EDINBURGH: WILLIAM OLIPHANT & CO. BLACKBURN: C. TIPLADY, CHURCH STREET Philadelphia. 'In the loss of Ephesus, the Christians deplored the fall of the first Angel, the extinction of the first candlestick, of the Revelations; the desolation is complete; and the Temple of Diana, or the Church of Mary, will equally elude the search of the curious traveller. The circus and three stately theatres of Laodicea, are now peopled with wolves and foxes; Sardis is reduced to a miserable village; the God of Mahomet, without a rival or a son, is installed in the mosques of Thyatira and Pergamus; and the populousness of Smyrna is supported by the foreign trade of the Franks and Armenians. Philadelphia alone has been saved, by prophecy or courage. At a distance from the sea, forgotten by the emperors, encompassed on all sides by the Turks, her valiant citizens defended their religion and freedom above fourscore years, and at length capitulated with the proudest of the Ottomans. Among the Greek colonies and Churches of Asia, Philadelphia is still erect-A COLUMN IN A SCENE OF RUINS a pleasing example that the paths of honour and safety may sometimes be the same.'-GIBBON: Decline and Fall, clxiv. TO THE Session and Congregation OF ST. GEORGE'S UNITED PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH, BLACKBURN, THIS 'OPENING' SERMON IS AFFECTIONATELY INSCRIBED BY THEIR PASTOR, ALEX. B. GROSART. NOTE. I HAD hoped to have prefixed to my own Sermon one by the REV. WILLIAM M'KERROW, D.D., of Manchester, and another (one of two) by PROFESSOR EADIE, of Glasgow: the former preached on THURSDAY, 18th June, on opening" our new Church, the other, on the evening of the succeeding Sunday (21st June); but circumstances have prevented either being furnished. I regret it, and can only hope that the thoughts that breathe in words that burn,' spoken to us by our good and eloquent friends, will not soon be forgotten. Each emphatically preached' Jesus Christ and Him crucified, and our souls were stirred within us. We must ever cherish gratefully the service rendered. In writing out my own Sermon for the Press as a wishedfor Memorial of the taking possession of St. George's, I have in some places enlarged on what was spoken, and thereby, I hope, rendered the little volume a less inadequate exposition of a peculiarly wealthy part of the Divine Word. The explanation and application of the Epistle is based on careful study of the Original, and in other circumstances I might have been tempted to discuss certain critical matters of exegesis more fully. As it is, I venture to believe that my view of the Epistle, as a whole, and in its several portions, will be found in accord with the Original, albeit I have found myself constrained to differ from even such men as Archbishop TRENCH, and the DEAN and a CANON of CANTERBURY. These Epistles have very far from yielded up their matterful' thoughts. Some day The Master will give it to His own appointed one to concentrate the now scattered rays of light that play over them, into a steady belt of seven-fold stars, so that the Patmos Vision may again be seen. Ours is but a lowly contribution toward this. May it be received as a 'mite' cast into the great Treasury. The few notes at bottom of some pages, and at the close, indicate side-thoughts that could not be pursued, without, in the first instance, unduly extending the delivery of the Sermon, and now, equally unduly extending the bulk of the volume. It may be worth while to some to turn to these appended notes. 15 St. Alban's Place, Blackburn, Lancashire. A. B. G. * Dr. M'Kerrow's Sermon, since received, is added hereto. See Prefatory Note' to it. THE KEY-BEARER AND THE OPENED DOOR. '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, 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. 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. Because thou hast kept the word of My patience, I also will keep thee from the hour of temptation, which shall come upon all the world, to try them that dwell upon the earth. Behold, I come quickly: hold that fast which thou hast, that no man take thy crown. 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. He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the Churches.'-REV. iii. 7-13. THE EPISTLES to the Seven Churches of Asia, in relation to the Apocalypse regarded as a whole, and until the events of the latter-day glory illumine its mysterious |