lated with the proudest of the Ottomans, (Bajazet,) 1390. Among the Greek colonies and Churches of Asia, Philadelphia is still erect a column in a scene of

ruins! Whatever may be lost of the spirit of Christianity, there is still the form of a Christian Church in this city, which is highly reverenced by the Mohammedans, and called by them Allah Shehr, or the City of God, and is a considerable town spreading over the slopes of three or four hills. It contains about 1,000 Christians, chiefly Greeks, most of whom speak only the Turkish language.

The American missionaries, Fisk and Parsons, when they visited the place in 1820, were informed by the Greek Archbishop Gabriel, that there were five churches in the town, besides twenty which were either old or small, and not then in use. He estimated the whole number of houses at 3,000, of which 250 were inhabited by Greeks, the rest by Turks. They counted six minarets; and one of the present mosques was pointed out to them as the church in which assembled the primitive Christians of Philadelphia, to whom St. John wrote. The remains of heathen antiquity are not

numerous.

Mr. Arundell concurs with other travellers, in describing the streets as filthy, and the houses remarkably mean; but he was much impressed by the beauty of the country as seen from the hills, and observes that "the view from these elevated situations is magnificent in the extreme; gardens and vineyards lie at the back of the town; and before it is one of the most extensive and richest plains in Asia.”

There are no considerable ruins. One of the most remarkable is a single column of great antiquity, which has evidently appertained to another structure than the present church.

LECTURE XXVII.*

POWER OVER THE NATIONS, AND THE morning star.

"And he that overcometh, and keepeth my works unto the end, to him will I give power over the nations: and he shall rule them with a rod of iron; as the vessels of a potter shall they be broken to shivers: even as I received of my Father. And I will give him the morning star. He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches.”REV. ii. 26-29.

I FEEL the difficulty of expounding the words which I have read as more especially the subject of our meditation this evening. I have consulted various commentators-I have studied the grounds of their solutions; but few of them appear to me satisfactory. I will therefore endeavour to explain these words less by striking out any conjectural solution of my own, and more by parallel references to other parts of the word of God; which, after all, is the true way of discovering the mind of the Spirit.

"He that overcometh, and keepeth my works unto the end, to him will I give power over the nations: and he shall rule them with a rod of iron; as the vessels of a potter shall they be broken to shivers: even as I received of my Father. And I will give him the morning star." I explained in my remarks on the pre

*It will be seen that this Lecture appears out of its place. It was omitted by the Reporter in his notes, and overlooked by the Preacher in preparing for the press. It is hoped that the reader will pardon an error in arrangement, and accept the Lecture as not unworthy of a place among the rest.

vious epistles what is meant by the expression," he that overcometh." It describes the character of the Church militant, on earth, "conquering ;" hereafter it will be the Church triumphant, or conquest. Now is the battle of life; our enemies are 66 principalities and powers;" our weapons are spiritual-faith and hope and truth. Victory is certain. It is not true in earthly combats that every soldier who fights shall win the laurels, or share in the victory: but it is true in the great battle of life, that every one who engages in it in the right name, and wields the right weapons, shall not fail to wear the laurels, enjoy the victory, and "eat of that hidden manna," and receive that "crown of glory which fadeth not away."

"He that overcometh," then, I have already explained to you. The next distinction here given of the member of the true Church is, that "he keepeth Christ's works." These are not his miraculous works; those we cannot keep; though we know that some who have wrought miracles will appear before Christ, and say, "Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name, and in thy name done many wonderful works ?" and he shall profess unto them, "I never knew you." It is not, therefore, he who can work miracles, if such there be, who keeps Christ's works, overcomes, and inherits the kingdom prepared for the people of God; but it is he who keeps those works, so that he brings forth the fruits mentioned by the Apostle, "love, joy, peace, long-suffering, kindness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance." They are those who are described as the "meek;" as "they that mourn;" as "they that hunger and thirst after righteousness;" as the "merciful;" the " poor in heart;" the "peace-makers;" the " persecuted for righteousness' sake;" they are those, in short, who, having received the seed on good ground, when they have heard the word keep it, and bring forth fruit abundantly. They are the "just who live by faith," and who "draw not back to perdition." The crown is here mentioned as the reward of persistency in the truth, and in the practical exem

cence too.

plification of it, and not of a momentary acceptance, followed, as it not unfrequently is, by the speedy and total abandonment of it. It is they that persevere in the course which they have begun, who are ultimately crowned. Many commence with burning zeal, but end in freezing coldness. They start with the splendour of a rocket, and they go out with its evanesTheir morning is full of promise; but ere their sun has reached its meridian, it is clouded and darkened and obscured. The promise is to him whose progress is like that of the sun that "shineth more and more unto the perfect day." By the persistency of your career you may judge of the strength of the momentum under which you have begun. A human impulse will soon exhaust itself; a divine one will not die till the subject of it is beyond the possibility of change. They, then, that "keep my works," are they who shall be crowned; they who heep them in their hearts-in their words-in their lives-in affliction-in persecution— "in all time of their wealth and prosperity, in all time of their tribulation, in the hour of death, and in the day of judgment, these are they that overcome, and to whom is given "the bright and morning star."

But the special promise here made to "him that overcometh is, "I will give him power over the nations, and he shall rule them with a rod of iron; as the vessels of a potter shall they be broken to shivers : even as I received of my Father." Perhaps the best way to explain the reference here is, to revert to the special error alluded to in the former part of the epistle. That spiritual error is "the teaching of that woman Jezebel," who, as I explained to you, is the great type and personation of the corrupt modern apostasy, whose errors this Church was reproved for not repudiating. Now if this refers to the great modern apostasy, then the "power over the nations," which is the promise made to the people of God, corresponds in name and extent, but contrasts in kind, to the power which that apostasy has exercised over all the nations of the earth. We read that the power exercised by that apostasy has

been "making drunk" all nations by her idolatry, her sorceries, her persecutions, and her crimes; the whole world has wondered after her; nations have been subject to her; kings have trembled at her summons, and the brightest realms have been darkened by the shadow of a priest's curse. Then, says the Redeemer, "I will give to my people power over the nations," as the inheritance of my true Church, in contrast to the tyrannic power which is the usurpation of the popedom! It will be Christian, spiritual, real power; not physical, oppressive, tyrannical power. "I will give him power over the nations" by wielding weapons that are holy, and by the exercise of a sceptre that is pure, permanent, divine.

What is the great axiom of modern philosophy? "Knowledge is power." Wherever there is knowledge, there is wielded an element of mighty power. What is the electric telegraph? Evidence that a truth in science is power. What is the railway? A proof that knowledge is power. What are all these but developments of a principle first discovered as a great truth in science, and then matured and developed into practical use, and so they are clear proofs that " knowledge is power." Christian knowledge rises to a yet higher sovereignty—it is not only power, but it is peace and happiness too; and it is a very interesting fact brought out with consummate beauty and eloquence by Mr. Trench, in the Hulsean Lectures, called "Christ the Desire of all Nations," that just in proportion as nations have grown in Christian knowledge, and in likeness to Christ, in the same proportion have they grown in superiority over surrounding lands, in victory over all opposing forces-and in legitimate, beneficent, permanent power over all the nations of the earth.

The

land whose queen reigns "by the grace of God" is

the land that rules the waves: the land that is most distinguished for the purity, the spread, and the depth of its Christianity, is that on whose dominions the sun never sets; and the country that is most illuminated by the Gospel of Jesus, has reached a height of