directing the course and tracing the bound of our activities, compelling even the wrath of man to praise him, conducting all things to a rightful and blessed issuo.-O, Vel"II. 17-21.-Mismeasurefflfflt oJ the grmt and small. There is something ludi- crous ae well as instructive in the scene which Fostus hero describes to .Agrippa, Nothing could well be more incongruous than a Roman judge presiding at a tribunal before which "niceties of the Jewish religion" were brought up. He would feel utterly unsuited for the work, and he gladly enough availed himself of the presence of Agrippa to gain some notion of the subject which had so completely perplexed him. It appeared to him that the men over whom he was called to rule were permittina themselves to be passionately absorbed by questions not worthy of a moment's con': sideration. It probably also occurred to him that one at least wns strikingly and unaccountably indifferent to those things to which alone he himself attached impor- tance. How thoroughly he mismea.surcd everything we see if we consider- 1 THAT HIS OWN POSITION AB PnocURATOR OF Jun.a.A WAS A MA'ITEB OF THE LEAST IMPORTANCE. Doubtless to him that seemed the one substantial fact in comparison with which "certain questions of the superstition" (religion) of the Jews and of" one Jesus" were small indeed. Now, we are only interested in Festus because of his accidental association with these questions. But for this connection not one in a thousand who now know something about him would have even heard of his name, How important to each one of us seem his own personal affairs-his income, his position, his reputation, his property I In how brief a time will these things be as nothing-his possessions scattered, his name forgotten, his office handed over to l\nother I It would do us all good to be occasionally asking of ourselves-What will be the value of the things we prize so highly "when a few years are come"? ll. THAT IIATTEBS PERTAINING TO THE HEBREW FAITH ABE OF NO BLIGHT Illl'ORTANCE. "Certain questions of the religion" of the Jews would seem very trivial to a Roman ruler. But we know that they are worthy of the attention of mankind. Not only the great question of the Jewish Messiahship, but other and inferior matters respecting sacrifices and ordinances, have a place in our record which has outlived and will ontlive proudest dynasties and mightiest empires. Students will read and investi- gate Leviticus and Deuteronomy when the annals of the empire are disregarded. Everything which hears on our relation to God, and everything which is even remotely related to that" one Jesus," has an interest which will not die. ill. THAT THE "ONE JESUS," TO WHOII FEBTUS SO SLIGHTINGLY ALLUDED, WAS TBE DESTTh"ED SoVEnEIGN OF TIIE RACE. Nothing could exceed the contemptuous indiffer- ence with which Festus speaks of the Saviour (ver. 19). Nothing was further from his thought than that this One would live for ever in the honour and love of the world. But the Stone which the Jewish builders refused has become the Headstone of the corner, and the Prisoner whom the Rom.an soldiers crowned and clothed in cruel mockery now reigns in such majesty and wields such power as golden wreath and imperial purple will not symbolize at all. He who was dead, and whom Paul, the prisoner, so innocently and una.ccountably "affirmed to be alive," is now worshipped as the risen, the reigning, the living Lord and Sovereign of mankind. How have Pro- curator and Malefactor changed places I How has the first become the last, and the last become the first I Let us (1) rejoice in the exaltation of our once crucified Lord; (2) bless God for the exaltation of many of his servants, once held in disregard or derision and afterwards honoured; (3) hope and strive for our own exaltation ; for to the humblest servant of the Saviour there is the prospect of a throne of honour, a crown of glory, a sphere of blessednesa and usefulness (2 Tim. ii 12; iv. 8; Rev. ill. 21).---C,
Vera. 22-27.-PO'IIJer, J.egeneracy, and consecration. That WAS a striking scene which is B11ggested to our imagination by these verses. The aa.cred narrative does not, indeed, waste words on a description of it, but it supplies enough to place the picture before our eyes (see Farrar'a 'Life of St. Paul,' in loc.), It invitee our attention to thrae subjects. We have- L THE REPREBE1'"TATIVJ: OP WORLDLY POW'l:a: "At Festus'• commandment" (ver. 23). The Rom.an procurator may not have been present with "great pomp," but he co!lld afford to dispense with glitter awl .aqow; £or he bad auihority in his hand-be OU. XXV. 1-27,) 'l'IIE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES. 267