cers. their noblest leaders, their wise, their aged, were from year to year flung into a dishonourable grave before their eyes; their matrons and maidens were tortured in the midst of barbarian riot and the haughty and insulting scandals of the Roman offiNo Christian could be secure in his property, his freedom, or his life, beyond a single hour. Now this was the awful condition in which these Churches were placed, and it was in reference to this state of things that the promise of the text especially applies: for during the period of merciless and uninterrupted persecution, the Church of Philadelphia was the only one of the seven which was not almost totally annihilated, and this state of things is to be accounted for on no principles whatever, but that declaration which had reached their ears from the lonely prison of St. John, of Patmos, in the terms of my text-"Because thou hast kept the word of my patience, I also will keep thee from the hour of temptation, which shall come upon all the world, to try them that dwell upon the earth." Thus then, you see at once the well-established connexion between a faithful and conscientious adherence to the love of God, and to the faith and patience of Christ and a large portion of providential care. In the tremendous struggle in which the Church of Philadelphia had to be engaged it was not destroyed. It was deeply bruised and wounded, and nothing but the hand which touched the dead and they arose, could have sustained it in that day of terror; nothing short of the Omnipotent voice, which says to the waves of the tempest-tossed ocean, "hitherto shalt thou come, but no further," could have stayed the torrent of desolation as it rolled over the other Churches of Asia and caused it to break, that its angry waters might sweep more harmlessly by the walls of Philadelphia. But this is not the only instance in which this promise of God in the text applies to the circumstances of the city and Church of Philadelphia. If we follow the course of history for no less a period of time than ten long centuries, we find the same high promise sustaining them in the midst of an invasion which sunk the other Churches of the seven, with the exception of Smyrna, into a ruin from which they as yet never have been, and in all probability, never will be raised; I mean their conquest under the Ottoman power. I have one incidental remark here to make, brethren, to show the inveteracy of infidelity. The historian, Gibbon, who saw the fact of the preservation of Philadelphia, and knew of the existence of the promise, dares to sneer at the prophecy while he records its accomplishment. His language is important as connected with this subject, for here infidelity itself becomes a witness for the stability of God's promises. "It was in the yearof our Lord 1300 that the captivity or ruin of the seven Churches was consummated; and the barbarous lords of Ionia and Lydia still trample on the monuments of classic and Christian antiquity. In the loss of Ephesus the Christians deplored the fall of the first angel, the extinction of the first candlestick of the Revelations; the desolation is complete, and the temple of Diana or the Church of Mary will equally elude the search of the curious traveller. The circus and three stately theatres of Laodicea are now peopled with wolves and foxes; Sardis is reduced to a miserable village; the God of Mahomed, without a rival, is invoked in the mosques of Thyatira and Pergamos, and the populousness of Smyrna is supported by the foreign trade of the Franks and Armenians. Philadelphia alone has been saved by prophecy or courage. At a distance from the sea, forgotten by the emperors, encompassed on all sides by the Turks, her valiant citizens defended their religion and freedom above fourscore years, and at length capitulated with the proudest of the Ottomans. Among the Greek colonies and Churches of Asia, Philadelphia is still erect; a column in a scene of ruins; a pleasing example that the paths of honour and safety are sometimes the same." How darkened must have been the mind of Gibbon, distinguished historian and philosopher as he was; how warped even every honourable feeling which could have induced him, in order that he might avoid the recognition of a truth of prophecy to hazard such a remark as this,-"Philadelphia alone has been saved by prophecy or courage, a pleasing example that the paths of honour and safety are sometimes the same." The Christian traveller as he sees the present condition of the Church of Philadelphia, and the Christian historian as he records its past, as connected with its present history, will find a better reason than the sneer of the infidel in the inspired declaration of the text"Because thou has kept the word of my patience, I also will keep thee from the hour of temptation." After the declaration which our Saviour had made as to the preservation they should enjoy from the temptation and trouble which would overwhelm the others, he gives them the warning to be prepared for either. 'Behold, I come quickly." Think not that the judgments of which I speak are at a distance, they are immediately at hand. And this was the fact, for very shortly after the date of this epistle, the tide of persecution rolled over Asia; it spared them because the promise of Christ was their shield, not their courage, as the infidel historian dares to suppose; for what could their courage have accomplished against the persecution of their own lawful government, or against the tremendous array of the Ottoman arms? With the declaration of the near approach of persecution, Christ gives them an exhortation-" hold fast that which thou hast ;" that is, be careful and maintain the same faith and purity, the same zeal and love for which you are now distinguished; for if this is not done, you may even yet lose the crown which is even now almost within your grasp "Hold fast that which thou hast, that no man take thy crown." These are the particulars, brethren, connected with this part of the epistle, which I deem it expedient to discuss; the concluding promise will form the subject of another discourse. Yet there are some practical remarks connected with what has been said which may be considered of great and obvious advantage. Three of these I shall only announce, but shall not pursue. 1. They are not the best friends of religion and the Church who say that they are. 2. They are the best friends of religion and the Church, who are the most devoted servants of the Lord Jesus Christ; they who keep the faith and the patience of Christ, and they who hold fast the beginning of their confidence firm unto the end. 3. Let no one fear for the safety of the Church, whatever may be her condition, God will eventually bring all things right; he will make all righteousness as clear as the light, and all just dealing as the noon-day. He said to Philadelphia-"I will write upon him him my new name.' Let us leave these mat ters in his hands, do our duty, and be satisfied. God moves in a mysterious way, His wonders to perform; Blind unbelief is sure to err, God is his own interpreter And he will make it plain. So it ever has, and so it ever will, and here 1 rest the safety of the Church. She will outride the storm. 4. I now come to a practical remark on which I may enlarge without danger of offence. God had promised to the members of the Church of Philadelphia that they should be kept in comparative safety; and the word of God is faithful. But mark you the exhortation-"hold fast that which thou hast, let no man take thy crown." This is another of those portions of Scripture which sets at defiance the dogmas of the mere technical theologian. God had said of them-"because they have kept the word of my patience I will keep them from the hour of temptation;" and yet in the very next sentence he tells them to hold fast, lest they should fail of the attainment of the crown,-fail of the attainment of the crown when God had said that he would keep them from the hour of temptation, which is equivalent to a declaration that he would preserve them. Learn from this, that the word of God is apart from all human |