8:1. And when He.—The Lord Jesus, whose privilege it is to open them all.—Rev. 6:1.
Had opened the seventh seal.—“The seal of the living God.” (Rev. 7:2.) The opening of the seventh seal is progressive. The opening and unfolding of the Truth goes on as the saints are sealed. By the time the saints are all sealed in their hearts and minds with the Present Truth, the deepest features of the Truth itself will have been disclosed. “The time will undoubtedly come in the near future when the number of the Elect will be complete. Then only such vacancies as might still occur by some falling out would remain.” (Z. '14-68.) “God's people down through this Gospel age have been privileged to know something of the ‘Secret of the Lord’—the Divine Plan. But not until the last seal is broken, does the scroll fly wide open, permitting the ‘Mystery of God’ to be fully disclosed; as it is written: ‘In the days of the voice of the seventh angel, when he shall begin to sound, the Mystery of God should be finished, as He hath declared to His servants the Prophets.’ (Rev. 5:1; 10:7.)”—Z. '97-257.
There was silence.—“Assemble yourselves, and let us enter into the defenced cities, and let us be silent there: for the Lord our God hath put us to silence.” (Jer. 8:14.) “They (the clergy) somehow realize that neither reason nor Scripture supports their false doctrines, and that the wisest method is to keep silent, in the shadow of old superstitions and under the protection of so-called Christian governments.”—C. 158.
In heaven.—In the nominal ecclesiastical heavens.
About the space of half an hour.—On the scale of a year for a day this would mean but a week, and indicates that, as soon as the full number to complete the Body of Christ have been sealed with the Present Truth, persecution in a public way, and on an unprecedented scale, may be expected to begin almost immediately. (This verse should properly be included in Chapter 7.)
8:2. And I saw.—As the next vision of the grand series. Something never seen until the seventh seal is broken and the Mystery of God finished.
The seven angels.—Instrumentalities suitable for the work to be performed.
Which stood before God.—Featuring the Reformation.
And to them were given seven trumpets.—Bugles with which to blow bugle-blasts of liberty from the oppressions of the papacy, leading up to and including the final blast of “Liberty throughout all the land unto all the inhabitants thereof.”—Lev. 25:10.
8:3. And another angel.—Not the “voice of the Lord,” mentioned in the preceding chapter, but the corporate body—the Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society, which Pastor Russell formed to finish his work. This verse shows that, though Pastor Russell has passed beyond the veil, he is still managing every feature of the Harvest work. “The Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society is the greatest corporation in the world, because from the time of its organization until now the Lord has used it as His channel through which to make known the Glad Tidings.”-Z. '17-22; Rev. 14:18; 19:17.