the apostle and his companions. Whilst gladness filled her heart, joy lighted up her eyes, as she discharged the duties of hospitality towards her guests. Thus it is that the grace of God felt in the heart, displays itself in corresponding actions. As God has done good to those who are saved, and deals kindly with them, like as a father pitieth his children, pitying them that fear him, remembering that they are but dust and ashes, so they in return do good so far as they can to others, and deal kindly with them in every situation of life. Little credit is due to that profession of faith, which confines its fruits to sighs, tears, prayers, or attendance upon the ordinances of worship, whilst it is unaccompanied with liberality in the appropriation of our worldly substance, for the cause of Christ, or the assistance of suffering followers. There is a religion, and, O how lofty are its pretensions! which passes current with multitudes, that never yet has softened the hearts of its advocates, or opened their purses. They are clamorous for the rights of God, but freezingly cold to the rights of humanity; I may add, to the claims of moral honesty. They are very wil

ling to let God take care of their souls, but insist upon taking care of their money themselves. Hence they are abundant in their professions of homage to God, but grossly deficient in acts of benevolence towards men. They will go from sermon to sermon, from one meeting for prayer to another, but if you come to them in the name of Him who is Lord of the universe, for a part of what he has given, to promote his cause, they are restless, think you are troublesome, and afford merely a pittance. They grant cheerfully that their souls are the Lord's, but maintain that their gold and silver are their own. Not so acted Lydia, nor the other converts in the primitive Church. They considered their worldly

r Instances, in the present day, of the same kind are not wanting. Among them the Hottentots at Bethelsdorp, in Africa, deserve especial notice. From a letter of Mr. Read, dated April 9, 1815, it appears that they paid the tax which was laid upon them by the government of the colony, amounting to 3,600 rix dollars, about £ 700. The day after the tax was paid, they formed an Auxiliary Missionary Society, and subscribed 398 rix dollars, about £ 180, to be paid What feelings of shame before the end of November. ought this fact to produce in multitudes of professing Christians! What a cutting refutation does it afford, of the libels of Lichtenstein and other slanderers of the Missionaries in Africa!

substance as only granted for the purpose of glorifying the Giver.

2. Lydia desired to entertain the messengers of Christ, that, whilst she was dispensing to them in temporal matters, they might dispense to her spiritual good.

Having, according to the direction of the Redeemer, been baptized, she was anxious, agreeably to the same direction, to be taught whatsoever he had commanded. She had perceived so much of the excellency of divine truth, that she was desirous of knowing more and still more of its height and depth, length and breadth. Like many who sat at Christ's feet, she sat at the feet of Paul and his associates, listening with profound attention, and drinking in their instructions as the parched earth drinks in the showers of heaven. The more she heard, the more she was convinced of her need of additional information. It is true, she was not connected, by her conversion, to that miserable class of persons who " are ever learning and never

coming to the knowledge of the truth;" but it is as true she did not fall into the snare of the devil as a novice, thinking more highly of herself than she ought to think, and

assuming all the authority of age and experience, without the advantages which age and experience afford. Being young in the divine life, she considered herself a scholar, and desired to receive instruction not as a disputant, but as a scholar. Hence we find her name recorded among the worthies of faith, with approbation, whilst the vain disputers of this world, if mentioned at all, are mentioned with disapprobation.

The account of Lydia's conversion teaches us the following important lessons:

1. That terror or the fear of punishment is not an indispensable appendage to the work of conversion.

The law is indeed a schoolmaster to lead us to Christ, but Christ himself must receive and save us. We are all born under the law, as a covenant of works which is broken, and of course are subject to the curse as the penalty of our disobedience. As a rule of life we cannot obey it, until we are made partakers of the grace of the gospel. Previous to conversion, therefore, as it offers us no pardon, it inspires no hope in our hearts, and must therefore from the very nature of our corruption terrify us with the fear of 51

VOL. II.

punishment. Its demands, which we cannot fulfil, drive us further and still further from God. Upon unrenewed unsanctified nature it operates, when disconnected from the gospel and the hope which the gospel has originated, as it does upon those miserable beings who are shut up in the prison of despair. Hence fearful alarms and even convulsing terrors may be suffered, without experiencing the grace of God in the least degree. Such was the case of Judas and multitudes in later times. It is not the view of the condemnable nature of sin which constitutes an essential characteristic of the saving work of the Holy Spirit, but of its odious, defiling, and hateful nature. There may be a heavy and distressing law work in the soul without conversion. Natural conscience under the publication of the curses of the law, or the intimation of God's displeasure in providence, oft-times is awakened and writes bitter things against the sinner. His countenance will turn pale, his knees will smite one against the other and his heart fail, whilst he remains unreconciled to God and far from righteousness. It is Christ alone, unfolded in the preaching of the

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