treated them-he had placed them in the stocks; but, now that these men returned good for his evil, and hus preached to him the way to heaven, he felt, “You have ministered to me spiritual things; the least that I can do is to take you into my home, and minister to you in what my ministry comprehends-temporal things;" "and he washed their stripes, and was baptized, he and all his." And the Christian under the grace of God gives as an offering what the Church of Rome exacts as a sacrifice. In preaching collection sermons, we ought never to exact. In contributing or in paying the expenses of public worship, we ought never to dictate. A tax put upon any Church for any of its missionary movements, is so like Cæsar's policy, that it seems to me incompatible with Christ's word. Whatever Christians do ought to be a freewill offering, freely rendered -not a miserable sacrifice, grudgingly exacted from them. If you want to get the largest collection to any good object, take care not to command, to threaten, to urge that is the nearest to exacting by force; we must try to touch those inner springs of loving-kindness that grace has opened in your hearts, that you may ask, in the silence and secrecy of your bosoms, that mighty question, "How much owest thou to thy God?" And when you are made to feel obligation, by the Spirit of God applying it to your hearts, then you will regard the largest offering as no sacrifice, but a joyous gift; and you will not count it a pain or a grief that there are so many collections in church; you will be thankful that the minister has the honesty to do his duty, by giving you so often an opportunity of contributing to all that is good, and great, and noble.

This jailer professed outside the gaol what he professed in it; for we read "he was baptized." But what is baptism? Not regeneration. I wonder how any man with his senses about him can ever assert that baptism with water is regeneration of heart. This man was converted first, and then he was baptized; and if he had not been baptized at all, he would have been still regenerated. He was not baptized in order to be regenerated; but he was regenerated in order to be baptized. And, then, what is baptism? Simply, I believe, the outward profession before the Church and the world of the inward life and character which we already possess such is baptism in the case of adults: I am speaking of it only in that aspect. And if people would only just recollect two things, they would never admit. into their minds the absurd notion. These two things are-first, the visible Church, composed of all that are Christians indeed, and of those that are Christians only in name: tares and wheat, good and bad, all baptized, all professing Christ together. And there is, secondly, the inner Church, or the spiritual and true Church, composed of all that are chosen in Christ, washed in his blood, sanctified by his Spirit, candidates for his eternal joy. Now, baptism admits a person into the outer Church, which is composed of good and bad; the baptism of the Holy Ghost, answering to it, admits him to the inner Church, composed only of the good. The Lord's Supper is communion with the outer Church, composed of good and bad; fellowship with the Father and the Son, signified therein, is communion with the inner Church, the company of all the truly regenerate. Two visible sacraments exist for the outer Church-two inner, invisible, but spiritual graces for

the inner and true Church. Baptism by water is often given where there is no baptism by the Holy Ghost; eating bread and drinking wine at the Lord's table, is often done where there is no eating of the body and drinking of the most precious blood of the Son of God. Baptism, therefore, in the case of this jailer was, just what it is in our case, saying, "I am not ashamed of the Gospel." It is our uniform when we become enlisted as soldiers of the great Captain of the Faith. Our uniform is our baptism. And hence in the early Church, when persons were baptized, they appeared in white robes, to denote this change. That was a human institution, arising from a great fact— that our baptism is our profession of the truth. If we have been baptized when young, we hold it fast; if we are baptized when adults, we do the same. It does not matter whether I was baptized yesterday or baptized thirty years ago: I have the same uniform, by holding it fast, and keeping it up by my consistent profession of the truth. Such is what baptism is, and what baptism means.

And then I would add, in conclusion, that when he was thus baptized, and thus hospitably entertained the apostles, and washed their wounds, he rejoiced; and no wonder. Translated from darkness into light—from the crushing power of Satan into communion with Christ, and to the freedom of God-conscious of his mighty change, sensible of a new heart, new hopes, new sympathies, new joys, new impulses-is it to be wondered at that he rejoiced? And notice, his joy was instantaneous. True conversion is belief in Christ: having found him, you must not be a doubting, suspecting, gloomy, stumbling believer, but a rejoicing

and a happy Christian. Christianity was just as much meant to make me happy upon earth as it was meant to make me happy hereafter. But the view that many people have of religion is, that it was never meant to make us happy-and is only meant to make us safe. That is a low, grovelling idea of the Gospel. It is meant to make us happy; and, through making us happy, it makes us holy, as accepted in Christ, and found in him, our only Saviour.

Have we experienced this change? Have we believed with the heart on Christ Jesus? If we have, why are we sad, why cast down, why afraid? If your safety depended upon the tenacity of your grasp of Christ, you would perish to-morrow. But, blessed be his Name! it depends upon the certainty of his grasp of us. "I give unto you eternal life; and none shall be able to pluck you out of my hand." What a blessed thought is that !—and yet that is true. hear these things, and we let them slip the instant we have heard them; whereas they are worth feeding upon, living, embodying here, as they will be enjoyed

hereafter.

Yet, alas! we

May God open our hearts as he opened Lydia's, and change our natures as he did the jailer's, by his Holy Spirit; and to his Name be the praise and the glory, Amen.

CHAPTER XVII.

ATHENS

JESUS THE MESSIAH-PAUL IN THE SYNAGOGUE-CONDUCT OF THE JEWS-PAUL SENT TO BEREA-PAUL'S FEELINGS ON ENTERING EPICUREANS-STOICS-CHARACTER OF ATHENIANS--THE ALTAR TO AN UNKNOWN GOD-PAUL'S ADDRESS-A PAGAN TRUTHINTERRUPTION OF PAUL'S ADDRESS SOME CONVERTED.

THE chapter I have read is, perhaps, one of the finest specimens of subtle and yet Christian oratory contained in the whole of the Acts of the Apostles, if not in the New Testament itself. The historical facts that led to the speech or the masterly address of Paul, are contained in the previous part of the chapter-namely, that "when they had passed through Amphipolis and Apollonia, they came to Thessalonica, where there was a synagogue of the Jews." These towns are at the northern end of the Ægean Sea, and on the western end of the Euxine, now the scene of hostilities between contending nations. At that time, they were first visited by St. Paul with the glad tidings of everlasting life, and the offer of the elements of true and enduring peace. Now, when Paul found a synagogue of the Jews, he did not say, because it was a synagogue for Jewish worship,

I, a Christian minister, ought not to enter in ;" but, being permitted to do so, he was too happy to avail himself of the opportunity; apparently always acting on the principle, "To the Jew first; and next, and also to the Gentile." This was so common with him, that it is said, it was his manner. And when he went