Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me? And he said, Who art thou, Lord? And the Lord said, I am Jesus, whom thou persecutest it is hard for thee to kick against the pricks." It remained no longer a matter of doubt with Saul whether Jesus was risen from the dead or not: he heard his voice and felt his power. The Messiahship of Jesus was thus at once proved to his understanding and his heart to his understanding, as a Jew learned in the Scriptures; to his heart, as a man overwhelmed by the majesty of God. It was then that, trembling and astonished, he said, Lord, what wilt thou have me to do? As if he had said, 'Lord, I am satisfied! Too long I have been in error, and in the blindness of my heart I have been taking part with this wicked generation against thee! Now I take thy part; I am ready and willing to do whatever thou commandest. Thou art indeed the Christ, the Holy One of God, risen from the dead. I believe the great truth: I see its importance: I feel its influence. I know that as many as avow it expose themselves to persecution; but, Lord, of what consequence is the persecution of men, compared with the favour of God? I am ready to despise it: I am ready to serve thee, not counting my life dear unto myself: I am ready to take up my cross and follow thee. I make no stipulations; I calculate no consequences: I run all risks. Thy will is law to me, without question or hesitation. Lord, what wilt thou have me to do?" "And the Lord said unto him, Arise, and go into the city, and it shall be told thee what thou must do." Saul was not disobedient to the heavenly vision; but immediately, without conferring with flesh and blood, he preached the faith which till then he had persecuted. His perfect knowledge of the controversy, while on the wrong side of the question, qualified him exceedingly for an argumentative and unanswerable support of the truth. "For this cause the Jews caught him in the temple, and went about to kill him. But, having obtained help of God, he continued witnessing both to small and great, saying none other things than those which the Prophets and Moses did say should come, that Christ should suffer, and that he should be the first who should rise from the dead, and should shew light unto the people and to the Gentiles." Wherever he went, he preached Jesus and the resurrection. In preaching Jesus, he preached all truth: for all that is or can be known of the True One, the only true God, is revealed in Christ Jesus. He is the Truth. But there was one branch of truth peculiarly suited to that infant state of the church; or without which all preaching would have been vain, and all faith in any thing, or every thing else, would have been in vain. This was the resurrection. This was the touchstone, the turning point of persecution, and therefore the test of true discipleship.

To this, Saul, who is also called Paul, gave prominence: for this he claimed a supremacy of importance: to this he ascribed a supremacy of influence: not to the disparagement of other truths (all truth is bound together in one, even in Jesus, and cannot be broken), but to the seasonable magnifying of this special link in the chain. It might not always be the link demanding special reiteration. As a truth, in common with every truth, it must everlastingly be important, be essential; but it might cease to be the boundary line of the church's controversy with the world: it might cease to be the watchword for persecution on the one side, and the test of faithfulness on the other. In the progress of the dealings of God with his church, some other link in the golden chain might come to occupy the relative position which the resurrection then occupied with Paul, however, the resurrection formed the key-note. Let it not be objected, But surely Paul preached the cross, and that with great earnestness and reiteration.' He did so; and the glorious advent, and the kingdom; and what did he not preach, when he preached Jesus? But it is recorded by the Holy Ghost, that the Apostle "preached Jesus and the resurrection:" and we go no further than we have the sure ground of Scripture to stand on, when, contemplating the ministry of the Apostles and the infancy of the church, we claim for the resurrection a superiority of importance; a superiority, not, I repeat, essential, or insulated (to the disparagement, or even the neglect, of other branches of truth), but a superiority relative, or temporary, as specially suited to the exigencies of the times. Paul's ministry was a ministry of truth-of all truth-specially the resurrection of Jesus crucified, from the dead. In Paul's life, every thing was subservient to his ministry. Having received an answer to his inquiry, Lord, what wilt thou have me to do? he was content to do it. For this he travelled; for this he wrought with his hands as a tradesman; for this he counted honours and rank and riches among men, but dross and dung. In persecutions and afflictions, in bonds and imprisonments, in weariness and watchfulness, in fastings often, in perils by land and by sea, and among robbers, and, worse than all, among false brethren, he stood firm. "None of these things," said he, " move me; neither count I my life dear unto myself, so that I might finish my course with joy, and the ministry which I have received of the Lord Jesus, to testify the Gospel of the grace of God."

Now these things took place, and they are thus recorded, for our instruction; and not these only, but the whole history of the church of Christ, from those days even until now, supplies us with invaluable instruction; although the records be written by uninspired men, and consequently subject to much mixture of human error.

The struggles and the testimony of the Apostles and their immediate successors proved successful, under the good hand of God, and the religion of Jesus Christ became the established religion of the Roman empire. No one then called in question the resurrection of the Lord Jesus; or if any persons did so, they were too few, or too obscure and remote from public observation, to produce any effect upon the church, or incur any persecution themselves. The resurrection was generally admitted, by both false professors and true believers. No man incurred any danger by avowing his reception of the doctrine; no, nor scarcely any reproach; for it had been found out that multitudes professed their faith in that doctrine, and lived as worldly lives as they had done before. This went far towards reconciling men in general to the doctrine. And at the same time there began to be a fashion in belonging to the new religion, and forsaking the idols of the heathen temples. It is manifest, that in such a state of things the resurrection could not occupy the relative position which it had occupied in the days of Paul. Having ceased to be the watchword for persecution, it also ceased to be the test and touchstone of a true discipleship. But there must be a cross in the church militant, and the members of Christ must bear it. At this time there arose a heresy in the church, which swelled into fearful magnitude, and counted the Emperor himself among its advocates;-a heresy concerning which our ecclesiastical historian says, "it threatened speedily to root out the knowledge of the truth, or to subject the faithful to all the horrors of a pagan persecution." This was Arianismso called from Arius, a priest in the city of Alexandria. The distinguishing peculiarity of it was the denial of the true and very Godhead of the Lord Jesus. The most prominent and efficient opposer of this blasphemy was the since celebrated Athanasius. He was condemned, however, and banished from his bishoprick by force. The church where he was officiating was attacked by the military, and he narrowly escaped with his life.Thus another link in the chain of truth was forced out into prominence; and we may say of the ministry of Athanasius, that it was a ministry of truth, of all the truth he knew, specially of the essential Godhead of the Saviour. He preached, not Jesus and the resurrection, but Jesus and the plurality of Persons in Jehovah. This became the watchword for perse. cution, the touchstone and test of genuine discipleship. This was the truth which then influenced the life; which caused the man who held it not only to argue with, but to cease to live like, the man who denied it. When Athanasius said unto the Lord, in his private devotion, Lord, what wilt thou have me to do? he received an answer in the circumstances of the times in which he lived as though the Lord had said to him, 'Hold fast by this

link of truth which the enemy has attacked; let it have the affection of your heart, let it have prominence and reiteration from your lips.' The history of Athanasius proclaims that his heart answered, Lord, thy will is law to me. I rejoice to do what thou wilt have me to do. Welcome the wrath of man, if I may but serve and please my God!' Athanasius preached the special link in the chain; he opposed the heretics; he lived for God; he endured persecution; counting his bishoprick and all other things but loss, for the excellency of the knowledge of Jesus Christ, the true, eternal God.

The natural man possesses a wonderful capacity for the profession of orthodox doctrine, where such profession falls in with his secular interest, or where he is taught it as a matter of form in a school, without having any influence produced upon his life by it. Under emperors who patronised the ancient orthodoxy, Arianism soon gave way; false professors, as well as the faithful, soon learned to subscribe the doctrine of the Trinity; and though individual Arians remained, and still remain, in the church, Arianism never regained authority, or power to persecute. Among the corruptions which began to poison Christendom, a denial of the Trinity found no place. The merit of human works, and slavish submission to the anti-scriptural usurpation and covetous impositions of the Bishop of Rome, occupied the front ground of the Papal system; and the advocates of these and similar abominations acquired authority and power to persecute. Neither the resurrection of Jesus, nor the doctrine of the Trinity, were called in question. No man incurred any danger from avowing his attachment to those things; nor even any reproach; nay, rather an advocacy of them, by any man who was content to mention no other truth, was the way to preferment. They were as essentially important as they had ever been; but no watchword for persecution rested upon them, and they contained no touchstone of true discipleship. But there must be a cross in the church; and another link of the golden chain was now pressed forward into prominence.

Justification by the righteousness of Christ imputed, through faith, which is the gift of God: this doctrine, involving the free grace and the eternal election of the Father, struck at the root of the whole Romish fabric. Look into Luther's closet, and hear him saying, Lord, what wilt thou have me to do? He read his answer in the circumstances of the times he lived in. He saw that he might set himself heartily for the defence of the resurrection, or the Trinity, or both, without being called to any test by so doing which would prove whether he loved Jesus better than the world; but if he set himself for the defence of free justification by imputed righteousness, through faith, he would come in contact with the arm of persecuting power, and might

in all probability lose his life, but certainly his emoluments in the church, and the good-will of many of his kindred. The history of his life proclaims that he thus read the will of the Lord concerning him, and that he gave himself, at all risks, to do the will of the Lord. His ministry was a ministry of truth, of all the truth he knew, but specially of justification by faith and not by works. He preached, not Jesus and the resurrection, not Jesus and the Trinity, but Jesus and free justification. This was the watchword, this the touchstone: this roused the arm of opposition and persecution: this exasperated the contentious; this grieved the moderate; this stamped "faithful and true upon the servant of God. But time forbids that we attempt to sketch the struggles of the Reformation: let us come at once into the Reformed churches, and to our own times.

Here it must again be repeated, that the natural man has a great facility in the profession of orthodoxy, when such profession chimes in with his secular interest. Justification by faith was ruled to be one of the articles of the Reformed churches; and the princes and kings who favoured the Reformation embraced it, and established it in this realm. This deprived it of its horror in the eyes of men; nay, it even became prudent to embrace it. False professors embraced it, and lived as they had done before this quite reconciled men to it. It was no longer a watchword for persecution, a touchstone of genuine discipleship. True, there remained, and do still remain, too many in the Reformed churches who deny it; but the deniers of it have not authority or power to persecute: no man incurs danger by professing it; no, nor any reproach, unless he is very pertinacious in defining his terms. At this moment, and among ourselves, neither the resurrection, nor the Trinity, nor justification by faith, is attended with any reproach, or charge of fanaticism, or even of imprudence. On the contrary, a well-digested treatise in defence of these things, by a man who lives for secular objects, as other men live, is the direct road to preferment in the church and respectability in the world.

But there must be a cross in the church militant, and the members of Christ must bear it. Where is it now? What is the link of the one, the golden, the unbroken chain of Divine truth, which is stigmatised as fanaticism; against the advocates of which is directed the virulence of personal abuse? When any of us say now in secret, Lord, what wilt thou have me to do? how are we to read the Lord's answer in the circumstances of the times around us? Here is wisdom, the very wisdom called for from each of us at this season in the church. The inquiry is not confined to the ministry, though the history of the church has been carried along on the well-known circumstances of her leading champions: no, it applies to all, in their respective