PRESENTED TO THE LIBRARY OF PRINCETON THEOLOGICKL SEMINBRY B5^"^^..e) B"S JVIfs. Rlejdandef Ppoudfit. Cz' ^ C^p^'(^ri^,,/ff. y?*^ Z; >^'^ 7 '? The Spisitual Kingdom: AN EXPOSITION OF THE FIEST ELEVEN CHAPTERS BOOK OF THE EEVELATION. BY THE^- REV. JAMES B. RAMSEY, D. D., LATE PASTOE OF THE FIEST PEESBYTEEIAN CHUECH IN LYNCHBUEG, VA. WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY THE EEV. CHARLES HODGE, D.D., LL.D., PKOFESSOB IN THE THEOLOGICAL SEMINAEY AT PKINCETON, NEW JEESEY. RICHMOND, VA.: PEESBYTEEIAN COMMITTEE OF PUBLICATION. 18 73. Entered according to Act of Congress, in tlie year 1873, by the TRUSTEES OF THE PRESBYTERIAN COMMITTEE OF PUBLICATION"^ In tlie Office of tlie Librarian of Congress, at WasLiington, D. C. Stereotyped by H. L. Pelouze & Co., Richmond, Va. Printed by J. S. Heacock & Co. Richmond, Va^ JAMES BEVERLIN RAMSEY. Dr. Ramsey was bom in Cecil county, Maryland, May the 20tli, 1814. Wlien only six years old, the death of his father, a godly man, consigned him to the sole care of his mother, a woman of uncommon sagacity, energy and piety. They were thenceforth never separated till the time of her death, which occurred at an extreme age, and not long be- fore his own. His fihal reverence and affection were beau- tiful to behold. At the age of foui'teen years he made a pubhc profession of faith hi Christ. His own statement was that he never knew when he became a child of God. His mother thought he gave manifest evidence of being a chi'is tian from the time his father died. His academical educa- tion was completed at Lafayette College, Pa., of which the Rev. George Junkin, D. D., was then president. He entered the Theological Seminary at Piinceton in 183G, where, after completing the fixll coui'se, he remained a foui'th year, in the study of theology and the original languages of the Scrip- tures. Dr. J. Addison Alexander, one of his teachers, who became intimately acquainted with hun at that time, is known to have said that when Dr. Ramsey left the Seminary he was prepared to teach any class in the institution. He was ordained a minister of the gospel in 1841, and installed pastor of the Presbyterian Chiu'ch at West Farms, New York, where he continued till called, in 1846, to go as a missionary to the Choctaw Indians, and to be the Principal of Spencer Academy. After more than three years of ar- duous, useful labours, failing health compelled him to retui'n. 4 JAMES BEVEELIN RAMSEY. During the next five years he was engaged in teachmg, and, as far as health would permit, in preaching. The last two of these years were spent in the bounds of New Providence Church, Eockbridge county, Vii'ginia, in the family of the Kev. James Morrison ; a period to which he afterwards re- ferred as one of the happiest of his life. Under improved health he was installed pastor of New Monmouth Church, in that county, in 1854, where, during four years of devoted pastoral labour, and surrounded by an affectionate people, precious and abundant fruits were ga- thered unto eternal life. In 1858 he severed tender ties, under a sense of public duty, and became the pastor of the First Presbyterian Church in Lynchburg, Vii-ginia. This relation continued till 1870, when, after repeated solicita- tions from himself, the session and church consented to unite with him in a request for its dissolution. This was caused by the feeble and ho^Deless condition of his health. Under great suffering he meekly and patiently awaited the hour of his departure, which came on the Sabbath day, July 23, 1871, when he rested from his labours and fell asleep in Jesus, entering upon that Sabbath which shall never end. Dr. Ramsey was an eminently good man ; of profound con- victions of sin ; of unfeigned humility ; of deep-rooted faith ; of ardent love to Christ and His Church. His whole life was in close communion with God, and full of a spirit truly apostolical. He was also a man "mighty in the Scriptures." His general scholarship was extensive and accurate. His fine attainments and discriminating judgment inade him a wise instructor in sacred things ; and few men of his age had secured in so high a degree the love and confidence of the Church wherever he was known. Had longer life and more comfortable health been granted, larger and richer fruits would no doubt have been gathered from his careful culture and ripe religious experience. This volume is the only production of any considerable extent which has been left. His name is worthy to be had " in everlasting remem brance." CONTENTS. 25 40 I. INTEODUCTOEY. Lectuee 1.— Chapteb 1 : 3. The Promised Blessing, Lectuke 2.— Chapteb 1 : 4-7. The Gospel of the Kingdom, Lecture 3. — Chapter 1 : 17-18. 59 The Consolations of the Kingdom, II. THE VISIBLE REPRESENTATION OF THE KINGDOM. Lecture 4.— Chapter 1 : 20. The Golden Candlesticks. The Visible Church : its Mission, 73 Lecture 5.— Chapter 1 : 20. The Seven Stars. The Authority of Christ in the Visible Church, ... 95 Lecture G.— Chapter 2 : 1-11. Imperfections and Varieties of the Visible Church. Ephesus and ^^^^ Smyrna. Declining Love. Persecution, Lecture 7.— Chapter 2 : 12-29. Imperfections and Varieties continued. Pergamos and Thyatira. ^^^ Friendship of the World. Heresy, Lecture 8.— Chapter 3 : 1-22. Imperfections and Varieties continued. Sardis. Philadelphia and Laodicea. Spiritual Deadness. Spiritual Power, lukewarm- ^^^ ness, '6 CONTENTS. Lecture 9. — Chapters 2 and 3. Coudition of the Promises. The Individual Conflict required, 190 Lecture 10. — Chapters 2 and 3. The Promises. The Glory of the Triumphant Church, 205 III. THE TRUE CONCEPTION OF THE SPIRITUAL KINGDOM. Lecture 11. — Chapter 4 : 1-6. Its Divine and Spiritual Nature and Privileges, 223 Lecture 12. — Chapter 4 : 6-8. Its Spiritual Life, 238 Lecture 13. — Chapter 4 : 6-8. The Glory, Claims, and Privileges of this Life, 252 Lecture 14, — Chapter 4 : 8-11. The Worship of the Kingdom, 264 IV. ITS MEDIATOR KING, AND HIS REIGN. Lecture 15. — Chapter 5 : 1-7. The Administration of the Kingdom undertaken by the Slain Lamb, 283 Lecture 16. — Chapter 5 : 8-14. The Investiture and Praises of the Slain Lamb, 296 Lecture 17. — Chapter G : 1 — 8 : 1. The Reign of the Lamb, and its Results, 311 Lecture 18. — Chapter 6 : 12-17. The Great Revolution Involved, 380 V. ITS CONFLICTS AND TRIUMPH. Lecture 19. — Chapter 8 : 2-6. The Prayers of the Saints, 353 CONTENTS. Y Lectuee 20. — Chaptek 8 : 7-12. The Earthly Good Smitten, 367 Lecture 21. — Chapter 9 : 1-12. The Soul Smitten. The Curse of Error. Spiritual Despotism, 381 Lecture 22. — Chapter 9 : 13-21. The Eeaction of the Worldly Power and Wisdom : completing the Course of Disciplinary Judgments, 399 Lecture 23. — Chapter 10. The Divine and Gracious Agency, and the Human Instrumentality which it provides, 419 Lecture 24. — Chapter 11 : 1, 2. The True Church, and the Subjects of her Testimony, 435 Lecture 25. — Chapter 11 : 2. The Power of the World in and over the External Church, 453 Lecture 26. — Chapter 11 : 3-10. The Power of a Witnessing Church during these Abounding Cor- ruptions, in her Worship and Government, 469 Lecture 27. — Chapter 11 : 10-13. The Vitality and Triumph of a Pure Spiritual Testimony, 488 Lecture 28. — Chapter 11 : 14-18. The Final Triumph, 504 SYNOPSIS OF LECTURES. PART I. INTRODUCTORY. LECTURE I. THE PEOMISED BLESSING. Chap. 1 : 3. Neglect of this book guarded against. I. Reasons of this neglect r (1.) Its mysteriousness ; (2.) A mistaken notion as to the design of pro- phecy ; (.3.) The too speciiic application of its symbols ; (4.) An idea that great learning was necessary to get practical benefit from it. II. Its practical value shown: (1.) By the nearness of the times of which it treats ; (2.) By its title ; (3.) By its general scope and design ; (4.) By its special discoveries of truth ; (5.) By its very mystery ; (6.) In the whole history of the church's experience. LECTURE IL THE GOSPEL OF THE KINGDOM. Chap. 1 : 4r-8. The author of the book. To whom addressed. Its subject here an- nounced. I. The gospel message. Grace and peace from the triune God.. These blessings exhaustless and free. II. The cJmrcIi's response. (1.) Conscious dignity and privileges; (2.) Price of these blessings; (3.) Grateful ascription of glory. III. The wo7-ld's tmrning and the church's hope. Christ's second coming. Consummation of salvation and damna- tion. Now coming in the progress of His mediatorial reign. All present judgments preparatory. Tremble and rejoice. 10 SYNOPSIS OF LEOTUKES. LECTUKE ni. THE CONSOLATIONS OF THE KINGDOM. Chap. 1 : IT, 18. This the spirit and design of the whole book. Circumstances of the church when written. Still the same need of consolation. I. The be- liever's terrors are groundless. The whole previous vision one of grace. II. The Redeemer is divine, the First and the Last in creation, provi- dence and redemption. III. His atonement and intercession perfectly remove guilt and secure life. IV. His dominion is universal, even over death and the unseen world. These four topics pervade all this book. All in Christ. No other consolation for sinners. PAKT II. THE VISIBLE MANIFESTATION OF THE KINGDOM. Chap. 1 : 20.— Chap. 3 : 22. LECTUEE IV. the visible chuech ; its mission. Chap. 1 : 20. Design of this section of the book. 1. The real kingdom invisible. 2. The visible church represents it, and is of divine origin. 3. Impor- tance of definite distinctions between a true and a false representative. 4. The true here defined by symbols and examples. The true church symbolized : first, in its mission, by the golden can- dlesticks. This the fibst mark of a true church. These represent her, (1.) As a light-bearer, not passively but actively, by witness-bearing in all her worship and government; (2.) In this dependant on Christ's presence; (3.) Identical in all ages ; (4.) Her uuity not visible but in Christ; (5.) Most precious; the central object of this book ; attachment to her ordinances. Are you a true or a false witness for God ? LECTURE V. the authokitt of the visible church. Chap. 1 : 20. The SECOND MARK of a true church : the authority by which it is ruled. The stars in Christ's right hand symbols of authority. I. Meaning of SYNOPSIS OF LECTURES. 11 these star-angels. 1. Angels not a designation of any particular office. 2. Designates the nature of all church offices, as involving only the func- tion of messengers of Christ. 3. Shown by the nature and position of these stars. 4. Shown by their relation to the other accompanying sym- bols. 5. Each church has its own, and but one. In connection vnth the candlesticks, this a decisive test of a true church. II, ApiDlication of these principles : 1. All authority in the church from Chi'ist. 2. Re- sponsibility of ordaining men to office, of receiving and accrediting men as Chiist's messengers. 3. Church authority purely spiritual, and for edification. 4. Gives admonition and encouragement to church rulers. 5. Esteem and obedience due them. LECTUEE VI. TAEIETIES AND IMPEKFECTIONS OF THE VISIBLE OHUKOH ; EPHESUS AND SMYRNA. Chap. 2:1-11. I. General character of all these epistles. A sevenfold picture of the church as it is. Defines the true church by actual examples. Their rela- tion to the rest of the book. Observe, (1.) Their style; (2.) Christ's titles in them ; (3.) Their common introduction, "I know thy works." II. The sevenfold variety. 1. Exa7nple 1. EpJiesus, or declining LOVE. The city and church. (1.) Commendations. Orthodox in doc- trine and pure in morals. (2.) CensTires. First love forsaken. Danger in contending for truth. (3.) Lessons to all churches. Personal applica- tion. Admonitions. Eemedy and preventive. Example 2. Smyrna, or peesecution. The church. Uncensured. Martyrdom of Polycarp. Consolations. Needed in all ages. Promise of grace to endure suffering, not of freedom from it. Outward wealth and prosperity no mark of a true church. The bitterest persecutions by apostate churches. Faithfulness. LECTUEE VII. the same subject continued ; peegamos and thyatiea. Chap. 2:12-29. Example 3. Pergamos, or the woeld's friendship. Balaamites and Nicolaitanes. Conformity to the world ever the same in principle, though different in form. Worldly alliances mark "Satan's dwelling-place." 12 SYNOPSIS OF LECTUKES. Christ's rebukes severe. Discriminate between His faithful people and these polluters of His church. The Balaamite doctrine now specially prevalent. Various ideas of what is worldly conformity. Bible definition clear. The church and the world confounded : 1st, By the variable and defective standard of sepa- ration ; 2d, By the change wrought externally upon the world by the church. Christian civilization, so called, polishes, not purifies; inten- sifies earthliness by refining it. Increased danger from this cause. Christian social life pervaded by worldly conformity. Claims of Christ ; a life of trust, how little shown. Example 4. Thyatira, or heeest. Toleration of a false teacher. Effects the same as in the church of Pergamos. Jezebel ; why so named ? "Depths of Satan, " profundities of human wisdom. The judgments threatened. This peculiar type of church character often realized. Grew to gigan- tic proportions in the church of Eome. Special promise to those who in such times are faithful. Dangers, warnings, and means of safety. Pro- mise of victory over the world. LECTUKE VIII. same subject continued ; saedis, philadelphia, and laodicea. Chap. 3: 1-22. Example 5. Sai'dis, or spiritual deadness. The city. The church in high reputation, yet dead. A galvanized corpse. Works not perfect. Garments defiled. Some things remaining. The charge and the warn- ing. The sleeper's danger. Remember past mercies. The faithfiil remnant. Encouragement in the title Christ here uses, and the pro- mise. Example 6. Philadelphvi, or spiritual power. This church uncen- sured. Commendations. Yet feeble. The peculiar promise to it of success, and of security under trial. The crowning promise of Christ's speedy coming, and the believer's crown. Example 7. Laodicea, or lukewarmness. The worst of all. Exter- nal prosperity, pride and loathsomeness. On the point of utter rejec- tion. Christ's long-suffering and tenderness. Final promise. Concluding inferences from this sevenfold view. (1.) Its completeness as a picture of the visible church. Warnings suited to all dangers.. SYNOPSIS OF LECTURES. 13 Ontward forms not once alluded to. (2.) Special application to the authorities of the churches. Importance of discipline. (3.) The fuU display of the divine attributes of Christ. (4.) The personal presence of Christ now in His churches, and His present reign over them. Personal and visible often erroneously confounded. The spiritual presence a real one, ('>.) Practical value of this whole picture of the visible church, as a test of a true church. LECTURE IX. AN INDIVIDUAL CONFLICT AND VICTOET, THE DESIGN OF THE VISIBLE, AND THE NECESSARY MEANS OF ATTAINING THE GLOKY OF THE INVISIBLH KINGDOM. Chaps. 2 and 3. To Jdni that overcometh." — (Seven times repeated.) The indispensable condition of promised glory. Relation of this con- flict to the rest of this book. 1. Nature of this conflict. The soul its sphere. Severe; self the great enemy. Entirely distinct from the con- flict in the unrenewed heart. 2. It» personal necessity. Shown by the terms of these promises, and by the evils to be resisted in these churches. Not evaded by church connections, nor by change of circumstances. No truce. Not end till the last sinner is saved. 3. Divine resources. In Christ, our Head. Initiated by the Holy Spirit. Sustained by the Spirit. By the providence of God. AU-sufiicient encouragement. Relation of the visible church to this conflict, and its importance. LECTURE X. THE PROMISES " TO HIM THAT OVERCOMETH," — (iN EACH CHURCH. 'l Chaps. 2 and 3. The prize, the glories of the triumphant kingdom. 1. Paradise re- stored. Life in Christ. 2. Death destroyed. The immortal body. 8 Priestly privileges. "Hidden manna." "White stone" — Urim and Thummim, direct and constant access to God, and knowledge of His Tvill. 4. Kingly honours. Fellowship in Christ's dominion and triumph. These four exhaust the types of the old dispensation. 5. Perfect holiness and public adoption. 6. Union in one glorified family and city, and mutual participation in each other's bliss. 7. Fellowship with Christ in 14 SYNOPSIS OF LECTURES. His everlasting kingdom, when His mediatorial reign shall have ended. Present power of these promises. Inf. In what the triumph of the pre- sent visible church consists ; not in the complete perfection of any pre- sent outward organizations, but in gathering and perfectirig the elect. PART III. THE TEUE CONCEPTION OF THE KINGDOM. Chap. 4. LECTUKE XI. its divine nature, and spiritual privileges. Chap. 4 : 1-6. New division of the book. Change of method. The time and circum- stances recalled. Nature of the vision, "in the Spirit." Teaching by- symbols ; its advantages. This the scene of all succeeding visions, A symholical picture of the essential elements of the spiritual kingdom. Seven of these : 1. The thi-one, and its formless occupant. God in His church, revealed and concealed in the glory of His own attributes. 2. The rainbow. Covenant mercy. 3, The twenty-four elders. The priestly and kingly dignity of the Eedeemer. 4. The lightnings, thunderings and voices. Energies of His providence and Word. 5. The seven lamps of fire. Manifold enlightening energies of the Divine Spirit, the source of light in the kingdom. 6. The sea of glass. Exhaustless purifying in- fluences. All a picture of present privileges conferred on each member of the kingdom. Their reality and glory. LECTUKE XII. the spiritual life, Chap. 4 : 6-8. Power of visible and material things over fallen man. Design of these symbols to counteract this by giving increased vividness to things unseen. The four living creatures: the spiritual life of redeemed sinners. SYNOPSIS OFLECTDRES. 15 or the life of Ood in man. This life the most stupendous and mysterious thing in creation ; hence the strange and mysterious symbol. Proofs ; 1. Must indicate something essential to the redeemed in chapter 5 : 8, 9. 2. History of the symbol. Co-extensive with the history of redemption. In Ezekiel ; in the tabernacle ; at the gate of lost Paradise. 3. Its perfect adaptedness to represent this life, and nothing else. Beyond the range of nature ; combined of the four most perfect forms of creature life on earth ; this intensified by the profusion of eyes and wings. Image of the divine perfections in the creature. Sets forth the three leading properties of this life : (1) holiness, (2) spiritual knowledge, (3) and untiring activ- ity. ' ' In the throne : " secure and eternal. Now imperfectly manifested. Heal, though mysterious. LECTUEE Xni. V the gloey, claims, and privileges of this lefe. Chap. 4:6-8. This symbols forth: I. The glory of this life. (1.) In its being the moral image of God. (2.) In its origin, a new creation : the purchase of redeeming blood. (3.) In its results : perfect deliverance of soul and body from the curse, and of the earth itself. II Its claims and privi- leges. This symbol shows : (1.) The perfections we must cultivate ; a fourfold view of holiness, spiritual power, submission, benevolence and communion with God. (2.) The spiritual perception and active energy to perceive and do the will of God, which this life supplies. Value of this and the accompanying symbols. Hence, (1.) The riches of God's Word ; (2.) The vanity of the world; (3.) Comfort in affliction ; and (4,) Nature's helplessness and refuge. LECTUEE XIV. THE WOESHIP OF THE KINGDOM. Chap. 4:8-11. Design of this whole chapter, to present the triie spiritual kingdom in contrast with the imperfections of the visible church. Hence, not only its elements, but its activities are symbolized. The worship of the KINGDOM. This has its origin in the symbol of life, its results in the prostration and praise of the elders. 1. All true worship is from a re- 16 SYNOPSIS OF LECTUKES. newed heart. 2. Adoration of the Divine character, its first essential ele- ment. These living ones never rest in their praise ; so Bible saints. Serious defect in devotional exercises. 3, Other essential element, con- secration. Prostration and praise of the elders. Consists: (1.) In pro- found and cordial submission ; (2.) Sense of obligation to Divine grace ; (3.) Becognition of the will of God, as the creature's sole end and rule. This teaches, (1.) The nature and test of all acceptable worship, in out- ward forms, in the whole life. 2. External forms contemptible. 3. A cause of low piety, and its corrective. PAET ly. ITS MEDIATOR KING, AND HIS REIGN. Chap. 5 : 1—8 : 1. LEQTURE XV. THE ADMINISTBATION OF THE KINGDOM ASSUMED BY THE SLAIN LAMB. Chap. 5: 1-T. Previous picture of the kingdom. Subject of this section ; by whom and how it is administered. Leading topics of this chapter. 1. The book in the hands of Him that sits on the throne. Secret and all-comprehen- sive purposes of God. Seven sealed ; covers the whole period of the me- diatorial reign. 2. The proclamation of the mighty angel. No creature power or skill can conduct its affairs. Despondency from such expecta- tions. Requires divine power. 3. The Lamb only able to do it. His seven horns, and seven eyes. Head over all to the church. "Weep not," on account of difficulties in your own salvation. Or, on account of afflictions. Or, on account of the perils of the church. Rejoice that the Lamb reigns ; work for Him ; opposition futile, LECTUEE XVI. INVESTITURE AND PEAISES OF THE SLAIN LAMB. Chap. 5: 8-14. Grandeur of the scene. 1. New song of the redeemed. New in refe- rence to song in chap. 'A : 11. New in its object, subject and occasion. SYNOPSIS OF LECTURES. 17 l^ever ceasing. "Will you join in it ? Four things in it, and what follows. 2. Christ's right to administer the kingdom. His redemption. This no mere offer. Effectual grace. Providential agencies. Highest dignities conferred. 3. Hence, the assurance of triumph. In regard to the be- liever. In regard to the church. Eeign of the saints. 4. The whole creation joins in the praise. No more curse. Implies not the salvation of devils, and all the wicked, but the opposite. A renovated earth the inheritance of the perfected church. Glimpses of this elsewhere in the Bible. 5. Overwhelming evidence of our Lord's divinity. LECTURE XVII. THE KEIGN OF THE LAMB ; ITS AGENCIES AND RESULTS. Chap. 6: 1— S: 1. The Lamb unsealing the book, Christ reigning. Kelation of these seals to the trumpets and vials. Seal 1. Christ, in His gospel, conquer- ing. All these agencies come at the call of the living creatures. Seal 2. War smiting the earth in its social joys. Seal 3. Want smiting the sup- ports of its life, both of body and soul. Seal 4. Death, by all these in- strumentalities, smiting the life itself. These four comprise all the agencies of the church, and Providence. Not confined to particular pe- riods. Seal 5. The spiritual church bleeding, waiting, praying. Long period of conflict. Seal 6. Triumi^h, in three parts : (1.) Power of the world overthrown, revolutionized, and all enemies destroyed. (2.) Saints prepared during' this delay by the Spirit's sealing. (3.) Their number and glory perfected. Seal 7. End of all conflict, The eternal Sabbath. Mote. The half hour's silence. LECTURE XVIII. the geeat eevolution. Chap. 6 : 12-17. The overthrow radical and universal. Shows the world's essential un- godliness. Questions in regard to physical changes and to instrumen- talities, here excluded. Does it teach a complete moral revolution ? T Meaning of these symbols. Literal events impossible. Interpretation, fixed in the old prophets. (1.) Is, 13. (2.) Is. 34: 4, &c. Striking parallel : (3.) Joel 2 : 28-32. (4.) Hag. 2. 18 SYNOPSIS OF LECTURES. II. Meaning of this passage not satisfied by any past changes effected by Christianity. What it does require. Includes also past triumphs. The Christianized Paganism of modern civilization. Changes wrought not to be underrated, nor overrated. This moral earthquake required, (1st.) By the ungodliness of all governments, and of political principles. (2d.) By the whole habits of social and business life being divorced from God. (3d.) By the character of education, its spirit and aims. (4th.) By the extent of Sabbath desecration. (5th.) By the defection of the church from the primitive model. All that worldly men live for, doomed. To each that day of wrath may be near. Flee. PAET Y. ITS CONFLICTS AND TRIUMPHS. Chap. 8 : 2.— Chap, 11 : 18. LECTUEE XIX. THE PKAYEKS OF THE SAINTS. CuAF. 8 : 2-6. Design of this section, As the seven seals show Christ's agency, the seven trumpets show the working of the human agencies employed or resisting. Cover the same ground. 1. The seven angels and trumpets. All human and created instrumentalities called forth by influences sent out from the throne. Angels the appropriate symbols of these, there- fore. 2. The incense and prayers. The angel : the divinely appointed agency by which these prayers are called forth. Incense : Christ's inter- cessions. All judgments in answer to prayer. No unanswered prayer. Answered not according to form, but ultimate design. Influence of prayer on an ungodly world. 3. Fire of the altar. Truth of Christ cru- cified in contact with the world. Like fire, in the heart, and in the na- tions. Hence these commotions. Scripture parallels. The power of truth and of prayer. LECTURE XX. THE EARTHLY GOOD SMITTEN : THE FIRST FOUR TRUMPETS. Chap. 8 : Y-13. These angel trumpeters ; warning for all. Prepared from the begin- ning. Though successively called forth, these agencies then act simul- SYNOPSIS OF LECTURES. 19 taneously. 1. First four, a separate group. Smite the whole worldly Bystem, the land, the sea, the fountains, and the lights. " Earth" and *^ heaven," symbols, not of place, but character; of things earthly and heavenly : of the earthly and heavenly sphere. 2. Instrumentality and effect of each. (1.) The storm of war upon consolidated social order. (2.) Overthrow of government in anarchy and blood. (3.) A church becom- ing a political or earthly power, and poisoning the purest springs of hu- man happiness. (4.) No new instrumentality introduced, but as the final effect of all these, the world's lights darkened. Three instrumentalities BO different cannot symboKze events so perfectly similar as the various inroads of the northern barbarians. 3. Design of each, and their apph- cation to the whole history of the church in its relation to the world dur- ing the early and middle ages. The prediction of the angel in mid- heaven ; these calamities may well awaken apprehension of more terrific woes, 4, Apjjlication to all succeeding ages, and to the present. Admo- nition to the church and the world. LECTURE XXI. the soul smitten : the cuese oj!' eeeok. eieth trumpet. Chap 9 : 1-11. The earthly good, though smitten, stUl trusted. Kesult. The fifth angel. Scor'pionlociists, Jiordes of soul-destroying errors. 1. Their origin. A fallen star, a spiritual power degenerated into an earthly. Hence, having the keys of hell, instead of heaven. 2. Their forms ; strange and unearthly. "Doctrines of devils." 3. Their king: Satan. 4, Their commission : peculiar, not against earthly good, but the souls of the un- sealed. Cannot hurt God's children. Cannot kill or destroy the unsealed race, but only torment. Danger of unbelief. This torment unendurable. 5. The limit to this infliction. Five months, not all the year. No de- ception can last. Such errors, limited in their very nature, die in their own desolations. Observe, (1.) The sin of unbelief produces the curse of error. Observe, (2.) Special examples: apostacies and delusions of the middle ages ; Mohammedan, Papal, and Greek. Spiritual despot- ism. Illustration of verse 6 : death itself no escape. 2 Thess. 2 : 3-12. Observe, (3.) The value of the Bible. Observe, (4.) Sealing of the Spirit the only security. 20 SYNOPSIS OF LECTUKES. LECTURE XXII. THE EEACTION OF THE WOKLD's POWEE AND WISDOM. SIXTH TETJMPET. Chap. 9 : 12-21. First and second woes ; cause and effect. Cause ever working. The principles are here described, before the organized systems they pro- duced, which are described in latter part of the book. The sixth trum- pet. 1. The second woe comes at the call of the Intercessor in answer to prayer. 2. Its agencies. The powers tormented by this spiritual des- potism, and restrained by it. "In the Euphrates;" in the nations supporting the spiritual Babylon. They are summed up under a four- fold classification ; love of power, of wealth, of sensual pleasure, and of knowledge, 3. How restrained. By the delusions that tormented them. Prepared for the moment appointed of God. Historical illustration. 4. Extent of influence. "Myriads of myriads;" yet limited to two of these. The world's power and its wisdom embrace all. So the two beasts of chapter thirteen, 5. Their true character. The cavalry of heU. Their twofold means of inflicting injury ; violence and serpent cunning. Impossible to locate this on any particular event of history. Whole history of the church f uU of illustrations. 6. Their utter incom- petency to produce repentance. The sins mentioned express the un- godliness and immoralities of all spiritual delusions. Inf. 1. The divine authorship manifest. 2. The inveteracy of human depravity. LECTURE XXIII. THE GEACIOUS DIVINE AGENCY, AND THE HUMAN INSTEUMENTALITY WHICH it provides. Chap. 10. Necessity of a different agency in order to salvation. The next four leading symbols show what this is. 1. The mighty angel. The pres- ence and power of Christ in His church. The ojjen book, the Gospel. The seven thunders, whose utterances were unwritten : the mystery of His almighty power in grace and providence. No more delay. 2. T/ie human instrumentality. The seer himself becomes a part of the sym- bolic scene. The church not only to see and adore, biat to be the channel of the grace. The little book received and eaten ; the truth incorporated into the spiritual life. Expresses itself as a divine testimony. " Again." True nature of the church's testimony. SYNOPSIS OF LECTURES. 21 LECTUEE XXIV. THE WITNESSING CHTJECH, AND THE EULE AND SUBJECTS OF HEB TESTIMONY. Chap. 11 : 1, 2. How is the charge just given to be fulfilled ? I. The act of measuring. Truth must be ascertained. The divine rule. Human opinions worth- less. The written word, II. Objects to be measured. (1.) The tem- ple. God dwelling in and among men. Christ and His mystical body. True unity of the church. All human ordering excluded. (2.) The altar. Blood of atonement. (3.) The worshippers. A separate and consecrated priesthood. Adherence to the cross and crown of Jesus. We have here another picture of the true church. The whole matter of her testimony. LECTUEE XXV. the pow^e of the woeld in and over the visible ohuech. Chap. 11 : 2. Unmeasured things. 1. Externals of the church given over to the worldly minded. Such mere externals to be rejected. How fulfilled. 2. The period of this desecration limited. Precisely defined in the divine plan and purpose ; and hence encouragement. But why so specific ? Not that we may antedate events. Yet a very important use. Location of these periods in history impossible. Theory of a day for a year uncertain. Early purity of the church brief. Assumed dates of 606 and 755, etc., unsatisfactory. The beginning in each place known only to God. This indefiniteness does not lessen the value of these numbers. They symbolize the enemy's failure. Their previous typical and historic use. Their comparative value evident and precious. What is your position ? LECTUEE XXVI. the poweb of a chuech, witnessing by hee worship and goveenment, during these coeeuptions. Chap. 11 : 3-10. Necessity and difficulty of faithful witnessing. This whole passage the words of the angel ; its design. 1. Who are these two witnesses ? 22 SYNOPSIS OF LECTURES. The two great functions of the church by which her testimony is borne ; her worsldp and discipline. Nature and importance of these to this end. 2. Power of these witnesses. Like that of Moses and Elijah. Effect of a rejected Gospel. Slaying saints is not killing the witnesses. In per- secution their voice the clearest. 3. Killing them. By corruption of worship and discipline. By the beast from the pit, the worldly power and wisdom. 4. Their dead bodies preserved. Lifeless forms ; dead churches favourites with the world. Preserved in the streets of the great city, in the organizations of a corrupt and apostate church. These princijjles always working. Began early ; at length in almost the whole church. Does it imply a universal silencing of these witnesses at once ? Present alarming tendencies. LECTUEE XXVII. THE VITALITY OF GOD's WITNESSES, AND THE TRIUMPH OF A PUEELY SPIRITUAL TESTIMONY. Chap. 11 : 11-13. These witnesses indestructible. 1. Their safety is in delivering their testimony. Only when they cease to testify are they killed. 2. Their speedy reviving. The brief suspension of life enough to show their entire dependence on the Holy Spirit. He is the Author of their reviv- ing. A revival of pure religion is a reviving of pure worship and dis- cipline. 3. Elevation of these witnessing agencies to a purely spiritual and heavenly sphere. 4. Effects of this. Overthrow of the world's power in the church. " Seven thousand names of men :" all mere hu- man authorities and opinions. The church cleansed and God glorified in it. Second woe ended. All the revelations of the sixth trumpet viewed in connection. All relates to the deliverance and purifying of the church. The restoration of Pentecostal times. Glorious prospects. No new agent intimated. The Spirit our hope. Present duty and en- couragement. LECTUEE XXVIII. the triumph. Chap. 11 : 14-18. Seventh trumpet calls ujzon a grand vision of victory. Comprehen- siveness of these visions. 1. Celebrates the triumph as completed. SYNOPSIS OF LECTUKES. 23 Includes all triumphs from the beginning. By no other agencies than those already revealed. Except the final acts of vengeance and of love, to end the conflict. 2. It consummates redemption. This the idea of the ^^ seventh." The last woe. Qiiickly follows the second in its very nature always. A long period of triumiahant witnessing may intervene before the end comes. This language, however, describes not merely the commonly expected millenium. It is Christ's eternal reign on the earth. This in harmony with other Scriptures. Whole history of the kingdom points to this. This song of the elders requires it. Living creatures of chapter fourth and fifth, etc., no longer present, the life being now perfected and actually possessed. This song not one of expectation, but of thanksgiving : all enemies destroyed. The curtain falls. The new heavens and the new earth. INTRODUCTION, CHARLES HODGE, D. D., L L. D. It can hardly be questioned that a portion of our brethren, both in this country and in Great Britain, pay undue atten- tion to the prophetic parts of Scripture. On this account they have been designated the "Prophetical School." While there are many exceptions, it is yet a characteristic of this class of writers, that they seem more concerned in future hopes than in present duty. They have no faith in the con- version of the world mider the present '•' dispensation of the Spu-it." They often speak in disparaging terms of the work of the Spirit, saying that the gospel has never yet converted a single town or village, and that it is therefore vain to expect that it will convert the world. The world, according to then' theory, is to be converted through the teri*ors and judgments attending the second advent of Christ: not otherwise, and not before. GENERAL NEGLECT OF THE PROPHECIES. While all this is true, it is still more obviously true, that the great majority of Christians, and of students of the Bible, unduly neglect the prophecies. The historical books of the Old Testament are far less interesting than the evangeHsts of the New ; so the doctrinal writings of the Old Testament have less to command the attention tiian the doctrinal in- structions of the New. To the mass ol ^ible readers the doctrinal and practical portions of the Scrijatures have more 11 INTRODUCTION. interest than the prophetical. Another cause of the com- parative neglect of the latter is found in the fact that they contaiu much that is peculiar and hard to be understood. They require more study, more strict and well-considered rules of interpretation, with more self-command and self- subjection to the laws of exegesis, which nothing but neces- sity will induce the student to adopt. The difficulty attend- ing prophetic interjjretation is sufficiently attested by the number of failures exhibited in its history. The views that have been given of the visions of Ezekiel, of Zechaiiah, of Daniel, and of the Apocalypse, are scarcely less numerous than are the authors who have attempted their exposition. It is no wonder, therefore, that those who do not feel any special vocation to the work show so little alacrity to enter upon a field which is strewn with the wrecks of the labours of their predecessors. Besides, the remark has often been made that the study of the prophecies either finds a man insane or makes him so. Although this remark is unjust, and is contradicted by nu- merous examples, — by none more conspicuous than that of the sainted Dr. Ramsey, — it nevertheless contains enough truth to render it a warning. It is true that the habit of mind induced by efforts to solve enigmas deemed of the ut- most importance is more or less abnormal. One becomes disposed to accept what, ia the judgment of ordinary minds, is all but impossible : to regai'd as certain, and to estimate as absolutely conclusive, what ordinary men consider doubt- ful or of very little weight. The members of the " Propheti- cal School" sometimes believe confidently that in which none but themselves have the slightest faith. Many, for ex ample, believe that the expressions in which the Scriptures describe the destruction of the world, such as that the hea- vens and the earth shall be burnt up, shall pass away, and be melted with fervent heat, imply only the partial destruc- tion of the wicked; that after this destruction — which is to change the earth less than the deluge did — men will continue to be born and die, to be convinced and converted, to all eternity. And even when they do not entertain opinions so ■contrary to the general faith of the Church, they hold, with INTRODUCTION. Ul the greatest confidence, views widely at variance with each other. Thus, some hold that Babylon of the Apocalypse is pagan Rome, others that it is Papal Rome, others that it is the Papacy in its worldly power. While what has just been said does in some measure account for the general neglect of the study of prophecy, it does not by any means justify that neglect. " All Scrip- ture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in right- eousness, that the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works." 2 Tim. 3: 16, 17. As the prophecies are a part of the Scripture, they are given by in- spu'ation, and are useful for all the purposes above stated ; and the man of God, whether he be layman or minister, can- not be properly furnished for his work, unless he be well versed in the knowledge of this department of revelation. This, however, as ah-eady remarked, is far from being the case, either as to the people or the ministry. Many even of our oldest ministers, if asked the meaning of some unfulfilled prophecy, must answer, not merely that he does know, which might be excusable, but that he has never examined the question, which would be, as a general thing, inexcusable. If asked to state the peculiar principles of prophetic inter- pretation, he will have to answer that he has never studied the subject. Questions so important as these may be pre- sented: What will be the future of the Church militant? Is it to be a splendid earthly kingdom, with Chi'ist at its head, or a spmtual kingdom, consisting of " righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost ? " What will be the "new heavens and new earth," that shall be introduced when the heavens and earth which now are shall have passed away? These ever-recurring questions, which concern the very nature of our eternal fu.ture, cannot be answered with any intelligent confidence by multitudes even of our oldest ministerial bretkren. The faith of most Christians upon this subject rests upon tradition. That is, they believe in rela- tion to it what the mass of Christians for the last thousand years have believed, and for that reason. This, certainly, is wrong. A whole department of the revelation of God ought IV INTKODUCTIOISr. not to be thus neglected. The treasures of truth contained in the prophetic writings ought not to be thus undervahted ; and we are offenders and losers if we close our eyes in the hght which these writings throw upon the future of the Church. WHO WERE THE PROPHETS ? When any one who has hitherto been guilty of this neglect of prophecy is providentially called to make them a subject of study, the first question which presents itself is, Who were the prophets 1 What constituted a man a member of that sacred class, and what were the functions of his office 1 We whose great blessedness it is to have been taught from infancy to believe all that the Bible teaches, are happily freed from the necessity of discussing these questions at the bar of reason. Every Christian admits the Bible to be the word of God in the sense that whatever it says God says ; and therefore, the " thus saith the Lord " is for Chi-istians the last and highest evidence of truth. The Bible clearly teaches that a prophet is a spokesman — one who speaks for another ; so that what one says the other says. The man, therefore, who stands in the relation of prophet to God, is, so long as that relation subsists, the mouthpiece of God : the thoughts which he utters are the thoughts of God, and his words are the words of God. Hence it is that the sacred writers so uniformly renounce any self-derived authority for their mes- sages, and claim for them the authority of God, and that they so often begin their discourses with the words, " Thus saith the Lord." This gives us the clearest and simplest idea of inspiration, and the clearest idea, also, of what it was to be a prophet. A prophet was a man inspired : a man under such an influence from the Spirit of God as rendered him an infallible messenger fi'om God. Hence the Jews were accustomed to divide their sacred books into "the Law and the Proi^hets," a classification sanctioned also by the Apostles. Acts 26 : 22 ; Eom. 3 : 21. As the Law, or Pentateuch, was written by Moses, the greatest of the Old Testament prophets, it follows that all the sacred writers of the Old Testament were prophets, that is, inspired men — INTRODUCTION. V men called to be the messengers of God. All men ordained to the ministry, whether under the old dispensation or the new, are in one sense messengers of God. We are therefore taught further, that none but inspu-ed — that is, infallible — messengers are called prophets. This, under both dispensa- tions, was the discriminating difference between ordmary teachers and prophets. This distinction is made specially clear in 1 Cor. 14, and in E^Dh. 4 : 11. In the latter passage prophets and teachers are clearly distinguished. All pastors were teachers, but they were not all prophets. That is, it was insj)iration — often including revelation, 1 Cor. 14 : 30 — ■ which was the essential characteristic of a prophet. There was, however, a distinction among the prophets themselves. Some were permanently insj)ii'ed, and were recognized as the ofl&cial organs of God among His peojDle. Such were the Apostles, and such was Moses. Others were only occasional recipients of that divine influence which made them pro- phets. Hence the AjDOstles spoke to them and of them as their official inferiors. 1 Cor. 14 : 37. Hence, also, we hear of their receiving sudden revelations. 1 Cor. 14 : 30. And hence, under the Old Testament, the prophets often speak of " the word of the Lord " coming to them ; of " the hand of the Lord being upon them ;" and other forms of expression are em- ployed indicative of occasional accessions of divine influence. It seems, however, that there was a class of men who were recognized as the sj^ecial organs of God in dealing with the people, and who were, so to speak, prophets by profession : men to whom persons of all conditions — kings and widows — resorted when they needed special instruction from God. Such a class did exist, and it seems, from 1 King 18 : 4, to Lave been at times Yerj numerous ; for we are told that Obadiah took " an hundred proj)hets of the Lord, and hid them by fifties in a cave," on account of the persecution by Jezebel. However, Ehjah was able to say, in the same chapter, vei'se 22, " I alone remain a proj^het of the Lord." When, therefore, we read of " the schools of the prophets," "we are not to understand schools consisting of prophets, but schools presided over by proj)hets, m which young men were trained for the prophetic office. For it is to be remembered VI INTRODUCTION. that the prophets were teachers, and needed to be instructed in' the rehgion and in the history of the people. It is not the ordinary mode of God's deahng with His people, to do by supernatnral agency what can be effected by natiu'al means. For that part of the prophet's work for which a man could be prejiared by human training, such training was employed ; and from this class of trained men, as a general rule, were taken the recipients of those supernatural gifts which made a man a prophet in the strict sense of the word. It is no less true that the word was sometimes popularly used, in a looser sense, to designate holy men, who enjoyed peculiarly intimate relations with God. Thtis, in Psalm 105 : 15, it is said, " Touch not Mme anointed, and do My prophets np harm. This language was used of the patriarchs, specially of Abraham, who had intimate fellow- shij) with God, and to whom He revealed Himself as He did not to the world. A prophet, then, was a teacher sent of God. He received his designation, not from the nature of his message, but from its soiu'ce. It mattered not whether the message re- ferred to past sins, or to present duties, or to future events. If it came immediately fi'om God, if the messenger could say " Thus saith the Lord," if the word of the Lord was put into his lips, and he was commanded to deliver it to the people, then he was a prophet. Jeremiah describes his inauguration when he says, " The Lord put forth His hand, and touched my mouth. And the Lord said unto me. Be- hold, I have j)ut My words in thy mouth," — Jeremiah 1 : 9, — and " Whatsoever I command thee, thou shalt speak," verse 7. And David said, '' The Spirit of the Lord spake by me, and His word was"*in my tongue." 2 Samuel 23 : 2. Hence, constantly in the New Testament the testimony of the Old is quoted, not as the testimony of men, but as that of God. The formula of quotation is usually " God said," or " The Holy Ghost said," or " The Holy Ghost by the mouth of the prophet said." The most didactic statement, how- ever, of the nature of prophecy, or of what constituted the peculiar distinction of a prophet, is to be foimd in 1 Peter 1 : 20, 21, " No prophecy of the Scripture is of any private INTRODUCTION. Vll interpretation. For tlie proi^hecy came not in old time [at any time] by the "will of man ; but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost." No prophecy is a man's own interpretation of the will or purpose of God. It does not come fi-om hunself, from his own wisdom, experi- ence, feelings, or foresight ; but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost. It is here denied that the prophets uttered their own thoughts, or used theu^ own language. It is affirmed that their thoughts were the thoughts of God, and their words the words of God ; so that, in the strictest sense of the terms, what the prophets said God said. It is to be remembered that the word j)ro- phet is used by the apostle in this connection in a sense which mcludes all the sacred writers. Besides this comprehensive sense of the term, which makes it iaclude every man who was the organ of God, or inspired, it is also used in Scriptvu-e in a narrower sense. It is to be borne in mind that Israel was saved " in hope :" they waited patiently for the good things to come. Their whole system was predictive, or typical : a shadow of the things that were to come. The plan of salvation was the same for them as for us ; but it was revealed slowly, by a process of historical and doctrinal development. There was to be a redemption. That redemption was to be by blood. There was to be a Redeemer. That Redeemer was to unite in Himself all the offices of Prophet, Priest, and King, and in his Person the attributes of God and man. He was to subdue aU nations. His kmgdom, and with it true religion, were to extend to the ends of the earth. To Him every knee should bow, and every tongue should swear. The patriarchs obtained a good report thi'ough faith, but received not the promise, God hav- ing provided some better thing for us, that they without us should not be made perfect. It was not the pui-pose of God that the great work of redemption should be consummated in the days of the fathers, so as to exclude the milhons who since their time have enjoyed its benefits, and the millions more yet to come. Everything under the old dispensation pointed to the future. Toward the expected Redeemer every eye was directed : His Person, His work, and the blessings Vlll INTRODUCTION. of His advent, became the great object of all prophetic in- struction. The sins of the people were reproved, judgments were denounced, restoration and favour were promised, all in a theocratic form, or with distinct reference to the great scheme of redemption which had been announced from the beginning, Hence it unavoidably came to pass, that the general char- acter of the prophets, as inspired teachers, became more and more merged into that of predicters. Foretelling the future had always been one of the great functions of their office ; and hence the question, " Is there no more a prophet of the Lord in the land ?" was the constant and anxious iuquiiy of both prince and people when then- horizon was overcast. And throughout the New Testament, the j^redictions of the Old, as fulfilled in Jesus of Nazareth, are apjDcaled to as proofs of His Messiahship. This distinction between the prophets, as inspired men and as predicters of the future, was early re- cognized by the Jews. This is the ground of the division which they made of their sacred books into three classes : the Law, the Prophets, and the Hagiograjjha ; the Law being of course the Pentateuch ; the Prophets those whose writings are characteristically predictive ; and the third class all others, differing greatly among themselves, which did not fall under the other heads. This distinction seems to be clearly recognized in the New Testament, as in Luke 24 : 44. In the Church it has been universally received, so that, when the Prophets, or the prophetic writings, are spoken of, every one understands what books of Scripture are referred to. A prophet, therefore, in the comprehensive sense of the word, means an insj)U'ed man : one employed by God as His infalhble organ of communication with men. If the word be taken in its stricter Scriptural sense, it designates those selected to reveal the puri:)oses of God in relation to the more or less remote futui'e of the Church and of the world. NATURE or THE PROPHETIC INFLUENCE. The second question for the student of prophecy to answer •concerns the peculiar influence which constituted a man a proi)het : its nature, and its subjective effect uj)on its reci- INTRODUCTION. IX pieut. The Scriptures describe it when they speak of the power of God, or the hand of God. or the Spuit of God, coming upon him, or state that he sj)oke as he was moved by the Holy Ghost. Although it is impossible for us to un- derstand or to explain how the Sj)ii'it of God operates ujDon the soul, so as to determine its character and acts, yet it is clearly revealed that He does thus operate, while much is revealed, both negatively and positively, of the effects thus produced. The Bible everywhere teaches and assumes that there is a God ; that this God is a spirit, a self-conscious, intelligent, voluntary agent ; that He is everywhere present and active ; governing all His creatures, and all their actions ; acting with means, through them, or without them. It is the denial of one or the other of these Scriptural truths which lies at the foundation of all the philosoiDhical and religious eri'ors of our age. Hence the necessity of the people being thoroughly imbued with the philosophy of the Bible, which is the philo- soj)hy of God. As God is everywhere present, and everywhere active, there are different classes of events which differ according to the relations which they bear to the divine efficiency. First, those which are called natural, which are due to forces in- herent in the creature, whether physical or mental, in the production and control of which God exercises no other power than that which is constant and universal : a power which, so far as we know, adds nothmg to the efficiency of the second causes themselves. Thus, in the ordinary changes of climate, the occurrence of heat and cold, of rain and snow, natui'al causes are efficient to the production of such effects, although constantly guided by the will and power of God. Thus, also, when a man thinks, speaks, or writes, he acts in accordance with his nature ; the effects produced do not exceed the power with which, as a creature, he is endowed. All these are, in the proper sense of the words, natm-al events. In a second class of events, however, there is a manifesta- tion of intelligence and will, which are not attributes of mai> ier. Even naturalists teach us that " life is. not the product -of organization, but organization the product of Ufe." Muck 3 X INTKOUUCTION". less is intelligence, will, consciousness, or conscience, tlie product of unintelligent matter. No combination of the molecules of matter can rationally account for either life or intelligence. They must be referred to the intelligence of God. But as the effects here alluded to are produced in the exercise of the potentla ordinata of God, we are not accus- tomed to sjDeak of the organization and growth of plants and annuals as supernatui'al events. They are natural, because produced in accordance with the uniformly acting laws of nature. There is, however, a thii'd class of effects, due to the power of God without the co-operation or intervention of any second causes whatever ; that is; they are to be referred to the iiximediate efficiency of God. Such are creation, regen- eration, revelation, inspiration, and mu'acles. Mu'acles are distinguished from the other events with which they are classed, in that they belong to the external or sensible world. There are such events, and it is j)roper that they should have a distinctive name. When our Lord said to the leper, "I will, be thou clean ;" or to the blind man, " Receive thy sight ;" or to Lazarus, " Come forth," there was no secondary cause brought into action ; nothing intervened between the will of Christ and the effect ; and as these were sensible events, occurring in the external world, they determine the definition of a mu'acle. When the Spirit of God quickens, or brings to life, a soul spiritually d^ad, there is no intervention or co-operation of second causes. Such co-operation, in the case of infants at least, is seen to be inconceivable, or impossible. Regenera- tion is an act of God's almighty power, which precludes all co-operation. This is the proper sense of the term " suj^er- natiu'al ;" and it is in this sense that the influence by which a man was made a prophet was supernatural. He did not become such by any natural process whatever. The Spirit of God came upon him. His thoughts were not the product of his ovm mind, nor were liis words of his own selection. What he spoke God spoke. The first great point to be learned concerning these holy men of God is, that the influ- ence under which they spoke was not natural, but super- INTRODUCTION. XI natural. This latter word, however, is used by writers of the highest class iu meanings so diiferent that to determine the sense in which it should be understood is a matter of great difficulty and importance. The true sense of the word " supernatural " is determined by that of the word "natural," and the meaning of "natural" by that of " natui-e." But, unfortunately, few words are used in such a variety of senses as the word "nature." Very often it means the external, sensible world. This is the meaning commonly attached to it when we speak of the laws, or the phenomena, or the forces of nature. All natural forces are universal, uniform, blind, and, as the moderns say, are correlated ; they are mutually convertible, and relatively equivalent. So much heat will produce a given amount of motion ; and so much motion will i^roduce the precise amount of heat expended iu its production. If this is the proper sense of the word " nature ;" if everything that is natural is physical, then whatever is voluntary, intellectual, or moral, is supernatural. This is the sense in which the "word is used by Coleridge, and by Dr. Bushnell in his work on " The Natui-al and Supernatural." So also Huxley, Tyn- dall, and other modern scientific men, when they deny that there is anything " spontaneous" in nature, mean by " na- ture" the external world. They intend to deny that there is any manifestation of inteUigence or will in the phenomena of nature. Much more commonly, and more in accordance with the signification of the word, nature is made to mean everything made or produced. Then everythmg is natural which is due to the efficiency of created agents, or of second causes ; and that only is supernatural which is divine. According to the great body of theists, there is a constant conciu'sus or co- operation between the First and all second causes ; and ac- cording to some of them, of whom the Duke of Argyle is an example, this concursus is the only supernatural element in the ordering of the universe. In his "Eeign of Law," he teaches that God never acts except in accordance with law, and by means of second causes. Even a mh-acle he defines to be an event broiight about under the direction of God, XI] INTROBDCTION. through some law of nature unknown to us. By law, in this connection, must be meant a uniformly acting force. But how can that be a imiformly acting force which caiases iron to float, the blind to see, or the dead to Hve ? According to this use of the word, a miracle is no more supernatural than any other event since the creation ; indeed, the Duke says that the creation itself was by law. Another consequence of this definition of the term is, that it makes all events equally supernatural, because the divine efficiency is operative in all. There are two senses of the word "supernatural" which should be adlaered to, because they are graven uj)on the miud of the Chiu-ch. The first is that which characterises the efficiency of God when it acts without the intervention of any second cause, as in creation, in miracles, in revelation, inspiration, or regeneration. The second is based upon the clear distinction made in the Bible between the j^rovidential efficiency of Gl-od, acting constantly and everjTvhere, and the gracious oiDerations of His Spirit, who distributes His gifts severally to each one as He wills. Hence the latter are dis- tinguished fi'om the former as supernatural. Thus, while iucrease of strength or knowledge is natural to man, faith, repentance, and all the graces of the Spirit, are supernatiu-al. We may seem to be wandering from our subject in devot- ing so much sj^ace to the discussion of the meaniug of a word ; but when we say that the prophets spoke under a supernatural influence, it is well to know what we mean : we mean that they were under such an influence as gave to their '^thoughts and words the authority of God. THE STTBJECTrVE EFFECT OF THE PROPHETIC INFLUENCE. On this point it is to be remarked, that the effect was dif- ferent in different cases. The neglect of this obvious fact has led to much confusion and misreiDresentation. Because certain phenomena attended the j^rophetic inspiration in one case, it has been inferred that they were characteristic of aU cases. The Ai:iostle, however, tells us, that God of old spoke to the people in " divers manners" by the prophets. There are three general views as to the state into which this divine influence brought its subjects. The first is, that INTKODITCTION. Xill they were thrown into a state of furor. They were maniacs. Their senses ceased to make upon them their normal im- pression. Then- control over then- minds was lost. They "were imconscious of what they said, and when restored to consciousness, were entirely ignorant of all that had passed. Such, according to the Montanists, was the state of the an- cient prophets when under this supernatural influence. This condition they called " amentia." So Tertulhan said that, when a man saw the glory of God, and spake dh'ectly to Him, he of necessity lost his senses. Secondly, even Hengstenberg, in the first edition of his Christology, came very near this' doctrine of the Montanists. He said that the Christian fathers were right in renounciug the Montanist theory of amentia^ but wrong in repudiating that of ecstasia. What does ecstasy mean *? Tertullian, in the passage above referred to, uses the words as synonymous : " Defendimus in causa novae prophetiae, gratiae ecstasin, id est amentiam, convenu-e."-^ The word, howevei-, is used for any violent disturbance, either of the mind, produced by strong emotion, whether of terror, astonishment, or joy, or of the imagination. It is, indeed, too comprehensive m its apphcation to afford any definite notion of its miport. In the New Testament it is three times rendered " trance." Acts 10 : 10 ; 11 : 5, 22. Elsewhere it is^ used for amaze- ment or terror. Mark ^ : <^2 ; Luke 5 : 26 ; Acts 3 : 10 ; 16 : 8. The usage of the word, therefore, in Scripture does not determine its meaning when used with reference to the prophets. Hengstenberg, as may be gathered from his whole dissertation, understands prophetic ecstasy to have been, — (1.) An abnormal, unnatiiral state. The mind, and the power of perception through the senses, were not in their ordinary state ; (2.) That this abnormal condition was not only a matter of consciousDess to the prophet himself, but produced effects visible to others. As in 1 Sam. 10 : 6, it is said of Saul, " The Spirit of the Lord shall come upon thee, and thou shalt proj)hesy with them, and shalt be turned into another man." In verse 11, also, the people are repre- 1 Henstenberg, Christologie, Band iii., Zweite Abtheilung, p. 158. Xiv INTRODUCTION. sented as saying, " What is this that has come upon the son of Kish ? Is Saul also among the prophets V In 1 Sam. 19, it is narrated that Saul sent messengers three times to ap- prehend David, and every time they aj)proached the company of projjhets that surrounded Samuel and David, they were seized with the influence, and began to prophesy. At last Saul himself determined to go ; " And the Spirit of God was uj)on him also, and he went on and prophesied. . . And he stripped off his clothes also, and j)roi)hesied before Sam- ixel in like manner, and jjay down naked all that day and all that night. Wherefore they say. Is Saul also among the prophets'?" Tholuck,^ with whom Hengstenberg seems gene- rally agreed on this subject, refers, in illustration of the pro- phetic state, to the " jerks," as they were called in this country. The " jerks" were violent, involuntary bodily agi- tations, which at times, both here and in North Germany, attended revivals of religion. It frequently haj^pened that even those who came to mock were seized by the sympathetic influence, and became as violently affected as any of the others. Hengstenberg also refers, as evidence that the pro- phets were "beside themselves," or "out of their senses," to the fact that by worldly men they were thought to be insane. 2 Kings 9 : 11. He quotes C. B. Michaelis in supjiort of this view, who says, " Videbantur vulgo prophetae non satis comj^otes mentis." DeHzseh, to the same effect, says that, exorfj'jac, to be out of one's senses, is antithetical to owc/'poukct), to be self-possessed, or to be sober minded. Another charac- teristic of the prophetic influence or state, according to these vpriters, was that it was sudden and brief, or, as Tholuck calls it, momentary. Reference is also made to the cases of Peter and Paul. Of Peter it is said, Acts 10 : 10, " He fell into a trance, and saw heaven oj^ened." The Greek word rendered trance in all these cases literally means ecstasy. Hence the condition in which these apostles were while in a trance is regarded as illustrative of the prophetic state in general. A trance, as defined by i)hysiologists, is a state of catalepsy, where the f 1 Propheten und ihre Weissagiimgen, Hamburg, 1861. ' INTEODUCTION. XV subject is profoundly asleep as to the body, but awake as to the soul. The mental state, however, of a man in ecstasy is often described as that in which the understanding — or dis- cursive faculty — is dormant, and the reason — the intuitive faculty — is active. The prophets, it is said, were seers ; they saw by intuition, or immediate vision, all that they revealed. Even Principal Faii-bairn, in his admirable work on Pro- phecy, says, " The ancient view of the prophetic state is beyond doubt substantially correct. It supposes the pro- phet, when borne away by the influence of God's Spirit, to have been transjjorted out of his natural condition into a higher, a siDiritually ecstatic state, in which, losing the sense and consciousness of external objects, he was rendered ca- pable of holding du-ect intercourse with heaven, and, surren- dering himself wholly to the divine unj^ressions conveyed to his soul, he for the moment ceased from his ordinary agency, as one released from the common conditions of flesh and blood, and entered into the piu'ely spii-itual sphere, to see^ the vision of the Almighty."^ It has already been admitted that the subjective influence of the divine afflatus was no doubt different in different cases. It is no doubt true, that the power of the Spirit coming upon a man was at times attended by utter prostra- tion, or violent agitation. But this does not prove that these were the uniform, or even the common attendants of prophetic inspiration. Because the "jerks," so called, accompanied certain revivals of religion, it does not follow that they are a characteristic of every true conversion, or even of every revival. The common opinion of the Chiwch in all ages upon this subject has been, that neither the body nor the mmd of the ■projihets was thrown out of its normal state by the coming of the Spirit upon them. This is proved, (1.) From the nature of their discoxirses. These are not the ravings of half-distracted men ; nor of men in whom " reflection," or '^ " Prophecy, Viewed in itsKelation to its Distinctive Nature, Special Fimction, and Proper Interpretation," by Patrick Fairbairn, D. D., Principal of the Free Church College, Glasgow. New York : Carlton ^ Porter, 1806, p. 119. XVI INTRODUCTION. any other faculty of the mind, is in abeyance ; nor of men: who neither saw, nor heard, nor felt. They are the dis- cotu'ses of men in the full exercise of all then- powers of mmd and body. (2.) The whole conduct and mode of action of the jjrophets, as of Elijah, Elisha, Isaiah, and Jeremiah, are those of men in their normal state. They went about from place to place, conversed with all classes of men, admonish- ing, instructing, and warning them of coming events, in the manner of ordinary men. (3.) In such didactic passages as 1 Cor. 14, we are taught, (a) That the spirit of the prophets was subject to the prophets. It did not carry them away, destroying their self-control, and forcing them to speak as soon as they felt its influence. One could wait until another- had finished his discourse, {b) That theii- discourses were those of men in their sober senses. They did not need to be interpreted. They were adapted to the learned and to the unlearned ; suited to convince and to convert. (4.) It is to be remembered that the Apostles, in the scriptural and pro- j)er sense of the word, were prophets. They were insi^ired, and therefore infallible messengers of God to men. When- ever they wrote or sjooke in that character, all that they com- municated had the authority of God. But the prophets of the New Testament certainly, and probably most of those of the Old, were inspired from time to time, as God called them to deliver certam messages to the people. So far from the prophetic influence generally producing bodily and mental disturbance, it is probable that, in many cases, the prophets were not conscious of the divine guid- ance. As men, when renewed by the power of the Holy Ghost ; when brought to the exercise of faith, repentance, or love ; or when the glory of Christ is so revealed to them that they are transformed into His image, are unconscious of the ' Saint's operations, so, doubtless, the prophets, specially the writers of the Psahns, when they sat down to pour out the fulness of their own hearts before God, were often led to use expressions and representations which, in their full meaning, suited only the Messiah, of whom the writer was probably not thinking. Let any one read the 8th Psalm, with the exposition of it given by Paul in Hebrews 2, and he will be- INTRODUCTION'. XVll convinced that there is a huncli-edfold more in that psalm than David ever thought of. While it is contended, agreeably to the general doctrine of the Church, that the prophetic state was ordinarily one of composiu'e and self possession, freedom from agitation, either as to mind or body, allowing the i:)rophets the free exercise of theii' own pecuharities of thought and style, it is freely conceded that there was something in them — i. e., in those who were officially prophets — which distingviished them from ordinary men. There was a full assurance and invincible conviction that they were, in a supernatural sense, the mes- sengers of God, so that theii* words were the words of God. It is as unreasonable to attemjot to explain how this assur- ance was produced, as to undertake to explain how Christ healed the sick, stilled the waves of the sea, or raised the de,ad ;. or how the Spirit now quickens those dead in sin, and works in them to will and to do according to His good pleasure. Tholuck further insists that the prophets were distin- guished by spirituality or personal holiness. He considers it inconsistent with the natiu^e of the prophetic office, that it should be held by any one not in intimate fellowship with God. Tliis idea is generally connected with the doctrine that the gift of prophecy was a high state of spii'itual illumi- nation. We know, however, that at the last day many whom Christ will reject will be able to say, " Lord, have we not prophesied in Thy name "? and in Thy name have cast out devils ? and in Thy name have done many wonderful w^orks ?" The remarkable history of Balaam, as recorded in Numbers, chaps. 22-25, is a clear proof how intimately God may reveal Himself to the imgodly. The Scriptui'es teach that the extra- ordinary gift of the Spirit has no sanctifying effect ; that He gave supernatural strength, wisdom, and skill, to artizans, without thereby making them holy men. We read also in John 11 : 51, that Caiaphas, being high priest for that year, prophesied that Jesus should die for the people. It was one of the functions of the high priests, irrespective of their re- ligious character, to act as prophets in cases of emergency. Although this is true, it is equally true that the prophets as. a class were called " holy men of God." XVUl INTKODUCTION. MODE OF COMMUNICATION. The Scriptures make mention specially of three modes of communicating to the minds of the prophets the messages which they were to dehver to the people. The first is that of du-ect address ; the second that of dreams ; the tliird that of visions. It is utterly inscrutable to us how external things operate on our minds through the senses. We cannot understand how a word uttered by one man can awaken thought or feeling in the minds of others. Much less can we under- stand how disembodied sjDmts communicate then- thoughts and feelings to other such spirits. The Spii'it of God is a Person, and can have personal communication with other persons ; can converse with them, communicating thoughts and exciting feelmg. He can control all the operations of our minds, so that all orii- thoughts and feelings shall be due to His agency. The Jews held the doctrine, that it was the peculiar prerogative of Moses to have this immediate inter- course with God, whereas to all others He communicated Himself only through dreams and visions. The same view is very generally held by modern writers. Principal Fairbairn, though one of the very best of the recent authors on the Prophecies, says^ that an ordinary prophet " was taken out of his natural state, and raised, merely for a mojnent, in his spiritual part, into communion with heaven. Such was God's ordinary mode of communicating with prophets, usually so called; but not His mode of communicating with Moses, otherwise he had, in this respect, enjoyed no peculiar dis- tinction." " The employment of ordinary converse, and, as a consequence, the disuse of dark or enigmatical sentences: this is precisely such a distinction in behalf of Moses which the whole circumstances would lead us to expect." This opinion is founded jDrincipally upon Numbers 12 : 6-8. It is there stated that Mii'iam and Aaron spoke against Moses, -and that God summoned the three before Him, and said, •*' If there be a proj)het among you, I the Lord will make 1 "Prophecy," by Patrick Fairbairn, D. D., pp, 484, 485. INTRODUCTION. XIX Myself known unto him in a vision, and will speak to him in a dream. My servant Moses is not so, who is faithful in all My house. With him I will sj^eak mouth to mouth, and not in dark speeches, and the similitude of the Lord shall he behold." As to Moses seeing " the similitude of God," that is explained by Exodus 33 : 19-23, where Moses prayed, " I beseech Thee, show me Thy glory ;" and Exodus 24 : 9, 10 : " Then went up Moses and Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel ; and they saw the God of Israel." In the same sense, Isaiah — 6 : 1 — says, " I saw the Lord on a throne, high and Hfted up." All this is, of course, consistent with the frequent and solemn admonitions given by Moses to the people, " Take good heed unto yoiu'selves, for ye saw no manner of similitude on the day that the Lord •spoke unto you in Horeb, out of the midst of the fire ;" and ■with the testimony of St. John, " No man hath seen God at any time." John 1 : 18. Nevertheless, even we, with our jDOor eyes, are said to see " the glory of God in the face of ■Jesus Christ." 2 Cor. 4 : 6. That the passage quoted above fi'om Numbers does assign Moses a higher position than ordinary prophets is admitted ; but that superiority consisted in more intimate access to God, and in the greater clearness of the revelations which he was to receive. That it did not consist in God's speaking unto Moses with words, and revealing Himself to ordinary prophets only in dreams and visions, is plain, (1.) From the very passage itself. It is said, " The Lord spake suddenly unto Moses, and unto Aaron, and unto Miriam, Come out, ye three, unto the tabernacle of the congregation. And He said, Hear now my words." Here was neither dream nor vision, but direct address : just as direct to Aaron and Mi- riam as to Moses. (2.) Mu.ch the larger part of the writings of the prophets are simple prose compositions, historical or didactic. Moses siu'ely was a prophet ; but was he ia an ecstasy — out of himself — when he wrote the history of the deluge, of the dispersion of the nations, of Joseph, of the exodus, of the giving of the Law on Mount Sinai ? The greater part of what proceeded from the prophets, in the restricted sense of the word, was not capable of being com- XX INTEODUCTION. nmnicated by signs. Signs may reveal events, bvit how^ can they reveal abstract tiiiths ? Isaiah might have seen the Messiah, " the servant of the Lord," m the form of a poor man ; the whole scene of the crucifixion might have been prefigured before him ; but how was he to know that those sufferings were expiatory ? that the Sufferer died for us, and that He made His soul an offering for sin 1 Paul not only says, but insists, and proves that his knowledge of the gospel was derived, not from man, but by direct revela- tion of Jesus Christ. Does any man believe that the con- tents of his ej)istles were made known to hun in di-eams and visions : all his knowledge of the law, of sin and grace, of the person and work of Christ, of the whole plan of salvation ? Such an idea probably never entered any human mind. It is only by confining the word " prophet" to its most limited sense, and " prophetic inspiration" to the smallest jDortion of what the prophets reveal, that any such thing can be main- tained. The simple Scrip tui'al idea is, that "holy men of old spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost." If they sat down to wiite history, the Holy Ghost guided. them fi'om the commission of error. If they undertook to instruct the people, the Spuit suggested to them what and how to speak, so that all they uttered came with the authority of God. So also, when the prophets warned, exhorted, or instructed the people, the Spirit filled their souls with the fire of a divine eloquence, so that they wrote and spoke with a force they never could of themselves have attained. As the infinite God is eveiywhere present, in His knowledge and power, always working, with or without second causes, producing all the infinite variety of effects in the world arormd us, so the Holy Spii'it dwells in all the people of God, working in each and all according to the good pleasiu-e of His will ; of old making sqme apostles, some prophets, some healers of diseases, some sj)eaking with new tongues, some interi^reters of tongues, some evangehsts, some pastors and teachers. It is, obviously vain to try to exj)lain how all these different effects were produced. All we have to do is to protest against whatever is contrary to the facts and teachings of the Bible. It is doubtless true that the Spuit sometimes spoke INTRODUCTION. XXI in a still small voice, wliich produced no disturbance in the pro- phet's mind. At other times He overpowered them, so that they became as dead men ; at others He raised them so high that nothing was visible to them but things eternal and divine. DREAMS. No one has ever been able to explain the physiology of dreams. Familiar as we are with their ordinary phenomena, they remain as mysterious and as feai-ful as ever. There is nothing in oui- present state of existence so adapted to pro- duce alarm and di'ead of the future as dreams. That every man should, on an average, be one third of his life out of his own control, capable of beheving absui'dities and impossi- bihties, and liable, under these hallucinations, to suffer all the horrors to which humanity is here exposed, is enough to make us feel on what a slender thread our happiness here depends. And nothing can be more appalling than the thou.g]it of the soul beuig launched into space in the state in which it is during sleep. It is a great mercy to know that, when out of our own control, we are still in the hands of God. It is intelligible, fi'om the powerful impression which dreams are capable of producing, that faith in them as pre- monitions of the future should have prevailed from the ear- hest times, and that " dream interpreters" should be a con- stituted profession. The Greeks were accustomed to say, " dreams came fi'om Jove ;" but long before the time of the Greeks, as we learn from the Bible — in the days of Abraham, Joseph, and Daniel — men had faith in dreams, and earnestly sought for trustworthy interpreters. This is the reason why reliance upon them, or consulting those who . professed to explain them, is associated with necromancy, — spiritualism, as it is now called, — and denounced, even on the pain of death. Lev. 20:6; Deut. 13 : 1-5 ; 18 : 11, 12. Dreams are of three general kinds : first, where they are disconnected and prej)osterous ; second, where they are con- nected, as in a natural series of events, there being nothing absui'd or impossible about them ; and thu-d, where the higher faculties of the mind are clearly and consciously at work. Men have often solved in a di'eam mathematical problems, which XXU INTBODUCTIOX. baffled all their efforts at solution while they were awake. Intricate subjects, of which no clear or consistent view could be obtained, have often oj)ened up in clearness and consis- tency during sleep. Notwithstanding the fantastic character of dreams in general. He in whose hands we are at all times can give them a clear significance, to be known at once by then' character, or by the attending declarations of His will. Thus, in the case of Abimelech, without the intervention of any image, God warned him in a dream that Sarah was Abraham's wife. Gen. 20 : 3-6. Joseph's futiu'e pre-emin- ence over his brethren was foretold by the image of their sheaves doing obeisance to his sheaf, which he and his father iinderstood without an interpreter. Gen. 37 : 7. But the dreams of the butler and baker in prison needed an interpre- tation, which Joseph only could give. So, also, the di-eams of Pharoah were significant ; but their true import was known only to God, and revealed through Joseph. Gen. 41 : 15, ff. In the remarkable vision of Jacob at Bethel, little compara- tively was made known by what he saw, while the whole scheme of God's pui^Dose regarding his descendants, and all the nations of the earth, was made known by the words which the Lord uttered in his ears. Gen. 28 : 12-15. Thus, in the case of Joseph, when " the angel of the Lord appeared unto him in a di'eam, saying, Ai'ise, and take the young child and his mother, and flee into Egypt, and be thou there until I bring thee word ; for Herod will seek the young child, to destroy him," — Matt. 2 : 13 — the revelation was by words. In the case of Nebuchadnezzar, the image seen in his di'eam was significant enough ; but its true meaning could be given only by one enlightened by the Spirit of God. In dreams, therefore, it seems that God revealed His will sometimes by symbols presented to the mind, so simple as to need no in- terpretation, as in the dream of Joseph about the sheaves. Sometimes the scene presented to the mind of the sleeper was full of significance, but needed an insph-ed interpreter, as in the dreams of Pharoah and Nebuchadnezzar. More fre- quently God spoke to the prophet, or the recipient of His revelation, while asleep, as to Jacob at Bethel, and to Joseph when warned to take the young child into Egypt. introduction: xxiii A vision, in the sense in which the word is here used, is something seen. Peter, in Acts 11 : 5, says he saw a vision. What he saw was a great vessel, like a sheet, descending out of heaven, filled with all manner of hving creatures. These thmgs had no real corporeal existence ; but figures of them were presented to his muid. The impression was as distinct and vivid as though it had been made through the senses. This is an illustration of the mode in which God communi- cated His will to the i^rophets of old. It has akeady been remarked, in opposition to a pojDular opinion of our day, that this was neither the only nor the common way ; nevertheless, it was a way not unfrequently adopted. 1. As to these visions, or -visual representations, some were very simple, intelligible at once, and without any exj^lanation. Thus, when Jehoshaphat asked the prophet Micaiah, " Shall we go up agamst Ramoth-gilead to battle, or shall we for- bear '? " the prophet answered, " I saw all Israel scattered upon the hills, as sheej) which have no shepherd." This was enough. The king understood it at once. 1 Kings 22: 15-17. 2. At other times the visions were very eomphcated and obscure. At times, at least, the prophets did not understand them, but prayed to have them explained ; which exj)lanation, when given, went a very httle way. Indeed, it is altogether probable that the prophets understood as little of the sym- bols presented to their view as those to whom they were afterwards announced. It was not the object of the visions to reveal the future more distinctly to them than to the rest of the people. The Apostle Peter represents the ancient prophets as inquiring and searching diligently into the mean- ing of their own predictions. It is an admitted fact, that the Old Testament prophecies regarding the first advent of Chi'ist were imiversally, and more or less grossly, misunder- stood by the Jews of His day. It is inconceivable that those j)rophecies should have been correctly understood by the ancient prophets. In that case they could not have failed to impress their true meaning on the peoj^le, and would XXIV Introduction. have prodiiced a permanently healthy state of the pubHc mind. 3. This suggests the remark, that the prophecies were not designed to gratify curiosity, to antedate history, but to pro- du.ce a good moral and rehgious impression on the minds of the men of that and of coming generations. Their great subject was Christ and His kingdom. To our first parents, immediately after the fall, it was promised that a Redeemer should come. With ever-increasing clearness, His person and His work were set forth. This sustained the hope of the Church until His actual coming. The knowledge, faith, and hope of the people were preserved, and even as a nation they waited for the salvation of Israel. 4. It is also to be considered, that no one of these visions "-took in the whole of the future. One presented one feature ; another a different one. Of those concernmg the Redeemer, some represented Him as King ; some as a Priest ; some as a Prophet ; some as a Man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief ; some as a Victor ; some as a Victim. It was not easy, perhaps not possible, to combine all these representa- tions into a consistent whole, until they were explained by the mode of then- accomplishment. Still, this was enough. Hereby the gospel was preached, by the Law and the Pro- phets, and a strength of faith produced, as we learn fi'om the eleventh chapter of the Epistle to the Hebrews, wliich puts to shame the faith of us modern Christians. 5. The symbols presented to the minds of the prophets ia their visions were almost all borrowed fi'om their national history, and from objects with which they were familiar. The whole Old Testament was tyj^ical of the New. The bondage of the i^eojile of God in Egypt ; the preservation of their first-born by slaying the paschal lamb ; the passage through the Red Sea ; the heahng of the people by the brazen serpent ; the manna fi'om heaven ; the water fi-om the rock : which rock was Christ ; the whole joiu-ney through the wilderness ; the passage over Jordan, and entering the promised land, were all shadows of good things to come. From that day to this Canaan has remained a type for the Test which remains for the people of God. And as the INTRODUCTION. XXV •Clmrcli on earth and the Church in heaven are one, what is a type of the one is a type of the other. Hence, those who dwelt in Canaan are, in the language of the ioroj^hets, " those "who are nigh," — nigh to God : iu His Church ; — and those who dwelt out of Canaan " were afar off," — i. e., Gentiles, — Ej)h. 2 : 13. Thus, to be cast off from the people was to be cast out of the Church, and to be restored to the dwelling- place of their fathers was to be restored to the Chiuxh. And when the conversion of the heathen is predicted, it is imder the figure of their coming to the Holy Land, and participat- ing in the sacred festivals there observed. In like manner, Jerusalem is a type, at once of the Chtu'ch of God — Gal. 4 : 25, 26 — and of heaven, as often in the Apocalyj)se. So also Zion. the seat of the theocracy, is the constant type of the kingdom of the Messiah, in all its phases, or stages of its development. In such passages as Isaiah 40 : 9, " 0 Zion, that bringest good tidings, get thee up in the high mountain ;" Psalm 2 : 6, " I will set My King on My holy hill of Zion ;" " Walk about Zion, and go round about her ;" " He said of Zion, this and that man was born there ;" "The redeemed shall come with singing unto Zion ;" " Awake, awake, put on thy strength, O Zion ;" " For Zion's sake I will not hold My peace, and for Jerusalem'? . sake I will not rest," Zion always means the Church. When, therefore, the prophet saw in vision Zion lying desolate, the prediction was that the theocracy, the kingdom of Christ, or the Church — all equivalent expressions — was to be desolated. If he saw Zion exalted, then the Chui'ch was to be prosperous. If he saw the nations flocking to Zion, the conversion of the Gen- tiles was predicted. This symbolical use of the word " Zion," has imjDressed itself indelibly on the minds of all Christians. It seems constantly in our prayers and hymns. When a man prays for the prosperity of Zion, every one understands him to pray for the prosperity of the Church. As the people of God under the Old Testament were called Israel, they are thus called now. "We," — i. e. Clu-istians — says Paul, "are the true Israel." And in the ninth chapter of the Romans, Tie proves that the promises were not made to the Israel after the flesh, but to the Israel after the Spirit : that is, to 4 XXVI INTRODUCTION. those wlio are tlie cliildren of Abraham because they have' the faith of Abraliam. Hence, when the prophets j)reclict the future glory of Israel, they, accordhig to Paul, are to be understood as predictmg the glory of the true Israel, ^. e., of the Church of God. Illustrations of this kind might be continued indefinitely. The Messiah was to be a King. Hence, the theocratic kings were symbols of the Messiah in that character. He is called David, Ezek. 34 : 23, 24 ; He is said to sit on the throne of David ; the key of David was to be upon His shoulder ; and the covenant or sure mercies promised to David, espe- cially that his posterity should sit on his throne for ever, and that he should be the heir of the world — Rom. 4 : 13 — were fulfilled, so far as the perpetuity of his kingdom is concerned, by the resurrection of Christ fi'om the dead, — Acts 13 : 34, — and as far as the possession of the earth is concerned, by believers being the seed of Abraham, to whom the promise referred. Rom. 4 : 13-18. This the apostle directly asserts, " If ye be Christ's, then are ye Abraham's seed, and heirs ac- cording to the j)romise." Gal. 3 : 29. It is needless to refer to the frequency with which the high priest, liis sacrifices and services, are used as symbols of the ofiice and work of Chi'ist. They vfeve types of what He was to be and to do. As He was to be a King, but not such a king as the eyes of men had ever seen, so He was to be a Priest, but not after the order of Aaron ; but a Priest without i^redecessor, and without successor, and without end of days ; who by the one offering of Himself, hath for ever perfected them that are sanctified. 6. Another marked characteristic of the prophetic visions is, that they often represent things as contemporaneous which are widely separated in time. They have aptly been compared, m this respect, to the stars, which are appaiently equally distant from our eyes, altliough separated fi-om each other by measureless portions of space. Thus, the advent of the Redeemer is at times connected with the final triumph of His kingdom. In the thuxl chapter of Malachi, the com- ing of Christ and His work of judgment are described as one operation " In the prophecy of Isaiah respecting Babylon,, INTRODUCTION. XXVU tlie "wliole di-ama of her comiiig downfall and ruin is set forth in an unbroken delineation, which in one rapid sketch em- braces the' history of ages, and connects with the fii'st stroke of vengeance inflicted by the Medes the last sad proofs of her litter j)rostration."^ Illustrations of this peculiarity of the projahetic visions may be seen in all the leading Messianic psalms, m which the sketch of the Kedeemer's career is given as a whole. In many other cases, one phase of the Messiah's work is given in comj)leteness, and other phases are left out of view. Joel, for examj)le, gives no other characteristic of the Messianic period than the general effusion of the Spuit. In one vision Christ is rejjresented only as a suffering Man ; in another only a conquering King. Again, the same vision may contain the most opposite characteristics. The person whom Isaiah described in the sixth chapter of his prophecies as Jehovah, before whom the seraphs veiled theu' faces, he saw as born of a virgin, and nevertheless recognized as the Wonderful, the Mighty God, the Prince of Peace. In the verbal communications which are interjected into almost all the visions, intimations are sometimes given of the chronological succession of the events which they indicate. These indications, however, are so few and so indefinite as to render it imjDossible, prior to fulfilment, to write history out of prophecy. 7. This is not a subject to be exhausted in such a paper as this, or by its writer. One other imjDortant characteristic of the visions of the prophets, however, may be mentioned. They do not use symbols, so to speak, cajoriciously, so that the same symbol sometimes means one thing and sometimes another. As a general rule, the same symbol has the same meaning, not only in the writings of the same prophet, but throughout all the prophetic writings of the Bible. We have already seen that the land of Canaan is everywhere in pro- phecy the symbol of the rest of the people of God ; the He- brews, as the theocracy, is the symbol of the true Israel, or God's elect ; Zion is the Church ; the enemies of the Jews, Egypt ; Moab, Edom, Babylon, represent the enemies of the 1 Fairbairn, p. 179. XXVIH JSTTEODUCTION. Chiu'ch. A mountain commonly means a kingdom, a beast a dynasty, etc. s EULES OF PROPHETIC INTERPRETATION. 1. The first and most obvious rule for the interpretation of unfulfilled proiDhecies is, that they are to be explained in accor- dance with the way in which the fulfilled prophecies have al- ready been accomplished. A ^^Tong method of interpretation, as is universally admitted, led the Jews to wrong conclusions as to the first advent of the Messiah, and the nature of the kingdom which He was then to establish. It would seem to be an obvious dictate of wisdom to avoid their method in re- ference to the predictions yet to be fulfilled. The Jews erred on the side of hteralism. They applied all that was predicted concerning Israel to the natural descendants of Abraham, through Isaac and Jacob. Paul teaches that those predic- tions and promises pertained to the spmtual seed of Abra- ham, whether Jew or Gentile. They expected that they as a nation were to be exalted over all other nations, and to be, as the Apostles expressed it, heii-s of the world. They, therefore, anticipated a Messiah who should redeem them from theu' opjoressors, conquer all their enemies, and by ter- rible judgments force them to acknowledge Jehovah as the only true God. They anticijDated the time when Jerusalem would be the capital of the world, and when the temple and all its services would be reverenced and trusted in by all nations. Some of the most eminent of modern interpreters of proi^hecy go to the same extreme. Auberlen, for example, in his exposition of Daniel 7 : 18-22, where it is said, " The saints of the Most High shall take the kingdom, and possess the kingdom for ever, even for ever and ever," says that, by "the saints of the Most High" must be understood the Jewish people.^ Daniel, he says, could have understood the promise in no other sense. It matters nothmg to us how Daniel understood the promise. He was inspired to announce, but not to explain it, which he has not done. We know with N certainty, fi'om the teachings of the New Testament, that it 1 Auberlen, " David and the Apocalypse," p 219. INTRODUCTION. XXIX is those who are " Christ's who are the seed of Abraham, and heu's accordmg to the j)romise." 2. A second obvious rule is, that the design of prophecy must be kept constantly in view, and nothing more be ex- l^ected fi'om it than it was intended to accomphsh. That design, as we have seen, was not to anticipate history : to enable us to read the futiu'e as we do the records of the past. Its great object was to keep alive and active the faith and hopes of the people in the exceeding great and precious pro- mises which had ah-eady been made. It did not instruct them clearly in what way those promises should be fulfilled. Much less was it intended to enable them to foresee the chronological order of events by which they were to be ac- comphshed. " It was not given them to know the times or the seasons, which the Father hath put in His own power." Acts 1 : 7. 3. The symbols are not to be taken to mean all that they may be made to signify. There is an usage in regard to symbols as well as in regard to words ; and, therefore, when any symbol has been found to have a settled meaning, that meaning is not to be departed from. Tliis remark apphes specially to the interpretation of unfulfilled prophecies. If in those which have been fulfilled a symbol has a certain sense, that sense is not to be ignored in the explanation of those which remain to be accomplished. An old coinmen- tator interprets the symbol of a flying eagle in one of the prophecies to mean the United States of America, because he fancied that there was a resemblance in the geographical configuration of our territory to an eagle in its flight. There would be no end to fanciful interpretations of this kind, if the rule that prophetic symbols have a fixed meaning be dis- regarded. It sometunes hapjoens that a word must be taken out of its ordinary sense ; but this does not iuvalidate the rule that the usus loquendi is a cardinal law of exegesis. The same is true with regard to jjrophetic symbols. 4. The doctrinal portions of the Scripture are to control the interpretation of the prophetical portions. The reasons for this rule are obvious. First, the whole Bible is the word of God. It must be consistent in all its parts ; and secondly, XXX INTRODUCTION. the didactic portions are far more clear than tbe prophetical. The doctrine of justification by faith is far more certainly taught in Scripture than what is meant by the wheels of Ezekiel, or the mystical Babylon of the Aj^ocalypse. If, therefore, the Scriptures clearly teach that there should be no distinction between Jew and Gentile in the kingdom of Christ, any interx)retation of prophecy must be erroneous which makes it teach that, after the conversion of the Jews, after the second commg of Christ, they are to be exalted over theii" brethi'en. A Jewish convert, a man of education, once said to the writer, while a guest in his house, that the Apos- tles had 2nade a great mistake in amalgamating the Jews and Gentiles into one Chi-istian church. " There ought," he said, "to be two such churches, the one Hebrew, and the other Gentile, in order that the former might retain their pre- eminence." In j)roof that the Jews were thus superior to the Gentiles, he referred to the language of Christ to the Syro- j)henician woman : " It is not meet to take the children's food and cast it unto dogs ;" and then added, " The Gentiles are dogs, and should be content to feed on the crumbs which fall from a Jew's table." This did not sound very Christian, but it was the legitimate result of his principles of prophetic interpretation. Many interj^reters teach that the temple in. Jerusalem is to be rebuilt, sacrifices again offered, the old festivals to be observed, and the whole Mosaic ritual reintro- duced According to the common judgment of Christians, all these things have been done away with for ever, and God has j)ro-sdded for his Church something better than an eter- nity of Judaism. Whatever may be thought of these illus- trations, there can be no diversity of judgment as to the validity of the rule that the clearly revealed doctrines of the New Testament are to control the interiDretation of unful- filled prophecies. 5. Another j)rinciple which should regulate the inteipreta- tion of the j)ropliecies is, that the distinction between what is to be understood hterally, and what spiiitually, should be deter- ' mined by fixed rules. It is admitted that some of the pro- phecies are to be understood hterally, and some figuratively ; and hence there are two schools of intei-proters, the literaUsts INTKODUCTION. XXXI "and the spiritualists. A man is not to allow himself to pass from one side to the other as it suits him, exjolaining a pas sage literally if it agrees with his doctrine, or figuratively if it contradicts it. This rule, though very simple, is fi'equently violated. If the interpreter departs from the literal meaning of a prophecy, he is bound to show good reasons for that departui'e ; and on the other hand, if he insists on the pre- diction being taken literally, he must be able to prove that the laws of exegesis require such explanation. This is too wide a subject to be here entered upon. Hengstenberg, in the second part of the thii'd volume of his " Christology," has laid down eight rules by which the figurative and literal sense of the prophetic predictions may be distinguished. Most of these are plain enough. If the hteral interpretation involves an imjiossibility ; if it makes the proj^het contradict himself ; if it be inconsistent with the mode of its accom- plishment, as in the case of the appearance, in the jDerson, of John the Baptist ; if it contradicts the teachings of the New Testament, or the analogy of faith, it must, of course, be abandoned. THE APOCALYPSE. A few words in an introduction to a volume of lectures on the Apocalypse concerning the book itseK must not be omitted. Such words, however, cannot have for their object anything more than to bring into view the nature of the work which the author of the lectiu'es undertook to perform. First, the portion of sacred Scripture which he proposed to illustrate is one of special interest and imiDortance, in the first place, because so large a portion of its contents con- sists of the very words of Christ himself, addressed to His people for instruction, admonition, and encouragement. In the second place, because it treats almost exclusively of the j)erson of Christ, and of the work which He is now carrying on in the world, in bringing His kingdom to its final con- summation. Thii'dly, because it unfolds the glorioias future which awaits the Church. These are the things which the angels desire to look into. The Apocalj^jse itself, in one sense, is the book which no one in heaven or earth could XXXn INTRODUCTION. open but the Lion of the tribe of Juclah, the Boot of David,. None but He could j)revail to open it, or could accomplish the purposes of God therein revealed. It has, therefore, always excited great interest in the Church ; and perhaps more study has been devoted to it, and more has been written to illus- trate it than any one book of the sacred canon. A second characteristic of the Apocalypse is its exceeding- difficulty. It is true that almost every enthusiastic interpre- ter maintains that it is all plain enough, provided the reader gets the right clew, and follows the path which the commen- tator points out. Nevertheless, to other persons the book remains as much an enigma as ever. The main source of this difficulty is, that so much of it consists in unfulfilled j)redictions. Such predictions were intended to be obscure. How could the first great promise of redemption, " The seed of the woman shall bruise the head of the serj^ent," be under- stood before Christ came, as we now understand it 1 How could the promise to Abraham, " In thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed," which Paul says contains the whole Gospel, be imderstood before it was accomj)lished ? How was any one to know that "thy seed" referred to one man, when almost everywhere else in the Bible it means the natural descendants of Abraham ? How natural it was for the Jews to believe that it was their nation that was to bless the world, to be the means of extending the true religion, to conquer all nations, and bring them into subjection to them- selves and their Messiah : that they might at least feed on the crumbs which fell from their own overladen table. The Messianic prophecies, the predictions concerning the person, work, and kingdom of Christ, were all biit universally mis- understood untn they were fulfilled. Then they became ,clear as day. It seems very unreasonable to expect that the New. Testament jjrophecies relating to the future should be read with the certainty which belongs to history, when those of the Old Testament were so sadly and so generally mis- interpreted. Another source of difficulty in explaining the Apocalypse is to be found in the circumstance that so large a part of its predictions are presented under the veil of symbols. It is INTKODUCnON. XXXIU self-evident that simple prose is more intelligible than sym bolical representations. This every man knows to be true from his own experience. Yet even the simple predictions of the Old Testament, in which the words employed admitted of only one interjiretation, were, as a general thing, entirely misunderstood. It is, therefore, to expect more than can be accomplished when it is thought that the veil of obscurity and uncertainty which rests upon so large a part of the Apo- calypse can ever be removed by man. This does not imi^au' the usefulness of this important part of the Word of God. The Old Testament prophecies were not useless because they were obscure. They kept alive the faith and hope of the Church from the fall of Adam until the coming of Christ. In like manner, although we may be un- able to explain with certamty the details of the visions re- corded .in the Apocalypse, then" general design and import are evident. They assure the Church that, although it will be assailed by many enemies, and have to pass through manifold trials and persecutions, its final triumph is sure : a consummation awaits it, the glory of which it has never entered into the heart of man to conceive. This is enc^agh, until God sees fit to give its more. The venerated Dr. Ai'chibald Alexander was accustomed to say, that although he understood but httle of the Apocalypse, he perused it con- stantly, because a special blessing was promised to those who read it. It is a blessed thing that the objects of faith need not be understood. A third remark concerning this book is that, setting aside the school of rationalistic interpreters, there are among those who believe it to be a revelation from God entirely different methods or theories concerning its purport and structure. According to one class it relates exclusively to the past ; it is a delineation of the struggles through Avhich the Church passed during the early ages of Christianity, until its final triumj)h under Constantine the Great. Another and very numerous class regard it as a prediction of historical events in chronological order; and they, therefore, endeavom- to determine to what particular event each vision refers. Others regard the visions very much as the parables of our Lord :. XXXIV INTRODUCTION. those of the sower and the ten talents, for example, -which have no regard to chronology, bnt give a view of God's pui'- pose in regard to the Church from the beginning to the end. So the several great visions of the Apocalypse go over the same ground, and trace the destmy of the Church to the end. According to this view, the seals, the vials, and the trumpets refer to events which are synchronous, and not successive. This is true, as ah-eady remarked, with regard to the Old Testament j)rophecies. In Daniel the destiny of the Church, in its relation to the kingdoms of the world, is first set forth under the symbol of Nebuchadnezzar's image, and the stone cut out of the mountain, and then under that of different beasts, and one like unto the Son of man. As there is this diversity of opinion as to the whole struc- ture of the Apocalypse, there are endless differences of opinion as to the import of particular symbols. 'AVhat is meant by Babylon 1 By the two witnesses ? By the river Euphrates ? The answers given to these, and many simi- lar questions, are almost as numerous as the commentators. It is out of the question, therefore, in any exposition of this jDortion of Scrijotui-e, that certainty or unanimity is to be attained. Its great design, however, remains plain. It pur- ports to show the people of God " the things which must shortly come to pass." This "shortly" may, however, in- clude thousands of years ; for we know that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. Almost by common consent, although nearly two thou- sand years have passed since these revelations were given, the things predicted have not all come to pass. We have not even yet entered upon the millenium, which is therein so clearly foretold. Besides, although much in this jDart of the sacred volume is obscure, much is comparatively clear ; and of every truth enough is I'evealed to give the Apocalypse power to sanctify and elevate the people of God. THE REV. JAMES RAMSEY. It is clear, from what has been said, that the task of an interpreter of i^rophecy, and esjiecially of an expounder of the Apocalypse, is one of peculiar difficulty. It requires INTRODUCTION. XXXV great humility and soundness of judgment, great familiarity ■with the Scriptures, and great spiritiTality of mind. These qualifications the late Dr. Ramsey possessed in an eminent degree. He entered the Theological Seminary, Princeton, New Jersey, in the year 1836. Thirty-six years have since passed away. The pojDulation of this village has been in that j^eriod almost entirely changed ; only one of his old in- structors remains alive ; yet his memory is still cherished with affectionate reverence. He was revered even in his youth. There was about him such an elevation above the world, such constant evidence that he was a temple of the Hyly Ghost, that he was sacred in the eyes of all who knew him. Although the impression which he made on his asso- ciates was principally due to the holiness by which he was distinguished, all who knew him also recognized in him the evidence of a clear and strong intellect, and of remarkable soundness of judgment. These characteristics of the man are clearly impressed upon this volume. In reading its j)ages, I recognize the spmt and the power which marked him as a student. The leadmg characteristic of these lec- tui'es is their siDirituality. The author has expressed, if such a figiu'e may be allowed, from the sacred text the pure water of hfe. He has compressed it as he would a sponge. His object is obviously to render the truths presented the means of growth in grace to his readers. To a greater degree, therefore, than any commentary within the writer's know- ledge, tliis volume is adapted to spmtual edification. No behever can read it without finding himself a better Chris- tian, nor can he fail to be made wiser. The clear strong sense which it everywhere exhibits will make him imderstand at least the inner truth of this portion of Scriptiu-e better than he ever did before. His sound judgment has preserved him from those fanciful interpretations of which the Apo- calypse has been such a fruitful source. These lectures, therefore, we doubt not, will be a lasting memorial of the man, and a lasting blessing to the Church. The writer of this introductory chapter feels it due to the friends of Dr. Kamsey to say, that the delay in its preparation is due to causes over which he had no control. PART I. INTRODUCTORY. LECTtTBE I. The Pkomihed Blessing. " n. The Gospei, of the Kingdom. " m. The Consolations of the K]N(}dom. 23 The Spiritual Kikgdom. LECTURE I. THE PEOMISED BLESSING. Rev. i: 3. "Blessed is he that readeth and they that hear the words of this prophecy, and keep the things which are written therein ; for the time is at hand. " ii A LL Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and Ix. is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correc- tion, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works." If, however, we were to judge from the treat- ment which some portions of Scripture receive from many professed Christians, we should conclude that there is much which they consider very unprofitable. This is especially true of the Book of Revelation. By many this book is regarded as of little or no practical benefit, except perhaps the second and third chap- ters, and some other detached passages. However the learned may possibly find in it some food for faith and Tiope, or however beneficial it may be to the church in some future age, when its mysteries shall be unveiled, and the light of a complete accomplishment thrown upon its present obscurity, yet to the multitude of believers now, they think it must remain a sealed and a useless book. ('25) 26 THE PKOMISED BLESSING. [Lect. I. I. It was not without reason, therefore, that the Holy Spirit, foreseeing this tendency to slight § Neglect of this •, (ji^ected His servant John to introduce Dook guarded against. ' it in the very first words after its title, by this solemn declaration of a peculiar blessing upon every one who should attend to the things written there- in. "Blessed is he that readeth, and they that hear the words of this prophecy, and keep those things which are written therein; for the time is at hand." These words, one would very naturally think,' ought to have prevented that low estimate of the spuitual and practical value of this book which has so widely pre- vailed. Such a benediction is attached to no other book of Scripture. It is indeed true in regard to every part of God's word, that they are blessed who read and keep it; but such a special declaration as this prefixed to this book only, indicates a special importance attached to it, and a special kind or degree of blessing to be secured by its devout study, or at the very least a gracious warn- ing against some' special danger of neglect, and of spirit- ual injury arising therefrom. The language is very forci- ble, and the phrases take their shape from the practice of those times when books were all in manuscript and very scarce, when the knowledge of them was obtained prin- cipally by hearing them read, and when most obtained their knowledge of them only by hearing them read. "Blessed is he that readeth, and they that hear," i. e., every one who comes to the knowledge, even though but partial and imperfect, — as that of a mere hearer must usually be, — "of this prophecy;" 'and keeps,' — observes, 'those things,' and governs his faith, his fears, his hopes and his conduct by the revelations it contains. Why, then, the question naturally arises, why has it §. Reasons of this ^ccn SO much neglected? The answer neglect. (1.) Its mys- to tliis is not difficult, and very properly leads to the consideration of its practical value to the church and the believer. Lect. I.] THE PROMISED BLESSING. 27 First, because of the mysterionsness of very much of it. lu connection ^^4th this, there has prevailed the mis- taken idea that there coukl not be any real advantage from what could not be understood; whereas that very mystery is often the chief source of the blessing, when it arises from the inherent grandeur and glory of the sub- ject, and the natural imperfection and lelt littleness of the creature. To humble man's proud heart, and put him in his proper place before the throne, no revelation is more important than that a divine plan pervades every part of the world's history, whose deep mysteries are as inscrutable as the wisdom that formed it is infinite, and capable of being expressed only in symbols of like mys- terious import. To know assuredly that there is a mys- tery in everything which we cannot comprehend, as well as an unfathomable wisdom and power and love which we may forever trust, is no mean attainment. A second reason of this neglect is to be found in the very common error in regard to pro- (2 ) A mistake as to ^ ^^ general, that since it cannot be the design of prophecy. ^ >J ^ ' perfectly understood until fulfilled, its chief value must be to confirm the faith of those w^ho live after its fulfilment, by the evidence thus afforded to the divine origin of Christianity, and to the perfections of God. There could scarcely be a greater mistake. On the contrary, the chief value of prophecy, as well as its first, direct and most evident design, has been to cheer and sustain the faith and fainting hopes of God's people during the long ages of trial and sorrow that precede the glorious consummation it predicts; and its value as an evidence of inspiration, or of the divine Omniscience, which is the only value it can have after its fulfilment, so far from being its chief design, is entirely subordinate and incidental, though in the present state of our world very important. Indeed, this could never have been the desio;n of this book, at least taken as a whole: for its re- 28 THE PROMISED BLESSING. [Lect. I. velations of the future sweep onward over all the nations and ages of the earth, and find their complete fulfilment and perfect explanation, therefore, only when this whole state of things shall have forever passed away, and when in the experienced joys and woes of an eternal and un- changing state, all such proofs become forever antiquated and worthless. A third reason that has prevented many from securing the blessing here promised is the very (3.) Too specific ap- general error that the symbols so mys- plication of its symbols. " ... terious and unique with which the book abounds, must find their corresponding realities, their true fulfilment, each in some one specific event, instead of in vast series of events of a similar character repeat- ing themselves throughout the history of the church, and all together tending to one grand definite result — the eternal triumph of the Cross, and the eternal ruin of all that oppose it. Now, the very nature of a symbol is such that it can represent its correspondent reality only by presenting as in a picture some one or more of its characteristic traits. If these characteristics are so per- fectly distinguishing that there is but one event or object to M^hich they can apply, then of course it must have this specific application. But if these traits are such as to characterize with equal clearness whole classes of ob- jects or events, then must the symbol be applied to the whole, unless in some other way such application be defi- nitely restrained. But in such a case the symbol is im- perfect. In other words, symbols are representatives of character and of principles, and of events and objects just so far as they embody these. Now, as the symbols of this book are pictures of the church's sorrows and tri- umphs, and of the overthrow of the powers of the world, it arises from their very nature as symbols, and from the very nature of man and of God, which constantly secure the repetition of the same sins and judgments and deliv- Xect. I.] THE PK0MI8ED BLESSING. 29 trances, that there will be an almost endless variety of applications of which they are capable, if regard be had to specific events. Accordingly, learned commentators, well read in the history of tlie chnrch, have each found peculiar applications of these symbols, according as the mind of each has been peculiarly impressed, some by one, some by another event in that history, or by the peculiar and stirring events of his own times; and insisting upon this as the specific event designed in the symbol, and the scheme of interpretation required by this as the only true one, there has arisen a great variety of conflicting theories, and a great number of various applications of the same passages in this book to events separated by ages from each other. One effect of this has been to utterly unsettle the minds of less learned men, and to destroy all confidence in the possibility of ever arriving at any ascertained meaning of these predictions, at least by those who had not spent half a lifetime in accurate re- searches into history. Perhaps nothing so much as this has tended to increase the apparent obscurity, and to lessen the spiritual influence of this book, and the blessed- ness here promised. It must however be here observed that what has often been found true in regard to other things (4.) Theideathatgreat ^f ^^^ kingdom of God, has happened learning was necessary. o ' I i: ^^ here; that while these things have been hid from the wise and prudent, they have been revealed unto babes. God has made foolish the wisdom of men, and amply rewarded the faith and diligence of the hum- ble and earnest believer. Where the pride of human learning has stumbled, and where the strength of human reason and the cravings of a vain curiosity have been baffled, and have turned from it as useless, because they could not understand it, the humble and simple-hearted believer has found the richest encouragements of faith ^and hope. While it is doubtless true that where there is 30 THE PROMISED BLESSING. [Leot. L this simplicity of faith and humble docility of mind, the more knowledge any one may possess of God's dealings with the church and the nations through past ages, the deeper and clearer will be his impressions of the great truths taught in this book, inasmuch as he has so many more striking illustrationfe of them, and sees them per- vading and shaping the whole current of the world's his- tory ; yet it is also certain that there will not be a single truth of importance or source of consolation and spirit- ual strength found in it by him, that will not also be found by the most unlettered saint who is able to under- stand the words as he reads them, however mysterious the descriptions may appear. We shall never forget the impression of this fact received many years ago in cir- cumstances of no little interest. The Sabbath had been spent in preaching in a settlement of Choctaw Indians on the upper waters of Red river, not far from Fort Wa- shita, and we were passing the night at an Indian cabin. Quite a number of Christian Indians had assembled for a night meeting, and to get all the benefit they could from further intercourse with the missionary and his inter- preter. The translation of the New Testament into their language had just been completed, and the first copies received and circulated. Much of it came to them with the freshness of a new revelation from heaven, but none more so than the book of Revelation. They turned to its closing chapters, and read, inquired and commented in their own way on the splendid imagery of those chapters, the city of the New Jerusalem descending from heaven, its massy walls, its pearly gates, its twelve foundations of precious stones inscribed with the names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb. To these untutored children of the forest, was all this an unintelligible jargon ? Or, did they, in their simplicity, take it in its literal and material Bense as describing an imaginary heaven differing from the hunting grounds which their fathers expected beyond tiECT. I.] THE PROMISED BLESSING. 31 tlie grave, only as a magnificent city differs from a prai- rie and forest well stocked with game? Far from it; their simple minds, though they had never heard any- thing about the laws of symbolic interpretation, and though many of the terms were strangely mysterious, seemed promptly to catch the grand leading ideas in- tended to be conveyed by the Spirit of God; and their natural and simple remarks, and the vivacity, energy and joyousness of their tones showed very clearly how truly their faith and hope were feeding upon these pictures of heavenly glory and purity and bliss, awaiting them in the presence and communion of their glorified Redeemer and His perfected church. We very much doubt if any learned commentator ever entered more truly into the spirit and real meaning of this splendid imagery than did they. This is but one of the many proofs that God's "wisdom is above man's in the perfect adaptation of His Book, and of these most mysterious portions of it too, to the nature of the human mind and for the consolation of the spiritual heart, — of that mind and heart untaught by anything but His Holy Spirit. Over such indeed this teaching by striking symbols that fix in the mind a visible pictm*e, has a power that no mere abstract statements ever can have. Neither in the obscurity of this book therefore, nor in its prophetic nature and design, nor in the discordant views of commentators, nor in the want of human learn- ing and culture, do we find anything at all inconsistent with the declaration, "Blessed is he that readeth, and they that hear the words of this prophecy." II. This plain and simple declaration of its divine au- thor must of itself be suflicient to satisfy Its practical value, evcry sincere believer in regard to the value of this book. But when we care- fully and devoutly mark the things that are written therein, we cannot fail to see reasons for such a special 32 THE PROMISED BLESStSTG. [Lect. I. blessing, and strong inducements to its prayerful study. We find them in its very title, in its general scope and design, in its special discoveries of truth, and in the very mystery that pervades its style. Each of these, however, derives special force from the reason assigned in the text, which de- the time ^ "'^''™^^^ ° mauds our first attention. " For the time is at hand.''' This invests the things spoken of with an interest nothing else could give them. They are not matters in which only distant generations have any personal interest, but they concerned the duty and peace of even that generation to which the book was first given, and hence of every generation since. The alarming dangers it foretells were even then at hand, and so shortly to come to pass, that every one who heard these words would need its warnings and consolations, and would find in them such guidance and support as would fill him with blessing even in the darkest hour. It cannot be meant by these words, "the time is at hand," that the whole of the prophecies of this book were to be accomplished immediately; for by the con- sent of all it embraces the whole course of time, and reaches beyond the end of all things earthly. It can only mean that the conflicts and triumphs which were to end only when death and hell were to be cast into the lake of fire, were even then about commencing ; and that very soon the whole of the principles of the long and fearful strife would be developed in events of stirring in- terest and importance to the church, and such as would require all the light and strength which these deep and far-reaching views of God's mighty and gracious purposes could give. These things must shortly come to pass; the mystery of iniquity was already at work; already had the malice of Satan been stimulated to stir up false breth- ren within, and excite violence without the church; and -Storms fierce and furious as hell could raise would soon Lect. I.] THE PROMISED BLESSING. 33 be bursting over her, — storms that, even when calmed, would again and again repeat • themselves. The time, therefore, was at hand when all these warnings of danger and glorious promises of triumph would be needed. And if needed then, they would be needed always. In every age, as the conflict waxed hotter and the final victory drew nearer, there would be the same or increasing need of the light which this revelation alone would be able to throw on the pathway and progress of the spiritual king- dom. Hence in all ages, blessed would every soul be who would hear and keep these words of warning and encouragement. Again, the very title of the Book expresses its value. " The Revelation of Jesus Christ ivhich (2.) By the title. g^^ ^^^^ ^^^^^^ Him, to skoio uMo His Ser- vants things that must shorthj come to pass.''^ The word "Revelation''^ or " Apocalypse,'^ which last is only the Greek word in an English form, means "the un- covering," taking off the veil from what was before kept secret. Every one knows how the fact of a thing having been kept secret sharpens curiosity, its secrecy implying its special importance. "With what intense earnestness men labor to extort from nature her secrets, spending their lives and making martyrs of themselves to discover her deep mysteries; and with what joy they announce such discoveries when made, and how eagerly a listening world welcomes them. The astronomer in his midnight vigils, and his life-long calculations, — the naturalist in his toilsome explorations among all the forms of being, from the snowy tops of Himmelayah to the deepest depth of ocean that plummet can be made to sound, — the traveller in unknown lands and savage tribes, the re- cluse student poring day and night over some question in philosophy or science in the solution of which he expects to unfold some mighty secret that will entrance the world, — these all are instances of this intense desire of 34 THE PROMISED BLESSING. [Leot. I new revelations. How eagerly, too, men in all ages and conditions seek to pry . into the unknown future ; and what success attends every lying pretender to such know- ledge, the whole history of the world attests. But here is a revelation infinitely more important and glorious than anything that the mightiest efforts of human genius ever extorted from the mysterious depths of nature. Here, too, a veil is lifted from futurity ; and many of its real forms in distinct and awful grandeur pass before us, and gleams of its mysterious glory animate oui* longing hearts. Here God Himself has been pleased in a most wonderful degree to disclose to us the general character of His purposes and future dealings with our world and the church in all their changes through ages. The infi- nite importance of this revelation is intimated in the pe- culiar language here used: — "the revelation" "which God gave to Jesus Christ," to Him as the Head and Me- diator of His church, and to whom alone access could be given to all these secret counsels of the Eternal mind, who came forth from the Father's bosom to reveal them, and who hence is called the Word of God. It is this revelation of things to come to pass here on earth in order to the full restoration in it and over it of the king- dom of God, the whole of these, so far as He was in His work of Mediator commissioned to unfold them for the benefit of His waiting people. Shall not a revelation thus solemnly announced, thus prepared for us in the se- cret counsels and mysterious intercourse of the persons of the Godhead, of the purposes of that Godhead toward our world and of His dealings vsdth it, awaken our deepest interest ? And can its study possibly fail to bring with it the blessing here promised? John here further entitles it the testimony of Jesus Christ, made known by an angel commissioned for the purpose, and actually made to pass before his eyes in prophetic vision. Christ Himself here testifies ; — an angel IjECT. L] the promised BLESSING. 35 is the instrument He employs. In this book there is lesa 'of the human element than in any other book of Scrip-- lure. Its revelations are not first passed through a hu- man mind, and moulded by its habits of thinking and forms of speech to the degree that the apostolic epistles are. It is a simple report of the divine words or the divine symbols which he heard and saw. 'And perhaps more than any other book of the New Testament does this bear upon its very face the signature of its divine author. No man, with any tolerable knowledge of the powers of the human mind, and the productions of ge- nius in different nations and ages, can deliberately and •candidly read this book, iii connection with the other Scriptures, and then admit the possibility of its mere hu- man origin. In its very style, and its whole form, as "well as in its matter, it is as far beyond all human pro- ductions as the living tree or man is beyond the imitations of the painter or sculptor. So manifestly emanating im- mediately from the bosom of the Godhead, and bearing the impress of di\dnity, blessed indeed must all those be who hear and keep it. As already intimated, it was not intended to give be- forehand a history of particular events, deSti^^'^''''^'^'"^ ^^^ t^ present the principles that were to shape the world's history, so far as it concerned the progress of the divine kingdom, in their chief combinations and workings, and so to unfold the general course and grand characteristics of God's deal- ings with His church and the nations during all the long ages of conflict and darkness through which that church ', was to pass, — the various forms and combinations of evil . that should oppose her, and the power by which she should overcome, and the glory that should eventually •crown her triumph. And this, too, in order to cheer her heart and confirm her faith during the long night of her ecinflict, and while crushed and bleeding under the might 36 THE PEOMISED BLESSING. [Lect. I. and malice of her foes. As therefore she goes from age to age along her pathway of strife and tears and blood, with the world's powers all combined against her and externally triumphant, and holding her spiritual origin, glory, and destiny in contempt, she has only to look up to that window which John saw opened in heaven, and thence derive* fresh courage and joy in her deepest tribu- lations. She thence learns not to think it strange con- cerning these fiery trials, but to see them as 'her destined path to an eternal triumph. She there sees these powers that the world deifies and adores, — political, literary, fa- natical, infidel and heathen, all characterized as beasts of hideous and monstrous forms, — ^beasts, looking down to the earth on which they tread, and only there, lording it for a time over a suffering church and a prostrate world, until having exhausted all their skill and malice under the hellish inspiration of the great dragon, they are all together cast into the burning lake, and her own shout of triumph rings through all the earth, "Alleluia; the Lord God omnipotent reigneth." Surely, "blessed is he that readeth and they that hear" these words of divine cheer. For nearly all we know of Christ glorified, beyond the facts of His ascension and session at (4.) By its special ^^^^ Father's right hand, and investiture revelations. . . with universal dominion, and the promise of His second coming, we are indebted to this book. All the most stirring views of our blessed Lord in His glory,, and in the exercise of His dominion — the mighty sweep of His Providence over the nations and the invisible world, and on behalf of each suffering saint, as well as our fullest and most impressive views of the future bliss and glory of the redeemed, and of our world delivered from the curse, and Paradise restored, are derived from this book, mysterious as it is. We are not merely told here what He will do, but we see Him doing it, and are made Lect. I.] THE PROMISED BLESSING. 37 more sensibly to realize His living person and presence with us and in every event of life. It is the very mystery wliich still enshrouds the sym- bols here used, to reveal His works and (5.) The mysterious- jj-^ . ^j^^ grandeur of His spiritual ness of its symbols. o ^ :> o x kingdom, and the horrid enormity and malignity of the world's opposition, that gives to us our truest and highest conception of them. How could we obtain even a true glimpse of the invisible world — and of those mighty spiritual forces that are battling so fiercely for the possession of the earth and of human hearts, and of the awful magnitude of the hidden dangers and hellish influences that encompass us, or of the matchless blessings and glories of the spiritual king- dom,— things beyond the power of earth's language to express, and the power of earth's objects to picture, — except by such unearthly mysteries of glory and of terror as these sublime visions present ? He cannot but be blessed whose heart treasures up these wondrous things, written in this book, of our enthroned king and our heavenly home. Thus it has always been. The blessing here pro- nounced has always been more or less (6.) In all the church's . ^ rni • i i i i experience. cujoyed. Ihis Dook lias ucvcr oeeii held by the church in vain. The whole experience of the church in every age testifies to its power. Whence those conceptions of the future world and heavenly glory — the vision of the city, and the river, and the slain Lamb, and the new song, and the harps of gold, and the day without a night, and Paradise restored, that have been wrought into all the thinking- and speech of the church even in the darkest periods of her history? "Whence were derived those views and that inspiration that produced those bursts of divine song — those bright and joyous anticipations of heavenly bliss, that have cheered the hearts of suffering saints in every 38 THE PROMISED BLESSING. [Lect. I. « age, in all tlieir solemn assemblies, in the dens and caves of the earth, on the bed of death, and at the martyr's .stake? Especially from this book. Whence did David Dickson catch the strains of that sweet song that has ex- pressed and elevated the devotions of thousands of saints, — " Oh mother dear, Jerusalem," or as we have it in our books, "Jerusalem, my happy home?" And was it not from this same vision of John in Patmos, that Bernard of Cheny, in 1483, learned those heart-stirring strains that then cheered the church's gloom and bright- ened her hopes, and which ever since, translated into va- rious tongues, have wafted to heaven her brightest antici- pations and most earnest longings ? With a few verses •of this we may not inappropriately close this lecture, and may the Spirit of God enable us all in these times, when the true patriots of every land are in fear, looking after those things which are coming on the earth, to know the blessedness of the hope that looks up to that heavenly country and claims it as a home. "For thee, 0 dear, dear country Mine eyes their vigils keep; For very love, beholding Thy hajjpy name, they weep : The mention of thy glory Is unction to the breast. And medicine in sickness, And love and life and rest. ^* Beside thy living waters All plants are, great and small,— The cedar of the forest, The hyssop of the wall. Thy ageless walls are bonded With amethyst unpriced ; The saints build up its fabric, The corner-stone is Christ. "There is the throne of David, And there, from toil released. The shout of them that triumph, And the song of them that feast. Leot. I.] THE PROMISED BLESSING. 39 And who, beneath their Leader, , Have conquered in the fight, Forever and forever, Are clad in robes of white. "Jerusalem, the glorious, The glory of the elect, O dear and future vision That eager hearts expect ! 1 Even now by faith I see thee ; Even here thy walls discern ; To thee my thoughts are kindled, And strive and pant and yearn. " Thy loveliness oppresses All human thought and heart ; And none, O Peace, 0 Zion, Can sing thee as thou art ; The Cross is all thy splendour, The Crucified thy praise : His laud a benediction Thy ransomed people raise. " 0 sweet and blessed country. Shall I ever see thy face? 0 sweet and blessed country, Shall I ever win thy grace? 1 have the hope within me To comfort and to bless ; And shall I see thy glory? O teU me, tell me, yes! " Exult, 0 dust and ashes! The Lord shall be thy part : His only, His forever. Thou shalt be, and thou art! Exult, O dust and ashes! The Lord shall be thy part : His only. His forever. Thou shalt be, and thou art." LECTUKE II. THE GOSPEL OF THE KINGDOM. Key. i: 4-8. "John to the seven churches in Asia, 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, who is the faithful Witness, and the first begotten of the dead, and the Prince of the kings of the earth. Unto Him that loved us and washed us from our sins in His own blood, and hath made us kings and priests unto God and His Father: to Him be glory and do- minion forever and ever. Amen. Behold He cometh with clouds, and every eye shall see Him, and they also which pierced Him: and all kindreds of the earth shall wail because of Him. Even so, Amen. I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending, saith the Lord, which is, and which was, and which is to come, the Almighty." JOHN, the favoured instniment by whom the wonder- ful revelations of this book were given to the church, needs no introduction to any reader of The author. ^j^^ ^^^ Testament. He himself de- lights in the title, ' the disciple whom Jesus loved.' Of the twelve he was one of the select three admitted by our Lord to be special witnesses of His glory and of His secret sorrows. Of these three he seems to have been privi- leged to be nearest to his Master's person, and to enjoy the most confidential intercourse with Him. At the last supper we find him reclining next to Him so as to lean upon His bosom. His character is often greatly misun- derstood. He was loving and lovely ; but though gentle, affectionate and confiding, his was no mere passive and yielding nature, none of that soft and pliant tenderness so often attributed to hun. Ou the contrary, he was dis- (40) Lect. II.] THE GOSPEL OF THE KINGDOM. 4:1 ^tinguislied above most of the others for the calm decision and fervid energy of his character, causing him and his brother James to receive from their Lord the surname of 'Boanerges,' or sons of thunder; thus reminding us that it is not to the most forward, bold and demonstrative, like Peter, but to the calm, thoughtful, and the retiring even, that we are to look for the highest specimens of real en- ergy, courage and manly strength. In his peculiar men- tal character and habits as these appear both in his gos- pel and epistles, he seems to have been specially disposed and fitted to penetrate into the deeper spiritual mysteries of redeeming mercy, and to unfold the great principles of God's truth and dealings. There thus appears a beauti- ful harmony between the character of this apostle, and the privilege and duty to which he was here called of mi- folding the grand elements of the vast scheme of God's Providence through future ages, to comfort and encourage His fainting and struggling church. That church in every age is here represented by "the seven churches of Asia." These are To whom addressed. i i i i i supposed to have been under the more immediate care of this apostle in his last days. Now, too, all the otlier apostles are believed to have already joined their ascended Lord. His words here and in his gospel are the last apostolic utterances to the churches, and hence to whomsoever addressed would be received with equal reverence by all and of common interest to all. The " Asia" here spoken of, is only the western ex- tremity of the peninsula now called " Asia Minor." The name, we are told,^ originally belonged to d still smaller section, "the Asian mef^dows on the banks of the Cayster," as Homer has it. It was afterwards applied more definitely to the whole of what became, by the will of Attains, king of Pergamos, a Koman province, and hence termed Proconsular Asia. These seven churches 1 Conybeare and Howson, vol. i., p. 237. 42 THE GOSPEL OF THE KINGDOM. [Xect. II. were the clmrches of the chief cities of the province, and are afterwards named^ in the order in which they would naturally be visited by a person starting from Ephesus the capital city. But just as the epistles of Paul to the Romans and Corinthians, and other churches, were in- tended for the instruction of all churches in all ages, since the relations between God and His church are al- ways the same, and her duties, motives and consolations substantially the same, — so was this also a revelation equally for all: it was to these seven, only in order that through them it might come to all of us. On the one hand, then, we have here this beloved disciple receiving at the hands of our glorified Lord this revelation of His future purposes of grace and glory to His redeemed; and on the other, we have these seven churches receiving it directly at the hand of John, in trust for the church of every age and nation. So that "John to the seven churches of Asia," is equivalent to — 'Jesus Christ to the churches of every people and age,' and therefore to us. The one great subject of this revelation is the kingdom of Christ. It is this spiritual kingdom ^ ^" ^^'^ ' in its conflicts with and its triumphs over the power of Satan and the kingdoms of the world. And these verses which introduce and sum up the whole book, may appropriately be styled — the gospel of the kingdom. They announce its blessings and its triumphs,, and these to be consummated by the coming of its divine King. In them we have, first, its message of mercy from a Triune God : " 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, who is the faithful Witness, and the first be- gotten of the dead, and the Prince of the kings of the earth." We have, secondly, the church's glad and grate- ful response, in an ascription of praise to her redeeming 3 ch. i., 11. Lect. II.] THE GOSPEL OF THE KINGDOM. 4:3 God, in view of the magnitude of this mercy, and price at which it was procured : " Unto Him that loved us and washed us from our sins in His own blood, and hath made us kings and priests unto God and His Father; to Him be glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen." Thirdly, we have a solemn warning to all the world in view of the coming of this redeeming God to accomplish the purposes announced: "Behold, He cometh with clouds; and every eye shall see Him and they also which pierced Him: and all kindreds of the earth shall wail because of Him. Even so. Amen." The whole is ap- propriately closed and enforced by the introduction of the divine author Himself, this coming Redeemer, in His own person declaring Himself as the origin and end of all, — the self-existent and unchangeable God, omnipotent to fulfil all the vast purposes of redeeming love to a wretched world : " I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending, saith the Lord, which is, and which was, and which is to come, the Almighty." The highly spiritual and practical character and design of the whole book will clearly appear in considering the three leading topics of this passage ; the message, " Grace and peace" from a Triune God; the church's response, "Unto Him that loved us, &c.;" and the world's warning and the church's hope, " Behold, He cometh." I. First, then, we have the message of the gospel or glad news of the kingdom, as the burden I. The goepel mes- ^^ ^|^-g ^^j^^jg ^^^^^ ^j^^^ meSSagC is sage. " " grace and peac^" from God the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost. " Peace" sums up the bless- ings of this kingdom; "grace" describes their origin. All the blessings that come down from heaven to guilty and helpless man, laboring under the fearful burden of unforgiven sin and the dread of impending wi-ath and the misery of con- flicting passiox^s, unsatisfied desires, and earthly woes, •4:4: THE GOSPEL OF THE KINGDOM. [Lect. II. are forcibly and toucliingly included in tliis one word, 'jDeace,' the peace that is from God and that reconciles io God. Without it you may gather to yourself all that earth calls good, all that for which men put forth their mightiest energies, and the eager strife for which fills the earth with " the waves of human agitation billowed high," and you have gained only dust and ashes. Without it, the more you have gained of the world's honours, pleasures and wealth, the greater the vexatious burden of vanity you have to bear, and the bitterer the cup of sor- row mingled for you at last. The want of it turns the best of earthly blessings into poison, and makes them only smooth your downward way to a deeper perdition. The possession of it, on the other hand, gives to all earthly good its only real value, and transmutes its sor- rows, pains, and tears into healing medicines for the soul, and preparatives for eternal joy. It cannot do less; for it is called "the peace of God which passeth understand- ing,"— the peace which God gives, and by which God is reconciled. What more than this can a creature want ? It brings him into loving communion with God, his maker; it secures sweet serenity and harmony in the soul itself; it satisfies every desire. Nature, in all her thousand processes, Providence, in all its minutest, vast- est and most complicated movements, and even the un- seen hosts of angels, all range themselves as the minis- tering servants of the soul at peace with God. "All things are yours." " Grace" is its only source. Hence this message of the kingdom is ^^ grace and peace." No "Grace, " , • i_ ^ • true peace can come into any soul except through grace. Let not the frequency and flippancy with which this word is repeated make you insensible to the force and glory of its blessed meaning. It is the gratuitous, undeserved and sovereign favour of God, •springing out of the depths of His own nature and with Iject, II.] THE GOSPEL OF THE KINGDOM. 45 all the gushing force of divinity, exhaustless as His own fulness, either by the creature's wants or the lapse of ages, and finding its true symbol in tliat river of the waters of life that John saw bursting out from beneath the throne of God and the Lamb. Such is the glad news the gospel brings to you and to me, oh helpless sinner! Such the nature of the bless- ings which the whole resources of this spiritual kingdom •of God are employed in bestowing. Mark well the two great truths taught by these words, "grace and peace," in regard to your native character and condition in the eight of God. The very words that come to you laden with heaven's richest mercies, to gladden and to save your soul, imply that God regards you as by nature at ■enmity with Him, and vmder the penalty of His holy law; and that deliverance from this state of sin and misery cannot be procured by any works or merits of yours or of any creature, but must be His perfectly gra- tuitous gift. The infinite magnitude and preciousness of the bless- ings thus announced are most impres- From the Triune God. .,, i,i p< ,^ , ,t • sively tauglit by relerrmg them to tiieir •origin in each of the persons of the blessed Trinity. It is, first, "grace and peace," "from Him which is, and which was, and which is to come." These words seem intended to represent as far as possible that incommuni- cable and mysterious name by which God revealed Him- self to Moses, "I am that I am," or as it might be -equally well translated and as it also means, " I will be what I wdll be." The words used in the original Greek here are very remarkable. They violate the most ordi- nary and fixed rules of grammar, as if to intimate that the very name of God must burst through all tlie ordi- nary laws of human language in order to find fitting terms — that indeed no human language can bear the bui-den of this name. And so it is of that grace and 46 THE GOSPEL OF THE KINGDOM. [Lect. IL peace wliich is but the expression of this name — of the divine character toward the believing sinner. They are as unchangeable and eternal as the Father's nature and eternal purpose of love, whence they sprang. Again, it is "grace and peace," "from the seven spirits which are before His throne." Seven is the num- ber of covenant perfection or completeness; ^^ before the throne,'''' indicates them .as the ever ready messengers of its power and grace. This is but a striking symbolical expression after the manner of this book for the perfect and manifold variety and fulness of the operations of the Holy Spirit bestowed upon all the churches of Christ. In the covenant of redemption, and in the actual arrange- ments of the spiritual kingdom, the Holy Spirit takes the place and office o^ carrying forth by His perfect and fitting influences this grace and peace, that proceeds from the throne of divine sovereignty. It is, then, a grace and peace infinitely efiacacious -and all-sufficient as imparted to the soul by the Omnipotent Spirit. Again, it is "grace and peace," "from Jesus Christ, who is the faithful Witness, and the first begotten of the dead, and Prince of the kings of the earth." It is grace and peace attested by the Son of God Himself, made sure by His resurrection from the dead as the first fruits of them that sleep in Him, and carried forward to its perfect consummation by His supreme and universal do- minion. Such is this grace and peace announced by the gospel, bestowed in this kingdom. It is boundless and exhaust- less as the fulness of an unchanging God ; mighty and efficacious as the manifold influences of the omnipotent Spirit; and firm and secure as the eternal throne of our risen and ascended Saviour. It is a "grace and peace" proclaimed in some form by all the works and ways of God to our sin-accursed world; proclaimed even by the very frame work of nature and its processes, standing as Lect. II. I THE GOSPEL OF THE KINGDOM. 47 it does to be the theatre on which God shall display the working of redemption ; proclaimed by all the vast sweep of His Providences, however clothed they may be in gloom and terror as they roll over us, for " all things work together for good to them that love God, who are called according to His purpose;" proclaimed too by every page of this blessed Book as it comes attested by Heaven's broad seal, and by no part more clearly than this closing revelation of the Kingdom ; and most power- fully though silently proclaimed by the still small voice of the Spirit in your hearts, drawing you with loving strivings to flee from the wrath to come. And fiithermore. The offer of it in this proclamation of the Kingdom is limited by nothing but the sinner's willingness to accept it. "Whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely," are the express terms. Oh how unlike the ways of men ! How unlike the par- dons and amnesties of earthly powers, all full of limi- tations and exceptions, that make them savour far more of vengeance than of love and peace. Here no sin- ner is excepted; though your rebellion has been long and open and determined, involving the deepest and most damning guilt; though your soul may have every reason to tremble in the prospect of that dreadful wrath which its sins deserve; yet to you — aye, to the chief of sinners, the proclamation of heaven's grace and peace comes breathing nothing but love, — matchless, free, unbounded love. It comes to each of you, — what is your response ? Who so mad, so bent on self-ruin as to treat with indifference this divinely attested message of grace and peace from God the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost ? " How shall we escape if we neglect so great salvation ?" Some of you have already received this grace with hmnble, penitent and believing hearts; you have felt this holy peace diffusing itself sweetly and powerfully through 4:8 THE GOSPEL OF THE KINGDOM. [Lect. II. your sin-stricken and burdened souls. Surely you will most heartily unite in the joyful response of the church which follows : " Unto Him that loved us and washed us from our sins in His own blood, and hath made us kings and priests unto God and His Father : to Him be glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen." This is the second division of our text, — the believer's glad and grateful response to this gospel 11. The church's glad or glad uews of the Kingdom. The Ian- response. , , ^ guage here seems to burst spontaneously from the heart of John as he contemplated that won- drous grace and peace he had just announced. It is too, and this should be specially noted, the actual expression of this divine peace as imparted to and dwelling in the soul ; and shows its depth, its joyousness and its triumph. It is the utterance of an aged, persecuted, banished suf- ferer, on behalf of himself and the chm-ch upon which then the worldly power, with Domitian at its head, had placed its iron heel to crush out its very life. And yet here is not a tone or a trace of sadness; instead of groans and tears and dark forebodings every note rings with the very gladness and triumph of heaven itself. Three things we may briefly notice in this response. 1st. The conscious dignity, power, and (1.) Conscious dignity privileges cveu now enjoyed in this king- and privileges. j. o ^ t/ o dom. " Hath made us kings and priests unto God," i. e., before God, in His estimation. De- spised by man, poor, oppressed, or even driven to the stake, still in His eyes the believer is crowned with a royal dignity, and clothed with a priestly sanctity. To those whose notions of what is great and glorious are confined to material splendour and earthly power, these may seem strange words. All they imply is indeed not now enjoyed, and will not be imtil the whole mystery of redemption shall be finished; but they do imply that £uch a change has already taken place in the believer's Lect. II.] THE GOSPEL OF THE KINGDOM. 49 relations and character as is the pledge and the foretaste of that future fulness of blessing. If to be a king is to possess dignity, dominion, power and riches, and to be a priest implies the still higher glory of holiness, friend- ship, and communion with God, then is there far more reality in the spiritual kingship and priesthood of the Christian, than ever belonged to any mere earthly mon- arch or Aaronic priest. And it is your privilege, be- liever, to feel this, and to feel it far more constantly and vividly than most of us do. Distinctly then answer a few questions. Do you con- sciously welcome this message of grace and peace to your heart? Do you trust Jesus Christ, the Faithful Witness ? Do you choose Him as your Lord and Master ? I ask not now whether you feel the burden of a corrupt nature, and are ashamed and humbled on account of your daily sins. I know you do, you must, if you are a true believer. But do you accept God's grace in Christ as your only hope, and Christ's will as your only law ? If you do — then what must be your real state and rela tions before God ? Are you not imited to Christ by an indissoluble union? Are you not adopted into the family of God ? Are you not an heir of God through Christ ? Is not your inheritance a share in the kingdom of glory, incorruptible and that fadeth not away? Are not nature and providence all working in subserviency to your in- terests ? Are not angels your ministering servants ? Is not the Spirit of God dwelling in you ? Have you not continual access to the mercy seat? In a word, are not all the resources of the Godhead pledged to bring you off conqueror over earth and death and hell ? Do not the explicit promises of the everlasting covenant render all this certain? In proportion, then, as you take God at His word, it is your privilege t© say with this same John, "Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of 60 THE GOSPEL OF THE KESTGDOM. [Lect. II. God Now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be ; but we know that when He shall appear, we shall be like Him : for we shall see Him as He is." What earthly crown or consecrating oil could even impart such hopes and dignities as these? Oh, dear brethren, do, I pray you, realize your real dig- nity and blessed privileges, and praise the Ijleeding Lamb that He hath made you " kings and priests unto God." That you may do this more fully, consider the second thing taught in this response, the source (2.) Cost of these bless- ^^^^ ^^^^ ^^ ^j^^g^ blcssiugs— the lovc and ings. _ " blood of your redeeming God : " Unto Him that loved us and washed us from our sins in His own blood." Oh, my brethren in sin and in heavenly hope, what a theme is here for the praises of heaven and eternity! Earth's language is too utterly feeble, and man's loftiest conceptions too utterly mean. See how the inspired Paul labours to express the thought when he prays that we "may be able to comprehend with all saints, what is the breadth and length, and depth, and height: and to know the love of Christ which passeth knowledge." This love of Christ is just as incomprehensible as the mysteries and glory of the Godhead itself. You see Him dwelling there in the bosom of the Father in bliss and glory unutterable, receiving the homage of a holy uni- verse ; and then flinging all this aside. He comes down through all the ranks of the higher intelligences, lower and still lower, till He reaches the depths of suffering in Gethsemane and on the Cross, and there pours out His blood that He may wash us from our sins. " From our sins," — from their deep guilt, and so procuring our eter- nal forgiveness and God's favour; and from their power and pollution, and so* procuring our restoration to the holy image of God. It may well be believed that those for wliom all this was done, those whom the Son of God Lect. II.] THE GOSPEL OF THE KINGDOM. 51 60 loved and washed in His own blood, however low and vile and guilty before, would be thus advanced to what- ever of dignity or privilege it was in the power of Om- nipotence to bestow upon such creatures. Is any bless- ing too great for such love to give ? Is any sin too black for such blood to wash away? Is there any degree of holiness or height of bliss beyond the worth of this blood to purchase ? Oh, fellow-sinners and believers, is there a joy so great, a heavenly hallelujah so rapturous, as that of the redeemed sinner — as that in which you and I, ere many more years of sorrow shall have rolled away, shall unite? "With some sense of this love upon our hearts, we cannot but join most gladly in (3.) Apcnption of glory The third idea of this joyful response, and dominion to the ■, ■ , ■ j? i i i • • j. Kedeemer ^^^ ascriptiOH ol giory and donnmon to our redeeming Lord: "Unto Him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen." This is not a mere ascription of praise, a mere declaration that such glory and dominion belongs of right to Him; but that it is now and ever shall be our highest joy and effort to give Him this glory — to glorify Him in our bodies and our spirits, — living, suffering and dying, cordially submitting to His government, rejoicing in His dominion, and seeking to extend His blessed reign. Here is the very essence and spirit of this response to the church. In view of His love and blood, and the kingly and priestly honours and privileges they have se- cured, she joyfully acknowledges that the glory of her salvation belongs exclusively to Him, both in its pur- cliase, its application, and its final consummation; and expresses her desire and determination to yield herself up wholly to His dominion, both in providence and grace. Can He, beloved, require less? Can we dare to offer less? The objects of such love, the purchase of such blood, the recipients of such blessings, is there any work 52 THE GOSPEL OF THE KINGDOM. [Lect. U^ too hard, and any self-denial too great, any suffering too severe by which you may extend His dominion over this- wretched world for which He died, and manifest your grateful love to Him ? Is there any sacrifice of personal effort or property by which His kingdom may be ad- vanced, which you can possibly make, that you can dare to withhold ? And can there be any days so dark, any providences so mysterious, any calamities so crushing, that you can doubt the perfect wisdom and love of that dominion which He exercises over all things? Consider, thirdly, the other leading idea of this passage ^ the loorWs wariiwg and the churches hope,. III. The world's warn- j^ othcr words, the consummatioii of the ing and the church's hope. gospel of the kingdom. This compre- hensive passage not only presents to us the message of this gospel, and its actual welcome and present power, but directs us forward to the period and the power which shall end the conflicts and perfect the glory of this kingdom. " Behold, He cometh with clouds, and every eye shall see Him, and they also which pierced Him : and all kindreds of the earth shall wail because of Him. Even so. Amen." These last words, ei'en so, Amen, are not a response to the preceding announce- ment,— but are a double asseveration of its truth and im- portance; like the verily, verihj of our Saviour, designed to attach to the declaration a special preeminence. This declaration is indeed preeminent over all other prophecies; it is the sum and the end of §. Consummation of r^{\ threateuiugs and all promises. It at salvation and damua- i-i tion. once fixes the miiid upon that day and that event announced by the shining ones to the bereaved disciples on Olivet, as they were gazing on the clouds of heaven that had just received their risen Lord out of their sight. " This same Jesus, whicli is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come, in like manner as ye have seen Him go into heaven.." However Lect. II.] THE GOSPEL OF THE KINGDOM. 53 the waiting people of God may diifer as to the time and circumstances of this second coming, — differences arising chiefly from the attempt to make the time and the man- ner more definite than the express terms of Scripture make them, — the glorious fact stands forth with a bright- ness that commands universal and joyful assent, that this second coming of our Lord in His glorified humanity is the end of the church's conflicts, and the consummation of her glory. It is the grand goal toward which all the . multifarious movements of God's providence are hasten- ing onward. Then the grace and peace here announced are to end in the fulness of glory; then the saints shall receive their complete investiture with the kingly and priestly honours here pledged by sweet and blessed fore- tastes; then shall they reign upon the earth, the last en- emy being destroyed, and the militant kingdom end in the eternal and peaceful dominion of the redeemed in eternal union with Christ their livieg Head. In answer to the question what shall take place at His second coming, let the express words of revelation be here a sufiicient answer. "When the Son of man shall come in His glory, and all the holy angels with Him, then shall He sit upon the throne of His glory; and be- fore Him shall be gathered all nations, and He shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd dividetli his sheep from the goats And these (the wicked) shall go away into everlasting punishment, but the righteous into life eternal."^ "We which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep. For the Lord Himself shall de- (1) Matt. XXV : 31-46. "Eternal life," and "eYerlasting punishment," as here inflicted, are something very different from national judgments ; so that this is no mere judgment on the nations as such, but on the in- dividuals of all the nations — of all the race. It is a judgment, the very grounds of which are the secret motives of the heart — not the mere ex- ternal act, — love to Jesus, or rejection of Him, as He is represented im His people. 54 THE GOSPEL OF THE KINGDOM. [Lect. II. scend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God : and the dead in Christ shall rise first. Then we which are alive and re- main, shall be caiTght up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we be ever with the Lord." Q "It is a righteous thing with God to recompense tribulation to them that trouble you; and to you who are troubled, rest with us, when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven, with His mighty angels, in flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, who shall be punished with everlasting de- struction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of His power : when He shall come to be glorified in His saints, and to be admired in all them that be- lieve." f ) Speaking of the sure fulfilment of " the pro- mise of His coming," Peter says, " The heavens and the earth which are now, .... are kept in store, reserved unto fire against the day of judgment, and perdition of ungodly men But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night, in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burnt up Nevertheless we, ac- cording to His promise, look for new heavens and a new earth wherein dwelleth righteousness." (^) " And there shall be no more curse, but the throne of God and of the (1)1 Thess. iv: 15-17. (-)2 Thess. i: 6-10. Compare with this predicted glorification of the "saints," and of "all them that believe," and "this flaming fire taking vengeance," the language of Peter, in proof that it is no partial judgments on some of the nations, — but universal and final, resulting in a complete change in all the conditions of earthly existence, requiring, in order to such judgment, the resurrection of the wicked, and to be followed by "a new heaven and a new earth," — in which the consuna- mated and perfected church shall eternally reign. (3) 2 Pet. iii: 4-13. Lect. II.] THE GOSPEL OF THE KINGDOM. 55 Lamb shall be in it" — the glorified church, the new Je- rusalem,— "and His servants shall serve Him." Oh ! if the eye of saint and sinner could be fixed more steadily and l)elievingly on this coming day of wrath and terror to every impenitent soul, and of glory and per- fected bliss to every child of • God, how eagerly would . this message of "grace and peace" be welcomed, and how joyously would this ascription of praise ring through all His suftering church even now! That "glory and dominion" procured by His love and blood, and the "grace and peace" that blessed dominion brings to those who submit to it, you may now despise. You may, by your practical treatment of these things, regard them as if they were unreal — unsubstantial imaginings, of less interest than the earthly good that perishes in the using, or that you perish in grasping. Oh, infatuated sinner ! this delusion must very soon vanish. Now, you know Jesus Christ only by His gospel and these ofiers of peace, — as the bleeding Saviour and the Friend of sin- ners. He once was here and shed His blood for you, and it is the loving tender tones of His voice on the way to Calvary that you hear. Now He is on His throne. But He has gone there only to complete His kingdom \ here by His Word and Spirit and Providence. Jesus Christ must reign. He will reign. "To Him every .knee shall bow, and every tongue confess that He is Lord, to the glory of God the Father." " He must reign till He have put all enemies under His feet." ■"Kiss the Son," then, "lest He be angry and ye perish from the way, when His wrath is kindled but a little ;" -and you be found, together with those who pierced Him, among the throng of those from " all kindreds of the earth" who "shall wail because of Him." "Because of Him." That will be wailing indeed! Wailing because of the very one that came to save you, because of Him whose love is the eternal theme of 56 THE GOSPEL OF THE KINGDOM. [LecT. II. heaven's highest hallehijahs. Christ rejected, an ofi'ered salvation neglected, a day of grace wasted, this is the thing that v^ll give the lost sinner his keenest anguish, and wring from him at the last a bitterer wail than devils ever uttered. Premonitions of this triumph and ruin He is even now giving us. As the final victory of a §. Coming now in long and bloody war is only the result mediatoriarreign. a^id design of all the thousand struggles and victories that may have preceded, and may be said to include them all, — so this finai com- ing may be regarded as including all the progress of His kingdom towards it, as He by His Providence and grace is preparing and hastening on all things toward it. In all the developments of these He is coming. "Behold, He cometh with clouds." Similar language is elsewhere used in a way that seems necessarily to include the mani- fest glorious, visible progress of His kingdom of grace from that generation in which it was established, on to- ward that final consummation, as it is advanced from age to age by the mighty movements of His Providence. ("•) These, as they sweep over the nations, remove obstacles, and, combining with the Word and Spirit, prepare the way, by successive victories of grace and judgments, for the final triumph of this grace and peace. He is thus coming now as in the clouds of heaven. The revolutions that shake the nations, that fill the world with desolation and blood, are but the footsteps of His Providence, levelling the mountains, and filling the valleys to make a highway for the onward progress of His kingdom. Terrible indeed to His enemies are all these unfoldings- of His mighty plan ; how terrible, we in this land know and feel in some degree at least. How He sweeps away (I)Comp. Dan. vii: 13, 14, with Matt, xvi: 28, and Mark ix: 1. Luke ix: 27, also with Matt, xxiv: 29, 30, 34. Mark xiii: 24, 26, 27, 30. Luke xxi: 25-27, 32. Lect. II.] THE GOSPEL OF THE KINGDOM. 57 all human hopes, and blasts the proudest expectations, and writes vanity and vexation of spirit on all man's schemes of happiness and glory, and makes the richest and loveliest of eartli's heritages a scene of desolation and distress ! To those who have no part or lot in the grace and peace of the gospel, oh ! how bitter and crush- ing are many of the providences that now are sweeping over them so resistlessly, and bearing away all their earthly idols ! And all the wailing that fills the land, and the households over which His judgments have swept, is ''because of Eim," — to punish some for their rejection of Him, to chasten and purify and save others, and to show the world the malignity of sin. Be assured, my hearers, wrap it up as you may, talk as you will of political causes and human agencies, of man's folly, am- bition, wrath and malice, the real cause is just " Christ rejected," the claims of His kingdom ignored. AM of this is just the Prince of the kings of the earth vindi- cating His rejected claims, and showing a careless and ungodly world the worthlessness of its dependencies, while yet the grace and peace of His kingdom may be secured and is freely offered. Let the world and the nations and every sinner take warning. " The Lord reigneth ; let the §. Tremble and re- .^ tremble." But let the church joice. -T 1 rejoice in hope, and let all this suffer- ing and groaning creation rejoice with her. "For He cometh ; for He cometh to judge the earth : He shall judge the world with righteousness and the people with His truth." He is coming to remove the obstacles that have so long prevented His triumphs ; He is coming to sweep away all systems of error and delusion, to right all wrongs, to end all apostacies, to humble all the proud j)owers of this world, and to fill the earth with His glory. * ' For this tempestuous state of human things, Is merely as the working of a sea 58 THE GOSPEL OF THE KINGDOM. [Lect. II. Before a cabn, that rocks itself to rest. For He whose car the winds are, and the clonus, The dust that waits upon His sultry march, When sin hath moved Him and His wrath is hot, Shall visit earth in mercy; shall descend Propitious in His chariot paved with love ; And what His storms have blasted and defaced For man's revolt, shall with a smile repair." And that we may rest in the full assurance of this, however dark the days that may be passing over us, how- ever severe the conflicts through which the church may be called to go, however mighty the opposition of earth and hell, or however long the delay of His coming, He adds — " I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending, saith the Lord, which is, and which was, and which is to come, the Almighty." LECTUKE III. THE CONSOLATIONS OF THE KINGDOM. Kev. i: 17, 18. "And when I saw Him I fell at His feet as dead. And He laid His right hand upon me, saying unto me, Fear not ; I am t^e first and the last ; I am He that liveth, and was dead ; and behold, I am alive for evermore. Amen ; and have the keys of hell and of death. " THESE words convey the spirit and design of this whole book. They are a message of consolation di- rect from the lips of the glorified Redeemer. They were occasioned by the terror with which the vision of His glory, described in previous verses, had filled the heart of His beloved disciple. So overpowering was the sight that John had fallen at His feet as dead. With a tenderness equal to His godlike majesty, He lays His hand upon the fainting apostle, restores his strength, and revives his trembling heart with the assurance, "Fear not," remind- ing him of His divine nature. His dying love, and His universal dominion. But not for John's sake alone were these words uttered, any more than for his sake alone was this grandest of all visions granted to him. The fact that he was twice di- rected to write all this, and all that should afterwards be revealed, in a book, and send it to the churches, shows that it was intended for other fearful hearts. Such were the circumstances of that time, as to make these consola- tions most needful and appropriate. (59^) *60 THE CONSOLATIONS OF THE KINGDOM. [Lect. III. It was soinewliere between the years 90 and 95 A. D. Domitian was on the Roman throne. §. Circumstances of " Being of a gloomy and suspicions tem- •the church when writ- , ^ , n • tgjj^ per, he encouraged a system ot espion- age ; and as he seems to have imagined that the Christians fostered dangerous pohtical designs, he treated them with the greater harshness. Flavins Clemens, a person of consular dignity, and his o^Aal cousin, was put to death for his attachment to the Chris- tian cause; and his near relative, Flavia Domitilla, for the same reason, was banished with many others." Church history further informs us that the extent and virulence of the persecution was shown also by his caus- ing to be dragged to Rome two grandsons of Jude, called the brother of our Lord, as dangerous rivals ; though when he found their extreme poverty and obscurity — that they were joint proprietors of a small farm in Palestine, which they cultivated with their own hands, he let them go. Q) In such times it could not be expected that one so distinguished and influential as John, the only surviv- ing apostle of our Lord, could escape, even though old an^ feeble. Accordingly we find him an exile in the barren rocky isle of Patmos, and here addressing himself to the churches as their brother and companion in the tribulation and kingdom and patience of Jesus Christ; being " in the isle that is called Patmos, for the word of God, and for the testimony of Jesus Christ." The churches, oppressed and ])leeding under the arm of imperial power stretched out to crush them, must have been filled with fears, not merely on account of personal danger, but for the cause of Christ so dear to their hearts. "Welcome therefore beyond expression must this language have been, coming direct from the lips of their glorified King, and most cheering the view here given of His per- sonal glory, and His providential care. (1) KiUen's Ancient Churct, pp. 169, 170. Leot. III.] THE CONSOLATIONS OF THE KINGDOM. 61 But when has been the time in which the same as- surance has not been more or less wel- §. sim the same ^^^^^ ^^ ^^i^ church and the believer? need. Is it not still true that to be a partner in the kingdom of Christ, is to be a partaker in tribula- tion, and in trials and conflicts that demand patient en- durance, and awaken earnest longing and waiting for His coming in delivering grace and power ? Must we not, through much tribulation enter the kingdom of God? If we would reign with Christ, must we not suffer with Him? Can we wear the crown without bearing the cross ? And as the church's perils and necessities and fears are still the same, so are her Lord's love and care. Neither time nor distance can change His heart or lessen His infinite resom-ces. His churches now are just as dear to Him as ever. Not a single member of those seven churches was anj more tenderly regarded by Him than each one now who, amidst trials and temptations, with many fears and tears, is seeking to follow His bleeding footsteps, and longing for His full salvation. To such, then, just as much as to John and these seven ■churches, are these words addressed : " Fear not ; I am the first and the last, and the living One ; and I became dead, and behold, I am alive forevermore. Amen; and have the keys of hell and of death," Such is their lite- Tal rendering. In evolving the consolations of this passage, there are to be considered these four particulars — your fears are .groundless; your Redeemer is divine; His atonement and intercession are perfect; and His dominion is imi- versal. I. "Fear not;" for your fears are groundless. You are affrighted at your o^vn mercies. The L Fears of the be- ^^- f^^^. -^ ^^le VeiT thing that liever groundless. o J j ^ ^ brings to you salvation. It was so with John on this occasion. It was no real danger, but the 62 THE CONSOLATIONS OF THE KINGDOM. [LecT. III. personal glory of liis own Saviour that filled him with alarm, — the very thing that of all others was his surest, indeed his only defence, and when fully understood, his- highest joy. All he saw were but the symbols of His eternity and divine majesty, — " His head and His hairs were white like wool, as white as snow;" of His heart- searching Omniscience, — " His eyes as a flame of fire ;" of His holy and resistless Providence, — "His feet like unto fine brass, as if they burned in a furnace, and His voice as the sound of many waters;" and all these as He in royal and priestly robes walked in the midst of the seven golden candlesticks. His churches, — upholding by His right hand his messengers and authority among them, — "the seven stars;" ministering His all piercing word, — " out of His mouth went a sharp two-edged sword;" and shining with the light and power of unap- proachable holiness, — "His countenance as the sun shineth in His strength." That was indeed a vision of matchless and overpowering glory. But with all thi& awful and impressive grandeur, it was only a presenta- tion in a single view, of all the grounds of confidence and joyful hope wdiich flow from infinite power and wis- dom and love. So that in these very things John had the brightest evidence of his own and the church's eter- nal security and triumph ; and yet never, not even when he stood in the presence of the Cross, or afterwards of his persecutors, had he been so utterly overwhelmed as now. It was this excess of glory that, for the time, blinded his perception of the grace and love that gave it such glory. So it is still. Only we faint and tremble at the blessed reality of which John saw the mere symbols. As this l)eloved disciple, who had leaned with such confi- dence on his Lord's bosom at the last supper, fell at His feet as dead, overwhelmed by the display of His personal majesty and glory, so His people in every age have often been filled with terror at the display of these same attri- Lect, III.] THE CONSOLATIONS OF THE KINGDOM. 63 butes in Hi§ providential dealings with themselves and with the church. Our fears often, nay, generally arise from our misconception of the nature of those means and influences and processes of spiritual discipline and outward providences by which He is working out our salvation. Poor old Jacob almost despaired under the pressure of those providences in regard to Joseph that were the very means of saving his whole house. The Babylonish captivity, that desolated the land of Israel, was the very thing that purified and saved the church, and secured the fulfilment of God's most precious pro- mises; and yet under its crushing burdens the captives hung their harps upon the willows, and wept bitter tears of sorrow and disappointed hope. And when the disci- ples saw their Lord nailed to. the cross, and during the sad hours of that Jewish Sabbath when His body lay in Joseph's tomb, how completely did their hearts faint and their hopes fail ! And that, as they soon learned, at the very event which laid forever secure the foundations of His kingdom and their own eternal salvation ! Where, indeed, is the child of Grod who has not fainted in lieartj and sunk in anxious fears, and wept bitterly over dispen- sations of God toward him, which he afterwards found out were only the instruments of good and the messen- gers of grace to his soul? Remember this, ye fearful saints ! It is only your own misconceptions, your igno- rance and imperfection that give to the events you dread the aspect of terror. Did you understand them, you would see cause to rejoice. The mystery which is now spread over them, however, is necessary. It is itself a part of the discipline of faith ; a means of still more fully unfolding the tenderness and grace of your redeeming God. Away, then, with your fears. You are afraid of your own mercies. Ye fearftil saints, fresh courage take, The clouds ye so much dread 64 THE CONSOLATIONS OF THE KINGDOM. [LecT. IIL Are big with mercy, and shall break In blessings on your head. Secondly, your Redeemer is God, — the author and the end of all things, in nature, in grace, Bi^e^' ^"^'''"'' and in Providence. " I am the first, and the last, and the living one." The origi- nal, perfect divinity of our blessed Lord is the very corner stone of our hope, the one deep exhaustless fountain whence every possible stream of consolation flows forth to a guilty world. In Him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily. In Him are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge, — of everything that we can need through eternity. If Jesus is yours, then all things are yours. For He is "the living One," who has life in Himself, and is the fountain of all life, natural, spirit- ual and eternal. He is therefore the first and the last in Creation. All things were made by Him and for Him. " For Him ;" all therefore of nature's laws and processes must be such by their original constitution as shall work in perfect harmony with the good of His redeemed, and with perfect elficacy for His glory as their Redeemer. He is the first and the last in Providence. All its move- ments originate in His holy will, and are compelled to help forward His grand designs of redeeming mercy. Every event, great or small, from the sparrow's fall to that of an empire, receives from Him its commission, and brings back to Him its due revenue of glory. Tliose mighty convulsions which roll on, as the sea and the waves roaring, causing men's hearts to fail for fear, are His voice, like the sound of many waters, and the march of those feet of burning brass, consuming and treading down with resistless energy whatever opposes His king- dom. He is the first and the last in redemption. In His eternal purpose to meet, by the sacrifice of Himself, the claims of eternal justice, and so to redeem a chosen people from our ruined race, this plan of mercy had its Lect. III.] THE CONSOLATIONS OF THE KINGDOM. 65 origin; and all the means by which that glorious plan has been carried forward since the fall, and applied to each individual believer, have had their origin in Him, and have derived from Him their efficacy. And the grand end of all is to secure and gather and perfect all the vast multitvide of believers, and unite them in one glorious whole, and by an indissoluble union to Himself as His own body ; so that the perfect and eternal salva- tion of each is inseparably connected with His own glory, and essential to the completion of His own mystical body. The church "is His body, the fulness of Him that fiUeth all in all," Q) He is thus, believer, the Alpha and Omega of your salvation. He is the author and the finisher of your faith. He is, in every step, from first to last. He who has begun will finish. All is His own work. "Of Him, and through Him, and to Him, are all tilings : to whom be glory for ever." The one voice, therefore, of every one of nature's laws and processes; of every change and movement in the progress of this world's affairs; and of every fact, doctrine, threatening, and promise of His word and kingdom of grace to every believer, in all circumstances, is just this, "Fear not; I am the first and the last and the living; one." Again. "Fear not;" for His atonement is complete, and His intercession perpetual, " And m. His atonement J bccamo dead, and behold I am alive and intercession all- sufficient, forevermore," The Livnng One has died. Oh, believers, could we only enter more fully into the meaning and the glorious and necessary re- sults of that death on the cross, we should never again fear the powers of either earth or hell. We should be ever singing even in tribulation, the new song, " Worthy the Lamb that was slain;" we would not find, so often as we do, our trembling spirits shrinking from the sweet strains of the apostle's glad response to the gracious mes- (OEph. i: 23. 66 THE CONSOLATIONS OF THE KINGDOM. [Lect. III. sage of the kingdom, " Unto Ilim that loved us and washed lis from om- sins in His own blood, and hath made us kings and priests unto God." The merits, — the redeeming power of that death can be measured only by the infinite dignity of His person. It was because the fulness of the Godhead dwelt in Him, that that blood became a full satisfaction to the penalty of God's law, and secnred for His redeemed a full and eternal atone- ment. " I died," says the Living One ; " I who had power to lay down my life and take it again, I came down from my own throne, I bare your sins in my own body on the tree, I suftered there as your substitute, — then you can- not die. I died; then your sins are already atoned for, and forever gone, justice is perfectly satisfied, and unites with mercy in securing your salvation." God is recon- ciled, peace restored, all heavenly influences provided, and salvation made sure to every soul who trusts in this blood. This is further confirmed by the assurance that He who died is alive for evermore. This is stated with a special emphasis — Behold! It is the crowning fact of salvation ; it leaves no possible exigency through eternity unprovided for; it is eternal life. "Because I live, ye shall live also." The life of the body is bound up in the life of the head. "Your life is hid with Christ in God." He is alive to intercede for and to secure to every be- liever all He died for; Him the Father heareth always. His intercessions never cease. " "Wherefore He is able to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by Ilim, seeing He ever liveth to make intercession for them." Then let His suflfering, struggling people ever rejoice. "While He lives, they live. "While He prays for them, no good thing can be withheld. While He prays, every mistaken prayer of theirs will be corrected by His wis- dom, and every unuttered sigh and groan will find its full expression before the throne of the heavenly grace. Lect. III.] THE CONSOLATIONS OF THE KINGDOM. 67 Once more. "Fear not;" for His dominion is miiver- sal, extending over the invisible world. IV. His dominion u J J^^^g ^J-^g J^gyg ^f J^glJ ^^^ ^f death." over death and the grave. Hell here is not the word used to express the place and state of eternal punish- ment ; but the state of the dead — the unseen world with all its secrets of gloiy and woe, with all its mighty pow- ers of good and of evil, everything beyond the grave. Death is His servant. Its sting is removed. It can no longer injure the soul united to Christ. Its very nature iio them is changed, so as to become a means of final de- liverance from the curse; or rather a process by which the body so polluted and cursed by sin shall be laid aside, to be in due time renovated and fashioned like unto •Christ's glorious body. Death — the dissolution of the body — is the form in w^hich Christ comes to sever the last link that binds His redeemed to the first Adam, and through which the curse was inherited. It had already been severed as to the soul, and so the claim of the curse even to the body had been annulled. Christ's" holding the keys of the unseen w^orld and of death, beautifully ■expresses His presence and agency in the whole process of dissolution and transition. Disease and violence, in what- ever forms they may come, though in those most appalling to mere nature, are not the agents; they are the mere forms which He in His wisdom chooses, to effect the change, and in them He would have His presence recognized. iJ^ot a soul can pass from this world to the next, except just at the time and in the circumstances which He or- dains. He presides over the whole process of your de- parture, believer, and that of those you love; His own loving hand must fling back the bolt that holds you a prisoner here; death, which is the form of the curse as it relates to the body, is thus, as the result of redemption from the curse, compelled to place the crown upon the believer's brow, compelled with His own hands, as it 68 THE CONSOLATIONS OF THE KINGDOM. [Lect. IIL were, to sever the last tie which binds the curse upon the redeemed. That tie severed, the all-seeing eye of this Redeemer watches the sleeping dust, till BLis voice shall call it forth in a form of eternal youth and vigour. Not only its entrance, all the powers of that unseen w^orld are under His control. All those vast domains where mighty spirits transact the stupendous concerns of the spiritual world; the hosts of rebel angels, and of ministering spirits unto the heirs of salvation, are under His eye and hand ; and neither angel nor devil wings his flight of mercy or of wrath but by His power and at His will. Thus from the chamber of death and the gloom of the grave, and the mysterious powers of the unseen world;, from all nature and providence, as well as from the cross of Calvary, and the blood of Jesus, and the majesty and glory of the Mediator's throne, there arises in universal harmony this one assurance to every believer, "Fear not." It is the voice of our Redeeming God in all His works and ways, to all His church and each of His fear- ful saints. "We said that these words express the spirit and design of this whole book. All who earnestly § These topics per- ^^^^^ dcvoutly study it, uot to gratify cu- vade the book. •' xJ ' o ^ riosity, or to pry into the times and sea- sons which God hath put in His OM^n power, but to find spiritual strength and consolation in the way of holiness, will find this eminently true. The four topics of conso- lation included in these precious words of our Lord, are indeed the same which, in an endless variety of form, are presented all through the Scriptures, — from the first pro- mise, " The seed of the woman shall bruise the serpent's head," unto this last vision of that glorified Redeemer. But here they are brought out with a vividness, a concen- tration, a comprehensiveness, and a directness of applica- tion to all the possible phases of the church's experience Leot. III.] THE CONSOLATIONS OF THE KINGDOM. 69 and conflicts, that gives them peculiar power. This is because, first, Clii'ist's personal glory and actual presence in the administration of all earthly things, is the one grand theme of it all; and secondl}^, it brings out clearly and fully the glorious consummation of His present me- diatorial reign in the perfection and blessedness of the everlasting kingdom of His own redeemed. In each of the five parts into which this book naturally divides itself, the words of the passage before us find a fuller and more impressive unfolding — dispelling fear and con- firming the faith of His people. In the messages to the seven churches showing the presence of Christ in His visible kingdom in its imperfect state; Q) in the glory of the spiritual kingdom and its administration by the slain Lamb ; (^) in the progress of the conflict, and the triumph of a witnessing church; (^) in the character, progress and fate of the organized forms of evil, until even death and hell are cast into the burning lake; (^) and in the transcendent glories of the New Jerusalem, (^) in all these revelations our Mediator King seems to be laying His hand upon His fearful and often prostrate church, saying to her, "Fear not." Be of good cheer, then, believer. Kejoice in the Lord always. Whether it be some deep mystery of God's truth — the undiscovered secrets of His holy and eternal plan, that troubles your heart; or the mystery of His spiritual discipline, the conflicts with corruption and temptation, that fills you with sore distress and anxious fears; or the mysteries of His providences, in the midst of which you stand powerless, as their numerous and conflicting influences meet and clash, and unite and roll on resistlessly, bearing before them men's wisest schemes and highest earthly hopes, imperilling the interests of the church, and desolating your home and your heart; what- (0 Ch. ii and iii. (2) Ch. iv— viii; 1. (3) Ch. viii; 2— xi; 18, (4) Ch. xi; 19— xx; 15. (5) Ch. xxi; xxii. TO THE CONSOLATIONS OF THE KINGDOM. [Lect. III. ever it be that causes you to fear or faint, — look up and behold your glorified Redeemer as he appeared to John. Realize His continual, His personal presence, His un- speakable glory. Meditate upon it daily. Cultivate earnestly personal communion with Him. Think of Him as a living person walking always at your side, with His flaming eyes of love and holiness beaming upon you, searching your heart, and inspiring it with courage and peace. So shall you feel His right hand laid upon you, and these words of His cheering your spirit. All these grounds of consolation are in Christ. For a guilty and suffering world there is no §. All in Christ, g^j^fort, but in a divine Mediator. No- None elsewhere. ' thing else and nothing less than this can meet the wants of a sinner. Human and angelic mediators, and all their united might, can never still the fears and remove the anxieties of a single soul. Have you, O sinner, a part in this only Mediator ? You, too, must stand before Him. You, too, shall see His glory. His burning eye is even now upon you. He rules over you. He holds jow in His hand of power. This is the day of His longsuffering. His great salvation is now offered to you. This is no mere theory, or figure of speech. These manifestations of His glory and grace, and offers of salvation, are facts as certain and real as the life you now possess, the guilt that now burdens your soul, and the death and judgment to which you are has- tening. You who have hitherto neglected and rejected Him, are you prepared to stand before Him ? Your day of grace is rapidly passing. You will soon have heard His last message, and enjoyed your last Sabbath, and felt the last strivings of His Spirit. "Behold, He cometh with clouds, and every eye shall see Him, and they also which pierced Him, and all kindreds of the earth shall Lect. III.] THE CONSOLATIONS OF THE KINGDOM. 71 wail because of Him." "Behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation." "Believe and take the promised rest, Obey, and be forever blest. " PAET 11. THE MANIFESTATION OF THE KINGDOM. Key., Chap. 1 : 19— Chap. 3. Xecture IV. The Mission of the Visible Chukch. " V. The Authoeity of the Visible Chuech. " VI. Impeefections akd Vaeieties op the Visible Chxjech. (1.) Declining Love. (2.) Peesecution. " VII. Same Subject. (3.) Feiendship of the "World. (4.) Heeesy. " VIII. Same Subject. (5.) Spiritual Deadness. (6.) Spieitual Powee. (7.) lukewarmness. " IX. The Individual Conflict. "*' X. The Prize of Glory. LECTUKE lY. THE VISIBLE CHUKCH— ITS MISSION. Chap, i: 12, 20. The golden candlesticks. THE design of all this first part of this revelation to John, is to set forth the true outward manifestation and representative of this spiritual king- S. Design of this ^^yj^^ j^ ^j^gg ^j^jg j^-^ j-eward to its true part. e mission, its spiritual authority, and its actual and various development. Whoever can unite in that burst of praise with which the apostle welcomes this revelation of his Lord, — " Unto Him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in His own blood, and hath made us kings and priests unto God and His Father," — possesses a dignity and distinction no earthly crown could ever give. He is a sharer in all the blessings of the spiritual kingdom of God. It is His high privilege, as it was John's, to have the King in His power and love lay His hand upon him, and dispel every doubt and fear by the precious assurance, " Fear not, I am the first, and the last. I am He that liveth, and was dead: and behold, I am alive for evermore. Amen; and have the keys of hell and of death." But this distinction, precious and glorious as it is, is a hidden one. These members of heaven's 1. The true kingdom ^ ^ family are found in the hovels of invisible. -^ «' poverty, oftener than in the halls of wealth and power. They have no immunity from earthly calamities: no visible badge of their high relationship. (73) '74 THE MISSION OF THE VISIBLE CHURCH. [Leot. IV. Even they themselves are often in doubt about their right to its privileges. Such is, at times at least, the active power of remaining corruptions and the burden resting on their consciences, that they dare not unite in that song of praise. " Can we," they ask, " say that we are washed from our sins, while we feel the chains of sin still binding us, and a body of death still clinging to us ?" They forget how Paul, in almost the same breath in which he makes the same sad confession, joyfully adds a thanksgiving for the deliverance and victory in pros- pect— "I thank God, through Jesus Christ our Lord." But even when they themselves can hold fast the con- fidence and rejoicing of the hope, this distinction of theirs i^ invisible to others. "Behold," says John in his first epistle, (ch, iii: 1) as he gazes in rapture on the bless- ings of this heavenly adoption, "what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be ■called the sons of God; therefore the world knoweth us not, because it knew Him not." No mortal eye, there- fore, can trace the precise limits of this kingdom. No herald of it even, as he comes proclaiming the ofi'er of its blessings, can point to it, saying, Lo, here! or Lo, there! "for the kingdom of God is within you." "The kingdom of God is righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost." It is the defects of its present development in the' hearts of those who are its real subjects, 8. The visible church ,■, . . i i •, ,, t its true and divinely ^'^^^ ^ot Only renders its extent undis- constituted representa- covcrable, but its wliolc manifestation so imperfect, bo very partially are its spirit- 'ual blessings now enjoyed, that but few beams of its power and glory appear. But however secret its workings, and ■obscure its limits, and partial the development of its ■power, the evidence of its actual presence and heavenly na- iture is irresistible. Such an evidence is found in the very Iect. IV.] THE MISSION OF THE VISIBLE CHURCH. 75 existence of what we call " the visible church of Christ." The visible church is a body of persons representing •Christ's interests in the world, by professing subjection to Him, and testifying to His character and, claims. If Christ had no true subjects and witnesses here, the exist- ence of such a body would be impossible. The visible churcli is a thing so entirely unique, so completely in con- trast with all the organizations produced by mere human influences and agencies, that we are compelled to admit the presence of another and a divine cause, or deny the first principle of truth — that like causes produce like effects. No influence originating in a mere human heart, in mere earthly motives and principles, and from a na- ture so selfish, so corrupt, so sensual, so averse to what- ever is purely spiritual and holy, could ever have wrought out such an effect as the church of Christ. Of such in- fluences the true and the only effects are seen in the im- perfections, pollutions and inconsistencies that stand out even in the eyes of the world itself, in such striking con- trast with the principles of this church, and with their actual legitimate eft'ects in the character and life of mul- titudes of her people. The real peculiarities that distin- guish the true visible church from all earthly things, are such as no earthly cause can produce or has any tendency to produce. They are the results of the secret agencies • of the invisible kingdom. His church, thereforth, stands forth here on earth by its complete singularity — in its high and unearthly claims, in its spiritual teachings, in its moral elevation, and in its power over human hearts and character, as the true representative, because the ne- cessary visible outworking of the invisible spiritual king- dom of Christ. It is manifest that it can only be a true representative of the spiritual kingdom, as it presents a true embodi- ment of its truths and principles, its spiritual character and privileges. Only as it does this can it share in the 76 THE MISSION OF THE VISIBLE CHURCH. [Leot. IV> promises or protection of the King. Just so far as it fails in this must it forfeit all claim to the divine pro- mises, and become itself the object of the Lord's displeas- ure, chastisement and desolating judgments. It is therefore greatly important that this representative kingdom — the visible church, be clearly cieWrsHngrhing dcllned both as to its design and character. the true from a false This is SO, in Order that whatever through human infirmity or corruption might mar its character, or make it a false representative, might bo clearly distinguished from that which consti- tutes it the true pattern of tlie invisible and glorious reality, and ensures to it tlie protection of its divine King. That this distinction should be clearly drawn and under- stood, is necessary in order that on the one hand no true church be rejected because of its imperfections; and on the other hand that these imperfections receive not the sanction of divine approval, or even of church authority, as an inherent part of this representative kingdom. There are two opposite errors on this subject to which the world has always been tending, to prevent both of which this distinction is necessary. ^ The first of these is the serious error of confounding the true spiritual kingdom with the external church, so as to make a participation in spiritual blessings to depend upon an external organization, — or so as to regard a share in the privileges of the visible church as securing a right to the blessings of the spiritual kingdom, — or so as to mistake the nature and design of those defeats and sufierings to which the former is subjected, as if they gave ground for discouragement to the true children of the kingdom. The other is the opposite and perhaps equally dangerous error of undervaluing the visible church; regarding it because of its necessary imper- fections in the present state, as a thing of comparatively little importance, and its organization and administration LecT. IV.] THE MISSION OF THE VISIBLE CHURCH. 77 as matters of mere human authority and of comparative indifference — not materially affecting men's spiritual and eternal interests. To fully avoid each of these, we need to have the true church divinely defined. The distinction between a true and false church is in- deed very clearly taught all through the Scriptures. But it seemed specially desirable that now, when the last of the apostles was about to leave the world, and this church to go forth on her world-wide mission with these inspired records as her only guide, this distinction should be more definitely marked. This was indispensable to a right application of the promises and threatenings, the encouragements and warnings of this book, in which the visible kingdom of Christ as an organized body, and the various forms of organized evil are presented in close and deadly conflict. Only thus through the confusion and dust and smoke of the battle could the true church be recognized. And for practical purposes no mere ab- stract logical definition could suffice. It required one that would present such a picture or pictures of the church in its actual working, as whenever seen in actual life and history would at once be recognized, and render all except wilful mistakes impossible; not one that by its general or abstract terms would be capable of endlessly varied interpretations and applications. This accordingly is most fully and clearly done l)y the interpretation of the leading symbols of 4. The true church tlic prcvious visiou, and by the epistles defined by symbols , .•, -, i i • i i? n and by examples. fo the SCVCU churchCS whlCh toliOW. Thus by a twofold method the true visible church is here defined. First, by the symbols of. the can- dlesticks and the stars, — the golden candlesticks in the midst of which the glorified Saviour is walking, and the stars held in His right hand. Secondly, by an actual de- scription of the condition of the seven separate churches thus symbolized, as they were at that time, each presenting Y8 THE MISSION OF THE VISIBLE CHUKCH. [Lect. IV. a different phase botli of character and outward state, but all together forming a complete view of the church as it is during its militant condition, so that every church in all ages might find in one or more of them its own like- ness both as to excellencies and defects, and so receive appropriate encouragement and warning. Thus by a comparison both natural and easy, we may readily detect the degree in which any visible organization conforms to the true model or comes short of it. We may thus too be enabled to trace the progress of the spiritual kingdom; the living church, through all the ever varying phases, declensions, apostacies, and revivals of all ages, until at last she comes forth in her bridal beauty and perfection to meet her descending Lord. I. The True Church Symbolized. It will not be unprofitable to dwell at some length upon the instruction contained in the symbols here set before us by our Lord Himself as a picture of His true church. All the magnificent symbols of that vision recorded in the previous verses, whose glory had so overwhelmed the apostle, were designed to set forth clearly and vividly just two things, — Christ Himself, and His visible church, and these in their relation to each other. The only two sym- bols that directly describe the church are the seven golden candlesticks and the seven stars ; and these are the only two that the Lord here explains. He calls them a mys- tery ; something which contained a deeply hidden signi- ficance which needed to be pointed out. And He speaks of them as the mystery which was tlie subject of all He commanded John to write, of all he had seen, of all then passing, and all that was yet to be revealed. " Write the things wliich thou hast seen, and the things which are, and the things which shall be hereafter ; the mystery of the seven stars which thou sawest in my right hand, and the seven golden candlesticks." As much as to say, that Leot. IV.] THE MISSION OF THE VISIBLE CHURCH. 79' the whole subject of his writing in reference to the past, the present or future revelations, was this mystery of the stars and candlesticks. Thus clearly does our Lord de- clare that the subject of the whole book is the church as symbolized by these candlesticks and stars. The first of these sets forth at a glance the nature and design of the church, and the*second her spiritual authority, as ap- pointed and upheld by Him. "The seven candlesticks which thou sawest are the seven churches." These were the first 1. The candlesticks; Q^-ggts that uict the apostlc's gazc, as he the church 8 mission. •' jt o ? turned round, startled by the trumpet tones of his Redeemer's voice; and it was in relation to these that all the other symbols were intended to be viewed, all those which set forth the glory of her risen and reigning Lord, walking in her midst. It beautifully and forcibly expresses the true mission of the visible church. A candlestick, or lampstand as this was, like those in the tabernacle and temple, is for the purpose of holding up light in the darkness. The church is God's appointed light-bearer in this dark world. She is not the originator of the liglit she gives; she gives light only by preserving, holding forth, and disseminating the light entrusted to her. That light is gospel truth and influ- ences. Her great, and indeed her only business, is to hold fast this truth and hold it forth, until its light pene- trates into the darkest corners of the earth. She is not only utterly destitute of all elements of light in herself, and of all power to make it ; but she cannot in any way improve the light entrusted to her. All she can do is to steadily support it, in its right and true position, so that it may be in a condition to burn and to shine into the darkness around. She can neither make truth, nor im- prove truth; but she has a vast work to do in receiving fully and holding forth clearly what has been committed to her care in the lively oracles of God. Whenever she 80 THE MISSION OF THE VISIBLE CHUKCH. [Leot. IV. attempts anything more than this, when she seeks to im- prove or modify the light itself, when she would become a political power, or a teacher of philosophy, she is no longer the golden candlestick of God's appointment; she is unfaithful to her simple, spiritual mission, and her light becomes darkness, or a lurid glare that burns only to de- ceive. In fulfilling this mission, she is not a mere passive and involuntary instrument. What the candlestick does as passive, unconscious matter, the church, composed of living souls, can do only by the active employment of all her energies — her intelligence, her gifts and her graces. To hold forth the light of God's salvation is to be the sole end of her being and its activities. To use her pow- ers and gifts for any other purpose is a mal-appropriation of the most important and solemn trust ever confided to human beings. To use them for any selfish or worldly end, is as if the priest in the tabernacle had taken the golden candlestick and melted it down into money for his private use. This, in fact, is just what covetousnesR does; it turns this consecrated gold into filthy lucre. Ambition, in like manner, uses this golden candlestick as a pedestal for the display of its own glory, and slotJiful- ness for its own self-indulgence. It is nothing but this unfaithfulness that has so sadly disfigured tliis beautiful spiritual creation of God, the visible church, and with- ered her power. Every covetous man in the cluirch, in- stead of using his property to uphold the light, really melts down his share in this golden candlestick into coin for his own use ; at once robbing God and abjuring his owm part in God's service and salvation. Iler true nature therefore is that of a witness, a witness for God. Her great work is to bear a Th^e church a witness testimony. That testimony is perfectly definite and fixed. She has no power to add to it or take from it. She has no right to deliver it liECT. IV.] THE MISSION OF THE VISIBLE CHURCH. 81 in any other way than as a divine testimony, a charge committed to her, and resting solely on the divine vera- city. She is to declare it, not on her own authority, or on the authority of mere logical reasonings, or demon- fitrations of philosophy, claiming the world's assent on such grounds. The penetrating brightness and power of her light depends solely on the degree in which she is seen to base every utterance on this exclusive ground, "Thus saith the Lord." This it was that gave to the apostles' testimony such power ; it was the simplicity and purity of their witness bearing, and that of the primitive church, that caused the light of the gospel to spread so rapidly and to penetrate the darkest dens of Satan's power. And what the church now needs is just the re- viving of this spirit of witness-bearing, in opposition to the rationalistic spirit, in all her people and her pulpits, in all her courts and enterprises. We need to hear the voice of God ringing in our ears continually, "Ye are my witnesses, saith the Lord." It is not by the force of our logic, however perfect, nor by the extent and variety of our learning, however useful, nor by the polished beauty, the glowing rhetoric or fervid eloquence of the preacher's utterances, that the truth of God finds an en- trance into the dark recesses of the human heart ; but by the simple utterance of faith in the name of the Lord. We need to catch anew the simplicity of the apostolic commission as it fell on the ears of the primitive church, *' Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel,'''' — herald the glad tidings — "to every creature," "teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded." "Preach the gospel," "teach my commands," — this is her great business. "Announce it as glad tidings from heaven, not as a conclusion reached or established by man's reasonings; and teach as duty all that I have com- manded, and nothing else." Though we may all believe ^11 this, we yet need to catch anew in far mightier power 82 THE MISSION OF THE VISIBLE CHURCH. [Lect. IV.. the spirit of the great apostle to the Gentiles, as he ex- pressed it to the proud and wisdom-loving Greeks of the- Corinthian church. " I, brethren, when I came to you,, came not with excellency of speech or of wisdom, de- claring unto you the testimony of God. For I deter- mined not to know anything among you, save Jesus Christ, and Him crucified. And I was with you in weak- ness and in fear and in much trembling. And my speech and my preaching was not with enticing words of man's wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, that your faith should not stand in the wisdom of man, but in the power of God." What has just been said might seem to make this wit- ness-bearing the exclusive function of her §. By her worship, public ministry. But this is very far from being so. It is the work of the whole church. This truth is to be the expression of her whole life. It is to mould the character of every mem- ber, and to direct all their activities in all the relations of life. It receives its first articulate expression in all her ordinances of worship. In her prayers and her praises and her holy sacraments, this truth is held forth in its most impressive form. In these every feature of her whole relation to God, every distinctive truth of the gos- pel of Christ, and indeed all the claims of His holy law are practically presented. The verbal declarations of her pulpits and books are to be tested by these, and in these their true nature and design appears. But this is not all. The truth must be lived. It must control all the habits, business and cares of life; and it is especially by so doing that it makes the church the light of the world. The testimony of a holy life tells with special power on a world of sin. This presents the truth in its living force and heavenly beauty. It is a testimony that cannot be gainsaid or resisted. Darkness flies before it. Without this effect thfi verbal testimony Lect. IV.] THE MISSION OF THE VISIBLE CHURCH. 83^ would soon become worthless, and the ordinances would be powerless and unmeaning. AVithout it indeed both would be speedily corrupted. Without it they would prove themselves destitute of the very seal to which they lay claim, the seal of a divine, transforming power ac- companying the truth. This is the testimony to which the apostle refers when he says to the Philippians, — " That ye may be blameless and harmless, the sons of God without rebuke, in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation, among whom ye shine as lights in the world; holding forth the word of life." This is what Christ means when He says, " Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven," This service of preaching and other ordinances of wor- ship, and of a holy life exemplifying the truth, is the- scriptural idea of "worship." "Pure religion — [Greek,, worship] and undefiled before God and the Father is- this, to visit ^he fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world." It is thus the church worships, and in her worship witnesses for God, and pours her light on the world's gloom. To the end that the church may be a true witness for God, He has constituted her with a gov- §. By her govern- gJ.^^J;^;^gJ^t g^jj^j powcr of discipline SO as ment. -t ^ to exclude from her membership all that are living in open inconsistency ^vitli the truth and claims of Jesus; and from her ministry, all who teach contrary to the truth as it is comprehended in Christ crucified. To the same end also is her deaconship, or tliat function which takes charge of temporalities; that thus she may bear witness to the unity of her people in love, by the abundance of one being made to supply the wants of another ; and that the means may be supplied by which the light of her whole testimony may be made to shine over all the earth. Her whole government, therefore, is •84 THE MISSION OF THE VISIBLE CHURCH. [Leot. IV. designed to train and discipline her to be a witness- bearer. And just in proportion as her ministers, office- bearers and people keep constantly in view this work of witness-bearing for God as the very design of the church's existence does she answer to this s^aiibol of the golden candlestick, and is truly God's light-bearer in a dark world. A second thing taught here by this symbol as presented to John in this vision is the source of 2 The church's de- ^j^^ ^ . ^^Yiich she is enabled to pendence on the pres- ~ •^ ence and grace of fulfil tliis mission, — Christ the author and the supporter of her light. If the church is but a candlestick, or lampstand, a mere light- bearer, then must her light soon go out unless constantly supplied from some other source. In the vision of Zech- ariah this was represented by two living olive trees which through golden pipes poured the oil into the golden lamps, andv which are there explained as "the two anointed ones which are before the Lord of the whole earth," that is, the two Messianic offices of priest and kino". Now that the Messiah Himself has appeared the types disappear, and instead of the olive-trees, we have the Redeemer Himself clothed in the habiliments of the High Priest, and with divine and kingly majesty, walk- ing in the midst of these candlesticks, and by His grace and discipline feeding and trimming these lights which He Himself has kindled and placed upon them. It is His presence that makes them shine ; the withdrawal of His supplies or care would leave them in utter darkness and utterly worthless. What more worthless than a can- dlestick in the dark, without a light? So nothing is more worthless than a church without Christ — a church in which Christ's presence is not manifested by the efful- gence of truth and holiness cherished by His indwelling Spirit. Witness the effete organizations that still retain the name of churches in tlie lands once visited by the liECT. IV.] THE MISSION OF THE VISIBLE CHURCH. 85 apostles, and irradiated by gospel light, — the Nestorian, the Abyssinian, the Greek and the Koman churches. All ■our forms and ordinances, all our organizations and as- semblies, and our new plans for eliciting light and power, are just as worthless for this purpose without the pres- ence of Christ working in us and by us, as would even a golden candlestick be without any light on it. ITo work- ing, or changing, or tinkering of the candlestick, can make it give light. We must have the presence and grace of the great Light-giver. When the light burns ■dimly, when the darkness seems to thicken, and the fogs and dampness that are ever exhaling from the pit resists her feeble and struggling rays, there is but one resource. To that we cannot resort too quickly, if we would keep our light from entire extinction. It is in despair of any other help, to cry to our Great High Priest and King with unwearying importunity, for those divine influences which will kindle anew the flame of zeal and love, and enable her, from every enlightened soul, and from every ofiicial station, to give forth a clear and convincing testi- mony. It is further implied by this relation of these symbols to the glorious Being in their midst, tliat our encourage- ment to expect this is fully equal to our dependence. The same symbol that shows our need, shows Him as ever present to supply that need. It presents Him as actually fulfilling the promise with which He accompa- nied the great commission given when He withdrew His bodily presence, "Lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world." It was that promise made visi- ble. It shows that it is in and by His church that He manifests His priestly character and sanctifying power. There He is seen in His priestly robes, girded with His covenant faitlifulness, and detecting with His eyes of flame every deception and secret impurity, and noticing every breathing of desire toward Him, however faint, and 86 THE MISSION OF THE VISIBLE CHURCH. [Lect. IV. every unuttered prayer and groan ; there He displays His divine majesty and the stately steppings of His grace, and unfolds the design of the mighty movements of His Providence as with feet of burnished brass He treads down the nations; and there too the voice of His power is heard, bowing the sinner's heart, filling it now with terror and anguish, and anon with a joy that passeth knowledge. There too He declares His threatenings, and manifests the avenging and corrective, as well as the sav- ing efficacy of His word, which is as a two-edged sword ; by " the breath of His lips slaying the wicked " and purifying His people. Elsewhere this church is called the house of God, of our Redeeming God. In it He dwells, in it He works, from it His power goes forth, and by it He shews forth His glory. Hence tliese seven can- dlesticks— His churches, and not the nations at large, nor even heaven itself, are presented to John in vision as the sphere of a glorified Redeemer's movements. Among these He is ever walking — for these He is ever working ; "Head over all things to the church." In this syinbol John would also see the identity of the clnirch in all ages. It would at once- 3. The church's iden- ' i i • i* ii i i n i- i • tity in all ages. rcmmd him of the golden candlestick m the tabernacle and in Zechariah's vision. There indeed it was a single candlestick or lampstand with seven branches and seven lamps; here it is seven of these lampstands, — the same term is used as that which describes the one in the tabernacle. They are separate- from each other, as seems evident from the Lord walking in their midst, answering thus to the seven distinct churches which they are afterwards said to represent. This symbol would therefore at once identify in the apostle's mind, the church of Christ with the church of the old dispensation, both under Moses and as restored under Zerubbabel after the Babylonish captivity. It would vividly set forth the truth that these churches. liECT. IV.] THE MISSION OF THE VISIBLE CHURCH. 87 scattered among tlie cities of the Gentiles as the seven churches of Asia were, had succeeded to the honours and privileges once accorded exclusively to the Jewish peo- ple. Though they had been cnt off, and their temple perished, yet the true temple and priest and candlestick remained. That very thing for which Israel of old had been called and separated, these churches of Christ were constituted to accomplish, and that far more effectually. Indeed the accomplishment of that design was reserved for this dispensation. Abraham was called, and his de- scendants set apart as a separate people — the church, the " called ouV from among the nations, — in order that in him all the nations of the earth might be blessed. To carry this promised and prepared blessing to the nations, to diffuse the blessed light of the salvation of God over all the earth, is the peculiar work of the church of this age and dispensation. The one had now become seven: the minor had become of full age ; the church had put on her true spiritual form, perfectly adapted to all na- tions. The light no longer emanated from a single cen- tre, but from centres as numerous as the bodies of be- lievers gathered from among the nations. The gospel placed these candlesticks among all nations, and in all the cities of the nations. The churches thus gathered inherit the privileges and the offices of ancient Israel, only in fuller measure and with mightier power. They succeed to her very titles ; they are the true Israel ; they only are real Jews in the covenant sense. The true Je- rusalem, the city of the living God, the Mount Zion in which her Messiah reigns, is that New Testament church to which the apostle in the epistle to the Hebrews repre- sents all believers as having now come. The olive tree of Paul is the same ; and the branches, though they dif- fer in substance, have the same life and produce the same fruits of holiness. Even their covenant relation to Abra- ham, so far as it secured any real spiritual blessings, is the 88 THE MISSION OF THE VISIBLE CHURCH. [Leot. IV. same. "If ye be Christ's, then are ye Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise." But while the apostle would thus behold the identity of the old church with the new in office .^•, ^" ,™!*T, """^ and privilege, he would also see that the ■visible, but spiritual. '- ^ ' old visible unity had disappeared. It was no longer a unity of visible organization as in Israel of Old; but a unity resulting from their relation to the same living Head dwelling equally in them all, and up- holding in each a distinct spiritual authority. Here are seven churches with their seven stars or angels, each one a church with its divinely upheld authority. One single shaft, witli its seven branches, was no longer the proper symbol of the visible church, but a seven-fold multiplica- tion of these light-bearers, each bearing the same relation to the One glorious Being in their midst, — a multiplica- tion as numerous as the separate churches or bodies of congregations, as numerous as the wants of the nations should demand.* All these are indeed united, but not by any visible bond of organization ; only by their rela- tion to their Divine Lord, and in the unity of that spirit- ual truth by which they shine. It is a "unity of the Spirit," says Paul to the Ephesians, and he thus describes the bonds that bind it into one spiritual body. " There is one body, and one Spirit, even as ye are called in one hope of your calling; one Lord, one faith, one baptism, * Why, then, it may perhaps be said, did not the mnltiplication of this same symbol in Soloition's temple, where there were ten candlesticks, imply that even then there was no visible unity? Simply because it could not. The visible unity of the Jewish church was then an existent fact; and the multiplication of the symbol, as also of the tables and lavers, of which there were ten each, could only be regarded as a repeti- tion of the same symbol, to impress the true character of the church. But when viewed as types of the church under the Messiah, it might seem to prefigure the indefinite multiplication of the visible churches of Christ, and hence, as a matter of necessity, that then their unity could be only spiritual, a unity of relation to their divine Head, and a imity of function. Leot. IV.] THE MISSION OF THE VISIBLE CHURCH. 89 one God and Father of all, who is, above all, and through all, and in you all." And the goal of perfection to which her Redeemer's ascension gifts are represented as bringing her, here and under this dispensation, is, we are told in this same connection, "the unity of the faith." "Till we all come in, [literally, unto, — ei^l the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the ful- ness of Christ." The preciousness of the visible church is also clearly symbolized. Like the candlestick in the 5. The unspeakable tabcmacle, thcsc are ^'■goldeny While value of the visible , , . ^ , , "^ . , . ,» church. tins may represent the reqmred purity ot the church, it certainly does represent its actual preciousness. This preciousness is manifest from the peculiar relation in which it stands to Christ, as the representative of His mystical body, and as His appointed instrumentality in gathering and perfecting that body. It becomes thus the theatre on which and by which He displays the glory of His grace and wisdom and power. The visible church is not a mere voluntary society, in which membership and government are matters solely of human choice. It is a positive institution of God. It is indeed a necessary outgrowth of the invisible kingdom, a necessary result of the election of grace and the effec- tual call of the Spirit through the word. But while it is the manifest outgrowth of the spiritual life, the Re- deemer— the author of this life — did -not leave to the im- perfectly sanctified hearts of His people to form it ac- cording their o\vn wisdom, or impulses. Its design and functions are too intimately associated with His o^vn glory and the accomplishment of His mediatorial work to be left entirely to the inventions of human wisdom, or the management of human skill. Its constitution, its func- tions, and the offices necessary to their right administra- tion have, in all ages, been of divine appointment. The "90 THE MISSION OF THE VISIBLE CHURCH. [Lect. IV. precision with whicli He condescended to establish all its xainiitest regnlations nnder the old Dispensation, requir- ing everything to be framed and ordered according to the p)attern showed to Moses in the Mount, every reader of the Bible must have been struck with. This was so, not only in what was directly and expressly typical, but as to all the regulations necessary to secure their proper ob- servance. Thus, under that typical dispensation, it was shown how all the more spiritual ordering and worship and outward administration of this more spiritual disj^en- sation must be by His authority and His alone. The visible church, therefore, as well as the im^sible body which it represents, is a society ordained by God, consti- tuted by Him, and receiving from Him at least its gene- ral form, its officers, its ordinances and its laws. It is a lieavenly thing, — ^it is the kingdom of heaven. Most appropriately, therefore, it has a "golden" sym- bol. Infinitely superior to all other visible organizations here, as being dii'ectly formed and ordered and arranged by divine wisdom, she demands the supreme affection and attachment and reverence of all. Appointed not only to represent the body of Christ — ^the elect, redeemed, re- generated children of God who are begotten to a heav- enly inheritance, and who are to reign upon the earth; but also to be the chosen instrumentality by which tliis redeemed body is to be gathered and trained and per- fected foT its eternal and glorious inheritance, until Christ shall come again to be glorified in His saints, it becomes invested with an importance and preciousness second only to that invisible and spiritual reality. Its officers and ordinances are Christ's great ascension gifts to His spirit- ual kingdom. His invisible church. " When He ascended up on high, He led captivity captive, and gave gifts unto men And He gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, pastors and teachers; for the per- fecting of the saints, for the -work of the ;mhiistry, for the Lect. IV.] THE MISSION OF THE VISIBLE CHUKCH. 91 edifying of the body of Christ; till we all come m the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ." Imperfect, therefore, as the visible church is, and al- ways has been; marred, as was the church of Sardis and of Laodicea, by the corruptions that still dwell in the hearts of her members, and by false professors, she is still, in the eyes of our Redeemer, infinitely more pre- cious than all the kingdoms of the world and the glory of them. Even the churches of Sardis and Laodicea fhave a golden candlestick as their symbol, as well as the pure and uncensured churches of Smyrna and Philadel- phia. Compared with the pomp and might of earthly powers, men very generally regard the church as a feeble and insignificant thing, a power of but little account in the world; but the time approaches when she shall come " forth as the morning, fair as the moon, clear as the sun, and terrible as an army with banners." While the proud- est and mightiest dynasties of earth are crumbling into ^ ruins, she shall go forward, building upon those ruins the kingdom of her Lord and Saviour, until He come and sweep away all opposition, and destroy all the en- mity, and crush the old serpent forever, and she gives place to His true invisible spiritual kingdom, which shall reign with Him on the earth forevermore. Hence this visible church, as God's light-bearer in a dark world, becomes the great central offt?boor''''°'"''' ^'^i^^^ ^^ *^"^ ^^^^^1® ^ool^- The grand struggle is to make and preserve her purity: — that so she may truly represent the spiritual "kingdom. Hence though sometimes corrupted, and often persecuted, and otherwise rebuked, yet in the sweep of God's Providence, all agencies and powers are made to "bow before her. It is the visions of her toils and trials, • of the struggles of her light with the darkness, and of 92 THE MISSION OF THE VISIBLE CHURCH. [LecT. IV. its triumph over it, that are here made to roll before ns- in strange and awful magnificence. Beware, then, that you do not under-estimate this "golden" instrumentality and representative of God's, kingdom. Ever remember that the government, the ordinances, the offices, the discipline, and the spiritual enterprises of this church are divinely appointed; they are heavenly means of a heavenly power for heavenly ends. To neglect or turn away from the privileges of this church is to reject God and Ilis Son. If you have any love to the King Himself, and to His invisible spirit- ual kingdom, you cannot but love and cherish this visible kingdom wdiich He has ordained to represent it and to be the channel of its blessings to a perishing world. If you love the light, you will love the golden candlestick which supports it, and without which it would soon go out, or at least give forth its light but feebly and in a narrow sphere It is the world's only hope. No light can shine upon the world's deep darkness, so as even to alleviate its sin, its misery, or its ignorance, but that of which it is the bearer, and with which it is furnished by the grace of a glorified Saviour. Whether, therefore, you regard His honour or the salvation of man, you will regard no sacrifices too costly, and no labours too severe by which the interests of this church can be advanced. Your heart's most earnest feeling will be that of the cap- tive Jews by the rivers of Babylon — "If I forget thee, O Jerusalem, let my right hand forget her cunning : if I do not remember thee, let my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth: if I prefer not Jerusalem above my chief joy-" If e'er to bless thy sons My voice or hands deny, These hands let useful skill forsake, This voice in silence die. If e'er my heart forget Her welfare or her woe, Leot. IV.] THE MISSION OF THE VISIBLE CHURCH. 93 Let every joy this heart forsake, And every grief o'erflow. For her my tears shall fall ; For her my prayers ascend ; To her my cares and toils be given, Till cares and toils shall end. Beyond my highest joy I prize her heavenly ways; Her sweet communion, solemn vows, Her hymns of love and praise. That any one should regard such strong attachment to the visible church and external ordinances as in any kind of antagonism to spiritual realities, and out of pretence of supreme regard to the latter should lightly esteem the former, is as if one should despise the candlestick out of professed regard for the light it bears ; or as if he should dash away the cup in which the cooling draught is pre- sented to his burning lips, out of professed regard for its precious contents. If any are so foolish as to cling to the candlestick without any light, surely we need not reject the candlestick as it bears on it heaven's own pm'e light. Because others will have the empty cup without and in- stead of the waters of life it was designed to convey, we need not commit the egregious folly of trying to secm'e these waters of life by refusing the cup. Professing members of the church of God ! Are you fulfilling the end of your calling ? Are you shining in the beauty of truth and holiness? Do you prize the truth, and hold it fast, and hold it forth in the darkness, 80 as to give light to those around you ? And are you doing all you can to make the chiu-ch to which you be- long a bright and shining light ? You are called to be a witness for God. You are a witness of some kind. You are giving forth a daily tes- timony. "What is that testimony ? Is it the truth, purity, beauty and love of the gospel and cross of Christ? Is it such a testimony both of the lips and life as leads the. "94 THE MISSION OF THE VISIBLE CHURCH. [Lect. IV. world to see the excellency of the gospel, and to confess its power ? Or, are you, by your inconsistency, and self-indulgence and worldliness; by your unbelief, or lukewarmness or despondency, bearing false witness for God ? You are His witnesses. You are upon your solemn oath. That oath has been taken over the memorials of a Saviour's blood. If such is your testimony, then are you guilty of a species of perjury before God, by conduct that falsifies His truth, brings dishonour upon His gospel, yea, upon His very blood, hardens sinners in their unbelief, and confirms them in their way to perdition; and persistence in this course must bring down upon you the dreadful plagues that are wi'itten in this book. If the very possi- bility of incurring such guilt makes us tremble, as well it may, for it is daily incurred by multitudes, let it stimu- late each one to pray, with daily earnestness, the prayer of the Psalmist — " Create in me a clean heart, O God ; and renew a right spirit within me. Cast me not away from Thy presence ; and take not Tliy Holy Spirit from me. Restore unto me the joy of Thy salvation ; and up- hold me with Thy free spirit. Then will I teach trans- gressors Thy ways ; and sinners shall be converted unto Thee." . LECTUEE Y. THE VISIBLE CHURCH; ITS AUTHORITY. ' Chap, i: 20. " The stars are the angels of the seven churches." THE first mark of a true church of Christ is found in the fulfilment of her mission as a spiritual light in a dark world. The second is the authority by which she acts. This is our present subject. The golden condlesticks are beautiful and expressive symbols of her spiritual mission. But §. stars symbols of tj^ey necessarilv leave out of view the authority. "^ 7 other equally important feature of the true church, the authority by which she is governed. This is indeed the distinctive feature that presents her be- fore the world as the visible representative of the invisi- ble spiritual kingdom. To set forth this is the design of the only other symbol in this vision of which Christ gives any explanation — the stars in His right hand. This completes the view of what is essential to the visible church. She is not only a light-bearer, but a kingdom, having the authority of her King exercised by visible rep- resentatives acting under His commission. " The stars are the angels of the seven churches." These angel stars, as we shall see, most perfectly symbolize the spiritual au- thority constituted by Christ Himself in every one of His churches. Used as a symbol, stars represent the function of rul- ing, and rulers. This rests upon a manifest analogy. The stars belong to a sphere above us, they give light, (95) 96 THE AUTHORITY OF THE VISIBLE CHUKCH. [Leot. V. and their light and movements are not controlled by earthly things, but . earthly things have always been re- garded as controlled by them. They thns aptly repre- sent that lawful authority which is from above, and sheds upon the path of duty its only light, and without which all teaching and acts of government would be without any value or force. With this usage every Scripture reader is familiar. Q) The seven stars in the right hand of Christ, therefore, present the simple idea of the spirit- ual authority of Christ as exercised in each of these churches. Its explanation, ^angeW or messengers, neces- sarily implies the fact that that authority is vested in and exercised by human instruments sent by Him. The sym- bol itself sets forth all authority in the church as Christ's; the single word by which it is explained, describes that authority as found only in those who are His messengers, saying and doing just what He bids them, and nothing more. This seems so evident that we might at once pro- ceed to unfold the importance of this mark of the true church, and to apply the principles of truth and duty which it involves. The variety of views, however, which have been taken of these "a?i^e?s," and the importance of the general subject makes it proper first to present at length the grounds of the view just stated. I. Meaning of these Stab-Angels. That a spiritual authority in each church is designated by these words, nearly all seem to be § 1. Angel not a de- agreed. But a great deal of unneces- slgnation of any speci- ^ , . . ^ , fie office. sary controversy lias arisen as to what particular kind of officers are here in- tended by the term "angel." Such a controversy is ne- cessarily interminable, because of the plain fact tliat (1) Compare Num. xxiv: 17. Matt, ii: 2. Rev. ii: 28; xxii: 16. Job xxxviii : 7. Is. xiii : 10. Ez. xxxii : 7, 8. Joel iii : 15. AmoB v : 26. Dan. viii: 10. Ps. cxxxAd: 9. Lect. v.] the authority OF THE VISIBLE CHURCH. 97 neither the word itself nor anything else in the context designates any particular office. It is a general term de- signating the ruling function of the church in whomso- ever deposited, just as the candlestick denotes the church in its light-hearing function. The supposed obscurity of the language has arisen from the attempt to make that specific which Christ here designedly made general, and which general sense is essential to the force and fulness of the meaning. The silence of Scripture is just as ex- pressive as its revelations. If it uses language of wide and general signification instead of specific terms, if it is silent in regard to any specific limitation of their mean- ing, it is because no such specific ideas were intended. Now the word angel is not and never was the title of any particular officer in the church. It was used indeed, we are told by later Jewdsh writers, as the title of the reader of prayers in the Jewish synagogues, the leader of their worship. But in the whole Bible there is no trace of even this application of the w^ord, nor of any such of- ficer, as this is represented to have been. At the same time there are other terms constantly used in the New Testament to express every kind of officer appointed by Christ in His church. These terms were perfectly fami- liar. Their meaning was definite. If now it was the de- • sign of our Lord here to express a particular officer, it is incredible that He would have refused to use the proper term which He Himself had taught His inspired apostles to use, and have used instead a term which had no such official application, was not a name of office at all, but which was in familiar use as a functional designation per- fectly equivalent to our word messenger, and just so used -frequently in the New Testament, as its equivalent was in the Old. f) The use of such a word to designate the meaning of an important symbol, is proof positive that (2) Mark i: 2. Luke vii: 24. ix: 52. 2 Cor. xii: 7. Jas. ii: 25. Mai. iii: 1. 98. THE AUTHORITY OF THE VISIBLE CHURCH [Lect. V. we have no right to substitute for it any such specific terms; and that to do so, is to narrow down, if not com- pletely to lose the great and broad idea here taught. What is that idea? What does the word angel here mean, and why is it used? It must 2, Designates the mean either messenger in this broad nature of all church , j i • -n authority. general sense, or angel as used m -Eng- lish. It has no other meaning. In the last sense it is clearly inadmissable here. The epistles which follow, intended for the instruction, warning and encouragement of each of the seven churches, and ad- dressed to the angel of each, were most certainly not ad- dressed to imseen spiritual beings. We are therefore necessarily thrown back upon the generic sense of messenger. As used in the addresses of these epistles, it must represent some relation held, or some function exercised by men, by which they were con- stituted a proper medium of communication to those churches from their divine Lord and His apostle. What else can this be but that spiritual authority which lie has committed to His church, and lodged in oflicers of His. own appointment, and by which He rules in and over her ? The true nature of this authority is precisely and clearly designated by this word "messenger," by which all mere human authority is at once excluded, and all authority in His church declared to be dependent on a divine commission from her King, and to consist in no- thing else than the execution of a divine message. The specific use of the term to express heavenly beings as messengers of God, would suggest and render specially appropriate this word to denote messengers acting by divine authority. The symbolic use of it in this book — denoting invariably a spiritual infiuence or power, or an assemblage of such powers, would render this term, used in its generic sense, suggestive of the same kind of mes- senger. The whole range of language, therefore, could Lect. v.] the authority of the visible chukch. 99' not apparently have furnished a word so fully expressive of the positive character of all official authority in the visible church, and at the same time so exclusive of all human assumptions of power by which the exercise of this authority has been so sadly marred, as this simple word, ' messenger,'' used in explanation of the symbol of the stars in Christ's right hand, and therefore meaning a messenger from Him. It expresses, in one word, the great truth that there is no rightful authority in Christ's- visible kingdom except what He has commissioned and sent; and that every one vested with that authority is bound to keep, both in word and in action, within the- precise limits of His commission. This explanation of the word "angel" preserves the true force and significance of the symbol 8. This shown by the whicli it cxpouuds. A Star is Something; stars, their nature and -..j^. . n -\^ , • ^ ,^ pogjypn. very dmerent irom a candlestick or the light which it sustains. Though both give light, they do it very dift'erently ; the candlestick is a mere light-bearer, and the light it bears must be kin- dled and sustained by a power without itself; a star is a heavenly body whose very nature is light, and represents' therefore a heavenly source of light and power, and not a mere light-bearer. The thing indicated by it differs from what these candlesticks and their lights indicate just as a star differs from a candlestick, otherwise there is no definite meaning whatever in symbols. The candle- sticks and their lights represent the church as holding, forth by her organization, ordinances and holy example, the word of life in a dark world. The stars, on the other hand, represent, not the light the church gives or- the influence she exerts, but that which her Lord gives to- her; that authority which He has vested in messengers. raised up and sustained by His right hand, as walking in her midst He cherishes and brightens the flame of her holy example and teaching. 100 THE AUTHORITY OF THE VISIBLE CHURCH. [Lect. V. The position of these stars, in the right hand of the Hedeemer, is just as important a part of the symbol as the stars themselves. The meaning of it is evident. The right hand is the seat and the symbol of power. These stars being in His riglit hand as He walks among His churches, represent them not merely as upheld by that power, but as the instruments by which He exerts it. They appear, not as rising from or supported by the can- dlesticks, not as originating from or dependent on the churches, and so varying with all its changes of declen- sion and revival, but as deriving all their light and influ- ence from Christ alone, — as immediate and permanent emanations of His power. They must then represent His own divine authority as exercised in and for His church by instruments of His own appointment. His authority in and over His people never varies with the changes in His churches : whether the light of each burns brilliantly and purely like that of Smyrna and of Phila- delphia, or is almost extinct like that of Sardis and Lao- dicea, its star in His right hand changes not. His autho- rity is the same, unchanging as Himself. It is indeed very true that those in whom this authority is vested may and do change, and often cease entirely to be faithful to their high trust ; but then, too, they are no longer messengers of Christ, and have no longer any .share in what these stars represent. So far only as they preserve the character of messengers, and truly represent the authority of Christ, are they stars, and their light certain and unchanging. The authority of Christ cannot be wrenched from His right hand by the unfaithfulness of those tlirough M^hom it is exei'cised. Such only wrench themselves from the protection and care secured by being His messengers. This they cease to be whenever they do not truly represent His authority. It thus still more clearly appears how fully this word "angel" or messenger m its widest sense, interprets this symbol of the star. It Lect. v.] the authority of the visible church. 101 is only as the various offices in the church of Christ are exercised by men who act purely as His ambassadors, not in their own, but in His name, not from expediency or mere human reasonings, but as executors of His laws, as only the bearers of His message, that they fulfil their true function. Then the authority thus exercised is not theirs, but His ; the light is not that of human wisdom, but of express divine authority; the requirements and laws enforced and the decisions pronounced are the fixed unchanging light of a divine and unchangeable power : — it is a star, and not a lamp, a star in Christ's right hand. It should not pass unobserved that this sj^mbol of the stars is in the vision itself, presented not 4. The relation of immediately after the mention, in verse these stars to the other -,^^,,1 tt -n . • i .i Bymbois in the vision. 12, 01 the sevcii goMcu candlcsticks, the first great object that caught the eye of the seer, — but not until verse 16, at the close of a full description of the person of the glorified Redeemer as He walked in their midst, and as the first of the three closing characteristics which marked the display of all His power and grace toward them. In other words, these stars are a part of the descriptio)i of Christ Himself as He dwells in the midst of His churches. " And He had in His right hand seven stars : and out of His mouth went a sharp two-edged sword: and His countenance was as the sun shineth in his strength." The very fact that these stars are thus presented, not as a part of the church, tho-ugh, by the explanation, belonging to it, but as a part of the manifestations of Christ Himself, is decisive evi- dence of their design, as symbols not of persons, or par- ticular offices, but of His delegated authority wherever deposited. In this grouping of these symbols, there is great beauty and force. The two-edged sword of His all-penetrating word, and the sunlight of His countenance, representing His life-giving approval, are thus presented immediately after, and in immediate connection with. 102 THE AUTHORITY OF THE VISIBLE CHURCH. [Leot. T. these seven stars in His right hand : so that in immediate connection with His appointed authority in each church we have the all-piercing truth, and the grace that enforces it. His laws and claims as King are enforced by the word of His threatenings, slaying the wicked, and the light of His countenance, irradiating the souls of His people and the mansions of glory. "The seven stars are the messengers of the seven churches." Every church has its own 6. To each church nicssenger from its Lord: one church is its own star and mes- . . eenger. not ovcT another, but Christ s authority directly in each. From this language some have inferred that these were messengers of these churches, in the sense of being sent by them to John while an exile in Patmos, to express their affection and to receive his directions. This would be very plausiblie if this word were used independently, instead of being the exposition of the stars in Christ's right hand. Such messengers, representing no power of Christ, no perma- nent function or blessing granted to His churches, but a mere temporary expedient to meet a special emergency, cannot possibly satisfy the meaning of this striking sym- bol, which, as we have just seen, is one of the chief man- ifestaiions of the Redeemer's glory as He appears in the midst of His churches, along with the two-edged sword of His mouth, and the sun-light of His countenance. The same fatal objections lie against the view that these messengers are so called, as indicating their office of lead- ing in the worship and conveying to God the desires of the people. But in the sense we have seen to be alone consistent with the symbol, that of messengers of Christ clothed with His autliority, they are also messengers of the churches; just as Paul is "the apostle," i. e. the mes- senger "of the Gentiles," as well as of Jesus Christ; — while he is from Christ, he is to them, so that they had a special property in him. So to each church the Lord Leot. v.] the authority OF THE VISIBLE CHURCH. 103 has given a representative of His o\vn authority. To no one has He given authority over others, much less over all. There are as many of these messengers as there are churches. Each receives directly from Christ spiritual authority to administer the affairs of His kingdom within its own limits. This is not inconsistent with a joint au- thority arising from the union and agreement of those to whom, in the different churches, it has been entrusted. Each church too has but one angel or messenger. Yet we read in Acts xiv : 23, that a plurality §. Each church but ^f rulers were ordained in every church; •one. •' ' "lohen they had ordained them elders in every church,''^ where the churches must have been only single congregations. Some of these seven churches of Asia, certainly at least Ephesus, must have embraced many congregations; and it is certain that it had many elders or bishops whom Paul summoned to meet him, on all of whom the whole care of the church was to devolve after Paul's departure, and to all of w^hom he expressly commits it.^ Still even in these, this spiritual authority is represented as a unit, implying that a number of indi- vidual congregations were united in one body under one government; that though the rulers might be many, the authority must be one, and would be, if really Christ's. The union and agreement of these rulers in different congregations, in teaching and enforcing the same truths and duties, on the sole authority of Christ as the only lawgiver, becomes the strongest possible evidence, that the authority by which they act is one, and is Christ's, and gives to their decisions the highest possible force. The assembly of the apostles and elders at Jerusalem to -decide a question referred to them by the church of An- tioch is the divinely provided example of this. This oneness, therefore, of the symbol of Christ's au- (3)Act8XX: 28-31. 104 THE AUTHORITY OF THE VISIBLE CHUKCH. [Lect. V. thority, and of the term used to explain it, can decide nothing as to whether this authority is vested in one per- son or in many : in either case it must be a unit in order truly to represent the authority of Christ. This could be properly set forth only by a single star and messenger. Indeed the divine, ^ messenger^ character of this function ap- pears the more manifest, and the evidence of it is clearer, where there is a plurality of persons entrusted with it, than when vested in an individual. Even if any one thinks on other grounds that each of these churcljes were subject to a prelatical bishop, yet the relations, duty and privileges implied in these stars and messengers, cannot be restricted to him, unless he be the sole repository of authority, and all subordinate authorities be excluded from any share in the privileges, responsibilities and en- couragements which these symbols express. But this is contradicted by the whole tenor of these epistles, wliich are evidently designed for the whole of each church, and addressed to its spiritual authority as representing it, in- cluding all those whose agency was the proper and neces- sary means by which these messages of the King were to be conveyed to the people, and obedience to His charges secured and enforced. Such appears to be the meaning and design of this beautiful symbol. How important and §. A decisive test (jg^isive a mark of a true church it is, of a true church, ' and must ever be, is evident. Surely that society can have no claim to be a part of the visible kingdom of Christ, which does not acknowledge Him as its Head, by submission to His sole authority. And it can neither have nor give any evidence of participation in His kingdom, of its being a true church, except as its constituted authorities speak and act as deputies of the King, teaching and enforcing nothing but what He com- mands, and all that He commands. Taken in connection with the symbol of the golden 6 liEOT, v.] THE AUTHORITY OF THE VISIBLE CHURCH. 105 candlesticks, the two together make up a complete and decisive test of a true church furnished by the Head of the church Himself. The one marks it completely in its relation to the world; the other marks it as completely in its relation to its divine Head. These two, though in- separable, are perfectly distinct. They are as distinct as her work, and the authority by whicli she works. And just as inseparable. Her light-bearing mission to the world can never be fulfilled, except as she is governed by the sole authority of her King. That mission is dis- charged, as we have seen, by her witness-bearing. But this is worthless except as she speaks and acts by Christ's authority. This is just her giving to the world what she has received from her Lord without adulteration. Hence in speaking of this in the previous lectm-e, some things were necessarily said implying this authority. Yet the two things are just as distinct as these two symbols, — as her work and her commission. If, therefore, a church fulfills this mission, no matter what subordinate measures or instrumentalities it may emj)loy in diffusing the light of truth and holiness, no matter how it may conduct its missionary operations, or administer its sacraments, or arrange its acts of formal worship; provided, secondly, that it always bows to the King's authority, and its rulers and teachers act and speak only as He directs, constantly regarding themselves as His messengers, and without any right to teach or en- force anything He does not teach, no matter whether that authority is exercised by a pastor alone, or a church ses- sion, a prelate or a presbytery, or in any other possible way, — it is a true church of Christ: it has the candlestick and the star in Christ's right hand, and it stands equally with these seven churches of Asia as a part of His visi- ble kingdom. We do not mean to say that these are mat- ters of no, or even of little, importance. On the other hand, the efficiency of a church in fulfilling her great 106 THE AUTHORITY OF THE VISIBLE CHITECH. [Lect. V. mission will depend veiy greatly on her conformity in all particulars to the principles and pattern in the word. But mistakes and imperfections here cannot vitiate a -church's claim to be a true church of Christ. Let us now more fully unfold and more definitely ap- ply some of the chief points of instruction and encourage- ment involved, comparing them with other teachings of Scripture. II. Application of these Principles. All authority in the visible church emanates from Christ only. He is King. The church 1. All authority in the |g jj-g kin^^om. The visibU church is a ■chiirch from Christ ~ kingdom established by Him to repre- sent His invisible or real church, His true spiritual king- dom. It is, in its true nature, neither an aristocracy, a democracy, nor a republic. It is just what it always was, a theocracy, not indeed in the form in which Israel of old was — a civil government with a Divine Head; but a government still directly dependent upon and adminis- tered by a Divine Head. The attempts that have been made to run a parallel between the government of the •church and republican civil government are calculated to mislead; just as also the attempt to compare it with an earthly monarchy. In the manner of the selection and appointment of officers in His church, much may be sug- gested . doubtless that may guide in tlie arrangements of human governments, and especially in guarding against the abuse of power. But in all such parallels, there is great danger of having the true nature, source, and lim- itations of church-power obscured, and the obligations to obedience sadly lowered, or placed on erroneous grounds. In the church all power is from above, and not from the people; all they have to do is carefully to seek out and designate those whom the King has commissioned by His gifts and the internal call of His Spirit. He makes the Xeot. v.] the authority of the visible church. 107 laws; lie appoints the offices; He calls the officers; He prescribes their qualifications; He furnishes the qualifica- tions; and the spiritual perception necessary to enable the church to recognize these qualifications, is also His gift. All things here are from Him, and from Him not as the God of Providence merely, but as the church's re- deeming God, dwelling in all His redeemed people, for whose sake He has constituted this visible kingdom, and whose influence and character must be predominant in it, if it be any true representation of His real spiritual king- dom. It is just in proportion as the church fully recog- nizes and feels His real, 'personal, though invisible pres- ence in her midst, and this entire dependence on Him as her living Head, imparting His Spirit to her true mem- bers, that the affairs of her government can be rightly administered, and its high and holy ends attained. All this seems to be implied in this symbolic view of Christ's authority in His church. Compare with it the language of Paul in Eph. iv: 8-12. Having in the pre- vious verses enjoined them to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bonds of peace, and then defined that unity in the words, " There is one body and one Spirit, even as ye are called in one hope of your calling; one Lord, one faith, one baptism," he shows how it is preserved and perfected by that spiritual authority, the origin and various forms of which he declares to be from Christ, as His ascension gifts. " When lie ascended up on high. He led captivity captive, and gave gifts unto men And He gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists ; and some, pastors and teachers ; for the per- fecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, till we all come in the amity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ." It is this gift of authoritative teaching and ruling, sent down from His throne to each 108 THE AUTHOKITY OF THE VISIBLE CHURCH. [Leot, V^ of His cliurclies, and conferred on men called and quali- fied by Himself, which constitutes the grand instrument- ality by which He trains and perfects them. Thus He puts forth the right hand of His power, and secures full effect to His word and Spirit in building up His true spiritual kingdom. In each church this spiritual autho- rity of the King is the sole star of its hope and guidance and security; and, as exercised by living messengers of His own providing and sending, the great agency by which He is gathering and training His church, until it be complete, and grace be perfected in glory, and the visible and real spiritual kingdom become identical. Since Christ bestows such gifts, since He sends His. messengers to every church, a weighty ity'o/IkVlTcft responsibility rests upon it in regard to receiving tiiese mes- their reccptiou. Tliis is the aspect in ^^^^^^ ' whicli her election and ordination of" men to office is here presented. It is her reception, her acknowledgment of her Lord's commissioned messengers. When by His Providence and Spirit the gifts and graces are bestowed necessary to make up the qualifications which His word requires, these are the credentials of His own call and commission. To ascertain the possession of these in each particular case is one of the church's most responsible duties. Serious mistakes here must be fatal to her purity and prosperity. But when, as seems to have been the case in some instances at least, in apostolic times, (^) the call of the people unites with the decision of those already in authority, and when by both this voice is uttered as the result of a faithful and prayerful application of the tests of Christ's appointment, it is truly the voice of the Spirit speaking in His people, and gives the strongest security against error. But if this last bo wanting, if the selection and ordination of men to oflicial (4) See Acts vi: 2 6. xiv: 23. 1 Tim iv: U. v: 22. Leot. v.] the authokity of the visible church. 10& station in the cliurcli be without this earnest seeking for and reliance on the guidance of the Spirit, and faithful application of scriptural tests, and a sense of the great responsibility incurred, and if mere human wisdom and earthly motives control her action, the result cannot but be disastrous. Here is the great entrance of all aposta- cies and defections. Those are received as His messen- gers whom He never sent, and those rejected whom He has sent, and so His authority is set aside, the channels of His gifts and graces obstructed, and communication with Him being cut off, disease and spiritual death is the result. If the divine guidance furnished by His word and Spirit be neglected in this matter, nothing can pre- serve the church from despising the spiritual gifts of her Lord, and from the influence of pretenders and false teachers, and a desolating spiritual despotism. The whole history of the church is full of the proof of this. Her whole track through ages past is blackened with the fear- ful ruins thus produced. Again and again has the sym- bol been verified, — the falling star becoming wormwood and poisoning all the fountains of life. To the credentials of the apostles and other inspired men Christ set His own immediate seal by the miraculous gifts conferred upon them. Having thus given a fully attested and suflicient record of doctrine and precept and promise and warning, to guide His church till He come again, and having also pledged to her prayers His in- dwelling Spirit, He has left resting upon her the whole responsibility of applying this revealed word to ascertain and authenticate those who are His commissioned mes- sengers. Hence in the first of these epistles which fol- low — that to Ephesus — a high commendation is bestowed on that church by her Lord, "because," says He, "thou hast tried them which say they are apostles, (i. e. sent) and are not, and hast found them liars." And a severe censure is pronounced, and heavy judgments threatened 110 THE ATTTHOEITY OF THE VISIBLE CHUKCH. [Lect. V. upon the cliurcli of Thjatira, because she by her authori- ties had suffered that woman Jezebel, calling herself a prophetess, to teach and to seduce the people. Hence too such injunctions as these. " Lay hands suddenly on no man." " The^ things that thou hast heard of me among many witnesses, the same commit thou to faithful men, who shall be able to teach others also," "Beloved, be- lieve not .every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God." The churches of Christ cannot be too constantly and earnestly reminded that no more important and responsi- ble duty ever devolves upon them, than the selection and setting aj)art of those who are to teach and administer the aflfairs of His house. It touches the very centre of the church's life and purity and power. To put her seal on those whom God has not sent, or refuse it to those whom He has sent, are both alike fatal to her spiritual interests, and highly insulting to her Lord. It becomes church members and officers and judicatories therefore, whenever called upon to choose or set apart men to office, to bear in mind the solemn nature of the act, and its far- reaching consequences, affecting the very fountains of life and salvation to a perishing world. Let them remember how very nearly it touches the honour of the King, and how deeply it affects the prosperity of His kingdom. In authenticating as the King's messenger — as either a teacher or mere ruler in the church, one whom God has not sent, a woimd is inflicted on the body, deep and inju- rious in proportion to the abilities and attainments of the individual. Let no brilliancy of talent or extent of ac- quirement, no worldly power and wealth, have any influ- ence here, except as they are under the control of strong gracious principles, especially of deep humility, and a complete submission of intellect and heart to the simple word of Christ. We repeat it, that the sad divisions that have marred tlie peace of the church, as also all her Leot. v.] the authority of the visible chukch. Ill apostacies, and tlie feebleness of her testimony, are trace- able to this as the first overt step. The leaders of the host have been unfaithful, in a greater or less degree, to their high trust, and so error in doctrine and laxity in discipline have snapped the bonds of union, and broken her marshalled ranks, and rendered her, instead of that conquering army who follow the Lamb, described as the " called and chosen and faithful," an easy prey to an ever watcliful and hostile world. If the chm-ch is to dispel the darkness of the world, if she is to be acknowledged as a true representative of the vis- ible kingdom, she must recognize and follow as her lead- ers only the stars in Christ's right hand, — only those who shine with a heavenly light, and manifest in themselves the power of His right hand, — only those who as teachers come not with excellency of speech or of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, and who as 7'ulers exercise the meekness of heavenly wisdom, and cheerfully bow their own necks to the yoke of Christ. All authority committed to the visible church is en- tirely spiritual, and for edification, not 3. Church anthority destruction. It is a kingdom of truth. for e(Mflcation.^ ' ^° Jcsus Himself distinctly renounced the aid of civil power and force in stating to Pilate His high claims to be a king, "My kingdom is not of this world: if My kingdom were of this world, then would My servants fight, that I should not be de- livered to the Jews: but now is My kingdom not from hence. Pilate therefore said unto Him, Art thou a king then? Jesus answered. Thou sayest that I am a king. To this end was I born, and for this cause came I into the world, that I should bear witness unto the truth. Every one that is of the truth heareth My voice." Force or political power, then, either in the propagation or defence of this kingdom, is utterly inadmissible. Ko civil pains or penalties, honours or dishonours, can convince of truth 112 THE AUTHORITY OF THE VISIBLE CHURCH. [Lect. V. or convict of error. This cburcli authority or power is the heavenly, spiritual influence of these stars. It is not a sword to punish, or a rod to chastise, or a voice of ter- ror to alarm, except by spiritual warnings addressed to the understanding ; but a star to enlighten and attract. It is vested in a messenger armed only with the word, — the word of instruction, of warning, of comfort, and of spiritual power to admit or exclude from the privileges of this kingdom. All the censm'es inflicted even to the extreme of excommunication are not properly punitive, but disciplinary, adapted and designed, so far as the of- fender is concerned, to bring him to repentance. Even the deliverance of the incestuous person at Corinth unto Satan, was "that the spirit might be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus." ^ And no greater outrage has ever been committed by man on the rights of God, and no more flagrant abuse of power, or more horrid conversion of light and mercy into darkness and hellish hate and cru- elty, than the infliction, by church authority, of temporal pains and penalties, the assumption by frail mortals of the right to take vengeance in the name of God. " Ven- geance is mine, I will recompense, saith the Lord." It flnds its true representation in this book, in the star fallen from heaven, and receiving tlie keys of the bottomless pit, and letting forth the darkening smoke and locusts of hell upon a suflering and wasted church: or as fully de- veloped, in the whore riding the scarlet coloured beast, and drunk with the blood of the saints. These stars in Christ's right hand, while they shine in the lustre of heavenly love, proclaim indeed an almighty power to punish, if that love be slighted. These messen- gers, even when announcing the terrors of the Lord, and excluding from the privileges of His kingdom, are how- ever always to speak with tears and tones like His who (5) 1 Cor. v: 5, Xeot. v.] the AUTHOKITT OF THE VISIBLE CHURCH. 113 wept over guilty and doomed Jerusalem. How terrible, then, this perversion of power! The time has not yet come when the danger of this perversion, horrible as it is, of this holiest trust, has ceased. Nor will this danger completely pass away while this sacred trust is committed to imperfectly sanctified men, and while tares are mingled with the wheat. A misguided and fanatic zeal is still ready to hurl its thunderbolts of vengeance, or to invoke the aid of the secular power, in the very name of love and mercy. The language of Paul, with all his inspira- tion and miracles, still needs to be inscribed on the com- mission of every church ofiicer and judicatory, — "Our authority which the Lord hath given us for edification, and not for destruction." Q Even when intimating the sternest exercise of this authority, he says again, — " Not for that we have dominion over yoiu' faith, but are help- ^ers of your joy." (') To all who are vested with any authoritj^ in the king- dom of Christ, tliis representation of -4. Admonition and en- their fuuctious as that of stars and mes- couragement to church „ ^^, , , rulers. scngcrs 01 Ohrist, suggests most solemn admonition and precious encouragement. Both the symbol and its explanation — messenger — fixes •attention on the function — the oflicial duty rather than the person, so that no person, however high his ofiicial posi- tion, is either a star or angel, except as he identifies him- self with the high and holy duties these imply. It is not the personal influence or gifts of any one that gives him any share in the honour or the privileges of one of these messengers, or makes him a channel of Christ's light and power for the edification of the church : it is simply the faithful exercise of that spiritual authority entrusted to him, and which he can be enabled to do by divine grace alone. In such ofiicial position, therefore, there is no .'ground for pride or boasting. ((•6) 2 Cor. x: 8. (7) 2 Cor. i: 24, 114 THE AUTHORITY OF THE VISIBLE CHURCH. [Lect. V At the same time, such are reminded very impressively of the solemn responsibility resting upon them as mes- sengers of the King of Zion, representatives of His kingly office before the church and the world; that they are entrusted with a work in which His highest honour, and the most precious interests of His blood-bought church and a perishing world are all deeply involved. How weighty such a trust ! How fearful such responsibility ! It made an apostle tremble ; its weight would crush the mightiest angel unsupported. It will fill the heart of every one who rightly regards it with holy and trembling solicitude, and cause him to look up and cling to that glorious right hand as his only support, and to walk softly and circumspectly, giving anxious heed to all his steps and words. He will shrink with dread from uttering, in the name of the Lord, one syllable more or less than he has been taught. As a ruler, he will equally refrain from making the slightest change in the law of Christ's house — from adding to or taking away anything in the terms entitling to its privileges. As he dreads the with- ering rebuke of his Lord, as he values the approval of that countenance that shineth as the sun, and the sweet and powerful upholding of that mighty arm, will he im- plicitly follow the very letter of his instructions. In doing this, and generally just in proportion as he does this, will he meet with opposition and have to en- dure suffering. The servant is not above his Lord. The- messenger can expect nothing better from a wicked world than the King Himself, whose message he bears, received, if he speaks all the truth and faithfully applies all the discipline which Christ has commanded. For one of these, in the fulfilment of his embassy to a world in re- bellion, to be expecting a life of worldly ease and com- fort, a snug settlement where, cheered with merited hon- ours and congenial gratifications of taste and intellect, and freed from anxious cares, he can quietly and success- Lect. v.] the authority of the visible CHUKCH. 115' fully fulfil his high trust, — is one of the wildest dreams that ever entered a Christian's brain. With such an ex- perience, he M'ould no longer be in the footsteps of Jesus or of Paul, or of any other of the host of worthies wh,o have carried the standard of the King. Such earthly good, such exemption from suffering in his relation to an ungodly world, need be expected only at the expense of recreancy to his trust and treason to his King. But if in some exceptional cases where the messenger is surrounded b}' tlie children of the kingdom, there should be compara- tive freedom from persecution and want, it is certain that the great enemy who assaulted Christ Himself with his fierce temptations will sorely perplex and harass and torment these, His feeble messengers. They are the espe- cial objects of Satan's hate. How unspeakably precious the comfort, therefore, and how powerful the stimulus to* faithfulness which this symbol afibrds! In speaking and enforcing Christ's truth and laws, every teacher and ruler is in Christ's right hand, sustained and protected by His Almighty power. The very condition of their hold- ing this high and secure position is that they act as His faithful messengers. Whenever they assume to speak in their own name, or to seek their own honour or ease, they in just tliat degree cease to fulfil their star-like function, and forfeit His protection. But, on the other hand, just so far as they are stars, shining with the pure light of truth and holiness, and as messengers doing what He bids them, just so far they feel the grasp of His hand of love and might, and just so far, even in their greatest feebleness, can they defy the powers of earth and hell. The conscious feeling of identification with Christ in ad- ministering the government of this immoveable king- dom— a feeling possible only in the degree that all selfish- ness and ambition is swallowed up in a regard to His glory, — will make them, like Paul and Silas, fill the mid- night dungeon with the songs of praise. They can say 116 THE AUTHORITY OF THE VISIBLE CHURCH. [Lect. V. ■with Paul, "Most gladly therefore will I glory in in- firmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions for Christ's sake ; for when I am weak then am I strong." (*) Being thus held up in Christ's right hand did not keep the angel and the church of Smyrna from being cast into prison and the prospect of a violent death ; nor Antipas in Pergamos from a martyr's cruel fate; but it was still more strikingly shown in holding them up in these per- secutions, and enabling them to brave and triumph over •death itself. Christ's own mission from the Father as the angel of the covenant is the pattern in its execution of theirs from Him. "As thou hast sent me into the world, even so have I also sent them into the world." Hence He says, *' If the world hate you, ye know that it hated Me before it hated you. If ye were of the world, the world would love his own; but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you. Remember tlie word that I said unto you, The servant is not greater than his Lord. If they have persecuted Me, they will also persecute you; if they have kept My saying, they will keep yours also These things have I spoken unto you, that est Me ye might have jnace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of .good cheer ; I have overcome the world." (^) Addressed as these words were originally to the apostles, they have a special force in regard to rulers and teachers of the 'church in every age. The esteem and obedience due to the authority of the visible church is here taught. Regarded 5 The esteem and ^g ^^^^^ ^^ jjjg • |^^ ^^^^^ ^^^ UieSSeU- obedience due them. » ' gers from His throne, each word and act (8) 2 Cor. xii: 9, 10. (9) John xvii: 18. iv: 18-20. xvi: 33. liEOT. v.] THE AUTHORITY OF THE VISIBLE CHURCH. 117 in His name and according to His word is as if He Him- self did it. When tlie plain and rough-clad ambassador of Home uttered, in the name of the senate and Roman people, their stern demands to the proud and hesitating Egyptian King, and drew in the sand with his stajff that scarce visible circle requiring instant compliance, the haughty monarch heard in those few words, and saw in that sandy circle, all the resistless power of the mistress of the world. "He," says Christ, "that heareth you heareth Me, and he that despiseth you despiseth Me ; and he that despiseth Me despiseth Him that sent Me." " He that receiveth whomsoever I send, receiveth Me, and he that receiveth Me receiveth Him that sent Me." " He, therefore," says Paul, "that despiseth, despiseth not man, but God." (^") No higher insult can be ofi'ered to a king than to treat with contempt his authorized representa- tive ; no juster and surer cause of vengeance, according to his power. He may as well abdicate his throne at ■once, as suffer his authority to be thus trampled on, by not avenging those whom he has, even in the slightest degree, clothed with it. Let the church, then, ever regard her rulers as the stars in Christ's right hand. But then let her so regard them only so far as they appear in His hand and act by His authority. In themselves they are the same helpless and ignorant sinners that others are, and all their opin- ions and acts outside of the testimony and laws of Christ's house, are of no more account or force than those of other men. But within that sphere every member of the church is bound to regard them as the representatives of Christ's power for his own edification and salvation. But whenever they presume to carry the influence which this gives them into outside spheres, and to confirm or advance opinions on other subjects, it is a gross and wicked perversion. (1") Luke X : 16. John xiii : 20. 1 Thess. iv : 8. 118 THE AUTHORITY OF THE VISIBLE CHURCH. [Lect. V. The terrible abuse of church power in past ages, and Btill in corrupt churches, "lording it over God's herit- age," has become one of the most desolating curses upon the nations; and the infidel scoffer loves to point to priestly ambition and tyranny, and to "the arrogance of the clergy," as if to fix the origin of this worst form of human oppression on the church, instead of on the world as it has entered into and corrupted the true church. This has led to a directly contrary extreme — the almost entire prostration of real spiritual authority in the church. It would be well for all to ponder well the deep import and practical bearing of such passages as these, addressed both to rulers and ruled. " Them that sin rebuke before all, that others also may fear." "Reprove, rebuke, ex- hort with all longsufiering and doctrine." " These things speak, and exhort, and rebuke with all authority. Let no man despise thee." " Let the elders that rule well be counted worthy of double honour, especially they who labour in the word and doctrine." " And we beseech you, brethren, to know them that labour among you, and are over you in the Lord, and admonish you; and to es- teem them very highly in love for their work's sake." " Remember them that have the rule over you, who have spoken unto you the word of God ; whose faith follow,, considering the end of their conversation." " Obey them that have the rule over you, and submit yourselves: for they watch for your souls as they that must give ac- count." (") The admonitions, warnings, and censures of the church then, as uttered by its authorities in truth and love, are no mere idle words. Let every wanderer from the fold,, every backslider in heart, remember that they come with all the authority and love of the King Himself. Let the- baptized youth of the church remember that that autho- ( ") 1 Tim. v: 20. 2 Tim. iv: 2. Titus ii: 15. 1 Tim. v: 17. 1 Thess. v: 12. Heb. xiii: 7, 17. Leot. v.] the authority of the visible CHUECn. 119 rity of the kingdom over them arising from their birth of Christian parents, is no mere nominal thing. It may in- flict no sensible pains, it may deprive of no valued en- joyments by its penalties ; and its precious privileges and powerful protection may be unseen and unfelt; it may seem to be as powerless, and as little to be heeded as the blessing oi the curse of some wandering soothsayer, but it is fraught with results of infinite magnitude. It is the expression of the righteous and merciful claims of your redeeming God. It is the word of the Lord which en- dureth forever. To slight, despise, or rebel against it, is to inflict upon the soul a deep and painful wound which only that rejected mercy can heal, and which, even if healed, will bring bitter tears and heart-agonies. "He .that despiseth, despiseth not man, but God." LECTUEE VI. VAKIETIES AND IMPEKFECTIONS OF THE VISIBLE KING- DOM. THE SEVEN CHUKCHES. EPHESUS AND SMYRNA. CHAPS, n. AND m. I. General character of all these Epistles. • iTTE that hath an ear let him hear what the Spirit J-J_ saith unto the churches." This claim on universal attention is annexed to each of the epistles to the seven churches. It is a declaration by our Lord Himself, that these messages of His, though addressed each to a par- ticular clmrchj were intended for all; and that every in- dividual who hears them has a deep personal concern in them. Let us take heed to the divine injunction, and devoutly attend to what the Spirit saith. The body of each of these epistles is filled with details relating to the actual and peculiar con- §. A seven-fold pic- ditioii and character of the church ad- ture of the church as , , ^m j i • i • j ^ i i i • jt jg dressed. Ihat which gives to them tneir peculiarly universal application is the fact that they present an epitome of all the phases of the visible church in her militant and suffering estate. Hence the very number of the churches addressed is the estab- lished symbol of completeness in things pertaining to the covenanted kingdom, and not a mere accidental or arbi- trary thing. It is almost certain that these were not all (121) 122 IMPEKFECTIO^J^S AND VAKIETIES OF [LeoT. VI. the churches, as they certainly were not all the cities of -even that province. These seven appear to have been chosen from the rest, and all the developments of grace and of error in them to have been so ordered, that they might present in this seven-fold form such a complete view of the varieties and imperfections of the visible church, that every true church in all ages and nations, recognizing its own likeness, might feel itself addressed through them ; so too that every church which had no claim whatever to be a true representative of the spirit- ual kingdom, might be clearly distinguished from the true >even in its greatest imperfection. These epistles, therefore., by giving us a complete set of examples of the true church with its §. A definition of actual , impcrfcctions, furnish us with a the church, by exam- ,• t ^ n -j^- ^-^^ • i j igg_ practical deiimtion oi it oi universal and easy application. The candlesticks and the stars set forth the heavenly mission and spiritual au- thority of the church ; these epistles set forth the actual imperfections in the execution of her mission and the ex- ercise of her authority as these were committed to imper- fect men. At the same time, the danger of regarding any of these imperfections and corruptions as a part of her true character, or as necessary to her development, is effectually prevented by the perfectly clear discrimina- tion of these in the commendations and censures of our Lord, The severity with which he rebukes these evils, furnishes also the most eff'ectual warning possible against them. Regarding these two chapters as presenting a complete picture of the visible church as she tlien §. Relation to the ^ ^^ cannot fail to perceive their in- lest of the book. ' . • i r. timate and essential connection with the rest of the book. They set clearly before us, what it is very important should be borne in mind, in order rightly to estimate the progress of the vchurch, and to account Lect. VI.] THE VISIBLE CHURCH. 123 for her defections and reverses. They present her as she actually was at the close of the apostolic period, when fully furnished for her mighty work and started on her long career of conflict. They show her precise condition when the apostolic gifts and miraculous powers which ■had furnished and authenticated her testimony were with- drawn, and with the naked word of that testimony, and the sole guidance of the Holy Spirit, she entered on that course of trial and suffering so graphically and grandly described in its principles, progress and results, in this wonderful book. Here are the beginnings of all the ■evils that afterwards grew to such mighty proportions, •and brought down such fearful judgments ; and here too rare all the simple agencies and forces that were to crowu with eternal triumph this spiritual kingdom. So far, therefore, from these epistles being distinct from and nearly unconnected with the succeeding portions of this book, as they are too often treated, they form an integral part of it, and indispensable to a right understanding of its mysteries, and to the full spiritual comfort and guid- ance it was intended to convey. The practical bearing of much in these epistles on the daily life of the believer is manifest, and is a frequent theme in the pulpit. To illustrate and apply them with this view would be entirely uncalled for, and is not our present design. We desire here to present these seven varieties of the church at tllte close of the apostolic age in one summary view, as representing the leading phases of the varied imperfect mixed condition of the visible church during its militant career, and embodying the final .charges and promises of her King as adapted to these states. We shall thus obtain the clearest conception of the design and meaning of this interesting portion of Scripture, as a whole, and in doing this, most of its prac- tical lessons will be necessarily suggested, and their force perhaps even more fully felt. 124: IMPERFECTIONS AND VARIETIES OF [LecT. VI. The merest glance at these epistles shows a great vari- ety in the condition of these churches. Only two of them are without censure, Smyrna and Philadelphia; three re- ceive both commendation and censure, Ephesus, Perga- mos and. Thyatira ; the other two receive only the severest rebukes, — in one of them, Sardis, a few names being sin- gled out for special praise, — the other, Laodicea, being without even such a remnant. Before considering the epistles to each of these separately, three things are to be- observed in regard to all of them. I. General Characteristics, The style of these epistles, their forms of thought and expression, is very different from all the 1. Their style. Other Writings of John, or those of any otlier apostle. They remind us strongly of the words and manner of our Lord when in the fleshy, as these are reported by the four evangelists. They are His very words uttered by His own lips. In the apostolic epistles, we have the truth as moulded first into the form of a human conception or argument, and expressed in connection with the holy emotions it produces. In this form, and to show what shape the truth assumes, as it comes in contact with a human heart, it has a special adaptation to our wants. NSr is it at all inferior in its divine authority, since both the conception and expres- sion are under the infallible guidance of the Spirit. "All Scripture is given by inspiration of God." But valuable as that form of His teaching is, it is not the form which in His wisdom He here adopts. He does not here em- ploy John to speak for Him. These are not John's words. He is merely the amanuensis. They come di- rectly from our glorified Lord. Though ascended up on high, He is still so really with His church tliat He can Leot. VI.] THE VISIBLE CHURCH. 125 speak to it His own words. He is not absent, tliongh in- visible. These epistles make ns sensible of His presence as otherwise we could not be. As we read and ponder their pregnant words and truths, we seem to feel a pecu- liar sense of awe, as listening to a voice directly from the throne, — from within the vail. We bless Him for the impressive view thus given of His constant care and speaking nearness, — in addressing us, even after He had ascended to the right hand of the Father, crowned with glory and honour, in like w^ords and tones to those He used when in the flesh. These last words of Jesus, these final messages of His love, we may well expect to be words of power, rich in instruction, warning and comfort, and we shall find them such. They are a constant repetition of the blessed as- surance— "My presence shall go with you, and I will give you rest." Each one of these epistles is introduced by our Lord's announcing Himself in a distinct charac- 2, Christ's titles. tcr, and ouc Specially adapted to the character and state of the church ad- dressed. These distinctive characteristics are nearly all drawn from the description of His personal glory as pre- sented in the vision just before recorded, and from the midst of which he utters these several messages. From the abounding fulness of His glories, from the manifold aspects of His holiness, wisclom, power and love. He se- lects that one most suited to the need of each. We are thus reminded that there is no form which the ever-vary- ing state of His churches here can assume, which will not find in the revelation which He has given of Himself some aspect of His divine fulness exactly fitted to it. Thus also are we taught that the safety and comfort of the church must depend upon her views of Christ. The earnest and continued contemplation of His glory and His grace is the only thing that can meet every emer- 126 IMPERFECTIONS AND VARIETIES OF [Lect. VI. gency, and supply every want. Without this, all His messages will be only in word, not with power. Each of these epistles is introduced by the words, "I know thy works." In every condition 3. Their common ^f ^j^^ church and the believer, this is introduction. ' the first great fact to be impressed upon the heart, after the glory of Christ Himself. By the term "works" here, we must understand every manifesta- tion of character. Their true nature depends upon the motive, — the secret principle of the soul which prompts them. But who can understand his own heart ? Who can unravel the complicated net-work of feeling and emotion, of hopes and fears and desires and aims that enter into eveiy action — ^how much or how little of self and the M^orld may be mingling with love to Jesus and a regard for His glory ? Who but He whose prerogative it is to search the heart? With infallible certainty His eyes of flame penetrate the secrets of the soul, and with infinite ease detect and separate the mingled forces of thought and feeling that control every action. We may be deceived, we are very likely to be; He cannot be. Other men may be deceived, or deceive us. The autho- rities of the church can never tell the heart; their judg- ment, therefore, can never decide our real relations to the kingdom of Christ. This is His own prerogative. Let none dare to invade it. " Who art thou that judgest another?" Without this omniscience. He could not be a perfect Saviour. By this He knows the extent of the horrid disease ; and how far, if at all, the remedy is work- ing ; and these epistles teach us that He will, by His word and Spirit, unveil to His trusting people precisely what they need to know of themselves and their works. But this is not all the force of these words. Who but He can estimate correctly the ever-varying forces of temptation with which His people have daily to contend, arising from secret causes, from peculiar temperaments Lect. VI.] THE VISIBLE CHURCH. 12T and constitution, from disease, from earthly relations and pursuits, and from the cunning wiles and fiery darts of Satan, so as to weigh aright the works and struggles of His people ? The child of God is often sadly and cruelly misjudged on this account by his dearest friends. These friends, we say not enemies, too often assume to judge of what it is utterly impossible for them to know, unless they could perfectly perceive the whole of these circumstances. "Who, too, but He can enter that other dark chamber of the heart, where are treasured up all its sorrows, and whence many of them never once emerge to any fellow- creature's ear — secret woes that no words may utter, and no ear may hear, and which not even the nearest friend ever dreams of? Yet how greatl}'' these control and modify all our works, every one knows. All these, in their minutest shades and deepest depths, Jesus takes into compassionate consideration when He says, " I know thy works." Precious words ! with which thus to introduce every message, whether of warning, of comfort or of approval. Let the church have them ever ringing in her ears. Let her disregard the opinions of man, liis praises or his cen- ' sures, his threats or his promises they are utterly worth- less as guides in duty, or sources of comfort. But let her never forget that there is one all-searching eye upon her always, in all her backslidings, and sorrows, and con- flicts, and fears, and labours, — in her feeblest efforts to promote His glory, and in the darkest days of Satan's power; the eye of one whose approval can turn sorrow into joy, toil into pleasure, and suffering into triumph. " I, even I, am He that comforteth you : who art thou, that thou shouldest be afraid of a man that shall die, or of the son of man, which shall be made as grass; and forgettest the Lord thy Maker ?" 128 IMPERFECTIONS AND VARIETIES OF [LeoT. VL II. The Sevenfold Yabiety. 1. Ephesus. Declining Love. A Church Strong, Orthodox in Doctrine, Order and Morals, but having left its first love. Chap, ii: 1-6. In external tilings this was the most favoured of the seven. Ephesus was the chief city of the province, its great seaport, and the natural outlet of all these other cities to the sea. It was indeed at that time the most im- portant city of Asia Minor, and is said to have had a population of not less than six hundred thousand. A temple of "the great goddess Diana," regarded, on ac- count of its size and magnificence, as one of the seven wonders of the world, gave to it a peculiar celebrity; and in reference to this, the strange designation, " Tem- ple Sweeper," was regarded by the city as its most dis- tinctive and honourable title. It was tiie chief seat and fountain of magic arts, so that the very name of these in ancient writers was " Ephesian letters.'''' It thus had become a place of resort for all nations. Its wealth and influence, therefore, were very great. Its church had been founded by the apostle Paul, and had enjoyed his personal labours for three whole years. In it Timothy also had laboured under his direction. To its assembled elders, whom he had summoned to meet him at Miletus, he had given that final solemn charge, recorded in the twentieth cliapter of Acts, — a charge which still stirs to its depths the heart of God's minister- ing servants. In its formation, early training, and dis- cipline, therefore, nothing could be wanting that even inspiration and apostolic presence and authority could give. It very early gathered into it many of the chief men of Asia, and must have had a numerous membership Leot. VI.] THE VISIBLE CHURCH. 129 and embraced many congregations. Another apostle, John himself, had, according to the uniform tradition of the church, been now living there for many years. This church is commended for two things. (1.) First, its labour and patience in exposing |. Commendations, the claims of pretended apostles, and in securing a pure ministry and gov- ernment. "I know thy works, and thy labour, and thy patience, and how thou canst not bear them which are evil; and hast tried them which say they are apostles, and are not, and hast found them liars." So marked was their zeal for His honour and authority in this, that He repeats in the next verse His commendation with addi- tional emphasis; "And hast borne, and hast patience, and for My name's sake hast laboured, and hast not fainted." (2.) A second ground of commendation is appended to the censure which is next introduced, as if to temper its severity. This is its hatred to the deeds of the Nicolai- tanes. " But this thou hast, tliat thou hatest the deeds of the Nicolaitanes, which I also hate." The very name of these Nicolaitanes has become synonymous with antino- mian and licentious indulgences. Enough only is known of them to make it certain that they indulged in and de- fended licentious practices, lowering the obligation of the moral law. Everything else about them has been de- signedly suffered to perisli, tliat tliere might never be any ambiguity in the meaning intended, — never any doubt as to the kind of conduct our Lord meant under this distinct name to hold up to the abhorrence of His church in all •ages. With special distinctness and force He thus warns her against the fatal poison of suffering unholy practices within her pale under any pretext. These commendations settle at least two leading ob- iects of the church's care and labour. She must never tolerate false teachers, or immoral practices. She must 130 IMPEEFECTIONS AND VARIETIES OF [Lect. VL never weary in lier laboui' to drive such entirely out of her pale. Twice this labour and patience without fainting is men- tioned in connection with the testing of these pretended! teachers. Notice this. There is no part of the discipline and government of the church that makes such large de- mands upon her labour and patience, none in reference to which she is more apt to fail, than in openly and firmly resisting the insidious teachers of error, those who claim to be apostles and are not. Observe also how resistance to false teachers and to- immoral practices go together. Loose doctrines and loose morals are intimately connected. A spurious cha- rity for teachers of error is not seldom equally indulgent to laxity of morals. A low estimate of truth is insepara- ble from a low estimate of practical holiness. The con- science that is not tender enough to be wounded with, false doctrine, is not tender enough to be hurt much with- unholy practices. Christ's authority as King will be but little revered, if His authority as teacher be lightly regarded. But notwithstanding all this external prosperity and internal soundness, there was ground for S. Censures. heavy censm'c. There was a secret and fatal disease fixing itself on the very seat of life. "Thou hast left thy first love^" is the weighty- charge. How serious this is, is evident from the admoni- tion and warning that follow. "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." A church, therefore, may be large and prosperous^, zealous for truth and order and purity, labouring pa- tiently and successfully for the name of Christ, and yet there may be, unseen by human eyes, and unsuspected Leot. VI. J THE VISIBLE CHURCH. 131 even by herself, a secret defect that silently but surely threatens her very existence. No external zeal can com- pensate for declining love. Love is the very principle of life; and yet it is alarmingly true, that its vigour may so decline, even beneath the most flaming zeal and patient labours, as to imperil life itself. This censure is administered in close connection with the praise of tlieir zeal in exposing these false apostles, and before the second ground of praise is mentioned, im- plying some real connection between this zeal against false teachers, and their declining love. There is such a connection, and it should never be forgotten. When any are called to contend earnestly for the faith, when pa- tience is tried b}'' daring and persistent error, and when at length the pretensions of false teachers are exposed, the process is apt to chafe and embitter the spirit, and success to foster spiritual pride; thus holy love to Jesus and His people insensibly loses that first fervour with which it gushes forth in faith's first view of the cross and the extinguished curse. Ephesus, then, may teach the churches of every age,, that if they would enjoy the approbation chtcheT"' ^'^ ^^^ o^" ^^^"' ^^^■^^' ^^^y "^^^^^ 1'^^^^^^^ f^^t^- fully and patiently to uphold His sole- authority, by contending for a pure ministry and a holy practice, — by refusing to follow any but the stars in His right hand : while, at the same time, her long extinguished light and removed candlestick will be a standing warning that all this will not avail to save them from ruin if their- love is suft'ered secretly to wane. The evil, therefore, which imperilled her existence, was not an evil in the working of her organization, was not any imperfect or wrong oflicial action, but an evil which had its origin, its Beat and its power in the afi*ections of the individual be- liever. It was therefore only as these warnings and ad- monitions of our Lord were applied to the individual 132 IMPEKFECTIONS AND VARIETIES OF [Lect. VI. hearts of the members of the church of Ephesus that they could be of any avail to save it. By such a per- gonal application only can they be of any benefit to us. Let no one, then, even cursorily read these things with- out such an application. You are ortho- j. Aiidtoindividu- dox, you are zealous for outward purity and order, but may your Lord say of you — " Thou hast left thy first love ?" Once your soul melted in penitence and grateful love as you thought of His suiferings and your sins ; once jon wrestled with in- tense fervency, in your closet and in the house of God, for greater holiness for yourself, and for the salvation of your unconverted friends and others ; once you felt the claims of redeeming love drawing your heart out in cor- dial consecration to His service and self-denying labours for His kingdom ; is it no longer thus ? Has the sweet thrill of tenderness, the j^earning of desire, the springing energy of love passed away, leaving a painful conscious- ness of departed joys in your devotions and your ser- vices? Then the horrid leprosy, which the sprinkled blood seemed to have cleansed, is again bursting forth in its dark, polluting spots over your soul, and your life also. When the sick man, who has been nigh unto death, and so far restored as to feel the power of the disease broken, and the jDrocess of recovery established, again feels the old symptoms returning day after day with in- creasing power, his appetite for wholesome food failing, and his strength decreasing, he will be, if in his senses, at once alarmed, and will not lose a moment in hastening to resort to the remedy that before relieved him, if within his reach. Your case, declining Christian, calls for far greater solicitude. "Remember from M'hence thou hast fallen." Recall the past experiences of His grace. Re- §. Admonitions. member the divine mercies, your lost joys, and broken vows, and departed Lect. VI.] THE VISIBLE CHURCH. 133 usefulness. "Thou hast fallen," yes, fallen from grace, tliere is such a thing, and the condition is a dreadful one. David complaining of his broken bones, and Peter weep- ing his bitter tears, would tell you so. And tliough you have not yet, by any overt act, displayed your decay of love to that, or even a worse result, it nmst bring you, unless speedily restored. There is but one way of resto- ration, " Repent and do the first works." Look to the