Revelation 7:13-14 And one of the elders answered, saying to me, What are these which are arrayed in white robes? and from where came they?… I. THE PREVIOUS CONDITION OF THE PERSONS HERE PRESENTED TO JOHN'S NOTICE. One unacquainted with God's ways, or with the history of our race, would have been, perhaps, ready to conclude that, in their journey hither, their path had been strewed with flowers and gladdened with perpetual sunshine. This we ourselves would be apt to desire. But the ways of God are not as our ways, nor His thoughts as our thoughts. The zeal of saints for the truth of God; their opposition to the sinful practices which abounded around them; their diligence in the cultivation of holy affections; and their zeal in the discharge of private and public duties — all standing forth in marked contrast with the maxims and customs of a world lying in wickedness — have ever exposed them to innumerable trials, to reproaches, and sufferings. In addition to the causes of tribulation which we have now specified as the peculiar lot of the Christian, I mention farther the remains of sin within him. II. THE MEANS BY WHICH THEY HAVE ATTAINED THEIR PRESENT STATE. III. THIS BLESSEDNESS OF WHICH THESE SAINTS ARE REPRESENTED AS PARTAKERS. (James Clayson.) Parallel Verses KJV: And one of the elders answered, saying unto me, What are these which are arrayed in white robes? and whence came they? |
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