41 LECTURE II. REVELATION ii. 5. REMEMBER THEREFORE FROM WHENCE THOU ART FALLEN, AND REPENT, AND DO THE FIRST WORKS; OR ELSE I WILL COME UNTO THEE QUICKLY, AND WILL REMOVE THY CANDLE THOU STICK OUT OF HIS PLACE, EXCEPT REPENT. IN pursuance of the intention ex pressed in the last lecture, we are now to commence our observations upon the first of the seven epistles to the churches of Proconsular Asia. May that blessed Spirit, who in these portions of Holy Writ once spake unto the churches, be, upon each occasion of our considering them, poured out upon us, and may He who "hath the residue of the Spirit," direct these imperfect efforts to the furtherance of the work of divine grace in our hearts, and to the permanent extension of His own kingdom and glory. The first epistle is inscribed to the angel or bishop of the church of Ephesus, which we imagine to have been first selected by our Lord, because, from the peculiar circumstances of that church, it formed the best epitome of the state of the whole Christian Church, at the particular period alluded to in this epistle. It was indeed a picture of "the things which are, in reference to the command given by Christ to the apostle, in the preceding chapter, when he said, "Write the things which thou hast seen, and the things which are, and the things which shall be hereafter."" We consider, then, this epistle as n Revelation i. 19. ,, marking primarily, the condition of the Church of Ephesus at the time when it was written; and secondarily, the characteristics of the Church of Christ in the apostolical age, when it still retained much of sincere and heartfelt love of the truth as it is in Jesus, and a zealous opposition to false teachers, such as Ebion and Cerinthus, and their doctrines, with which, as our Lord foretold, "they should deceive many; when the desire of labouring and suffering for Christ still possessed the hearts of a large proportion of its members; and yet, when in comparison of what it had been, during the first trying, but blessed years of that church's history, rapid indeed had been the decline, and wide the separation from the first strong feelings of love, that burned in the hearts of the early converts, when they "were together, and had all things common," and "did eat their meat with gladness and single ness of heart, praising God and having favor with all the people." These are the words of the epistle: "I know thy works, and thy labour, and thy patience, and how thou canst not bear them which are evil; and thou hast tried them which say they are apostles and are not, and hast found them liars: and hast borne and hast patience, and for my name's sake hast laboured, and hast not fainted. Nevertheless I have somewhat against thee, because thou hast left thy first love." Such, then, was the character of the Church of Ephesus, and such was also a general portraiture of the Church of the Redeemer in the age when the epistle was dictated by our Lord. If any are incredulous, that at this early period the great Head of the Church, while he saw so much to commend, should also see so much to o Acts ii. 46, 47. p Revelation ii. 2-4. blame in the conduct of his children; we have only to refer them to the epistles of St. Paul, and they will find that far stronger expressions are there employed, in speaking of the conduct of many to whom they are addressed, than are made use of here; and that the happy period, when Christians loved as the brethren of a single family, and lived around common table, must indeed have been most lamentably brief; since scarcely an epistle can be named, in which contributions for their poorer members, are not urged upon the churches, as if entreaty was necessary to its fulfilment, and in which the reputed divisions among them are not spoken of, as if too probable to be doubted. But there is so much of personal application in this epistle, that we shall not dwell upon the prophetical or typical view of it, but proceed at once to those important practical lessons with which it is replete. "I |