Section 4

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

“1 am the Alpha and the Omega, beginning and ending, saith the Lord, the Who is, and Who was,
and Who is coming, the Omnipotent” APOC. 1 . 8.
These words announce to us that He who is coming is “The Al¬mighty;” also that this almighty one pertains to the past, the present, and the future; that he has a “beginning” and also “an ending,” as symbolized by the first letter of the Greek alphabet “TO A,” and by the last, or “ TO 8 ”—“the Alpha and the Omega.”

The personage to be seen, is indicated in the next sentence as he who was “pierced.” Every eye shall see him whom they pierced; as saith the Spirit in Zech.

Thirdly, eis aera, rendered “in the air,” is devoid of “the” in the Greek. It may be rendered in various ways, according to the prepo¬sition used, and with or without an indefinite article. I prefer that which may be found in harmony with Paul’s use of the word else¬where, when speaking of the administration of the existing order, com¬monly styled “world.” Thus in Eph.

In the system of nature whence the symbol before us is taken, clouds are opaque congeries of aqueous particles, exhaled from the waters of the earth into the air by the electricity of the expanse. This being their nature and origin, they furnish a beautiful and expressive symbol representative of those who are present with the Lord in his apocalypse.

“BEHOLD he is coming with the clouds, and every eye shall see him, and whosoever pierced him;
and all the tribes of the earth shall wail before him. Yea, verily; so let it be.” APOC. 1:7.
In these words is an exclamation which is designed to direct the reader’s attention to Jesus and the Saints, as the 6 ^yo^Evor, ho Ercho- menos, the One Yahweh who is coming as the anointed with the Seven Spirits—“Behold, he is coming with the clouds.”