). Bdddhibm, (Iii). Varioos roRUS or Heathenism, and (Iv). Isuush. Viewing the three scenes, then, in the opposite direction to that, in which they have now been noticed, that within the inner band represeuts the Old Dispensation or Judaism, that within the outer band the New Dispensation or Christianity, and that on the outside Heathenism.2. The Frontispiece serves, also, to show the form and arrangerneTit of the seven-teal roll. Bands, wider or narrower as the occasion required, and beginning with the seventh, are. supposed to have been passed round two successive folds of the roll as it was rolled up, and the ends of each band to have been fastened together by a seal at the side. Then, as each successive seal was broken, the portion appertaining to that seal would become visible in the proper order. Each seal-band would cover, and thus distinguish the epoch or cardinal crisis of a seal; and those lying between two seal-periods would cover, and thus denote a shorter or longer transition period, 144102 , . About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.