Revelation 6:11

And white robes were given We should read, and there was given them to each one a white robe, bringing out still more fully than the old text, that the white robe is an individual, not a common blessing. It serves to mark them both as innocentand as conquerors:what it isis better felt than said. We see that the "souls" appeared in some visible form, like enough to bodies to wear garments: one of the considerations against regarding them as abstractions, not personal beings. There can hardly be any doubt that this verse (cf. Revelation 3:4-5) represents a portion of the reward given by God to His Saints, and if so, evidently such a portion of their reward as they receive in the interval before the Resurrection. But whether all the elect are in the same position as the Martyrs, or whether we have here described a special privilege granted to them only, is more doubtful: the prevalent belief of Christendom has been, that Martyrs and the like more excellent Saints have, in this intermediate state, a privilege above all the other justified ones.

and it was said unto them From the nature of the case, their cry and the answer to it had to be heard by St John successively. But doubtless in fact they are contemporaneous: the Saints at once share God's desire for the triumph of righteousness over sin, and rest in God's assurance that it is for good reason that that triumph is delayed.

that they should rest i.e. not be impatient and disquieted. Something more is meant than to be at peace, freed from the troubles of their earthly life (as Revelation 14:13): but the word does not in the least imply that they are to be unconscious, or as it were asleep.

yet for a little season Yet to Stephen and his companions it is not less than 1840 years: and though the Old Testament Martyrs be not exclusively meant, they are no doubt included. But notice that it is contemplated that there will be an interval between the Martyrs of the Primitive Church and those of the last days.

their fellowservants also and their brethren It would be possible to construe the words "boththeir fellowservants and their brethren," as though two classes were spoken of. In Revelation 19:10; Revelation 22:9, where we get the same words coupled, though in another construction, it may be thought that St John is called a brother of Martyrs and Prophets in a special sense. It would therefore be possible to distinguish the two classes, "their fellowservants (viz. all their true fellow-believers), and their brethren which should be killed as they were." But it is much simpler to translate as the A. V., making both nouns antecedents to the clause that follows.

that should be killed as they were The word "as" is slightly emphasised, "evenas they." The Martyrs of the last days are to be like those of the first, Martyrs in the strictest sense Christians slain because they hold the Christian faith, and will not renounce it. Such Martyrs there have been, no doubt, in the interval between the great ages of persecution under the Roman emperors and under Antichrist, e.g. in the Mohammedan conquests, in the age of the conversion of central Europe, in Japan in the seventeenth century, and in Madagascar, China, New Zealand, and Zululand in our own time. It is likely enough also that martyrs to charity men like St Telemachus and St Philip of Moscow, Abp. Affré and Bp. Patteson have their portion with the perfect martyrs to faith: in some cases, as in the last, it is hard to draw a line between the two: any way, those who suffer for righteousness" sake suffer for Christ, as St Anselm said when Lanfranc wished to deny the honours of a martyr to St Alphege. But to suffer for conscience" sake, however noble, is not necessarily quite the same thing: and it is hardly right to claim the name of martyr for the victims certainly not for the victims on one side only in the fratricidal contests of Christians. "The Lord knoweth them that are His;" He knows whether Becket or Huss, More or Latimer, Charles I. or Margaret Wilson, had most of the Martyr's spirit: we had better not anticipate His judgement whether any or all of them are worthy of the Martyr's white robe.

should be fulfilled Probably we should read, should have fulfilled i.e. their course, as Acts 13:25, or their work.