seat.”  “All kindreds of the earth,” covering all the combinations of “Antichrist” during the definite period of twelve hundred and sixty years, “shall wail because of him,” (Rev. xiv. 10, 11.) Assured of the equity of Messiah’s judgment, the apostle, in the exercise of “like precious faith with all them that believe,” subjoins his hearty assent,—­“Even so, Amen:”  “So let all thine enemies perish, O Lord.”  Doubtless the design of the Holy Spirit in this verse is to furnish ground of encouragement to those who were to be engaged in the protracted conflict with the powers of darkness foreshadowed in the prophecy of this book.

8.  I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending, saith the Lord, which is, and which was, and which is to come, the Almighty.

Ver. 8.—­The same divine person, to whom the apostle directs the doxology in the 6th verse, is introduced in the 8th:  that is, the Lord Christ.  He claims eternity and omnipotence.  He describes himself here in the very words which in the 4th verse are descriptive of the eternal subsistence of the person of the Father.  “Alpha and Omega,” the first and last letters of the Greek alphabet, are explained in the words,—­“the beginning and the ending.”  This language is not to be understood as expressing or defining the duration of the Godhead only; but it points also to the divine purpose and providence.  To the same purpose speaks our Redeemer under the name of Wisdom:—­“The Lord (the Father) possessed me in the beginning (head, purpose) of his way, before his works of old.” (Prov. viii. 22.) In joint counsel with the Father, ere the wheels of time began to move, and being “almighty” to execute the purposes of God, he is perfectly qualified to act as the final Judge of the world.  And in the great and last day “every tongue must confess that he is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” (Phil. ii. 11.) “For to this end Christ both died, and rose, and revived, that he might be Lord both of the dead and living.” (Rom. xiv. 9.)—­“God is judge himself.” (Ps. 1. 6.)

9.  I John, who also am your brother, and companion in tribulation, and in the kingdom and patience of Jesus Christ, was in the isle that is called Patmos, for the word of God, and for the testimony of Jesus Christ.

Ver. 9.—­Again, the inspired writer addresses the Christians in Asia, acquainting them very briefly and simply with his present local situation; not so much to move their sympathy with him, as to express his unabated affection for them:—­“I am your brother, and companion in tribulation.”  Although the “like afflictions were accomplished in his brethren,” the Devil was permitted to “cast” only “some of them into prison.”  But it is remarkable that John utters not a word, much less manifests any resentment, against the persecutor.  He was “in the isle that is called Patmos:”—­but he does not say who sent him there.  Historians tell us that he was banished by Domitian, the Roman emperor; others say, by Nero; but the former is more probable.  This island is proverbially barren.  It is situated among a number of islands in the Aegean sea, a point of the Mediterranean running northward between Europe and Asia, and not very remote from most of the churches here addressed.