LECTURE III.

REVELATION ii. 9.

I know thy works, and tribulation, and poverty, but thou art rich.

THE subject for the present Lecture is the second of the epistles to the Asiatic Churches, addressed by our Lord to the Church of Smyrna.

The character of this epistle is, although with some points of similarity, still materially different from the preceding. In that, the language of reproof was equally prominent with the language of commendation; in this, not a word of reprehension is mingled with the praise.

In the epistle to Ephesus, we beheld the portraiture of the general Church of Christ during the apostolical age; terminating with the life of St. John. In the epistle to Smyrna, we are presented with a a view of the primitive Church from the time that the open ministration of the Spirit passed away, until the period when the religion of Christ became the national religion of the Roman empire. In other words, we may consider the Church at Smyrna to have been a type of the general character and state of the Christian Church from the death of St. John, until the reign of Constantine the Great. A period during which the blood of the martyrs, the seed of the Church, was more freely sown than in any period of similar duration in that Church's history; while, our enemies themselves being the judges, the religion of the Redeemer brought forth such fruit, of holiness, and self-denial, and love, as

utterly astonished its opponents, although it did not restrain their cruelty, or convert their hearts.

This will fully justify the language of the epistle, which after opening with a preface, peculiarly appropriate to its contents, is entirely occupied with the commendation of the Church's apparent poverty, but real riches, with predictions of its sufferings, and encouragement under its trials; while it closes with a most blessed and appropriate promise.

First, as regards the beautiful propriety of the preface," Unto the angel of the Church in Smyrna write; These things saith the first and the last, which was dead, and is alive."* Consider, that our Lord was addressing Himself to a Church, whose members should be called to pass through the deepest waters of affliction, and to suffer unceasingly beneath the iron rod of their persecutors; to hold themselves in daily readiness,

Revelation ii. 8.

to pour out their blood in the amphitheatre, or to perish at the stake. Could He have presented Himself to them in a character which would more powerfully tend to elevate their hope, to brighten their faith, and to nerve them for the struggles in which they were shortly to bear so glorious, but so fearful a portion?

I who speak unto thee, says the Saviour, am "the first and the last," the infinite, the eternal One; and therefore well able, with all the power of Deity, to carry thee through this mortal strife, and make thee more than conqueror for my name's sake. But I am also he," which was dead, and is alive;" I have therefore been myself once subject to the same sorrows and persecutions as thine own; I have experienced "the cruel mockings and scourgings" which thou shalt suffer; I have groaned beneath the tortures of the body, and have bled from very agony of soul. Death

itself, the last great consummation of thy trials, is not unknown to me; I have felt its damps upon my brow, and have hung a lifeless corpse upon the cross, and have been wrapped in the cerements of the sepulchre, for I "was dead;" and I can therefore well be touched with a feeling of every infirmity and pang which assails the dying; but I am now "alive," to assure thee of the unchangeableness of my protection, and my ability to help and deliver. Take courage, therefore, in thy coming trials; though thine enemies shall prevail against thee even unto death, though after thy death, worms shall destroy thy body, yet in thy flesh thou shalt see God; for thou hast to do with One who "was dead," to purchase thy reconciliation to God, and is now for ever "alive" at His right hand, to carry thee through every trial and to place thee beside His throne.

After this preface, so brief, and yet