Vs. 9-11.--At the opening of the fifth seal, none of the "four animals"
calls attention to its contents. This fact may indicate that no new
development of providence is intended, but rather the effects of the
preceding three, produced upon the church and saints of God; as the
sixth discloses the penalty inflicted on his and their enemies.

John saw the "souls of them that were slain."--Souls are visible only in
vision, (ch. xx. 4.) These souls were not slain, but they were the souls
of them, the persons, that were slain. (Matt. x. 28.) The enemy could
kill the body only, an essential part of the human person, although the
chief aim was to kill the soul. The ground of their suffering was the
same, as that of John, (ch. i. 9.) And from the first of this honoured
class,--Abel, mentioned in the Bible, to the last,--Antipas; the cause
is the same, and the distinguished name is the same. They are "martyrs
for the word of God, and for the testimony which they held." And however
tenaciously a person may hold other principles, even though he should
die for them, he is not a martyr. The aphorism is true,--It is not
suffering for religion, but "the _cause_ that makes the
martyr,"--suffering unto death from love to "the truth as it is in
Jesus."

These souls were "under the altar," in allusion still to the outward
means of grace under the Old Testament economy. It is not very material,
perhaps, whether we understand the altar for sacrifice or that for
incense, the comfortable doctrines, often taught in the Scriptures, are
here illustrated. _First_, That the redemption of the sinner is by the
atoning sacrifice of Christ. _Second_, That after death,--especially by
martyrdom, the soul is safe "under the altar,"--in fellowship with the
Saviour. _Third_, That the soul, "made perfect in holiness," retains a
deep conviction, that "vengeance belongs to God," (ch. xviii. 20; xix.