thus described: "I know thy works, and works. These, thus warned while on earth charity, and service, and faith, and thy in vain, have long since passed, where all patience, and thy works; and the last to are daily hastening, to the place where no be more than the first." (Ch. ii 19.) But repentance can be found and no work be against those, for such there were among done. But unto the rest in Thyatira (as them, who had committed fornication and many as have not known the depths of eaten things sacrificed unto idols, to whom Satan) I will put upon you, saith the Lord, the Lord gave space to repent of their forni- none other burden." (Ver. 24.) There cation, and they repented not, great tribula- were those in Thyatira who could save a tion was denounced; and to every one of city. It still exists, while greater cities them was to be given according to their have fallen. Mr. Hartley, who visited it în 1826, describes it as "embosomed in | and founded though the church had been by cypresses and poplars. The Greeks are an apostle, there were only a few names said to occupy three hundred houses, and which had not defiled their garments. And the Armenians thirty. Each of them has a to that church the Spirit said, "I know thy church.' works, that thou hast a name that thou The CHURCH OF SARDIS differed from livest, and art dead." But the Lord is those of Pergamos and Thyatira. They long-suffering, not willing that any should had not denied the faith, but the Lord had a few things against them, for there were some evil doers among them, and on those, if they repented not, judgment was to rest But in Sardis, great though the city was, perish, but that all should come to repentance. And the church of Sardis was thus warned : Be watchful and strengthen the things which remain, that are ready to die; for I have not found thy works perfect before God. Remember, therefore, how thou hast received and heard, and hold fast and repent. If therefore thou shalt not watch, I will come on thee as a thief, and thou shalt not know what hour I will come upon thee." (Ch. iii. 2, 3.) Sardis, whose ruins now bear the modified name of Sart, is situated about sixty miles north-north-west from Ephesus, at the foot of Mount Timolus, and on the River Pactolus, so renowned for its fabled golden sands. This great and ancient city was the capital of the kingdom of Lydia, whose monarch, Croesus, when defeated in the plain before this city of Cyrus, was master of all the nations within the River Halys. This dominion then passed to the Persians, and Sardis became the residence of the satrap to whom the government was committed; and being at this time one of the most splendid and opulent cities of the East, was the chosen resort of the Persian kings when in this part of their empire. It surrendered quietly to Alexander, after he had defeated the SARDIS. Persians in the battle of the Granicus. | made it an utter desolation, reducing it to Sardis continued a great city under the Ro- little better than a heap of ruins, in which, mans, until the terrible earthquake which nevertheless, some remains of its ancient happened in the time of Tiberius. It was, splendor may be detected. however, rebuilt by order of that emperor: but subsequent calamities of the same description, with the ravages and spoliations of the Goths, Saracens, and Turks, have * Allah-Shehr, the ancient Philadelphia, was founded two hundred years B.C., by Attalus Philadelphus, a walled city of Asia Minor, at the N.E. base of Mount Timolus, eighty-three miles E. of And to the angel of the CHURCH IN PHILADELPHIA write,* These things saith He that is holy. He that is true, He that hath the key of David, He that openeth Smyrna. Population estimated 15.000. It is a Greek archbishop's see, has numerous remains of antiquity, five Christian churches, and an active trade. Lippincott's Gaz. A. B alone long withstood the power of the Turks, and in the words of Gibbon, "at length capitulated with the proudest of the Ottomans. Among the Greek colonies and churches of Asia," he adds, “Philadelphia is still erect: a column in a scene of ruins." and no man shutteth, and shutteth and no man openeth :- I know thy works: behold, I have set before thee an open door, and no man can shut it; for thou hast a little strength, and hast kept my word, and hast not denied my name. Because thou hast kept the word of my patience, I also will (Ch. 64.) "It is indeed an interesting keep thee from the hour of temptation, circumstance," says Mr. Hartley, "to find which shall come upon all the world." (Ch. Christianity more flourishing here than in iii. 9, 10.) The promises of the Lord are many other parts of the Turkish empire: as sure as his threatenings. Philadelphia there is still a numerous Christian popula PHILADELPHIA. tion; they occupy 300 houses. Divine may well be added, as stated by Mr. Hartservice is performed every Sunday in five ley, The circumstance that Philadelphia churches." Nor is it less interesting in is now called Allah-Shehr, the city of God, these eventful times, and notwithstanding when viewed in connection with the promises the general degeneracy of the Greek church, made to that church, and especially with to learn that the present bishop of Phila- that of writing the name of the city of God delphia accounts " "the Bible the only foun- upon its faithful members, is, to say the dation of all religious belief;" and that he least, a singular concurrence." From admits that "abuses have entered into the the prevailing iniquities of men many a church, which former ages might endure, sign has been given how terrible are the but the present must put them down." It judgments of God. But from the fidelity our a column of the church in Philadelphia of old in else fell around it, "stood erect, keeping his word, a name and memorial of enemies themselves being judges, his faithfulness has been left on earth, while in a scene of ruins." the higher glories promised to those that And unto the angel of the CHURCHI of overcame, shall be ratified in heaven; and the LAODICEANS write, These things saith toward them, but not them only, shall the the Amen, the faithful and true Witness, the glorified Redeemer confirm the truth of his beginning of the creation of God; I know blessed words, "Him that overcometh will thy works, that thou art neither cold nor I make a pillar in the temple of my God;" hot: I would thou wert cold or hot. So even as assuredly as Philadelphia, when all then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spew thee out of my see. (Rev. iii. 14, &c.) All the other mouth. Because thou sayest, I am rich churches were found worthy of some comand increased with goods, and have need mendation, and there was some blessing in of nothing; and knowest not that thou art them all. The church of Ephesus had wretched, and miserable, and poor, and labored and not fainted, though she had blind, and naked: I counsel thee to buy forsaken her first love; and the threatened of me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest punishment, except she repented, was the be rich; and white raiment, that thou removal of her candlestick out of its place. mayest be clothed, and that the shame of A faithless and wicked few polluted the thy nakedness do not appear; and anoint churches of Pergamos and Thyatira by their thine eyes with eye-salve, that thou mayest doctrines or by their lives; but the body was sound, and the churches had a portion with their character, though not with their in Christ. Even in Sardis, though it was dead, there was life in a few who had not defiled their garments; "and they shall walk with me in white, said the Lord, for they are worthy." man But in what the Spirit said to the church in Laodicea, there was not one word of approval; it was lukewarm without exception, and therefore it was wholly loathed. The religion of Jesus had become to them as an ordinary matter. They would attend to it just as they did to other things which they loved as well. The sacrifice of the Son of God upon the cross was nothing thought of more than a common gift by They were not constrained by the love of Christ more than by other feelings. They could repeat the words of the first great commandment of the law, and of the second, that is like unto it; but they showed no sign that the one or the other was truly a law to them. There was no Dorcas anong them, who, out of pure Christian love, made clothes for the poor. There was no Philemon, to whom it could be said, "The church in the house," and who could look on a servant as a brother beloved." There was no servant who looked to the eye of his Father in heaven more than to that of his master on earth, and to the recompense of eternal reward more than to the hireling wages of a day; and who, by showing all good fidelity, sought to adorn the doctrine of God his Saviour in all things. There was nothing done, as every thing should be, heartily, as to the Lord, and not unto men. The power of the world to come, and of that which now is, hung, as it were, even balanced in their minds; each had its separate influence and weight, even to a scruple; and they were kept distinct, as if there should never be any interference between them, or as if they were to hang in separate scales. " profession, they disregarded the words of one who was wiser than Solomon, and who had laid down his life for their sakes: they did not strive to enter in at the strait gate; to be perfect was no purpose of theirs; there was no fight in their faith, no running in their race, no wrestling in their warfare, no victory in their work. Yet they could show a goodly form or framework of religion, on which they had raised many a high hope. But They trusted to redemption through Christ, while they were not redeemed from sin, nor actuated by the love of God. They used the means of grace, but neglected the end for which that grace had appeared. They were rich, they thought, and increased with goods, and had need of nothing they wanted zeal; and all they had was nothing worth. Whatever they vainly imagined themselves to be, the Spirit knew them truly, and told them what they were, even wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked. They had done no evil, they thought, but they did little good. And they neither felt nor lived as if they knew that whatsoever is not of faith is sin. Their lukewarmness was worse, for it rendered their state more hopeless than if they had been cold. For sooner would a man in Sardis have felt that the chill of death was upon him, and have cried out for life, and called to the physician, than would a man of Laodicea, who could calmly count his even pulse, and think his life secure, while death was preying on his vitals. The character of lukewarm Christians, a self-contradicting name, is the same in every age. Such was the church of the Laodiceans. But what is that city now, or how is it changed from what it was? Laodicea was the metropolis of the Greater Phrygia; and, as heathen writers attest, it was an extensive and very celebrated city. Instead of then verging to its decline, it arose to its greatest eminence only about the beginning of the Christian era. It was the mother-church of sixteen This was given unto the world, and that unto God, as if these Christian men had been full of the faith, that the revealed will of the Most High had no title to a supreme bishoprics." Its three theatres, and the ascendency over them, that all the deeds immense circus, which was capable of condone in the body would never be brought taining upward of thirty thousand spectators, into judgment, and that lukewarmness was the spacious remains of which (with other requital enough for redeeming love. Their ruins buried under ruins) are yet to be only dread seemed to be lest they should seen, give proof of the greatness of its be righteous overmuch. And for fear of ancient wealth and population, and indicate that. which would have been inconsistent too strongly, that in that city where Chris |