Part 16 (1/2)
_CHAPTER x.x.xI_
_Last Days_
”I John ... was in the isle that is called Patmos, for the word of G.o.d, and the testimony of Jesus.... And I heard behind me a great voice, as of a trumpet saying, What thou seest, write in a book, and send it to the seven churches.”--_Rev._ i. 9-11.
”Since I, whom Christ's mouth taught, was bidden teach, I went, for many years, about the world, Saying, 'It was so; so I heard and saw,'
Speaking as the case asked; and men believed.
Afterward came the message to myself In Patmos Isle. I was not bidden teach, But simply listen, take a book and write, Nor set down other than the given word, With nothing left to my arbitrament To choose or change; I wrote, and men believed.”
From Samaria John with Peter ”returned to Jerusalem.” This is the last record of him in the Acts. We have but little information concerning him after that event. He suddenly disappears. We have two glimpses of him which are historic, and several through shadowy traditions.
There was a very important meeting in Jerusalem to settle certain questions in which the early Church was greatly interested, and about which there had been much difference in judgment and feeling. St. Paul was present. He says that St. John was there, one of the three Pillar-Apostles who gave to him and Barnabas ”the right hands of fellows.h.i.+p.” This is the only time of which we certainly know of the meeting of these two Apostles; though we have imagined the possibility of John's visiting the school of Gamaliel, and wors.h.i.+ping in the Temple when young Saul was in Jerusalem. From this time, A.D., 50, we lose sight of John and do not see him again until A.D., 68, in the Isle of Patmos. As his Lord was hidden eighteen years, from the time of His boyhood visit to Jerusalem until He entered on His public ministry, so long His disciple is concealed from our view. Leaving Jerusalem he probably never returned. Why he left we do not know. It may have been because of persecutions. Perhaps the death of Mary relieved him from the charge we may believe he had faithfully kept, and thus made it possible for him to go about like other Apostles to preach the Gospel. If so we have no hint in what direction he went. He may have gone directly to Ephesus. On reaching it perhaps he found a welcome from some who had heard him speak in their own language on the day of Pentecost. It was a populous city, wealthy and wicked. Its magnificent Temple of Diana was one of the seven wonders of the world. Its ruins give us a hint of its former glory.
All the traditions of early times make Ephesus the home of St. John in the latter part of his life. From it as a centre he ministered to the Churches of Asia Minor.
Gospel truth found its way thither, even before Paul made it the centre of his third missionary tour. He was driven from it, but he left the foundation of a Christian Church, upon which John builded. There were like foundations in at least six other important cities of Asia Minor--Smyrna, Pergamum, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia and Laodicea.
The silence of the latter half of St. John's life is broken but once, and that by himself. He tells us that he ”was in the isle that is called Patmos.” It was not far from Ephesus, within a day's sail. It is a huge rock, rugged and barren, only a few miles in length.
Why was John in Patmos? He says, ”for the word of G.o.d and the testimony of Jesus.” What does he mean by this? Perhaps that he was led thither by circ.u.mstances of which we do not know, or by the guidance of the Spirit of G.o.d, who there would make wonderful revelations to him. But more probably he was banished thither for the preaching of the Gospel of Jesus, and for being a faithful follower of Him, notwithstanding the persecutions of Nero or Domitian. As told in an ancient Latin hymn,--
”To desert islands banished, With G.o.d the exile dwells, And sees the future glory His mystic writing tells.”
The grotto of La Scala may have been the spot from which he looked out upon the aegean Sea, and upward into the heavens, communing in solitude with his own thoughts, or with his Lord for whom he was there. Patmos was for this a fitting place, whether he had gone there from his own choice, or had been driven thither by the cruelty of his persecutor. In such solitude did Milton muse, and Bunyan dream.
It was the ”Lord's Day,” says John. He alone, and at this time only, uses that name with which we have become familiar, though it may have been in common use among the early Christians. It meant much to John, even more than to us. It was a reminder of the day when he looked into, and then entered, the tomb of his Lord, and believed that He had risen from the dead.
His meditations may have been aided by Old Testament Ma.n.u.scripts, his only companions; especially that of Daniel, in which it is claimed ”the spirit and imagery of the Book of Revelation is steeped.”
What a contrast there was between the peaceful waves of Gennesaret, creeping silently upon the sandy beach of his childhood home, and the breakers das.h.i.+ng upon the rocky coast of his exile abode in his old age! How suggestive of the calm and turmoil of his life!
[Ill.u.s.tration: SMYRNA _Old Engraving_ Page 233]
But his musings were suddenly broken by ”a great voice, as of a trumpet,” giving a command--”What thou seest, write in a book.” He says, ”I turned to see the voice that spake with me.” He beheld his Lord in greater grandeur than he had seen Him on earth, even on Hermon. As he gazed upon the divine figure he must have exclaimed,
”Can this be He who used to stray, A pilgrim on the world's highway, Oppressed by power, and mocked by pride, The Nazarene, the Crucified!”
We do not wonder that he says,--”When I saw Him, I fell at His feet as one dead.” So had Paul done when the Lord appeared to him at Damascus.
John adds, ”He laid His right hand upon me, saying, Fear not.” The words seem almost an echo from the Holy Mount,--”Jesus came and touched them, and said, Arise, and be not afraid.”
The command to John was renewed, to write--of things which he had seen, and what he was yet to behold. The early Christians called him the Eagle, meaning that of all the sacred writers he had the loftiest visions of divine truth.
John's writings are of three kinds, the Book of The Revelation of the secret purposes of G.o.d; his Gospel; and his three Epistles or letters.
Although The Revelation is the last of the books of the Bible, it is probably the first of those by John. It contains messages from the Lord in Heaven to the seven churches in Asia, which we have mentioned, concerning their virtues and their failings. To each was given a special promise of reward to those who overcame sin, and were faithful to Christ. From this Revelation of John we get our imagery of Heaven, helping us to understand something of its glory.
His Gospel is supposed to have been written next. Why did he write it?