after subjugate and rule over the world with Christ, as soon as the last weary traveller of her long procession shall have passed out of the desert of this life. In the present age, we are individually priests unto God, and should take heed that we do not neglect the priestly duties of interceding for and instructing the people; but, when the great King shall have gathered together into one the children of God that are scattered abroad, then will the time have come for the saints of the high places to possess the Kingdom.* The Roman Church wishes to reign now, without the presence of Christ, without His apostles, and without the countless members of His body who have already crossed the stream; but those who resist her seductions, and are willing to be esteemed as nothing in this world, shall, when the Lord comes, enjoy to the full that after which she is vainly striving. And so completely does the Lord identify Himself with His own that He gives to them the very same power over the nations which He has received from His Father.

"Faithful is the saying: For if we died with Him, we shall also live with Him: if we endure, we shall also reign with Him."

But there is something more for the overcomer: he shall have the morning-star-a promise differing

It is, then, not without deep meaning that we find in Rev. i. 6 the remarkable expression, "a Kingdom, priests"-such is doubtless the correct reading-applied to the Church. The difference of number points to the fact that immediately after conversion, every member of Christ is a priest individually; but that believers can only become a Kingdom when all have been gathered together to the Lord.

from that which was given to the pious Jew, upon whom the Sun of righteousness shall arise. The explanation is, perhaps, as follows. Those who anxiously wait for the dawn know its welcome harbinger, the silver planet, which emerges in the glimmer of early twilight, bright and conspicuous at first, and then growing fainter and fainter in the gradually increasing light, until at last it dies "on a bed of daffodil sky." But sometimes it is swept away in very different fashion; it may be that it has scarcely appeared when the storm-cloud comes on, obliterates it in a moment, shuts out the hope of day, and brings back the darkness of midnight. Yet, after a while, the roar of the tempest is hushed, the angry lightnings cease, the clouds part and float away, and lo! the sun has arisen, and is looking down upon the earth in all the splendour of his might.

Such a daybreak as this must, it would seem, be in our minds when we consider the promise of the morning-star. Those servants of Christ who are ever looking for His coming will see Him when He calls His own to Himself. But this manifestation, of which the slumbering world will be altogether unaware, will be but momentary, and then the stormclouds of the great tribulation will bring back midnight darkness upon the earth. At the close, however, of the time of trouble, the Messiah will appear in all His glory to deliver the children of Abraham, and, as the clouds part, will be found to have arisen as the Sun of righteousness, with healing in His wings, over them that fear the name of the Lord.*

*Mal. iv. 2.

SARDIS.

We now pass on to a Church of knowledge, indeed, and comparative orthodoxy, but withal to one which is fast sinking from the heavenly places into the world, and losing all its spiritual power. The word "Sardis" is not Greek: hence some have derived it from a Hebrew root, which would give it the meaning of "remnant;" and this they refer to "the rest in Thyatira" mentioned in the preceding epistle. But such a derivation is unfair: for the word is no more Hebrew than it is Greek. It is a Lydian name; and, therefore, in a Lydian root we must seek its interpretation, which will then be "new," new," "newborn with the year," "renewed." * This at once suggests the Churches originating in the Reformation, which have been generally distinguished as orthodox on the whole, but very seldom as showing a spiritual power in due proportion to their privileges. For, as we have previously remarked, when the enthusiasm occasioned by their delivery from the thraldom of Jezebel had subsided, instead of gathering in one loving circle around the Saviour, they fell apart into antagonistic sects, which, so far as the great crowd of their members was concerned, soon lapsed into a state of spiritual deadness. And few indeed were the exceptions which proved this rule, at least until the efforts of Wesley, Whitefield, and their contemporaries, began to excite some symptoms of returning life.

*See Stier's "Words of the Risen Saviour."

To the professing Christians of this period the Lord presents Himself as "He that hath the seven Spirits of God, a title which is full of meaning for them. They lack vitality, and He appears as the Possessor of the Spirit in all the sevenfold plenitude of His power: whatever may be their intellectual force and activity, they are little moved by Divine energies, and He comes with gracious purpose, that they may have life, and may have it abundantly.

In His hand He holds all the seven stars which are the angels of the Churches. This seems to be, as it were, a solemn repetition of His claim to be Head over all, and to indicate the critical time of a new beginning, a fresh departure, analogous to the return of the Jews from captivity and the rebuilding of the temple.

Again the Lord knows: He has no need that any should witness to Him of this Church, and it is useless for special pleaders to defend her. His eyes of flame pierce through every covering of hypocrisy : therefore, void as she is of spiritual power, it will not avail her to have a name to live. She may deceive men, and may even, like the more advanced Laodicea, go on to deceive herself; but she cannot hide her real condition from Him. Against the Church which preceded her, she boasts that she holds to the pure word of God; nevertheless, her vitality is at so low an ebb, that she is spiritually almost as a person in a swoon is physically: it might be said of her, as Paul says of the woman who lives in pleasure, that she "is dead while she liveth."

It is not without deep significance that, whereas adversaries are found assailing five of the Churches either from within or from without, there is no mention of any foe in the epistles to Sardis and Laodicea. For these two have ceased to be effectual witnesses, and therefore Satan has no quarrel with them they do not in any way torment those who have settled down as dwellers upon the earth; why, then, should anger be excited against them? They have a tacit understanding with the world that, although their opinions may differ upon some points, there is nothing to hinder a mutual friendship.

The first admonition of the Lord points directly to the source and root of all this deadness to spiritual things and conformity to the world. "Become watchful," He commands; and, if we interpret this verse by the next, we shall see that He is not speaking of general watchfulness, but of waiting for His return. Yet such a waiting certainly includes watchfulness in all things; for he who lives in the daily expectation of seeing Christ as He is, will surely not be deficient in zeal to purify himself even as He is pure. But, after the Reformation, the Protestant Churches seemed to have little love for their Lord's appearing: they rarely mentioned it, and persuaded themselves that, although it was an event which must assuredly take place at some far distant time, it, nevertheless, could not happen for a long season; not, indeed, until after the whole world had been converted and changed by means of their exertions. And so they made the fatal mistake, from which the Scriptures