And the seven stars.—How each of the Lord’s messengers was kept! St. Paul had (supposedly) eight years of liberty after his first imprisonment, planted the Gospel in Spain and revisited the scenes of earlier labors; St. John is said to have been thrown into a caldron of boiling oil, but escaped unharmed and died of old age; Arius died a natural death; as did Peter Waldo, John Wycliffe, Martin Luther and Charles T. Russell, although all had reason to expect martyrdom at the hands of ecclesiasticism. The year that Peter Waldo died, his tenets were condemned by an ecumenical council. “Wycliffe preached unmolested; but the Council of Constance (May 5, 1415) condemned his doctrines, and in 1428 his remains were dug up and burned; the ashes were cast into the adjoining Swift, which, as Wordsworth poetically remarked, conveyed them through the Avon and the Severn into the sea, and thus disseminated them over the world. His doctrines, carried into Bohemia, originated the Hussite movement. The New Testament was published about 1378, and the entire Old Testament was completed shortly before his death.”—McC. I know thy works, that thou hast a name that thou livest.—Many who admired Wycliffe were not real Christians. A man not willing to go to the stake for his religion has none. And art dead.—Spiritually.—Luke 9:60. 3:2. Be watchful, and strengthen the things which remain, that [are] WERE ready to die.—Many among Wycliffe’s admirers lost faith and love, and to that degree died, while others had some spiritual life. These the Lord desired to awaken, to strengthen, to encourage.—Eph. 5:14. For I have not found thy works perfect before MY God.—Revised Version reads, “For I have found no works of thine fulfilled before My God.” 3:3. Remember [therefore] how thou hast received.—Received the entire Word in the English tongue. And heard.—Wycliffe was the author of more than 200 works, chiefly tracts, on the Ransom. And hold fast, and reform.—(Diaglott.) Had Wycliffe’s labors been properly appreciated, the Reformation would have been set forward 150 years. If therefore thou shalt not [watch] REPENT.—Change your course of conduct. I will come on thee as a thief.—“Many today have the Sardis characteristics. To such this is a warning. Seven times our Lord’s Second Coming is described as being thief‐like, stealthy. Those who are asleep will be awakened only after His work of destruction has progressed. His presence will be recognized by the sleepers only as the noise of spoiling the Strong Man’s House gradually increases.” (Z. ’16‐347; 1 Thes. 5:2; Matt. 24:43; 2 Pet. 3:10.) “The stealthiness of the thief, not the violence of the robber, is implied in the original.”—Cook.