by the person, who was, herself, the subject. She said, “I had been into town, and felt under much concern, all the morning. When I came home, I sat down to my work, and, all in a moment, a flash of light passed through me; I sprang to my feet, ran out to a neighbour's house, and, for four hours, I could do nothing but cry for mercy." The above may be regarded as a tolerably fair specimen of many of the cases. Persons are stricken down, while sitting at their work, and, sometimes, remain in agony for 36 hours, neither eating nor sleeping, but crying out “O Jesus, come! O, come, and apply thy blood to me."

It is well worthy of notice that, in cases where the convicted persons have been, previously, well taught in the letter of Scripture, or much under the sound of clear gospel preaching, they are far more speedily brought into the enjoyment of settled peace in Jesus. This is an important and interesting fact, and one well calculated to illustrate the value of having young people grounded in the knowledge of Scripture.

In conclusion, whether we look at the work as a whole, or examine its salient points-whether we consider its origin, or mark its practical results in individuals and localities, our hearts should be stirred up to pray that the tide of the Spirit's reviving grace may roll onward, from province to province, from county to county, from town to town; yea, that it may pass through the entire compass of the vineyard of Christ, so that the number of God's elect may be gathered out, and the day of glory hastened. Thank God, this movement has had a most decided influence upon the ranks of the people of God. It has roused the indifferent, it has stirred up the lethargic, it has awakened the slumbering. These are happy results for which we have to be deeply thankful.

May the Lord endow all His servants with the needed grace and wisdom for this most solemn and interesting time, that they may be enabled rightly to divide the word of truth, and to give to each his portion of meat in season.

NOTE-Lest, by any means, this paper should fall into the hands of any one who might feel disposed to make light of this most solemn work, I shall mention a circumstance which was related to me, by two or three credible witnesses. Some young men agreed together that one of their party should fall down and pretend to be stricken, while the others were to call to some person whom they saw approaching, to pray with the pretended case of conviction. The unhappy young man had the hardihood to carry on this piece of daring and blasphemous mockery. It was begun as a farce; but, alas! it ended as a most awful tragedy. He was struck dead on the spot!

Now, many mockers and scoffers are left alive, for this is the day of God's long-suffering; but this unhappy young man was struck dead, for God, in His moral government, sees fit, at times, to make a signal and solemn example. Hence, therefore, let mockers and scoffers beware.

'Tis not for man to trifle! life is brief;

As Paul and Barnabas entered the synagogue at Antioch, they were invited, after the reading of the Law and the Prophets, to give the people a word of exhortation. Paul had readiness to address them in his heart, for he carried and represented the gospel of God, that system of divine active love that is ever waiting on sinners. But when out of the abundance of such a heart his mouth speaks, it is in such a way as the synagogue could not have expected. He does not make the people his subject, giving them exhortations as out of the law or the prophets, but he makes God

and His acts his subjects, out of the historical books. He details a series of divine acts from the day of the Exodus, to the resurrection of Jesus, (acts of grace, every one of them) in which God had been rising up in the supremacy of His own love and power over all the various sad and evil condition of Israel, whether such had been brought on them by themselves, or by their enemies, through their own folly and wickedness, or by the hand of them that hated them.

He deals with facts, such facts as displayed God in grace, and humbled man. He brings God into the synagogue, and makes Him the great object of notice to the soul. And this, let me say, is God's own way in the Gospel. He makes room for Himself, as I may express it, in both our hearts and our consciences. He breaks us to pieces, leaving us without a word to say for ourselves, exposed, convicted, and condemned, that He may introduce His own salvation to the conscience and to the heart; that the one may find peace made by Himself for it, and the other be for ever drinking of a love that flows to everlasting, as it has been flowing from everlasting.

This story of grace, which Paul reads in the synagogue at Antioch, brings out various actings of God's hand in behalf of His people. After choosing the fathers, He had of old delivered Israel out of Egypt in spite of Egypt's strength and enmity. He had then carried them through the wilderness for the space of forty years, well supplying all their need, in spite of their manners and their murmurings. Then, He had beaten down the nations of Canaan before their face, and divided their lands among them. He had, after that, raised up a long line of Judges or deliverers for them, to deliver them out of the hand of those oppressors,' whom their own folly and faithlessness had armed against them. And still further, He had given them David, a man of His own choice, to be their shepherd, after they had proved the bitterness of the days of Saul, who had been the

man of their choice. Thus, in so many ways, and for so long a time, had He magnified His grace, and continued in it, unwearied by their need, changeful as it was, and unhindered by their faithlessness, persevering and rebellious, as it was.

With this tale of grace Paul fills the synagogue at Antioch. But there was still another chapter in that story. Jesus the Messiah had been given to the nation, refused and crucified by the nation, but by God raised up and given again to them; and, in the name of this crucified and risen Jesus, the forgiveness of sins is now preached, and Israel called on to accept it.

Now, this was a tale of the constancy and variousness of the grace of God. Israel is seen to have enjoyed a series of accomplished blessings at the hand of God. Redemption, support, victory, deliverance, and a kingdom, all had been theirs, in spite of the strength of enemies, and of their own unfaithfulness; and now, added to these, there was provision for the forgiveness of all their sins.

And, blessed to tell it, this crowning mercy, the forgiveness of sins, which Paul now preached, was a blessing as sure as any, established by as sure an arm, and made theirs by as clear a title. It was set upon the resurrection of Jesus. Redemption, and inheritance, and deliverance, and the like, had been, each and all in their day, infallible, and each and all in their turn and time enjoyed by Israel. And all had stood on solid ground, and in good warranty. The rod of Moses, adapted by the God of all power and might, was equal to work redemption, and Israel enjoyed redemption. The presence of God had supplied the camp, and the sword of the Lord in the hand of Joshua had conquered and divided the land. Judges could deliver from all oppressors, since the Lord of heaven and earth had raised them up; and the man after God's own heart had guided the flock of God with integrity and skilfulness. And now "the forgiveness of sins" takes its place among these bless

ings, for Jesus in resurrection in like infallibility can secure and dispense it. The manna from heaven had no more virtue to feed the camp morning by morning-and who could question that?-than the resurrection of the Lord Jesus has to publish the forgiveness of sins to all that believe. Death is the wages of sin, and cannot be put away, but by sin being put away. To get rid of death we must get rid of sin. But Jesus had risen. He was alive from the dead and on the ground of such a fact as that, of such accomplished victory as His resurrection bespeaks, the forgiveness of sins is as infallibly named, as surely and boldly published, as redemption was wrought by the rod of Moses, or victory and the division of the land by the sword of the Lord, and of Joshua.

Forgiveness of sins thus takes its place among the sure and accomplished blessings of grace. We can account for it, as simply as for any of those wrought out of old for Israel by Jehovah. We can see why sins may now be forgiven, as once we saw why Pharaoh's host lay dead on the sea-shore. Jehovah looked from the cloud then, and that was enough; Jesus is risen from the dead now, having been made sin for us, and that is enough. The danger is in despising-as the apostle closes his preaching, "behold, ye despisers, and wonder and perish, for I work a work in your days, a work which ye will in no wise believe, though a man declare it unto you." This was the apostle's exhortation.

The law and the prophets had been read in the synagogue, as we noticed, and the apostles were invited to give the people a word of exhortation. But Paul read to the synagogue from the history of Israel. He stated facts, God's facts, such as told what He had done for His people, and thus what He was to them. And his exhortation is, not to despise those acts of grace. The resurrection is one of those acts. Jesus had died to sin.

Sin and Jesus were in collision on the cross; or rather, Jesus owned the claim and fruit of sin there, and answered it, and bore it. Sin was