Again, John, in his vision of the future glory of the Church, saw the Eternal Throne, and Jesus the Mighty Conqueror seated upon it; and heard voices chanting in angelic strains, "Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty, which was, and is, and is to come."
And four-and-twenty elders, clothed in white robes, with crowns of gold, fell prostrate before him, and worshipped him that liveth for ever and ever, saying, "Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory, and honor, and power: for thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created."
When Adam had ruined himself and his posterity by eating the forbidden fruit, Jehovah, in his infinite love, gave him the promise of a MESSIAH, in the words addressed to the serpent: "I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel."
As we trace along the stream of time, we see this faint promise oft renewed, brightening with every repetition.
When Jehovah had destroyed the world by a flood, on account of its wickedness, preserving only the family of Noah to repeople it, and had scattered the builders of Babel, confounding their language, he said to faithful Abram: "Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father's house, unto a land that I will show thee: and I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing: and I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee; and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed."
Jacob, on his way to Padan-Aram, slept, and saw in the night-visions, a ladder, with its foot upon the earth, and its top reaching to heaven, and lo! angels were ascending and descending upon it. And he heard the voice of the Lord from the top of the ladder, saying unto him: "I _am_ the Lord God of Abraham thy father, and the God of Isaac: the land whereon thou liest, to thee will I give it, and to thy seed; and thy seed shall be as the dust of the earth; and thou shalt spread abroad to the west, and to the east, and to the north, and to the south: and in thee and in thy seed shall all the families of the earth be blessed."