In reading the prophecies of the Bible concerning Christ’s Church, we shall generally find judgment and mercy blended together. They are seldom all bitter without any sweet,–seldom all darkness without any light. The Lord knows our weakness, and readiness to faint, and has taken care to mingle consolations with threatenings,–kind words with hard words, like warp and woof in a garment. We may mark this throughout the book of Revelation. We may see it all through the prophecy we are now considering. We may note it in the few verses which we have just read.