immeasurable strength of the Asian continent which pushes it forward towards the sea. The letter is full of

joy and life and brightness, beyond all others of the Seven; and such is the impression the city still makes

on the traveller (who usually comes to it as his first experience of the towns of Asia Minor), throwing back

the glittering rays of the sun with proportionate brightness, while its buildings spring sharp out of the sea

and rise in tiers up the front slopes of its Pagos.

Pergamum stands before us in the letter as the city of authority, beside the throne--the throne of this world

and of the power of evil, where the lord of evil dwelleth. And to its victorious Church is promised a greater

authority, the power of the mighty name of God, known only to the giver and the receiver. It was the royal

city of history, seat of the Attalid Kings and chief centre of the Roman Imperial administration; and the

epithet "royal" is the one that rises unbidden to the traveller's lips, especially as he beholds it after seeing

the other gre at cities of the land, with its immense acropolis on a rock rising out of the plain like a mountain,

self-centred in its impregnable strength, looking out over the distant sea and over the land right away to the

hills beside far off Smyrna.

Thyatira, with its low and small acropolis in its beautiful valley, stretching north and south like a long funnel

between two gently swelling ridges of hill, conveys the impression of mildness, and subjection to outward

influence, and inability to surmount and dominate external circumstances. The letter to Thyatira is mainly

occupied with the inability of the Church to rise superior to the associations and habits of contemporary

society, and its contented voluntary acquiescence in them (which was called the Nicolaitan heresy). Yet

even in the humble Thyatira he that perseveres to the end and overcomes shall be rewarded with irresistible

power among the nations, that smashing power which its own deity pretends to wield with his battle -axe, a

power like but greater than that of mighty Rome itself. In the remnant of the Thyatiran Church, which shall

have shown the will to resist temptation, weakness shall be made strong.

The letter to the Sardian Church breathes the spirit of death, of appearance without reality, promise without

performance, outward show of strength betrayed by want of watchfulness and careless confidence. Thou

hast a name that thou livest and thou art dead...I have found no works of thine fulfilled...I will come as a thief

comes; and thou shalt not know what hour I will come upon thee. And such also was the city and its

history. Looked at from a little distance to the north in the open plain, Sardis wore an imposing,

commanding, impregnable aspect, as it dominated that magnificent broad valley of the Hermus from its

robber stronghold on a steep spur that stands out boldly from the great mountains on the south. But, close

at hand, the hill is seen to be but mud, slightly compacted, never trustworthy or lasting, crumbling under the

influences of the weather, ready to yield even to a blow of the spade. Yet the Sardians always trusted to it;

and their careless confidence had often been deceived, when an adventurous enemy climbed in at some

unguarded point, where the weathering of the soft rock had opened a way.

Philadelphia was known to the whole world as the city of earthquakes, whose citizens for the most part lived

outside, not venturing to remain in the town, and were always on the watch for the next great catastrophe.

Those who knew it best were aware that its prosperity depended on the great road from the harbour of

Smyrna to Phrygia and the East. Philadelphia, situated where this road is about to ascend by a difficult pass

to the high central plateau of Phrygia, held the key and guarded the door. It was also of all the Seven Cities

the most devoted to the name of the Emperors, and had twice taken a new title or epithet from the Imperial

god, abandoning in one case its own ancient name. The Church had been a missionary Church, and Christ

Himself, bearer of the key of David, had opened the door before it, which none shall shut. He Himself "will

keep thee from the hour of trial," the great and imminent catastrophe that shall come upon the whole world.

But for the victor there remains stability, like that of the strong column that supports the temple of God; and

he shall not ever again need to go out for safety; and he shall take as his new name the name of God and of

His city.

The Laodicean Church is strongly marked in the letter as the irresolute one, which had n ot been able to make

up its mind, and halted half-heartedly, neither one thing nor another. It would fain be enriched, and clad in

righteousness, and made to see the truth; but it would trust to itself; in its own gold it would find its wealth,