The church member who is working for the growth of his branch church and of the Cause of Christian Science finds in the second and third chapters of the Apocalypse an interesting analogy between the needs of his church and those which John depicts in his revelation of "what the Spirit saith unto the churches."
John was writing to the seven churches which had been established in Asia by devout Christians. These churches had known varying degrees of success, but had been robbed of their full usefulness by certain errors. The church in Ephesus had left its first love, had been guilty of backsliding from the pure Christianity of its origin. At Smyrna, where in spite of poverty John recognized real richness, the church was hampered by hypocrisy and needed to be urged to continuing fidelity. At Pergamos, the seat of great material power, the church had compromised with materiality. The church of Thyatira had progressed somewhat, for it is recorded that the last works were better than the first; but it had allowed corrupt teaching and idolatry. In Sardis what seemed to be an active, prosperous church was nevertheless apathetic, spiritually dead. For the church in Philadelphia there is commendation for loyalty and an assurance that persecution cannot close the door of Truth. The material wealth and success at Laodicea had blinded the church members there to real Christian zeal, and they were "neither cold nor hot."
In a discussion of these messages in her Message to The Mother Church for 1900 Mary Baker Eddy writes (p. 14), "Beloved, let him that hath an ear (that discerneth spiritually) hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches; and seek thou the divine import of the Revelator's vision—and no other." What is the divine import in these seven messages with their pictures of local difficulties and problems and their individual warnings? Is it not to be found in that one part which is common to each message —the promise of good to him that overcometh? Some of the messages end with the ringing words, "To him that overcometh will I give. . . ." The gifts varied, but they all consisted of dominion and success. The divine message that the beloved disciple after years of experience was enabled to reveal to the Asiatic churches and to the Christian worker in any age was that no matter what the church history, or how admirable its first works, or how sore the temptations to believe in counterattractions, persecution, apathy, the promise is, "To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with my Father in his throne."
