cruel enemy, who in the day of prosperity boasts of his success, in the
day of adversity becomes the most arrant coward and cringing
suppliant,--whether it be Saul or Shimei. (1 Sam. xv. 30; 2 Sam. xix.
18.) Haughty persecutors have been changed to humble suitors for an
interest in the prayers of their victims,--"to worship before their
feet." "The word of Christ's patience" may signify any truth or doctrine
of the Bible which is of supernatural revelation. The same idea is
suggested by the phrase, "the present truth,"--any divine truth which
may come to be opposed or denied, especially as it may bear upon the
personal glory of our Redeemer. Love to Christ is often tested by an
enlightened and firm adherence to the "truth as it is in Jesus," when
"false apostles will sell it for a mess of pottage." (Prov. xxiii. 23; 2
Cor. xiii. 8.) The first promise here is of a temporal kind, of
protection in time of general danger. The "temptation" thus predicted
may refer to some of those "ten persecutions" waged by the Roman
emperors against the Christians, as that of Trajan in particular; but
doubtless, like many other predictions, it was to have more than one
fulfilment. The expression, "all the world" does indeed sometimes mean
the Roman empire, (Luke ii. 1;) but perhaps it would be rash to affirm,
that it is to be always thus limited. Like "the kingdom of heaven,--the
kingdom of God,"--phrases which have unquestionably a two-fold
signification, so it will be safer to consider this expression as of a
similar kind. All other churches would be exposed to trial, from which
this one would be exempted. The trial might consist of persecution, or
the spreading of heretical principles and wicked practices, followed by
apostacies. At such a time of trial, a firm adherence to the "doctrines
which are after godliness," would be imperative duty, and the only way
to secure the victor's crown. The gracious reward of fidelity here
promised is a permanent and honorable place in the heavenly temple,--the
temple of Christ's Father, whose name the citizen of the New Jerusalem