animated them ; the same determination to mortify sin in your- selves, to discountenance it in others, and to bear your testimony before the whole world, that Christ alone is to be served and honoured and obeyed ? Bring yourselves, I say, to this test; and see whether your conduct speaks for you, as theirs did for them. Call not this enthusiasm : it is not enthu- siasm, but duty, yea, and the duty too of all that believe in Christ. Rise, then, to this, my brethren ; and beg of God so to assist you by his Holy Spirit, that you may come short of it in nothing, but "be lights" to all around you, and "salt" that shall keep all, who come in contact with you, from cor- ruption. If ye profess to believe in Christ, and have a " hope in him," see that ye follow him in all things, and " purify yourselves, even as He is pure."]
Acts xix. 34. All with one voice, about the space of two hours, cried out, Great is Diana of the Ephesians !
THE enmity of the human heart against God may sleep ; but it is soon awakened, and called forth into action. St. Paul had continued two years at Ephesus, if not unmolested, yet protected by the power of God. But when his labours there were just finished, and he had sent away two of his attendants into Macedonia, with an intention speedily to follow them, it pleased God to withdraw from the people those restraints which he had hitherto imposed upon them, and to leave them to shew what was in their hearts. Accord- ingly the workmen " who made silver shrines for Diana," finding their trade lessened by the prevalence of Christianity, raised a tumult throughout the whole city, and would probably have killed Paul, if they could have laid their hands on him. In opposition to him and his doctrine, they exalted the object of their own worship, crying with one voice for the space of two hours, Great is Diana of the Ephesians !
From this circumstance we shall take occasion to notice,
I. The zeal they manifested —