'.wo fails not to give eome new expression to the countenance. What a mournful ,ommentnry on human nature, that it is necessary to contemplate its worst expression of countenance, and to study, not the model to copy, but the type false and debased to avoid I Consider, therefore- I. WHAT IT 18 THAT 18 UNDERLYING THE FACT THAT THE FAITHFUL TEACHER OP CHRIBT 18 DESORIBED AS "PESTILENT." '1.'hese are the two things that underlie the ngly fact, 1. That it is the depths of e. muddy nature that a.re reached. 2. That it is something that has the undisputed power to reach those depths that is present and working. The "pestilence" was e.11 subjective to Tertullus and friends. The strong force was the force of Christ. II, WHAT IT IS THAT UNDERLIES THE FAOT THAT THE DEVELOPING MANIFESTATIONS OF Goo's MIND TO TUE WORLD HAVE BO UNIFORMLY FROM TIIE FIRST PROVOKED NOT A FEW TO VOTE THEM NOTIIING DETTER THAN THE SIGNS OF SEDITION. These a.re at least somo of the things that underlie the fact. 1. That the unfolding of God's miucl and purpose to the world always means war with its inertness. The keen appetites of the world are not to true knowledge, not to godly activity, not to wisdom's perfect work. 2. That the growing manifestation of God to mankind always means a summons to simpler, pmer, more determined holitJess and height of life. The stir and report that swell round the echoes of the voice summoning men in this sort are indeed sedition to their stifled order of life and of habit and of affection. It is not in them to "seek for honour, glory, and immortality." God's greater, better, clearer gifts necessarily postulate a truer human retnm of them, and a correcter reflection. lIJ. WHAT IT IS THAT UNDERLIES THE FACT THAT THE PUREST FOLLOWING OF THE PUREST TRUTH AND OF THE IDGHES'.l' IDEAL WHICH Gon HAS GIVEN TO ME::'! HAS so OFTEN GATHERED OVER ITS INNOCENT HEAD THE WORST ACCUMULATIONS OF MISC0::'1- STRUCTION, MISREPRESENTATION, Ah'D FALSEHOOD. A notable instance is here before us, 'l'he polished orator, the trained and keen lawyer, heaps the epithets, every one ill or of ill omen, "pestilence," "sedition,'' "ringleader," "sect," "the Nazarenes." These were the fruit of a tongue rather than merely a pen "dipped in gall." And false is the word stamped, as a monogram is stamped, on every one of them. These are some at least of the causes at work under the fact. 1. That reason, opportunities of know- ledge, convictions, conscience injured, ignored, insulted, know terrible ways of revenge, and a terrible force of revenge. Obscurity becomes thick darkness; mistake becomes wilful preference for the wrong; one sin becomes a multitude. 2. That a certain sort of heart, once deeply conscious, without the slightest readiness to acknowledge it, that it is losing, loses also itself, loses its self-control, and finds itself drifted, hurried, hounded on to senseless lengths. Heaven's sweetest beneficence-for this it has nothing but the vocabulary of traducing slander. CoNCLUBION. These things are not the necessities and inevitable things of human nature. They are results of permitted unfaithfulness, condoned infidelities, encouraged wilfulness, and deliberate defiance of tmth, in place of devoted affiance to it. Deep need the roots of them to be sought, that without mercy they may be uprooted and exterminated. And they need the prayer earnestly offered, " Search me, O God, and know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts: and see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting."-B.
Vers. 10-21.-The defence of I'aul. The simplest analysis or the defence which Paul here made for himself is Hs highest praise. 'l'he matter of it mnst be closely dependent upon the occasion, but the characteristics of its method must be good for all occasion, and imitable to all generations. Notice in this defence-- I. ITS ADDREB8 TO THE JUDGE, UNlARNISHED BY A HOLLOW COIIPLDIENT. Thti contrast which is presented in this respect to the introduction or Tertullus speaks for itself. There is here nothing but simple truth. II, THE HONEST BUSINESSLIKE fOINTEDNESS WITH WHICH IT PROCEEDS TO ITS ONE TASK, "I do the more cheerfully answer for myself," says Paul. He could never answer for himself with hope of any ordinary justice before a council of his own people. But now, while this is his one task to answer for himself, and he takes to it immedla~ly, he does not refrain from saying that there an, aspects of the case which unable him to throw himself with spirit into his work, 417l't-~ B H2 THE ACTS OF THE APOSfLES. [oH, xxtv. 1-27,