THE INTERVAL BETWEEN THE "SEVEN PERSONAGES" AND THE "SEVEN VIALS."

1. THE LAMB ON MOUNT ZION.

Rev. 14:1-5.

"And I looked, and, lo, a LAMB stood on MOUNT ZION, and with Him a Hundred Forty and Four Thousand, having His Father's name written in their foreheads. 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. These are they which were not defiled with women: for they are virgins. These are they which follow the Lamb whithersoever He goeth. These p. 131 were redeemed from among men, being the first fruits unto God and to the Lamb. And in their mouth was found no guile: for they are without fault before the Throne of God."

The Lamb here is Christ, and the Mount Zion is not Mount Zion of the earthly Jerusalem but of the Heavenly of which Paul speaks in Heb. 12:22-23. "But ye are come unto Mount Zion, and unto the city of the living God, 'THE HEAVENLY JERUSALEM,' and to an innumerable company of angels, to the General Assembly and Church of the 'First Born' (New Born), which are written in Heaven, and to God the Judge of all, and to the spirits of just (justified) men made perfect."

The 144,000 standing with the Lamb on Mount Zion, are the 144,000 "SEALED ONES," 12,000 from each Tribe of Israel, of chapter 7:3-8. There we are told they were sealed, here we are told why. In chapter seven we are told they were sealed in their foreheads, here we are told that that sealing was the writing on their foreheads of the name of the Lamb (R. V.) and of the Lamb's Father. As John looked at the Lamb and the 144,000 "Sealed Ones" who stood with Him, he heard a voice from Heaven, as the "voice of many waters," and as the voice of a "great thunder," which identifies the Speaker with the one who spoke from the midst of the "Lamp-Stands" of chapter 1:10, 15, or the Lamb Himself.

What the "voice" said is not told us, but it was followed with the voice or singing of "Harpers" accompanied by their harps. These "Harpers" sung a "NEW SONG" before the Throne, and the "Four Living Creatures," and the "Elders." As the "Elders" represent the Church, these "Harpers" are not the Church, for they sing before the "Elders." Who these "Harpers" are we are told in chapter 15:2-4. They are those who stand on the "Sea of Glass" before the Throne. Rev. 4:6. The "New Song" they sing is a "double song," the "SONG OF MOSES" and the "SONG OF THE LAMB," and we are told that no man could learn the Song but the 144,000 who were redeemed from the earth. This is further evidence that the 144,000 "Sealed Ones" are in Heaven, either having been translated or died a Martyr's death, and from Rev. 14:4 we learn that they are the "FIRST-FRUITS" of the restored nation of Israel, not the "First-Fruits" of the Church, for that is represented by the "Elders," and was gathered out long before.

These 144,000 "Sealed Ones" are called "VIRGINS"; and the fact that they are spoken of as not having been "defiled with women," shows that they are either all men of the character of the Apostle Paul, who did not marry, or, as is most likely, and as the word translated "virgins" means persons of either sex, they are "virgins" in the sense that they kept themselves clean of the crowning sin of that day--FORNICATION, for the crowning sin of the Tribulation Period will be fornication (Rev. 9:21; 14:8), or looseness and laxity of the marriage tie, of which "free-love," and the doctrine of "affinities," and multiplied divorce in these days are but the opening wedge to the looseness of morals of those Anti-Christian times. The 144,000 "Sealed Ones" will be especially delivered from this sin, and so they, and they only, as a special class, can sing this "New Song" of redemption,

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not so much by the Blood, as from the sin of fornication. The teaching of "seducing spirits" mentioned in 1. Tim. 4:1-3, as belonging to those Anti-Christian times, of "forbidding to marry and commanding to abstain from meats," has a deeper significance than that of the practice of the Church of Rome that requires the celibacy of the priesthood and clergy, and fasting of the laity. Such teaching comes from the "Pit," and belongs to Antichrist's religion, and its purpose is to weaken the body by fasting and make it more susceptible to the influence of evil angels and demons, and to cause it to gratify the desires of the flesh in other ways than by lawful means. These "Sealed Ones" are a chosen class who follow the Lamb whithersoever He goeth, and they are without fault before the Throne of God.