by men. We oan prevent overhanging calamHies up to certain limits of time. We can if wo will duly keep Divine principles, and heed DiviM warnings. 11, '!'HEY 8110W TIIE OONNEOTION DETWEEN MAN'S CONDUCT AND MAN'S OIRCUM- STANOI!:B. This is always the point of a Divine warning. This connection we aro always in peril of denying or of forgetting. If we possibly can we think of events as accidents, and t.hen nll moral relations and uses are taken away from them. We never cnn call them "accidents" in the face of Divine warnings, for these distinctly affirm that the character of the coming events depends upon ourselves. It should be carefully shown that public events may not depend on iudividuals, but they do upon social conditions; and it may also be shown that the wrong-doing of some one may involve the cnlamity of many. In further and more minutely unfolding the mission of Divine warnings, it may be shown that- III. THEY MAKE MEN PEBSONALLY BEBPONSIBLE, AND GIVE THEIR AFTER-ACTIONS A DIBTINOT MORAL QUALITY. The warned man does not act at unawares. All excuses are taken away. The character of his proposed conduct is revealed to him in its issues. He acts upon knowledge, and the action is obedient or self-willed, good or bad. IV. THEY SOLEMNLY AFFIRM TIIE BUPRJ,:ME KNOWLEDGE OF GoD, AND THE DIVINE OVERBULING OF ALL AFFAIRS. In man's wilfulness he says of some things, "They are mere calamities; man's conduct had nothing to do with them; " and then again of other events he will say, "They are simply the natural consequences of men's foolish and wicked doings, and we need ,not think that. God has anything to do with them." Correcting both, errorp, God's warnings make us understand that he roles and overrules all, event:;;, aJ1 actions, all sins, "making the very. wrath of man to praise him.'' Show, in conclusion, that warnings still come to us (1) through men; (2) through the Word; (3), througl\ providences; (4) through the inward witnessings of God's Holy Spirit. Individuals and nations now cannot press on in paths of evil without finding, again and again, God's angel of warning blocking the way, e.e he did for foolish, covetous, wilful Balaam.-R. T. Vers. 21-26.-Good cheer from a good man. This interesting incident of the voyage may be introduced by a description of the perilous condition of the vessel, and the distress and hopelessness of the sailors and passengers. Canon Farrar's careful nar- rative will be found helpful (' Life of St. Paul,' vol. ii. pp. 375,376). A few sentences we may give: "The typhoon, indeed, had become an ordinary gale, but the ship had now been reduced to the condition of a leaky and dismantled hulk, swept from stem to stem by the dashing spray, and drifting, no one knew whither, under leaden and moonless heavens. .A gloomy apathy began to settle more and more upon those helpless three hundred souls. There were no means of cooking, no fire could be lighted; the caboose and utensils must long ago have been washed overboard; the provisions had probably been spoiled and sodden by the waves that broke over the ship; indeed, w:ith death staring them in the face, no one cared to eat. They were famishing wretches in a fast-sinking ship, drifting, with hopes that diminished day by day, to what they regarded as an awful and certain death. But in that desperate crisis, one man retained hiB calm and courage. It was Paul the prisoner, probably in physical health the weakest, and the greatest sufferer of them all. But it is at such moments that the courage of the nobl~st souls shines w:ith the purest lustre, and the soul of Paul was inwardly enlightened." Notice the apostle's sensitiveness to visions at all the great crises of his life. He was a man of prayer, and when a man has gained the habit of communion with God, special times of nearness and revelation are sure to come. .A man may, by prayer e.nd communion, make the veil between himself and God very thin and very shadowy, only a mist through which the shinings of God may, at times, easily pass. If we inquire why, on this most depressing occasion, this one man Paul kept so cheerful and so hopeful, the answer is that in him we see the triumph of the man who is conscious of God's presence with him. St. Paul here gives an illustration of his own words, "I can do all things through him that strengtheneth me." In these verses note- I. 'l'HE GOOD MAN'S REPROOF. (Ver. 21.) It might seem unfitting and unkind to remind the officers of their past mistake; but St. Paul was a moral teacher, and every- where he sought to do his moral and religions work. He would not mills the oppo~ 816 'l'HE ACTS OF THE Al'OSTL~S. Ccn. xxnt 1-44,
t~nit~· of producing e. sense of sin which might be the beginning of better things. If lns reproof h~d been e. mere te.unt, in the spirit of our irritating way of saying, 11 I told yot: so," 1t could not be commended. It belongs rather to the reproofs of which it may be said, "Faithful are the wounds oi e. fri<'nd." ll. 'l'HE GOOD MAN'S ASSURANOE. (Ver. 22.) It wa& found In the stron"0 brnvo words St. Paul used, but even more in the tone with which they were uttered. 'l'hrre could be no question about his own assurance. On his own faith he could uplift and cheer others. Compare the calmness of St. Paul with the unnatuml calmness of Jonl\h when the storm raged about him; and give illustration, from modern tales of shipwreck, of the power of the godly man to quiet alarm and prepare men for death. IIL THE GROUND OF THE GOOD MAN'S OONFIDENOE. (Vers. 23-26.) In this case a Di,·ine communication. In other cases more general grounds, such as (1) our good Father's care and power ; (2) the II exceeding great and precious promises ; " or, some- times, a strong impression made upon our minds. Impress that the power to cheer others may be won by any and every godly man. It follows upon a real living faith in God; it is the proper power of the man who is calm by reason of his trust in God, and cherished sense of the Divine presence.-R. T.