PRACTICAL EXPOSITION, ETC. LECTURE I. REVELATION i. 3. BLESSED IS HE THAT READETH, AND THEY THAT HEAR, THE WORDS OF THIS PROPHECY, AND KEEP THOSE THINGS WHICH ARE WRITTEN THEREIN. THE astonishing book from which these words are taken, and to the contents of which they so remarkably refer, is undoubtedly less known, and less read, and less valued by the generality of Christians, than any other portion of the canon of Scripture. It is viewed by unthinking persons as a mere collection of unintel B ligible visions, in which they can have no possible concern, and which, if they peruse at all, it is rather from a sort of undefinable pleasure, imparted by the gorgeous descriptions, and the dim, though terrific shadowings, of those things which pass within the veil, than from any very serious expectation of deriving permanent and spiritual improvement. It is remarkable then, and as if with the intention of guarding us against that frame of mind in which, as the foreknowledge of God was perfectly aware, we should be tempted to view this revelation of his will, that we have the direct assertion of the text, "Blessed is he that readeth, and they that hear, the words of this prophecy;" and it is still more remarkable, that this is the only book in the canon of Scripture, and these the only prophecies, to the perusal of which so high an honor is attached, so peculiar a promise vouch safed. It is, however, but justice to confess, that very plausible excuses for the total neglect of this mysterious book have been furnished, by the injudicious and intemperate efforts of many of its commentators, who forgetting that prophecy was not intended to make men prophets, have brought the study of it into disrepute, by the repeated failures of their own unwarranted predictions. We cannot, however, regret the less, on that account, that those portions of the prophecy which are plain and obvious should be consigned to absolute neglect; and because much has been misinterpreted, and much is incapable, at present, of interpretation, that the whole of this invaluable record of divine truth should be suffered to lie disregarded and unread. For however great may be the difficulties attached to the more advanced portions of the prophecy, the contents of the second and third chapters, containing the seven epistles to the seven |