duty of " caring for these things." About the things of this world we may relax our care : there are few who do not run into a criminal excess in their attention to them : in reference to them, we think no anxiety too great, no labour too abun- dant: whilst the interests of the soul are deemed unworthy of any care. We mean not that worldly things are to be neglected; but that, whilst we are " not slothful in business, we should be fervent in spirit, serving the Lord."]
Acts xviii. 24 — 28. And a certain Jew named Apollos, born at Alexandria, an eloquent man, and mighty in the Scrip- tures, came to Ephesus. This man ivas instrxicted in the way of the Lord ; and being fervent in the spirit, he spake and taught diligently the things of the Lord, knowing only the baptism of John. And he began to speak boldly in the syna- gogue : whom when Aquila and Priscilla had heard, they took him unto them, and expounded unto him the way of God more perfectly. And when he was disposed to pass into Achaia, the brethren wrote, exhorting the disciples to receive Mm : who, when he was come, helped them much which had believed through grace : for he mightily convinced the Jews, and that publicly, shelving by the Scriptures that Jesus was Christ.
IT is a weighty saying of our Lord, " To him that hath, shall be given ; and from him that hath not, shall be taken away that which he seemeth to have." Universal experience attests the truth of this : the man who has talents of any kind will improve them by use, and lose them in a great measure by neglect. In religion especially this law of our nature obtains : indeed it obtains in religion more than in any thing else ; because, in addition to the gain or loss which the cultivation or neglect of any thing will of necessity occasion, God himself will interpose in the things which relate to him, either to reward the observance of them by a further communication of his blessings, or to punish the neglect of them by a withdrawment of his grace. Of the former of these, namely, the increase of well-employed talents, we have an instance in the history before us. Apollos, when he began to