here. But what a view of the pastoral office and its solemn responsibility we get when we thus understand this word! They are addressed as representing and responsible for the Churches over whom they preside. Well might St. Paul cry-and well may we- "Brethren, pray for us." (2) And there seems to have .been ,.a modified episcopate; for the chief pa.o.tor had others with him (cf. Acts xx., "Elders of the Church"). Evid,ently there were several. Bnt the angel seems to have been chief over the rest, as he is held responsible for the faith and practice of the Church. But this need not hurt any one's conscience. Means are not ends. \Ve cannot follow exactly the l!Criptural pattern in all details. Were we to do so, it would hinder, probably, rather than help forward the end the Church seeks. And our divergences of practice should teach mutual charity and striving after oneness of heart even where there is not oneness of furm. II. DOCTRINAL. Note the sublime titles given to our Lord. They a1'8 all drawn from the vision told of in this chapter. But how plainly they teach the Divine glory that belong.~ to our Lord I As we read them over one by one, can we doubt; whilst we regard this book as inspired, as to who and what our Lord was? Here are titles that no creature, of however liigh an order of intelligence, or sanctity, or power, could dare to assume to himself or permit others to ascribe to 1im. There is but one conclusion, that ho to whom these titles are given, and by whum they are claimed, is in truth one with the Almighty, the uncreated, the snpreme God. Therefore let all the angels of Goel, and ,wery creature of God, and, above all, every soul of man, worship him. III. RELIGIOUS. For they show, concerning the Christian lifo: 1. Its solemnity. We are under the eye of him who says as none other can, "I know thy works." Thus he SJ)f'-llks to us al1 Others do not, cannot, know us as he doe& Who, then, will dare to disobey? "Arm me with jealous care, As in thy sight to live; And oh, thy servant, Lord, prepare .A strid account to give." 2. Its nature. (1) It is a battle. All have to wage a warfare, None are rxempt. Not poor Sardis and La.odicea alone, the weakest and worst of the Churches, have this warfare to wage, but Smyrna and Philadelphia also, the strongest and best. Every one is spoken to and of as engaged in a conflict iu which, if he do not overcome, he will be overcome. We cannot "sit and sing ourselves away to everlasting bliss." But a baUle bas to be fought, and only to those who overcome will the prize be given. (2) This battle has tremendous fosues. Which excel in intensity, the promises to the faithful or the threatenings to the unfaithful, it is hard to say. But they are .thus vividly contrasted in each letter, that we may the more readily see and deeply fool that this is no holiday pastime, no child's play, to which we are all inexorably called, but a serious, stem, and awful war. True, to-day, our foes are spiritual rather than tangible and visible; not cruel and 'bloody men who hunt our lives to destroy them, but the unseen forces of hell which are within and all around uK, and are the more mighty for that they are unseen. We have need to watch and we have need to pray, But there are (3) vast encouragements; for(,,) it is assured that all may overcome. We are not mocked. Even to Laodicea this was said, thereby implying that even for them, poor fallen miserable ones that they were, victory was poBBible, even they might overcome. And so now; they who most of all are " tied and bound by the chain of their sins" (and some are dreadfully so), yet even they, "through the might of Christ their Lord," may conquer in the fight. (b) And we are told how. For the titles of the Lord in these several letters show him to be an aU-ffljficient Saviour. However many and varied are the wants of his Ohnrch, he meets them and ministers to their needs. Are they in peril? He is their Guardian, holding them fast in his right hand. Are they beset by the powers of hell? He is their eternal, their glorified Saviour, possessed of all power. Are they troubled by fierce persecutors or by false friends? He who hath the sharp two-edged sword will avenge them. Are they wandering in heart and life, gone and yet going astray? He whose eyes are as a flame of fire 8888 them and will follow them, and will surely and, if needs be, sternly correct them. Are they almost worn out with toil and trial ? He will uphold them, for has he not the seven .Spirits of God? Does he bid them set out in arduous aervioe, telling them that there m. 1.1-20.} THE REVELATION OF S1'. JOUN TilE DIVINE. 43
ls an open door before them? He encourages nnd cheers them, in that be bath the key of David, and that when he opens no man shuts. Does he tear off the false coverings by which their true and evil state is hidden? As he does so he reminds them that he is their faithful Friend and Counsellor. Surely here, then, is the general lesson to be learnt from these varied letters of the Lord-that there can be no stress or strait in which his servants may be, whether by their own folly and fault or by the ma.lice and might of others, but what he has grace sufficient for all, and his grace shall supply all their need. Finally (c) observe the heart-cheering promise with which these letters all end. Imagery of the most sublime and exalted description is employed to set forth the glorious reward which now to some extent is given, but in the future far more fully shall be given to the faithful Christian. He is to eat of the tree of life, which is in the midst of the Paradise of God; the second death is to have no power over him ; he is to be invested with kingly authority over the ns.tiona, like to that which Christ pos- sesses; he is to be arrayed in triumphant and beautiful vestments, with white raiment is he to be clothed, and. his name is to be confessed by the glorified Redeemer before all heaven; he is to become a pillar in the temple of God, and Ol'l him is to be written liie Name of God, and the name of the city of God, from which he is to go no more out, he is to sit with Christ on his throne, s.s Christ is set down with the Father on bis throne; he is to eat of the hidden manna., e.nd to receive the white stone on which a new name is written, a name which no man knoweth, saving he who receiveth it. How great then are the encouragements held out to us all to cheer us on in our warfare; so ·that, if the battle be stern and the issues tremendous, we are not left to wage it at our own charges, but are daily helped by the grace of our Lord now, and animated by the sure rrospect of that prize which shall be given hereafter to all who truly strive for it. Such are some of the teachings common to all these letters. Others of a more special ..,_nil particular kind they doubtless have, but these alone justify e,nd enforce the 110veu- fold word," He that bath an es.r, let him hear," etc.-S. C.