things, are only instruments) or the world, or life, or death, or things present, or things to come-all are yours-and ye are Christ's and Christ is

God's 1."

1 1 Cor. iii. 21, 22, 23.

LECTURE XXI.

ACTS XX. 7. xxi. 1—15.

St. Paul's third Apostolic Journey concluded.-Troas-AssosMitylene-Chios-Samos - Trogyllium-Miletus-CoosPatera Tyre Ptolemais - Cæsarea - Jerusa

Rhodes

lem-A.D. 60.

"To have seen St. Paul in the pulpit was one of those three things which St. Augustine thought worth the wishing for. And surely, adds a venerable Prelate, it were very desirable to have seen this glorious instrument of God, who did such wonders in the world, to have heard his plain and powerful eloquence, which was so mighty through God, for the casting down of strong holds, and the subduing of men to the obedience of the Gospel; to have beheld the zeal of this holy man, who was all on fire for God, with what ardency of affection and earnestness of expression he persuaded men to come into Christ, and entertain the Gospel. But as we cannot hope for this, he says, it should be some satisfaction to our curiosity (and certainly still more conducive to our edification) to know what

St. Paul preached, what was the chief subject of his sermons, whither he referred all his discourses, and to what they tended'."

Of this we cannot remain in ignorance, from the very ample communications in this book of Acts; and the observation will be further illustrated in this Lecture, where we shall find the Apostle more than once in the assemblies of his friends, discoursing freely on the heavenly doctrines of his Master, uninterrupted by captious inquirers, unassailed by persecution. In this portion of his travels, tenderness assumes the reign. He had reason to believe that a personal intercourse with many of his old friends would cease; that, if his life should even be preserved much longer, which he hardly expected, the scene of his future labours must be in some other place. This consideration gives a great interest to the several incidents which conclude this journey, and prepares the mind of the serious observer for similar changes, which may, nay, must occur to every man, as he travels along the road of life.

The Apostle had reached Troas by sea, on his return from Macedonia and Greece; and there he remained seven days, that he might meet his Brethren on the Sabbath-day. The manners of the primitive Christians are here incidentally described. St. Paul does not call the Church together, as he had done on other occasions, but waits for the arrival of that sacred day, when the Disciples of the

1 Tillotson's Works, S. 159.

Gospel should come together for their usual purposes of devotion. This day, we find, from this passage, was the first day of the week, the day following the Jewish Sabbath; that day on which our Saviour rose from the dead; and therefore from that time adopted by the Apostles, and sanctioned by the Holy Spirit, for the celebration of the Christian Sabbath. The causes for this change of the Sabbath afford matter of high exultation to every believer in Christ. The resurrection of our Lord, which we this day celebrate, was that mighty fact on which the Apostles rested the truth of their doctrines. "If Christ be not risen, your faith is vain; ye are yet in your sins1." If this circumstance had not been true, the whole structure of Christianity must have fallen to the ground. No day could therefore be more proper for a contemplation of all the blessed promises of the Gospel, as no day could bring greater Salvation on its wings.

If the Son of Man then be Lord of the Sabbathday', he has a full and decided right to appropriate that portion of our time to his own purposes; and every profanation of it is an act of wilful disobedience against so positive a command. Call it not an unnecessary seclusion of ourselves, to dedicate some part of this day to private reading and reflection, as well as to the indispensable duties of public worship: call it not morose or puritanical to withdraw from the company of those who would apply the Lord's day to mere amusement, or dissi

pation, or whose ill-timed mirth would interrupt our instructive lessons, or religious conversations, with our families. Mistake me not; I am far from wishing to mix gloom and melancholy with the truly cheerful and benevolent religion of Christ. Light and darkness are not more at variance. But the Sabbath is the Lord's day, and he is guilty of the worst of thefts, who would deprive Him of it.

That we may the better understand how St. Paul spent this holy day with the Church at Troas, let us attend to the description which one of the early Fathers of the Christian Church gives us of the manner in which the public service was conducted within, nearly, the first age of Christianity. "On Sunday," says Justin Martyr, "all the Christians in the city and country meet together, because that is the day of our Lord's resurrection; and then we have read unto us the writings of the Prophets and Apostles; this done, the President makes an oration unto the assembly, to exhort them to imitate and do the things they heard; then we all join in prayer, and after, we celebrate the Sacrament, and they that are able and willing, give alms1." If it were not known that this was an account of the performance of divine worship within forty years of the death of St. John the Evangelist, it might be imagined to describe that of the Church of England, according to its present happy constitution. Let us be careful of this sacred deposit, my Brethren! and transmit it, by the blessing of