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in operation. The revival I would seek, and pray God I might be allowed the privilege to help forward, should be a work of deep and thorough reformation, making men who acknowledge the gospel more consistent followers of its precepts, more ready recipients of its spirit. It should not be a thing of noise, parade, transport, passion. Where was there ever a reformer who undertook a greater, a more radical reformation than Jesus Christ? And yet how calm were all his movements, and what a spirit of peace, and gentleness, always animated him! Compare him, compare his preaching, compare its effects, with the rude and vehement manner, the awful and shocking descriptions of the Divine Being, the false and degrading representations of human nature, and the consequent extravagances of feeling and behavior, which are seen and heard in these modern 'seasons of refreshing from the Lord' and let the comparison inspire you with warmer admiration and love of the blessed Teacher, whom the Father sanctified and sent; with more earnest desires and purposes to do God's will from the heart, and thus to honor the beneficent religion you have received. Let it prompt you to make this religion more effectually, more entirely the governing principle of life.

F.

ON THE SUDDEN CONVERSION OF LARGE NUMBERS BY THE PREACHING AND MIRACLES OF THE APOSTLES.

During the lifetime of our Lord his followers do not appear to have formed themselves into a distinct society.

but were held together solely by his personal influeuce and attractions. After he had been taken away they felt the necessity of keeping up the association for purposes of mutual instruction, encouragement and sympathy. Accordingly we find, that immediately after the ascension the little company of the faithful, amounting at this time to but one hundred and twenty, were in the habit of holding frequent meetings for conference and prayer in a large upper room, which they had hired for the purpose. There, and in this way, the first Christian church may be said to have been gathered. A few days afterwards, namely, at the Feast of Pentecost, a large accession was made to this handful of believers, amounting in all, according to the sacred historian, to about three thousand souls.' Not long after, and probably during the festival just named, Peter and John wrought a signal miracle at the gate of the temple, in consequence of which many more converts were made, so as to swell their number to about five thousand.'

All this was done in the course of a few days after our Lord had passed into the heavens. I wish now to call your attention to the sudden conversion of large numbers thus effected by the preaching and miracles of the Apostles. From what were they converted? To what were they converted? And by what means?

1. Taking up these questions then, in the order in which they have been stated, let us inquire, in the first place, from what the five thousand were converted. We have good evidence that in Gallilee, where most of our Lord's public ministry was passed, the common

people heard him gladly. We find him surrounded on several occasions with immense crowds, attracted as it would seem by the fame as well of his discourses, as of his miracles. At Jerusalem, too, when he came up to the Passover, we know that he was hailed and welcomed by the multitude as a prophet and deliverer. It is not necessary to suppose, as some have done, that this multitude was composed of the same persons who afterwards made up the ferocious mob that acted so conspicuous a part in the tragedy of the crucifixion. Many of them, probably, were not natives of the city, but devout strangers from different parts of the country, who had come up, like Jesus himself, to be present at the Feast, of these not a few, perhaps, had come from Gallilee, where they bad already become in some degree acquainted with the character, doctrine and pretensions of the Reformer, to all which they were favorably disposed. It is a mistake to imagine that Jesus Christ owed his condemnation and death to the malice, or opposition, of the whole Jewish people. That awful catastrophe was brought about by the ignorance, bigotry and brutal passions of the mob of Jerusalem, set on by a corrupt priesthood, and yielded to by the weak and timeserving Pilate. The cry of 'Crucify him, crucify him,' was not the cry of the whole people, nor of a majority of the whole people. Not a few even among the higher classes were favorably impressed by what they had heard of Jesus, as may be inferred from the conduct of Nicodemus and Joseph of Arimathea; many in the middling and lower classes were inclined openly to espouse his cause; and vast numbers in every class wavered in their opinion respecting him.

In this state of the public mind our Saviour's trial and execution came, not only on his immediate disciples, but on his friends and partizans among the people, like a stunning blow, from which it was not to be expected that they would recover in a moment. The extraordinary appearances however, which attended the crucifixion, the report of the resurrection which soon followed, the effusion of the holy spirit on the Apostles at the Feast of Pentecost, their subsequent discourses and miracles, all conspired to revive in the minds of many, especially among the common people, the predilections, which they had formerly felt and expressed in favor of the rising sect. With these impressions they could hardly fail to talk with one another on the subject, to collect whatever information respecting it they could gather from any source, and above all to confer in private with those among the Apostles with whom they happened to be acquainted already, or to whom they could gain an introduction. They would also be likely to attend, as they had opportunity, the meetings of the believers in the upper room of which I have spoken above, and which we must suppose was open to all inquiring and seriously disposed Jews. Thus the minds of many were gradually prepared to take an open and decided stand in support of the new doctrine. We are not to believe, therefore, that thousands were converted by a single discourse, or a single miracle, from a state of opposition, or of ignorance, or even of indifference. In most of them, at least, the change had probably been going on for days, and weeks, and months. This conversion was not an instance of what is understood by the popular doctine of instan

taneous or sudden conversion, but of gradual conversion. They were almost Christians before; and this was the state of feeling and belief, from which they were converted.

2. Having thus ascertained from what the five thousand were converted, let us next inquire, according to the order proposed, to what they were converted. We are accustomed to speak and think of Judaism and Christianity, at the present day, as if they were distinct religions; almost as much so as Christianity and Mohammedanism, or Judaism and Hindooism. It is difficult for us, therefore, to conceive how slight and inconsiderable the transition was in the beginning, so far as externals were concerned, when an honest and devout Jew became a Christian. He looked upon the religion inculcated by the Apostles as being only Judaisın reformed and perfected, and considered himself, in embracing it, as confirming and obeying, rather than abandoning, Moses and the prophets. He still believed in the same God with the rest of his countrymen, kept the same sabbath, worshipped in the same temple or synagogue, conformed in all respects to the same established ritual, and appealed, moreover, to the same Scriptures, for as yet not a line of the New Testament had been written. He did not, therefore, regard himself as heing converted to another religion, but only to a more refined and spiritual form of that in which he had been educated. Such was the state of things in the beginning, in the times of which I am now speaking. Accordingly we find in the book of the Acts, that it was not until more than ten years after the crucifixion, that any but Jews were considered as