idolatrous land, they are disinherited by parents, cast out by
relatives, and denied public employment. Even the community refuses to
associate with them or to render them assistance in any form. Their
means of subsistence is thus cut off, and they are harassed in every
possible manner. Perhaps this is the very trial of poverty the church of
Smyrna passed through; but Christ declares that they are rich: yea, God
hath "chosen the poor of this world rich in faith, and heirs of the
kingdom which he hath promised to them that love him." Jas. 2:5. Their
enemies may think that they have reduced them to a condition of
wretchedness, but in this the persecutors are mistaken. God says the
righteous are rich. A certain writer has remarked, "There is many a rich
poor man, and many a poor rich man."

The blasphemy of opposing, self-styled Jews is next mentioned. In all
probability the term _Jew_ is applied in its spiritual sense. Paul
declares that "he is not a Jew which is one outwardly ... but he is a
Jew which is one inwardly" (Rom. 2:28, 29), and that "if ye be Christ's,
then are ye Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise." Gal.
3:29. These persons professed to belong to the true "Israel of God"
(Gal. 6:16), but they were without salvation; and the Smyrnaen church
would not recognize them as belonging to the congregation, and therefore
the only name that could be applied to them was "the synagogue of
Satan." Had they been tolerated in the assembly of the righteous, Christ
would have condemned or rebuked the church for not performing their
duty, the same as he did the churches of Pergamos and Thyatira.

Great persecutions for the church of Smyrna are predicted; but he "which
was dead, and is alive forevermore," having passed through the ordeal of
suffering and death himself, stands in a position to speak words of
comfort and consolation, assuring them in the strongest terms that,