“I. W. W.” We believe the term “angel,” in the first and second chapters of Revelation, applies to one who could convey the mind of God to the Church. We quite agree with you in thinking that there is no foundation in Scripture for the idea that the “angel” was a pastor or elder. It has been thought by some that the term angel refers to a certain mystic representative of the Church—one who personified the assembly, and in whose person the assembly was addressed. There is much to favor this suggestion in the very teaching of the chapters before us. Take, for example, the following: “Unto the angel of the church of Smyrna write ... I know thy works ... Fear none of those things which thou shalt stiffer; behold, the devil shall cast some of you into prison,” &e. The Lord seems to pass from the angel to the Church as though they are one and the same, and this would greatly favor the idea that the angel was some mystic personage representing the Church. But it becomes us to speak with great modesty on a point concerning which there has been, and is, such diversity of opinion.