6

But perhaps it surprises us even more to read the messages to Sardis and to Laodicea, when we connect them with the history of bodies which we suppose must have had all the dews of youth upon them, than even to hear of startling moral corruptions such as are denounced in the others. For here we have all the signs which we connect with what is senile and effete; or with the indifference, effeminacy, self-satisfaction, which ease and luxury engender. The Sardian has a name that he lives and is dead.' He must strengthen the things that remain, that are ready to die.' The Laodicean is 'neither hot nor cold.' He says that he is 'rich, and increased with goods,' and knows not that he is 'wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked. Often has this language been used in pulpits to show what a contrast there is between the primitive times and these, how far we have fallen below the blessed age of which the New Testament speaks to us. And the admonition has been felt to have a force; it has gone home to the consciences of many; it has stirred some to repentance and reformation. Why? I think, brethren, because the language itself is so much truer, and mightier, and simpler, than the preacher's interpretation of it. His golden age has no existence. Christ's revelation of facts scatters the dream. But that revelation tells the Sardian that he has the seven Spirits

6

which quicken, and the seven stars that enlighten. And those Spirits can quicken what is ready to die now as well as then; and those stars can illumine what is dark now as well as then. Christ's revelation tells the Sardian that all who overcome 'shall be clothed in white raiment;' that what is evil shall be blotted out, that their names shall not be blotted out of the book of life,' but He will confess them before His Father, and before the angels.' In such a sentence lies an imperishable power; those white robes of innocence, that power to stand before God and call Him a Father, we need as much as the generations of old. And since it is held out not to those who are full of faith, and energy, and hope, but to those whose works were feeble, who had only a name to live; we may have a courage to take it home; in us it may be accomplished. Christ's revelation tells the Laodicean that He is the 'Amen, the faithful and true Witness, the beginning of the creation of God, and that as many as He loves, He rebukes and chastens, and that He stands at the door and knocks, and that if any hears His voice and opens the door, He will come to him, and sup with him, and that to him that overcometh He will grant to sit with Him on His throne, even as He has overcome, and sat down with His Father on His throne.' Such words contain an undying message to those who are beginning to discover their nakedness,

may

6

and blindness, and wretchedness. They are an assurance that for them also gold is to be had which has been tried in the fire, and white raiment with which they be clothed, and eye-salve with which they may see. 5. And so the brightest vision of all among these Churches—the only one which is very bright-ceases to be any longer a vision of some bygone period which owed its felicity to a state of circumstances that can never return. The angel of the Church of the Philadelphians had only a little strength,' and because he knew that he had only that little, he kept Christ's word, and did not deny His name.' Whilst those who called themselves Jews would not believe that the Son of David could be the Son of Man, while they claimed an exclusive Messiah who should glorify them and condemn the world, he would not deny that glorious name, he believed in One who came to die for the world and to redeem it. Amidst all apparent difficulties and contradictions he kept the word of Christ's patience, believing that He would show Himself at last to be what He had declared Himself to be; that His cross should be found to be the conquering power in the world, the central sun which should draw all to it. Therefore, 'He that is holy, He that is true, He that hath the key of David, He that openeth and no man shutteth, and shutteth and no man openeth,' promises to keep this

servant and this Church from the temptation which should come upon all the world, to try them that dwell upon the earth.' What this temptation was, and how true the promise was in the next verse, 'Behold, I come quickly,' I believe we shall learn as we study this book more. And the more we learn it, and the more we believe it, the less shall we think that any promise of His has worn itself out, or that He Himself has departed from us; the more shall we ask to understand the full force of those words which this Apocalypse was written to explain to the Philadelphians and to us: 'Him that overcometh will I make a pillar in the 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 Jerusalem, which cometh down out of heaven from my God, and I will write upon him my new name.'

LECTURE IV.

THE VISION OF HEAVEN.

REV. IV.

After this I looked, and, behold, a door was opened in heaven: and the first voice which I heard was as it were of a trumpet talking with me ; which said, Come up hither, and I will shew thee things which must be hereafter. And immediately I was in the Spirit: and, behold, a throne was set in heaven, and One sat on the throne. And He that sat was to look upon like a jasper and a sardine stone: and there was a rainbow round about the throne, in sight like unto an emerald. And round about the throne were four and twenty seats: and upon the seats I saw four and twenty elders sitting, clothed in white raiment; and they had on their heads crowns of gold. And out of the throne proceeded light nings and thunderings and voices: and there were seven lamps of fire burning before the throne, which are the seven Spirits of God. And before the throne there was a sea of glass like unto crystal: and in the midst of the throne, and round about the throne, were four beasts full of eyes before and behind. And the first beast was like a lion, and the second beast like a calf, and the third beast had a face as a man, and the fourth beast was like a flying eagle. And the four beasts had each of them six wings about him; and they were full of eyes within : and they rest not day and night, saying, Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty, which was, and is, and is to come. And when those beasts give glory and honour and thanks to Him that sat on the throne, who liveth for ever and ever, the four and twenty elders fall down before Him that sat on the throne, and worship Him that liveth for ever and ever, and cast their crowns before the throne, saying, Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honour and power: for Thou hast created all things, and for Thy pleasure they are and were created. THE messages to the seven Churches are concluded. What they needed was the revelation of a Son of Man, dwelling in the midst of them, the Source of their illu