(4) The character in which the Saviour speaks to each of the seven churches is always taken from the vision of the Son of man beheld by St. John in the first chapter of his book. It is true that in the case of one or two of the particulars mentioned this is not at once apparent; but in that of by far the larger number it is so clear that we are entitled to infer the existence of some secret link of connexion in the mind of the sacred writer even when it may not be distinctly perceptible to us. The descriptions, too, of the epistles are no doubt fuller and more elaborate than those of the vision; but this circumstance is easily accounted for when we remember that the seven different delineations of our Lord contained in the second and third chapters are in the first chapter combined in one. Keeping these considerations in view, the main point is incontestable that the germ of the epistolary description is to be found in every case in the preliminary vision. Thus to the first church--that of Ephesus--Jesus introduces Himself as _He that holdeth the seven stars in His right hand, He that walketh in the midst of the seven golden candlesticks_[32]; and the description is evidently that of chap. i. 12, 13, 16, where the Seer beheld "seven golden candlesticks; and in the midst of the candlesticks one like unto a Son of man; and He had in His right hand seven stars." To the second--the church of Smyrna--Jesus introduces Himself with the words, _These things saith the first and the last, which became dead, and lived again_[33]; and the description is taken from chap. i. 17, 18: "I am the first and the last, and the Living One; and I became dead, and behold, I am alive for evermore." To the third--the church of Pergamum--the introduction is, _These things saith He that hath a sharp two-edged sword_[34]; and the original of the description is found in chap. i. 16: _and out of His mouth proceeded a sharp two-edged sword_. To the fourth--the church of Thyatira--the Saviour begins, _These things saith the Son of God, who hath His eyes like a flame of fire, and His feet are like unto burnished brass_[35]; and we see the source whence the words are drawn when we read in chap. i. 14, 15, "And His eyes were as a flame of fire; and His feet like unto burnished brass, as if it had been refined in a furnace." Of the latter part of the salutation to the fifth church--that of Sardis--which runs, _These things saith He that hath the seven Spirits of God, and the seven stars_,[36] it is unnecessary to speak; but the first part is more difficult to trace. Comparing chap. v. 6 and chap. iv. 5, we learn that the seven Spirits of God are the possession of the Redeemer, and that they are symbolized by seven lamps burning before the throne of God. Turning now to chap. i., we find the Seer speaking in ver. 4 of "the seven Spirits which are before the throne," those very spirits which in chap. v. 6 he tells us that the Redeemer