à manner, driving those from the judgment-seat who brought it before him, he evinced his entire indifference to the interest of religious truth, and although a tumult of the people, and the offering of personal violence, was the result of his refusal to interfere, yet transferring to the consequences, a disregard which could only have proceeded from contempt of the cause, " he cared for none "of these things."

My brethren, how many are there of his character in our times, persons against whom nothing can be objected in their general demeanour, tempers, and dispositions, save this indifference to religious truth. They are seen to enter with avidity into all the interesting occurrences, and even into all the uninteresting follies, of every day. They are concerned in the passing topics of intelligence. They are conversant with all the novelties of literature and science. They are excited by all the competition and hostilities of political life; and in whatever belongs merely to this changing and perishing scene, they are patient, and even eager of attention. But while they are attracted by the concerns of a world which is receding from them, and from which they are departing, while thus, like mere creatures of the earth, they are engrossed with the little molehill at their feet, the heavens, unheeded, are rolling in magnificence above their heads, and they forget that worlds and worlds are beaming there,

where ambition might feed its golden aspirations, and hope fill up with reality the brightest picture that was ever sketched in poetick hour, and pleasure banquet for ever" in the fulness of joy."

To scenes so glorious they are in vain solicited to attend; and though the rapid flight of time is full of admonition; and though the lesson of their frailty is one which death is every day reading to them over the grave of their fellows; and though the promises of God, freely extended, are continually pressed upon their acceptance; and though a long eternity before them is spread out for their fruition; yet they cling to earth, and occupy themselves in the transitory concerns of a life which at best is a vapour; and which, while they are providing for its enjoyments, is already gone. Before such persons, who hear with indifference, or turn away with aversion, the awful subjects of heaven and hell, of life everlasting and death eternal, are in vain discussed. They have no ear for the glorious promises of immortality; no eye to pierce the firmament, and behold the things which God has prepared for them that love him; and the miseries and woes reserved for those that reject his Gospel, and make light of his salvation, they hold to be the uncertainties of idle speculation, and the conjectures of a vain superstition. Indifferent, earthly, sensual, they care for none of those things.

At the head of the second of these classes to VOL. II.

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which I have referred, stands Felix, the Roman governor, a man who was cruel, avaricious, incontinent, intemperate, and unjust. He had originally "been the slave, then the freed man, of Nero; "and afterwards was raised to the dignity of procurator of Judea." The very worthy deeds which he had done to the nation, and for which he was complimented by Tertullus, consisted in his freeing the country from banditti and impostors; but exclusive of this, his government was oppressive, and his life, different from that of Gallio, was one of open profligacy and sin.

The conscience of this man told him that there was something of reality in the great topics about which religion is conversant. He listened, therefore, with attention, to the preaching of St. Paul, "and as he reasoned of righteousness, temper"ance, and judgment to come, Felix trembled." He was a Gentile, and little concerned about the outward testimonies to religion; but was struck by its inward appeals to his conscience and his fears. He did not dare to call this subject a mere question of words and names. He felt that there was reality in the being and attributes of God; that religion was not a bye-word of the weak, nor moral obligation an empty sound. The spirit within him compelled him to confess,

Verily there is a God that judgeth the earth;" and being awakened to his danger, he could not be indifferent to his duty. He resolved, therefore,

to reform his vicious course, and obey the commandments of God; but he could not bring himself to carry his resolutions immediately into effect. His sinful life he knew to be a bar to his salvation; and because he could not yet abandon the crimes in which he had so long indulged, he postponed his reformation to "a more convenient "season."

My brethren, I need not enlarge on the danger of such a decision. To him that convenient season never came. To you, if, like him, you defer your salvation, it will, most probably, never come. Time hardens the conscience, and habit confirms the dominion of sin; and could men be content to acquire wisdom for themselves by the experience of others, the death beds of thousands would give them warning that this course, which is pursued in delusion, is almost sure to terminate in destruction and perdition.

The representative of the third of these classes is he whose words form our text. Unlike Gallio, Agrippa sought the opportunity of hearing Paul, which the former declined; insomuch that the examination before him was rather one of personal curiosity than of legal scrutiny. Being by birth a Jew, knowing that God had, "at sundry "times and in divers manners, spoken, in times "past, unto the fathers, by the prophets," he belioved the claims of religion to form an important

subject of attention and inquiry; the truth of which could be ascertained beyond dispute. The correspondence between the predictions which he credited, and the facts which had occurred, he could distinctly perceive; for none of these things were hidden from him; for these things were not done in a corner. And upon this correspondence the evidence for Christianity was firmly and irrefragably based. The appeal was, therefore, made by St. Paul on the ground of this coincidence, the force of which, at that day, when the events were recent and undisputed, could only be overcome by denying the truth of prophecy. "King "Agrippa, believest thou the prophets?" was that direct appeal to his faith, which it was impossible for him to resist. He did believe the prophets; and perceiving how fully and minutely their predictions had been fulfilled in Jesus Christ, he must have been convinced that Christianity was true. My brethren, he was convinced; and so far as reason and judgment were concerned, exclusive of the will, he may truly be said to have been brought over to the faith. He was, it will then be said, a Christian. Yes; he was such a Christian as any man capable of reason must be now, if he will candidly compare the declarations of the Bible with the history of the world; and such a Christian as many think themselves to be, merely because they have diligently done so.