It is a saved by his sound faith in spite of his wickedness? This question does not deserve an answer. foolish question: it assumes an impossibility. Suppose one should address to an eminent physician the question, Pray, sir, tell me, is the blood necessary to life? and he should answer, It is. Suppose the questioner then proceeds to say, But if a great artery is cut, and all the blood of the body escapes, and the man still lives and acts with undiminished vigour, do you persist in your opinion that the blood is necessary to life? The physician will not answer. You have put a foolish question, and he treats it with contempt. Or, if he answer at all, he will say, First show me a living man with no blood in his body, and then I shall consider the causes of the phenomenon. Such treatment he deserves who inquires, Shall I be saved if I believe in Christ, though I live in sin. The supposition is an impossibility. To believe in Christ as that jailer believed is the death-blow to the reign of sin in your members, as the letting-out of the heart's-blood puts an end to the life. People who, with a whole heart, merely talk on the subject, may suggest many objections to the doctrine; but when a man is convinced of sin by the secret power of the Spirit, and closes with Christ as his sacrifice, substitute, righteousness, and intercessor, he is at that moment and by that act placed in enmity with his own sin as fire and water are at enmity. When he is in Christ, he is a new creature. Surely, if people would apply their minds to the subject, it should not be very difficult to comprehend that actual obedience by the man--that is, his good worksmust be withdrawn from the ground of his hope, and take a place as the fruit of his faith. Here is a water-channel that has been dry all the summer. Straws and leaves and dust have accumulated in it. To make all clean and clear again, you do not say, Let a stream of water be poured through it from the fountainhead, and let all the straws and leaves be gathered up and carried away. Let the water from the fountainhead gush into the neck of the channel, and it will sweep away the miscellaneous rubbish that encumbered the course. Thus it is in the spiritual life. It is not faith and good works together that make salvation sure. Faith, when it begins to flow, carries works in its train. Faith in Christ as your substitute, your peace with God, will make short work of the ten thousand encumbrances which blocked the channels of your heart and life. "This is the victory which overcometh the world, even your faith." Even in the brief sketch given here of the jailer's conversion, you see beautiful bunches of fruit quickly ripening on the branch as soon as it is in the Vine. He took them the same hour of the night, and washed their stripes, and set meat before them. The current of this man's life is reversed. He could not but see that the flesh of his prisoners was lacerated by the rods. He did not ask whether they were hungry. As the easiest way of securing his own safety, he thrust them into the inner prison, and pinioned their feet in locks of iron. He then went to bed, and slept so soundly that no psalm-singing disturbed his rest. He did not awake till the earthquake awoke him. All care in the evening was for himself; and his selfishness was cruel. Now, when the midnight scene has passed, he has no care about himself; all his attention is devoted to his prisoners. Not a thought now about the possible displeasure of the magistrates, if they should learn that he had invited these notable prisoners unguarded into his own house. In the evening he was heedless of the apostles' wounds and hunger: now he washes their wounds and gives them bread. Behold the good works that his infant faith was already bearing! These were the first duties that lay to hand. Give me the subsequent history of that Christian, and I will show you in it other things to match them. Every creature after its kind; and the new creature is not an exception to the rule. His faith in the Lord Jesus Christ saved him; and that faith instantly reversed the volume of his life, as the rising tide of the ocean meets and flings back the river's stream. This is a crucial case as to the power of faith in Christ to save a sinner. It is parallel with the example of the thief on the cross. The man was taken in the very act of murder. He intended to take away his own life; and according to the principles which the Lord laid down, the intention carried within it the guilt of the deed. Suppose now that Paul's cry had been one minute too late that the uplifted arm had fallen, and that the dagger had severed a vital artery. Suppose that the wound is mortal, but that the life-blood takes an hour to ebb away. It is not conceivable that the preacher would in that case have made any change in his terms. The word would still have been, "Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved.” Thus an offer of free pardon would have been made to the murderer while the blood of his victim was stil flowing warm. The murderer might within the hear have believed, and at the end of it have entered into rest. There is glory to God in the freeness and fulness of his mercy. "By terrible things in righteousness wilt thou answer us, O God of our salvation" (Ps. Ixv. 5). The earthquake was the answer to the prayer which Paul and Silas, lying on their backs, hymned upward to God in heaven. But although the earthquake could open the doors of the prison, it could not break the bonds in which the jailer's soul was held. In that sense God was not in the earthquake. After the earthquake came a still small voice from the lips of the imprisoned missionary; and God was in the voice- God our Saviour. Before the power of that voice the heathen's heart gave way, and flowed down like water. When a man begins to care for his own soul, he instantly cares also for those who are dear to him. Knowing this law of human nature, Paul provides, in the same breath, comfort in regard to himself and in regard to his house. On the same terms the jailer's family will be received; and accordingly the word of the gospel was spoken to him and to all that were in his house. It is good when every family is a small Church, and every Church a large family. The magistrates of the city, having been hurried into the arrest by the daring attitude of the mob, determined next morning to desert the diet and discharge the prisoners. Accordingly, an officer was sent to the prison, with an order for their release. The jailer joyfully proceeded to execute the order of his superiors; but Paul saw meet to stand on his rights, and declined the offer. It is now pretty generally acknowledged that Paul did not enjoy the privileges of a Roman citizen in virtue of his birth in the free city of Tarsus. Although the city was free, its freedom did not confer the dignity of Roman citizenship on all its population. It is more probable that the honour was conferred on some of the apostle's ancestors for services rendered to the State. It was the custom of Roman governors so to reward loyal services in the provinces. Alarmed at the claim of Paul, the magistrates acceded at once to his demand. They came in person to the prison, and gave the prisoners a public and honourable acquittal. This was not a display of pride or of vengeance. The apostles did not court suffering. Rather, for their work's sake, they desired to avoid it. They saved their lives at one time by flight, and at another time by invoking the protection of imperial law against the excesses of particular magistrates. There is no fanatical rashness in their conduct. Their conduct is guided by wisdom and courage and common sense. XII. "MY KINGDOM IS NOT OF THIS WORLD.” ANOTHER missionary journey begins here. Leaving Timothy and Luke in charge of the infant church at Philippi, Paul and Silas pursued their journey towards the south-west-towards Athens, the eye of Greece. I think the good soldier of Jesus Christ already felt the swelling of a sanctified ambition to meet Athenian philosophers on their own chosen field. He may, for aught I know, have allowed a secret consciousness of power to lead him in that direction. It is the instinct of a warrior to seek a worthy foe. If this motive wrought in his mind, it is probable that his pride was soon crushed; for he does not seem to have obtained 80 much success at Athens as elsewhere. His epistles to the Christians of Corinth, Thessalonica, and Philippi attest the extent and solidity of his work in these places but although he enjoyed an opportunity of debating with Stoics and Epicureans, and of declaiming in Mars' Hill, no epistle to the Athenians remains to edify the Church. It would appear that the soil in which human speculation grew rank was not well fitted to receive and nourish the living seed of the Word. Here the narrative drops the first person and assumes the third; this is the only intimation of the fact that at this point Luke, the historian, parted company with the missionaries. The first person, indicating the presence of the narrator, is not resumed until we reach chapter xx. They passed through Amphipolis and Apollonia, two successive stages on the Roman road that extended from the Bosphorus to Rome, and came to Thessalonica at a distance of about one hundred miles from Philippi. It appears that the Jews possessed no synagogue at the intermediate stations, and therefore the missionaries made no halt till they reached the more important city of Thessalonica. There Paul, "as his manner was," entered the synagogue, and opened his commission first to the seed of Abraham. Three Sabbath-days he reasoned with them out of the Scriptures. It is clear from the result that the audience on these occasions was not limited to Jews. The apostles found by experience that by preaching to the Jews they found the readiest access to the Gentiles. The Greeks in great numbers, both male and female, came into the synagogue and listened to these distinguished strangers. The preacher based his discourse on the Scriptures. His method is described by the terms "opening and alleging❞—that is "opening out and laying down." The Old Testament he treated as a nut. He broke the shell, opened out the kernel, and presented it as food to the hungry. The Jews were like little children who had a fruit-tree in their garden, their father's legacy. The children had gathered the nuts as they grew, and laid them up with reverence in a storehouse; but they knew not how to break open the shell, and so reach the kernel for food. Paul acts the part of elder brother to these little ones. He skilfully pierces the crust and extracts the fruit, and divides it among them. The passage, for example, that Philip found the Ethiopian reading on the road, or the passover lamb, or the Second Psalm, he opened, and from it brought Christ. This able reasoner laid down a major and a minor; for in Greece he is mindful of his syllogism. (On his way from Philippi he had passed Stagirus, the birthplace of Aristotle.) Major premiss: The Christ expected by the Jews must suffer and die and rise again. Minor premiss: This Jesus whom I preach unto you suffered and died and rose again. Conclusion: Therefore the Jesus whom I preach unto you is the Christ. But it is not logic for its own sake; it is logic grasped and used as an instrument to commend Christ to sinners. Whatever method he may adopt (and in that he will become all things to all men) he will know no other subject than Jesus Christ and him crucified. They speak of successors of the apostles; their best successors are those who walk in their steps. The result is, that some Jews believed, and a great multitude of Greek proselytes and not a few chief women. While a remnant of the chosen seed is gathered everywhere, the kingdom is in the main gliding over to the Gentiles. Another feature of the success is, that almost everywhere the higher and more educated classes are attracted. In the great Greek city of Thessalonica many ladies of the highest social standing were arrested and converted. This doubtless gave the gospel a home in the place after the missionaries were obliged to leave it. "But the Jews which believed not," &c. Again a conflict. Woe is me that I should everywhere be a man of strife. There is much to make the missionary weary, and induce him to fling up his commission in disgust. But these men were forewarned, and so forearmed. They knew that, like their Master, they came not to give peace on the earth. Wherever the two kingdoms came in contact, there was conflict. No cross, no crown. The army that assails the mission here is an allied host. It consists of two different but confederated elements of the Jews who believed not, and of certain lewd fellows of the baser sort. These two do not look with kindly eye on each other, but they unite to oppose a common enemy. This is not a new experience. Herod and Pilate become friends when Christ must be crucified. Pharisee and Sadducee, at daggers drawn on ordinary occasions, combine to compass the death, first of the Master, and then of his servants. It is a remarkable cry that was raised before the magistrates of Thessalonica-"These that have turned the world upside down have come hither also." The rumour of the great effect produced by the preaching of the gospel in other places must have reached the city. After making allowance for the tendency to exaggeration in such circumstances, we find enough remaining to show that the wave of success already accompanying these two witnesses threatened to shake the foundations of society, and overturn the old established religion of Europe. Another cry-"These all do contrary to the decrees of Cæsar, saying that there is another king, one Jesus"— is identical with that which was employed against Christ himself. These degenerate Jews did not comprehend their own Scriptures-did not understand the kingdom which the prophets proclaimed. The Son of David reigns, but reigns over an unseen kingdom. His own word is, "The kingdom of God is within you." His reign, having a different sphere and character, may have free scope; it will never come into collision with lawful human governments. The Lord's own words, "My kingdom is not of this world," remain a perennial rebuke to all persecuting governments on the one hand, and all political ecclesiastical organizations on the other. Magnetism and gravity act at the same place and the same time, but do not come into collision with each other. Each of these powers pervades all the earth's surface; each is supreme everywhere for its own objects; the one does not stand in the other's way. There is not less of gravity on any given spot because magnetism has free scope there. If one of these were subordinated to the other, the system of the world would be destroyed. This might help us to conceive of Christ's spiritual authority reigning with absolute sway over spirits, and yet not interfering with any legitimate function of civil The unbelieving Jews allied themselves to the mob of the market-place, in order to silence the testimony of the apostles. In different ages and countries tyrants of the ruling class have had recourse to the rabble whenever they have found it necessary to stifle the reprover's voice. The seething caldron of a large city always casts up a quantity of such scum. A multitude swarm about the streets, lacking not only character but even clothes. Persecutors have frequently found a use for these off-government. scourings. Christians should have their eyes on the same class for another purpose. They might be turned to a better account. If they were won and sanctified, they might swell the ranks of the white-robed when Christ comes to be glorified in his saints. It was by these same instruments that the Jewish rulers in Jerusalem compassed the death of Christ. They engaged the mob to create a tumult, and thereby intimidated the governor. Crucify him! crucify him! from a surging excited multitude was a formidable cry for a governor with a troublesome province on his hand and a small garrison at his disposal. "If they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you;" and the persecution of the servants follows the type of that which the Master endured. This question is assuming greater breadth and prominence in our day. It is rising not only in this country, but all over Europe. It is abroad in Italy and Germany. That which was the turning-point at the crucifixion of Christ comes up again for solution, and men must work its solution out. They overpowered it in Pilate's judgment-hall. But they made a mistake when they buried that small, and to their vision scarcely perceptible atom; to bury it was not to get rid of it for ever, for it is a living seed, and so it rises again Churchmen must learn to obey Christ without encroaching on the divinely appointed supremacy of civil government in its own domain; and civil rulers must learn to leave the kingdom of Christ in the world absolutely free. The Children's Treasury. CHAPTER VIII. LIESE'S DRAWINGS. "None e'er shall lack a service Who only seek His will; For He doth teach his children "In love's deep fount of treasures Who wait upon the Lord." H, how beautiful!" said Davie Dunmore, as he held up a small painting which Dr. Crawer had just taken out of a case and put into the boy's hand, saying, "See! I have remembered my promise. There is one of my sister Liese's drawings." In the foreground of the picture was a huge rock,-a cleft one, and towards the opening in it, which was plainly the entrance to a cave, a beautiful white dove was flying, closely pursued by a powerful vulture. So close was the pursuit, that as you looked first at the picture, you trembled for the fate of the gentle bird, for its cruel enemy was swooping down on it, bent on its destruction; but a longer look convinced one that the dove must reach the cleft in the rock ere the vulture could overtake it,—and once there, it was safe. Near the rock lay an open volume and a cup. "What does it mean?" asked Davie. story about that rock?" Jesus, the 'Rock of Ages,'-in the service of the King of kings.' The boy said little; but a look of peace and calm came on his countenance as the doctor spoke. One other picture was put before him. A small ship tossed on a stormy sea, with a figure standing up with outstretched hands, and underneath, in illuminated letters, were the words, "Peace, be still!" At that picture Davie looked long; then, raising his eyes to the doctor, he said, almost in a whisper, “I think he has said 'Peace, be still!' to me, even as he did to Liese." There were few more words exchanged between these two that day, save that the doctor bent his knee, and returned thanks to God that the Sun of righteousness had arisen on the dark soul of Davie Dunmore. One or two other pictures were left with the boy, to be returned to the doctor on his next visit. These were chiefly drawn by the doctor himself. One was of a child lying helplessly on a couch in a dark room, only light enough to show the pained, restless expression on the child's face. It was a picture one turned from gladly. A child suffering must ever be a painful sight. Sunshine and flowers seem to belong almost by right to childhood's days. But there was another picture: the same child, the same room, the same couch-yet, how different. Into the dark chamber the sun had penetrated; its bright beams were lighting up all around; "Is there any they shone on the pale face of the child, till it seemed to catch the brightness and shine in return. They softened the lines of pain, and wove themselves into a crown of gold round her head. They played amongst the flowers that lay on her pillow, painting them with rainbow hues. "Yes, young The doctor looked at him gravely. master, there is, and a blessed story too. that cleft rock, is an emblem of Him-the King we spoke of lately-who was crucified for us; another of his names is 'Rock of Ages.' And yonder dove is—well, what it represents in that picture you must have lived in my beloved land fully to understand; but it also represents, in one respect, yourself." "Myself, doctor? Nay," and the boy smiled, " mayhap the vulture may be me, but scarce the gentle dove." "Yet so it is. Tell me," and the doctor laid his hand gently on the boy's arm, 66 are you not like yonder dove, tired and weary, seeking rest, longing to escape from a worse enemy than the vulture-even Satan? And, believe me, the rest you want can only be found in Christ As the doctor gave these pictures into the boy's hands, he had whispered, "Liese before and after ;" and Davie understood it all. That dark, gloomy picture was the suffering child, before the voice of the Son of the King had spoken to her heart the "Peace, be still!"-and the other was her after the storm had become a calm, and the sunshine of Christ's love had dissipated the darkness. One other picture, also the work of the physician, was a simple one of Jesus, with a little child in his arms, his hand lightly resting on its head, as if in the act of bless ing it, and, underneath, the words, Suffer the little 66 "Like?" said the mother. "Why, Davie, who drew it? 'Tis Marie, little bijou! and so like her! and what a kind loving face the person who holds her has. Ah, I could look at it for hours. Who gave it you, Davie?" "Dr. Crawer. He was showing me some drawings done by his little cripple sister, and left me one or two of his own to look at; but I don't think he meant to leave that one." "But what does it mean?" asked the young mother. "Suffer the little children to come unto me, and forbid them not,'" she said, slowly repeating the words as if to take in their meaning. "I think I understand," said the boy. "Mother, that figure represents the Lord Jesus, the King we were speaking about as greater than our own King James. Dr. Crawer told me one day that Jesus loved children, even little ones, to come to him, and he would make them happy. And I am sure, when he was drawing that, he was wishing that our little Marie (you know how kind he is to her, mother) might learn to love the Saviour; and so he drew her just where he wants to see her, in the King's arms,-and wrote these words. I wonder who said them? Do you think Jesus could? Mother, don't you wish Jesus would look like that on our little Marie? If he really said, 'Suffer her to come,' you would not forbid her, mother, would you?" The Lady Louise was troubled by the question. Her eye rested fondly on her fair babe, and then on the kind loving face of Him in whose arms she was depicted. "I could trust her in his arms-he would do her good, not harm," she said. "But, Davie, is that really Jesus, the Son of Mary? He looks so different from what he does on the crucifix." 66 "Oh yes," said the boy, with a shudder; "very different." Then he showed his mother the two pictures of little Liese. Her eyes filled with tears as she looked, and in his simple way the boy spoke about them. Aren't you glad," he said, "that Jesus has spoken to her, poor little cripple? How sweet and calm her face looks now after she has heard that 'Peace, be still!' Mother," and the boy's voice sank to a whisper as he said, "I think I have heard that voice too, and I do wish to become like him. He loves to have his soldiers meek and lowly in spirit as well as brave." The mother stooped and kissed the boy's pale forehead, saying kindly, "I think you have, Davie; something has changed you. You must tell me more about this Jesus who seems so good and kind. Poor little Liese! I am so glad she has some one to comfort her. I wonder how her brother could leave her, or why he came here?" often; but though he could not have put it in words, he was now beginning to have some idea of the reason why. To tell some, who knew it not, of the Saviour he loved so well; could that have been the reason? And so the seed, dropped by the hand of the medical missionary into the heart of the impetuous boy at the time of his illness, was quietly springing up, and leading more than one to ask the source from whence it sprung. A still small voice had begun to whisper to Lady Louise of a peace which the world knows not of; of a Saviour who could bless and love even a little child. And what of Sir Thomas Godwin? Did he shut his eyes and his ears to the change in his young pupil? Knew he nought of heretics or heresy? or was he too much absorbed in his studies to heed these things? Partly that was the case; but for all that he was no unobservant onlooker. From the first night, he had no doubts that Dr. Crawer was what was termed in England a Lollard, in Bohemia a Hussite. But Sir Thomas, though a priest, had for long exercised his own powers of thinking; and though he would have shrunk with horror at the thought of condemning the mother Church, still his pure mind and refined feelings recoiled at the acts of many who professed to teach her doctrines, and he believed it possible that some whom men termed heretics might in the eyes of God be better than those who, under the name of teachers of religion, led lives in every respect the opposite from Him whose servants they professed to be. So he said nothing, and only silently watched the change taking place in the mind of the young laird, to whom, in spite of his many faults, he was fondly attached, and to whose dead mother he had borne the fondest affection; and she, he knew, though no one else in the household had ever suspected it, had been tainted in no small degree by the so-called heresy of the Lollards, many of whom had frequented her parental home in England. "Sir Thomas," had been her parting words, "tell my husband-and my children, when they are old enough to understand it-that I die in peace, looking for salvation through the merits of the Lord Jesus." The Laird of Dunmore was from home at the time of his wife's death, and when Sir Thomas repeated the words to him, they conveyed to his mind no other idea save that which he had long held, that his wife was ripe for heaven. A doubt as to her strong belief in all the doctrines of the Church never crossed his mind; and his often expressed desire was, that his little Maude might grow up as pure and good a woman as her mother had been. As to his boy, he sought only to see him bold in the chase, and one day brave in the battle-field, and was content to leave religion to the women and the priests. And the change in the boy which, as time went on, even he could not fail to mark, he attributed to failing health and weakness of body, rather than to the true cause the silent, yet powerful work of the Holy Spirit, leading him to One by whose power old things pass That question Davie Dunmore had asked himself away and all things become new. |