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Rev.6:1,2:  And I saw when the Lamb broke one of  the seven seals, and I heard one of the four living creatures saying as with a voice of thunder, "Come." And I looked, and behold, a white horse, and he who sat on it had a bow; and a crown was given to him; and he went out conquering, and to conquer.
        The Lamb begins to open one of the seven seals that has kept the book shut. One of the four living creatures is begging John to come and see. We, too, must go to Jesus Christ before discovering the wonder of His truth. (Do you do the opposite, by seeking truth by reasoning?).  We do not find truth except as we discover Jesus Christ. Seek it in Him, and abandon yourselves to Him for that. Before the first coming of Jesus Christ, there were philosophers who tried to discover wisdom and truth; they were called wise men, but they could discover neither wisdom nor truth till Jesus Christ became incarnate. He is wisdom inborn. He revealed wisdom to men when He became man. We must then go to Jesus Christ to have truth; seeking it elsewhere is seeking error and lie. These living creatures invite us to come to Jesus Christ to discover truth in Him.
        The Lamb opens one of the seven seals. "A white horse" is shown "and he that sat on the horse has a bow." This is the first state of the soul led by Jesus Christ. This is also the first age of the Church. This is a state of fighting and victory, and the more we fight, the more we conquer. Victory is crowned, and unceasingly we go from victory to victory. In our first stage all fightings are rewarded and crowned. Note then: The first living creature was the lion. The first horse is a victorious warrior.
        The first state is a victory rather than a fight; the soul feels everything is easy; his enemies fall as he draws near. He is given a bow to fight from a distance; he aims with ease and wounds without receiving any wound. The beginning is a period full of sweetness; fighting enemies that are far off and whom God stops in their attacks.

Rev. 6: 3,4:  And when He broke the second seal, I heard the second living creature saying, "Come." And another, a red horse, went out; and to him who sat on it, it was granted to take peace from the earth, and that men should slay one another; and a great sword was given to him.
         In the second, things are different. The horse has not the whiteness of the first. It is red. In the first fight, faults seem to have all been washed; but in this, the soul begins to become dark.
         "....and to him who sat on it, it was granted to take peace...." This is the first trial of the soul. He suffers much and now loses that sweet peace which made the presence of God so wonderful. The soul does not seem to triumph or to fight; he only feels wounded.
         There is given to him a sword and he wants to use it, but only in self-defense. He only feels the wounds he receives. He attacks but is fought back. The wounds he receives hurt more than the harm he does to the enemy. Peace is lost within, and without. Why does God want "to take peace from the earth?" He wants the soul to lose the peace he had in himself, so that he will leave self. Remember, the second living creature is a calf, or bull. The fight is more violent.

Rev. 6: 5,6: And when He broke the third seal, I heard the third living creature saying, "Come." And I looked, and behold, a black horse; and he who sat on it had a pair of scales in his hand. And I heard as it were a voice in the center of the four living creatures saying, "A quart of wheat for a denarius, and three quarts of barley for a denarius; and do not harm the oil and the wine."
         The third horse is black.
         The state of the believer becomes more terrible still. Please note, the soul is not dark, but black. "I am black but comely," says the Song of Solomon. The fight has stopped.
        The believer does not fight any more nor is he fought by his enemies. He has balances in his hand for he is being weighed. Everything has lost its value; what once he prized, he now dislikes. But he does not notice that as the scale goes down on one side, it goes up on the other, so that the weight which brings part of himself down very low, raises his soul to God.
         The soul itself is deprived of God, and in a state of famine. This child of God had no desire for Him and, it seems, has never been further from Him. There is a deep emptiness. The comforts given him are rare and costly. However, it is forbidden "to hurt the oil and the wine." The soul is still sustained and strengthened with a secret anointing and a strong wine...although the believer is not aware of this inner sustaining.

Rev. 6: 7,8: And when He broke the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth living creature saying, "Come." And I looked, and behold, an ashen horse; and he who sat on it had the name Death; and Hades was following with him. And authority was given to them over a fourth of the earth, to kill with sword and with famine and with pestilence and by the wild beasts of the earth.
         The fourth living creature, the eagle, calls for death. It seems to me that there is a contrast here between this bird living near the sun, discovering the truth more than any, and the fact that it calls out to see death. How is that? Because by death only can truth and life be received. Death was riding "an ashen horse," symbol of frightful terrors. "Hades followed"...it seems that in this state, the soul is going to a sure death rushing to hell. However this death has "power" to attack only "a fourth part of earth," which means the last and main part, that is the senses.
         What are the inventions of death to destroy? They are on four. The first is the sword, with its prickings and most sensitive pains. Then comes famine; the suffering is less painful but deeper and more cruel. Next "the beasts of the earth" come to devour and swallow this poor soul. Next all these evils unite to cause death. Such states of the soul are not imaginary. They are quite real.

Rev.6:9:  And when He broke the fifth seal, I saw underneath the altar the souls of those who had been slain because of the word of God, and because of the testimony which they had maintained; ...
       How beautiful is this passage! How expressive! When the soul is destroyed by a complete, continual and total sacrifice, "the souls of those who had been slain because of the word of God" appear under the altar! This is not only true of the martyrs who are martyrs in their body but more truly of the martyrs who suffer for the inward life. These are sometimes killed in body. Others are "killed" by writings, slanders and persecutions. After all, it is an inner Spirit, an internal witness that we sense inside, and which we announce, that is the first cause of all persecutions.

Rev. 6:10: ...and they cried out with a loud voice, saying, "How long, O Lord, holy and true, wilt Thou refrain from judging and avenging our blood on those who dwell on the earth?"
         Have you noted that the fact that persecution is going on at any given time is-- for the longest time-- hidden from common knowledge? The Lord uses this time of unseen, unheralded persecution against His servants to bring them to nought. It seems that God is for a while on the oppressor's side; but a time comes when these souls being set free from every bondage ask to be avenged; the Spirit is doing it for them.

Rev. 6: 11: And there was given to each of them a white robe, and they were told that they should rest for a little while longer, until the number of their fellow servants and their brethren who were to be killed even as they had been, should be completed also.
         After God's servants have gone through the states mentioned above, a new life is given them, "the white robes" of innocence. They are delivered of every evil ...but they are not avenged. There comes for them, rest.

Rev. 6: 12,13: And I looked when He broke the sixth seal, and there was a great earthquake; and the sun became black as sackcloth made of hair, and the whole moon became like blood; and the stars of the sky fell to the earth, as a fig tree casts its unripe figs when shaken by a great wind.
         This passage shows several things happening at the same time.
         First, part of what will take place at the end of times is described. Secondly, God's vengeance on those who are the persecutors of saints is revealed. Thirdly, a description is given of certain states which believers pass through.
         It is certain that God will bring into strange terrors those who persecute His servants. They will see the evil they did; they will be shown the truth about their crimes. "The sun" of their understanding will be darkened; "the moon," represents their memory. Abel's blood will come to their mind; for Abel was, from the beginning of this world, the picture of inward souls that have been stripped and who love purely. For Abel offered a pure sacrifice. Today the same things are occurring and Abel's blood cries out without ceasing.
         "The stars fall to earth," means that the light man has falls and fails.
         Concerning the meaning of this passage as being applied to the souls in whom God works with extreme hardness in His mercy and justice, "the sun" of righteousness hides, becomes dark; "the moon" becomes blood. They only have thoughts of death; graces usually extended to these believers seem to have fallen to the ground.

Rev. 6:14-17: And the sky was split apart like a scroll when it is rolled up; and every mountain and island were moved out of their places. And the kings of the earth and the great men and the commanders and the rich and the strong and every slave and free man, hid themselves in the caves and among the rocks of the mountains; and they said to the mountains and to the rocks, "Fall on us and hide us from the presence of Him who sits on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb; for the great day of their wrath has come; and who is able to stand?"
         For those who persecuted the saints, "heaven will depart;" that is every help from above and every hope on earth will be taken from them. It seems God will never be merciful; they ask the mountains to hide them, seeking a place of refuge, but they find it too late, through grief and strange turmoil.
         Let us look at this passage from the view of the believer, one who feels estranged from God's mercy. Here too, heaven is rolled up as a scroll- they no longer have access into heaven; all hope is withdrawn; but, when Heaven opens up, they will find it more favorable than it had seemed hard. Until then they may be utterly desolate. They think they will find "some mountain" to flee to (some consolation in strong and spiritual persons who are like "mountains" through the eminence of their graces, or on those who are like "rocks" by their steadfastness). This is a state for souls strong in God. This was the state for Jesus Christ in the garden of Gethsemane when He bore the sins of mankind. This terrible weight made Him sweat drops of blood, and this wrath lasted till He died. Oh, who will be able to survive in such a state? God must clothe the soul with a superhuman strength. The soul must bear these inner states that Jesus Christ bore, but he must have Jesus Christ in these states.
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^{(1) Guyon, Mme. Jeanne, CHRIST OUR REVELATION, Gardiner, Main, Reprinted 1987 Christian Books Publishing House ( Book in now out of print)}

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