Such was the symbolic scene beheld by Zechariah after his symbolic resurrection -- two antagonistic powers; the one the Spirit, the other, the mountain-dominion of the world. But, had we no more light thrown upon the subject than granted to the prophet, the truth symbolized would be as inscrutable to us as it was to him. But, happily for them who are "the servants of the Deity sealed in their foreheads" with his seal, the hidden mystery hath been apostolically and apocalyptically revealed. The apostles, whose teaching consisted largely of "the revelation of the mystery hid from the aions and generations," have supplied that which the angel carefully concealed from Zechariah. They have taught us, that the Golden Lightbearer of the Spirit is the "One Body," of which the Lord Jesus is the head, or globular reservoir of the oil, anointed with the holy oil of truth; for "the spirit is the truth," says John. This is the stem, and the bowl, and the seven tubes branching from the top, and the seven burners, and the two pipes; through which flows the spirit-oil of the truth, that it may "shine before men." This one body, or lightbearer, is "the light of the world" (Matt. v. 14-16). It has been set up in the world to "give light unto all that are in the house," that they may see the good works of them who are burners of the spirit-oil, and "glorify the Father who is in heaven." It is through them that the Spirit operates in enlightening mankind, in "opening their eyes, and turning them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan (which is ignorance) to the Deity;" and in "pulling down of strongholds, and casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the Deity’s knowledge, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of the Christ" (Acts xxvi. 18; 2 Cor. x. 5). In doing this, the seven Eyes of the Deity shine like lamps of fire from the burners of the lightstand. In apostolic times, they stood before the principalities and powers in the heavenlies making known to these rulers of the earth the manifold wisdom of the Deity, according to an exposition of the aions which he made concerning Jesus their anointed Lord (Eph. iii. 10,11). Without this lightbearing body, the world in all the ages and generations from apostolic times until now, would have been in lightless outer darkness. The One Body has been the golden seven branched lightbearer in all the gloomy period of the times of the Gentiles. "Their testimony," which is their light, is not only enlightening to the understanding of the ignorant, but it is tormenting to the adherents and advocates of the traditions and sophistries of the catholic and protestant apostasy (Apoc. xi. 7,10). It vexes and annoys them; and especially when the eyes of the common people are sufficiently opened, if not to see the truth so as to be saved by it, at least to discern the imposition practised by those who would be their spiritual guides; but whose guidance they reject as mere quackery, and certain to precipitate all who trust it into the ditch. This effect of the light-burning stirs the gods of the earth up to inextinguishable wrath and causes them to make war upon the lightburners and to try to put out their light by breaking their lightbearing body to pieces (xi. 7; xiii. 7). But "the earth helps the Woman," who is indirectly nourished and cherished by the democratic and revolutionary adversaries of arbitrary power in church and state. These are her helpers, though not members of her body; and owe their political existence to the leavening influence of the divine principles she irradiates. They are her fire and sword by which her enemies are killed and devoured (Psa. xvii. 13; Apoc. xi. 5,6): and, but for whose chivalrous devotion to what they style "the rights of man," she could in no wise have withstood for ages the exterminating efforts of the enemies whom her testimony hath tormented and provoked.

The apostles have also taught us that the Spirit-Lightstand, or one light-bearing body, is constituted of two classes of mankind, which are fitly represented by Two Olive Trees; the one, "a wild olive tree," and the other, "a good olive tree" (Rom. xi. 17,24). The former, we are taught in this chapter, represents the non-Israelitish portion of mankind; while the latter is representative of the twelve tribes of Israel. In the Zechariah-group of symbols, these two olive trees are united to the light-bearing body by the two golden pipes extending from a branch of either tree. This intermediate union of the two trees is allegorical of the union of Israelites and Gentiles in one body through Jesus Christ. In the apostolic allegory, the union of the two classes is represented by grafting branches taken from the wild olive trees among the branches of the good olive tree, whose root and fatness supply wholesome nourishment to the grafts. In other words, the engrafting is done by "the word of truth," which is therefore styled "the engrafted word received with meekness, which is able to save the soul" (James i. 21). This word received with meekness by wild-olive men, makes them intelligent believers of "the things concerning the kingdom of the Deity, and of the name of Jesus Christ;" and, by causing them to be immersed into the Christ-Name, they become members of the one body. By adoption, or engraftment, through Christ Jesus, they become good olive-men; and being "cut out" of the wild olive in all "the times of the Gentiles," during which blindness afflicts Israel, they supply the place of the Jewish branches broken off because of unbelief.

This transfer of branches from the wild to the cultivated olive is the reason of there being two olive trees in the symbolic group. In the first few years of the apostolic era, there had been no breaking off of branches from the good olive tree; and no grafting in of wild olive branches in their place. The engrafted word was preached and received by Israelites alone; for, until Peter was taught to "call no man common or unclean" (Acts x. 28), the gospel was not preached to the Gentiles; so that the one body consisted only of believing and immersed Jews. But, when it was found experimentally that Israelites were fast becoming deaf and blind to the word, it was propounded to the Gentiles, from among whom a rich fulness has been separated. As faith decayed in Israel it grew vigorously among the Gentiles. The natural branches of the good olive became sapless; and were broken off with violence, when the Little Horn of the Goat received a host against the daily because of transgression, and cast down the truth, in its Mosaic representation, to the ground (Dan. viii. 9-12, A.D. 70).

But the One Body is destined to flourish in two states. The Zechariah-symbolic group represents it in the state inaugurated by the resurrection. John saw it in this state, as "a Son of Man in the midst of Seven Lightstands," invested with all the attributes of omnipotence (Apoc. i. 12-16). Being in the midst of the seven, he occupies the same relation to the light-irradiating ecclesias that the seven tubes of Zechariah’s group do to the golden bowl, and the seven horns do to the Lamb (v. 6). The whole group of John and Zechariah is symbolical of the Omniscient and Omnipotent Spirit in post-resurrectional corporeal manifestation -- the "One Body" perfected and glorified in all its members.

But, before the One Body thus symbolized can stand in the presence of the nations to "enlighten the earth with his glory" (xviii. 1), it must pre-exist in all "the times of the Gentiles;" that is, in the interval between the breaking off of the natural branches of the good olive tree, say from A.D. 70, to "the time of the dead when they should be judged, and a reward given to the prophets and saints" (xi. 18). This state of being, Paul styles, "the present evil world;" we term it commonly, "this world," and "the present state," in contrast with "the future state," or "the other world," or "the world to come." Seeing, then, that the One Body, a great multitudinous unity, Jesus and his Brethren, is related to these two states, it is interesting to know --

I. What position it occupies in respect to the nations of the earth?

II. What its mission while so placed? and,

III. How long is that position to be held?

A correct answer to these questions will furnish us with the solution of the mystery contained in the eleventh chapter of the Apocalypse.