In order to arrive at any correct understanding of these three chapters, which we have laid before us for our study in this book, we must endeavor to find out the significance of these seven churches, which Christ selected, to whom the message of the apocalyptic visions were especially sent. The Bible is God's sample book. The Holy Spirit could doubtless have given us thousands of Bibles similar to the one we have, and all of them been filled with remarkable characters and incidents, but He has selected samples of men, and events, and truths, which His wisdom saw were best adapted for our instruction and salvation. From the hundreds of churches which existed in the days of St. John. Jesus selected these seven churches of Asia, with a view of setting forth the various stages of the Christian churches, from the days of John until the coming of Jesus, and the close of the Gentile Age. We see in these seven churches, samples of all the Christian churches of all the Ages. There is not a congregation of professed Christians in the world, which perhaps is not in the condition of one of these seven churches. So that in whatever stage a church may be, either in its holiness or corruption, it will find itself actually mirrored in the looking-glass of the second and third chapters of Revelation. This same truth applies with equal force to all individual members of the church. Every separate member of the Christian church will find himself represented in one of these various congregations. It is a melancholy reflection, that out of these seven churches there are only two which escape condemnation, or a reproof from the Lord. From this we learn that a small minority, either of separate congregations, or of individual members, are living in such union with Jesus as to have His perfect approbation. But the main lesson to be drawn from these seven churches is, that here we see set forth the various stages of the Christian church, from the days of the apostles until Christ's second coming.

"The Church of Ephesus" represents the Christians in the first century. They are described as ''having abundant works, and patience, and orthodoxy, and they tried those who professed to be apostles, and were not, and they had many extraordinary virtues, yet Jesus said they had left their first love." This word, "first love," must not be understood to mean the love of a young convert, but it was first love in the point of rank and quality. God wants our love, pure and tender, and warm, and personal, over and above all other things, or labors, or sacrifices and nothing grieves the Infinite heart more quickly than to see our personal affection for Him is cooling down. This was the condition of the Christian church, even before the death, or the translation of, St. John, as many suppose he was translated to Heaven,

"The Church of Smyrna'" represents the condition of Christian believers in the second and third centuries, during the great persecutions from the heathen. Jesus told this church that the devil would cast them into prison, that they should be tried, and have tribulation ten days, and for them not to be afraid of the things they should suffer, and though they had outward poverty, yet in grace they were rich, and that if they were faithful unto death, he would give them a crown of life. During the second and third centuries the Roman Emperor issued edicts of persecution against the Christians, and there were ten of these great imperial persecutions, which was the fulfillment of the "ten days tribulation" prophesied of them. In those persecutions, Christians were frequently covered with tar, and oil, and set on fire at night, to make bonfires for the thousands of heathen Romans to look upon with fiendish delight. At other times they were thrown into an arena of wild beasts, and torn to pieces, while the great amphitheater was filled with people, who shouted and laughed, to see the wild beasts devouring Christians. These persecutions kept the church pure, hence we find there is not a word of reproof for the church of Smyrna, but everything of encouragement and approbation.

"The Church of Pergamos" represents what the Christian church was in the fourth and fifth centuries. In this church we find a mixedness, some were very spiritual, being faithful even to martyrdom, but others were stumbling blocks, and holding on to false and ruinous doctrines, especially the doctrine of the Nicolaitanes, "which held that the body could commit sin, and be full of iniquity, while the soul could remain pure/' This was the Age in which the Emperor Constantine professed the Christian faith, and reversed all the edicts of persecution, and began to shower favors upon the. church, and load the Bishops and Christian Ministers, with many emoluments and gifts. This "was the beginning of the downfall of spiritual Christianity, and the beginning of the formation of all the Christian societies into one great ecclesiastical system, which became the Roman Catholic Church. Up to this time, the churches were not formed into one organic body of church government, and from this time the love of many waxed cold, and many erroneous doctrines began to creep into the Christian ministry, and there began that horrible amalgamation of heathen philosophy with Christian doctrine. Hence the Romish Church is a conglomerate mass, in which Judaism, and heathenism, and Christianity, are all merged into one system.

"The Church of Thyatira" represents what the church was from the sixth to the twelfth centuries. Thyatira was a wealthy, fashionable city, and silk emporium, and therefore is used to symbolize the worldly and fashionable splendor of backslidden Christianity. There was in the church at Thyatira, a woman preacher named Jezebel, who taught and practiced the doctrine of free love. Jesus selected this woman, and her teaching and practice, to represent what the Romish Church was during the Dark Ages. It was during these centuries, that the Christian Church became united with the State government, which has always been an abomination to the Lord, and is denounced as spiritual fornication. When the Roman Empire was destroyed by the invasion of the Goths and Vandals from the north of Europe, the Caesars were dethroned. Then the Bishops and Rulers of the Christian Church, obtained the ascendency in the politics of Europe, and the church became the dominant power over all State rulers. It was then that Popery was instituted, and it was recognized as the ruler of the world. John saw in his vision, "a woman sitting upon a beast." The ''woman" represents the Roman Catholic Church, and the ''beast" represents the Roman Empire, hence the church governed the politics and Kingdoms of what was former^ the Roman Empire. This was the period which Ave dominate the Dark Ages.

"The Church of Sardis" typifies the period from the thirteenth to the fifteenth centuries, just before the Great Reformation in Germany and England. Of this church Christ says, thou hast a name that thou livest, and art dead. He also says, thou hast a few names even in Sardis, which have not defiled their garments. These few undefiled ones represent those holy persons that arose in the church during that period, as burning and shining lights of perfect love, such as Thomas a Kempis, and John Thaller, and John of the Cross, and many saintly persons, whose writings on spirituality became the seed of the Reformation. It was during these centuries that there came what is called the Revival of Letters. Printing was invented, and many began to study the laws of nature, and poetry, and works on philosophy and science began to be published.

"The Church of Philadelphia" covers the period of the Reformation. This revolt from the darkness and superstition of Romanism began simultaneously in Prance, and Germany, and England, and covered a period of about 200 years, from the fifteenth to the seventeenth centuries. This Reformation embraces the great work of Martin Luther, and his coadjutors in Germany, and the Revival in France under the Huguenots, and in England under Ridley and Wycliff, and a little later under George Fox, the founder of the Quaker society, and broke out afresh a century later, under the Great Wesleyan Revival, All the modern churches of Protestantism had their origin in these Great Reformations, and every one of them began in a revival of Scriptural holiness. These various churches of the Reformation were not under the same church government, but were bound together in a spirit of Christian fraternity. The word "Philadelphia" means "brotherly love," and hence the church in that city was chosen to represent the churches of the Reformation. Against this church there is no condemnation, but Jesus says "He set before it an open door which no man could shut." God providentially opened up to the churches of the Reformation, all of England, and Germany, and the Western world, which was a fulfillment of the words, "I have set before thee an open door." At the close of the message to the Church of Philadelphia, Jesus says, "Behold I come quickly, see that no man take thy crown." Here is an intimation, that from the time of the churches of the Reformation, the coming of the Lord would begin to be manifested to his servants, and warning the church of that period to hold fast to the liberty and holiness to which it had attained, that it might be prepared to be glorified with Christ, and with Him wear the crown of dominion through the Millennial Age.

''The Church of Laodicea" covers the period of the backsliding of all the Protestant churches, down to the time when Christ shall appear to glorify the saints, and institute His reign on earth. We are now living in this period, which proves that the end of this Age is nearly finished. Jesus says of the church of this period, "I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot." That is, the churches are full of various kinds of works, but the works are partly spiritual, and partly political, and partly scientific, and partly of a mere social character, so that the whole is characterized by lukewarmness. The church of this period, boasts that she is rich, and increased with goods, and has need of nothing, which is exactly the case in the various denominations of churches at the present time. They build fine structures, and great universities, and have great ecclesiastical gatherings, and complicated church machinery, and boast of their learning, and culture, and science, and art, and eloquence, and music, and statistics, and are intoxicated with the dream that they are going to conquer the world, and thereby bring the millennium, without the personal and visible presence of Jesus. But amid all this boasting the Infinite Searcher of hearts declares that these churches are wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked. They are destitute of real heart sanctification, humility of mind, and personal affection for God, and the blessed indwelling of the personal Holy Ghost, they deny the supernatural in the pentecostal displays of saving power, do not believe in deep emotional religion, or in remarkable manifestations, or in divine healing, or in those heavenly corruscations of spiritual fire, and love, that characterized' the Church of Pentecost, and the early days of reformation. It is of this church, that Jesus says, "I am about to vomit them out of my mouth." (See Greek.) It is in this period of the Laodicean church, that God has started the great movement of Christian holiness, which has swept for 25 or 30 years through the churches of Christendom, and this movement of sanctification is the hand of God, knocking at the door of all these modern churches, and appealing to their individual members, that if any one of them will open the door, Christ will enter in and cleanse and fill such an one, and sup with him preliminary to the Marriage Supper of the Lamb, which is soon to transpire, when He gathers out His elect saints at His appearing. This is the closing message to all the churches of the present Gentile Age.

In the following chapters, let us go back and review the various promises made to these churches, and see what are the qualifications, and the steps of spiritual victory, requisite for obtaining a place at the table of the Marriage Supper, and a place in the government of the Millennial Kingdom.