They are wHneesee to a living One, a Personage, and not to a mere truth, 2. They aro witnesses to him of the things that they know of "the Word of life" (1 John i. 1), through having seen him, heard him, looked upon him, and handled him, all in the deepest sense. 8. '!'hey are witnesses "to e.ll men," as far e.s they can possibly in any way reach nil men, and under any circumstances to all impartially. Deep was the impression that these communications (unmentioned elsewhere) ha.cl made on the mind of Paul. 'l'he words of Ananias, inspired most freshly as he was from the source, had dwelt deep-stored in his memory. And now, some twenty-five years afterwards, at a crisis most opportune, they come to the surface, they are full-charged with their own vitality; and are practically commended by Paul e.s embodying the charter of all who should be" witnesses for Christ."-B. Vers. 18-21.-Men's past sina often the unknown determiners of their future lAfe, its opportunities, and its disqualifications. It is possible to take different views of the drift and the intended tenor of this passage. The language of Saul (which Paul now quotes), as found in vers. 19, 20, will be very far from powerless, whether read as a. view humbly offered in harmony with the commana just laid upon him, or as perhaps is the more probable, in deprecation of it. 'l'he passage, however, reminds us, amid high associations of great truths, of solemn far-reaching principles in human life. The retribution which it enwraps is not that of the severity of judgment to the sinner, but of the inevitableness of that cause and effect which speak a Creator-God of infinite wisdom, and a creature-man of reason, of moral capabilities, and of a certain freedom of action, that lies at the root of moral responsibility anti final accountability. Notice, then- I. A 0ABEEB OF UNTOLD POSSIBILITIES OF USEFULNESS AND HONOUR IN THE MOTHER 0lTY JERUSALEM CUT BHOBT FOR PAUL. 1. We could imagine reasons why Paul would have felt his highest ambition fired by testifying, working, suffering, and dying for Jesus in Jerusalem, as; (1) The mother city of the land and of God's favoured people, renowned with ancient and special renown. (2) The place at the very heart of Jewish life, where he would have longed to recant most publicly his one-time errors of creed, and retrieve whatever it were possible to retrieve of the effects of those errors. This would have been of what was most noble among the characteristics of Paul. (3) The place which held the same relation to the religious world that Rome did to the heathen world. (4) The place where the Master bore the grandest testimony of all his course, and suffered and died. 2. It needs little imagination to see that, let alone any sense of a noble ambition, Paul would feel that 1t would be one of the grandest opportuuities of usefulness, at the very centre of typical and peculiar risk and danger. From all this Paul is interdicted by a voice of sovereign authority, and on the plain ground of his own past of error. !I. A BEMEDY IN CRBIST AGAUIST ABJECT HOPELESSNESS, AGAINST SETTLED DESPAIR, AGAINST BEMORSEFUL THROWING UP OF ENDEAVOUR, IN THE PRESENCE OF THE BETRI- BUTlVE ASPEOTS OF HUlllA.N LIFE. The veto of Jesus Christ, spoken with authority to Paul, i.s nothing else than linked with a summons to other work and another sphere, that may turn into all equal usefulness and probably usefulness far greater. Notice the method of that summons. 1. Though to state the ground of it might be pain and might give pain, it is not wrapt in vague mystery and unsatisfying innuendo. It is, on the other hand, a grand instance of "Faithful are the wounds of a friend." 2. The summons exhibits a very distinct and emphatic value set upon the life and the useful employment of the servant somewhere or other. Twice, nay, thrice repeated is the direction to depart with "haste," "quickly," and unquestioningly.J Men may depart like Jonah. But also they may depart for (1) Christ's own command, announced in the individual conscience or by the living Spirit; and (2) for greater toil and e:xposurc, instead of for ease and hiding from work. 3. 'l'he summons announces, by a most gracious anticipation, an highly important substitute career. The man who has incapacitated himself by follies, by errors, evon by sins, for some of the noblest of Christian service shall still not be cast away aa useless. Ho is still good to do some- thing; yes, to do much. 'l'he Master does not refuse the love or the service of the fallen, when they return. Nor does he consent to treat with them only through others, First ho eaves them and protects them, and suggest& his care and love of them. Then 206 THE AOTS OF THE APOSTLES. [au. xm. 1-80.
he gives them their work, though II far hence.• And lastly, he does not withhold from their ear to hear his own voice, 11 I will send thee." What trust, what love, whai forgivingn888, and what stre&.ms of hope Jesus has to give-and gives to his own 1-B.