/ y \ ^^ ^X^xwrn-^^. ^'^^ .>^3W' :ix, ^^ ^W^WM^^L':.^'^'^^'^ ^ ^ ^< <^ :^m % % ^/. THE REVELATION OF 6HRIST Y© pis C)ei'v^ar)fs : OF «^HINGS THAT ARE, AND * «^HINGS THAT SHALL BE. BRIEF NOTES IN INTERPRETATION. By F. W. Grant. NEW YORK: LoiZEAUX Brothers, Bible Truth Depot, 6^ Fourth Avenue. THE BIBLE TRUTH NEW VORK, PRINTED AT PRESS. 63 FOURTH AVENUE, IPAN STAO; PRESENT THINGS, As F()iii<>\vN IN nil Book ok Klvei^ation. THE PREFACE TO THE BOOK. The Book and Its Subject, {Chap. i. 1-3) THE book of Revelation is the one only book of New-Testament prophecy. As the comple- tion of the whole prophetic Scriptures, it leathers up the threads of all the former books, and weaves them into one chain of many links which binds all history to the throne of God. As New- Testament prophecy, it adds the heavenly to the earthly sphere, passes the bounds of time, and explores with familiar feet eternity itself. Who would not, through these doors set open to us, press in to learn the things yet unseen, so soon to be for us the only realities? Who would not im- agine that such a book, written with the pen of the living God Himself, would attract irresistibly the hearts of Christians, and that no exhortation would be needed for a moment to win them to its patient and earnest study ? It should be so, assuredly. How little it is so, the book in its first words is witness to us: for no book is so full of just such exhortation. And espe- cially the first part, with which we are to be for the present <>cciipied, abounds with solemn warn- 127 2 PRESENT THINGS, ETC. ings to attention, regularly appended to its several sections: *' He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches." Why is it that just here, where at first sight we have only ad- dresses to the churches of far-distant times, these calls should be multiplied? Why but because there was just this danger to be guarded against? why but because the Spirit of God foresaw that a gen- eration of men, most blind to their own interests when most wedded to them, would slight the very words of Christ Himself unless thus directly made over to them? What shall we say of those who with all this warning slight them still? Scripture is thus ever prophetic, not in its plain predictions merely, but in its manner also. Why should Peter be the one to tell us that all Christians are "a holy priesthood," but in view of those who should misuse his name in after-times? or why should he be the one to announce to us that we are born again by the word of God, which is preached in the gospel, thus with two blows destroying ritualism to its foundations? or why should Mary never prefer a request to her Son and Lord but to be checked for it, save as an after-rebuke to those who should think to avail themselves of the Virgin's intercession ? So too is not the very title of this book, with its subject announced, and encouragement both to reader and hearer? How could words be better suited to rebuke the neglect, into which so many have fallen, in which so many still are found, of what is Christ's own " revelation," given to Him by God, ** to show unto His servants things which must shortly come to pass"? Does a ** revelation " hide, or reveal? Is that which is revealed to serv- THE PREFACE TO THE BOOK. 3 ants, to be kept {v. 3) by them in their service to their Lord, given in so doubtful a manner as to be more perplexity than guidance? Is not this an accusation of Him who has forbidden to His people doubtful paths, because *' whatsoever is not of faith is sin"? Strange is the mistake that " the Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave unto Him," means His "appearing," because His appearing is the central theme of the book ! No doubt it is so, and that His appearing is spoken of elsewhere as His revelation ; but here, that " which God gave unto Him, to show unto His servants things which must shortly come to pass," is plainly the book itself, and defines its character. It is not simply an inspiration, as all Scripture is, but something revealed for the instruction of the saints. Many are too little clear yet as to the difference between the two. But rev- elation is that in which is a direct communication from God to man — a fresh discovery of truth other- wise unknown; while inspiration is that which preserves from error, and assures that all that is written is for true profit and blessing to man. "Jesus Christ's revelation " emphasizes the book before us, as what is from the Lord Himself in a peculiar way, of special importance and value where all is of value; and it is received by Him from God, as One who all through takes the place of Man, and as such is exalted of God, never exalts Himself. True pattern for His servants! He asks them to walk in no other path than He has trodden, and where they may have fellowship with Him. This book is the servant's book. So it is plainly stated : "To show unto His servant s'' We may not expect, therefore, to be shown, except we come 4 PRESENT THINGS, ETC. under this title ; and indeed every child of God has the responsibility and privilege of service, — has something-, no doubt, of the reality of it, as the Lord says, " He that hath My commandments and keepeth them, he it is who loveth Me " (Jno. xiv. 21). And so the apostle: ''This is the love of God, that we keep His commandments" (i Jno. v. 3). Both passages maintain that the only right measure of love is that of practical obedience. Emotional glow, warm feelings, are indeed to be desired, — nay, to be expected, from those conscious of re- demption by the blood of Christ ; but these vary with different natures, vary in the same person at different times, may even deceive very much the subject of them, while obedience is the test of the judgment-seat itself. Words and deeds we read of then as alone in question. Yet there is need of a counter-check here too ; for how much frequently goes under the name of service which is in truth even disobedience and self-will ! How much there is also of legal drudgery and pretentious claim, which the light of God's holy presence will shrivel into nothing! " Lo, these many years do I serve thee" is the language of one to whom the music of the father's house was a strange and unaccustomed sound ; and " I fast twice in the week, I give tithes of all that I pos- sess" was said by one less acceptable to God by far than the despised publican, who could only groan out in His presence, '' God be merciful to me the sinner!" The service of love and the service of claim are opposites. '' He died for all, that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto Him who died for them and rose again." This THE PREFACE TO THE BOOK. 5 is the moral power of Christianity — the fruit of grace, and only that. For if still there is a possi- bility of condemnation in the day of judgment, fear stirs me to self-interest, I work, for myself to escape the condemnation. " Faith worketh by love " — an entirely opposite principle. Such service is neces- sarily freedom, the more so the more it rules me, and entire happiness. In exact proportion to love will be the desire to serve the object of our love: as we read of the ''ivork of faith," so we do of the '' labor of love." But earnest and self-sacrificing as this labor may be, it can never be drudgery, never aught but joy. If such is our service, the thankful offering of those knowing themselves washed from their sins in the blood of Christ, then Revelation, with its survey of the whole field of labor, and its communication of the mind of Christ as to all, — Revelation, with its windows open toward Jeru- salem, and its eternal sunshine for our souls, — Revelation, with its throne of God and the Lamb, and the stimulation of its encouraging words to the overcomer, — is the very book for us, surely. We shall enter with rapt hearts into the truth of this : " Blessed is he that readeth, and they that hear the words of the book of this prophecy, and keep the things that are written therein." It is the book for all servants. We have many and different fields of service, it is true; and happy as well as important it is to recognize this fact. There are high positions and lowly ones ; positions before the eyes of multitudes, and positions hidden from almpst all eyes, save His who are in every place. But every where it is a joy to know that we are accepted, not according to the place we are put in, but the way we fill it — the way we do the 6 PRESENT THINGS, ETC. Master's work there. Lowliness and obscurity will be no discouragement to those in the communion of the Father and the Son: they cease to have meaning there. And publicity and prominence are how unspeakably dangerous, if the soul is not correspondingly before God ; like the tree which spreads its branches and lifts its top toward heaven, if its roots are not proportionately deep in the unseen depths below. Whatever the field of service, the book of Reve- lation is for all. All need alike the warnings, all need alike the encouragement. From the most hidden retirement, He whom we serve in love would have our hearts with Himself, busy with all that is of interest to Him. In the place of inter- cession Himself above. He would have us in fellow- ship with Him below ; our prayers rising up for all parts of the earth His Word is visiting, and where the true " irrepressible conflict " is going on between the evil and the good ; our praises, too, returning to Him for all He is daily accomplishing. In Revelation is given us the one ''mind of Christ" about all, that our prayers may be the intelligent guiding of the Holy Spirit, and our hearts giving their sympathies aright, our energies going forth in channels of His own making. Little indeed, in many of the systems of interpretation of this book, may be found, it is true, such help as this; and quite unable we may be to extract the spiritual blessing to be found in seals or trumpets which speak only of Alaric the Goth, or Attila the Hun: but for the simple ones who believCn God, the mere direct label of this book for Christ's servants may certify that there is something deeper while simpler than all this for souls that seek it. There THE PREFACE TO THE BOOK. 7 the words stand for faith to receive and rejoice in, — ''Jesus Christ's revelation, which God gave unto Him, to show unto His servants things which must shortly come to pass." Join us in prayer, beloved reader, ere we pass on, that we may give His people from these pages real help and blessing drawn from this precious book ! " Things which must shortly come to pass." This would now no doubt impress us, as w^e look back from the end of eighteen centuries fulfilled since it was written, with the belief that already some, if not much, of what is here spoken of must already have come to pass. And this we shall find con- firmed fully in the sequel. But two things we should guard here carefully, — the possibility on the one hand, and the profit on the other, of tracing with certainty, in the light of the prophetic Word, things which have not come to pass, and even will not while we are upon the earth. These two things, it is plain, hang very much together; for if there be not profit in it, it would seem clear that God would not enable us to do it; while of course there can, on the other hand, be no profit to us in a thing we cannot do. But this impossibility of knowing can only be meant seriously as applying to details, and to a cer- tain extent every Christian would allow this. Events are not so mapped out and put together for us as fo make us able to see otherwise than " through a glass darkly" — the apostle's own emphatic word. We can see only as one behind a window, and in twi- light, and are apt to fall into mistakes. Many have been thus made, which have thrown the study of future prophecy, for some, into utter disrepute. Yet who would say, or think the apostle meant to 8 PRESENT THINGS, ETC. say, that " through a glass darkly " nothing, or noth- ing to the purpose, could be seen? The uncertainty applies mainly to the smaller features; there is much certain, much that grows always clearer as we look upon it. Who that would use the mistakes that have been made for discouragement from pro- phetic study kas ever been a student of it ? I dare to say, none. Granted, the mistakes: let us use them for humility, use them as arguments to more prayer, more careful searching, then, after all, they will be helpful in the end. We can see already why and how many of them came about ; we can see how better to avoid them also in the future, and that the Word was not to blame, is not the less trustworthy, because we made them. We see that we trusted it too little, trusted ourselves too much. Then as to the profit. All our blessings lie in the field of unfulfilled prophecy. What are all our promises but this? And then as to the earth, and what is to take place upon it, it is true that such interpretations as are common in many popular books leave one with the profound sense that they minister rather to spiritual dissipation than to profit. What can be supposed more unprofitable ; than the question if the antichrist is to come of the Napoleon family? — a great and grave point with 1^ many for years past; or whether the stars faUing from heaven might be fulfilled in a shower of meteors? Such things seem to be utterly barren, \ and unworthy of a book so solemnly announced, ] so commended to us as is this. Surely, " he that prophesieth speaketh to the church to edification and exhortation and comfort" might not be an inapt word to condemn such profit- less speculation ; and there is abundance of it in THE PREFACE TO THE BOOK. 9 popular commentaries. But here the question is really not of fulfilled or unfulfilled prophecy. Such supposed fulfillment may be brought forward to vindicate Scripture — which has no need of it— or a certain system of interpretation, which it more justly would set aside. But unfulfilled prophecy, as we find it in the Word of God, even when it speaks of earthly events, and such as cannot be while we are upon the earth, always gives them morally ; as what can be more practical for us than to trace out in the future, as men are constantly seeking to do, the results of the present? In this way we may find the scriptural fall of stars to have the deepest significance. That all here is in the fullest way practical is very clear, from the blessing pronounced on those who ''keep the things which are written" in the book. This "keeping" is observing them in such a way that our practical conduct shall be governed by them. Indeed we shall find that the wisdom of them we must be content to " buy," with what men^ would call many a sacrifice. There are costs to be counted if we would possess it really. And this is the demand that all truth makes upon us. It re- quires subjection to it as the first thing. We must not trifle with the words of our Lord and Saviour, nor set Him limits as to how far we shall obey Him. It is this, however little avowed, that dark- ens the minds of saints, diminishing all spiritual perception. It is this that is at the bottom o"f all doctrinal heresy. We will not have the truth, and seek out inventions to cover our nakedness ; or at least we have not the soldier's '* virtue," which is courage, and so cannot "add to" our "virtue knowledge." lO PRESENT THINGS, ETC. I would warn my readers that the book of Reve- lation makes great demands upon those who keep its words. But I may assure them, on the other hand, that the more the demand the greater the blessing. Can it be otherwise when Christ it is who is speaking to us of that easy yoke and that light burden, in which, as we take them, we find rest to our souls? Will any that know their Lord charge Him with being a ''hard man," or a task- master? Our givings up are here in reality only gains. We have that in Him which we are never called to give up, and which the more we prove the more its sufficiency is found for all conditions ; the more we give up for it the deeper the endless joy. But submission there must be. Absolute sub- mission is what He rightly calls for; and it is well to search our hearts, to see if our desire and pur- pose are, to give Him that without reserve. How blessed to be among those who in uprightness of heart can say, '' I esteem all Thy precepts concern- ing all things to be right, and I hate every false way" (Ps. cxix. 128)! T/ie Style and Character of the Book. (Chap. i. 4-8.) We now come to the opening words of the book itself. It is in form a letter from the beloved apostle to ''the seven assemblies which are in Asia." This Asia was the Roman province called by this name, being the west coast of what is now, for the sins of Christendom, Turkey in Asia. The churches in it were even then, though traditionally the scene of John's as in the Acts of Paul's labors, already departing from the faith and spiritual power of Christianity ; and this, as we may see more here- THE PREFACE TO THE BOOK. II after, gives at once a certain character to the book. Whoever they were of whom Paul in his very last epistle says; "This thou knowest, that all they which be in Asia are turned away from me, of whom are Phygellus* and Hermogenes," it is clear that Asia was thus the scene of a revolt from that ''apostles' doctrine and fellowship" which it was a marked feature of the bright Pentecostal times tol maintain. The salutation shows at once the style of the book. It is not "grace and peace from God the Father, and our Lord Jesus Christ," but "from Him who is, and who was, and who is to come ; and from the seven Spirits which are before His throne ; and from Jesus Christ, the faithful Witness, and the First-born'^ of the dead, and the Ruler of the kings of the earth." Here, it is evident, we are not in the intimacy of children, but in the character of servants, according to what the previous verses have announced. The book is the book of the throne — of divine government; and that, not merely of the world, but of Christians no less. Indeed, where should divine government be more exemplified and maintained than among the people of God. " You only have I known of all the families of the earth," says God to His people of old ; "therefore will I punish you for your iniquities." It is true that toward us now grace is fully re- vealed, and the throne is a " throne of grace," but its holiness is none the less inflexible. Would it be grace if it were not so ? or do we desire to be de- * As there are many (smaller or gi-eater) inaccuracies in the common version of the book of Revelation, I take advantage of the difference here (though not a textual one,) to say that I follow, wherever it is possible, the new revision. Wherever I may not be able to do this, I hope to note the fact, and my reasons. 12 PRESKNT THINGS, ETC. livered from the conditions of holiness, or from the sovereignty of God? No; grace enables for the conditions, — does not set them aside;* and it sets God fully on the throne for us, makes the *' shout of a King" to be in our midst. Children with the Father, where should there be whole-hearted, un- reserved obedience if not among these? The throne here is Jehovah's throne, for " who is, and was, and is to come" is just the translation of the covenant-name of Israel's God. " Grace and peace " salute us from this unchangeable One — this eternal God. The new revelation has not displaced, nor mended^ (as rationalism would have it,) the God of Israel for us! It has declared Him: displaced shadows, filled in gaps, perfected the partial and fragmentary into the glorious God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ ! taught us to see in the older , Scriptures themselves a fullness of meaning of which those who wrote them could have no pos- sible perception. Do David's psalms yield us less than they yielded to faith of old ? And if the New ' Testament has no corresponding book, is it not because, now that the Spirit of God is come, our psalmody is to be found in every book, which for us He has combined into one harmony of praise and triumphant joy? Yes, the One who is was, and is to come. Our present God is He who from first to last abides, in every generation, amid all changes changeless; sitting on high above all water-floods; whose kingdom is an everlasting kingdom. What a resting-place for faith! "Lord, Thou hast been our dwelling-place in all generations!" But not only are grace and peace breathed from this ever-living One, but also ''from the seven THE PREFACE TO THE BOOK. 1 3 Spirits which are before His throne." We all rec- ognize at once that these seven Spirits stand for the plenitude of the Holy Spirit ; and in the fourth chapter they are represented as seven lamps of fire burning before the throne, while in the fifth they are the '* seven eyes" of the Lamb, "sent forth into all the earth." This, again, evidently connects with Isaiah xi, where these seven Spirits are seen to be energies of the Spirit which are found in the Man, Christ Jesus, as reigning over the earth. "Grace and peace," then, from these — how blessed ! All the ministries of divine government upon the earth working in blessing toward us; all the course of things as guided and controlled by God, spite of all hindrances, all puzzles and perplexities, still working in one harmony of grace and peace toward His own. How easy to be bold and patient both, if we beUeve this ! Then also "from Jesus Christ, the faithful Wit- ness, and the First-born of the dead, and the Ruler of the kings of the earth." " Faithful " is empha- sized here, for our encouragement surely, if grace and peace are from such an One, but yet in contrast with other witness too, as that of the Church, so little faithful. Is it not a needed word for those oppressed with the sense of failure, — almost ready to give up what are His principles, because of the break-down of those who have undertaken to carry them out? In such a case, how good to remember that on the one hand we are servants and not mas- ters., with no liberty to dispense with one even of His commandments, and on the other, that we serve One who Himself is faithful, however we have failed. Shall we go to Him and say, " Master, Thy principles are impracticable for a world and a 14 PRESENT THINGS, ETC. time like this"? or shall we lack in courage when results are in His hand who has never failed, and never will, while He oftentimes submits to apparent defeat. Such was the cross, the victory of victories, and we must submit, here as elsewhere, to the rule of the woman's Seed. To this are we not in fact brought in the next words? ''The First-born of the dead " unites us with Him as the later-born, and resurrection is the mode of His triumph over apparent defeat. But it is divine triumph, in which not alone evil is vanquished, but God is nianifested in His resources and in His grace. Grace and peace are ours from One who is con- queror over death, and who brings us into the place into which as Forerunner He has entered, while already He is, as risen, and on the Father's throne, Ruler of the kings of the earth, — the scene through which in the meantime we are passing. In a little while, when He takes His own throne, we shall share also in this. Thus are we furnished at the outset for present service. Placed before the living and eternal God, the energies of His Spirit ministering to us, the Captain of our salvation cheering us on with the joy of already accomplished victory, the pledge of certainty as to our own. Now for the response of our hearts to this before we start: without our hearts are in tune, and we can go cheerily into ttie battlefield — for it is a battlefield into which we go, and not as spectators merely, — we should only expose ourselves there to our shame. The singers must be in the forefront of the Lord's army, as in Jehoshaphat's of old, and then there will be good success. So the saints' answer to their Captain's voice here is with a song: — THE PREFACE TO THE BOOK. 1 5 " Unto Him who loveth us, And hath washed* us from our sins In His own blood, And hath made us a kingdom. Priests to His God and Father, — Unto Him be glory and might . Unto the ages of ages. Amen." This is a sweet response of loyal hearts on the edge of the battlefield. It is the good confession of His name, and of the debt we owe Him, which has made us His own forever. Good it is, the open joyful maintenance of this, which at once separates us from the world that rejects Him, and puts us in the ranks of His witnesses and followers. '' By Him therefore let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually, that is, the fruit of our lips, con- fessing His name." No such wholesome, invigor- ating, gladdening work as is confession. " Unto Him who loveth us," not '''■loved us," as the common version reads. It is a present reality, measured only aright by a past work — " and hath washed us from our sins in His own blood." Let us take care we measure it ever so ! Not by our own changeful feelings or experiences, as we are so prone to do, but by the glorious manifestation of itself thus: an infinite measure of an infinite full- ness ; for who knows aright the value of the blood of Christ? " And hath washed us from our sins : " what an encouragement for those who have to go into a *" Washed us," I believe, is right. The Revised Version puts it, how- ever, into the margin, and "loosed us" into the text. Most of the modern editors agree with this, and it has the weight of the oldest MS. authority in its favor, although the great mass of MSS. give " washed." The latter seems more in the apostle's manner as 1 Jno. i. 7; Rev. vii. 14 (though in the latter case it is not persons, but robes j. 1 6 PRESENT THINGS, ETC. world full of temptation and defilement! We have known sin as sin — known it as needing the precious blood of Christ to cleanse us from its guilt, and known ourselves too as thus cleansed. If we are *'idle and unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ," it can only be because we have "for- gotten that " we were '' purged from" our '' old sins." But more : He has '' made us a kingdom," priests to His God and Father." Israel was promised, conditionally upon obedience, " Ye shall be unto Me a kingdom of priests, and a holy nation." (Ex. xix. 6.) They failed in obedience, and Levi's spe- cial priesthood was the consequence of their failure, while, as part of this failed people, not even the priesthood could pass within the vail. Grace has now given us as Christians that access to God to them denied, and to God fully revealed as the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. He who has thus revealed God has given us our place in His presence — a happy, holy place of praise and inter- cession. "To Him be the glory and might unto the ages of ages!" An "Amen" is added here, that we may as indi- viduals join our voices to the voice of the Church at large. It is a blessed thing to be part of the innumerable company who have a common theme and a common joy ; but it is also blessed to have *A11 authorities, upon the warrant of the three oldest MSS. and some ancient versions, give this instead of the "kings and priests" of our com- mon one. The reference to Exodus xix. is plain, but I do not see how in either passage we have the equivalent of the other reading. A " kingdom of priests " does not convey the thought of " kings and priests," which we have, however, undoubtedly, in chap. v. 10. Is it not rather a people Avho own God's sovereignty, instead of being a rabble of independent and rebellious wills, as once ? AVell may we praise Him who has done all this for us ! Internal criticism, however, as opposed to authorities, might suggest the defensibility of the "Received Text." The MSS. are evidently here also in some confusion. THE PREFACE TO THE BOOK. 1 7 our own distinct utterance and our own peculiar joy. The more distinct the better. Would the apostle have felt it the same thing to say, '' Who loved us, and gave Himself for us," true as it might be, as to say, '*Who loved me, and gave Himself for me'' ? Assuredly he would not. The "chief of sinners," realizing himself that, had something which was individual to himself, and which would not be lost or overlooked in the general song. And we have, each one of us surely, special experiences to call forth pecuHar praise. Note, too, that the power of the life lived to God is associated by him with this individualization: ''The life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, \vho loved me, and gave Himself for me." Thus, then, the heart gives out its response to its beloved Lord. Now, then, it is qualified for testi- mony to Him. " If we be beside ourselves, it is to God ; if we be sober, it is for your cause." The soul in company with Christ turns necessarily to the world with its- testimony of Him : the Enoch- life is joined with the Enoch-witness. For it was he of whom it is written, ''he walked with God, and he was not, for God took him," who "prophe- sied, saying, ' Behold, the Lord cometh with ten thousands of His saints, to execute judgment upon all.' " The Church it is who is called, like another Enoch, to walk here with Him whom she is soon to be called away to meet and be ever with ; and the next verse in Revelation puts into her mouth her similar testimony : — " Behold, He cometh with clouds, and every eye shall see Him, and they also which pierced Him, and all the tribes of the earth shall wail because of Him." This is evidently not the Church's hope, but the 1 8 PRESENT THINGS, ETC. Church's testimony. It takes up the theme of the Old-Testament prophets, with direct appeal even to their prophecies ; for Daniel saw of old the Son of Man come with the clouds of heaven, and Zech- ariah declares how Israel look upon Him whom they have pierced, and how the tribes of the land mourn for Him, as one mourneth for his only son, and are in heaviness as he that is in heaviness for his first-born." (Dan. vii. 13; Zech. x. 10, 12.) I do not doubt that, while the words in Revela- tion repeat the very language of the older prophets, — for "kindreds" in the common version is literally "tribes," and "earth" and "land" are, both in He- brew and Greek, but the same word, — yet that in the passage before us a wider application is to be made than this. Not only shall they see who have pierced Him., but " every eye." Naturally, therefore, not the tribes of the land only, but of the earth at large, shall wail on account of Him. The testimony is neither to nor of Israel only, though including these. And while the mourning in Zechariah is unto repentance, the word here is large enough to admit of the wail of despair as well as of repentance. The Church's testimony is addressed to all. Christ is coming ; the day of grace running out ; judgment nearing with every stroke of the hour. A testimony which we know from Scripture, as we may realize every day around us, wakes only the scorn of " scoffers, walking in their own lusts, and saying, Where is the promise of His coming ? for since the fathers fell asleep all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation." Whose, then, is this Voice which here solemnly con- firms the testimony of approaching judgment? It is surely none other than the voice of God Himself: — , THE PREFACE TO THE BOOK. 1 9 " Yea, amen : I am x\lpha and Omega, saith the Lord God, which is, and which was, and which is to come, the Almighty." The ''Yea, amen," are not, as our books give them, part of the seventh verse, but commence the verse following ; and the words " I am Alpha and Omega, the Eternal, )he Almighty," exhibit fully the One with whom men's unbelief brings them into controversy. He challenges all unbelief. Is He not doing so to-day, when on every side signs political, ecclesiastical, moral, and spiritual warn men, if they will but attend, that the Lord is at hand? Why, the cry itself is a sign — " Behold the Bridegroom ! " Can they deny it has gone forth ? Call it a mistake ; call it enthusiasm ; call it high treason to the world's magnificent and immense progress; still it stands written, — '' And at midnight there was a cry, * Behold the bridegroom ! go ye forth to meet him ! ' . . . And as they went to buy, the bridegroom earned He who speaks is Alpha and Omega, whose word is the beginning and end of all speech : all that can be said is said when He has spoken ; at the begin- ning, who spoke all things into being, and whose word, " It is done," will fix their eternal state. He who speaks is Jehovah, the covenant-keeping God, unchangeable amid all changes, true "to His threats and to His promises alike. And He who speaks is the Almighty, lacking no power to fulfill His counsel. This is He who says, '' Yea, amen," to the testimony that He who was crucified in weakness shall come again in power, and every knee shall bow to Him, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. 20 PRESENT THINGS, ETC. THE SON OF MAN AMONG THE CHURCHES. (Rev. i. 9-20.) E come now to the vision which introduces W the messages to the seven assembUes which with it constitute the first part of the book. The second part is similarly introduced by the vision of the fourth and fifth chapters. There is a very evident and characteristic difference between the stand-points of the two. In the one case it is John, companion with the saints in tribulation and en- durance, and the scene is on earth ; in the other case he is called up to heaven, and the scene is there. The apostle writes, not as such, but as one in the common fellowship of the martyrs of Jesus, with whom testimony and suffering were linked neces- sarily together, the kingdom to be reached through tribulation. He being in Patmos for the word of God and for the testimony of Jesus Christ, the word of God is afresh communicate^ to him, and the testimony of Christ anew committed into his hands. Is it not the abiding principle, only in a more than usually eminent example, that " to him that hath shall more be given"? Did ever any one find himself so in Patmos without learning some- thing of the revelations of Patmos? Surely it could not be. Joseph becomes in his prison the " revealer of secrets ; " Moses in his wilderness banishment sees the burning bush ; David in his affliction develops the sweet singer of Israel; Paul gives out the mystery of the Church from the place of his captivity ; John follows only in the footsteps of these ; and those who have followed him, though at a humbler distance, and with no fresh revelations THE SON OF MAN AMONG THE CHURCHES. 21 because the Word of God is complete, have they no unfoldings of the Word, no nearer views of its Subject and Revealer, to more than compensate for the sorrow of the way — rhapsodies though they may seem to those of days of less demand and less enthusiasm? Yet when the apostle puts himself down thus simply as " partaker with you in the tribulation and kingdom and patience in Jesus," does he not expect us also, and invite us, as it were, into this fellow- ship? and must we not in some true sense be there in order to profit aright by this communication? If we will be friends with the world, can we expect to understand or be in sympathy with the prophet of Patmos? And if it be a Christian world we think of, the words have nothing but an evil signifi- cance, if we take the significance from Scripture. But among the many tongues with which for our sins we are afflicted, how few are content to speak simply the language of Scripture ! '' I became in the Spirit on the Lord's day," it should be. It was not simply in the right and normal Christian state in which John found himself, as so many think, but carried out of himself by the power of the Spirit; his senses closed to other things, his spirit awake to behold the things pre- sented to him, and hear the voice that speaks to us also in him. The expression is found again in the beginning of the fourth chapter, at the opening of the vision there. "On the Lord's day" does not mean, as some suppose, the prophetic ''day of the Lord," for which there is a different expression, and which would not really apply at all to this first vision and what follows it. It is the Lord's day, the day of Chris- 22 PRESENT THINGS, ETC. tian privilege, in which in the joy of His resurrec- tion we look back upon His death. Yet this does not surely shut out the looking forward to His coming: ''ye do show forth the Lord's death till He come." This is the only right attitude for the Christian to be in, as one that expects his Lord. And this is indeed why, as it would seem, the voice that John hears speaks behind him, and he has to turn to see the One who speaks to him. His atten- tion is to be directed to the present state of the Church ; turned back, therefore, from the contem- plation of the coming glory, to what to one so engrossed is a thing behind. He turns, and sees seven golden candlesticks, or " lampstands," as the word is. They answer in number to the seven lamps of fire burning before the throne, the significance . of which we have already seen. They represent, as we are told, the seven assemblies {zk 20), and, plainly, as responsible to exhibit the light of the Spirit, during the night of the Lord's absence. The reference to the golden candlestick of the sanctuary is evident, and the contrast with it is as much intended for our notice, and should be as evident. The candlestick of the sanctuary was one only, its six branches set into the central stem, and it speaks of Christ, not the j Church. The seven candlesticks are for lights, not kin the sanctuary, where Christ alone is that, but in lithe world. And while there is a certain unity, as representing doubtless the whole Church, yet it is the Church seen, not in its dependent connection with Christ, but historically and externally, as '' churches." Each lampstand is set upon its own base, stands in its own responsibility, as is manifest. To speak of the Son of Man in the midst as the THE SON OF MAN AMONG THE CHURCHES. 25 invisible bond of union is surely a mistake. He is judging, not uniting. Moreover, it is the Church in the larger, not the narrower sense here. Sardis as a whole is dead, and not alive. Christ is outside of Laodicea. In- dividually, they are local assemblies, which, as we shall see, stand each for the professing church of a certain epoch, or what in it characterizes the epoch. To see in them but Ephesus and its contemporary churches, as a large mass^of interpreters still do, is indeed to be blind, and not see afar off; but the proof as to this comes naturally later. They are golden candlesticks, as set for the display of the glory of God (of which the gold speaks) ; but this is not what of necessity is displayed by them ; they have the privilege and responsibility of it, but the candlestick may be, and in fact is, removed. But the vision here is not simply, nor mainly, of the candlesticks — the churches; it is of One rather from whom alone they receive all their importance, — "One like unto the Son of man, clothed with a garment down to the foot, and girt about at the breasts with a golden girdle." The attire is that \ of a priest, but not in service, for the girdle is not about the loins, and the dress hangs loosely to the > feet. As Priest, He is therefore a son of man, but j He is more; and this the words, ''One like unto the * Son of man," indicate. Why "like unto" this, if He were indeed only this? The precise expression, moreover, is from Daniel, as what follows unites with it the features of the Ancient of days as pic- tured there. Thus it is the divine-human Priest, the true Mediator between God and men, as God and Man. Yet He is not interceding. The characters which 24 PRESENT THINGS, ETC. follow show Him as when He comes to judge the world, and these are applied, in the third and fourth addresses, to the judgment of the churches. '' His head and His hair were white as white wool, as snow ; " this marks Him as the Ancient of days, the perfection of holy wisdom; ''and His eyes were like a flame of fire " — with the same absolute holi- ness searching all things; ''and His feet like unto white [-hot] brass, as glowing in a furnace*," — judg- ment following, as inexorable against evil; "and His voice as the voice of many waters," — the sound of that ocean which reduces man so easily to his native littleness and impotence. Such is He who in grace has become the Son of man, but whose holiness is as unchangeable as His love is perfect. All judgment is committed unto Him, because He is the Son of man. The Church and the world alike are in His hand whose glorious uprising will bring, in a short time, summer to the earth. "And He had in His right hand seven stars; and out of His mouth goeth a sharp two- edged sword ; and His countenance was as the sun shineth in its strength." All this exhibits the Lord as just ready to come forth and take the kingdom ; it is as if He had left the sanctuary, and were clothing Himself in the I cloud with which He returns. And so Scripture, when urging our responsibility upon us, carries us constantly on to the day of His appearing, when the result of conduct will be brought out and mani- fested to all. There is a wide distinction always recognized between this and His coming to receive us to Himself, with which nothing but grace is as- *On the whole, this seems the sense; but a wor^ unknown to the lexicons perplexes the commentators. THE SON OF MAN AMONG THE CHURCHES. 25 sociated. This is the time when we receive the fruit of His work ; and beautiful it is to see, and un- speakably comforting it is to realize, that first of all — before any thing else, His heart must have its way, and the sufficiency of His cross be shown to set the believer in full, unchallengeable possession of eternal blessedness, before ever a note of judg- ment has sounded, or a question as to his work been made. And this is plain from the fact of what the resurrection of the saint is stated to be. *' It is sown in corruption " — the body of the dead saint ; — "■ it is raised in incorruption : it is sown in dishonor; it is raised in glory : it is sown in weakness ; it is raised in power." And we who are alive and re- main unto the coming of the Lord, we shall be changed like them* into the image of the heavenly, and caught up together with them, to meet the Lord in the air. Thus incorruption, glory, power,) are ours before ever we see the face of the Lord \ or are manifested before His judgment-seat. j But with His appearing is associated the recom- pense of works; and thus all exhortations, warn- ings, encouragements, contemplate this. And so the Lord is seen in the vision here, though among the churches. In this way all is simple, and we ' cannot confound His being "in the midst of the ■ assembly " with His being in the midst of the as- sembhV\y, or seek for principles of gathering in what is of a totally different nature. '' Who walkctJi in the midst of the seven golden candlesticks " is the Lord's own word to the church in Ephesus. How different is the thought of His walking in the midst from His being in the midst as the centre of gathering ! Principles of church-order and discipline are not 26 PRESENT THINGS, ETC. to be sought in the book of Revelation. It is most important to reahze that God's Word, if it be beyond our systems, has a system of its own ; and that He has so arranged His truth that His people may know where to look for it, and find it with more simplicity than in fact we do. Each book has its line of truth, distinct from, however much con- nected with, every other one. The first of Corinth- -t^*^ ians is the book of church-order and discipline. ^ Revelation is the book of the throne, and divine judgment. And the simplest view of the vision before us agrees with this, which will only be more manifest the deeper we look. The vision of glory overpowers the apostle: " And when I saw Him, I fell at His feet as dead. And He laid His right hand -upon me, saying, ' Fear not.' " How the Christ of the gospel comes out here ! What words more characteristic of Him than this, "Fear not"? "Perfect love casteth out fear," and such love is His who speaks, not alone to John in this, but to all who, realizing more His majesty than His grace, would put Him back into the distance and darkness from which He has come out to us. What we are is no more in question ; the cross has manifested that fully : all for us lies now in what He is ; and the cross has revealed that too. Word and deed witness for Him and unto us, and His right hand of power acts with His word : "Fear not; I am the First and the Last, and the Living One ; and I was dead, and behold, I am alive for evermore, and have the keys of death and of hades." Here again divine and human characters are mingled. The First is Cause of all ; the Last, the end of all. " All things were created by Him and THE SON OF MAN AMONG THE CHURCHES. 2/ for Him:" no expression of divinity could be clearer or fuller than this. Then the Living One is necessarily also the Source of life, — living and life-giving. But this Living One has died, gone into death to become its Conqueror. Alive fon evermore. He has the keys of death and of hades, — that is, of that which holds the body and that which holds the soul of the dead.* Thus man'slyir' condition is plumbed to the bottom, for death is the seal of that condition. Only that which meetsj the condition can break the seal of it. He, then, who has been in death for us has turned its awful shadow into morning, not to bring back indeed out of its grasp the first creation, but to open for us the door into infinitely higher blessing. The gates of strengthf have yielded to our Samson, and more: out of the eater comes forth meat, and out of the strong sweetness. How beyond measure is this love of One who, though the Living One, has been in death for us! How rich have we be- come through this voluntary poverty! And "He who descended is the same also who ascended up, far above all heavens, that He might fill all things." He goes on: — " Write, then" — with this assurance, — "the things which thou hast seen, and the things which are, and the things which shall be after these ; the mys- tery of the seven stars which thou sawest in My *A similar connection of death and hades is found in the twentieth chapter: " Death and liades delivered up the dead which were in them "— the one, the soul ; the other, the body, " Hades " is never " the grave," as our common version sometimes renders it, and never " hell," which is its alternate rendering. •• Thou wilt not leave My soul in hell," as spoken of the Lord (Acts ii, 27, 31), agrees with neither. The distinction in these terms shows very simply that it is the body only which really dies, or over which death has its proper empii*e. f'Gaza" means "the strong." 28 PRESENT THINGS, ETC. right hand, and the seven golden candlesticks. The seven stars are the angels of the seven churches, and the seven candlesticks are the seven churches." These words give us the division of the book. ''The things which are" must needs apply to the seven assemblies and their state. ''The things which shall be after these " — not " hereafter," which is too vague, — to the things which follow from the fourth chapter on. This is evident, whatever view we take of the interpretation of these sections. With the first of them only have we to do here, — "the things which are," or present things. Present, then, in what sense? present at that time merely, and now long past? or, as many now consider, present still? Do the addresses to the churches give only such lessons for us here to-day as must necessarily be found in what is said to Christian gatherings of by-gone days by One who with perfect wisdom, knowledge, holiness, and love speaks to just such as we are? Or is there, beside all this, as many believe, a more precise, designed correspondence between these seven Asiatic assem- blies and as many successive periods in the "history of the Church at large — a prophetic teaching for all time, until the Lord come, and our path here is ended? Let us look briefly at what has been urged as to this latter view. Against, it has been -urged that the addresses are not given as a prophecy of the future, but simply as to churches then existing, now long passed away. This is undoubtedly the most forcible objection that has been made; for imagination is unholy license in the things of God, and the addresses have not the general style of prophecy, as must be admitted. We do right, then, to be watchful here. THE SON OF MAN AMONG THE CHURCHES. 29 But answer has been made to this: in the first place, that at the very beginning of the book, we have the whole of it called 2i prophecy : "Blessed is he that readeth and they that hear the words of the book of this prophecy, and keep the things that are w^ritten therein." It seems, therefore, that we have \ distinqt warrant for holding the addresses to be \ prophetic, and that we should rather require it for / refusing them this place. Beside this, the disguise which confessedly they assume may be accounted for. The Christian's priv- ilege and duty are, to be always expecting his Lord. He who says in his heart. My Lord delay eth His coming, is a '' wicked servant." There was to be left room for this expectancy, as the best help against discouragement, the most effectual remedy against settling down in the world, the best means of fixing the eyes upon Christ and things above. This was not to beget false hope or encourage mis- take, for the time of the Lord's return they were assured they did not know : *' Watch, for ye know not when the time is." But thus to put before men a prophecy of a long earthly history for the Church would be to destroy what was to be a main charac- teristic of Christians, to take out of their hands the lamp of testimony to the world itself, the virgin's lamp lighted to go forth to meet her Lord. And it is blessed to see that now, if, in the end of the days, the full meaning is being revealed, and we are shown how much of the road we have actually traveled, the effect is, after all the long delay, to encourage expectation, not to damp it. That we > are nearing the end is sure ; that any part of the ' road remains before us to be trodden, we have no assurance. The very thing which to past genera- 30 PRESENT THINGS, ETC. tions would have been an evil too fully to disclose is now for us as great and manifest a gain. For the prophetic view is further urged the con- stant emphatic appeal to our attention with which every one of these addresses ends. Was it only for men of that day and place that it is written, '' He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches"? No part of Scripture is so emphasized beside. Again, are there no candle- sticks amid which Christ walks except those of these Asiatic churches? The very number 7 is characteristic of this book, as it is significant of completeness also. As the seven Spirits speak of the complete energy of the one blessed Spirit, do not the seven churches stand for the varied aspects of the one Church of God on earth? And to them as representatives of this one Church is the whole book committed, — not for their own use merely, but for ours. As John is the representative servant, so the churches are representatives of the Church. But the great proof of the correctness of the prophetic view is (what as yet it would be prema- ture at any length to enter on,) the real correspond- ence between the picture given of the seven churches and the well-known history of the pro- fessing, church. We have the successive steps of its decline— first hidden, then external; the judaiz- ing process by which it Was transformed from a company of saved and heavenly people into a mixed multitude uncertain of heaven, clinging to the certainties of earth ; away from God, and com- mitting the sacred things, for which they are too unclean, to an official class of go-betweens. Then open union with the world, once persecuting, now THE SON OF MAN AMONG THE CHURCHES. 3 1 friendly, Balaam-teachers for hire- promoting and celebrating it. Then the reign of Jezebel, inspired and infallible, her cup full of abominations and filthiness of her fornication. Then Protestantism, soon forgetting the things which it had heard, sunk into its grave of nationalism, though with a separate remnant as ever, dear to God. Then an era of revival and blessing, the Spirit of God working freely, outside of sectarian boundary-lines, uniting to Christ and to one another. Then, alas ! collapse and threat of removal, Christ rejected and outside, the lukewarmness of water ready to be spued out of His mouth. Such is the picture: does it appeal to us? In thci midst of all this, in the central church, the centre of the darkness, at midnight surely, there begins a! cry, faint though at first, but gathering strength as the time goes on, "Go ye out to meet Him!" In^' Thyatira first, "Hold fast till I come!" To Sardis," " I will come on thee as a thief." To Philadelphia, — more as in haste now, — " I come quickly.'' Then : Laodicea, and the end ! * Does this appeal to us? What follows then? Briefly : a scene in heaven, and a redemption-song before the throne ; a Lamb slain, who as Judah's Lion unseals the seven-sealed book; churches no more on earth, but once more Jews and Gentiles ; and out of these, a multitude who come out of the great tribulation ; until, after the marriage of the Lamb has taken place in heaven, its gates unclose, and the white-horsed Rider and His armies come out to the judgment of the earth. This to many even yet may read as strange as any fiction. I cannot of course enter on it now. But there are those who object that by this view 32 PRESENF THINGS, ETC. jt?" the relative importance of events is quite inverted. Ia'** xfTwo chapters give us the whole course of christen- li/* /dom; the largest part of the book by far is taken *1 up with the details of some seven years after the I 'Church is removed to heaven: why so rapid a survey of what so immediately concerns us? — so lengthy a relation of what will not take place till . after the saints of the present time have passed } from the scene? But how often are we mistaken in the relative importance of things! God seeth not as man seeth; and the common view which appropriates seal after seal to the succession of Roman emperors, trumpet , after trumpet to the inroads of Goths and Vandals, vial after vial to the French revolution and Napo- leonic wars, has surely missed His estimate of importance. But more: the events which fill so many chapters have indeed for us the very greatest significance. The time is that ''end of the age" which is the harvest of the world ; it is the judg- ment for which all around is ripening, and in which every thing comes out as He who judges sees it. Is it not for us of the greatest possible moment to see that final, conclusive end of what is now often so pretentious and delusive? Here we may surely gather, if we will, lessons of sanctilication of the most practical nature. Indeed we are sanctified by the truth ; and whatever is of the truth will sanctify. EPHESUS. 33 THE ADDRESSES TO THE CHURCHES. Ephesus, the Decline of the Church. (Rev. ii. 1-7.) TT is not in any wise as being the metropolitan ^ church of Asia that we find Ephesus first addressed. This, which has been the thought of many, has assuredly no countenance from the Word. The Church of God, which is Christ's » ^^ body, is not composed of churches, but of members,; *^ united together by that blessed Spirit which unites*^ 1^ all to Christ the Head. Hence, the "churches," or; ^ *' assemblies," are only local gatherings of so many ^fst^ Christians as find themselves, in the providence of God, actually together. Each of these is, accord- ing to Scripture, the Church in that place, as the true text reads invariably in these two chapters. This expanded would be, as in the epistle to the Corinthians, the " Church of God " in such or such \ a place. The place adds nothing to this title, nor ; is one gathering of its members superior or inferior i in privilege or responsibility to any other. ^ It is true that the Church of God is not only, designated as the body of Christ in Scripture, but also as the House of God — the place of His abode.- But here, again, it is the Church at large that is so. . A^' There are not bodies of Christ, but **one body."; Just so there are not houses of God, but ''the house." In each place, the local assembly represents . the Church at large, as being indeed the local Church, ] — what of the Church at large is in that place. And 34 PRESENT THINGS, ETC. this may vary, from time to time, in numbers, spir- ituality, and many other ways : and thus there will be peculiar local responsibilities, differences, and privileges, as is recognized in the chapters before us ; but the standing in each the same. No doubt we must not forget, as indeed we are not allowed to forget, the immense difference be- tween profession and reality. A dead Sardis could not be in reality of the body of Christ at all. But this is nevertheless what the Church means, if it means any thing according to Scripture. The professing church is this, or it is a lie; and how solemn a lie! No, the reason why Ephesus stands at the head of those addressed here is of another nature. It is to be found, not in any external supremacy over the rest, but in its original spiritual eminency, and as the church to which the truth as to the Church had been first of all committed, and this, not as to its order upon earth, but as to its heavenly character. The Ephesians had been addressed by Paul, as now at a much later date they are by the Lord Himself; and it is in comparing the tenor of these two epistles that we find the significance of its be- ing Ephesus, and no other, with which we here begin. The epistle to the Ephesians is that which carries us up to the height of Christian position, quickened out of death in trespasses and sins as following the course of a world governed by Satan, — and quickened with Christ, raised up together, and seated together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. This is individual, true of all believers, if there were no Church at all; but God has done more, and as united to Christ by His Spirit, we are members of His body, the fullness of Him who EPHESUS. 35 filleth all in all. Both as body of Christ and habit- ation of God, the apostle develops the doctrine of the Church in this epistle; while in the fifth chap- ter he carries us back to the beginning, and shows us once more the Church under the type of Eve, espoused to Him who will yet present her to Himself a glorious Church. These are the truths, given to all saints, no doubt, but of which the Ephesian disciples were counted worthy to be the first recipients. And the apostle could write to them in this way as " faithful " ones, communicating what the spiritual state at Corinth or Galatia or among the Hebrews would have hindered his making known to them (i Cor. iii. 1,2; Heb. v. 1 1-14). If Corinth headed a list of churches declined from first love, we should not marvel; but can we fail to realize the significance of its be- ing Ephesus, the special custodian of the truth of the Church itself, in its heavenly reality ? The style of the address is, at the very outset, a sign of distance, as unusual as full of significance on the part of the Lord toward His people. There can be no proper question that the churches are themselves addressed, for this is directly stated at the conclusion of each epistle: *' He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches." Yet the Lord's words are, ''To the angel of the church " in each case, and to this the style of the address fully corresponds. The re- sponsibility of every thing that is wrong is ascribed to the angel ; it is he that has them that hold the doctrine of Balaam, or of the Nicolaitanes ; it is he that suffers the woman Jezebel ; it is he who is threatened with the removal of his candlestick. It is quite plain that he represents the church in 36 PRESENT THINGS, ETC. Some way, and it is urged that the word "angel" has this force of a representative wherever it does not stand for the heavenly beings so called, who though higher naturally in the scale of creation, yet minister to the heirs of salvation. ^^ ^ The word "angel" means, as every one knows, 1**^' simply "messenger," and is applied to the spirits of ' heaven as God's messengers to men. But it is plain that the messenger does represent, so far as his errand is concerned, the one who sends him. " He that receiveth whomsoever I send receiveth Me; and he that receiveth Me receiveth Him that sent Me." Thus this meaning of the word is easily * derived from its original one. However, the representative character of the angel here is plain. It is natural enough that the advocates of episcopal or presbyterian order should find, as they do with equal facility, the bishop or , the pastor in this representative-angel. In Scrip- ture elsewhere it is impossible to find either of y these things, largely as they are now believed in, ^ and therefore as impossible, if we cleave to Scrip- ^ture, to read them in here. Apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, and teachers we read of as gifts to the Church at large, though a Peter might especially address himself to the circumcision as a ^lJ«Paul to the Gentiles. But where have we the f "^ I apostle of this place or that? Just as little have we \£^ I the pastor of this church or of that. Bishops and ^ j deacons, it is true, we do find with a local office ; I still, never the bishop of an assembly, but the bish- ops; with whom it is allowed that the elders were identical.* " They ordained them elders in every church" (Acts xiv. 23). The one representative / * Acts XX. 17, 28 (" overseers," the same word as " bishops ") ; Tit. i. 5, 7. EPHESUS. 37 of each assembly supposed to be signified by the angel cannot be found in Scripture elsewhere. Ephesus had its bishop-elders long before this, as we see in Acts xx. Its diocesan bishop at the time when this was written tradition makes the apostle John himself! He, then, cannot be the angel to whom he is told to write, nor will the search be more successful in other directions. All that can be truly urged is that this address to the angel is in accord with what we know to have been the state of things a century or so after the time of Revelation. And this is quite in accord with its sad significance. We have epistles to individuals, as to Timothy and Titus, never to the church tJirougJi these. We have the epistle to the saints in Christ at Philippi, with the bishops and deacons, not to the bishops and deacons for the church. The constant method of address is to the church as such ; and suppose here the " angel " were to stand for the bishops of Ephesus, how evident would it make the contrast between the first epistle (perhaps of thirty-odd years back,) and this second one ! No more the direct address of familiar intimacy, though now from the very lips of the priestly Me- diator. Yet His love has not changed ; the change, then, has been in His people. The strange style is from One whom they have treated as a stranger. Sadly it tells of the close of the old intercourse which he who seeks will find as invited to, if it were Laodicea, " I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with Me." Turn to the Acts, and see how free, how tender, how as a thing of course — which deepens, not lessens, the wonder of it, — this intercourse can be. Or look back even to Genesis, if you will, and learn how truly God's last 38 PRESENT THINGS, ETC. thought is His first thought. It is man who has driven back these approaches upon God's part, and forced Him into the cloud and darkness. The Church has but repeated the old history, though now, because the Light has come, the darkness is more strange and terrible. But it is important to ask. Has He for our sins, then, given up His Church to this? and does the ''angel" speak of distance maintained on His part toward even one, the least of all His saints? With whom, as with the angel, does He still speak face to face ? Is it with an official class who interpret .Him to those beneath them? Does the sun, as in winter-time, no longer reach the valley-bottoms, but only gild the tops of the hills with light? or is it to some gifted men that Christ reveals Himself, who, as planets, shed the little of His radiance they can reflect on others? Ah, no; it is not men of gift, still less an official class, who are indicated by the angel. The heart of those who know their Lord shall answer. It is not. No; nor, alas! is it any longer the church as a whole either ; very far from that! Read the superscription "to the angel" in the light of the subscription, '■''He that hath an ear^ let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches," and you will find that still the question of who are nearest Christ is answered by another, who has ears and eyes and heart for Him. He still speaks as of old to those who as of old Hsten. His ways. His attitude, His heart, can know no change. The stars that shine in His firmament are the overcomers of the darkness, not of the world now merely, but of the church, — planets that know their orbit and are held by their centre, and shine by the light of Him who shines on them. ''The EPHESUS. 39 seven stars are the angels of the seven churches." If to the opened ear Christ speaks, it is plain that the responsibility of hearing is as much as ever that of all. None are released from it. And yet it is not to the mass that He can speak any more, or the overcoming would not be in the church, as it clearly is. Already it is the few that listen, and the constraint in the Lord's manner is but the indica- tion of His sense of this. It may seem strange, however, that if the "angel" stands for these who listen to Christ's voice, He should hold them responsible, as we have already seen, for all the evil in the church with which they are connected. How, it may be asked, can He thus burden with the sins of the whole the few who have an ear to hear? The responsibility of an offi- cial class is more readily recognized than of those who may be, however spiritual, the feeblest possi- ble to accomplish any change in the condition of things around them. But this is not the question. It is true we are poAverless to alter the general state. The ebb-tide of ruin can be stemmed by no hand of ours, and this feebleness of ours may seem an available plea to withdraw us from responsi- bility as to it. But not so teaches the word of the Lord. Our associations are here distinctly recog- nized as part of our general condition. We are to "depart from evil," not be unequally yoked with unbelievers, purge ourselves from vessels to dis- honor, and follow righteousness, faith, love, peace, witJi those that call upon the Lord out of a pure heart. For association with evil we are therefore ever responsible. It may be said that such princi- ples, carried fully out, would involve a very narrow path and a wholesale giving up of spheres of use- 40 PRESENT THINGS, ETC. fulness. But be it so or be it not &o, it is not ours to choose. Our path is defined for us. ** To obey is better than sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of rams ; for rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness as iniquity and idolatry." Yes, "rebellion"! How gladly would we call an obedience Hmited by our own wills by some lighter name than that ! Yet what else, in truth, was that which brought out Saul's true character, and lost the kingdom to him and to his seed forever? What he left undone was a mere trifle to what he did. And the sheep and oxen had been spared to sacri- fice to the Lord. What fairer excuse have people now to offer for much disobedience — evil plausibly intended to bring forth good ? And how hard is it to understand that while we may obey in much that in fact costs us little, the true test of obedience is just in that in which we are called to renounce our wills and our wisdom, perhaps to forfeit the esteem and companionship of others, by doing what has only the Word of God to justify it and must wait for eternity to find right appreciation! But now to listen to His word to Ephesus, who " holdeth the stars in His right hand, and walketh in the midst of the seven golden candlesticks." The one point of the address is plain, and it is left to stand in sufficient, solemn, decisive contrast with all else that is unmingled commendation. Works, labor, patience, abhorrence of that which is evil, trying fearlessly those who put forth the highest claims, bearing for Christ's name's sake, and not fainting, — all this, put in the balance with one solemn charge: ''Thou hast left thy first love." And this follows: "Repent, and do the first works, or else I will come unto thee, and will remove thy EPHESUS. 41 candlestick out of its place, except thou repent." Let us look at these things more closely. Their interest for us is of the deepest, for upon this one root of evil has grown all that has ever been in the Church's long decline through the centuries which have intervened between that day and this. And this it is which, as we see, brings about her removal from the place of witness for Christ on earth. This it is too which is the secret of decline in every in- dividual Christian. For us all, it should rouse the earnest, heart-searching inquiry, " Is it I ? " For, if it can be truly said of any of us, " Thou hast left thy first love," it is vain for us to think that other things can be really judged. The single eye is wanted even to see them with. We must get back to this, or there is no real recovery. Two masters, the Lord says Himself, we cannot serve. How much there was He could commend at Ephesus! ''I know thy works" is commendation clearly. But not only had they works, they labored. Do you think there are really so many of whom it could be said, they labor? We have recognized, what is so precious to understand, that we have our different spheres of service, and that there is no mere secular work, if really done for Christ. But to labor is to work with energy — to " toil," as the Revision gives it. How many of us toil for Christ ? Then they had patience — endurance. Many begin well, like the Galatians, but in the face of unforeseen difficulties give way. It is the mark of divine work that it endures. Human energy quickly spends itself: faith draws upon a stock that never decreases. It was true faith that wrought in these Ephesian saints. Patience, too, is apt to degenerate into a tolera- 42 PRESENT THINGS, ETC. tion, more or less, of evil. Finding it on every hand, and no where perfection, the very contact with it is apt to dull the spiritual sense. Charity would fain put also the mildest construction upon every thing. We are bidden to " take forth the precious from the vile," but we learn to tolerate the vile because of the precious. We become liberal where we have no right. The Lord praises the Ephesians for the opposite conduct: "Thou canst not bear them which are evil." And where there was the very highest assumption, they did not fear to test it : "Thou hast tried them which say they are apostles, and are not, and hast found them liars." But more, it was true love to Christ which wrought in all this: "Thou hast patience, and hast borne for My name's sake, and hast not wearied." Yet here it follows : " Nevertheless I have against thee," — not " somewhat," as if it were a little, — " that thou hast left \\\y first love." But how dreadful a dishonor to Christ is this, to lose one's first love ! It is as if at first sight He was more than He proved on longer acquaintance ! Is not here the very germ of final apostasy ? I do not, of course, mean that the Lord will allow any of His redeemed to be lost out of His hand. ''God is faith- ful, who hath called us into the fellowship of His Son Jesus Christ;" and this faithfulness of God is our security: "the gifts and caUing of God are without repentance." Nor only so; if we are born of God, we have that within us which cannot suffer us to become what we were before: "Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin ; for his seed rcmaineth in him : and he cannot sin, because he is born of God." Yet while this is true on the one side, in the child of God as identified with the divine EPHESUS. 43 nature by which he is such, — still, on the other side, it is no less true that in the believer also there re- mains yet the old nature. In him still there is that which lusts against the Spirit, and only if ye " walk in the Spirit, ye shall not fulfill the lust of the fiesh." Here is what makes the world to us such a battle- field. Capable, on the one hand, of enjoying all the joys of heaven ; capable, on the other, of being at- tracted by that which lies under the power of the wicked one, — the eye affecting the heart, — day by day we are solicited by that which daily lies before us and from which there is no escape. Our danger here is first of all distraction, some gain to us which is not loss for Christ, or that dulling of the spiritual sense we just now spoke of; the dust of the way settles upon the glass in which Faith sees her eter- nal possessions. Our remedy is the presence of Him who with basin and towel would refresh His pilgrims, cleansing away the travel-stains that they may have part with Him. Here alone first love is maintained. Here, in His presence, we learn His mind. The holiness of truth is accomplished in us. What is unseen but eternal asserts its power. The illusions of the prince of this world pass from us. The glory of Christ is revealed, and the eye here also affects the heart; He becomes for us more and more the light in which we see light, the Sun which rules the day, not only enlightening but Hfe-giving: the light in which we walk is the " light of life." Now here, as I have said, first love cannot but be maintained. Who could be daily in His presence, ministered to by Him, having part with Him, and yet grow cool in response to His love? It is im- 44 PRESENT THINGS, ETC. possible. Where this is the case, intimacy has not been kept up. We have not permitted the basin and towel to do its work. Assurance of heart be- fore Him has been replaced by an uneasy sense of unfitness for His presence, the true causes of which we have not been willing fully to face, and for which the remedy has therefore not been found. In this state there may be yet much work and labor and zeal, and true love at the bottom. Fruit may be on the tree, plentiful as ever, but not to the Master's taste as once, not ripened in the Sun. Form and bloom and beauty may be little lacking: this was the state at Ephesus. But the Lord says, "Repent, and do \}\q first works." What is the test, then, of "first love"? Not " work" — activity in outward service ; this they had at Ephesus : not even " labor," for this too they had : no, nor yet "endurance" — though a more manifest sign than either of divine power in the soul. Not zeal against evil, nor boldness to examine and refuse the highest pretensions; not suffering even for Christ's name, and that unwearied. All this is good and acceptable to God, and the Ephesians had it all, and yet says the Lord, " I have against thee that thou hast left thy first love." What, then, is the test of first love? It is in the complete satisfaction of the heart by its object. You know what power often there is in a new thing to take possession of one for the time being. And in first love, it is characteristic that it engrosses the subject of it. The Lord claims again and again the power to give this complete satisfaction of heart to His people. " He that drinketh of this water shall thirst again : but he that drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water EPHESUS. 45 that I shall give him shall be in him a fountain of water springing up unto eternal life." " He that Cometh unto Me shall never hunger, and he that believeth on Me shall never thirst." " If any man thirst, let him come unto Me, and drink. He that believeth on Me, as the Scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water." Now this it is that will give a peculiar character to the life which nothing else will. It is of this the apostle speaks when he says, *'The life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave Himself for me." It is this satisfaction with a heavenly object of which he is giving the effect when he says, '* This one thing I do: forgetting the things which are behind, and reaching forth unto that which is before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus." '' What things were gain to me, those I counted loss for Christ. Yea, doubt- less, and I count all things but loss for the excel- lency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord ; for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ." This is the secret of happiness, who can doubt? That for which he counted all else dung and loss must have given him surpassing, supreme happiness. And happiness such as this, derived from nothing in the world, is power over the world. The back is upon it. The prize is elsewhere. The steps hasten upon a path that glows with the light of heaven. Holiness is found, as it only can be found, in heavenliness. Such was the apostle, and Christianity is nothing else to-day. Blessed be God, it is not something either to be found far on in the Christian course, but at the beginning. It is Jirst love which has 46 PRESENT THINGS, ETC. th&se characteristics. In Christ Himself, at once for present need, all fullness is found, as His own words declare. *' He that cometh to Me shall never hunger, and he that believeth on Me shall never thirst." It is in drinking of other streams that the old thirst comes back upon him who does so. " The lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life" are "all that is of the world." He that drinketh of this water shall thirst again. So the world holds its own by their very misery. But we are not speaking of the men of the world. It is to Ephesus — to the saints there — the Lord is speaking: to those to Avhom the heavenly truth had been unvailed, the depositaries of it upon the earth, the representatives of the Church at large. And it is to the Church at large, through Ephesus, that this is now addressed. Can any doubt the truth of such an application? Would that it were even possible! but we have not to go beyond the New Testament itself to find the application con- firmed, and to hear the prophetic announcement of still further departure even to the very end. The epistles of Paul, long before Revelation, reveal a state of things already beginning, such as it is hard to realize of those early days. In one of the very earliest comes the statement, " The mystery of iniquity doth already work," and "that day" — the day of the Lord — "shall not come, except there I come a falling away first." The two epistles to the ' Corinthians are the next in time to those to the Thessalonians, and at Corinth there is sin such as was not named among the Gentiles, with divisions beginning, and some denying the resurrection of the dead. Next, Galatia is backsliding from Christ under the law, and receiving another gospel. Then, EPHESUS. 47 to the Romans he has to write, bidding them avoid those who cause divisions and offenses, contrary to the doctrine they have learned. His next epistles are written from a Roman prison: but here he has to say of those to whom he had written that their faith was spoken of through the whole world, "All seek their own, not the things of Jesus Christ." The epistles to Timothy may close the sorrowful picture : "At my first answer no man stood with me, but all forsook me: " — Paul ends his course like His Master. Not alone at Rome: "This thou knowest, that all they which are in Asia have de- parted from me." But now all that will be vessels of honor, fit for the Master's use, are to purge themselves from the vessels to dishonor. Evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse; and in the last days perilous times shall come, men throwing the Christian dress over their un- changed natures, having the form of godliness but denying the power thereof. From such they must turn away. Peter, John, Jude, add each some fresh feature to the terrible picture ; but we need not dwell upon it more. We see the professing church is ruined and doomed. The true-hearted are already a remnant. By the " many antichrists " then present, the latest apostle decides that it is the last time. We look beyond even the Ephesian epistle here to see the hopelessness of the thought of any general repent- ance. And the word abides, " I will take away thy candlestick out of its place, except thou repent." The promise to the overcomer meanwhile rings out its words of cheer, " To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the tree of life which is in the midst of the paradise of My God." There is to be 48 PRESENT THINGS, ETC. no yielding-, however the difficulties of the way increase. God's stars shine by night as by day, and the darkness only makes them more apparent. It is no new thing, the darkness. The path of faith has been in all ages essentially alike. The incentive comes from beyond, and no sorrows of the way can mar the beauty of the paradise of God. The tree of life in the garden of old meant clearly dependent life, which was to be ministered to Adam by its means. In himself, innocent as he was, there was no continuance apart from this. God would thus remind him of the essential mutability and dependence of the creature — a safe and whole- some lesson. For us too, redeemed by the precious blood of Christ, and possessors of eternal life, this is still Hfe in dependence; and herein is the secret of its eter- nity. It is life in Christ, in the Son who is alone essential Life. Of the fruits of this we shall partake forever. How suited an appeal to those in the state addressed in this epistle! It is failure in maintain- ing the place of dependence, in receiving out of His fullness in whom dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily, that is the very secret of their condition. The mind, the will, the heart, are in independence. He who keeps close to Christ over- comes. How suited, then, the encouragement to one who knows already the blessedness of this place, to look on to the time when in far other cir- cumstances the full results of it shall be attained, — when eternally it will be ours to know the joy of that dependence which secures His ministry of love to us forever! "For of Him, and through Him, and to Him, are all things; to whom be glory forever. Amen." SMYRNA. 49 Smyrna: the Double Assault of the Enemy. (Rev. ii. 8-11.) The decline of the Church opens the way for the power of the enemy to display itself; and the assault is a double one — from without and within at the same moment. The result is, how- ever, very different in the two cases. The outside assault is failure, for it is impossible that the Lord should leave His saints to be subdued by power beyond their own ; while the defeat of Satan's wiles is another matter. Here they must put on the whole armor of God, that they may be able to stand in the evil day. We shall be able from this point to trace an instructive correspondence be- tween the history of the kingdom as developed in the first four parables of the thirteenth of Matthew and that of the Church in the first four addresses here. There also the failure (or partial success) of the good seed is the first fact insisted on, and then follows the inroad of the enemy. The two are put in connection by the words, '' While men slept, the enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat." Here, as not in the parable, the open assault is connected with the secret and inward one, and we shall see, if the Lord permit, that the two are really parts of one whole, the one favoring the other. The roar of the lion is well calculated to frighten souls into'the secret snare ; and in this regard we could not say that it had no success. God, on the other hand, suffers it to alarm His people into their place of refuge; and with true souls this would be its effect. The test is permitted to manifest the con- dition of things, and it is His way to allow such tests ever, as in all dispensations we shall find to be 50 PRESENT THINGS, ETC. the case. Alas, for the invariable result as to man ! but He will be glorified through all. Let us look briefly first at the open attack which, as it makes a figure in ecclesiastical history, gives us a date to attach to the period before us. Even those who do not see the historical application of these addresses generally admit a reference in the "tribulation ten days" to ten persecutions under the Roman emperors. That there were just so many can hardly be made out, and the expression need not be pressed so literally. It is quite plain, ' nevertheless, how the address to Smyrna suits this period, which lasted from Domitian's persecution • now begun, right on to Constantine, — that is, for ; over two centuries. This was undoubtedly the : martyr-age of the Church as a whole, although the ' persecution may have been more bitter locally in other periods. The power of Rome, absolute as it was throughout her wide-spread empire, when wielded against Christianity, left little room for escape any where, while as a heathen power it was antagonistic to all that professed the name. The address to Smyrna, therefore, comes exactly in place here ; and the very name — " myrrh," — used, as this was, in the embalming of the dead, reminds us of how '* precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of His saints." Indeed this is manifest all through the address. It is as ''the First and the Last, who" yet "was dead, and is alive," that He speaks to them. In the voice of One who though divine stooped down to death and is come out of it, and who gives them thus only to drink of the cup of which He has drunk, and to be baptized with the baptism wherewith He has been baptized. How fully can He say, " I know SMYRNA. 5 1 thy tribulation"! and how sweet the commenda- tion, " I know thy poverty, but thou art rich''' ! Yea, "blessed are ye when men shall revile you and persecute you, and say all manner of evil against you falsely for My sake : rejoice, and be exceeding glad." The times are so changed, we look back with a shudder to the sufferings endured at these times, unable, as it would seem, to comprehend the bless- edness of this link of sorrow with the Man of sor- rows. And yet we can see, even through the lapse of intervening centuries, how the " Spirit of glory and of God" jested upon these sufferers. The Captain of their salvation was at all charges for them, and as the sufferings of Christ abounded in them, so their consolation also abounded by Christ. They had heard His voice saying, *' Fear not those things which thou shalt suffer; be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee a crown of hfe." Multitudes were thus faithful ; but we are apt to form a wrong estimate of the times gilded by the glory of this faithfulness. Just so, in the address to Smyrna, the Lord's undisguised and tender sympathy with His own under persecution hides from the eyes of many the evil which is pointed out by Him as there in terms of indignant reprobation. By most, '' The blasphemy of those who say they are Jews and are not" is supposed to refer to the well-known and constant enmity of the unbelieving nation against the followers of their rejected Mes- siah. It is evident that they are treated as outside of those whom the Lord is here addressing, and that the "angel" is not, as elsewhere, charged with responsibility for their presence. But so neither are the Nicolaitanes, or the followers of Balaam at 52 PRESENT THINGS, ETC. Pergamos, or the woman Jezebel at Thyatira, ad- dressed directly by the Lord, while no one doubts, nor can it be doubted, that they formed part of the respective assemblies. The question of responsi- bility is a more difficult one, and we shall be obliged to consider it a little later. "Those who say they are Jews and are not" might be taken, no doubt, as parallel to the apostle's words that "they are not all Israel which are of Israel," and "he is not a Jew which is one out- wardly." Still it would not seem that they would so much need to profess themselves such, if they were of the nation really ; nor does it seem that so much would be made of the falseness of a profession for which there was after all a certain justification. If this, too, were really the character of those in question, there is no significance, that one can see, in the appearance here as regards any divine judgment of the churches. The moment we realize the adversaries here spoken of as Judaizers within the professing church, we find that we have in them as much the formal root of decline as in first love left we had the in- ternal principle. The mention of them at this point becomes a necessity really for the perfecting of the picture of what has in fact taken place. With the heart-failure first reproved, it is the key to the con- dition of things which is all around us, it charac- terizes the state of ruin which has come in. It is this which has robbed Christians of the enjoyment of their place with God ; it is this which has put them back into the world out of which grace had called them ; it is this which has built up once more a priestly hierarchy as necessary mediators between a mixed and carnal people and a far-off God. It is SMYRNA. 53 this which is indeed the triumph of the great ad- versary, although God be as ever sovereign above it; and no name could more fitly designate the instruments by which he has degraded the Church of God into the synagogue than the name by which the Lord brands them here — "the synagogue of Satan.'' The title precisely indicates the change accom- plishing. The Church of God is indeed every way the precise opposite of Satan's synagogue. The word which we translate ''church" is, as well known, properly ''assembly," — a title which, if it ^^j had been retained in our common version, wouldcM''^ have prevented the possibility of some significant c^ perversions. The assembly could not be con- founded, for instance, with a material building,-^tyj though spiritually indeed God's house. Nor could^' it be the clergy merely, as from Romanism, though by more than Romanists, it has been made to signify. These applications of the term are but indications of the very change of which we are now speaking. The assembly of God in Scripture is Christ's body, the fellowship of those who are His members, and of none but these. It is true that the responsibility of this place may be assumed by those who are not such, and so we find the assem- bly in Sardis pronounced by the Lord to be dead, arid not alive. Yet in the divine thought this is what the assembly is, and at the Lord's table every one declares this : " we being many are one bread, one body, for we are all partakers of that one bread." Thus it is the assembly, or gathering, of those who are Christ's members, called out by grace out of the world, and this is what the word used means. v^ 54 PRESENT THINGS, ETC. '■'■Rcclesia " is the assembly of those called out ; while ^'synagogue'' means merely a ''gathering together y' no matter of whom. The latter, of course, was the Jewish word, as the former the Christian; and they exactly express the difference between the respect- ive gatherings, Christ died, ''not for the nation [of Israel] only, but also that He might gather together in one the children of God which were scattered abroad." Outside of the Jewish fold He had sheep to bring in, and inside of it not all were His sheep. Judaism did not unite the children of God as such, as is plain, and its separation was not of believers from the world, but of Israel from the Gentiles. So, consequently, the children of God were not given their place with God, and had no Spirit of adoption — did not cry, "Abba, Father." God was saying, "I am a father to IsraeV — and this which comes nearest to Christian knowledge shows in fact the contrast. Relationship was by birth, not new birth, and did not mean justification and eternal life, as it means now. Those who be- longed to the family of God might perish forever, and those outside His family might be saved eternally. Judaism decided the eternal state of none. As a dispensation of law, it could give no assurance, it could preach no justification. For if the law says on the one hand " the man that doeth these thin'gs shall live in them," it says also " there is none righteous — no, not one." And that was not merely the effect, but the designed effect : " We know that whatsoever the law saith it saith to them that are under the law, that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world become guilty before God." It was thus ordained for the probation of man, a pro- SMYRNA. 55 bation necessary before grace could be proclaimed ; but on this account it could but as a means of salvation bear witness to its own incompetency. The announcement of that new covenant under which Israel's sins and iniquities would be no more remembered was such a witness. Thus, as the law could not justify, it could not bring to God. The unrent vail is the characteristic of Judaism as the rent vail is of Christianity. *'Thou canst not see My face, for there shall no man see Me and live" is the contrasted utterance to His who says, " He that hath seen Me hath seen the Father;" as is '' who can by no means clear the guilty" the opposite declaration to that of the gospel, that we "believe on Him who justifieth the ungodly." The darkness is passed from the face of God, and the true light — for God is light — shin- eth. We walk, therefore, in the light, as God is in the light, and have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanseth from all sin. The Judaizing of the Church means therefore, first of all, the putting God back (if that .were pos- sible ; possible for our hearts it is) into the darkness from which He has come forth ; replacing the peace which was made for us upon the cross with the old legal conditions and the old uncertainty. Darker than the old darkness this, inasmuch as the Christ for whom they only looked is come, and come but to put His seal upon it all : come, and gone back, and declared little more, at any rate, than was said before, and only definitively shut out hope of any further revelation. Thus in the Judaizing gospel confidence is pre- sumption. " No man knoweth whether he is worthy 56 PRESENT THINGS, ETC. of favor or hatred " is quoted as if from Paul instead of Solomon. In fact, is not Ecclesiastes scripture as well as Romans ? and will you make scripture to contradict scripture? Did not Christ say, also, ''I came not to destroy the law, but to fulfill"? and ought we not to follow Him? Peace is of course lost, and in the dread uncer- tainty that every-where prevails, who can distin- guish any longer between God's children and the world? Yet Judaism had its family of God, its ordinances which separated them from those around, its absolutions by the way which encour- aged hope, while yet, as continually needed, they sanctioned no presumptuous assurance. The Chris- tian family could still exist, baptism and the supper of the Lord take the place of the old Jewish ordinances, the Christian ministry conform to the Levitical priesthood, and the Church become more venerable by her identification with that of the saints from the beginning, and richer for the inher- itance of all the promises from Abraham down. This is assuredly the transformation that has taken place, and that began so early that we have but few traces of the manner of its accomplishment, or its agents either. We open the page of uninspired history, and the terrible transformation has been already achieved. In fact, so fully, that it presents the only difficulty in the application of the address before us to the period of heathen persecution. One would hardly suppose from the Lord's words here that (as it would appear) the witnesses for Him, faithful to death as they were, were never- theless thoroughly implicated in this descent from Christianity to Judaism. It would hardly seem as if the '' blasphemy " or slander of this Jewish party SMYRNA. 57 had been directed against them, or that the Lord could ignore their reception of these satanic doctrines.* The real question is, how far could we expect the history, meagre in proportion to its earliness, and which has come down to us through centuries of darkness and hostility to the truth, to reveal to us the struggle with these Jewish teachers, so generally successful as they were? I do not think we could expect it. An age which would forge the names of those in repute to spurious documents, often with the express design of giving authority to some favorite doctrine, would hardly hesitate to remove the too suspicious traces of opposition to prevalent views and practices from the history of the early church. That there should have been no such struggle is scarcely to be credited. And the words of our Lord here may well be taken as an encouragement rather to believe that there were even many who were doubly faithful in this time of trial ; faithful amid the outside persecution, and faithful also against what could and did soon de- velop into no less bitter persecution within the professing church. Of one thing we may be sure, that the true history of the Church remains to be written, or is written only before God. That which fills men's histories is hardly, save in responsibility, the Church at all. Solemn it is to realize the completeness of the ruin, almost from the first; and yet this has been the case in every dispensation. How long did our first parents live in paradise? Of the genera- * For I cannot accept, as some do, that " but thou art rich " is a reproof. And the blasphemy against them surely should acquit them of complicity with those who slander them. 58 PRESENT THINGS, ETC. tion before the flood, what was the record? and what of Noah's sons? Of Israel in the wilderness, but two of all that as men left Egypt got into the land. In the land, how soon does Bochim succeed Gilgal! The priesthood fail on the day of their consecration. The first king falls on the battle-field, an apostate. The hands that have built the temple to the true God build the shrines of idols. The remnant brought back from Babylon murder one of their latest prophets (Matt, xxiii. 35), and the awful history of the chosen people closes with the crucifixion of the Son of God. What hope, then, for the Church? And here the blessing bestowed only makes the ruin the more awful: the corruption of the best becomes the worst corruption. "The annals of the Church," says the Romish historian, ''are the annals of hell." How solemn a witness to the application of the words here, " who say they are Jews, and are not, but are the synagogue of Satan " ! Not that we must brand with this name the masses who fell into the snare prepared for them, still less the generations afterward succeeding to the fatal heritage. It is applied, as we may easily see, to the earnest and active propagators of the heresy rather than to those whom they seduced to follow them. The Word of God, while teaching us to be open-eyed as to the character of things around us, teaches us carefully the need of making a difference as to those who may profess the very same principles. Indeed, as to persons, love will ever hope the best that it is possible to hope. It will not be blinded into putting good for evil, or sweet fo^ bitter; and for evil principles it never can have evert the smallest toleration : can it toler- NICOLAITANISM. 59 ate poison in that which is men's food ? But it is another thing when the question of what is in the heart is raised. We are never really called to judge what is in the heart, while we are called to judge what is manifest in the life and ways. ** I wot that through ignorance ye did it" was said to those who had had part in crucifying Christ ; and it was but the echo of the Lord's own plea for them. But whatever our judgment may be as to per- sons, the evil abides, and its effects are in the present day all around us. The Judaizing of the^ Church means the vail replaced before God, souls at a distance, in uncertainty and darkness; the Church and the world confounded, the children of God deprived of their place and privileges, the \ world made Christian in form, the Church more i and more degraded to its level. The development / we shall see at length in the after-addresses. Nicdlaitanism^ or the Rise and Grozvth of Clerisy. (Rev. ii. 6,15.) The address to Pergamos follows that to Smyrna. This next stage of the Church's jour- ney in its departure (alas !) from truth may easily be recognized historically. It applies to the time when, after having passed through the heathen persecution, and the faithfulness of many an Antipas being brought out by it, it got publicly recognized and established in the world. The characteristic of this epistle is, the Church divclling where Satan's throne is. " Throne " it should be, not ''seat." Now Satan has his throne, not in hell, ' which is his prison, and where he never reigns at W 6o PRESENT THINGS, ETC. all, but in the world. He is expressly called the ''prince of this world." To dwell where Satan's throne is, is to settle down in the world, under Satan's government, so to speak, and protection. That is what people call the establishment of the Church. It took place in Constantine's time. Although amalgamation with the world had been growing for a long time more and more decided, yet it was then that the Church stepped into the seats of the old heathen idolatry. It was what people call the triumph of Christianity, but the • result was that the Church had the things of the world now as never before, in secure possession: the chief place in the world was hers, and the prin- ciples of the world every-where pervaded her. The very name of "Pergamos" intimates that. It is a word (without the particle attached to it, which is itself significant,) — really meaning '' marri- age," and the Church's marriage before Christ I comes to receive her to Himself is necessarily un- j^ ■ faithfulness to Him to whom she is espoused. It yV * is the marriage of the Church and t/ie ivorld which > \ the epistle to Pergamos speaks of — the end of a \j^ , courtship which had been going on long before. f^ There is something, however, which is prelimin- ary to this, and mentioned in the very first address ; but there it is evidently incidental, and does not characterize the state of things. In the first ad- dress, to the Ephesians, the Lord says, *' But this thou hast, that thou hatest the deeds of the Nicola- itanes, which I also hate " (ii. 6). Here it is more than the " deeds " of the Nicolaitanes. There are now not merely "deeds," but "doctrine." And the Church, instead of repudiating it, was holding with it. In the Ephesian days, they hated the deeds of the NICOLAITANISM. 6l Nicolaitanes; but in Pergamos, they "had," and did not reprobate, those who held the doctrine. The question now before us is. How shall we interpret this? and we shall find that the word *' Nicolaitanes" is the only thing really which we have to interpret it by. People have tried very hard to show that there was a sect of the Nicolai- tanes, but it is owned by writers now almost on all sides to be very doubtful. Nor can we conceive why, in epistles of the character which we have seen these to have, there should be such repeated and emphatic mention of a mere obscure sect, about which people can tell us little or nothing, and that seems manufactured to suit the passage before us. The Lord solemnly denounces it: "Which thing I hate." It must have a special importance with Him, and be of moment in the Church's history, little apprehended as it may have been. And another thing which we have to remember is, that it is not the way of Scripture to send us to church histories, or to any history at all, in order to interpret its sayings. God's Word is its own interpreter, and we have not to go elsewhere in order to find out what is there ; otherwise it becomes a question of learned men searching and finding out for those who have not the same means or abilities, applica- tions which must be taken on their authority alone. This He would not leave His people to. Besides, it is the ordinary way in Scripture, and especially in passages of a symbolical character, such as is the part before us, for the names to be significant. I need not remind you how abundantly in the Old Testament this is the case ; and in the New Testa- ment, although less noticed, I cannot doubt but that there is the same significance throughout. 62 PRESENT THINGS, ETC. Here, if we are left simply to the name, it is one sufficiently startling and instructive. Of course, to those who spoke the language used, the meaning would be no hidden or recondite thing, but as ap- parent as those of Bunyan's allegories. It means, then, " Conquering the peopled The last part of the word {^' Laos'') is the word used in Greek for "the people," and it is the word from which the com- monly used term '' Laity " is derived. The Nico- laitanes were just those " subjecting — putting down the laity " — the mass of Christian people, in order unduly to lord it over them. What makes this clearer is, that, — side by side with the Nicolaitanes in the epistle to Pergamos, — we have those who hold the doctrine of Balaam, a name whose similarity in meaning has been ob- served by many. " Balaam " is a Hebrew word, as the other is a Greek ; but its meaning is, ^'Destroyer of the people," a very significant one in view of his history ; and as we read of the " doctrine of the Nicolaitanes," so we read of a ''doctrine of Balaam." You have pointed out what he ''taught" Balak. Balaam's doctrine was, "to cast a stumbling-block before the children of Israel, to eat things sacrificed to idols, and to commit fornication." For this pur- pose he enticed them to mixture with the nations, from which God had carefully separated them. That needful separation broken down was their destruction, so far as it prevailed. In like manner we have seen the Church to be called out from the world, and it is only too easy to apply the divine type in this case. But here we have a confessedly typical people, with a corresponding significant name, and in such close connection as naturally to confirm the reading of the similar word, " Nicolai- NICOLAITANISM. 63 tanes," as similarly significant. I shall have to speak more of this at another time, if the Lord will. Let us notice now the development of Nicolaitan- ism. It is, first of all, certain people who have this character, and who (I am merely translating- the word.) first take the place of superiors over the people. Their " deeds" show what they are. There is no ''doctrine" yet; but it ends in Pergamos, with the doctrine of the Nicolaitanes. The place is assumed now to be theirs by right. There is a doctrine — a teaching about it, received at least by some, and to which the Church at large — nay, on the whole true souls, have become indifferent. Now what has come in between these two things, — the '' deeds " and the "doctrine"? What we were looking at last time — the rise of a party whom the Lord marks out as those who said thev were Jews and were not, but who were the synagogue of Sa- tan : the adversary's attempt (alas ! too successful) to Judaize the Church. We were looking but a little while since at what the characteristics of Judaism are. It was a pro- bationary system, a system of trial, in which it was to be seen if man could produce a righteousness for God. We know the end of the trial, and that God pronounced " none righteous — no, not one." And then alone it was that God could manifest His grace. As long as He was putting man under trial, He could not possibly open the way to His own presence and justify the sinner there. He had, as long as this trial went on, to shut him out ; for on that ground, nobody could see God and live. Now the very essence of Christianity is that all are wel- comed in. There is an open door, and ready ac- cess, where the blood of Christ entitles every one, 64 PRESENT THINGS, ETC. however much a sinner, to draw near to God, and to find, in the first place, at His hand, justification as ungodly. To see God in Christ is not to die, but live. And what, further, is the consequence of this? The people who have come this way to Him, — the people who have found the way of access through the peace-speaking blood into His presence, learned what He is in Christ, and been justified before God, are able to take, and taught to take, a place distinct from all others, as now His, children of the Father, members of Christ — His body. That is the Church, a body called out, separate from the world. Judaism, on the other hand, necessarily mixed all together. Nobody there could take such a place with God: nobody could cry, ''Abba, Father," really; therefore there could not be any separation. This had been then a necessity, and of God, no doubt; but now, Judaism being set up again, after God had abolished it, it was no use, it is no use, to urge that it was once of Him ; its setting up was the too suc- cessful work of the enemy against His gospel and against His Church. He brands these Judaizers as the " synagogue of Satan." Now we can understand at once, when the Church in its true character was practically lost sight of, when Church-members meant people baptized by water instead of by the Holy Ghost, or when the baptism of water and of the Holy Ghost were reckoned one, (and this very early became accepted doctrine,) how of course the Jewish synagogue was practically again set up. It became more and more impossible to speak of Christians being at peace with God, or saved. They were hoping to be, and sacraments and ordinances became means of grace to insure, as far as might be, a far-ofi salvation. i NICOLAITANISM. 65 Let us see how far this would help on the doc- trine of the Nicolaitanes. It is plain that when and as the Church sank into the synagogue, the Chris- tian people became practically what of old the Jewish had been. Now, what was that position? As I have said, there was no real drawing near to God at all. Even the high-priest, who (as a type of Christ,) entered into the holiest once a year, on the day of atonement, had to cover the mercy-seat with a cloud of incense that he might not die. But the ordinary priests could not enter there at all, but only into the outer holy place ; while the people in general could not come in even there. And this was expressly designed as a witness of their condi- tion. It was the result of failure on their part^ for God's offer to them, which you may find in the nineteenth chapter of Exodus, was this: "Now, therefore, if ye will obey My voice indeed, and keep My covenant, ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto Me above all people ; for all the earth is Mine ; and ye shall be unto Me a kingdom of priests^ and a holy nation." They were thus conditionally offered equal near- ness of access to God, — they should be all priests. But this was rescinded, for they broke the cove- nant; and then a special family is put into the place of priests, the rest of the people being put into the background, and only able to draw near] to God through these. Thus a separate and intermediate priesthood characterized Judaism, as on the other hand, for the same reason, what we should call now mission- irj-work there was none. There was no going out to the world in this way, no provision, no command, to preach the law at all. What, in fact, could they 66 PRESENT THINGS, ETC. say? that God was in the thick darkness? that no one could see Him and live? It is surely evident there was no "good news" there. Judaism had no true gospel. The absence of the evangelist and the presence of the intermediate priesthood told the same sorrowful story, and were in perfect keeping with each other. Such was Judaism ; how different, then, is Chris- tianity ! No sooner had the death of Christ rent the vail, and opened a way of access into the pres- ence of God, than at once there was a gospel, and the new order is, "Go out into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature." God is making Himself known, and "is He the God of the Jews only?" Can you confine that within the bounds of a nation? No; the fermentation of the new wine would burst the bottles. The intermediate priesthood was, on the other hand, done away; for all the Christian people are priests now to God. What was conditionally offered to Israel is now an accomplished fact in Christianity. We are a kingdom of priests ; and it •is, in the wisdom of God, Peter, ordained of man the great head of ritualism, who in his first epistle announces the two things which destroy ritualism root and branch for those who believe him. First, that we are "born again," not of baptism, but "by the word of God, that liveth and abideth for- iCver;" and this, "the word which by the gospel is preached unto you." Secondly, instead of a set of priests, he says to all Christians, "Ye also, as Hving ^stones, are built up a spiritual house, a holy priest- ihood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to iGod by Jesus Christ." (ii. 5.) The sacrifices are [spiritual, praise and thanksgiving, and our lives NICOLAITANISM. 6/ and bodies also (Heb. xiii. 15, 16; Rom. xii. 1); but this is to be with us true priestly work, and thus do our lives get their proper character: they are the thank-offering service of those able to draw nigh to God. In Judaism, let me repeat, no one drew really nigh; but the people — the laity (for it is only a Greek word made English,) — the people not even as the priest could. The priestly caste, wherever it is found, means the same thing. There is no drawing nigh of the whole body of the people at all. It means distance from God, and darkness, — God shut out. Let us see now what is the meaning of a clergy. It is, in our day, and has been for many generations, the word which specially marks out a class dis- tinguished from the ''laity," and distinguished by being given up to sacred things, and having a place of privilege in connection with them which the laity have not. No doubt in the present day this special place is being more and more infringed on, and for two reasons. One is, that God has been giving Ught, and, among Protestants at least. Scrip- ture is opposing itself to tradition, — modifying where it does not destroy this. The other is a merely human one — that the day is democratic, and class-privileges are breaking down. But what means this class? It is evident that as thus distinguished from the laity, and privileged beyond them, it is real and open Nicolaitanism, if Scripture does not make good their claim. For then the laity has b^n subjected to them, and that is the exact meaning of the term. Does Scripture, then, use such terms? It is plain it does not. They are, as regards the New Testament, an invention of 68 PRESENT THINGS, ETC. later date, although, it may be admitted, as imported really from what is older than the New, — the Juda- ism with which the Church (as we have seen,) was quickly permeated. But we must see the important principles in- volved, to see how the Lord has (as He must have) cause to say of the deeds of the Nicolaitanes, "Which I also hate." We too, if we would be in communion with the Lord in this, must hate what He hates. I am not speaking of people (God forbid !) : I am speaking of a thing. Our unhappiness is, that we are at the end of a long series of departures from God, and as a consequence, we grow up in the midst of many things which come down to us as "tradition of the elders," associated with names which we all revere and love, upon whose author- ity in reality we have accepted them, without ever having looked at them really in the light of God's presence. And there are many thus whom we gladly recognize as truly men of God and servants of God in a false position. It is of that position I am speaking. [ am speaking of a thing, as the Lord does: "Which thing I hate." He does not say, Which people I hate. Although in those days evil of this kind was not an inheritance, as now, and the first propagators of it, of course, had a responsibility, self-deceived as they may have been, peculiarly their own. Still, in this matter as in all others, we need not be ashamed or afraid to be where the Lord is; — nay, we cannot be with Him in this unless we are ; and He says of Nicola- itanism, " Which thing I hate." Because what does it mean? It means a spiritual caste, or class, — a set of people having- officially a NICOLAITANISM. 69 right to leadership in spiritual things; a nearness^ to God, derived from official place, not spiritual { power: in fact, the revival, under other names, and ■ with various modifications, of that very interme- : diate priesthood which distinguished Judaism, and ; which Christianity emphatically disclaims. That \ is what a clergy means ; and in contradiction to S these, the rest of Christians are but the laity, the 1 seculars, necessarily put back into more or less of the old distance, which the cross of Christ has I done away. We see, then, why it needed that the Church should be Judaized before the deeds of the Nico- laitanes could ripen into a " doctrine." The Lord even had authorized obedience to scribes and Pharisees sitting in Moses' seat ; and to make this text apply, as people apply it now, Moses seat had of course to be set up in the Christian Church ; this done, and the mass of Christians degraded from the priesthood Peter spoke of, into mere " lay members," the doctrine of the Nicolaitanes was at once established. Understand me fully, that I am in no wise ques- tioning the divine institution of the Christian min- istry. God forbid ! for ministry in the fullest sense is characteristic of Christianity, as I have already in fact maintained. Nor do I, while believing that all true Christians are ministers also by the very fact, deny a special and distinctive ministry of the Word, as what God has given to some and not to all — though for the use of all. No one truly taught of God can deny that some, not all, among Christians have the place of evangelist, pastor, teacher. Scripture makes more of this than current views do ; for it teaches that every true minister is / 70 TRESENT THINGS, P:TC. a gift from Christ, in His care, as Head of the Church, for His people, and one who has his place from God alone, and is responsible in that character to God, and God alone. The miserable system which I see around degrades him from this blessed place, and makes him in fact little more than ihe manufacture and the servant of men. While giving, it is true, a place of lordship over people which gratifies a carnal mind, still it fetters the spiritual man, and puts him in chains; every where giving him an artificial conscience toward man, hindering in fact his conscience being properly before God. jj vvi Let me briefly state what the Scripture-doctrine fU w Qf ^i^g ministry is — it is a very simple one. The Assembly of God is Christ's body ; all the members ,^ arc members of Christ. There is no other mem- Ji)i/bership in Scripture than this — the membership of *^^ Christ's body, to which all true Christians belong: not many bodies of Christ, but one body ; not many Churches, but one Church. There is of course a different place for each member of the body by the very fact that he is such. All members have not the same office : there V is the eye, the ear, and so on, but they are all necessary, and all necessarily ministering, in some way or sense, to one another. } Every member has its place, not merely locally, and for the benefit of certain other members, but for the benefit of the whole body. Each member has its ^i/t, as the apostle teaches distinctly. *' For as we have many members in one body, and all members have not the same office; so \ we, being many, are one body in Christ, and every one members one of another. Having then gifts NICOLAITANISM. ^ /I differing according to the grace that is given to us," etc. (Rom. xii. 4-6.) In the twelfth chapter of first Corinthians, the apostle speaks at large of these gifts ; and he calls them by a significant name — " manifestations of the Spirit." They are gifts of the Spirit, of course ; but more, they are "manifestations of the Spirit;" they manifest themselves where they are found, — where (I need scarcely add that I mean,) there is spiritual discernment, — where souls are before God. For instance, if you take the gospel of God, whence does it derive its authority and power? From any sanction of men? any human credentials of any kind? or from its own inherent power? I dare maintain, that the common attempt to authen- ticate the messenger takes away from instead of adding to the power of the Word. God's Word must be received as such: he that receives it sets to his seal that God is true. Its ability to meet the needs of heart and conscience is derived from the fact that it is '' God's good news," who knows per- fectly what man's need is, and has provided for it accordingly. He who has felt its power knows well from whom it comes. The work and witness of the Spirit of God in the soul need no witness of man to supplement them. Even the Lord's appeal in His own case was to the truth He uttered : ''If I say the truth, why do ye not believe Me?" When He stood forth in the Jewish synagogue, or elsewhere, He was but in men's eyes a poor carpenter's son, accredited by no school or set of men at all. All the weight of authority was ever against Him. He disclaimed even" receiving testimony from men." God's Word alone should speak for God. '' My doctrine is not 72 PRESENT THINGS, ETC. Mine, but His that sent Me." And how did it ap- prove itself? By the fact of its being truth. " If I speak the truth, why do you not beUeve Me?" It was the truth that was to make its way with the true. " He that will do God's will shall know of the doctrine, whether it be of God, or whether I speak of Myself." He says, " I speak the truth, I bring it to you from God ; and if it is truth, and if you are seeking to do God's will, you will learn to recognize it as the truth." God will not leave people in ignorance and darkness, if they are seek- ing to be doers of His will. Can you suppose that God will allow true hearts to be deceived by what- ever plausible deceptions may be abroad? He is able to make His voice known by those who seek to hear His voice. And so the Lord says to Pilate, *' Every one that is of the truth heareth My voice." (Jno. xviii. 37.) '' My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me ; " and again, '' A stranger will they not follow, but will flee from him ; for they know not the voice of strangers." (Jno. X. 27, 5.) Such is the nature of truth, then, that to pretend to authenticate it to those who are themselves true is to dishonor it, as if it were not capable of self- evidence, and so dishonor God, as if He could be wanting to souls, or to what He Himself has given. Nay, the apostle speaks of '* by manifestation of the truth commending ourselves to every man's conscience in the sight of God " (2 Cor. iv. 2) ; and the Lord, of its being the condemnation of the world, that ''light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil" (Jno. iii. 19). There was no lack of evidence : light was there, and men owned its NICOLAITANISM. 73 power to their own condemnation, when they sought escape from it. Even so in the gift was there "the manifestation of the Spirit," and it was "given to every man to profit withal." By the very fact that he had it, he was responsible to use it — responsible to Him who had not given it in vain. In the gift itself lay the ability to minister, and title too; for I am bound to help and serve with what I have. And if souls are helped, they need scarcely ask if I had commission to do it. This is the simple character of ministry — the service of love, according to the ability which God gives, mutual service of each to each and each to all, without jostling or exclusion of one another. Each gift was thrown into the common treasury, ^^JfJ^ and all were the richer by it. God's blessing and the manifestation of the Spirit were all the sanction needed. All were not teachers, still less public teachers, of the Word ; still in these cases, the same principles exactly applied. That was but one de- partment of a service which had many, and which was rendered by each to each according to his sphere. Was there nothing else than that? Was there no ordained class at all, then? That is another thing altogether. There were, without doubt, in the primitive Church, two classes of officials, regularly appointed, or (if you like) ordained. The deacons 'J\|/*^ were those who, having charge of the fund for the poor and other purposes, were chosen by the saints first for this place of trust in their behalf, and then appointed authoritatively by apostles mediately 1 tJL or immediately. Elders were a second class, — ^ elderly men, as the word imports, — who were ap- 74 PRESENT THINGS, ETC. pointed in the local assemblies as ''bishops," or ''overseers," to take cognizance of their state. That the elders were the same as bishops may be ^seen in Paul's' words to the elders of Ephesus, Avhere he exhorts them to "take heed to ... . all the flock, over which the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers'' There they have translated the word, "bishops," but in Titus they have left it — "that thou shouldest ordain elders in every city, as I had appointed thee; if any be blameless, .... for a bishop must be blameless." (Acts xx. 28 ; Tit. i. 5, 7.) Their work was to "oversee," and although for that purpose their being " apt to teach " was a much- needed qualification, in view of errors already rife, yet no one could suppose that teaching was con- fined to those who were " elders," " husbands of one wife, having their children in subjection with all gravity." This was a needed test for one who was to be a bishop ; "for if a man know not how to rule his own house, how shall he take care of the Church of God?" (i Tim. iii. 1-7.) Whatever gifts they had they used, as all did, and thus the apostle directs — " Let the elders that rule well be counted worthy of double honor, especially they who labor in the Word and doc- trine (v. 17). But they might rule, and rule well, without this. The meaning of their ordmation was just this, that here it was not a question of "gift," but of authority. It was a question of title to take up and look into, often difficult and delicate matters, among people too very likely in no state to submit to what was merely spiritual. The ministration of gift was another thing, and free, under God, to all. NICOLAITANISM. 75 Thus much, very briefly, as to Scripture-doctrine. Our painful duty is now to put in contrast with it the system I am deprecating, according to which a distinct class are devoted formally to spiritual things, and the people — the laity — are in the same ratio excluded from such occupation. This is true Nicolaitanism, — the "subjection of the people." Again I say, not only that ministry of the Word is entirely right, but that there are those who have special gift and responsibility (though still not exclusive) to minister it. But priesthood is another thing, and a thing sufficiently distinct to be easily recognized where it is claimed or in fact exists. I am, of course, aware that Protestants in general disclaim any^ priestly powers for their ministers. I have no wish nor thought of disput- ing their perfect honesty in this disavowal. They mean that they have no thought of the minister having any authoritative power of absolution ; and that they do not make the Lord's table an altar, whereon afresh day after day the perfection of Christ's one offering is denied by countless repeti- tions. They are right in both respects, but it is scarcely the whole matter. If we look more deeply, we shall find that much of a priestly character may attach where neither of these have the least place. Priesthood and ministry may be distinguished in this way: Ministry (in the sense we are now^ considering) is to men; priesthood is to God. The minister brings God's message to the people, — he speaks for Him to them : the priest goes to God for the people, — he speaks in the reverse way, for them to Him. It is surely easy to distinguish these two attitudes. "Praise and thanksgiving" are spiritual " sacri- 76 PRESENT THINGS, ETC. fices : " they are part of our offering as priests. Put a special class into a place where regularly* and officially they act thus for the rest, they are at once in the rank of an intermediate priesthood, — media- tors with God for those who are not so near. . Vi The Lord's supper is the most prominent and ^^ fullest expression of Christian thankfulness and ^* adoration publicly and statedly ; but what Protest- '* V ant minister does not look upon it as his official J^ ^ right to administer this? what ''layman" would a.f'^not shrii *^ it? And this is one of the terrible evils of the "not shrink from the profanation of administering ^ , system, that the mass of Christian people are thus * L distinctly secularized. Occupied with worldly p^f^ things, they cannot be expected to be spiritually what the clergy are. And to this they are given over, as it were. They are released from spiritual occupations, to which they are not equal, and to which others give themselves entirely. But this must evidently go much further. ''The priest's lips should keep knowledge." The laity, who have become that by abdicating their priest- hood, how should they retain the knowledge be- longing to a priestly class? The unspirituality to which they have given themselves up pursues them here. The class whose business it is, become the authorized interpreters of the Word also, for how should the secular man know so well what Scrip- ture means? Thus the clergy become spiritual eyes and ears and mouth for the laity, and are in the fair way of becoming the whole body too. But it suits people well. Do not mistake me as if I meant that this is all come in as the assumption f of a class merely. It is that, no doubt ; but never I could this miserable and unscriptural distinction NICOLAITANISM. 7/ of clergy and laity have obtained so rapidly as it did, and so universally, if every where it had not been found well adapted to the tastes of those even whom it really displaced and degraded. Not alone in Israel, but in Christendom also, has it been ful- filled : " The prophets prophecy falsely, and the priests bear rule through their means, and My peo- ple love to have it so ! " Alas! they did, and they do. As spiritual decline sets in, the heart that isj turning to the world barters readily, Esau-hke, itsj spiritual birthright for a mess of pottage. It ex-' changes thankfully its need of caring too much forj spiritual things, with those who will accept the responsibility of this. Worldliness is well covered! with a layman's cloak ; and as the Church at large dropped out of first love, (as it did rapidly, and then the world began to come in through the loosly guarded gates,) it became more and more impossible for the rank and file of Christendom to take the blessed and wonderful place which be- longed to Christians. The step taken downward,} instead of being retrieved, only made succeeding! steps each one easier; until, in less than threej hundred years from the beginning, a Jewish priest-j hood and a ritualistic religion were every-where! installed. Only so much the worse, as the preciousj things of Christianity left their names at least aa spoils to the invader, and the shadow became forj most the substance itself. But I must return to look more particularly at one feature in this clerisy. I have noted the con- founding of ministry and priesthood ; the assump- tion of an official title in spiritual things, of title to administer the Lord's supper, and I might have added also, to baptize. For none of these things 78 PRESENT THINGS, ETC. can scripture be found at all. But 1 must dwell a little more on the emphasis that is laid on ordination.