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loins be girded about, and your lights burning, and be ye like unto those who wait for the Lord when he will return to the wedding. Then, when ye come to stand on the separating line between time and eternity, you can take up the language of St. Paul"I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith." And then, when mortal puts on immortality, ye shall be found in the number of those who are made kings and priests unto God, and who shall dwell with Christ and reign for ever with Christ in his heavenly kingdom. "Hold fast," now, in the time of your probation, “hold fast, that no one take thy crown."

SERMON XX.

GOD'S FIDELITY TO HIS PEOPLE,

ILLUSTRATED IN THE

HISTORY OF THE CHURCH AT PHILADELPHIA.

REVELATION iii. 7—13.

We have thus far, my brethren, been engaged in considering the deeply interesting particulars connected with the epistle to the Church in Philadelphia. We have seen the import of that emphatic description which is given of the Lord Jesus Christ as-"He that is holy, he that is true, he that hath the keys of David, he that openeth and no man shutteth, and shutteth and no man openeth." We have noticed the peculiar blessings bestowed upon this Church, and declared in the terms-"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." We have seen the nature of the commendation here bestowed, and we have noticed

the overthrow of those internal enemies, by whom the peace and tranquillity of this Church were disturbed-"Behold I will make them of the synagogue of Satan, which say they are Jews and are not, but do lie; behold I will make them to come and worship before thy feet, and to know that I have loved thee." And we have seen the prediction of speedy temporal calamities, yet graciously followed by the promise of security in the hour of temptation and of danger-" Because thou hast kept the word of my patience, I will also keep thee from the hour of temptation that shall come upon all the world to try them that dwell upon the earth. Behold I come quickly: hold fast that which thou hast, that no man take thy crown." Under all these varying heads, I have also in each discourse called your attention to those practical remarks which seemed to rise spontaneously from the subject; we now come to the glorious promise with which this epistle concludes "Him that overcometh will I make a pillar in the temple of my God, and he shall go no more out: and I will write upon him the name of my God, and the name of the city of my God, which is New Jerusalem, which cometh down out of heaven from my God; and I will write upon him my new name. It is remarkable that in the splendid imagery of this promise, there is no mixture of figures as in the promise attached to several of the other epistles. The subject is one, though, to be viewed under different aspects. In this one promise there are

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1. The conquering Christian shall be made a pillar in the temple of the living God.

2. From that temple he shall never go out.

3. On him, as a pillar of glory, shall be inscribed the name of God.

4. To this shall be added the name of the city of God; and to complete the climax,

5. To all shall be added, says the speaker, Jesus Christ, my new name.

1. The conquering Christian has the promise of being made a pillar in the temple of God. There is a difference of opinion among the commentators as to the allusion which is here particularly designed. It is by some supposed that it is to the circumstance recorded in the first book of Kings in relation to the building of the temple of Jerusalem. It appears that Hiram of Tyre, a widow's son of the tribe of Napthali, made two pillars for the court of the temple, and that they were made not so much for utility as for ornament. They were of brass most curiously and beautifully adorned, and when set up were named by Solomon, Jachin and Boaz, signifying stability and strength. This allusion, striking as it may be considered, does not, however, sufficiently well apply to all the parts of the promise to justify this appropriation, for on these pillars there was no inscription; for their names were merely given, not written on the pillars. The text evidently directs our attention to some custom which will serve as a more definite illustration; and a custom perfectly well adapted to explain all the circumstances of this promise will readily be found by those who are at all acquainted with the antiquities of Greece and Rome.

It was a custom among the Romans when they had achieved some brilliant victory over their ene

my, or gained some important conquest of territories, to erect columns in or near the temples of their false gods, and in honour of the individuals who had particularly distinguished themselves. On these pillars were written a variety of names-sometimes of the gods; sometimes of the conqueror; sometimes of the city in which the column was erected, or of the city which had been taken.

In the city of Rome, as it at present is, there is the Arch of Titus, standing by the side of the via sacra, at the very foot of Mons Palatinus. It was erected by the Senate, and consecrated to Titus, in honour of his conquest of Judea. At the junction of the via sacra and the via triumphalis, stands the arch of the first Christian emperor, Constantine. This arch was raised in honour of his victory over Maxentius, at the Melrian bridge. There are connected with the arch eight beautiful columns of yellow antique, with their various sculptured ornaments. On the left side of the forum stood the temple of Saturn, in front of which a golden column was erected by Augustus, on which the distances to the respective provinces of the Roman empire were marked. The scite of this temple of Saturn is now occupied by the Church of St. Adrian, and the golden column gone. Near this also was the temple of Remus; and in front of the Church of St. Lorenzo, are ten Corinthian columns, which once belonged to a temple erected to the memory of the emperor Antoninus Pius, and the empress Faustina. There is a slight trace of a custom somewhat similar to this to be found in the 2d book of Samuel, xviiith chapter and 18th verse. "Now Absalom in his life-time had taken and reared up for himself a pillar, which is in the king's

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