the marvello11s power which ~her llll.W in the poor fishermen of Galileo was hie power; and that he would come again m glory to reign as the Lord's Christ. Can we doubt that their slumbering conscience was aroused to a very troublesome activity, thu.t guilt awakened fear and alarm, and that most unwelcome anticipations cl'Owdcd upon their minds? "¥e have filled Jerusalem with your teaching, and intend to bring this man's blood upon us," was their angry expostulation and the expression of their fears. Clear_ly, _unlcs_s these fears b:ought them to rerntance, they would rouse them to hatred and md1gnat1on. . Th_ey did the latter, an this persecution was the result. .And beyond a doubt this disturbed but not converted conscience lies at the bottom of much of the world's ha.tred of the truth of Christ. Men have sense enoucrh to know that if the_ Word ?f God is true they are condemned. The doctrines of the gospel are at varmnce with a hea.rt full of adultery and that cannot cease from sin. The same word which shows the grace and love of God shows the foulness and h11tefulness of sin. Men who have settled down into a course of sin and wilful uno-odliness do not wish to be disturbed. They wish to sin on in peace. They have no thoughts of renouncing all their old ways of thinking and feeling and acting. Whoever disturbs them, and breaks in upon their security, is an enemy. The disturbing doctrines are hateful, and all the more so if reason or conscienc~ sides wit~ them. And so anger and contempt and vengeance cry down the feeble voice of conscience and prompt the hand to violence and persecution. But- IV. NOTE THE SAD.'TS OF GoD UNDER PERSECUTION. They flinch not, but a.re bold to preach the truth unto bonds and unto death. They do not avenge themselves, but commit their cause to God. They flock together not to fight, but to pray, and to exhort and comfort one another. And in the end, instead of being dismayed, they are strengthened. Their faith is increased in the furnace of affliction; the Comforter comes to them; and the blood of the martyrs is the seed of the Church. Vers. 32-37.-07,urch unity. We speak in these dark days of unity in Christ, of brotherly love, of the communion of saints. But what do we see when we look around at the multitude of them that believe? We see some forty or fifty denominations of Christians, all keeping apart from one another, not willing to meet together, to pray together, or to receive the Holy Communion together. These different bodies are constantly at different degrees of strife with each other; sometimes waging actual wa1 one against another, at others engaged in bitter controversies, and carrying on a strife of tongues and pens. Even among those who belong to the same religious body what differences of opinion, what unbrotherly denunciations, what schisms, what party movements, are constantly breaking out I And yet we look with complacency upon this broken surface of Christendom, and make no great effort to correct it. Perhaps, if we can get a glimpse of true unity in Christ as it was seen for a while in the Church of Jerusalem, we shall be put to shame, and strive after something better. lN THE CHURCB OF JEBUB.6.LEK, TBEN, THE WBOLE IWLTITUDE OF BELIEVERS WEBB oF ONE BEABT AND SOUL. Rich and poor, learned and simple, Pharisees and Sadducees, Levites and Jews, were so united in Christ that all other distinctions we!'e lost. Selfishness was gone, for each loved lJs brother as himself. What each man had he held it not e.s his own, but as a steward of Christ for the good of all. The love of money was swallowed up in the love of Christ. The ordinary worldly life seemed to have melted into the life of faith and godliness. Their wants were spiritual, their occupations were spiritual, their joys were spiritual. In this happy state, in this clear atmosphere of love, the great truths of the gospel shone out with marvellous brightness ; the resurrection of Christ especially stood out in the lineaments of a distinct reality; and there wa.s a rich glow of grace over the whole Church. The whole body received th• apostles' doctrine, submitted to their rule, committed everything to their ordering. It were difficnlt to say whether the apostolic authority in the Church derived more of its vigour from the appointment of Christ, or from the love and reverence of the people The two forces were concentred on the heads of the twelve, and gave them an invincible power. Such was Church unity in those golden days. This is not the place to COlil•· sider the caueee which have broken to shivers that frame of heavenly beauty. But it may be e. not unfitting opportunity to entreat all who may read these lines to dwell upon the beauty of the BCene here depicted by St. Luke, to contrast it with the ?Qiserahlt CB, IV. 1-37.) THE A.OTB OF THE APOSTLES. 129
1111poct of our echisme and party divisions, and to make every effort in their own sphere to forwnrd unHy cmd godly love, to put aside all stumblin"-blocks and hindrances to Christian harmony, and to labour after that oneness of hea~t and soul which ourrht to result from fellowship in tho redeeming love of Jesus Christ and from ha.vine, o;e a.nrl tbo same hope of sharing tho resurrection of life through tb.e ~esurrection of J~sTJ.s from the dead.