he could not have thus solemnly called his friends and hearers to bear witness, that he had "testified from house to house," "repentance towards God and faith towards our Lord Jesus Christ."

Secondly, we observe from this passage the matter of St. Paul's communications. "Repentance towards God." I would remind you that repentance here means, not merely sorrow for sin, but a change of life, a turning of the heart to God, in fact a real, soul-saving conversion. St. Paul preached this as a duty binding upon every human being to whom he spoke, for his own words are, “God now commandeth all men every where to repent." He preached it also as a blessed and gratuitous privilege, for he distinctly says "Jesus, hath God exalted with his right hand to be a Prince and a Saviour, to give repentance to Israel." Thus did he preach "repentance towards God." He also preached "faith in our Lord Jesus

Christ," as the only way to the Father, the only hope for the sinner, the only grace which by "putting on Christ," shall enable you to appear complete in Him, and to "bring forth fruit unto life eternal."

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"And now, brethren," continues the apostle, after thus describing with a brief and beautiful simplicity, the manner and the matter of his ministerial teaching, "Behold I go bound in the spirit unto Jerusalem, not knowing the things that shall befal me there." Blessed arrangement of the divine dispensation! Had even a St. Paul known all things that should befal him, the labors and the stripes, the prisons and the perils, the "weariness and painfulness," the watchings and fastings, the "cold and nakedness," which at a later day he was enabled to look back upon with triumph, even his faith, strong and ardent though it was, might have sunk appalled before the unequal conflict.

Thanks be to God, brethren, that we "know not the things which shall befal” us during the year, the week, the day, which has commenced; that our heavenly Father has in mercy drawn a curtain, which mortal eye can never penetrate, between the feelings of the present hour, and the painful realities of the future. How many a scene of harmless pleasure would be marred, how many an hour of innocent enjoyment broken up, if each one present were cursed with a passing vision of all that should befal him! It is enough for the child of God to know that his "strength shall be equal to his day," he knows not-for worlds he would not know,—what that day may bring forth.

This blissful ignorance, although not removed, was permitted to be partially dispelled in the case of St. Paul; he was not left without a hint of the sorrows which awaited him, for he adds,

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save that the Holy Ghost witnesseth in every city, saying that bonds and afflictions abide me."

Thus far, then, his eyes were supernaturally opened; how melancholy a prospect would this have revealed to the man who is living for time; how cheering to him who was living for eternity! The road before him was indeed dark, the cloud above it lowering, but the eye of faith could distinguish in the distance "the crown of glory," and many a radiant beam glanced from it to cheer the sufferer on his heaven-ward way. In every city he was certain to encounter "bonds and afflictions," but in every city he was equally sure to meet a Saviour and a friend; one who when he told the apostle, in the first hours of his conversion, what "great things he should suffer for his name's sake," also told him "certainly I will be with thee." One who never yet has called even the lowest

of His followers to bear His cross, without accompanying it with His crown; and never yet has presented the cup of sorrow to the weakest of His flock, without pouring into it the strong consolations of His love.

St. Paul, therefore, scruples not to speak of these things as a "light affliction," for he immediately adds, “but none of these things move me, neither count I my life dear unto myself, so that I might finish my course with joy, and the ministry which I have received of the Lord Jesus, to testify the gospel of the grace of God."

Most beautiful picture of the calm and unshrinking resolution of the Christian hero! If he might but faithfully conclude the ministry he had received, and successfully testify the gospel which he loved, every trial was overlooked, every difficulty forgotten.

"None of these things move me." Was the apostle, then, a man of so hard