Acts xvi. 24.-"Who, having received such a charge, thrust [cast] them into the inner prison, and made their feet fast in the stocks."

Expository.-The term "stocks" is applied in the Authorized Version to two different articles, one of which (Heb. mahpeceth) answers rather to our pillory; while the other (sad) answers to our "stocks," the feet alone being confined in it. The prophet Jeremiah was confined in the first sort (Jer. xx. 2) which appears to have been a common mode of punishment in his day (Jer. xxix. 26), as the prisons contained a chamber for the special purpose, termed "the house of the pillory" (2 Chron. xvi. 10; Authorized Version, "prison house"). The stocks (sad) are noticed in Job xiii. 27, xxxiii. 11, and Acts xvi. 24. The term used in Prov. vii. 22 more properly means a fetter.-SMITH'S Dictionary of the Bible.

Illustrative.-A novel scene was presented in the butter and poultry market at Newbury on Tuesday afternoon. Mark Tuck, a rag and bone dealer, who for several years had been well known in the town as a man of intemperate habits, and upon whom imprisonment in Reading gaol had failed to produce any beneficial effect, was fixed in the stocks for drunkenness and disorderly conduct at divine service in the parish church on Monday evening. Twenty-six years had elapsed since the stocks were last used, and their reappearance created no little sensation and amusement, several hundred persons being attracted to the spot where they were fixed. Tuck was seated upon a stool, and his legs were secured in the stocks at a few minutes past one o'clock, and as the church clock (immediately facing him) chimed each quarter, he uttered expressions of thankfulness, and seemed anything but pleased with the laughter and

derision of the crowd. Four hours having passed, Tuck was released, and, by a little strategem on the part of the police, he escaped without being interfered with by he crowd.—Margate Gazette, June, 1872.

Our engraving is taken from a little book entitled "Alice Middleton" (S.S.U.), a tale of the persecution of Protestants under Queen Mary.

Illustrative. It is generally supposed that the stocks were the cippi or large pieces of wood used among the Romans, which not only loaded the legs of prisoners, but sometimes distended them in a very painful manner; so that it is highly probable the situation of Paul and Silas here might be made more painful than that of an offender sitting in the stocks as used among us, especially if (as is very possible) they lay with their bare backs, so lately scourged, on the hard or dirty ground; and this renders their joyful frame expressed by songs of praise, so much the more remarkable. Beza explains it of the numellæ, in which both the feet and the neck were fastened, in the most uneasy posture that can well be imagined.

A stock with five holes, through two of which the feet, through other two the hands, and through the fifth the head of the prisoner was put, and kept in this unnatural position, must have proved a torture truly insupportable.-SMITH'S Michaelis.

In China, the Kan-ghe, or wooden ruff, used in punishing theft, is a kind of portable pillory, consisting of two pieces of wood, hollowed in the middle, so as to fit the neck of the offender, and of such a breadth that the wearer can neither see his own feet, nor put his hand to his mouth, so that he must be beholden to some other person for his food. It is made heavier or lighter, according to the nature of the crime, or the favour of the mandarin; the lightest are about forty or fifty, and some of them even two hundred pounds weight.

690.--JOY IN PRISON.

Acts xvi. 25.-"And at [about] midnight Paul and Silas prayed, and sang praises unto [R.V., were praying and singing hymns] God: and the prisoners heard [R.V., were listening to] them."

Illustrative. The feelings of Paul and Silas in prison illustrate the truth of the old stanza,—

"Stone walls do not a prison make,

Nor iron bars a cage;

Minds innocent and quiet take

That for a hermitage."

JOHN BUNYAN.—The immortal dreamer, speaking on one occasion of the cell on Bedford Bridge where for twelve long years he was confined, said, "So, being again delivered up to the gaoler's hands, I was had home to prison."

SAMUEL RUTHERFORD.-When Samuel Rutherford was sentenced to imprisonment in the city of Aberdeen "for righteousness' sake," he wrote to a friend, "the Lord is with me; I care not what man can do. I burden no man. I want nothing. No king is better provided than I am. Sweet, sweet and easy is the cross of my Lord. All men I look in the face, of whatsoever rank-nobles and poor. Acquaintance and strangers are friendly to me. My Well-beloved is kinder and more warm than ordinary, and cometh and visiteth my soul; my chains are overgilded with gold. No pen, no words, no engine, can express to you the loveliness of my only, only Lord Jesus. Thus in haste I make for my palace at Aberdeen."

MADAME GUYON.-When Madame Guyon was imprisoned in the Castle of Vincennes, in 1695, she not only sang but wrote songs of praise to her God. "It sometimes seemed to me," she said, "as if I were a little bird whom the Lord had placed in a cage, and that I had nothing now to do but sing. The joy of my heart gave a brightness to the objects around me. The stones of my prison looked in my eyes like rubies. I esteemed them more than all the gaudy brilliancies of a vain world. My heart was full of that joy which Thou givest to them that love Thee in the midst of their great crosses ;"-a sentiment which she embodied, during one of her imprisonments, in a touching little poem, which begins thus:

"A little bird I am,

Shut from the fields of air;
And in my songs I sit and sing
To Him who placed me there;
Well pleased a prisoner to be,
Because, my God, it pleaseth Thee."

Teacher's Treasury.

A missionary writes :-" On one occasion some of the converts were apprehended, and unjustly put in prison. One of the party was the native preacher. They were kept in prison several days. The sabbath came round, and though shut up, like Paul and Silas, they determined to worship God in the gaol. They sang aloud the praises of God. Their keepers came to forbid and scold them; the native preacher then began to preach to them. At length the chief officer of the zemindhar was obliged to set them at liberty, saying, "What can we do with these people? If we imprison them they sing; if we scold them they preach and argue.""

TERTULLIAN says of the martyrs of his time, "The leg feels not the stocks when the mind is in heaven. Though the body is held fast, all things lie open in the spirit."

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EARTHQUAKE AT PHILIPPI.

691.-RELIGIOUS INFLUENCE OF HYMNS.

Acts xvi. 25.-" And the prisoners heard [R. V., were listening to] them." Illustrative.-Dr. John Leifchild was the son of a Wesleyan father. He was himself well disposed, but his views were indistinct, and he had made no open Christian profession. One evening he went, as he had often done, to a rayer-meeting in the Wesleyan Chapel at St. Albans, and to his great urprise the minister called on him to pray. "In vain did I object: the hymn-book was put into my hands, and I opened at some lines which exactly expressed what my feelings should have been. I was affected as I gave out these words :

'O that I could my Lord receive,
Who did the world redeem,

Who gave His life that I might live
A life concealed in Him.

Oh that I could the blessing prove

My heart's extreme desire,

Live happy in my Saviour's love,
And in His arms expire.'

"I was affected to tears, and the prayer which followed was most earnest. I went home, and retired to my chamber. I felt I had entered on a course which must be pursued, or I should be counted a deceiver and hypocrite. I fell on my knees; my mouth was opened, my heart was enlarged. Never shall I forget that chamber, that spot, that prayer! I believe that all the petitions I then uttered were subsequently fulfilled in my experience."

692.-EARTHQUAKE AT PHILIPPI.

Acts xvi. 26.-" And suddenly there was a great earthquake, so that the foundations of the prison were shaken: and immediately all the doors were opened." Illustrative. The earthquake at Philippi, and by which the doors of Paul's prison were opened, was in the year 53. A few months later the tribute was remitted to the citizens of Apamea, in Phrygia, in consideration of their city having been overthrown by an earthquake. Now an earthquake sufficiently strong to overthrow a city in Asia Minor, would be felt strongly also in the remoter distances of Macedonia; sufficiently strong, probably,. to open the bars of a prison door. The great earthquake at Aleppo was felt severely in Smyrna, though no buildings were thrown down. As God often works miracles even by natural causes, so the prison doors being opened to Paul by the earthquake would still be the effect of divine agency.

SUICIDE PREVENTED.

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893.-BANDS LOOSED BY THE EARTHQUAKE.

Acts xvi. 26.-"And every one's bands were loosed."

Expository. This seems, at first, beyond the range of the usual effects of an earthquake, but the chains of the prisoners were fastened, we must remember, to rings or staples in the wall, and the effect of a great shock would be to loosen the stones, and so make it easy to escape.- DEAN PLUMPTRE.

694.-SUICIDE PREVENTED.

Acts xvi. 28.-"Do thyself no harm."

Illustrative.-Some years since, a young gentleman who had spent his fortune in riotous living, was reduced to poverty. For a while his friends supported him, but at last they all forsook him. Wandering about as a vagabond, and having no prospect of any further supply, he formed the dreadful resolution of drowning himself. Being then in a strange place, he put lead into his pocket, and went to the riverside for this purpose; but waiting till it was dark, he saw a light in a house at no great distance, and went to it. On his arrival, there were people singing psalms; he listened at the door till a chapter of the Bible was read, and a prayer offered up to God. He was surprised to find people assembled there for worship, and wished for admittance, for which purpose he knocked gently at the door. One of the company opened it and asked what he wanted. He signified his desire of being admitted. He was told it was not customary to admit strangers into their meeting; however if he would behave orderly, he might come in. In the astonishing kindness of Divine Providence, the passage of Scripture under consideration that evening was, "Do thyself no harm." After the several members had made their remarks upon the subject, they concluded as usual with prayer, and they had no sooner done, than the stranger asked them how they came to know his thoughts, for he had not mentioned his intention to any person upon earth. This equally surprised the members of the meeting, who said they had not seen or heard of him till that evening. Upon which the young gentleman told them his design of taking away his life, and how he had been prevented by seeing a light in their window. This remarkable providence struck him to such a degree, that, by the Divine blessing, it was made the means of his conversion. He became an eminent Christian, regained the favour of his friends, and was put in a way of supporting himself in the world.