“And on the Sabbath we went out of the city by a river side, where prayer was wont to be made, and we sat down and spake to the women that resorted thither. And a certain woman named Lydia, a seller of purple of the city of Thyatira, who worshipped God, heard us; whose heart the Lord opened that she attended unto the things which were spoken of Paul. And when she was baptized, and her household, she besought us, saying, If ye have judged me to be faithful to the Lord, come into my house and abide there. And she constrained us."-ACTs xvi. 13, 15.

MAY it not be that many fail to be converted by reason of incorrect notions of what conversion is? May they not be unaware of the fact, that ignorance of the truth on this subject will be just as fatal to the soul as poison, taken by mistake, will be to the body? Is there not a sense of security here that ought to be alarmed? There are many that hear the Gospel, to whom as yet it is far enough from being a savor of life unto life. May not one reason be, that they do not rightly apprehend it? They have indeed certain ideas about conversion-but whether right or not, how few of them take the trouble to inquire! My impression is, that many from this cause live and die unconverted-their dim and cloudy views filling up the avenue through which truth, with its stirring realities, enters the soul.

It is, then, with unfeigned pleasure that I am able to give you an instance of real conversion, together with the circumstances

and feelings which accompanied and followed it, and all endorsed by the spirit of truth; so that every one may see what it is; what is essential to it-what its effects are, and what he himself must be and do in order to be saved.

This instance is that of Lydia; and without adverting to all its instructive points, these, which will be illustrated in their order, will be sufficient for my purpose: THE IMPEDIMENT in the way of her conversion; THE AGENT by whom it was removed; THE CIRCUMSTANCES attending its removal, AND THE CONSEQUENCES which followed it.

I. What the impediment in the way of her conversion was, is seen in the statement, "Whose heart the Lord opened." Till then it was shut-it did not admit the truth, which pressed from without. There was self-satisfaction. Her heart had guests which suited its taste; and fearful of reprisals-apprehensive that thoughts might come in to disturb what was going on, it had shut and barred the door to keep them out. This was the impediment. There are many things which contribute to shut the heart against the Gospel, and to keep it closed: such as deeply rooted prejudices-erroneous views of the truth, and especially habits of vice and licentiousness; but then these things would not very seriously endanger one's salvation if they did not close up his heart to the impressions of guilt and the powers of the world to come. If Belshazzar, and Haman, and Judas, and Simon Magus, had suffered the sober voice of reason and conscience to enter their hearts in the hour of temptation that ruined them, would they not have been saved from the terrible shipwreck of character and hope which they experienced? have seen men who seemed to have but little sensibility in view of our suffering humanity, and less disposition to go out of their way to relieve it. That which operates like a charm on certain minds the work, for instance, of aiding the fugitive from oppression, or that of giving light to the dark places of earth, is all a blank to them. The manifest reason is, that they have shut their hearts to every impression that calls for self-denial and selfsacrifice. It seems to us, also, that men engaged in the liquor traffic, do not give a fair equivalent for what they receive-for bread they give a stone; for a fish a serpent; for the money received, they give poverty and a ruined character, and broken hopes, and wretched families, and premature deaths. We think that even they must see that such are the regular fruits of their business. Why are they so blind? The answer is, their hearts have they closed to the truth.

You

You have all seen the stubborn child, pouting his lips, and darting fire from his eyes, simply because his parents bade him do a very reasonable thing, but a thing that he disliked to do. Have you a doubt what made him look so ugly-what made him mutter such bitter words? Why no; his heart was in fault-it was shut.

This, then, is the grand impediment which hinders the conversion of sinners. And hence they are described in the Bible as "having eyes, but seeing not; as having ears, but hearing not; as having hearts, but understanding not." And then the reason given is all the more impressive because it is so obviously true: "their eyes have they closed," and let their hearts wax gross, lest they should see with" their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their hearts, and be converted." Yes, here is the impediment, and what is worse, it is placed by sinners themselves across the path to life, and obstinately kept there. They are helped, however, in this suicidal policy by an agency which ought to startle, as if a serpent stung them. Listen-for I quote from the word of Him who cannot lie--"For if our Gospel is hid, it is hid to them that are lost; in whom the God of this world hath blinded the minds of them that believe not, lest the light of the glorious Gospel of the Son of God should shine into them." To keep out this light they shut up their hearts. Hence Christ is said to stand at the door of the heart and to knock, while but few, very few, open the door, and thus let salvation in. This was Lydia's difficulty, till she went to the prayer meeting by the river's side. She went there, as many now go to the house of God, with a heart closed to the truth, as it is in Jesus; but there, unexpectedly to herself, it was opened, and emotions of new and unutterable interest filled her soul, and immediately she passed from death unto life.

II. And here we naturally ask, By whom was this impediment removed?

"Whose heart the LORD opened." It was not effected by any charm in that prayer meeting-nor by the power of human persuasion, nor by the unusual thoughtfulness and effort of Lydia herself. It was the work of God. Not that means are useless, nor that Lydia had no control over her own heart--but simply that as she had shut it against the claims of God, and would never of her own accord remove the barricade, so the opening depended on the mercy of God. And what was true in her case is a truth so universal, that the Bible casts us all on the same resource for help against the ruin which our own obstinacy will otherwise bring upon us, declaring, that "it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that showeth mercy -that neither is he that planteth anything, nor he that watereth, but God that giveth the increase."

And here, if we bear in mind what is meant by opening the heart, and why it must be opened, if opened at all, by God himself, we shall feel none of the difficulties which will otherwise perplex the subject. You never suppose that because a child shuts his heart against cheerfully doing the reasonable things required by his parents, that therefore he cannot do them, but only that he is self-willed and obstinate, and will not, nor that the father is

to be blamed for undertaking in any proper way to open the heart of his child to just impressions of his duty. But this is just the case of all the stout-hearted towards God. It is not inability, but willfulness--it is not ignorance, but selfishness, that leads them to shut their hearts against the voice of God. Let this be remembered, and who will think hard of any one but themselves, if

"The transformation of apostate man

From fool to wise, from earthly to divine,

Is work for Him that made him."

III. But another important fact appears in this history of Lydia's conversion, relating TO THE CIRCUMSTANCES in which this opening of closed hearts is effected.

When this is declared to be the work of God, it is regarded by some as justifying the inference that human effort in the case is useless; and that the opening, as it depends on God, can be made in one place as well as another. But this is the language of a thoughtless, if not a bitter caviller. So the truly thoughtful never reason. It is forbidden by the clear light shed over the whole subject from the circumstances attending Lydia's conversion. WHERE was it that her heart was opened?-and, by what MEANS? It was at a PRAYER MEETING, and by MEANS of the truth that Paul preached there. In all this can you discover any violation of the laws of free agency, or any thing justifying the inference in regard to the uselessness of means?

Let us recur to our former illustration-the case of a froward child. Why is he so disobedient? It is because he loves his own selfish pleasure more than the duty he owes to his parents. This is precisely the state of feeling which every sinner cherishes towards God. He loves the gratifications of self-indulgence, and intensely dislikes the healthy self-denials of Christian duty. He is unwilling, therefore, to conform his will to the infinitely better will of God. Now in the case of the child, it is obvious to all that if the father undertakes to open his heart and subdue his stubbornness, he must do it by the use of appropriate means; and yet, that whatever the means, whether the application of the rod, or the voice of persuasion, or the cutting language of reproof, the child was active and voluntary through the whole process, though the father opened his heart. In the day of the father's power, if I may so use the language of Scripture, the child was made willing to do his duty. Now it is precisely thus that God deals with the rebellious and froward in opening their hearts-by the judgments of his rod, or by the melting voice that comes from Calvary. And all the while they bear about the consciousness that they can open or shut their hearts to truthful impressions, just as they please; that they can read the Biblego to the place of prayer and be thoughtful, or they put the

Bible aside, and go to places of mirth, and be thoughtless, just as they please. And when, go where they will, they do not suc ceed in drowning the still small voice, and hushing the terrible voice of guilt; and when this pressure on the conscience becomes at length so great as to bring them openly to ask, What shall we do? there is still the clear consciousness of acting freely. And when they bow to the supremacy of God, and their hearts are opened to receive the pardon and justification of free grace, they never complain of any forceful influence, nor do they say, Our own arm hath gotten the victory-but, "Not unto us-not unto us, but to thy name give glory for thy mercy and thy truth's sake." Thus all along was there an awakened, active mind, conscious freedom, while the Spirit of God begat them unto a lively hope with the word of truth.

Still God is not confined to one method of operation. In Lydia's case, the means seemed like the gentle rain-in Paul's, there was the sterner voice of the storm; in the Jailor's at Philippi, the earthquake that shook the prison, combined its voice with the truth that shook his soul. In every conversion recorded in the Bible, there was an apprehension of danger-great seriousness, and earnest inquiry after the way to be saved, while the caviller as such, and the disputer of this world, and the thoughtless infidel continued as before dead in trespasses and sins, thus proving that though God begets us of his own will, it is always with the word of truth; and that, too, in such a way as to demand the active co-operation of those who do not receive the grace of God in vain.

It was thus with Lydia. She went to the prayer meeting and heard Paul preach; and there the Lord opened her heart with the truth which had been commended to her judgment and conscience. Oh, if she had been a trifler there; or if she had been engrossed with a fascinating novel, or if she had stayed away, do you not fully believe that her history would have been as dark with selfishness as now it is radiant with the light of truth and love?

IV. And now we come to the coNSEQUENCES of this opening of her heart.

The first noticeable effect was, an earnest attention to the word.

"Whose heart the Lord opened, that she attended to the things that were spoken of Paul." If listless before, she was attentive now. She heard as for her life. The word met a felt want of her soul. The same effect is seen wherever divine influence is felt. The Gospel all at once is heard, as it was never heard before. It is heard as a message of life or death to the soul. It is impossible to be indifferent when the hope of heaven first dawns on the soul. When the Lord opens the heart, evil passions are driven out, and a satisfying good enters. A new world opens