the city, or sought refuge in the hidingplaces of the earth, the matter had been different; the great object of Providence had been lost: that which was a miracle, so mixed, peculiar, and wonderful, had been lost, and these events set down to natural causes. But it was otherwise. There are the facts-there is the evidence -deny it who can! and confessing it, let it be pressed home to its legitimate consequences.

But where is the jailor all this time? At the proper moment the Divine hand aroused him: "and the keeper of the prison awoke out of his sleep, and seeing the prison-doors open, he drew out his sword, and would have killed himself, supposing that the prisoners had fled." The discovery was most alarming-the inference most natural: he knew that the probability was that suspicion would attach to himself, and that he would pay the penalty by his life, and, rather than die by the hand of the public executioner, he would fall by his own. In the paroxysm of the moment, he had not time to deliberate; he drew his sword, after the Roman manner of suicide, and, pitching its hilt upon the ground, he was just in the act of falling upon its point, that, by the weight of his body, it might transfix him, when "Paul cried out, with a loud voice, Do thyself no harm, for we are all here." How did Paul in yonder distance, in the dark dungeon, know what was passing in the mind of the jailor? It was enough that Paul's Master knew, and instructed his servant, with the necessary rapidity, to make the communication. You will observe that Paul not only knew the intention, but the cause; and he arrested the intention by removing the cause. "We are all here;" that is, not only Paul and Silas, whom you thrust into the inner prison last night; for the term all could not be applied to these two, moreover, this would not have met the case: Paul, therefore, intimates that none of the prisoners had fled. This intimation at once met the necessity. Fear of this description was gone; but, in the twinkling of an eye, another and very different fear took possession of him. Rome, and the wrath of the Empire, even had it been against him, were now insignificant considerations. He "called for a light, and sprang in, and came trembling, and fell down before Paul and Silas, and brought them out."

What a change is here! How altered the man! What does he mean? What prompts him to this course? Why went

he to Paul and Silas, and not to some of the other prisoners? or why to any person, to make any inquiry? Ought not his first concern to have been to perform his duties, to summon his assistants, and to hasten to the doors, to re-bolt and bar them, to hasten from cell to cell, and re-chain the prisoners? But he seems to have forgotten bolts, bars, prisoners, and the perils of their possible flight, and to have thought of nothing but sin and its doom! There he is, and, falling down in prostrate agony, he exclaims,

SIRS! WHAT MUST I DO TO BE SAVED?"

What does the man mean? What has come over him? Was there ever such an example of a rapid transition from a sense of secular to a sense of spiritual danger? Danger is the great idea that fills his mind. He is crushed under a sense of guilt. The Spirit of the Lord is now shaking him, as he had shaken the prison, unbolting the doors of conviction, and loosening the fettered conscience. No sooner had he thrown away the sword of steel, with which he meant to pierce his body, than he was pierced by the sword of the Spirit! How changed the man from what he was when the sun went down! How altered the views he now entertained of these mysterious strangers! He clearly seems to have known all the events which led to their incarceration, and to have appreciated the force of the expression, "These men are the servants of the Most High God, who show unto men the way of salvation." There is no other way of explaining his extraordinary course, language, and conduct.

Reader! look at this man. He was last night dead in sin, and yet tranquil as a corpse in a sepulchre! This may be your case. Is it not so? It must be, unless you have been the subject of a quickening, whereby you have realized conviction of sin and apprehension of danger. It is just possible that these lines may find their way to some human residence, probably to a house which is virtually a condemned cell, where there is not one that is not still bound with the chain of his sins." May quickening power attend them! May the sepulchre cast forth its dead, and may they each for themselves experience the same power which awoke this officer from his sleep of death, and filled him with unutterable solicitude how he might escape the wrath to come! If the reader be doing despite unto the Spirit of grace, trampling

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under foot the blood of the cross, defying the powers of the living God, and heaping up wrath against the day of wrath and the righteous revelation of the judgments of the great day, I point him to this case, and now entreat his attention to the answer forthwith presented to the jailor. Poor, unhappy, benighted man! he went to rest on the previous evening without a thought of the wrath to come! In this dreadful condition you, too, retired last night, forgetful of the fact that it was just possible you should rise no more, but on the morrow wake in hell! You are condemned, and yet quite at ease! You may thus any day be carried away by the tempest of Divine wrath, and yet you are at ease! You may be looking abroad for the last time, before your eyes be sealed in death, and you be summoned to the judgment, and yet you are quite at ease! Surely such conduct is as much at variance with reason as it is with allegiance to God. You know your doom, for you cannot be ignorant of it, and yet here you are full of security!

Never was question more honestly put than that of the jailor; and never was answer more important made by the Apostles:

"And they said, BELIEVE ON THE LORD JESUS CHRIST, AND THOU SHALT BE SAVED, AND THY HOUSE."

This is a matter about which the most explicit directions are necessary; and it is to be observed that nothing can exceed the explicitness with which the reply is made. There is no hesitancy, no ambiguity. They state in a word what is to be done, conjoining with the statement the assurance that salvation will follow compliance; and, as if to anticipate an earnest want which he would speedily experience, they intimated that, by the same means, salvation might be likewise attained by all his house.

This

Let it be here observed what is enjoined, and let every other idea be carefully excluded. Salvation, whatever the term may imply, is clearly shown to turn upon the one thing-believing on the Lord Jesus Christ. This attended to, the whole of the blessing follows. brings along with it immediate pardon of all past guilt, and imputed righteousness, on the ground of which the believer is fully accepted, and introduced to all the privileges of the sons of God. Divine favour is attained with Divine help, protection, benefaction, and benediction. Salvation is obtained in no other way; but in

this way it may be obtained by all flesh. It is worthy of note that it is not deemed necessary to explain even to this heathen jailor what was meant by believing. It is at once taken for granted that here there could be no difficulty and no mistake; but they are at special pains to tell him what was to be believed: for it is obvious that it had been to little purpose to enjoin them to believe, if they had set forth no facts, no doctrines, no promises, but kept iterating and reiterating the injunction to believe, as foolish people have often been known to do in dealing with awakened souls. They enjoined such to believe: "Just believe," say they. Believe what? "What? believe, to be sure, that you are forgiven; that your sins are pardoned; that God has accepted you!"

Paul

Persons have thus been treated in violation of common sense, reason, and Scripture. It is not thus that Paul taught. The faith of Paul was simple, the act of a penitent mind dealing with Divine truth, receiving the record which God had given concerning his Son. called upon the jailor to believe that which was the truth, whether he believed it or not; but the belief of which would change his eternal destiny. See, then, how naturally and rationally they proceed. That the man might know what to believe concerning Jesus Christ, it is written, "And they spake unto him the word of the Lord, and to all that were in his house." The word of the Lord was the word concerning the Lord—his Divine character, mission, person, offices, work, gospel, and kingdom; as Paul says elsewhere, "Whether it were I or they, so we preach, and so ye believe,"—that is to say, all the Apostles spake one thing, delivered substantially the one system of truth; and the belief of that truth was the belief of the Gospel. It is to be observed here, that they spake "to all that were in his house," as well as to himself. An intimation had been given that all his house should be saved as well as himself, that is, if they believed; and that they might believe, it was necessary they should hear, since "faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God."

These are the things they did; I may mention some things they did not do. They did not descant on the imputation of Adamic guilt, on the decrees of God, on moral impotence, on the need of superior aid in order to penitence and to faith. They pointed out no means whereby to

obtain faith, but set before him and his house the truth, with its evidences, for immediate reception. They pointed out nothing for him to do, short of believing. They do not counsel him to wait on, in the use of means, till peradventure a power from on high should make him a believer. Not they: they did not prescribe to him any immediate course by which to obtain the faith they enjoined. No: it was not thus they taught the Gospel. They dealt with men as rational and accountable beings. Their part of the business was to use proper means, leaving it to the Almighty Power which had wrought the wonder of that eventful night to do the inward part. It was clear to them that the Spirit of God was at work upon the jailor and his family, and that they had been sent thither for the very purpose of communicating salvation; and that their part in the business was very small-it was simply testifying for God. They had but to bear the testimony, and the work was done; for the Spirit of the Lord would do the rest.

Well, then, let us see what followed. The testimony has been borne. What the jailor and his family heard with all their hearts they believed. The truth as it is in Jesus is now deposited in every heart. They had heard only one statement, but it was with the ear unstopped by the finger of God; and the whole of the testimony had entered in. Behold the effect! The jailor, in a moment, became a new creature. "Old things had passed away, and all things are become new." Among other proofs that he has

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passed from death unto life" is this: "he loved the brethren." No sooner had he heard the Gospel of salvation from their lips, than "he took them the same hour of the night, and washed their stripes, and was baptized, he and all his, straightway." What energy! What activity! What promptitude! What despatch! He had now an eye to see blood, and a heart to feel for suffering! Oh! how deep his grief that he should have been the instrument of inflicting such cruelties on these "the servants of the Most High God!" What compassion and love are now mingled with his gratitude! That blood-blood he saw not last night-wounds he felt not-now became his own! He removes the blood -he pours balm into the wounds! He loves, he comforts, he rejoices. "He brought them into his own house, and set meat before them." How changed the aspect of affairs, both as to him and

them.

There they sit, the happiest men in the universe, refreshed by the viands of their convert; the family around them looking at them, filled with admiration, adoring their Divine Master, and blessed with the great salvation! The words are remarkable: "He rejoiced, believing in God, with all his house." They rejoiced, and well they might. They knew the blessedness of the man to whom God imputeth not sin, and to whom righteousness is imputed without works. The jailor and his family believed the same truths with the same effects. As their faith was common, so was their bliss, and so the common gift of the spirit of adoption, and the privilege of admission into the family of heaven. If ever there was an instance of a genuine conversion, this is one; and if anything in the pages of inspiration is capable of illustrating this great change, it is the case of the jailor. Reader! the whole matter is now before you. What say you? Do you understand experimentally the event of which you have been reading? Have you known something of the sorrow, and something of the joy? Have you discovered yourself as a lost and undone man, and been constrained to inquire what you must do to be saved? Have you been divested of all grounds of confidence in yourself? and have you, out and out, surrendered soul, body, and spirit to Jesus Christ? Has your conscience obtained peace through his blood? Do you see that he is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth? Have you believed, and do you now trust in the mercy of God through him? and can you go into eternity, relying upon it? Is Jesus Christ, and his blood, the foundation of your entire confidence? Then you are a converted man. have entered into the same glorious fellowship with the jailor of Philippi and his family. You will follow them in the regeneration, on the pilgrimage heavenward; and in due season you shall see them, sharing their felicity, and uniting with them to glorify the one living and true God. May the same Almighty Power which made him what he became, and you what you are, lead, guide, and keep you to the end! Amen.

You

C.

to administer relief to him under such a heavy affliction; but having, in the first place, formed erroneous conceptions of his character, they defeated their own purpose, and, instead of pouring the balm of consolation into his soul, they only deepened his wounds, and increased his distress. They supposed him to be a person destitute of the fear of God, and therefore they exhorted him to acquaint himself with his Maker, and to be at peace with him. They endeavoured to work upon his mind by the most frightful representations of the terrors of the Lord against the wicked, and explained the conduct of God towards him in afflicting him, as an awful recompense for his transgressions. All this was foreign from the experience of this man of God. He wanted the supports of the Gospel, instead of the thunders of Mount Sinai. He wanted the promises of God to his people, instead of his curses against the ungodly. Miserable comforters must they have been to employ such means.

Nevertheless, there was a source whence he could obtain relief to his troubled mind. Notwithstanding the cutting reproofs and gross misrepresentations of his pretended friends, he could appeal to the God of his salvation. Before him he could spread his sorrows, and unbosom his complaints; and though deprived, for a season, of the enjoyment of his presence, and wondering how the scene would end, he could patiently submit to his righteous dealings, and wait the result of his sovereign plea

We may notice this,

I. As a recognition of the omniscience of God. "He knoweth," &c. Others may mistake my character, and grossly misrepresent my situation; others may hold me up as the subject of their irony and sarcasm; others may esteem me as an object of pity and contempt; but "He knoweth," &c. He whose dominion has no bounds, whose power is almighty, and whose understahding is infinite; He from whose presence nothing can escape; He knoweth my affliction. Though men may be deceived, to him all is perfectly known. "His eyes are in every place, beholding the evil and the good.' The inmost recesses of the heart are naked to his view. The infernal regions themselves are open to his in

spection. "Hell itself hath no covering." "He knoweth,"-He who has said, "When thou passest through the waters, I will be with thee," Isa. xliii. 2. He who has pledged himself to keep the feet of his saints, and to deliver them out of all their affliction-" He knoweth the way that I take."

We may regard this,

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II. As the language of conscious integrity. "He knoweth the way that I take." He has afflicted me, and the design of this affliction is perfectly known to him; and I am satisfied to leave this with him, while I cannot fathom his inscrutable providence. "He knoweth the way that I take" while suffering this affliction. "My foot hath held his steps; his way have I kept, and not declined; neither have I gone back from the commandment of his lips. I have esteemed the words of his mouth more than my necessary food," Job xxiii. 11, 12. This was no small source of consolation to Job. Though there was nothing in his conduct to merit the Divine regard, yet a consciousness that he had been in the path of duty, afforded him great satisfaction of mind. When severely tried by his affliction, and doubly tried, if possible, by his professed comforters, who were continually taunting him, he could appeal to Heaven in the language of conscious integrity: My witness is in heaven, and my record is on high." This is worthy of our most serious consideration. This certainly is necessary, in order to insure our confidence. There must be a consciousness that matters are right between God and ourselves, or else we shall suffer as evil-doers; and suffering in such a character, we shall justly deserve the calumnies and reproaches of our enemies; but if we have a conviction that we suffer for righteousness sake, what matter reproaches and slander? If we have this testimony, that we please God, we may humbly submit to his disposal, and resignedly wait his designs concerning us. We may also see here the desirable tendency of affliction to draw us near to God, and increase our confidence in him. Thus it was with Job. This made him appeal with such confidence to God under his affliction. He had not gone back. So the Prophet says, "All this is come upon us; yet have we not forgotten thee, neither have we dealt falsely in thy covenant. heart is not turned back, neither have our steps declined from thy way. Though thou hast sore broken us in the place of

Our

dragons, and covered us with the shadow of death."

Oh! it is well when we, in our trials, can, in the language of conscious integrity, make this appeal to Him who appoints them, and say, "He knoweth," &c. We may take it,

III. As the language of strong confidence in God in a particular time of trouble.

Where is there a more affecting example? You who have read the history of this man of God must have been struck with the dealings of God towards him, whilst you have not dared for a moment to reply against the Almighty for such a procedure. It was to promote his own glory, and to illustrate the power of his grace, in supporting his servant under it. He was supported; and the language before us shows, to the most eminent degree, that he possessed strong, unshaken confidence. It reminds us of Paul's lan

guage: "And not only so, but we glory in tribulations also; knowing that tribulation worketh patience; and patience experience; and experience hope; and hope maketh not ashamed, because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost, which is given unto us," (Rom. v. 3-5.) It is in these circumstances we meet with a criterion for our faith and confidence: our principles are brought to a particular test. This is not the time to put on the garb of hypocrisy. Now is the time to detect false principles, and to endear to the heart such as are of sterling value. And, oh! it is well, when in adversity, we can say, "My principles are tried, and I feel their worth; they are a rock on which I can repose with confidence, and wait with resignation." "I know in whom I have believed, and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him against that day." It may be asked,

IV. Why this confidence? It arose, 1. From a deep conviction that all his afflictions were regulated by the gracious hand of God. He afflicts not willingly. All are the results of his unerring counsel. "Shall we receive good at the hand of God, and shall we not receive evil?" "Affliction cometh not forth of the dust, neither doth trouble spring out of the ground;" its origin is higher. "Is there evil in a city, and the Lord hath not done it?" "He hath tried me."

2. It arose from the firm persuasion he had of the happy result of his affliction. "When he bath tried me, I shall

come forth as gold." Sanctified affliction effects that which a scene of perpetual enjoyment would not. It operates like fire upon the precious metals, and purifies the heart, subduing pride, weakening corruption, weaning from the present evil world, and preparing the soul for heaven. Hence, says God, "I will also purge away thy dross, and take away all thy tin." And again, "I will bring the third part through the fire, and will refine them as silver is refined, and will try them as gold is tried. They shall call on my name, and I will hear them: I will say, It is my people; and they shall say, The Lord is my God." "By this," says one of the prophets, "shall the iniquity of Jacob be purged; and this is all the fruit to take away his sin." And again, referring to trials, "By these things do men live, and in all these things is the life of my spirit." And can a result so holy and so happy be regretted? "No chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous; nevertheless, afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruits of righteousness to them who are exercised thereby." "When he hath tried me, I shall come forth as gold."

APPLICATION.

1. It is awful to be given up and tried no more. (Hosea iv. 17.)

2. If tried, let us submit to the will of God. This is our duty and our privilege. Let us follow the example of Eli: "It is the Lord, let him do what seemeth him good." Or say with the church, "I will bear the indignation of the Lord, because I have sinned against him."

3. What have we gained by our trials? Is sin rendered more loathsome

and

hateful? Is Christ more precious? Is the Word of God more perused? Is the throne of grace more valued, and are we more conformed to the image of God's dear Son?

4. All the trials and afflictions of the people of God are confined to this world. Hall-Fold. R. R.

SELF-DENIAL.

To deny self is a command binding on all, observed comparatively by few. There is no precept of more importance to the children of God-none better calculated to preserve the purity of the soul. Mental discipline is to be the work of of every man the keeping of the heart for God-the cultivation of sound and solid principles in the fear of God. It is