the poorest is unspeakably wealthy, and without which the richest man is poor, and miserable, and blind, and naked indeed-is "unsearchable riches." The riches of this world, even when they are greatest, are but clay; they are thorns which prick the head that lies upon a pillow of down; the root of many evils, the cause of innumerable troubles: but the riches which Christ has to bestow, which are freely offered to the poorest by the hand that distributes them, are riches that satisfy the soul-that are accompanied with no thorns, but bear fragrant, beautiful, and amaranthine blossoms, and that end, not in perishable dignity, but in a crown of glory that fadeth not away.

These riches are truly useful at that hour when a man's heart is faint, when in the agony of his soul he asks the question, "What must I do to be saved ?" What can then comfort him? Not all the money that the richest can give him; the only comfort ever will be, as it has ever been found to be, the riches of pardoning mercy and forgiving love. And when we come to lie down on that last pillow on which your head and mine must lie, it will not be the least mitigation of nature's agony, nor the least brightening of the soul's hope, that you recollect you have been a rich man or a great man; but this will be joy-this will be peace-this will be substantial comfort,—that you have an interest in Him who has unsearchable riches to bestow now, and who has riches beyond tongue to express or heart to conceive to give us, when this frail earthly tabernacle is reduced to its ruins, and this inner soul, this immortal inhabitant, enters into an inheritance that cannot be moved, and a glory that cannot fade away.

Seek above all, these riches; pray that, if poor in purse, you may be rich in soul; pray that, if you have only a crumb of bread upon your table, you may have a glorious estate in reversion; pray that, if in the estimate of the world you are amongst the poor, in the judgment of Him who is the First and the Last you may be rich, because enriched with the unsearchable riches of the Lord Jesus Christ. Of all men, the most pitiable

are those who have full purses and empty hearts-who have all that this world can give them, and know not how to use, and sanctify, and lay it out for the glory of God, and for the good, the present comfort, and the future prosperity of souls. Let me ask you, Are you among the poor in spirit, whether you be rich or poor on earth? are you among the rich indeed, whether you be poor or rich in the estimate of Cæsar? I trust that many are so,-poor in spirit, but rich in faith, heirs of the kingdom of God.

"Thus the night shall be filled with music,
And the cares that infest the day

Shall fold their tents like the Arabs,

And as silently steal away."

'Fear none of those things which thou shalt suffer: behold, the devil shall cast some of you into prison, that ye may be tried; and ye shall have tribulation ten days."-REV. ii. 10.

I EXPLAINED in a previous lecture the glorious attribute assumed by Jesus as exclusively his own, "I am the First and the Last, the Alpha and the Omega, which was dead and is alive again, and liveth for evermore." I explained also the omniscience displayed in that allusion, "I know thy works, and I know thy tribulation, and I know thy poverty." The one may be misrepresented by the world, the other may be misapprehended, and the last may be despised; but I know them, applauding what is pure in the one, what is beautiful in the second, what is holy in the third; and it is a light matter that man should condemn, if it be the fact that your Lord applauds. He then shows that while this was poverty, physically speaking, it was wealth spiritually and truly. There may be unsearchable riches where there is very great outward poverty. Our Lord says so. One church boasted she was rich; He told her she was poor. This church was humbled because she was poor; He shows her that she was unspeakably rich. And he says, "I know the blasphemy of them which say they are Jews and are not." Jew is plainly used in the sense of Christian, as in the following instances: "He is not a Jew which is one outwardly:" "All are not Israelites who are of Israel." And this book is constructed, as it were, upon a Judaic stage. The apocalyptic scenery is borrowed from the temple, and the national Jew is introduced as the type and

symbol of the true and scriptural Christian. And therefore, when it is said " the blasphemy of them which say they are Jews and are not," He means, the reproach cast upon thee by those who pretend to be Christians and who are really not so. They reproach thee for thy poverty; they speak of thee as if thou wert not a Christian; "but if you be reproached for the name of Christ, happy are you, for the Spirit of God resteth upon you." This is a very precious consolation to every Christian, that the spot selected by the Holy Spirit of God specially to rest on, is the head of a reproached and misrepresented believer: "The Spirit of Christ and of glory resteth upon you." We are here again reminded of that lesson I have endeavoured to teach from the beginning, that the visible Church is a mixed Church of the ten virgins, five were foolish; of the seed cast into the ground, there were tares grew up as well as wheat; among the fishes in the net there were bad as well as good ones: and if you join no church until you have found a pure one, you will live in sin against God, and you will die without communion with the visible Church at all. There was a Judas among the twelve Apostles; and there never has been an era in the visible Church of Christ in which much of it has not been corrupt: half of it is the smallest proportion, and the fear is that the majority have too frequently been so. Christ's flock is still a little flock; and the multitude that follow Antichrist is still a great multitude. The Antichrist is enthroned upon many waters-tongues, and kindreds, and people.

Let us, my dear friends, select the Church we believe to be the best, when selection, in the providence of God, is placed in our power; but if we are in the midst of a communion not radically corrupt nor essentially off the foundation, let us labour rather to purify, exalt, and reform it, than to destroy and reduce it to ruins. You cannot be too much of a reformer; you cannot be too little of a revolutionist. Let us keep the machinery that we have, if it be not

altogether unscriptural; and if holy men work bad machinery, it will accomplish brilliant results; but if bad men work the noblest machinery, it will produce no blessing to the world or to the Church at large. The characteristic of a bad tradesman is that he is constantly blaming his tools. I believe that if we thought more of individual holy life to make churches holy, and less of corporate laws and mechanical distinctions, we should make greater progress in purity and in conformity to the image of God. Let us be satisfied that the fault is not in the flute, but in the player; not in the bow, but in the finger that touches it; not in the instrument, but in the hand that strikes it; not in the machinery, but in the power that is thrown into the midst of it.

It

I proceed now to unfold Christ's beautiful prescription, which constitutes the substance of my address this evening, "Fear none of those things which thou shalt suffer." It is taken at once for granted that suffering was before that Church; and it is before us. is well that our eyes are blinded to the scenes of our future experience, lest, gazing upon the awful events that may emerge in the providence of God, we should cease to toil, and become paralysed by fear and alarm. But, whatever be the scenes of the future, as these shall appear upon the world's stage, this we know, that in the case of that home that is now brightest, and of that heart that is now happiest, there are days coming that will try the one and shadow the other. For the great law of the Christian dispensation is, "In the world ye shall have tribulation;" but the great comfort of the Christian is, "but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world." The path that leads to glory is a path not strewn with roses, but planted with many a thorn 1; through much tribulation we must enter into the kingdom of God:" and therefore, instead of affliction being the evidence that God hates you, it is the strongest earthly evidence that God loves you. The man that I pity, is not the man who pines with sickness, or "feels the pang of pinching poverty;"

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