As we come to consider the next step which is set forth in the promise of the fifth overcometh, we find the manifestation of the Christ-life taking on a still further development in that of a perfect testimony. "He that overcometh the same shall be clothed in white raiment, and I will not blot out his name out of the book of life, but I will confess his name before my Father, and before His angels." These words cover the entire range of Christian testimony, and also the counterpart of our testimony on earth, which is Christ's testimony for us in heaven. This promise of being clothed in white raiment expresses the full confession both by lip and outward life of the work of grace in the heart. The white stone is pre-eminently expressive of a pure heart, the hidden work of God within the soul, but the white raiment is expressive of outward manifestations of that inward whiteness in the words, manners, and all the features of outward life. We may gather from this promise the following points:

1. God has so constructed all living things that they will tell on themselves. What is in the heart of any creature will inevitably come to the surface and make itself known. Life in itself is always hidden, and can never be discerned by the microscope. But life of every kind has in it a quality of revelation so that everything will sooner or later bear outward testimony of its inward nature. And this outward expression of the inward life takes on the form of a garment. The inward life of a fish will manifest itself in outward fins and scales, and makes up the garniture of its peculiar organic life. The hidden life in the blood of a bird will confess itself in the plumage of the bird, and this outward plumage in color and texture is an infallible confession of the species of life within. The secret life of a tree, which lies in its sap, could not be distinguished under a microscope as to its genus or species, but let that sap come forth in bud, and bloom, and foliage, and at once the secret of its inner nature is made known. Man might take a swine and shave him clean, and cover him with white wool, but just as long as the swine blood lives in its heart it will grow bristles.

This great fact of creation is manifested everywhere, that "the blood will tell" — the inward life will clothe itself outwardly in an exact and corresponding raiment. This is as infallibly true of the soul as of any other form of life. It is eternally impossible for the secret life of the immortal soul to remain long concealed, and the outflow of that life, in words, and tempers, and tones, and gestures, and business transactions, will sooner or later be an exact manifestation of the secret fountains of the hidden life. It is God Himself who has established these unchanging laws, and they are but the outworking of His absolute equity and justice and love. Hence He says that the overcoming believer, who has the white stone of a pure heart and the Morning Star of an indwelling Christ, will have the outward clothing of a humble, pure, gentle, discreet, bold, and heavenly life, which is the spotless garniture growing out from interior whiteness, with as absolute precision as a lamb's heart with its lamb's blood will clothe itself with lamb's wool. This white raiment will take on more intense forms of brightness, and sweetness, and outward glow in life, according to the intensity of the pure love in the heart. We are told that "God covers Himself with light as with a garment." From which we learn that the manifestation of the Godhead to glorified spirits is that of the infinite ocean of inexpressible fire, a flame of light so excessively bright that Paul says no man can approach unto it — that is, no man in this mortal state could endure the sight. It would seem that God wants to raise us into fellowship with Himself, and so fill us that w r e also shall be clothed in a white fire.

We read of the living creatures in Ezekiel that they were like lightning, and that fire flashed out from them. We read of angels appearing to prophets as young men, clothed in white raiment of dazzling brightness. We also read of Jesus on the Mount of Transfiguration, letting the inward glory shine out through His raiment, making it of dazzling whiteness, and also of Christ being revealed to His prophets as clothed in white raiment, with His eyes like lightning, His face like the sun, and His feet like glowing brass in a furnace. The glorified saints are to be made like unto their Lord, so that in the future age they will be as radiant living flames

If all this be true, then even in this life there must be a beginning of all these things, and so it comes to pass that the perfect believer can be filled with the love of God, like a glowing furnace, and have his inner spirit clothed with the Holy Ghost like a shining mantle. Hence there are times when under this spiritual investure of white fire the face will shine, the eye will flash, the voice have a mellow, penetrating sweetness, and the manners melt into such lowliness and grace as to almost make the white robe of the inward soul visible to the eye,

2. "I will not blot out his name out of the book of life." This indicates clearly that it is possible, at least up to a certain point in Christian progress, for a believer to apostatize and have his name stricken from the book of life. Why should God use words that have no meaning, and if it were impossible for real believers to have their names blotted out, why should God say so? No human theology in this world expresses the whole of any Bible truth. The doctrines of Calvinism and Arminianism equally fail to express the whole truth. While the Scriptures teach most positively what is commonly called the final perseverance of the saints, it at the same time teaches just as positively that real, genuine believers whose names were in the book of life have apostatized and gone into outer darkness. It is not for us to formulate God's infinite Bible into an inflexible creed. In the thirty-third chapter of Ezekiel, God emphatically declares that the righteous man who is really righteous may turn away from his righteousness and commit iniquity, and die in that state, and that then all his righteousness shall not be mentioned. And that a wicked man may turn away from his wickedness and become righteous, and if he lives in that state his sins shall never be mentioned unto him. And the Apostle Peter tells us it were better for a man not to have known the way of righteousness than, after he has known it, to turn from the holy commandment, or as it should be rendered, to turn from the commandment to be holy.

So there is a point in grace from which man may apostatize, and then we are taught in the verse now under consideration that there is a point in grace which fixes the destiny of the soul eternally for glory. And Christ affirms that when the believer reaches that point in spiritual progress, indicated in this fifth overcometh, that his name will never be blotted out from the book of life.

3. Jesus says: "I will confess his name before my Father and before His angels." So there are two testimonies transpiring — one on earth, a testimony for Jesus, and one in heaven, a testimony for the believer. As the believer by the outward expression in his words and manners, and prayers and definite confessions of saving grace makes known to mankind the indwelling of Christ in his heart, so Jesus, at the right hand of God the Father, is making known in the heavenly world, the fidelity and labor and true character of the believer on earth. This shows us the intimate relationship between the kingdom of God in grace and the King in glory. The perfect believer has Christ in him here in Spirit, and Christ carries that believer in His heart and in His mind at the right hand of the Father. The sympathies and inter-blendings of these two worlds are more blessed and perfect than many persons apprehend. The veil is very thin that separates between the Spirit-led child of God here and the radiant land of angels in heaven.

Spiritualism is Satan's counterfeit of these blessed and intimate relationships; and because of Satan's counterfeit, many timid and partially, or very weakly, illumined Christians, dare not grasp with their faith all the fullness of Bible statements on this subject. But Paul positively affirms in Hebrews, that the soul which has found its Pentecost in the Holy Spirit, has already come, even before the death of the body, into fellowship with the heavenly Jerusalem, and with an innumerable company of angels, and with the church of the first born, and with the judge of all men, and with the spirits of just men made perfect. If believers could see these things in true light, and apprehend Christ confessing them before the Father, how they would throw aside all their timidity, and backwardness, and half-cowardice, in confessing the cleansing blood, and come out in a life of great liberty and fullness in the Holy Ghost.

This verse has a parallel in the third chapter of Malachi, where we are told that, then those who feared the Lord spake often one to another; that is, confessed Christ fully and in sincerity, that the Lord hearkened, and heard their confessions, and a book of remembrance was written before Him, and the inference is plain, that in this book of remembrance, the confessions and obedience of His faithful children were recorded therein. The Bible tells of two books kept in heaven — one is the "book of life, " and the other "the book of remembrance." The book of life simply contains the registry of the names of those who are saved, without reference to their degree and fervor of service; but the book of remembrance is a registry of all good works, and all the saints will be rewarded according to the records in this book of remembrance. We must never confound simple salvation itself with rewards, for we are told that many will be saved so as by fire, and their manifold works being erroneous, or only temporal, will be consumed by the fire, but that others who are saved will have great rewards. We understand that this confession of the names of the saints, which Jesus makes before the Father and His angels, involves something more than simple salvation from eternal death, it embraces a confession of their trials, the testings of their faith, their peculiar sufferings, their exhibitions of perfect loyalty, and their manifold labors, so that when Jesus comes to reward His holy ones, those rewards will be measured out with absolute equity, and infinitesimal propriety, which will be apparent to all the angels and the heavenly hosts. The rewards of those persons comprising the bridehood of Christ will be given at the marriage supper of the Lamb, which we shall consider in the succeeding chapter.