my, or gained some important conquest of territories, to erect columns in or near the temples of their false gods, and in honour of the individuals who had particularly distinguished themselves. On these pillars were written a variety of names-sometimes of the gods; sometimes of the conqueror; sometimes of the city in which the column was erected, or of the city which had been taken.

In the city of Rome, as it at present is, there is the Arch of Titus, standing by the side of the via sacra, at the very foot of Mons Palatinus. It was erected by the Senate, and consecrated to Titus, in honour of his conquest of Judea. At the junction of the via sacra and the via triumphalis, stands the arch of the first Christian emperor, Constantine. This arch was raised in honour of his victory over Maxentius, at the Melrian bridge. There are connected with the arch eight beautiful columns of yellow antique, with their various sculptured ornaments. On the left side of the forum stood the temple of Saturn, in front of which a golden column was erected by Augustus, on which the distances to the respective provinces of the Roman empire were marked. The scite of this temple of Saturn is now occupied by the Church of St. Adrian, and the golden column gone. Near this also was the temple of Remus; and in front of the Church of St. Lorenzo, are ten Corinthian columns, which once belonged to a temple erected to the memory of the emperor Antoninus Pius, and the empress Faustina. There is a slight trace of a custom somewhat similar to this to be found in the 2d book of Samuel, xviiith chapter and 18th verse. "Now Absalom in his life-time had taken and reared up for himself a pillar, which is in the king's

dale: for he said, I have no son to keep my name in remembrance: and he called the pillar after his own name." This custom of the ancient Romans so fully illustrates all the topics embraced in this promise of the text, that it seems impossible that any of the commentators should have overlooked it. Yet it will not be found either in Clarke or Gill, and but half hinted at in Henry. It is mentioned more particularly in the synopsis criticorum of Poole, and in the family expositor of Dr. Doddridge. From the employment of this imagery, then, there can be no difficulty in arriving at the meaning of our Lord in this splendid promise. He intends decidedly to intimate, that when the Christian has fought the good fight of faith and won the victory, he shall be in the temple above as a pillar raised to beauty and glory, to the praise of God. Let it be observed that the pillars erected in their temples by the heathen conquerors were not so placed to form any part of the sustaining power of building, they were in no sense necessary to its support, but were only as mementos of some grand exploit. They were rather accidental appendages erected on the contingency of distinguished victories, and for ornament and glory alone. Thus when the conquering Christian is represented as a pillar in the temple of the true and living God, the very imagery bears its testimony to the important evangelical truth ever necessary to be borne in mind, that of the spiritual building he makes no sustaining part. "I bear up the pillars of it," saith the Lord. The admittance of the conquering Christian into heaven, is an act of Omnipotent and saving grace; for as it was not by might or by power that he was rendered capable of succeed

ing in the victory, but in the strength of the Lord and in the power of his might, so it is by grace alone that he is fixed in his position in the temple as a monument to the praise and glory of the mercy and goodness of the great builder and maker of the whole. His very situation teaches the believer, though in heaven, the grace to which he is indebted, for as a column of glory he is in no wise essential to the spiritual building, but there as a stately ornament. What a contrast! In this world the servant of the Redeemer may be a mere outcast in society; he may toil and eat the bread of carefulness, and sink to rest on the hard and rugged bed of poverty; he may wander with the poor Arab of the desert, or tremble amidst the snows of the pole, or linger out a dreary and cheerless existence in the sunless hut of the western savage; in short, the Gospel may find him in lowest depths of want and suffering-nevertheless, he that overcometh, shall be made a pillar in the temple of my God. That poor outcast, if a true servant of Christ, shall ever behold the fair beauty of God, and dwell in his temple. Planted in the house of God, he shall flourish in the courts of the temple of the Lord. One thing, says the Psalmist, one thing have I desired of the Lord, and that will I require, even that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to inquire into the fair beauty of the Lord, and to visit his temple. This desire will then be completely and for ever gratified. How glorious! how blessed then is the state of the triumphant believer, when he searches the land of his everlasting inheritance! how durable, beyond the possibility of a change! These are delights calculated to satisfy, as far as may be done,

the boundless desire of an immortal spirit. The prospect of a haven near at hand is not half so enchanting to the tempest-tossed mariner as that of Christ to the humble follower of the Lamb. Though for him to live is Christ, to die is gain. By death he is translated from this earthly temple to that which is above. He leaves the earth, which is Jehovah's footstool, and comes to heaven, which is Jehovah's throne. How glorious! how blessed is the state of the triumphant believer, when he reaches the land of his everlasting inheritance. How durable, beyond the possibility of a change! There is here one phrase worthy of peculiar notice, because it tends to point out what is to be found in innumerable other parts of Scripture, the two-fold nature of the Lord Jesus Christ. While Christ is the one that is holy, the one that is true, yet as constituted the Mediator of the new covenant, he is represented in that capacity as subordinate to the Father; consequently, when he would represent the grandeur and the glory of the heavenly temple, he desires to connect with all these ideas, the boundless benevolence of God. In this sense, he says, the conquering Christian shall be a pillar in the temple of my God; of that God who is a Father to all believers, in consequence of his reconciling mercy in the death of him who was the Mediator of the new covenant, and whose blood cleanseth from all sin. Thus in this heavenly temple, in which the conqueror shall be a pillar raised to glory, we have a declaration not only of the infinite majesty of the Father, but the infinite love and compassion of the Son. In both conjoined, there is most strikingly exhibited the infinite grandeur and the goodness of the one great 44

VOL. II.

Supreme. Into this temple the conquering Christian has the promise that he shall be a pillar. This is the first form of the promise.

2. I remark, stability is an attribute exclusively of the heavenly state, and this is essential to the joy and the consolation of a believer; for there would be nothing to buoy up his soul amidst the calamities of life, and nothing to make him fix his affections upon things above with an unparalleled intensity, was it within the reach even of possibility, that his residence and happiness in heaven should be temporary in its character. This portion of the promise then is equivalent to the declaration, that as a pillar once erected in the temple of the Church in glory he shall never be removed from the exaltation of his situation. In all the graces and virtues of the Christian life, in knowledge and in love, he will ever be increasing; his susceptibility of happiness will receive no shock. On earth all is change, and bustle, and variety, and noise. Change and decay are stamped on every thing around us; and not more feeble is the spider's most attenuated web, than is the brittle thread on which our choicest blessings are suspended. One generation goeth, and another generation cometh. Friends and relations, brethren in Jesus, ofttimes separate through necessity, ofttimes through death. The sunshine of summer is succeeded by the frosts and ice of winter. Gladness may prevail for a season, but sorrow succeeds. Far different from this is the state of the believer in heaven. There is no change; no separation; no trouble there. The sun of his joys shall never go down, and his moon shall never be withdrawn. I will make him a pillar in the temple of my God, and he shall go no more out.