Page:Darby - Notes on the Book of Revelations, 1839.djvu/50

 power in exercise; and such would be God’s account of the course of the empire then existing. If it be asked, What avails this to the saint? I answer, Everything:—to know that all passes under the eye and knowledge of God. This Lion, in whose mouth they were, had his days and ways all numbered and ordered of the Lord; and they were, indeed, in union with him who governed, though they might suffer with Him. The understanding of this place of patience, was, and to us is, of the very last importance.

In the fifth seal we have the estimate of those who had suffered during this period, graciously taken notice of, although it had been enough to have shewn all was ordered; but it comes out here that many had been killed. Their place is ordered. This was not the last persecution. The sixth seal has occasioned great difficulty. I admit the application of all this to an ulterior period, if “the things that are” are taken as the whole dispensation, which I recognise; but it is not the simplest interpretation, nor is the application always so minute, though true.

There was a great earthquake, and the ruling