to the Saviour of the lost, and fill them with joy and peace in believing. And why, brethren, can it not be so? Is the Gospel less precious, the interests of the soul less momentous, dammation less fearful, heaven less desirable to you than to them? Oh, then, receive with meekness the engrafted word, which is able to save your souls. God grant that unto you it may prove a savor of life unto life.

THE MARVELLOUS DELIVERANCE.

ACTS. XII. 6, 7.

"And when Herod would have brought him forth, the same night Peter was sleeping between two soldiers, bound with two chains; and the keepers before the door kept the prison. And, behold, the angel of the Lord came upon him, and a light shined in the prison; and he smote Peter on the side, and raised him up, saying, Arise up quickly. And his chains fell from off his hands."

The persecution of the Church by the Jewish priests and rulers would seem to have ceased, or greatly slackened, after the conversion of Saul of Tarsus. But this was by no means owing to any relenting of spirit, or diminution of hostility. On the contrary, the same rancor towards the crucified Jesus and his adherents inflamed their breasts, and burned as fiercely as ever. And when an unscrupulous tyrant was anxious to secure popular favor, no surer method presented itself than to oppress and persecute the Christian community. Herod Agrippa, grandson of that Herod the Great who had sought the life of the infant Saviour, nephew of Herod the Tetrarch by whom John the Baptist had been beheaded, and brother of the infamous Herodias, the instigator of that act of cru

elty, was now the ruler of Judea: high in favor with the Roman Emperor Claudius, and lately promoted by him to regal dignity. He is described in history as a great zealot for the Mosaic law, and much inclined to gratify and court the influential Jews; and thus he became a ready and willing instrument of their implacable hatred against Christianity. To such a man persecution was a pastime, and the shedding of innocent blood an act of policy. And he thought to accomplish his purpose of exterminating Christianity most effectually, by striking down first the most distinguished and eminent of the body, the chosen Apostles of the Lord. The importance of their labors and lives was well understood, both by friend and foe, and it was the maxim upon which persecutors acted for many centuries in their warfare against the truth of Jesus, "Smite the shepherd, and the sheep shall be scattered." As the tallest trees of the forest attract the lightning, and are oftenest shivered by the bolt; so for a long period pertained to the overseers of the flock of Christ the honorable distinction of being chosen out for the slaughter. And this well known fact is a powerful answer to those who would represent, as the growth of human ambition, the primitive form of Church government, which it has already occurred us to notice, and of which the Episcopal character, as early as the second cen

tury, is not denied. Surely there was little to excite the desire for pre-eminence, when the sword was ready drawn to smite the occupier of so perilous a position, and the faggot kindled to consume the acknowledged Governor of the Church. That would have been a strange ambition that sought preferment at the cost of liberty and life, and was willing to bleed and to burn for the sake of a little brief authority. Truly pious men would never have lent themselves to the projects of ambition and self-aggrandizement, and hypocrites would scarce have coveted an office of so brief and precarious a tenure, and so obnoxious to the watchful eye of persecuting rage. And therefore we may consider the existence of that warfare against the chief pastors of the Church, which Herod Agrippa now began, as furnishing a conclusive reply to such insinuations.

"Now about that time, Herod the King stretched forth his hands to vex certain of the Church. And he killed James the brother of John with the sword. And because he saw it pleased the Jews, he proceeded further to take Peter also." "It pleased the Jews!" What a disposition must that be which delights in witnessing acts of injustice and cruelty, and is gratified at crimes commited by others, which it has not itself the courage or opportunity to perpetrate? Who was most guilty in the sight of God of the blood of this just

man? Herod, at whose command it was shed, or the leading Jews who so applauded and enjoyed the tragedy? It will be no shield, indeed, to men in authority, that popular prejudice or madness encouraged them to wicked acts. But the approvers and favorers of such acts share before God in the guilt. To connive at sin, to delight in the sin of others, is to make it our own. It is an evidence that we are hindered from the same conduct, not by conscience, but by circumstances. How much will the unpardoned sinner have to answer for in the way of other men's sins, to which his heart has secretly consented, or which his tongue hath openly approved?

The first of the Apostolic band who sealed his fidelity to the Lord Jesus with his blood, was James the Greater, the brother of John. There is comparatively little recorded of him in the New Testament, but Herod's selection of this Apostle as his first victim is evidence that his name was prominent among his brethren, and that his labors had been signally blessed. It would appear as if the death of this eminent servant of Christ were sudden, as well as bloody. There is an abruptness, so to speak, in the narrative: "He killed James the brother of John with the sword; " cut him off at a stroke, without notice or warning. For there is no mention, as in Peter's case, of the prayers of God's Church rising heavenward in his