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Worship him. Revealed religion restores true worship to the world, directs to the right object, and opens the only way for sinners to the mercy seat. It is
with peculiar propriety the prophecy mentions, that the worship taught by the Gospel is the worship of the Creator, who made heaven and earth, and the sea
and the Fountains of waters. [Acts xiv. 15 - xvii. 24.]
It inculcates this great truth, that revealed religion adopts, confirms, and enjoins the religion of nature; that God, who is related to us as Creator,
has revealed himself also in the new and adorable relation of Redeemer; that sinners, therefore, who come to the Savior, come to him who
made them; in worshipping their Redeemer they worship their Creator. Thy Maker is thy husband.
This meets the objections of infidelity, and seems to point to prevailing principles at the time when the event foretold will be accomplished. The everlasting
Gospel which the angel proclaims demonstrates the religion of nature, however perfect in itself, to be inadequate for the salvation of those who have sinned.
It declares the Creator to be a Redeemer, and in this relation invites sinners to fear God, to give him glory, and worship him.
As a motive for preaching the Gospel, and an argument for its reception, the angel announces that the hour of God's Judgment is come. The term
judgment, in the Apocalypse, usually respects the decision of the controversy which has long subsisted between the world and Jesus Christ; but it is evident a
particular reference is here made to the judgment to be inflicted upon the nations chargeable with slaying the witnesses. The nations were angry, and thy wrath is
come, and the time of the dead that they should be judged; the time when the dead faints shall be remembered, and the blood of the martyrs, by terrible judgments,
be avenged. This is considered as the commencement of that awful decision, the beginning of that series of judgment, which will terminate the controversy
between the Redeemer and his adversaries. To this, in the first instance; the angel has respect. He calls
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with a loud voice - the hour of his judgment is come. Let the nations tremble; let the world adore; especially let the Churches hear! The beginning of this
judgment, the very hour of its commencement, is the signal for the angel's flight, and for extending the Redeemer's kingdom.
3. To whom is the Gospel to be sent? To whom is the angel commissioned to carry his treasure! Unto them that dwell on the earth, and to every nation, and
kindred, and tongue, and people. The term earth, when used figuratively in this book, is a symbol for the Roman Empire, including the whole extent of the papal
hierarchy. Commentators, who view it here as a symbol, understand the prophecy as only foretelling the promulgation of the Gospel in its purity,
throughout the bounds of that empire, as it is now divided into different nations, tongues and people. But the term has a literal meaning, and occurs here
in connexion with the alphabetical language; it must, therefore, be understood in its literal sense, indicating the whole globe which we inhabit, with all
the nations and people of the world. To these, however distant and dispersed, diversified in their situation, and differing in their manners and languages;
to all these the angel bends his course; to all these he is commissioned to preach the everlasting Gospel.
You have the meaning of the prophecy. What was suggested by the hieroglyphic, is illustrated and confirmed by the alphabetical language.
John saw in vision, that after a lapse of time, a singular movement would commence, not in a solitary corner, but in the very midst of the Churches -
That the Gospel, in its purity, would be sent to the most distant lands, and success crown the benevolent work. The ordinary exercise of the ministry, or the
feeble attempts which, at different times, might be made to propagate the Gospel, were not the object of this vision. It was something beyond the common
standard, which the apostle beheld with admiration
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