the suggestion is sure to be of the most solemn and pathetic in equal proportions. And in every one of these respects it must be maintained that Paul is an example for o.11 Christian teachers and pastors, for all time. Whatever can be obtained by human instrnmentality out of the mysterious mass of humanity will be beat obtained thuR. No force, no authority, no policy, will obtain souls, Nor will care, and love, and tendcr- noss, o.nd foresight, o.nd faithful "warning" keep all that they shall seem to obtain. 'fhe "grievous wolves will enter in; " "men out of" that very number who listened and wept, nnd were both wept and pr3:yed over, "will arise, speaking perverse things," :ind, drawn away themselves," they will draw away others after them." "Offences will coma I" But it is to be said that when Paul and the successors of Paul ha.ve done an<l said what Paul now did aud Baid, and something in the same manner, the solemn damning "woe," wherever it fall, will not fall on one of them. They have saved their souls, and they are" pure from the blood of all men."-B. Vers. 37, 38.-Sure springs of affection. The great regard of the Ephesian elders to Paul was genuinely spoken in their great regret as now manifested. Farewells have a pathos all their own, and share it with nothing else. They legitimately exhibit what has been long years, perhaps, as legitimately concealed. '!'hey are often acts of pardon, and ought always to be such. 'l'hey bring out better qualities than have been seen before or even ~uspected of existing. And sometimes they are the inauguration of a far higher love than all that had been, when love of the personal presence is super- seded by the love of souls, The farewells of an average human life, could their added effect be calculated, would in many instances be found to have constituted some of its most potent and its highest influences. Notice some of the leading caases of the deep affection recorded in this place. I. TUE ACQUAillTANCE OF THE EPHESIANS WITH PAUL HAD BEE!i ONE IN WHICH THEY HAD RECEIVED THE NEW AND PRICELESS BLESSL'iG OF HOLY TEACIIING. II. '1.'m,: ACQUAillTANCE HAD BEEN ONE DI THE SURE BACKGROUND OF WHICH HAD BEEN ALWAYS A HOLY LIVING EXAMPLE, Ill. •rrrE ACQUAINTANCE HAD BEEN ONE FAB REMOVED FROM ALL NARROWNESS OR LIMITEDNESS OF AIM: IT HAD BEEN STAMPED WITH USEFULNESS. The behaviolll' of the sabbath and even of the Lord's day is far more easily taught than the behaviour of all life's" common days," and to teach this it is abundantly plain Paul did not disdain. IV, TnE ACQUAillTAN0E WAS ONE ALL THE MEMORIES OF WHICH WEllE MEMOBIES OF UNAFFECTED KillDLINESS AND CONDESCENSION. (1 Thess. ii. 7, 8.)-B.
Ver. 7.-The Lord's day sabbath. This is the first allusion to distinctively Christian meetings as held on the first day of the week, the day which commemorates the resur- rection of the Lord Jesus. The groun<ls on which it pleased God to separate a regular, and a frequently recurring, portion of time from common worldly la.hour may be pointed out. Two things especially require notice. 1. Such a recurring period of rest is practically proved to be necessary for man's physical well-being. It is more and more clearly shown, that the recovering and restoring power of nightly sleep is not sufficient, and that the weekly prolonged rest is essential to the continued maintenance of the bodily powers. 2. A man is not chiefly o. body. He is a composite being; but he is, in the truest conception of him, a soul, having a body for his use. And it is of the first importance that the soul should have its due and adequate opportunities of culture. For the securing of such opportunities, the tension of bodily claims must be at times relieved, The change of the day kept as the sabbath, from the seventh to the first of the week, does not seem to have taken place by any revelation or any dis- tinct apostolic arrangement. It came about in the natural course of events. Probably at first the Jewish Christian disciples kept the Jewish sabbath in the usual way, and also had some special meeting of their own, in remembrance of the Lord's resurrection, on the evening of the first day of the weok. As the gospel won its way among the Gentiles, the distinctively Christian meetings would grow in importance; and when St. Paul separated thedisciples from thesynagogue,Jewishcustomsandrules ceased to have authority over them. As Judaism faded away, the Christian day of rest took the placo of the older sabbath; and the Christian forms of worship superseded the tcm1,lo and the eynagoguo ordinances, We dwell on two J>Oints. 164 THE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES. [OH, :U., 1-38.