As given in the book of Revelation, the messages to the seven churches of Asia are of deep significance to all Christian Scientists. Again and again do we read in them the words, "He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches." It is also worthy of attention that our Leader in the Message to The Mother Church for 1900 has much to say about these churches which will richly repay careful study. The message to the seventh church, the church of Laodicea, seems to indicate a state of consciousness which has to be roused out of moral deadness, and it is probable that the preceding messages point to the steps by which animal magnetism has produced this most grievous condition in mortal experience.
It should be noticed that these messages are addressed to the enlightened thought represented by churches, and that therefore they are specially applicable to Christian Scientists today. Each church may well represent a certain state or stage of consciousness, and the error which constitutes the chief danger to a particular state of consciousness is pointed out and rebuked. May there not also be in some instances an indication of some special phase of error to be handled? In each of these messages, however, we gain the assurance of victory through repentance and reformation, and the promise of attaining heavenly realities.
Taking the seven churches in their order, we begin with Ephesus, and find there indicated a state of consciousness which is apparently good. There is patience and discernment and judgment, long-suffering and endurance, but joy seems to be lacking in this consciousness, which is apparently heavy laden; we miss the gladness and the enthusiasm of "first love." In seeking for the influences which might have produced this mental state, we find our Leader's description of the Nicolaitan doctrines, which had crept into the church at Ephesus, very illuminating. This false teaching was ever trying to destroy the unity and purity of the true consciousness or church.
