Tj If it turns out that the world is the Church, and the Church is the world, why, the Sinners must just forgive the Saints and the Saints must learn to stand being forgiven.^
5. There is a note of wistful urgency in the epistle to the Church of Sardis to remember the past, to keep hold on what remains, and to repent. And there is also an implicit promise ; for Christ would never call on men to do either what is impossible or what has not a promise attached to its performance. It is not on
^ Mary E. Coleridge. REV.— 9
130 A DEAD AND ALIVE CHURCH
the note of promise, however, but on that of warning, that part of the letter closes. Evidently the thread of hope is slender, and the Church of Sardis is warned that if it does not hearken to this counsel, if it does not exchange its attitude of listless security for one of wakeful watchfulness, its fate will be like that of the city of Sardis. The enemy crept in upon the careless city "like a thief in the night " ; and as a thief in the night will Christ return against the careless Church, unlooked for, undesired, not for mercy, but for judgment.
If It should not be difficult to realize the effect of the reading I of this letter in the hearing of the congregation in Sardis, on some / Sunday evening in the second half of the first century. It would strike all as a picture, terrible in its accuracy, of the condition of that Church as seen by God. Surely it would stir the corporate / conscience of that Church to a sense of its imminent danger, due to its want of spiritual life, of true brotherly love, of devotion to Christ its Head. It would call out in many, if not in all, the resolve to watch, to watch so as to repel the insidious approaches and attacks of the worldly spirit ; to be more faithful in the dis- charge of the humblest duties imposed upon them by their Master's will. To some it would give a new sense of responsibility, involved in the very fact that the atmosphere around them was cold, hostile. They would feel uplifted by the thought that the honour of their Lord, as well as the safety of their Church, was specially entrusted to their care. It would send them forth into the night, determined to be even more loyal, more faithful, more set on overcoming the world, because they felt that the eye of their Master was upon them, that He was not indifferent to any work they might do, or patience they might show, and that each day's victory over the world and self was the pledge of a final victory, of which only eternity would reveal the
joy'
^ The Rev. Eobert Macdonald, then of Blairgowrie, afterwards of North Leith, says in his recollections of McCheyne, " I remember, on one of the earliest visits I paid to London, I was going up to Mr. Nisbet's shop, as he and another gentleman were coming out. Mr. Nisbet said to the other, ' This is a friend of Mr. McCheyne's.' The gentleman at once took hold of me, and said, ' Did you know that remarkable man ? ' * Yes,' I said, * he was an intimate friend of mine.* * What do you think,' he went on, * was the secret of that man's holiness ? ' and, without waiting, he answered his own question : ' Don't you think it was watchfulness ? ' I think he was ^ C. A. Scott, T?ie Book of the Revelation, 124.
REVELATION iii. i 131
right, the more I consider it. Often he was with me at the manse at Blairgowrie, and he always left a benediction behind him. He was always on his guard. My old Adam would have been almost glad to see a slip, I forgot so many things myself. This was his characteristic, If a man purge himself . . . he shall be a vessel unto honour" ^
^ A. Smellie, Robert Murray McCheyiMf 224.
The Watting Guest.
133
Literature.
Aitken (W. H. M. H.), Mission Sermons, iii. 68. Arnot (W.), The Anchor of the Soul, 275. Bain (J. A. K.), For Heart and Life, 41. Bonar (H.), Light and Truth : The Revelation, 152. Champness (T.), Plain Preaching for Plain People, 159. Clark (H. W.), Meanings and Methods of the Spiritual Life, 94. Dix (M.), Christ at the Door of the Heart, 1. "^Dykes (J. 0.), Plain Words on Great Themes, 101. Elmslie (W. G.), Memoir and Sermons, 81. Gregg (J.), Sermons Preached in Trinity Church, Dublin, ii. 106. HutcMson (G.), Sermons, 222.
Hyde (T. D.), Sermon Pictures for Busy Preachers, ii. 320. Ingram (A. F. W.), The Gospel in Action, 37. Kelly (W.), Sermons, 75.
McFadyen (J. E.), Thoughts for Silent Hours, 201. Maclaren (A.), Expositions : Epistles of John to Revelation, 302. Maclean (J. K.), Dr. Pierson and his Message, 193. Matheson (G.), Moments on the Mount, 144. Monod (H.), in Foreign Protestant Pulpit, ii. 446. Moore (E. W.), The Christ-Controlled Life, 174. Mursell (W. A.), Sermons on Special Occasions, 253. Peabody (F. G.), Mornings in the College Chapel, i. 107. Ryle (J. C.), The Christian Race, 281. Speirs (E. B.), A Present Advent, 113. '"Trench (R. C), Brief Thoughts and Expositions, 91.