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remain at home, enjoy the domestic blessings which God has given, and frequent the worship of God their Saviour in a beautiful earthly temple whither they can go with the multitude, with the voice of joy Ps. 42. 4. and praise, to hear of Christ, to pray to Him, and to tell His glory; even they can do something for Him: they can aid those who are gone forth by sympathy and by intercession: they can provide that material offering without which the spiritual sacrifice can scarcely be made availing: they can stand as it were on the shore of the mighty ocean to cheer by voice and sign those who are buffeting with its tides and storms: they can stand as it were on the watch-tower which overlooks the field of combat, and bid God speed, with prayer to the God of battles, to those who have taken to them His whole Eph. 6. 13. armour, and are wrestling hand to hand with the manifested forms of evil. That is our work tonight:

let us not be wanting to it!

FOURTH SUNDAY AFTER EASTER,
May 18, 1862,

LECTURE XXXVIII.

REVELATION XXII. 6-21.

6

AND he said to me, These words are faithful and true; and the Lord (Jehovah) the God of the spirits of the prophets sent His angel to show to His servants things which must 7 become (come to pass) quickly. And behold, I am coming quickly. Blessed is he who keepeth the words of the prophecy of this roll.

8

AND I John [am] he who heareth and seeth these things. And when I heard and when I saw, I fell to worship before the feet of the angel who was showing me these 9 things. And he saith to me, See [thou do it] not: I am a

fellow-servant of thee and of thy brethren the prophets and 10 of those who keep the words of this roll: worship God. And

he saith to me, Seal not the words of the prophecy of this II roll: the season is near. Let the wrongdoer do wrong still;

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and let the foul man be defiled still: and let the righteous man do righteousness still; and let the holy man be hallowed still.

BEHOLD, I am coming quickly: and my reward is with 13 me, to give back to each one as his work is. I am the Alpha and the Omega, first and last One, the beginning and the end. 14 Blessed [are] they who do His commandments, that their authority may [hereafter] be [continuously] over the tree of

life, and [that] they may have entered in by means of the gate-towers into the city. Without [are] the dogs, and the 15 sorcerers, and the fornicators, and the murderers, and the idolaters, and every one loving and doing a lie.

I JESUS sent my angel to testify to you these things, 16 [even] to the churches. I am the root and the race of David; the star, the bright, the morning [star.]

AND the Spirit and the bride say, Come. And let him 17 that heareth say, Come. And let him that thirsteth come: let him that is willing receive a water of life freely.

1 TESTIFY to every one who heareth the words of the pro- 18 phecy of this roll: If any one shall have laid on upon them, God shall lay on upon him the plagues which have been written in this roll: and if any one shall have taken away 19 from the words of the roll of this prophecy, God shall take away his share from the tree of life and out of the holy city which have been written (described) in this roll.

HE saith who testifieth these things, Yea, I am coming 20 quickly. Amen: come, Lord Jesus.

THE grace of the Lord Jesus [be] with all.

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LECTURE XXXVIII.

REVELATION XXII. II.

Rev. 22.5.

Verse 6.

He that is unjust, let him be unjust still: and he which is filthy, let him be filthy still: and he that is righteous, let him be righteous still: and he that is holy, let him be holy still.

With that

They shall reign for ever and ever. emphatic sentence the predictions of this last Book of Holy Scripture are brought to a final close. There remains only a sort of enforcement and application of the whole, comprised in the sixteen verses which are yet left us for consideration, and then our difficult and responsible task will be ended; of which may God forgive the errors and the deficiencies, and bless to the furtherance of His work amongst us whatever may have been rightly spoken!

And he, the Angel of the 21st chapter, said to me, These words are faithful and true; they are trustworthy, they may be relied upon; and they are agree

able to truth, consistent with the very thing that is: and the Lord, God Himself, the God of the spirits of the prophets, He from whose inspiration the prophets present and past have received the impulse which moves and the light which guides them, sent His angel to show to His servants things which must become (come to pass) quickly; things of urgent importance, inasmuch as their fulfilment is not only certain, but in the sight of Him with whom a thousand years are 2 Pet. 3. 8. as one day near and instant too.

And behold, I am coming quickly. One greater Verse 7. than the Angel here speaks Himself. Blessed is he who keepeth the words of the prophecy of this roll. A special blessing is pronounced by our Lord Jesus Christ upon those who prize, and keep as a precious and sacred deposit, this particular portion of His revealed truth. Which of us has done so? Which of us has not rather regarded it as a mystical, unintelligible, and therefore unprofitable book?

And I John am he who heareth and seeth, am the Verse 8. hearer and seer of, these things. He who when relating the facts of the Gospel history and the discourses of his Divine Lord ever suppressed and withheld his name, speaking of himself as another disciple, Joh.18.15, that other disciple, or the disciple whom Jesus loved, ch. 13. 23. now gives to his work the authority of his name, and attests by a solemn assertion the reality of the revela

tion. It was not a mere allegory, a mere meditation,

16.

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