about to embark for the land of Greece, with the treasures of Divine truth and love, is a wonderful and striking picture for us, inasmuch as that was a critical hour for Europe, for the whole of this western portion of the world. It indeed suggests another picture, more dazzling to the eye of some, but only to eclipse it in the estimation of the Christian. Once, on the opposite coast, Alexander drew up his army in battle array to embark for the conquest of the east ; but the Grecian warrior, about to subdue oriental lands to his own vain power, which perished with himself, shrinks into insignificance compared with the Christian apostle, about to subdue the west to the power of Jesus-that power which lives and must live, which has gained many victories, and is now girding itself for fresh triumphs.

Paul at Philippi converted Lydia and expelled a demon, two typical acts, for it is the province of the gospel to open hearts, and pour in the faith and love of Christ, and to drive out devils from the thrones they have usurped, and to place Jesus upon the seat of authority and power. And now there comes another storm of persecution, and the man so brave in testifying of Christ, is equally patient in suffering for him and he who had hazarded his life for His name's sake, found his prison-cell transferred into a heavenly precinct, and in a rapture of spirit, he and his companion sang praises unto God; till an earthquake shook the foundations of the edifice, and the jailer was taught to believe in the power of God, and to trust in the mercy and mediation of the Saviour. Paul went to Athens; he landed at the

Piræus, entered the city of architecture and sculp ture, philosophy and science, literature and song; forms of art shining everywhere, rays of genius flashing everywhere; and on Mars hill he preached Jesus and the resurrection, the only truth which could give spiritual life to Greece or any other land -truth without which all our refinement, culture, and art, are but as earthly decorations on some magnificent mausoleum. Then he went to Corinth, a place of commercial wealth, the richest of Grecian ports, the busiest of Grecian marts; knowing that as the gospel alone can purify the intellect and lift it up to God, so the gospel alone can purify the active industrial life of man, and prepare him for the life of heaven.

3. Returning again to Antioch he commenced the third period of his career, and went forth again to Asia Minor. He "fought with beasts at Ephesus." Men, brutal by selfish passions, threw the city into an uproar, and would fain have killed Paul; but amidst all this insane clamour, he stood forth a noble contrast to Demetrius and the rest, stemming the tide of the world's opinion, breasting the waves of misguided temporal interests with an eye fixed on Christ and heaven, longing to see the eyes of all other men also looking thitherward. He revisited Macedonia and then returned to Troas, where he preached till midnight, and the young man Eutychus fell down dead from the third loft, but was restored through the life-giving power which the Lord imparted to his servant. Travelling partly by land and partly by sea, he reached Miletus, and sent to Ephesus for the

elders of the church, whom he instructed and warned and comforted, in words which so long as there are fears and sorrows in Christian hearts, so long as there are separations within sight of loving friends, will be words counted more precious than rubies. Embarked again, he sailed along the Mediterranean by way of Rhodes to Tyre, and then proceeded to Ptolemais, Cæsarea, and Jerusalem. He had said "bonds and imprisonments abide me." His predictions were fulfilled. In the same city in which they had stoned Stephen, the Jews assaulted and then lay in wait to murder Paul, but providentially through the interposition of his nephew he escaped their hands, and after an examination before Felix, Festus, and Agrippa, at Cæsarea, was dismissed to Rome.

4. Upon his fourth journey we follow him to Mysia and the Fair Havens, and accompany him through the memorable storm, so minutely described in the Acts of the Apostles-a description which so forcibly convinces us of the genuineness and authenticity of the book, by its artless natural details. Then we follow him from Malta through classic scenesSyracuse, Rhegium, Puteoli, Appii Forum, and the Three Taverns, till we see the captive led under one of the proud gateways of mighty Rome. With a mind fully informed as to the character of that city, with a heart full of what alone could save it, walking calmly through the streets, not caring for his chain, looking on idol temples-foreseeing their overthrowanticipating the hour when Jupiter should be cast down and Jesus exalted, he could say within himself, "I am ready to preach the gospel to you that are at

Rome also. For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth."

5. His fifth and last journey, after release from his first imprisonment, we trace by the help of hints in the Epistles through Colosse, Philippi, Neapolis, Corinth, Troas, Miletum in Crete, back again to Rome, where he ended his life of labour, by a death of martyrdom. Such is a brief sketch of the five great periods of Paul's apostolic course. It illustrates what he did,

and is intended here to serve as a historical introduction to a brief sketch of what he was.

And here it is proper to remark that in every case of spiritual life, God's grace is grafted on a stock which grows in nature's garden; to the growth of which various influences contribute, and the graft ever blends with it a character derived from the stock. It was so in the case before us. Had Paul not been the bold and ardent man he was by nature, he had not been the Christian and apostle that he was by grace. Had there not been so much fire in his composition, his service and ministry would have had less of radiance and heat. He was constituted, both by birth and early training, a thorough Jew; and, by the culture of the school of Gamalie, he became tinctured somewhat with Gentile learning, and acquired a habit of logical reasoning. His early life in Cilicia, his descent from a Roman citizen, his association with a commercial city, such as Tarsus, his intercourse with fellow denizens of his father, would also tend to expand the horizon of his views, and

to freshen and invigorate his human sympathies. Had he been less a Jew, he would have had less weight with Jews; had he missed the Greek and Roman influences of his boyhood and youth, he would have been not so well adapted to cope with men who were completely and continually surrounded by such influences. It is important that this should be carefully considered. Nature and providence belong to God as well as grace. He forms our bodies and creates our minds, and tempers the relations between them. He fixes the places of our birth, and the circumstances of our education. The Divine purpose which regarded Paul in the whole course of his zeal and devotion, embraced, among the steps leading to that, everything done for him as a child or a man. So God was preparing Luther to be a reformer, when he was playing on the banks of the Wipper by his father's door; and when as a monk he studied in the old monastery of Erfurta. Baxter was a vessel in course of shaping for the Master's use, when sitting on a form and conning his task in the free school at Uttoxeter. And Whitefield was preparing to be a missionary to the western extreme of the British empire, in the juvenile scenes of his life at Gloucester and Oxford. Gratefully should men acknowledge the fact of an early and constant providence, and devoutly adore the wisdom and love of Him "who leadeth the blind by a way that they know not."

1. In unfolding the character of Paul we remark that he was a self-sacrificer. It is the first duty of every intelligent being, a duty which is the root of