13.  And one of the elders answered, saying unto me, What are these which are arrayed in white robes? and whence came they?

14.  And I said unto him, Sir, thou knowest.  And he said to me, These are they which came out of great tribulation, and have washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.

15.  Therefore are they before the throne of God, and serve him day and night in his temple; and he that sitteth on the throne shall dwell among them.

16.  They shall hunger no more, neither thirst any more; neither shall the sun light on them, nor any heat.

17.  For the Lamb, which is in the midst of the throne, shall feed them, and shall lead them unto living fountains of waters; and God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes.

Vs. 13-17.—­“One of the elders” asks John,—­not for information, but to engage his attention,—­“What are these, ... and whence came they?” Ministers may often receive instruction from the members of the church.  This elder answers his own questions as the angel did to the prophet, (Zech. iv. 5, 6.) These are the “great multitude,”—­probably the same whose “souls” John saw at the opening of the fifth seal, but now appearing in a new aspect:  for it is evident that they had been engaged in war.  This appears by the “palms” of victory.  They had been in “great tribulation” prior to the peaceful reign of Constantine, by Satan’s temptations, the spoiling of their goods, imprisonment of their persons, and the sacrifice of their lives,—­“not loving their lives unto the death.”  All these tribulations, however, could not separate them from the love of God. (Rom. viii. 37-39.) They had “washed their robes,”—­not in penitential tears, their own martyr-blood, their doing or suffering in the cause of Christ; but their robes were “made white in the blood of the Lamb,” who was “made of God unto them ... justification and sanctification.” (1 Cor. i. 30.) Could the human mind conceive the idea of rendering linen garments white by washing them in blood?  Never, unless as suggested by the doctrine of Christ crucified, whose “blood cleanseth from all sin.” (1 John i. 7.) “Therefore are they before the throne of God,—­without fault before his throne,” (ch. xiv. 5.) Delivered from the tempestuous storms of war, and the scorching heat of persecution; they are safe in the haven of eternal rest.

Not only are they for ever freed from the sensation of “hunger or thirst;” but they shall drink of the “living fountains of waters, proceeding from the throne of God and of the Lamb,” (ch. xxii. 1).  “In thy presence is fulness of joy; at thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore.” (Ps. xvi. 11.) While this company, brought out of great tribulation, to which they had been subjected in the centuries before the time of Constantine, are represented as in possession of eternal blessedness, the other company of the “sealed” ones, are by this mark furnished with the gifts and graces of the Holy