The Revelation of Jesus Christ - The Herald

written in their foreheads. The partial fulfillment for some time past of the visions that
follow enables us to discern more fully the severe and trying experiences just ahead.
The symbol of having the name written in the forehead, we believe, pictures something
more definite, however, than the foregoing. While describing something that characterizes
all of the "elect" class throughout the Age, it seems to refer more especially to those who
live in the period when the image of the beast is fully developed and acting. It appears to
refer to some outward mark that will distinguish these from all others who profess the
name of Christ, something that will make them conspicuous, even to the world at large.
Mr. Lord has noted, and thus described this:
"To have the name of God and of the Lamb written on the forehead, is to be brought to a
public and decisive manifestation of allegiance to the Most High, and Him alone, as of title
to religious homage, and right to impose religious laws. . . . As the worshipers of the image
of the wild beast impress on themselves its mark and number, by entering the society of
that apostate hierarchy, submitting to its rites, offering its idolatrous worship and obeying
its sway; so the worshipers of God become impressed with His name and the name of the
Lamb, by refusing to join that idolatrous train and publicly asserting the sole right of God
to institute the laws of religion and receive a religious homage, paying to Him alone the
worship He demands, and placing in Christ exclusively the trust He requires as Redeemer.
. . . The distinguishing characteristic of the sealed, is a full and emphatic denial and
resistance of the assumed right of civil rulers and legalized hierarchies to legislate in the
place of God, make their will the ground of obligation and rule of faith and worship, and
treat a dissent from it as a crime against them, and against the Almighty."
"I heard the voice of harpers"
"And I heard a voice from heaven, as the voice of many waters, and as the voice of a great
thunder: and I heard the voice of harpers harping with their harps. And they sung as it
were a new song before the throne, and before the four beasts, and the elders: and no man
could learn that song but the hundred and forty and four thousand, which were redeemed
from the earth."--Ver. 2,3.
The first thing necessary to note before seeking to discover the symbolic meaning of the
"voice from heaven," and the "song" that is represented as being sung before the throne,
etc., is that it must begin to meet its fulfillment in the period beginning with Christ's
assumption and exercise of power in the resurrection of the "elect" class, who had "slept"
up to that time, and ending with the time when the last living one of the "elect" class is
changed and has become united with Him. We would conclude therefore, in harmony
with the prevailing belief amongst many of the Lord's people, that we have for some time
been living in this period; that this vision must have been in process of fulfillment for
some years past.
Coming to the significance of the vision we note that there are but two principal symbols
to explain in the above words--the "voice from heaven," and the "song" that was being
learned and sung.