Magog (2) that his confinement prevents him from de­ceiving those nations: (3) that the deception which by his imprisonment or the restraint that is put upon him prevents him from realizing what would otherwise cause these nations to gather for battle against "the camp of the saints and the beloved City." Of Gog and Magog we read in Ezek. 32:2ff, and 39:1-16. There Gog is the prince of Rosh, Meshech and Tubal of the land of Magog. They constitute a vast horde that descend upon Israel from the North, even from the limits of the horizon, to make a final onslaught on the people of God. But hailstones, fire and brimstone from heaven cause their utter destruction. In the passage before us from Rev. 20 these same hordes are simply called Gog and Magog, and now they are described as living on the four corners of the earth and as coming upon the camp of the saints from every direction. Israel is here to be taken, in harmony with all Scripture, in the New Testament sense of the word: the vision of the restored Israel of which Ezek. 38, 39 speaks, has been realized in the Church of the new dispensation. It is "the camp of the saints" and it is "the beloved city". That is, Christianity in its widest sense, as it exists and develops in the new dispensation, corresponds to the nation of Israel in the Old Testament. It is represented in the text as being situated in the center of the earth. Around it, on the four corners of the earth, that is, outside of the pale of history, are nations that remain pagan. Although also from them the elect are gathered into the Church, as nations they remain distinctly heathen. Gog and Magog, there­fore, are heathen nations in' distinction from nominal Christendom.

With respect to these heathen nations as such, then, the passage we are discussing teaches that the Devil is bound in such a way, that he cannot marshall them to battle against the Christian nation's. He may, in the very period of his restraint, do many things, both among the nominally Christian nations and the people that are called Gog and Magog; he may go about as a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour; but he is prevented from deceiving those nations so as to gather them for battle. And the period of this restraint is designated as a thou­sand years. Again, it would be arbitrary to interpret this number in its literal sense. For, in the first place, all Scripture attaches a symbolical significance to num­bers as it also does to colors and dimensions. Numbers such as 1, 3, 4, 6, 7, 10 and 12, their combinations and products, represent certain realities of the Kingdom of God. The earthly relations are also in their numbers a picture of the heavenly and spiritual realities of God's covenant. That this is true is evident as soon as we call to mind that for instance our weekly period of time is a combination of 6 plus 1, labor and rest, time and the eternal sabbath, the completion of the Kingdom of God; that 7 in Scripture, and especially in the book of Revela­tion, occurs evidently as the combination of three and four, the Triune God and the world, the perfection of God's covenant; that the number 12, as the product of 3 and 4 is evidently the number of the elect, reason why there are 12 tribes, 12 apostles, 12 times 12 thousand servants of God that are sealed, 12 plus 12 elders around the throne of God and the Lamb. These numbers abound in Scripture and more emphatically in their symbolical significance in the book of Revelation. The whole book is based on the schemes of the number 7. There are seven seals to the book that is opened by the Lamb; the seventh seal dissolves itself into seven trumpets, and the seventh trumpet reveals itself as comprehending seven vials. There are seven golden candlesticks, even as the complete picture of the Church in the world is repre­sented by the seven Churches of Asia. But this is equally true of the number 10, and its products, especially in the thousands. The days of the tribulation of the Church of Smyrna are 10. The number of the servants of God that are sealed are 10 times 10 times 10 multiplied by 144. The number of those that appear on Mt. Zion with the Lamb, that have His Father's name written on their foreheads, is 1000 times 144 (ch. 14). The Antichristian beast appears with 10 horns. The length and breadth and height of the New Jerusalem are 12 times a thou­sand furlongs. In the light of all these facts, as well as in connection with the apocalyptic character of the book of Revelation in general, we are certainly justified in saying that it would be arbitrary to insist that the 1000 years of Rev. 20 must be understood in the literal sense of the word.

Now, the number itself suggests completeness, a ful­ness of measure; for 10 is itself a round number but is characterized by the same feature of completeness. And the instances in Scripture where the number 10 occurs suggests the same idea. There are ten plagues upon Egypt, the fulness of the measure of God's wrath;

ten commandments, the fulness of His ethical will con­cerning us, ten times ten times ten "one hundred and for­ty fours" or the fulness of the number of God's people according to the election. So there are ten virgins, ten talents and 10 days of tribulation for Smyrna's Church. So that the number evidently represents the idea of a complete measure of anything according to the will and counsel of the Most High. If we add to this that this number 10 in the third power, i.e., the number 1000 points to a great measure of the thing indicated; and that "years" rather than "days" suggests a long period, we conclude that the thousand years of Satan's confine­ment signify a long period, fully determined by the will and counsel of God, which must be fulfilled before the devil can be permitted to deceive the nations that live on the corners of the earth.

That the above interpretation is based on the text it­self, is fully justified by the character of the book of Revelation, and is in harmony with the line of Scripture in general, there is no doubt in my mind. And this in-

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