fact that he doubtless sent more letters than have been preserved, he wrote sporadically, under the spur of

urgent need, as a crisis occurred now in one of his Churches, now in another. But St. John is here writing a

series of letters on a uniform plan, under the spur of one single impulse; and it is clearly intended that the

Seven Churches should be understood as in a way summing up the whole Province. That could only be the

case if each was in some way representative of a small group of Churches, so that the whole Seven taken

together represented and summed up the entire Province. Similarly, it is clear that the Church of Asia taken

as a whole is in its turn representative of the entire Catholic Church.

Thus we can trace the outline of a complicated and elaborate system of symbolism, which is very

characteristic of this book. There are seven groups of Churches in Asia: each group is represented by one

outstanding and conspicuous member: these representatives are the Seven Churches. These Seven

representative Churches stand for the Church of the Province; and the Church of the Province, in its turn,

stands for the entire Church of Christ. Corresponding to this sevenfold division in the Church, the outward

appearance and envisagement of the Divine Author of the Seven Letters is divided into seven groups of

attributes; and one group of attributes is assumed by Him in addressing each of the Seven Churches, so

that the openings of the Seven Letters, put together, make up his whole outward and visible character.

But how was this selection of the Seven Churches accomplished? There are only two alternatives; either the

selection was made on this occasion for the first time, or it had in some way or other come into existence

previously, so that there were already Seven recognised and outstanding Churches of Asia. The first

alternative seems generally to have been accepted, but apparently without any serious consideration. It

seems to have been thought that the sacred number, Seven, had a fascination for one who was so much

under the dominion of symbolism as the writer of the Apocalypse evidently was. On this view, being

presumably fascinated by the charm of that number, he chose those Seven from the whole body of the

Asian Churches, and treated them as representative in the first place of the Province and ultimately of the

entire Catholic church. But it is impossible to acquiesce contentedly in this supposition. There is no way of

escaping the obvious implication in 1:4 and 1:11, that those Seven were already known to the world and

established in popular estimation as "the Seven Asian Churches," before the Vision came to St. John.

It is therefore necessary to adopt the second alternative. As the Church of the great Province Asia gradually

consolidated and completed its organisation, there came into existence seven groups, and at the head or the

centre of each stood one of the Seven Churches. This process had been completed up to this point before

St. John wrote, and affected the imagery of his vision.

The genesis of one of those groups can be traced at the v ery beginning of the Christian history of the

Province. Already in AD 61 the letter to Laodicea and the letter to Colossae were, as has been indicated

above, treated as common to a group of three Churches in the Lycus Valley. But, although the Colossian

letter was intended to be circulated, it was written to the Church of Colossae immediately and directly. In

writing that letter St. Paul had not in mind the group of Churches: there stood before his imagination the

Church of Colossae, and to it he addressed himself. In the primary intention it is a letter to Colossae; in a

secondary intention it was made common to the whole group. The same may be presumed to have been the

character of the unknown Laodicean letter.

The opinion has been advocated by some scholars that the Laodicean letter was the one which is commonly

known as the Epistle to the Ephesians, and that it ought to be regarded as a circular letter, copies of which

were sent to all the Asian Churches; though in that cast it might be expected that the Colossians would

receive a copy direct. But Professor Rendel Harris has thrown serious doubt on the view that Ephesians was

a circular letter, by his very ingenious argument that it must have been written as an answer to a question

(see Expositor, 1898, Dec., p. 401ff): in that case it would be addressed to the Church which had proposed

the question to St. Paul.

In the facts just stated it seems to be implied that the chief Churches of the Lycus Valley were already in AD

61 regarded as practically common recipients of a letter addressed to one. Their interests and needs were