warm climate and sunny skies; and the myrtle-crowned valleys of Asia Minor were crowded with fanatics, eager to arrive at spiritual perfection by the constant practice of bodily ease. The north, with its snows and mountains, had indeed its monasteries, but the greatest hive was in the East, where the balmy breezes and ever-ripening fruits ministered to sensual gratification. The religious flocked to the plains of Syria to dream away existence, and the beautiful valleys of Greece and Anatolia swarmed with a race whose pretensions to piety were laziness and superstition.'

"In 1764, when Ephesus was visited by Dr. Chandler, 'its population consisted of a few Greck peasants, living in extreme wretchedness, dependence, and insensibility; the representatives. of an illustrious people, and inhabiting the wreck of their greatness, some, the substructure of the glorious edifices which they raised, some beneath the vaults of the stadium, once the crowded scene of their diversions. We heard the partridge call in the area of the theatre and of the stadium. The glorious pomp of its heathen worship is no longer remembered; and Christianity, which was there nursed by Apostles and fostered by general councils, until it increased to fulness of stature, barely lingers on in an existence hardly visible. On approaching it from the wretched village of Aiasaluch, a few scattered fragments of antiquity occur; and on the hill above, some traces of the former walls, and a solitary watch-tower, mark the extent of the city.

"At some distance are the remains of the theatre in which Demetrius raised the tumult against St. Paul; but of the once famous temple of Diana not a stone is seen, except perhaps a few arches on the morass, which are conjectured to have supported it. 'A more thorough change,' says Mr. Emerson, 'can scarcely be conceived, than that which has actually occurred at Ephesus. Once the seat of active commerce, the very sea has shrunk from its solitary shores; its streets, once populous with the devotees. of Diana, are now ploughed over by the Ottoman serf, or browsed by the sheep of the peasant. It was early the stronghold of Christianity, and stands at the head of the Apostolic Churches of Asia. It seems that there, as St. Paul says, 'the word of God grew mightily and prevailed.' Not a single Christian now dwells within it; its mouldering arches and dilapidated walls merely

whisper the tale of its glory; and it requires the acumen of the geographer, and the active scrutiny of the exploring traveller, to form a probable conjecture as to the actual site of the first wonder of the world.

"The same writer continues to observe: The present state of Ephesus affords a striking illustration of the accomplishment of prophecy. Ephesus is the first of the Apocalyptic Churches addressed by the Evangelist in the name of Jesus Christ; his charge against her is a declension in religious fervour (Rev. ii. 4), and his threat in consequence (Rev. ii. 5), a total extinction of her ecclesiastical brightness. After a protracted struggle with the sword of Rome and the sophisms of the Gnostics, Ephesus at last

gave way.

"The incipient indifference censured by the warning voice of the Prophet increased to a total forgetfulness, till at length the threatenings of the Apocalypse were fulfilled, and Ephesus sunk with the general overthrow of the Greek empire in the fourteenth century.

"The plough has passed over the city; and when visited, in March 1826, by the Rev. Messrs. Hartley and Arundell, green corn was growing in all directions amidst the forsaken ruins; and one solitary individual only was found who bore the name of Christ, instead of its once flourishing Church. Where once assembled thousands exclaimed, "Great is Diana of the Ephesians" now the eagle yells, and the jackal moans. The soil of the plain on which the ruins of Ephesus lie appears rich in the summer of 1835, when visited by Mr. Addison, it was covered with a rank burnt-up vegetation. This place,' he states, 'is a dreary uncultivated spot; a few corn-fields were scattered along the site of the ancient city, which is marked by some large masses of the shapeless ruins and stone walls.'"

What does all this teach us? That the Gospel in the midst of a city is the strength, the glory, and the stability of it. The moment that her love left the Church of Ephesus, her ships left her harbours, her soldiers deserted her standard, her ancient and illustrious buildings crumbled into ruins, and Ephesus alone, therefore, is a standing evidence that it is the church of God, in

Old England's heart, that is the secret of the splendour of the diadem that is around the Queen of England's brow. It is Christianity among the people that is the grand secret of all our prosperity and greatness. It is not protectionism, it is not free trade, that is the substance of our commerce, the glory and the secret of our agricultural prosperity;-it is the Gospel alone; and he who becomes a Christian himself and seeks to spread what he feels among those that are around him, does more to advance our country in its loyalty, in its integrity, in its strength, in its riches, in its commerce, in its manufactures, in its agriculture, than all the eloquent speeches made the one way or the other within the walls of parliament. It is by righteousness that a nation stands; it is by sin that it descends to its tomb. I have confidence in the Gospel, and confidence in that alone; and I believe, that when the hurricane swept over Europe, and kings were bowed before it as the grass before the breeze when the earthquake heaved, and convulsed great empires, and shattered strong and ancient thrones, it was not the guns that were concealed behind the walls of our great public buildings, nor those bayonets that bristled in the sun, nor those noble bands that crowded our streets and were ready when specially summoned specially to act, that saved us; but it was that our people had within them, as a body, indirectly and directly, that love to God which is the secret of true and lasting loyalty. As Ephesus lost her commerce when she lost her Christianity, so London will lose hers if ever she lose living religion in the midst of her. There is already too little Christianity, and too much room for more; instead of Christian churches quartering with each other, and Christian ministers setting themselves in opposition to each other, all ought to labour as one. We want double the number of churches and chapels of every description; and I wish we could bring into them, not visitors from other communions and chapels, but men who are heathens and know not what Christ and his Gospel are. Let us feel that churches will stand in the present day, not by the excellence of their ecclesiastical polity, nor by the patronage of the state, nor by the endowment of the queen, nor by the votes of the people; but by their allegiance to Christ, by their adherence to duty, by their sufferings for truth. Our churches are secured, not by the

splendour of their liturgies, nor by the eloquence of their preachers, or the multitude, or the grandeur, or the nobility of those that visit them; but only by their faithfulness to God, their sacrifices for his cause, their sympathies with his people. Men may talk about the succession, but I feel that this will be found the frailest reed in the universe when the ordeal comes; for the time draws near when men will see that that is the best Church and the most apostolic Church that has the most apostolic charity that that is the best minister who preaches divine sermons and lives a divine life—and that is the best congregation which does most for the spread of the Gospel which it has first tasted in all its sweetness and realized in all its power.

LECTURE X.

TRIALS.

"And unto the angel of the church in Smyrna write; These things saith the first and the last, which was dead, and is alive; I know thy works, and tribulation, and poverty (but thou art rich), and I know the blasphemy of them which say they are Jews, and are not, but are the synagogue of Satan."REV. ii. 8, 9.

THE great Head and Bishop of the Churches here introduces himself in a character, and clothed with attributes, suited to the condition of the Church to which he directs the Epistle. In his address to the Church at Ephesus, he introduces himself as "he that holdeth the seven stars in his right hand, and walketh in the midst of the seven golden candlesticks ;" and it will be found that this preface to the Epistle is in harmony with the statements contained in the body of it. In this, the Epistle to the Church of Smyrna, or rather to the angel, the bishop, or archbishop, or presbyter the presiding minister or officer of that Church, and through him to the whole body of the faithful constituting that congregation or Church, the great Author introduces himself as "the first and the last, which was dead, and is alive again." No one can fail to see that there is an obvious contradiction, if looked at in the light of human reason, in such an assumption as "the first and the last." It strikes you at once that no one can be the first and yet be the last; if he be the one, you argue, he cannot be the other. This is perfectly true of man, because all that can be predicated of man comes within the range of sense or the realm of understanding; but when we come to speak of God, it will be found that what are contradictions when applied to the creature, are great and glorious harmonies when heard respecting Him who filleth all in all with the majesty of his glory.