curling incense. What are all these better than the “Ephesian letters?" This ritualistic work in the name of Christianity is an imposture-an attempt to charm away the devil by a species of clumsy magic.

Able expositions of the ACTS OF THE APOSTLES, describing the manners, customs, and localities described by the inspired writers; also interpreting their words, and harmonizing their formal discrepancies, are, happily, not wanting amongst us. But the eduction of its WIDEST truths and highest suggestions is still a felt desideratum. To some attempt at the work we devote these pages. We gratefully avail ourselves of all exegetical helps within our reach; but to occupy our limited space with any lengthened archaeological, geographical, or philological remarks, would be to miss our aim; which is not to make bare the mechanical process of the study of Scripture, but to reveal its spiritual results.

SUBJECT: Paul at Ephesus.

"And it came to pass, that, while Apollos was at Corinth, Paul having passed through the upper coasts came to Ephesus: and finding certain disciples, he said unto them, Have ye received the Holy Ghost since ye believed? And they said unto him, We have not so much as heard whether there be any Holy Ghost. And he said unto them, Unto what then were ye baptized? And they said, Unto John's baptism. Then said Paul, John verily baptized with the baptism of repentance, saying unto the people, that they should believe on Him which should come after him, that is, on Christ Jesus. When they heard this, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. And when Paul had laid his hands upon them, the Holy Ghost came on them; and they spake with tongues, and prophesied. And all the men were about twelve. And he went into the synagogue, and spake boldly for the space of three months, disputing and persuading the things concerning the kingdom of God. But when divers were hardened, and believed not, but spake evil of that way before the multitude, he departed from them, and separated the disciples, disputing daily in the school of one Tyrannus. And this continued by the space of two years; so that all they which dwelt in Asia heard the word of the Lord

Jesus, both Jews and Greeks. And God wrought special miracles by the hands of Paul: so that from his body were brought unto the sick handkerchiefs or aprons, and the diseases departed from them, and the evil spirits went out of them."-Acts xix. 1—12.

HIS chapter gives an account of Paul's second visit to Ephesus. His first visit seems to have been incidental, and very brief (Acts xviii. 19-21). When he departed from it on this first occasion, he left behind his old friends Priscilla and Aquila, and faithfully promised in bidding farewell to return if "God willed." According to that promise he is now, after extensive journeyings, great perils and labours, once more in this famous city of the ancient world. Some little progress in the evangelisation of Ephesus had no doubt been made since his former visit. Aquila and Priscilla had not neglected the holy work, and Apollos had made his mighty eloquence tell in the right direction. It is probable that Paul at Ephesus was the guest of Aquila and Priscilla, as he had been at Corinth, and that in their humble home he wrought at his own trade for a livelihood; indeed, in his farewell address to the Ephesian elders at Miletus, he declares that "his own hands had ministered to his necessities" during his sojourn in their city. This chapter presents to us Paul's ministry at Ephesus in connection with six subjects—“ the twelve disciples, the synagogue and the school of Tyrannus, the diseased and the possessed, the seven sons of Sceva, the deputation to Macedonia, the conduct of Demetrius the silversmith, and the statesman-like address of the 'townclerk of the city." All these may be taken as separate platforms on which to exhibit not only the labours of Paul at Ephesus, but truths of paramount and universal application.

THIS seems have

I. THE TWELVE DISCIPLES. When Paul reached Ephesus we are informed he found "certain disciples" there, and these were "about twelve." Now, his conduct toward these "certain disciples" is very significant, and demands attention.

For a magnificent description of this city see Conybeare and Howson..

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First: He directs his attention to them at the very outset. These men had some amount of truth in them. They had made some progress in Christian knowledge, and they were genuine, it may be, in their desires and efforts to live up to the point of their intelligence, It was a wise policy in Paul to go to these men first. This policy probably he generally pursued. Such men would be better qualified and more disposed to listen to the public revelation of the Gospel, and such men, when won to his cause, would become his most effective coadjutors. To establish in the faith twelve such men would prove more conducive to the advancement of truth than to elicit the thunderous cheers of a crowded

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"Secondly: He promptly convicts them of the deficiency of their Christianity. He does this by two questions. (1) "Have ye received the Holy Ghost since ye believed?" or, as it might be more accurately expressed, Did ye receive the Holy Ghost when ye believed? What did the apostle mean by this question? Did he mean to ask, Has the Holy Spirit influenced you to this faith? I think not. For Paul's doctrine was that the Spirit was necessary to faith, and he assumes that at they were believers. He means undoubtedly those miraculous influences of the Spirit, which in that first age descended upon most converts to the Christian faith. The candid answer he received shows that this is what the interrogated understood him to mean. They said unto him, "We have not so much as heard whether there be any Holy of John, they must have known something of the old Scriptures, and the old Scriptures teemed with references to the Holy Spirit. What they meant was, that they had not heard of the Spirit in such forms as it came down on the day of Pentecost, in the rushing mighty wind and cloven tongues of fire. The apostle puts another searching question to them." (2) "Unto what then were ye baptized ? As if he had said baptism in Christianity is' baptism in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. You cannot have entered fully into the Christian system if you have not heard

Ghost." As disciples

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of the Holy Spirit. Their answer explains their ignorance. "They said, Unto John's baptism." John's baptism was one of repentance and preparation. It was a baptism of water and of fire. They were the disciples of John, and had not yet come fully unto the school of Christ, and therefore their ignorance. It is clear from the sequel that those questions of the apostle struck deep into their souls, and made them profoundly conscious of their deficiency.

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Thirdly: He effectively ministers to their advancement in Divine knowledge. "Then said Paul, John verily baptized with the baptism of repentance, saying unto the people, that they should believe on Him which should come after him, that is on Christ Jesus." By this he teaches them (1), that John's ministry was reformative. John, disgusted with the moral rottenness of conventional Judaism, and with the hollowness of the age, retires into the wilderness to search out truth, and to commune with God. The wild scenery around him, and the calm heavens above him, deepened his impressions of the real and everlasting. With the spirit of eternal reality fresh upon his heart, he issues, from the solitudes where he had thought and prayed, and met with God, and appears before the masses of his countrymen thundering the urgency of reformation down into their souls. He teaches, also (2), that his ministry was introductory. John told his vast audiences to believe on Him that would come after him, that is Christ Jesus. John did not hold himself forth as an object of faith. He founded no church; he established no religion of his own. Those whom he baptized, he baptized into something that was to come. He pointed. men to Christ, the Lamb of God who was to take away the sins of the world.

Now this teaching of the Apostle was effective, for we are told that when they heard this "they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus." This act was an expression of that higher stage of experience to which Paul's ministry had raised them. It is not said that Paul baptized them; nor is it even said that he required them to be baptized, nor are

we told that they were baptized with water at all. The true baptism is the baptism of the spirit.

Fourthly: He conveys the miraculous gifts of the Spirit. "And when Paul had laid his hands upon them, the Holy Ghost came on them; and they spake with tongues, and prophesied." The patriarchs were accustomed to lay their hands on those for whom they invoked the favour of Heaven. The imposition of hands in the Apostle's case now signified perhaps, not merely invocation, but impartation also. He acted thus as the agent through which the Eternal Father communicated to these converted souls miraculous endowments. Hence it would seem that no sooner were His hands laid on them than the supernatural gifts came down, and they "spake with tongues, and prophesied." The gift of tongues I am disposed to regard, not as the gift of new languages, but as the gift of speaking spiritual truths with supernatural fervour and force. The Spirit did not make them linguists, but spiritual orators, made their old words burn with new meaning. New ideas will make an old language. Let souls burn with celestial thoughts, and they will speak with “tongues of fire." This gift of speech enabled them to prophesy,"they prophesied." The word prophesy here is to be taken, not in the sense of predicting, but teaching. "He that pro phesieth speaketh unto men to edification and exhortation and comfort."!

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Such, then, was the conduct of Paul towards these "twelve disciples," who constituted the nucleus of that Ephesian Church, to which he afterwards addressed one of his most magnificent epistles.

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The next point in this chapter from which we may take a view of Paul is

II. THE SYNAGOGUE AND THE SCHOOL OF TYRANNUS These were the scenes in which he preached for "three months" in the former, and "two years" in the latter. He began in the synagogue, according to his custom, and for good reasons. The Hebrew Scriptures were recognized as authorities in the