The Pulpit Commentary — Revelation — Section 78

them carrying on and extending the work of God around them ; and now .they are disappointed and made ashamed. The enemies of God blaspheme, and those who have gone back are the cause. 4• .And they f/uimselves suffer most of all. (1) They are miserable ; they have enough of religion left to give them disrelish for the ways of the world, but not near enough to give them the joy which belongs only to those who are whole-hearted in the service of God. (2) And they are on the verge of great and awful ju.dgment. If they still go back, it will be "unto perdition;" and if, in God's meroy, they be made to stop ere they have gone to that last length, it will most likely have. to be by some sharp scourging process, with many tears, and amid terrible trouble both without and within. What a pitiful journey that must have been when the wretched prodigal resolved at length that he would "arise, and go to bis Father" I In what humiliation, fear, shame, distress, he had to urge his weary way along the return road! Only one thing could have been worse--that he should not have oome back. Oh, you who are forsaking Christ, if you be really his, you will have to oome back; but no joyous journey will that be for you. No, indeed I It never has been, and never ca,n be. Still blessed be the Lord, who forces you to make it,difficult and hard though it be. It is the hand which was •nailed to the cross, and the heart which there was pierced for yon, that now wields the ·scourge which compels you, in sorrow and in shame, to oome back to him whom you left. But- IV. WHAT FOLLY IT IS TO LEAVB BIH AT ALL. Ministers of Christ are 80 fond, as well they may he, of proclaiming God's pardoning love, that they too much pass over his preserving love. We take it too much for granted that men will go off into " the far oountry,"·'as that foolish younger son did; and we forget that much-maligned elder son who stayed at home with his father, and who was therefore far more blessed than the other could ever be. He could not understand his father's gentleness to that ne'er-do-well brother of his-as many still, and ever since the gospel has been preached, have failed to undentand God's gentleness to returning sinners; and so he complained. But how did his father answer him? It is too little noted. "Son, thou art ever with me, and all that I have is thine;" the meaning of all which was, " What, my son I you complain at my forgiving and welcoming your poor wretched brother! you who are so much "betw off, yoi, complain!" Yes, he was better off; his lot, as is the lot of all those who never leave their first love, is far the preferable one, and there is no need that we should choose the other. Never let it be forgotten that he who brought you to himself will keep you near to and in himself, as willingly as, surely more willingly than, he will receive you after you have gone astray. To be pardoned, ah I well may we thank God for that; but to have been preserved, to have been "kept from the evil 80 that it should not hurt us," to have been" kept in the love of God,"-for that more thanksgiving still is due; and may God grant that we may be able for ever and ever in his blessed presence to render it unto him.-S. C. Vera. S-11.-The epistle to the Church at Smyrna. This city was situated in the same district of Asia Minor, some forty miles to the north of Eph811uB, in which all these seven Churches were, at the mouth of a considerable river, in a most beautiful bay. The lands lying round were very fertile, bearing grapes in abundance, as befitted the city where the god Bacchus was the deity most honoured by the people. The city itself was large, beautiful, populous, wealthy. It was called, "The lovely one;" "The crown of lonia;" " The ornament of Asia." It still exists and retains much of its old prosperity. Many Jews were there then as now and as is ever the case in busy trading seaports, and they would easily supply that contingent of Jewish persecutors by which the Church~there was afflicted. We will speak- L OF THE SAINTLINESS OF THE CHURCH AT SMYRNA. This is attested in this letter. 1. Negawuely. No blame is given; there is not one wurd of censure, as there certainly would have been had there been ocoasion for it. He who could say with the authority of omniscience, "I know," and whose eyes were as " a flame of fire," would have at once ~ e d . fault if fault there had been. No; this Church seems to have come nearest of all to t;hat ide&l Church which is" without blemish, having neither spot, nor wrinkle, nor any such thing." But this is attested also: 2. Positively. Direct affirmation of their high and holy character is given by the Lord's declaration, "Thou art rich" (ver, 9),. Yes; rillh in the favour and love of God; 1ich in the gifts of the Holy Ghost; rioh 84 THE REVELATION OF ST. JOHN THE DIVINE. [cH. n.1-29.