integrity, living for one object-the presentation of truth to the minds of men for their present and eternal good, W o cannot detect in them one single selfish purpose-neither the love of gain, nor the love of power, nor the love of praise, nor the love of ease. What we can detect-it stares us in the face-is an intense love of God, an ontiro devotion to the Lord Jesus Christ, an unquenchable charity for the souls of their follow-men, both Jews and Gentiles, and B calm, steady hope of the appearing and king,lom of their unseen Lord. We see also a sense of duty urging them to every step they t:lke, and prompting every word they speak. Well, they preach the gospel of Jesus Ghrist, They convince, they convert, they receive their converts into the Church of God, all the while leading lives of blameless purity, quietness, and order. Then they are seized, they are ignominiously beaten with many stripes, they a.re draO'O'ecl 0 off to prison, their feet are made fast in the stocks, and they are left alone in th~ dark. But it was no darkness to them. In the exercises of prayer and praise the light of Heaven illuminated their souls. The gospel which they believed and preached was no less precious in its promises, its hopes, its power, its present light and joy, in that inner dungeon, than it had been by the water-side or in the crowded synagogues of Antioch. The Master whom they served was no less glorious, no less worthy of a.11 their love and all their service, than he had ever been. They knew that his truth would endure from generation to generation. They were not moved from their steadfastness. Then came their wonderful deliverance. And how did they use it? In preaching the same truth to their jailor, in repeating it to the house of Lydia, in carrying it forth from city to city, and being never silent, but continuing to bear witness to the truth as long as their life endured. And are they silent now? I trow not. The truth has not changed; but in heaven it is seen more fully, in more unclouded lustre, in fuller pro- portions of breadth, and length, and height, and depth; and they that know it there have fuller powers of thought and speech with which to magnify it than the most gifted of them possessed on earth.
HOMILIES BY VARIOUS AUTHORS. Vera. 1-5.-77ie C!hurcli's duty and reward. I. THE DUTY OF THE CmrnCH. 1. To encourage and develop Christian talent. When Paul went to Lystra he found the Church there speaking well of a young disciple, Timotheus. This convert was "well reported of by the brethren" (ver. 2), and "him Paul would have to go forth with him" (ver. 3). The Church praised him who was praiseworthy; and the minister trusted and encouraged him who was trustworthy, leading him on to higher things, and placing him in a. position in which his consecrated powers would have freer range and extended usefulness. The Church of Christ seldom does better than when it nourishes youthful piety, and paves the way for the exercise and development of growing talent. 2. 'l.o make timely con- cession, "Him Paul took and circumcised because of the Jews" (ver. 3). Paul thought these men wrong in their views, but he consulted their sensibilities for the sake of concord and progress. The true triumph is, not to work well with those with whom we are in full sympathy, but to co-operate, without friction, with those between whom and ourselves there is variance of view or difference of disposition. There is no possibility of rendering any considerahle service in the e3use of Church organization, without a large measure of the conciliatory spirit, and without a considerable amount of actual concession. Not the man who carries his point by obstinate persistency, but he who yields at the right time and in the right spirit is commenJ.ed of his Lord. 3 To befaithful to all compacts. (Ver, 4.) Probably Paul and Silas might have safely said nothing about the decision at Jerusalem; the people of Asia. Minor would have heard nothing about that. But they were scrupulous to carry out the compromise in all its particulars. Fidelity to an undertaking is a clear and ur~ent Christian duty; the Church or the minister who should slight it would be doing something which is not only unworthy but discreditable, displeasing to Christ, injurious to itself or himself. 4. To keep in view consolidatiun and extension: to preserve a fair and wise proportion between these dillerent branches of Christian work. Uuder the hanJ. of Paul and Silas the Churches of Asia "wore established iu the faith, an,\ increasc\l in number" (vcr. 6). The missionaries were not more desirous of extcuding the line of active THE ACTS OF 'l'HE APOSTLES. [ou, XVL l-'10.