LECTURE IV. REVELATION ii. 17. To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the hidden manna, and will give him a white stone, and in the stone a new name written, which no man knoweth, saving he that receiveth it. In the last discourse we contemplated the Church of Christ during one of the most interesting periods that it has ever known, viz. during those peculiarly trying centuries when its members were poor in this world's advantages, but rich unto God; "I know thy poverty, but thou art rich ;”* when they were called to endure the ten * Revelation ii. 9. days of tribulation under the Pagan persecutors, but were "found faithful unto death," and so put on the crown of life. This state of apparent depression, but of real prosperity, continued until the three first centuries had passed away, and the religion of the Redeemer began to emerge from its obscurity; to be patronised by the great and noble; to reckon princes among its proselytes, and Constantine, the Emperor of the Roman world, as its acknowledged head. As it too often is with individuals, so it is with the Church at large. The warm and sunny day draws out the adder. Christians who in a preceding age had been able to rejoice in their poverty and tribulation, and even to be thankful that to them it was given not only to believe on him, but also to suffer, for the sake of Christ,* now became anxious only for this world's wealth and its advantages; so that, instead of the holy, self-denying lives *See Philipians i. 29. |