doth not possess it through disbelief of that which God proclaimeth to all the world.

The more particular application of this style, which the Universal Bishop chooses to adopt towards the angel of the church of Smyrna, will appear under the head of the charge to which we now proceed.

OUR BISHOP'S SECOND CHARGE.

"I know thy works, and tribulation, and poverty, but thou art rich." I know not what tenderness of spirit I am continually overpowered with, ever as I read and comment upon the words which the Lord of glory useth from the throne of heaven to his poor ministers abiding in this vale of tears, and travailing with much carefulness in the cure of souls. There is such human heartedness, such simplicity, such sympathy, and such minute and delicate consideration of our case, that I can hardly figure it to be spoken by God, but am ever tempted to think I hear the voice of some co-presbyter encouraging me in my labour. This also is my infirmity; for much and zealously as I have argued for the truth and verity of Christ's manhood, I also feel the temptation of this day, which, in the orthodox church, is to think of him as God only, and not as God consenting ever to act by man's instruments, and in man's limitations. Much need I to learn the lesson for the teaching of which I have suffered reproach, that Christ in heaven, seated on heaven's throne and worshipped of heaven's host, is nowise changed from the Son of Man who washed the feet of his disciples and wept at the tomb of his friend. Let me lay to heart that passage which I have so often quoted, "Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever." From the era in eternity before all measured time, when he chose, or when the Godhead chose that form of being under which all intelligence should rank as its largest orb, Reason was that favoured form in which the Christ subsisted, and doth subsist, and shall for ever subsist, creation's Head, creation's Lord, creation's Light, creation's Word. Now reason is man's community, and of every reasonable thought and act man is a partaker. And there is a oneness between Christ and man, as between parent and child; and there is a delight

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in Christ with man, as the delight of a parent with his child. So that we may not marvel that his words are so appropriate to human wants, that his consolations are so welcome to man's conditions. The wonder were that they should be otherwise; yea, it is impossible that otherwise they should be. Truly revelation is reason perfect and complete because revelation is Christ pourtrayed, and Christ is the Logos, the Reason, the Light of life, of whose fulness we have all received. Now, O my heart, be enlarged, while I change the theme of my discourse, and pass from contemplating the depth and compass of that name, "The first and the last, which became dead and lived," to feel and express the pathetic tenderness of this charge of my Great Bishop to the angel of the church of Smyrna. He begins as usual with expressing his knowledge of his works, to intimate that he did not serve an indifferent or inobservant master, but such a one as did well notice, carefully remember, generously acknowledge, and plentifully reward, every act of his faithful minister, according to his own word,-"Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these little ones, ye have done it also unto me." These words, "I know thy works," are not spoken in the spirit of an inquisitor, or spy, or corrector, but in the spirit of the good Shepherd, who knoweth his sheep by name, and giveth heed to every sheep of every flock of his servants: words they are not expressive merely of the attribute of omniscience, but of the higher attribute, the moral attribute of watchfulness and carefulness over those chosen ones of his Father; as it is written John xvii. 12, "Those that thou gavest me I have kept; and none of them is lost." And again (John x. 27, 28), "My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me and I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand." Nevertheless, though these words be spoken in a loving and most charitable mood, they are not on that account the less, but the more powerful rebuke of our ignorance, our ignorance of our flocks, our indifference to their estate, our unfaithfulness to their conditions. Oh, no! these words, "I know thy works," do thrill through my heart with a power which no threatening nor rebuke could have. And, woe is me, what a fearful, dreadful note of future reckoning do

they bear unto the pastors of the churches. Not to cast any one into despair, nor to annihilate the energies of any, but to call every one to meditate his responsibility before Christ, as a steward in his house, to humble us under the sense of our short comings, and to move us unto repentance. and reformation of our lives. While these words sound in the ear of the indolent and careless feeders of the sheep, how do they comfort and sustain the faithful and oppressed ones, who in poverty and persecution, in reproach and contempt, are pursuing the shepherd's care! While to you, O ye idle shepherds, who seek your ease in rural retreats, or in populous cities pursue your pleasures, spending the produce of your flocks in vain and wicked pomp, or with lettered pride and elegance, entertaining your selfish minds, it speaks, while to you, O ye home-sick shepherds, who will not leave your comfortable quarters, and venture out in the dark and stormy nights to preserve your flocks from the drifting tempest, but please yourselves with the security and the quiet, and the worldly reputation for prudence which ye enjoy; these words, “I know your works,”do ring a knell like the summons of the judgment, and certainly to be followed by dreadful judgment, if ye rise not, O ye self-seeking sluggards, and gird yourselves, and take your scrip and your sheep-hook, and go forth to seek the sheep in the dark wintry night upon the mountains; these same words do breathe balm of consolation over the heart of every faithful servant who seeketh not his own but his Master's honour, who careth not for himself but for his Master's trust, who foregoeth his own ease, wealth and glory, that he may devote himself to the church of God, and give his all, yea, and his very life, for the sheep: such an one, for example, as Paul declareth himself to have been (Acts xx. 18, 19— 21, 26, 27, 31), "Ye know, from the first day that I came into Asia, after what manner I have been with you at all seasons, serving the Lord with all humility of mind, and with many tears and temptations, which befel me by the lying in wait of the Jews; and how I kept back nothing that was profitable unto you, but have shewed you, and have taught you publicly, and from house to house, testifying both to the Jews, and also to the Greeks, repentance toward God, and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ.......Wherefore I take you to record this day, that I am pure from the blood of

all men for I have not shunned to declare unto you all the counsel of God.......Therefore watch and remember, that by the space of three years I ceased not to warn every one night and day with tears." Such a one also as he exhorteth Timothy to be (1 Tim. vi. 11, 12, 20, 21), "But thou, O man of God, flee these things; and follow after righteousness, godliness, faith, love, patience, meekness. Fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life, whereunto thou art also called, and hast professed a good profession before many witnesses......O Timothy, keep that which is committed to thy trust, avoiding profane and vain babblings, and oppositions of science falsely so called; which some professing have erred concerning the faith. Grace be with thee. Amen."

"I know thy tribulation." Tribulation hath reference chiefly, or almost entirely, to outward persecution, of one sort or another, in the church, from false brethren, or schismatical spirits; out of the church from wicked and violent men of the world, from heretical and sectarian leaders, or from apostates from the faith. These Achans within the camp, these Korahs, these persons like Annanias, Simon Magus, Alexander the coppersmith, and others mentioned in the Scriptures, do us much evil, and occasion the faithful minister much trouble. But he must not be amazed as if God had forsaken him, or some strange thing befallen him. Not only to the minister is it said, but to every Christian," he that would live godly must suffer persecution;" and again," through much tribulation we must enter into the kingdom." But that ministers of the Gospel and pastors of the church have especially to expect these hardships, and are expected to bear them like good soldiers, yea, like hardy captains of the Lord Jesus Christ, is abundantly declared by the chief Shepherd, the great Captain of our salvation, when first he sent out into the world, our great progenitors, the twelve Apostles and the seventy disciples. As it is written at large in Matt. x. 16-24, and the other Gospels, from which let me quote the following passage, which gives us honourable preferment in this bloody strife :-"Behold I send you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves: be ye therefore wise as serpents, and harmless as doves. But beware of men, for they will deliver you up to the coun

cils, and they will scourge you in their synagogues. And ye shall be brought before governors and kings for my sake, for a testimony against them and the Gentiles. But when they deliver you up, take no thought how or what ye shall speak, for it shall be given you in that same hour what ye shall speak. For it is not ye that speak, but the Spirit of your Father which speaketh in you. And the brother shall deliver up the brother to death, and the father the child: and the children shall rise up against their parents, and cause them to be put to death. And ye shall be hated of all men for my name's sake: but he that endureth to the end shall be saved. But when they persecute you in this city, flee ye into another: for verily I say unto you, Ye shall not have gone over the cities of Israel till the Son of Man be come."-Upon the last words of this extract from our missionary instructions, I have a remark to make, both for the sake of my brethren in the ministry, and for the sake of the truth. These words, which have been so much abused of late to prop up the system of money-missions, signify simply that this commission was to endure even until the coming of the Son of Man, in his kingdom, which is not yet; and so takes the whole passage out of the destroying teeth of those falsely called missionary societies, their proper name is colonizing societies, which have done their endeavour to give this whole discourse a local and temporary application to that first missionary expedition which Christ set on foot, in the days of his flesh. Which dilapidation and destruction of the eternal word, these worse than Papists, for the Papists did but add to the word, and took not from it, do justify upon the ground of our Lord's saying, "Ye shall not have gone over the cities of Israel, till the Son of Man be come." This, with the reckless haste of unbelief (he that believeth doth not make haste), they interpret as necessarily confining the whole context to that first journey, which was restricted to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. But, without entering into the sophisms, the false principles of interpretation, and the most daring violations of the word of God, with which they prop up their poor inventions for converting the world, I will take the plea altogether out of their mouths, by referring them to the margin of our