THE GLORY OF CHRIST (1)

THE GLORY OF CHRIST (1)

Revelation 22: 16, 17; Revelation 3: 7 - 13

SMcC It is in mind to consider the glory of Christ, and how it is to affect the assembly on the eve of the rapture. In the type of old, in Rebecca (Genesis 24), that well-known section, the journey leads to the point where Rebecca says, “Who is the man that is walking in the fields to meet us? And the servant said, That is my master!” (verse 65), and that is largely what is in mind to take account of, with the desire that there may be the corresponding result with us seen in Rebecca at that juncture as affected by the word, “she took the veil, and covered herself”. I think the brethren would readily see that the whole bearing of the Lord’s voice at the moment is to detach us from the world and all that is linked with it in view of the apostasy that is coming in, when the world will set up a rival head to Christ. As the product of the Spirit’s faithful service, the assembly will admit of no rival to Christ, and we are to see to it that in our hearts no rival to Christ is in any sense made room for; so that it is very affecting to see how the “I Jesus”, the emphatic ‘I’, Jesus, comes into the passage read (verse 16), and “I am the root and offspring of David, the bright and morning star”. There is a sort of awakening appeal in the fresh touch as to the personal glory of Jesus as this book finishes; a book that is very full in regard to history, involving localities, the assembly generally, and involving the world, but the personal appeal to the saints in this verse at the end is very affecting. It is as if the Lord would understand that there would be an immediate response to this affecting word, and we know that all ministry, rightly speaking according to God, has in mind that Christ personally should acquire a place in the affections of the saints, and that there should be a fresh and living response to that Person, and one thing that should be kept in mind, amongst other things, is the way that David comes in, because I think the peculiar way in which David comes into both these passages, refers to what we have already said, that God will permit no rival to Christ. In the Old Testament God would permit no rival to David. Every rival to David must go down. Although the sorrows of the testimony were many in relation to the working out of that great ideal in God’s anointed one in David, just as in our time and these last days of the dispensation in the recovery and the revival of the truth there have been many sorrows since the beginning of the recovery, but we can see how Christ comes into the ascendency all the time, with a view to His full place in the affections of the assembly.

CWO'LM Might I ask who is referred to when the Lord Jesus says, “I Jesus have sent mine angel”?

SMcC I think the angel alludes to the peculiar setting of the book, that is, the book being of a judicial character, introduces the thought of distance from beginning to end, but yet in the midst of it all there are these personal touches; while there is the recognition of the distance, there are the personal touches of Christ, such as here and to Philadelphia.

AJG Would you say that the fact that these things are testified in the assemblies has in mind that there should be a response to them in every locality?

SMcC That is what I thought, and David particularly bringing in the thought of unification. In David we have one who was able to unite all Israel and Judah in responsive movement of affection towards himself, so that he was not only crowned at Hebron, but he was given his due place in Jerusalem. I thought that the mention of David links with the thought of the unification of the saints universally in regard to this thought of responsive movement to Christ. Would you think that?

AJG I think that helps very much.

PHH So that all the tribes came to Hebron and said to David, “Behold, we are thy bone and thy flesh” (2 Samuel 5: 1), not now Judah only, but the whole people.

SMcC Exactly, showing what personal attractiveness and power there was in David. God’s appointed one, to rally the affections of the brethren and unify them together in the recognition, not only of his personal worth and attractiveness, but God’s ordered thought in relation to His king, His anointed.

DJH Does it not say that David became continually greater, but the house of Saul was weakened?

SMcC Yes, what heart-searchings there were in Israel in the arrival at the supremacy of David. We can see that in the historical books in the Old Testament. If Christ is to acquire the place of supremacy on the eve of translation that this book shows He desires to have, it must of necessity produce heart-searchings with us, because both the letter to Philadelphia and the portion that we have read, emphasise that we are on the eve of the rapture, “I come quickly” is a special word to Philadelphia amongst the assemblies.

JTS Is the ministry calculated to effect what is said in Acts 13, “And having removed him he raised up to them David” (verse 22)? Is one man to be removed from our hearts and minds, and the other Man in place there - more than a Man indeed, God’s Man?

SMcC Yes, so that all through the prophets there are such choice allusions to David, not only to David personally, but to the system of David, pointing on as it does to Christ and His renown, as in Amos 9: 11, God raising up the tabernacle of David,

and the wonderful results that stand related thereto; just preceding that we get the thought of the sieve, and Israel being shaken in the sieve, yet not the least grain falling to the ground; an abstract allusion that we always have to hold to when we come to that side, but it is making way for the renown of Christ, typified in David and the system that Christ’s glory is apprehended in relation to, and especially where the service of God is to have such a choice place.

RHS What is the thought of “the bright and morning star” in relation to David?

SMcC Well, it is very striking how we get this reference. We get two references to the morning star in this book, the first to Thyatira, then here, but in this verse we get the addition of the word ‘bright’ that we do not have in Thyatira. Thyatira bringing in, as it does, the introduction of a rival head to Christ in the ecclesiastical order and unity publicly where such corruption has set in as evidenced on every hand, it is striking how the morning star comes in in the darkness linked with that corruption, but here it is linked with the thought of what is bright, as if our hearts and minds are to be illumined by Christ coming on to the horizon of our view in this heavenly way. I think it is detaching, “the bright and morning star” has a detaching effect, drawing us out of the order of things upon which impending judgment is soon to fall, drawing us into that heavenly order of things where Christ is so wondrously supreme.

AH Is the thought of the morning star something peculiar that is presented to the assembly?

SMcC Yes, you do not find it exactly in the prophetic writings. We get the thought of the Sun of righteousness arising with healing in his wings, but “the bright and morning star” seems to be an allusion special to the assembly period and time, therefore I think it bears on this great thought of detachment. In all the exercises that are constantly coming up amongst us as to the world and the things of the world, the Lord has in mind our detachment from the world, so that as the rapture takes place we have not much to hold us here.

ECM Does Peter help when he refers to “the prophetic word made surer, to which ye do well taking heed (as to a lamp shining in an obscure place) until the day dawn and the morning star arise in your hearts”, 2 Peter 1: 19? I was thinking of the link with the prophetic word.

SMcC Yes, Peter in that way would link on with what we are saying, especially as we think of the allusion that has just been made by Peter before these verses to “the excellent glory” (verse 17), and how Christ is brought on to our view on the holy mount, signalised as He is by the Father’s salutation.

CMM You spoke of the rapture; is there a sense in which we hold the coming of Christ as one great whole, the rapture and His appearing, in the longings of the assembly?

SMcC I think so, in fact you would say the appearing is really more prominent here than the rapture, it involves the rapture, but the appearing would be in mind here in full result.

FPMG Does Abigail illustrate this detachment of which you are speaking in her judgment, both of Nabal and of Saul, and has David some suggestion of the bright and morning star to her, she speaks of all the good which Jehovah will do?

SMcC Yes, that is a good reference, especially as it comes in following the death of Samuel, showing what the prophetic ministry had resulted in, and that is what is coming out at the present moment; what there is in a substantial way in the saints, that while publicly linked with an order of things ecclesiastically where there is not much appreciation of Christ as typified in David, for that would be what it would suggest, Abigail substantially sets out the result of the ministry, and the assembly is to set out substantially, as it were, the result of all that has so richly come to us from the days of the recovery.

SHN Would the thought of grace come out with David? You referred in your prayer to the thought of recovery, and I was thinking of the grace that came out for example towards Mephibosheth, in showing the kindness of God towards him.

SMcC What you find with David so remarkably, is the effectiveness of administration; grace is prominent with him, and righteousness too. You find that comes to light in his word to Solomon, how everything was carefully measured by David.

AHG Would you say a little more as to what you have in mind as to David’s system?

SMcC I think it points to what is linked with Christ in the type in that sense, in which his renown is seen. Where would you see the renown of Christ today? Certainly you do not see it in Israel, you do not see it in the world, you see it in the assembly. That is the realm in which the renown of Christ appears, and the assembly in that way is always to be in our thoughts, however dark and difficult the day may be.

AJG You were connecting it, were you not, with the expression, “the tabernacle of David” in Amos?

SMcC Yes. It is over against the ruin and the breakdown, it is what God raises up and the fruitful results and conditions that flow from that. The tabernacle of David would stand over against all independency in sects and schismatic parties.

PHH Are the thoughts of the root and the offspring only correctly understood in the assembly?

SMcC I would say so, and these are very affecting allusions, the root of David reminding us of the Lord’s greatness, His deity; the offspring of David reminding us so forcibly of His humanity. It is very affecting that the Lord is the root of David. You can understand how so much can be said about David in the Old Testament, although he was a man like ourselves, so much could be said about him in the light of this verse, that the Lord was the root of David.

PHH Does all that bear upon the new day? The bright and morning star ushers in the new day, does it? Is the light of the deity of Christ and the manhood of Christ all enriching us to go into the new day?

SMcC Yes, and especially helping us and steadying us over against the departure from the truth on every hand. Think of the error as to the Person of Christ on every hand about which we are not to think lightly. It is to affect us, and the Lord’s word here would be over against all the departure from the truth in regard to His Person, “I am the root and offspring of David”.

CWO'LM Do the last words of David bear on this at all, “the morning without clouds” and so on? 2 Samuel 23: 4.

SMcC Yes, it would, it has in mind the true administration according to God coming in, as it will come in at the appearing of Christ, and we are going to be with Him. He is not going to come out without us. Therefore the need of being clear in regard to all matters now in view of coming out with Him then, in the glory of that day and the blest administration of it in which we shall have part with Christ.

MDS Is that why in verse 12 He would say, “Behold, I come quickly”, and then He goes on to say, “Blessed are they that wash their robes”, putting that exercise upon every one of us in the light of what you are saying?

SMcC Yes, it is very striking that preceding verses 16 and 17 are these verses 14 and 15, bringing on to our view the moral way in which we are cleared and detached from all that is extraneous in regard to our robes, so that we should have right to these glorious matters that the tree of life and the city open up.

EJH Is that seen too in Abigail, so near one physically and yet morally and spiritually she was completely detached from Nabal and wholly attached to David?

SMcC Yes, therefore it is a very testing matter in our position in the world, being so near to it as we are physically yet we need to be so far apart from it morally, in spirit and in ways. I think the Lord is stressing that, and what better expulsive power in our hearts in regard to extraneous influences could there be than the powerful presentation of His personal glory as here, “I Jesus”. What a moving appeal in regard to our detachment from the world and our readiness to meet Him and greet Him in the air, as we shall!

RGB In John’s gospel, written for the last days and presenting peculiarly the glory of the Person of Christ, do the closing chapters present to us peculiarly the withdrawal and the impelling of the saints out of the world?

SMcC Very much so, as in John 17, for instance, the Lord stresses, “They are not of the world, as I am not of the world” (verse 16). What a detaching sense that imparts to us as we take account of our position here in the world, yet not of it, and this is to enter into every department of life, not only entering into matters of the assembly, but entering into our homes, our businesses, our work, so that there is a testimony, as it were, to our detachment in mind and spirit from the world, which is hastening on to the appointing of the rival head.

JTS Is it not affecting that in the beginning of John’s gospel it says, “The world knew him not” John 1: 10? In his epistle he says, “The world knows us not, because it knew him not” (1 John 3: 1), a people apart from it because of their attachment to Christ.

SMcC Just so.

JWD Is it not thought that in the assembly there is the greatest expression of intelligence in regard to the Lord’s deity and manhood? I was thinking of the bearing of it upon what you were saying about preservation from the world and the earth.

SMcC In that sense there is no other creature so near to Deity as the assembly.

SEW Would you say something about this testimony being in the assembly, the 16th verse of chapter 22?

SMcC It shows how the Lord is thinking of the local assemblies, the local gatherings, it is the plural, “I Jesus have sent mine angel to testify these things to you in the assemblies”, showing how the local positions are in His mind all the way through. The book opens with a review of the local positions, and it ends with an appeal to the local positions.

WMB Does that merge in the universal thought in verse 17 where we have the Spirit and the bride?

SMcC Yes, that is the bride brings in the great thought of femininity for the heart of Christ, which would bring on to our view the great universal thought, so that the two thoughts are together in verses 16 and 17, the economy of local assemblies, the local thought in verse 16 and then the great catholic thought in verse 17, the bride.

RHS Would the thought of “to you in the assemblies” have any suggestion of every one of the personnel of local assemblies?

SMcC I think it would. The Lord would have that in mind, therefore it would bring up with us as to where we stand in regard to the testimony to these things, personally.

AH How far do you think we should carry this matter of the bride? Would that cover the whole of the saints on earth, or would it have to be limited to those who have the light of the assembly in any way?

SMcC I think the Lord would help us in the book of the Revelation to have full assembly thoughts in mind. That is we would not have anything less than the whole thought of the assembly in mind, whether it may be seen in few or many; that is another matter, but the bride would represent the character of the assembly in the eyes of Christ, that He is thinking about her as we shall see in Philadelphia. After all, the power and effectiveness of the number of any persons, believers, is not linked with the truth that they hold, as F.E.R. pointed out; it is linked with how they stand in the truth of the assembly.

AH You think in that way that although the 2 Timothy 2 position publicly obtains right to the end, we must hold to it that the bride represents a whole thought?

SMcC I think that is what it has in mind. Mr. Raven, you will recall, pointed out in the lecture on “The Holy City” in Volume 2 of his lectures, that John saw what Paul never saw; while John had no distinctive commission like Paul and Peter, yet he saw what Paul never saw, what Peter never saw. The Lord gave John to see, in the letter and the word to Philadelphia, what it was to take account of persons standing through revival in the truth of the assembly, that there is a revived state of things, not altogether prophetic, but it was there in Philadelphia.

AJG And Mr. Taylor has stressed, has he not, that “I have loved thee” in Philadelphia is nothing less than the whole assembly?

SMcC The Lord has in mind the whole thought, and the bride here would include the whole thought, and we should never hold anything less in our minds, in that sense, than the whole thought.

PHH Should we not allow for God to do much in the last moments of the dispensation in that way, so that the whole bride, the whole assembly thought, may occur perhaps to many, for the first time, just before the Lord comes?

SMcC In that way we cannot limit what God can do, but even now in conditions of public weakness as we are in, in days of recovery and revival, we should not hold anything less in our outlook than what the Lord holds, namely, the assembly.

CMM Would the evangelical ‘come’ brought in here, have a bearing on the completion of the bride?

SMcC I would think it would have. It is a question now of those who may be laggardly in the matter, “the Spirit and the bride say, Come. And let him that hears say, Come. And let him that is athirst come; he that will, let him take the water of life freely”. It is as if we would desire that not one should be missed out; we know that no one will be missed out who rightly belongs to the Lord, but it is the desire of our hearts practically as in the current of this, linked with the Spirit, that none should be missed out.

FPS Is that why David is set out as a shepherd in a peculiar way, “And I will set up one shepherd over them, and he shall feed them, even my servant David” (Ezekiel 34: 23); there will be no sheep missing?

SMcC Just so.

MHT Is it significant that the tense used in verse 17 is the present? They say, Come; it is not, will say, Come. In that way is it suggestive that that has always been characteristically the language of the bride from the very beginning?

SMcC Well, it is very interesting in that way to see how the present tense is used, “the Spirit and the bride say, Come. And let him that hears say, Come. And let him that is athirst come”; that is the conditions are present to the one who is speaking here.

PHH Would you say a little more about “the Spirit and the bride”?

SMcC I think it is very affecting the way that the Spirit is linked with the bride here, and the bride is linked with the Spirit. We have a divine Person, the Spirit, it is a peculiar reference to Himself personally in His own uniqueness, “the Spirit”, and “the bride”, is a reference to the assembly and her uniqueness and distinctiveness. But we have a divine Person, and we have a creature in the thought of the bride linked together in response to this word of the Lord Jesus saying “Come”.

DJH Why is it we get the thought of the saying first, and the doing afterwards? At the beginning of verse 17, “And the Spirit and the bride say, Come. And let him that hears say, Come”, and then it is a matter of doing something, “And let him that is athirst come; he that will, let him take the water of life freely”.

SMcC The whole thing is based on appeal, it is not a matter of force, it is not a matter of pushing persons into the position where the water of life is, it involves movement. The water of life is available, but then it involves movement, that is, as it says, “let him that is athirst come”; come where? Come where the water of life is. It shows that the water of life is not everywhere in that sense. As the early ministry of J.T. pointed out in regard to John 4, the living water is located, so that it involves movement.

DJH Would it be in a certain sense light first, the light of the position in the saying and then the response to that as you have been stressing in the coming?

SMcC I would say that, that is it is like the glad tidings going out and the ministry, and then the results would come to light involving detachment;

detachment from associations, religious or otherwise, or detachment from the world in any shape or form, would be involved in the coming; we have to leave one set of circumstances to come into another set of circumstances where the water of life is flowing.

LGB Would locating the living water involve that the truth of the gospel is not divorced from the truth of the assembly?

SMcC Well, it would, and we want to see the importance of that so that the assembly is not left out of the gospel for the two are bound up together in that sense.

EJB With regard to what you were saying about “the Spirit”, is it striking that both the passages you have read use the title “the Spirit”, and in each case it follows a very glorious presentation of Christ? Is He the One who is able to bring the richest thoughts of Christ to the assembly?

SMcC I would say so, so that in all the words to the overcomer, the word is “let him hear what the Spirit says”. It is not what the Spirit of God or the Spirit of Christ says, not even is the adjective ‘holy’ attached, it is “let him hear what the Spirit says to the assemblies”, as if the personal distinctiveness and greatness of the Spirit are involved in the matter of the truth, and what works out in our detachment from all that is extraneous in view of being for Christ as Philadelphia sets out - as we should now come to it.

AJG Is there not something peculiarly affecting in verse 17 in that in the main the Spirit is speaking to the saints on Christ’s behalf, but now in verse 17 He is with the bride, speaking to the Lord?

SMcC It is very affecting to think of one divine Person addressing Another, and linked with it is the creature entity in the bride, the refined and glorious product of the Spirit’s personal service and His mission here.

AH Is it right to think that this remarkable appeal in these verses, 16 and 17, has in mind the believer carrying out the injunction of verse 14 to which we have already referred? Is that what you have in mind when you speak of detachment?

SMcC That is it, it is a question of the realm, going into the city; well, the water of life flows freely there as we are shown at the beginning of the book, and this 17th verse ought to encourage the Trustees of the Depot in regard to what is in mind in connection with the publication of the gospel preachings. All that is, I think, apropos to the moment as we are on the eve of the Lord’s coming, the great desire evangelically to reach one and all. Not only the unsaved, but the saints are to be affected by the gospel.

AHG Would there be a link between the tree of life in verse 14 and the water of life later on?

SMcC The tree of life is a central thought, in one sense, a static thought, that is it is in the midst of the paradise of God, whereas the water of life is a flowing thought, it is what flows. The tree of life is Christ objectively apprehended, of course; the water of life points to the Spirit.

FCM Is it delightful then to see the effective result of the presentation of “I Jesus”, the result Christ-ward in the Spirit and the bride, and the result in powerful testimony man-ward?

SMcC That brings up where we are, what can we say about it? Has the personal glory of Christ affected our hearts in the same way so that there is this holy fervency and desire on this line that need might be met?

ACSP Does the climax of the recovery under Nehemiah bear on what you are saying? After the rebuilding of the wall and the establishment of the choirs, we get the unique references to David and the prominence he had; you have the city of David,

and the house of David, and the instruments of David, the commandments of David and the days of David, all crowded into one short section.

SMcC That is very interesting because following these particular references it says at the climax of the movement of the first choir that “they went up by the stairs of the city of David, at the ascent of the wall, above the house of David, even to the water-gate eastward” (Nehemiah 12: 37), showing how much is made of David, and how much is made of the fountain-gate and the water-gate in the climax of the movement. In Philadelphia the glory of Christ comes on to our view in a peculiar way, and I think what affects Christ so much in Philadelphia is that His glory is so appreciated, as it apparently is by what the Lord says, so that He can disclose Himself and the secrets of His heart as Man, in a peculiar way to what so choicely appreciates what He is in His personal glory.

AH Do you think the great feature of His glory is “the key of David”, as perhaps suggesting the way He opens the door into the service of God?

SMcC I do, and in regard to the rich administration that characterised David’s regime, especially the prominence that grace assumed in it, all that would be in mind as an entrance into the best according to divine thoughts, and one particular thought that was in one’s mind in “my new name”. I believe, as the time is so short, that it is important that we should see that that has a detaching effect on the assembly, on the saints. The apprehension of Christ’s new name only but consolidates the detachment in their souls from the ecclesiastical order and unity which has become a hot-bed of corruption in the public scene around us.

AWP You have mentioned detachment two or three times, the apostle Paul, in 2 Timothy 2, links on the glad tidings with David: “Jesus Christ raised from among the dead, of the seed of David,

according to my glad tidings”. Does that link on with what you have in mind?

SMcC Well, it does. The truth of the glad tidings involves the presentation of Christ on that line, especially in detachment in regard to moral matters.

PHH Were you suggesting that the new name in one department of its meaning, stands over against religious antiquity and stagnation? Do you also think that it has a point of substantial meaning of its own? What would you say it was?

SMcC I think the maintenance of that and the apprehension of it in our souls, brings about the incidental side on the negative line, our detachment from things around, but the main thought would be what the apprehension of it is on the positive line. I think it particularly alludes, of course, to the position He has come into in humanity and especially involving the glorified state, and bearing upon the whole matter of the service of God, in such a distinctive way, so that these rich thoughts are linked with it, “the temple of my God”, and “the name of my God, and the name of the city of my God, the new Jerusalem”. It seems to one that the mention of the new name in that cluster of glories is to show the uniqueness of Christ in His humanity in this new relation; standing related to all that is so choice and so great in that connection.

AJG Christ in His humanity in relation to His God.

SMcC That is it.

PHH Therefore does John 20 enter into it a bit, where it is a question of His humanity and His sonship, and yet saying, “I ascend to my Father ... and to my God” (John 20: 17), would all that enter into the setting of “my new name”?

SMcC I think it would. I think the word ‘I ascend’ particularly is to affect us in regard to this way that leads into the apprehension of the new name, what Christ is in the glory of His humanity, in its present glorious state, not exactly as seen in the gospels, but in its present glorious state, standing related to God in these wonderful relations. What a wonderful thing it is that manhood is before God in the uniqueness of these relations.

WMB Would there be any link with the glory which the Lord asked the Father that we might behold, “my glory which thou hast given me”, John 17: 24?

SMcC I think there is a definite link, we are not said to participate in it, or have part in it, but the thought of the contemplation of it is in mind, and here it is very strong. He says, “I will write upon him”, that is some impression is made of lasting permanent value in the writing in regard to humanity in this new way as seen in Christ before God.

AJG So that does the overcomer, as having the name of Christ’s God written upon Him and then Christ’s new name written upon Him, have a great appreciation of what God is to Christ, and then of what Christ is to God? I mean, is it as the Lord says, “My God, and your God”, apprehended by the overcomer, and become in a sense, characteristic of him, and then the answer to it in what Christ is to His God?

SMcC I think that is right, what that must be to God and how it is to affect the overcomer, so that there is spiritual stability in the position, while we may be ostracized from all the associations and affiliations around, the overcomer is contemplated as a pillar in the temple of Christ’s God. Think of a pillar in that order of things where God is so blessedly known!

EJH Is there thus what one might speak of as the communication of abiding renown on such a person, as the name is mentioned so many times?

SMcC I think there is, and I think the verse too involves what was said earlier, that there is peculiar capacity in the assembly to take in thoughts of God, in so far as the creature mind and understanding can take them in, but the Lord seems to have great delight in speaking to Philadelphia in this way and to the overcomer, bearing in mind what His God was to Him. Our God is not exactly mentioned here, we include our God in John 20, but it is not our God exactly in Revelation 3, it is the uniqueness of Christ’s humanity and what God was to Him, and what He was to God, and the new name enters into this.

AHG Would there be any link at all between this and the thought of new Jerusalem?

SMcC I think there would, that is it is what is distinctive, what has not existed before, what stands out in all its uniqueness, the new Jerusalem, not a new Jerusalem. It might have said a new Jerusalem, but the point is it is the eternal side, and new in the sense of what never has existed before, “the new Jerusalem, which comes down out of heaven, from my God”, notice the emphasis on “from my God”, not only what God is in relation to Christ personally, but what God is in relation to the city, new Jerusalem.

PHH Does not that reference to the new Jerusalem coming down suggest that we are very near to the glory and eternity?

SMcC That is what I thought and it is all to detach us from this world. The powerful ministry of J.T. in recent years, amidst human frailty, was ordered of the Lord, all in view of this detaching line, that we might be detached from all that is negative, that would mar the distinctiveness of the heavenly glory of the assembly.

AH So the Lord says, “I know thy works: behold, I have set before thee an opened door”, would you think as making use of that door and freeing ourselves, this is what we arrive at?

SMcC So that we want to see what is in the body of the letter in that way to Philadelphia. It is the acceptance of death to the world, complete dissociation from all that there is in the world in that sense; not that we go out of the world, the brethren understand that, but in spirit and in ways, there would be complete detachment in view of our links with Christ, and the apprehension and appreciation of His glory.

AAL Would the epistle to the Hebrews open out the thought of the new name a little?

SMcC Yes, we will take up that this afternoon. “I come quickly; hold fast what thou hast, that no one take thy crown”. I think the crown alludes to the way that the Person of Christ has come before us in the powerful ministry of the recovery, and He is enshrined in the affections of the saints, so that we hold fast to that and we are not going to be turned from it.

WMcK Does the idea of the pillar imply that the overcomer becomes an integral part of this system where these glories are shining? He has been detached, but there is no idea of detachment in this system now; he is an integral part of it.

SMcC Yes, that is, he is in perfect consistency with the whole order of things indicated in it, especially the revelation of God in Christ which the temple of God alludes to.

RHS Does the thought of “He that overcomes” involve the thought of continuity? It is not just ‘has overcome’, but “He that overcomes”.

SMcC That is it, we must be on that line all the time, it is characteristic.