Candlesticks symbolize churches. Thus the Saviour said to John: “The seven candlesticks which thou sawest are the seven churches,” 1:20. When “men light a candle,” they put “it on a candlestick, and it giveth light unto all that are in the house,” Matt. 5:15. The candlestick does not originate, but sustains the light in a position to be seen and exert a beneficial influence. It is thus that the church is said to be “the light of the world,” and is required to let her light “shine before men,” _Ib._ vs. 14-16,—_i.e._ She is to disseminate the light committed to her; and in so doing, she becomes a _witness_ for Jesus. The church comprises all the holy persons who have lived on earth, and is symbolized by two candlesticks, corresponding to the two dispensations of its existence. Those who lived under the former dispensation, are called “a great cloud of witnesses,” Heb. 12:1. Of Christ, “give all the prophets witness,” Acts 10:43. They constitute the voice of the church in that age. Under the gospel dispensation, also, Christ had chosen witnesses of himself. He said to his disciples, “Ye shall be witnesses unto me, both in Jerusalem and in all Judea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost parts of the earth,” (_Ib._ 1:8); and they said, “We are his witnesses,” _Ib._ 5:32. “We are witnesses of all things which he did, ... witnesses chosen before of God,” (_Ib._ 10:39-41);—“his witnesses unto the people,” _Ib._ 13:31. They and their successors have “testified and preached the word of the Lord,” (_Ib._ 8:25), overcoming “by the word of their testimony,” (Rev. 12:11),—many of them being “slain for the word of God, and for the testimony which they held,” 6:9. The church, one in all ages, symbolized by the two candlesticks, is thus a _witness_ of Jesus.