sacrifice their sympathy, but incur their scorn and opposition. He exposed himself to their bitter insults, their withering lampoons, and malignant contempt. It was trying, moreover, to his reason. His own experience, and that of his ancestors, assured him of the stability of nature. Year after year up to the last of the one hundred and twenty, as nature proceeded in her wonted course, moving on in the majesty of unbroken order, she would seem to him at times to denounce him as one of the most deluded of visionaries. The sceptics of his age would no doubt avail themselves of the indisputable regularity of nature, and point him out to society as one of the most brainless of fanatics; still, his faith in the “things not seen as yet," as revealed by God, made him strong to labour on. And what did the result show? That it is far wiser to trust in the word of God than in the stability of nature, or the deductions of reason. God can break the order of nature; He cannot break his word. God has broken the He has never broken

order of nature, as man understands it; his word. Oh, it is faith in the unseen that makes men strong "to labour and to wait." This is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith. The heroic achievements emblazoned in this chapter are all attributable to this faith. Let me believe in those things "not seen as yet," which God has revealed, and I shall be magnanimous in suffering, invincible in duty, brave in danger, discharging evermore my mission heroically, regardless alike of the smiles or frowns of men.

Secondly: Noah's faith in the unseen impelled him to the most serviceable work. The ark he made proved the "saving of his house," as well as the saving of the germs of a new world. Had he not done his work, would not the human race have become extinct? A truly serviceable work was this work of Noah. He became the second father of mankind; and, under God, we owe him our existence and our earthly all. What made him such a benefactor? Faith in the "things not seen as yet," which God revealed. In making that ark, he worked out God's idea: "According to all that

And in thus working out
Thus it ever is. No man

God commanded him, so did he." God's idea, he saved the world. can truly help his race unless he believes in God's word, and works his faith out on the little and, it may be, very humble and dusty platform of his earthly life. Wouldst thou be a true benefactor, brother? Then, like Noah, take into thy being ideas from God about "things not seen as yet"; let these fill and fire thee, work thy faculties, and shape thy character. Man's mission is to get ideas from heaven into him, and plant them as living seeds in the earth.

Thirdly Noah's faith in the unseen compelled him to sincondemning work. "He condemned the world" by practically trusting the Divine word, obeying the Divine command, working out in every-day life the ideas of God. He condemned the unbelief, corruption, and impieties of the wicked millions about him, that revelled in these crimes. Thus he was, as Peter calls him, a "preacher of righteousness." He preached righteousness not merely with the lip, but with the whole life. Every stroke of the hammer that echoed in the valley was a homily against sin. He was a light "shining in a dark place." "This is the condemnation, that light has come into the world." The excellence of one individual exposes the faults of another, as I have sometimes seen a light beaming out from one region of the sky giving a blacker and more threatening aspect to a dark thunder-cloud hanging in the opposite heavens.

Fourthly: Noah's faith impelled him to a self-rectifying work. "He became heir of the rightecusness which is by faith." The meaning is, he became a possessor of righteousness. His faith in the "things not seen as yet," which included the intervention of Christ, made him right with God, for it is said, "he found favour in the sight of the Lord." Right in the very spirit of his life, for we are told that "Noah walked with God." Men are ever "justified made right by faith.

CONCLUSION: There are three classes of men in relation to this subject. (1.) There are those who are careless about the

things not seen as yet." They live in the flesh, to the flesh, and for the flesh; are immersed in materialism, and are as utterly indifferent to the unseen things that are marching towards them as the contemporaries of Noah were to the deluge. Death, retribution, God, eternity, these are words to which they close their ears; these are realities that exert no influence on their lives. How foolish their conduct, how perilous their position! They are like men sporting on the flowery brow of a volcanic hill that will soon rive asunder and engulph them in its fires. (2.) There are those who are sentimentally interested in the things "not seen as yet." With thousands it is to be feared who call themselves Christians, those invisible realities are but subjects that merely ripple the surface of their nature-subjects for passing thought and occasional speech. They do not stir the depths of their soul, they take no hold upon the life, they exert no dominant force. (3.) There are those who are practically influenced in the "things not seen as yet." They feel themselves under the power of the world to come. They look away from the things that are "seen and temporal" upon those things that are unseen and eternal." Though in the world, they are not of the world. Like Noah, they have received ideas from heaven, and they consecrate their existence to the working of them out. Brother, to which of these classes dost thou belong? Art thou careless? Then with the awful responsibility of man resting on thee thou art living the life of a brute. Or belongest thou to the second? A sentimental interest in those things availeth thee nothing; it only enhances thy responsibility and darkens thy future. Or to the third? If thou art relying on the Word of God and working out his will, thou art prepared for all the "things not seen as yet." Thou hast not, like Noah, to prepare an ark. An Ark has been prepared for thee, thy family, and the world. Enter it, and it shall shelter thee from storms "not seen as yet," bear thee triumphantly over the fiery floods of universal retribution, and land thee on the sunny hills of everlasting rest.

66

A Homiletic Glance at the Acts of the

Apostles.

Able expositions of the ACTS OF THE APOSTLES, describing the manners, enstoms, 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 their 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: Paul at Malta-Good in Heathendom.

"And when they were escaped, then they knew that the island was called Melita. And the barbarous people shewed us no little kindness for they kindled a fire, and received us every one, because of the present rain, and because of the cold. And when Paul had gathered a bundle of sticks, and laid them on the fire, there came a viper out of the heat, and fastened on his hand. And when the barbarians saw the venomous beast hang on his hand, they said among themselves, No doubt this man is a murderer, whom, though he hath escaped the sa, yet vengeance suffereth not to live. And he shook off the beast into the fire, and felt no harm. Howbeit they looked when he should have swollen, or fallen down dead suddenly; but, after they had looked a great while, and saw no harm come to him, they changed their minds, and said that he was a god. In the same quarters were possessions of the chief man of the island, whose name was Publius; who received us, and lodged us three days courteously."-Acts xxviii. 1–7.

W

E have followed Paul in his journey to Rome through the terrific voyage "up and down Adria" until the vessel was dashed to pieces on the shores of Melita. He, with the two hundred, threescore and fifteen souls, who had shared with him the terrors and sufferings of that voyage, have "escaped all safe to land." We are told that when "they were escaped, they knew that the island was called Melita." That this island is our modern Malta, is a point on which most of our acknowledged expositors are agreed. The

HOMILETIC GLANCE AT THE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES.

311

place known as "the bay of St. Paul" on the north-east coast of Malta, which tradition assigns as the scene of shipwreck, presents all the features mentioned in this narrative. It is described as a "rocky shore, with creeks or inlets, a place of two seas both in the sense of a narrow channel, and of a projecting point. It is a tenacious anchorage-beds of mud contiguous to banks of sand and clay. It has soundings exactly answering to those recorded, and in the same relative position, and in precisely such a coast as to shape, height, breakers, and currents, as would account for a shipwreck taking place just here." The people who inhabited this island. at that time are here called "barbarous" people, so named in order to distinguish them from Greeks and Romans, who regarded all nations as barbarians who did not speak their language. "Its population was of Phoenicean origin, speaking a language which, as regards social intercourse, had the same relation to Latin and Greek which modern Maltese has to English and Latin." The character of the islanders is very strikingly revealed in the verses before us, and that character shows us the good that there is in the human heart where there is neither civilization nor Christianity. It is common to regard all men outside of Christendom as utterly destitute of every element of goodness. Their kingdom of darkness is unrelieved by a single ray of goodness. They are the incarnations and instruments of evil, and evil only. This is untrue to fact, and a libel on human nature. Observe in these barbarians several good things.

"And the bar

I. A SYMPATHY WITH HUMAN SUFFERING. barous people showed us no little kindness, for they kindled a fire, and received us every one, because of the present rain, and because of the cold." And then in the seventh verse we are told, "that the chief man in the island, whose name was Publius, received and lodged us three days courteously." The appearance of these shipwrecked men, destitute of food and raiment, shivering in the cold and the rain, stirred their hearts with commiseration, and they showed them no little