The religious disputes, the ecclesiastical quarrels, the heated discussions, the hatred, hostility, and opposition that the differences of opinion engendered, caused considerable nervous irritation, mental excitement, and a display of the imagination. This new religion, this reformation, this new organization, produced no small amount of fermentation. It was all nervous, stimulated to a degree of exaltation, rising in intensity to enthusiasm and religious ecstacy, wherein many varieties of nervous phases were exhibited. St. John was on the isle of Patmos when he wrote his Revelations. He could not have chosen a more suitable spot for his visionary work. An isolated little island situated in the Archipelago near Asia Minor, it is one of the smallest islands in that region. It could certainly not contain many inhabitants. It is surrounded by sea and exceedingly lonely. A man with a highly nervous temperament could almost see anything in that dreamland of melancholy and seclusion. John's visions resembled those of his predecessors several hundred years previous. But John came four hundred years later, and had the advantage of more culture. Ideas had multiplied, experience had increased, the imagination was amplified. Education had advanced, and the mental faculties were better developed. He had therefore the brain, the opportunity, and a very favorable locality, to dream, to have visions, and to imagine to his heart's content. He had the material, the impressions, and the state of mind to aid him. Of course we take it for granted that John wrote these Revelations--or some one imagined these things for him. John wrote to the seven churches, Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamos, Thyatera, Sardis, Philadelphia, and Laodicea. None of these places was any considerable distance from Patmos. What he sees: Chapter i: Seven candlesticks. One was like (verse 13) the Son of Man, clothed in garments down to the feet, girt about the paps with a golden girdle. Verse 14: "His head and his hair were white like wool, as white as snow." Verse 15: His feet like unto fine brass, as if they burned in a furnace; and his voice as the sound of many waters. Verse 16: He had in his right hand seven stars, and out of his mouth a sharp two-edged sword: and his countenance was as the sun shineth in his strength. The second and third chapters are advisory to the seven churches. In the fourth his imagination takes a great flight.