298 NOTES. 



Nor is it any valid objection that the subjects immediately 

 succeeding this contested passage (i. 10) were obviously con- 

 temporary witb the occasion. Surely no one expects, in a 

 production like this, the same rigid order and consecutive 

 dependence of occurrence, which is demanded in a literal 

 narrative. The '^ high argument" of this apocalyptic vision 

 is summed up by the prophet, in the concise declaration of the 

 proem, that he was present in spirit " in the Lord's day" {sv 

 Ttvsvfxati ev tri Kt-ptaa;»; vjfxspa) ', or, as the particle iv may be trans- 

 lated, ^' at the Lord's day." And hence, after the preliminary 

 exhortations to the seven churches (occupying the first three 

 chapters, and which are merely parenthetical), he commences 

 immediately with the epoch to which (sv Ttvtvixati) he was 

 carried. Nothing can be clearer than that the expression in 

 Rev. iv. 2 is at once the resumption and exemplification of 

 that in chap. i. 10. "I was Sn spirit' — at the Lord's Day, 

 and heard behind me a great voice as of a trumpet, saying I 

 am 'a' and ^O/ the first and the last : and what thou seest, 



write in a book, and send it unto the seven churches 



After this, I looked, and behold a door was opened in Heaven : 

 and the first voice which I heard, was as of a trumj^et talking 

 with me ; which said, Come up hither, and I will show thea 

 things which must be hereafter. And immediately I was ' in 

 spirit :' and behold a Throne was set in Heaven, and One sat 

 on the Throne.'' And then follows the great drama of "The 

 Lord's Day," — at which "in spirit" the transported writer 

 found himself. 



In view of all this, what must be thought of the prevalent 

 dogma — announced again, and again, — from pulpit, and from 

 pulpit, — with all the assurance of infallible inspiration, and 

 all the authority of clerical dictation, — that the prophet de- 

 signed to instruct us that he was in spirit — on Sunclay ! and 

 that, therefore, it is a heinous sin to work upon that day ! 



