shaping his way according to the standard which God had set before him. His righteousness exceeded the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, and therefore he entered the kingdom. He was, through grace, a real man, earnestly following the light as it streamed in upon his soul, and he was led into the full blaze of the gospel of the grace of God. God sent a Peter to Cornelius, as He had sent a Philip to the eunuch. The prayers and alms had gone up as a memorial before God, and Peter was sent with a message of full salvation through a crucified and risen Saviour.

Now it is quite possible that there are, at this moment, thousands of persons throughout Christendom, who, having been rocked in the cradle of easy-going evangelical profession, and trained up in the flippant formalism of a self-indulgent, heaven-made-easy religion, are ready to condemn the pious conduct of Cornelius, and to pronounce it the fruit of ignorance and legality. Such persons have never known what it was to deny themselves a single meal, or to spend an hour in real, earnest prayer, or to open their hand, in true benevolence, to meet the wants of the poor. They have heard and learnt, perchance, that salvation is not to be gained by such means—that we are justified by faith without works-that it is to him that worketh not, but believeth on Him that justifieth the ungodly.

All this is most true; but what right have we to imagine that Cornelius was praying, fasting, and giving alms in order to earn salvation? None whatever—at least if we are to be governed by the inspired narrative, and we have no other means of knowing aught about this truly excellent and interesting character. He was informed by the angel that his prayers and his alms had gone up as a memorial before God. Is not this a clear proof that these prayers and alms were not the trappings of self-righteousness, but the fruits of a righteousness based on the knowledge which he had of God? Surely the fruits of self-righteousness and

legality could never have ascended as a memorial to the throne of God; nor could Peter ever have said concerning a mere legalist that he was one who feared God and worked righteousness.

Ah! no, reader; Cornelius was a man thoroughly in earnest. He lived up to what he knew, and he would have been quite wrong to go further. To him the salvation of his immortal soul, the service of God, and eternity, were grand and all-absorbing realities. He was none of your easy-going professors, full of flippant, vapid, worthless talk, but doing nothing. He belonged to another generation altogether. He belonged to the working, not the talking class. He was one on whom the eye of God rested with complacency, and in whom the mind of heaven was profoundly interested.

And so was our friend of Thyatira, Lydia, the seller of purple. She belonged to the same school-she occupied the same platform as the centurion and the eunuch. It is truly delightful to contemplate these three precious soulsto think of one in Ethiopia; another at Cæsarea; and a third at Thyatira or Philippi. It is particularly refreshing to contrast such downright, thorough-going, earnest souls with many, in this our day of boasted light and knowledge, who have got the plan of salvation, as it is termed, in their heads, the doctrine of grace on the tongue; but the world in the heart; whose one absorbing object, from morning till night, is self, self, self,-miserable object!

We shall have occasion to refer more fully to these latter under our second head; but, for the present, we shall think of the earnest Lydia; and we must confess it is a far more grateful exercise. It is very plain that Lydia, like Cornelius and the eunuch, was a quickened soul; she was a worshipper of God; she was one who was right glad to lay aside her purple-selling, and betake herself to a prayer meeting, or to any suchlike place where spiritual profit was to be had, and where there were good things going.

"Birds of a feather flock together," and so Lydia soon found out where a few pious souls, a few kindred spirits, were in the habit of meeting to wait on God in prayer.

All this is lovely. It does the heart good to be brought in contact with this deep-toned earnestness. Surely the Holy Ghost has penned this narrative, like all holy scripture, for our learning. It is a specimen case, and we do well to ponder it. Lydia was found diligently availing herself of any and every opportunity; indeed she exhibited the real fruits of divine life, the genuine instincts of the new nature. She found out where saints met for prayer, and took her place among them. She did not fold her

arms, and settle down on her lees, to wait, in antinomian indolence and culpable idleness, for some extraordinary undefinable thing to come upon her, or some mysterious change to come over her. No; she went to a prayer meeting-the place of expressed need-the place of expected blessing: and there God met her, as He is sure to meet all who frequent such scenes in Lydia's spirit. God never fails an expectant heart. He has said, “They shall not be ashamed that wait for me;" and, like a bright and blessed sunbeam, on the page of inspiration, shines that pregnant, weighty, soul-stirring sentence, "God is a rewarder of them that DILIGENTLY seek him." He sent a Philip to the eunuch in the desert of Gaza. He sent a Peter to the Centurion, in the town of Cæsarea. He sent a Paul to the seller of purple, in the suburbs of Philippi; and He will send a message to the reader of these lines, if he be a really earnest seeker after God's salvation.

(To be continued, if the Lord will.)

"SEEK ye the Lord while he may be found, call ye upon him while he is near. Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts: and let him return unto the Lord, and he will have mercy upon him and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon." Is. lv. 6, 7.

SHORT PAPERS ON CHURCH HISTORY;

ILLUSTRATIVE OF THE SEVEN CHURCHES.

(Rev. ii., iii.)

CHAPTER I.

IN commencing the study of any subject, it is well to know its beginnings-the original intention or plan, and the first step in its history. These we have in the clearest, fullest way, as to the Church, in holy scripture. There we have not only the original intention, but the plans and specifications of the Great Builder, and the early history of the work under His own hand. "And the Lord added to the Church daily such as should be saved.” (Acts ii.) This is historical. The foundation had been laid, and the work was going on; but the Lord Himself was still the only builder; therefore up to this time. all was real and perfect.

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At the close of the Jewish dispensation the Lord added the saved remnant of Israel to the newly formed Church: but at the close of the present or christian dispensation, He will take all who believe in His name up to heaven in glorified bodies. Not one belonging to the Church will be added to the congregation of millennial saints. For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first; then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord." (1 Thess. iv. 14-18.) This will be the happy close of the history of the Church on earth—the true spouse of Christ. The dead raised-the living changed, and all, in their bodies of glory, caught up together in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. Thus we have the entire limits of the Church defined, and the whole period of

her history before us. But we return to the dawn of her day on the earth.

Under the figure of a building, the Lord first introduces the subject of the Church. And so infinitely precious are His words, that we may adopt them as the text or motto of its whole history. They have sustained the hearts and the hopes of His people in all ages, and in all circumstances; and they will ever be the stronghold of faith. What can be more blessed, more assuring, more peace-giving, than these words?

UPON THIS ROCK I WILL BUILD MY CHURCH; AND THE
GATES OF HELL SHALL NOT PREVAIL AGAINST IT."

In Matthew xvi. the Lord questions His disciples as to the sayings of men concerning Himself. This leads to the glorious confession of Peter, and also to the gracious revelation of the Lord concerning His Church. It may be well to transfer the whole conversation to our pages. It all bears so directly on our subject.

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“When Jesus came into the coasts of Cæsarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, saying, Whom do men say that I the Son of man am? And they said, Some say that thou art John the Baptist: some, Elias: and others, Jeremias, or one of the prophets. He saith unto them, But whom say that I am? And Simon Peter answered and said, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God. And Jesus answered and said unto him, Blessed art thou, Simon Barjona; for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven. And I say also unto thee, that thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it."

Here we have the two main things connected with the proposed building-the Rock-foundation, and the divine Builder. "Upon this rock I will build my church." But