object: all that they knew was that the majority were shouting, “Great is Diana;" they were determined not to be in the minority, and they therefore shouted with the rest, "Great is Diana of the Ephesians." Well, the town-clerk, who appears to have been a very sensible and judicious man, with a good deal of self-possession and temper,—a character not at all useless or valueless at any time,-" appeased the people, and said, Ye men of Ephesus, what man is there that knoweth not how that the city of the Ephesians is a worshipper of the great goddess Diana, and of the image which," according to tradition, "fell down from Jupiter?" This is all very well; then why should you shout it when you are all so certain of it? And, therefore, I should advise you to go away, and to do nothing rashly. For ye have brought hither these men, who are neither robbers of churches, nor yet blasphemers of your goddess. They did not speak of your goddess; they came to speak of a religion which in its effects would dislodge your goddess; but they did not say anything against her. And therefore, if you have anything against Paul and against Apollos, you had better discuss it in what is here called a "lawful assembly," or what might be properly rendered,

an ordinary assembly," or, as we should say, a court of justice. Appeal to a Bow-street magistrate; bring the matter before the bench; and let him determine whether these men are guilty, as some say they are, or not. But, at all events, 66 we are in danger "—the townclerk and the other rulers-"to be called in question for this day's uproar, there being no cause whereby we may give an account of this concourse. And when he had thus spoken, he dismissed the assembly." That

word assembly is the translation of the Greek word EKKAŋoría; literally, "he dismissed the church." Now, this is evidence that the word church means in the New Testament a number of people met together; and when that number of people is met together in the name of Christ, the crowd in a playhouse becomes the church that is in a cathedral; for the mob is consecrated into a church by meeting in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.

CHAPTER XIX. 8, 9.

ITS

CONTROVERSY-FIRST ADDRESS TO THE JEWS-IN A SYNAGOGUEBOLDNESS MATTER OF PAUL'S ADDRESS-THE KINGDOM NATURE -PROGRESS-ITS SUBJECTS -ITS WEAPONS - GOSPEL A SAVOUR OF LIFE AND DEATH-THE SCHOOL OF TYRANNUS.

I SELECT the following interesting and suggestive passage from this chapter as worthy of particular study:"And he went into the synagogue, and spake boldly for the space of three months, disputing and persuading the things concerning the kingdom of God, But when divers were hardened, and believed not, but spake evil of that way before the multitude, he departed from them, and separated the disciples, disputing daily in the school of one Tyrannus." (Acts xix. 8, 9.)

To begin, therefore, where the verse itself begins, let us notice the class to whom Paul first and primarily preached the Gospel of Christ. He entered into the synagogue, and spoke first of all to the Jews. It must often have struck you, in reading the Gospel and the Acts of the Apostles, that the first address made by the ambassadors of Christ in every instance was not to the Gentiles, but to the Jews. Our Lord's own words were, "Preach the Gospel among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem." The apostle's announcement in his Epistle to the Romans is, "To the Jew first, and also to the Gentile." I do not know that we Christians always

observe the order; but perhaps if we observed it more rigidly, we should not obtain a less abundant blessing on the means of instruction that we employ. It seems to be the economy of God, and the great law of that economy, that where there is a Jew and a Gentile both, we should speak primarily to the Jew; and when he rejects the truth, and puts it away from him, then to shake the dust from our feet, and make, like the apostles of old, our appeal to the Gentiles. Often was Paul repelled, often was he reproached, often was he maltreated; but he clung to his mission with a desperate tenacity, and seems to have resolved that no Jew within his reach should die without hearing, for his condemnation or for his everlasting well-being, the name, the claims, the glory, and the blessings of the Gospel of Jesus. Let me notice the place in which the apostle preached. The place he selected for his first sermon at Ephesus was a synagogue; he went into the synagogue, and there preached the Gospel of Christ. If he had been permitted to enter the playhouse, its stage would have been his pulpit; but as he was not permitted to address the mob there, and was made welcome to speak to the crowded assembly in the synagogue, he felt-what I conceive is true theology-it is the work that consecrates the place; and a theatre, the scene of the conversion of souls to Christ, is a nobler and a grander spectacle than a cathedral where all life dies, and death lives, and a dead man preaches, and a dead audience hear the truths that should electrify and stir the hearts of all mankind. The man that preaches, the audience that hears, the great Master in the midst of them that is a true church; and whether on the hill-side, whether in the school of Tyrannus, or in the

synagogue of the Jews, or in the boat, on the river, on the ocean, there God blesses the faithful ministry of his servant, and brings souls to Christ Jesus. Let me notice the manner of the apostle's address. It is stated here that "he spake boldly the things concerning the kingdom." "He went into the synagogue, and spake boldly for the space of three months the things concerning the kingdom." Paul asked, -in his Epistle to the Ephesians, that they would pray for him that he might open his mouth boldly; in the Epistle to the Hebrews he says, "Let us come boldly to the throne of grace to obtain mercy." Here he carries into practice what he had asked so fervently in prayer, and speaks boldly the things concerning the kingdom. If the subject of your speech be eternal truth, then hesitancy in the utterance of that truth damages your claims, and chills the hearts of them that listen to it. When the subject is doubtful, you may doubtfully speak; but where the truth is clear, palpable, and indubitable, there you may speak with all boldness the words of the everlasting Gospel. What is vitally true needs no apology; what is false is not made better by an apology. Your duty, our duty, the duty of us all, is to speak truth as ambassadors of Christ, pained if any are pained, pleased if any are profited; but if neither the one result nor the other follow, still speaking boldly the truth as it is in Christ Jesus.

Let us notice the nature of his address. We have seen his audience, the Jews; we have seen the place, the rostrum or the Bema of the synagogue; we have seen the mode of his address, its boldness: let me notice now the specific nature of his address-namely,