6. And hath made us kings and priests unto God and his Father;
to him be glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen.

7. Behold, he cometh with clouds; and every eye shall see him,
and they also which pierced him: and all kindreds of the earth
shall wail because of him. Even so, Amen.

8. I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending, saith the
Lord, which is, and which was, and which is to come, the
Almighty.

The Apocalypse opens with the salutation of John to the seven churches
in Asia, unto whom it was particularly addressed, and for whom special
messages were prepared. There were other congregations of the church of
God in Asia, or Asia Minor, besides the seven to whom the Revelation was
sent, such as Colosse, Miletus, Troas, etc. Why only seven were
addressed, we do not know, unless it be that the number seven is used,
as elsewhere in the Sacred Volume, to denote fulness or completeness,
being, as has been said, "a kind of memorial of the great facts of the
first seven days of time which have divided all ages into cycles of
weeks." So when we read of Christ's walking in the midst of the seven
churches, we are to understand that he is in all the congregations of
his people; and the ministers of the seven churches who are upheld by
the Lord himself are representative, in one important sense at least, of
the entire Christian ministry; for Christ has promised to be with them
alway "even unto the end of the world." Mat. 28:20.

This salutation of John's is one of great beauty and splendor, setting
forth, as it does, the divine attributes of the great Jehovah in a
striking manner as he "which is, and which was, and which is to come,"