No doubt the imprisoned Paul was meditating on this passage when he exclaimed, "Brothers, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before" (Philippians 3:13).

Many people have been brought into the churches as the Kingdom invitation has gone forth. There are numerous individuals who profess belief in Christ. Among these there are a few who abide "in the clefts of the rock, in the secret places of the stairs." These are the dove, the Bride, the undefiled. Jesus knows precisely who they are.

If the call to the Bride has come to us we are to "forget" the persons, things, and circumstances of this life and seek the King with a perfect heart. When we do, the King greatly desires our beauty, which is His own image in us. We are to worship Him alone.

The second and third chapters of the Book of Revelation are the royal summons directed toward the Bride, toward her who will share all things with Him.

It is important to note that in the New Testament the Wife of the Lamb never is referred to as the queen. However, "Babylon the great" (man-directed Christianity) regards herself as sitting as "a queen" (Revelation 18:7).

"Babylon" represents the Christian religion, denominationalism, the attempt of man to organize the things of Christ into a system whereby he can get what he desires, including advancement in an ecclesiastical organization.

Babylon sits as a queen. She views herself as being on the throne with Christ and using His name to accomplish her own ends. She eats her own bread and wears her own apparel, and uses the name of the Lord to take away her reproach: that is, to give an appearance of merit and Divine sanction to what she does (Isaiah 4:1).

Perhaps the major part of Christendom is of Babylon the great.

The reason the true Wife of the Lamb never is referred to as Christ's queen is that she is one with Him. A queen is separate from the king. She is a different personality. She may be stronger than he. She may survive him when he dies.

Some of the subjects may be loyal to her rather than to the king. Most importantly, a queen has her own personality, her own ways, her own ambitions, her own goals. She is a different person from the king. Queen Jezebel and King Ahab are a case in point.

This is not the case with the Wife of the Lamb. She is Him! She is nothing apart from Him. She is of His bone, His flesh. He and she are one. He is revealed in her. He is her life. She is a branch growing out from Him. She has been created on His body and blood. She is termed "the Lamb's wife" because she eats the flesh and drinks the blood of the Lamb.

To be continued.