Poole on Revelation 3:1.
Octavius Winslow's
Evening Thoughts: '"
I know thy works, that thou hast a name that thou livest, and art dead."—Revelation 3:1
In a land where the institutions and ordinances of religion are strictly and properly observed—marked by religious training from infancy, the habit of an early connection with the visible Church, and the consequent observance of the Lord's Supper being expected and commanded—would it be overstepping the bounds of tactfulness if we press upon the professing reader the importance of close self-examination and of trial by the Word of God, in regard to the great change? Professors of religion, Church communicants, office-bearers: have you the root of the matter in you? Do you have Christ in you? Are you temples of the Holy Spirit? Are you walking humbly with God? Are you born from above? Do not rest short of the great change—the heavenly, the divine birth. Place no reliance on your external relation to the Church of God. Do not be deceived by a false resemblance of conversion. You may go far in a Christian profession, and may even live to see the Lord come in the air, and yet have not one drop of oil in your vessel with your lamp.
Have you trembled sometimes under the powerful exhibition of the truth? So did Felix, and yet he never truly repented! Have you heard the gospel gladly and, under its momentary influence, done many things? So did Herod, and yet he kept Herodias and beheaded John! Do you show much apparent zeal for the Lord? So did Jehu, but it was zeal for himself! Are you the associate and the companion of good and holy men? So was Demas, and yet he loved this present evil world. Have you been united to the Church upon a profession of faith and by baptism? So was Simon Magus, and yet he was in the gall of bitterness and in the bond of iniquity. Do you desire to die the death of the righteous? So did Balaam, and yet he died as the fool dies. Oh, look well to your religion. Take nothing for granted. Think less of polishing your lamp than of having a large supply of oil, so that when the Lord sends or comes, you will not be found in darkness, not knowing where you are going. Without converting grace in your heart, your relationship to the Church is but the union of a dead branch to a living stem, and your partaking of the Lord's Supper, an eating and drinking of the Lord's body and blood (as symbolically represented therein) unworthily. Receive in love these faithful admonitions, penned by one whose only hope, as the chief of sinners, is in the finished work of Immanuel, and let them take you to prayer, to the Word, to Christ.'
