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INSTRUMENTS USED IN MIRACLES.

letter-sorters. Notwithstanding this, deceit often goes undetected by man, but never undetected by the eye of God.

A confirmed liar is like a crooked, knotty tree, fit only for the fire.

We despise and discard a watch that never tells the true time; a ruler that will not enable you to rule a straight line; a portrait that is not faithful so God will, at the judgment day, dismiss from His presence "all liars."

It would be well for all liars like Ananias and Gehazi (2 Kings v.) to remember a remark once made by a little boy to his father, who was meditating a theft of potatoes out of a field. The father looked east west, north, and south, and seeing no one, began to pull up the roots 66 Father," said the lad, "there is one way you forgot to look." "Where?" asked the alarmed man. "Up, father."

I once asked a deaf and dumb boy, "What is truth?" He replied by thrusting his finger forward in a straight line. I then asked him "What is falsehood?" when he made a zigzag with his finger. Try to remember this; let whoever will take a zigzag path, go you on your course as straight as an arrow to its mark, and shrink back from falsehood as you would from a viper.-BURNABY.

618.-INSTRUMENTS USED IN MIRACLES.

Acts v. 15.-"That at the least the shadow of Peter passing by might overshadow some of them." See also Acts xix. 12.

Illustrative. The external instruments connected with working miracles had, in ancient times, transferred to them, in imagination, a portion of the sanctity and reverence due to him who used them, or to that divine power which was transmitted through them. This applied not only to the staves, robes, and mantles of prophets while living, but to such things as their bones also, and even their very gravestones, when dead. The same thing exists to this day, and even in an exaggerated form. Elisha took up Elijah's mantle aad smote Jordan, saying, "Where is the Lord God of Elijah?" He afterwards sent Gehazi to lay his staff on the dead son of the Shunammite. It is now common to bind on, or wrap round the sick, some part of the robes of reputed saints, in the belief that healing virtue will be communicated from it. The same faith, or rather feeling, led the people to bring out their sick into the streets, that even the shadow of Peter might overshadow some of them. -Land and Book.

THE SEDITION OF THEUDAS.

619.-GIVING UP ALL FOR CHRIST.

Acts v. 29.-"We ought to obey God rather than men."

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Illustrative.—An irreligious man one day, when he came home from business, heard a noise as if some one were talking in his little boy's room. He asked his wife what it was. She told him it was Johnnie praying. This made him angry. He told his little son, in a decided tone, that if he dared to do it again, he must leave his house and find another home. Like Daniel, dear Johnnie knew all he must suffer; but he determined to keep on praying. The next day his father came home and found him praying again. He went at once to his little room, and in a gruff voice said, "Pack up your things and be off. I'll not have any of your praying in my house. You shall not live with me."

And so the poor fellow packed up the little that was his, and took his bundle, and walked down-stairs to say "good-bye." He went first to his mother and sister, and gave them the good-bye kiss; and then with a full heart he leaned over the cradle and pressed his quivering lips to those of the little one he loved so much. His mother stood by weeping. How could he part with her? At last, throwing his arms around her neck, and with tears in his eyes, he sobbed "Good-bye, mother!" And then the little hero turned kindly to his stern father, and, holding out his hand, said, "Good-bye, father." But the father could not bear it any longer. He could not keep the hot tears from his eyes. No, he could not, after all, drive away his noble boy. "Johnnie, you need not go now. Pray for me. I have been a wicked man to try to keep you from praying. I was wrong; you were right in praying. Oh, pray for me!" was all he could say.

And Johnnie did pray. Yes, and the father prayed too. He is now a converted man, and loves, with his family, to bow before the mercy-seat. -HAMMOND'S "Children and Jesus."

620. THE SEDITION OF THEUDAS.

Acts v. 00-" For before these days rose up Theudas, boasting (R. V., giving himself out) himself to be somebody."

Illustrative.-It is difficult to decide exactly what event Gamaliel refers to. The name Theudas, or Thaddeus, is so common, that a man with this name may well have been prominent in more than one of the many insurrections against the hated Roman power. Josephus tells of one Theudas, in the time of the procuratorship of Fadus, who prevailed upon a great multitude to take their wealth and follow him to the river Jordan, which he proposed to divide in a miraculous manner. But this event took place after the death of king Herod Agrippa, so it could not have been referred to by Gamaliel.

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DISINTERESTEDNESS OF THE APOSTLES.

Kitto, with other Biblical writers, finds indication of a sedition which meets the case, though the name of Theudas does not appear in connection with it.

"When Archelaus was at Rome, soliciting from the Emperor Augustus the confirmation of his father's will, almost the whole of Palestine was in commotion. In Idumæa, 2,000 soldiers, who had been dismissed by Herod, in conjunction with several others, took the field against Achiab, a relation of Herod, and compelled him, with his soldiers, to retire to the mountains. In Galilee, Judas, the son of Hezekiah. the leader of a band of robbers that had been suppressed by Herod, made himself master of Sepphoris, armed his numerous followers from the arsenal of that city, pillaged the country, and spread devastation and terror on every side. In Perea, Simon, one of Herod's slaves, assumed the diadem, collected a band of desperate men, robbed the inhabitants, and, among other acts of violence, burnt the royal castle at Jericho. Another mob fell upon Amathus on the Jordan, and burnt the royal castle. A shepherd, named Athronges, also assumed the regal title, collected a large body of followers, and, with his four brothers, all men of gigantic stature, laid waste the country, plundered and slew the inhabitants, and sometimes repulsed the Romans themselves. In short, the whole country was full of bands of robbers, each having a king or chief at its head. It is therefore highly probable that the Theudas of Gamaliel arose at this time."

ACTS VI.

621.-DISINTERESTEDNESS OF THE APOSTLES.

Acts vi. 3.-"Wherefore, brethren, look ye out among you seven men of honest report, full of the Holy Ghost and wisdom, whom we may appoint over this business."

Expository.-I do not know that it has ever been insinuated, that the Christian mission in the hands of the Apostles was a scheme for making a fortune or for getting money. But it may neverthless be fit for remark upon this passage of their history, how perfectly free they appear from any pecuniary or interested views whatever. The most tempting opportunity which occurred of making a gain of their converts was by the custody and management of the public funds, when some of the richer members, intending to contribute their fortunes to the common support of the society, sold their possessions and laid down the prices at the Apostles' feet. Yet so insensible, so undesirous, were they of the advantage which the confidence afforded, that we find they very soon disposed of the trust, by putting it into the hands, not of nominees of their own, but of stewards, formally elected for the purpose by the society at large.-PALEY'S Evidentes of Christianity.

GOD'S DELIVERANCE.

622. THE SEVEN DEACONS.

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Acts vi. 5.-" And the saying pleased the whole mulititude: and they chose Stephen, a man full of faith and of the Holy Ghost, and Philip, and Prochorus, and Nicanor, and Timon, and Parmenas, and Nicolas a proselyte of Antioch."

Expository. No mention is made of the country or connections of these seven. Yet it is possible that these deacons were all of the party aggrieved, for their names are all Grecian. There must have been Hebrews enough for the office. Why Grecians, Luke does not hint. We gather from him that they thought themselves the injured party, and then we conclude that with a desire to maintain harmony, they chose as advocates for the Greeks those who would feel for them the greatest interest.-BLUNT'S Undesigned Coincidences.

623.-THE ANGEL-FACE.

Acts vi, 15.-" Saw his face as it had been the face of an angel." Expository. Here is a man who had the look of an angel, and yet was still a man. Nay, we feel instinctively that he was more a man now than ever before. In this trying, yet favoured moment, he towered, as it were, to the height of his manhood, and put on all its bloom. This was a kind of Mount of Transfiguration to him, where he did not so much put on a celestial dress of appearance that was foreign to his own proper nature, as shone out rather in the usually hidden glory of his own. It was Stephen's face that was seen, and only that. It was Stephen's beauty that shone in the face. It was the real qualities of Stephen's character that made that beauty. It would seem then, that a perfect man and an angel are brothers. Or say, an imperfect man, in a mood of perfectness, or when he is wholly Christian—a believer when he is strong in faith-a child of God when he is looking homewards. And if this be the way of it, then surely there is many an angel-face on earth, and much beholding of the same from the higher spheres.-ALEXANDER Raleigh.

ACTS VII.

624.-GOD'S DELIVERANCE.

Acts vii. 9, 10.-" God was with him, and delivered him out of all his afflictions." Illustrative.-The celebrated Dr. Gill once had a memorable escape from death in his own study. One of his friends had mentioned to him a remark of Dr. Halley, the celebrated astronomer, that close study preserves a man's life, by keeping him out of harm's way; but one day, after he had just left his room to go to preach, a stack of chimneys was blown down, forced its way through the roof of the house, and broke his writing-table, in the very spot where a few minutes before he had been sitting. The

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LEGENDS OF MOSES IN EGYPT.

doctor very properly remarked afterwards to his friend, "A man may come to danger and harm in the closet as well as in the highway, if he be not protected by the special care of Divine Providence."

625.-THE PRESERVATION OF MOSES.

Acts vii. 20.-" In which time (R. V., at which season) Moses was born, and was exceeding fair."

Illustrative.-Josephus tells us that the name of the princess who preserved Moses was Thermutis. He adds that the child grew up surpassingly beautiful,-" so charming that those who met him in the road would turn back to gaze after him; and people working by the wayside would leave what they were about to stand and admire him." It is worth while to note that nothing is said in the Old Testament about the personal beauty of Moses. Our Bible authorities for this fact are Stephen (Acts vii. 20) and Paul (Heb. xi. 23), with whom Josephus here accords. The introduction of the child Moses to Pharaoh is thus related by the Jewish historian. Thermutis led him to Pharaoh her father, and said, "I have brought you a child who is of heavenly form, and of a generous mind; and as I have received him in a wonderful manner from the bounty of the river, I have thought proper to adopt him for my son and the heir of thy kingdom." On this the king took the child in his arms and caressed him, putting the royal crown playfully on Moses' head. But the little boy seized the diadem, threw it to the ground, and playfully trampled upon it. This made Pharaoh grave, as he fancied it to be a bad sign for the kingdom. Others standing by prophesied that the child was born to bring evil upon Egypt, and advised that he should be put to death. But Thermutis snatched her favourite away, and Pharaoh, out of love to his daughter, disregarded the cruel advice. "God Himself, whose providence protected Moses, inclining the king to spare him."

628.-LEGENDS OF MOSES IN EGYPT.

Acts vii. 22.-" And Moses was learned (R. V., instructed) in all the wisdom of the Egyptians, and was mighty in words and in deeds."

Illustrative.-Stephen expressly states that Moses was "mighty in words and in deeds" while yet among the Egyptians. What these "deeds" may have been does not appear from the history in Exodus; but Josephus tells a curious story, which may perhaps be accepted as an illustration of Stephen's words. He says that the king of Ethiopia (the country we now call Abyssinia) invaded the dominions of Pharaoh with a great army, and so alarmed the Egyptians, that to save themselves they