length of lt • connected confession to • change wrought by Christ. The change was a. great one. The pride of man offered every conceivable hindrance to it. The surrender wu one that meant the profoundest e.cknowledgment of the opponent's victory. And Ohriet was the victor's Name. When Panl, therefore, defends his altered self and his altered course of life, his altered faith and hopes and methods, there is not an aspect of the defence which can be described as other than (,'hristian. 2. The defence of himself was forthwith transmuted by Paul into a testimony for Christ. This was the mark and very stamp of both Christian design and Christian method. With manifest fire of zeal, he seizes the favourable and welcomed opportunity. He gives us the impression that this is the thimg that has been in his eye of late. Paul may have been answerable in some degree for the commotion of the day. If so, now his task, embraced with all the energy that the very spirit of fidelity can throw into it, is to proclaim Christ. And when a man will so even vindicate himself as yet more to testify Christ, his self-vindication merits at least the title of the defence of a true Christian man. 3. 'l'his defence was perfect in its ·temper, and free from all betrayal of irritation; it makes its statement of facts with the utmost simplicity, but with unwavering confi- dence. 4. Lastly, at the point of supreme danger, it does not turn aside. The fact which Paul well knew was intolerable to the ears of his hearers, but vital to the truth, is steadily pursued, is arrived at, and then is distinctly announced, without an attempt at qualifying it or softening its effect. This was "not shunning to declare the whole counsel of God/' And it marked the quality of the Christian hero; it spoke the firmness of the Christian martyr; perhaps best of all it established conclusively the title of Pan! to the name of the true Christian man.-B. Vers. 1-22.-The testimooy of religiO'U6 ezperience. Not now dwelling upon the details of Saul's conversion, treated of for the most part under the consideration of the ninth chapter, we may observe that we have here Paul's own account of it, that is tc say, we have his own rehearsal of his conversion, and so far forth religious experience. We may use the opportunity for the purpose of illustrating the right occasion and use of the individual declaring to the world" what the Lord has done for his son!. This is in some cases an undoubted duty, and the neglect of it an undoubted dereliction of duty, Many, no doubt, are the occasions that lie on the border-line of expediency, and even of duty. And, as in many, many other things, it is then that the solemn claims of individual responsibility a.re either seen and hononred or dishononred. We may, therefore, observe some of the facts involved in a man's confession of his own religious experience before the Church and the world. I. IT AMOUNTS TO A FORCI11LE TESTIFYING TO THE FA<Yr OF THE WORKING AND FORCE OF Gou's PRESENCE IN JilJ'lllAN LIFE. II. IT IS A BTil4ULUS OB OTHERWISE AN ABIDING REBUKE TO OTHER ?4EN WllO OWN TO NO LIVING OONSOIOUSNESS OF THAT PRESENCE OR CO-OPERATION WITH IT. III. IT IS HELPFUL GUIDANCE IN llANY DIRECTIONS TO THOSE " WllO BELIEVE " IN THEIR OWN RELIGIOUS OOUBBE, IV. IT FREQUENTLY OFFERS AMAZING INBTANOES OF THI!: GOODNESS, LOVE, AND POWER OF GOD AND OF CHRIST AND OF THE SPIRIT, V. IT ABOUNDS IN EXEMPLIFIOATIONS OF HUMAN NATURE UNDER CERTAIN MOST SPECIAL OIBOUMBTANOEB AND TREATMENT, AND OF ITS BEBAVIOUB UNDER SUCH TREAT- MENT, VJ. IT IS NOT ONLY HONOURING TO GoD AND A GLORIFYING OF HIM, BUT IT IS USEFUL TO MEN, TO BIND THEMSELVES BY SOLEMN OBLIGATION OF PU11LIO PROFESSION BEFORE MEN.-B.
Ver. H.-" That Just One." Paul here quotes from Ananias a term used to desig- nate Jesus Christ. Its Scripture history as applied to Christ, and its significance as touching some of the deepest aspects of Christ's relations to humanity, are very worthy of some fi.:r;ed attention. Notice- I. THE SCRIPTURE HISTORY OF THE EPITHET, "THAT JUST ONE,'' AS APPLIED TO CHRIST. Six occasions in the historical portions of the New Testament illustrate its use, namely, when tt comes from the lips of Pilate's wife and afterwards of Pilate (Matt. xxvii. 19, 24); from the lips of the Roman centurion (Luke xxiii. 47); of Peter 204 THE AOl'S OF THE .APOSTLE& [on, lllL 1-SO.