from the scene of their depredations

and disgrace.

Again, in the epistle before us, there is a word for you, brethren-and in what assemblage like the present was it ever seen, that none such were included-for you who are sufferers, whether from sickness, or sorrow, or sin, and patient sufferers for the Lord's sake; He says to each of you, "I know how thou hast borne, i. e. suffered, and hast patience, and for my name's sake, hast laboured and not fainted." Your Lord has known many a secret trial, many an hour of sorrow and affliction through which you have passed, and which the world has never known. Your Lord has seen your domestic difficulties, your personal troubles, your moments of secret anguish, perhaps unrevealed even to your dearest friend; for there are sorrows which ought not and cannot be

r Revelation ii. 3.

communicated, but to God alone; and yet you have not fainted, but persevered, and for His name's sake hast

patience. Of all these, He says, in the language of commendation, “I know" them; I know your every prayer for guidance, your every effort effort to bear patiently and contentedly what I have laid upon you, and to profit by the visitation; to hear the rod, and Him who appointed it; your every endeavour against evil tempers and evil habits;—all these things, which man can never know, are known and valued by me. How delightful is the reflection to the child of God, that we have to do with one who judges, not as sinners judge, and who feels, not as even the kindest and the holiest friend on earth can feel towards our patient endurance, our shortenings, or our slow advancings, but who looks even at the most feeble of his children as children still; and while those

around, may blame us that we have

borne our trials no better, advanced no farther and no

and have

faster on

the heavenward road, He, that merciful Redeemer, commends us that we are still upon the road, and "have not fainted."

The great office of the Christian minister and the most blessed and delightful portion of our duty do we esteem it is to fulfil the command of our God to His prophet of old, "Comfort ye, comfort ye, my people, saith your God; speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem, and cry unto her, that her war fare is accomplished, that her iniquity is pardoned." But while our Lord Himself, in the epistle before us, has given us, as we have just seen, a model for the method in which we should thus speak comfortably to those who need consolation, He gives us also in the verse which follows, an example of the

s Isaiah xl. 1, 2.

manner in which he blended, and in which we also are bound to blend, the plainest warnings and the most heartsearching reproofs, even with the fullest displays of God's tenderness and love, and the most abundant consolation. "Nevertheless," says the Great Head of the Church, "I have somewhat against thee, because thou hast left thy first love."

t

If, then, even in this apostolical churchstate, the Lord had a quarrel against His people, if He had "somewhat against" them, has He nothing against us? Nay, let us speak plainly; and suffer ye the word of reproof as well as of encouragement and consolation; for, as the apostle said, "If I yet pleased man I should not be the servant of Christ.'

We ask you, then, has He whom you serve, no charge to prefer against any of you, who, nevertheless, may really be among His people, of a simi

t Revelation ii. 4.

u Galatians i. 10.

lar nature to this before us, that you also have left your first love? Remember for a moment, if you have been really turned to God, how much these subjects once engrossed your thoughts, how entirely they occupied your heart, when first, by God's sovereign grace, they obtained admittance. Where, then, is now that strong and influential feeling of love to the Redeemer, with which, when first you were led to appreciate your own necessities and His infinite mercy, your heart was filled? Then every thing yielded to this feeling; it was the first, the all pervading, almost the only feeling which filled your

heart and directed your every action. What anxiety was there, then, for obtaining spiritual good for yourselves, or for imparting it to others? You would rather have risked the world's laugh, or the world's reproof, than have remained silent, when the cause of your God required you to speak. What plea