trust, they returned back from Jerusalem to Antioch, bringing with them John surnamed Mark, the son of Mary, sister to Barnabas; whose house was the sanctuary, where the church found both shelter for their persons, and convenience for the solemnities of their worship.

It is pleasant to ministers of the gospel to labour among the faithful, encircled with sincere friends. And it is not every real saint who has the fortitude and charity to quit so agreeable a scene for the sake of breaking up new ground. How much longer St. Barnabas and St. Paul would have remained at Antioch, had they been left to themselves, we know not. But the Holy Ghost now called them to other labours. They obeyed the call; and having received their designation to this particular service by a solemn imposition of hands, accompanied with fasting and prayer, they departed. Seleucia in the neighbourhood was the first place to which they came; and from thence they sailed to the pleasant and pleasurable island of Cyprus. Here, methinks, the evil spirits who supported the religious rites and the sensual practices of the worship of Venus, began to tremble for this capital scene of their dominions.

From Salamis, the eastern point of the island, to Paphos the western, they spread the glad tidings of the gospel. In this last place they found Elymas, a Jewish sorcerer, in company with Sergius Paulus, the Roman governor of the island, a man of sense and candour, who sent for Barnabas and Saul, and desired to hear the word of God. The sorcerer endeavoured to prevent the good effects of their labours; till Paul, full of holy indignation at his diabolical malice, was

enabled miraculously to strike him blind for a season. Sergius was "astonished," we are told, "at the doctrine of the Lord," and commenced a Christian from that hour.

The two Apostles sailed now to the adjoining continent, and arrived at Perga in Pamphylia. And here John Mark, who had thus far attended them as their minister, left them and returned to Jerusalem. It was probably more agreeable to him to profess and practise Christianity at home with his mother and friends, than to expose himself to heathens. Even then traces of the love of the world were to be seen among Christians.

Pisidia, lying to the north of Pamphylia, was the next scene. Here was another Antioch, and the Apostles on the sabbath-day attended the Jewish synagogue. After the usual reading of the law and the prophets, the rulers gave them a friendly invitation to exhort the people, which St. Paul embraced' with his usual zeal. His sermon is much in the same strain with those of St. Peter and St. Stephen, tending to beget in the hearers a conviction of sinfulness, and to give testimony to Jesus-concluding with a remarkably plain declaration of the grand doctrine of justification by faith in Jesus Christ only, and a solemn warning against the dreadful consequences which follow hardness of heart and a contempt of the Divine message. The Gentiles, powerfully impressed with the news, desired to hear more of the subject the next sabbath. Many Jews and proselytes were converted, and almost the whole city came together the next sabbath to hear the word of God. This sight roused the envy of the infidel Jews, who opposed Paul with all their might.

it was their duty to bring the news of salvation first to them; yet as they despised God's gift of eternal life, they would now turn to the Gentiles, agreeably to the glorious prophecy of Isaiah, in which the experimental influence of the gospel on Gentile hearts is plainly described. The Pagans, who were not so proud as the Jews, felt that they had no righteousness to plead before God, thankfully embraced the gospel, and believed, in great numbers.

Pisidia was now full of the Gospel; and the Apostles proceeded with vast success, till a persecution excited by the Jews induced some selfrighteous religious ladies, in conjunction with the magistrates, to drive them out of their coasts. From thence they came to Iconium, the northern extremity of the country; and the disciples whom they had left, though harrassed with persecution, were "filled with joy and the Holy Ghost." The internal consolation of their religion supported their souls. In Iconium the two Apostles conti-. nued a long time, and delivered the message of Divine reconciliation with great freedom and energy, to the conversion of a great multitude both of Jews and Gentiles. Here the unbelieving Jews exerted their usual malevolence, and filled the Gentiles with the strongest prejudices against the Christians. Their conduct, though by no means uncommon, affords a dreadful instance of human depravity. It cannot be denied that these Jews must in religious knowledge have far surpassed the idolatrous inhabitants of Iconium. They held the unity of the Godhead, they worshipped Jehovah in their synagogue, and they heard His precepts from sabbath to sabbath out of the law of Moses and the Prophets. They must

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have known that the Messiah was foretold in the latter, and must have been acquainted with their duty both to God and man in many respects by means of the former. Yet so unreasonable were they as to labour to prevent their Pagan neighbours from being instructed in any thing that deserved the name of religion, and to persecute with unceasing acrimony two of their own countrymen who agreed with them in the worship of the one living and true God-of so little influence is what some call the Unitarian" religion, if it be unconnected with the knowledge and love of Jesus Christ. Persons who make it the whole of their religion, can, it seems, rather see mankind remain buried in the depths of the most senseless idolatry in worship, and of vicious profligacy in life, than brought over to the real Christian religion, the hearty renunciation of their own righteousness, and a humble dependence on the atoning blood of Jesus! The preaching of Paul and Barnabas excited a variety of speculations in this city. The Gentiles were divided, and part ranged themselves with the Jews, and part with the Apostles. But the former had the advantage for the present, because they were furnished with the arms of violence and persecution, which Christian soldiers can never use.

The Apostles, aware of their designs, fled into Lycaonia, a country to the east of Pisidia, and there preached the gospel, particularly in Lystra and Derbe. In the former of these places a poor cripple, who had never enjoyed the use of his feet, heard St. Paul with the most respectful attention, and was so far wrought upon in his mind, as to believe that there was virtue in the name of

yet infant views of the Christian religion, to attest the truth, and to convince men that Jesus was both mighty and benevolent, St. Paul was enabled by a word to restore the man to the full use of his limbs. Immediately these poor idolaters concluded, that the Gods were come down to them in the likeness of men. Through the whole country of Asia Minor the Greek literature, and with it the numerous fables of Hellenistic vanity, abounded. They had heard of Jupiter and Mercury particularly as visiting mankind; and now Barnabas, as the elder perhaps and more majestic figure of the two, must be Jupiter, and Paul, as the more eloquent speaker, must be Mercury, the classical God of eloquence. The priest of Jupiter brought oxen and garlands to the gates, and would have done sacrifice with the people. It was a grievous circumstance; but one knows not how to regret it. For one of the finest opportunities was given to the Apostles to demonstrate the spirit of real Godliness. However pleasing it might be to corrupt nature to receive the idolatrous worship of a deluded people, nothing could be more abhorrent from the nature of the Gospel itself, and from the humble character of its teachers. They could not bear the sight; they rent their clothes, ran in among the people, and expostulated with them on the absurdity of their conduct. They assured them that they were no more than frail men like themselves, and that their intention in preaching to them was to turn them from these vanities to the living God, who formerly indeed had left all nations to follow their own way, but had now revealed a way of salvation from these idolatries; which however were by no means excuseable, since the constant benefits