The Revelation of Jesus Christ - The Herald

Range wide o'er all the pastures. Arm of God
Why longer sleepest thou?"
In his poem on Paradise he refers to the Apostle John as
. . . . . . "The seer
That ere he died saw all the grievous times
Of the fair bride, who with the lance and nails
Was won."
"You will observe [says Mr. Guinness] that these beautiful and touching words recognize
the Historical interpretation of the Apocalypse. The Apostle John according to Dante 'saw
all the grievous times' through which the Church was destined to pass. And what Dante
saw, the Albigenses saw and the Waldenses. What wonder was there in this? Would not
the wonder have been had the saints remained blind to a fulfillment of prophecy so plain
and palpable that even the world recognized it."
The poet Milton, born of godly parents in 1608, also understood these wonderful visions of
St. John regarding Papacy. In one of his poems he thus describes these terribly momentous
times of suffering for the Little Flock of Christ's followers:
"Avenge O Lord Thy slaughtered saints whose bones
Lie scattered on the Alpine mountains cold;
Even those who kept Thy truth so pure of old;
When all our fathers worshipped stocks and stones
Forget not; in Thy book record their groans,
Who were Thy sheep and in their ancient fold
Slain by bloody soldiery, that rolled
Mother and infant down the rocks;
There mourns the vales redoubled to the hills and they
To heaven, their martyred blood and ashes sow.
O'er all the Italian fields where still doth sway
The triple tyrant, that from these may grow
Abundant fold, who having learned Thy way
Early may fly the Babylonian woe."
Lying dead in the street of the city
"And their dead bodies shall lie in the street of the great city, which spiritually is called
Sodom and Egypt, where also our Lord was crucified."--Verse 8.
From what we observe foregoing we are prepared to understand that the symbol of the
witnesses lying dead in the street of the great city, means simply that the testimony of the
Scriptures which had been given by Christ's true followers was silenced--the Word of God
had none to publicly witness to its teaching; the little companies of consecrated ones were
scattered. As the Historian Milner expresses it, the confessors of Christ "worn out by a