desires? Such kindness, in truth, is the most self-denying and painful. "He doth not afflict willingly, nor grieve the children of men." There is kindness in the judgments that befall men. The inspired bard of Israel celebrates the mercy of God in judgments as well as in blessings. "He smote Egypt and her firstborn; for his mercy endureth for ever: overthrew Pharaoh and his host; for his mercy endureth for ever: smote great kings and famous kings; for his mercy endureth for ever: Sihon king of the Amorites, and Og the king of Bashan; for his mercy endureth for ever." It is mercy that breaks up oppressive governments, sweeps despots from the world, and makes clear the path for the progress of humanity. The most terrible judgments are but God's mercy weeding the world of its evils. Even hell itself is an expression of divine kindness. Gehenna was a valley in the neighbourhood of Jerusalem, into which the refuse. of the city was thrown, and where the decomposition of animal and vegetable matter generated "worms that never died," and where fires were kept burning day and night in order to prevent the effluvia from spreading disease and death through the population of the city. What that Gehenna was to Jerusalem, hell is to the moral universe-a sanitary institution-an institution to prevent the spread of evil. What is law, but kindness speaking in the imperative mood? What is punishment, but kindness crushing the power that would destroy the happiness of the creation?

God's kindness, then, is everlasting: his "mercy endureth for ever." Let the mountains and the hills "depart." Let all the orbs of heaven be quenched. Let the whole system to which we belong vanish as a cloud; God's kindness will remain, and will be as active in the universe as ever.

From the text we infer

III. THAT THE UNION BETWEEN BOTH WILL BE MORE DURABLE THAN THE "MOUNTAINS." "My kindness shall not depart from thee." It must be remembered that these words were addressed to his own people, and not to men in general;

and the idea is, that His kindness will continue for ever in connection with the truly good.

God's kindness is indissolubly associated with the good. St. Paul challenges the universe to effect a separation. "Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?" What can cause His "kindness" to "depart?" Can sufferings do it? The trials of good men on this earth are often great, and the agonies they sometimes have to endure, emaciate their frames, and render their looks hideous to mortal eyes. But will these sufferings cause the Infinite Father to withdraw his love? The afflicted child in the family, instead of lessening parental affection, intensifies and absorbs it. And is not this an indication as to how the sufferings of the good affect the heart of the Eternal Father? "Tribulation, distress, persecution, famine, nakedness, peril,sword"—let these do their worst upon us; they will not cause God's "kindness" "to depart." "As a father pitieth his children, so the Lord pitieth them that fear him; he knoweth our frame, and remembereth that we are dust." What can cause His "kindness" to "depart"? Can our moral imperfections do it? I have no word to say in extenuation of sin in any form. Sin must ever be odious to the eye of infinite purity. But I rejoice to believe it will not cause God's "kindness" to "depart." He does not love us on account of our excellences, but despite of our imperfections. We were bad, and He saw the worst of our badness from beginning to end before He loved us first. No sin that we can commit can ever shock Him by surprise. That young man who has wrought a crime which has shocked the moral sense of the age, and is now in the cell of the murderer, awaiting the hour when inexorable justice shall force him to the scaffold, there, before an execrating crowd, to pay down the penalty of his life, has a mother; that mother for years, he has treated with shameful insolence and heartless cruelty, causing her heart to bleed and her health to wane. Has his wickedness extinguished her love? No; it is there yet in all the freshness of its strength, and willingly would she press the monster of the scaffold to her

breast. Is God a father less loving than that mother? No. "Can a woman forget her sucking child, that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb? yea, they may forget, yet will I not forget thee. Behold, I have graven thee upon the palms of my hands." "He remembered us in our low estate, for his mercy endureth for ever." What can cause His "kindness" to "depart"? Can enemies? Not unfrequently does an enemy come in between human friends, and with the foul tongue of calumny create a strife and dissolve the friendship. But no one can misrepresent us to the eye of Omniscience. He knows all that is in us; "He understands our thoughts afar off." Neither "angels, principalities, nor powers," can cause His kindness to depart from his children. Can absence do it? Absence seldom makes human hearts grow fonder. Amidst the ceaseless activities, absorbing engagements, and new associates in daily life, the absent ones, however dear, are likely to sink into forgetfulness; but no distance can separate us from Him; we are ever before His eye. "Neither height, nor depth, nor any other creature, can separate us from the love of God."

What, then, can cause his kindness to depart from his children Nothing. Anyhow, nothing that my reason can suggest or my imagination invent. "I give unto my sheep eternal life; they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my father's hand.” Can the hand that holds in its mighty grasp all the life and force, the spirit, and matter of the universe, ever be forced to relax its grasp ? Never!

Another year is gone, and, like its predecessors, has worked the ordinary changes in God's great universe, and in all human things. Much it has borne away into the vast abysses out of sight, and much it has brought out to being from the creative forces of eternity. Thus TIME, in its resistless and majestic march, shall proceed until it has cleared away the old heavens and the old earth. But though it shall hurl the hoary mountains and hills from their sockets, and pluck suns and stars from their centres, I shall survive, I shall be somewhere in his

unbounded dominion, with all the memories of a wonderful past, and the hopes of an ever-brightening future. God's kindness, untouched by the revolution of ages, will be flooding the creation with brightness and with bliss. The union between His kindness and my deathless spirit will continue, defying the universe to break it up. "Who shall separate us from the love of God?"

A Homiletic Glance at the Acts of the Apostles.

Able expositions of the Acrs OF THE APOSTLES, describing the manners, customs, and localities described by the inspired writers; also interpreting their words, and harmonizing their formal discrepancies, are, happily, not wanting amongst us. But the eduction of its WIDEST truths and highest suggestions is still a felt desideratum. To some attempt at the work we devote these pages. We gratefully avail ourselves of all exegetical helps within our reach; but to occupy our limited space with any lengthened archæological, geographical, or philological remarks, would be to miss our aim; which is not to make bare the mechanical process of the study of Scripture, but to reveal its spiritual results.

SUBJECT: The Conclusion of Paul's Voyage from Greece to

Syria.

"And it came to pass, that, after we were gotten from them, and had launched, we came with a straight course unto Coos, and the day following unto Rhodes, and from thence unto Patara: and finding a ship sailing over unto Phenicia, we went aboard, and set forth. Now, when we had discovered Cyprus, we left it on the left hand, and sailed into Syria, and landed at Tyre: for there the ship was to unlade her burden. And finding disciples, we tarried there seven days; who said to Paul through the Spirit, that he should not go up to Jerusalem. And when we had accomplished those days, we departed, and went our way; and they all brought us on our way, with wives and children, till we were out of the city: and we kneeled down on the shore, and prayed. And when we had taken our leave one of another, we took ship; and they returned home again. And when we had finished our course from Tyre, we came to Ptolemais, and saluted the brethren,

and abode with them one day. And the next day we that were of Paul's company departed, and came unto Cesarea; and we entered into the house of Philip the evangelist, (which was one of the seven,) and abode with him. And the same man had four daughters, virgins, which did prophesy. And as we tarried there many days, there came down from Judea a certain prophet, named Agabus. And when he was come unto us, he took Paul's girdle, and bound his own hands and feet, and said, Thus saith the Holy Ghost, So shall the Jews at Jerusalem bind the man that owneth this girdle, and shall deliver him into the hands of the Gentiles. And when we heard these things, both we, and they of that place, besought him not to go up to Jerusalem. Then Paul answered, What mean ye to weep, and to break mine heart? for I am ready not to be bound only, but also to die at Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus. And when he would not be persuaded, we ceased, saying, The will of the Lord be done. And after those days we took up our carriages, and went up to Jerusalem. There went with us also certain of the disciples of Cesarea, and brought with them one Mnason of Cyprus, an old disciple, with whom we should lodge."-Acts xxi. 1-16.

PA

DAUL has taken his final farewell of the elders of Ephesus on the shore of Miletus, and the parting scene was most touching. His friends, with sorrowing hearts and tearful eyes, having accompanied him into the ship, he pursues his voyage. And as this narrative is a continuation of the preceding history, we shall rapidly glance at HIS DEPARTURE FROM MILETUS AND HIS ARRIVAL IN JERUSALEM. "And it came to pass, that after we were gotten from them, and had launched, we came with a straight course unto Coos, and the day following unto Rhodes, and from thence unto Patara." The expression "gotten from them" means, having torn ourselves from them, so strong were the ties of loving sympathy that bound their hearts together on the shores of Miletus that the disruption was an effort of agony. Each of the first three places the vessel reached mentioned in the text deserves a moment's notice.

Coos is an island in the Ægean Sea, about twenty-threemiles in length, near the coast of Cairia, about forty nautical miles south of Miletus. It was a fertile spot, famous for its vineyards, its wine, silk, cotton, and for its worship of Esculapius, and the residence of Hippocrates. It is probable