THE verb, poexe:píσarô, προεχειρίσατο, which is here translated, "chosen," only occurs in this form in one other place in the New Testament. (Acts xxvi. 16), where it has the sense of "making," or appointing." The idea here is ordination, or setting apart. Ananias tells Paul that the God of their fathers had ordained him to the life specified in in these verses. And truly the life is one of the highest that man can live on earth. What is the ordination? It is

I. To AN UNDERSTANDING OF THE HIGHEST SUBJECT, That thou shouldest know his will." God has a will. A will in relation to all existences-a will in relation to every individual man. His will is at once the spring of all existence, the rule of all motion, the standard of all character. To understand it is to understand the philosophy of all being, the cause of all phenomena, and the science of all duty. All true subjects of thought are related

to it, and lead into it as radia to their centre. It is, therefore, the sublimest subject of thought. It expresses the divine nature, it reveals the universe. It is, therefore, the great theme for the study of eternity. To the study of this Paul was thus ordained, He began it then, he is at it now, he will continue at it for ever.

II. To A VISION OF THE HIGHEST EXISTENCE, "And see that Just One." Not only to understand the will which is the law of the universe, but to see the Lawgiver Himself. "That Just One." Who? Evidently the Messiah-the God-man. (See Acts iii. 14.) He is called "that Just One" not merely because, as God, he is absolutely just, the Fountain of eternal rectitude. Nor merely because, as man, he "did no sin, neither was guile found in his mouth." But as Mediator who has engaged to make unjust men just. His work

as mediator is to make a world of unjust men just to themselves, just to their fellows, just to the universe, just to God. This is his work, and his work exclusively. Hence he is designated" that Just One." Paul was ordained to see Him. First: To renovate him as a sinner. The vision of Christ is the soul-transforming force!" Be

holding, as in a glass, the glory of the Lord, we are changed," &c. Second: To qualify him as an apostle. It would seem that one of the necessary qualifications of an apostle was, that he should have a personal view of Christ. Hence he says, "Am I not an apostle; have I not seen Christ Our Lord ?" Thirdly: To consummate his blessedness as a man. is the heaven of souls? beatific vision of Christ. The sight of Him thrills all, brightens all, elevates all, enraptures all. (Rev. v. 6, 12.)

What

The

III. TO A RECEPTION OF THE HIGHEST COMMUNICATIONS. "And shouldest hear the voice of his mouth." To have a direct communication with Christ seemed necessary in order to put Paul on a level with the twelve apostles. (Acts xiii. 3; Galatians i. 1.) But whilst this was specially required for Paul as an apostle, it is a high privilege to which God hath chosen," or appointed all good men. And what a privilege! Who teaches like Christ? "Never man spake like this man." So they said who heard Him when on earth, when he spoke only the few things that they could bear. His words on earth were original, suggestive, soul inspiring. But to listen to that voice in Heaven,

what an ecstasy of joy! Every utterance of that voice will then dispel some cloud of mystery from the sky of spirits, and open up some new realm of thought to the intellect, some new domain of beauty to the imagination. What is the voice of your Platos or even of your Pauls compared to the voice of Christ? The glimmerings of rushlight to the light of day.

IV. To A DISCHARGE OF

THE HIGHEST MISSION. What work was He chosen to? "Thou shalt be his witness unto all men, of what thou hast seen and heard." First: To bear witness of the highest facts about the Greatest Being. Paul was appointed as a witness for Christ. He was to declare all that he knew from observation and experi ence concerning the Son of God. This he nobly did. Second: To bear witness of the highest facts about the Greatest Being, to all man kind. "Unto all men." To the Jew as well as to the Gentile.

Oh, brothers! be "ordained" tó such a life as this. How earnestly should we aspire to such an ordination !

GETTING RID OF SIN. "And now, why tarriest thou? arise, and be baptized, and wash away thy sins, calling on the

name of the Lord."-Acts xxii. 16.

THE narrative in the ninth chapter records the execution of this proposition but not the proposition itself. Here Ananias calls upon Saul to be baptized; there we are told that after he had received his sight "he arose and was baptized." The discrepancy here is not contradictory, but supplementary. The words suggest three remarks concerning the work of getting rid of sin. It is a possible, a praying, and an urgent work.

I. It is a POSSIBLE work. "Be baptized and wash away thy sins." The Holy Word represents the sinful state of the soul under different figures. Sleep, slavery, disease, death, pollution. Here pollution the words imply that it is a cleansable pollution. It is It is not ingrained. It is a something separable from the soul. It can be washed away. Baptism to Saul, would not only be, what it ever was, the ordinance by which men passed from one religion to another, but would symbolize that moral cleansing of the soul which he so deeply needed. No water, of course, can wash the soul; all the waters of the Atlantic could not cleanse one moral stain. There is, however, a spiritual water, "the truth as it is in Jesus,

VOL. XX.

by which the Eternal Spirit does cleanse." (Ezek. xxxvi. 25, 27; 1 Cor. vi. 11; Titus iii. 7; Eph. v. 25, 26; Rev. i. 5, 6; vii. 14.) Thank God it is possible on this earth to separate the sin from the sinner.

or

II. It is a PRAYING work. "Calling upon the name of the Lord." The correcter reading seems to be "calling on his name "-avrov rather than Kupiov. Christ's name, however, is Himself; to call upon his name is to call upon Him. First: Christ is the only cleanser of human souls. His work is to wash away the sins of the world. To purify the moral garments of humanity. To make them white "without spot, wrinkle," &c. Secondly: Prayer is the ordained means of attaining his cleansing influence. "Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord, shall be saved." (Rom. x. 13.) The prayer addressed to Him in the upper-room at Jerusalem, brought down his cleansing influences on the day of Pentecost. You may get wealth by industry; intelligence by study; wisdom by experience; but moral purity only by prayer. Prayer takes the soul up to the fountain opened for the washing away of all uncleanness.

III. It is an URGENT work. "Why tarriest thou?" Or

R

more literally, why art thou | about acting, instead of acting really? Do not hesitate a moment. Be prompt. What thou doest, do quickly. The importance of promptitude may be argued-First: From the greatness of the work. Eternity depends upon it. Second : From the time already lost. The whole life should have been given to it, but much has run to waste. Third: From the increase of difficulties. Disinclination, insensibility, force of habit, increase. Fourth: From the character of the future. It is (1) brief; (2) uncertain.

A COMMON THING REACHING THE WONDERFUL.

"While I prayed in the temple, I was in a trance."-Acts xxii. 17. I. HERE IS A COMMON THING. A man praying. Prayer is an instinct of the soul. Danger seldom fails to rouse this instinct into the passionate supplication even of the most depraved (see Psa. cvii. 13). Volney in a storm. at sea, a striking example of this. Alas! more than half the prayers of the world are worthless. All worthless prayer may be divided into two classes. First: Prayer addressed to the wrong god. Second: Prayer addressed to the right God in a wrong way. The universal ten

dency of man to pray implies the oul's innate belief in some of the leading facts of theology, such as the being, the personality, the presence, and the entreatability of God.

II. HERE IS A COMMON THING REACHING THE WONDERFUL. The trance, EkσTaσis, is the state in which a man has passed out of the usual order of his life, beyond the usual limits of consciousness and volition. To this "ecstasy" of the Apostle Paul we owe the mission which was the starting-point of the history of the universal Church, the command which bade him "depart far hence unto the Gentiles." It is supposed by some, and with much probability, that it is to this trance Paul refers (2 Cor. xii. 1-5) when he speaks of being caught up to the third heaven. Now, it was prayer, a common thing, that conducted Paul into this wonderful state of ecstasy.

CONCLUSION.First: Learn the sublime possibilities of the human soul. By a mysterious power of abstraction it can close up all the physical senses, shutout the external universe, and transport itself as on the wings of an angel into a world where there are scenes too grand for description, and communications surpassing utterance. Isaiah, Ezekiel, Daniel, John, as well as Paul,

were often transported to these supernal states. Second: Learn the incomparable worth of true prayer. It was while Paul was praying that he got into this trance. Prayer is the road into the celestial. While Daniel was praying,

the man Gabriel touched him about the time of evening oblation, and said, "O, Daniel," &c. (Dan. ix. 2123.) While Peter was praying on the housetop, he fell into ecstasy, and a man stood, &c. (Acts x. 9, &c.)

LABOUR AS ENHANCING THE RELATIVE VALUE OF A MAN'S POSSESSION.

"The slothful man roasteth not that which he took in hunting: but the substance of a diligent man is precious."Prov. xii. 27.

THE original word here translated "slothful," is in several other places rendered "deceitful." Slothfulness is almost necessarily connected with deceit. The idle man is a dreamer; he lives in false hopes. He makes promises that prove fallacious, because he has not the industry to work them out. Slothfulness stands almost always nearly akin to falsehood. The text means one of three things. First: Either that the slothful man is too lazy to "roast" and to prepare for food what he happened to strike down without much effort in the field. Or secondly: That which he "roasts" and prepares for food he had no hand in procuring, and that he lives on the production of other men's labours. He has "roast" meat, but that which he roasts is not what he himself took in hunting, Or thirdly: That what he caught in the field was so easily caught, caught with such little effort, that

he did not value it enough to prepare for food:-He did not take it up, carry it home and prepare it for the table. The last, I think, was the idea that Solomon had in his mind when he wrote this text. The last clause indicates this: "But the substance of a diligent man is precious," as if he had said, The slothful man does not value sufficiently what he has without labour caught in the field to prepare for food; but what the industrious man has, as the result of his work, is precious to him. The general principle, therefore, contained in these words is this:-That labour enhances the relative value of a man's possession. This principle is capable of extensive illustration; it applies to many things.

I. IT APPLIES ΤΟ MATERIAL WEALTH. Two men may possess property of exactly the same amount, of exactly the same intrinsic and marketable value, but whilst the one has gained it by long years of industry, it has come to the other by accident or fortune, or in some way entirely irrespective of his labour. Is the property equally appreciated by these two men? Is there not an immense