In this manner the dignity and the excellence in the use and the interpretation of symbols is preserved.  To describe the religious history of the church, noble symbols chosen from the department of human life are selected; while symbols drawn from an inferior department—­that of nature—­are chosen to represent political affairs.  This point will appear very clear as we proceed in the interpretation of the Apocalypse.  It is just what we might naturally expect.

The question may be asked, If these symbols from nature represent political affairs, where in the events of civil history shall we look for their fulfilment?  Every one will readily perceive the analogy between an earthquake and a political revolution, when all society is in a state of agitation as when the solid earth trembles.  It is also evident that the sun, moon, and stars bear the same analagous relationship to the earth that kings, rulers, and princes do to the body politic; while the firmament of heaven is analagous to the entire fabric of civil government, the symbolic heaven in which the symbolic orbs are set to give light.

The symbols, then, point us to the most terrible revolutions—­when society is in a state of agitation, when kingdoms are overthrown and their rulers and princes thrown from their positions or made objects of the most gloomy terror; yea, when the entire fabric of civil government is finally overthrown and all the institutions and organizations of society are swept away as with a tornado.  This is the time of consternation to the great men of earth, when they shall hide “themselves in the dens and in the rocks of the mountains,” and say to the mountains and rocks, “Fall on us and hide us from the face of him that sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb:  for the great day of his wrath is come; and who shall be able to stand?” This is the time that the martyrs looked forward to when they cried, “How long, O Lord, holy and true, dost thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth?” A large portion of the Apocalypse is occupied with the history of these persecuting powers, civil and ecclesiastical.  It is their dominacy that constitutes the long period of tribulation to the church, when the witnesses prophesy in sackcloth and the faithful are ground into the dust by the feet of these proud oppressors as they stand in the high places of the earth.  But the cries of the slaughtered saints have ascended to the throne as incense; God speaks; the judgments of Heaven descend upon these lofty ones; and a voice from heaven declares, “They have shed the blood of saints and prophets, and thou hast given them blood to drink; for they are worthy.”