The Pulpit Commentary — Revelation — Section 125

Political rule is but • mere worthlem shadow and pretence compared wi& moral. . 6. It w the energy qf DiviM a.P.J""Ol'(ll and proteduin.. " Because thou hast kept ~ keep] the word of IDY patience, I also will keep thee from the hour of temptation. • , IIL A DBIITll!IY TO BB SOUGB'l'. What •·distinction amte··thoee who possesa and rightly employ this true moral strength 1' 1. ..t ffl)1llft. lief withi" their ~ " Behold, I come quickly: hold tba, fast which. thou hut, that no man (oneJ take thy crown.'' Obrist is coming to ·every. ma:n, and coming with l!Jl8ed,. coming ia '1le events of man's history-and ia his.exit by death. -Wilen he comes.there iaa "crowu" for him, if. he holds faithfully on t.o the true and the right. The allusion here ia to the public games of Greece, in: wfileb the winner obtained a garland of laurels. But. what is that garlalld to the crown here referred to.? The eternal weight of glory, a •crown": which shall. outehine yoa permanent. 8UD. ., Be faithful unto death, and I wilt give thee a crown of life.• 2. DiTJ&°M aeurify v IUIUred', "Him [heJtW overoometh will I make (I will make him] a pillar in the temple of my Gocf, and he shall go [out thence] no more out." "The promise,» Ays an eminent critic, "is tut of & aecure and permanent ,position in God's heavenly temple. Philadelphia is said to have been .IIU}gul&rly liable to earthquakes; not a bililding;.eommon or saored,·b\lt. ii might suddenly. fall in ruins. The, 1,romise here made is that no· such, ~ • sb&ll await the heavenly temple or those whQ have been,. l!uilt into it." 3. SublirM di,- lim:tion ia promised. · "I will 111ite upon him the name of my God, and the name of the city of my God, which µi new:Jerusalem, which co;mf!th down out of heaven from my God: and I will write upon hiiq my [mine own] new. name." "On the aides of the four marble pillars which survive as ruins of Philadel1>hia, inscriptions are to be found. 'l'he writing would be the name of God, the name of the heavenly Jeru- lialem, · the new, unknown name. of Christ himself. The aUusion is· to the golden fron,t'let inlleribed'with ·the ;name of Jehovah. He will reflect the likeness of God; and not -0nly so, be will bear the tokens-now aeen in all clearness-of hie hMvenly cltizeµship. And· a further promise implies that in the day of the last viii~ as the~ will be new revealinga: of Cl>,rlst's power, there will be unf.olded to the flLitbflll and victorious new and higber pQS&jbilities of purity. Th-us does •Scripture refuse to u recognize any fiqality whieb noU beginning a8 well as m end---a lallding~e itt th& ~ t Iaw·of continiiity." ' "... · . ' . . . · Cdlict.trSlolf, "I cap~ot," aays Trench, " leave tll:la epistle, so Ml of precious pro:,. mi8'!11 to i Ch~h which, having little strength, had :,et held fast the word of Christ's, patience, without citing a remarkable ~ g e about it from Grbbon, in which he writell like one "ho almost believed that the threatening promi&eB of God did fulfil tbemeelwt m history, •]n the 1088 of Ephesus the Ohristians deplored th~ fall of lhe fim angel, the extinction or the first candlestick, of the Revelation ; the de19Iati~ ·1- oom- plete; and the TeUlple of Diana dr the Obun:h of:Mary wil.l equally elnd,i th'e search of the cmioua traveller. The circus and· three stately theatres of Laodiee& are tio,ir peopled with wolves and foxes; Bardis is reduced to a miilerable village; the. God or Mahomet, without & rival or a Bon, is iuvoked m the mosques of Thyatira anti Pergamoa ; and the populou,snesa of Smyn1a is supported by the foreign trade of the Franks and Armenians. Philadelphia alene has been saved by prophecy or courage. At a distence from the sea, forgotten by the emperors, encom1J&S&ed on all sides by the Turk, ber valiant citisens defended their religion and (reedo_m above four score years~ and -at ltlngth · capimlated with ~he proudest. of tti.e Ottomans. Among the Greek colonies and Churohea of A11ia, Pbrladelphia is still erect-a column in a l!dene of ruins -a pleasing example that the patla of hononr and tafety may ll0Dl8timea be the IIIDle.' "..:.D. T. . . . Vera. H--22;_;. ne vJonls ff 01wiaf lo tie OAutcl. al lAodicta. "And unto the 1!:ngel of the ChUIQh -Of the Laodiceans.". etc. · •• Laodicea is in the south-wea · of Plirygia, on the rirer LycUB, not far from Ooloasa,; lying between it and PhiladelJ>hia. destroyed by an earl hqwike A.D. 62,. rebuilt by it.ii wealtliy citizens witboui the help of the state. Thi• wealth (arisi~ n:om t'be excellence o( it.a wools) led to• self...tilfiecl. lukewarm state in spiritual thing-. . ln OoL iv. 16 it is mentioned. The Church ht later times 'Wll8 flourishing; fQr oiib of the eoun,:ila at which the canon of Scripture WM' det.ermined waa held ill Laodlcea fn 1-.D. 86L Hardly a Christian ii now to' bit 1'oimcl 14-t THE REVELATION OF' BT. JOHN THE DIVINE. (OIL nr.; 1-22.