the Saviour laughing." Now, all that is to caricature Christianity. The Gospel makes men earnest, but never miserable; and there are few things which do more to attract disciples than the manifestation of cheerfulness. "The joy of the Lord" is the Christian's strength, and when that joy is seen by others it commends the Gospel to their acceptance. Why, then, should we not be joyous? Who can better afford to be cheerful than he whose sins are forgiven, and who has the assurance that He who sits upon the throne of heaven is his elder brother? "You seem a happy man," said one to Duncan Matheson, the Scottish evangelist, as he sat singing in a railway-carriage. "Yes," was the reply, “I can not be but happy; I am safe for time, and safe for eternity." This introduction led to further conversation, which ended in Matheson's being called to preach at the residence of the gentleman who had thus accosted him, and it is the testimony of his biographer that his cheerfulness was often more powerful to win souls than were words of persuasive eloquence.* Friends, let not the lesson be lost upon us: if we wish to be happy, let us become Christians; and if we become Christians, let us be happy Christians, that so our very cheerfulness may be a power in the hands of the Holy Spirit for attracting souls to Christ.

We are reminded by this history, further, that in all times of religious interest we may expect to meet with cases of hypocrisy. Every revival has its Simon Magus; yet sad as such a fact is, that does not dishonor the work as a whole. You are familiar with the saying that "hypocrisy is the homage which vice renders to virtue;" and if the genuine money had not a certain value, there would be no counterfeiters. So the appearance of a hypocrite in connection

*"Life and Labors of Duncan Matheson," by the Rev. John Macpherson, p. 305.

with such a work of grace as this at Samaria is only an incidental corroboration of the genuineness of the movement. Now this ought to comfort us when cases of hypocrisy come before us. They are sad, exceedingly; yet they are only the shadows cast by the greatness of the Christian character as a whole; and when we hear of such cases as that which occurred the other day at Boston, when one who had been a Methodist clergyman for years absconded, after committing a series of the most terrible forgeries, let us not think the worse of Christianity because of them. The Christian religion rests on Christ, not on any professed disciple of his; and when such a catastrophe occurs, do not suppose that the foundation of the Church is giving way. The only thing which is sinking is the foundation on which the man's deception stood. That is all! He was always resting on the sand, and the flood of covetousness has swept him away. Had he been building on the rock, it would have been otherwise.

Neither let us imagine that, because a revival has developed a few hypocrisies, therefore it is all a sham. After the flood you will see a few dry sticks left high and dry upon the branches of the trees that line the river's bank; yet it would be a mistake to judge of the effects of the flood by them. These were only the incidental accompaniments of it; but the fertilizing influences that came from it, and the purifying effect it had upon the city through which it ran, are things which can not be so easily discovered. Yet they are none the less real because of that. When, therefore, our honored brethren begin their work for God in this city* to-morrow, let us not go into it hunting for hypocrites, but rather desirous by every means in our power to turn

*The reference here is to the work of Mr. Moody and Mr. Sankey in the Hippodrome.

their visit to the fullest possible account for Jesus and his

cause.

Finally, we are reminded by this history that they who mock at the mercy of God by their hypocrisy in such seasons of privilege are in special danger of becoming aggravated sinners. What a dreadful after-history was that of Simon Magus! and how deeply suggestive it is of the fact that it is an awful thing for a man to come into direct and immediate contact with Christ and his salvation! Either he accepts that salvation, and passes on to happiness and glory, or he rejects it, and descends to still deeper degradation than he had ever before touched. The Ethiopian treasurer, after Philip preached Christ to him, "went on his way rejoicing;" but the young man who came to Jesus, and refused to do as he commanded, "went away sorrowful." Ah! the pungency of that sorrow! A new element of bitterness had dropped into his heart, because a new sort of guilt had been incurred by him. So, here, Simon became a more miserable and abandoned wretch than ever. He asked Peter's prayers indeed, but he did not apparently pray for himself; and thus he is here in the ancient narrative held up for a warning to the Church in every age. Let the hypocrites among us learn the lesson for themselves. It is a fearful thing to make merchandise of religion; and if you are giving money to the Church only that she may cover you with respectability and give you a fairer platform for the prosecution of your worldly calling, you are repeating in another form the guilt of Simon here, and will perhaps at last make as dreadful and as disastrous a shipwreck as he did. Remember this baptism will not save you, for Simon Magus was baptized; a profession of Christian discipleship will not save you, for Simon Magus made such a profession; an interested astonishment at the preaching of the Word and its effects will not save you, for Simon Magus "wondered be

holding the miracles and signs which were done." Nothing will save you but that regeneration, that change of heart, which Christ alone can produce by his Holy Spirit. Rest in nothing short of that; and let the story of this ancient sorcerer only give greater emphasis to your prayer, "Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me."

B

XVIII.

ENEAS AND DORCAS.

ACTS ix., 32-42.

ETWEEN the interview with Simon Magus and the in

cidents now to be considered by us, the sacred historian puts the record of the conversion of Saul, who was afterward called Paul. That event occurred in the neighborhood of Damascus, from which city the new convert went to Arabia, whence, after spending probably some eighteen months, he returned to Damascus. There he began to labor with so much enthusiasm that the Jews took counsel to slay him, and so, escaping by night from the city, he came again to Jerusalem. But, remembering his former bitterness against them, the brethren there were afraid of him, imagining that his profession of discipleship was a ruse for the purpose of entrapping them in some new snare. By the kind offices of Barnabas, however, he was introduced to the apostles; and when he began to labor among the Grecians, disputing with them after the manner of Stephen, they sought to get rid of him as they had done of the protomartyr. But God had more work for him to do in the world, and he received a commission to depart from the city, with the assurance that he would be sent among the Gentiles. So he went to Tarsus, there to wait upon and watch for the directions of God's providence.

Thus, for the first time, Peter and Paul met and took counsel together. We learn from Paul's letter to the Galatians that his sojourn in Jerusalem on this occasion lasted