Vs. 13-17.--"One of the elders" asks John,--not for information, but to
engage his attention,--"What are these, ... and whence came they?"
Ministers may often receive instruction from the members of the church.
This elder answers his own questions as the angel did to the prophet,
(Zech. iv. 5, 6.) These are the "great multitude,"--probably the same
whose "souls" John saw at the opening of the fifth seal, but now
appearing in a new aspect: for it is evident that they had been engaged
in war. This appears by the "palms" of victory. They had been in "great
tribulation" prior to the peaceful reign of Constantine, by Satan's
temptations, the spoiling of their goods, imprisonment of their persons,
and the sacrifice of their lives,--"not loving their lives unto the
death." All these tribulations, however, could not separate them from
the love of God. (Rom. viii. 37-39.) They had "washed their robes,"--not
in penitential tears, their own martyr-blood, their doing or suffering
in the cause of Christ; but their robes were "made white in the blood of
the Lamb," who was "made of God unto them ... justification and
sanctification." (1 Cor. i. 30.) Could the human mind conceive the idea
of rendering linen garments _white_ by washing them in _blood_? Never,
unless as suggested by the doctrine of Christ crucified, whose "blood
cleanseth from all sin." (1 John i. 7.) "Therefore are they before the
throne of God,--without fault before his throne," (ch. xiv. 5.)
Delivered from the tempestuous storms of war, and the scorching heat of
persecution; they are safe in the haven of eternal rest.

Not only are they for ever freed from the sensation of "hunger or
thirst;" but they shall drink of the "living fountains of waters,
proceeding from the throne of God and of the Lamb," (ch. xxii. 1). "In
thy presence is fulness of joy; at thy right hand there are pleasures
for evermore." (Ps. xvi. 11.) While this company, brought out of great