Sardis - Revelation 3:1-6
I thought this appropriate since we are studying the letters to the seven churches in Revelation:
“Write to Sardis, saith the Lord,
And write what he declares;
He whose Spirit, and whose word,
Upholds the seven stars:
All thy works and ways I search,
Find thy zeal and love decay’d;
Thou art call’d a living church,
But thou art cold and dead.
Watch, remember, seek and strive,
Exert thy former pains;
Let thy timely care revive,
And strengthen what remains:
Cleanse thine heart, thy works amend,
Former times to mind recall;
Lest my sudden stroke descend,
And smite thee once for all.
Yet I number now, in thee,
A few that are upright;
These my Father’s face shall see,
And walk with me in white:
When in judgment I appear,
They for mine shall be confess’d;
Let my faithful servants hear,
And woe be to the rest.”
William Cowper, The Poetical Works of William Cowper, (London: Oxford University Press), 446.