Jesus Christ."

We possess Christ's own peace. 2. The consequences of sin. These constitute a long dark train. They are these: disappointment, beginning early and lasting long; a weight of responsibility for the temporal and spiritual well-being of kindred and neighbours a heavy burden upon human shoulders; sickness, including weakness, pain, incapacity, dependence; toil, the severe and often continued overtaxing of our powers, bodily or mental; uncertainty respecting the future, which means anxiety and care; unkindness, harshness, oppression, or persecution; death, that of others, bringing bereavement with all its loss and loneliness, or our own death, apprehended and feared at a distance, or looking us in the face. These things are around us; we may meet with one or more of them at any time. They are, in some measure, upon us. They are telling upon us, ageing us, afflicting us. Is there any escape, any deliverance from them? There is the guilty and cowardly escape too often sought by rich and poor, even by the young as well as by the old, of self-inflicted death. There is the deliverance which God will grant us when He removes us from the burdens of time. But is there none now? There is that which the Lord of peace grants to His ownpeace in the midst of trouble. He gives peace "at all times, in all ways." He comes to us as (1) the Divine Lord, controlling all our life, and making the most adverse circumstances "work together for our good"; as (2) the Divine Friend, with us always, night and day, of whose perfect sympathy we are always sure, to whom we can unburden our hearts, who invites us to cast all our care upon Him, and who will take us and ours into His strong and loving charge; (3) as the Divine Spirit, dwelling within us, by His direct, immediate, gracious power upon us, renewing, inspiriting, sustaining us, giving us "the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness."

TWENTIETH SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY.

SELFISH SCRAMBLE AND CHRISTIAN

SERVICE.

Behold I judge between cattle and cattle, &c.-EZEK. xxxiv. 17-22.

NOTHING could be nobler than the fidelity of the Hebrew prophets. Their predictive powers were less honourable to them than their pastoral functions. To foresee and to

foretell was a great privilege; but to have deep insight into the moral and spiritual conditions of society, and to speak the strong straight word, fitted to cleanse and to restore, whether that word was painful or pleasant, that was higher and nobler far. Ezekiel having pronounced God's judgment on the "Shepherds," i.e., on the constituted authorities of the land, proceeds to the severe condemnation of a number of " the cattle," i.e., of the people themselves. He gives a graphic picture of the society of his time. He likens it to a flock of sheep seeking nourishment on the green pastures, beside the still waters of Israel; but instead of each one taking its turn and making room for its fellow, the strong ones are eating and drinking, and, while doing this, befouling the grass and the water of which others are to partake; and, becoming aggressively injurious, they push violently away those who are weaker than themselves, "scattering them abroad," to pine and perish for anything they care. presents to us the scene, far too often enacted in human life, of a selfish scramble-a scramble for position, for money, for power, for enjoyment. Each man is struggling for himself, in entire disregard of the claims of other people, in cruel indifference to the wants of the weaker, with a fierce determination to be himself well fed, whoever may lack the necessaries of life. We find this in business, in professions as well as in trade and commerce, in art, in politics, in pleasure, and, it must be admitted, sometimes in the sacred sphere of religion. Of this selfish scramble we may remark—

able.

It

I. ITS ESSENTIAL SINFULNESS. 1. Selfelevation is right and good. To make the most of our powers and opportunities; to cultivate our faculties so that they do not rust in disuse but shine in service; to rise by honest, patient industry, and to walk along the high level of honourable sefulness-this is admir 2. Emulation is allowable and helpful. The boy who has no ambition to reach the top of his class, the manufacturer or tradesman who does not care to make or to sell the best possible goods, is not likely to accomplish much. Emulation does not supply the highest of all motives, but it is a divinely implanted instinct, and it is good after its measure and in its degree. But a selfish scramble, in which we only care to secure our own comfort or enlargement, and do not care at all who is stranded or lost, in which we present such a

The

picture in life as that given to us in the text of cattle in the field, is ugly and evil. When we, with our imperfect sight, look long upon it, we see that which pains us, we see that which falls far below the level of our nature, that which is unbrotherly, which is, indeed, inhuman; we feel that it is selfish in a sense and a degree that is guilty and condemnable. And if it seems thus to us, how much more guilty must it appear to Him who is Love itself, who lives to love and bless-how hateful and offensive must it be in His pure sight! II. ITS INDURATING INFLUENCE. struggling cattle in the field are no worse for their heedlessness, or even for their violence. They suffer no spiritual harm; they do not rise and fall, in a moral sense. But we do. We are always moving up towards the Divine, or moving down towards the animal. And he who is living the life of selfish scramble through the months and years of his existence here is losing all the finer and nobler elements of his nature, is becoming indurated in spirit, is sinking to that base condition in which his own wants and tastes are everything to him and all else is nothing.

III. THE CONTRAST OF CHRISTIAN SERVICE. We look at the life of our Lord, and we find Him positively declining to use His power to turn the stone into bread, though He must have sorely needed food (Matt. iv. 4). We find Him refusing to accept the opportunity of self-aggrandisement at the expense of the sacrificial mission on which He came (Matt. iv. 9). We find Him at all times accepting

the position of poverty and privation, that He might be a perfect "Son of Man," entering by personal experience into the needs and sufferings of His people. We find Him continually stooping from His high ground of perfect Divine wisdom to impart and to explain the truth of God to undiscerning disciples. We find Him compelling all things to give place in order that He might give food to the hungry, and healing to the sick, and hope to the abandoned, and rest to the weary. We cannot conceive of any greater

contrast to the life of selfish scramble than that life of holy service which He lived before the eyes of men.

What is the use we are making of our powers? Not, let us hope, to climb to the highest post of honour, or get the largest slice of comfort, let who will go short; not to hustle the weak out of our way that we may rise or may possess. That would be unworthy of us who were born to bear the image of our Father, and who have sat at the feet and followed the life of Jesus Christ. Let us use those powers which we have from God, that we may follow where Christ is leading, that we may do good and communicate, that we may help others to partake of the bread and water of life, that we may enable them to walk in peace and joy along the path they tread, that we may guide the erring into ways. of wisdom, that we may raise the fallen, that we may be a light and a strength to all whom we can reach and bless.

WILLIAM CLARKSON, B.A.

SAUL OF TARSUS CONVERTED.

ACTS ix. 1-20.

THIS event, which happened on the Damascus road about the year 37 A.D., was truly one of the most momentous of history.

The meaning of this remarkable occurrence reaches out a long way. Indeed, since the New Testament is the final revelation for the Christian Church on earth, the power of Saul's conversion must be felt to the end of time.

I. Its meaning first, of course, concerned himself.

1. He was convinced of the truth of Christianity. By Christianity we mean the doctrine that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, the Saviour of the world. By what sort of an argument was Saul convinced of the truth of Christianity? The reasons for his becoming a Christian were both external and internal. The miracle was double, and whatever any one of any school of thought might require as a sufficient ground for such a tremendous change as was brought about in He Saul is actually supplied in his case. became a Christian really and rationally.

2. By this change Saul was led into an entirely new kind of life, not only in his heart, but in his work. Christianity was not only his creed, it was his business. Saul was to abolish Judaism as a half-way step to Christianity; he was to preach salvation to the Gentiles as Gentiles. To this change, planned by God to be brought about through Saul, our conversion is due. This work was to be done through a life of unusual obedience to Christ. Its type is presented to us at the very opening of Saul's Christian career in the question, "Lord, what wilt Thou have me to do?"

3. And how was all this brought about? Wholly of the grace of God. Saul did not convert himself, did not designate his work to himself, did not characterize it with suffering, did not furnish his own spiritual equip ment for it. All was from God.

II. Saul's conversion had a great influence on the Christians of his day.

1. It showed them that God's care was over them.

2. It showed that God's power was behind His care. It is not enough to watch unless one is able to help. God knew and God was able. If He could make a man like Saul of Tarsus over into a follower of Jesus He could do anything; for this was the impossible, ordinarily speaking.

3. Saul's conversion showed the early Christians that God would use means for their blessing and the furtherance of His work such as they had not expected.

III. To Christian truth always Saul's conversion has especial value.

1. In the line of Christian doctrine it has force. Saul's experience was not in a dream or in a vision. It was in broad day-light, under normal conditions. Thus he beheld Christ in glory. Christ then is alive, He is glorified, and His glory is not spiritual alone, but of such a kind that it can be apprehended by other ways than by thought upon His character. He can be present wherever He chooses in His glorified body, and can reveal Himself when He likes. The doctrine of the existence and work of the Holy Spirit is touched upon in the story of Saul's conversion.

2. Saul's conversion has immense value in the department of apologetics-the defence of Christianity. There is a problem here which mere naturalism has never been able to solve. Saul presumably was able to know either a stroke of lightning or a sunstroke if he had

experienced it. An attempt has also been made to explain Saul's conversion on psychological lines. Because at once (ver. 5) he addresses Christ as Lord (Kyrie, which in this place is nothing more than the ordinary word of salutation to a superior), and because Christ (ver. 5) says it is hard for him to kick against the pricks (which means only that opposition to Christ is useless), it has been thought that Saul's conscience had been troubling him and making him wonder if perhaps Jesus were not the Christ, and so preparing him to be converted on a slight occasion. But the record gives not a hint of any such psychological preparation. Out of deliberate and bitter antagonism Saul was converted to Christ. The conditions were as unfavourable to his conversion as they could be made. No stronger evidence for the miraculous, supernatural character of Christianity could be offered. If Saul did not see Christ, then the strongest convictions of the clearest minds cannot be respected, and no thinking whatever is ever worth anything.

3. Saul's conversion has an especial relation to Christian mission.

There are some special notes worth making in addition to these, in connection with the conversion of Saul.

(1) All men need conversion. Saul was a good, moral, even godly man before he became a Christian.

(2) No one is too hard a subject for a possible future Christian.

(3) The outline of the soul's progress in conversion is the same for all.

(4) Grace is the only means of our salvation. All is from God.

(5) There is a work for every one who is made Christ's. We are elected to work.

(6) Our work is accomplished through suffering. What we gain we pay for. Let us not grudge the cost.-(D. J. Burrell, D.D.)

DORCAS RAISED TO LIFE.

ACTS ix. 32-43. "THEN had the Church rest throughout all Judæa." Mere quietude, however, is not the law of progress; something was needed to overcome the timidity of the Church at Joppa, and to awaken the attention of the money-making people of that seaport town. God had His own way of encouraging the faithful and arousing the careless. Dorcas was the instrument by which He accom

plished these ends. The faith of this woman was of the highest type; her belief was more than a theological assent to the truth; her faith worked by love and purified the heart. "This woman was full of good works and almsdeeds which she did."

Notwithstanding the faith of Dorcas, "It came to pass in those days, that she was sick, and died." There are several considerations that press upon us in view of these facts. Sickness is not necessarily an indication of sin on the part of the individual attacked by disease; neither is illness to be attributed to a lack of faith. It is God's purpose to let the physical forces of the universe take, in most instances, the natural courses He has made; He has good reasons why diseases should be allowed, in the majority of cases, to develop through the various stages of their natural history. Sometimes we can see the good that comes to us from illness; not unfrequently it brings forth the fruit of a new purpose. There are times, however, when for His glory God interferes with the natural order of things, and brings to pass supernatural results.

As the Church-members turned their faces heavenward, God put it into their hearts to send for Peter, a dozen miles away at Lydda. Perhaps Peter had not the slightest idea what he would be called upon to do, but he started out. By the time he had reached the city he had received Divine illumination as to the course that ought to be pursued. Entering into the house, "Peter put them all forth," that his mind might not be distracted from any suggestion that the Spirit might make to him, and he "kneeled down and prayed." Others equally deserving a resurrection had died and were buried without a word of prayer for their resurrection. Stephen, "6 a man full of faith and of the Holy Ghost," was not called back from the spirit-world. It was for the glory of God that the first martyr was taken by "devout men" from the bloody stones that had been hurled at and upon him and carried to his burial." It was for the good of the kingdom of God that Peter was inspired to ask for the return of Dorcas to her work, and Christ heard the petition He had Himself put into His servant's heart.

The results. There was joy in the household of Dorcas; the night of weeping had passed, and the morning of joy had come. The results abundantly justified the exhi

bition of miraculous power in the cities of Lydda, Joppa, and Cæsarea.

The inferences drawn from the healing of Eneas and the raising of Dorcas, so far as the topic in hand is concerned, may now be stated: 1. Holiness is not a bar to disease, although a Christian life tends to health and longevity. 2. Remedies are to be used under the advice of skilled physicians.

3. God usually permits diseases to run through the varied stages of their natural history.

4. There are times, however, when it is for the glory of God's kingdom that the Head of the Church should arrest disease by the direct action of His own Spirit.

5. When it is the purpose of Christ to "bear our sicknesses," He illuminates the minds of certain faithful disciples, impressing them with the belief that a petition offered for healing will be granted.

6. Faith exercised upon the gift of especial illumination will be honoured.

7. No person has been raised from the dead since Apostolic times; therefore no illumination has been given for this purpose; supposed illuminations have been hallucinations.

8. The highest type of faith expresses its needs according to the best knowledge at the time, and trustfully leaves the outcome to Him who has said, "Your Father knoweth what things ye have need of before ye ask Him."—(J. M. Durrell.)

PETER'S VISION. ACTS x. 1-20.

THIS passage gives us a great subject-the revelation to man of the great truth of human brotherhood; God's time of revelation; God's method of revelation; God's purpose in the revelation.

I. God's time for revealing this truth had

come.

The Jew was still a Jew, intensely bigoted, uncompromising, exclusive. Even the disciples had not begun to grasp the truth that God was the Father, and they the brothers, of all men. But now the time had come to fully make known the great doctrine that Christ died for all mankind and that all were equally precious in God's sight.

The time was auspicious, as God's time always is. God's revelations are never hastened and never retarded. Moreover, this vision occurred in all probability just subse

quent to Paul's conversion, perhaps within a few days of that event. The command to preach the Gospel to the Gentiles came to the great Apostle to the Gentiles at the same time that the truth that the Gospel was for the Gentiles came to the great Apostle to the Jews. Thus always do God's purposes match and link together. When the ages are prepared for it, the truth is revealed. There is no more convincing incidental proof of the Divine rulership of the universe than the timeliness of God's progressive revelation.

II. This lesson also teaches us in a most vivid way God's method of revealing a great truth.

He does not proclaim it from the heavens, but whispers it to one man, or, as in the case of Peter, impresses it upon his mind in a day vision; and that man passes the revelation to another, and that one to another, and so on until the world has received the message which God had sent. But it is not every one to whom God can reveal Himself, or whom He can make a messenger to carry a new truth to the world. In the vision of the sheet let down from heaven God revealed a larger truth than Peter had before known, and yet he seems to have accepted it with very little cavil. He was a man of open mind and of a teachable spirit. He was a man with whom God's word weighed far more than traditional prejudices. Moreover, we learn from this lesson that he was an obedient man.

But the revelation must not only be made to Peter; in order that it might prove effective it must be given by Peter to the world. Cornelius was a representative of the whole world waiting to receive the new revelation. It was quite as important to find some one to receive as it was to find some one who could give the message, and Cornelius was the one chosen. By studying his life we can learn why he was chosen. In these few verses we have his character revealed: honest, generous, devout, obedient, fearless; such was the man to whom God confided the revelation which was to revolutionize the world. It is also well worth noting that both these men were engaged in prayer when the vision came. To such hearts the Spirit easily finds its way. This is always God's way of accomplishing His purpose. He chooses means, and these means are intelligent human beings-me -men who are fitted to carry a new truth to the world. Such men have the glad privilege of being God's messengers. Only such men can God

choose.

Narrow, bigoted, disobedient, irreverent, impure, or cowardly men cannot be used by God for any such purposes. Through such men He never blesses the world.

III. It is also interesting to note how these men were prepared by God for the message they were to receive and then give to the world.

Cornelius was prepared for the visit of Peter by the vision at the ninth hour of the day, and Peter, even while the men whom Cornelius had sent were rapidly approaching the tanner's house, was being prepared to receive them by the vision of the sheet full of all manner of beasts. The vision prepared the way for the messengers, and the messengers interpreted the vision.

How suggestive is this to many a Christian! Have you not in some hour of communion with God had a message given you that you felt ought to be carried to some one else? Then learn from this lesson that God has been preparing some one to receive the message, and that if you keep open-hearted to the promptings of the Spirit you will surely find the one for whose sake it was given to you.

IV. There is another matter that will engage our attention in this lesson, and that is the purpose of the Divine revelation.

This revelation was given for the sake of the whole world, that all races of mankind might be elevated, that all nations might be brought together in closer fellowship, that every man might look at every other man as a child of a common Father, and so a brother. -F. E. Clark.)

PETER AT CÆSAREA.
ACTS x. 30-48.

THIS lesson is full of most practical and helpful teachings. Among them we may

notice

1. Circumstances do not make men. There is a great deal of unexpected goodness in the world. Some of the noblest characters have been developed amid unfavourable surroundings, with no godly example to copy, no friend to counsel, no monitor to warn. Josiah in Jerusalem, Daniel in Babylon, and Joseph in Egypt are examples of exceptionally good men amid exceptionally bad surroundings. So we would hardly have looked for a devout man among the officers of the Roman army. All this shows that piety can flourish under most unfavourable circumstances.