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pravity, and to perceive by a sympathy which ripens into instinct the real and inherent beauty of holiness." The mysteries of Revelation assume an intelligible distinctness. The word of faith is reflected in that of sense. The present and the future, the seen and the unseen are visibly united in one boundless economy. The uncommunicated counsels of a shrouded Deity are traced with silent adoration as they gradually unfold through the revolutions of time. Principles are developed in their course of operation; and the order of events presents a vista of glory, in which the eye may discern through an infinite succession the workings of an all subordinating providence, and demonstrations of sovereign grace.

It is not surprising, that, to a mind alive to such perceptions, every part of Scripture should seem fraught with instruction. In a system so sublime as that which it reveals, we are not at liberty to look on any portion as trivial, nor to neglect any circumstance as casual or unimportant. Every member derives a moral grandeur from its connection with the whole. Every incident is a triumph of those immortal energies, which give life and motion to the mystical body. With the history of such a dispensation we can never be too conversant, nor should we peruse its least event

ful page without a sentiment of respect approaching to awe.

The brief narration of a dispute between Paul and Barnabas is fully illustrative of these remarks. Unpromising, perhaps, at first of peculiar interest, it will be found on examination not only to afford matter for profitable reflection, but to involve confirmations of Christian Truth, by no means unworthy our attentive research; valuable, it is presumed, as they are less immediately obvious, and affecting the authority of divine Revelation through the medium of its historic and early witnesses.

Little more than sixteen years had as yet elapsed since the occurrence of that event, whose consequences are co-existent with time and eternity. The divinity of that mysterious Person, against whom the Jewish nation had preferred the charge of blasphemy, and in whom the Roman Governor when asserting his innocence could discern nothing beyond the character of a simple peasant, was become the distinguishing tenet of a sect growing daily in importance, and extending itself over the surface of the Roman Empire. This doctrine, incredible as it may have then appeared, was not more improbable in its nature, than bold in the design with which it was announced. To re-model the religious institutions of the

Jews, and to annihilate those of every other people, were the objects, not secret, or insinuated, but openly avowed of its hardy advocates. Almost wholly unsupported by persons of rank or influence, discountenanced by the authority of political power, disgraced by the misrepresentations of their own countrymen, and at war with almost every established prejudice of the civilized world, these intrepid revolutionists had persisted in the face of persecution, imprisonment, and death, to assert the truth of their incompromising dogmas: and with expectations beyond the stretch of ordinary enthusiasm, maintained a constancy rarely inspired by the calm sobriety of rational confidence. Nor were these paradoxical phenomena confined to the practice of a few individuals, who might be supposed to exhibit an extravagance of conduct, the development of some wild idiosyncrasy of temper. The same notions, the same resolution, the same unearthy and obstinate hope, were manifested by multitudes in different countries, and under every diversity of character and manners. The captious Jew, the luxurious Asiatic, and the elegant citizen of enlightened Greece, united in adherence to this neutralizing system. And pitiful as the sect might have been deemed when scarcely known beyond Judæa, it had already assumed

an aspect above contempt, and was advancing on all sides with a well sustained progress, not altogether inconsistent with its vast pretensions.

To a Heathen observer of this state of things, indisposed to examine the interior of this very singular but uninviting system, that, which would present itself as the immediate cause of its success, was the zeal and activity of its several advocates. In an age when the materials of writing were expensive, and libraries open only to the wealthy, books were rather records of established, than vehicles of newly discovered truth. The diffusion, therefore, of new principles, and even of those already ascertained, was almost wholly confined to oral teaching, and the success with which they were put forth dependent on the qualifications of those who delivered them. The Christian system was disseminated by missionary teachers, who appeared as the authorized proclaimers of its doctrines, and were every where recognized as the champions of its cause. Indefatigable in the discharge of their delegated trust, the only means they could command for the accomplishment of its purpose was the simple force of personal persuasion. They had no bribe to purchase conviction, for they were themselves dependent on the assistance of others. They could propose no prospects of worldly emolument, for their only

friends were the proselytes whom they could convert; and their foes were armed with secular and religious power. Their influence, therefore, seemed to rest on the credit they could obtain in their declaration of the facts on which their system was founded; and these declarations were urged with all the eloquence of ardent feeling, and supported by pretensions to miraculous powers.

There were amongst these men, at the time to which our subject refers, two perhaps more extensively distinguished than all the rest. Their activity, their sufferings, and unexampled success, had combined to render them conspicuous throughout Asia, and to identify them especially with the Christian cause. Of these, the one, whose energy of character threw him on all occasions into situations of the greatest prominence, was a person of known and very singular history. Born at Tarsus a city of Cilicia, but of Hebrew parentage, he had completed his education at the feet of Gamaliel, a Doctor of the Law, then residing at Jerusalem, and possessed of great celebrity as a master of his profession.' Having given in this school the polish of learning to the notions derived from his Jewish birth, he had commenced his career of active manhood by joining in the 1 Acts xxii. 3.