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his crucifixion. We see a few unlearned men, destitute of all worldly influence, affectionately attached to his person, but unhappily labouring under great mistakes respecting the nature of his kingdom, and destitute of the most likely means of spreading even their own notions of his religion through the world. And when we examine the state of the world we find it consisting of Jews, wedded to their own religion, and abhorring his doctrine as an impious attempt to supersede the law of Moses; and of heathens, or Gentiles, amongst whom the philosophers, full of their own wisdom, despised the simplicity of the Gospel, while the vulgar, devoted to childish abominable superstitions, and averse to the spirituality of the worship it enjoined, were disposed to execute the vengeance of jealous malignant deities upon a body of men who refused to offer incense on their altars-a world, too, in which every kind of vice abounded; in which the passions of men demanded indulgence and spurned at the restraint of the holy commandment of the Lord and Saviour. Such was the actual state of things during the personal ministry of Jesus of Nazareth; yet, in these circumstances, with such obstacles to encounter, we find him, conscious of his divine character and mission, predicting with perfect assurance the spread of his Gospel throughout the world, and the triumphs of his cross. Thus we find him remarking to his disciples, a little before his passion," The hour is come that the Son of man should be glorified. Verily, verily, I say unto you, except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die it abideth alone; but, if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit ;--Now is the judgment of this world; now shall the prince of this world be cast out; and I, if I be lifted up from the earth (in allusion to the means of his death), will draw all men unto me," Joh. xii. This was a memorable prediction concerning the triumph of his religion over all opposing obstacles, and it shows us that he looked forward to his death upon the cross as the grand attractive in gaining the hearts of his enemies, and drawing disciples unto him. Mighty and important ends, as he well knew, were to be accomplished by means of his death. It was necessary, for instance, in order that an atonement might be made for the sins of men and that sinners might be reconciled unto God. It was further necessary in order to abolish the old covenant, and thereby break down the middle

wall of partition, which, during the existence of that covenant, had separated the Jews and the Gentiles. It was necessary in order to defeat and overturn the empire of Satan, who enslaved the Gentile world. In a word, it was necessary, in order that the new covenant might be established with the elect of all nations, consisting in the remission of sins through the blood of his cross. Such were the stupendous events to be accomplished by means of his death upon the cross, and, with the appalling scene full in his view, we find him saying, "Now is my soul troubled, and what shall I say? Father, save me from this hour: but for this cause came I unto this hour." And so the divine substitute encourages himself under the dreadful weight of his sufferings by anticipating the glorious effects which were to result from them in the overthrow of Satan's kingdom and the spread of his religion in the world. And now let us enquire how far the event justified the Saviour's prediction. We have seen, in a former Lecture, that on the day of Pentecost, under the apostle Peter's first sermon, three thousand Jews were converted to the faith of Christ, baptized in his name, and added to his church. Shortly afterwards we read of five thousand more, who, having heard the preaching of the apostles, believed the saving truth, ch. iv. 4. And, as the historian proceeds with the narrative, he tells us that "believers were the more added to the Lord, multitudes both of men and women," ch. v. 14, insomuch that the rulers of the Jews took the alarm at the prevalence of this new religion, and complained that the apostles had "filled Jerusalem with their doctrine,” ver. 28. To counteract the spread of the Gospel, a violent persecution arose against the church in Jerusalem, in which, as we have formerly noticed, Stephen fell a martyr to Jewish rage; but this only turned out to the furtherance of the cause of Christ, for the disciples being scattered abroad went every where preaching the word, throughout the regions of Judæa and Samaria; they also travelled as far as Phoenicia, and Cyprus, and Antioch; and the hand of the Lord was with them, and a great number believed the Gospel," Acts viii. 1, ch. xi. 19, 20. In a little time "churches were gathered throughout all the cities of Judæa, Galilee, and Samaria; and these, walking in the fear of the Lord, and the comforts of the Holy Spirit, were edified and multiplied," ch. ix. 31. Such were the triumphs of the cross among

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the Jews, in a few years after Christ's ascension into heaven. Thousands were drawn, by the report of his death and resurrection, to believe in him, to love him, to trust him for all their salvation, to live to him, and in innumerable instances, as we shall hereafter see, to die for his sake. They were delivered from a state of mental darkness, moral impurity, and degradation ;from a state of slavery to Satan, the god of this world, and of enmity to the true God—and they were drawn to Christ, to acknowledge him as the true Messiah, the Son of God, the alone Saviour of the guilty; and, believing the truth which the apostles testified concerning him, they experienced peace with God, the enjoyment of his love, and the hope of a blessed immortality. But to proceed:

Hitherto we have confined our notice to the progress of Christianity among the people of the Jews, the conversion of myriads of them to the faith of Christ, and the planting of churches in Judæa, Galilee, and Samaria. But we must now turn our attention to the spread of the Gospel among the benighted heathen-the countries which lay without the pale of the Jewish church, and were consequently sunk in idolatry, superstition, and vice; or, as the inspired records have it, "the lands that were sitting in darkness and the shadow of death," Luke i. 79. What their actual state in relation to morals and the worship of God at that time was, may be gathered from many intimations of the sacred writers, the prophets, evangelists, and apostles, particularly from Acts xvii. and xix.; Rom. i. and Eph. ii. The times of this ignorance, indeed, the Most High had winked atbut the writings of the prophets abounded with intimations of mercy in store even for the Gentile lands, and of the choicest blessings that were to descend upon them through the Messiah. In relation to this important event, what language can be more explicit than the following:-"Thou shalt arise and have mercy upon Zion, for the time to favour her, yea the set time is come: -So the heathen shall fear the name of the Lord, and all the kings of the earth thy glory," Ps. cii. 13—15. And again, Arise, shine, for thy light is come, and the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee; for behold, the darkness shall cover the earth, and gross darkness the people; but the Lord shall arise upon thee and his glory shall be seen upon thee; and the Gen

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tiles shall come to thy light and kings to the brightness of thy rising,” Isa. lx. 1-3. And then the Spirit of inspiration proceeds to expatiate in the most sublime and rapturous strains on the accessions that were to be made to the church of God, when the forces of the Gentiles should come unto her.

Now to find the accomplishment of this mercy, or, at least, to see the promises beginning to take effect, we must direct our attention to the Acts of the Apostles, the tenth and eleventh chapters of which, as I mentioned in the first Lecture, afford us a most interesting account of the apostle Peter's vision at Joppa, whereby he was supernaturally instructed that the time had arrived when the distinction between the Jew and Gentile was to cease, or to be no longer in force-the middle wall of partition being broken down, the law of carnal commandments being taken out of the way; when the Gentiles were to be fellow heirs with the Jews and partakers of the promise of life by the Gospel. Thus divinely instructed, we find the prejudices of the apostle completely overcome: he went into the house of Cornelius the centurion, to whom and to his family he boldly declared the truth concerning Christ and his salvation, and, while he was yet speaking, the Holy Spirit descended upon this Gentile congregation, "purifying their hearts by faith," and communicating the supernatural gifts of the Spirit, so that these Heathen converts were enabled to speak languages to which hitherto they had been strangers, and to glorify God for his mercy, Acts x. These things happened in Cæsarea, but the tidings were soon spread abroad throughout Judea, and presently reached Jerusalem, where they occasioned no small consternation; and, when Peter arrived there, he was interrogated respecting his conduct, in having gone in unto men uncircumcised and eating with them. The apostle, consequently, had to rehearse the matter from the beginning, concluding with this home appeal to his Jewish brethren: "Forasmuch, then, as God gave them (the Gentiles) the like gift as he did unto us (Jews) who believed on the Lord Jesus Christ, what was I, that I could withstand God?" It is added that "when they heard these things they held their peace and glorified God, saying, "Then hath God also to the Gentiles granted repentance unto life," ch. xi. 1-18. Thus was the door of faith opened to the Gentiles, and

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in this way was the promise which Christ had made unto Peter accomplished, "I will give thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven;" for as he was the first to preach the Gospel of the kingdom to the Jews on the day of Pentecost, so was he now honoured with first preaching the Gospel to the Gentiles also.

We are thus brought, in the progress of events, to that epoch when the standard of the cross was to be unfurled, and the knowledge of salvation by the remission of sins to be conveyed among the Gentiles; but, before we proceed with the history, it is proper that we should pause and contemplate, with adoring wonder and admiration, the footsteps of divine providence, in raising up an extraordinary instrument to carry into effect the benevolent purposes of God towards the nations. I refer to Paul, the great apostle of the Gentiles, whose labours in the service of his divine Master occupy from the twelfth chapter of the Acts of the Apostles to the end; and whose Epistles to the churches, which he was the honoured instrument of gathering by his ministry, constitute a most important part of the oracles of God. Of this extraordinary individual a short account cannot be uninteresting.

This man, whose Hebrew name was Saul, was a native of Tarsus, in Cilicia, and his father, though a Jew, was a Roman citizen, which entitled him to many valuable privileges. The first years of the son's life were passed in Tarsus, a Greek city, where he, no doubt, was taught the Greek language. At a proper age, however, his parents sent him to finish his education, and perfect his studies in Hebrew literature at Jerusalem, under Gamaliel, the most celebrated Doctor of his time; a man who, for his eminent attainments, "was had in reputation among all the people" of the Jews. Under such an able preceptor, Saul's proficiency was great. He "profited in the Jews' religion above many of equal standing in his own nation, being more exceedingly zealous of the traditions of the fathers," Gal. i. 14. He first presents himself to our notice as an active agent in the martyrdom of Stephen, to whose death he consented, and even took charge of the clothes of the witnesses who stoned him to death. We next hear of him "breathing out threatenings and slaughter against the disciples of Christ, and soliciting from the high priest