The Revelation of Jesus Christ - The Herald

Nevertheless, we can well understand that it is the blessing of experience that is designed,
and that every painstaking effort is strengthening character, and bringing us into fuller
sympathy with our Lord; and that He, when He inspects His Church, will take pleasure in
even our imperfect results, if they give evidence that we have bestowed effort, because
desirous of bringing all into conformity with His will; and He will accept of our imperfect
work as though it were perfect, and in the resurrection He will grant us ideal bodies with
ideal powers and the ideal character embroidered perfectly upon the new robe, which will
be ours through His grace.
"And even here, the great company, the foolish virgins, not worthy to be the Bride, and
hence rejected from that place of the 'elect,' are nevertheless pictured, in verses 14 and 15--
'The virgins her [the Queen's] companions that follow her shall be brought to thee; with
gladness and rejoicing shall they be brought [even though it be through great tribulation
they shall ultimately shout Hosanna!]; they shall enter into the King's
palace."
Another difference between these two classes is . . .
". . . distinctly shown in Rev. 7. The little flock--144,000, the spiritual Israelites--represent
the faithful members of the Body of Christ glorified; the other, a great multitude whose
number was not fixed or predestinated by the Lord, which will come through tribulation
and receive palm branches as servants before the throne, rather than crowns as
overcomers in the throne."
As an aid to our understanding of the visions that follow, we here summarize our
conclusions regarding the opening of the seven-sealed scroll, in the following manner:
1. We have seen the Lord Jesus, the only one found worthy, given power by the Eternal
One to open the seven-sealed scroll. Up to this point of our studies, six seals have been
broken by Him, the seventh yet remains. The breaking of the six seals was, to the Lamb, a
revelation of the future history of His followers, embracing the whole Gospel Age. The
particular time that this knowledge was given Him was after His resurrection, before His
ascension, when all power in heaven and in earth was committed to Him.
2. To St. John, who was a spectator of the Divine drama, it meant simply to see the
symbolic transactions themselves.
3. To the followers of Christ at this time it signifies that they have the privilege of seeing
that the actors and events which the symbols foreshadow, have been graven very
distinctly on the pages of history, and only a small measure now awaits fulfillment.
"And when [we read next] the Lamb opened the seventh seal," the complete scroll of
Jehovah's purposes was made known to Christ. This must have taken place before His
ascension. It is at this time that the words, "There was silence in heaven about the space of
half an hour," had its fulfillment. It began at Christ's ascension to heaven. This symbolic