t called Christians at Antioch,"
so their gracious Master will "confess their names before his Father and
the holy angels." (Acts xi. 26; Rev. iii. 5.)

14. And unto the angel of the church of the Laodiceans write: These
things saith the Amen, the faithful and true Witness, the beginning of
the creation of God;

15. I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot: I would thou
wert cold or hot.

16. So then, because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will
spue thee out of my mouth.

17. Because thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have
need of nothing; and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable,
and poor, and blind, and naked.

18. I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest
be rich; and white raiment, that thou mayest be clothed, and that the
shame of thy nakedness do not appear; and anoint thine eyes with
eye-salve, that thou mayest see.

19. As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten: be zealous therefore, and
repent.

20. Behold, I stand at the door and knock: If any man hear my voice, and
open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with
me.

21. To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne,
even as I also overcame, and am set down with my Father in his throne.

22. He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the
churches.

Vs. 14-22.--It appears that in Paul's time a Christian church had been
planted in Laodicea. (Col. ii. 1; iv. 16.) This church had the benefit
of his ministry as well as that of Ephesus: and as both these churches
were comparatively near to all the other five, we may suppose that a man
of his zealous, active and persevering character and habits, would
"impart unto them some spiritual gift." (Rom. i. 11.)

It is evident that this church had degenerated more than all the others.
In her there is nothing to commend. Her officers and members are
described in their real character by him who is the "Amen, the faithful
and true Witness, the beginning of the creation of God." Each of these
titles speaks the divine dignity of Christ. They are all to be
understood in an absolute, not in a comparative sense. As "there is none
_good_ (absolutely so,) but one; that is, God," Matt. xix. 17; so Christ
only is the "Amen" in such sense that he "cannot lie" as a "witness.'"
He "speaks that which he has seen with his Father." (John viii. 38.)
Jesus is, moreover, the "Beginnin