the Lord; for very great are His mercies: but let me not fall into the hand of man." "Because thou sufferest."-To put up willingly with abominable sin in our midst, even while holding aloof from any such malpractice, is so far to cast in our lot with sinners. To endure it unwillingly is what Christ Himself chose as a mortal Man to do, and is what He is pleased to exact from all successive generations of His disciples. Evil knowledge need not harm us whilst involuntary; but to court it without justifying cause is to court death, as Eve courted death by bye-path of knowledge. "Unto the pure all things are pure: but unto them that are defiled and unbelieving is nothing pure; but even their mind and conscience is defiled." It becomes a matter of conscience what poems and novels to read, and how much of the current news of the day. A second point also Pergamos and Thyatira have in common: false teachers. Yet I observe some difference between the quality of these; Balaam representing the pest of Pergamos, Jezebel that of Thyatira. Jezebel (see her history in the First and Second Book of Kings), if we may take Jehu's word for her character, was an abandoned woman and a witch, besides being, as the Inspired Record shows, a nursing mother of idolatry. But whatever witch she may have been, there appears about her no trace of the genuine prophetess; any more than we infer that there was about that Thyatiran Jezebel, of whom it is expressly mentioned that she "calleth herself" a prophetess. Queen Jezebel therefore may have rivalled or surpassed Balaam in guilt, but seems not to have been his equal in gifts. Whence a double consideration arises, if from these particular instances I am justified in generalizing. As Balaam in comparison with Jezebel, so men in comparison with women may usually be expected to exhibit keener, tougher, more workworthy gifts. Therefore if Jezebel the woman, going about to establish her equality with Balaam the man, poses as prophetess to his prophet, nothing is more likely than that she will have to eke out and puff up her pretensions by a whiff of imposture, conscious or unconscious imposture. [History repeats itself.] 21. And I gave her space to repent of her fornication; and she repented not. Empty space, neutral space, is impossible; it must be occupied by accumulating guilt or by repentance unto progressive amendment. Space is mine to-day by God's gift. Grant unto us all, I beseech Thee, O Lord, space to repent, and repentance while it is called to-day, repentance not to be repented of, repentance unto salvation. For Jesu's sake. Amen. 22. Behold, I will cast her into a bed, and them that commit adultery with her into great tribulation, except they repent of their deeds. Any to whom space for repentance is still accorded, are still they whom God desireth to bring less into than out of great tribulation. "Turn Thou us, O good Lord, and so shall we be turned. Thou sparest when we deserve punishment, and in Thy wrath. thinkest upon mercy." O Lord, seek us, O Lord, find us In Thy patient care; Be Thy Love before, behind us, Lest the god of this world blind us, Lest he speak us fair, Lest he forge a chain to bind us, Lest he bait a snare. Turn not from us, call to mind us, Be Thy Love before, behind us, 23. And I will kill her children with death; and all the churches shall know that I am He which searcheth the reins and hearts: and I will give unto every one of you according to your works. "And I will kill her children with death."-Doubtless "children that are corrupters," for by his prophet Ezekiel Almighty God protested aforetime: "The soul that sinneth, it shall die. The son shall not bear the iniquity of the father, neither shall the father bear the iniquity of the son: the righteousness of the righteous shall be upon him, and the wickedness of the wicked shall be upon him." Yet as we read in Wisdom of "parents that killed with their own hands, souls destitute of help," so did this Jezebel make herself a murderess whether the children here denounced were hers according to the flesh, or hers only by an execrable discipleship. "Let us also fear." All influence, my own influence, tends and cannot but tend either to preserve or to destroy. "I the Lord thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth ww generation of them that hate Me."-"The wages of sin is death." O my God, if for our own souls' sake we forbear not, yet grant us grace for the sake of those we love to cease from sin, lest we bring upon them a curse and not a blessing. At the least and lowest for their sakes, until by the same grace we attain to do all for the sake of Jesus Christ, Whose all-availing sake I now plead with Thee. "And all the Churches shall know that I am He which searcheth the reins and hearts."-" When Thy judgments are in the earth, the inhabitants of the world will learn righteousness." Even the whole Church Militant herself is an inhabitant of the world, as our Blessed Lord in His unfathomable love for souls provided: "I pray not that Thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that Thou shouldest keep them from the evil." "I am He which searcheth the reins and hearts."—An awful promise even to the righteous; an awful threat to the impenitent wicked. First Christ searcheth all the earth to find and reclaim souls. Next He searcheth each individual soul to prove and see what manner of soul it is. He sifts, as it were, our dust to detect the least germ of latent life. He examines the will, which is our strength (reins); the affections, which engross our heart. The will to love Him He accepts and quickens into love the faintest emotion of love towards Him He acknowledges and is ready to confirm and develop. He craves for our sake that we should love Him, but also He craves it for His own. He is not too lofty to ask our love, to seek for it, to desire it. He searches while there is hope: like the husbandman "who hath long patience" He waits. But what if He whose hands most of all are mighty find nothing? O Lord, what canst Thou find, except Thou first furnish it? All is of Thy bounty, and but for Thine own gifts we can have no gift for Thee. I beseech Thee give us each some good gift, and receive it back as our gift to Thee. "And I will give unto every one of you according to your works.". I tremble at this word: but what word then would reassure me? This is the Voice of the Just Judge; would I desire rather to hear the voice of an unjust judge? If justice be my destruction, could injustice be my salvation? Nay. How should injustice deliver me, if I be such as justice cannot deliver? From what do I need deliverance: from punishment? Yes, and from very much besides punishment. If I were saved from the punishment outside me, how save me from the punishment within; from the fire, but how from the worm? Rescued from all else, how rescue me from myself? O Jesus, All Holy, All Just, All Merciful, deliver us from our perverse selves, and no other enemy can ruin us. For Thine own sake. Amen. Again. What other standard would I crave than this of work? for work is voluntary, within my own option to do or leave undone. Otherwise St. Paul could not thus write to his beloved Roman converts concerning the powers that be: "Rulers are not a terror to good works, but to the evil. Wilt thou then not be afraid of the power? do that which is good, and thou shalt have praise of the same: for he is the minister of God to thee for good." What I do, I will to do leave undone. Who then is I? It is I. : what I leave undone, I will to it that betrayeth me: Lord, is it Lord, carry me.-Nay, but I grant thee strength 24. But unto you I say, and unto the rest in Thyatira, as many as have not this doctrine, and which have not known the depths of Satan, as they speak; I will put upon you none other burden. A variation appears in the Revised Version :-" But to you I say, to the rest that are in Thyatira."-The retrenchment of the word "and" (if correct) seems to convey the sense more clearly, by making the second clause of the sentence define the first instead of adding to it. Blessed simplicity, not to hold false doctrine. Blessed inexperience, which knows not depths of Satan. From corrupt doctrine, foul knowledge, abominable experience, good Lord, keep us; good Lord, deliver us. Keep rather than deliver, for deliverance brings not back innocence. Yet at the worst deliver us, that we may be Thy penitents, miracles of Thy pity. Amen. "Depths of Satan."-Why dive into such depths, when deeper depths open before us? "O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! how unsearchable are His judgments, and His ways past finding out! . . . For of Him, and through Him, and to Him are all things: to Whom be glory for ever. Amen." We, no less than St. Paul's Ephesian converts, if "rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height; and to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge." "As they speak."-"Let the wicked be ashamed, and let them be silent in the grave. Let the lying lips be put to silence." "I will put upon you none other burden."-None other than the burden Christ Himself has laid upon us, and which He elsewhere assures us is light. A great writer has told us that Love carries a burden which is no burden. "Why art thou so full of heaviness, O my soul? . . . Why go I thus heavily, while the enemy oppresseth me? . . . Why art thou so heavy, O my soul: and why art thou so disquieted within me? O put thy trust in God." Christ's burden weighs heavily, not because of the burden's weight, but of the bearer's weakness. Blessed is he who embracing bears it. Not upon such a one laden with blessing, but upon another, his opposite, is woe pronounced: "Woe to him that increaseth that which is not his! how long? and to him that ladeth himself with thick clay!" "For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?" Lord Jesus, I pray Thee bestow upon us that grace of strength whereby Thou didst uplift and comfort Daniel Thy saint: "O my Lord . . . my sorrows are turned upon me, and I have retained no strength. . . O man greatly beloved, fear not: peace be unto thee: be strong, yea, be strong." 25. But that which ye have already hold fast till I come. Truly here are the patience, obedience, faith, of the |