Be thou faithful unto death.—“It is required of all consecrators that they shall ‘die daily,’ and that the end, with us as with our Lord and Head, shall be literal death. As it is written: ‘I have said, Ye are gods [_elohim_—mighty ones], all of you sons of the Highest; yet ye shall die like men, ye shall fall like one of the princes’—not like Prince Adam, convicts; but like Prince Jesus, participators in His death. (Psa. 82:6, 7.)”—F. 444. And I will give thee a Crown of Life.—“The Apostle James speaks of the same crown and calls it the Crown of Life. (Jas. 1:12.) The Apostle Peter speaking of the same calls it the Crown of Glory. (1 Pet. 5:4.) The thought at the bottom of each of these expressions is the same; namely, the custom in olden times of running races and the giving of a crown to the successful runner at the end of the course. Our reward will be the Crown of Life in the sense that we shall get life on the highest plane, inherent life, immortality. It will be a Crown of Righteousness in the sense that only those who are approved of God as righteous will thus be rewarded and glorified—the righteousness of the Lord fulfilled in us who walk not after the flesh, but after the spirit.”—Z. ’03‐190; Rev. 3:11; 2 Tim. 2:15; Isa. 62:3; Phil. 3:14. 2:11 He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches; he that overcometh.—The overcomer of this Gospel Age only. Shall not be hurt of the Second Death.—His victory is eternal. 2:12. And [to] BY the angel.—The messenger whose testimony was of special value to the Church while the Papacy was rising into power was Arius. He “maintained that the Son of God was totally and essentially distinct from the Father; that He was the first and noblest of those beings whom God had created—the instrument by whose subordinate operation He formed the Universe; and therefore inferior to the Father both in nature and dignity.” (Buck.) “The controversy spread like a flame throughout the empire. Accordingly the first ecumenical council was held at Nice, A. D. 325, consisting of 318 bishops, most of whom were from the East. The gist of the question to be settled by the Council of Nice lay in the argument of Arius: ‘The Father is a father; the Son is a son; therefore the Father must have existed before the Son; therefore once the Son was not; therefore He was made, like all creatures, of a substance that had not previously existed.’ The creed, as finally adopted, condemned the heresy of Arius and fixed the doctrine as it has been held in the church to this day. Of all the bishops only Thomas of Marmarica, and Secundus of Ptolemais, held out against the threat of banishment by the Emperor. Arius was excommunicated and banished, and his books burnt.”—McC.