The Pulpit Commentary — Revelation — Section 108

watchful. Become so. (2) Strengthen what is left. All ls not lost. (3) Remember the past-those happy days of receiving the truth. (4) Repent. It ie high time, when death has seized on a Church, that its position should be seriously reviewed with the in p{U'pose of amendment unto life. Nore: (a) The life Christ is not so at the com- mand of the Church as to warrant its dis~sing with all possible care for the main- tenance of a continual inflow thereof. (b) The death of a Church ie not BUch a death ie that of a corpse. Its responsibilities are not lesseI,1ed by the fact of its death. 7. Thia death 4 most peril<YU&. "If therefore," etc. (ver. 3), 'l'hus again we meet with the thought that, if a Church ls;not doing its Lord's work, it certainly will not be spa.red for the 11ake of its own, It will matter nothing in the great gathering-day of eternity whether any particular Church survives or no. &me Churchee make much of their -!ree<lom. Some make much of their scriptural order. But life is of more importance than either one or the other. And if any Churchee cease to be alive, others with really hearty, earnest life will survive them, though they may be less exact in their form and order. Dead Churches will shrink and sink out of sight; and the Lord Jesus will write a branding epitaph on their tomb: "A dead Church, that once had a naID13 to live." IV. IN .A DE.AD CHURCH THERE KAY YET BE SOBE LIVING SOULS. A Church, as such, may expire in its own shame, yet there i:nay be in it a few living ones. We can Mlll the reason why the living ones are spoken of here as thoee "who have nQt defiled their garments;" for in the old Hebrew:,Law death was defilement. A man who touched a dead body was defiled. In Bardis, though the Church was dead,yet not every member was so. So that it seems there may be, thank God, even in a dead Church, some who. though surrounded with death, never touch it, but live always and everywhere in contact with the Living One, and BO "keep themselves unspotted from' the world." Note: A man must be in connection with a living Saviour if he would maintain his life. He must not depend on the Church for it I v. To LIVIliG SOULS IN A DEAD CHURCH THE SAVIOUR BAB WORDS OI!' CHEBB. Here is a promise which is, in itself, a cluster of promises; but the promises are not ~o the Church as a Church, only to individuals-to those who avoid the touch of the dead now, who are daily overcoming, and will finally overcome. I. Living on Christ now, hereafter they shall walk with him. 2. 'J.'hey shall be clothed in white raiment (see -eh. xix. 8). 3. They shall be had in remembrance before God. "I will not blot his name out of the book of life" (cf. Ma}. iii. 17; Phil. iv. 3; Luke x. 20; Heb. xii. 23). 4. They shall be avowed as Christ's at last. "I will confess his name" (cf. Luke xii. 8; Matt. xxv. 34-40). How strictly the Lord Jesus individualizes in the treatment of souls I If there are living ■ouls i;n a dead Church, or dead souls in a living Church, they will be dealt with by him, not according to the state of the Church, but according to their own. "Every one of us must give account of himself to God." As the inner life here was one between Christ and· him, so the public acknowledgment of him will be by Christ of him. He will not be confessed "as a member of the Church at Sardis" <>r anywhere else. In the great decisive day we shall be saved, not as adherents of any name or cause on earth, but only as those who lived on Christ, and drew their life from him, keeping themselves unspotted from the world. Note how solemn the alternative- .A.lin? or, dead? Vera. 7 -18.-Pkiladelpkill: 1M il>Wreignty qf the Lord Jesu, 01l6f' th6 hoose qf Gtxl. Although we know less of the Church at Philadelphia than of that at Smyrna, yet we think of it with almoat ~ual feelings of affectionate regard. It is one of the two out of Beven for which our Lord has no rebuke. He has for it only words of spur and cheer. It is weak, with "little strength." It is trusty. It has kept the faith. n has boldness, for it has "not denied Christ'11 Na.me." Demands had been made on its powers of endurance; but it had still kept the word of God's patience. It was vexed by some who boasted that they were Jews, and yet were not. 2h.M Judaism involved ,an acceptanee of the claims of Jesus, The Church at Philadelphia understood this, land swerved not from its ·loyalty to the Saviour. Hence there ls for it a series of -inspiring exhortations and promises, crowned by one of the noblest pledges to the ,victor over ill. The main streea of our present homily will lie in an answer to the inquiry-In what aspect is &UCh a Church invited to look at and think of the Lord Jesus ChriltP The reply to tJm, wi'11 all that is involved '1iefeby, will "open up" en. m. 1-W.] THE ltEVELATION OP ST. JOHN THE DtvINl!l'. 111