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inflated with haughty conceptions of their law. They had been stimulated by their priests to demand the crucifixion of Christ, and had joined in the guilt of that unjust and dreadful tragedy. But no sooner did they hear the solemn and convincing appeal of the Apostle, than conviction flashed upon them. Remorse, shame, sor¬ row, took possession of their minds. They instantly discovered that the person whom they had ignominiously crucified, was their long-promised Saviour. They saw in the miraculous gift of tongues an unanswerable proof that the Messiah was come. The lovely character and beneficent miracles of Christ rushed into their thoughts. They recollected what they had themselves seen and heard of Him. All his purity and benevolence rose like a vision before them. The conviction of their obduracy in rejecting his mission and consenting to his death, burst upon their minds. They felt that they could make no excuse for their crime. They saw no way of es cape from the wrath of the Saviour whom they had provoked; and who, as they now believed, was enthroned at the right hand of the Father. Thus the word of God was, in their case, quick and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword. They became at once sensible of their folly, ingratitude, wickedness,, and blindness; and were touched to the very quick on account of their guilt and danger...

Such was the beginning of true repentance in these Jews; and such the efficacy of divine grace in blessing the words they had heard. It might appear incredible that hearts so hard should be so soon impressed; that they who had lately crucified their Messiah as a blasphemer, should thus sink at once from the height of presumptuous iniquity to the depths of contrition. And in truth the change would be beyond belief, especially when we consider the accumulated evidence of our Lord's personal character and miracles, and the obstinate unbelief of many of the very same Jews when they witnessed them; if we did not know that the Holy Ghost, the purchase of the Saviour's death, had been communicated to remove the veil of pride, prejudice, and sinful affections from their minds. Thus the truth had its due effect in convincing their understandings and piercing their hearts.

Effects of the same kind follow in our own days, the faithful instructions of the ministers of Christ. The conviction of truth indeed is not always so immediate and so powerful; the work of conversion is often slow and imperceptible; and neither the time of its commencement nor the exact steps of its progress can be traced, And it is especially gradual among those who have had the blessing of a religious education, or who have been much accustomed to religious

reading and inquiry. Still the commencement of true repentance is substantially the same in all. Men must be convinced of their sins, or perish. And whether this conviction resemble the sudden alarm of the Philippian jailor, and of the Jews in my text, or the gradual illumination of Cornelius, Lydia, the Ethiopian eunuch, and the Bereans, the results are the same. The careless and wicked are effectually brought to feel their sins and their danger, and to inquire after the way of salvation. They are pricked in their hearts with remorse and confusion, their vain excuses are silenced, they feel their lost condition, they humble themselves in contrition of soul before God; and admit without reserve the charge of guilt and condemnation which his holy law prefers against them.

In many cases, where there has been previously an entirely wicked and ignorant life, truth is more suddenly communicated to the soul. Like the Jews in the text, such men often discover at once, what they never felt before, their extreme danger and misery. The sword of the Spirit lays open their hearts; their mouths are stopped; their sins arise in terrible array before them. They feel for the first time their accountableness, their ingra titude to God, the abuse of their talents, the neglect of their souls, the wickedness of their hearts and affections. They compare them

selves with the spiritual standard of God's law, and conviction of sin breaks in upon their minds with the brightness of a sun-beam. They feel that their former lives have been full of rebellion, vanity, and ungodliness; that their best deeds have been polluted with evil, their merits demerits, their virtues a mask, their religion a form. Thus the arrows of God stick fast in them. Pain, and grief, and perplexity, and alarm agitate and rend their minds.

Whether the manner, however, of this conviction of sin be sudden or gradual, the essential point is to feel our transgressions with deep sorrow and compunction of heart. This is the beginning of true repentance. This forms the broad distinction between a careless, worldly, wicked man, and a lowly and teachable one. Such was the change in Manasseh when he humbled himself before God in the time of his affliction; such was it in Josiah, whose heart was tender; such in Zaccheus; such in Mary Magdalen; such in the woman of Samaria; such in the Apostle Paul. In all these cases, there was a poignant grief for their iniquities as committed against God.

And here let us stop, and inquire if we have ever thus felt the weight of our sins. Religion is a personal concern. Have we, then, discovered and confessed our own transgressions against God? Do we know what it is to weep

for our rebellion and enmity of heart? Is sin a heavy burden, too heavy for us to bear? Did we ever mourn for it as unspeakably odious and abominable? When we hear the word of God read or preached, does it convince and affect our minds? If it does not, O let us implore the illumination and grace of the Holy Spirit, that such an effect may be produced! It is by his influence alone that our hard hearts can be changed. It is in vain for me to proceed with this discourse if there be no impression on our souls. I shall strive as one that beateth the air. Let us then pause, and fervently beg of God to "cleanse the thoughts of our hearts by the inspiration of his Holy Spirit ;" and to take away the heart of stone out of our flesh and give us an heart of flesh; that thus we may have a right judgment and feeling of this important subject, and be touched with penitence for our unnumbered offences against God.

But I proceed to notice,

III. THE INQUIRY TO WHICH

PUNCTION FOR SIN WILL LEAD.

REAL COM

The converts in the text are described as saying unto Peter and the rest of the Apostles, Men and brethren, what shall we do? This was the spontaneous language of an awakened mind. When the understanding is informed, and the heart changed, the inquiry will imme

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