TO SARDIS.
" He that hath the seven Spirits of God "—the symbolic affirmation of omniscience—has little to say in the way of commendation to the brethren in Sardis. " Thou hast a name that thou livest and art dead." Men knew the reputation of the Sardian ecclesia: the possessor of " the seven stars "—the seven Spirit lights kindled in the seven ecclesias, knew their state. " I have not found thy works perfect before God." Jesus watches and discerns the developments of probation. He requires not to bring men to the judgment seat to know, though he will bring them there to reveal them  There were a few exceptions in Sardis: " Thou hast a few names even in Sardis which have not defiled their garments, and they shall walk with me in white, for they are worthy; " from which we learn that membership in a dead ecclesia will not interfere with individual acceptance where worthiness exists. Even those who are lacking have an opportunity which they are exhorted to use. " Be watchful, and strengthen the things that remain which are ready to die, Repent." There is this encouragement to repentance : " He that overcometh, the same shall be clothed in white raiment, and I will not blot out his name out of the book of life, but I will confess his name before my Father and before His angels." The white investiture is readily recognizable in that clothing of the mortal body with immortality from heaven, of which all accepted saints are to be the subjects at the Lord's coming. The righteousness of the saints is said to be the meaning of the " fine linen, clean and white," with which the symbolic bride is arrayed; but this cannot be the meaning of the white raiment, because the white raiment is promised as the recompence of the righteousness (or overcoming), and, therefore, cannot be the righteousness itself. It is a fit symbol of the pure incorruptible that will result from the transforming action of the Spirit of God upon the mortal bodies of the saints who stand before Christ accepted. Of course it is not literal; white raiment of this sort could be purchased at the milliner's. There may, however, be a blending of the symbolical and the literal. That is to say, the immortalised saints may wear white clothing. The angels, to whom they are to be equal, almost always appeared habited in white (Matt, xxviii. 3 ; Acts x. 30, &c), and the garments of Jesus in transfiguration, became " white and glistening, so as no fuller on earth could white them." The apparel of the immortal state is an interesting matter of detail, but not of practical moment. The thing that is of practical moment is the fact that it is possible for a man's name to be blotted from the book of life, that is, expunged from the divine recognition as an heir of eternal life, after having once sustained that relation. Jesus promised to the Sardian ecclesia that this should not happen in the case of such as overcome, but that they should be confessed by him before the Father and the angels. This is an honour the greatness of which we cannot estimate because it is yet unseen, but which will be appreciated at its true greatness when the hour arrives for the muster of the chosen and the inauguration in glory in the presence of multitudes of the angelic host and the manifested glory of the Father.