in this scene, with uncommon lustre. It delights in taking up hardened sinners, melting and subduing their hard hearts, and leading them into the sunlight of a full salvation; and all this in a style peculiar to itself. Yes, God has His style of doing things, blessed be His name; and when He saves a wretched sinner, He does it after such a fashion as fully proves that His whole heart is in the work. It is His joy to save a sinner-even the very chief; and He does it in a way worthy of Himself.

And now, let us look at the fruit of all this. The jailor's conversion was most unmistakable. Saved from the very brink of hell, he was brought into the very atmosphere of heaven. Preserved from self-destruction, he was brought into the circle of God's salvation; and the evidences of this were as clear as could be desired. "And they spake unto him the word of the Lord, and to all that were in his house." This clearly defines the extent of the term "house" in this passage. They spake, of course, to those who could understand and believe what was said. "And he took them the same hour of the night, and washed their stripes; and was baptized, he and all his, straightway. And when he had brought them into his house, he set meat before them, and rejoiced, believing in God with all his house.

What a marvellous change! The ruthless jailor has become the generous host! "If any man be in Christ he is a new creature; old things are passed away: behold, all things are become new." How clearly we can now see that Paul was right in not availing himself of the opening of providence! How much better and higher to wait for an opening of grace! What an eternal loss it would have proved to him had he walked out at the open door! How much better to be conducted out by the very hand that had thrust him in-a hand once the instrument of cruelty and sin, now the instrument of righteousness and love! What a magnificent triumph! What a scene altogether! How

little had the devil anticipated such a result from the imprisonment of the Lord's servants! He was thoroughly outwitted. The tables were completely turned upon him. He thought to hinder the gospel, and behold, he was made to help it on. He had hoped to get rid of two of Christ's servants, and lo, he lost one of his own. Christ is stronger than Satan; and all who put their trust in Him and move in the current of His thoughts shall, most assuredly, share in the triumphs of His grace now, and shine in the brightness of His glory for ever.

Thus much, then, as to "the work of an evangelist." Such are the scenes through which he may have to pass― such the cases with which he may have to come in contact. We have seen the earnest seeker satisfied; the false professor silenced; the hardened sinner saved. May all who go forth with the gospel of the grace of God know how to deal with the various types of character that may cross their path! May many be raised up to do the work of an evangelist!

GOD GIVING UP HIS SON: WHAT IS IT?

"HEREIN is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins." With this and kindred passages many in these days are familiar; and by such simple statements of God's word many a soul has been cheered, and been sent forward on its way rejoicing in the consciousness of a love never before known, or invigorated for further service after tasting afresh of its sweetness.

There are three aspects in which this wonderful subject may be viewed. God's act in giving His Son for us; the Son's act of obedience unto death, though a voluntary sur

render on His part; and the result of that death as it concerns us-propitiation for our sins. We say, 66 as it concerns us," because there are results of that death to be taken into account quite apart from its beneficial aspect towards us. God has been glorified by that death of His Son on the cross. (John xiii. 31.) Love from the Father has flowed out to the Son, and exaltation has been decreed for Him, who stooped so low. (John x. 17; Phil. ii. 6—11.) With the beneficial character of the sacrifice of Christ many of our readers are surely familiar. Some, too, well know and gladly own the place of honour now given Him who came to do God's will. But perhaps the third aspect, God giving His Son for us, what that was to Him, is not so frequently thought of. To this, therefore, we would direct the reader's attention for a little-requesting him to turn back, in the pages of the word, to a transaction which took place on Mount Moriah centuries before the temple was built, and nearly two thousand years before the wonderful proof of God's love to sinners was manifested on the

cross.

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And it came to pass after these things, that God did tempt Abraham, and said unto him, Abraham and he said, Behold, here I am." (Gen. xxii. 1.) Since the day that Isaac was weaned, and Ishmael turned out of the patriarch's encampment, no communication that we read of had been vouchsafed by God to him. What would God now speak to him about? He had received the promised heir in whom his seed should be called. He saw him growing up the child of his old age-a figure of resurrection. All that he looked for was bound up with the existence of Isaac; and that rightly so, according to the divine word. He enjoyed in his son all that he was taught he could receive of the promised blessings on earth; for his seed must be sojourners in a land not their own, four hundred years, before the country in which he pitched his tent could be parcelled out among his descendants.

All

Now God speaks to him-breaks a long silence—not, as often before, to promise something fresh, but to ask something from His servant. "Take now thy son, thine only son Isaac, whom thou lovest, and get thee into the land of Moriah; and offer him there for a burnt offering upon one of the mountains which I will tell thee of." What a word for the father was this! Thy son, thine only son Isaac”— the long waited for heir, the promised seed, his only son. And not only was he reminded of the lad's relationship to him, but the affection of his heart must surely have been deeply stirred, as he heard the words, "whom thou lovest." Every word must have added poignance to his sorrow. that Isaac was is thus recalled to him, when asked to surrender him as a burnt offering. Such a trial none had undergone before. It was something new, which none had heard of before Abraham's day. Abraham, however, did not hesitate. Isaac was all that to him; but if God claimed him as a sacrifice, he would not withhold him. So we read, "And Abraham rose up early in the morning, and saddled his ass, and took two of his young men with him, and Isaac his son, and clave the wood for the burnt offering, and rose up, and went unto the place of which God had told him." He did not delay till noon, or procrastinate till it was too late to start. He rose early, got everything ready, and started forth on his journey. How beautiful was his obedience! nothing was allowed to interfere with the fulfilment of the command, so on the third day they approached the spot. Again, we read how perfect was his obedience; for, leaving his young man with the ass, "he took the wood of the burnt offering and laid it upon Isaac his son; and he took the fire in his hand, and a knife; and they went both of them together." Nothing was forgotten; the wood, the fire, the knife, the three requisites besides the victim Abraham carefully provided. They reached the spot, and the last proof of his obedience was offered. "He bound Isaac his son, and laid him on the

altar upon the wood. And Abraham stretched forth his hand, and took the knife to slay his son;" for God never enjoined the burning of a living victim, that was a parody on the original idea of a burnt offering, which men were instigated by the enemy to practice.

At this instant a further communication from God is made. "And the angel of the Lord called unto him out of heaven and said, Abraham, Abraham: and he said, Here am I. And he said, Lay not thine hand upon the lad, neither do thou anything unto him; for now I know that thou fearest God, seeing thou hast not withheld thy son, thine only son from me." The trial was over, the proof of his obedience was complete, and the lad was spared. A substitute of God's providing in Isaac's place, and Abraham received his son as from the dead. God took knowledge of his servant's act, and was satisfied. But after all, had Abraham refused to surrender his son, he would have sinned. In thus complying with God's command he only discharged a duty, a trying duty surely, but still his duty. God had a right to demand the child, and Abraham had no right to refuse him. Could he have looked for a reward for doing his duty? Impossible. Was it not enough that Isaac was spared? Could he have solicited a favour for being obedient? God, he learned, was satisfied with his obedience, must he not have been satisfied with the substitution for his son?

Here however something more comes out. God teaches him and us also what substitution is. He would also give him to know He was satisfied with his obedience, and He would have him and us to know what He thinks of such an act as the giving up to death of a son, an only son. So again the angel speaks, “By myself have I sworn, saith the Lord, for because thou hast done this thing, and hast not withheld thy son, thine only son: that in blessing I will bless thee, and in multiplying I will multiply thy seed as the stars of the heaven, and as the sand which is upon the