at are failing, and press on Himself into the next step of His
plan. For the case is urgent. A race is waiting. The darkness thickens.

But instead He waits. With patience and strength and love beyond our
power to grasp He waits. This is the setting of the Patmos message, to
which we now turn.

The Unity of the Message.

We must keep our eyes on the Man who is talking. His overawing presence
gives tremendous meaning to His words. That gentle touch of the right
hand has no doubt strengthened John even as Daniel was strengthened. And
he is standing and looking as he listens. But the sight of that wondrous
Man walking among the candlesticks floods his face and his whole being
indescribably as he listens to the message spoken.

The overpowering sense of awe, of reality and power, and of the
tremendous meaning of what is being said never leaves. So he listens.
So we must listen. So only can we get into the meaning of these words.
The words will mean only as much as the Man means in the intensity of
His presence. You must keep your eye on this crowned Christ as you
listen.

The seven-fold description given us of Christ is the key to these seven
messages. The partial description beginning each message is seen to fit
into the particular condition of the Church spoken to. Yet all these
bits of description must be put together to get the full description. It
is a seven-fold description of one person.

And so all the messages must be taken together to see the Church as He
sees it, and to get His message to it. It is one message. A look at the
seven promises made to the overcomers makes it clear that all seven are
one promise. It is not that one overcomer receives one thing, and
another another, but each one gets all of what is mentioned in the
seven. A rather careful, swift look at these promises makes this clear
enough.

It is spoken to one Church in seven groups in seven different cities.
There is one call to repentance, one warning of what will happen to the
unpenitent at five successive stages, one plea to hear seven times
repeated, and one blessed result to the overcomer, in a seven-fold
statement.

And there is just one evil to be recognized and fought. That evil is
seen to grow from one degree to another, from bad to worse and worst.
Its emphasis changes from one phase to another. It has shown itself
differently in different parts of the world, and in different ages
since, but it is the one evil power, always th