He opened her heart to receive at once the truth as it is in Jesus.

Let it, therefore, brethren, only be seen to by us, that it is our earnest, sincere desire to learn of Christ and to come to him, and to belong to him as his people, and that we are seeking for this, and then let us leave the event with him, that he may give us, according to his own appointment, greater or less of his gifts and graces; and that he may give them to us sooner or later, according as he knows we can bear to receive and use what he gives us. Let us only be upright and conscientious, and daily be gathering the manna of heavenly truth, and of Divine bestowment, which falls around our tabernacles, and then he will give us whatever he sees to be really needful for temporal, spiritual, and eternal welfare. Then if he sees us weak and feeble disciples, he will gently lead and direct us ; he will not put new wine into old bottles or new cloth on an old garment; he will make our strength to be equal to our day, and his strength perfect in our weakness. Then it will be as it was with the manna, "he that gathereth much will have nothing over, and he that gathereth little will have no lack."

Only this I will say, brethren,-if any of you are conscious that the Lord has thus dealt with you,-if he has opened your heart to hear his preached Gospel, and to "attend to" it,-to adhere, that is, to cleave to it, as the original word very strongly signifies, then indeed have you cause to offer your humble thanksgiving, and rejoice in his Holy Name. Whatever other difficulties still may be in your way, be not discouraged, but rejoice with a thankful spirit. Say, with the wife of Manoah, "If the Lord had meant to destroy me, he would not have shown me all this mercy." Continue to wait upon him, in the same appointed means in which he originally called you, and then

ancient world. Paul at his coming found the city 66 wholly given to idolatry." He felt himself pressed in spirit to preach the word of life and salvation to them. Wherever he could meet any persons who had any thing of seriousness, even in superstitious and idolatrous devotion, he disputed with them, and even at the peril of life he went out into the market-place every day and "preached Jesus and the resurrection." The different sects of Philosophers together with the multitude took him, and brought him before the senate. There he boldly declared the Gospel to them, and called upon them all to repent, and to turn from their idols and lying vanities to the living God, and to receive and believe in his Son from heaven, who was raised up from the dead, and should in a little while come at the end of all things to judge the world. Then, when Paul had ceased preaching, his hearers were divided by the word he had preached into three sorts. Some of them mocked; some of them delayed and postponed their assent to it, “We will hear thee again of this matter;" and so Paul passed from among them and departed from Athens ;" but others clave unto him and believed." Among these last were "Dionysius, one of the senators, and a woman called Damaris."

This is the narrative; and in order to a more particular consideration, it naturally divides itself into three points;

I. The previous state of the people,

II. The truth declared by the preacher,

III. And the effects produced on the hearers.

"was

I. Consider we, first, the previous state of the people. 1. "The city," we are told in the 16th verse, wholly given to idolatry, or, as it is in the margin, "the city was full of idols." Let us try to realize, brethren, what that would be. It is so with many I

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meekness: "If ye have judged me to be faithful to the Lord, then come into my house." "I am not worthy to judge myself. I am not worthy that you should come under my roof, or that the Church of my Lord should meet there; but tell me, and solve it for me, am I faithful to the Lord?' O what a much more promising, gracious spirit, than the legal, self-justifying, proud, professing forwardness of many that hold to the name, and claim the discipleship of Jesus now! My beloved hearers, there is nothing that gives us a better hope of the state of any, than just this very simplicity, this self-distrust, this anxious desire really to win Christ and be found in him. You are the "meek whom the Lord will guide in judgment." You, depend upon it, are those to "whom he will teach his way."

3. Lastly, (to pass over many other notable things) observe this pious disciple's care for her house and family. They were baptized as well as she. And in praying the ministers of Christ to come and abide at her house, no doubt she was actuated by a desire on their behalf also. She wished to entertain a righteous man and a prophet, that she might, in her seed and offspring, receive a prophet's reward. Alas! how different this from many in these our days! With them to baptize a child is a form if not a festivity; it is not an anxious desire to recognize in that child an immortal creature, born for an endless, eternal dwelling-place, and therefore to graft it by baptism into the spiritual household, the mystical body of Jesus Christ. And so with such we shall find, that there is in them no desire, no simple, sincere desire, that the Lord or his Church may find a home at their dwelling, or be known and loved in their household, or that his prophets and ministers may bring a spiritual blessing, a prophet's reward on their family. Yea, rather for the veriest trifle, for a slight engagement or a shower

of rain, they will keep the offspring which God has given them away from his house of worship. Often have I ventured to say it, but now I will say it again, that while such a course is exceeding cruelty, of course, to their children's souls, it is perhaps the most certain mark, on the part of those who do it, of a state, at the present, of carnal ignorance of religion, and awful distance from God. The good Lord look upon us all, and open all our hearts," that we may "attend to" his Holy Word, and receive it within us as an incorrupti

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ble seed, now to be cast on the waters, but hereafter to be found in abundant fruit for everlasting ages!

SERMON XXVII.

DIST. IV. INSTRUMENTAL. SEC. I.

DIONYSIUS AND DAMARIS.

Among the which was Dionysius the Areopagite and a woman named Damaris.—Acts xvii. part of ver. 34.

I HAVE now to direct attention to the fourth distinction out of five which I proposed to consider in that work of Divine grace which we call Conversion. There has been considered, hitherto, in the first place a moral distinction,—or the difference which arises in the work from the previous moral character, whether such as that of Nathanael, or that of the thief upon the cross. There has been considered, in the second place, a temporal distinction,—a distinction of time,—whether that work of grace is effected in early life, and frequently also by slow and gradual instruction, as in the case of Timothy who "from a child knew the Holy Scriptures," or whether it is effected when the person has attained to maturity in a carnal state, and frequently then by a sudden and powerful calling, as it was in the case of St. Paul, or certain other of the apostles, who received the command of Christ in the midst of their worldly engagements, to forsake all and follow him. There has been considered, in the third place, an operative distinction,-or the difference which