excellent spiritual condition. They were proud of their religious attainment; they thought that they had reached the very acme of all that was required, for they appear to have imagined themselves so good that they had no further need of advancement. They seem to have been-as multitudes of the present day most unfortunately are-they appear to have been vitally mistaken as to the real nature of religion itself. One of the old writers seems in his plain and quaint, but nervous manner, to have expressed their true condition. "Perhaps they were well provided for as to their bodies, and that made them overlook the necessities of their souls; or they thought themselves well furnished in their souls, and that made them careless about a deep examination. They had learning, and they took it for religion; they had gifts, and they took them for grace; they had wit, and they took it for true wisdom; they had ordinances, and they took up with them instead of the God of ordinances. How careful should we be," he remarks, "that we put not the cheat upon our own souls; doubtless there are many in hell who once thought themselves in the way to heaven."

Now, with all the high opinions which the Laodicean Christians had of themselves, they were utterly mistaken; they were building on a foundation of sand; they were feeding on ashes; it was a deceived heart that had turned them aside so that they could not discover the lie which was in their right hand; the god of this world had blinded their eyes, so that they did not consider their real condition. There appears not to have been one single spiritual excellence about them, and our Saviour, after placing before them the erroneous estimate which they

had of themselves and which they so falsely supposed to be correct, proceeds to lay open their real character and condition, and a more expressive and a more melancholy description is not to be found in the records of reprobation—“Thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked.”

Taken in the mere ordinary every-day acceptation of these terms, they portray a most desperate spiritual condition; but our Saviour as he appears purposely to have employed the very strongest figure he could find to express his abhorrence, so he employs the most powerful terms which could be found to tell the deep debasement of their condition. Let us examine these terms with some critical minuteness. "Thou art wretched." The original word, according to the ideas of a distinguished critic, means, to be worn out and fatigued with grievous labours, as they who labour in a stone quarry, or are condemned to the mines; so that instead of being children of God, as they supposed, and heirs of the kingdom of heaven, they were in the sight of God in the condition of the most abject slaves. To the term, wretched, thus considered, he adds the term, miserable, meaning most deplorable objects of real pity for the degradation of their condition. To this is added, they were poor. They had boasted of their riches, and they supposed they had need of nothing; but he proceeds to tell them that they were, in fact, destitute of every thing which can in any wise constitute valuable riches. They were really and emphatically poor; they had no provision for their souls to live upon; they were, in fact, in a state of spiritual starvation in the midst of all their vain imaginings of plenty. To this he adds the decla

ration that they were blind; the eyes of their understanding were darkened; they were precisely in the same situation, in relation to spiritual things, as a blind man is to natural; and their blindness was like the palpable night of Egypt; they could not see their real state; they had no idea of its awful character in the sight of a pure and holy God; they could not see their way, for in reference to all eternal things they were groping their path in the dark night of spiritual death; they could not see their danger, though they were on the very brink of perdition; and yet in this awful situation they thought they saw, they did not appear to know that they needed spiritual eye-sight; there was a veil upon their minds, heavy scales upon their eyes; the very light which was in them was darkness, and to judge of the awfulness of this condition, we have only to recur to the language of our Saviour "If thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light; but if thine eye be evil, thy whole body shall be full of darkness; and if the light within thee be darkness, how great is that darkness." Added to the terrific predicament of blindness, they were naked; their souls had no covering; they were, in the sight of God, in such a state of sin and corruption that no part was hidden. They had no living faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, and consequently had not on that robe of righteousness wrought out by him who alone could cover the nakedness of their sins, and hide the guilt of their corruptions. In fact, the words of the Saviour mean that they were neither justified nor sanctified; and to use the language of Holy Writ, so emphatic as it is, they were clothed only in the filthy rags of their own imagined

righteousness. They not only had not on the whole and the seamless garment of Christ, but were clothed in rags, which could not hide the deformity of their condition. Take this striking language of our Saviour, that a lukewarm Christian is "wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked," and a more deplorable state, in relation to spiritual things, it were beyond the possibility of imagination to discover; and this is the situation of those, who, instead of having a proper estimate of themselves, did all the while suppose they were "rich, and increased with goods, and had need of nothing." This was their state.

In looking at this subject attentively, brethren, one incidental remark offers itself, which I dare not to omit, however melancholy and heart-rending the consideration. Truth and faithfulness compel me to say, that while the lukewarm yet proud self-justifying state of the Church of Laodicea finds a parallel in many branches of the Church of Christ in these days; and while among all denominations of Christians there are multitudes of individual instances of such as are here represented, still to no branch of the visible Church of Christ is the remark more deplorably true than to our own; and in no other branch of the visible Church of Christ are the individual instances so manifested out before the world. If, in a studious examination of these various epistles, any individual of serious reflection should desire to ascertain to which of the Asiatic Churches the Episcopal Church, in its general aspect, more nearly conforms, truth, sacred truth, though it would be with an eye filled with tears, and a tongue tremulous with emotion, would still

pass by Ephesus, and Smyrna, and Pergamos, and Thyatira, then laying one hand on Sardis, and the

other on Laodicea, would say rit saith unto the Churches.

"Hear what the SpiThou hast a name to

live, but art dead. Thou art lukewarm, and thou sayest I am rich, and have need of nothing, and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked."

I speak not unadvisedly or rashly, brethren, and it is necessary thus to speak, for we are apt to deceive ourselves most grossly, and no cure can be expected while we are perseveringly blind to the disease which preys on our vitals. It is to little purpose that we profess to be built on the foundation of Apostles and Prophets, Jesus Christ being the chief corner stone; it is to little purpose that our organization is so complete; it is to little purpose that our forms of devotion are all but inspired, if amidst all these excellencies, and privileges, and blessings, the eye of Omniscience rests on us, and when he says, "I know thy works," he sees the great pervading features, formality on the one hand, and lukewarmness on the other, and then from the habitation of his holiness pours down on us the cup of malediction-"I will spue thee out of my mouth."

But let us pass from this subject, so fraught with melancholy, both retrospective and prospective, and take up the

Vth division, the wise and affectionate advice of Christ-"I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich; and white raiment, that thou mayest be clothed, and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear; and anoint thine eyes with eye-salve, that thou mayest see."