rsonal touch, and in
clear and clearing understanding of His coming victorious action and
crowning glory.

John wrote a Gospel; one chief Epistle, besides the two very brief
personal letters; and this book of the Revelation. The Gospel and
Epistles were quite likely written while in Ephesus.

The Gospel was his plea to all men to whom it might come to accept Jesus
as their personal Saviour. Its characteristic word is "believe." And the
plan of it is a simple array of incidents about Jesus that would lead
men to a warm, intelligent belief in Him.

The chief Epistle is written to the little groups of believers scattered
throughout Asia Minor, and doubtless in the old home district of Judea,
too. Its characteristic word is "abide." It is an intense plea, by a
personal friend to abide, steadily, fully, in Christ, in spite of the
growing defections and difficulties pressing in so close.

The Revelation was written, quite likely, on the island of Patmos while
all was yet fresh in his mind; or possibly in Ephesus after his release
from his island prison; or perhaps begun in Patmos and put into its
final shape in Ephesus. It is written to the little groups of believers
in and near Ephesus. It is a most intense plea to be personally true to
the Lord Jesus in the midst of subtle compromise and of bitter
persecution.

Its characteristic word is "overcome." It speaks much of the opposition
to be encountered, and tells of greater opposition yet to come, the
greatest ever known. And it pleads, with every possible promise, and
every warning of danger, that the true believer set himself against the
evil tide, at every risk, and every possible personal loss, and so that
he "overcome" in the Name of the Lord Jesus.

Old and New Woven Together.

The language in which the book is written is of intense interest. It is
so unusual. It combines Hebrew thought and Greek speech. It is as though
a Hebrew soul were living in a Greek body, and the soul has so dominated
the body as to make decided changes in it. The thought and imagery, and
the very words are largely taken over from the Old Testament, much of it
not being found elsewhere in the New Testament. It is as though the Old
Testament reaches clear over the intervening space and writes the last
book of the New as an additional book of the Old, but with distinct
additions. But all these additions are outgrowths of what is already in
the Old.

But while the thought and imagery are