9:17. And thus I saw the horses in the vision.—Horses are symbols of teachings. It is the doctrines a man has been taught that carry him along to do things. “As a man thinketh, so is he.” The man and his beliefs are inseparable.—Joel 2:4. (The four kinds of horses of Zech. 6:1‐8 seem to refer to four companies of saved ones. Red, the Ancient Worthies; black, the Little Flock; white, the Great Company; bay, the world of mankind.)
And them that sat [on] UPON them.—The total Protestant church membership.
Having breastplates of fire.—Keeping the doctrine of hell‐fire well to the front in their teachings.
And of jacinth.—“The hyacinthus of the Romans is invariably blue and lustrous. This description suggests the blue flame which issues between the fire and the brimstone, represented as ‘smoke’ in verse 18.”—Cook.
And brimstone.—Yes, indeed, plenty of brimstone went along with the hell‐ fire.—Rev. 14:10.
And the heads.—“The ancient and honorable, he is the head; and the prophet that teaches lies, he is the tail.”—Isa. 9:15. “In a genus of serpents or ophidian reptiles called _amphisboena_ the tail and head are equally obtuse, and the scales on the head so similar to those on the back as to render it difficult to distinguish one extremity from the other. Hence these reptiles have been supposed to have the power of creeping backwards or forwards with equal facility.” (Cook.)—Isa. 29:10‐14; John 4:22.
Were as the heads of lions.—Able to swallow the most ridiculous and impossible theories.—1 Chron. 12:8.
And out of their mouths issued fire.—Sermons full of hell‐fire.
And brimstone.—O yes, surely; plenty of brimstone, to go with the hell‐ fire.
9:18. By these [three] PLAGUES was the third part of men.—The Protestant third of Christendom.
Killed.—Deprived of reason, manhood and dignity.
By the fire.—The sermons full of hell‐fire.
And [by] the smoke.—Smoke is a symbol of confusion. The following is an extract from an article on the brain written by a well‐known physician and alienist:
“To illustrate how effectually such conceptions served to block all progress in the science of life we may quote one instance from a ponderous volume in my library with the date 1618 on _Physiology and Anatomy_ by Hilkiah Crooke, Physician and Professor on Anatomy and Chirurgery to His Majesty, James I. Speaking of the origin and growth of hair, he says: ‘The immediate matter of the haires is a sooty, thicke, and earthly vapour, which in the time of the third concoction (distillation) is elevated by the strength of the action of naturall heate, and passeth through the pores of the skin, which heate exiceateth or drieth this moysture of these sootie and thicke vapours, for the vapour being thicke, in his passage leaveth some part of it selfe, to wit, the grossest, in the very outlet, where it is impacted by a succeeding vapour arising where the former did, is protruded and thrust forward, so that they are wrought together in one body. The straightness of the passages of the skin were through the matter of the haires is anoyded, formeth them into a small roundness, even as a wyre receyeth that proportion whereof the whole is, where through it is drawne.’ One great office of the hairs of the head, therefore, Crooke perceived to be to lead off ‘the vapors which otherwise would choke and make smoaky the braine,’ though how hopelessly choked the brains of all bald heads hence would be he does not mention.” A study of the foregoing leads to the conclusion that the various churches must have been founded by bald‐headed men, and the smoke being unable to find its way out through their scalps naturally had to come out of their mouths!