Beside the promise that the victor shall eat from the hidden manna, it is said by the Spirit, "and I will give to him a white pebble." To eat from the manna would be to rise from the dead; but when risen, what then?" "I will give him a white pebble." This implies a blessing superadded to resurrection of life.

In the English version it reads, "I will give him a white stone." In the original the word is !greek! psephon not lithon. The latter word is used in 1 Pet. ii. 5, where he says that the saints are the living stones of a building. It signifies stone in general as opposed to wood; while the former is something of a lithic nature which is small and receivable. The !greek! psephos was the pebble used by the ancients in voting, and which was thrown into the voting urn, or as we should say, into the ballot box. Hence it is used for the vote itself. But the voting by psephos, ballot, must be carefully distinguished from that by kuamos, or lot; the former being used in trials, the latter in the election of various officers. The psaphoi of condemnation or acquittal were sometimes distinguished by being respectively bored, or whole; but kuamoi never. In Acts xxvi. 10, it is said of Paul speaking before Agrippa, "and when the saints were put to death, I paid down a pebble," rendered in the E.V. "I gave my voice against them." His was a pebble of condemnation. The nature of the vote was determined by the color of the pebble; a white pebble denoted acquittal, a black one, condemnation. A psaphos was also a token given to the victors in the public games.

Now it is written in Rom. xiv. 10,12, "We shall all stand before the judgment seat of the Christ; and every one of us shall give an account of himself to the Deity:" and in 2 Cor. v. 10, "that every one may receivethe things in the body according to what he has done, whether good or evil." From this we learn, that after the life of Jesus is manifested in our mortal flesh (2 Cor. iv. 11) by resurrection, we are to appear bodily before the Christ for the purpose of giving an account of ourselves; and of receiving certain things. These things are of two classes -- good things; and evil things. The former are apocalyptically represented by the excellent promises made by the Spirit to the faithful belonging to the seven ecclesias. The approved shall eat of the arboretum of life, which is in the midst of the Paradise of the Deity; he shall not be hurt of the Second Death; he shall eat of the hidden manna, and receive a white pebble with a New Name engraved upon it; he shall receive power over the nations, and rule them; he shall receive the Morning Star; he shall walk with the Spirit in white raiment; he shall not be blotted out of the Book of Life; and shall be confessed before the Father and his Angels; he shall be a permanent pillar in the temple of the Spirit's Deity; the name of the Spirit's Deity, and of his City, New Jerusalem, and the Spirit's New Name, shall be inscribed upon him; and the Spirit will come in to him, and sup with him, and he with the Spirit, with whom he shall be enthroned. These are truly "exceeding great and precious promises," which are all consequent upon the candidate receiving a white pebble with a New Name engraved upon it. If he were to receive a black pebble he would be black-balled from the society of the redeemed; he would be condemned as unworthy of the New Order of Things; and fit only to be expelled into outer darkness.

For the Spirit, then, to pay over a white pebble to a resurrected saint, is for him to give a verdict in his favour from the judicial throne. And this is the verdict, or pebble -- "well done, good and faithful servant; thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things: enter thou into the joy of thy Lord." Therefore, "Come ye blessed of my Father, take possession of the kingdom, having been prepared for you, from the foundation of the State:" possess it with eternal life (Matt. xxv. 21,34,46; xix. 29).

I shall defer the consideration of the engraving upon the white pebble until I come to expound the promises made to the ecclesia in Philadelphia recorded in Apoc. iii. 12. But in so doing I would remark that whatever it may import, it is a name "which no man knoweth, saving he that receiveth." This, however, is an apocalyptic saying, which does not imply that it can not be verbally defined. The name possessed by the Faithful and True One is said to be known to no man, but himself; yet, in the fourth verse after, that name is declared to be "KING of kings and LORD of Lords" (Apoc. xix. 12,16). The meaning is that no man knows experimentally the name but he who answers to the name. If a man be not the King of kings, he does not know the name or title. It does not fit him. So in respect to the New Name of the white pebble; for a man to know it, he must be a subject of the verdict. The new name will then declare what he is, and he will know it experimentally. He and the name will be identical. It will not be like the names of Christendom, which have no adaptation to the "miserable sinners" who rejoice in them; for instance, "Charles of Naples, King of Jerusalem;" "His Apostolic Majesty, Francis Joseph of Austria;" "His Holiness the Pope;" and so forth. These are names of blasphemy assumed by the Diabolos and Satan, to gratify their own pride and vanity, and to impose upon fools. The world is full of "right honorables" over the left; and of "right reverend fathers in God" -- that is, the God called Mammon. A saint cannot know these names; for they are descriptive of the things they illustrate -- pride, hypocrisy, and superstition.