miracles by the faot that he could not deliver himself from the cross; and (5) that it was a public insult to the intelligence of the people for these disciples to go on assertin" that this crucified Impostor had risen from the dead, and had ascended to heaven, and was now showing signs of his Divine power. Saul thought he had a plain case and good grounds for his persecuting zeal; and so he had, assumin~ that his vi'lw was correct. But, suppose he was wrong, and Jesus after all was Messiah? Suppose it could be shown him in a moment the.t Jesus was alive and exalted? Then the very foundations of all his arguments were plucked away, and a new impulse urged him to consecrate himself, once for all, to the service of Jesus the Nazarene, I. Tua: INTENSITY OF AN IMPULSIVE CHARACTER, Illustrate from the S:1.ul who was the first king of Israel; from incidents in the life of the Apostle Peter, and from the later story of Saul, or Paul. This intensity often does good service; it overleaps difficulties which hinder the quieter and calmer class of men. It bears others alon" on Its own tide of impetuosity. It becomes holy boldness, wise enterprise, and steadfast endurance when it is duly toned, sanctified, and guided by the indwelling Holy Ghost. There is more or less of impulsiveness in each of the apostles of whom anything is narrated. James and John followed the impulse stirred by the Master's call, a.nd left their fisher-.~ork and fisher-folk, to become servants of Christ and fishers of men; and an impulsive spirit is sealed in the surname which our Lord fixed upon them. Matthew seems immediately to have obeyed, and left the receipt of custom, when the l\faster touched his bean with the call, "Follow me;" and it was evidently in the intensity of deep feeling that he gathered his friends to a parting feast. Thomas speaks impetuously, "Except I shall see in his hands the print of the nails . . . I will not believe; " and still more impet11ously he cries, " My Lord and my God," when constrained to believe by the condetjl'ending grace of the Redeemer. Peter represents to us the exaggeration of impulsiveness; and he never reveals his character more fully than when smitten down, penitent and broken-hearted, because of the second cock-crowing and the Saviour's reproachful look. II. THE WEAKNESS OF THE IMPULSIVE CHABACTEB. This finds expression in such things as: 1. A disposition to overvalue mere religious feeling. 2. To take up new ideas or new schemes, under the urgings of sentiment rather than sound judgment. 3. A tendency to give up schemes with as little thought as they were ta.ken up. 4. A foolish expectation that everyone must be as intense as the impulsive one is. 5. And an inability fairly to estimate the reasons that make slow progress a.lone safe a.nd sure. In the Christian life, as in common life, sea.sons of undue elevation are sure to be followed. by seasons of undue depression, and such sea.sons are very disappointing and humiliating. St. Peter illustrates the weaknesses of the impulsive. Our Lord had even to reprove him severely. From Saul, or Paul, may be shown the solid excellence of character which the naturally impulsive man may gain when piety, principle, and noble sentiments come to rule and guide and tone his impulses. Some of the grandest sentences of St. Paul's Epistles are the utterances possible only to a sanctified man of intensity and strong impulses ; e.g. Phil. i. 21-23.-R. T.
Ver. 6.-Preaching <Jhrist. The expression here used is a. frequent one in the Acts of the .Apostles; e.g. " preaching the gospel;" "preached the Word ; " " preaching peace by Jesus Christ;" "ceased not to teach and preach Jesus Ch.-ist;" "preaching the Lord Jesus;" "Jesus whom Paul preached;" "according to the preaching of Jesus." The proper idea. of preaching is "heralding," "proclaimiug," declaring a message ; and the old prophets of Judaism were true preachers; so were the angels at Bethlehem, and so was John the Baptist. Philip the evangelist went to Samaria, where there was quite as intense an expectation of the Messiah as could be found among the Jews, and to the Samaritans Philip proclaimed that Messiah, or Christ, ha.d come, in the person of Jesus of Nazareth, and that his resurrection-which was abundantly proved-:--was the crowning a~testation and _proof th~t he was t~e Chris_t, t,~e Son of tho Most High God. What is mvolved and included m "preachmg Chnst may best be found by the consideration of a few illustrative cases. 1. Christ preached himself to the two disoiples on the way to Emmaus; and his points were the necessity for the 1ufferinga of Ohrist and his subsequent resurrection, and the absolute truth of the ffl THE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES. [oH, Vlll. 1-tO,