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In the Epistle to Philadelphia it is manifest that the test is Christ Himself and the question raised in the history of the professing church is that of faithfulness or unfaithfulness to Him personally and in His present character as having already been rejected by the world. As before, when He was in the world, the rejecters have plenty of loud pretension; but their true character spiritually, as well as the day of their future humbling, is here revealed: "Behold I make them of the synagogue of Satan who say they are Jews and are not, but do lie; behold I will cause them to come and worship before thy feet and to know that I have loved thee." (Rev. 3:9.) And here the Lord shows that His eye rests on and His heart is occupied with those who through grace are faithful to Him, for blessed be God these He finds, though as ever it is a little flock to whom He reveals Himself as the good Shepherd (as in John 10:4-5, 9-11) and as their means of access to liberty, and food, and strength. "Behold I have set before thee an open door, and no one can shut it: for thou hast a little strength and hast kept my word, and hast not denied my name." (Rev. 3:8.) In verse 7 a wonderful epitome of His personal glory is given — wonderful because in such few words so blessed an array of its features has been marshalled by the Holy Spirit. His nature as man according to Luke 1:35 is declared in "He that is holy;" His ministry, or the testimony of His words and works, in "He that is true" (see John 5 — 9); His Messiah glory in "He that hath the key of David" (see Luke 1:32-33); and His divine power in "He that openeth and no one shutteth, and shutteth and no one openeth;" and thus the Lord shows us that all is open to the eye of faith and that nothing is needed on our part but that we should acknowledge Him. He does not forget that He asks us to do this during the time of His patient waiting in trying rejection by the world, which is if possible a more testing time than before the world's public refusal of Him, and He has a word to encourage our hearts in view of this. "Because thon hast kept the word of my patience," He says, "I will also keep thee out of the hour of temptation which shall come upon all the world, to try them that dwell upon the earth. Behold I come quickly; hold that fast which thou hast, that no one take thy crown." (Rev. 3:10-11.) "Those that dwell on the earth," finding all their interests and occupations in it, may go on in their fancied security thinking they are free to do as they like and that He and His people are of little account, but the Lord shows that He is the key to the future as well as to the present, and if our future is found in Himself, the world's must be in tribulation into which He and His will not enter.