He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches; To him that over- cometh will I give to eat of the tree of life, which is iii the midst of the paradise of God (Rev. ii. 7).

He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches: He that over- cometh shall not be hurt of the second death (Rev. ii. 11).

He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches: To him that over- cometh will I give to eat of the hidden manna, and will give him a white stone, and in the stone a new name written, which no man knoweth saving he that receiveth it (Rev. ii. 17).

The Book of Revelation was addressed to seven churches. Seven is the number that represents the religious life. There are a great many so-called sacred numbers. Three is a number that represents the Trinity in the Old and New Testaments, and four is a sacred number that represents the human race, — the four corners of the world.

The human race is spoken of in many instances as "Four" If you unite three and four it makes seven, and so by uniting man and God you have the religious life, — the religious life is the unity of God and man.

The word religion means "to tie back " — take man, who has fallen from God, and tie him back to God! As a vine severed and fallen from the trellis is " tied back " with a uniting cord, so the number seven in the Bible represents religious life; number ten, the numerical number — the number for "multitude," either ten, or a cube of ten, or- a double cube. Number "twelve" represents government; the reason of this: Take four, which represents the human race, and three which represents the Trinity, and multiply them — you have twelve. God multiplies Himself in His creatures.

If God lived alone, there would be no government, so when God makes a person, He makes a government; and every- time He makes a person, He increases His government, and multiplies Himself. Forty is always the number for testing, proving, trying. Four is the human number; ten, the numerical. Moses fasted forty days; Jesus was tempted forty days; and Jesus was on earth forty days after His resurrection. Fifty is the complete cycle number, going around the complete cycle and beginning over. In the Book of Revelation these sacred numbers are often alluded to.

To begin with, the seven churches: These were sample churches. God simply selected the seven sample churches, the nature and character of which would serve to illustrate the churches of all ages.

The last book of Revelation has many peculiarities. One thing, it is dictated by the Lord Jesus. John wrote the book, but it was dictated by an angel; but He got it direct from the Author. John was simply the amanuensis. It is the only book of which Jesus is the immediate Author. This crowning book is reserved for His particular authorship.

John wrote the book of Revelation in signs. The reason the book is so little understood is because it is written in signs. But if we would take the key it gives us, and interpret with the key it gives us, we would see just what the signs mean. It says stars represent ministers, water, a number of people. Winds represent doc trines — different heresies.

So I might go on; every emblem used is interpreted. Heaven, represents the Church; earth, the unregenerate world. So, when you read about these, just think what it means, and you will have no con fusion. So, if you take the metaphors used here, you will find the Bible like a transparent glass. Every church-member is in one of these typical churches; every phase of Christian on this globe you will find in one of these. So this last book is given as God's looking-glass, for us to look in, in all the ages. Jesus, by the Holy Ghost, addressed Himself to these churches.

We find here that these seven "overcomeths" which are promised, are not to be understood as belonging to the future life merely. Nine-tenths of the people put the best things on the other side, and the hard and rough things on this side. Most people say that this refers to things beyond this world. It commences with "it shall shortly come to pass," — of course it means the other side! All Scripture has two sides, — an inward and an outward meaning, a fulfilling in the heart, and a fulfilling in the outward visible life; both the spiritual and the material side of the fulfilling of God's promises. He addressed the seven churches by calling their attention to the fact that if they listen, the Holy Ghost will teach them these things, — " he that hath ears to hear, let him hear." Every "overcometh" is attended by that remark, teaching us that the Holy Ghost is to reveal those things in the present life. We don't all "have ears to hear."

There are five spiritual senses in the soul, corresponding to the five physical senses of the body. The Scriptures prove this, and these spiritual senses are asleep until they are awakened by the Holy Ghost.

Every rose that will bloom next May lies dormant in the winter bud, but the sun will open it; so the winter of sin en closes the spiritual senses, but those who are purified, their spiritual senses exercised, — to them the Holy Ghost reveals spiritual things. "Taste and see that the Lord is good;" "The eyes of your under standing;" "That you may hear" etc. The first "overcometh" is found in the seventh verse of the second chapter:—

He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches; To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the tree of life, which is in the midst of the paradise of God.

In the reading of this promise we naturally get in our minds the ideals of a great upper Paradise, and a beautiful tree of life; and, when escaped from the trials of earth, we shall eat of that tree. I have no doubt there is a tree to correspond with that, and we shall feed upon that tree in the upper Paradise.

But the Scriptures teach us that it is to be fulfilled first in this world; and un less we enter the mystical Paradise of God's love in this world, we shall not eat of it in the other.

We are to "overcome" by our faith, — to overcome Satan, and all spiritual enemies, "by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of our testimony." If we believe, and our faith is a living faith that brings us into union with Christ, then God will give us to eat, in this life, of the tree of life in the Paradise of God!

What is the "tree of life"? Jesus, the Son of God, — Jesus is the "tree of life"! He was prophesied as a "branch," a "root," a "tree of righteousness," a "cedar of Lebanon," etc. He is the "tree of life," and when we believe on Christ, we are regenerated, and begin to eat, in that same hour, of the "tree of life," which is Jesus Christ.

In the first "overcometh" there is a promise of life, — no promise of sanctification, no promise of the baptism of power, only the gift of life; the gift of life is always the basis gift of God. Adam could not receive his bride, or the king ship over nature until God "breathed into his nostrils the breath of life "; and then he could give all other blessings. Moses, when dying, gave twelve blessings, but they began with the gift of life. Jesus says, " I am come that they might have life; " so, the first step, He begins by forgiving our sins and giving life, in the moment of regeneration, from Jesus who is the " tree of life." We are grafted in Him as the branch in the tree, and we begin to draw life from Christ. Now, where is Jesus? The text says "in the midst of the paradise of God." Jesus was in the midst of the first paradise; and since it has been transferred to the other world, He is in the midst of that. Jesus, to-day, is in heaven, and in the middle of it — the centre. Jesus is the centre of paradise, of heaven, and of all God's infinite kingdom, so that a soul as soon as regenerated, begins to draw its life from Jesus, who is in "the centre of the paradise of God."

The second "overcometh" is found in the eleventh verse:

He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches; He that overcometh shall not be hurt of the second death.

Here is a step beyond conversion. The first is "regeneration," to partake of the life of Jesus; the next is a divine life insurance, When Jesus puts life in your soul, -what is the next thought? — to have that life taken care of; the next is a preservation of that life from the inroads of death. It doesn't mean the second physical death, nor can it be put in opposition to the first physical death. The first death is not the death of the body; it is the death in sin. When Adam sinned he died physically, it is true, but physical death is but an outward form of the real death. All Scripture has two parts, now; Jesus has redeemed us all from the first death; every man, woman and child, in Christian or heathen lands, is redeemed from the first death. In Adam we have all died, but no soul will be lost by Adam's sin. Jesus has taken the place of the first Adam, and has completely re moved the curse of the first Adam, and death; so that, whereas we have all had part in that first death, yet God does not hold us responsible for that first death; hence every infant is redeemed from the first death. The reason people have the second death is because they refuse the overtures of mercy, and because they re fuse to walk in the light. The heathen are not lost because they are heathen, but because they do no not live up to the light of reason. Every sinner in hell got there because he refused to believe on Jesus Christ.

God holds no one responsible for the first death, but all who refuse to let Jesus save them have the second death! There is no provision for the second death. Every infant that dies goes to heaven, because their lost estate in the first Adam is redeemed in the second. Now, this second death is a second fall. The world had one fall in Adam, but from that fall the world is recovered.

Everybody that refuses to be saved by the Lord Jesus tumbles into a second fall, and from that there is no hope of recovery; and in that second death is an eternal death. In the first fall Jesus stands to catch us, and if we will not let Him, we take a second plunge, and no one is there to catch us!

The second death is eternal, but if you believe on and partake of Jesus' life, you are guarded from the second fall, — consequently from the second death. So we recover all we lost in Adam and a screen from dying — in Christ! "You shall not be injured," — not even by the scare of the second death:" He that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live, and he that liveth and believeth in me shall never die! "The person goes right to heaven and doesn't even see death. Like a train at night going through a tunnel, — the passengers do not see the tunnel, though they pass through it. So he dies, but he doesn't see death; and another says "he doesn't taste it!"

The third "overcometh" is found in the seventeenth verse of this same chapter:

He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches; To him that over- cometh will I give to eat of the hidden manna, and will give him a white stone, and in the stone a new name written! which no man knoweth saving he that receiveth it.

We are getting farther on. First, when you are regenerated, the word eat, and now you eat again. Now in this you have the work of sanctification, he is ascending. The first, — to take the gift of life; the second, protection from hell; the third brings you into a state of Christian perfection.

The word sanctification is not mentioned, hut the Book says, "I speak in signs." Here you have a picture of sanctification; to eat of the "hidden manna," means the blessing of sanctification. Let us look in the Old Testament: The old Israelites used to gather manna every day from heaven, that was never "hidden." Now, the "hidden manna"; you remember the Lord told Moses to take a pot and fill it with manna, and to lay it up in the ark of the covenant, to be preserved as a memorial to all generations. Where was it put? Not in the Holy Place, but in the Holy of Holies. The Holy Place is regeneration, inside the first veil, but the pot of manna was put inside the second veil. Here the high priest went once a year to pray for the purification of the people. The holy of holies means the perfection of holiness; so when regenerated, you are inside the first veil; so, if you ever eat of the pot of manna, you never can get it until you get in the second veil. And when you enter that second veil, you open that box, and from that box you feed on that manna hidden from eyes which have not entered.

The manna that lay on the ground bred worms, — it would not last; but the manna in the pot would last a thousand years! This teaches, that, when converted, we need constant care, — nourishment to preserve life, fresh every day; but when "rooted and grounded" in the deep things of God, they are fed on things that never grow old! There is a constant freshness and fullness of food. So the sanctified believer eats of that which was preserved for those only who enter the second veil.

When fully sanctified we enter into a fellowship with Christ we did not have in conversion. The ark of the covenant is the body of Jesus; the acacia wood is a type of the human nature, and the gold represents the divine nature. The rod that budded was a type of the unfolding of God's Word to a sanctified heart. When we have entered in the second veil wherein is the rod, you come in contact with the Word, and the hidden manna, and the sanctified soul feeds upon the deep inner life of Christ. The apostles fed on Christ; but when He died, and went to heaven, they fed on the life of Christ as never before. This pot containing the hidden manna is Jesus; it is in the ark of the covenant, and in the inner, second veil.

A "white stone" (i.e., a sanctified soul,) means the same thing. The High Priest put the breastplate on containing the jewels; so the harmony of the signs holds out. When you enter the second veil, you get into the place where the jewels were worn; so when you enter the second veil, you have the white stone — the pure heart. When a Christian has his eyes opened to see, like the man in the parable, he will sell all he has — all his little religious experiences — for this one great pearl. A pearl is a white stone; the gate of heaven is one pearl; so if you have a pure heart, you have the gate of heaven inside of you!

The white stone is one pearl — one clean heart! The High Priest not only had the breastplate with the white stone, but it also had a name in it; so God says when you get into the veil, and get a pure heart, you get a new name in your heart. It is simply the new name of Love! Jesus reveals Himself to the pure heart in a more perfect manner than ever before. The word "name," represents character; so that a new name means a new character. You will discern the name of Jesus, the character of God, the love of God, and you will receive such a knowledge of God as no one knows but you to whom it is given.

There is something about a clean heart that cannot be expressed. Sanctification always does more for a soul than you expect; there is always something in it you cannot understand, or make others understand, and that is why you ought to confess it.

Now then, first we have regeneration, then protection from hell, next heart cleansing, entering in the second veil, and eating of the hidden manna, and having the white stone, the pearl and the new name written on the clean heart.