ceived, and the vow of anathema by which they were bound to execute it. Accordingly they wished that a further and more particular examination of Paul's case should be appointed for the next day; and that immediate notice should be sent in due form to the Tribune, in order that Paul might be brought from the castle before the Sanhedrim. Then the conspirators would take care to be posted somewhere in the way by which the prisoner would be conducted; and amongst them all, they would contrive

to assassinate him.

It happened that a youth, who was nephew to Paul, the son of his sister, heard of the plot which these conspirators communicated to the chief priests, though we are not told by what means he was made acquainted with it; and he immediately went into the castle, and informed his uncle of the conspiracy. Paul wisely considered that it would be best to let the Tribune hear the story from the mouth of the youth himself. He then spoke to one of the captains on guard at the castle, and begged that he would conduct the young man to the Tribune, as he had an important communication to make. The centurion complied with Paul's request, and took his nephew before the Tribune, to whom he repeated what the prisoner had said to him. The Tribune led the youth apart, where he could speak privately, and enquired what it was that he had to say. Paul's nephew informed him that it was arranged by the Jews to make a request to have the prisoner conducted on the next day before the Sanhedrim, as if they wished that his case should undergo a further examination; but the youth entreated the Tribune not to comply with this request, for that there were upwards of forty men who had laid themselves under an anathema if they broke their fast until they had killed Paul; and these conspirators were on the watch to take the opportunity of his passing from the castle to the council-chamber, in order to effect their purpose.

Having obtained this information, the Tribune dismissed the young man, with a strict injunction not to let any one know that he had communicated the conspiracy to him. He then sent for two centurions, to whom he gave orders that an escort should be prepared to start for Cæsarea at

nine o'clock at night. The escort was to consist of two hundred infantry, seventy cavalry, and two hundred spearmen. Horses also were to be provided for Paul, who was thus to be conveyed to the Roman governor Felix.

By this escort, the Tribune (whose name was Claudius Lysias) sent an explanatory letter to the governor; in which, after the customary salutation, he stated that the prisoner was a person who had been set upon by the Jews; and that they were in the act of putting him to death, when the Tribune interfered with the military, and rescued him. Lysias added, that he did this because he understood Paul to be a Roman citizen. He went on to state that, in order to ascertain the occasion of the Jews' violent conduct towards this man, he brought him before the Sanhedrim ; and in the trial of his cause, he found that the accusations related entirely to points of the Jewish religion, but that there was no charge made against him which would have exposed him to capital punishment, or to imprisonment. Finding further that there was a conspiracy formed against him by the Jews, Lysias said that he lost no time in conveying Paul to Felix, before whom he had also directed those who accused him to appear, in order that the matter might be decided by the governor himself.

In obedience to their orders, the escort set forth with Paul; and marching all night, they got as far as Antipatris, a distance of about forty miles, by the next day. Here the infantry and the spearmen separated from the party, and returned to Jerusalem; while the cavalry proceeded with Paul to Cæsarea, which city was the seat of the Roman government. Upon arriving there, the officer commanding the party delivered Lysias's letter to the governor, and brought Paul into his presence. Felix read the letter, and inquired to what province of the Roman empire he belonged. Being informed that he came from Cilicia, he turned to Paul, and told him, that he would give attention to his case, as soon as those who preferred the charges against him should arrive from Jerusalem. In the mean time, he did not send him to the common prison, but desired him to be detained in the Prætorium, or Government House, which had been built by king Herod.

APPLICATION.

1. The encouragement given by our Lord to Paul under the trying circumstances in which he was placed, was a mark of the divine love to cheer him, when his spirit must have needed it. He had been warned that bonds and imprisonment awaited him at Jerusalem; and he now experienced the fulfilment of the prophetic announcement to this effect, which had been so frequently urged upon him (Acts xx. 23; xxi. 4, 10, 11); but he did not know what was to follow. It might be perhaps, that his course was to terminate now, and that the Lord did not purpose to employ him any longer in setting forth his glory in the world: if this thought came into his mind, it might have drawn forth a feeling of disappointment, at least in one case; for we have seen that before leaving Ephesus, he had planned a journey to Rome (Acts xix. 21); and in writing from Cenchrea to the christians there, he had expressed the strong desire that he had to see them, in order to "have some fruit amongst them also, even as among other Gentiles." (Rom. i. 11-13.) So great was his anxiety on this head, that he had made it a subject of unceasing prayer that it might be the will of God that he should go to Rome (Rom. i. 9, 10); and he had asked the christians there to join him, in making the same supplication with earnestness at the throne of grace. (Rom. xv. 30-32.) In this state of feeling, taken in connexion with the dangers which surrounded him, how gracious was the Lord Jesus in affording an extraordinary revelation, which at once convinced him that he should be carried safely through all the present dangers, and blessed with an answer to his earnest prayers; since the Lord himself assured him, that he must bear witness of Jesus at Rome. Comfort of a similar kind is sometimes vouchsafed to a suffering and tried child of God, by the ordinary operation of the Divine Spirit upon the heart. If a desire has been long and prayerfully bent upon some object for the glory of God, and which subsequent events prove to have been "according to the will of God," Jesus sometimes grants a strong assurance to the heart that the prayer will be granted a special gift of faith which cannot be communicated to another, and which may come upon the mind

when circumstances of danger and discouragement make it more peculiarly needed, to supply the cheerfulness and confidence required to support the difficulties. While the occasions are more rare in which this assurance is given with respect to particular objects of prayer, it is frequently afforded with reference to the grand final witness-bearing, in which every true servant of Christ will join, at his appearing and kingdom. Doubts of attaining this high blessedness are most distressing; and when the bonds of the old nature are felt to be pressing, the gift of assurance that we shall be of the number who will bear witness of Christ's glory at his coming, is a special mercy to cheer and strengthen the soul in supporting the fiery trial by which it is to be purified.

QUESTION.

Have I ever experienced the power of an assurance that the Lord will perfect that which concerneth me?

2. It was not long before Paul had special occasion for the assurance which the Lord had vouchsafed him; for the conspiracy against him was calculated, according to all appearance, to render it very unlikely that he would ever get safely out of Jerusalem. And yet the very circumstances, which were intended for his destruction, were made the means of producing the object he had in view, and which lay so near his heart. How easy it is for the Lord, to turn the counsel of his enemies into means of fulfilling his own will; and by what minute instrumentality does His providence work for that purpose. A youth related to the apostle was near at hand; it needed only to bring him within the hearing of that with which so many persons were acquainted, and the machinery was set in motion, by which what would otherwise have issued in the death of the apostle, is made to effect the Lord's purpose of carrying him to Rome. The providential arrangements that we do know in some particular cases, may justify us in expecting that the day of great disclosures will exhibit multitudes of instances similar to that here recorded; when the children of God will be able to comprehend the full meaning of the declaration, that the hairs of our head are all numbered.

QUESTION.

What view do I take of the direction of special providence, in the arrangement of the minute circumstances of christians' lives? What practical effect has that view upon my own feelings of confidence, or otherwise?

3. It was an awful vow, which was made by the forty conspirators; and it is more awful to think of the consequences of their dying with that anathema registered against them. Whether the solemn manner in which they laid the curse on themselves be an aggravation of its wickedness or not, what should be felt at the thought of such a curse being self-imposed in lightness and mockery? Yet this is the case with all those unhappy persons, who use oaths, in which they imprecate damnation on themselves if they do not act in this or that way, according to some blasphemous boast. Though no person, who has the commonest notion of what christianity is, can permit such language to pass his own lips, yet it is well to measure the degree of sanction we attach to worldly toleration, by observing closely the nature of our feelings, whenever we hear any such expression from another.

QUESTION.

In what degree do I find my feelings shocked by hearing the use of an oath? How far is my distress mitigated by supposing that the swearer speaks inconsiderately and lightly?

4. The letter of Claudius Lysias to his superior officer supplies us with a striking illustration of the use of worldly policy, in contradistinction from the christian tact, of which we remarked an instance in Paul in the last portion. Lysias had exposed himself to some danger, by binding a privileged Roman to the pillar for scourging-an indignity from which he was specially exempted by law. Finding the case to be one which must be carried before the governor for judgment, he sends the person under the protection of a very large escort, and writes word that he had rescued him from the Jews, "having understood that he was a Roman." This was acting upon the same principle of worldly wisdom, as that which had influenced