to sanctification. It shows the consequence of sineternal death. It shows the vastness of the inheritance -eternal life. And thus it makes sin hateful; a thing to be dreaded and resisted; and raises the affections from things below to things above. If it does not this, it is not the faith which saves. It is not justifying faith, if it is not sanctifying faith. And to this inherent test we must look, far more than to any outward distinction or ordinance, when the question is asked, Who shall be saved?

Oh, for higher measures of that faith! That faith which sets Christ crucified before us; crucified that he might make atonement for transgression! That faith that sets him before us as Mediator interceding for our sins, negligences, and ignorances! That faith which shows that any trials, any sacrifices, any mortifications which we must submit to here, are "not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed." Such is the faith which cleanses the heart from corrupt works "to serve the living and true God, and to wait for his Son from heaven." And living and dying in this faith, we believe that through the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ we shall be saved, even as they who met in the assembly at Jerusalem, and were the first-fruits of the gospel of Christ.

XXVI.

PAUL AT PHILIPPI.—A. d. 53.

ACTS XVI. 11-14.

11. Loosing from Troas, we came with a straight course to Samothracia, and the next day to Neapolis;

12. And from thence to Philippi, which is the chief city of that part of Macedonia, and a colony: and we were in that city abiding certain days.

TEN or twelve years after this his first visit, St. Paul writes to a body of Christians at Philippi, speaking of their persons with great affection, and of their faith with great confidence. The commencement of their renewed and holy state is related here. How precious a harvest, from how small a seed! So rapid is the growth, when God gives the increase.

Philippi was a town of some importance. Many Romans were mixed up with the native inhabitants. For it was a colony: it had been made part of the Roman empire. These, of course, were idolaters. Nothing relieved the darkness, the gross darkness which covered the people, except the few gleams of light which occasionally shone in from the Jews, who, here, as elsewhere, had formed a settlement, and through their worship and their scriptures brought some of those around them to the knowledge of the true and living God.

Arrived there, Paul must be "about his Master's business." He must deliver the message with which he was charged.

13. And on the sabbath we went out of the city by a river side, where prayer was wont to be made; and we sat down, and spake unto the women which resorted thither.

There was not here a magnificent place of worship; no temple like that of Jerusalem, which our Lord's disciples could not pass without remarking in admiration, "Master, what manner of stones, and what buildings are here?"1

Still, however, in a strange land, and in a heathen city, these foreigners could not omit the worship of God; and we see, by what follows, that God was with them, and that their "prayers had gone up as a memorial before him."

2

Here, then, the apostles spake unto the Jewish women, and to those who were their fellow-worshippers. We know what would be the character of their discourse. We may take it from the words of Zacharias, "Blessed be the Lord God of Israel; for he hath visited and redeemed his people, and hath raised up a horn of salvation for us in the house of his servant David: As he spake by the mouth of his holy prophets, which have been since the world began: That we should be saved from our enemies, and from the hand of all that hate us: To perform the mercy promised to our fathers, and to remember his holy covenant; the oath which he sware to our father

Abraham, that he would grant unto us, that we, being delivered out of the hand of our enemies, might serve him without fear, in holiness and righteousness before him all the days of our life."

Thus would the apostles preach unto their Jewish hearers. That the prophecies were now all fulfilled: that the sacrifices of the law had been explained: they had been types and shadows of what was now come; of that one full, perfect, and sufficient sacrifice, which God had received for the sins of the whole world. Then they would appeal to the proof of this which he had given, in that he had raised up Jesus from the dead: who was now for ever at God's right hand, where "he must reign, till he hath put all enemies under his feet;" and till he hath received into his kingdom all such as shall believe in his name, and confess him as their Saviour and their Lord.

The sower sowed the seed. What would come of it? Would the birds of the air devour it, before it could sink within the heart? Would Satan be able to prevent its entering in, and taking root?

This we may ask, wherever the word of God is spoken: Shall it be heard, as if it were not heard? Thought of no more? Shall it be at first admitted, and begin to spring; and afterwards be cut off by difficulties and temptations, or so choked with cares and worldly things, as to produce no fruit? Or shall it make a firm lodgement within, take root downward, abiding root, and bear fruit upward to the glory of him who planted it?

This must depend upon the heavenly husbandman. In this case, certainly, he was present to bless the work of the sower. There was at least one "honest and good

heart," which so received the word that it did take root and grow, and brought forth fruit many fold. The historian says,

14. And a certain woman named Lydia, a seller of purple, of the city of Thyatira, which worshipped God, heard us: whose heart the Lord opened, that she attended unto the things which were spoken of Paul.

Thyatira was a city adjoining that region of Asia, where Paul had intended to preach the gospel, but was "forbidden of the Holy Ghost." In her course of worldly business this woman is brought across the sea to Philippi; and there, by the mercy of Providence, she hears and receives the word of life, which she could not have heard at home.. She attended to the words spoken heard them in a different manner from others of the same assembly. This is clearly implied here: and it is no less distinctly stated, that this was the Lord's doing: the effect of his influence. Her heart the Lord opened: opened what is not open naturally: opened what without his grace would have been closed.

:

So it is everywhere, and at all times. "Some believe the words spoken, and some believe not." And those who have been led to receive the scriptures, "as they are in truth, the word of God," will not be slow to give God the glory to acknowledge that if he had not moved their hearts, they would have remained for ever shut against his word.

At the same time, we are not surprised that God did distinguish this woman by his blessing. It is in agreement with his usual ordinance, that they who seck shall find. For observe her conduct. She was but a so