The book of life

With reference to Philippians 4:3—Even the few names in Sardis had to save themselves by their perseverance, upon the principle that "he who perseveres to the end shall be saved." Hence, the Spirit saith, "the victor, he shall be clothed in white garments." This is positive. But in order that he may be assured of the perpetuity of his clothing, that it shall never wax old, as garments are accustomed to do, it is added, "And I will not at all obliterate his name from THE SCROLL OF THE LIFE." In the English Version, this is rendered "book of life" without the definite article; but in my translation I have prefixed it to life as in the original. It is the scroll of THE life, that is, of a special life.

The first place in the New Testament where this phrase occurs is in Phil. iv. 3. Here Paul mentions certain "whose names are in a book of life;" among whom is Clement, one of his fellow-labourers; but, whether the same Clement, who wrote about "the due place of glory," can only be conjectured.

lt next occurs in Apoc. xiii. 8 and xvii. 8. In the former it is styled "the Scroll of the Life of the Lamb slain;" and in the latter, simply "the Scroll of the Life." It is next found in ch. xx. 12,15. In the former of these verses, it is termed "another Scroll which is of the life;" and in the latter as elsewhere. In ch xxi. 27 it is "the Scroll of the life of the Lamb;" and in ch. xxii. 19, the phrase is "a Scroll of the life," the article the being omitted before "Scroll." These are all the places where it occurs in the New Testament.

This is the most important of all books; for if a man's name have not been inscribed upon it, he cannot possibly be saved; for it is written that whosoever of the dead, small and great, standing before the Deity at the opening of the Scrolls, shall not be found written in the Scroll of the life, shall be cast into the lake of the fire. These are those who worship the Beast, by whom the saints have been overcome.

From these testimonies there would appear to be two scrolls, -- the one styled A scroll of the Life, and the other THE Scroll of the Life. These two scrolls are opened at the setting up of "THE GREAT WHITE THRONE" of judgment, at the epoch of resurrection. Certain things having been written in these scrolls, the resurrected are judged from them. These things are their works. One of these scrolls will present a very unseemly aspect -- a sort of EVERY-DAY BOOK OF LIFE, in which names of believers are inscribed with very disreputable mementoes appended to each. These will find no admission to "the other scroll, which is of the life" -- THE LEDGER OF THE LIFE, to which those names may be supposed to be transferred from the Every-Day Book, that are not condemned to obliteration. The dead constituents of the Angel of the ecclesia in Sardis, together with the few undefiled ones there, had all been written in the Every-Day Book of the Life; and their works inscribed under their respective names: and the general record of this scroll is read in the writing penned by John. He shows that the works therein recorded resolved themselves into two classes; the one signalized by the words "thou art dead" after their names, and the other by the sentence, "their garments undefiled." Now of these classes, the names of the latter alone will be transferred to the Ledger; while the names of the former will be obliterated or excluded. The confession of names in the presence of the Father and in the presence of his messengers, will be read, not from the Every-Day Book, but from the Ledger of the Lamb's Life, which contains the register of names inscribed there, from the foundation of the order of things extant.