It will be recognized that throughout this chapter the glory and the power that pertain to

the Son of man is in virtue of His resurrection. He is the first begotten from the dead--

behold, He is alive unto the ages of the ages. He it is Who looses from sins. He also it is

that has the keys of hades and of death.

The effect upon the tribes of the land when they see Him whom they pierced is

mourning; the effect upon John, who is called the disciple whom Jesus loved, the disciple

who seemed to have had the closest intimacy with his Lord in the days of His

humiliation, the effect upon him is even greater, he fell at His feet as dead.

When Job, who had heard of the Lord by the hearing of the ear, saw Him, he said, "I

am vile," and abhorred himself. When Isaiah could say, "mine eyes have seen the King,"

he was forced to say, "I am a man of unclean lips." Daniel, as we have seen, tells us that

his comeliness turned into corruption and he retained no strength; and John, who had

leaned on his Master's bosom, who had taken the Saviour's mother under his protection,

he fell at His feet as dead.

All the loud boastings of the men of this world, all the creature-glorifying that

constitutes so great a bulk in the travesties of truth that are spreading over the earth, all

these pretensions vanish as a summer cloud when the creature stands before the risen

glory of Him Who was, and is, and is to come. Though we see Him not with our eyes,

this is His high position now. To us He never can be "Jesus"; He is our Lord.

The right hand which held the seven stars was laid upon John, and the first words of

the Son of man are heard saying, "Fear not; I am the first and the last." The first time that

the Lord said the words, "Fear not," is in Luke 8: 50. The messenger from the house

of Jairus came and said, "Thy daughter is dead, trouble not the Master." But He Who,

though found in fashion as a man, was to overcome death itself said, "Fear not," and

taking the girl by the hand said, "Maid arise." While we do not wish to imply any

connection between this first and last utterance of the words, "Fear not" with the glorious

title that immediately follows, it is significant that in both cases we find the Lord

exercising His authority over death. The connection between the title, "The first and the

last" and resurrection is noticeable in 2: 8, "These things saith the first and the last,

which was dead and is alive." The original of Rev. 1: 17 is more emphatic than in the

A.V. The risen Lord does not merely say, "I am the first and the last," but, I I am the first

and the last. Isaiah 41: 4 uses this title in connection with God's purpose in Israel,

saying, "Calling the generations from the beginning, I the Lord, the first, and with the

last." He who called the generations from the beginning, the generations before the call

of Abraham, as well as the special generation of the line of the promise through

Abraham, He will be also "with the last" when He gathers Israel and blesses the Gentiles.

Notice in the context a reference to the making of idols. In 44: 6 we find the title

again, "thus saith the Lord, the King of Israel, and His redeemer the Lord of hosts, I am

the first and I am the last, and beside Me there is no God." Note again how verse 9

renews the reference to the making of idols. We meet the title once more in

Isa. 48: 11, 12, "I will not give my glory unto another. Hearken unto Me O Jacob and