The sun., 1883-09-30

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is the SEQUEL and crown Of this strange litera-
ture which forms tho peculiar glory OF Israel
Its author is the last great Prophet; he Ia only
| inferior to his predecessors In that he copies
| them; the soul. the mind is the same. The
| Apocalypse presents the nearly unique
phenomenon OF q patchwork Of genius. an
| original cento. II we except two or three con-
| ceptions wrought out by tho author. and OF n
marvellous beauty, the whole OF the poem
is mad" up Of scraps borrowed from
the anterior. prophetic. and apocalyptic
literature. especially from Ezekiel. from
tho author OF the Book Of Daniel
| and from the two 1saiahs. The Christian seer
is the veritabe pupil OF those great men. He
| knows their writings by heart; draws out OF
| them their fullest meaning. He is the brother.
| save that he lacks the serenity and harmony. of
| that marvellous poet of the time OF the Cap
| tivity. Of that second Isaiah whose luminous
spirit seems imrregnated six centuries in ad-
vance. with all the gentle dews and all the per-
| fumes Of the future. A mischcvous
feature of tho Book of Revelation was its SOM
bre hatred cf the profane world. which is COM
mon to our author and to all the composers of
| apocalyptic writings. particularly to the author
| Of the book OF Enoch Its harshness. its pas
sionate and unjust judgments on Roman So
ciety shock us. and Justify to some extent
those who with Tacitus summed up
| the new doctrine in odi,pn iuu,ani 0ene'is. The
| virtuous poor man is invariably somewhat dis
| posed TO regard tho world about which he
| knows nothing rs more wicked than this
| world Is in reality. Tho crimes OF rich men
| and courtiers are. to his ken. singuarly
magnifled. This kind of virtuous rage.
| which certain barbarans like the Nandals
| were to feel four centuries later, against civil
izntion. tho Jews of tho prophetic and apo
calyptic school experienced in the acutest
form. You detect in them survival Of the old
| spirit OF the nomads. whose ideal is the patri-
| archal life, profound aversion for great cities.
| which are looked upon as moral cesspools. an
ardent jealousy OF powerful States. founded
on military principle. Of which they were in
capable. ortc which they were invincibly ayerse.
| 1t is this which has made Revelation dan
| gerous book from many points Of view. 1t is
| par excellence. the book OF Jewish pride. Ac-
| cording to the author. the distinction between
| Jews and ragans shall be perpetuatei even in
| the kingdom of God. While the Twelve Tribes
| arc to eat OF tho fruits of the tree of life the
dentlles must content themselves with me-
dicinal decoction from its leaves The author
regards the Gentiles. even the believers In
Jesus. even tho martyrs for Jesus. as children
| OF adoption. as strangers introduced into tho
family OF Israel, as plebeians suffered out of
| taVor to approach an aristocracy. His Messiah
| Is essentially the Jewish Messiah: for him
| Jesus is before all things the son Of David an
outgrowth of tho Church OF Israel a member
| OF the holy family that God has set
apart; it is the Church of Israel
| that performs the work Of salvation
| by the hands Of this chosen ono who has issued
from her womb Every practice calculated to
establish bond between the pure race and tho
nagans such as eating ordinary food. or on
| terins into marriage under normal condtions)
appears to him an abomination. In his eyes,
pagans. viewed in the mass. are wretched crea-
| lures polluted with every crime and only to
| be ruled by terror The real world is the realm
OF demons. Pauls disciples are the disciples
| oil Balaam and Jezebel Paul himself has no
plnco among the twelve apostles of the Lamb
| who form the sole basis Of the Church Of God {;
| and the Church at Ephesus Paui's creation is
praised for having put to the test them that
| call themselves apostles without being So
| and for having detected that they are but
| false witnesses.
| All this is very far away from the Gospel of
Jesus. The author is too impassioned: he see,
everything. SO to speak. with the blood-n-
| Iected eyes of apoplcXy. or through the lurid
| glare OF confaSration. What was most lu-
gubrious at Paris on May 25 1871. was not the
| lames; twas the pervading color of the city
| when you looked upon it from an cevation-a
| sickly laundiced hue. Il sort of livid palor.
| Such Is the nature Of the light with which our
| author tints his vision. Nothing is more un-
like the pure sunlight Of Galilce. You feel in
stinetivcy that the apocalyutic kind of writing
will no more than the epistolary kind prove To be
the form Of literature that will convert the
world 1t is the little handbook of sentences
| anu parallels that amateurs of exact tradition
| would dlSdun. 1t is the aids to the
| memory. whereby the least educated and
| the least well informed set down for their
personal help what they know about the acts
| ana the words of Jesus that are destined to be-
come the study and tho delight of the future
| Evidently. the simple setting of the anecdotical
lifo OF Jesus was better fitted to cnchant the
world than the laborious compilation of SYM
bols in the Book OF Revelation. or even than the
touching exhortations of the apostolic letters.
| 80 truo 1t Is that jesus. and Jesus only. played
In tho mysterious work of the Christian up
| springing from first to last the great the tri-
umphant. the decisive part Every book every
Christian institution is precious Just in proper
ton 10 what 1t contains of Jesus. Tho synoptic
Gospel. wherein Jesus is all in all. and Of which
| we may affirm in one sense that he Is the veri-
table author will be par excellence the Chris.
| tian book-the book eternal.
Nevertheless the Revelation occupies in the
sacred canon place that is. on many grounds
| legitimate. BOOK OF terror and of menace. the
Apocalypse gave incarnation 10 the sombre an
! titllesis which the Christian conscience, moved
| by Il profound aesthetic impulse sought TO op-
| pose to Jesus. If the Gospel is the book of
Jesus. Revelation is the book of Nero. Thanks
to The Apocalypse. Nero has for Christianity
! the Importance of n second founder. His odi-
| Gus vlsage has been inseparable from the face
OF Jesus. Huger grown from ago to age the
monster sprung from the nightmare of the
year I'll. has become the fearful incubus OF the
christian conscience. tho sombre giant Of tho
evening Of tho world. To this day in Armenian
the name OF the Antechrst is Neren. In the
seventeenth century folio of $50 pages was
composed upon his birth and education. his
wees and his wishes. his trinkets his per-
fumes ana his Women. his teachings. his mir.
acles, and his iunketinGs.
The Antechrst has ceased to frghton US.
and Malvenda's book has no longer many
,, readers, We know that tho end of tho world
is not so near as the iH'n"iuaH of the first
century supnosed II. and that this end will not