Review and Herald, Vol. 90, No. 16. (4/17/1913)

Review and Herald

Apr 17, 1913

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Apr 17, 1913

Nearer Than We Dream

By Worthie Harris Holden

WORTHIE HARRIS HOLDEN

A few more paces then the journey ended, A few more trials and the triumph won, A few more darksome hours of patient waiting Until the rising of our glorious Sun.

Much nearer than we dream the heavenly city, And close at hand our Father’s kind embrace, When passing the triumphal arch of glory To dwell within the radiance of His face.

Upon the threshold of our joys eternal Why linger long amid the gloom of grief? Our hope, our life, our surety, are supernal, And earth’s short day for praise is all too brief.

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The Mystery

By Edw. J. Urquhart

EDW. J. URQUHART

THROUGH the long, cold winter evenings, When the stars are shining bright, And I view their mellow luster As they shine from night to night,

When I think of God, the maker, The upholder of them all, I am led to say with David As I on my Father call:

What is man that thou art mindful Of him as he lives his day? Why such gift by Heaven given In behalf of mortal clay?

O, such love I can not fathom, Try as hard as e'er I may! But I own, dear, loving Saviour, I am thine, yes, thine for aye;

And when dawns the endless morning When thy glorious face I see, What to-day the shadows cover Thou wilt then make plain to me.

Winton, Cal.

Jerusalem Above, Our Mother

By H. A. St. John

H. A. ST. JOHN

“BUT Jerusalem which is above is free, which is the mother of us all.” Gal. 4:26. We are told that when Jesus brought to life the widow’s son, at the village of Nain, he delivered him to his mother. What loving affection as well as power was seen in this circumstance! By the same Jesus, sinners, in the village, in the bondage of spiritual death, when made alive unto God are delivered to their mother, made the children of the holy city. And as that mother city is above, we see why it is necessary in order to become her children to be born again, born from above. Let us now briefly consider some of the points of likeness between the children of God and their mother, the New Jerusalem:— First, the mother is free; so are the children. All that Jesus makes free are free indeed. There is no other perfect, genuine freedom in this world. All else that is called freedom is only formal freedom. The world can not give this true freedom, neither can the world take it away from those to whom it is given from above. This internal soul freedom, then, has promise of extension to external and eternal freedom hereafter.

Second, new. I suppose that the city above will always be known as the New Jerusalem. So her children will always be those who were made new creatures in Christ Jesus.

Third, abode of peace. Jerusalem signifies abode of peace. Likewise her children are sons and daughters of peace. Jesus said, “Peace I leave with you.” In the world you may have tribulation, but in him, peace. He will keep them in perfect peace whose minds are stayed on him. Their peace will be like a river. “Great peace have they that love thy law: and nothing shall offend them.” They are peacemakers.

Fourth, hath foundations. What beautiful foundations hath the holy city! The children are built upon the foundation of apostles and prophets. Jesus Christ himself being the chief cornerstone—a beautiful and sure foundation.

Fifth, God the builder. Yes, and God is the divine maker and builder of each of his children, fashioning them after the divine image.

Sixth, white throne. The great white throne of God and the Lamb is in the holy city. So the hearts of her children are made clean and white, and are the thrones where Jesus rules, bringing the whole man into sweet submission to his will.

Seventh, needs not the sun. So the children of God have a light from the Sun of Righteousness, ever lighting up their hearts and pathway, making them lighthouses in the world, even in the darkest places.

Eighth, tree of life. Likewise every saint is like a tree by the river, bringing forth a variety of fruits, the fruits of the Spirit.

Ninth, river of life. Yes, the mother city has a river of life. But does not Jesus say that out of the Christian will flow rivers of living water?

Tenth, many gates. So the Christian has many channels open to learn of God, from his works, his providence, his Word, and his Spirit.

Eleventh, no evil could enter. True, those holy gates forever bar pollution, sin, and shame. In like manner the avenue to the Christian mind and heart should forever bar pollution, sin, and shame. If no evil goes in, no evil can come out.

Twelfth, bride, the Lamb’s wife. A glorious bride is the Holy Jerusalem, indeed. But her children are the bride also. Have you not read that the holy city when prepared as a bride adorned for her husband has for her adorning the righteousness of the saints?

Reader, are you growing like your mother?

Sanitarium, Cal.

Does the History of Turkey and Egypt Since 1798 Fulfil the Prophecy of Dan. 11:40-44?

By Arthur G. Daniells

— No. 13

A. G. DANIELLS

Napoleon's Retreat From Acre to Egypt

“The march onward was a continued scene of misery; for the wounded and sick were many, the heat oppressive, the thirst intolerable; and the ferocious Djezzar was hard behind, and the wild Arabs of the desert hovering around them on every side, so that he who fell behind his company was sure to be slain.”—“Life of the Emperor Napoleon,” chap. 3, page 94, by J. G. Lockhart.

“The rowing gunboats of Sir Sidney Smith's squadron annoyed the retreating army in its march along the beach, while the Arabs from the mountains of Nablous harassed them when they turned inwards to avoid the British fire.”—“History of the Egyptian Revolution,” Vol. I, chap. 24, page 293, by A. A. Paton.

“The march over the burning desert was long and painful, and many of the sick and wounded perished. The sufferings of the army were inconceivable. Twelve hundred persons, faint with disease or agonized with broken bones or ghastly wounds, were borne along, over the rough and weary way, on horseback. Many were so exhausted with debility and pain that they were tied to the saddles, and were thus hurried onward, with limbs freshly amputated, and with bones shivered to splinters. The path of the

army was marked by the bodies of the dead, which were dropped by the wayside. . . . Seldom have the demoralizing influences and the horrors of war been more signally displayed than in this march of twenty-five days. . . .

“The troops were harassed upon their march by hordes of mounted Arabs, ever prowling around them. To protect themselves from assault and to avenge attacks, they fired villages, and burned the fields of grain.”

“At length Napoleon arrived at Cairo [June 14, 1799], after an absence of three months. With great pomp and triumph, he entered the city. . . . Napoleon, finding his plans frustrated for establishing an empire which should overshadow all the East, began to turn his thoughts again to France. He knew, however, that there was another Turkish army collected at Rhodes, prepared, in cooperation with fleets of Russia and England, to make a descent on Egypt. He could not think of leaving the army until that formidable foe was disposed of. He knew not when or where the landing would be attempted, and could only wait.”

The Turkish Fleet Lands an Army at Alexandria

“One evening in July, he [Napoleon] was walking with a friend in the environs of Cairo, beneath the shadow of the pyramids, when an Arab horseman was seen, enveloped in a cloud of dust, rapidly approaching him over the desert. He brought despatches from Alexandria, informing Napoleon that a powerful fleet had appeared in the Bay of Aboukir; that eighteen thousand Turks had landed, fierce and fearless soldiers, each armed with musket, pistol, and saber; that their artillery was numerous, and well served by British officers; that the combined English, Russian, and Turkish fleets supported the armament in the bay; that Murad Bey, with a numerous body of Mameluke cavalry, was crossing the desert from Upper Egypt to join the invaders; that the village of Aboukir had been taken by the Turks, the garrison cut to pieces, and the citadel compelled to capitulate. Thus the storm burst upon Egypt.”—“The Life of Napoleon Bonaparte,” Vol. I, chap. 13, pages 230-233, by John S. C. Abbott.

“Bonaparte reached Alexandria on the evening of the twenty-fourth of July, and found his army already posted in the neighborhood of Aboukir, and prepared to anticipate the attack of the Turks on the morrow. . . .

“The Turkish outposts were assaulted early in the morning, and driven in with great slaughter; but the French, when they advanced, came within the range of the batteries, and of the shipping that lay close by the shore, and were checked. Their retreat might have ended in a rout, but for the undisciplined eagerness with which the Turks engaged in the task of spoiling and maiming those that fell from them; thus giving to Murat the opportunity of charging their main body in flank with his cavalry at the moment when the French infantry, profiting by their disordered and scattered condition, and rallying under the eye of Napoleon, forced a passage into the entrenchments. From that moment the battle was a massacre.”—“Life of the Emperor Napoleon,” chap. 3, page 95, by J. G. Lockhart.

“The first gray of the morning was just appearing in the east when the Turkish army was aroused by the tramp of the French columns, and by a shower of bombshells falling in the midst of their entrenchments. One of the most terrible battles recorded in history then ensued. The awful genius of Napoleon never shone forth more fearfully than on that bloody day. He stood upon a gentle eminence, calm, silent, unperturbed, pitiless, and guided, with resistless skill, the carnage. The onslaught of the French was like that of wolves. The Turks were driven like deer before them. Every man remembered that in that bay the proud fleet of France had perished. Every man felt that the kings of Europe had banded for the destruction of the French Republic. Every man exulted in the thought that there were but six thousand French republicans to hurl themselves upon England, Russia, and Turkey combined, nearly twenty thousand strong. The Turks, perplexed and confounded by the skill and fury of the assault, were driven in upon each other in horrible confusion. The French, trained to load and fire with a rapidity which seemed miraculous, poured in upon them a perfect hurricane of bullets, balls, and shells. They were torn to pieces, mown down, bayoneted, and trampled under iron hoofs. In utter consternation, thousands of them plunged into the sea, horsemen and footmen, and struggled in the waves, in the insane attempt to swim to the ships, three miles distant from the shore. With terrible calmness of energy, Napoleon opened upon the drowning host the tornado of his batteries, and the water was swept with grape-shot as by a hail-storm. The Turks were on the point of a peninsula. Escape by land was impossible. They would not ask for quarter. . . .

“Before four o'clock in the afternoon the whole Turkish army was destroyed. Hardly an individual escaped. About two thousand prisoners were taken in the fort. All the rest perished, either drowned in the sea or slain upon the land.”—“The Life of Napoleon Bonaparte,” Vol. I, chap. 13, pages 234, 235, by John S. C. Abbott.

Napoleon's Departure for France

“Napoleon once more returned to Cairo, on the ninth of August; but it was only to make some parting arrangements as to the administration, civil and military; for, from the moment of his victory at Aboukir, he had resolved to entrust Egypt to other hands, and Admiral Gantheaume was already preparing in secret the means of his removal to France. . . .

“Leaving the command of the army to Kleber, and without suffering any suspicion of his projects to arise among the soldiery, he turned his back upon Cairo, and on the twenty-third of August embarked at Rosetta, for France, in the frigate which Admiral Gantheaume had provided for him.”—“Life of the Emperor Napoleon,” chap. 3, pages 96, 97, by J. G. Lockhart.

“At length, on the eighth of October [1799], the long-wished-for mountains of Provence appeared; and the frigates shortly after anchored in the Bay of Trejus.”—“History of Europe,” Vol. IV, chap. 26, page 216, by Sir Archibald Alison.

On leaving Egypt, Napoleon placed General Kleber, his greatest general, commander-in-chief of the French army in Egypt. Kleber was assassinated June 14, 1800, and was succeeded by General Menan.

During the month of May, 1801, the British landed a force of troops at Alexandria to aid the Turks in driving the French from Egypt. The last of July the French capitulated, and in September, 1801, the entire army was conveyed in English vessels to France.

What Shall the Harvest Be?

By J. F. Stenberg

J. F. STENBERG

The farmer plants corn in his field, and expects to harvest a crop of corn when the proper season comes; or he sows wheat or some other grain, and expects to harvest a crop of the same kind as he sows: it would be very foolish to expect otherwise.

It is the law of nature, which is God’s law, that the harvest shall be of the same kind as the seed sown; for in the beginning when God spoke the earth into existence and created grass and herbs upon it, he said, Let them bring forth seed after their kind; and God saw that it was good.

As with nature and vegetable life, so also with the spiritual; for the Word says, “Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.”

Man may recognize the law of cause and effect in the material or so-called natural things of life ever so well, but when it comes to moral or spiritual questions, he seems to fail to use his reasoning power, fails to realize that he must sow good seed in order to reap a harvest of good grain.

The farmer who leaves his field unsown knows very well that it will be fully occupied with worthless weeds, which are a positive harm; and that when he sows good seed, he must also care for and cultivate it in order to reap.

Why is it that people who use good judgment and good common sense in their business can be so thoughtless or careless in spiritual things? People sow weed seed in their hearts and lives,—sow their wild oats,—and still expect to reap a harvest of good grain by and by, sometime. But will they?

The Word says, “He that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting.”

A Dream

By G. B. Thompson

The Holy Spirit—No. 14

A Dream

G. B. THOMPSON

THE late Rev. A. J. Gordon, one among the most spiritual and earnest ministers of recent years, relates a dream that he once had, which led to marked results in his own life, and reforms in the church of which he was pastor. As a result of this dream he says there “came a blessed and ever-to-be-remembered crisis in my spiritual life when from a deeper insight into Scripture the doctrine of the Holy Spirit began to open to me.” “I had known the Holy Ghost as a heavenly influence to be invoked, but somehow I had not grasped the truth that he is a person of the Godhead, who came down to earth at a definite time and who has been in the church ever since, just as really as Jesus was here during the thirty-three years of his earthly life.”

Concerning the changes which ensued, he speaks thus: “Instead of praying constantly for the descent of a divine influence, there was now a surrender, however imperfect, to a divine and ever-present Being. Instead of a constant effort to make use of the Holy Spirit for doing my work, there arose a clear and abiding conviction that the true secret of service lay in so yielding to the Holy Spirit that he might use me to do his work.”

The dream was as follows:—

“It was Saturday night, when wearied from the work of preparing Sunday’s sermon, that I fell asleep and the dream came. I was in the pulpit before a full congregation, just ready to begin my sermon, when a stranger entered and passed slowly up the left aisle of the church, looking first to the one side and then to the other, as though silently asking with his eyes that some one would give him a seat. He had proceeded nearly half-way up the aisle when a gentleman stepped out and offered him a place in his pew, which was quietly accepted. Excepting the face and features of the stranger everything in the scene is distinctly remembered,—the number of the pew, the Christian man who offered its hospitality, the exact seat that was occupied. Only the countenance of the visitor could never be recalled. That his face wore a peculiarly serious look, as of one who had known some great sorrow, is clearly impressed on my mind. His bearing, too, was exceedingly humble, his dress poor and plain, and from the beginning to the end of the service he gave the most respectful attention to the preacher. Immediately as I began my sermon my attention became riveted on this hearer. If I would avert my eyes from him for a moment, they would instinctively return to him, so that he held my attention rather than I held his till the discourse was ended. “To myself I said constantly, ‘Who can that stranger be?’ and then mentally resolved to find out by going to him and making his acquaintance as soon as the service should be over. But after the benediction had been given, the departing congregation filed into the aisles, and before I could reach him the visitor had left the house. The gentleman with whom he had sat remained behind, however, and approaching him with great eagerness, I asked: ‘Can you tell me who that stranger was who sat in your pew this morning?’ In the most matter-of-course way he replied: ‘Why, do you not know that man? It was Jesus of Nazareth.’ With a sense of the keenest disappointment I said: ‘My dear sir, why did you let him go without introducing me to him? I was so desirous to speak to him.’ With the same nonchalant air the gentleman replied: ‘O, do not be troubled! He has been here to-day, and without doubt he will come again.’”

“And now came an indescribable rush of emotion. As when a strong current is suddenly checked, the stream rolls back upon itself and is choked in its own foam, so the intense curiosity which had been going out toward the mysterious hearer now returned upon the preacher; and the Lord himself, ‘whose I am, and whom I serve,’ had been listening to me to-day. What was I saying? Was I preaching on some popular theme in order to catch the ear of the public? Well, thank God it was of himself I was speaking. However imperfectly done, it was Christ and him crucified whom I was holding up this morning. But in what spirit did I preach? Was it ‘Christ crucified preached in a crucified style’? or did the preacher magnify himself while exalting Christ? So anxious and painful did these questionings become that I was about to ask the brother with whom he had sat if the Lord had said anything to him concerning the sermon, but a sense of propriety and self-respect at once checked the suggestion. Then immediately other questions began with equal vehemence to crowd into the mind: What did he think of our sanctuary, its Gothic arches, its stained windows, its costly and powerful organ? How was he impressed with the music and the order of the worship? It did not seem at that moment as though I could ever again care or have the smallest curiosity as to what men might say of preaching, worship, or church, if I could only know that he had not been displeased, that he would not withhold his feet from coming again because he had been grieved at what he might have seen or heard.”

“We speak of ‘a momentous occasion.’ This, though in sleep, was recognized as such by the dreamer—a lifetime, almost an eternity, of interest crowded into a single solemn moment. One present for an hour who could tell me all I have so longed to know; who could point out to me the imperfections of my service; who could reveal to me my real self, to whom, perhaps, I am most a stranger; who could correct the errors in our worship, to which long usage and accepted tradition may have rendered us insensible. While I had been preaching for a half-hour, He had been here and listening who could have told me all this and infinitely more—and my eyes had been holden that I knew him not; and now he had gone. ‘Yet a little while am I with you, and then I go unto him that sent me.’”

“One thought, however, lingered in my mind with something of comfort and more of awe. ‘He has been here to-day, and no doubt he will come again;’ and mentally repeating these words as one regretfully meditating on a vanished vision, I awoke, and it was a dream.”—“How Christ Came to Church,” pages 28-32.

Speaking further concerning the heart-searching effect of the dream and the personal presence of Christ through the Spirit, Dr. Gordon says: “When it became a realized and unquestionable fact that in the person of the Holy Ghost, Jesus is just as truly in the midst of the church as he once stood in the company of his disciples and ‘showed them his hands and his feet,’ then the whole house began to be searched as with a lighted candle.” The question of “pew rentals” began to trouble him, with the “sittings so graded that one could read the relative financial standing of the worshipers by noting their position in the broad aisles.” The “popular desire for eloquence, for humor, for entertainment, for wit,” as a minister, also came under prayerful scrutiny.

Then the question of a paid choir, with fine voices administering the service of song, the larger part of whose members “made no profession of discipleship, and some were confessed disbelievers,” was pressed upon his mind. His conscience was distressed in reference to such “singers standing above the communion table, leading a divinely appointed ministry of song.” “Minstrels from Egypt” had taken the place of that “chastened, self-denying, holy song which no man can learn but they that have been redeemed.”

From this searching of the sanctuary, occasioned by the mysterious stranger in the pew seen in the dream, he was led to the conviction that “performers brought from the opera or from the theater on Sunday to regale the ears of the church with some flighty song of artistic musical display,” was wrong.

“When I can consent,” he said, “to have the communion table moved out into the court of the Gentiles, and call upon the thoughtless and unconverted to receive the sacred elements lying thereon, then I may see the propriety of bringing a choir of unregenerated musical artists into the holy of holies of the church, and of committing to their direction the service of song. This conviction rests upon neither prejudice nor preference, but upon the fixed assurance that in the house of God I am servant, not the master, and that I have no alternative but to comply

strictly with the divine arrangements of the church fixed by the Lord himself.”

He was further led to give consideration to the question of church festivals, and felt horrified at the thought of being identified with such frivolities. Concerning this he says: “Church amusements are simply parasites hiding underneath a religious exterior, while they eat out the life of Christianity. Sacred concerts, church fairs, ecclesiastical entertainments—how well the words sound in the ears of the unwary. But when the Lord appeared walking among the golden candlesticks with countenance like the sun shining in his strength, their real inwardness was instantly revealed.”

The lesson contained in this dream is a most instructive and searching one. It led Dr. Gordon to seek for Spirit-filled church officers, to root up some strange plants he found growing in the sanctuary courts; pew rentals were abolished, ecclesiastical entertainments were dropped off, unconverted musical artists were dispensed with, interest in foreign missions was deepened, and the church quickened. It should lead every minister of the world to a prayerful inquiry concerning his ministration of the word, for this Stranger sits in the pew before him. The lesson may be studied with profit by every congregation of believers. It should lead to deeper personal piety and consecration, to greater reverence and quiet decorum in the house of God, and to a study of the forms and ceremonies which attend the altar, that the Spirit be not grieved from the temple and leave the sanctuary of Jehovah desolate, and that the incense of praise which arises from our altars be rich with fragrance.

The Seven Churches of Revelation 2 and 3

By M. E. Steward

MRS. M. E. STEWARD

SYMBOLS:—

1. Seven golden candlesticks, representing seven churches. Rev. 1:20.

2. Seven stars, symbolizing the angels, or ministers, of the churches. Verse 20.

3. The various characteristics of the Son of man, who was walking in the midst of the candlesticks, and holding the stars in his right hand, signifying his powerful protection and help. Verses 12-16.

Reasons why these churches could not be literal:—

1. The whole book of Revelation was addressed to them. In the apostolic days most of it applied in the future; consequently, the churches then could have had but little benefit from the book.

2. In churches in close proximity, in constant intercourse with one another, having the same Scriptures, and ministered unto by the same individuals, there could not have been so great a difference in character and in the reproofs and promises given them.

3. There were other churches just as important as the seven mentioned. But the names of the seven aptly describe the different periods of the gospel church. Each of the seven churches, therefore, comprises all the churches of God at any one period.

Commendations, reproofs, and promises:—

1. In the messages to the churches, Christ introduces himself in the character suited to the time. He first speaks of their good traits. All the churches, except Sardis and Laodicea, are approved for good works.

2. Pergamos and Thyatira were reproved for wrong doctrine. Smyrna and Philadelphia received no reproof.

3. The promises were applicable to the peculiarities of their situation. Thus, Smyrna, which suffered martyrdom, had the assurance of not being “hurt of the second death.” The Philadelphia church, which had been ridiculed for its belief in Christ’s coming, was to be vindicated, so that scoffers would know that God loved it.

The record of the seven churches:—

1. The Ephesus, or apostolic church, while commended for general faithfulness, was censured for having left her first love. While in this condition, the people of God passed into the Smyrna church, about the end of the first century. Black clouds of persecution gathered about her; but she diligently sought her Lord, and when the storm burst in fury, she carried herself so nobly through it that she had the full approval of heaven. See Goodrich’s Church History. In the first three centuries, three million Christians were put to death. But Constantine became emperor, and to gain the influence of the church he brought her under obligation to him, by favoring her.

2. The name of the church now changed to Pergamos, which continued to 538 A. D. The Lord saw her trials, but reproved her for harboring false teachers. Thyatira followed Pergamos, and remained until 1798 A. D. This was the time of the papal supremacy. The Papacy is no part of the seven churches. She put between fifty and one hundred million of God’s people to death. Says “The Museum of Antiquity:” “These were well-informed persons, of strong, cultivated minds, neither wild in their notions nor foolishly prodigal in their lives.”

3. Sardis, the next church, swung from suffering and death into the arms of the world; had a name to live and was dead. Yet a few worthy ones were found even in Sardis.

The admonition following the testimony to each church, and addressed to every person who has an ear to hear,—a heart to accept the word of God,—is, “He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches.”

The advent churches:—

1. Philadelphia expected her Lord to come in 1844.

2. She was well pleasing to her Lord.

3. Laodicea closes the series of churches.

Time occupied by this church:—

1. Laodicea is the remnant church of Revelation 12. It is the one now existing, for the coming of Christ is the next great event with her and with us.

2. This church covers the time of the investigative judgment in the heavenly sanctuary. The meaning of the word Laodicea is judging the people.

3. The message to this church is true, for it is expressly stated to be from “the faithful and true witness.” Rev. 3:14.

The boast of Laodicea and the Lord’s testimony to her:—

1. “Thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods,” both temporal wealth, which according to James she has been heaping up, and Bible truth. She is not reproved for holding wrong doctrine. She feels that she has “need of nothing.”

2. God says: “And knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked.”

3. The Saviour is pleading for her in the judgment, but he declares he will spew her out of his mouth, because she is “lukewarm.” This declaration is conditional, for counsel follows, which, if accepted, will save her. “If lukewarm sinners realized they were sinners, Christ could plead in their behalf, and the Lord would arouse them by his Holy Spirit. They hear the word, but make no application of it to themselves.”—Mrs. E. G. White.

The Lord’s counsel to Laodicea:—

1. “I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich; and white raiment, that thou mayest be clothed, and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear; and anoint thine eyes with eye-salve, that thou mayest see.” Verse 18.

2. We “buy” by exchanging ourselves, worthless as we are, for his blessings.

3. “Gold” is spiritual riches; it is principally three things,—faith, hope, and love. James 2:5; 1 Corinthians 13. “White raiment” is the “righteousness of saints.” Rev. 19:8. The “eye-salve” is the Holy Spirit. Acts 10:38.

Three things the Faithful Witness declares:—

1. “As many as I love [this proves that the Laodiceans are not rejected], I rebuke and chasten.” To rebuke is to reprove sharply. A special work that fulfils this point has been in this church ever since it had an existence. It is unquestionably the “testimony of Jesus,” the spirit of prophecy manifested through Mrs. E. G. White. This chastening of the church will not cease in rebukes from within and in persecutions from without till the end comes. Says Jesus, “Be zealous therefore, and repent.”

2. “If any man hear my voice [the Saviour speaks in various ways], and open the door [which is barricaded with many evil habits], I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me.”

3. Wonderful is the promise to the overcomer, to sit with Christ in his throne! One hundred forty-four thousand will heed the loving counsel given, and be freed from fault. What a lifting of the last dregs of humanity into absolute perfection is this!

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