The seven churches in proconsular Asia mentioned in Rev. 1:were to learn, through the letter sent to each (2:, 3:), and to be listened to by all who had the hearing ear, that the Lord Jesus Christ was possessed of intimate knowledge concerning each and all of them. Their state, their circumstances, their future, and the special ministry suited to each, are treated of in these different epistles.

False apostles had appeared at Ephesus. The assembly had tried them, and had found them liars (Rev. 2:2). Tribulation and poverty characterized the assembly at Smyrna, and further trial of persecution was in store for them (9, 10). In Pergamos, where an assembly existed, Satan's throne was found. So idolatry, with all its concomitant vices, was rampant in that city, and was working its way among the Christian community, though its adherents were still in the minority (13, 14). In Sardis, spiritual deadness prevailed (3:i). In Philadelphia, though their strength was small, yet faithfulness to Christ distinguished them (3:8). In Laodicea, the whole company, it would seem, was contented to go on without the presence and countenance of Christ. He was outside of them, who were glorying in their assumed wealth ; rich in their own estimation, increased with goods, and having need of nothing, yet really the wretched and the miserable one, and poor, and blind, and naked (3:17).

In Thyatira, to which we would especially turn, idolatry was working with dire effect. In Pergamos, a few had been ensnared. In Thyatira, the bulk of the assembly had given in to it. So that which in the Old Testament is termed an abomination to Jehovah was openly taught in Thyatira, and un-blushingly practiced by professing Christians therein (2:20). Moreover, contrary to nature and to Christian teaching (i Tim. 2:12), a woman was suffered to lead them into all that evil. Jezebel, as she is called -an ominous name-was allowed by the angel to teach and to seduce the Lord's servants to commit fornication, and to eat things sacrificed unto idols. A few things the Lord had against the angel in Pergamos (2:14). Not a few* had He against the angel in Thyatira ; yet, ere notifying what they were, He acknowledges all the good that He can:" I know thy works, and charity, and faith, and service, and thy patience, and the last works (so we should read) to be more than the first" (2:19).! *In verse 20, " a few things " should be struck out.* How gracious was this What a Master He is ! If reproof must be administered, and that a sharp one, He would show that He has not forgotten, and will not forget anything of which He can speak with approval. The crying evils allowed did not obliterate the remembrance of their charity, faith, service, and patience, and this last is spoken of as being more than the first.

Nevertheless, how had the enemy triumphed in Thyatira ! If Philadelphia was to be wholly for Christ, Thyatira Satan would try to gain over for himself; and where seduction failed, false accusations should be raised, if possible, to harass and to silence the faithful. Thus the conflict between Satan on the one hand, and the Lord on the other, was still going on. Centuries ago that began; and for centuries, we must still write, has it continued.

The enemy would, if possible, wipe out all remembrance of God, and put an end to all true service for Him by saints on earth. Time after time, it has seemed as if he would effect this. Yet he has not succeeded. What a matter of interest is this for all true Christians. For whatever may be the strength of the current against the truth of God, if many should be carried away by it-and, if for a time, it might appear as if no one could withstand it-God has preserved, and will always preserve, a testimony on the earth which the power of evil shall not overcome. Before the flood this was seen; since the flood it has been the same.

In antediluvian days, iniquity abounded. Corruption was widespread and deep. Restraint seems to have been unknown, for the sword of government was an institution, we believe, of post-diluvian times (Gen. 9:6). Yet, in the midst of general corruption and unrestrained wickedness, Enoch walked with God (Gen. 5:24). A family man, and, it may be, alone in his family, he nevertheless walked with God. Family ties, domestic relations, were not suffered to divert him from the path of faithfulness. And twice over in his history, which is all comprised in a few verses (5:19-24), it is stated that he walked with God. For three hundred years that characterized him.

Years after his translation, when iniquity abounded, and, probably, was on the increase, another man appeared on the scene-his great-grandson, named by Lamech his father, Noah. He, too, walked with God (6:9), but in what circumstances was he here ? The word of revelation instructs us:" The earth also was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence. And God looked upon the earth, and behold it was corrupt:for all flesh had corrupted his way upon the earth" (Gen. 6:11, 12). Success seemed almost within the devil's grasp. God must act in judgment against the evil doers, and man be swept off the earth. Such, doubtless, was his expectation. A whole creation would thus be destroyed, and that by the fiat of the Creator, who had been well pleased with it as it came forth from His hands.

But Noah, just one man in all the earth, "Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord " (6:8). Violence and corruption rampant on every side; nevertheless, Noah, in the midst of it, was kept faithful to God. "Thee have I seen righteous before Me in this generation" was the divine attestation of that man's uprightness of walk. To be popular in that day, men had need to go with the stream. To stem the tide, of course, exposed the individual to sneers and reproaches from acquaintances and contemporaries. A solitary testimony in the midst of such corruption was that which none could maintain apart from divine grace. Enoch, in his day, kept his place and maintained his faithful walk; Noah, in his day, did the same. Had the enemy really triumphed? No; and he could not as long as Noah remained alive on the earth. Walk, not doctrine, was, of course, the distinguishing feature of that day; and these two men exhibited it as they walked with God.

Obedient to God, Noah built the ark, and, entering into it with his family, he and they were saved from destruction. Thus the race was preserved from extinction, whilst those who dared not to be singular, and, probably desired to be popular, were drowned in the waters of the flood, and swept out of the scene altogether. God had a way of acting of which the enemy had no inkling. Wickedness, unrestrained wickedness, must be dealt with, and so it was; for He is righteous and holy. But the human race was preserved from extermination, and Noah and his sons came forth from the ark to people afresh the earth. God, righteous in punishing the ungodly, was righteous also in saving Noah.

Passing over centuries, we reach the days of Elijah, God's faithful and special witness in the time of Ahab and Jezebel. Alone by Carmel had he stood for God on that memorable day when he confronted the four hundred and fifty prophets of Baal, and four hundred prophets of Asherah, the female divinity patronized by Jezebel. Eight hundred and fifty to one! Was the enemy to triumph? Had Jezebel succeeded in drawing all Israel into apostasy? Let Elijah be killed, and her purpose must be effected.

Deep indeed had the evil penetrated among the people ! One man for God in all that company by Carmel, with a multitude looking on, and not a solitary voice heard encouraging the prophet of God. Idolatry was rampant, certainly. The worship of God seemed almost stamped out of Israel. The conflict, too, seemed to the harassed prophet overwhelming, as He stood afterwards at Horeb, and told God that he alone had escaped the vengeance of the enraged queen. Had the enemy now triumphed ? "I have left Me," God told His servant, "seven thousand in Israel, all the knees which have not bowed unto Baal, and every mouth which hath not kissed him " (i Kings 19:18).

The way at that time to gain temporal advancement, and to be in favor at court, was to profess to worship Baal. Yet seven thousand there were in Israel who would not purchase advancement at such a price, and who preferred the approval of God, with the risk of losing life and substance, to the smile of Jezebel. Seven thousand had been kept withstanding her allurements to idolatry. And soon would it be demonstrated how fatal had been the choice of that queen's dupes ; for within fifteen years of Ahab's death, and very shortly after her own, the worship of Baal was destroyed out of Israel by Jehu when king (2 Kings 10:27). A great sacrifice to Baal was appointed; all his adherents attended, and all of them were slain.

From that date we read of no king in Israel who favored that worship and sought its re-establishment. It ceased in Israel,* though the calves were still worshiped at Dan and at Bethel.* Out of Israel, we have said, for it was not destroyed out of Judah*. Jezebel's efforts to obliterate the recognition of the true God utterly failed, and the worship that she had fostered and forwarded was destroyed out of Israel. The hope of temporal advancement-a snare which, doubtless, had drawn many aside-what was it worth, when Jehu destroyed at one blow the adherents and priests of Baal? Who thinks now of Jezebel's prophets who ate at her table? Who holds any in honor who, when in life, had desired and enjoyed her favor? But who does not admire Elijah's boldness at Carmel, as well as Micaiah's faithfulness before Ahab? (i Kings 22:). Who does not hold in respect that company of seven thousand, kept by divine grace throughout that dark and perilous time of unabashed apostasy?

Dark and perilous times those were for the faithful in the land; yet a remnant was preserved. Darker and more difficult times are yet to come, when the beast of Rev. 13:, upheld by Satanic power, and seconded by the false prophet of that same chapter, will exercise in the western part of the Roman empire unchecked sway for 1,260 days, or forty and two months. Dark indeed will be that time, for the enemy will make his grand effort to efface from all under the sway of the beast any recognition of the true God, substituting the worship of the beast under the lead of the false prophet for the worship of God.

Will he succeed? Reading Rev. xiii , it would appear as if success must at last crown his efforts; for the very necessaries of life, and the permission to trade, will be denied, as far as the influence of the false prophet may extend, to all and any who refuse to worship the image of the beast-a time of trial and of Satanic power that will be, such as has never been experienced since man has been on the earth. Satan's masterpiece will have appeared, and his last card, to use a common expression, will have been played, the prelude to the deadly struggle to keep the Lord Jesus out of this part of His inheritance purchased by His blood.
Will the devil gain his object? If, reaching the close of the chapter above-mentioned, the reader should think so, the opening of the next chapter proclaims the discomfiture of the enemy. For, at the end of that awful time, there will be found on earth a company of 144,000 who, kept faithful throughout it, are to be with the Lamb on Mount Zion (Rev. 14:1-5). God will keep alive a testimony on earth in that day against the abounding apostasy. How encouraging is this reflection for saints at all times, and not the least so for those in our day, when theories are rife, and so readily taken up, subversive of real belief in the inspiration of the written Word.

Now, to come back to Rev. 2:, we learn what could and did take place in Christian times, and even in the apostolic age. A Jezebel at Thyatira was carrying things with a high hand. The bulk of the Christian professors in that assembly had succumbed to, or, at all events, had allowed free scope for her teaching. She seemed about to triumph, and would have triumphed, had not a company, called "the rest in Thyatira," persistently refused her corruptions. A company, probably not a large one, withstood all blandishments and all efforts to seduce them. Again, then, the enemy was checked; he could not carry all before him.

Now, what makes this portion so interesting is the ministry of Christ to those faithful ones, whilst Jezebel was teaching and seducing the Lord's servants. We have learnt of two men in the antediluvian world who were faithful, and walked with God in the midst of wickedness rampant on all sides. We have reminded the reader of those in Ahab's day who had not bowed the knee to Baal. But here we get not only a notice of the existence of faithful ones in Thyatira, but also the ministry of the Lord to encourage and to sustain them in their faithfulness. By the light of Christian revelation they walked, and that was enough for guidance (Rev. 2:25). But He would show His interest in them, and manifest that He was not unmindful of the conflict in which they were engaged.

So, first, He addresses them personally:"Unto you I say, the rest in Thyatira." He took special notice of those whom Jezebel failed to seduce; and, sending in this letter to the angel a message, the message is addressed directly to them. How cheering must this have been. Vilified indeed they were. As tools of the enemy were they held up before the world. The Lord knew all that, and here speaks of it, but to repel that wicked accusation. The depths of Satan they were said to know. A terrible accusation was this for true saints to lie under. How often since that day has the enemy sought thus to misrepresent those whom he could not corrupt. A devilish device, indeed! For a time these had endured it. Now it came out that the Lord on high was not ignorant of it. Jezebel might assert it; her followers might endorse it; the angel might suffer it; but the Lord distinctly refused it. He undertook their cause. He cleared them of the charge:" Who have not known the depths of Satan, as they speak " (ver. 24). His word must settle that controversy. None can speak after Him. He speaks; the cause is ended.

Next. He is coming:"Till I come" (24). What words for the faithful to hear! His promise of return holds good, He will fulfil it. But what words for Jezebel to be informed of. Her reign must end. Her Judge will appear. What words, too, for the angel to hear, who had suffered Jezebel's ways and had not refused to allow her teaching.

Further. Of the future of the faithful the Lord speaks. It may be that some had sought to shake their constancy by the foolish thought of the loss of influence with their fellows in thus making themselves singular. What a snare has this been, and may still be! But influence! What can equal that here promised the overcomer? Power over the nations, and to rule them with a rod of iron. Who can now exercise such influence? The faithful will exercise this in the future, for they will reign with Christ; and no blessing in store for Christians, will they lack, for the Lord will give them the morning star, that is, to share in the blessing of His return for His people when He comes into the air.

In this way Christ ministered to the faithful in Thyatira in John's day. He had observed them, and He let them know it. He vindicated them, and Jezebel should hear of it. He told them of their future, and all should learn about it. He was coming, too, for His faithful ones, to take them out of this scene to be on high with Himself. Such a ministry as this must have been to them like cold water to a thirsty soul-a cordial indeed, bringing no evil in its train ; a comfort, too, and a spring of joy of which the world could not deprive them. Was such ministry only for that day? It will hold good for any in the present time who find themselves in circumstances similar to "the rest in Thyatira."
C. E. S. (Words in Season.)