and must plead either one or the other. So it is at the bar of God. Either we are trusting in ourselves that we are righteous; or because we are not righteous, we are trusting in Christ, who has made propitiation. for our sins. Therefore there can be no mid-way as to FAITH; no meaning in being almost a Christian. Neither as to PRACTICE, can there be a middle course. Because either we are seeking "first the kingdom of God and his righteousness," or we are seeking this world first; that is, preferring it, wherever the interests of the one clash with the interests of the other. We cannot at the same time love God most, and mammon most. Either we are yielding to some desires, and habits, and temptations contrary to the gospel; or we are rejecting and opposing these, as they must who are altogether Christians, and bringing every thought, and word, and deed into obedience to Christ. Such must be their purpose and endeavour. Not because, to be altogether a Christian, a man must be altogether perfect. But because he must be altogether sincere in aiming at perfection, and allowing himself in nothing short of it.

This was the state of Paul's own heart; and knowing the comfort which he derived from the consciousness of this, and the blessed consequence which should follow, he earnestly desired that both Agrippa, and all before whom he was pleading, might be nothing less: might be not only almost but altogether Christians.

Agrippa, however, had now heard enough to satisfy his curiosity, and too much, perhaps, to maintain his ease of mind; and he would hear no more.

30. And when he had thus spoken, the king rose up, and the governor, and Bernice, and they that sat with them: 31. And when they were gone aside, they talked between themselves, saying, This man doeth nothing worthy of death or of bonds.

XXXIV.

PAUL AT ROME.

ACTS xxviii. 30, 31.

30. Paul dwelt two whole years in his own hired house, and received all that came in unto him.

31. Preaching the kingdom of God, and teaching those things which concern the Lord Jesus Christ, with all confidence, no man forbidding him.

PAUL had been told in a vision, that he must "bear witness" to his Lord at Rome. And it had been long his own earnest desire to visit that great city, and to enforce in his own person the doctrines which his Epistle had contained.1 His wish was fulfilled, but not as he had designed. He was carried thither as a prisoner, who had appealed to Cæsar from the unjust tribunal of his countrymen. And thus it had been wonderfully ordered that he should have the opportunity, during two whole years, of preaching the kingdom 1 Acts xxiii. 11; Rom. i. 13.

of God, and teaching those things which concern the Lord Jesus Christ, in the great city of the world: and that without hindrance. The very imprisonment in which he was held favoured him. Had he been able to enter into the Jewish synagogues, or to dispute, as at Athens, in the public places with them that met with him, the magistrates would have interfered, and the law would have put him down. But being confined to his own hired house "with the soldier who kept him," he received all who came to him, no man forbidding him: and though he was bound, "the word of God was not bound." Many, we may suppose, of his visitors were his own countrymen, whose lingering prejudices he would endeavour, and often successfully, to remove. But the greater number, probably, were Gentiles: providentially led, through acquaintance or connexion, to seek that light which God had set up, ready to enlighten every

man.

During this sojourn at Rome, Paul did not forget the churches which he had planted elsewhere. His epistles to the Ephesians, Philippians, and Colossians, written at this time, show his anxiety concerning them. They also enable us to gather some particulars of his residence, which history has not elsewhere recorded.

We learn, for instance, something of the support and comfort which he received while dwelling in the midst of this idolatrous and luxurious city.

He was not left alone. There was collected round him a faithful band ready to live or die with him. "Marcus, Demas, Lucas, his fellow-labourers, and Jesus, which is called Justus: who are of the circumcision." These were his "fellow-workers unto the

kingdom of God, who were a comfort to him." 2 So was Aristarchus, the companion of his voyage, whom, with Epaphras, he styles his "fellow-prisoner;" and Tychicus, who conveyed his letter to the churches.3 Afterwards Timotheus came to him, "his own son in the faith" and Epaphroditus, "a brother and companion in labour and fellow-soldier," who brought from Macedonia a token of affection from the Philippian brethren. In this manner "his God supplied all his need:" he "had all, and abounded," through the kindness and gratitude of those to whom he had ministered blessings which no price could repay.

But though he wanted not comfort from without, his chief comfort was within. All was safe and peaceful there. He had made up his mind to "count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus: "5 to seek as his sole dependance "the righteousness which is by faith of Jesus Christ." And in this confidence he could rest secure. "To live was Christ, to die was gain." "Not as though he had already attained, either were already perfect : " he knew that as long as he continued in the flesh, he must be still

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reaching forth unto those things that are before, pressing on towards the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus."7 Still this was no labour or sorrow to him: it left him in full enjoyment of the assurance which belonged to his faith. knew in whom he had believed: and that he was able

2 Col. iv. 7, &c.

3 Col. iv. 10; Philem. 23; Col. iv. 7; Eph. vi. 21.

"He

6 Ib. i. 21.

to keep what he had committed to him unto the great day." 8

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A further comfort was derived to him through the success which was granted to that cause on which his heart was fixed. "" Many of the brethren waxing confident by his bonds," gaining courage from his example, "became much more bold to speak the word without fear." So that the truths of the gospel pervaded both the highest and the lowest stations. They reached the fugitive Onesimus, who had been slave to Philemon at Colosse, and had fled from his service to Rome. He, being converted to the faith, returned again to Philemon, "not now as a servant, but above a servant, a brother beloved." 1 Then the same truth which stooped to the fugitive slave, climbed also to the imperial palace. So God ordered it. The apostle comforts the Philippians under the thoughts of the durance in which he was held, by giving them to "understand that the things which had happened to him had fallen out rather to the furtherance of the gospel: so that his bonds in Christ were manifest in all the palace, and in all other places." 2 The cause for which he suffered had become known, the Saviour whom he proclaimed had been received: and when he sends his salutation to the distant brethren from those at Rome, he especially mentions "the saints of Cæsar's household." 3

"So mightily grew the word of God and prevailed," during the two whole years when Paul dwelt in his own hired house, and received all that came unto him, preaching the kingdom of God.