ONE of the most intelligible, yet glorious passages of
this book, one that requires commentary less than any
other, is this, which relates to the countless hosts of the
blessed before the throne, to their glorious apparel, and
their songs of praise. The Christian Church has always
appropriated this lofty strain to its most sacred uses. As
in chap. iv. 10 we saw the crowned elders cast their crowns
of gold down before the throne, so here the great multitude
of the saved and redeemed ascribed their salvation,
their redemption out of great tribulation, to God and
to the Lamb.
It is true that all the angels cannot praise and thank
God in quite the same way as this, but they, too, after
their manner, do thank and praise him with us and for us,
do take delight in and return thanks for our blessedness here,
as before, in chap. v. 11, 12. There they worship the Lamb;
here, on the other hand, we read God, our God. But both
are one ; the worship and its objects are essentially the
same. Still, that we may not imagine the fulness of celestial
liturgies to be adequately represented by an unvarying
formula, we here find some differences in the order of
the sevenfold ascription of praise. Tn the fifth chapter,
the hymn concluded with "honour, and glory, and blessing
;" here it begins with "blessing and glory." Wisdom,
power, and might we have in both, but here honour precedes
power and might. And here, too (instead of riches),
we have a new word of praise in the middle of the sentence,
thanksgiving precedes honour. Also the solemn" Amen "
of the four living creatures in chap. v. is here
spoken by all the angels, and the elders as well ; and it is
also doubled, used at the beginning, as well as at the close
of the doxology, or in all probability, according to the
most correct reading of the original, at the beginning only,
thus leaving the strongest emphasis to dwell on the closing
words, '"for ever and ever. "
