the speaker insists that he is First. The latter may allude to the destruction of Smyrna by the Lydians: for three to four hundred years there was no city. The words of the ancients are, literally, that Smyrna was dead and yet lived (Ramsay, p. 270). Our speaker may indicate that the losses which Smyrna has sustained on the earthly level are compensated for by spiritual “success.” Of all the seven prophecies this one is the most complimentary. This may be the intention behind the assertion that the