and from Jesus Christ, ' the faithful Witness, the First-born from the dead, and the Ruler of all the Kings of the earth.' To him who loves us and freed us from our sins by his own blood--

And, when I saw him, I fell at his feet like one dead. He laid his hand on me and said-- 'Do not be afraid. I am the First and the Last,

the Everliving. I died, and I am alive for ever and ever. And I hold the keys of the Grave and of the Place of the Dead.

I know where you dwell, where the Throne of Satan stands. And yet you hold to my Name, and you did not disown my Faith even in the days of Antipas, my faithful witness, who was put to death among you where Satan dwells.

But I say to the rest of you at Thyatira--all who do not accept such teaching, whose who did not learn 'the secrets of Satan,' as men call them--I am not laying on you any further burden;

To the Angel of the Church in Sardis write:-- "These are the words of him who has the seven Spirits of God and the seven stars;--I know your life, and that men say of you that you are living, though you are dead.

Be on the watch, and strengthen what still survives, though once it was all but dead; for I have not found your life perfect in the eyes of my God.

Yet there are some few among you at Sardis who did not soil their robes; they shall walk with me, robed in white, for they are worthy.

I know your life (see, I have set a door open before you which no one is able to shut), I know that, though you have but little strength, you kept my teaching in mind, and did not disown my Name.

Then one of the Councillors turned to me and said 'Who are these who are robed in white? and whence did they come?'

But those who were left of mankind, who had not perished through these Curses, did not repent and turn away from what their own hands had made; they would not abandon the worship of 'demons, and of idols made of gold or silver or brass or stone or wood, which can neither see, nor hear, nor walk';

and they did not repent of their murders, or their sorceries, or their licentiousness, or their thefts.

Their dead bodies will lie in the streets of the great City, which is mystically spoken of as 'Sodom' and 'Egypt,' where their Master was crucified.

Men of all peoples, and tribes, and languages, and nations look at their dead bodies for three days and a half, and do not allow them to be laid in a grave.

The nations were enraged, and thy Wrath fell upon them; the time came for the dead to be judged, and for thee to give the reward to thy servants the Prophets, and to the People of Christ, and to those who reverence thy Name--the high and the low alike--and to destroy those who are destroying the earth.'

he did not prevail; and there was no place left for them any longer in the heavens.

Then I heard a voice from Heaven saying 'Write-- "Blessed are the dead who from this hour die in union with the Lord." "Yes," answers the Spirit, "that they may rest from their toil. Their good deeds go with them."'

and men were scorched by the intense heat. They blasphemed the Name of God who controlled these Curses, yet they did not repent and give him praise.

and blasphemed the God of Heaven, because of their pains and because of their sores; yet they did not repent of what they had done.

(The rest of the dead were not restored to life till the thousand years were ended.) This is the First Resurrection.

And I saw the dead, high and low, standing before the throne; and books were opened. Then another book was opened, the Book of Life; and the dead were judged, according to their actions, by what was written in the books.

The sea gave up its dead, and Death and the Lord of the Place of Death gave up their dead; and they were judged, one by one, each according to his actions.