Revelation 1:4 A reason why the Holy Ghost is called "the seven spirits" is found in that remarkable sevenfold action by which He works upon the soul of a man, for though the influences of the Holy Ghost are indeed very many, and the enumeration of them might be extended very far, they do range the... [ Continue Reading ]
Revelation 1:4 I take the words simply as they lie here, asking you to consider, first, how grace and peace come to us "from the faithful Witness"; how, secondly, they come "from the First-begotten from the dead"; and how, lastly, they come "from the Prince of the kings of the earth." I. Now as to... [ Continue Reading ]
Revelation 1:5 Christ's Present Love and its Great Act. I. Consider the ever-present, timeless love of Jesus Christ. John is writing these words of our text nearly half a century after Jesus Christ was buried He is speaking to Asiatic Christians, Greeks and foreigners, most of whom had not been bor... [ Continue Reading ]
Revelation 1:5 The Christian Priesthood. I. It is amongst the most common, and certainly not the least dangerous of the errors of the day, to identify the Church with the clergy, as though the laity were not to the full as much one of its constituent parts. Our common forms of speech both encourage... [ Continue Reading ]
Revelation 1:6 I. (1) The substitution in the Revised Version of "a kingdom" for "kings" places the promises of the new dispensation in direct connection with the facts of the old. The language of St. Peter and St. John was no novel coinage. It was merely an adaptation to the Israel after the Spirit... [ Continue Reading ]
Revelation 1:9 The Fellowship of the Kingdom of Patience. I. The ultimate basis of our fellowship we find where we find everything "in Jesus," for such is the literal phrase of our text. But it is hard to say here whether the individual or the community comes first. Both are in Jesus; "the Head of... [ Continue Reading ]
Revelation 1:10 The Lord's Day. I. What is the meaning of the expression, "the Lord's Day"? Does it mean the day of judgment, and is St. John saying that in an ecstacy he beheld the last judgment of God? Undoubtedly "the day of the Lord" is an expression often applied to the day of judgment in the... [ Continue Reading ]
Revelation 1:13 Objective Faith. I. If we were asked to fix upon the most prominent want in the spiritual life of the present time, we might perhaps not untruly say that it is the want of objective faith. We fail to grasp the realities of the spiritual world, and live in shadows. Visions pass befor... [ Continue Reading ]
Revelation 1:17 The Keys of Hell and of Death. I. Looking back upon His incarnate course below, our Lord testifies that He, the Eternal, Living One, died in the verity of His human nature. The solemnity and grandeur of this allusion to His death and the wonderful way in which it is connected with... [ Continue Reading ]
Revelation 1:18 Death. Death has been scoffingly called the preacher's commonplace, but a commonplace truth, like a commonplace person, is often only a name for one with whose appearance we are very familiar, and whose character we are too indolent to probe. We limit the word "dissipation" in our... [ Continue Reading ]
Revelation 1:20 Note the fitness of the symbol of the golden candlestick. I. In its position. The golden candlestick stood within the Holy of holies, hidden from the view of all without by the curtain, formed in blending shades of blue, scarlet, and purple, curiously embroidered with figures of ch... [ Continue Reading ]