which the saints only “are killed all the day long.”  History records that insurrections, battles, massacres and devastations of an extraordinary kind took place in the first half of the second century, by which more than half a million of the Jews perished by the hand of the pagans; and a still greater number on the opposite side were slain by the Jews.  Thus the two parties who rivalled each other in opposing the gospel and the progress of Christ’s kingdom, were made by him the instruments of their mutual destruction.  For he it is who directs the movements and course of providence, the “red horse.”  “Behold what desolations he hath made in the earth!” “In this text,” says an eminent expositor, “earth signifies the Roman empire.” ...  “Daniel, ... whose sealed prophecy is explained by the opening of the Apocalyptical seals, denominates the Roman empire, ’the fourth kingdom upon earth.’” We humbly suggest, that this does not render the Roman empire synonymous with earth, any more than the Chaldean, Persian, or Grecian.  And indeed the monarchs of those empires put forth as extensive claims to universal empire as ever the Cesars did.  The word earth is to be interpreted always by the context.  Like the term world, it may sometimes signify the Roman empire, as Luke ii. 1.  But in other cases even within the compass of the Apocalypse, it is not to be so understood without manifest confusion, as in ch. xvi. 1, 2.  The contents of all the vials are there said to be poured out upon the earth; but earth is afterwards the special object of the first only.  It follows that this term cannot be uniformly and safely in this book interpreted as identical with and limited by the Roman empire.  The importance of accuracy here may become more apparent in our future progress.

5.  And when he had opened the third seal, I heard the third beast say, Come and see.  And I beheld, and, lo, a black horse; and he that sat on him had a pair of balances in his hand.

6.  And I heard a voice in the midst of the four beasts say, A measure of wheat for a penny, and three measures of barley for a penny; and see thou hurt not the oil and the wine.

Vs. 4-6.—­The third of the four “animals” calls attention to the disclosures made by breaking the “third seal.”  Hie “had a face as a man,” (ch. iv. 7,) indicating, as already said, active sympathy, affectionate counsel and seasonable exhortation in calamitous times.  Christian ministers need “the tongue of the learned to speak a word in season to him that is weary,” when the judgments of God are abroad in the earth; for some of these press, most sensibly, on the poor.  Such is the character of the dispensation symbolized by the “black horse.”  Scarcity of bread is the judgment represented here by the combined symbols.  “Our skin was black like an oven, because of the terrible famine.” (Lam. v. 10; Zech. vi. 2.)—­The rider “had a pair of balances in his hand.”  The word translated