Rev. i. 17, 18.

He laid His right hand upon me, saying unto me, Fear not; I am the first and the last; I am He that liveth and was dead; and behold, I am alive for evermore, amen; and have the keys of Hell and of Death.

These were the gracious expressions of our glorified Lord to His faithful and most favoured disciple, when, in the prison of Patmos and amid the solitary devotions of a Christian Sabbath, the apostle St. John was visited by “One like unto the Son of Man.” The features yet remained distinguishable to the eye of ancient friendship, of Him whom he had known on earth as the lowly and the poor, whose afflictions he had shared, whose journeyings he had followed, and who with His dying lips had commended to his filial care the desolate old age of His mother! But He was now arrayed in long and kingly robes, His girdle was of gold, His eyes gleamed as the fire, His limbs were bright as burning brass, His voice as deep and tuneable as the sound of many waters. Seven stars were in His grasp; before His face a flaming sword went forth; and His countenance was as the sun when its light is strongest.