thing ell!6. They re,•eal : 1. Oowardioe, That they should fear we.e natural and a sign that nature had not gone callous in them. But cowardice began when they did not face to the end what he.d now some days been a common dangor, one for which they were in part themselves answerable, which they could best meet, and which others must meet. 2. Selfishness. They try to save themselves, (1) regardless of others who belonged to them, as if only eo much freight; (2) and yet worse, doubling the risk :>f them, by (a) withdrawing their own professional help, and (b) withdrawing the boat. 3. The unfaithfulness of the hireling. Seldom could there be found a more typical instance of this (John x. 11-13). They were hired, they "cared nothing" for the lives of those entrusted to their charge, and they did attempt to "flee!' 4. The "wisdom in its generation" of human ne.ture, For, baulked of their purpose, and baulked in a most transparent and peremptory manner, they are too "wise" to court lynch law ; and they appear to follow the policy at once of saying nothing, and making the best of it. They fall into their pl11.Ces, and do whatever is to be done. So versatile ca.n human nature be when it suits her. II. BY PAUL. Paul under any showing was the character and the hero of the boat. We should ·not be content without knowing anything of him that opens to our view. A great deal does open to our view. He steps out not now for the first time since the storm began. It would be very far from the truth to say now that it was only human nature that we have the opportunity of seeing. No; the subordination of human nature was, perhaps, not yet perfect. Yet there was no willing strife (Rom, vii. 15-25), no great strife, no very distorting strife, between the human and the Divine in him. 1. Paul was the one calm watcher of everything that transpired. 2. His was the eye that read and that was then engaged in reading nature in others. It was in very deed, at any time, part of his office to do this very thing. 3. His was the eye that, so clear itself, detected the fraud, the would-be fraud of others. 4. His was the unfaltering tongue that declared it, though probably with no addition of safety to himself. 5. His was the mind conscious in its own rectitude and confident in God's truth and provi- dence, that does not for a moment hesitate to expose itself to being taxed with certain theological inconsistency. Most positively and publicly had he committed himself to the statement that God had promised him himself and " all them that sailed with him." .And yet he brings to the fore a condition, a new sort of proviso, and that one that postulated the help and co-operation of a number of godless and inhuman hire- lings. These things all show, not only that the truest Christian need be no less a true man, but rather that it is only the true Christian who touches at all sufficientiy the possibilities of the true ruan. For Paul the prisoner, on the way to trial, of many the despised, is nevertheless th6 man in every essential respect, in that boat, and succeeds in commanding not only a professed respect, but a practical obedience from all the rest. ID. BY THE BoJUN CENTURION A.ND SOLDIERS. 1. So soon as Paul has had his say, they see quickly, because their eyesight is keen by reason of the instinct of self- preservation. 2. They are not nice as to the source from which they derive their clue. Extreme peril has done a great deal to strip off from them all unnecessary artificiality, all dignified ceremony, all officialism and mere sense of authority. Nature itself stares them in the face, and puts not lispingly the alternative-Where may all these be very soon r 3. They act, act at once, and act trenchantly too. They cut off escape from the coward and the knave and the supremely guilty. Let what may be said to them, let what may be threateningly looked at them, they act, for so it is given to human nature t.o do in the last resort. .And those who do not act in the presence of the solemn, supreme dangers of life, cutting off escape from the evil-doers, though these be them- selves, are the men who wi!l be left yet more "without excuse" for what is written in the book, in this threefold illustration of human nature in the presence of peril.-B.
Vers. 33-36.-An 'UIT!expected testimony to the force of goodness. Not the least honourable testimony to Paul is contained in the incident related in this passage, It is one undeniable testimony among many as to where in the ultimate resort strength lies. It lies with goodness. It lies with the man who lives with God, works for Christ, iB ruled in conscience and life by the dictates of the Spirit. Long periods may wear away first, and the most unpromising entanglements seem to forbid hope, hut the vindi- cation comes at le.st, and often ill the most extraordinary and unanticipated way. For tirt. u.vu.1-44.] THE .A.dTS Oiii TIH: APOSTLES. 81.J