Another statement contained in one of the Fathers is, that he pulled down the temple of Diana with his own hand. This is evidently a coarse version of a great moral occurrence; it was the preaching of John, the wielding of "weapons not carnal, but mighty through God," that caused the downfal of that temple, and the destruction of thousands of others, of which a pagan writer testifies when he says that this religion spread throughout the Roman world, and wherever it prevailed the temples of the gods were utterly deserted.

When John was at Ephesus, his two most intimate companions were Ignatius and Polycarp. They were personal friends and acquaintance of John, and there are frequent allusions in the writings of the Fathers to the fact, that these two had conversed with John and seen him in the flesh. Ignatius was thrown to the wild beasts at Rome and destroyed, saying with his dying breath, "I am the seed-corn that must thus be ground to powder, that it may rise again into a harvest of glory." And Polycarp, who is supposed to have been one of the angels of the Churches whom John addresses, at the age of ninety-two, was burned amid the flames for refusing to worship the image of the Emperor, or to regard that image as worthy of religious honour.

There is a curious incident, whether true or not I cannot say, alluded to by more than one of the Fathers, that John was in the habit of amusing himself when very old with a partridge which he had tamed. One day, it is related, a huntsman, who was a professor of the Gospel, came to John with his bow and arrows on his shoulder, and laughed at so great and venerable a man finding amusement in such a manner. John replied by asking the huntsman why he did not always keep his bow bent; and the answer was, because the string would be weakened, and the bow lose its elasticity. answered, "That explains the reason of my amusing myself here; the bow must not always be on the stretch-the string must not be always under its severest tension." We read that just before his departure, John went into the congregation or assembly

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of the Christian Church at Ephesus, supported by two young men who had been converted to the knowledge of the Gospel, and being unable to preach to the audience, or to address them so as to be heard, he was just able to give his dying testimony in these words :"Little children, love one another." These were the last words that John uttered upon earth-the short but emphatic sermon that he preached with his dying breath.

It is evident that John wrote the Apocalypse in Patmos, and to that point I will turn your attention next evening. There is no doubt that John wrote the Apocalypse. Disputes were introduced into the Church upon this subject at a very late period of the Christian era, about the third or fourth century, when some of the doctrines contained in it came to be disputed; but all ancient testimony is unanimous on this point, that John, the Evangelist and author of the three epistles that bear his name, wrote the Apocalypse, and that he did so by the inspiration of the Spirit of God. Irenæus, whose name means, as you are aware, "the Peaceful," and whose writings are full of exhortations to forbearance, and love, and peace, was born A.d. 107, or, as is supposed by others, A.D. 97, which would be one year after the date of the Apocalypse itself, has these words :- -"I can tell the place in which the venerable Polycarp sat and taught, and his going out and his coming in, and the manner of his life, and the form of his presence, and the discourses that he made to the people, and how he related his conversations with John and others who had seen the Lord Jesus, and how he related the sayings of John, and what he had heard from him concerning the Lord, his miracles and doctrine-all which he related according to the Scriptures."

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There are expressions common to the Gospel and the Apocalypse which bear out the assertion that John was the author of this book, even if we had not the evidence we have, and the express declaration of John himself to that effect. For instance, in the Apocalypse, we have such expressions as "the Word of God," i. e. Christ; in the Gospel, "In the beginning was the

Word." In the Apocalypse, Christ is frequently. represented under the figure of a Lamb; in the Gospel we read, "Behold the Lamb of God, that taketh away the sins of the world!" In the Apocalypse, "He that is faithful, He that is true;" in the Gospel, Christ is called "the Truth," "full of Truth ;" and in the Epistle again, "He that is true:" and other peculiarities of expression that indicate the same authorship in the one as in the other. In the Apocalypse we are told, "They also that pierced him shall wail because of him," and John is the only Evangelist who refers specially to the fulfilment of that prophecy in his Gospel-" They shall look on him whom they have pierced." All these are little points that indicate that both the writings are the production of the same pen. We have one witness in primitive days to the fact of St. John being the author of the Apocalypse; namely, Justin Martyr, who was born in the year 105, and who wrote a dialogue with Trypho the Jew, about A.D. 140; he says, "A man whose name was John, one of the Apostles of Christ, in the Revelation that was made to him." I quote these simply as specimens of proof, and not full evidence, which might easily be given, that John was the author of the Apocalypse.

And now, in concluding this short and necessarily imperfect sketch of the biography of one who introduces himself in the commencement of this book as its author, let me add that the very meagreness of the biography which I have laid before you is evidence of that great truth which pervades all Scripture, that the Apostles were contented to be nothing, that Christ might be all. They cared not how brief their biography was if Christ's was so full. They cared not that their names should be lost in silence, if the name of Jesus should only multiply its echoes "from sea to sea, and from the river to the ends of the earth." Let us imitate their example; let us pray that we may imbibe their spirit, that there may be less in our hearts of human ambition, that there may be more in all we say and do of desire that Christ may be all and in all.

Let me notice, in the next place, that we have here the clearest disclosure of the most mysterious truths being made to that Apostle who was characterised by the greatest love. Truth is only mighty when it is associated with love. Truth uttered by the lips of one whose heart is in the gall of bitterness, may exasperate, but it will rarely sanctify; but when truth is the weapon, and love is the hand that wields it-when the truth is spoken not for victory, but from love to him that is ignorant of it, then it is mighty indeed. And so does Christ honour that love that he says, "If any man love me he shall be loved of my Father, and we will come in unto him, and make our abode with him." The pen of love wrote the Apocalypse; the heart of love will best decipher the Apocalypse. Love to God and love to all that name the name of Christ, is one great means of being admitted into the secret place of the Most High, and receiving the knowledge that is denied to others.

In the next place, let me notice that John, through all his writings, dwells most prominently of all the Evangelists and writers of the New Testament, on the Deity of our blessed Lord. His Gospel seems written especially to illustrate it; his Apocalypse is pervaded by frequent allusions to it. The Gospel of St. Matthew was chiefly to demonstrate the humanity of Jesus; the Gospel of St. John seems to have been written especially to unfold the Deity of Jesus; and thus the four Gospels together, like the whole Bible itself, present a perfect Apocalypse of the character of the Son of God.

Let me add one feature more. Whoever was Evangelist, the Spirit was the Teacher; whatever was the form or the size of the trumpet, it was the breath of God that sounded through it. All the peculiarities of Matthew, of Mark, of Luke, of John, of Peter, and of Paul, are retained, and may be traced and contrasted in reading their works, and yet they all spoke and wrote as they were moved by the Holy Ghost. Some have said, that if the Bible had been written as a beautiful essay, it would have been far more satisfactory to the minds of the educated, and no less instructive to the

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unenlightened. I think not: it would have been a dull book and a dry book; it would have made a far feebler impression upon the hearts of the bulk of mankind : but by using men of every cast and turn of mind and thought, and pouring through these, as channels, the truth of God-by not destroying John, but inspiring him-by not extinguishing Peter, but speaking through him,—we have God's truth in all the various idiosyncrasies of men-in all the formulas of human speech; the same in nature, and distinguished by manifestation only; so that there is no peculiarity of taste, of temperament, or talent, or character, that will not find something in the Word of God suited to it, and calculated to instruct the soul of him that reads it. Let us bless God for the Bible, then, as it is. Be assured that the more you study it, the more you will love it; and they that know that book best will have the deepest and most indelible impression that God is its Author, and truth is its matter, and eternal joy its issue.