Daniel; the coming of the Messiah, which was prophecy to every generation from Adam to Malachi, was history to the apostles; the destruction of Jerusalem and the dispersion of the Jews, which were prophecy to the apostles, were history to the fathers of the Christian Church; while the events which were prophecy to our fathers, have become, by the wonderful facts of the last forty years, history to us.

It is, then, with prophecy which has become history, with types which have been merged in their antitypes, that while on this portion of each of the epistles, we shall be engaged; trusting that so doing, we shall inherit the especial promise of the text, "Blessed is he that readeth, and they that hear, the words of this prophecy;" and praying, that the consideration may tend to excite, both in the mind of him who readeth, and of you who hear, a stronger persuasion of the intimate foreknowledge

and wonderful counsel of God, and of the deep and blessed interest which the Lord Jesus Christ has ever taken, and will ever take, in the well-being of his Church; until He has guided her vessel through all the storms and tempests that await her here, and carried her in safety to the haven where she would be.

Prophecy, however, under whatever shape, will form but a very small portion of our observations. The blessing of the text extends not merely to reading and to hearing, but to "keeping those things that are written therein;" for it is scarcely possible, throughout the whole of the Scriptures of truth, to select a passage so abundant in warning, so replete with encouragement, above all, so full of practical advice, as are these seven epistles to the churches. Our earnest prayer, therefore, is, that while we but slightly glance at the completion of their prophecies, we may be led to speak plainly, usefully, and affectionately

upon the great practical lessons they bequeath to us; that as each stage of the Church's history passes in rapid review before us, we may gather some word of profit for our own souls, some practical suggestion for the improvement of our own hearts and conversation.

Having thus referred, as we felt it necessary to do, to the nature of those subjects which we hope to place before you in the following discourses, we shall proceed to offer some brief remarks upon the manner in which these important messages, or epistles, or epistles, were communicated to St. John, to deliver them to the churches for which they were in the first instance more immediately designed, and to commit them as a perpetual possession to the universal Church of Christ, that they might take their place in the canon of Scripture, and hang among the brightest lamps of the sanctuary for ever.

We derive the account from the pen

of the beloved apostle himself, in the chapter from which the text is taken, where we read at the 9th verse, "I John, who also am your brother, and companion in tribulation, and in the kingdom and patience of Jesus Christ, was in the isle that is called Patmos, for the word of God and for the testimony of Jesus Christ. I was in the Spirit on the Lord's day, and heard behind me a great voice, as of a trumpet, saying, I am Alpha and Omega, the first and the last: and, What thou seest, write in a book, and send it unto the seven churches which are in Asia; unto Ephesus, and unto Smyrna, and unto Pergamos, and unto Thyatira, and unto Sardis, and unto Philadelphia, and unto Laodicea. And I turned to see the voice that spake with me, and being turned, I saw seven golden candlesticks, and in the midst of the seven candlesticks one like unto the Son of man."

Such is the august and striking man

ner in which these deeply interesting communications were made to the evangelist.

In other instances of Divine communication, we find the Lord Jesus Christ, sometimes revealing His messages to the sons of men, in dreams or visions of the night; at others by the silent and subtile inspiration of the Holy Spirit, no one knowing "whence it cometh, or whither it goeth;" but here, the revelation was made in his own person and by himself; while, as we shall presently see, never did the Divine Saviour of the world appear before the eyes of His people in so impressive and majestic a form, and never shall He so appear again, until He shall come in the clouds of heaven, and every eye shall see Him," as He manifested Himself upon that Sabbath day to that lonely and desolate exile in the Isle of Patmos. So true is it, that "as the sufferings of Christ

b Revelation i. 7.