it will matter very little what we have suffered, if we find this, that we have washed our robes in the Lamb's precious blood, and that our righteousness is the righteousness of our Lord. Our hearts shall beat in a better clime, where every beat shall be blessedness, and every pulse a wave from that ocean of joy and felicity which is around the throne of God and of the Lamb for ever.

LECTURE XII.

CHRISTIAN FAITHFULNESS.

"Be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee a crown of life."-REV. ii. 10.

THIS promise, as I explained on a previous evening, is made to the angel, and through him, to the people of the Church at Smyrna. I explained, in my first discourse upon this Epistle to the Church of Smyrna as a section of the Church Universal, Christ's Omniscience" I know thy works-thy meanest and thy mightiest; the cup of cold water and the precious sacrifice." "I know," too, "thy tribulation," the path thou hast trodden, the thorns that have stung thee in it, the reproaches that have settled on thee, the conflict and the agony through which thou hast passed. And "I know," too, "thy poverty;" thou art a poor Church; thou hast not much wealth; thy people belong to the humblest, not to the highest class, as does the greater part of the Church of Christ still. It is true, not only of the ministry, but also of the. people; not many mighty, not many noble, not many* rich are called. What a solemn statement is this, "How hardly shall they that have riches enter into the kingdom of God!" Strange and terrible evidence of the disastrous eclipse under which all humanity has come, that the very thing which God's word proclaims to be the greatest drag on our career to glory is the very thing for which all hands are stretched out that they may clutch it, and which all hearts are thirsting to possess, and all men thinking the greatest and the chiefest of the gifts which heaven showers down upon mankind. I do not believe that wealth is a real blessing; the true blessing is within, not without; it

is not the change of the outward circumstance that makes a man happy, or that makes the poor man really rich; it is the change of the inward heart which makes the outward circumstances rich and more than satisfying. Man's great mistake is, that he thinks to heal the patient by changing his bed; God's great plan is to heal the patient's disease, and then the roughest bed will feel smooth. "I know thy poverty." But then, He adds, "thou art rich :" thou art poor in the estimate of man, thy bank book has very little to thy credit in it; thy estate is very easily measured ; thy purse is very light indeed; and yet, though poor in the estimate of them who call that riches which may be grasped thus, thou art rich in the estimate of Him who counts that only to be riches which are current in heaven and which bear the stamp and the superscription of the Son of God. Even Victoria's coin is but base coin in heaven; the only coin that is current there is that which is from heaven's mint, and stamped with Christ's superscription-the unsearchable riches of Christ, the righteousness which is of God through faith, unto all and upon all them that believe. And then, He says, "Fear none of those things which thou

shalt suffer."

Last Lord's-day evening I addressed you upon these words. "Thou shalt suffer" is written in prophecy, and will be felt in the experience of every man in this assembly. The man whose past has been sunshine without cloud-whose career has been smoothness without interruption, has reason, and strong reason, to suspect whether it stands right between him and God or not: for does not the Bible say that chastisement is one of the tokens and badges by which God's children are distinguished? "What son is he," says the Apostle, "whom the father chasteneth not? if ye be without chastisement, then are ye bastards, and not sons ;" and therefore, that man who now congratulates himself that he has had a smooth and a happy course, and fine weather and fair wind, his sail stretched out and not drawn in since he started in

his career, should indeed begin to look within, and to pray, if he never prayed before, "Search me, O God, and know my heart, and see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.” And, on the other hand, that man who knows what a rough way is, and what many a storm, and many a trial, and many a bereavement is-who counts the years of his pilgrimage by the tombs he has left behind him-who feels what the roughness of the hill is by the tears and toils he has spent on it, that man is under the chastisement, if a child of God, of his heavenly Father; and sweet indeed will be the home that follows so rough a journey-bright indeed will be the sunshine after so inauspicious a night; he goes forth sowing in tears, but he shall reap at the great harvest in unutterable joy. "Fear none of those things;" do not be afraid of them, do not misconstrue them; they are the tokens of a Father's love; they are conducting thee to a Father's home; and I believe, that if any one in this assembly at this moment is visited with bereavement, with sickness, with loss, it was just as necessary that you, my brother, should thus suffer, in order to be saved, as it was that Christ should come from heaven and die upon the cross. The only ground of your acceptance is that most precious cross; but a link in the chain that lifts you from the thraldom of this world to the glorious liberty of a better is just that affliction you deprecate, or that trial you would rather be rid of. "Fear none of those things;" none of them shall overwhelm you, none of them shall conquer you, for “I am with thee," says thy Father; "when thou passest through the waters they shall not overflow thee; when thou passest through the fire thou shalt not be burned, neither shall the flame kindle upon thee." And then He gives a charge-a true and a precious charge—not a charge that begins with Protestantism and ends in Popery-not a charge that begins with neither Protestantism nor Popery; but a charge full of truth-a charge that should ring in the heart of every minister, -nay, not of every minister only, but in the heart of

every man who has a post and a commission in the world: "Be faithful unto death ;" and then a glorious promise, "and I will give thee a crown of life." What is meant by faithfulness here? We have it explained in Matt. xxiv. 45, where our Lord says, "Who then is a faithful and wise servant, whom his Lord hath made ruler over his household, to give them meat in due season? Blessed is that servant, whom his Lord when he cometh shall find so doing. Verily I say unto you, That he shall make him ruler over all his goods." We have the very same faithfulness described in Matt. xxv. 21: "Well done, thou good and faithful servant: thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things: enter thou into the joy of thy Lord."

It

You see, then, what faithfulness is. It means, strictly and properly, allegiance, trust, persistence in the path of duty, uncompromising stedfastness and obedience. may be addressed to the Queen upon the throne-to the prime minister before her-to the peer in the Lords -to the senator in the Commons-to the magistrate on the bench-to the minister in the pulpit-to the hearer in the pew-to all men in all circumstances,—“ Be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee a crown of life."

Let me notice in explaining this subject, what are some of the things in which this faithfulness may be expected. From the passages I have quoted, it seems especially to refer to faithfulness to Him who is our great Lord and Lawgiver-the Lord Jesus Christ. Faithfulness is due first to Christ. All obedience must be rendered, not to a dogma, but to a person. Christianity is the contact of a living person with a living Lord, and Saviour, and Lawgiver. This faithfulness, this obedience, I say, must be rendered to Him who is the Lawgiver; and blessed be his Name! He who gives us the law, gives us also strength to obey that law. are, therefore, in the exercise of faithfulness to Christ, to take his righteousness as our only and our exclusive trust his law as that which only and exclusively, in

We