Seven stars.—“Apparently the stars represent special ministers, or servants of the Church. In Revelation 12:1 the Church is pictured as a Woman crowned with twelve stars. These stars evidently represent the Twelve Apostles as the special lights of the Church. Similarly, in the picture before us, the seven stars which the Lord holds in His right hand seem to represent special light‐bearers in the Church—in each of its seven phases, or stages, of development. It will be noticed that the messages to the various Churches are sent by these stars, messengers, angels, as though our Lord would have us understand that the appropriate message for each appropriate epoch in the Church’s experience would be sent by the Lord through a particular star, or messenger, whom He would especially commission as His representative. Our Lord Himself is represented by the great light of the sun; and His special messengers in the Church throughout the entire period of the Gospel Age are consistently enough represented as stars.”—Z. ’16‐345; Rev. 1:20. And out of His mouth went a sharp two‐edged sword.—“No part of the description could more thoroughly convince us that the description of our Lord given here is symbolic. As a symbolic picture, it speaks to us of the Word of the Lord, the Sword of the Spirit, ‘sharper than any two‐edged sword.’ (Eph. 6:17; Heb. 4:12.) It reminds us that our Lord’s words are not one‐sided, not directed merely against sin in one class, but that His Word is sharp, cutting in every direction; that sin is reproved by Him as much when found in His most earnest followers as when found elsewhere. It assures us that none need attempt to pluck out the mote from his brother’s eye without first getting rid of the beam in his own eye; and that if we do not show mercy to those who are our debtors we must not expect mercy from Him who has purposed to extend His mercy toward us. How heart‐ searching is God’s Word when we understand it—not merely as a compendium of rules and regulations, but when we catch the spirit of it! Then we come to see that its requirement is love out of a pure heart; first, to the Heavenly Father; secondly, to our Lord and Head; thirdly, to all His brethren; fourthly, to the world in general, groaning and travailing in pain, waiting for the blessings of the coming Day of Christ; and fifthly, toward our enemies also, sympathetically realizing that they are warped, twisted and blinded through the deceitfulness of sin and through the machinations of the great Adversary.—2 Cor. 4:4.”—Z. ’16‐345; Rev. 2:12, 16; 19:15, 21; Isa. 11:4. And His countenance [was as the sun] shineth AS THE SUN in his strength.—“And his face was as it were the sun.”—Rev. 10:1; Acts 26:13.