"Fear not; I am the first and the last and the living one. I was dead, and behold I am alive forevermore, and I have the keys of death and of hades. Write therefore, the things which thou sawest, and the things which are, and the things which shall come to pass hereafter."

      I have read from verses 17-19 of the first chapter of Revelation.

      We learn from Irenæus, a noted Christian writer, who was born near the beginning of the second century and lived to the end of it, that the Book of Revelation was written in the year 96 of our era; and as the Apostle John was very nearly of the same age with our Lord, he must have been about ninety-six years of age at the time. The circumstance under which it was written were very impressive. As he states in a previous verse, he had been a companion of the churches of Asia in tribulation and the patience of the Lord Jesus Christ, and he was now in the Isle of Patmos for the testimony of the Lord and the word of Jesus. This evidently means that he had been banished to this island as part of a persecution which had been visited upon these seven Churches, and perhaps others. It was a lonely, rocky island; one without soil to invite the agriculturist, and consequently almost uninhabited, lying in what we call the Archipelago, about twenty miles from the Asiatic shore. It was a very sad [282] circumstance that a man of his age was thus banished from his friends, from his brethren, from the churches in which he had been laboring. When the Lord's day rolled around in that rocky island, he could not go to Church. There was no assembly of the saints in which he could enjoy their fellowship in the worship of God. There was no Lord's table spread, where he could commune with the Lord in the elements of his dying love. I suppose that John had never passed a Lord's day since great Pentecost, sixty years ago, without breaking the loaf with his brethren; without meeting them to sound the praise of God and engage in holy worship; but now he has to forego all these pleasures and enjoyments. Still, we learn from the statement of the text, that on the Lord's day he was in the Spirit, just as we would expect. Though alone, so far as all earthly fellowship was concerned, he was in full communion with the Spirit of God.

      Did you ever spend a Lord's day--a rainy or a stormy day, shut up alone, with nothing to read? What a day for reminiscences! What a day for a man to run back and live over all the scenes of the past which are worth remembering, and even those you would like to forget! And do you not suppose that this old man's memory was at work that lonely day? I cannot think otherwise. And when he looked back, how varied the pathway of his long life. He could remember very well that morning, long ago, when he was fishing with his brother James, and his father, and the hired servants, and the new Light that had sprung up in Galilee came by and said, "Follow me." He left all and followed. How well he could remember when he, and his brother James, and Peter, were waked up on the mountain top in the night to see the glorious transfiguration of the son of God, to see Moses and Elijah in glory, and to hear them talking about the [283] coming death of Jesus. And when he sat down to the Lord's table to break the loaf, it was not with him as it is with you and me, the recalling of something he had read about, but the recalling of that which he had witnessed with his own eyes, when, alone of all the male disciples, he stood before the cross and witnessed the agony of his dying Saviour. How well he could remember the day when he and Peter went up into the temple, and, while Peter was delivering his second great sermon, the two were seized by rude soldiers and dragged away to prison; the day, when, a little later, all of the twelve were seized and dragged away to prison, and released with a whipping of thirty-nine lashes on the naked back. And then his brother James, his older brother, how well he remembered the time, fifty years ago, when the cruel tyrant Herod had beheaded him. And then Peter, side by side with whom he had fought so many battles of the Lord--Peter had now been nearly thirty years in the other world. Paul had been gone the same length of time. Indeed, it seems to have been the death of Paul, who had planted all these churches in the western part of the world, that caused John, about thirty years previous to this occasion, to come out west, and make his home at Ephesus, where he might give apostolic oversight to the churches that had been deprived of their apostle. His own city of Jerusalem had now been a ruin for twenty-six years, and his nation had been scattered to the winds. When John thought of all these things, if he had been familiar with our hymn book, it seems to me that one stanza at least would have occurred to his mind.

This would have made him sad, unless there had come to him this brighter thought, I can not linger here much longer, I will soon be with Jesus and my old companions.

      I do not think it possible, that in the midst of such reminiscences as these, John could have failed to think of another incident--of that morning, when, after fishing with six others all night and catching nothing, the Lord appeared on the shore and called them. He called them to a breakfast of broiled fish and bread, and doubtless they enjoyed it as only hungry and tired men can. When they got through, a most interesting conversation followed. When He started away, Peter, you remember, followed; and Jesus said to him, "When thou wast young, thou didst gird thyself, and wentest whithersoever thou wouldst,"--a strong, independent, brave man--"but when thou shalt be old thou shalt stretch out thy hands and others shall gird thee and carry thee whither thou wouldst not;" signifying by what death Peter should glorify the Lord, a death with his hands stretched out on the cross. Peter turned and saw John coming. He says, "Lord, what shall this man do?" They were two very devoted friends, Peter and John. "If I will that he tarry till I come, what is that to thee?" From this remark, the report went out that John was never to die; that he was to live on till the second and final coming of the Lord. But John, who writes this, is careful to add, he did not say that that disciple should not die, but, "If I will that he tarry till I come, what is that to thee?" Well, now, while John is spending this lonely Lord's day here on the rocky island, perhaps on the sea shore, looking out over the waves breaking at his feet, must he not have asked himself for perhaps the thousandth time, What did the Lord mean? "If I will that he tarry till I come, what is that to thee?" [285] I have tarried till all the others have gone; almost another life time has passed away since the last of them died, and what does the Lord mean? We can imagine that he was dwelling on that very question when he heard a voice behind him, which he compares in one breath to the sound of a trumpet, and in another to the sound of many waters, the great waves of the sea breaking on the rocky shore. He turned to see, and there stood a glorious being, unlike anything that ever walked this earth; so glorious that John fell like a dead man at his feet. He had seen many a wondrous sight, but this was the most overwhelming that he had ever seen. And yet, while his eyes were still open, he saw that this being, glorious and wondrous as he was, looked like the Son of man. There was still a resemblance to his Master, though so greatly changed. Brethren, it seems to me that this contains a hint to us. When He comes, and we meet him, we shall be like him, we shall see him as he is; but I think our old friends will say of every one of us, That looks like him. We can still be recognized.

      Falling like a dead man, John lay there until the strange being laid his right hand on him, and said, "Fear not; I am the first, and the last, and the living one; and I was dead, and behold, I am alive forevermore, and I have the keys of death and of hades." Then he knew it was the Son of man; and he knew that he had tarried until the Lord had come again. The Lord had been away from earth for sixty years or more, but he had come back again. John did not know at the moment what he had come back for, but he soon learns. Jesus says to him, "Write," get your writing material and "Write the things which thou hast seen; the things that are, and the things that shall be." Write it in a book, and send what you write to those seven churches. He has [286] come down then, after being in heaven on his great white throne for sixty years, to dictate some letters to seven churches, to reveal through John to these churches, and through them to all the churches, some things that are yet to be. He has come to add to the revelations that had been closed up, another chapter--an appendix.

      The Lord proceeds first to explain the seven golden candlesticks in the midst of which he was standing when John beheld him, and the seven stars that were clustered about his right hand. He says, these seven golden candlesticks are the seven churches. Brethren, why did the Lord select a golden candlestick to represent a church? The church is planted in every community to give light, as the candlestick holds up the light for all in the apartment; and in the eye and mind of the great Head of the Church, one of His congregations here on earth must not be represented by a tin candlestick, or one of pewter, or one of brass, or one of silver. It must be represented by pure gold, O my brethren, that shows the Lord's estimate of a church that bears his name, and honors it; pure gold--nothing less can be a fair symbol of a church of the living God. You do not know how bright and beautiful a thing, in the eyes of heaven, a faithful church is. You find fault with it sometimes. Be careful.

      And he says, "The seven stare in my right hand are"--as it is translated in our version--"the angels of the seven churches." The Greek word commonly translated angel, is so rendered correctly when it refers to one of the heavenly beings; but when it refers to an earthly being, as it often does, the correct rendering of it is messenger. When John sent messengers to Jesus from his prison, they are called by the same Greek word translated angels, called messengers because they were [287] human beings; and when the Saviour, going toward Jerusalem, sent messengers before his face to prepare lodging for Him and His twelve disciples, the same word is there rendered messengers, because they were men. We are to determine whether angel or messenger should be the word in English by ascertaining whom it represents. I do not learn from any other portion of the Scripture anything about an angel of a church; that is, a heavenly messenger for a church; but the churches did often send human messengers, one of their own number or more than one, and I think there is an excellent reason to suppose that these seven churches sent messengers to John at this time. Now, think of it. Here is the old Apostle, ninety odd years of age, who was looked up to as a spiritual father by all the living church at that time, because he was the only one of the twelve apostles yet alive, and he was most tenderly beloved by all. When he wrote his epistles, he called all the brethren and sisters his little children--even the oldest. He is banished from their midst on that island out there, which you can see in a clear day if you stand upon a high hill on the main shore. Do you suppose they went right on with their daily routine of business, and their weekly church meetings, and never made any inquiry about the old man, as to whether he was sick or well, alive or dead; whether he had the necessary comforts of life? I suppose it likely that I address some fathers and mothers here to-day, if not, I do some brothers and sisters, who remember the time when there was a boy up yonder on Johnson's Island in Lake Erie, or one in Camp Chase, at Chicago. Did you want to know something about him? Did you want to find out from week to week whether he was sick or well; alive or dead? Did you try to communicate with him when armed guards stood around his camp to keep you from [288] getting something to him, and getting a message back from him? Well now, if these churches let that old Apostle remain out there without trying to communicate with him; without sending somebody out in a boat, or in some way, to see how the old man was, to carry some comforts to him, and to get a message from him, they would not have deserved the name of Christians. I am sure they sent. In a calm day, when the waters are smooth--I sailed six days on the Adriatic Sea with scarcely a ripple on the surface the whole time--it would be easy for a strong man to row out there and get the news, and a brave man would take the risk of a sudden storm. And whom would the churches send as a messenger to the old Apostle? Would they pick out some giddy headed, thoughtless youth? Some careless and indifferent member of the church? I suppose not. I suppose they would select some mature, strong, brave member, who would be a congenial companion for the Apostle when he got there, who could enter into full sympathy with him, and who would remember well the blessed words that he would send back to them. In other words, they would send some choice spirit of the church. And so I am sure they did.

      And now the Lord says, "These seven stars are the messengers of these seven churches;" and this gives us some idea how Christ regards those true, strong, brave, faithful men in the church. Paul's estimate was placed upon them when he said of certain brethren concerning whom he speaks in Second Corinthians, "If any man inquires of these brethren, tell them that they are the messengers of the churches, and the glory of Christ." Think now of three men who are messengers of the churches being the glory of Christ. That is what Paul styled them. And Jesus depicts them as bright stars, so [289] bright that they shone in the day time, clustered about His right hand, which holds them up. Brethren, that is Christ's estimate of those men in a church, to whom the brethren and sisters look as leaders, on whom they lay responsibility when some important mission is to be executed; the choice spirits of the church of God. They are bright stars in the eyes of the great Head of the Church, and His own almighty right hand upholds them. Do not speak lightly of such men. Raise your hat in their presence; honor them and love them. O what would the church be if all men of that class were taken out of it? What would become of the rest of us? Here then the Saviour reveals to this old Apostle a fact which might be expressed in these words: Though I have been up yonder in Heaven seated on the throne, all the angels worshipping me, and all the worlds under my control, I at the same time have been walking about among my churches, the golden candlesticks, and I have had my right hand held out all the time to hold up the brave, true men that have contended for my name and my honor in the midst of an accusing world.

      Now He says "Write." I wish I had time to call your attention to all seven of the letters that He now dictates. We shall speak of only one.

      "To the angel--to the messenger--of the Church of Ephesus, write." There has been a great deal of discussion about how the inspired penmen were directed by the Holy Spirit in writing. There can not be any discussion about these epistles. They are really the epistles of the Lord Jesus Himself--the only documents He ever wrote. And He wrote them just in the same way that Paul wrote the epistles to the Romans. Paul spoke, and Tertius the scribe wrote down the words as they fell from his lips. Now Jesus speaks, and John with pen in hand, writes [290] down the words as they fall from His lips. And when that letter was written, and carried by that good man to Ephesus, it was a letter from the Lord Jesus Christ to the church at Ephesus. When he returned, of course the brethren and sisters gathered around and asked him how the Apostle was. How is the good old father John? Is he alive? Is he well? And these questions were answered. But then the man held up the precious document--it could all be written on a piece of paper as large as my hand--He says, "Here is a letter that the Lord Jesus has dictated, and John has written, and given it to me to bring home; and it is a letter addressed to our church." What an interesting document to the members of that congregation. If this church here on Broadway should receive a letter known to have been written by the Lord Jesus Christ, and addressed to this church, with what trembling anxiety we should all wish to read it!

      When the next Lord's day rolled around--or perhaps they did not wait till Lord's day--the news had buzzed around all through the city that this letter had been received, and when the hour of meeting came, I judge that no member of that church was absent that day. They were all present with breathless anxiety. The good man stands up at the appointed hour to read the letter to them. It begins thus: "These things saith he that holdeth the seven stars in his right hand; and that walketh in the midst of the seven golden candlesticks." This of course needed explanation, and the reader had to stop and explain it, as it was explained to John. "I know thy works, and thy toil and patience. "And that made the minds of the brethren run back upon all the works they had done, upon all the toil they had passed through as a church, and all the patience that they had shown in bearing up under the ills and disappointments of life. [291] And the Lord says, I know that. I was watching; I was not far off, out of reach, or out of sympathy with you. And he means too, that he approved of it. That was cheering.

      "And I know that thou canst not bear evil men, and didst try them who called themselves apostles, and are not, and didst find them false." Here is an allusion to what must have been a terrible crisis in the history of that church. It seems from the words employed, that there had come among them men who claimed to be apostles. They must have been venerable men. They must have had the appearance of wise and good men, to set up such a claim. I suppose that they did not claim to be some of the original twelve--such a claim would be too preposterous--but of the class like Barnabas and Silas, who were called Apostles in a secondary sense. Such men had come among them, and of course when they first came, everybody was glad to see them. Everybody was glad to hear them speak, and pray; glad to sit at their feet and learn from them. But bye-and-bye there arose suspicions in the minds of some, as to whether they were not impostors; and don't you know that the first man who whispered that suspicion was met with sh--sh? Don't whisper anything against such good men as these. But the suspicion arose again, here and there, and the watchful elders whom Paul had told to watch against just such persons, began to feel sure that these men were not what they pretended to be, and they took the necessary steps for their exposure. They are exposed and found to be false, and cast out of the church. No church ever passed through such a scene as that without some of the members feeling, Perhaps we did wrong. Perhaps we were too severe with them. But now, after a a good long time had passed, the Lord Jesus, who knew [292] their works, their toil, and their patience, applauds them. He applauds them because they could not bear evil men, and had tried those men, and found them false. In other words, he applauds that church for the strict discipline which it had maintained. They did not tolerate in their membership, wicked men. No matter what the plausible appearance of their lives and professions was, they were detected in their falsehood, exposed and cast out. And for that the Lord applauds them. Brethren, I am afraid that there are a good many churches in our day, who, if they should receive a letter from the Lord Jesus, would not hear such applause as that. Let us remember that the Lord is still inspecting His churches.

      The reader goes on, and I think that before he read the next sentence, the good man must have paused and taken a long breath; for, here it is: "But, I have this against thee." And what is it? "That thou didst leave thy first love." When those words, "first love" fell upon their ears, what a quickening of memory! How quickly they carried the mind of every member back to that blessed hour, when, first having confessed the Saviour and turned away from sin, and been buried in baptism, and risen to walk in the new life, the love that fled the soul passed all understanding, and made everything on earth appear in a new light,--when the love of God, and the love of men, overflowed with tears of gratitude and thanksgiving. "Thou hast left thy first love."

That is the sad wail of a soul which has left its first love. It was enough in the way of reproach; the remedy follows next. There must be a remedy for that departure. The remedy is, "Remember therefore from whence thou art fallen, and repent, and do the first works." O brethren, that is the way to get back to the first love. That is the divine recipe. If you have fallen, remember the fair heights to which you had attained, repent, and then go to doing those first works. How did you act when that first love had complete away in your soul? Go back to reading the Bible the way you did then. Go back to praying the way you did then. Go back to the regularity of attending church that characterized you then. Go back to the freedom and the gladness with which you gave to the Lord and to the poor. Go back to doing just the way you did when your heart was filled with the love of God, and then you will have that love again. That is the way to recover it--the only way. "Do the first works," says Jesus, "or else I come to thee, and will move thy candlestick out of its place, except thou repent." There will be one church less in Asia. And this shows us that if a church leaves its first love, and does not return to it, it will not very long continue to be a church. It will die. Love is the life of a Christian; it is the life of a church; love to God and love to man.

      After these heart-searching sentences, there comes another of a different tone, calculated to revive the spirits which had sunk under the withering rebuke just administered, "But this thou hast, that thou hatest the works of Nicolaitanes, which I also hate." Well, that is rather singular language to come from the Lord Jesus. Commending the brethren and sisters for hating something, and saying that he hates it too. We know very little about those Nicolaitanes, but the earliest Greek writers [294] give us the idea that they did some things which were calculated to encourage lasciviousness and immorality, under some kind of specious, false pretence that as our natural passions are given us by the Creator, it can not be sinful to gratify them. Now these brethren hated all that. They were so elevated in their ideas of Christian morality, that anything which had a tendency to break down the restraints upon our passions, and give a loose rein to them, they hated, and the Lord hated it. There are some things tolerated in our day, my brethren, of this class. There are some exhibitions on the stage; there are some things in society which have this tendency; and instead of being encouraged and indulged in by the disciples of the Lord, we ought to hate them. Ruinous, terrible fruits they are bringing forth in the lives and characters of young people. We are not to hate any man, but we are to hate the things that undermine and ruin the characters of men and women. The brethren in Ephesus felt better when they heard this.

      Finally, the brief epistle closes: "He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith to the churches," and this revealed to them that what was here said to Ephesus, was intended for all the other churches; intended for our churches. We are to gather the same lesson. And now, to animate the brethren, cheer them, lead them on to other victories, and other work yet lying before them, this touching epistle closes with these words: "To him that overcometh, I will give to eat of the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God." I will not restore him to the lost Eden which Adam and Eve enjoyed; I will not allow him to go back and eat of that tree of life which might cause them to live forever in this wicked world, but "I will give him to eat of the tree of life which is in the paradise of God," in God's garden of delight; in the [295] paradise where God lives. The tree of life that is there, enables him who eats of it to live forevermore in the presence of his Maker, where all is peace and joy and blessedness. This is the inducement to the man who will overcome. Overcome the devil in his temptations; overcome the world in its wicked influences; overcome his own flesh in its tendency to drag him down. Rise above all these, trample all evil beneath his feet, and win a glorious victory in the name of God. "I," says Jesus on the throne of heaven, "will give that man the privilege of eating of the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God."

      O, my brethren, is that inducement enough for you? Is that incentive enough to keep us toiling and laboring, and bearing with patience, and doing our best to please Him who has called us to life and joy? If it is, then act, and take courage; never be dismayed; never murmur; never grow low-spirited amidst the toils and struggles and pains and disappointments of this life; for every one of these is leading you a little nearer to the day when you will eat of the tree of life which is in the paradise of God. [296]

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