commissions. In this sense, I believe, the foundation of the apostolic Church was peculiar; they were endowed with peculiar gifts for their more hardy vocation. "Go ye into all the world, and preach the Gospel to every creature." "Go ye, and teach all nations." I believe the true vocation of the apostles has been too much overlooked to the present hour. There is home work to do, and some must stay at home; but the great glory of the Christian Church will be and I do most earnestly pray it may be of the English Church to fulfil her original commission, to go upon a Gospel commission into the whole world, on a commission organized by the English government, by Divine government. This book of the Acts of the Apostles forces the subject afresh upon one's thoughts. I shall show how the JEHOVAH, SAVIOUR, MESSIAH, was with the Church then, to deliver from prison, and to fortify for a martyr's death; and He is with her still. But the point of difference is this: that then she was the despised, trodden-down follower of the Nazarene, a terrible minority; now she is the centre of the civi lized world, "the light of the world" (Matt. v. 14), with prestige, means, and freedom of action unknown to her in any age before. "Thus it behoved Christ to suffer, and to rise from the dead the third day: that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in His name among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem" (Luke xxiv. 46). Thus we find St. Peter and St. Paul at Babylon and at Rome, St. Thomas in India, not inverting the order, beginning at Rome; finishing there, it is true, not by concession, but by

martyrdom, "for the faith once delivered to the saints."

We have seen Christ, after His resurrection, lingering upon our earth forty days," and speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God," of the true, hidden Church; but we have only to read this book of the Acts of the Apostles, to see Him, after His ascension, descending, still guiding, and deeply solicitous about things pertaining to her. It was a fact hard to receive that the children of the covenant were to be cast out, and the whole Gentile world to be brought into the everlasting covenant of grace. And so, immediately after the conversion of St. Paul, we find Christ descending in a supernatural vision, to instruct Peter further in the matter. Peter answered Him: "Not so, Lord," or JEHOVAH, the same title he had ever addressed Him by; he would not disennoble Him now; and he commanded his Gentile converts "to be baptized in the name of the JEHOVAH," which was really in the name of the Holy Trinity, as ordained by Christ (Matt. xxviii. 19). “He is JEHOVAH of all" (Acts x. 14, 36, 48).

And in the eleventh chapter, after rehearsing the narrative of the vision in his defence against the accusations of those who maintained the right of circumcision, he said: "Forasmuch then as God gave the Gentiles the like gift as He did unto us, who believed on the JEHOVAH Jesus Christ; what was I, that I could withstand God? And

the hand of the JEHOVAH was with them: and a great number believed, and turned unto the JEHOVAH.

In the twelfth chapter we find the Lord Jesus Christ again with Peter, working a miracle for his relief. "Herod the king stretched forth his hands to vex certain of the Church. And he killed James the brother of John with the sword.

"And because he saw it pleased the Jews, he proceeded further to take Peter also.

"And when he had apprehended him he put him in prison.

"Peter therefore was kept in prison: but prayer was made without ceasing of the Church unto God for him.

“And when Herod would have brought him forth, the same night Peter was sleeping between two soldiers, bound with two chains: and the keepers before the doors kept the prison.

"And, behold, the angel of the JEHOVAH came upon him, and a light shined in the prison: and he smote Peter on the side, and raised him up, saying, Arise up quickly. And his chains fell from off his hands.

"And the angel said unto him, Gird thyself, and bind on thy sandals. And so he did. And he saith unto him, Cast thy garments about thee, and follow me.

"And he went out, and followed him; and wist not that it was true which was done by the angel; but thought he saw a vision.

"When they were past the first and the second ward, they came unto the iron gate that leadeth unto the city; which opened to them of his own accord: and they went out, and passed on through one street, and forthwith the angel departed from him.”

Angel here simply means a messenger of mercy. It was the Lord Jesus Christ Himself; even as when we read: "The messenger of the covenant." I have thus extracted this, to show that He is ever with the Church, and in answer to fervent, believing prayer, He will ever appear for her deliverance, according to His infinite wisdom and mercy. Here is another of his miracles. He is as Almighty as He is wise, when He sees good to put forth His Eternal might.

In the twenty-third verse of this chapter we read again of His Almighty interposition. Herod, the king who had killed James, imprisoned Peter-a grandson of Herod the Great, who beheaded John the Baptist—and was then in search of Peter to put him to death, sat upon his throne arrayed in royal apparel, and made an oration. "And immediately the angel of the JEHOVAH smote him ; and he was eaten of worms, and gave up the ghost." We often distrust God in this His relative character to His people; but He is always with them, and always the same.

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In Acts xiii. 11 we find St. Paul commanding blindness upon Elymas the sorcerer: Behold the hand of the JEHOVAH is upon thee, and thou shalt be blind, not seeing the sun for a season. And immediately there fell on him a mist and a darkness," a visible sign of the inner darkness of the soul. And in his sermon at Antioch, we hear him proclaiming the passages fulfilled: "Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten Thee. Thou shalt not suffer thine

Holy One to see corruption.

"Be it known unto you therefore, men and brethren,

that through this man is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins."

And to the Jews he said: "It was necessary that the word of God should first have been spoken to you: but seeing ye put it from you, and judge yourselves unworthy of everlasting life, lo, we turn to the Gentiles.

"For so hath the JEHOVAH commanded us, saying, I have set thee to be a light of the Gentiles, that thou shouldest be for salvation unto the ends of the earth.

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And when the Gentiles heard this, they were glad, and glorified the word of the JEHOVAH and as many as were ordained to eternal life believed.

"And the word of the JEHOVAH was published throughout all the region " (Acts xiii. 33, 38, 39, 47).

"And when they had gathered the Church together, they rehearsed all that God had done with them, and how He had opened the door of faith unto the Gentiles " (Acts xiv. 27).

.

In the fifteenth chapter we see how difficult it was to detach the Jews from the letter of the law, and the rite of circumcision. "It was needful to circumcise them, and to command them to keep the law of Moses." The ever prompt Peter would show them a surer way to obedience: "Purifying their hearts by faith. Now therefore why tempt ye God to put a yoke upon the neck of the disciples, which neither our fathers nor we were able to bear? But we believe that through the grace of the JEHOVAH Jesus Christ we shall be saved." Then was the prophecy of the calling of the Gentiles referred to (Amos ix. 11), declaring the great