believe. That there was one characteristic common to them all, an indifference to ordinary moral obligations, grounded upon a belief that Christians were raised into a state which was superior to them, is equally certain. There are two passages in the Stromata of Clemens which illustrate the teaching of the Nicolaitanes. From the first (Book II. c. xx. § 118), it would appear that the sect had construed a phrase of the master whose name they assumed respecting the contempt (or abuse) of the flesh, in a sense contrary to that which he intended; that what was asceticism in him became libertinism in them. The second passage intimates (c. xxiv. § 25) that the ascetical profession of the founder was connected with a practical arrogance and indifference to the most sacred obligations, which might well account for the subsequent deductions from it. Those deductions, according to Clemens, amounted to a justification of concubinage if not of a community of wives. The narratives are derived from an uncertain tradition, and are not quite perspicuous. But they have an internal probability; in different forms the same history has been repeated again and again.

I do not see that it is necessary to assume the existence of a school or sect of Balaamites. He who would not in words curse the children of Israel, who could only bless them, and yet did Balak's work far more effectually by setting a temptation before them. which undermined their moral strength, is the precursor and type of all who, accepting and proclaiming the spiritual lessons of the higher covenant, should make them into excuses for encouraging the fleshly licence which enervates and destroys the spirit. So far the Nicolaitane and the Balaamite are alike. The distinctive features of the latter are two. (1.) He

has an inspiration, he is not a pretended, but a real prophet. He turns an actual gift to a vile use. (2.) The motive to his evil is money. Indulgence of lust is the result to his victims. Covetousness has

slain him.

Like the Nicolaitanes and the Balaamites, the Prophetess of Thyatira sets herself above law. Like the latter, she enthrones her spiritual intuitions. But power, not liberty, is her aspiration. Her prototype is the Sidonian Jezebel who broke down the righteous laws of Jehovah; who set up the worship of Baalim, the powers of nature; who changed the Israelites into Phoenician idolaters, and so into a degraded, filthy people. Such female usurpation is as directly connected with sensual worship, and with all the consequences to which that worship leads, as the doctrine of the male prophet. It leads more directly to tyranny.

3. The adoption of names borrowed from the Old Testament to designate two out of three of these heresies is proof, I think, that they did not present themselves to the Apostle as essentially new. He was sure that they had existed and borne fruit ages before. They appeared in the Church because the Church consisted of men and women; because no new race had been called into existence to people it. That one which had a modern name, which was of post-Pentecostal origin, was like the others in its nature and in its effects. It did, however, bear witness to the fulfilment of the old covenant; to the baptism with the Spirit. By doing so it explained how that conflict between the flesh and the spirit, which had existed in all earlier times, had now reached its fullest strength. All questions now resolved themselves into the question, What has been done for men by the illumination

of the Divine Spirit? Has it set them free from restraints which were imposed upon their evil natures; or has it explained the meaning and blessing of those restraints? Has it opened to them visions of the heavenly world which make their doings on earth indifferent? Or has it given a significance to all the common occupations of earth? Has it constituted those who receive it into tyrants, or has it made them more obedient, and therefore more free? If this be so, then, instead of limiting these Nicolaitane, Balaamite, Jezebel tendencies and tempers to the Apostolical period, we shall expect to see them developing themselves from the little seeds in Pergamos and Thyatira into portentous diseases, which would infect the life of the Church in all regions, which, if the Church should obtain influence over the nations, would infect them, would weaken and corrupt their powers and threaten their existence.

These consequences, which we should suppose must be, if these messages were true and Divine, have, it seems to me, actually presented themselves in the history of Christendom. The Nicolaitane communism has been continually reappearing in the most various forms, and at the most unexpected moments.. The Balaam prophet, who speaks grand words, and sets the example of foul acts, flattering the spirit with its own greatness till it sinks under the dominion of the animal or covetous desires, has never been wanting in small communities-has influenced countries and generations. The Jezebel, or female form of wickedness, mingling with the others, has given birth to the most widely spread idolatries; to systems of spiritual despotism, so perplexing, from their variety and their apparent opposition, that the successive reformers who

have struggled against them have seemed to others, and even to themselves, as if they were fighting under different banners, and aiming at opposite results. But they have been of one heart and one mind, inasmuch as they have borne witness that morality is immutable, that the righteous God cannot dispense with His own laws. And when they have been wise and successful, they have been alike in this respect also, that they have never hoped to overcome spiritual delusions by weakening their testimony to a Spirit of Peace and Love, and a Sound Mind; that they have traced the evil about them not to the belief in His Presence, but to the denial of it.

III. 1. This last lesson respecting the treatment of falsehood is contained in the message to the Church at Ephesus. The Angel of the Church had a great horror of religious pretenders: "Thou canst not bear them that are evil." Nor had he only zeal, he had discernment: "Thou hast tried them which say they are apostles, and are not, and hast found them liars." Moreover, he spared no toil: "Thou hast borne, and hast patience." And this too from real devotion: "For my sake thou hast laboured, and hast not fainted." And as for that particular sect which has done so much mischief: "Thou hatest the deeds of the Nicolaitanes, which I also hate." For all this clearness and vigour of purpose, He who walks in the midst of the candlesticks, and holds the stars in His hand, commends His servant. And yet an evil change is discovered in him: "Thou hast left thy first love." The outward activity is there. Thy heart is gone. Thy service has become, and is becoming, not dishonest, but mechanical. He who looks within knows that it is so. And He calls thee to repent; He whose

call, if thou heedest it, is the gift of repentance. But if thou dost not repent, if the indifference and coldness grow to be deadly, then this is the punishment : "I will remove thy candlestick out of its place." It has been set to give light. Thou art failing to give it. Men see thee active in repressing evil opinions, and going punctually through a round of duties. But the life and love of good do not proceed from thee. Therefore thou must not pretend to be that which thou art not. Ephesus must cease to be a Church, if it does not fulfil the one function of a Church. This temptation, then, thou hast to overcome; not the temptation of persecution, not the temptation to heresy, but dreariness, formality, the worship of decorum. Fight against this in the strength of Him who is walking in the midst of the candlesticks. And He will give thee just what thou wantest; the fruit of the tree of life; that fruit which has power to prevail against all tendencies in thee to torpor and death.

2. In Pergamos it is different. He who has the sword with two edges," who fights not only with outward foes, but with the subtle, secret enemy, that undermines the heart within, saw that the Church, which was brave enough when it was called to bear witness against Jewish or heathen oppressors, was becoming infected with Balaamite and Nicolaitane corruptions, and that the angel was not courageously resisting them. They had, no doubt, crept into his own heart. He was not clearly distinguishing there between the liberty of the spirit and the licence of the flesh; he was not hating the last that he might cherish the first. Therefore he could not contend with them in his flock. But the Son of Man is contending with them in both. He can over