taste of domestic affliction it was, that private bitter which first acquainted the Centurion with all the sweetness of CHRIST... . He came, he confessed, to him, marvelled at him, and at once granted him all the desire of his soul.

he asked: CHRIST had come

The man's history cannot have ended where the Gospel narrative ends, viz. with the healing of his Servant "in the self-same hour." There indeed the veil of silence descends upon the pious Soldier, and he disappears from sight. But who shall doubt the long line of glorious light which must have streamed continuously from that day forward! The Centurion believed before: but now he has that to tell of from perfect knowledge, which before was but faith and hearsay. "I have heard of Thee with the hearing of the ear; but now, mine eye seeth Thee !"

Where the Gospel ceases, we must be content to leave off. But from the point we have reached, I invite you to look back. The profession of a Soldier;-distant service in a despised province and among a hated people ;-an ungodly city in the benighted region of Galilee for head quarters :-all these things were against the man whose story is recorded in this day's

But

Gospel. How did all these things work together in his case for good! How naturally, as it seemed, did all come about, and how admirably were the means suited to the end, which GOD purposed, namely, the Centurion's blessedness! These were, in fact, his opportunities. They seemed his hindrances; but they were meant to be, and he found them,-because he made them, every one his helps. for his profession, (a Soldier,)—he would never have visited Judæa at all, much less become a resident in it but for his being permanently stationed in a city, he would never have built a Synagogue: but for his being quartered at Capernaum, he could never have been blessed with the frequent hearing and seeing of CHRIST: but for his affliction, he would never have had the courage to repair to CHRIST in person but for his need, he could never have won for himself so splendid a place in the LAMB'S Book of Life!

:

I have ventured to call this a lesson in the Use of Opportunities. I do so, because I suspect that this is a light in which the incident before us is least often considered; and especially, because it seems to be a point of view in which we may most profitably regard it. To common

eyes, this Soldier was a forlorn exile from his fatherland :—supremely unlucky in the station assigned him :-badly off in respect of neighbours a man to be pitied for his domestic affliction. See what a network of gracious purpose was, on the contrary, enclosing him all

:

around!

And doubt not that so it ever is. Our lot in life, our station,-our fortune,-the work assigned us; all, to say the least, are sufficient for our highest good;-overflow with opportunities;-afford us the means of winning for ourselves an imperishable crown. And Scripture is especially precious as being a Divine withdrawal of the veil, an authorized exhibition of the machinery which is at work behind. "All these things happened unto them for examples: -and they are written for our learning,—that we, through patience and comfort of the Scripture, might have hope."

The Conversion of S. Paul.

S. PAUL'S BUSY LIFE, A PATTERN AND REPROOF.

2 COR. xi. 23.

In labours more abundant.

THE event which we commemorate on this day's Festival is altogether unique and extraordinary, a man's Conversion: not his birth, -not his death,-not his martyrdom; but the change which was wrought on his soul, at a certain definite moment in his life.

I propose, however, to invite your attention to quite a different part of S. Paul's history. I allude to the vastness of his individual labours. This will supply us with matter of profitable thought for a few minutes.

Now you will have already called to mind the famous passage,-(from which indeed the text is taken,) in which the great Apostle takes a brief retrospect of his own sufferings in the service of CHRIST. "In labours" (he declares) I

am, than others, "more abundant; in stripes above measure; in prisons more frequent; in deaths oft. Of the Jews five times received I forty stripes save one. Thrice was I beaten

with rods, once was I stoned, thrice I suffered shipwreck, a night and a day I have been in the deep; in journeyings often, in perils of waters, in perils of robbers, in perils by mine. own countrymen, in perils by the heathen, in perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness, in perils in the sea, in perils among false brethren; in weariness and painfulness, in watchings often, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, in cold and nakedness. Besides those things that are without, that which cometh upon me daily, the care of all the Churches." And if you will bend your mind upon the catalogue of hardships thus enumerated, their grievousness and severity will very forcibly strike you. Take one single kind of bodily smart :-" in stripes, above measure beaten with rods, (a Roman punishment,) thrice scourged, (a Jewish penalty,) five times." And then, how much is comprised in that single short statement, that he was daily burdened with "the care of all the Churches!" Consider again what is implied by being "in prison frequently:" the long weary, days, the wakeful nights,-the