Belief of the gospel of the kingdom and immersion, while they are indispensable to worthiness, do not alone constitute men “worthy.” The constituents of the Angel-Presbytery had all believed the gospel and been immersed, yet they were pronounced by the Spirit “dead.” This faith and obedience gave them an orthodox standing among con¬temporary Christians, who supposed that they were enjoying spiritual life; but the Spirit, who sees not as men see, declared that they were unworthy of his favor, because “their works were not perfected in the sight of the Deity.” They were in the case of a man w

The reader is requested to refer to what has been already written on the clothing of the constituents of the symbolic “Son of Man” at page 169, under the caption of “Clothed to the Feet," in illustration of the promise of the Spirit to the few undefiled in Sardis. To walk with him in white robes is to be the subject of a union with the Spirit such as obtains now between Jesus and the same. Jesus now walks with the Spirit; for “whithersoever the Spirit goeth" he. as tin- preeminent of the Cherubim, also goes- Ezek. I : 12, 20. Hence, as this obtains with  

CHAPTER 3.
Epistles to the Three Angel-Stars of the Ecclesias in
Sardis, Philadelphia, and Laodicea.
SECTION 1.
TO THE ANGEL OF THE ECCLESIA IN SARDIS.
1    Also to the    angel of the ecclesia    in Sardis write; These things saith he having the Seven Spirits of the
Deity and    the Seven Stars: 1    have known thy works, that thou hast the name that thou livest, but
thou art dead.
2    Become thou vigilant, and strengthen the things remaining which are about to die: for I have not found

The Morning Star is also promised to him that overcomes,—“1 will give to him the Morning Star,” saith the Spirit. To appreciate the importance and value of this great promise we must know what is sig¬nified by the phrase.

While the Jezebel, or clerical party, which had obtained a footing in the Thyatiran ecclesia, was denounced by the Spirit, and threatened with great tribulation and death; “the Rest in Thyatira” were encour¬aged to perseverance in their opposition to the clergy by exceeding great and precious promises.

But all among the Thyatirans were not impressible by the arts and blandishments of Jezebel and her children.

As we have shown in our exposition of the apocalyptic “Balaam” and “Nikolaitans,” there existed a class of teachers calling themselves “Christians,” contemporary with the apostles, who taught “another gospel,” and set forth a Jesus, which Paul styled “another Jesus;” both of which, that is, the Jesus and their gospel, were different from the real Jesus and the true gospel, proclaimed by the apostles; and subversive of

The Christian faith was, doubtless, introduced into Thyatira by Lydia, whom Paul and his companions first became acquainted with at Philippi, a city of Macedonia. She was “a worshipper of God” belonging to Thyatira, but for the time being sojourning at Philippi as “a seller of purple.” Paul met her at the proseuche, by the river side, beyond the city walls. She had gone there with other devout women to offer prayer to the living and true Deity.

Thyatira stood forty-eight miles east of Pergamos. It was a city of Lydia on the Lycus, a branch of the Hyllus, anciently called Pelo- pia, but now Akhissar by the Turks: that is, “the White Castle,” from the great quantity of white marble there abounding. Only one ancient edifice is left standing. The rest, including the clerical bazaars, or “churches,” are so destroyed that no vestiges of them are to be found.

18. “And to the Angel of the Ecclesia among Thyatirans write: These things saith the Son of the Deity, having his eyes like a flame of fire, and his feet like to incandescent brass.          19. I have