iv Saint John on the Ephesian Church. 43 



There is an emphatic warning of the dangers 

 of such a character in the message of Christ, in 

 the Apocalypse, to the Ephesian Church "I know 

 thy works, and thy toil and thy patience; and 

 thou hast patience, and hast borne for my name's 

 sake, and hast not grown weary. But I have this 

 against thee, that thou hast left thy first love. 

 Remember therefore from whence thou art fallen, 

 and repent, and do the first works ; or else I come to 

 thee, and will move thy candlestick out of its place, 

 except thou repent." 1 This is exactly the state of 

 the elder son's heart and life : true and sincere 

 service of God, but without that love from the heart 

 which He desires and demands. This " fall " of the 

 Ephesian Church, we should observe, did not 

 amount to apostasy. Christ allows a time for 

 repentance. He does not say, "Thy candlestick is 

 removed," or " Thy light is going out ; " and it may 

 be that the Ephesians, among whom, according to 

 the accepted tradition, Saint John passed the last 

 years of his life, heeded the warning, and repented, 

 and returned to their first love. But though they had 

 not lost their position, yet with their comparatively 

 loveless service of Christ they were in danger of 

 losing it. As the author of Ecce Homo truly says, 

 "No virtue can be safe unless it is enthusiastic," 

 though the enthusiasm has no need to be noisy or 

 demonstrative. The elder son was such a one as 

 those Ephesians. He was not an apostate ; he was 

 1 Rev. ii. 2, 5. 



