May 21

attainable. Happy they who possess it, and can say, "We know that the Son of God is come, and hath given us an understanding, that we may know him that is true, and we are in him that is true, even in his Son Jesus Christ; this is the true God, and eternal life." But why should any despair? The blind man could not open his own eyes: but the Saviour was passing by; and he cried, "Jesus, thou Son of David, have mercy on me;" and "straightway he received sight, and followed him in the way." You must be taught of God; and it is the Spirit alone that can guide you into all truth. But "if any man lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him."

MAY 21.—"And from thence we came to Philippi."—Acts 16:12.

"I SAY unto you, that there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner that repenteth." Nothing can more powerfully imply, or express the importance of conversion, than this declaration of the Saviour, the faithful and true witness. However lightly or contemptuously conversion may be thought of among men, celestial beings, proverbial for their wisdom, and incapable of mistake, always behold it with wonder and delight. With them, the improvements of art, the discoveries of philosophy, the exploits of heroes, the revolutions of empires, are comparatively nothing to the salvation of a soul. In their view, the release of Israel from the land of Egypt and the house of bondage, and their march through the wilderness to the land of Canaan, was a sight far less glorious and impressive, than the deliverance of a sinner from the power of darkness, and his translation into the kingdom of God's dear Son. At the first creation, the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy: but they sing a new song, and with peculiar rapture, at the second, when old things pass away, and all things become morally and spiritually new.

Luke the historian was like-minded. He here speaks of his coming with Paul and Silas to Philippi. Philippi was built by Philip, the father of Alexander. From the beginning it had been noted: but within comparatively a recent period it had been rendered exceedingly remarkable, by the two great battles which the Romans fought in its plains. In the one Julius Cæsar vanquished Pompey. In the other Octavius Augustus defeated Brutus and Cassius. Though every battle of the warrior is with confused noise, and garments rolled in blood, and produces so much misery, it is painful to think what a power it has always had to excite and interest the attention. What traveller that has passed through Waterloo has been able to forbear speaking of the 18th of June! But Luke says nothing of the work of Philip, of the prowess of Cæsar, of the fortune of Augustus!—But he mentions what would immortalize the place in the annals of the soul and eternity—The conversions of two individuals—Lydia and the jailor. Lydia was amiable and moral; a proselyte to the Jewish religion; and a worshipper of the true God. The jailor was a heathen; an idolater; vicious in his disposition; as rude and savage in his soul as in his office. The conversion of the one was in answer to prayer, gentle, gradual, imperceptible in the progress, but obvious in its result. The conversion of the other was sudden,