your heart-those trembling fears, reminiscences, protests, in the legislative chambers of conscience, but the unspent accents of the voice of God warning you, entreating you not to die, but to overcome the world, and so not be hurt of the second death? I repeat it then, again, that there is mercy and forgiveness in the blood of Christ for all that will, and if any man taste the bitterness of the second death, let him recollect that he does so for no reason upon earth but that he turned his back upon God, and directed his face to perdition. I now close my remarks upon the epistle to the Church of Smyrna. The present state of Smyrna fulfils the prophecy. Christianity exists, and though very dark, yet lingers in the midst of it. "It is a city of Ionia, in Asia Minor; it was one of the most ancient and flourishing of the colonies which the Ionian Greeks founded on the Asiatic side of the Egean sea; and the excellence of its situation, on one of the finest bays in the world, has saved it from being involved in the fate which has overwhelmed most of the ancient cities of the Anatolia. It claimed to be the birth-place of Homer, and several modern critics are of opinion, that the claim is better founded than that of any of the six other cities which contended for the honour. It is mentioned only once in Scripture, as one of the Seven Apocalyptic Churches. (Rev. ii. 1.) The angel of the Church at Smyrna, when the book of Revelation was written, is stated by ecclesiastical historians to have been the venerable Polycarp, a disciple of the Evangelist St. John. The message to the Church at Smyrna is an affectionate forewarning of the persecution to which it was about to be exposed, and of which Polycarp was the earliest and most distinguished victim. "The modern town of Smyrna does not occupy the precise position of the ancient city; in consequence of the earthquakes to which the southern hills were exposed, the citizens gradually removed farther and farther to the north, until the original precincts were quite deserted. The present city is divided into two parts, the upper and lower; the first being inhabited by Turks. and Jews, the second by Armenians, Greeks, and Franks. All the fine and remarkable buildings are in the lower town; it con tains the markets, bazaars, shops, and stores, and it exhibits all the activity and animation belonging to a great commercial mart and a crowded scaport. The upper town is bounded by extensive cemeteries, and appears almost as tranquil as those abodes of the dead; the houses are mean, the windows closely barred like those of prisons, and the streets all but deserted. "The Italians call Smyrna the Flower of the Levant,' and some French travellers have named it the Miniature Paris of the East; but, though far superior to most Turkish cities, it is not quite deserving of these flattering appellations. Fifteen hundred years ago, Strabo complained that the ancient city was deficient in its sewerage, and the modern city is equally in want of this necessary accommodation. Hence the centre of the narrow streets is usually a filthy channel choked with all sorts of impurities, from whence pestilential exhalations arise, which renders Smyrna the very metropolis of plague and fever. Within the last few years some good streets have been laid out in the lower town, and several excellent houses built by merchants in the suburbs; but still the old streets are so narrow that a loaded camel fills them up from one side to the other, and the passenger who meets one of these animals often finds it difficult to get out of the way. "One of the circumstances which strikes a European most forcibly on visiting Smyrna, is the great diversity of the nations. which have contributed to supply it with inhabitants. The citizens are distinct from each other in religion, language, dress, and manners; each race has its own ceremonies, its own feasts, and even its own calendar. It is not at all unusual for one race to celebrate a festival on a day devoted by another race to penance and fasting. The Turks close their shops on Friday, the Jews on Saturday, and the Armenians, Greeks, and Franks on Sunday. There is no intermarriage nor social communication between these different races; they never meet each other except in the market-place, and they only converse together on the price of cotton and opium, or the rate of exchange between piastres and dollars. The distinction of race is more strongly marked amongst the women than amongst the men. The Greek and Frank ladies have their faces uncovered, the Armenian and Jewish allow about half of the countenance to be seen, while the side caravans and strings of camels pour in from every part of Central Asia, Syria, and Arabia; on the other, fleets crowd the harbour from all the maritime states of Europe and America. The general medium of communication is the Lingua França, a barbarous jargon compounded of bad Italian and worse Arabic, together with a plentiful admixture of vulgarisms and nautical phrases from every language in Europe. Religious toleration has always been more freely granted in Smyrna than in any other Turkish city; and when there has been any outbreak of Mussulman fanaticism, it has been directed against the Jews and Greeks, rarely against the Europeans. The population of Smyrna is supposed to exceed one hundred thousand, and it is rapidly increasing, especially since the police of the place has been improved and greater security afforded to life and property. In no place is the decline of Turkish fanaticism more apparent, for the European consuls are ever ready to resent the slightest insult offered to Christians whatever may be their denomination. In consequence of this protection the processions of the Greek and Latin Churches pass freely through the streets, and some of the latter are so gorgeously conducted that a spectator might suppose himself in a city of Italy rather than of Turkey.” It has been noticed that this Church and that of Philadelphia are the only two to whom a promise of vitality is given, and in consequence they are the only two of the seven churches of Asia at this moment in which there is anything like a considerable Christian Church left. We learn from all this, and from the history especially of the Church of Smyrna, that the strength of the Church of Christ, whether Church local, or Church provincial, or Church national, or Church universal, is not the acts of parliament that establish it, nor the wealth in the pockets of those who occupy its pews and so support it, but the living Christianity in the hearts of its ministers and its people, and the strength of our nation's Church will be found in the days of trial that are coming on, to consist in the living religion of its people. Give me Presbyterian Church, Episcopal Church, Independent, or Wesleyan, but give me, above and beyond them all, a living Church. I care not so much for the shell if the kernel be there; I mind not so much the beauty of the chasing or the splendour of the lamp if pure oil be in it, and the flame that is lit from the eternal altar blaze upon it. I care not for the shape of the candlestick, if it bear a candle lighted from on high to lead me to the Lamb. Depend upon it that the day is coming, ay, and is already come, when, if Churches fall back upon the length of their ecclesiastical lineage, or upon the wealth of those that constitute their congregations, or upon tradition, or upon the state, they will find that they lean on a foundation that will assuredly fail them. Nothing but living, Protestant Christianity, will avail us in the days that are soon to overtake us. Luther said, the doctrine of justification by faith is the article of a standing or a falling Church; we may add, that regeneration by the Holy Spirit is the article of a living or a dying Church. pil LECTURE XIV. THE FAITHFUL MARTYR. "And to the angel of the Church in Pergamos write; These things saith he which hath the sharp sword with two edges; I know thy works, and where thou dwellest, even where Satan's seat is: and thou holdest fast my name, and hast not denied my faith, even in those days wherein Antipas was my faithful martyr, who was slain among you, where Satan dwelleth."-REV. ii. 12, 13. BEFORE proceeding to unfold the commendation here bestowed upon his Church by the great Head of that Church, the Lord Jesus Christ, I should like to show you what I omitted in my closing discourse upon the Epistle to the Church of Smyrna, last Sunday evening, the evidence of the fulfilment of all the promises. contained in that address. You observe that the address to the Church of Smyrna is characterised by special eulogy: "I know thy works, and thy tribulation, and thy poverty, but thou art rich;" "fear none of those things which thou shalt suffer;" "thou shalt have tribulation ten days;" "be faithful unto death, and I will give thee a crown of life." Throughout the whole of this beautiful address to the Church of Smyrna there is scarcely a syllable of censure; all is commendation, all indicates that this Church was one of the most faithful and devoted of the seven; and we may expect, if the principle I have endeavored to establish be correct, viz., that God deals with Churches just according to their faithfulness, that He will have dealt in mercy and in love with the then faithful, though now waning, Church of Smyrna. To show you, therefore, how strikingly this has been fulfilled, I read to you what Mr. Hartwell Horne has collected from various sources, explanatory of the present state of the Church at Smyrna; which proved that whilst every one of the |