Page:Darby - Notes on the Book of Revelations, 1839.djvu/18

 word of God, the testimony of Jesus Christ, and visions; and there is blessing on the reader. It is addressed to the church in its full privilege; but the subject presented is governance, and order, and control, not Sonship with the Father. God would instruct his servants.

The blessings to the churches are conformable to this; from one who bears the character of Ancient of Days, who shall come—who was, and is, and is to come: and we see the Spirit, not as on earth, the Comforter (come down here, and, in the sons, looking up there), but in his various and manifold sufficiency and perfection, in the presence of the throne, and as afterwards sent in power into the earth—providential protection and power—and from the Lord: not as the Son, one with his Father (see John xiv. 20), so that we are with Him there through the union of the Spirit, but, seen as in human character, as a faithful witness, the first begotten from the dead, and the Prince of the kings of the earth: glorious in all this, but human.

Still the Church is put in full confidence here; for the praise to this blessed One is praise in which this word of the Spirit “us,” is ever found: and, seeing Him in the glory, she breaks out, by the Spirit in the Apostle, into thanksgiving, for His