tihtaxy of t^he theological ^eminarjp 
 
 PRINCETON . NEW JERSEY 
 
 PRESENTED BY 
 
 The Library of 
 Center Church, Hartford 
 
 :BS2g>2S 
 
ON THE EPISTLES 
 
 TO THB 
 
 SEVEN CHURCHES OF ASIA 
 
iviV./ 5 19 ?5 
 PRACTICAL EXipOSITION 
 
 THE EPrSTLES 
 
 V\IITHDRAWII 
 
 SEVEN CHURCHESraR. ASIA 
 
 l.^ BY Tim^ai* 
 
 
 REV. HENk1|'BLUNT, AM, 
 
 RECTOR OF STRfiS^^Mr^ SURREY j^ -' 
 LOW OF PEMBROKE COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE, ANI 
 TO HIS GRACE THE DUKE OF RICHMOND. . 
 
 S. S. TEACITEP.'S LIBUAUY, 
 
 LATE FELLOW OF PEMBROKE COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE, AND CHAPLAIN 
 TO HIS GRACE THE DUKE OF RICHMOND. . 
 
 
 
 •."^'TT V> <'■' 
 
 JJT^A JL 
 
 PHILADELPHIA: 
 HOOKER & CLAXTON, 
 
 NORTHWEST CORNER OF CHESTNUT AND FIFTH STREETS. 
 
 1839. 
 

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 C. SHERMAN AND CO. PRINTERS. 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 [n presuming to offer an exposition of any 
 portion of the mysterious book in which the 
 Epistles to the Churches are contained, the 
 Author is not unmindful of the commendation 
 which Joseph Scaliger bestowed on Calvin, viz. 
 That he had shown his sense as much by not 
 commenting on the Book of Revelation, as he 
 had by the manner in which he had com- 
 mented on the other Books of the Bible. With 
 this in his recollection, he ought not, perhaps, 
 to have ventured to publish even upon this small 
 but important portion of the Book of Revela- 
 tion; he has, however, been influenced by the 
 
 consideration that although all may not agree 
 1* 
 
VI PREFACE. 
 
 precisely frriKe iiiterpretatioii, noiie are likely 
 to differ in thf;ij* vieiw! of the invaluable practical 
 lessons, and tlie, ^ublirne: - aiicl c/ieering promises 
 wl>i2h ai^e the chieC.ieh'arScieristics of; these 
 Epistles, 
 
 In aojreeinor with some commentators* in 
 thinking it not improbable that the state of the 
 Seven Churches of Proconsular Asia, was 
 typical of the state of the Christian Church 
 during seven different periods, reaching from 
 the apostolical age to the end of time, the 
 Author desires not to dogmatise upon so ob- 
 scure a subject, but simply to present the view, 
 as at least an interesting one, to the conside- 
 ration of his readers. He is by no means 
 wedded to this particular interpretation, nor 
 shall he quarrel with any for differing from 
 
 * Many before the Reformation ; and Brightman, Forbes, 
 Mede, More, Gill, Sir Isaac Newton, Vilringa, Lampe, 
 and others, since that period. 
 
PREFACE. VU 
 
 him upon a point of such uncertainty; his 
 chief object and aim have been to find the 
 Lord Jesus Christ in all these Epistles, as the 
 great Head of the Church, manifesting Him- 
 self as the Creator, the Saviour, the Sanctifier 
 of His people, — at once the Beginner of their 
 faith, and the consummation of their joy. 
 
 If he have succeeded in this, and in con- 
 veying to the minds and hearts of the true 
 children of God, more elevated and more com- 
 forting and more influential views of Him, 
 whom having not seen, they love, he shall be 
 thankful, although he may not carry them with 
 him in the particular mode of interpretation 
 w^iich he has adopted. Should he have failed 
 in both these objects, he would still venture to 
 hope that the direct personal appeals, and the 
 close and pointed applications to the conscience, 
 abounding in these remarkable Epistles, may 
 not be without a blessing either to himself, or 
 
Vlil PREFACE. 
 
 to those into whose hands his work may fall; 
 and he would in all humility rest this expecta- 
 tion upon the promise so clearly conveyed in 
 Rev. i. 3, " Blessed is he that readeth, and they 
 that hear the words of this prophecy," earnestly 
 desiring the prayers of his readers that this 
 blessing may not be withheld. 
 
 Streatham Rectory, 
 
 Feb. 1st, 1838. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 PRACTICAL EXPOSITION. 
 
 LECTURE I. 
 Revelation i. 3. 
 
 " Blessed is he that readeth, and they that hear, the 
 words of this prophecy, and keep those things which are 
 written therein." 1 
 
 LECTURE II. 
 
 EPISTLE TO EPHESUS. 
 
 Revelation ii. 5. 
 
 " Remember, therefore, from whence thou art fallen; 
 and repent, and do the first works ; or else I will come 
 unto thee quickly, and will remove thy candlestick out of 
 his place, except thou repent." .... 41 
 
X CONTENTS. 
 
 LECTURE III. 
 
 EPISTLE TO SMYRNA. 
 
 Revelation ii. 9. 
 
 " I know thy works, and tribulation, and poverty, but 
 thou art rich." 67 
 
 LECTURE IV. 
 
 EPISTLE TO PERGAMOS. 
 
 Revelation ii. 17. 
 
 " To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the 
 hidden manna, and will give him a white stone, and in 
 the stone a new name written, which no man knoweth, 
 slaving he that receiveth it." 95 
 
 LECTURE V. 
 
 EPISTLE TO THYATIRA. 
 
 Revelation ii. 28. 
 
 " And I will give him the morning star." . . 129 
 
 LECTURE VI. 
 
 EPISTLE TO SARDIS. 
 
 Revelation iii. 3. 
 
 "Remember, therefore, how thou hast received and 
 heard, and hold fast, and repent." , . . 159 
 
CONTENTS. XI 
 
 LECTURE VII. 
 
 EPISTLE TO PHILADELPHIA. 
 
 Revelation iii. 12. 
 
 " Him that overcometh vvil] I make a pillar in the 
 temple of my God, and he shall go no more out." . 185 
 
 LECTURE VIII. 
 
 EPISTLE TO LAODICEA. 
 
 Revelation iii. 20. 
 
 " Behold, I stand at the door and knock : if any man 
 hear my voice and open the door, I will come in to him, 
 and will sup with him, and he with me." . . 215 
 
pract" 
 
 •^};«' 
 
 
 LECTURE I. 
 
 Revelation i. 3. 
 
 Blessed is he that readeth, and they that hear the words 
 of this prophecy, and keep those things which are writ- 
 ten therein. 
 
 The astonishing book from which these 
 words are taken, and to the contents of 
 which they so remarkably refer is un- 
 doubtedly less known, and less read, and 
 less valued by the generality of Chris- 
 tians, than any other portion of the canon 
 of Scripture. It is viewed by unthinking 
 persons as a mere collection of unintel- 
 2 
 
14 LECTORS I 
 
 ligible visions, in which they can have 
 no possible concern, and which, if they 
 peruse at di, it is rather from a sort of 
 ^indefinable pleasure; imparted by the gor- 
 geous descriptions, and the dim, though 
 terrific shadowings of those things which 
 pass within the veil, than from any very 
 serious expectation of deriving per- 
 manent and spiritual improvement. It 
 is remarkable then, and as if with the 
 intention of guarding us against that 
 frame of mind in which, as the fore- 
 knowledge of God was perfectly aware, 
 we should be tempted to view this 
 revelation of his will, that we have the 
 direct assertion of the text, " Blessed 
 is he that readeth, and they that hear, 
 the words of this prophecy ;" and it is 
 still more remarkable, that this is the 
 only book in the canon of Scripture, 
 and these the only prophecies, to the 
 perusal of which so high an honour is 
 attached, so peculiar a promise vouch- 
 safed. 
 
L^TURi?!. 15 
 
 It is, however: fiut 'iusti*:0 to 'Confess, 
 that very plausible excuses fdf the* total 
 neglect of this iiVy^tefFous f^bok have 
 been furni^heii, 'by the -iTijncHciobs gnti. 
 intemperate efforts of many of its coni- 
 mentators, who forgetting that prophecy 
 was not intended to make men prophets, 
 have brought the study of it into dis- 
 repute, by the repeated failures of their 
 own unwarranted predictions. We can- 
 not, however, regret the less, on that 
 account, that those portions of the pro- 
 phecy, which are plain and obvious should 
 be consigned to absolute neglect; and 
 because much has been misinterpreted, 
 and much is incapable, at present, of 
 interpretation, that the whole of this 
 invaluable record of divine truth should 
 be suffered to lie disregarded and un- 
 read. For however great may be the 
 difficulties attached to the more advanced 
 portions of the prophecy, the contents 
 of the second and third chapters, con- 
 taining the seven epistles to the seven 
 
16 LiJECTUREr/: 
 
 churcbes ':0[f : Procon^ujar Asia, are of 
 so pecdliaily instrqcUve a character, so 
 full of .mdiyidiial int<3rest, and of prac- 
 :tical improv,epfieiit, tha'J; ; ijt ij5 impossible 
 to read them with any attention, without 
 being impressed by the invaluable lessons 
 of Christian doctrine and practice, the 
 earnest calls to repentance and amend- 
 ment of life, and the encouraging pro- 
 mises of assistance and acceptance, which 
 they so abundantly contain. Impressed 
 with these feelings, we trust it will be no 
 unprofitable employment to tread together 
 this hallowed ground, to linger for awhile 
 in this vestibule of the temple of pro- 
 phecy, and wonder and adore ; while ever 
 and anon we catch a passing glance 
 through the thin veil which hangs be- 
 tween, of the things which have been 
 seen, " and the things which are, and the 
 things which shall be hereafter."* 
 
 It is the commonly received opinion, 
 in which Bishop Newton, and Scott, and 
 
 * Revelation i. 19. 
 
LECTURE I. 17 
 
 most of the modern commentators unite, 
 that the epistles, to which we have re- 
 ferred, were merely directions to the 
 seven different churches to which they 
 are addressed ; and prophetical, only 
 so far as regarded the fate of those 
 particular churches. Notwithstanding 
 these high authorities, however, we are 
 disposed to believe that while these 
 epistles no doubt contained messages 
 expressly applicable to the churches 
 whose name they bear, they had also 
 a secondary application of a less obvious 
 and literal character : since it is most 
 improbable that in a book, every other 
 portion of which is highly prophetical, 
 figurative, and symbolical, these opening 
 chapters alone should be merely literal 
 and didactic. 
 
 We consider, then, that these seven 
 epistles, taken in the order in which 
 they were written, portray as types, 
 and possibly predict as prophecies, the 
 different states of the Christian Church, 
 2* 
 
18 LECTURE I. 
 
 from the period at which they were 
 penned, through seven successive ages,^ 
 stretching through all time, and reaching 
 even unto the end of the world. Thus 
 fulfiUing the expectation of our text, 
 that we are about to read a very inte- 
 resting series of types or prophecies, and 
 not merely of spiritual lessons, however 
 useful ; and thereby keeping up a close 
 and obvious analogy with all the re- 
 maining prophecies, the seven seals, the 
 seven trumpets, and the seven vials, 
 which occupy the larger portion of this 
 astonishing book. 
 
 So far, then, as the types in these 
 epistles have been hitherto fulfilled, 
 it will be one of the intentions of 
 these discourses to point out their 
 accomplishment. Prophecy is every hour 
 changing into history ; what was pro- 
 phecy to one generation, becomes his- 
 tory to their children : thus the Ba- 
 bylonish captivity, for instance, which was 
 prophecy to Jeremiah, was history to 
 
LECTURE I. 19 
 
 Daniel; the coming of the Messiah, 
 which was prophecy to every generation 
 from Adam to Malachi> was history to 
 the apostles ; the destruction of Jeru- 
 salem and the dispersion of the Jews, 
 which were prophecy to the apostles, 
 were history to the fathers of the 
 Christian Church ; while the events 
 which were prophecy to our fathers, have 
 become, by the wonderful facts of the 
 last forty years, history to us. 
 
 It is, then, with prophecy which has 
 become history, with types which have 
 been merged in their antitypes, that 
 while on this portion of each of the 
 epistles, we shall be engaged ; trusting 
 that so doing, we shall inherit the 
 especial promise of the text, " Blessed 
 is he that readeth, and they that hear, 
 the words of this prophecy ;" and pray- 
 ing, that the consideration may tend 
 to excite, both in the mind of him who 
 readeth, and of you who hear, a stronger 
 persuasion of the intimate foreknowledge 
 
20 LECTURE I. 
 
 and wonderful counsel of God, and of 
 the deep and blessed interest which the 
 Lord Jesus Christ has ever taken, and 
 will ever take, in the well-being of his 
 Church ; until He has guided her vessel 
 through all the storms and tempests that 
 await her here, and carried her in safety 
 to the haven where she would be. 
 
 Prophecy, however, under whatever 
 shape, will form but a very small portion 
 of our observations. The blessing of 
 the text extends not merely to reading 
 and to hearing, but to " keeping those 
 things that are written therein ;" for it 
 is scarcely possible, throughout the whole 
 of the Scriptures of truth, to select a 
 passage so abundant in warning, so 
 replete with encouragement, above all, 
 so full of practical advice, as are these 
 seven epistles to the churches. Our 
 earnest prayer, therefore, is, that while 
 we but slightly glance at the completion 
 of their prophecies, we may be led to 
 speak plainly, usefully, and affectionately 
 
LECTURE I. 21 
 
 upon the great practical lessons they 
 bequeath to us ; that as each stage of the 
 Church's history passes in rapid review 
 before us, we may gather some word of 
 profit for our own souls, some practical 
 suggestion for the improvement of our 
 own hearts and conversation. 
 
 Having thus referred, as we felt it 
 necessary to do, to the nature of those 
 subjects which we hope to place before 
 you in the following discourses, we shall 
 proceed to offer some brief remarks upon 
 the manner in which these important 
 messages, or epistles, were communi- 
 cated to St. John, to deliver them to 
 the churches for which they were in 
 the first instance more immediately de- 
 signed, and to commit them as a per- 
 petual possession to the universal Church 
 of Christ, that they might take their 
 place in the canon of Scripture, and 
 hang among the brightest lamps of the 
 sanctuary for ever. 
 
 We derive the account from the pen 
 
22 LECTURE I. 
 
 of the beloved apostle himself, in the 
 chapter from which the text is taken, 
 where we read at the 9th verse, " I 
 John, who also am your brother, and 
 companion in tribulation, and in the 
 kingdom and patience of Jesus Christ, 
 was in the isle that is called Patmos, 
 for the word of God and for the tes- 
 timony of Jesus Christ. I was in the 
 Spirit on the Lord's day, and heard 
 behind me a great voice, as of a trum- 
 pet, saying, I am Alpha and Omega, 
 the first and the last: and, What thou 
 seest, write in a book, and send it 
 unto the seven churches which are in 
 Asia; unto Ephesus, and unto Smyrna, 
 and unto Pergamos, and unto Thyatira, 
 and unto Sardis, and unto Philadelphia, 
 and unto Laodicea. And I turned to 
 see the voice that spake with me, and 
 being turned, I saw seven golden candle- 
 sticks, and in the midst of the seven can- 
 dlesticks one like unto the Son of man." 
 Such is the august and striking man- 
 
LECTURE I. 23 
 
 ner in which these deeply interesting 
 communications were made to the evan- 
 gelist. In other instances of Divine 
 communication, we find the Lord Jesus 
 Christ, sometimes reveahng His mes- 
 sages to the sons of men, in dreams 
 or visions of the night ; at others by 
 the silent and subtile inspiration of the 
 Holy Spirit, no one knowing " whence 
 it Cometh, or whither it goeth ;" but 
 here, the revelation was made in his 
 own person and by himself; w^hile, as 
 we shall presently see, never did the 
 Divine Saviour of the world appear be- 
 fore the eyes of His people in so 
 impressive and majestic a form, and 
 never shall He so appear again, until 
 He shall come in the clouds of hea- 
 ven, and every eye shall see him,* as 
 He manifested Himself upon that Sab- 
 bath day, to that lonely and desolate 
 exile in the Isle of Patmos. So true 
 is it, that " as the sufferings of Christ 
 
 * Revelation i. 7. 
 
24 LECTURE I. 
 
 abound in us, so our consolation also 
 aboundeth by Christ ;"* that never does 
 the Saviour call forth one of his be- 
 lieving people in any age, to an espe- 
 cial degree of suffering, or trial, or 
 temptation, or sorrow, without compen- 
 sating, and far more than compensating 
 him, by the richer consolations of His 
 love, by the fuller and more glorious 
 manifestations of Himself. We believe, 
 even at the present hour, that many 
 a poor and wretched hovel, whose de- 
 spised inmate is a partaker of the 
 sufferings of Christ, is enriched and 
 enlightened by the spiritual presence 
 of the Redeemer to an extent to which 
 the fairest mansion of the unsuffering 
 Christian is utterly a stranger; while 
 probably even St. John himself, close 
 and intimate as was his knowledge of 
 the Saviour, and dear and constant his 
 communion with Him while on earth, 
 never beheld half His glories, or con- 
 
 * 9 Corinthians i. 5. 
 
LECTURE I. 25 
 
 ceived of half His majesty and power, 
 until now in his hour of despondency and 
 trial, banished from the abodes of men 
 " for the testimony of Jesus," he was 
 visited by Christ Himself in person in 
 the island of his exile. 
 
 Before we speak of the supernatural 
 appearance which our Lord assumed on 
 this occasion, we must advert to the 
 situation in which the apostle, when he 
 had turned himself, as he expresses 
 it, upon hearing that "great voice, as 
 of a trumpet," first beheld the Saviour. 
 It was " in the midst of the seven 
 candlesticks."* These, as we are after- 
 wards informed,! typified the seven 
 churches to which the Epistles were 
 to be addressed ; and if these again 
 were, as we beheve, types of the 
 seven different stages of the Christian 
 Church throughout all time ; the fact 
 of our Lord revealing Himself as stand- 
 ing, or walking in the midst of them, 
 
 * Revelation i. 13. t See '^Oth verse. 
 
 3 
 
26 LECTURE I. 
 
 demonstrates how incessantly He is em- 
 ployed in watching over, in caring for, 
 and guiding His Church on earth ; bless- 
 ing it with His continual presence, 
 and daily fulfilling His most gracious 
 promise, " Lo ! I am with you always, 
 even unto the end of the world." 
 
 While the Church is symbolised not 
 by candles, but by " candlesticks," show- 
 ing that although eminently serviceable 
 in dispensing the light, it has no light 
 of itself, but that it stands as a mere 
 depositary of the light of God's word* 
 and of God's grace, in every age, 
 among the benighted people of the 
 world ; holding forth to them that ra- 
 diance which is shed from the fountain 
 of light, upon its ministers and people. 
 The candlesticks were " golden," to 
 mark the matchless value of a Christian 
 church, and a Christian ministration. 
 Yet, brethren, as the eye of the apostle 
 fell upon those golden branches, be sure 
 it dwelt not for a moment upon their 
 
LECTURE I. 27 
 
 inimitable beauty, but saw, and saw 
 only, Him who stood among them. So 
 let it be with you ; learn to look beyond 
 the most valuable of duties, the 
 most golden of ordinances, to the Sa- 
 viour, from whom alone they derive 
 their beauty, their excellence, and their 
 power. Value your Church, and next 
 to the Saviour, you cannot value her 
 too dearly ; but remember, that she her- 
 self desires to be accounted but as the 
 humble handmaid of her Lord. In all 
 her prayers she teaches you to look to 
 Christ ; in all her praises, to dwell on 
 Christ; in all her offices, to draw near 
 to Christ ; as every ray of light which 
 beams from the golden candlesticks, 
 and brings knowledge, or grace, or love 
 into your souls, is from Him " who 
 dwelleth in the light which no man 
 can approach unto," and is indeed the 
 great source of light itself; so does your 
 apostolical Church desire that every ray 
 should be reflected back again to its 
 
28 LECTURE I. 
 
 Divine source, conveying glory, and 
 thanksgiving, and honour, and praise, 
 unto Him that sitteth upon the throne, 
 and unto the Lamb for ever and ever. 
 
 We proceed with the detail which 
 the apostle gives of the appearance of 
 the Saviour. " He was clothed with 
 a garment down to the foot, and girt 
 about the paps with a golden girdle. 
 His head and His hairs were white 
 like wool, as white as snow; and 
 His eyes were as a flame of fire ; and 
 His feet like unto fine brass, as if 
 they burned in a furnace ; and His 
 voice as the sound of many waters."* 
 
 The long "garment down to the 
 foot," was expressly appointed by God 
 to be worn by the High Priest. By 
 our Lord therefore appearing in this 
 sacerdotal garment. He revealed to St. 
 John, that although in heaven. He 
 still retains the ofiice of the Priest- 
 hood, conferred upon Him as Mediator, 
 
 * Revelation i. 13, 14, 15. 
 
LECTURE I 29 
 
 by the Almighty, when, as it is writ- 
 ten, " The Lord hath sworn, and will not 
 repent, Thou art a Priest for ever after 
 the order of Melchizedec."* It was as 
 a Priest that the apostle says, " Christ 
 entered into heaven with His own 
 blood," and after he had offered one 
 sacrifice for sins, " a full, perfect, and 
 sufficient sacrifice," for ever sat down 
 at the right hand of God ; " for by 
 one offering, He hath perfected for 
 ever, them that are sanctified." It is 
 as a Priest, that the Lord Jesus Christ 
 stands at this moment before the throne 
 of God, presenting His merits in be- 
 half of his people, and offering there, 
 their petitions and their praises. 
 
 But He was also "girt about the 
 paps with a golden girdle." Among 
 eastern nations, the girdle was a most 
 essential portion of the attire, when pre- 
 pared for any active employment ; it 
 
 * Psairn ex. 4. 
 
 a* 
 
30 LECTURE I. 
 
 was not worn in the house, but put 
 on preparatory to engaging in exer- 
 cise ; and to this frequent allusion is 
 made in the gospels, " the loins girded," 
 being a proverbial expression for rea- 
 diness for action. Our Lord therefore 
 manifesting Himself as girded, demon- 
 strated that He was actively employed ; 
 that although glorified, although returned 
 to the everlasting joys of His kingdom. 
 He was still the wakeful, watchful, in- 
 defatigable guardian of His Church. 
 That He who had once girded Him- 
 self with a towel, and washed His dis- 
 ciple's feet, had now put on his golden 
 girdle of kingly dignity, for higher and 
 more noble services ; that He was gone, 
 as He had predicted, to prepare thrones 
 for his apostles, upon which they should 
 sit with Him, judging the twelve tribes 
 of Israel ; and that not they alone, 
 but that all who, by His strength, should 
 be enabled to overcome, should sit down 
 with him upon His throne, even as 
 
LECTURE I. 3\ 
 
 He also overcame, and is set down with 
 His Father upon His throne. 
 
 In continuing the description of our 
 Lord, we read that " His head and His 
 hair were as white as snow/' This is 
 a very striking pecuHarity in the ap- 
 pearance of Christ upon this occasion ; 
 it must have rendered him totally 
 ditferent from the same Jesus, whom 
 St. John had last beheld, hurried from 
 the earth, when only three and thirty 
 years of mortal life had been completed. 
 There is every reason to believe that 
 this appearance was adopted in the pre- 
 sent instance by Christ to mark His 
 eternity and divinity, since it forms a 
 complete counterpart to that descrip- 
 tion of the great Jehovah, in the 7th 
 chapter of Daniel, where it is said, " I 
 beheld the Ancient of days, whose gar- 
 ment was as white as snow, and the hair 
 of His head like pure wool." By our 
 Lord therefore appearing thus, he seems 
 to mark His identity with God the Father. 
 
32 LECTURE I. 
 
 Again. " His eyes were like a flame 
 of fire," piercing and penetrating into 
 all things; this agrees well with that 
 declaration of St. Peter, "All things 
 are naked and opened unto the eyes of 
 Him with whom we have to do," and 
 portrays therefore the omniscience and 
 omnipresence of the " everlasting Son 
 of the Father." 
 
 The " brazen feet," symbolise the 
 strength, and firmness, and decision of 
 all the footsteps of Christ, whether in 
 providence or grace ; while His " voice," 
 described " as the sound of many waters," 
 marks at once its majesty and power. 
 His "face shone as the sun shineth in 
 his strength;" thus preserving while in 
 glory precisely the same appearance 
 witnessed by this very apostle, on the 
 mount of transfiguration, where " His 
 face did shine as the sun, and His 
 raiment was white as the light, so as 
 no fuller on earth could white them."* 
 
 * xMark ix. 3. 
 
LECTURE I. 33 
 
 Such, brethren, was the appearance 
 of that wonderful Being when He de- 
 Hvered those important prophecies, and 
 those valuable spiritual instructions, which 
 we hope to place before you ; that gra- 
 cious Saviour, by whose name every 
 individual among us this day is called, 
 in whose house we are now assembled, 
 to whose kingdom we hope we are jour- 
 neying, and in whose presence we pro- 
 fess to desire to spend a glorious and 
 happy eternity. 
 
 Examine, then, your knowledge of 
 Him in all His offices, by the portrait- 
 ure which has now been set be- 
 fore you. Dwell upon each particular, 
 in the silence of your own chamber, 
 until you realise His immediate pre- 
 sence, and actually hold converse with 
 Himself. To assist you in this, consi- 
 der — The predictions of our Lord Jesus 
 Christ demonstrate that He is a Prophet; 
 it is the prophet's office to instruct, as 
 well as to predict. Have you, with a 
 
34 LECTURE 1. 
 
 humble, teachable heart, sought your 
 instruction in divine things, at the lips 
 of Christ Himself, and by the influence 
 of His good Spirit ? The " garment 
 down to the foot" has proclaimed Him 
 to be a Priest ; are you looking for ac- 
 ceptance simply to the great atonement, 
 which none but a priest could offer, and 
 expecting answers to your prayers simply 
 through that intercession, which none but 
 a priest could make ? 
 
 His " golden girdle" declared Him 
 to be a King ; is he then your King ? 
 is His will your law; His word your 
 rule of life; and can you truly say, 
 " Other Lords besides thee have had 
 dominion over us," but now we own 
 no king but Thee ; no ruler but Thy- 
 self? If you have thus accepted Him 
 as your Prophet, Priest, and King, with 
 your whole heart, every other portion of 
 the description will well harmonise with 
 the image of the Saviour, already formed* 
 within your breast. 
 
 * See Galalians iv. 19 
 
LECTURE I. 85 
 
 You will rejoice that " His eyes are 
 as a flame of fire," for you will know, 
 that with them he watches about your 
 path and about your bed, that no evil 
 should come nigh your dwelling ; that 
 with them he looks into your heart, 
 and however men may misunderstand or 
 misrepresent you. He sees the smallest 
 desire after holiness, the first bursting 
 of the seed of grace which He Him- 
 self has sown, and will accept " accord- 
 ing to that a man hath, and not accord- 
 ing to that he hath not."* 
 
 Again when those around you are 
 changing, and earthly friends are falling 
 from you by caprice and death, while 
 all else is mutable, you will delight in 
 looking upon that head " as white as 
 snow," which recalls your Lord to you, 
 as one who inhabiteth eternity, and you 
 will turn to Him, " the Ancient of 
 days," who has said, " I am the Lord, 
 I change not," " Jesus Chri&t, the 
 
 * 2 CoriDlhians viii. 12. 
 
36 LECTURE I. 
 
 same yesterday, to-day, and for ever ;" 
 and you will find him to be a never- 
 failing, never-varying friend. And when 
 you shall be called to struggle with 
 the last great enemy, you will cling 
 the closer with a true and living faith 
 to Him, who went down Himself into 
 the tomb, and with His " feet of brass," 
 bruised for ever the serpent's head, 
 and trampled upon the powers of 
 darkness in their own dominions; and 
 you will receive from Him the fuliil- 
 ment of His own most blessed promise, 
 " thy shoes shall be iron and brass ; and 
 as thy days, so shall thy strength be."* 
 
 Nay, the grave itself shall not rob 
 you of the blessings with which this 
 appearance of our Lord presents you, 
 for even there, amidst the silence and 
 the gloom of its narrow dwelhng-house, 
 shall you hear His powerful voice, ** as 
 the sound of many waters,"t calling you 
 up to liberty and life in that great 
 
 « Deuteronomy xxxiii. 25. t Revelation i. 15. 
 
LECTURE I. 37 
 
 day, when all that are in the graves 
 shall hear the voice of the Son of 
 man, and shall come forth; and He 
 shall say unto you who have departed 
 this life in His faith and fear, "Come, 
 ye blessed children of my Father, re- 
 ceive the kingdom prepared for you 
 from the beginning of the world." For 
 all these are among the covenanted 
 blessings which Christ Himself has 
 promised to those who read, and hear, 
 and keep the things, which are written 
 in the book of life. 
 
EPISTLE TO EPHESUS. 
 
LECTURE II. 
 
 Revelation ii. 5. 
 
 Remember therefore from whence thou art fallen, and re- 
 pent, and do the first works ; or else I will come unto 
 thee quickly, and will remove thy candlestick out of his 
 place, except thou repent 
 
 In pursuance of the intention ex- 
 pressed in the last lecture, we are 
 now to commence our observations 
 upon the first of the seven epistles to 
 the churches of Proconsular Asia. 
 May that blessed Spirit, who in these 
 portions of Holy writ once spake unto 
 the churches, be, upon each occasion 
 of our considering them, poured out 
 4* 
 
42 LECTURE II. 
 
 upon US, and may He who " hath the 
 residue of the Spirit," direct these im- 
 perfect efforts to the furtherance of 
 the work of divine grace in our 
 hearts, and to the permanent extension 
 of his own kingdom and glory. The 
 first epistle is inscribed to the angel 
 or bishop of the church of Ephesus, 
 which we imagine to have been first 
 selected by our Lord, because, from 
 the peculiar circumstances of that 
 church, it formed the best epitome of 
 the state of the whole Christian 
 Church, at the particular period alluded 
 to in this epistle. It was indeed a 
 picture of " the things which are," in 
 reference to the command given by 
 Christ to the apostle, in the pre- 
 ceding chapter, when he said, "Write 
 the things which thou hast seen, and 
 the things which are, and the things 
 which shall be hereafter."* 
 
 We consider, then, this epistle as 
 
 * Revelation i. 19. 
 
LECTURE II. 43 
 
 marking primarily, the condition of the 
 Church of Ephesus at the time when it 
 was written ; and secondarily, the charac- 
 teristics of the Church of Christ in the 
 apostolical age, when it still retained 
 much of sincere and heartfelt love of 
 the truth as it is in Jesus, and a 
 zealous opposition to false teachers, such 
 as Ebion and Cerinthus, and their 
 doctrines, with which, as our Lord 
 foretold, "they should deceive many;" 
 when the desire of labouring and 
 suffering for Christ still possessed the 
 hearts of a large proportion of its 
 members; and yet, when in comparison 
 of what it had been, during the first 
 trying, but blessed years of that church's 
 history, rapid indeed had been the 
 decHne, and wide the separation from 
 the first strong feelings of love, that 
 burned in the hearts of the early con- 
 verts, when they " w^ere together, and 
 had all things common," and "did eat 
 their meat with gladness and single- 
 
44 LECTURE II. 
 
 iiess of heart, praising God and hav- 
 ing favour with all the people."* 
 
 These are the words of the epistle : 
 " I know thy works, and thy labour, 
 and thy patience, and how thou canst 
 not bear them which are evil ; and 
 thou hast tried them which say they 
 are apostles and are not, and hast 
 found them liars : and hast borne and 
 hast patience, and for my name's sake 
 hast laboured, and hast not fainted. 
 Nevertheless I have somewhat against 
 thee, because thou hast left thy first 
 love."t 
 
 Such, then, was the character of the 
 Church of Ephesus, and such was also 
 a general portraiture of the Church of 
 the Redeemer in the age when the 
 epistle was dictated by our Lord. 
 
 If any are incredulous, that, at this 
 early period, the great Head of the 
 Church, while he saw so much to 
 commend, should also see so much to 
 
 * Acts ii. 46, 47. t Revelation ii. 2 — 4. 
 
LECTURE II. 45 
 
 blame in the conduct of his children; 
 we have only to refer them to the 
 epistles of St. Paul, and they will find 
 that far stronger expressions are there 
 employed in speaking of the conduct 
 of many to whom they are addressed, 
 than are made use of here ; and that 
 the happy period, when Christians loved 
 as the brethren of a single family, and 
 lived around a common table, must 
 indeed have been most lamentably brief; 
 since scarcely an epistle can be named, 
 in which contributions for their poorer 
 members are not urged upan the 
 churches, as if entreaty was necessary 
 to its fulfilment, and in which the re- 
 puted divisions among them are not 
 spoken of, as if too probable to be 
 doubted. But there is so much of 
 personal application in this epistle, that 
 we shall not dwell upon the propheti- 
 cal or typical view of it, but proceed 
 at once to those important practical 
 lessons with which it is replete. '* I 
 
46 LECTURE II. 
 
 know thy works, and thy labour, and 
 thy patience, and how thou canst not 
 bear them which are evil." We need not 
 remind you, that this intimate know- 
 ledge which our Lord possessed of the 
 church to which He then was writing. 
 He possesses at this moment of every 
 one of us. Many among you, brethren, 
 are, no doubt, more than merely no- 
 minal followers of the Lord Jesus 
 Christ; you have been taught by His 
 Spirit ; you are depending simply upon 
 His atonement; you are endeavouring, 
 by His grace, to express your grati- 
 tude and your obedience by a heart 
 devoted to His will, and a life, in some 
 degree at least, we trust, dedicated to 
 His service. How encouraging, then, 
 is the reflection that not one advanc- 
 ing effort which you have ever made 
 in the way of holiness, not a sinful 
 gratification which you have foregone, 
 not an evil habit, or person, or thing, 
 from which you have separated, or a 
 
LECTURE II. 47 
 
 labour of love which you have per- 
 formed for his name's sake, of which 
 He does not as distinctly say to you, as 
 He here said to the Church of Ephesus, 
 I know it, and know it with approbation, 
 (for this is the meaning of the phrase 
 as it occurs in the Scripture before us) 
 •• I know thy works, and thy labour, 
 and thy patience." Your gracious Re- 
 deemer knows them, indeed, as they 
 really are, tainted with sin, full of im- 
 perfection which no one will more 
 readily acknowledge than yourselves ; but 
 then he knows them also, as the sin- 
 cere though feeble efforts of a child, 
 anxious to manifest his love, and gra- 
 titude, and obedience, to an indulgent 
 father; and that Saviour even now 
 delights in every such work of charity 
 or kindness, or ministering for Him, as 
 He once did in the offering of that 
 poor woman in Bethany, which worth- 
 less as it was, rejoiced his heart, and 
 received His commendation, because 
 
48 LECTURE II. 
 
 having been forgiven much, she loved 
 much, and had " done what she could." 
 But there is encouragement in this 
 message for more than you who are en- 
 abled to work and to labour for the Lord 
 Jesus Christ. Every class, almost every 
 individual among His people, may find 
 a word of counsel and of comfort here. 
 Are the sins of an ungodly world a 
 trial and a grief to you ? and though 
 you may not be able with truth to ex- 
 press yourself in the strong language 
 of David, " Rivers of water run down 
 mine eyes, because they keep not thy 
 law,"* yet do you mourn over iniqui- 
 ties which you cannot prevent, and 
 which deeply wound your soul, because 
 they wound your Saviour ? this also, then, 
 he knows with approbation, " I know 
 how thou canst not bear them which 
 are evil." It is a most satisfactory and 
 distinctive mark of our union with the 
 Lord Jesus, when we can truly affirm, 
 
 * Psalm cxix. 136. 
 
LECTURE II. 4B 
 
 " every enemy of my Lord is beheld as 
 an enemy by me ; every arrow that 
 is aimed at my Redeemer, pierces 
 through my own soul also, and fills 
 it with many sorrows." But can you, 
 on the other hand, behold the careless 
 Sabbath-breaker, can you hear the oath 
 of the profane, can you see the pro- 
 fligacy which fills ojr streets, can you 
 read of, and can you know of, the thou- 
 sands around you engaged in " evil, and 
 only evil, and that continually," living 
 to themselves and to the world, and 
 forgetting the God who made, and the 
 Saviour who redeemed them ; and can 
 you talk lightly of their sins, and be 
 indifferent to their fate, and take as 
 much pleasure in their society, as if 
 they were the obedient followers of 
 God, and preparing for His kingdom, 
 and living to His glory ? Then, bre- 
 thren, we are bound to tell you, that 
 you want one distinctive mark at least, 
 which is never wanting in the true 
 5 
 
60 LECTURE II. 
 
 people of God, the separation from them 
 that are evil ; your " spot is not the spot 
 of God's children," for He says of them, 
 " I know thou canst not bear them which 
 are evil." How careful then should we 
 be in the choice of our intimate com- 
 panions and friends ! Does God say 
 that His people cannot bear the com- 
 pany of the ungodly ; and do I love, 
 and court, and associate with them 
 from choice ! Surely there must be 
 something very wrong in the state of 
 my heart, or I could not so differ 
 from my Lord and His believing fol- 
 lowers. If society were constituted 
 upon Christian principles, it would not 
 be borne, that the presence of the 
 profane swearer, or the open profligate, 
 the gambler, or the adulterer, should 
 be tolerated, because his vices are 
 gilded by wealth, or dignified by rank ; 
 such men would be as effectually ba- 
 nished, as the more vulgar sinners 
 whom the laws of their country remove 
 
LECTURE II. 51 
 
 from the scene of their depredations 
 and disgrace. 
 
 Again, in the epistle before us, there 
 is a word for you, brethren — and in 
 what assemblage like the present was 
 it ever seen, that none such were in- 
 cluded — for you who are sufterers, 
 whether from sickness, or sorrow, or 
 sin, and patient sufferers for the Lord's 
 sake. He says to each of you, " I 
 know how thou hast borne," i. e. suf- 
 fered, "and hast patience, and for my 
 name's sake, hast laboured and not 
 fainted."* Your Lord has known many 
 a secret trial, many an hour of sor- 
 row and affliction through which you 
 have passed, and which the world has 
 never known. Your Lord has seen 
 your domestic difficulties, your per- 
 sonal troubles, your moments of secret 
 anguish, perhaps unrevealed even to 
 your dearest friend ; for there are sor- 
 rows which ought not and cannot be 
 
 * Revelation ii. 3. 
 
52 LECTURE II. 
 
 communicated but to God alone; and 
 yet you have not fainted, but perse- 
 vered, and for His name's sake hast 
 patience. Of all these. He says, in 
 the language of commendation, "I 
 know," them ; I know your every prayer 
 for guidance, your every effort to 
 bear patiently and contentedly what I 
 have laid upon you, and to profit by 
 the visitation ; to " hear the rod, and 
 Him who appointed it ;" your every 
 endeavour against evil tempers and 
 evil habits; — all these things, which 
 man can never know, are known and 
 valued by me. How delightful is the 
 reflection to the child of God, that 
 we have to do with one who judges, 
 not as sinners judge, and who feels, 
 not as even the kindest and the holi- 
 est friend on earth can .feel towards 
 our patient endurance, our shortcomings, 
 or our slow advancings, but who looks 
 even at the most feeble of his chil- 
 dren as children still ; and while those 
 
LECTURE II. 53 
 
 around may blame us that we have 
 borne our trials no better, and have 
 advanced no farther and no faster on 
 the heavenward road, He, that mer- 
 ciful Redeemer, commends us that we 
 are still upon the road, and " have not 
 fainted." 
 
 The great office of the Christian 
 minister — and the most blessed and de- 
 lightful portion of our duty do we es- 
 teem it — is to fulfil the command of our 
 God to His prophet of old, "Comfort 
 ye, comfort ye my people, saith your 
 God ; speak ye comfortably to Jerusa- 
 lem, and cry unto her, that her war- 
 fare is accomplished, that her iniquity 
 is pardoned."* But while our Lord 
 Himself, in the epistle before us, has 
 given us, as we have just seen, a model 
 for the method in which we should thus 
 speak comfortably to those who need 
 consolation, He gives us also in the 
 verse which follows, an example of the 
 
 * Isaiah xl. 1, 2. 
 
 5* 
 
54 LECTURE II. 
 
 manner in which he blended, and in 
 which we aUo are bound to blend, the 
 plainest warnings and the most heart- 
 searching reproofs, even with the full- 
 est displays of God's tenderness and 
 love, and the most abundant consolation. 
 ."Nevertheless," says the Great Head 
 of the Church, " I have somewhat against 
 thee, because thou hast left thy first 
 love."* 
 
 If, then, even in this apostolical church- 
 state, the Lord had a quarrel against 
 His people, if He had "somewhat against" 
 them^ has He nothing against us ? Nay, 
 let us speak plainly ; and suffer ye the 
 word of reproof, as well as of encou- 
 ragement and consolation ; for, as the 
 apostle said, " If I yet pleased man I 
 should not be the servant of Christ."t 
 
 We ask you, then, has He, whom 
 you serve, no charge to prefer against 
 any of you, who, nevertheless, may 
 really be among His people, of a simi- 
 
 * Revelation ii. 4. t Galatians i. 10. 
 
LECTURE II. 55 
 
 lar nature to this before us, that you 
 also have left your first love ? Remem- 
 ber for a moment, if you have been 
 really turned to God, how much these 
 subjects once engrossed your thoughts, 
 hovi^ entirely they occupied your heart, 
 when first by God's sovereign grace, 
 they obtained admittance. Where, then, 
 is now that strong and influential feel- 
 ing of love to the Redeemer with 
 which, when you began to appreciate 
 your own necessities and His infinite 
 mercy, your heart was filled ? Then 
 every thing yielded to this feeling ; it 
 was the first, the all-pervading, almost 
 the only feeling which filled your 
 heart, and directed your every action. 
 What anxiety was there, then, for 
 obtaining spiritual good for yourselves, 
 or for imparting it to others ! You 
 would rather have risked the world's 
 laugh, or the world's reproof, than have 
 remained silent, when the cause of your 
 God required you to speak. What plea- 
 
56 LECTURE II. 
 
 sure had you then in secret communion 
 with your Redeemer, and in dweUing 
 upon the revealed and written word 
 in those portions of your time, which 
 you could snatch from the busy bustle 
 of earth, and consecrate to heaven ! 
 
 How is this now ? Is the gold become 
 dim ? Is the fine gold changed ? Is 
 the inward spark decaying even while 
 the flame still burns fiercely without ? 
 Then these are signs too plain to be 
 mistaken, that the reproof before us 
 belongs to some among ourselves ; the 
 Saviour has " somewhat against thee, 
 because thou hast left thy first love." 
 The present world and the attractions 
 of its business, or its pleasures, have 
 been too strong for the future world 
 and the attractions of the cross : day 
 by day, step by step, the former are 
 gaining upon, and displacing the latter ; 
 you are more and more engrossed, and 
 interested and possessed by subjects 
 or occupations, which good and pro- 
 
LECTURE II. 57 
 
 fitable as they are in their place, are 
 still of the earth, earthy, and will not 
 bear a moment's competition with the 
 great business of your soul, the pre- 
 paration for eternity. God grant that 
 the present hour may arrest their 
 progress, may re-kmdle the dying fire, 
 may re-establish the throne of the Re- 
 deemer within your bosom. For it is 
 this love, the first love of the heart, 
 which is the best and choicest offering 
 you can bring to God ; it is this alone 
 which gives life and w^irmth to every 
 other grace, and puts a soul into all 
 your duties upon earth, and raises you 
 upon angel wings, as near as mortal 
 foot may tread to the threshold of 
 heaven. It was beautifully said by one 
 of old, " The hawk, while she is quick 
 to take her prey, is set upon the hand 
 of kings and nobles; but if she wax 
 weak and die, she is cast off to the 
 dunghill. Even so, while we are warm 
 and fervent in love towards God and 
 
58 LECTURE II. 
 
 his Christ, we are carried as it were 
 on God's own hand; but if we faint 
 and decay in love, we shall be cast 
 lower than if we had never been seen so 
 exalted." Be not content, unless you 
 are thus living, as it were, on God's 
 own hand; be satis«fied with no lower 
 place to rest upon ; but ever as you 
 feel sensible of your downward flight, 
 be still endeavouring to soar upward 
 upon the wings of faithful, persevering 
 prayer, until you have regained that 
 safe and happy eminence. 
 
 Must we add a threatening to our 
 reproof? Then let it be in the words 
 of our Lord Himself; " Remember, 
 therefore, from whence thou art fallen, 
 and repent and do the first works ; or 
 else I will come unto thee quickly, and 
 will remove thy candlestick out of his 
 place, except thou repent.'"^ 
 
 Remember whence thou art fallen ; 
 descend into your own heart ; draw 
 
 » Revelation ii. 5. 
 
LECTURE II. 59 
 
 aside the veil of self-love, that love 
 which strengthens while all other love 
 decays ; mark out honestly and can- 
 didly, every instance in which it is not 
 with you as in times past ; acknowledge 
 every deficiency in duty, every neglect 
 of prayer, every forgetfulness of God, 
 every secret sin, every growing symp- 
 tom of indifference to the Lord who 
 bought you to the sense of His abid- 
 ing presence, to the obedience to His 
 commands; and as that Lord himself 
 says, " Repent and do the first works." 
 Need we tell you what the first work 
 of each convinced sinner, and therefore 
 of each convicted backshder, must ever 
 be? Seek again the cleansing blood of 
 the Saviour ; bring every instance of 
 remembered transgression, or imperfect 
 duty, at once to Him, and leave Him 
 not until the " blood of sprinkling" has 
 spoken pardon for your sins and peace 
 to your soul, and brought you once 
 more near to God. Then shall your 
 
60 LECTURE II. 
 
 candlestick never be removed ; the light 
 which is in you never be darkened ; 
 but remember, that nothing short of this 
 will insure the blessing ; for our Lord 
 Himself declares, "I will come unto 
 thee, and remove thy candlestick, except 
 thou repent." 
 
 The epistle before us concludes, as 
 each of these remarkable epistles does, 
 with a peculiar promise or blessing. 
 " To him that overcometh, will I give 
 to eat of the tree of life, which is in 
 the midst of the paradise of God."* 
 
 " To him that overcometh ;" yes, 
 great and glorious as are the rewards 
 of God they are limited to those who 
 overcome. But then, who are they ? 
 where shall we find those privileged 
 Christians who may hope that the title 
 is their own ? Brethren, the word of 
 God being our g lide, we shall have 
 no difficulty in this investigation. Let 
 the beloved apostle return the answer ; 
 
 • Revelation ii. 7. 
 
LECTURE II. 61 
 
 These are his words : " Whosoever be- 
 lieveth that Jesus is the Christ is born 
 of God ; and whosoever is born of God 
 overcometh the world."* Have you rea- 
 son to beheve that you have been born 
 again of the Spirit ; that you are made 
 the child of God by adoption and spi- 
 ritual regeneration ; that you have been 
 renewed in the spirit of your mind, cru- 
 cifying the world with its affections and 
 lusts ; if so, be of good cheer ; the pro- 
 mise is your own ; it is yours to enter, 
 through the blood of Jesus Christ, into 
 the city, and to partake of the tree of 
 life which grows there, of which, if a 
 man eat, he shall live for ever. 
 
 Well, therefore, does your Redeemer 
 usher in this great and glorious promise 
 by saying, " He that hath an ear let 
 him hear what the Spirit saith unto the 
 Churches."! Yes, brethren, hear, as 
 you have this day heard, the Spirit's 
 consolations, the Spirit's warnings, but 
 
 * 1 John V. 1, 4. t Revelation ii. 11. 
 
 6 
 
62 LECTURE II. 
 
 above all, hear the Spirit's promises. 
 It is generally in proportion as you are 
 humbly but steadfastly believing these 
 great things to be your own, purchased 
 for you, pledged to you, and reserved 
 in heaven for you, and you for them, 
 that your gratitude, your consistency, 
 and your holiness, will increase and 
 abound. When the aspect of this world 
 is lowering, or its events disappointing, 
 when troubles distress you, or sin and 
 temptations assail and harass you, dwell 
 much, dwell confidently on the blessed- 
 ness of those who overcome, and on the 
 full assurance of hope that through 
 grace you shall be among that happy 
 number. Nothing so cheers and elevates 
 the heart, nothing carries it so entirely 
 above the reach of this world's miseries, 
 as an habitual dwelling upon the promised 
 future, as your own ; the inheritance, of 
 which you have already received the 
 earnest in the first fruits of the Spirit, 
 and of which all shall unquestionably 
 
LECTURE II. 63 
 
 soon be yours, if you are Christ's. 
 It is this behef which not only robs 
 death of his sting, and the grave of 
 its victory, but as certainly and as ef- 
 fectually robs the world of the largest 
 share of its attractions, and every sta- 
 tion in life of the most dangerous por- 
 tion of its allurements and temptations ; 
 He down, therefore, in peace upon this 
 persuasion, that now living near to God, 
 now rejoicing to run the way of His 
 commandments, the day is not far dis- 
 tant when you shall, in close and inti- 
 mate communion with the Redeemer, 
 •' eat of the tree of life," and live for 
 ever ; and with the redeemed of all 
 nations, and kindred, and people, and 
 tongues, repose beneath its branches, in 
 the "Paradise of God." 
 
EPISTLE TO SMYRNA 
 
LECTURE III. 
 
 Revelation ii. 9. 
 
 I know thy works, and tribulation, and poverty, but thou 
 art rich. 
 
 The subject for the present Lecture 
 is the second of the epistles to the 
 Asiatic Churches, addressed by our 
 Lord to the Church of Smyrna. 
 
 The character of this epistle is, al- 
 though with some points of similarity, still 
 materially different from the preceding. 
 In that, the language of reproof was 
 equally prominent with the language of 
 commendation ; in this, not a word of 
 reprehension is mingled with the praise. 
 
68 LECTURE III. 
 
 In the epistle to Ephesus, we beheld 
 the portraiture of the general Church 
 of Christ during the apostolical age ; 
 terminating with the life of St. John. 
 In the epistle to Smyrna, we are pre- 
 sented with a view of the primitive 
 Church from the time that the open 
 ministration of the Spirit passed away, 
 until the period when the religion of 
 Christ became the national religion of 
 the Roman empire. In other words, 
 we may consider the Church at Smyrna 
 to have been a type of the general 
 character and state of the Christian 
 Church from the death of St. John, 
 until the reign of Constantino the Great. 
 A period during which the blood of 
 the martyrs, the seed of the Church, 
 was more freely sown than in any pe- 
 riod of similar duration in that Church's 
 history ; while, our enemies themselves 
 being the judges, the religion of the 
 Redeemer brought forth such fruit, of 
 hoUness, and self-denial, and love, as 
 
LECTURE III. 69 
 
 Utterly astonished its opponents, although 
 it did not restrain their cruelty, or con- 
 vert their hearts. 
 
 This will fully justify the language 
 of the epistle, which after opening with 
 a preface, peculiarly appropriate to its 
 contents, is entirely occupied with the 
 commendation of the Church's apparent 
 poverty, but real riches, with predictions 
 of its sufferings, and encouragement under 
 its trials ; while it closes with a most 
 blessed and appropriate promise. 
 
 First, as regards the beautiful pro- 
 priety of the preface, — " Unto the angel 
 of the Church in Smyrna write ; These 
 things saith the first and the last, which 
 was dead, and is alive."^ Consider, that 
 our Lord was addressing Himself to a 
 Church, whose members should be called 
 to pass through the deepest waters of 
 affliction, and to suffer unceasingly be- 
 neath the iron rod of their persecutors ; 
 to hold themselves in daily readiness, 
 
 * Revelation ii. 8. 
 
70 LECTURE Iir. 
 
 to pour out their blood in the amphi- 
 theatre, or to perish at the stake. 
 Could He have presented Himself to 
 them in a character which would more 
 powerfully tend to elevate their hope, 
 to brighten their faith, and to nerve 
 them for the struggles in which they 
 were shortly to bear so glorious, but so 
 fearful a portion ? 
 
 I who speak unto thee, says the 
 Saviour, am " the first and the last," 
 the infinite, the eternal One ; and there- 
 fore well able, with all the power of 
 Deity, to carry thee through this mortal 
 strife, and make thee more than con- 
 queror for my name's sake. But I am 
 also he, " which was dead, and is alive ;" 
 I have therefore been myself once sub- 
 ject to the same sorrows and persecutions 
 as thine own ; I have experienced " the 
 cruel mockings and scourgings" which 
 thou shalt sufl'er ; I have groaned be- 
 neath the tortures of the body, and have 
 bled from very agony of soul. Death 
 
LECTURE III. 71 
 
 itself, the last great consummation of 
 thy trials, is not unknown to me ; I 
 have felt its damps upon my brow, and 
 have hung a lifeless corpse upon the 
 cross, and have been wrapped in the 
 cerements of the sepulchre, for I " was 
 dead ;" and I can therefore well be 
 touched with a feeling of every infir- 
 mity and pang which assails the dying; 
 but I am now " alive," to assure thee 
 of the unchangeableness of my protec- 
 tion, and my ability to help and deliver. 
 Take courage, therefore, in thy coming 
 trials ; though thine enemies shall prevail 
 against thee even unto death, though 
 after thy death, worms shall destroy thy 
 body, yet in thy flesh thou shalt see God ; 
 for thou hast to do with One who 
 " was dead," to purchase thy recon- 
 ciliation to God, and is now for ever 
 " alive" at His right hand, to carry thee 
 through every trial and to place thee 
 beside His throne. 
 
 After this preface, so brief, and yet 
 
72 LECTURE III. 
 
 SO consolatory, so replete with evidence 
 of our Lord's ability and inclination to 
 save, the epistle thus continues, " I 
 know thy works, and tribulation, and 
 poverty, but thou art rich." 
 
 No doubt, in the first instance, this 
 declaration was peculiarly applicable to 
 the Church at Smyrna, but how pre- 
 cisely is it also the testimony which we 
 should have expected would have been 
 borne to the Church of the Redeemer, 
 in general, during her days of deepest 
 anguish ! From the time that miraculous 
 influences ceased, until the time that 
 the Christian religion became the state 
 religion of the Roman world, the Church 
 could not but be remarkable for her 
 poverty and destitution ; " as poor, yet 
 making many rich ; as having nothing, 
 and yet possessing all things."* 
 
 To name with reverence the name 
 of Christ, was in those days sufficient 
 to subject men to obloquy and contempt, 
 
 * 2 Corinthians vi. 10. 
 
LECTURE III. 73 
 
 from which there was no escape. They 
 were driven from lucrative and honour- 
 able employments, the stamp of infamy 
 was indelibly fixed upon them, and all 
 reasonable hope of this world's conso- 
 lations utterly denied them. In those 
 days, brethren, it was something to be 
 a Christian ! There were few formal 
 followers ; there were probably no indif- 
 ferent professors of religion then ; no 
 man took up the name of Christ, who 
 did not take up with it the cross of Christ, 
 and deny himself, and follow Christ. 
 No man accepted of the opprobrious 
 appellation of a disciple of the crucified 
 Nazarene, unless he was fully prepared 
 to carry it down with him to the abodes 
 of poverty and degradation, and unless 
 he was wilhng, when the day of tribu- 
 lation came, to assert his right to the 
 title before kings and rulers, at the 
 price of life itself, for that name's sake. 
 How highly, then, must this brief, 
 but striking commendation of the Saviour, 
 7 
 
74 LECTURE III. 
 
 have been valued by such men, and at 
 such a season ; " I know^ thy works, and 
 tribulation, and poverty, but thou art 
 rich." Poor in this world's goods, but 
 rich in wealth, more valuable than ever 
 flowed into the treasury of Rome ; rich 
 in the possession of a true and living 
 faith ; rich in all the fruits of the Spirit ; 
 rich in every work of holiness and 
 piety ; and rich in the glorious rever- 
 sions of eternity. And all this was 
 known, and known with satisfaction and 
 commendation, by their glorified Re- 
 deemer. 
 
 My poorer brethren, what prevents 
 the same fact from being known by that 
 Redeemer, and the same sentence de- 
 clared by Him, respecting each indivi- 
 dual among yourselves? He knows the 
 poverty of your worldly circumstances, 
 He knows the difficulty with which 
 many of you, after the utmost efforts 
 of your labour, obtain a scanty and pre- 
 carious subsistence ; but does He at 
 
LECTURE III. 75 
 
 the same time know that you are 
 " seeking first the kingdom of God and 
 His righteousness,"^ the renewed heart, 
 the altered hfe, the union with Himself ? 
 that you are bearing all outward cir- 
 cumstances with a cheerfulness and con- 
 tentment which flow from faith within ; 
 desirous, above all other things, of a 
 more realising communion with God, 
 a more holy and consistent obedience 
 to Him, and a more abundant entrance 
 into His everlasting kingdom? If so, 
 be at peace, you are not poor; you 
 are not the objects of compassion ; nay 
 rather, are you not the objects almost 
 of envy, if such were possible, to the 
 angels of heaven ? For when they look 
 upon your names as written in the 
 Lamb's book of life, and when they 
 ask, as he in the Apocalypse, " And 
 what are these ?"t they hear the 
 gracious commendation, Yes, these are 
 
 * Matthew vi. 33. t Revelation vii. 13. 
 
76 LECTURE III. 
 
 poor, "I know their poverty, but they 
 are rich." 
 
 Brethren, the manner in which we 
 estimate poverty and riches, differs most 
 widely from the manner in which that 
 estimate is made, in the eternal mansions. 
 
 The only poor, in the sight of God. 
 are they, whatever be their station here, 
 whose poverty is a spiritual poverty ; 
 whose souls are empty of the grace 
 of God ; whose hearts are destitute, 
 utterly destitute of the love of Christ ; 
 whose lives are barren in those works 
 of holiness, and self-denial, and charity, 
 without which the richest professor of 
 Christianity stands as poorer in the sight 
 of the Eternal, than the most destitute 
 object in creation. Tried by this rule, 
 weighed in this balance, how many 
 would be found wanting? How many 
 upon whom at this very moment, while 
 men are envying their wealth, and flat- 
 tering them for their riches, the great 
 God, who sees the heart, is pronouncing 
 
LECTURE III. 77 
 
 precisely the reverse of the sentence of 
 the text, I know thy wealth, but thou 
 art really poor, poor in faith, poor in 
 hope, poor in love, poor in holiness, 
 poor in every thing, which the hand of 
 death will not shortly wring from thy 
 grasp, and scatter to the winds. 
 
 We all feel for the houseless and 
 destitute; the poor, in this world's 
 goods ; and it is well we should so feel. 
 But have we not still greater cause to 
 pity those who are, far more empha- 
 tically, the really houseless and destitute, 
 who have no mansion preparing for them 
 in our Father's house ; no clothing which 
 on the great day shall avail to cover 
 their unrighteousness ; no interest in 
 Him, who is our Hfe, our all ! Espe- 
 cially, shall we not commiserate the poor 
 rich? Surely they ought to be among 
 the first and chiefest objects of our 
 compassion. The poor rich ! the men 
 whose treasury is overflowing, but whose 
 hearts are empty ! whose tables are 
 7* 
 
78 LECTURE III. 
 
 covered with every luxury, but whose 
 souls are starving ! The men who are daily 
 saying to themselves, " Soul, thou hast 
 much goods laid up for many years, 
 take thine ease, eat, drink, and be 
 merry,"* and who yet, when the signal 
 for departure comes, when the Bride- 
 groom's cry is heard, will be found more 
 utterly impoverished, more entirely des- 
 titute, than ever were the foolish virgins 
 when hopelessly appealing to their wiser 
 sisters, " Give us of your oil, for our 
 lamps are gone out." If we at this 
 moment address any such, most ear- 
 nestly would we urge them to look 
 forward in imagination to the hour, 
 which " will try every man's work," and 
 every man's wealth, " of what sort it is." 
 Have you reason to believe that yours 
 will stand the test? that this world's 
 wealth and this world's riches will profit 
 you upon a dying bed ? Then, in- 
 deed, we have nothing to say ; you 
 
 * Luke xii. 19. 
 
LECTURE III. 79 
 
 cannot possibly do better than to live 
 to both worlds, and enjoy both worlds ; 
 but if they will not — if an exclu- 
 sive attachment to the things of time 
 is destructive of our preparation for 
 eternity — if " the friendship of the w orld 
 is enmity with God" — if the devotion 
 of the heart to its interests, its luxuries, 
 and its pleasures is treason and in- 
 gratitude to God — if the wealth on which 
 your soul is chiefly fixed, is not the 
 wealth that can outlive time, and profit 
 you in eternity — and if the riches to 
 which you look are not the unsearchable 
 riches of Christ — then are you poor 
 indeed ; then are you taking " in ex- 
 change for your soul,"* that of which 
 a week, a day, an hour, may dispos- 
 sess you. You may be conscious of 
 no such . bargain, you may, and pro- 
 bably will, revolt at the very idea of 
 such an exchange, but it is our Lord's 
 own expression, and unquestionably 
 true ; " for what shall a man give in 
 
 * Matthew xvi. 26. 
 
80 LECTURE III. 
 
 exchange for his soul ?" And when the 
 summons comes, " this night thy soul 
 shall be required of thee," you will be 
 convinced of it, in a manner and with an 
 emphasis, which no living tongue, on this 
 side eternity, can venture to portray. 
 
 The epistle before us thus continues : 
 "I know the blasphemy of them which 
 say they are Jews, and are not, but are 
 the synagogue of Satan. Fear none of 
 those things which thou shalt suffer ; 
 behold the devil shall cast some of 
 you into prison, that ye may be tried ; 
 and ye shall have tribulation ten days."* 
 In these words there are two distinct 
 declarations, that the great accuser of 
 the brethren should be extremely active 
 in his trials and persecutions of the 
 followers of our Lord ; and then, as a 
 close to all their troubles, that they 
 should suffer one great tribulation for 
 •' ten days," which, in prophetical lan- 
 guage, signifies ten years. 
 
 * Revelation ii. 9, 10. 
 
LECTURE III. 81 
 
 Now it is remarkable, that while we 
 have no account of the Church of Smyrna 
 suffering under any persecution of such 
 duration, the readers of church history 
 will be aware that nothing could more 
 accurately describe the state of the 
 primitive Church in general, during the 
 period of which we have considered the 
 Church of Smyrna to be a type, than 
 this prophecy. For after Satan had, 
 during ten different persecutions of the 
 infant Church in different parts of the 
 Roman empire, which are enumerated 
 by historians, manifested the extremity 
 of his hostility and rancour, he closed 
 the whole, by the great and sweeping 
 persecution in the reign of Dioclesian, 
 at the close of the third, and beginning 
 of the fourth century, which persecution 
 is stated to have existed, with more or 
 less intensity, during ten years. 
 
 Deeply interesting would it be, if 
 the nature of these discourses admitted 
 of it, to give some details of the manner 
 
82 LECTURE III. 
 
 in which this declaration of our Lord 
 was fulfilled ; of the appalling efforts of 
 the Powers of darkness to overwhelm the 
 mfant Church, and of the divine aid 
 which enabled the holy army of martyrs 
 to persevere even unto the death, " not 
 accepting deliverance, that they might 
 obtain a better resurrection."* Obviously 
 impossible as it is, to do this at any 
 length, we cannot refrain from selecting 
 one of the many astonishing instances, 
 exhibited at this period, of the influence of 
 divine grace in enabling these Christian 
 heroes to triumph over the last enemy, 
 as evidenced in the closing scene of 
 the martyr Polycarp, one of the noblest, 
 as well as earliest, victims who adorned 
 that period of the Church's history of 
 which we speak ; this holy man, who in 
 pursuance of our Lord's direction, " when 
 they persecute you in one city, flee unto 
 another,"! had avoided the extremity of 
 persecution, until he found that he could 
 
 • Hebrews xi. 35. t Matthew x. 23. 
 
LECTURE III. 83 
 
 no longer be concealed, without injury 
 to his friends, and to the cause of his 
 Redeemer, upon being told that his ene- 
 mies were in the house, but that there 
 was still time and opportunity to escape, 
 refused, saying, " The will of the Lord 
 be done." After they who were sent 
 to apprehend him had arrested him, he 
 requested one hour for prayer, which 
 being granted, he " prayed standing in 
 the presence of his enemies ;" and, says 
 the narrator, himself an eye-witness, 
 " so full was he of the grace of God, 
 that he could not cease speaking for 
 two hours, during which time he made 
 earnest petitions for all whom he had 
 ever known, small and great, noble and 
 vulgar, and of the whole Church of 
 Christ throughout the world." Upon 
 being brought before the tribunal, the 
 Proconsul respecting his dignities, — for 
 he was a Bishop of the Church, — and 
 his advanced age — for he was more than 
 eighty, — and desirous to save him, urged 
 
84 LECTURE III. 
 
 him, saying, " Swear, and I will release 
 thee: reproach Christ." Polycarp an- 
 swered, "Eighty and six years have I 
 served Him, and he hath never wronged 
 me, and how can I blaspheme my King 
 who hath saved me ?" The Procon- 
 sul, judging his efforts unavailing, sent 
 the herald to proclaim in the midst of 
 the assembly, " Polycarp hath professed 
 himself a Christian." At that hated 
 name the multitude, both of Gentiles 
 and Jews, unanimously shouted that 
 he should be burnt alive. " The busi- 
 ness," continues the narrator, " was 
 executed with all possible speed, for the 
 people immediately gathered fuel from 
 the workshops and baths, in which em- 
 ployment the Jews distinguished them- 
 selves with their usual malice." A re- 
 markable fulfilment of the prophecy be- 
 fore us, that those who said '' They 
 were Jews and were not," " all were 
 not Israel who were of Israel," should, 
 as " the synagogue of Satan," take an 
 
LECTURE III. 85 
 
 active part in the persecutions of the 
 Christian Church during this period. 
 •' As soon as the fire was prepared, Poly- 
 carp stripped off his clothes and loosed 
 his girdle ; but when they were about 
 to fasten him to the stake, he said, 
 Let me remain as I am, for He who 
 giveth me strength to sustain the fire, 
 will enable me also, without your se- 
 curing me with nails, to remain un- 
 moved in the fire ;" upon which they 
 bound him, without nailing him ; and he, 
 putting his hands behind him, and be- 
 ing bound as a distinguished ram se- 
 lected from the great flock, a burnt 
 offering acceptable to God Almighty, 
 said, "O, Father of thy beloved and 
 blessed Son Jesus Christ, through whom 
 we have attained the knowledge of Thee ; 
 O God of angels, principalities, and ot 
 all creation, and of all the just who 
 live in Thy sight, I bless Thee that Thou 
 hast counted me worthy of this day. 
 and of this hour, to receive my por- 
 8 
 
86 LECTURE III. 
 
 tion in the number of the martyrs in 
 the cup of Christ, for the resurrection 
 to eternal Hfe, both of soul and body ; 
 among whom may I be presented be- 
 fore Thee this day as a sacrifice well 
 savoured and acceptable, which Thou, 
 the faithful and true God, hast pre- 
 pared, promised beforehand, and fulfilled 
 accordingly. Wherefore, I praise Thee 
 for all these things ; I bless Thee, I 
 glorify Thee by the eternal High Priest, 
 Jesus Christ, Thy well beloved Son, 
 through whom, with Him in the Holy 
 Scriptures, be glory to Thee both now 
 and for ever." The narrator of this 
 deeply interesting history was Irenaeus, 
 the intimate friend and disciple of 
 Polycarp, and, as we have mentioned, 
 an eye-witness of the scene which he 
 describes. He thus concludes the letter 
 which contains the foregoing account: 
 "He, Polycarp, was apprehended by 
 Herod, under Philip, the Trallian Pon- 
 tifex. Statins (Juadratus being Proconsul, 
 
LECTURE III. 87 
 
 — but Jesus Christ reigning for ever, to 
 whom be glory, honour, majesty, an 
 eternal throne from age to age."* How 
 striking an allusion to those very cha- 
 racteristics of our Lord with which He 
 ushered in the epistle we have been 
 considering. His eternity and power, " the 
 first and the last, which was dead and is 
 alive" for evermore. When we consider 
 that the writer of this account of the 
 martyrdom of Poly carp had been depri- 
 ved of his best earthly counsellor, teacher, 
 and friend, how natural was the reference 
 which his mind thus made, from things 
 temporal to things eternal, from the 
 beings of a day, to Him that inhabiteth 
 eternity. He had seen Polycarp, the 
 great and good, expire in agony at the 
 command of his persecutors. Herod was 
 his enemy, Philip was his enemy, the 
 Proconsul was his enemy; but they 
 were all changing, transitory beings, 
 like himself; a few short years, and 
 their " little brief authority" would have 
 
 * Abridged from Milner's " Church History." 
 
88 LECTURE III. 
 
 gone down with them into the grave ; 
 a few short years, and the throne of the 
 Proconsul would be crumbled into dust. 
 What a relief must it have been to the 
 mind of this behever to turn from his 
 enemies to his friend ; from Statins 
 Quadratus, the ruler of a day, to " Jesus 
 Christ, reigning for ever, an eternal 
 throne from age to age." 
 
 Brethren, may his consolation be our 
 own, that our life, and heart, and hopes, 
 are in the hands of One who knows 
 no change, and who is the "dwelling- 
 place" of His people, from everlasting to 
 everlasting ; " Jesus Christ, the same 
 yesterday, to-day, and for ever."* 
 
 The epistle concludes with this most 
 blessed promise ; " Be thou faithful unto 
 death, and I will give thee a crown 
 of life. He that overcometh shall not 
 be hurt of the second death."t What 
 that death is, we are most plainly told 
 in the 20th chapter of the book from 
 
 * Hebrews xiii. 8. t Revelation ii. 10, 11. 
 
LECTURE III. 89 
 
 which the text is taken, where we read, 
 " And death and hell were cast into 
 the lake of fire. This is the second 
 death." It is, indeed, the death of 
 deaths ; the eternal condemnation of the 
 soul. From the apprehension of this, 
 every true servant of God is most fully 
 and entirely released. Great and blessed 
 privilege, to know that the fires of eter- 
 nity are as harmless to you as those 
 of Nebuchadnezzar's furnace were to the 
 Jewish youths who walked uninjured 
 amid their flames; to know that the 
 undying worm shall never fix his fang 
 upon your conscience, but that for ever 
 and for ever " the great gulph,"* the 
 impassable abyss, shall stand between 
 you and all suffering — between you and 
 all sorrow — between you and all sin. 
 
 There is, however, yet more than 
 this exemption from evil, in the pro- 
 mise of your Lord, " Be thou faithful 
 unto death, and I will give thee a 
 
 * Luke xvi. 26. 
 
90 LECTURE III. 
 
 crown of life." Who can worthily speak 
 of such a promise ! who can describe 
 the lustre of such a crown ! Age after 
 age shall pass away, and every jewel 
 in that crown shall be as bright, even 
 when unnumbered ages have gone by, 
 as at the first hour when the hand of 
 your Redeemer shall place its radiant 
 circle upon your brow. For that " crown 
 of life" is to all who wear it, a crown 
 of immortality and glory, " incorruptible, 
 undefiled, and that fadeth not away.""* 
 
 Brethren, are you seriously engaged 
 in the conflict of which this is the re- 
 ward? Are you faithfully, persever- 
 ingly, earnestly, running the race, in 
 which this is the prize ? Are you 
 wrestling in that fearful struggle with 
 our spiritual enemies, the event of which 
 is indeed, wo to the vanquished, death, 
 everlasting death, even the second death, 
 but the crown of life to him that over- 
 cometh ? Remember that nothing less 
 
 » 1 Peter i. 4. 
 
LECTURE III. 91 
 
 than this constant conflict, struggle, race, 
 can obtain the prize. All else is trifling, 
 folly, madness ; it requires the whole 
 man, the whole heart ; all your exer- 
 tions, all your efforts, all your prayers. 
 And not for a day, or year, but for 
 life, for your whole life, without ces- 
 sation, without intermission. " Be thou 
 faithful unto death," or every claim to the 
 crown of Hfe is forfeited. " But thanks 
 be to God who giveth us the victory, 
 through our Lord Jesus Christ."* Our 
 fidelity unto death, though it must and 
 will require our every effort, labour, and 
 prayer, is not the fruit of any, or of 
 all these exertions, but is the pledged 
 and purchased gift of our Redeemer, 
 His own promise. His own work. His 
 own victory. " Therefore, my beloved 
 brethren, be ye steadfast, unmoveable, 
 always abounding in the work of the 
 Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your 
 labour is not in vain in the Lord."t 
 
 * 1 Corinthians xv. 57. t 1 Corinthians xv. 58, 
 
EPISTLE TO PERGAMOS. 
 
LECTURE IV. 
 
 Revelation ii. 17. 
 
 To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the hidden 
 manna, and will give him a white stone, and in the stone 
 a new name written, which no man knoweth, saving he 
 that receiveth it. 
 
 In the last discourse we contemplated 
 the Church of Christ during one of the 
 most interesting periods that it has ever 
 known, viz. during those peculiarly trying 
 centuries when its members were poor in 
 this world's advantages, but rich unto God ; 
 " I know thy poverty, but thou art rich ;"* 
 when they were called to endure the ten 
 
 * Revelation ii. 9. 
 
^6 LECTURE IV. 
 
 days of tribulation under the Pagan per- 
 secutors, but were "found faithful unto 
 death," and so put on the crown of life. 
 
 This state of apparent depression, but 
 of real prosperity, continued until the 
 three first centuries had passed away, 
 and the religion of the Redeemer be- 
 gan to emerge from its obscurity ; to 
 be patronised by the great and noble ; to 
 reckon princes among its proselytes, and 
 Constantino, the Emperor of the Roman 
 world, as its acknowledged head. 
 
 As it too often is with individuals, so 
 it is with the Church at large. The 
 warm and sunny day draws out the adder. 
 Christians who in a preceding age had 
 been able to rejoice in their poverty and 
 tribulation, and even to be thankful that 
 to them it was given not only to believe 
 on him, but also to suffer, for the sake of 
 Christ,"^ now became anxious only for this 
 world's wealth and its advantages ; so 
 that, instead of the holy, self-denying lives 
 
 * See Philipians i. 29. 
 
LECTURE IV. 97 
 
 of the earlier converts, were to be seen the 
 compromising, sensual habits of the mere 
 worldling, in the garb and under the title 
 of the followers of the Crucified. 
 
 It is of this church-state that we believe 
 the Church of Pergamos to have been the 
 type ; at least we may assert that the in- 
 structions and reproofs addressed in the 
 first instance to her, were peculiarly 
 appropriate to the great body of the Chris- 
 tian Church, from the days of Constantine, 
 until the period when the Popes first be- 
 gan to assume temporal power, and by 
 their usurpations, enormities, and tyranny, 
 to give, as we shall see in the next 
 epistle, an entirely new character to the 
 Christian world. 
 
 In our last discourse, we remarked how 
 peculiarly appropriate the preface was to 
 the nature of the instructions and warnings 
 which were to follow. 
 
 Observe the same beauty of propriety 
 in the epistle which comes before us this 
 day. 
 
 9 
 
98 LECTURE IV. 
 
 " To the angel of the Church in Perga- 
 mos write ; these things saith he which hath 
 the sharp sword with two edges."* When 
 our Lord was about to use only the lan- 
 guage of commendation and encourage- 
 ment He referred only to those of His 
 attributes from which encouragement and 
 comfort could be deduced, His eternity 
 and all-sufficiency. In the present epistle, 
 so full of reprehension, He describes Him- 
 self in his judicial character, as bearing 
 not the sword in vain, equally ready to 
 punish as to defend; to destroy, as to 
 save. 
 
 The epistle thus continues, " I know 
 thy works and where thou dwellest, 
 even where Satan's seat is."t No sooner 
 had imperial Rome become Christian, 
 than from its great temporal power and 
 wealth, which although upon the wane, 
 were still considerable, it became at 
 once the head of the Christian world ; 
 and therefore might be termed pre- 
 
 * Revelation ii. 12. t Ibid. ii. 13. 
 
LECTURE IV. 99 
 
 eminently the seat of Christianity. To 
 this depraved and profligate city evi- 
 dent allusion is made in the verse I 
 have just read. 
 
 It was there, even in the imperial 
 city, that our Lord now beheld His true 
 Church dwelling in the very centre of 
 iniquity surrounded by those who were 
 indeed the bondsmen of Satan, some 
 who were still in open Paganism ; 
 others nominally Christians, but without 
 the love of Christ in their hearts ; and 
 many, like the " mixed multitude," that 
 accompanied the children of Israel out 
 of Egypt, who had given in their ad- 
 hesion to the new religion, and were 
 following in the wake of the court, 
 hoping to derive temporal advantages 
 from their agreement with those who 
 had the power of dispensing them. Yet, 
 even in Rome itself, the very seat of 
 Satan, there were some who might in- 
 deed be called " the sons of God with- 
 out rebuke, in the midst of a crooked 
 
100 LECTURE IV. 
 
 and perverse nation, among whom they 
 shone as lights in the world, holding 
 forth the word of life," and to whom 
 therefore the Saviour could say in the 
 language of commendation, "Thou hold- 
 est fast my name, and hast not denied 
 my faith even irt those days wherein 
 Antipas was my faithful martyr, who 
 was slain among you where Satan dwell- 
 eth." As there is no mention of any 
 martyr of the name of Antipas, either 
 in the Church of Pergamos, or during 
 tha t church-state of which Pergamos 
 was the type, it seems probable that 
 he is only mentioned as a general ex- 
 pression for the martyrs and confes- 
 sors who had adorned the preceding 
 church-state. And this is much cor- 
 roborated by the name being entirely 
 omitted in the Syriac and Arabic ver- 
 sions. Our Lord's declaration was there- 
 fore in effect that they had passed 
 through the era of the martyrs, and now 
 in the time of outward prosperity whicli 
 
LECTURE IV. 101 
 
 had succeeded, the true Church, the 
 invisible Church of the Redeemer, was 
 as firm, as faithful, as she had ever 
 been ; the gates of hell being equally 
 unable to prevail against her, amidst 
 the allurements of prosperity, as amidst ^ 
 the trials and severities of persecution, p^ ^5^ 
 It is well to mark the personal lesson _j t^:^ C. 
 which all may gather, either of reproof ^f;^; r~1 
 or encouragement, from such a decla- ^'* Jl', /a" 
 ration as this. Are there none among p.^ O c 
 US, who justify our coldness and dead- K ^f^ h 
 ness in the things of God, by the out- 
 ward circumstances in which we are, by ^ ti 
 Providence, so peculiarly placed ? None, ^ ^ 
 the language of whose hearts is of this oJ 
 nature ? " It is comparatively easy for 
 some men to be religious; they dwell 
 in a religious society, their friends are 
 religious, their early habits were reli- 
 gious, their education has been religious, 
 every thing is favourable to them ; they 
 have little to distract their thoughts, 
 to alienate their hearts from these high 
 9* 
 
 b^- '-,;, 
 
102 LECTURE IV. 
 
 subjects ; but for me, occupied as I am 
 entirely in worldly business, dwelling 
 among those who, like myself, are strug- 
 gling to get forward in life, how can 
 the same degree of self-devotion and 
 religious observance be looked for at 
 my hands ?" Or again, " standing as I do 
 in a higher and more prominent station 
 than many, surrounded by all the attrac- 
 tions of wealth, or luxury, or rank, it is 
 impossible. God cannot and will not 
 expect the same from all ; He must make 
 some allowances for peculiar positions 
 in society and peculiar temptations, and 
 no doubt His mercy will prevail against 
 His justice in cases such as mine ?" Bre- 
 thren, we beseech you, not to suffer 
 yourselves to be deluded by this most 
 common, because most successful, fallacy. 
 Rank, station, business, education, wealth, 
 poverty, are all extraneous and adven- 
 titious circumstances, which cannot be 
 taken into the account when you stand 
 before the bar of God. The one in- 
 
LECTURE IV. 103 
 
 quiry then will be, did you live to God, 
 or to yourself? to the w^orld to come or to 
 the world around you, during your state of 
 probation while on earth ? all other inqui- 
 ries, all reference to past difficulties, allow- 
 ance for past peculiarities, of rank and 
 station, all will be, and must be, excluded. 
 There is no respect of persons with 
 God ; He judges the rich and the poor, 
 the noble and the peasant, by the same 
 laws. The only distinction known to 
 Him is that to which He Himself has laid 
 down, when he declared by the mouth 
 of His prophet, that He would " discern 
 between the righteous and the wicked, be- 
 tween him that serveth God, and him that 
 serveth him not."* Had it been other- 
 wise, I put it to your own consideration, 
 could our Lord have so positively de- 
 clared, that the difficulties of the rich 
 man's salvation were incalculably in- 
 creased by his riches ? for is it not 
 evident that if proportionate allowances 
 
 * Malachi iii. 18. 
 
104 LECTURE IV. 
 
 accompanied these earthly distinctions, 
 it would be impossible to show that the 
 strait gate was straiter, or the narrow way 
 narrower, or the kingdom of heaven 
 more difficult of entrance, to the rich, 
 than to the poor ? 
 
 The verse before us, however, is 
 alone sufficient to demonstrate that no 
 such allowances will be made, because 
 it proves that none such can fairly be 
 demanded. It is vain for any one to 
 declare, the worldliness of my friends, 
 the vanity of my family, the ungodliness 
 of my neighbours, the thoughtlessness 
 of my children, or, in general, my 
 situation in society, the character of those 
 among whom I dwell, and not my own 
 inclination have made me what 1 am. 
 There is an absurdity on the very face 
 of such a plea, when tendered to that 
 Almighty Being, who here declared that 
 He had those who held fast His name, 
 and never denied his faith, although 
 they dwelt among sinners of so deep a 
 
LECTURE IV. 10r> 
 
 dye, that our Lord does not scruple to 
 declare, that the residence of the true 
 Church of the Redeemer was at that 
 period in the very " seat of Satan." 
 
 No, brethren, if we would really 
 know ourselves, these excuses must 
 be put aside, these disguises stript off, 
 and we must remember, that it is not 
 what we might have been, or under 
 other, and those imaginary circumstances, 
 should have been, that God considers us. 
 He sees us simply as we are, and in the 
 last great day, according to that, shall we 
 be sentenced. He who shall come to 
 be our Judge, well knowing that the 
 greatest abundance of w^ealth did not 
 keep Abraham back from following God ; 
 that all the wisdom of the Egyptians 
 did not encumber Moses in running 
 the heavenly race ; that even an earthly 
 crown, and that, a most anxious and 
 disturbed one, did not prevent David 
 from striving for, and obtaining, a crown 
 of immortality and glory ; how can He 
 
106 LECTURE IV. 
 
 then reasonably be expected in any other 
 case, to make allowances in favour of the 
 allurements of wealth, the temptations of 
 intellect, or the hindrances of rank, sta- 
 tion, or employment ? 
 
 We will readily acknowledge that our 
 fellow-men may, and ought, to make 
 every allowance in judging of us, because 
 although they know their own tempta- 
 tions, they know not the strength and 
 peculiarity of ours ; but we must expect 
 nothing like this from God. He has con- 
 firmed both His promises and His threat- 
 enings, and has established the one, the 
 only way to the Father, through the 
 blood of Christ, by two immutable things. 
 His word and His oath, and one jot or 
 one tittle shall never pass away from 
 these, till all be fulfilled. If we seek 
 God through Him who is " the way, the 
 truth and the life," with a holy resolution 
 to walk as He walked, and to sacrifice 
 every sin at His bidding, we shall not 
 seek in vain. If we neglect this, we 
 
LECTURE IV. 107 
 
 may rest assured that business, wealth, 
 rank, station, poverty, are words that, 
 at the bar of God, we shall be unable 
 to utter ; and are excuses which, if we 
 even had the audacity to plead, God 
 would utterly despise. 
 
 But while there is warning, there is 
 also encouragement in the fact of some 
 of Christ's most faithful servants dwelling 
 in Satan's seat. 
 
 It is a peculiar comfort to those among 
 you, who, though placed by Providence 
 amidst the overflowings of ungodliness, 
 are faithfully and sincerely striving to 
 keep yourselves " unspotted from the 
 world.'"* Let the fact before you con- 
 vince you that it is possible, by the up- 
 holding power of God's free Spirit, even 
 amidst the most destructive example, 
 under the most blighting influence, even 
 where the prince of this world reigneth ; if 
 such a situation be not the object of your 
 choice, but the effect of necessity, to " hold 
 
 * James i. 27. 
 
108 LECTURE IV. 
 
 fast the name of Christ, and not to 
 deny his faith." But then the path of 
 duty must be clear to you ; it must be 
 plain that Providence, and not avarice, 
 that necessity, not ambition, has fixed 
 you where you are. For it will in- 
 variably be found, whenever the children 
 of God place themselves unnecessarily in 
 temptation, that if the Spirit of God 
 accompanies them at all, it will be to 
 make their expected advantages, as He 
 did to His people of old, "pricks in 
 their eyes, and thorns in their sides, to vex 
 them in the land wherein they dwell."* 
 
 We continue the epistle, that we may 
 learn the manner in which our Lord ad- 
 dressed those members of His Church, 
 who were already deeply injured by that 
 familiarity with worldly affluence and dis- 
 tinction to which we have referred. " I 
 have a few things against thee, because 
 thou hast there, them that hold the 
 doctrine of Balaam, who taught Balak 
 
 * Numbers xxxiii. 55. 
 
LECTURE IV. 109 
 
 to cast a stumbling-block before the 
 children of Israel, to eat things sacri- 
 ficed unto idols, and to commit forni- 
 cation ; so hast thou also them that hold 
 the doctrine of the Nicolaitanes, which 
 thing I hate." The first charge here 
 brought against the visible Church of the 
 Redeemer is, that there were those within 
 its pale, who imitated the sin of Balaam, 
 viz : casting a stumbling-block in the way 
 of God's people, which we find from 
 the 31st chapter of the book of Numbers, 
 was the peculiar sin of that unhappy 
 man. 
 
 This, then, was the conduct which 
 Christians in those days of outward 
 church prosperity were beginning to imi- 
 tate. We know not that a greater, or 
 better, test can be offered, of the spi- 
 rituality of a church, or the religion of 
 any individual member of it, than the 
 feeling with which we view those points 
 in our own conduct, which may be 
 injurious to our fellow-Christians, which 
 10 
 
110 LECTURE IV. 
 
 may act as stumbling-blocks in the path 
 of our neighbours, or tend to prevent the 
 grow^th of religion and divine grace in their 
 hearts. How clearly, and how instruc- 
 tively has St. Paul illustrated the nature 
 of this peculiar sin in the 8th chapter of 
 the first epistle to the Corinthians. He 
 has there been declaring his opinion upon 
 the propriety of a Christian eating meat, 
 which has been offered in sacrifice unto 
 idols, apparently a point of great difficulty 
 to the tender consciences of those days. 
 He says at once, that in reality, " an idol 
 is nothing in the world,'"^ i. e. nothing 
 but the mere stone or log out of which 
 it is carved, and therefore that the 
 meat which has been offered to it may 
 be eaten with perfect impunity, by those 
 whose consciences are sufficiently strong 
 to view the subject in this light. But 
 then, in the true feeling of Christian 
 charity and consideration for others, 
 he immediately adds, " But take heed, 
 
 * 1 Corinthians viii. 4. 
 
LECTURE IV. Ill 
 
 lest by any means this liberty of yours 
 become a stumbling-block to them that 
 are weak. For if any man see thee 
 which hast knowledge, sit at meat in the 
 idol's temple, shall not the conscience of 
 him which is weak be emboldened to eat 
 those things which are offered to idols ; 
 and through thy knowledge shall the weak 
 brother perish, for whom Christ died ? 
 But when ye sin so against the brethren, 
 and wound their weak conscience, ye sin 
 against Christ. Wherefore, if meat make 
 my brother to offend, I will eat no flesh 
 while the world standeth, lest I make 
 my brother to offend."* 
 
 How beautiful an instance of that love 
 for the souls of others, which invariably 
 springs from a due sense of the value of 
 our own. What a test of the state of 
 true, vital Christianity in our hearts. 
 Now, for a moment, brethren, let us 
 pause, and apply this test. Did you 
 ever, in the whole course of your life, 
 
 * 1 Corinthians viii. 9 — 13. 
 
112 LECTURE IV. 
 
 forego one apparent advantage, or deny 
 yourself one questionable pleasure, or 
 abstain from any doubtful action, from 
 the fear that a contrary course would 
 cast a stumbling-block in the path of 
 some weak brother, who, from a morbid 
 tenderness of conscience fears that to 
 be evil, which you in your stronger 
 knowledge believe to be innocent ? How 
 far are the very best of us, if we 
 know not where to look for such in- 
 stances in our own lives and conver- 
 sation, how very far from the religion 
 of the Bible ; how widely removed in 
 all the best and higher feelings, viz : 
 those of forbearance and love, from 
 that holy and self-denying apostle, who 
 could unhesitatingly declare, " If meat 
 make my brother to offend, I will eat 
 no flesh while the world standeth, lest 
 I make my brother to offend." 
 
 But it was not only for casting stum- 
 bling-blocks in the way of God's people 
 that our Lord condemned the Church to 
 
LECTURE IV. 113 
 
 which this epistle is addressed, but for 
 a sin, prevalent in every age, and perhaps 
 seldom more prevalent than at the pre- 
 sent time. " Thou hast them," says 
 our Lord, " that hold the doctrine of 
 the Nicolaitanes, which thing I hate." 
 It appears that the Nicolaitanes were 
 the Antinomians of those days; men 
 who held the truth in ungodliness, the 
 very worst and most dangerous enemies 
 which the rehgion of the Redeemer has 
 ever encountered ; for these are they 
 who wound her in the house of her 
 friends. 
 
 Perhaps we do not at the present 
 moment address an individual who would 
 acknowledge himself deserving of the 
 appellation ; not one who would declare 
 himself an Antinomian. Yet, brethren, 
 we fear that many must be classed 
 among the number, who would not rank 
 themselves there. Every one is really 
 and practically an Antinomian, who, pro- 
 fessing a true and scriptural faith in 
 10* 
 
114 LECTURE IV. 
 
 the Lord Jesus Christ, is not careful 
 to regulate his daily conduct by that 
 law of God, which has ever been, and 
 shall ever be, the true believer's rule 
 of life, and without a holy and con- 
 sistent obedience to which, the most 
 correct faith is dead. 
 
 Turn we now to the glorious promise, 
 with which the epistle before us con- 
 cludes, " To him that overcometh," or, 
 as it may fairly be rendered, to him 
 that is overcoming, " will I give to eat 
 of the hidden manna, and will give him 
 a white stone, and in the stone a new 
 name written, which no man knoweth, 
 saving he that receiveth it." Mark 
 first, brethren, among these wonderful 
 provisions for the conquering Christian, 
 the "hidden manna;" probably a refer- 
 ence to that portion of the heavenly 
 food of the Israelites in the wilderness, 
 which was commanded by God to be 
 hidden in a golden vessel in the Taber- 
 nacle, as an everlasting memorial of 
 
LECTURE IV. 115 
 
 God's mercy, and as a very striking 
 type of that Saviour, who declared, '' I 
 am the living bread which came down 
 from heaven.""^ In the hidden manna, 
 then, promised by our Lord as the 
 bread of life for the support and nou- 
 rishment of His conflicting and over- 
 coming people, we discern the promise 
 of Himself, even that crucified Redeemer, 
 who said, "Whoso eateth my flesh and 
 drinketh my blood, hath eternal life ; and 
 I will raise him up at the last day. For 
 my flesh is meat indeed, and my blood is 
 drink indeed."t This is the food, with- 
 out which, in the very midst of earthly 
 abundance, our souls will languish and 
 die. If God's word be true, there is 
 none other from which we can draw nou- 
 rishment and life ; for did not our Lord 
 Himself declare, "Except ye eat the 
 flesh of the Son of man, and drink 
 His blood, ye have no life in you ?" 
 Upon Him, then, we must learn to feed 
 
 * John ?i. 51. t John vi. 54, 55. 
 
116 LECTURE IV. 
 
 daily and hourly, by a true and living 
 faith, — upon the blood of the Lamb, 
 which is carried up to the mercy-seat for 
 pardon and peace, — upon the righteous- 
 ness of the Redeemer, for our everlasting 
 acceptance before the throne, — upon His 
 grace and strength, for support, amidst 
 dangerous temptations, difficult duties, and 
 painful dispensations. Our language must 
 be, like his of old, " In the Lord have I 
 righteousness and strength ;" in Him, and 
 in Him alone, whom the world neither 
 sees nor knows, have I the " hidden 
 manna," " the bread of life." 
 
 Again, the second promise of the 
 text requires our attention. " To him that 
 overcometh will I give a white stone."* 
 It is generally supposed by commentators 
 that this refers to an ancient judicial 
 custom of dropping a black stone into an 
 urn when it was intended to condemn, 
 and a white stone when the prisoner 
 
 * ^wcpoy \iUKai, probably the tessera hospitalis of the Latins, 
 and the a-v/u0o\6¥ ^trixov of the Greeks. 
 
LECTURE IV. 117 
 
 was acquitted. But this is an act so 
 distinct from that described in the scrip- 
 ture before us, " I will give him a white 
 stone," that we are disposed to agree with 
 those who think it refers rather to a custom 
 of a very different kind,*' and not un- 
 known to the classical reader, according, 
 with beautiful propriety, to the circum- 
 stances before us. In primitive times, 
 when travelhng was rendered difficult from 
 the want of places of public entertainment, 
 hospitality was exercised by private indi- 
 viduals to a very great extent, of which 
 indeed we find frequent traces in all 
 history, and in none more than the 
 Old Testament. Persons who had par- 
 taken of this hospitality, and those who 
 practised it, frequently contracted habits 
 of friendship and regard for each other ; 
 and it became a well established cus- 
 tom, both among the Greeks and Romans, 
 to provide their guests with some particu- 
 lar mark, which was handed down from 
 
 * See Home's Introduction. 
 
118 LECTURE IV. 
 
 father to son, and insured hospitality and 
 kind treatment whenever it was pre- 
 sented. This mark was usually a small 
 stone or pebble cut in half, and upon the 
 halves of which, the host and the guest 
 mutually inscribed their names, and then 
 interchanged them with each other. The 
 production of this tessera was quite suffi- 
 cient to insure friendship for themselves or 
 their descendants, whenever they travelled 
 again in the same direction ; while it 
 is evident that these stones required to 
 be privately kept, and the name written 
 upon them carefully concealed, lest 
 others should obtain the privileges, in- 
 stead of the person for whom they 
 were intended. How natural, then, is 
 the allusion to this custom in the words 
 of the text, " I will give him to eat 
 of the hidden manna ;" and having done 
 so, having made him partaker of my 
 hospitality, having recognised him as my 
 guest, my friend, " I will present him 
 with the white stone, and in the stone 
 
LECTURE IV. 119 
 
 a new name written, which no man 
 knoweth saving he that receiveth it." 
 I will give him a pledge of my friend- 
 ship, sacred and inviolable, known only 
 to himself. ' 
 
 Blessed pledge of the Christian ! 
 Are there moments, even to him who is 
 overcoming, when his soul is much dis- 
 couraged because of the way ; when he 
 is wearied and worn in the journey of 
 life, and would gladly seek for food, 
 and shelter, and repose, let him remember 
 the pledge which his Lord has given him ; 
 let him call upon Him, who has already 
 in many a former trial nourished and 
 supported him, who has given him to 
 eat of the hidden manna, who has given 
 him to drink of that water of which 
 they who drink shall never thirst ; let 
 him think of the pledge which he has 
 received, and never for one moment be 
 cast down. Would a mortal man like 
 ourselves have been ashamed to look 
 upon his given pledge, and not to have 
 
120 LECTURE IV. 
 
 treated its possessor with attention and 
 regard, and shall the God of all the 
 world do less ? No ; be assured that 
 He will not, cannot fail you. He who 
 has succoured, will succour ; " the Lord 
 has provided, the Lord will provide ;" 
 and though heaven and earth fail, no 
 good thing shall fail of all that He has 
 promised and secured to his believing 
 and obeying people. 
 
 But there is still another peculiarity, 
 which you may not have observed, and 
 which seems to pervade the remark- 
 able promise before us, and this is, its 
 secrecy. The name inscribed upon the 
 stone by our Lord was, as we are dis- 
 tinctly told, to be known only to him 
 that possessed it — the white stone could 
 be appreciated only by him whose ne- 
 cessities it would afford the means of 
 supplying — the manna was hidden from 
 all, but those who fed upon it. Surely, 
 then, some lesson is to be taught us 
 by so remarkable a peculiarity. We 
 
LECTURE IV. 121 
 
 believe it to be this, that true religion 
 is not the noisy, public thing which too 
 many make it, but that the life of the 
 true Christian is in all ages to be a 
 hidden life ; its fruits indeed visible, 
 by holiness, and long suffering, and 
 love, and every Christian grace, but 
 the life itself veiled in the transactions 
 between God and the soul, as the 
 apostle to the Colossians expresses it, 
 when he says, "Your life is hid with 
 Christ in God."* 
 
 Would you, then, know whether your 
 Hfe be the spiritual life of God's dear 
 children ? Mark whether it possesses 
 this essential qualification. Every other 
 symptom of religion may be counter- 
 feited by the mere moralist, or the hypo- 
 crite, or the formalist ; the hidden life 
 of the Christian never can, for it is 
 known only to him that possesses it. 
 Would you ascertain whether it be yours, 
 take this simple method of determin- 
 
 * Colossians iii. 3. 
 11 
 
122 LECTURE IV. 
 
 ing it ; subtract from life, first, all the 
 hours spent in necessary occupations, 
 and in unnecessary idleness ; then, 
 those which, as on this hallowed day, you 
 devote very properly to public religious 
 observances ; and having subtracted these, 
 observe what remains ; — see how much 
 has been secretly dedicated to God ; 
 just by so much, is yours the hidden 
 life of the Christian. 
 
 How many in this assemblage at this 
 moment are there who stand self-con- 
 demned ; whose consciences have al- 
 ready whispered. If this be indeed the 
 stamp of vital religion, then does my 
 religion forfeit all claim to it. When 
 1 have made these great deductions, 
 there is absolutely nothing left. All is 
 swallowed up in the engagements of 
 time ; nothing has been reserved for 
 eternity. All, even of my Christian 
 duties, are spread before the world ; 
 nothing hid with Christ in God ! Do 
 you, then, never in the privacy of your 
 
LECTURE IV. 123 
 
 chamber, pour out your heart before the 
 throne of grace ? ' do you never secretly 
 feed upon the hidden manna, as con- 
 veyed to you in God's revealed word ? 
 never dwell with delight, and thanks- 
 giving, and praise, upon that pledge of 
 your Saviour's friendship, the gift of 
 His holy Spirit, the " earnest of your 
 future inheritance ?"* never, when alone, 
 think, or read, or meditate upon divine 
 truth ? Then, indeed, we greatly fear 
 that you have to question whether yours 
 is the religion of the heart, the Chris- 
 tianity of the Bible, the offering which 
 God will not despise. 
 
 Lastly, brethren, one word of en- 
 couragement to you, who find upon 
 self-examination, that these features of 
 the true life of a Christian are, at least 
 in some degree, alas ! how small even 
 in the best of men, visible in your 
 own. Yours is now a hidden life, pos- 
 sessing temptations and sorrows, of which 
 
 * Ephesians i. 14. 
 
124 LECTURE IV. 
 
 none partake, as well as joys with which 
 a stranger intermeddleth not. The hap- 
 piest portion of your day, short though 
 it be, is spent in secret communion 
 with Him, " whom not having seen, you 
 love,"* and known only to Him are 
 those blessed sources of all your spi- 
 ritual comfort and your joy. It is in- 
 tended to be so now ; but take comfort 
 from the reflection that this will not 
 always be the case. The day is not 
 far distant, when assembled worlds will 
 behold the men who meditated and 
 prayed in secret, who were content to 
 be as the dust of the earth, and the 
 ofFscouring of all things ; but then will 
 they no longer be the "Lord's hidden 
 ones;"t but shining, like stars, in the 
 kingdom of their Father, and swelling 
 the ranks of those glorified spirits who 
 for ever shall attest the triumphs of 
 the Lamb. Then will you, who are 
 now feeding upon the hidden manna, 
 
 * 1 Peter i. 8. t Psalm Ixxxiii. 3. 
 
LECTURE IV. 125 
 
 feast openly with your Redeemer upon 
 the tree of life. Then will the new 
 name, now known only to yourself, be 
 avowed by Him who gave it, when 
 He confesses you to be, as He has 
 declared, His friend. His child. His 
 guest. Then will the pledge of His 
 promised hospitality be abundantly and 
 for ever redeemed, when the everlast- 
 ing doors shall be lifted up, and you 
 shall enter, a welcome and an ho- 
 noured inmate, into the kingdom and 
 joy of your Lord. 
 
 11* 
 
EPISTLE TO THYATIRA. 
 
S.S.TEACUKP.'SLIBMM, 
 
 LECTURE V. 
 
 Revelation ii. 28. 
 
 And I will give him the morning star. 
 
 The epistle of which we are now about 
 to treat, is addressed to the Church of 
 Thyatira, and will present us with a 
 view of the Church of Christ, differing 
 most widely from those which have 
 preceded it. 
 
 We have, in the former discourses, 
 beheld the visible Church of the Re- 
 deemer, as portrayed in the first epistle, 
 in her apostolical purity; in the second, 
 in her faithfulness, devotedness, and 
 poverty, during the era of the martyrs ,• 
 
130 LECTURE V. 
 
 in the third, as suffering from the 
 temptation of outward prosperity, when 
 Christianity had become the dominant 
 rehgion of the Roman world ; but in the 
 present epistle we shall see her, as ex- 
 posed to greater perils than had ever 
 yet assailed her, arising from a far 
 more dangerous source, even from the 
 prevalency of internal error ; and from 
 the ruinous effects of false teaching within 
 herself 
 
 The preface of this epistle is re- 
 markable, as in the preceding cases, for 
 its beautiful appropriateness to the lessons 
 which are to follow. " These things saith 
 the Son of God, who hath his eyes Hke 
 unto a flame of fire, and his feet are like 
 fine brass."* 
 
 The great and glorified Head of the 
 Church, the Lord Jesus Christ, is about 
 to speak of the errors and misconduct 
 of His people, and he therefore reminds 
 them that there is nothing which can 
 
 * Rpvelation ii. 18. 
 
LECTURE V. 131 
 
 escape His eyes of fire ; " all things," as 
 the apostle says, " being naked and opened 
 unto Him with whom we have to do." 
 But then he is also about to threaten 
 destruction to the followers of Jezebel, 
 " I will kill her children with death,"* 
 and therefore He reminds them of His 
 " feet of brass," with which He had 
 already trampled upon the old serpent, 
 and with which he will assuredly tread 
 down every enemy, as among that ser- 
 pent's brood. 
 
 We proceed to the substance of the 
 epistle itself; but before we do so, we 
 would call your attention to one feature 
 common to all the seven epistles, except 
 the last. It is this, that however grievous 
 be the errors of the particular period to 
 which our Lord refers ; however low the 
 spirituality of that Church's state of which 
 He speaks, there is invariably a portion 
 of the epistle addressed to the true 
 believer ; to the real people of God, who 
 
 * Revelation ii. 23. 
 
132 LECTURE V. 
 
 appear to have escaped the prevailing 
 errors, or sins of the days in which they 
 live ; those, in short, whom the apostle 
 describes under the title of " a remnant 
 according to the election of grace ;" those 
 who were " kept by the power of God. 
 through faith unto salvation." 
 
 Accordingly, in the Scripture now 
 under examination, our Lord begins by 
 commending the little flock, before He 
 proceeds to bring forward His heavy 
 charge against the Church in general ; 
 " I know thy works, and charity, and 
 service, and faith, and thy patience and 
 thy works ; and the last to be more than 
 the first." 
 
 There are few things more consolatory 
 to the Christian, than to find, that thus, 
 even in the darkest ages of the Church, 
 the little flock of the Redeemer held on 
 the even tenor of their way, in humble, 
 holy obedience to their Lord; not de- 
 terred in one age by the terrors of 
 martyrdom, nor in the next by the 
 
LECTURE V. 133 
 
 allurements of prosperity, nor in this, 
 by the false teaching of the Papacy, 
 but going on " from strength to strength," 
 until " every one of them in Zion appear- 
 eth before God."* 
 
 And what are the peculiar features, 
 for which on the present occasion, the 
 Saviour commends this little flock ? 
 Brethren, it is well worth your obser- 
 vation to notice them ; they are wholly 
 practical. It is not for the great depth 
 of their Christian experience, their vast 
 attainments in spiritual knowledge, but 
 simply and entirely for their practical 
 holiness, and their obedience ; their 
 " works," their " service," their " pa- 
 tience," their "love," are the points of 
 character particularly selected by Christ 
 Himself. Their " faith," no doubt, also 
 finds a place, lest it should be said 
 that the other graces sprang not from 
 this, the only root ; but how evident 
 
 * Psalm Ixxxiv. 7. 
 
 12 
 
134 LECTURE V. 
 
 is it from the whole tenor of the com- 
 mendation, and that not merely in this, 
 but in every one of the epistles, that 
 the faith which is not continually bringing 
 forth its fruits of patience, and holiness, 
 and habitual and progressive sanctifi- 
 cation of soul, is nothing worth. We 
 say progressive, for you will observe 
 how prominent a portion of the com- 
 mendation that characteristic obtains, 
 "I know thy works, and the last to 
 be more than the first." 
 
 We often feel that the great defi- 
 ciency in the Christian teaching of the 
 present day is, that it is not suffi- 
 ciently practical. Your ministers are 
 for ever establishing principles, and they 
 are compelled to do so, because there 
 is so much of scriptural error afloat in 
 the world, that they are afraid of build- 
 ing up the superstructure upon a false 
 foundation. But remember that of " faith, 
 hope, and charity, these three," the 
 greatest is, and ever must be, charity. 
 
LECTURE V. 135 
 
 »' Show me thy faith without thy works," 
 says St. James, "and I will show thee 
 my faith by my works." And wisely 
 did he say so, for the eye of man can 
 see no other faith, and the eye of God 
 will see none other, but that which 
 " worketh by love."* Examine, then, 
 yourselves, whether ye be in the faith, 
 and determine this, not by your frames, 
 and feelings, and professions, but sim- 
 ply by your fruits, by your " service" 
 to God, as our Lord denominates it. 
 What are you doing for God? What 
 is there practical in your religion ? What 
 in the way of charity ? What in the 
 way of self-denial ? What in the way of 
 patience and holiness ? What in the way 
 of habitual, close and intimate secret com- 
 munion with Himself? How many, alas ! 
 are there, who have attained in the 
 present day to perfectly correct notions 
 in religion, but have gone not a single 
 step beyond. The world sees them 
 
 * Galatians v. 6. 
 
136 LECTURE V. 
 
 just as worldly ; Satan sees them just 
 as carnal ; self sees them just as self- 
 ish, as any other of their respective 
 votaries. 
 
 Try yourselves, then, by these cri- 
 terions which we have mentioned, and 
 ascertain before another hour of life 
 has passed away, whether your religion 
 is a practical thing ; whether, therefore, 
 you are in heart and soul among that 
 little flock, on whom your Lord pro- 
 nounced His benediction. Examine your- 
 self even by the single test which our 
 Lord in this passage has placed before 
 you. Can it be truly said of you, that 
 your " last works are more than the 
 first?" Is Christianity a growing prin- 
 ciple within your heart? A man sel- 
 dom rises above his principles; as his 
 principles are, so is the man. Is Christi- 
 anity, then, a principle, and a growing 
 principle? Is your present hatred of 
 sin greater, your avoidance of it more 
 determined and decisive now, than at any 
 
LECTURE V. 137 
 
 former period? Are your love to the 
 Saviour, and your ardent desire to be 
 conformed to His image, stronger now 
 than at any previous time ? Is every 
 grace of the Christian life, are your 
 charity, your patience, your self-denial, 
 your obedience, your prayerfulness, all 
 on the increase ? These are the un- 
 erring features of God's children ; want- 
 ing these, you may still possess much 
 resemblance, but we fear you have no 
 relationship. Progress is that family 
 likeness without which no single child 
 of God was ever found ; without which 
 not an individual of Christ's redeemed 
 family ever yet passed from its school 
 of trial upon earth, into the happy and 
 rejoicing society of the many mansions 
 of His father's house, the Christian's 
 home. Your last works must be more 
 than your first, or it is a fearful evi- 
 dence that the principle of religion is 
 dead within your bosom. 
 
 In continuing the epistle before us, 
 12* 
 
138 LECTURE V. 
 
 we shall find one of the most corrobo- 
 rative arguments in favour of the view 
 which we have been led to take of the 
 typical or prospective nature of these 
 remarkable portions of Holy Writ, which 
 they contain. 
 
 " Notwithstanding," says our Lord, 
 " I have a few things against thee, be- 
 cause thou sufierest that woman, Jezebel, 
 who calleth herself a prophetess, to 
 teach and to seduce my servants to 
 commit fornication, and to eat things 
 sacri ced unto idols." 
 
 That any individual of this name and 
 character ever existed in the Church of 
 Thyatira, there is no record in any his- 
 tory of the Church of Christ. But to you 
 who have marked the progress of the 
 Christian Church, as typified by the 
 preceding epistles, there will not be the 
 slightest difficulty in ascertaining the 
 antitype of this spiritual Jezebel. 
 
 We have, as we have before observed, 
 now arrived at that period when tlie Pa- 
 
LECTURE V. 139 
 
 pacy was beginning to assume temporal 
 power, laying claim to supremacy, and 
 adopting the title of God's vicegerent 
 upon earth ; asserting the infallibility of 
 the Pope, the corporeal presence of Christ 
 in the sacrament, and oppressing, and 
 misleading, and finally persecuting, the 
 true Church of the Redeemer. 
 
 Under the type of Jezebel, the wife 
 of Ahab, king of Israel, the Popedom, 
 then, is most plainly pointed out. Ob- 
 serve only for a moment, how many 
 features there were in common. Jeze- 
 bel was the daughter of a Pagan prince ; 
 so Papal Rome has been most distinctly 
 proved, from the similarity of her rites 
 and ceremonies, to be the daughter of 
 Pagan Rome. Jezebel was a queen ; 
 so has the Romish Church ever declared 
 herself; and under this character she is 
 made the subject of a remarkable pro- 
 phecy in the 17th chapter of the Revela- 
 tion, where she is described as " the 
 woman, arrayed in purple and scarlet 
 
140 LECTURE V. 
 
 colour, and decked with gold, and pre- 
 cious stones, and pearls," " and drunken 
 with the blood of the saints, and with 
 the blood of the martyrs of Jesus," and 
 carried by the beast " with the seven 
 heads." While as if even this were not 
 sufficiently plain to designate her, the 
 apostle himself adds, " The seven heads 
 are seven mountains, on which the 
 woman sitteth." Surely the symbolical 
 language of prophecy never contained a 
 plainer sentence, than when it thus iden- 
 tified the seat of this woman of blood, 
 with the city of the seven hills, first 
 Pagan and then Papal Rome. 
 
 Our Lord declares that this spiritual 
 Jezebel called herself a prophetess, and 
 taught and seduced her " servants to 
 commit fornication, and to eat things 
 sacrificed unto idols." How dis- 
 tinctly the Church of Rome proclaimed 
 herself a prophetess, let the well-known 
 dogma of the Papacy, " The Church, 
 the only true interpreter of scripture," 
 
LECTURE V. 141 
 
 most plainly tell. While the fact of the 
 leading the servants of Christ into spiritual 
 fornication, by teaching them to offer 
 their petitions to the Virgin Mother, 
 and to every saint of God, instead of the 
 one only Object of prayer, and the one 
 Mediator between God and man, the 
 man Christ Jesus, is too obvious to 
 need a comment. While, that the ado- 
 ration of images, accompanied even by 
 the most favourable interpretation which 
 can be assigned it, viz. that the symbol 
 is not worshipped, but merely the object 
 which is symbolised, is still regarded 
 as idolatry, by that God who will never 
 give his glory to another, both scrip- 
 ture and Church history abundantly 
 establish. Hear only a short extract 
 from the very remarkable Protest, which 
 was signed by three hundred and thirty- 
 eight bishops, and was addressed to the 
 reigning pope about the middle of the 
 eighth century, and consequently during 
 that period upon which we are now 
 
142 LECTURE V. 
 
 commenting. The occasion of this Pro- 
 test was a bull issued by the reigning 
 pontiff to excommunicate all those who 
 should remove, or speak contemptuously 
 of images ; and this is the indignant lan- 
 guage of those spiritually enlightened 
 men who believed the image worship of 
 the Papacy to be merely idolatry in 
 disguise. " Jesus Christ," say they, 
 "hath delivered us from idolatry, and 
 hath taught us to adore Him in spirit 
 and in truth. But the Devil, not being 
 able to endure the beauty of the Church, 
 hath insensibly brought back idolatry, 
 under the appearance of Christianity ; 
 persuading men to worship the creature, 
 and to take for God a work to which 
 they give the name of Jesus Christ."* 
 
 It is an evil and bitter thing for the 
 present generation, that errors such as 
 these are so lightly thought of; and 
 that a religion which has done more to 
 blind men's eyes and to harden men's 
 
 » Milner's Church History, III. 162. 
 
LECTURE V. 143 
 
 hearts to the peculiar doctrines of grace, 
 than any other which holds the great 
 and vital truths of Christianity, should 
 now be looked at, if not with compla- 
 cency, still with indifference, and be 
 spoken of as distinguished from our own, 
 merely by some minute shades of doc- 
 trine, of far too little import, to trouble 
 the minds of men of enlarged views 
 and philosophic principles. How dif- 
 ferently did the holy army of martyrs 
 think and act, during the Marian per- 
 secutions in our own country ; they 
 cheerfully went to the stake, rather than 
 give place even for a moment, to errors 
 which they knew had been the ruin of 
 many an immortal soul. 
 
 But we must pass on to the sentence 
 of this spiritual Jezebel, which is as 
 clearly announced in the epistle before 
 us, as her sins. 
 
 " I gave her space," continues our 
 Lord, — perhaps to intimate the lapse of 
 centuries during which Popery was 
 
144 LECTURE V. 
 
 spreading over the whole face of Chris- 
 tendom, — "I gave her space, to repent 
 of her fornication ; and she repented not. 
 Behold,'' — to call our attention strongly 
 to the singular nature of her punishment, 
 — " Behold, I will cast her into a bed, 
 and them that commit adultery with 
 her into great tribulation, except they 
 repent of their deeds; and I will kill 
 her children with death ; and all the 
 Churches shall know, that I am He 
 which searcheth the reins and hearts." 
 
 In other words, I will not cut oif 
 Papal Rome, as I cut off Pagan Rome, 
 in a moment, by the breath of my 
 mouth ; I will not, as it were, despatch 
 her at a blow, but I will cast her into 
 a bed of languishing and sickness, that 
 all the Protestant Churches may behold 
 the day of her visitation : that as they 
 have seen her year after year aggran- 
 dising herself with the wealth of nations, 
 and setting her foot upon the necks of 
 kings, and ruling the destinies of the 
 
LECTURE V. 145 
 
 world, SO now shall they behold her, 
 year after year, losing all her ill-gotten 
 possessions, driven out of country after 
 country, waxing weaker and weaker, 
 her flesh and her strength failing her, 
 until, like one who falls beneath the in- 
 roads of decline, she shall gradually 
 waste even unto death, flattering herself 
 to the very last that it is no mortal 
 malady, and holding forth in her ex- 
 piring struggles, a frightful example of 
 the recklessness of those who desert 
 the living God. 
 
 Is it possible to imagine a more ac- 
 curate description of the fate which, 
 from the days of the blessed Reformation, 
 when the mortal sickness of Popery 
 first began, even to the present hour, 
 has attended and is attending. Papal 
 Rome, than is here conveyed by our 
 Lord in a single phrase, " I will cast 
 her into a bed" of sickness, and as it 
 shall assuredly be, in His good time, a 
 bed of death ? Is there one among us, 
 13 
 
146 LECTURE V. 
 
 who knows any thing of the history of 
 the Church, or of the world, during the 
 last three centuries, who cannot pro- 
 nounce upon its truth ? The name of 
 Pope, at the mere mention of which, 
 in days gone by, the sceptered monarch 
 grew pale upon his throne, has now 
 become almost an empty title ; while the 
 weight of the triple crown has become 
 but as dust upon the balance in the 
 scale of European policy. And although 
 we fear that we ourselves as a people, 
 by forbearing to follow out the prin- 
 ciples of the blessed Reformation, and 
 acting far too much in the spirit of 
 worldly concession and sympathy with 
 this great enemy of pure and undefiled 
 religion, have soothed her dying pillow, 
 and endeavoured to traverse the de- 
 signs of the Almighty, and are at 
 this moment suffering and shall suffer 
 for having thus procrastinated her dying 
 pangs ; still the threatening of the Lord 
 standeth sure ; and however dark and 
 
LECTURE V. 147 
 
 desperate be the death-struggles of 
 Popery, never shall she arise from that 
 bed of languishing, restored to her pris- 
 tine energy and health ; but as the clear 
 rays of gospel truth rise higher and 
 higher upon our horizon, she shall sink 
 lower and lower, until she meet the 
 fate, for which the accumulated guilt of 
 centuries of error, and centuries of blood, 
 have fitted her, until she perish from 
 off the earth, and " the carcase of 
 Jezebel shall be as dung upon the face 
 of the field." 
 
 In conclusion, we must consider the 
 promise of the Saviour, with which the 
 epistle closes. " He that overcometh, 
 and keepeth my works unto the end, 
 to him will I give power over the 
 nations; and he shall rule them with a 
 rod of iron ; as the vessels of a potter 
 shall they be broken to shivers; even 
 as I received of my Father. And I will 
 give him the morning star."* 
 
 » Revelation ii. 26, 27. 
 
148 LECTURE V. 
 
 By the former part of this promise, 
 the power which the true disciples of 
 Christ shall exercise over " the nations," 
 as the followers of the Papacy are 
 here denominated, is probably intended, 
 the spiritual effects of those great truths, 
 which the rod of God's strength, the 
 everlasting gospel, brought to light at 
 the Reformation ; and which have in so 
 wonderful a manner, broken in pieces 
 the fetters of superstition, and swept 
 away the refuges of lies from so many 
 countries of the world. The latter por- 
 tion of the promise, however, from its 
 application to our own business and 
 bosoms, requires perhaps a more minute 
 investigation, " I will give him the morn- 
 ing star." 
 
 Had not our Lord made use of the 
 same remarkable expression again, in a 
 more advanced portion of this prophecy, 
 we should have been at a loss in what 
 manner to have interpreted a phrase, 
 which as it stands thus isolated and un- 
 
LECTURE V. 149 
 
 explained is perfectly unintelligible. By 
 a reference, however, to the 16th verse 
 of the 22d chapter, we find our Lord 
 distinctly declaring, " I am the bright and 
 morning star/' 
 
 This then is the gift, even Himself, 
 with which the Saviour presents the 
 overcoming Christian, when he says, " I 
 will give him the morning star,'- to 
 enHghten his dreary prospect, to guide 
 his wandering feet, and to cheer his 
 darkened heart. 
 
 It is a peculiarity well worthy of 
 observation, that in the " exceeding great 
 and precious promises,"* with which our 
 Lord concludes each of these epistles, 
 the highest reward that He holds out, 
 the richest possession that He ever offers 
 to His overcoming servants, is — the pro- 
 mise of Himself. Thus, as we have 
 already seen, to the conquering Christians 
 of one age. He promised the fruit of the 
 " tree of life," even Jesus Christ, of which 
 
 * 2 Peter i. 4. 
 
 13* 
 
150 LECTURE V. 
 
 " if a man eat, he shall live for ever." 
 To those of another, He promised " the 
 hidden manna," even Jesus Christ, the 
 true bread which came down from heaven. 
 To those of a third. He also promises 
 " the morning star," even Jesus Christ 
 the Sun of Righteousness. 
 
 Whence comes it, brethren, that in 
 the unbounded wealth of heaven, there 
 is so Httle variety ; in the unsearchable 
 riches of Christ, so great a paucity of 
 gifts ! that Christ and Christ alone should 
 be the highest heritage, and dearest 
 reward, of His overcoming servants ? 
 We trust that many among you can, 
 from your own experience, from the 
 feelings of your own hearts, well answer 
 this inquiry ; that you are able to 
 reply. What more could even God Him- 
 self bestow? Possessing Christ, we 
 know, we feel, we realise the apostle's 
 declaration," " All things are ours, and 
 we are Christ's, and Christ is God's."* 
 
 • 1 Corinthians iii. 22, 23. 
 
LECTURE V. 151 
 
 Yes, brethren, we trust that many 
 among you do thus know, and that 
 many more, in God's good time, will 
 thus know, by happy experience, the 
 full meaning of the promise and its ful- 
 tilment ; that often amidst the trials and 
 disappointments of life, when other 
 friends and other prospects fail you, 
 and other comforters there are none, 
 you will be enabled to say, Christ is 
 mine, and in Him I have Father, Bro- 
 ther, Husband, Friend — " thanks be 
 unto God for His unspeakable gift." 
 That often, while on the bed of sickness, 
 when all the world must be shut out, 
 when the curtains which are drawn 
 around you, are emblems of the veil 
 that must soon be let fall for ever be- 
 tween you and the inhabitants of earth, 
 you will still be enabled to rejoice in 
 Him, who when once yours, is yours 
 for ever ; whose brightness no veil can 
 intercept, if He have once arisen as the 
 morning star within your heart; and 
 
152 LECTURE V. 
 
 who will there shine forth in all the 
 peace and hope and love which attend 
 Him, and pour into your soul, the beams 
 of His grace, as freely and as fully in 
 the darkest day of sickness and of death, 
 as in the brightest hour of health and 
 prosperity. 
 
 We need not then tell the Christian, 
 for he already knows by happy expe- 
 rience, why our Lord, under whatever 
 symbol he expressed it, reserved this 
 blessed promise of Himself, as the richest 
 treasure for his overcoming people ! 
 because there is nothing in ,^is world 
 which can bear a moment's competition, 
 with it ; because there is no other gift 
 in all the treasury of heaven for which 
 you would exchange it; because it is 
 the only gift, equally dear at all hours, 
 equally invaluable under all dispen- 
 sations. In the darkest moments of 
 affliction and sorrow. He has been to 
 you "the morning star." In the most 
 trying time of the soul's worst famine, 
 
LECTURE V. 153 
 
 He is to you " the hidden manna." 
 In the hour of death and in the day 
 of judgment, He will be to you " the 
 tree of life." " Thanks be unto God 
 for His unspeakable gift." 
 
 But there is yet a last use to be 
 made of this transcendant promise, be- 
 fore we leave it. It is to help to impress 
 upon those among you, to whom all 
 that we have just said, sounds like the 
 fancies of the enthusiast, rather than the 
 sober conviction of the staid and settled 
 believer, that where this promise is not 
 realised, where Christ is not sought as the 
 first, great object of your love, and your 
 obedience, and your anticipations, there 
 all duties, all ordinances of religion, are 
 dead and unprofitable. It was beautifully 
 said by one of old, in reference to this 
 very feeling, which I am now endea- 
 vouring to inculcate, " Use thy duties, 
 as Noah's dove did her wings, to carry 
 thee to the ark of the Lord Jesus Christ, 
 where only there is rest : if she had 
 
154 LECTURE V. 
 
 never used her wings, she had fallen 
 into the water, and if she had not re- 
 turned to the Ark, she had found no 
 rest : so if thou shalt use no duties, but 
 cast them off, thou art sure to perish, but 
 if they convey thee not to Christ, thou 
 wilt still lie down in sorrow." Would that 
 it might please God to convey this truth 
 to every heart now present. Be assured 
 that our Lord would never have made 
 Himself the great object of all His 
 promises, if His people could exist 
 without Him. No, every era of Chris- 
 tianity has left one, and but one record ; 
 viz. that Christ and Christ alone is the 
 satisfying portion of His people. Listen 
 to the Church in one age exclaiming, 
 "My beloved is mine and I am His."* 
 In another, and the voice issued from 
 a throne, " Whom have I in heaven but 
 Thee, and there is none upon earth 
 that I desire, in comparison of Thee."* 
 In a third, and the cry came even from 
 
 * Solomon's Song ii. 16. t Psalm Ixxiii. 25. 
 
LECTURE V. 156 
 
 the fires of martyrdom, " None but 
 Christ, none but Christ." Brethren, 
 the language of the Church in all ages, 
 must be the language of our hearts, if 
 we desire to be with Christ where He 
 is, and to behold His glory ; our con- 
 stant prayer must be, that Christ, "the 
 power of God and the wisdom of God," 
 may be our own ; that He may be made 
 unto us, individually, " wisdom, and 
 righteousness, and sanctification, and 
 redemption."* 
 
 ♦ Corinthians i. 30. 
 
EPISTLE TO SARDIS. 
 
LECTURE VI. 
 
 Revelation iii. 3. 
 
 Remember, therefore, how thou hast received and heard ; 
 and hold fast, and repent. 
 
 In the last church-state, of which we 
 considered the Church in Thyatira to 
 be the type, we beheld the Christian 
 Church suffering deeply and grievously 
 from the errors and the oppression of 
 Popery. We traced it during the time 
 when that unscriptural system was pre- 
 dominant, and we concluded at the period 
 of the ever-blessed Reformation, when the 
 infliction of the threatened punishment had 
 commenced, when the Church of Rome 
 
160 LECTURE VI. 
 
 had been cast upon her bed of lan- 
 guishing, from which she never since 
 has arisen, and from which she never 
 shall arise, in her pristine energy and 
 health, but shall continue wasting gra- 
 dually, yet surely, until she go hence 
 and be no more seen. 
 
 The Church of Sardis, then, of which 
 we are to speak this day, we believe to 
 be the type of the Christian Church 
 after the Reformation, including the pre- 
 sent period within its limits and stretching 
 on even to that blessed and happy time, 
 foretold by the prophet, when "know- 
 ledge of the Lord shall cover the earth, 
 as the waters cover the sea."* 
 
 We commence by again calhng your 
 attention to the appropriate nature of 
 the preface to the epistle before us. 
 "These things saith he that hath the 
 seven Spirits of God, and the seven 
 stars." The seven stars are, as we are 
 told in the 20th verse of the 1st 
 
 * Isaiah xi. 9. 
 
LECTURE VI. 161 
 
 chapter, the symbols of the angels, or 
 bishops, of the seven Churches ; while 
 the phrase, " the seven Spirits of God," 
 is the language which the evangelist 
 adopts in the 4th verse of the same 
 chapter to express God the Holy Ghost, 
 in this remarkable benediction, "Grace 
 be unto you and peace, from Him which 
 is, and which was, and which is to come ; 
 and from the seven Spirits which are 
 before His throne; and from Jesus 
 Christ ;" clearly showing that the seven 
 Spirits before the throne can intend 
 only " God the Holy Ghost," since no 
 created beings could ever have been 
 united by the apostle, with God the 
 Father and God the Son, as the eternal 
 source of grace and peace. Our Lord, 
 therefore, in the passage before us, by 
 describing Himself as one who hath 
 "the seven Spirits of God," intends to 
 remind His Church, that He has, as the 
 prophet Malachi expresses it, " the resi- 
 due of the Spirit;" that Christ and 
 14* 
 
162 LECTURE VI. 
 
 His Spirit are never separated; that if 
 we " have not the Spirit of Christ we 
 are none of His ;" and that if we desire 
 a real revival of religion in the Church 
 at large, such as marked the era of the 
 Reformation, or a distinct and influential 
 increase of spiritual feeling in our own 
 hearts, they are to be obtained entirely 
 by the outpouring of God the Holy 
 Ghost, and this can only be expected 
 by earnest, faithful, persevering appli- 
 cation to Him, who hath " the residue 
 of the Spirit." A truth how well re- 
 membered during the first days of the 
 Reformation, let the prayers and the 
 practices of the whole body of Protestant 
 confessors and Protestant martyrs most 
 loudly tell ; but alas ! ought we not to 
 add, also, a truth how lamentably for- 
 gotten, how seldom acknowledged, how 
 little acted upon, in the Protestant 
 Church, after the first ardour of the 
 Reformation cooled, let almost a century 
 of deadness and formality in the reformed 
 
LECTURE VI. 163 
 
 Churches, both on the continent and at 
 home, as plainly declare. Thanks be 
 to God, however, this truth is once again 
 reviving, and men will now hear of spi- 
 ritual influences, without ridicule ; and of 
 the operations of the Holy Ghost, with- 
 out prejudice ; and of the necessity of 
 being born again of the Spirit, and re- 
 newed by the Spirit, and directed daily 
 and hourly by the good Spirit of our 
 God, without doubting, with Festus of 
 old, the sanity of the speaker, or believing 
 that such vital and blessed truths have 
 their origin in the heated brain of the 
 enthusiast. For this, we desire con- 
 tinually to thank God ; for we believe 
 that never is there in any age, a real 
 increase of true religion, and practical 
 holiness, without its having been preceded 
 and accompanied by a wide extension of 
 this great truth, and a large outpouring 
 of the spirit of prayer, for these divine 
 and essential spiritual influences. 
 
 We proceed to the consideration of 
 
164 LECTURE VI. 
 
 the epistle itself, — " I know thy works, 
 that thou hast a name that thou Hvest, 
 and art dead. Be watchful, and strengthen 
 the things which remain, that are ready 
 to die; for I have not found thy works 
 perfect before God. Remember, there- 
 fore, how thou hast received and heard ; 
 and hold fast, and repent." 
 
 The propriety of this language even 
 to the reformed Church of the Re- 
 deemer, will be applicable, if we call to 
 mind how very speedily after the day- 
 star of the Reformation arose, its light 
 was dimmed, and its face was clouded. 
 Even the Reformers themselves con- 
 fessed that the Reformation never was 
 tinished : our own Church declares as 
 much in her service for Ash- Wednesday ; 
 while those who are best read in the 
 writings of the ages which have suc- 
 ceeded that glorious era, when the 
 Church emerged from the darkness of 
 Popery, will mournfully agree that our 
 Lord spake the language of truth when 
 
LECTURE VI. 165 
 
 He asserted, " I have not found thy 
 works perfect," i. e. complete, filled up, 
 " before God." " Remember, therefore, 
 how thou hast received and heard." Re- 
 collect how plainly the great truths of 
 the gospel were promulged by Luther 
 and Melancthon, by Cranmer and Latimer 
 and Ridley, and the holy army of mar- 
 tyrs, and " hold fast, and repent." 
 
 But we must not, by speaking thus 
 generally of these charges of our Lord, 
 neglect the individual application of them. 
 What is true of the particular church- 
 state of which we speak, and in which 
 our lot has been cast, must be true 
 of many individuals in it, may be true 
 of ourselves. 
 
 Let us, then, employ a few moments 
 in the examination of them. First, our 
 Lord declares, " I know thy works, that 
 thou hast a name that thou livest, and 
 art dead." 
 
 He speaks, then, in these words, evi- 
 dently of those who make some profession 
 
166 LECTURE VI. 
 
 of religion. The outward, gross, and 
 avowed sinner, who despises even the form 
 of godUness, has not a name that hves ; 
 here is, therefore, no reference to him. 
 But to you, who by your attendance 
 upon the ministry of the gospel, and 
 the ordinances and sacraments of Christ, 
 declare yourselves to be his followers, 
 and therefore possess a name, we are 
 fully justified in offering the charge be- 
 fore you, as a matter for personal self- 
 examination. Are you, then, so deeply 
 engaged in the pleasures and the va- 
 nities of the world, that they engross 
 your time, and your thoughts, and your 
 affections ; the day passing over you in 
 idleness which leaves no profitable trace 
 upon your memory or your heart; the 
 night devoted to society ; and the great 
 work of the soul all crowded into these 
 few Sabbath hours ? Or, is the same 
 effect produced, though by a widely 
 different cause ? does the necessary bu- 
 siness of life thus enslave and alienate 
 
LECTURE VI. 167 
 
 you, and do you think that the duty 
 of providing for your family is quite 
 sufficient excuse in your case, for making 
 so slender a provision for your soul '( 
 It matters little what is the cause, when 
 this is the effect ; you have, indeed, 
 most fearful reason to apprehend that 
 you can make no satisfactory answer to 
 the charge before you, " Thou hast a 
 name that thou livest, and art dead." 
 For that spiritual life which is not fed 
 by daily prayer, which is not influencing 
 the whole week, which is not sup- 
 plying motives, and desires, and rules 
 of action, throughout the daily inter- 
 course of life, and making the kingdom 
 of God and your preparation for it the 
 first feeling of your heart, is but a 
 name ; and at the last great day will 
 be found to have been but as " sounding 
 brass, or a tinkling cymbal." 
 
 Again, you who have made some 
 progress in religion, and yet whose 
 Christian profession produces such few 
 
168 LECTURE VI. 
 
 and meagre fruits. In your business, it 
 does not prevent you from taking any 
 undue advantage of those who are less 
 wary, or less prudent, than yourselves ; 
 there is as much covetousness, as eager 
 a desire to accumulate, and as little 
 hesitation about the manner and the 
 method of it, as in those who have no 
 religious feelings at all. In your fa- 
 milies, there is as much inconsistency, 
 and extravagance, and display, as in the 
 most worldly. In secret, there is, when- 
 ever the opportunity offers, indulgence 
 in sinful practises which your heart con- 
 demns. In your domestic intercourse, 
 there are as many outbreakings of un- 
 kind and evil tempers, of sullenness, of 
 irritability, of harsh and angry speeches 
 to those who are with you, of uncha- 
 ritable reflections upon those around you, 
 as in houses where the word of God 
 is not respected, and family prayer is 
 a thing unknown. What is religion but 
 a name, when these things go on from 
 
LECTURE VI. 169 
 
 day to day, and from year to year, 
 unchecked ? 
 
 Great need, then, have we all of these 
 warnings of our Redeemer, for to whom 
 may we not with propriety address his 
 own exhortation, " Be watchful, and 
 strengthen the things which remain, that 
 are ready to die : for I have not found 
 thy works perfect before God." He 
 who looks into the heart, sees no work 
 perfect there ; every thing unfinished, 
 incomplete, marred at its very best, 
 by some mingling of earthly motives, 
 some unworthy intention, from which 
 the action flows, or some unholy frame 
 by which it is succeeded. Man beholds, 
 for instance, an act of splendid charity ; 
 but Christ looks into the core of that 
 fair fruit, and there He sees the worm 
 of selfishness or vanity. Man beholds 
 the tear of penitence, and hears the 
 strongest declaration of self-abhorrence 
 and humility ; but Christ again looks 
 into the heart, and there in some dark 
 15 
 
170 LECTURE VI. 
 
 corner sits spiritual pride, feasting her- 
 self upon the praises which men are 
 heaping on this mock humihty. Men 
 hear us speak of love to God, as if 
 we burned with the zeal of an archangel, 
 but Christ follows us into our chambers, 
 and there finds our prayers so cold, 
 our meditations so heartless, that Satan 
 himself might boast of love to God 
 with almost as much propriety as we. 
 To that Saviour who sees the heart, 
 nothing appears filled up, nothing car- 
 ried out to that extent, to which by 
 the grace of God, even such poor, 
 erring and imperfect being's as ourselves, 
 might carry them. Well, then, does 
 he add, " Remember how thou hast 
 received and heard ; and hold fast, and 
 repent." It is this holding fast which 
 is the first step towards filling up ; and 
 doubtless one great reason why so many 
 never attempt to strive for the higher 
 advances in the Christian life, that 
 spiritual progress of which the last epistle 
 
LECTURE VI. 171 
 
 spoke, is because they hold so loosely 
 what they have already heard so in- 
 attentively, and received so carelessly. 
 Upon this point, we would especially 
 desire to warn and caution you, be- 
 cause we believe it to be one on which 
 so very many greatly need our warning. 
 There have been times when you 
 have left the sanctuary of God, with 
 deep and solemn impressions of the 
 sacred truths which you have " received 
 and heard ;" and as you have been re- 
 turning to your homes, you have re- 
 solved that nothing should induce you 
 to yield to temptations into which you 
 have before repeatedly fallen ; you have 
 even declared to yourself that certain 
 associates should be given up; certain 
 people, or places, or practices, avoided, 
 because you feel that they have led 
 you into sin, and you cannot bear the 
 thought of the fearful reckoning, by 
 which that sin must be inevitably fol- 
 lowed. Or, better still, because you 
 
172 LECTURE VI. 
 
 see such a charm in a truly religious 
 life, and such a blessedness for those 
 who seek God, and such loveliness in 
 God Himself as revealed to you in 
 Christ Jesus, that you find you cannot 
 justify yourself, even to your own 
 heart, in the course you are now pur- 
 suing. These are your better moments ; 
 these are the times when the Spirit of 
 God is striving with you, and proving 
 to your soul, that there really is some- 
 thing in religion, something in a life 
 of holy communion with God, and 
 obedience to him, which as certainly 
 surpasses the poor perishing pleasures 
 of the world, as it will assuredly out- 
 live them. And why have not these 
 feelings lasted? or why produced no 
 fruit? And why, in so short a time, 
 have Satan and the world, and your 
 corrupt heart, again asserted their su- 
 premacy, and again obtained a triumph ? 
 were these great realities less true, 
 when you were neglecting them, than 
 
LECTURE Vr. 173 
 
 when you first received them ? No ! 
 This was not the reason that their in- 
 fluence was so feeble, their reign so 
 short. It was because you neglected 
 to " hold fast what you had received 
 and heard." There was no earnest, 
 faithful, persevering prayer to God, 
 which, " like a nail in a sure place,"* 
 would have transfixed the feeling, and 
 have kept it there. There was no strong 
 and settled grasp by which the hand 
 of a true faith clings to each doctrine, 
 precept, promise, as it is held out to 
 it; but there was a trifling, a mere 
 playing with the solemn realities of the 
 scripture, and of God, permitting them 
 to flit around your fancy, but never 
 actually closing with them, embracing 
 them, and thus making them your own, 
 to live and die upon them. Who can 
 be surprised at the result; they have 
 left no durable impression upon your 
 soul ; you are not in any, the slightest 
 
 * Isaiah xzii. 23. 
 
 15* 
 
174 LECTURE VI. 
 
 degree, the better for having once 
 heard, and for the passing hour ap- 
 proved and appreciated them. We urge 
 you, then, now to listen to the Saviour's 
 exhortation, " hold fast the things that 
 remain," the httle abiding sense of 
 these great truths which yet survives, 
 weak and feeble though it be, and 
 ready to perish. Cling to them with 
 that energy with which if a man were 
 forced off the brink of a precipice he 
 would cling to the roots of some pro- 
 jecting tree, as the last hope between 
 him and eternity. So cling to the hope 
 set before you in Christ Jesus our Lord ; 
 though your hold be now fainter and 
 weaker than it once was, though your 
 hands be weary, slacken not your grasp ; 
 remember, if this fail you, all will fail 
 you ; there is no other hope ; there 
 is not another projecting fibre between 
 you and the hell beneath. " Be watch- 
 ful, strengthen the things that remain;" 
 prayer will strengthen them, holy obe- 
 
LECTURE VI. 175 
 
 dience will strengthen them, a renewed 
 appHcation to the blood of Christ will 
 strengthen them, and will enable you 
 to regain your footing upon the rock 
 from whence you are fallen, and once 
 more to stand firmly, and to be at 
 peace. 
 
 But we must speak briefly of the 
 threatening in this epistle before we pass 
 on to its concluding promise. 
 
 There is a peculiarity in this threat- 
 ening differing fearfully from all that 
 precede it, viz. that it is a type of those 
 judgments which are at the present mo- 
 ment unfulfilled ! When we read in the 
 first epistle that unless the Church in 
 the apostle's age repented, its candle- 
 stick should be removed ; we remarked 
 at the same time its fulfilment. She did 
 not repent, her candlestick was removed, 
 the open ministration of the Spirit ceased, 
 and she became the early prey of heretics 
 and schismatics. Again, when we marked 
 in the days of the Church's opulence 
 
176 LECTURE VI. 
 
 and power, the threatening that unless 
 she repented, the Lord would come 
 quickly, and fight against her with the 
 sword of his mouth ; we traced her in- 
 creasing impenitence and worldliness, 
 until by the irruption of the Arian 
 nations, and other scourges of the 
 Almighty, this threatening also was ful- 
 filled. In the last epistle, when we 
 brought before you the predicted punish- 
 ment of Popery, the bed of languishing 
 into which she should be cast, we bore 
 witness to the truth of God's word by 
 reminding you how evidently this pre- 
 diction also was even now receiving its 
 completion. 
 
 But, brethren, here our notices of 
 accomplished prophecy must cease. We 
 now enter upon untrodden ground. We 
 have now arrived at that point when 
 prophecy is, if we may so say, in its 
 transition state, and when we ourselves 
 are forming the important link between 
 predictions fulfilled, and predictions re- 
 
LECTURE VI. 177 
 
 maining to be accomplished ; in fact, the 
 step between prophecy and history. 
 We may be, as a nation, now standing 
 in that gap, where during our backward 
 view, we have beheld generation after 
 generation remaining for a moment ex- 
 posed to the wrath of God, and then 
 falling prostrate before His avenging arm. 
 " If, therefore, thou shalt not watch," 
 says our Lord to this church-state in 
 which our lot is cast, "I will come on 
 thee as a thief, and thou shalt not know 
 what hour I will come upon thee," Unless 
 as a nation we repent, unless we retrace 
 our steps, unless we acknowledge God 
 more readily and more devoutly in 
 the great council of the realm, and are 
 willing by our public acts, to make some 
 sacrifices for His sake and for His glory, 
 maintaining His Church, honouring His 
 ever-blessed Son, hallowing His Sab- 
 baths, this threatening also will be ful- 
 filled, and England, who has sat as a 
 queen among the nations, will see, as 
 
178 LECTURE VI. 
 
 the due reward of her ingratitude, these 
 predicted judgments come upon her as a 
 thief, and her rehgious privileges, her 
 highest glories, trampled in the dust. 
 
 Lastly, the promises with which this 
 epistle closes. " Thou hast a few names 
 even in Sardis, which have not defiled 
 their garments ; and they shall walk with 
 me in white, for they are worthy." 
 
 In the darkest days of Protestantism 
 there have ever been, and there shall 
 always be, some who have not " defiled 
 their garments" with the sins and the 
 pollutions of the age in which they live, 
 and like the seven thousand in Israel, 
 have never bowed the knee to Baal. 
 These are beautifully described in the 
 words before us as walking with the 
 Lord, " in white," to mark the degree 
 of moral purity, of cleanness of heart 
 and thought and motive and desire which 
 the Lord Jesus Christ expects, and of 
 that sanctification which He works in 
 all His redeemed people. If then, 
 
LECTURE VI. 179 
 
 brethren, you are hoping to enjoy the 
 promises attached to this church-state, 
 the question you must ask yourselves is 
 Have I been enabled, clothed in the 
 righteousness of my Redeemer, to walk 
 in the white robes of grace and purity 
 and holiness and religious consistency, 
 during the engagements and duties of 
 every day, and is the Lord Jesus Christ 
 able to say of me, " They walk with 
 me in white, and are worthy ?" The 
 whitest robes in which you could be clad 
 even by grace itself would profit you 
 nothing, unless you were thus walking 
 with Christ, so entirely united to Him 
 by true and living faith that He is one 
 with you and you with Him ; so near to 
 Him, that the folds of His garment of 
 unspotted whiteness are extended over 
 you, covering your deformities, your 
 infirmities, and your sin; holding daily 
 communion with Him, and cultivating 
 that spiritual resemblance to Him, that 
 similarity of mind and spirit and temper, 
 
180 LECTURE VI. 
 
 which will itself constitute the perfection 
 of heaven ; for " we shall be like Him," 
 says St. John, " when we shall see Him 
 as He is." 
 
 "To him that overcometh, the same 
 shall be clothed in white raiment, and I 
 will not blot out his name out of the 
 book of life, but I will confess his name 
 before my Father and before His angels." 
 
 How beautifully does this promise, 
 which shall be fulfilled in heaven, har- 
 monise with the promise which we have 
 just described as even now fulfilling upon 
 earth. You shall never put off the white 
 robe of holiness and purity, with which 
 your Lord and Saviour has arrayed you 
 here, until you are called to put on the 
 still brighter robe of immortality and 
 glory prepared for you hereafter. 
 
 How blessed will be the exchange ! 
 You who best know, by painful expe- 
 rience, the practical difficulties of the 
 Christian life, will best estimate the 
 value of the promise; that you shall 
 
LECTURE VI. 181 
 
 put off those robes which, after all your 
 efforts and all your prayers, never re- 
 main unsullied for a single day on earth, 
 and untorn by the briars of the world 
 through which you are walking, some 
 hasty word, some unholy temper, some 
 sinful imagination, spotting and defiling 
 them, some harassing event, or some 
 unworthy action tearing and disfiguring 
 them; and that you shall put on those 
 robes of immortality and glory which 
 throughout the ages of eternity shall 
 never be discoloured by a single stain, 
 or injured by a single rent. That, 
 instead of confessing Christ before men, 
 always a difficult and painful duty, 
 the Lord Jesus Christ has declared, 
 " I will confess his name before my Father 
 and before his angels." Instead of the 
 imperfect services of these earthly tem- 
 ples where every prayer and every 
 praise carries up with it to the throne 
 of grace its sad accompaniment of care- 
 lessness, and weariness, and worldliness, 
 16 
 
182 * LECTURE VI. 
 
 and sin, you shall for ever unite your 
 voice " with angels and archangels and 
 all the company of heaven who laud and 
 magnify God's glorious name, evermore 
 praising Him and saying, Holy, Holy, 
 Holy, Lord God of hosts, heaven and 
 earth are full of thy glory, glory be to 
 Thee, O Lord Most High." 
 
EPISTLE TO PHILADELPHIA. 
 
LECTURE VII. 
 
 Revelation iii. 12. 
 
 Hub that overcometh will I make a pillar in the temple of 
 ray God, and he shall go no more out. 
 
 In our comments upon the last epistle, 
 we brought before you those evidences, 
 which we deemed sufficient to demon- 
 strate that it was typical, and probably 
 prophetical, of the state of the Christian 
 Church at the present day. We also 
 added, that we had reason to believe 
 that the period in which our lot is cast, 
 is the last church-state previous to the 
 great spiritual change, of which the 
 prophets have so frequently spoken ; 
 16* 
 
1«6 LECTURE VII. 
 
 that glorious period, when the true 
 Church of Christ shall have so lengthened 
 her cords and strengthened her stakes, 
 that she shall extend the shadow of her 
 tabernacle throughout the inhabited por- 
 tions of the globe on which we live. 
 These prophecies are by many so Httle 
 thought of, and so little known, that, 
 confining ourselves to the language of 
 Scripture, we shall, before commencing 
 the epistle upon which we are to com- 
 ment this morning, consider a few of 
 these remarkable declarations of Jehovah 
 upon the still future, but certain, pro- 
 spects of the Church. 
 
 "It shall come to pass in the last 
 days," says the prophet Isaiah, "that 
 the mountain of the Lord's house shall 
 be established in the top of the moun- 
 tains, and shall be exalted above the 
 hills ; and all nations shall flow unto it."* 
 " He shall have dominion from sea to 
 sea," says David, speaking of our Lord 
 
 * Isaiah ii. 2. 
 
LECTURE VII. 187 
 
 and Saviour Jesus Christ, "and from 
 
 the river to the ends of the earth All 
 
 kings shall fall down before Him, all 
 
 nations shall serve Him All nations 
 
 shall call Him blessed The whole 
 
 earth shall be filled with his glory."* 
 *' From the rising of the sun," says the 
 prophet Malachi, " unto the going down 
 of the same, my name shall be great 
 among the Gentiles, and in every place 
 incense shall be offered unto my name, 
 and a pure offering; for my name 
 shall be great among the heathen, saith 
 the Lord of hosts."t " The kingdom 
 and dominion," says Daniel, " and the 
 greatness of the kingdom, under the 
 whole heaven, shall be given to the 
 people of the saints of the Most High, 
 whose kingdom is an everlasting king- 
 dom, and all dominion shall serve 
 Him."J " They shall beat their swords 
 into ploughshares, and their spears into 
 
 * Psalm Ixxii. 8, &,c. t Malachi i. 11. 
 
 I Daniel vii. 27. 
 
188 LECTURE VII. 
 
 pruning-hooks ; nation shall not lift up 
 sword against nation, neither shall they 
 learn war any more."^ " The wolf shall 
 dwell with the lamb, and the leopard 
 shall lie down with the kid ; and the 
 calf, and the young lion, and the fatling 
 together, and a little child shall lead 
 them : and the cow and the bear shall 
 feed ; their young ones shall lie down 
 together : and the lion shall eat straw 
 like the ox ; and the sucking child shall 
 play on the hole of the asp, and the 
 weaned child shall put his hand on the 
 cockatrice den ; they shall not hurt nor 
 destroy in all God's holy mountain."t 
 While there is yet another remarkable 
 feature of this blessed and glorious 
 period, of which the prophets tell, when 
 the Almighty, remembering His cove- 
 nant which He hath made with Abraham, 
 Isaac, and Jacob, shall fulfil His many 
 times repeated promise that " all Israel 
 shall be saved," that His ancient people, 
 
 * Isaiah ii. 4. t Ibid. xi. 6 — 9. 
 
LECTURE Vll. 180 
 
 the Jews, shall be gathered together, 
 one fold under one Shepherd, the Lord 
 Jesus Christ. 
 
 These passages of Scripture, then, 
 although no doubt highly allegorical in 
 some portions, and probably hyperbolical 
 in all, have fully warranted the Church 
 of Christ in all ages to look forward 
 with anxiety, and prayerfulness, and joy, 
 to a season such as earth has never 
 witnessed ; when, although sin will not 
 be utterly extirpated, nor the seed of 
 evil-doers entirely driven from the face 
 of the earth, there will be such an ex- 
 tension of the Redeemer's kingdom, out- 
 wardly over the surface of the globe, 
 and such a deepening and strengthening 
 of the principles of His blessed religion 
 inwardly in the hearts, and souls, and 
 affections of all who call themselves by 
 His name, that it will s-trictly deserve 
 the name of a world " wherein dwelleth 
 righteousness :" a world in which the 
 three great idols which are now receiving 
 
190 LECTURE VII. 
 
 the adoration of the mass of mankind, 
 "the lust of the flesh, the lust of the 
 eyes, and the pride of life,"* " the trinity 
 of the Gentiles," shall be cast down 
 from their pedestals, and " the Lord 
 alone shall be exalted in that day."t 
 Then shall true and vital godHness, and 
 the principles of pure and undefiled 
 religion, take the lead, in the hearts of 
 individuals, in the conduct of families, 
 in the schemes and pi ins of politicians, 
 in all the acts and regulations of govern- 
 ments, in short, in the constitution not of 
 a single country, but of the whole world. 
 We might naturally expect, that in 
 an epistle addressed to the Church at 
 such a period, although to us dark and 
 ambiguous, as the language of unfulfilled 
 prophecy must ever be, there should 
 still exist a very marked and decided 
 difference, be ween it and every other. 
 In the epistle before us, we are justified 
 in saying that this distinction will be 
 
 * 1 John ii. 16. t Isaiah ii. 11. 
 
LECTURE VII. 191 
 
 found. Throughout the whole of its 
 instructive verses, there is not a syllable 
 of reprehension, not a single call to 
 repentance, not a word of threaten- 
 ing or reproach, no predictions of suf- 
 fering ; nothing but promises of honour 
 and guidance, and security and hap- 
 piness, temporal, spiritual, and eternal. 
 When our Lord was about to speak 
 of a church-state differing so widely 
 from all that had gone before, and there- 
 fore its probability no doubt liable to 
 be called in question, by many who 
 should read the words of this prophecy, 
 it was essential to impress those to 
 whom the epistle was sent, with the 
 recollection of the unquestionable vera- 
 city of Him who spake. Observe, then, 
 as in the former cases, here also the 
 great and striking propriety of the 
 preface ; " To the angel of the Church 
 in Philadelphia write, these things saith 
 He that is holy. He that is true."* Our 
 
 • Revelation iii. 7. 
 
192 LECTURE VII. 
 
 Lord here describes himself as pos- 
 sessing two of the great attributes of 
 the eternal Godhead, perfect holiness and 
 perfect truth ; that therefore not one 
 jot or one tittle of His word should pass 
 away, until all were fulfilled. Again, 
 He is about to speak, in the words of 
 this epistle, of that most remarkable of 
 all the promises of God, viz. the recall 
 and the conversion of His ancient people 
 the Jews. Of what portion, then, of 
 His prerogative as Mediator could our 
 Lord more properly remind His people 
 than of that to which He refers, when 
 He thus continues, "He that hath the 
 key of David, He that openeth and no 
 man shutteth, and shutteth and no man 
 openeth." 
 
 This remarkable expression, "the 
 key of David," occurs only in one other 
 place in the scriptures of God, and that 
 is in the 22d chapter of the prophet 
 Isaiah ; the manner in which it is made 
 use of there, will tend very materially 
 
LECTURE VII. 193 
 
 to explain the cause and intention of 
 its adoption in the passage we are con- 
 sidering. The Almighty is declaring 
 that he will bestow upon Eliakim, the 
 son of Hilkiah, the government of Je- 
 rusalem, and He says, "He shall be a 
 father to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, 
 and to the house of Judah, and the key 
 of the house of David will I lay upon 
 his shoulder ; so he shall open and none 
 shall shut, and he shall shut and none 
 shall open." There is so remarkable a 
 similarity between the two passages, that 
 it is quite impossible to suppose for a 
 moment that it could be accidental. Com- 
 mentators conclude, therefore, that our 
 Lord intended to convey the same impres- 
 sion by this description of Himself in the 
 epistle before us, as is conveyed by the 
 declaration in the prophecy of Isaiah, 
 viz : that the person spoken of should 
 be " a father to the inhabitants of Je- 
 rusalem, and to the house of Judah ;" 
 while, by possessing " the key of David," 
 17 
 
194 LECTURE VII. 
 
 he should have access to the locked-up 
 hearts of that stubborn people, (over 
 whom David once was ruler,) which he 
 should be able to open, though men 
 cannot, and which he should so open 
 that none should thereafter ever close 
 them. Surely it is impossible to imagine 
 any portion of the mediatorial character 
 of our Lord more appropriate for the 
 consideration of the Church at this 
 period, or more encouraging to His 
 ancient people, the Jews, than the pe- 
 culiar power and kindness of the Saviour 
 towards the house of Israel, of which 
 they are thus strikingly reminded. 
 
 We proceed to the contents of the 
 epistle itself 
 
 " I know thy works," says our Lord ; 
 for this is the manner in which, without 
 a single exception, all the seven epistles 
 commence. " Behold, I have set before 
 thee an open door, and no man can 
 shut it." Beautiful allusion to that great 
 outpouring of the Spirit, to which we 
 
LECTURE VII. 196 
 
 have referred, when the knowledge of 
 God, and the love of Christ, and the 
 extension of His blessed kingdom, and 
 the wide and deep diffusion of Christian 
 principles, shall reign throughout the 
 world. 
 
 How did the Christians in the apos- 
 tolical age long and pray for blessings 
 such as these ! Even then the door 
 had been unlocked, and partially set 
 open, and some few straggling companies, 
 from " every nation under heaven," as 
 the apostle declares, were admitted 
 through it. From that age, even until 
 the present, we may say with truth and 
 gratitude, that the door, which the Spirit 
 of God then opened, has stood immov- 
 ably ajar. All the opposing pressure 
 of infidelity, and worldliness, and oppo- 
 sition to divine truth, has for eighteen 
 centuries been unable, by its utmost 
 efforts, to shut that door; but then, 
 alas ! all the prayers, and all the labours, 
 and all the tears and cries, of God's 
 
196 LECTURE VII. 
 
 redeemed people, have availed but little, 
 nay, almost nothing, in forcing it still 
 further open. True it is, and blessed 
 be God for his mercy, that the work 
 of salvation has been continually carrying 
 on. Souls are brought to Christ, but 
 alas ! slowly and singly, one of a city, 
 two of a family, at long and distant 
 intervals ; and many are the labours and 
 prayers and exhortations, and many the 
 failures and disappointments and sorrows, 
 of the ministers and the people of God, 
 in adding but one sheep to the fold of 
 the Redeemer. How dehghtful to look 
 forward to a second rising of the Sun 
 of Righteousness, like some traveller on 
 his midnight journey, to the first opening 
 of the coming dawn. How cheering to 
 the heart of the Christian, now while 
 sitting watchfully and prayerfully beside 
 that partly opened door, so jealously 
 defended from within, so unceasingly 
 pressed upon from without, and to anti- 
 cipate the hour, when the Lord Jesus 
 
LECTURE VII. 197 
 
 Christ, He who "shutteth and no man 
 openeth, and openeth and no man wshut- 
 teth," shall with His own hand fling 
 wide that portal, and even Satan himself, 
 for a time subdued and fettered, shall 
 be unable to obstruct the entrance of 
 the thousands and tens of thousands who 
 shall rush forward for admittance into 
 the heavenly temple. Then shall be ful- 
 filled the glowing language of the pro- 
 phet, " The earth shall be made to bring 
 forth in one day. A nation shall be born, 
 at once."* " They gather themselves 
 together, they come to thee."t " They 
 shall come up with acceptance on mine 
 altar, and I will glorify the house of 
 my gloryc"J " Thy gates shall be open 
 continually, they shall not be shut day 
 nor night, that men may bring unto thee 
 the forces of the Gentiles, and that 
 their kings may be brought."§ While 
 so thickly shall the heirs of salvation 
 
 » Isaiah Ixvi. 8. t Ibid. xlix. 18. 
 
 t Ibid. k. 7. § Ibid Ix. U. 
 
 17* 
 
198 LECTURE VII. 
 
 press into the kingdom of Christ, so 
 anxiously shall they hasten to this open 
 door, that the prophet Isaiah is repre- 
 sented as asking in astonishment at their 
 numbers without number, " Who are 
 these that fly as a cloud, and as the doves 
 to their w^indows ?"* 
 
 How impossible is it for the Christian, 
 who really loves his Lord, and who feels 
 compassion for the souls of his fellow- 
 sinners, to think of such a blessed, such 
 a heart-encouraging prospect, without ex- 
 periencing within him a well-spring of 
 joy, which nothing earthly can impart. 
 Surely even the angels themselves, if 
 they rejoice over the one sinner that 
 repenteth, must day by day, amidst the 
 brightest harmonies of their golden harps, 
 while looking forward to this glorious 
 consummation, be for ever reiterating 
 the inquiry, in one continual chorus, 
 " How long, O Lord, holy and true, 
 bow long, O Lord, how long ?"t 
 
 * Isaiah Ix, 8. f Rev. vi. 10. 
 
LECTURE VII. 199 
 
 We are not surprised that the Lord 
 Jesus Christ himself, to whom the spi- 
 ritual strength of the holiest man, yea 
 of all the holiest men who have ever 
 lived, can be but as the child's feebleness 
 in the apprehension of a giant, could 
 acknowledge of so glorious a church-state 
 as this, " Thou hast a little strength, and 
 hast kept my word, and hast not denied 
 my name."* 
 
 To the true Christian this is perhaps 
 the most blessed portion of the prophecy. 
 It is much to hear that " none shall hurt 
 or destroy in all God's holy mountain." 
 It is much to be told that the name of 
 God shall be known, and loved, and re- 
 joiced in, " from sea to sea, and from 
 shore to shore;" but it is infinitely 
 more to know that all shall keep His 
 word, and that none shall deny His 
 name. We are aware, that the careless, 
 the disobedient, the inconsistent, the 
 nominal Christian, cannot be expected 
 
 * Revelation iii.8. 
 
200 LECTURE VII. 
 
 to enter into feelings such as these ; 
 but if there be any among us who ex- 
 perience with deep regret the remains 
 of an old and corrupted nature, the body 
 of sin and death still hanging about them, 
 impeding their every holy effort, clogging 
 with imperfection and with sin their purest 
 thoughts, their most ardent endeavours, 
 their most faithful prayers, they will fully 
 appreciate the unspeakable blessings of 
 a state in which these enemies shall no 
 longer assail the followers of God, or 
 if assailing, shall assuredly be overcome. 
 If earth can ever resemble heaven, it 
 will be then, when by the universal 
 prevalence of Christian principles, Christ 
 shall take unto Him His great power 
 and reign; and when to do His will, 
 to confess His name, to rejoice in His 
 salvation, shall supersede all the pleasures 
 of sense all the day dreams of ambition, 
 all the fading glories of the world. 
 
 But there is yet another important 
 portion of the prophecy to be considered, 
 
LECTURE VII. 201 
 
 " Behold, I will make them of the syna- 
 gogue of Satan, which say they are Jews, 
 and are not, but do lie ; behold, I will 
 make them to come and worship before 
 thy feet, and to know that I have loved 
 thee." In these words we have a dis- 
 tinct reference to the state of the children 
 of Israel at the commencement of this 
 period of the spiritual reign of our Lord 
 and Saviour Jesus Christ. He says, 
 they are " of the synagogue of Satan," 
 "calling themselves Jews, and yet are 
 not." It would probably be difficult to 
 find any description of this degraded and 
 outcast people, as they exist at present, 
 more perfectly in agreement with the 
 strictest truth than these words. Painful 
 as it is to confess it, we have the tes- 
 timony of all travellers who have inquired 
 into the state of the Jews in the different 
 countries of the world, over which they 
 have now been for so many centuries 
 scattered, yet with which never inter- 
 mingled, that they are Israelites only 
 
202 LECTURE VII. 
 
 by extraction and by name, without a 
 temple, without sacrifices, without there- 
 fore a shadow of acceptable worship; 
 for their own law has declared, that 
 "without shedding of blood there is no 
 remission of sin ;"^ and they, while per- 
 severing in denying the efficacy of the 
 blood of the Lamb of God, bring no 
 blood of sprinkling as their law com- 
 mands, to purify their defilements, and 
 are therefore living in the open, constant 
 neglect of all that, according even to 
 their own views, is necessary for their 
 own acceptance before God. While the 
 majority of them, we fear, have as little 
 respect for Moses as for Christ, and 
 live as completely in defiance of the 
 law, as they do in disbelief of the gospel. 
 How could they have been more accu- 
 rately described by the language of 
 prophecy, than they are in the passage 
 before us, as those " who say they are 
 Jews, and are not ?" 
 
 * Hebrews ix. 22. 
 
LECTURE VII. 203 
 
 . Of these, then, viz. of all the children 
 of Israel, however blind and ignorant, 
 the time shall come when the word of 
 God, and the power of God, shall reach 
 their hard and stubborn hearts, and the 
 whole tenor of God's word upon this 
 interesting subject shall be fully borne 
 out, by their conversion as a people to 
 the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ, 
 and their admittance to the worship of 
 the true Church of the Redeemer, when 
 the " fulness of the Gentiles" being 
 come in, as in that church-state of which 
 we are speaking, the Jewish Church 
 shall learn the gospel at the feet of the 
 Christian Church, as St. Paul of old, 
 at the feet of Gamaliel, and worship 
 with her, and know what eighteen cen- 
 turies have not yet taught them, the 
 love of God in Christ Jesus for all the 
 families of the earth ; and that great 
 New Testament truth, that " there is" 
 now " neither Jew nor Greek, neither 
 bond nor free, there is neither male nor 
 
204 LECTURE VII. 
 
 female, for ye are all one in Christ Jesus ; 
 and if ye be Christ's, then ye are Abra- 
 ham's seed, and heirs according to the 
 promise."^ 
 
 The epistle then continues, " Because 
 thou hast kept the word of my patience," 
 i. e. the gospel of Christ, "I also will 
 keep thee from the hour of temptation," 
 or trial, " which shall come upon all the 
 world, to try them that dwell upon the 
 earth. Behold, I come quickly; hold 
 that fast which thou hast, that no man 
 take thy crown." 
 
 The hour of trial, from which the 
 Lord here promises that He will keep 
 His people, is that season which shall 
 succeed the period of which we have 
 now been speaking, and upon which, as 
 a more especial reference will be made 
 to it in the next discourse, it will be 
 unnecessary now to dwell. 
 
 The only sentence of advice to be 
 found throughout this whole epistle, is 
 
 * Galatians iii. 28. 
 
LECTURE VII. , 205 
 
 conveyed in the single recommendation, 
 " Hold that fast which thou hast."* They 
 were not counselled to obtain more, they 
 were not directed, as we are, to be seek- 
 ing, as a church, for larger supplies of 
 knowledge, and grace, and love. In that 
 blessed state, it will be enough to hold 
 fast what they have, so universally will 
 holy principles, and spiritual knowledge, 
 and ardent zeal, and devotedness of life 
 and heart, be diffused throughout the 
 whole body of the Christian Church. 
 Surely to those who are privileged to 
 see that day, there will be nothing even 
 in heaven itself, except the personal 
 presence of the Lord Jesus Christ, which 
 can make it preferable to that earth in 
 which 
 
 " His name shall sound from shore to shore, 
 Till suns shall rise and set no more." 
 
 We conclude with the promise with 
 which the epistle finishes, " Him that 
 overcometh will I make a pillar in the 
 
 * Revelation iii, 11. 
 
 18 
 
206 LECTURE VII. 
 
 temple of my God, and he shall go no 
 more out; and I will write upon him 
 the name of my God, and the name of 
 the city of my God, which is new Jeru- 
 salem, which Cometh out of heaven from 
 my God, and I will write upon him my 
 new name." 
 
 We are told that it was not uncommon 
 among the heathen nations of antiquity 
 to erect monumental pillars within the 
 temples of their gods, and to inscribe 
 on these columns the most important 
 circumstances in the life of the de- 
 ceased ; — for instance, the name of th€ 
 particular deity under whose auspices 
 he had placed himself, the name of the 
 city of which he was enrolled a citizen, 
 and the name of the general under 
 whose command he had fought, and 
 bled, and conquered. There is then, 
 probably, an allusion to this striking 
 custom, in the gracious promise of our 
 Lord to the Christian conqueror. On 
 the day when his earthly warfare shall 
 
LECTURE VII. 207 
 
 have finished, he shall be removed into 
 the heavenly temple, even into the heaven 
 of heavens itself, and shall become a 
 perpetual trophy, a glorious monument 
 of the victory of his redeeming Leader. 
 He shall baar the name of his God, 
 under whose auspices he has contended, 
 even the Lord Jehovah ; the name of 
 the city, among whose holy and happy 
 inmates he shall be for ever enrolled, 
 even that " city which hath foundations, 
 whose builder and maker is God.""^ 
 Above all, shall be written upon him 
 the name, " the new name," of Him 
 under whom he has fought the good 
 fight, and kept the faith, and received 
 the crown, " even my new name," says 
 the Lord Jesus Christ, Redeemer, Sa- 
 viour, Mediator, Intercessor, for these 
 were all new names, obtained on Calvary 
 by Him who had been from all eternity 
 " King of kings, and Lord of lords." 
 My brethren, when heaven and earth 
 
 * Hebrews xi. 10. 
 
208 LECTURE VII. 
 
 shall pass away, when all that hath been 
 is no more, these living pillars in the 
 temple of their God shall stand un- 
 changed and unchangeable, everlasting 
 monuments of the love of the Creator, 
 Redeemer, Sanctifier, and of the hap- 
 piness of His redeemed people, " for they 
 shall go no more out for ever." 
 
 This is the peculiarity which renders 
 the promise before us so unspeakably 
 valuable, the perpetuity of the blessings 
 which it contains. If it declared to you 
 that you should be admitted to the joys 
 of the heavenly temple for any limited 
 period, however long, there could be 
 no perfect happiness: the thought that 
 every day brought you nearer to the 
 close ; the conviction that, however dis- 
 tant, that closing hour must come ; the 
 tremendous reflection of what should be, 
 if we may say so, beyond the end, 
 would mar even the happiness of the 
 heavenly temple, and make you wretched 
 there. How blessed, then, is the assu- 
 
LECTURE VII. 209 
 
 ranee, that when once removed into that 
 bHssful abode, you shall go no more out. 
 There are many among you, and we 
 thank God that we may beheve an in- 
 creasing number, who know something 
 of the privileges of the Christian's life 
 on earth, something of communion with 
 God, and of the joys of spiritual fellow- 
 ship with his Son Jesus Christ. But 
 how miserably defective are those joys, 
 and how imperfect that communion, none 
 but yourselves can tell. The more high 
 and holy your duties, the more speedily 
 do they weary you, and convince you 
 day by day, that yours is, indeed, a fallen, 
 corrupted nature, and that there is a 
 great gulf fixed between the holiest 
 worshipper upon earth, and the lowest 
 door-keeper in the house of our God 
 in heaven. It is, then, a delightful and 
 most profitable anticipation to look for- 
 ward to the full and complete accom- 
 plishment of the promise before us, when 
 " time shall be no longer," when, his great 
 18* 
 
210 LECTURE VII. 
 
 work finished, his long and weary flight 
 concluded, he shall fold up his wings for 
 ever, and drop into the ocean of eternity. 
 Think, then, we beseech you, what 
 and where shall you then be ? In a state 
 unalterably fixed, once and for ever. 
 This is certain; would to God it were 
 equally certain, that we might answer 
 for each and for all of us, inheriting the 
 promise of the text, " Pillars in the 
 temple of our God, who shall go no more 
 out." How overwhelming, yet how 
 blissful is the thought; the unclouded 
 presence of God, the Father, Son, and 
 Holy Ghost, whose " name is love," 
 shining upon us throughout the unnum- 
 bered ages of eternity : a worship which 
 shall never weary, a service which shall 
 never fatigue, pleasures that cannot fade, 
 all infinite in extent, eternal in duration, 
 knowing no change, suffering no diminu- 
 tion, having no end. 
 
 May this solemn reflection, and the 
 anticipation of such a state, so un- 
 
LECTURE VIL 211 
 
 utterably happy, rest upon our souls, 
 and shed a hallowing influence upon us, 
 winning us if it may be, even for a 
 Sabbath hour, from earth, and drawing 
 us nearer heaven. Well calculated is 
 it to produce this effect, well calculated 
 to induce us devoutly to attend to those 
 peculiarly solemn and soul-affecting ser- 
 vices of the week upon which we have 
 this day entered,* which have been so 
 wisely appointed by our apostolical Church 
 to prepare the minds of her people for 
 the most awful anniversaries of the 
 Christian year, — the Crucifixion, and the 
 Resurrection of our Lord and Saviour 
 Jesus Christ. Let us not, by our ne- 
 glect of these daily services, demonstrate 
 that our religious feelings are experienced 
 only on the Sunday, but let us prove, 
 by our regular and serious attendance 
 at these truly impressive and profitable 
 preparations, that we are anxious, by 
 the aid of God's good Spirit, to bring 
 
 * Passion Week. 
 
212 LECTURE VII. 
 
 our hearts and affections, our thoughts 
 and feehngs, into some httle unison with 
 those high themes which will engage us 
 on the days to which we have alluded, 
 and which will doubtless be among the 
 mysteries, the developement of which will 
 delight our minds and gladden our hearts, 
 when the period of which we have been 
 speaking shall arrive, and we shall reside 
 for ever in the temple of our God. 
 
EPISTLE TO LAODICEA. 
 
LECTURE VIII. 
 
 Revelation iii. 20. 
 
 Behold, I stand at the door and knock : if any man hear 
 my voice and open the door, I will come in to him, and 
 will sup with him, and he v/ith me. 
 
 We have now arrived at the last por- 
 tion of that connected and interesting 
 series of history and prophecy, through 
 which we have been travelHng. We 
 have traced the progress of the Chris- 
 tian Church from the days of her 
 infancy, when her few, but eminently 
 holy and devoted members, were con- 
 tained within one house of prayer, and 
 covered by a single roof. We have 
 beheld her gradually enlarging her 
 
216 LECTURE VIII. 
 
 boundaries, until her temples were seen 
 springing up in all lands, and the 
 voices of prayer and praise were heard 
 throughout the habitations of men. 
 These were the days of her maturity ; 
 while deeply interesting was that picture 
 of her riper years, of holy energy and 
 fervent devotion, with which the last 
 epistle presented us. 
 
 Happy should we feel, if the closing 
 scene, which we are now approaching, 
 had been equally brilliant. All reve- 
 lation, however, tends to prevent any 
 such expectation ; and the epistle be- 
 fore u^, addressed as it obviou ly is, 
 to a decaying church, is in full ac- 
 cordance with every other portion of 
 the word of God. It is indeed de- 
 scriptive of the feeble and futile efforts 
 of a decrepid old age ; of that church- 
 state to which our Lord particularly 
 alludes, when he says, "The love of 
 many shall wax cold ;" of that period, 
 to which he so expressly refers, when 
 
LECTURE VIII. 217 
 
 he predicts, " As it was in the days 
 of Noe, so shall it be also in the 
 days of the Son of man ;"^ " likewise 
 also as it was in the days of Lot ; they 
 did eat, they drank, they bought, they 
 sold, they planted, they builded ;" " even 
 thus shall it be in the day when the Son 
 of man is revealed."t Evidently marking 
 a time, particularly characterised by an 
 entire engrossment by the things of the 
 world, a total forgetfulness of God. 
 While, with reference again to this same 
 church-state, our Lord emphatically in- 
 quires, " When the Son of man cometh, 
 shall He find faith on the earth ?":}: the 
 very inquiry itself containing by impli- 
 cation, the strongest negative reply. 
 
 That you may, however, still more 
 distinctly perceive from the unerring 
 word of God, that such a state of 
 things is to be expected even after 
 that glorious period to which the last 
 
 » Luke xvii. 26. t Luke xvii. 30. 
 
 t Luke xviii. 8. 
 
 19 
 
218 LECTURE VIII. 
 
 discourse particularly referred, we shall 
 read a portion of the 20th chapter of 
 Revelation, w^here both these ages of 
 the church are plainly alluded to. "I 
 saw an angel," says the evangelist, 
 "come down from heaven, having the 
 key of the bottomless pit and a great 
 chain in his hand. And he laid hold 
 on the dragon, that old serpent, which 
 is the Devil and Satan, and bound him 
 a thousand years, and cast him into 
 the bottomless pit, and set a seal upon 
 him, that he should deceive the nations 
 no more, till the thousand years should 
 be fulfilled ; and after that, he must 
 be loosed a little season."* According 
 to the highly figurative language of this 
 remarkable passage of Holy Writ, we 
 apprehend, that by this chaining of Satan, 
 is simply meant the wonderful abridg- 
 ment of his power and influence which will 
 be felt throughout the whole world, during 
 what may be denominated the Phila- 
 
 * Revelation xx. 1 — 3. 
 
LECTURE VIII. 219 
 
 delphian period. When the Spirit of 
 our Lord shall, as we have seen, reign 
 so triumphantly over the largest pro- 
 portion of the inhabited globe, that 
 the love of God and the desire of 
 pleasing Him, and of obeying His com- 
 mands, shall take the place of all those 
 selfish and unworthy motives which 
 now, for the most part, regulate man- 
 kind. While by the "little season," 
 during which Satan shall again be un- 
 loosed, we feel assured, is intended 
 the period marked by the present 
 epistle, as one of gross departure from 
 the laws, and great forgetfulness of 
 the worship of the Lord our God. 
 The same prophecy is repeated in 
 the same chapter, where it is de- 
 clared that " When the thousand years 
 are expired, Satan shall be loosed 
 out of his prison, and shall go out to 
 deceive the nations, which are in the 
 four quarters of the earth."* 
 
 * Revelation xx. 7, 8. 
 
220 LECTURE VII r. 
 
 This, then, is the period spoken of 
 in the epistle before us, when Satan 
 with renewed power, and doubtless 
 with animosity and hatred tenfold mul- 
 tiplied by his long enchainment, shall 
 once more be liberated to walk to and 
 fro on the earth, and to "deceive the 
 nations." And this shall be the con- 
 clusion of all things temporal. For 
 the evangelist immediately adds, speak- 
 ing of the time when this little sea- 
 son of impiety and ungodliness shall be 
 over, " I saw a great white throne, 
 and Him that sat on it, from whose 
 face the earth and the heaven fled away ; 
 and there was found no place for them. 
 And I saw the dead, small and great, 
 stand before God; and the books were 
 opened ; . . . . and the dead were judged 
 out of those things which were written 
 in the books, according to their works."* 
 
 The epistle before us commences 
 thus, " And unto the angel of the church 
 
 •Revelation xx. 11,12. 
 
LECTURE VIII. 221 
 
 of the Laodiceans, write ; These things, 
 saith the Amen, the faithful and true 
 Witness, the beginning of the creation 
 of God."* "These things, saith the 
 Amen." He who addressed his church 
 at the very commencement of its ex- 
 istence, has overlooked it with a pa- 
 rent's eye, during every successive 
 age; and here, in the winding up o^ 
 the roll of prophecy, is about to utter 
 His parting benediction. He is now 
 to set His seal to all that has gone 
 before, and by assuming this title, 
 appears to indicate that it is "the last 
 time ;" that " the things concerning it 
 have an end ;" and that He who is 
 foreteUing them, is the Amen, who 
 will be there to witness and to pro- 
 nounce its doom. Again, in this 
 epistle, our Lord is about to testify 
 of the remarkable deadness and cold- 
 ness of the period of which he speaks, 
 and well knowing the opposition of the 
 
 * Revelation iii. 13, 14. 
 
 19* 
 
^22 LECTURE VIII. 
 
 human heart to every statement which 
 tends to lower its imaginary dignity, 
 to affront its pride, or to convict it 
 of unholiness, and sin, He reminds 
 this church-state, that however pain- 
 ful to its feelings His assertions 
 may prove. He is still a " faithful and 
 true witness," adding nothing, diminish- 
 ing nothing, but simply stating the 
 fact of its apostacy and lukewarmness, 
 with the unshrinking fidelity of an 
 upright witness, when examined upon 
 oath before a court of human judi- 
 cature. While in declaring Himself 
 the " beginning," or the originator " of 
 the creation of God," our Lord ap- 
 pears not only to assert His acknow- 
 ledged right to a co-equality with the 
 Father, and to remind the Church of 
 that declaration of Holy Writ, that 
 " by Him were all things made, and 
 without Him was not any thing made 
 that was made ;" but also to throw out, 
 as it appears, a hope to the mem- 
 
LECTURE VIII. 223 
 
 bers of the Christian Church, at this 
 period, that if they felt convinced that 
 they were indeed "dead in trespasses 
 and sin," there was One, who as the 
 beginner of all spiritual creation, as well 
 as natural, was ready to hear their prayer, 
 to listen to their cry, to take compassion 
 upon their helplessness, and to originate 
 the seed of divine grace within their 
 hearts. 
 
 Having commenced with this preface 
 so descriptive of Himself, our Lord thus 
 opens the epistle. " I know thy works, 
 that thou art neither cold nor hot; I 
 would thou wert cold or hot. So then 
 because thou art lukewarm, and neither 
 cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my 
 mouth.'"* 
 
 You have often read of God's threat- 
 enings against the open sinner, of His 
 curse which follows the profligate, of His 
 eternal condemnation which awaits the 
 ultimately hardened, impenitent and un- 
 
 • Revelation iii. 15, 16. 
 
224 LECTURE VIII. 
 
 believing, but, if you review them all, 
 even the strongest and most appalling, 
 there is not one which conveys such an 
 idea of absolute loathing and disgust, as 
 the sentence here pronounced against the 
 lukewarm and indifferent. It is as if, 
 while God most dearly loved the zealous 
 Christian, and would comparatively bear, 
 for a time at least, with the open sinner, 
 yet, rather than tolerate for a single 
 moment, these wretched men, who cared 
 just enough about religion to adopt it as 
 a name, but never in any one transaction 
 of their lives, to be really impressed by 
 its threatenings, or influenced by its 
 promises, or directed by its requirements, 
 God should cast them forth, with every 
 mark of loathing and disgust at their 
 trifling and lukewarmness in a work at 
 the very thoughts of which the highest 
 archangels stand amazed. So that our 
 Lord does not scruple to say, " I would 
 thou wert cold, or hot ;" I would thou 
 wert something decided, even if it were 
 
LECTURE VIII. 225 
 
 in opposition and enmity, something less 
 contemptible, than the poor, paltry, luke- 
 warm, half-hearted followers which I have 
 found you. 
 
 How different is the judgment of 
 God from the judgment of the world. 
 With regard to religion the world has 
 but one fear respecting those it loves, 
 and that is, lest they become too zealous, 
 too much in earnest, too devoted, to the 
 care of their souls, and the service of 
 their God. While God also has but one 
 fear respecting those whom He honours 
 with His love, but that is precisely the 
 reverse ; it is lest they remain too cold, 
 too indifferent, too little devoted to the 
 work to which he calls them. Here, 
 then, are at once two grand antagonist 
 principles for ever influencing the hearts 
 of men ; one always holding them back, 
 by the fear of the world's censure, by 
 the dread of its laugh, by the risk of its 
 good opinion ; the other as invariably 
 propelling them forward, by the commands 
 
226 LECTURE VIII. 
 
 of God, by the blood of Christ, by the 
 influences of God's good Spirit. Brethren, 
 you who are lukewarm Christians, stand 
 for ever exposed to the attacks of these 
 two opposing principles; to-day you are 
 brought under the power of God's word, 
 you are led for a moment to remember 
 that you have a soul, that there is a 
 coming judgment, that there is an eternity 
 awaiting you, and that accordingly as 
 that soul has been tended upon earth, 
 shall that eternity be passed. Now these 
 are stern realities, you feel them to be 
 so while you hear of them, you cannot 
 put them instantly aside, you cannot 
 reason them away, you cannot laugh them 
 away. You may attempt it, but they 
 defy the sneer and scoffs of man ; we 
 do not say, they cannot be ridiculed ; but 
 we do say, they cannot be made ridiculous. 
 They are truths, plain, simple, heart- 
 searching truths, you know them to be 
 so, and while you listen to them, you, 
 some at least among you, resolve that 
 
LECTURE VIII. 227 
 
 now at last, you will begin in earnest ; 
 that you will really live like one who 
 has to die, that long as you have turned 
 a cold and indifferent ear to these things, 
 you will now give them at least a 
 fair hearing, and if convinced, allow 
 them the prominency they deserve in 
 your actions, your motives, your heart, 
 your life. 
 
 But then to-morrow comes, and you 
 mingle with the world again, and you 
 are immersed in its business, or sur- 
 rounded by its pleasures, and like our 
 first parents, while you look upon the 
 forbidden fruit, you see that it is good 
 for food and pleasant to the eyes, and 
 you cannot long resist it; old habits, 
 though for a moment checked, are not 
 destroyed, nay not even weakened, they 
 spring up again with redoubled energy 
 from their compression, and before an- 
 other day has passed, the effects of 
 yesterday are over ; you still think re- 
 ligion a good thing in its place, but then 
 
228 LECTURE VIII. 
 
 the place which you assign to it, is widely 
 different from that which God assigns 
 it; you do not indeed desire to be ab- 
 solutely cold, but you are even more 
 afraid of being hot, you wonder that you 
 ever felt so strongly, or resolved, as 
 you now think, so weakly and absurdly ; 
 you attribute it to the excitement of the 
 moment, from which, thank God, you 
 are now delivered ; and having thus 
 reasoned away, or trifled away, your 
 new born zeal, you remain the lukewarm 
 Christian still. 
 
 Brethren, do you imagine this to be 
 a very rare or remarkable character, 
 one of a thousand ? So far from it 
 that we believe it to be the most 
 common, most prevailing characteristic 
 of the days in which we live ! we have 
 no doubt that there are hundreds around 
 us, probably some even in this congre- 
 gation, who exhibit it every week of 
 their lives. Nay, so prevalent is it, and 
 so entirely in accordance with the taste 
 
LECTURE VIII. 229 
 
 of the natural heart, that men make a 
 virtue of this very sin of lukewarmness 
 which God condemns, and while they 
 admire zeal in every other calling in 
 human life, the zealous poet, the zealous 
 painter, the zealous politician, the zealous 
 man of business, — when they speak of 
 the zealous Christian, the epithet changes 
 its very meaning, and the phrase becomes 
 a sarcasm and a sneer. While that 
 degree of religion, and that alone, obtains 
 the commendation of the world, which 
 is precisely described by our Lord as 
 "neither hot nor cold," the object of 
 his strongest loathing and disgust. 
 
 This, however, is not the only charge 
 against the Laodicean Church ; our Lord 
 continues, " Because thou sayest I am 
 rich, and increased in goods, and have 
 need of nothing." We mentioned at the 
 commencement of this discourse, that the 
 word of God has revealed, that Satan 
 should be loosed during this period, that 
 he might especially deceive the nations. 
 20 
 
230 LECTURE VIII. 
 
 How successfully he should succeed in 
 his delusions, the words before us fully 
 testify. 
 
 He it is, and he only, who teaches 
 men amidst the wretchedness of their 
 spiritual poverty, and the deadness of 
 their spiritual affections, actually to pride 
 themselves upon those very possessions, 
 and those very qualifications, of which 
 they are utterly destitute : for it is Satan 
 who teaches men, even in the depth of 
 their spiritual poverty, to say, " I am 
 rich and increased with goods, and have 
 need of nothing." I am upright and 
 honourable, amiable and high-minded, and 
 after all, this is the true wealth : what 
 does religion do for others, which a high 
 moral principle has not already done for 
 me ? Search all the generations of men, 
 and in every case, except where the 
 Spirit of God has enlightened and trans- 
 formed the heart, there will you find this 
 self-ignorance and self-deception, and 
 prevailing even in a far lower grade of 
 
LECTURE VIII. 231 
 
 the moral standard than I have repre- 
 sented. The worldly man in his w^orld- 
 liness, the thief in his dishonesty, the 
 drunkard in his drunkenness, the unchaste 
 man in his uncleanness, will all return 
 a similar answer. Each is priding himself 
 upon the possession of a single virtue, 
 which he thinks fully compensates for 
 his thousand crimes; each, in the self- 
 sufficiency of his heart, is saying, "' I am 
 rich, and have need of nothing." The 
 spiritual blessings of which you so largely 
 talk, 1 want them not ; the blood of 
 Christ to cleanse me from all sin ! the 
 Holy Spirit to sanctify me ! a God with 
 whom to be reconciled! No, this is 
 enthusiasm, these are all delusions. 
 Thank God, I do my duty in my station ; 
 I injure no man ; if I am even my own 
 enemy, I am the enemy of no other 
 living creature ; I need nothing more 
 than myself, and nothing besides myself, 
 to reconcile me to God. So truly might 
 our Lord address every unconverted man 
 
232 LECTURE VIII. 
 
 in the words of the text, " Thou knowest 
 not that thou art wretched, and miserable, 
 and poor, and blind, and naked." 
 
 This is the Saviour's declaration, the 
 sentence of Him unto whom all hearts 
 are open, and from whom no secrets are 
 hid : this he says to every individual 
 born into the world, however amiable 
 and benevolent, and upright and ex- 
 cellent. " Wretched and miserable," for 
 you have attempted, like the prodigal, 
 to satisfy an immortal soul with the 
 husks which the swine did eat — " Poor," 
 for you are utterly destitute of the un- 
 searchable riches of Christ — "Blind," 
 for you have no moral perception, no 
 spiritual eye-sight — " Naked," for you 
 have nothing but the tattered garment 
 of your own righteousness in which to 
 stand before God. And in addition to 
 all this, " Thou knowest it not," says 
 our Lord. This is the most affecting 
 portion of the charge. It is not merely 
 that you are in this pitiable state of 
 
LECTURE VIII. 233 
 
 which we speak, but that you are not 
 aware that you are in it. This is the 
 crowning misery of the unrenewed man. 
 If you knew your state, if you would 
 even believe the honest testimony which 
 the word of God bears to it, all would 
 be well ; not another hour, not another 
 moment would elapse, before you would 
 exclaim, " What shall I do to be saved ?" 
 But it is this ignorance, which we cannot 
 remove, this infatuation over which we 
 have no power, that form the most fright- 
 ful symptoms of your malady. 
 
 Listen, however, to the words of the 
 good Physician, whose hand can heal, 
 where every other hand is powerless. 
 
 This, then, is the advice of the Saviour, 
 " I counsel thee to buy of me, gold tried 
 in the fire, that thou mayest be rich ; and 
 white raiment, that thou mayest be clothed, 
 and that the shame of thy nakedness do 
 not appear ; and anoint thine eyes with 
 eye-salve, that thou mayest see."* 
 
 * Revelation iii. 18. 
 
 20* 
 
234 LECTURE VIIL 
 
 " I counsel thee ;" it is the kind and 
 gentle offer of a friend. Christ knows 
 with the certainty of Omniscience, what, 
 perhaps, to the present moment, you have 
 never known, your natural poverty, and 
 nakedness, and bhndness ; and He offers, 
 what you perhaps have never sought, 
 and what you certainly can never else- 
 where obtain; gold, and garments, and 
 eye-salve. So wonderfully are the gifls 
 of the Saviour apportioned to your neces- 
 sities and your wants. The gold which 
 He offers, has. He says, been tried in the 
 fire, and has not been consumed ; no 
 dross, no defilement in that precious ore, 
 to dread the furnace, for that gold is 
 the worthiness of Christ, which has long 
 since borne every test, and which came 
 forth from the furnace even of Calvary 
 itself, pure and undefiled as it entered. 
 The "raiment" which He ofl'ers you is 
 " white," yes, so as no fuller on earth 
 could whiten it, for that raiment is the 
 unspotted righteousness of your Re- 
 
LECTURE VIII. 235 
 
 deemer, in which when once you are 
 arrayed, Omniscience itself can discover 
 neither spot nor stain in you. The 
 " eye-salve," which He ofiers you is such, 
 that he declares it will not merely 
 improve your sight, but will actually 
 restore it, that whereas you were blind, 
 now you shall see ; for that eye-salve is 
 the illumination of the Spirit of light, by 
 which alone, as all Scripture testifies, the 
 •' eyes of our mind being enlightened," 
 we are taught to know what is the hope 
 of His calling, and what the glory of 
 His inheritance in the saints. 
 
 If we thus examine each of the 
 remedies here proposed to us, however 
 they may appear to differ, the same 
 remarkable peculiarity, to which we re- 
 ferred in a former discourse, will again 
 be found to attend them all ; they are 
 all to be bought of Christ, and they are 
 all comprised in Christ. Establishing 
 most incontrovertibly this great Bible 
 truth, that the want of every destitute 
 
^36 LECTURE VIII. 
 
 sinner is one and the same, for it is, in 
 fact, the want of a Saviour. If you are 
 poor, Christ is " gold ;" if you are bUnd, 
 Christ's spirit is " eye-salve ;" if you are 
 naked, Christ's righteousness is " rai- 
 ment," He is the depositary of every gift 
 of God, nay more. He is himself " the 
 unspeakable gift" of God ; and therefore 
 for all that you can need, and for each 
 that you can need. He sends you to 
 none besides Himself — " I counsel thee, 
 to buy of Me." Ask of Him in faithful 
 prayer, believing ; and every w^ant shall 
 be supplied, and every desire fulfilled. 
 
 Our Lord having thus spoken the 
 language of mingled reproof and counsel 
 to this lukewarm, and self-sufficient, and 
 ignorant Church, proceeds to convince 
 them, that desperate as is their case, it 
 is not hopeless, and thus to urge them 
 not to despair, but to repent. " As 
 many as I love, I rebuke and chasten; 
 be zealous therefore, and repent." Learn 
 from this compassionate language, ad- 
 
LECTURE VIII. 237 
 
 dressed to the Church during the very 
 darkest portion of that Church's history, 
 one blessed and comforting truth; God 
 never hates the sinner. "As many as 
 I love, I rebuke." He hates the sin, 
 He w^ould not be God, if He did not ; 
 He therefore hates the sin w^ith a holy 
 and perfect hatred, and He rebukes, 
 but He never hates the sinner. 
 
 Would that every open sinner now 
 present, might carry away this truth 
 deeply engraven upon his heart. You 
 disobey God, you forget God, you 
 openly affront God, nay we could even 
 prove though you may not allow it, 
 that you hate God, but God never has 
 one feeling of hatred towards you. " God 
 so loved the world," — and remember, a 
 world lying in sin ; full of sinners, — " that 
 He gave His only-begotten Son, to the 
 end that whosoever believeth in Him 
 should not perish, but have everlasting 
 life."* And again, " Herein is love, not 
 
 * John iii. 16. 
 
238 LECTURE VIII. 
 
 that we loved God," — therefore the apostle 
 speaks of our unconverted state, — "but 
 that He loved us."* Yes, brethren, at 
 this moment, that God who would have 
 all men to be saved, and to come to the 
 knowledge of the truth, so loves the 
 most thoughtless, cold, forgetful, luke- 
 warm among you, that He is desi- 
 rous of your salvation, anxious, above 
 all other things, concerning you, that 
 you should repent of sin, and believe 
 in Christ, and be saved with an ever- 
 lasting salvation. " Be zealous, there- 
 fore ;" so God himself requires you, be 
 in earnest. Is the soul worth no anxiety, 
 no fervour, no zeal? Mind not what 
 men say of zeal, and what you yourself 
 have hitherto thought of it, these are 
 God's own words, " Be zealous, therefore, 
 and repent;" it is a business, in which 
 nothing but zeal, heartfelt, glowing, 
 ardent zeal can be powerful enough to 
 carry you through ; and if you resolve 
 
 « 1 John iv. 10. 
 
LECTURE VIII. 239 
 
 that you will not seek this zeal, that 
 you will not pray for it, that you will 
 continue cold and heartless, as you have 
 ever been, in the great things of eternity, 
 we are bound to tell you, that although 
 God loves you, He will not save you ; 
 nay, He cannot save you, for God cannot 
 contradict Himself, and He has thus 
 declared, " The wicked shall be turned 
 into hell, and all the people that forget 
 God." Perish therefore you most un- 
 questionably will in the dark waters, 
 even though in sight of the shore. 
 
 But listen yet once again, to the 
 promise which succeeds the precept. 
 ''Behold," says the Lord Jesus Christ, 
 " I stand at the door and knock ; if any 
 man hear my voice and open the door, 
 I will come in to him, and will sup with 
 him, and he with me." 
 
 What remarkable language ! what an 
 astonishing picture of the love of Christ 
 to every individual ! for this is addressed 
 to every human being who has not yet 
 
240 LECTURE VIII. 
 
 opened his heart for the reception of 
 true rehgion, the admittance of the 
 Saviour. " Behold ! I stand at the 
 door and knock !" what condescension ! 
 The Lord is now waiting to be gra- 
 cious ! and, brethren, he is not stand- 
 ing there to-day for the first time. 
 No ; he has long been standing, long 
 been knocking at the door of your 
 hearts. Do you doubt it? Then con- 
 sider only for a moment. Have you 
 ever suffered from worldly trials and 
 disappointments ? Did you ever lose 
 some well-loved child, some affection- 
 ate relative, some dear friend ? Were 
 you ever cast upon a bed of sickness ? 
 Did you ever feel an unaccountable 
 misgiving at your heart that all was not 
 right within ? that if you died you knew 
 not what should happen after death, — a 
 consideration that there was much in your 
 practice, much in your thoughts, much 
 in your life, utterly displeasing to 
 God, and for which a momentary pang 
 
LECTURE VIII. 241 
 
 of conscience obtained a hearing ? Those 
 were all knockings, loud, distinct, un- 
 earthly knockings of the Saviour at 
 your heart, and asking for admittance. 
 And these are not the events of yes- 
 terday or to-day alone. No ; they have 
 been going on throughout your life. 
 For mark how clearly this is mani- 
 fested by our Lord's own declaration. 
 Metaphorical, as it no doubt is, can 
 any thing more plainly proclaim the 
 time of day, of which he is speaking, 
 than the meal to which he alludes. 
 He desires to be admitted, that he 
 may sup with you. It is, then, the 
 evening hour of which he speaks. 
 And how has your day been passed ? 
 Look back a moment, and observe 
 what God has already done for you. 
 In the morning of your life, when all 
 was fresh around you and within you, 
 before sin had hardened into habit, 
 Christ was there, offering Himself at 
 the door of your heart, as one of the 
 21 
 
242 LECTURE VIII. 
 
 earliest of its guests ; brought there 
 perhaps by a parent's prayers, a mo- 
 ther's fond entreaties. But, even then, 
 "hfe's journey just began," you re- 
 fused to let Him in. Once more 
 look back to that season, when, in- 
 fancy and childhood over, you became 
 a man, and put away childish things. 
 Yes, Christ was there again, in the 
 mid-day of life, knocking, O how loudly, 
 by some warning Providence, some awak- 
 ening word, some providential recovery 
 from illness, or escape from danger, 
 some spiritual conviction. Again He 
 was refused admittance. And now it 
 is evening with you; you cannot dis- 
 guise the fact ; morning, mid-day, after- 
 noon, all are past, and the lengthened 
 shadows of evening will force themselves 
 upon your observation. Yes, it is even- 
 ing with you, and to-day He is once 
 more there, beseeching you to admit 
 Him, by all the great and affecting truths 
 which have this week been set before 
 
LECTURE VIII. 243 
 
 you, — by His table spread for you, upon 
 which you have so often turned your 
 back, — by His invitations sent to you, 
 which you have so often disregarded, — 
 by His ministers pleading with you, 
 which you have so long neglected, — 
 nay more, by His agony and bloody 
 sweat, by His cross and passion, by His 
 precious death and burial, by His glo- 
 rious resurrection, — He is this day 
 knocking for admittance, anxious, most 
 anxious, that you should open to Him, 
 that He should come in to you, and sup 
 with you, and you with Him, before 
 the night cometh, and He withdraws 
 Himself for ever, a slighted visiter, a re- 
 jected suitor, an insulted guest. 
 
 My brethren, is it possible that these 
 offers of a Saviour and of His salvation 
 should be so constant, so pressing, and 
 yet so unattended to ? We know that 
 your hearts may be already occupied 
 by the world, by folly, by sin, who have 
 all entered in, and taken possession, and 
 
244 LECTURE VIII. 
 
 barred up the door, and kept the Saviour 
 out. But must it ever be so? Will 
 you not — and I plead with you for the 
 sake of your own undying souls — will 
 you not, before all hope is extinguished, 
 before life has fled, will you not once 
 cry to the strong for strength, to unbar 
 this door, and to admit the Saviour, with 
 all His commands, and all his promises, 
 into your soul ? Be not, we beseech 
 you, so hardened against your own mer- 
 cies. If you but knew a thousandth 
 part of the peace, the comfort, the joy, 
 which the Saviour brings with Him, 
 you would not delay another moment. 
 But then, alas ! you never can know 
 this but by experience ; for has not His 
 word declared that it is a "joy with 
 which a stranger intermeddleth not :" a 
 joy which, even upon earth, makes His 
 people the happiest, and the calmest, 
 amidst all the vicissitudes of time, and 
 yet is here as nothing compared with 
 the joys to which it leads at God's right 
 
LECTURE Vlir. 245 
 
 hand. Its seed-time only now, its har- 
 vest-time, and O, the riches of that har- 
 vest, throughout the ages of eternity. 
 And these joys are at this moment within 
 your reach, yes, we scruple not to say, 
 within the reach of all and every one 
 here present ; but we cannot secure 
 them for you. No man may deliver 
 his brother, or make atonement unto 
 God for him, for it cost more to re- 
 deem their souls, so that he must let 
 that alone for ever, says the Psalmist : 
 but of this we may, and do most con- 
 fidently assure you, that it is your own 
 fault alone, if you possess them not. 
 "To him that overcometh, will I grant 
 to sit with me on my throne, even as 
 I also overcame, and am sat down with 
 my Father on His throne." 
 
 21* 
 
NOTE. 
 
 The plan of these Lectures not having permitted 
 the Author to dwell upon the historical details of 
 the different Churches to which they refer, he 
 thinks it may not be unacceptable to his younger 
 readers, to present them with a short account of the 
 present state of the places in which these celebrated 
 Churches once flourished. 
 
 The following notices of them are selected from 
 the Rev. John Hartley's " Researches in Greece 
 and the Levant." The Apocalyptic Churches were 
 visited by him in 1826. 
 
 Ephesus. — " In a missionary point of view. 
 Ephesus offers now no attractions ; her ancient 
 Church has vanished — the candlestick has been 
 removed — and even the Turks who dwell at hand 
 are few in number." p. 233. " The plough has 
 passed over the site of the city ! and we saw the 
 green corn growing in all directions amidst the 
 forsaken ruins." p. 235. ♦* At Ephesus, we find 
 at present only one individual who bears the name 
 
NOTE. 247 
 
 of Christ ! and where in the whole region do we 
 discover any semblance of primitive Christianity! 
 The country once favoured with the presence of St. 
 Paul, of Timothy, and St. John, is now in the situ- 
 ation of those lands, of which it is said, Darkness 
 covers the earth, and gross darkness the people. 
 He, then, that hath an ear, let him hear what the 
 Spirit saith unto the Churches.'' p. 239. 
 
 Smyrna. — " The Church of Smyrna is repre- 
 sented (Rev. ii. 8 — 11) as contending with most 
 severe sufferings — poverty, slander, and persecution: 
 but modern Smyrna is a far greater sufferer. The 
 former things have passed away : the faithful 
 Smyrnaeans have long since fought their battle and 
 won their crown. But now the evils are of a 
 different order — apostacy, idolatry, superstition, 
 infidelity, and their tremendous consequences." 
 p. 225. Of the population of Smyrna at present, 
 Mr. Hartley says, " Perhaps there may be 45,000 
 Turks, 15,000 Greeks, 8,000 Armenians, 8,000 
 Jews, and less than 1,000 Europeans. The mosques 
 are more than twenty. The Greeks have three 
 churches; the Armenians, one; the Latins, two; 
 the Protestants, two. The Jews have several 
 synagogues." p. 226. 
 
 Pergamos, — Does not appear to have been visited 
 by Mr. Hartley. 
 
^48 NOTE. 
 
 Thyatira. — " Ak-kissar, the modern Thyatira, 
 is situated on a plain, and is embosomed in cypresses 
 and poplars. The buildings are in general mean ; 
 but the khan in which we are at present residing 
 is by far the best which I have yet seen. The 
 Greeks are said to occupy three hundred houses, 
 and the Armenians thirty. Each of them has a 
 church." p. 296. 
 
 Sardis. — "This morning I have visited Sardis, 
 once the splendid capital of Lydia, the famous resi- 
 dence of Croesus, the resort of Persian monarchs, 
 and one of the most ancient and magnificent cities 
 of the world. Now how fallen ! The ruins are, 
 with one exception, more entirely gone to decay 
 than those of the most ancient cities which we have 
 visited. No Christians reside on the spot : two 
 Greeks only work in a mill here, and a few wretched 
 Turkish huts are scattered among the ruins. I read 
 amidst the ruins the Epistle addressed to the Church 
 once fixed here. What an impressive warning to 
 Christian Churches ! Ji name to live, while deaiV' 
 p. 294. 
 
 Philadelphia. — " The town is situated on a 
 rising ground, beneath the snowy Mount Timolus." 
 " We entered through a ruined wall ; massy, but by 
 no means of great antiquity." "There is still a 
 numerous Christian population, occupying three 
 
NOTE. 240 
 
 hundred houses. Divine service is performed every 
 Sunday, in five churches ; and there are twenty of a 
 smaller description, in which once a year the Liturgy 
 is read. But though the candlestick remains, its 
 light is obscured : the lamp still exists, but where 
 is its oil f Where is now the word of our Lord's 
 patience? — it is conveyed in sounds unintelligible 
 to those who hear. When the very Epistle to their 
 own church is read, they understand it not." " In 
 a word, Philadelphia has had her share in that utter 
 apostacy from true and practical Christianity which 
 has been the bane of the East." p. 289. 
 
 La-odicea. — " The city of Laodicea was seated 
 on a hill of moderate height, but of considerable 
 extent. Its ruins attest that it was large, populous, 
 and splendid. There are still to be seen an amphi- 
 theatre, a theatre, an aqueduct, and many other 
 buildings. But its present condition is in striking 
 conformity with the rebuke and threatening of God. 
 Not a single Christian resides at Laodicea! No 
 Turk has ever fixed a residence on this forsaken 
 spot. Infidelity itself must confess, that the menace 
 of the Scriptures has been executed." p. 259. 
 
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