Pray and not to faint

"And I heard One Voice out of the Four Horns of the Altar of Gold which is in the sight of the Deity, saying, &c." This is the same altar as that in the scene pictured in Apoc. viii. 3, which may be fitly reproduced here by way of remembrance. "And another angel came and stood by the altar, having a golden censer; and there was given to him many odors, that he might cast for the prayers of all the saints, upon the golden altar which is in sight of the throne. And the smoke of the odors for the prayers of the saints ascended out of the hand of the angel, in the sight of the Deity. And the angel took the censer, and filled it from the fire of the altar, and cast into the earth and there were voices and thunders and lightnings and an earthquake. And the Seven Angels having the seven trumpets prepared themselves that they might sound."

This scene is, as it were, a general preface to the sounding of each of the seven trumpets. That is, each trumpet develops its judgments retributively upon the enemies of the saints, and responsively to their prayers. The prayers of the saints were not to be confined to the apostolic age; but to ascend till Christ the avenger should return. "Men," said Jesus, "ought always to pray, and not to faint." This saying he illustrated by the parable of the unjust judge and the widow, in Luke xviii. 1-8. "Avenge me," said she, "of mine adversary;" but he would not, until wearied by her importunity, he complied to get rid of her complaints. If an unjust judge would do this, "shall not the Deity," the just judge of all the earth, "avenge his own elect, who cry day and night unto him, though he bear long with them? I tell you," said Jesus, "he will avenge them speedily. Nevertheless when the Son of Man cometh, shall he find the faith upon the earth?"

In all apocalyptic times, the elect of the Deity are represented as crying unto him "to judge and avenge their blood on them that dwell upon the earth" (vi. 10). In Apoc. viii. 3-5, the sounding of all the trumpets is dramatically represented as responsive to "the prayers of all the saints;" and consequently, not to the prayers of those saints only who lived between A.D. 324 and A.D. 395; but also to the prayers of the saints living contemporarily with all the trumpets. The successive soundings of the first five trumpets have brought us down to A.D. 933; and we have seen how the safety of the saints was guaranteed by the command of the Angel of the Abyss to his destroying agents to torment only the unsealed. The saints were not to be harmed by the special plagues; for they were "nourished" while the unsealed, who were their enemies, were being scourged.