"Unto him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood,"
describes the great atonement work of Jesus Christ, by which we are
cleansed from all sin and made a royal, kingly priesthood unto God even
in this world. Every soul that has received the blessed experience John
here describes will be able to appreciate the unbounded rapture the
beloved apostle felt in the contemplation of this wonderful theme of
redemption that caused him to ascribe to God, its author, "glory and
dominion forever and ever."

This Jesus is he who will come again, not in humiliation and suffering,
but in glory and honor; not as a Lamb to shed his blood for the sins of
the world, but as the Lion of the tribe of Juda, with infinite power and
majesty, causing all the kindreds of earth to wail because of him. The
blasphemous Jews, who clamored for his crucifixion; Pilate, who
delivered him up; and the Roman soldiery, who drove the nails and
pierced his side, producing a death of greatest ignominy--all will see
him when he comes. But while the proud enemies of God and the cruel
oppressors of his saints are overwhelmed with terror at the sight of His
person, the saints of all ages will shout for joy, saying, "Even so.
Amen." "The judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether." In
the face of this awful truth, how dare men assert that the second advent
will usher in a thousand years of peace and tranquility, during which
time the wicked will lie in their graves, when God's word declares that
_every eye_ shall see him when he comes?

The present description of Christ closes with the statement that he is
the Alpha and the Omega, which, being the first and last letters of the
Greek alphabet, mean the same as "the beginning and the ending"; while
the whole concludes with the statement that he is the one "which is, and