"The saints of all ages in harmony meet,
Their Saviour and brethren transported to greet;
While the anthems of rapture unceasingly roll,
And the smile of our Jesus is the feast of the soul."
But while we linger on these mortal shores, other words, from the lips of Jesus, still fall upon our ears.
When Paul was on his way to the feast of the Passover at Jerusalem, he tarried for a brief space at Ephesus. Here he called together the elders of the church, and gave them an account of his labors, and exhorted them to diligence in the cause of their Master. And in that memorable farewell address, while urging upon the strong the duty of supporting the weak, he enforces his doctrine, by
reminding them of the "words of the Lord Jesus," where he says,
It is more blessed to give than to receive.
John was banished to the Isle of Patmos, for the word of God, and the testimony of Jesus. In a vision, he saw one like unto the Son of man, walking in the midst of the seven golden candlesticks. His hair was like wool, white as snow; his eyes as a flame of fire; his feet like fine brass, as if they burned in a furnace; and his voice like the sound of many waters.
In his right hand were seven stars: and out of his mouth went a two edged sword: and his countenance was as the sun shining in his strength. And when John saw him, he fell at his feet as one dead. But Jesus laid his right hand upon him saying:
Fear not; I am the first and the last: I am he that liveth, and was dead; and, behold, I am alive forever more, Amen; and have the keys of hell and of death. Write the things which thou hast seen, and the things which are, and the things which shall be hereafter; the mystery of the seven stars which thou sawest in my right hand, and
[385]the seven golden candlesticks. The seven stars are the angels of the seven churches; and the seven candlesticks which thou sawest are the seven churches.
And these are the words which he commanded John to write to the angels, or ministers, of the seven churches.