ILLUSTRATION II.

THE BRAND PLUCKED FROM THE BURNING.

"THEN HE CALLED FOR A LIGHT, AND SPRANG IN AND CAME TREMBLING, AND FELL DOWN BEFORE PAUL AND SILAS, AND BROUGHT THEM OUT, AND SAID: SIRS, WHAT MUST I DO TO BE SAVED?"-Acts xvi. 29, 30.

"THE wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, nor whither it goeth; so is every one that is born of the Spirit." How untraceable is the wind of heaven! how mysterious is the Spirit of heaven! In its operations how different is the former; we witness it, at one time, a mighty and irresistible power, rending the mountains, and breaking the rocks in pieces-snapping, with unseen but giant hand, the cedars of Libanus— speaking, as if with God's voice, so terribly, that the wilderness of Cades trembles, and the uneasy ocean awakes and lifts up its head, and asks in the deep, solemn murmur of its waves, what is His will, "Who has measured its waters in the hollow of his hand!" At another time the same breath is

around us, but so bland, so gentle, that the leaf which rustles in the faintest breeze scarce quivers, and the ripple which the most languid zephyr's sigh can move, is undiscerned. In either case it is the same breath of heaven-but how different in its effects! how changed in its operations! But not more widely different than the operations of God's Spirit. In one case His agency is irresistible and constraining - pulling down every stronghold and every high thing that exalted itself against the knowledge of God-spreading round it solemn terror, and most religious awe; and, at another, whispering and speaking silently to the soul with "still small voice," not enthralling it with dread, but drawing it with love. At one time terrifying the heart, as with the jailer at Philippi, and at another opening and preparing it, that like Lydia's it may listen, and learn that "peace of God which passeth understanding." In the former case, plucking a brand from the burning; in the latter, pouring upon a thirsting spirit the dew of his blessing.

Let our present consideration be, the Gospel of Christ the power of God unto salvation, in plucking a brand from the burning!

Paul being at Philippi, in Macedonia―a damsel, possessed with a spirit of divination, followed him

and his fellow-disciple as they went to prayer. The poor Pythoness, another spirit being given to her, miraculously felt that she was turned from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God. Beforetime a lying spirit spoke within her, now the spirit of truth spoke, and she cried out :"These men are the servants of the most high God, which show unto us the way of salvation." "And this she did many days. But Paul being grieved, turned and said to the spirit, I command thee in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her." Her masters finding that the hope of her gains was gone-seize Paul and Silas-stir up the multitudes against them, and induce the magistrates to beat them. "And when they had laid many stripes upon them, they cast them into prison, charging the jailer to keep them safely: who having received such a charge thrust them into the inner prison, and made their feet fast in the stocks."

Picture to your imaginations this Philippian jailer. A grim, inexorable man-with a cheek perchance whose deep lines of harshness, feeling never stirred; with cold hard eye, which pity never moistened with a tear; and with heart of such stern stuff, that its adamant encasing could take no dint from mercy or compassion. Cruel he may have

been by nature, but he had grown absolutely ruthless by the customary sight of torture and of scourging. We We may well suppose that the bleeding backs and trickling wounds of these innocent men would not move him; he had no thought of their dark dungeon gloom, or their gored limbs fast in the stocks. He slept as soundly and as carelessly as at other times. His slumbers, it may be, were not disturbed with any "compunctious visitings" of relentment which would not let him rest. His dreams, perhaps, were unscared with any vision of inhumanity recoiling on his own head. He slept!

Not so his prisoners! Their dungeon was dismal and dreary, but there was an unwonted light there. They were in the inner prison, but their Lord was with them. Their feet were fast in the stocks, but their spirits were not bound. Their livid seams and undrest wounds were gory with the blunt gashes of the thong-but there was no aching, no smart, no bitterness within. The sleeping guards, beyond their bolted door, may have droned out their dull monotonous soundsbut within those doors there were notes to which attendant angels listened, as at the lonely midnight hour Paul and Silas sang praises unto God! Oh! the blessedness of carrying God with us in our

hearts-and feeling that where we are, He is! Oh! the unspeakable comfort and greatness of that faith, which animates the servants of the Lord-whether in the fiery furnace, as Shadrach and his fellows; or in the den of lions, as Daniel; or in the desert Isle of Patmos, as the beloved Disciple; or in the prison's stony heart, as Paul and Silas; and causes them to realize the fulness of the promise:-"I will never leave thee nor forsake thee"-"Lo! I am with you always!"

'Tis midnight! The dungeon wards are still. The silent moon is in heaven-and the stars look brightly down-but their light pierces not that inner prison. Yet the unsleeping eye of God keeps vigil there! Heavy, drowsy slumber weighs upon the turnkeys; they have forgotten their charge; but the Lord, who watches o'er his people, is not unmindful of them. How still, how solemn still, is all the scene! Is it God's presence there which spreads such breathless calm? pulse of life seems stopped! And now that prisonhymn is silent; there is a hush, which in its very stillness is appalling! One could deem

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that the Angel of Death had passed and made its mimic image, Sleep, so deep and overwhelming, that it should wake no more! But hark! Every dungeon echoes with alarm!

The long