The Revelation of Jesus Christ - The Herald

those who have faithfully followed as he did in the footsteps of Christ have had, as a rule,
clearer unfoldings and a clearer understanding of the Divine Word.
In the spirit on the Lord's day
St. John informs us that he was in the spirit on the Lord's day, when he beheld this sublime
vision of Christ. The word spirit may refer, as some think, to either the Holy Spirit, or to
some state of mind such as the Holy Spirit produces--a spirit of elevated devotion--a state
of high and uncommon religious enjoyment. A very worthy commentator has given a
much better translation and interpretation, we believe:
"'I became in the spirit on the Lord's day.' It was not simply in the right and normal
Christian state in which John found himself, as so many think, but carried out of himself
by the power of the spirit; his senses closed to other things, his spirit awake to behold the
things presented to him, and hear the voice that speaks to us also in him."
Still another has very properly urged that "the visions granted to St. John, recorded in the
book of Revelation, are in no sense and in no part to be understood as realities, and this is
the significance of St. John's statement in our lesson, 'I was in the spirit on the Lord's day.'"
It would seem then that the statement "I was in the spirit" teaches us that the things he saw
in the visions were not realities, but symbolical representations of great facts and realities.
The expression "on the Lord's day" is variously interpreted.
"'On the Lord's day' does not mean, as some suppose, the prophetic 'day of the Lord,' for
which there is a different expression, and which would not really apply at all to this first
vision and what follows. It is the Lord's day, the day of Christian privilege, in which in the
joy of His resurrection we look back upon His death. Yet this does not surely shut out the
looking forward to His coming: 'Ye do show forth the Lord's death till He come.' This is
the only right attitude for the Christian to be in, as one who expects the Lord. And this is
indeed why, as it would seem, the voice that John hears speaks behind him, and he has to
turn to see the One who speaks to him. His attention is to be directed to the present state of
the Church; turned back, therefore, from the contemplation of the coming glory, to what to
one so engrossed is a thing behind.
"He turns, and sees seven golden candlesticks, or lampstands, as the word is . . . They
represent, as we are told, the seven assemblies (1:20), and plainly, as responsible to exhibit
the light of the Spirit, during the night of the Lord's absence [the Gospel Age]."
The word here translated Lord's occurs in only one other place, namely 1 Cor. 11:20, where
it is applied to the Lord's Supper. It properly means pertaining to the Lord, to the Lord Jesus.
It is, therefore, apparent that the expression refers to some particular day distinguished
from all the other days of the week, a day particularly devoted to the Lord Jesus, for this is
the natural meaning of the word Lord, as used in the New Testament. If the Jewish
Sabbath were intended, as some Christians believe, the word Sabbath would have been