"go and sin no more." And must this "good news" from heaven, whose authenticity is evinced by the supernatural powers of the ambassadors who report it, be obstructed in its progress to our ears, and concealed from our eyes, and locked up in the Vatican at Rome? Let us

"Praise God from whom all blessings flow,"

that by his blessed providence he liberated his imprisoned word of life. You possess the "lively oracles" in your own language. You have the Bible in your churches and in your homes;

"Read it by day, and study it by night:"

treasure it in your hearts and exemplify its holy precepts in your lives. Remember, the privilege of possessing it was purchased by the blood of your ancestors and may the God of all grace make you partakers of its exceeding great and precious promises in this life and in that which is to come, through Jesus Christ, our Lord and Saviour.

356

THE DUTY OF PRAYER.

"Ir was the injunction of the Saviour, that men ought always to pray.' It was the charge of the Apostle, In every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your request be made known unto God.' For, you will also mark, there is a suggestion furnished relative to the parts of prayer: we are to present supplications for the mercies that we need-prayer that we may be delivered from the evils to which we are exposed-intercessions by which we are to express the exigences and sorrows of others, that the one may be relieved, and the other supplied-and giving of thanks for the blessings we possess, and for the deliverances effected for us by the mighty power of God. Then we are reminded that our intercessions and prayers are to be made for all our brethren and mankind. You say, Yes, the poor and the afflicted need the prayers of the righteous, that their penury may be relieved, and that they may be solaced and consoled under their trials: but the rich and the great require them not. Why, my friends, the rich and the great require them most of all, because they are placed in circumstances of exaltation, and are therefore in imminent peril. Tall oaks, and cedars of the forest and the mountains of Lybanus, are more likely to be struck by the lightning than the shrubs. The turrets that are upon the top of the castle are more likely to suffer from the severe blast of the storm than the lowly cottage. Kings, and those in authority, princes and potentates, are exposed to peculiar cares, and difficulties, and trials; and if they err too, they err not alone, but lead many into evil by their bad sentiments, or by their example. Therefore, says the Apostle, 'I will that, first of all, supplications and prayers, intercessions and giving of thanks, be made for all men.' Yes, prayers benevolent and catholic. When we are bending our knees before God, and expressing our desires for our fellowcreatures, our better affections flow forth toward them who are around us, and who bear the same nature with ourselves, and therefore we feel disposed to plead for the idolatrous, and the superstitious, and the deluded: yes, for Jews, Turks, and infidels, however they may differ from us, whether in theology or in secular policy, in the sciences or arts that prevail in society at large. I exhort, therefore, that, first of all, supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks be made for all men; for kings, and all that are in authority; that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty.' For they are the compensatory advantages of prayer: it will tend to promote peace in society; it will secure the approbation-not in the way of meritthe approbation of our Lord: for this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Saviour.' It will bring us into a near resemblance of that benevolent Being whose name is love, whose heart is tenderness, who delights in mercy— 'God our Saviour, who will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth "-REV. J CLAYTON.

THE CHARACTER AND CONVERSION OF SAUL OF TARSUS

REV. J. SHERMAN,

SURREY CHAPEL, OCTOBER 25, 1835.

"Howbeit for this cause I obtained mercy, that in me first Jesus Christ might shew forth ail long-suffering, for a pattern to them which should hereafter believe on him to life everlasting."-1 TIMOTHY, i. 16.

JUDGMENT and mercy, my brethren, are to be our songs in the house of our pilgrimage; and judgment and mercy are the chief subjects of God's Word. In one page of that Word we read of God's destroying the world with a deluge -in the other, of saving Noah and eight persons in the ark. In one page we read of his giving up the nations of the earth to the basest idolatry—in the other, of his calling Abraham from Ur of the Chaldees, and bidding him separate himself in mercy from them. In one page we read of his destroying the cities of the plain, and the inhabitants with them-in the other, of his rescuing Lot and his family, lest he should be devoured in the coming devastation. In one we read of his drowning the Egyptians in the Red Sea, though they cried aloud for help in the other, his allowing Israel to pass through the Red Sea upon dry land, and distinguishing them with his approving smile and blessing. In the one, we read of his sending Judas "to his own place"-in the other, of his pardoning Peter who denied him with oaths and curses. In the one, we read of his giving up one of the thieves, who hung by his side, to utter impenitence and hardness of heart, and plucking the other as a brand from the burning, in the last moments of existence. In the one, we read of his smiting Ananias and Sapphira dead with a lie in their mouths—in the other, of his converting Saul of Tarsus while in the very act of persecuting him and his disciples.

What shall we say to these things, my brethren? When we walk through the fields of Scripture, every where we see these monuments erected by the road-side for our observation; and not without a gracious end. God's wisdom and love are surprisingly manifest in these portions of Holy Writ, and in thus setting before us judgment and mercy. Some are monuments of his wrath, to alarm, arouse, and convict the impenitent, hardened, and profligate sinner; while others are monuments of his grace, his free mercy, and his sovereign love, to show how boundless it is in its extent, and to animate penitent sinners to come to the same source from whence these individuals obtained so large a share.

The Apostle tells us, that his conversion was " a pattern to them who should hereafter believe on Christ to life everlasting." Many individuals read the Word of God, and peruse the account of Saul's conversion as a pleasing story

as an interesting event recorded in Scripture: but that is not merely the aim and end of it; it was "a pattern to all them who should hereafter believe to life everlasting." It is one of the devices of Satan to keep souls from Jesus Christ, by telling them that their sins are past hope, that they must needs despair, for they are of a peculiar nature; that mercy may extend to some individuals, but it cannot extend to them; that the promises of God are for distinct parties who are specially named, but that they have not the qualifications that are necessary to those promises, and therefore the promises are not with them. O, what multitudes of souls has the enemy of mankind kept from peace and rest by these delusions! Is he trying any spirit with this description of temptation to-night? Is there any one supposing that his sins are too peculiar and too aggravated to find mercy? I call upon him now to look at the peculiar case presented, at the specimen of the divine workmanship here brought to his view. It is to be held up to-night as "a pattern," to show the vast and boundless extent of the grace of God in the conversion of the sinner, and the plenitude of the mercy of Christ in its extending to the utmost bounds of a sinner's guilt. Those of us who have believed through grace, ought to find our minds refreshed by looking at these patterns which God has set up in his Word. In cases of backsliding, in cases where the heart has wandered from God, in cases where we find we are not making progress, in cases where our hearts condemn us-O how refreshing, how reviving, how animating, free grace in Christ exemplified in such patterns as Peter and Saul! May we be refreshed and animated to-night while we look at the pattern here exhibited to our view! Let me call your attention to three points that seem presented in the words of the text the sinfulness of Saul's life before his conversion; the free grace of Christ in his conversion; and the design of Christ by his conversion.

Let me direct your attention to THE SINFULNESS OF SAUL'S LIFE BEFORE HIS CONVERSION. And what a sinner was Saul of Tarsus! He was such in his own eyes, that he said, "I am the chief:" and certainly in the description which he has given of his own life, and the manifestation of his impious mind, previous to his conversion, he may be called a prince among sinners, one of the chief monuments of divine grace and mercy. And when we look at these points as presented in the thirteenth verse-" Who was before a blasphemer, and a persecutor, and injurious "—we shall certainly say he was one of the chief of sinners. Observe then that he had four distinct characteristics: he was a horrid blasphemer, a furious persecutor, an injurious neighbour, a proud Pharisee and yet he obtained mercy.

" I

The first point in his character was, that he was a horrid blasphemer. verily thought," he says, "that I ought to do many things contrary to the name of Jesus of Nazareth; which things I also did in Jerusalem." His name was like poison to his very soul; he never spoke of him but with the most daring impiety; he would never examine the evidences of his mission, never look to the prophecies of olden time, never examine the types which the prophets represent and set forth of the great Messiah who was hereafter to come: but he took it for granted that he was an impostor, and he treated him as such. He was a man of great learning, and he turned all his learning to molest his Saviour, to degrade his Saviour, to despise his Saviour. He insulted him and his disciples, and as far as lay in him he was determined that the name

of Christ should never be known in the world, but as a name of execration fit only for the mouths of swearers and blasphemers. This was his determination. Are there any such present? Are there any swearers present-any blasphemers, any impious youths present? Behold your pattern in Saul of Tarsus.

He was a furious persecutor as well as a blasphemer. Whoever professed the name of Jesus Christ was the object of his inveterate rage. If any man were a thief, that were a small matter; if any man were a drunkard, that was an insignificant concern; if he was an idolater, or a swearer, or every thing that was vile, that was comparatively of little moment; that only introduced the man to the magistrate to be blamed or to be fined. But if he was a disciple of the Lord Jesus Christ, that was the grand badge of infamy in his estimation, and deserving of the severest punishment. But let us trace the gross features in his character as a persecutor, in order to discover the strength of his enmity to Jesus Christ and his disciples.

He tells us in the first place, that he was "exceedingly mad against them." And in Acts, ix. 1, there is a peculiar phrase used: "Saul yet breathing out threatenings and slaughter." You have seen a man in a great passion; the passion affects his breathing, so that he breathes out his words; he cannot utter them with that coolness, and conciseness, and readiness, which he does when he is quite free from passion; but he breathes them out; it seems to affect all his powers. This is the exact metaphor used in the words of the passage" breathing out." He was exceedingly mad against them:" not only angry, but mad; and not only mad, but exceedingly mad.

Secondly, he threatened them with "slaughter." His tongue was a servant which he employed in the devil's service to a vast extent; he used the most desperate threats to these poor individuals, these lamb-like persons, of confiscation, of imprisonment, and even of slaughter.

Thirdly, he "compelled them to blaspheme." And methinks this is the cream of his defilement, that he was not content to be an infidel himself, that he was not content to degrade Christ himself, but he made this the price of being let loose from his grasp, that they should deny Christ, that they should forswear Christ, that they should give up Christ, and that they should sever themselves for ever from Christ.

Again, he "haled men and women to prison:" not only men but women. Their sex might have excused them and pleaded for pity; but that was nothing to him; women were no more regarded than men: his bowels were shut against the mother with the child at her bosom; she might plead them-it was of no use;" he would hale them to prison;" and the only support of the mother's existence, and the only comfort she had-it mattered not to him; the aged and the young were to him both alike; the infant was torn from the mother's bosom, and the mother from the infant-the husband from the wife, and the wife from the husband-the sister from the brother, and the brother from the sister-all these were separated for the sake of gratifying his furious persecuting spirit; torn from their home, their business, and their connexions. they were accounted as criminals, and haled by force to prison.

Look at another point of his character: "many of the saints did he shut up in prison;" not one family, but many, numbers; all within his own reach or power-he not only took them before the magistrates, but "shut them up in prison;" he took upon him the power of an officer of state, and locked them