The Pulpit Commentary — Revelation — Section 113

prove!! this. 'J'rue, we have had such severity before, and shall have it again• for rebuke, and c,ften stun rebuko, was what was needed then and still is by the majority of Churches, always and everywhere. Nevertheless, there is no one of these letters in wbfoh the toue is more eevure, or t,he smiting of the sword of the Spirit sharper, or the eolemnlty of the appeals !lddressed to them more arousing or lmpresaive. 'l'he epistle t.o Laodicea is the only one which oan be compared with it, and it is to be noticed that the wrong in that Church, whilst very great, is like this in Sardis, that it is free from the foul stai1111 eitJ1er of vice or heresy. In the sight of the Lord of the Church there is, it is evident, sc,mething more h:~teful to him than even these. Love to the Lord · may linger in hearts ,;ven where tlte:re are; but if love, the true life of every Chureh and every ir1dividual soul, be gone, then are they to be desoribed as. none others are, for they aro "dead." Hence in this letter there is no softening.mitigating utterance at all, no mention of good works, but the key-note of the epistle is struck at once, and a startling one if, is. But: 6. Wh11:t was the cause qf it allt Now the name our Lord takes to himsf'lf in this letter reveals this cause. He by that name declares that in l1im and from him is all-sufficient grace. Treasure store inexhaustible, riches unsearch- aUe, both for pasfor and }IOOple. · For his were, "the seven Spirits of God," and his "the aeven stars." ADd yet, in spite of all this, they were as they were. Oh, wae it Jict shameful, is it not sh11.I11eful 1 utterly inexcusable, when the like exists now, that, though abundance of grace is in. Obrist for us all, we should yet be what he terms "dead "? It was pla.in, therefore, they had not sought that grace; the fulness of the Si,irit's help nelther pastor nor Jieople had implored; and so, as we find, they had given in to the world's ways. 1t is evident from,the honourable mention of the" few" who l1ad "not defiled their garments," that the rest had. That is to say, they had given in f.o the world's ways. Hence St. James speaks of pure religion as being in part this, " Keeping your g:Lrmeats unspotted from the world." And in proof of this there seems to have boon a good understanding between the Church and the world at Sarclis. They seem to have got along together very well. In every other Church, save this and Laodicea,. mention is made of some "burden" which the enmity of the surrounding world laid upon the Church. But not here. As it has been well said (Archbishop '1'1'8nch), "'l~he world could endure it because it, too, was a world." This Church had nothing of the spirif; of the "two witnesses" (eh. xi 10) who "tormented them that dwelt in the earth" by their faithful testimony; or of the .Lord Jesus either, who "resisted unto blood. striving against sin;" and because he would not yield was crucified (d. nlso Wisd. ii. 12, etc.). But there was nothing of all this at Sardis. It might have been said of them, as was cynically said the other day of a certain section of ministers of religion amongst us, that "you would find them very well-bred, and you might be quite certain they would say nothing to you about your soul." It is an ill sign when tho (fuurch and the world are so happy together. 'l'here· has been compromise soroewhnre, and it is rarely the world which makes it. It is bad to have no life at all in God'1,1 love; it is worse to have had it and to have Jost it; but it is worst of all-and may God in his mercy deliver us therefrom-to have the name and reputation ofposses:iiag f.his life, and yet t.o be, in fact, as it was with Sardis, dead in regard the1'6to. For all around us conduces to deepen such fatal slumber of the soul, and there is an ev,irlasting soothing of them by themselves, the Church and the worlu alike, saying contiuually, "Peace, peace," when there is no peace. H. ON THE PUN[SHMENTwrru WHICH THE CHURCH IS THREATENED. (Ver. 3.) This IJOlemn warning c,f danger speaks of the Lord's ad vent to judgment. But: 1. What is that judgment P 'l'he name the Lord has assumed in this Jetter reveals it. Now, that namo was meant partly to show that they were without excuse, but also to remind that, as the Spirit is his to gil'e, so also is it his to withdraw and to withhold. As be can open thu doors of grace, and then no man can shut; so also can he shut them, and then nono oan open. '!'his, then, was what they were to fear, lest he should leave them alone, lest he should take his Holy Spirit from them, David dreaded this, and implored thiit the Lord would not deal so with him. Better any punishment, any IUffering, any pain, any amount of distress, than that the soul should be thus left alone of the Lerrd. 2. And this Judgment would come "as a thief;" they should not know when or how. '!'here wM an ancient proverb that the feet of the avenging goda are shod with wool Dii. laneos h ~ t pedea. The meaning is simply what ill here GU, UL L-22.) THE REVELATION OF ST, JOUN TUE DIVINE. 127