14 OUTLINE STUDIES IN THE REVELATION
Notes.
1. The full prophetic period in which the Papacy was to
wear out the saints reached to 1798. But for the elect’s sake s
those days were shortened. Matt. 24:22. The Reformation
partially broke the power of the Papacy and brought the
reign of wholesale persecution to an end. By.successive reform
movements the Protestant churches of Europe and America
were developed. Thus, as we approach 1798, a new era, the
fifth, develops in the history of the church—the era of the
Protestant reformed churches, ’
8. “Sardis” means “song of joy,” “that which rémains.’
“Twill put upon you none other burden.” was the promise
made at the close of the preceding period of the church.
Rev. 2:24. For nearly eighteen centuries the church had
felt the hand of persecution laid heavily upon her, and many
millions had fallen in death. At the close of the Thyatira
church she was never again to pass through like scenes.
Hs is truly cause for rejoicing.
Those who have started in reform and ceased to grow
mist} take fresh hold of principles already learned and go on
unto fuller knowledge and experience in the truth. The fatal
weakness in the reformed churches was the tendency to stand
still where the first reformers left them. Growth is the law
of spiritual life. See Prov. 4:18; John 12:35.
4. We are now in our study approaching the time of the
cleansing of the sanctuary—the final blotting out of sins, be-
ginning in 1844. Hence the promise to the overcomer directs
attention to the final work of Christ in the heavenly sanctuary,
the opening of the judgment hour. The proclamation of this
grand event, in the years just preceding 1844, constituted the
world-wide Advent movement which was to mark the next
stage in the development of the church.
5." Philadelphia means “brotherly love.” All the story of
the early Advent movement leading up to the autumn of 1844,
at which time the Advent people expected to meet their Lord,
shows that believers were bound together in ties of fellowship
and love like to that which reigns in heaven, which they ex-
pected soon to enter. Coming out from various churches and
the world, they were made one by the “blessed hope.”
“Blest be the tie that binds
Qur hearts in Christian love;
“This gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world
w for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come.’