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(THE FIRST EDITION) En communiquant ici le rsultat de l’tude que j’ai faite du livre de l’Apocalypse, je reconnais pleinement que bien des parties de ce livre restent obscures; je m’appliquerai exposer celles qui me paraissent claires, sans les affirmer tous gards, comme je ferais, et comme tout chrtien devrait faire, au sujet d’une grande partie de l’enseignement de l’criture.

J’ajoute immdiatement aussi que j’envisagerai toute la priode dtermine qui doit prcder l’apparition du Fils de l’homme dans les nues du ciel, comme formant une seule demi-semaine et non pas deux. Ce point de vue ne change rien aux faits, ni aux personnages; les relations de dtail, pour ce qui concerne les temps, et la porte de certains passages en sont seuls affects.

Un grand nombre de traits, qui se sont occups du mme sujet, prtendent que l’Apocalypse nous rvle les faits spciaux de deux demi-semaines. Le lecteur pourra faire la comparaison des traits et le point de vue que je lui prsente ici, et il acquerra ainsi, par l’tude du livre, une plus ample connaissance de la liaison des diffrentes parties qui le constituent.

A part le tmoignage direct de l’amour de Dieu et du salut personnel, l’criture, dans son ensemble, nous prsente deux grands sujets, savoir le gouvernement de ce monde et l’glise. Celle-ci est maintenant, par le Saint-Esprit, le vase et le dpositaire de la connaissance divine. Ceux qui en sont les membres sont les instruments de la diffusion de cette connaissance. L’glise n’enseigne pas. Les aptres et prophtes d’abord; ensuite les docteurs et les vanglistes, chacun sa place,eux enseignent.

L’glise reoit, garde et professe la vrit. L’tat de l’glise peut tre tel que le maintien et la profession de la vrit se trouvent rejets sur la fidlit individuelle; mais l’glise, dans son tat normal, doit tre la colonne et le soutien de la vrit (1 Timothy 3:15).

L’glise appartient au ciel: sa part est d’tre dans le ciel, maintenant, en esprit, et quand la plnitude des temps aura amen l’accomplissement des conseils de Dieu, d’tre l, de fait, associe Christ dans le gouvernement de la terre. Elle est proprement l’pouse et le corps de Christ. Mais l’glise a aussi une existence extrieure et responsable sur la terre: elle devrait tre une lettre de Christ, connue et lue de tous les hommes (comp. 2 Corinthians 3:2,3), et reprsenter ainsi le caractre de Dieu devant le monde. Sous ce rapport, elle est envisage, dans l’criture, comme une dispensation responsable dans le monde, la maison de Dieu, l’difice de Dieu, o les hommes peuvent mal btir, quoique le fondement puisse avoir t bien pos. Christ difiera sa propre uvre au travers de toutes les phases de l’existence de l’glise et aura l’glise, sa maison, illumine de sa lumire et de sa gloire, parfaite dans la gloire.

Aucune puissance de celui qui a l’empire de la mort ne peut prvaloir contre cette uvre sur la terre, ni contre son rsultat dans le ciel; mais l’glise, en tant que confie au service responsable de l’homme sur la terre, occupe la place d’une dispensation, pour tre coupe et rejete, si elle ne persvre pas dans sa fidlit et ne manifeste pas la gloire qui lui a t confie. Il en est d’elle comme de tous les objets des voies de Dieu ici-bas. L’homme innocent, d’abord; ensuite les promesses; puis la loi, la sacrificature, la royaut judaque dans l’obissance avec la loi, la suprmatie gentile sans loi aucune,tout cela a t successivement confi aux hommes; et l’homme a toujours failli! Mais tout sera rtabli en grce en Christ ou sous Christ, le second Adam, dont le premier n’tait qu’une image; les promesses seront accomplies, la loi sera crite dans le cur, la sacrificature ralise dans toute son excellence, la royaut juive exerce dans la personne du Fils de David et la suprmatie sur les nations dans Celui qui s’lvera pour dominer sur elles. L’glise pareillement, quoique ne faisant pas partie de cette chane des dispensations de Dieu sur la terre, est cependant,comme sphre de la manifestation de la gloire cleste de Christ par la fidlit de l’homme sur la terre,comme la maison de Dieu par l’Esprit,sujette la mme loi divine: responsabilit dans l’homme, chute, et puis accomplissement divin en grce et en puissance. Ses assembles (glises) locales,les chandeliers,tombent sous la mme loi: dans leur tat normal, elles reprsentent localement l’tat normal de l’glise, ce qui est manifest du corps de Christ sur la terre; mais comme il en est pour l’glise dans son ensemble, elles aussi peuvent se corrompre de telle sorte qu’il faille que le chandelier soit t. Il y a cette diffrence entre ce qui a lieu pour l’glise et ce qui a lieu pour les glises locales, que la mise de ct du chandelier laisse l’assemble en gnral subsistant sur la terre, tandis que lorsque la responsabilit de l’Assemble tout entire prend fin, celle-ci cesse d’tre comme scne des voies de Dieu sur la terre. C’est pourquoi nous sommes srs que ce dernier fait ne pourra jamais s’accomplir avant que le temps, o celle qui est l’pouse et le corps de Christ doit avoir le ciel pour demeure, ne soit venu aussi.

L’Apocalypse nous rule Christ comme Fils de Dieu ou Ancien des jours, avec son droit divin de Juge; elle porte nos regards sur le jugement de l’Assemble et le jugement du monde, plus particulirement sur celui de la dernire puissance apostate: si nous la lisons avec une autre pense, nous ne la comprendrons jamais. Les communications de l’Apocalypse ont donc un caractre essentiellement prophtique. Elles ne nous occupent pas des relations directes du Pre avec ses enfants, et des relations de Christ avec celle qui est son pouse et son corps, bien que, la fin du livre, l’pouse soit mentionne pour identifier la ville avec elle; les saints, sans doute, ont conscience de la grce dans laquelle ils sont, comme aussi l’glise, la fin, a conscience de sa relation avec Christ; mais, je le rpte, ce n’est nullement de ces sujets-l que traite l’Apocalypse; tout au contraire. Ce livre est essentiellement prophtique, parce qu’il s’occupe de gouvernement et du monde; et l’Assemble elle-mme y est envisage dans sa responsabilit sur la terre, sous le caractre dans lequel nous la voyons finalement rejete, non pas assurment comme le corps de Christ uni son Chef dans le ciel, mais sur la terre comme Assemble responsable.

Il est de la plus haute importance, non seulement dans l’tude de l’Apocalypse, mais l’gard de la vrit en gnral, de distinguer nettement les deux points de vue que nous venons de signaler; il est impossible autrement de jamais connatre l’glise. D’un autre ct, on ne peut avoir la connaissance de l’glise sans faire immdiatement la distinction dont nous parlons.

Tout ce qui concerne Christ, sauf la relation de Christ avec l’glise, se trouve dj dans l’Ancien Testament; tout ce qui le concernait lui-mme tait manifest, ouvertement rvl, mais l’glise ne pouvait pas l’tre. Le principe essentiel de son existence renversait le mur mitoyen de clture qui sparait le Juif des nations; le principe essentiel de l’existence d’Isral et de la loi maintenait et devait maintenir ce mur. La responsabilit du premier homme, sans cela, n’et pas t compltement mise l’preuve. L’glise et notre relation avec Dieu reposent sur le fait que cette responsabilit a pris fin par la mort, et que le second homme, ressuscit d’entre les morts, a pris une toute nouvelle place, son uvre ayant t accepte et lui-mme, en consquence, ayant t accept aussi et glorifi,et nous en Lui et cause de Lui. Notre responsabilit mme, comme chrtiens, est d’une autre nature: nous sommes appels marcher comme Lui a march (1 Jean 2:6), non pas nous lever ce qu’Adam aurait d tre ou ce que la loi exigeait, mais manifester la vie de Jsus dans nos corps mortels, comme tant morts au pch, au monde et la loi, et vivants de cette vie qui descendit ici-bas dans la personne du Fils venu du ciel.

Je dois ajouter ici, cependant, qu’il ne faut pas chercher dans l’Ancien Testament la rvlation du Pre par le Fils qui demeure ternellement dans son sein: on y trouve bien, sans doute, la relation de fils, en sorte que la pense de cette relation n’est pas trangre l’Ancien Testament, mais cette relation y est envisage un point de vue conventionnel (vrai aussi, je n’ai pas besoin de le dire) comme une relation forme sur la terre et dans le temps, mais non pas fonde sur la nature de la personne du Fils dans la Dit. Ainsi dans les passages du Psalm 2: Je raconterai le dcret: l’ternel m’a dit: Tu es mon Fils; aujourd’hui, je t’ai engendr, et du premier livre des Chroniques, chap. 17:13: Moi, je lui serai pour Pre, et lui me sera pour Fils, il s’agit d’une relation dans le temps sur la terre, des droits et du vrai et glorieux caractre du Messie. Il en est de mme de ce que nous lisons ailleurs: Je ferai de lui le premier-n, le plus lev des rois de la terre; et: Et son roi sera lev au-dessus d’Agag (Psalm 39:27; Nombr. 24:7). Mais dans le Nouveau Testament, nous trouvons le Fils dans sa propre relation personnelle avec le Pre:

Personne ne vit jamais Dieu;* le Fils unique, qui est dans le sein du Pre, lui, l’a fait connatre (Jean 1:18); il a fait connatre de mme aussi, quand il tait sur la terre, le nom du Pre (Jean 17:26); il tait sorti d’auprs du Pre (Jean 17:8). Par lui, le Fils, Dieu a cre toutes choses, et Lui, le Fils, nous introduit dans cette relation d’enfants et de fils, par adoption, sans doute, mais en devenant, Lui, notre vie, en sorte qu’il n’est jamais dit, dans l’criture, que la vie soit en nous, quoique nous ayons la vie et que l’criture dise que nous l’avons. Dieu nous a donn la vie ternelle, et cette vie est dans son Fils: Celui qui a le Fils a la vie, celui qui n’a pas le Fils de Dieu n’a pas la vie (1 Jean 5:11-12). [* Voyez 1 Jean 4:12, l’inexprimable privilge du chrtien.] Ce caractre particulier de l’enseignement de Jean m’amne examiner de plus prs la nature et le caractre de l’Apocalypse. En effet, c’est Jean tout spcialement qui rvle le dernier point de vue dont je viens de parler, en mme temps qu’il traite des vrits qui sont lies notre salut, et particulirement de la prsence du Saint-Esprit, et, dans son ptre, de la propitiation. Dans l’vangile, c’est le Fils qui est venu comme vie, la vie tant la lumire des hommes. Dans l’ptre, cette vrit forme la base: la vie nous est communique et l’existence de la vie est dmontre par son vrai caractre, afin de nous garder des sducteurs.

Il est remarquable que, part, et l, quelques rares et courts passages ncessaires, pour complter la vrit, Jean ne voit jamais la vie amene jusqu’ son accomplissement final selon les conseils de Dieu, mais la vie manifeste dans ce monde, soit en Christ lui mme, soit en nous. Le fait que nous monterons dans la maison du Pre, en haut, est clairement tabli au commencement du chap. 14, et dsir la fin du chap. 17; mais nulle part ce fait ne forme le sujet gnral. Paul, n comme un avorton en dehors du temps rgl, entre la premire et la seconde venue de Christ, Paul qui ne connaissait Christ que dans la gloire cleste dans laquelle il etait dans le ciel, l’homme glorifi par Dieu en consquence de l’uvre qu’il avait accomplie, et qui n’tait pas appel connatre Christ selon la chair, Paul, l’aptre particulier de l’Assemble, le ministre de l’Assemble pour complter la Parole de Dieu, lui qui fut converti par la rvlation de la gloire cleste de Christ, d’un ct, et de l’union des saints avec Lui ainsi glorifi, d’un autre, Paul, dis-je, nous place, parfaitement accepts, dans la gloire en Christ, et voit cette vie en Celui qui est ressuscit et glorifi, et en nous, crucifis avec Lui, mais vivants toutefois.

Je ne vis plus, moi, mais Christ vit en moi (Galatians 2:20). Mais Jean nous fait connatre la personne divine du Fils en vie (en grce dans la chair; l’amour divin, et le Pre, se manifestant) dans sa glorieuse supriorit sur le mal et, comme fait l’amour divin, s’adaptant aux besoins et aux souffrances qui l’entourent, toutes les ncessits du cur de l’homme,et tant cependant toujours lumire. Jean ne nous prsente pas l’homme lev au ciel, mais Dieu lui-mme en grce, le Fils rvlant le Pre, ici-bas sur la terre. L’vangile de Jean et la premire ptre du mme aptre, nous l’avons dit, rvlent cette vie en elle-mme ou en nous; mais l’vangile (car l’ptre nous parle de la vie entre le dpart et le retour du Seigneur) nous fait entrevoir, la fin (Jean 22:22-23), l’aptre maintenant persvramment un tmoignage la venue de Christ. Jsus n’avait pas dit que Jean ne dt pas mourir, mais: Si je veux qu’il demeure jusqu’ ce que je vienne, que t’importe! Paul pouvait difier l’glise ou en poser le fondement comme un sage architecte; Pierre pouvait enseigner un plerin comment il devait suivre Celui qui etait ressuscit et qui l’avait rengendr ainsi pour une esprance vivante; il pouvait lui apprendre comment il devait suivre son Matre travers le dsert, dans lequel, aprs tout, Dieu gouvernait toujours; Paul et Pierre, et d’autres avec eux, pouvaient donner des avertissements au sujet de maux venir; mais Jean, qui avait t si personnellement prs de Christ, juif dans ses relations et rempli de celles-ci, mais de qui Dieu avait, en mme temps, ouvert les yeux pour voir la gloire de Celui qui, en Lui-mme etait lev au-dessus de toute relation, si ce n’est avec le Pre, et qui avait une place dans laquelle il pouvait tre dans le sein du Pre, et cependant marcher comme homme, avec le titre et dans la manifestation du Fils, sur la terre, ayant en mme temps une place dans le cur de son disciple,Jean, que la grce avait attach la personne de Christ et qui avait la vie en Lui, Jean, le disciple que Jsus aimait, lui, pouvait veiller, avec la puissance de l’amour divin, sur les gloires dclinantes de l’glise sur la terre, avec l’nergie d’une vie qui ne pouvait pas dfaillir en elle; il pouvait devancer les temps par la vision prophtique, pour tablir, du ciel et de la part du ciel, les droits de la mme personne, sur la terre, droits dont l’tablissement devait amener la paix sur la terre et ter le mal de la terre, et qui devaient avoir tout leur effet l o le prophte avait vu ces droits mpriss dans la personne de Celui qui tait l’objet de tant d’amour de sa part, en tant que manifest sur la terre. Jean pouvait ainsi lier l’excellence de Celui qui avait souffert et qui tait maintenant glorifi, avec la bndiction du monde dlivr, que la grce pouvait bnir par Lui, quoiqu’il l’et autrefois rejet. Les voies, par lesquelles Dieu accomplira ces choses, avec l’histoire antrieure de la chute de l’glise, forment le sujet de l’Apocalypse, avec la personne et la gloire (prophtiquement connues) de Christ, en connection d’abord avec l’Assemble responsable sur la terre, quoique, alors, judiciairement,et ensuite avec la terre.] THE REVELATION As regards Peter and Paul, we have scriptural authority for regarding them as the apostles respectively of the circumcision and of the uncircumcision.

Peter and the twelve remained at Jerusalem when the disciples were scattered, and, continuing (though God was careful to maintain unity) the work of Christ in the remnant of Israel, gathered into an assembly on earth, the lost sheep of the house of Israel. Paul, having received the ministry of the assembly, as of the gospel to every creature under heaven (Colossians 1), as a wise master-builder, lays the foundation. Peter sets us off as pilgrims on our journey to follow Christ risen towards the inheritance above. Paul, in the full development of his doctrine (though owning this, as in Philippians 3), shows us the saints sitting in heavenly places in Christ, heirs of all which He is heir of. All this was dispensational, and it is full of instruction. But John holds a different place. He does not enter on dispensation; nor, though once or twice stating the fact (as John 13:1; 14:1; 17:24; 20:17), does he take the saint, nor even the Lord Himself, up to heaven. Jesus, for him, is a divine Person, the Word made flesh manifesting God and His Father, eternal life come down to earth. The epistle of John treats the question of our partaking of this life, and its character.

But at the close of the Gospel, after stating the sending of the Comforter on His going away, Christ opens to the disciples (though in a mysterious way) the continuation of God’s dealings with the earth, of which John ministerially is the representative, linking the manifestation of Christ on earth at His first coming with His manifestation at His second; Christ’s Person, and eternal life in Him, being the abiding security and living seed of God, when dispensationally all was corrupted, and in confusion and decay.

If all were in disorder outwardly, eternal life was still the same.

The destruction of Jerusalem formed a momentous epoch as to these things, because the Jewish assembly, formed as such at Pentecost, had ceased (nay, it had even before); only the judicial act was then accomplished. Christians had been warned to leave the camp. The breach of Christianity with Judaism was consummated. Christ could no longer take up the assembly, established in the remnant of the Jews, as His own seat of earthly authority.* But alas! the assembly, as Paul had established it too, had already fallen from its first estate — could in no sense take up the fallen inheritance of Israel. All seek their own, says Paul, not the things of Jesus Christ. All they of Asia — Ephesus, the beloved scene where all Asia had heard the word of God — had forsaken him. They who had been specially brought with full intelligence into the assembly’s place could not hold it in the power of faith. Indeed, the mystery of iniquity was at work before this, and was to go on and grow until the hindrance to the final apostasy was removed. [* This was morally true from Acts 3, where the Jewish leaders refuse the testimony to a glorified Christ who would return, as they had rejected a humbled One. Acts 7, by the mouth of Stephen, closes God’s dealings with them in testimony, and the heavenly gathering begins, his spirit being received on high. The destruction of Jerusalem closed Jewish history judicially.] Here, in this state of universal declension and ruin, John’s ministry comes in. Stability was in the Person of Christ, for eternal life first, but for the ways of God upon earth too. If the assembly was spued out of His mouth, He was the faithful witness, the beginning of the creation of God. Let us trace the links of this in his Gospel. In John 20, as elsewhere noticed in detail, we have a picture of God’s ways from the resurrection of Christ till we come to the remnant of Israel in the latter days, represented by Thomas’s look on the pierced One and believing by seeing. In chapter we have, besides the remnant, the full millennial gathering. Then at the close of the chapter, the special ministry of Peter and John is pointed out, though mysteriously. The sheep of Jesus of the circumcision are confided to Peter; but this ministry was to close like Christ’s. The assembly would not be established on this ground, any more than Israel. There was no tarrying here till Christ came.* Peter’s ministry in fact was closed, and the circumcision assembly left shepherdless, before the destruction of Jerusalem put an end to all such connection for ever. Peter then asks as to John. The Lord answers, confessedly mysteriously, but putting off, as that which did not concern Peter who was to follow Him, the closing of John’s ministry, prolonging it in possibility till Christ came. Now, in fact, the Bridegroom tarried; but the service and ministry of John by the word (which was all that was to remain, and no apostle in personal care) did go on to the return of Christ. [* Paul, of course, is in no way noticed. For him the assembly belonged to heaven — was the body of Christ, the house of God. He was a builder.] John was no master-builder like Paul — had no dispensation committed to him. He was connected with the assembly in its earthly structure like Peter, not in the Ephesus or heavenly one; he was not the minister of the circumcision, but carried on the earthly system among the Gentiles, only holding fast the Person of Christ. His special place was testimony to the Person of Christ come to earth with divine title over it — power over all flesh. This did not break the links with Israel, as Paul’s ministry did, but raised the power which held all together in the Person of Christ to a height which carried it through any hidden time, or hidden power, on to its establishment over the world at the end; it did not exclude Israel as such, but enlarged the scene of the exercise of Christ’s power so as to set it over the world, and did not establish it in Israel as its source, though it might establish Israel itself in its own place from a heavenly source of power.

What place does the assembly then hold in this ministry of John, found as it is in the book of Revelation? None in its Pauline character, save in one phrase, coming in after the Revelation is closed, where its true place in Christ’s absence is indicated (chap. 22:17). We have the saints at the time, in their own conscious relationship to Christ, in reference, too, to the royal and priestly place to His God and Father, in which they are associated with Himself. But John’s ministerial testimony, as to the assembly, views it as the outward assembly on earth* in its state of decay — Christ judging this — and the true assembly, the capital city and seat of God’s government over the world, at the end, but in glory and grace. It is an abode, and where God dwells and the Lamb. All this facilitates our intelligence of the objects and bearing of the book. The assembly has failed; the Gentiles, grafted in by faith, have not continued in God’s goodness.

The Ephesian assembly, the intelligent vessel, and expression of what the assembly of God was, had left its first estate, and unless it repented, the candlestick was to be removed. The Ephesus of Paul becomes the witness on earth of decay and of removal out of God’s sight, even as Israel had been removed. God’s patience would be shown towards the assembly as it had been towards Israel; but the assembly would not maintain God’s testimony in the world any more than Israel had. John does maintain this testimony, ministerially judging the assemblies by Christ’s word,** and then the world from the throne, till Christ comes and takes to Himself His great power and reigns. During this transition-dealing of the throne the heavenly saints are seen on high. When Christ comes, they come with Him. [* And hence in particular assemblies, which of course could be judged and removed. There is another point of divine wisdom here. Though we have, I doubt not, the whole history of the assembly to its end in this world, it is given in facts then present, so that there should be no putting off the coming of the Lord. So, in the parables, the virgins who go to sleep are the same that wake up; the servants that receive the talents are the same found on the Lord’s return, though we know ages have passed and death come in.] [** Note this immensely important principle: the church judged by the word, not the church a judge; and the individual Christian called to give heed to this judgment. The church (I use the word designedly here as used to claim this authority) cannot be an authority when the Lord calls me, if I have ears to hear, to hear and receive the judgment pronounced by Him on it. I judge its state by the words of the Spirit, am bound to do so: it cannot be an authority therefore on the Lord’s behalf over me in that state.

Discipline is not in question here, but the church as wielding authority.] The first part, then, of the epistles of John is the continuation, so to speak, of the Gospel before the last two dispensational chapters; the Revelation, that of these last two chapters (20, 21), where, Christ being risen and no ascension given, the dispensational dealings of God are largely intimated in the circumstances which occur; while it is shown at the same time that He could not personally set up the kingdom then. He must ascend first. The two short epistles show us that truth (truth as to His Person) was the test of true love, and to be held fast when what was anti-christian came in; and the free liberty of the ministration of the truth to be held fast against assumed ecclesiastical or clerical authority, as contrasted with the assembly. The apostle had written to the assembly.

Diotrephes rejected free ministry.

I now turn to the book itself.

The Revelation is one belonging to Jesus Christ, which God gave Him, and He signifies it to John. Though God over all blessed for ever, He is here seen as Son of man, the rejected Messiah or Lamb, and so Head over all things. This fact, that the revelation is one confided to Him, is important, because it at once makes it the testimony of Jesus and the word of God, being communicated by Jesus, and given to Him by God. This testimony of Jesus and word of God comes as a vision to John, who bare record of all he saw. All of it is prophetic in character, not the Spirit of God the messenger of the Father and of the Son’s grace to the assembly in its own place — a direct inspired communication to the assembly itself for itself as in its own right place — but a prophetic revelation to John about it as in the world, and about the world itself.

The assembly being already in decay and to be removed, whatever the delay of grace, the time was at hand, and the rejection of the assembly on earth to be taken as a starting-point. Another system was to be set up.

The apostle had not his face turned towards the assemblies at all, but his back. The mind of the Spirit is towards Christ’s taking the kingdom. Still Christ was yet amongst them, but as Son of man, the character in which He judges and inherits the world. The apostle turns and sees Him. Still it behoved, if he was recounting the coming dealing with the world in judgment, to notice by the bye “the things that are.” By giving them in seven contemporary churches, no time was necessary; it left the final results as at the door, for they were in the last days, yet it gave, if there was delay, opportunity for a full moral picture of the whole of the assembly’s history. I see in this only the wisdom of the Spirit, and exactly the character of John’s ministry. “If I will that he tarry till I come.”

I cannot doubt then for a moment that (while professedly of universal application for every one that had an ear, not an address to the general conscience of the assembly) the seven assemblies represent the history of Christendom, the assembly as under man’s responsibility, the fact of the judgment of the world coming afterwards on its close (the assemblies being “the things that are”) and the character of events, beginning with the assembly leaving its first love, and ending with holding fast till He comes, and with being spued out of Christ’s mouth. The adoption of the number seven, which cannot mean completeness at the same time because the states are different; the reference to Christ’s coming; the reference to the great tribulation to come on all the earth in the letter to Philadelphia; the clear object of warning the assembly till Christ came, the world being then in scene for judgment: all leave no cloud upon the conclusion that the seven churches are successive phases of the professing assembly’s history, though not exactly consecutive (the fourth going on to the end; new phases then commencing, and going on to the end collaterally also).* [* There are moral reasons from the contents. We shall see, farther on, that the structure of the book fully confirms this.] But though the assembly be thus spoken of, God Himself appears here as the administrator of the world, even when addressing the assembly; and Christ as man coming under Him to this purpose, the Holy Ghost being noticed as the direct agent of power in the sevenfold perfection in which it is exercised. It is not the Father and the Son, but God who is, yet who embraces past and future in His being, and is never inconsistent with Himself, making good in time all in which He has announced Himself in the past. The form of this however is peculiar here. It is not merely the abstract idea of Jehovah, who was, and is, and is to come. He is first announced by His present absolute existence, “from him who is,” the “I am,” God Himself; and then to connect Himself with previous dealings (not present relationships) declares that He is the One who was (had revealed Himself in previous ages to the earth or to men, to the Abrahams and Moses’s of old time), and at the same time was the coming One who would make good everything revealed of and by Himself. Jesus Christ (who comes last as the Man in immediate connection with God’s witness to, and government of, the earth) is presented as the faithful witness — as He was personally on earth — of God; as risen from the dead (but no ascension or headship of the assembly), taking all in this character, not after the flesh; and lastly, in government not yet made good, the Prince of the kings of the earth.

The saints then express their own consciousness of what He has done for them, yet still in reference to the kingdom, not as the body or bride, or their own heavenly joys, but the highest possible as regards the given glory and place. This is the necessary consequence of the consciousness of a near and blessed relationship. Whatever the glory of the One we are in relationship with, it is what He is for oneself, one’s own nearness to Him, that comes to the mind when the glory is declared. Were a general to march in triumph into a town, the feeling of a child or wife would be, ‘That is my father, — ”That is my husband.’ Here the feeling, though of this character, is more unselfish. “To him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood.” It is His love to us which is celebrated, still with the personal feeling “us.” The saints know what He has done for them, and further what He has made them. His love is perfect. King and Priest are His highest characters here: nearest to God in power downwards, and in approaching Him upwards. He has made us kings and priests to God and His Father: to Him be glory! Such is the saints’ thought when He is spoken of. He loved us, has cleansed us, and given us a place with Himself.

This flows out the instant He is named. It is the answer of heart when He is announced, before any communication takes place. His having done this is not announced; it is the saints’ own consciousness.* [* We shall find the same thing at the close when the prophecy is ended. Here what He has been to the saints and has done: there what He is for the future.

See chapter 22:17.] As to others, all must be told. The next point, the first announced, is His appearing to the world. No direct communication to the assembly for its own sake — the book is not that. Here the assembly has that in its own consciousness only, as we have seen. Behold! He cometh with clouds; every eye shall see Him, the Jews too who pierced Him, and all kindreds of the earth shall wail because of Him. His appearing is in judgment.

We then find, what is so remarkable in John, the mixing up in expression of God and Christ. Verse 8 cannot be said to be one or the other. It is Christ; but it is Christ Jehovah, Almighty, the Lord; who is, and who was, and who is to come; the first and the last (compare chap. 22:12, 13).

Thus, we have the saints of these days; Christ’s appearing to judgment; He is God, the first and the last, Alpha and Omega; the complete circle of position from John’s day to the end. The practical position which John takes with all the saints, is “the kingdom and patience of Jesus Christ.” He belongs to the kingdom, but must wait while Christ waits, expecting till His enemies be made His footstool. The generic name given to testimony applies to all his ministry as well as to the prophecy — the word of God and the testimony of Jesus: only one might have thought that prophecy was not this last, as it was not to the assembly about itself from its Head; but the Spirit of prophecy is the testimony of Jesus.

Such is the introduction to this book. We now enter on its contents. John was in the Spirit on the Lord’s day. It is his place and privilege however then, as a Christian, which is spoken of, not the prophetic period into which he entered. In the day of resurrection — his own place — the day on which Christians meet, the apostle, removed from the society of Christians, still enjoyed the special elevating power of the Holy Ghost, though alone; and is thus used of God, allowed to be banished for the purpose, for what He could not, in an ordinary way, have communicated to the assembly for its edification. The persecuting emperor little thought what he was giving to us when he banished the apostle; no more than Augustus, in his political plans as to the census of the empire, knew he was sending a poor carpenter to Bethlehem, with his espoused wife, that Christ might be born there; or the Jews and Pilate’s soldiers, that they were sending the thief to heaven, when they broke his legs in heartless respect for their own superstitions or ordinances. God’s ways are behind the scenes; but He moves all the scenes which He is behind. We have to learn this, and let Him work, and not think much of man’s busy movements: they will accomplish God’s. The rest of them all perish and disappear. We have only peacefully to do His will.

The same voice that afterwards called John up to heaven, he now hears behind him on earth — the voice of the Son of man. It summons his attention with power; and turning to see the voice, as Moses towards the bush, he sees, not the image of God’s presence in Israel, but the vessels of God’s light in the earth, and a complete summary of it all, and, in the midst of them, Christ as Son of man. We find, thus, in the Revelation, God’s whole history of the world, or of what is of Him in it, from the first decay of the assembly to the new heavens and new earth. But it was impossible for God to set aside the present expectation of Christ, or to justify the assembly in its careless but sinful thought, “My Lord delayeth His coming.” Hence, as always, this history, and especially that of the assembly, is given in a way which leaves time out altogether. The moral progress of the assembly is given in pictures of the state of the existing assemblies selected for that purpose, beginning with its first decline, and ending with its entire rejection. Being taken up as assemblies, the general principle of responsibility is in view, and the assembly viewed, not as the infallibly blessed body of Christ, but such as that it may be rejected and set aside on earth; for a local assembly and the external visible assembly clearly can.

These assemblies are seen as distinct light-bearers; that is, in their place of service, or rather position of witness in the world. They are viewed in their own proper character as of God; as set by Him in the world, they are of gold. He may take them away because they give a dim, or no true light or witness for God; but the thing taken away was founded in divine righteousness, and founded originally by a divine hand.

But the Spirit first occupies itself with the character of Him who stood amongst them. First, we get His actual position, before stating what He was. He stood as Son of man. We have not Him here as Head of the one body, nor even as heavenly Intercessor; nor have we the Christ, of course (that is, the Jewish character of the Lord). It will be found that these are just the characters of Christ omitted also in the first chapter of John’s Gospel. John sees Him in the wide character in which He is set over all the works of God’s hand, and Heir of all promises and purposes of God to man according to divine righteousness. He is not the Son of man in service.

His garment is down to His feet, and He has the girdle of divine righteousness about His breasts. This is His character.

We have then His qualities or attributes. First, He is the Ancient of days.

In Daniel the same truth comes out. The Son of man is brought to the Ancient of days; but, farther on in the chapter, it is the Ancient of days who comes. The Son of man is Jehovah. This characterises all the testimony. The King of kings and Lord of lords shows Him:* but, when He comes, we find that He is King of kings and Lord of lords.** But in this glory He has the attributes of judgment — eyes of fire — that which pierces into everything, and fire is ever the sign of judgment. This was its piercing, searching character: His feet, the firmness with which sin was met; for brass is righteousness, viewed, not as intrinsically in God to be approached, but as dealing with man, in his responsibility as man. The mercy-seat was gold, the altar and laver brass; but there it was as an altar, that is, dealing with sin for man, a sacrifice, though fire was there, but here the burning furnace of judgment. The voice was the sign of power and majesty. [* 1 Timothy 6:15.] [** Revelation 19:16.] Next, we have official supremacy. He held all that was subordinate authority in light and order, here spoken of as regards the assembly, in His right hand, in His power. He had the power of judgment by the word, and supreme authority — the sun — in the fullness of its highest character. We have His personal glory as Jehovah; His qualities as divine Judge; and His supreme official position.

But, He was not less the Redeemer, the gracious securer in blessing of them that were His. John (as ever in prophetic vision of Jehovah, for it is not the Spirit of adoption here) falls at His feet as one dead. So Daniel; so in spirit Isaiah (chap. 6); but His power sustains the saint, does not destroy him. He lays His right hand on John himself, declares Himself the first and the last, Jehovah Himself, but withal the same that died in love and has complete power over death and hades; the deliverer from it, not the subjecter to it. He has risen out of death and hades, and has the keys — full power over them — divine power or support; and He who died and rose again, and lives for ever even as man, does so, not simply in the power of divine life in man, but of victory over all that man was subject to by sin and infirmity.

This is the position He here takes with John His servant, and with the assemblies respectively. We shall see that the state of the latter assemblies brings out other characters known only to the opened eye of faith. These were what John had seen, and which he was to write. Then as regards prophetic facts, he was to write the things that were, the state of these various assemblies as the setting forth historically of the assembly’s various state — a history; and the things which should be after them (that is, when the assembly’s history has closed on earth). The whole assembly therefore, is thus, to the Spirit, the present time — the “things that are.”

The future was what came after it, God’s dealings with the world. This, while it left the coming of the Lord, or preparatory prophetic events in immediate expectation, left, if there was delay (and there was to be), the period undefined, and the expectation, though prolonged, still a present one. We may remark that we have the personal glory of Christ here, the position as to the assemblies accompanying it. He is not personally revealed as Son of man, that is, as taking the Son of man’s place: only He who is Ancient of days is so seen as to make us understand that it was one who had that place — was Son of man. Subsequently, in the Apocalypse, it is not His intrinsic personal character, but some relative character or place He takes. Only we have something analogous to this, when the account of future things comes in. As regards the world, He is seen as the Lamb, one whom the world has rejected, but who has redemption right over it. There He is seen with the seven horns and seven eyes — His power over the world, as with the seven stars here as Son of man. These are the things John had seen.

We now pass to “the things that are.” The stars are in Christ’s hand; He speaks of them first; He walks in the midst of the assemblies. The latter are light-bearers, the assemblies or assembly as set in a given position, and viewed as such before God; not what the people became, but what the assembly is in His sight; just as Israel was His people whatever the Israelites became. The stars are that which is held by Christ to give light and have authority, what He holds responsible to this end before Him. It is, in a certain sense, all composing the assembly therefore, and so it is often said in the addresses to the assemblies; but more especially those who stand in responsibility through their connection with Himself, the stars in His hand. They should shine, and influence, and represent Him, each in its place during the night. That the clergy gradually took this place, and in this sense are responsible in it, is quite true; but that is their affair to answer for themselves before the Lord. The Spirit does not so take it here.

They assume it as honor; they have it as responsibility. If ever they were called “angels,” it was evidently just this assumption, and taken from this place. Again, it cannot be doubted that leaders, elders, or others, were in a special place of responsibility, supposing them to be rightly such. In Acts 20 they are so treated; but the Spirit does not so own them here. Christ does not address Himself to elders, nor to the modern notion of a bishop, which did not indeed exist then. Nor is a diocese* thought of in these addresses. You have not the authorities (elders) spoken of in scripture, of which there were always several; and this passage of scripture cannot be applied to human arrangements as now existing. [* Except in some parts of the world, those called bishops are always bishops of a city, showing historically that dioceses are a subsequent arrangement.

Angels were not chief officers of the synagogue.] What then is the angel? It is not a symbol, properly speaking. The star is the symbol, and it is here seen in Christ’s hand. It is (as angel is always used where it is not actually a heavenly or earthly messenger) the mystical representative of one not actually seen. It is so used of Jehovah, so used of a child, so spoken of Peter. Elders may have practically been specially responsible from their position; but the angel represents the assembly, and especially those to whom, from nearness to Christ and communion with Him, or responsibility for it through the operation of His Spirit in them for His service, He looks for the state of His assembly in His sight. No doubt the whole assembly is responsible, and therefore the candlestick is removed when unfaithfulness is brought home to it; but Christ is in immediate communication with these in respect of it — a solemn thought for all who have the good of the assembly at heart.

The way in which the angels and the assemblies are identified, and any distinction in the degree or manner of it, requires a little more detailed attention. That the assemblies are addressed in their general responsibility, in the addresses to the angels, is evident. For it is said, “What the Spirit saith to the churches.” It is not a private communication to an authority for his direction, as to a Titus or a Timothy, but said to the assemblies; that is, the angel represents their responsibility. So we find distinct parts of them noticed. “The devil shall cast some of you into prison”; “fear none of those things which thou shalt suffer”: “but I have a few things against thee, that thou hast there”: “My faithful martyr who was slain among you”: “But unto you I say, the rest in Thyatira” (so it is to be read). Yet the angel and assembly or candlestick are distinguished: “I will remove thy candlestick out of its place.” “Thou sufferest that woman Jezebel.”

But this separation between the angel and the assembly does not take place in the last three assemblies. The angel is addressed throughout. As to them too it is only said, Christ has the seven stars, not that He holds them in His right hand. In Smyrna and Philadelphia there is no judgment; they were tried, as faithful, and encouraged. As to judgments, or rather warning threats: in the case of Ephesus, which presents the general fact of the assembly’s first decline, the warning is given that the candlestick would be taken away unless they repented: that the assembly did not, we know from scripture and fact, and these assemblies looked at as a successive history. In Pergamos and Thyatira the offenders are those specifically judged; in the case of Thyatira fearful judgments on Jezebel and those connected with her: she had had time to repent and did not; but here the change of everything is looked for at the Lord’s coming. All this shows the angels to be the representatives of the assemblies, but morally such; Christ’s warning to be addressed to them (as we can easily understand to be the case in any who had the interest of the assembly at heart), whom Christ trusted with this; but to be so far identified with the assemblies that it concerned all who composed them, while particular judgments were denounced on guilty parties.

We may now enter on the series of particular assemblies; but briefly, in connection with the whole structure of the book, rather than entering into the instructive details, which I have done elsewhere in a series of lectures.

The first great fact is, that the assembly in this world is subject to judgment, and to have its whole existence and place before God as light-bearer in the world set aside; secondly that God will do this if it departs from its first spiritual energy. This is an immense principle. He has set the assembly to be a true witness of what He has manifested in Jesus; of what He is when Jesus is gone on high. If it be not this, it is a false witness, and it will be set aside. God may have patience, and has blessedly so. He may propose to her to return to her first love, and does; but, if this do not take place, the candlestick is removed, the assembly ceases to be God’s light-bearer in the world. The first estate must be maintained, or God’s glory and the truth are falsified; and the creature must be set aside. But no mere unsustained creature does this, none as such. Hence all fails and is judged, save as in, or upheld by, the Son of God, the second Man. Ephesus had gone on well in maintaining consistency, but that forgetfulness of self and thinking only of Christ, which are the firstfruits of grace, were gone. As heretofore remarked, there were works of labor and patience; but the faith, hope, and love had in their true energy disappeared. They had rejected the pretension of false teachers, and labored and not fainted. All that can be said of them is said to show Christ’s love, and that He is not forgetful of them, or of the good manifested in them. Still they had left their first love; and this unless repented of and the first works done, involved the taking away of the candlestick.

Another important principle is found here, that when the assembly had departed from faithfulness, when collectively it had ceased to be the expression of the love in which God has visited the world, God throws back individuals on the word of God for themselves: “He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith to the churches.” The assembly is judged, and thus cannot be the security for faith; the individual is called to hear what the Spirit says. The warning of taking away the candlestick here is specially worthy of notice, because there was a great deal the Lord highly approved of — encouraged them by showing He did; but, for all that, if first love was departed from, the candlestick would be removed.

The character of Christ and promises are general, as the assembly is characteristic of the whole principle on which the assembly stands. Christ has the stars in His right hand and walks amidst the candlesticks. It is not a special character applicable to a special state, but the whole bearing of His position in the midst of the assemblies. The assembly, viewed as having left its first love, is never promised anything. It cannot direct a believer when it comes under reproof and judgment itself. The promise is then to the individual overcomer: a very important principle. The promise given to him that overcomes is the general one — is the contrast to Adam’s ruin, but in a higher and better way than that in which he enjoyed the good which he lost. He that overcomes shall eat of the tree of life. But this is not the tree of life in man’s paradise in this world, but the paradise of God Himself. We must remark, too, that it is not as the first Adam now, individually keeping one’s first estate, but overcoming. And what is before us to overcome in is, not only the world and its hostilities (though that may be), but within the sphere of the assembly itself. It is the call to hear what the Spirit says to the assemblies which gives occasion to the speaking of overcoming. This, in respect of the claim of the assembly to be heard, is an immensely important truth. The message is addressed to the assembly, not by it to individuals, and she is warned of her delinquency, and the individual saint is called to overcome.

The word to Smyrna is short. Whatever the malice and power of Satan, at the utmost, if permitted, he has but the power of death. Christ is First and Last, beyond as before death, God Himself; but more than that, has met and gone through its power. The saints were not to fear. Satan would work, be allowed to sift, to imprison. Let the saints only be faithful to the extreme point of his power; all beyond was beyond him, was Christ’s; and the faithful one would receive from Him the crown of life. Tribulation, poverty, the contempt of those who pretended to have the legitimate hereditary claim to be God’s people — always the persecutors, be they Jews or Christians — was the portion of the assembly here; and God suffered it. It was really mercy to the declining assembly. Their hope was beyond it all when Christ gave the crown of life. This made the assembly, sliding into the world, or about to do it insensibly through decline of its first love, sensible that the world was in Satan’s hands — was not the rest of saints. But, if the Lord permitted, He limited, the tribulation. All was in His hands. Not only was there the crown for the sufferers, but whoever overcame, his portion was secure: the death of judgment, the second death, would not hurt him.

We now need a closer judgment. Christ appears as the One having the two-edged sword of the word proceeding out of His mouth. It will be remarked here, that, in Smyrna and Pergamos, a special character of Christ applies to a special state. There is no general result for the assembly. In Ephesus we have Christ’s position as Judge in the midst of the candlesticks, and the assembly threatened with removal from its place of witness upon earth. In Thyatira He takes His place as Son of God, Son over His own house, and, as things are (as to the assembly) got to the worst, is revealed in all-piercing and immutable judgment, and the whole blessing of the new state is promised to the overcomer. In Pergamos we have faithfulness found in its previous path, Christ’s name and faith held fast in spite of persecution. It differs from Philadelphia, that His word is not said to be held fast as that of Christ’s patience (that the assembly, in its Pergamos state, did not do), but it did hold fast the confession of Christ in the midst of persecution. But another kind of evil came inseduction to fall in with the world’s ways by evil teaching within. The doctrine of Balaam was there. Idolatry flowed in. There were also sects within, which taught pretended sanctity but evil practice. These the Lord would judge.

The general truth of removing the candlestick had no place here, neither as a general truth, when the assembly could be called on to keep its first love, nor as fiery judgment, because it was gone wholly astray; but there were corrupters, and Christ’s servants were led into idolatry and evil. Individual approbation by Christ, communion with Himself in future blessing (in spirit then), as the once humbled and rejected One (which the assembly was ceasing to be), a name given by Christ, and so of tenderness on His part, a link known only to him who had it. In a word, individual association and individual blessing of secret delight — this was the promise to the overcomer when corruption was advancing, not yet dominant and unhindered in the assembly.

In Thyatira the assembly reaches to the close. There was found, in what Christ owned in this state of things, increasing devotedness. But Jezebel was allowed; and both connection with the world, idolatry, and children begotten to it in the assembly itself. All would be judged, great tribulation fall on Jezebel, and her children be killed. Christ searched the heart and reins, and applied judgment in unchangeable righteousness. The faithful ones of this epoch, the “you” that Christ specially addresses, are but a “rest,” a remnant, but specially and growingly devoted. It is, we may remark here, what the assemblies are towards Christ, which is especially in view. What Jezebel did towards the faithful ones is not noted. The Lord’s coming is the time looked to; and the whole millennial blessing is promised to him that overcomes; both to reign with Christ, and Christ the Morning Star Himself. “He that hath an ear” is now put after the overcoming; not said in connection with the assembly, but with those who overcome in it.

The state is the state characterised by this. Thyatira may go on to the end, but does not characterise the witness of God to the end; other states must be brought in to do that. It is, I have no doubt, the Popery of the middle ages, say to the Reformation; Romanism itself goes on to the end. The judgment on Jezebel is final. The Lord had given her space to repent, and she had not repented. It would be a forced association with those whom she had once seduced to the ruin of them all. The whole character here is piercing judgment according to God’s one nature and requirements; special trial and judgment, yet the blessing not special, but the portion of the saints at large in that which they have with Christ; as the departure and judgment were complete — adultery, not merely failure in first love.

We have seen the close at the Lord’s coming contemplated in Thyatira.

Sardis begins a new collateral phase of the assembly’s history. Save the having the seven stars, none of the ecclesiastical characters of Christ, none of those noticed in Him as walking in the midst of the assemblies, are noticed. Still the assembly is noticed as such. It is still the history of the assembly. But, the Lord’s coming having been noticed, all characteristics of Christ refer to what He will have in the kingdom. Still He has yet the seven stars — supreme authority over the assembly. It is nothing peculiar to this assembly He has it over, and as to, all. It is in this character He has to do with Sardis. He has the seven spirits, the fullness of the perfection in which He will govern the earth. Thus He is competent to bless in the assembly, though there is no regular ecclesiastical connection. He has power over all, and the fullness of the Spirit; both in perfection. Whatever the assembly is, He is all this. This is a great comfort. The assembly cannot fail in the place of witness through want of fullness of grace in Him.

Nor can He fail him who has ears to hear.

But the state of the assembly showed that it was far from availing itself of it. It had indeed a name to live; it was superior in its pretensions to the evil of Thyatira; nor were there Jezebels and corruption. But there was practically death. There was no completeness in her works before God. It was not evil here, but lack of spiritual energy. But this did leave individuals to defile their garments in the world. She was called to remember, not her first works, but what she had received and heard, the truth committed to her, the gospel and word of God; if not, she would be treated as the world. The Lord would come as a thief; for the Lord’s coming is now always in view.

There is no threat of removing the candlestick: that was settled. Judgment, setting aside the assembly, was fixed. But this body would be treated as the world, not ecclesiastically as a corrupt assembly (compare Thessalonians 5). However, some had preserved their integrity, and would be owned, and they would walk with Christ as those that had done righteousness. This was the promise too. They had confessed His name practically before men, before the world, and theirs would be confessed before God when the nominal assembly was treated as the world. They were real Christians in the midst of a worldly profession, and their names would not be struck out of the register, then ill-kept on earth, but infallibly rectified by heavenly judgment. It has been remarked that, simultaneously with bringing in the Lord’s coming, the ear to hear comes after the distinguishing of the overcomers. Such a remnant only is looked for. I cannot doubt that we have Protestantism here.

The assembly of Philadelphia has a peculiarly interesting character.

Nothing is said of its works, but that Christ knows them But what is interesting in it is that it is peculiarly associated with Christ Himself.

Christ, as in all these last assemblies, is not seen in the characters in which He walked in the midst of the assemblies, but in such as faith peculiarly recognises when ecclesiastical organisation has become the hot-bed of corruption. Here it is His personal character, what He is intrinsically, holy and true, what the word displays and requires, and what the word of God is in itself — moral character and faithfulness. Indeed this last word includes all faithfulness to God within and without, according to what is revealed, and faithful to make good all He has declared.

Christ is known as the Holy One. Then outward ecclesiastical associations or pretensions will not do. There must be what suits His nature, and faithful consistency with that word which He will certainly make good.

With this He has the administration; and opens and no man shuts, and shuts and no man opens. See what His path was on earth: only then graciously dependent, as we are. He was holy and true, to man’s view had a little strength, kept the word, lived by every word that proceeded out of God’s lips, waited patiently for the Lord, and to Him the porter opened.

He lived in the last days of a dispensation, the holy and true One, rejected, and, to human eye, failing in success with those who said they were Jews, but were the synagogue of Satan. So the saints here: they walk in a place like His; they keep His word, have a little strength, are not marked by a Pauline energy of the Spirit, but do not deny His name. This is the character and motive of all their conduct. It is openly confessed, the word kept, the name not denied. It seems little; but in universal decline, much pretension and ecclesiastical claim, and many falling away to man’s reasonings, keeping the word of Him that is holy and true, and not denying His name is everything.

And this element is noticed. Christ, the holy and true One, is waiting. Here on earth He waited patiently for Jehovah. It is the character of perfect faith. Faith has a double character — energy which overcomes, and patience which waits for God and trusts Him (see the first in Hebrews 23-34; the latter in v. 8-22). It is the latter which is found here; the word of patience kept.

But as regards the former substantive qualities, keeping the word, and not denying Christ’s name (though with a little strength) in presence of ecclesiastical pretension to a successional God-established religion, promises were given. Christ would force these pretentious claimants to divine succession to come and own that He had loved those who kept His word. An open door was given at present, and no man could shut it; just as the porter had opened to Him, so that scribes and Pharisees and priests could not hinder it. In the future they would have to own themselves humbled, and that those who followed the word of the holy and true One were those He had loved. Meanwhile His approbation was sufficient. This was the test of faith — to be satisfied with His approbation, content with the authority of His word.

But there was a promise also as to the Lord’s judgments in the earth.

Christ is waiting till His enemies be made His footstool. We must wait for it to see the world set right. We have to go on where the God of this world has his way, though under divine limitation. The thought that good is to have its rights in this world is to forget the cross and Christ. We cannot have our rights till He has, for we have none but His. Judgment (since Pilate had it, and Christ was the righteous One before him) has not yet returned to righteousness. Till then Christ waits, though at the right hand of God; and we wait. It is not persecution and martyrdom, as in Smyrna. It is as hard a task perhaps, or, at any rate, our task now — patience and contentedness with Christ’s approbation, keeping His word, not denying His name.

But then there were other and blessed encouragements. The