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THE BIBLICAL ILLUSTRATOR REV 3CHAPTER III.Vers. 1-6. Sardis. — Sardis — The fickle Church: — ^Among all the messages totheChurches there is no other which is appalling like this to the Church of Sardis.The condemnation and the denunciation are emphatic ; the details, however,are obscure, and as we meditate on what is said, it strikes us that this obscurityis due to intentional reserve. This appears, first, in the title given to Christ:" These things saith He that hath the seven Spirits of God, and the seven stars."Here we are bidden think, not of the historic Christ, but of the inhabitor of eternity. It is as if, instead of coming forth to reveal Himself, Christ werewithdrawing into the recesses of Deity; He seems to be receding from ourapproaches, not. advancing to kindle His people's adoration and reward their love.The same reserve appears in the description of the Church's sinfulness : ?' Iknow thy works, that thou hast a name," &c. That is all, but it is such anall as produces an impression of utter condemnation. The call to repentance,too, lacks something which we are accustomed to find in God's appeals to Hispeople : " Become watchful, and stablish the things," &c. There is no hint thatwhat has perished may be restored. More than once I have seen a tree ladenwith fruit, its broad green leaves betokening vigorous life, while a formlesslump in the stock revealed that once the tree was so cankered that it was notexpected to recover ; and I have read a parable of the revival of dead gracesin man's life. o such alleviating hint is dropped concerning Sardis. Thetime has not come for it; the need of the hour is for warning, only warning.There is a shortness in the threat : " If therefore thou shalt not watch," &c. TheLord does not condescend to say more than is needed. The Church of Sardis knows,after what has been declared, that this coming can only be for judgment, and is leftto meditate on the nearness and suddenness of the doom. Even in the acknowledg-ment that there are. faithful persons in Sardis, " a few names which did not defiletheir garments," and the promise made to "him that overcometh," the reserveis maintained. So deep is the sin of the Church that it is blessedness only to havebeen free from it. So dire is the doom that, for them who have escaped it, to havetheir names not blotted out of the book of life is enough. The Lord will confesstheir names in heaven, because it is a wonder to find souls from Sardis there. Howmay we apprehend the condition of Sardis ? Perhaps we say, Sardis was a worldlyChurch ; and this is undoubtedly true. " She that giveth herself to pleasure is deadwhile she liveth." Addictedness to things that " perish with the using " isboth the sign of a languid inner life, and certain destruction of the little lifewhich remains. Or we may say that Sardis was an impure Church. Discipline was
 
unknown in it ; even the pretence of discipline must have been wanting, when of only a few could it be said that " they did not defile their garments." But there isone touch in the description which is full of significance. " I have not found anyof thy works perfect [that is, finished] before My God." The image suggested isthat of a fickle Church, rushing from one thing to another, beginning works andgrowing weary, taking up and dropping down, impossible to be relied on by Godor man. Fickleness is a very common fault ; therefore the Lord's words toSardis need to be dwelt on. There is no graver symptom of our time than itsprevailing restlessness. So many men and women follow the ever-changing fashion188 THE BIBLICAL ILLUSTRATOR. [chap. m. — in dress, or books, or household decoration, or art, in science, in philosophy, inphilanthrophy, in scepticism, or in faith. Theirs is not the versatility of a catholictemper, but of a shallow soul ; such persons proclaim that they have no taste,that is, no original perceptions, no standard of excellence. There is the sameinstability among the Churches; the popular religious catch-words are for everchanging. Yesterday the parrot-cry was "Orthodoxy"; to-day it is " Liberality,freedom of thought." There is to them no "word of the Lord"; they have noprofound sense of duty, no consecrating purpose, nothing about which they can say," This one thing I do ; this is what 1 believe with all my heart ; of this 1 am sure ;to this I cleave, I can no other, God help me." And if fickleness be thus the sign andsymptom that underneath all shews of religious activity there is death, so ficklenessworks death. The notion such people have that their great need is some new thing,a new impulse, a new call, is part of their soul-sickness. Their real want is theheart to stick to what they are about. early the whole discipline of piety is in thefact that persistency brings lessons which we can learn in no other way. If we tryto perfect what we are doing, we learn our defects and how to supply them ; welearnwhat we can do and how to do it ; we strengthen the sense of duty, and catch themeaning of hardness ; sources of comfort will open to us when " sore weary withourwork well done " ; God Himself comes to teach us, and lead us, and be our God. InSardis, as inLaodicea, there is a special word of comfort to the faithful, becausetheyhave found fidelity so hard. " Thou hast a few names in Sardis," &c. The promiseis itself an implied charge against the many ; they are defiled as well as heartless.So it must ever be ; the pollutions of the world, the flesh, and the devil are sure toovertake those who are not steadfast in their piety. All the more impressive isChrist's assurance that He has not overlooked the few. He who has the seven
 
Spirits is quick to discern fidelity in unlikely places ; He watches to discern and toacknowledge them. Fidelity is acknowledged by Christ as of eternal virtue, how-ever it may reveal itself ; and the company of those who overcome is one company,whether the victory have been won on a conspicuous or an ignoble field. It seems soreserved an utterance : " I will not blot out his name " ; but the book in which thename is written is " the book of life." It is no small honour which is conferred onthe clean souls in Sardis when they are declared " worthy " to walk with Christ inwhite. There is a touch of exquisite consideration, of appreciation of what theirlife had been, in the promise with which the message ends : " He that overcomethshall thus be arrayed in white garments." Heaven shall be to them the consum-mation of what they had worked for and striven after on earth. (A. Mackennal,D.D.) Chris fs message to the formalist; or, feeble because incomplete : — I.DelusiveAPPEARACES ; OR, THE DEATH THAT SIMULATES LIFE. There is nothingSO Unmistakableas natural death ; in tree, animal, or man, it makes itself fearfully plain. Life mayexist in a sluggish or imperfect form, but between the feeblest life and death thereis an immeasurable distance. But with spiritual death it is often otherwise. Theadvances are so stealthy, and so swift, that sometimes every grace and gift hasperished before the symptoms of the plague are discerned. Wendell Holmes tells usthat in the introduction to " Gil Bias " it is said, " Here lies buried the soul of thelicentiate." Where do not souls lie buried ? One beneath the self -consciousnessof pride, and another beneath ceremonies which are good in themselves, but whichmay produce evil, if unduly relied upon. Under what sin is thy soul buried. Andlet us look at the gracious aspect which is presented here of our Lord. When theking of Ethiopia of old heard that the Persian monarch was dead, he remarked," It is no wonder that he died, when he lived on dirt." The allusion, of course, isto com, which at that period was unknown in Ethiopia. Of Darracott, on thecontrary, it was finely said, "that he looked as if he lived upon live things," for hepossessed such abundant vitality. So is it that a man is like that which hementally feeds upon ; so that if he communes regularly and constantly with Christ,he will become Christ-like, and will live by the life of Christ. II. Decaying graces ;OR, bad WHICH MAY BECOME WORSE. " The dccay was not as yet thoroughin theChurch at Sardis ; there was still a chance of regaining the lost time, and living byChrist. But unless the Church became vigilant, and took the needful measures, thedecay would eventually become complete." The graces of the Spirit are grantedonly to certain conditions, and they are removed when these essentials depart fromus. Incompleteness is decay. " I have found no works of thine fulfilled before myGod." Their acts of charity and faith had been marred ; they were introductionswithout any succeeding chapters, indeed, but a series of failures. And may not thewords imply that one grace cannot live without the other, that they are mutually
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