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LECTURE VIII.

REVELATION iii. 20.

BEHOLD, I STAND AT THE DOOR AND KNOCK: IF ANY MAN HEAR MY VOICE AND OPEN THE DOOR, I WILL COME IN TO HIM, AND WILL SUP WITH HIM, AND HE WITH ME.

We have now arrived at the last portion of that connected and interesting series of history and prophecy, through which we have been travelling. We have traced the progress of the Christian Church from the days of her infancy, when her few, but eminently holy and devoted members, were contained within one house of prayer, and covered by a single roof. We have beheld her gradually enlarging her

boundaries, until her temples were seen springing up in all lands, and the voices of prayer and praise were heard throughout the habitations of men. These were the days of her maturity; while deeply interesting was that picture of her riper years, of holy energy and fervent devotion, with which the last epistle presented us.

Happy should we feel, if the closing scene, which we are now approaching, had been equally brilliant. All revelation, however, tends to prevent any such expectation; and the epistle before us, addressed as it obviously is, to a decaying church, is in full accordance with every other portion of the word of God. It is indeed descriptive of the feeble and futile efforts of a decrepid old age; of that churchstate to which our Lord particularly alludes, when he says, "The love of many shall wax cold;" of that period, to which he so expressly refers, when

b

he predicts, "As it was in the days of Noe, so shall it be also in the days of the Son of man;" a "likewise also as it was in the days of Lot; they did eat, they drank, they bought, they sold, they planted, they builded;" "even thus shall it be in the day when the Son of man is revealed." Evidently marking a time, particularly characterized by an entire engrossment by the things of the world, a total total forgetfulness of God. While, with reference again to this same church-state, our Lord emphatically inquires, "When the Son of man cometh, shall He find faith on the earth ?" the very inquiry itself containing, by implication, the strongest negative reply.

That you may, however, still more distinctly perceive from the unerring word of God, that such a state of things is to be expected even after that glorious period to which the last

a Luke xvii. 26.

b Luke xvii. 30.

c Luke xviii. 8.

discourse particularly referred, we shall read a portion of the 20th chapter of Revelation, where both these ages of the church are plainly alluded to. “I saw an angel," says the evangelist, "come down from heaven, having the key of the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand. And he laid hold on the dragon, that old serpent, which is the Devil and Satan, and bound him a thousand years, and cast him into the bottomless pit, and set a seal upon him, that he should deceive the nations no more, till the thousand years should be fulfilled; and after that, he must be loosed a little season.' " d According to the highly figurative language of this remarkable passage of Holy Writ, we apprehend, that by this chaining of Satan, is simply meant that wonderful abridgement of his power and influence which will be felt throughout the whole world, during what may be denominated the Phila

d Revelation xx. 1-3.