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rises upon our eye of faith, give Him in this particular all we can? Let us do our best, let us seek from Him the gift of a true affection, let us consecrate our heart as wholly as may be unto Him, let us devote it to One who so richly deserves our devotion. O royal Saviour! light of our souls, teaching us the good and the true way, leading us by Thy loving correction, so mixed with mercies, into the path of happiness, teach us to worship Thee with all our best affection, make us to look after Thee, give us first what Thou wouldst have us return unto Thee, a heart sincerely bent on pleasing Thee!

Again, instead of frankincense, that offering to our God, we may give Him prayer. Ascending up like the smoke from the censer, sweet and pleasant before God, our devotions may be set forth in His sight. If He have shewn Himself to us in the services of this house, if He have taught us in any way that He is indeed the Lord our God, surely we shall not refuse Him this gift. He has told us that He will accept our prayers if offered in His name, and be pleased with them; so good for ourselves, so pleasant as they may become to us, we should not neglect them even for our own sakes; but when He will take them as an offering to Himself how doubly ready should we be at all times that it is allowed

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us, to bring them before Him! O divine Saviour, always more ready to hear than we to pray, pour out upon us the spirit of prayer? Grant us once more that which Thou dost require at our hands. Thou hast told us to ask, teach us to ask aright.

Lastly, instead of myrrh, that bitter but precious gift suited to human nature, we may give Him contrition, true sorrow for our sins. Almighty God has all this world's treasures in His hands. He possesses all honour and power, and riches and glory. He owns all things both in heaven and earth. What then can we add to His store ? What can we poor mortals, we unhappy sinners, give Him, that He does not already possess? There is one thing He has not of His own, one thing of value in His sight, which yet the treasure of heaven is without, and that is "a penitent's tear." Let us seek to give Him this, let us if in aught we have offended Him give Him the gift of contrition. He will not refuse it, we may believe that He will put our tears into His bottle, will write our repentance in His book, for He Himself has told us to say, "The sacrifices of God are a troubled spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, Thou wilt not despise."

JOHN HENRY PARKER, OXFORD AND LONDON.

Sermons for the Christian Seasons.

CONVERSION OF ST. PAUL.

SINCERITY IN ERROR.

Acrs ix. 4. And he fell to the earth, and heard a voice saying unto him, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou Me?

THIS day we keep in memory of the Conversion of St. Paul; and it is a day greatly to be observed by Christians, and especially by such as ourselves, whose fathers were heathens, until God was pleased to make known unto them His Son. For St. Paul was, as we know, in an especial sense, the Apostle of the heathen; and it was by his means chiefly, among the Apostles, that the heathen were at the first converted to the faith of Christ. Nay, and it may be, as some learned men have thought, that we of this very island first received the faith of Christ through the preaching of St. Paul. Well, therefore, may we keep this day in devout and grateful memory of the mercy vouchsafed unto St. Paul, and herein unto us also, and unto the whole Gentile Church.

Now there are in the Acts of the Apostles three accounts of the conversion of St. Paul; this in chap. ix., from which the text is taken, and which has been read as the Epistle; that in chap. xxii., which has been read as the Second Morning Lesson; and that in chap. xxvi. which is read as the Second Evening Lesson: and the three accounts should be read together, and carefully compared, in order that we may enter into every part and detail, and may learn every lesson which God would have us to learn from the circumstances of the conversion of St. Paul.

But, first, I will put together, in few words, what we know of the life and character of St. Paul, before his conversion. Thus he speaks of himself in the third chapter to the Philippians, "circumcised the eighth day, of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, an Hebrew of the Hebrews; as touching the law, a Pharisee; concerning zeal, persecuting the Church; touching the righteousness which is in the law, blameless." St. Paul was by birth a Jew, and of the tribe of Benjamin, born in Tarsus, a city of Cilicia, and so by birth a citizen of Rome. His name before his conversion was Saul; and we may suppose either that Saul was his Hebrew name, and Paul his Roman name; or that he took the name of

Paul on his conversion; or (when he is first called by that name, Acts xiii. 9) after the conversion of Sergius Paulus. But, although his birth-place was Tarsus, he was brought up at Jerusalem, as he himself says, chap. xxii., “I am verily a man that am a Jew, born in Tarsus, a city in Cilicia, yet brought up in this city at the feet of Gamaliel, and taught according to the perfect manner of the law of the fathers, and was zealous toward God, as ye all are this day.” And again, chap. xxvi., "My manner of life from my youth, which was at the first among mine own nation at Jerusalem, know all the Jews; which knew me from the beginning, if they would testify, that after the most straitest sect of our religion I lived a Pharisee." Such was St. Paul before his conversion; having "a zeal of God, but not according to knowledge;" strict and earnest and conscientious in doing that which he had been taught to think it his duty to do, and in striving for that which he had been taught to think the true faith and service of God; yet blinded, by early education and strong prejudices, against the Gospel, and so "persecuting the Church: nay, when "the blood of the martyr Stephen was shed," he "was standing by, and consenting unto his death, and kept the raiment

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