TO THE ANGEL OF THE ECCLESIA IN PHILADELPHIA.

7.    Also to    the angel of the ecclesia in Philadelphia write; These things saith the holy one,    the
true one,    he having the key of    the David, opening and no one shutteth, and he shuts and    no
one openeth:    8. I have observed thy works; behold, I have placed before thee a door
which hath been opened, and no one is able to shut it; because thou hast a little strength, and hast kept my word, and hast not denied my name.
9.    Behold,    I give up out of the    synagogue of the Satan them who say that they are Jews,    yet
are not,    but do lie; behold I    will cause them that they come and have prostrated them¬
selves before thy feet, and that they may have known that 1 have loved thee.
10.    Seeing that thou hast kept the word of my awaiting, I also will keep thee from the hour of the trial being about to come upon the whole habitable to prove them who dwell upon the earth.
11.    Behold,    I come quickly; hold    fast what thou hast, that no one may have seized upon    thy
coronal wreath.
12.    The victor, I will make him a pillar in the temple of my Deity, and he shall not at all go away out more; and I will write upon him the name of my Deity, and the name of the city of my Diety, the New Jerusalem, which descendeth out of the heaven from my Deity, even my new name.
13.     He having an ear to hear let him hearken to what the Spirit saith to the ecclesias- ch. 3 7-13.
This epistle of the Spirit, like all the rest, is to the ecclesias, or asso¬ciations of the called, in all the habitable of the Fourth Beast dominion, through the Angel-Presbytery of the ecclesia in Philadelphia. How many ruling and gift-possessing brethren the Philadelphian ‘Angel’ consisted of, cannot be told. We may conjecture, however, that there were not fewer than seven; to each of whom was given grace, or a spir¬itual gift, “according to the measure of the gift of Christ. ” This offi¬cial seven may be enumerated as constituted of an apostle, a prophet, a teacher, an inworker of power, a healer of disease, a helper or discern- er of spirits, a linguist, and an interpreter. These ranked in the order I have stated them, and being all inspired men constituted a “A STAR” of divine brightness to all in Philadelphia disposed to avail themselves of its light. They were what Paul styles in his letter to the Philip- pians, the Episcopoi and Diakonoi, the overseers and servants of the flock; and it is worthy of remark, that no accusation is brought against them, as in the case of the angels of Ephesus, Pergamos, Thyatira, Sar¬dis, and Laodicea; which were troubled with pastors of ambitious and haughty manners; and others who sought to figure as such as a means of emolument at the general expense—merchandizers of souls, who saw no more in godliness than the lucre to be gained.