not in that case be said to believe or disbelieve it.

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Perhaps, in this simple illustration, we may find a key with which to open the mystery of faith in the gospel, and to comprehend how the Spirit of God employs a belief in Christ to turn men from sin to holiness; and how He could employ no other instrument so well adapted to the constitution of man. The gospel is never considered in Scripture to be only a set of opinions, a collection of facts which a man may carelessly hold and call himself a believer. Every fact and doctrine is designed to have a personal application, to produce a permanent effect on the practice, just as one of the narrations or facts in common life, the truth of which deeply concerns us. The gospel is an exhibition of the character and attributes of a just, holy, and merciful God in the face of Christ, and of the connexion which man holds with him in his two characters of a sinner condemned and a sinner saved.

"When, therefore, the apostle directed the jailor to believe in Christ, he meant not to recommend to him an abstract principle, but a hearty conviction of the truth of every doctrine

connected with his atonement; to inform him, how, the gospel being a remedy provided for the healing of the nations, faith is the application of that remedy to the soul. The comparison is familiar, that, as a medicine, however valuable, can produce no cure unless taken; so the gospel, however salutary, is ineffectual, unless thoroughly believed."

SECTION L.

ACTS xvi. 31.-" And they said, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shall be saved, and thy house."

HERE is partiality, it is said: Why should this man's house be saved more than that of others, merely because he himself believed?

But let me ask a practical question: Who ever finds fault with the partiality of this command and promise: "Train up a child in the way he should go: and, when he is old, he will not depart from it ?" (Prov. xxii. 6.) And yet why should the children of one parent be better instructed and turn out better than those of another, merely because the one parent is a better man? This question is a counterpart of the other. Yet, on the question being asked in the case of an execution, Why was that man

put to death? and on the answer being given, He attributed his punishment himself to his want of moral instruction in early life, and to bad example, we might pity such a case; but that would not restore the man, nor manifest things to be other than they are. Remarks of this kind are very extensive in their application; but we may observe generally that it ought not to surprise us to find that good accrues to men from good parents, good friends, good instructors, as evil is confessed to accrue to men from the opposites of these. If, therefore, we read in Genesis (xxxix. 5) of Joseph, that "from the time that Pharaoh had made him overseer in his house, and over all that he had, the Lord blessed the Egyptian's house for Joseph's sake;" this seems clearly analogous to the constitution of nature. And, if we read here the promise, that the faith of the jailor would bring with it that of his household, this also is perfectly consistent with the common course of Providence. We may suppose the Divine Being to make the following reply to the cavils of an objector to this system of things: "I do thee no wrong. Take that thine is, and go thy way. Is thine eye evil, because mine is good? Work out your own salvation; and,

This will be a fit opportunity of noticing an objection allied to that which we have been considering. It is said that the request of the apostle to his disciples that they should pray for him, (1 Thess. v. 25,) and his own custom of praying for others, (Col. i. 9,) are founded on partial principles; that it is a hard thing, that some should derive benefit from the prayer of others; while others, from not sharing, or from not so much sharing in the prayers of others, should derive little or no benefit from them. This objection will receive an answer from the preceding observations. But, indeed, there is no limit to the differences in the condition of men either in their temporal or in their spiritual capacities. Amidst all these apparent inequalities, however, and even in the outward condition of men, there is often much less difference than appears, the rule of justice will doubtless be preserved, and "the Lord of all the earth will do right:" greater opportunities will be found to have involved greater responsibilities; and "the child of

See Matt. xx. 13.