that Simon being rejected by the Apostles became a violent opposer of them, and travelled through different countries, deluding men with his impostures, as he had done the people of Samaria. The opinions which he held were monstrous, and only equalled by the wickedness of his conduct. So dangerous is it, my dear Edward, to neglect warnings; to allow opportunities of repentance to pass by unimproved; to reject the mercies of the Gospel! This is but one more melancholy example, that the patience of God may be tried too much. That "the riches of His forbearance, and goodness, and long suffering" may, if despised, at last be exhausted. If we " continue in sin," thinking that "grace will abound," that grace may never come to us again! There is the case of Pharaoh, there is the case of Saul,- there is the case of Simon Magus, more awful still than all, because baptized into the name of Christ. Let not God call to us his baptized children in vain!

See Acts viii. 14-25.

NINTH SUNDAY EVENING.

PHILIP AND THE ETHIOPIAN.

M. This evening, Edward, we return at once to the Apostles, who having accomplished their purpose of settling the Church at Samaria, by "the laying on of hands," and also by their preaching, returned to Jerusalem, preaching the Gospel, as they went, in many villages of the Samaritans. What a change both for Jews and Samaritans! Hitherto "the Jews

had no dealings with the Samaritans ;" but now we see these Christian Jews, the Apostles of Christ, forgetting all those national differences, which, by birth and education, had been cherished in their breasts, and employing themselves in dispensing to the Samaritans the inestimable privileges of the Gospel; bestowing upon them, equally with the Jews, the gifts of God's Holy Spirit, and preaching the Gospel of the kingdom through all the villages of that despised and rejected country.

E. And was not John one of the very Apostles who once asked our Lord whether they might not command fire to descend from heaven, and consume those Samaritans who had refused to receive Him?

M. The very same, but how changed in spirit now! Who would know him again? So much better does he now understand the true spirit of the Gospel, and its benign intentions! So fully does he comprehend that "the Son of Man is not come to destroy men's lives, but to save them." If he would still call down fire by his prayers, it is no longer fire to consume, but the cleansing and animating influences of divine grace; that fire of the Holy Ghost with which they themselves had been baptized. The Kingdom of God recognizes no distinction of tribe or nation. The Church of the Redeemer is Catholic; it is open to all.

E. How gratifying it must have been to Philip to find his labours blest with so much success! I suppose when the Apostles returned to Jerusalem, he remained to take care of the new Christians in Samaria?

M. No doubt, some provision was made for the

continual instruction, and government of the Church in Samaria; but for Philip, it appears, that there were other duties to be attended to. His missionary labours were not to be interrupted even by the success they met with. He must go on sowing the seed of the Word, whilst others after him should watch over it, and cultivate it, until it was ready for the harvest. But if we turn to the eighth chapter of the Acts again, we shall see how Philip was employed.

E. Here it is, Mamma: "the angel of the Lord" tells Philip to" arise and go towards the south, unto the way that goeth down from Jerusalem to Gaza, which is desert." I know exactly where Gaza is, but I did not think there was any desert there?

M. It was quite to the south of Judea, and was destroyed by Alexander the Great, and made desolate, for which reason it is called desert. This expression may also be used to distinguish it from another Gaza, which you will find in the tribe of Ephraim, not far from the place where Philip was now. Obedient to the divine command, " Philip arose and went," not knowing whither he went, but satisfied to be guided by the providence and Spirit of God, even though it led him far from the common road, "by the way of the desert," a difficult and perhaps a dangerous path. "And behold,” as he approached the place mentioned by the angel, "a man of Ethiopia, an eunuch of great authority under Candace, queen of the Ethiopians, who had the charge of all the treasure, and had come to Jerusalem to worship, and sitting in his chariot read Esaias the Prophet." Now, first of all, tell me, Edward, where Ethiopia is.

E. Is it not in Africa?

M. Various places have been called Ethiopia, but this is supposed to have been, as you say, the one below Egypt in Africa, what we now call Abyssinia. We think of Ethiopia as an unexplored and desert country, for so it is now; but it must once have been a country of some importance, a kingdom indeed with sovereigns of its own to govern it. Candace, we are told, had long been the name of its queens. As a people the Ethiopians were not, as we know, worshippers of the true God, but this nobleman from the court of Candace was "a proselyte," or convert to the Jewish religion, converted probably by some of those Jews who from Alexandria had spread themselves into Ethiopia.

E. He must have been very much in earnest in worshipping God, to have travelled so far to get to the Temple.

M. He must, indeed; especially when we remember the distinguished office he held in the court of Candace, and the hinderances which the multiplicity of his worldly affairs must have presented to such an undertaking. But where people are really in earnest in religion, all obstacles give way before it. "The courts of the Lord's house" have more attractions for them than all the world beside. The heart of this distinguished man was in "Jerusalem, the city of the living God." He felt it "good to be there," to join in the solemn services of the Temple. The length, and ruggedness, and difficulties of the way were nothing to him, by reason of the longing desire he felt for the courts of the Lord;" "the tabernacles of the Lord of Hosts;" so "amiable" and beautiful in his eyes did they appear. How does this

Ethiopian's earnestness in the worship of God, put to shame multitudes of careless Christians, who either neglect the house of the Lord altogether, or visit it only occasionally when it happens to suit their convenience; or who go there perhaps week after week from mere form and custom, without perceiving in it any beauty that they should desire it! Surely this Ethiopian Eunuch will rise up in judgment against such Christians at the last day, to condemn them! But what a remarkable fulfilment was here of the words of the Prophet, "From beyond the rivers of Ethiopia my suppliants, even the daughter of my dispersed, shall bring mine offering1;" and again of the prediction of the Psalmist, "Princes shall come out of Egypt; Ethiopia shall soon stretch out her hands unto God!"

E. And Ethiopians were black, were they not, Mamma?

M. Yes, Negroes; as is clearly denoted by the Prophet Jeremiah, when he says, " Can the Ethiopian change his skin'?" But happily with God there is no distinction of colour more than of persons, of country; "but every where by those who seek the Lord, He shall be found." "For God hath made of one blood all nations of men to dwell on the face of the earth, and hath determined the times before appointed, and the bounds of their habitation, that they should seek the Lord, if haply they might feel after Him, and find Him." Some people foolishly talk of the Negroes as a distinct and separate race, and "an Ethiopian was the most despised of all the Gentiles in

1 Zeph. iii. 10. 2 Ps. lxviii. 31. 3 Jer. xiii. 23. 4 Acts xvii. 26.