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MIRACLE OF DOOM.

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Himself by her eating of that fruit; so that under this delusion she felt it to be a duty to eat, become a goddess, and be wise. Elymas, in a similar spirit, had persuaded the proconsul that highest wisdom dwelt with him-the knowledge of God and of the way of life. And surely error in the guise of truth, or death wearing a mask of life, is the devil, or the child of the devil. "Thou enemy of all righteousness, wilt thou not cease to pervert the right ways of the Lord?" This terrible interrogation was a solemn command to desist, and it tells his crime. "The right ways of the Lord" is a phrase which may be employed to characterize not only the gospel as the true path, but also the old dispensation. He might pervert it so as by it to oppose Christianity, or use it as a principal engine to perplex the mind of his victim, so that it might repel Christianity. He contrived either to give a crooked turn to the right way, that it might lead in an opposite direction, or he hoped to make it such a labyrinth that none could find their way in it save such as paid him for the clue to guide them. Wicked and wilful cleverness -dexterity in the devil's own likeness-so to "pervert the right ways of the Lord," so to misrepresent Judaism or Christianity, as that in either case poison should be plucked from the tree of life!

The apostle adds the terrible words "And now, behold, the hand of the Lord is upon thee, and thou shalt be blind, not seeing the sun for a season." This challenge, so far as we know, was Paul's first conscious putting forth of supernatural power. Strange that his earliest miracle should be one of doom-the infliction of

such a blindness as in the moment of his conversion had come upon himself. He could not but compassionate the guilty wretch, as he saw him gradually losing the power of vision, gazing around him with wild eyeballs, and groping in dismay. The miracle is described with awful precision. "And immediately there fell on him a mist and a darkness; and he went about seeking some to lead him by the hand." A mist gathered over his eyes, so that he saw indistinctly, but it soon thickened into total obscurity. The haze that for a moment floated before him darkened into midnight; and his frantic gesticulations indicated his desire for "some to lead him by the hand." That blindness was a symbol of his own spirit and work. His moral sense was blunted, and in attempting to sway Sergius Paulus, it was the blind leading the blind, while he needed to be led himself. He might profess to work by the finger of God, but the heavy hand of God fell upon him, and its shadow extinguished his vision. His sin might be read in his judgment. His boast was of insight, but he was taught that he saw nothing.

Infliction coming direct from God's hand, often takes its shape from the crime. Ham mocked his father, and his doom was one of servitude, under which a father's claims are ignored, and he is valued but as the producer of living marketable tools. Abimelech wished to add Sarah to his harem, and sterility was the penalty of his household. Israel, God's first-born, are kept in bondage, and Pharaoh's first-born fall before the destroying angel. Korah, Dathan, Abiram, and On conspired to undermine the authority of Moses, but a mine was sprung

JUDGMENT SHAPED BY SIN.

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under themselves-"they went down alone into the pit, and the earth closed upon them." Miriam murmured that the alien wife of her brother should be naturalized, and she was smitten with a loathsome distemper, which instantly excluded her from the camp. Jeroboam put forth his hand against "the man of God which had cried against the altar in Bethel," "and his hand which he had put forth against him dried up, so that he could not pull it in again to him." When Uzziah "was strong, his heart was lifted up to his destruction;" and when he intruded into the temple to burn incense, "the leprosy rose up in his forehead," and he durst not afterwards pass beyond his own dwelling; "and he was cut off from the house of the Lord." Those that exhausted the flesh of Israel by labour and slavery, shall be fed "with their own flesh," according to the menace of Jehovah. "They have shed the blood of saints and prophets, and Thou hast given them blood to drink." In the hour of his impious exultation, when he thought himself a "mortal God," Nebuchadnezzar was smitten with a strange mania, and herded with the beasts of the field. The tongue which had spoken proud words imitated the lowings of the oxen; the fingers which had grasped the sceptre carried the green provender to the royal lips; and all this "till his hair was grown like eagles' feathers, and his nails like birds' claws." Zechariah saw the vision, but spoke to Gabriel in incredulity ; therefore he was struck dumb, and was "not able to speak" till the promise was fulfilled. When Herod accepted homage as a god, his godship-set upon by the lowest vermin -"was eaten of worms, and gave up the ghost."

Paul had risen to the dignity and authority of his apostolate. He had a "power to edification," though it now assumed a terrific aspect; and the deputy, awed and overcome, believed, being astonished at the doctrine of the Lord-at the way in which the Lord taught, and so strikingly authenticated His doctrine. The blindness inflicted on his evil genius for endeavouring so malignantly to prevent the true light from entering into his heart, proved to him that Paul was no pretender, and that the doctrine which could take so sudden and signal vengeance on its opponent, was armed with a power that betokened its supernatural origin. He was awe-struck, and was unable to refuse his assent. He could not allow the sorcerer to trifle with him any longer, nor durst he longer "halt between two opinions;" but he bowed to the truth proclaimed by the Hebrew missionaries. Thus judgment and mercy have been often associated. The acceptance of Abel led to the banishment of Cain; the water that bore up Noah's ark drowned the old world; the escape of Lot was the signal for the fire-shower upon Sodom; the exodus of Israel was preceded by the doom of Egypt; the possession of Canaan is the expulsion of the Canaanites; the child Jesus is "set for the fall and rising again of many;" the life of the world springs from the murder of Calvary; men live to righteousness in proportion as they die to sin; the casting away of the chosen race was the "reconciling of the world;" and the enlightenment of Sergius Paulus has by its side the blinding of Elymas the sorcerer. Behold, therefore, the goodness and severity of God!"

V.-PAUL AT ANTIOCH IN PISIDIA.

ACTS xiii. 13-52.

BARNABAS and Saul had gone to Cyprus, but their relative position was changed during their residence in the island; and in the record of their departure from it, Paul occupies the place of honour and prominence. The conversion of Sergius Paulus seems to remind the historian that he of Tarsus then assumed, and afterwards bore, the similar name of Paul; and that with the proper commencement of his labours as the apostle of the Gentiles, the native Hebrew name of Saul is for ever dropped. The subsidence of Barnabas into a subordinate position may have offended his nephew Mark, and been one of the reasons which induced him to desert the enterprise and return to his mother at Jerusalem. At length "Paul and his company loosed from Paphos," passed over to Asia Minor, skirting the western confines of Cilicia, and sailed up the Cestrus, landing at Perga in Pamphylia. Then crossing the great table-land of the country, they entered Antioch of Pisidia-a city, the ruins of which have been only recently discovered. What induced them to make this visit we know not; perhaps they anticipated that this second Antioch would be as rich in its spiritual harvest as the first Antioch on the Orontes. They took an early opportunity of worshipping on Sabbath in the synagogue;

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