addressed). But in every case, when an individual Church is addressed, as here, it is addressed in and for it

itself, and its own special individual character and fortunes are clearly present before the writer's mind. He

does not think of the Smyrna group when he addresses Smyrna, nor is he thinking of the Universal Church:

he addresses Smyrna alone; he has it clear before his mind, with all its special qualities and individuality. Yet

the group which had its centre in Smyrna, and the whole Universal Church, alike found that the letter which

was written for Smyrna applied equally to them, for it was a statement of eternal truths and universal

There was undoubtedly a very considerable resemblance between the Seven Cities: the surroundings in

which the Seven Churches were placed were similar; and accordingly the character of all was in a superficial

view similar. In every city there were doubtless Jews of the nationalist party, bitterly opposed to the Jewish

Christians and through them to the Christians as a body, a source of danger and trouble to every one of the

Churches; but the Jews are mentioned only in the letters to Smyrna and Philadelphia. There were

Nicolaitans, beyond all question, in every Asian congregation; but they are alluded to only in the Thyatiran

letters as the dominant party in that Church, in the letter to Pergamum as a strong element there, and in t he

Ephesian letter as disapproved and hated by the Church of Ephesus as a body. Every one of the Seven

Churches was a missionary centre; but Philadelphia alone is depicted as the missionary Church.

Underneath the general similarity the writer and the Author saw the differences which determined the

character, the past history, and the ultimate fate of all the Seven churches (as described in chapter 4).

But the differences should not be too much emphasised, or exclusively attended to. There are two hostile

powers everywhere present, one open and declared, one secret and lurking within the camp; and the

thought of these is never far from the writer's mind, even though he does not expressly mention them in

every letter.

One is the Imperial power and the Imperial worship, which the writer saw plainly to be the power of Satan

engaged in a determined attempt to annihilate the Church, but doomed beforehand to failure. The Church

and the Imperial worship are irreconcilable; one or the other must be destroyed; and t he issue is not

doubtful. Since the Imperial power has now actively allied itself with the Imperial cultus in this conflict

against truth and life, it has doomed itself to destruction.

The other enemy is the Nicolaitan principle. The opposition to the Nicolaitans is the chief factor in

determining the character and form of the Seven Letters. But for them there would probably be no letters to

the Seven Churches. The rest of the Apocalypse is occupied with the triumph over the Imperial Religion.

But there wa s no need to warn the Churches against it: it was a sham, doomed to destruction, and already

conquered in every martyrdom. The one pressing danger to the Churches was within and not without: it lay

in their weaknesses of nature, and in that false teaching which was set forth with the show of authority by

some prophets and leaders in the Churches. Against the Nicolaitan teachers the Seven Letters are directed

in the way of warning and reproof, with strenuous opposition and almost bigoted hatred. Those teachers

drew a somewhat contemptuous contrast between their highly advanced teaching, with its deep thought

and philosophic insight, and the simple, uneducated, unphilosophic views which St. John championed.

They gave undue emphasis to the Greek aspect of Christianity; and in its practical working out they made it

their rule of life to maintain the closest possible relations with the best customs of ordinary society in the

Asian cities. This attempt was in itself quite justifiable; but in the judgment of St. John (and we may add of

St. Paul also) they went too far, and tried to retain in the Christian life practices that were in diametrical

opposition to the essential principles of Christianity, and thus they had strayed into a syncretism of

Christian and anti-Christian elements which was fatal to the growth and permanence of Christian thought.

But in his opposition to the Nicolaitans the writer does not make the mistake of going to the opposite

extreme, minimising the share that Greek thought and custom might have in the Christian life, and

exaggerating the opposition between Greek education and true religion. He holds the balance with a steady

hand; he expresses himself in a form that should be clear and sympathetic to the Greek Churches whom he