fessing church. Every one who professes to believe in the forgiveness of sins, and yet does not believe in it, does not know that his sins are forgiven, does not think that any one can know it until the day of judgment-every such person is, in principle, on the ground of the damsel possessed with the spirit of divination. What she said was true enough; but she was not true in saying it. This was the grievous point in the case. It is one thing to say or assent to what is true, and another thing to be true in saying it. Of what possible use was it to go on, from day to day, giving utterance to the formulary, "They shew unto us the way of salvation," while she remained in the same unsaved, unblessed condition? None whatever; and we know of nothing, even in the deepest depths of moral evil, or in the darkest shades of heathenism, more truly awful than the state of careless, hardened, self-satisfied, fallowground professors, who, on each successive Lord's day, give utterance, either in their prayers or their singing, to words which, so far as they are concerned, are wholly false. The thought of this is, at times, almost overwhelming. We cannot dwell upon it. It is really too sorrowful. We shall therefore pass on, having once more solemnly warned the reader against every shade and degree of false profession. Let him not say or sing aught that he does not heartily believe. The devil is at the bottom of all false profession, and by means thereof he seeks to bring discredit on the work of the Lord.

But how truly refreshing to contemplate the actings of the faithful apostle in the case of the damsel. Had he been seeking his own ends, or had he been merely a minister of religion, he might have welcomed her words as a tributary stream to swell the tide of his popularity, or promote the interest of his cause. But Paul was not a mere minister of religion; he was a minister of Christ-a totally different thing. And we may notice that the damsel does not say a word about Christ. She breathes not the

precious, peerless name of Jesus. There is total silence as to Him. This stamps the whole thing as of Satan. "No man can call Jesus Lord, but by the Holy Ghost." People may speak of God, and of religion; but Christ has no place in their hearts. The Pharisees, in the ninth of John, could say to the poor man, "Give God the praise;" but in speaking of Jesus, they could say, "This man is a sinner."

Thus it is ever in the case of corrupt religion, or false profession. Thus it was with the damsel in Acts xvi. There was not a syllable about Christ. There was no truth, no life, no reality. It was hollow and false. It was of Satan; and hence Paul would not and could not own it; he was grieved with it and utterly rejected it.

Would that all were like him! Would that there were the singleness of eye to detect, and the integrity of heart to reject the work of Satan in much that is going on around us! We are thoroughly convinced that the Holy Ghost has written the narrative of this damsel for our instruction. It may be said, perhaps, that we have no such cases now. We reply, "For what end did the Holy Ghost pen the record?" Alas! there are thousands of cases, this moment, answering to this type of the damsel. We cannot but view it as a sample case-an illustration of Christendom's false profession, which exhibits far more of the craft and subtle wiles of the enemy than is to be found in the ten thousand forms in which moral pravity clothes itself. Everybody can judge of drunkenness, theft, and such like; but it demands an eye anointed with heavenly eye-salve to detect the wily workings of the serpent behind the fair profession of a baptized world.

Such an eye Paul, through grace, possessed. He was not to be deceived. He saw that the whole affair was an effort of Satan to mix himself up with the work, that thus he might spoil it altogether. "But Paul, being grieved, turned and said to the spirit, I command thee, in the name of Jesus Christ, to come out of her. And he came out the same hour."

This was true spiritual action. Paul was not in any haste to come into collision with the evil one, or even to pronounce upon the case at all; he waited for many days; but the very moment that the enemy was detected, he is resisted and repulsed with uncompromising decision. A less spiritual workman might have allowed the thing to pass, under the idea that it might turn to account and help forward the work. Paul thought differently; and he was right. He would take no help from Satan. He was not going to work by such an agency; and hence, in the name of Jesus Christ-that name which the enemy so sedulously excluded-he puts Satan to flight.

But no sooner was Satan repulsed as the serpent, than he assumed the character of the lion. Craft having failed, he tries violence. "And when her masters saw that the hope of their gains was gone, they caught Paul and Silas, and drew them into the market-place unto the rulers, and brought them to the magistrates, saying, These men, being Jews, do exceedingly trouble our city, and teach customs which are not lawful for us to receive, neither to observe, being Romans. And the multitude rose up together against them; and the magistrates rent off their clothes, and commanded to beat them. And when they had laid many stripes upon them, they cast them into prison, charging the jailor to keep them safely." Verses 19-23.

Thus the enemy seemed to triumph; but be it remembered that Christ's warriors gain their most splendid victories by apparent defeat. The devil made a great mistake when he cast the apostle into prison. Indeed it is consolatory to reflect that he has never done anything else but make mistakes, from the moment that he left his first estate down to the present moment. His entire history, from beginning to end, is one tissue of errors. But more of this in our next.

To be continued, if the Lord will.)

SHORT PAPERS ON CHURCH HISTORY; &c., &c., &c.

THIS PRINCIPLE OF CHURCH GOVERNMENT STILL APPLICABLE.

But "how can these principles be carried out now?” is still the question and difficulty with many. Well, we must just go back to the word of God. We ought to be able and willing to say, "We can do nothing against the truth, but for the truth." 2 Cor. xiii. 8.

The administrative authority and power of which we speak was not only given to Peter and the other apostles, but also to the Church. In Matthew xviii. we have the working out of the principle laid down in chapter xvi. "Tell it to the Church: but if he neglect to hear the Church, let him be unto you as an heathen man and a publican. Verily I say unto you, Whatsoever ye shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven; and whatsoever ye shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven...... For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them." Thus we learn that the acts of the two or three, gathered together in Christ's name, have the same divine sanction as the administration of Peter. And again, in John xx., the Lord delivers the same principle of government to the disciples, not merely to the apostles, and that too on resurrection ground, where the assembly is livingly united to Christ as the risen Man. This is all important. The spirit of life in Christ Jesus makes the disciples free-every disciple free-from the law of sin and death. The Church is built upon "this rock"-Christ in resurrection, and the gates of hades shall not prevail against it. "Then the same day at vening, being the first day of the week, when the doors were shut where the disciples were assembled for fear of the Jews, came Jesus and stood in the midst, and saith unto them, Peace be unto you. And when he had so said, he shewed unto them his hands and his side: then were

the disciples glad when they saw the Lord. Then said Jesus to them again, Peace be unto you: as my Father hath sent me, even so send I you. And when he had said this, he breathed on them, and saith unto them, Receive ye the Holy Ghost: whose soever sins ye remit, they are remitted unto them; and whose soever sins ye retain, they are retained." Here the Lord sets up, we may say, and fairly starts, the New Creation. The disciples are filled and clothed with peace, and with the spirit of life in Christ Jesus. They are to go forth as His messengers, from the resurrection side of His empty grave, bearing the blessed message of peace and eternal life to a world bowed down with sin, sorrow, and death. The principle of their own internal government is also clearly laid down: and its due administration will always give to the christian assembly a distinctive and heavenly character, in the presence of both God and man.

THE PRINCIPLE OF RECEPTION AT THE BEGINNING.

But as this principle is the proper basis of all christian congregations, it may be well to look for a moment at its operation in the days of the apostles. Surely they understood its meaning and how to apply it.

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On the day of Pentecost, and for some time after, it does not appear that the young converts were subjected to any examination as to the reality of their faith, either by the apostles or others. Then they that gladly received his word were baptized, and the same day there were added to them about three thousand souls." Gladly receiving the word was the ground of baptism, and fellowship; but the work was then entirely in Christ's own hands. "And the Lord added to the Church daily such as should be saved." The attempt to deceive by Ananias and Sapphira was at once detected. Peter acts in his right place, but the Holy Ghost was there in ungrieved majesty and power, and Peter owns it. Hence he says to Ananias, "Why hath Satan