their deliverance. "What, here then?"-O be not terrified! His Kingdom is not of this world, and to his elect are not assigned the glories of the flesh-crowns, dignities, titles and such like. "What then, here?" you ask again. Well, and if it were really so? The apples of God's eye, where have they not been placed? In the deep waters have they lain, in ordeals of fire, in the dens of lions, and in the bowels of the earth, but even then the Lord was at their side, and afterwards they have never regretted having been there. And what matters it then in the end, where they dwelt or were placed, when at last their career is lost in the cloud of those witnesses of which the world was not worthy. O, how cheering it must then be to look down into their former abodes of lamentation; and how elevating when, after death, they will turn the first look of renovated life into their empty graves. Learn then with becoming feeling that they really are incarcerated within this door, they who first conveyed to our part of the globe the light, in the blessed radiance of which we now rejoice. Yes, here, we may say, they have buried alive the apostles of Europe, Paul and Silas. And could you but behold them seated there, their legs suspended over the bench and locked together at the bottom, so that they can neither stand nor lie.-"Dreadful!"-Yea, truly dreadful; but be silent!-Listen!They are awake-in discourse behind the door. I fancy I hear one or the other speaking, and if I mistake not, words of the Lord reach my ear. I know not if they are praying to the Lord, or if the one is consoling the other. But listen: "In the world ye shall have tribulation --- in me peace- - -be of good cheer --- overcome the "keep you from the world"---" the disciple "they have persecuted me, - not above his master". therefore"3 "fear not! - in heaven - - - great will be your reward"And now! Ah, what is that?-May we trust our ears? The midnight hour is just past, and behold we have singing behind these bolts and bars; two voices echoing with a clear sound throughout the whole building. And what is it? A hymn of lament? A dirge?—No, listen only, it is a psalm, a joyful hymn of praise, praise of the Lord. "Praised be thou, Lord Jesus! Hallelujah!"-"What, hallelujah in such a situation? With wound-stricken head and back, hallelujah ?-hallelujah, in the expectation of a highly probable approaching, dreadful death? How is it possible?" -Yes, truly do we stand moved, affected and full of wonder. No natural ground of explanation can suffice here. These two both live undoubtedly in a different world from other people; in a world where it can no longer be said, that imprisonment is imprisonment, bonds are bonds, death is death: but where all must have another name, and be viewed in another light. And assuredly, thus it is. They live in a world of new manifestations; they see every thing different from others, and they see things which others do not see. Dungeon? What dungeon? A little church it is to them; the Lord being with them in it.-Disgrace? What you call thus, is their crown. They hold it high honour to be disgraced for the sake of such a King. Bonds? Yes; but not as a weight are they borne by them, but rather as a relief. The bonds serve them for a strengthening proof that through the grace of God, they rely 1 John xvi. 33. 3 John xv. 20. 2 Luke vi. 40. on Jesus as the foundation of life. Whose prisoners are they? Not those of men, but of Him who counts the hairs upon their head, and who locks up, but as soon as he pleases, again unlocks. Death? They know the boatman who steers the children to their home; but of death, faith knows nought. O faith! living faith in the word and its centre, Christ! Whoever possesses that! Yes, whoever lives for that, knows and comprehends himself clearly and purely! Soon does such an one behold all new around him; and another, higher world rises forth above, and this world is to him lighter, wider and richer. You go through forest and field; but he passes through the garden of his Lord. You meet with budding flowers and singing birds; he with nature which clothes the former and feeds the latter. You look into the stars; but he into the brilliancy of the lights of his home. You experience destinies; he guidances. You read the history of the world; he in the same book reads the working of God in the world; he hears the sounds of his foot-steps, and the ringing of the little bell in his garment. You say: I enter my house; he thinks I am entering a tabernacle of God among the children of men. You,-I am alone; he,-I never am so. You say, that I earned; he,-therewith my God greeted me. What do you know? Men. His world is greater. Who accompanies you? Your shadow. He is accompanied by the most mighty guide. What do you feel in your need? Pain. He feels correcting love. What flows out unto you from fortune and favour? Pleasure. Unto him, plenteous kindness and grace. Where do you dwell? In the world. He lives elsewhere and far above. Where does your tabernacle stand? Under the open heaven. His under the wings of mercy. What is your life? A dream. His, a journey home in loving company. O life of faith, how sweet art thou, how rich in blessed perspectives, how over-vaulted by open canopies of hope! Those that reach thee through God's grace, how does the world expand, glorify and enrich itself for them! And that, too, inartificially. They do not confine themselves to these more elevated contemplations. They are not enthusiasts and fantastical. They remain at their occupations; they live on in the usual civil forms; but every thing presents itself to them in a different light of its own accord, since the new eye has existed, and every where they behold God, their King Jesus Christ and the protector of that wondrous world, which remains concealed behind the curtain of the temple visibilities. And yet it is said that they are a narrow-minded people, a people of confused and contracted views, and that their life is gloomy and miserable! O what a judgment ! Truly, if any life is poor and prospectless, and bare and narrow, as if bound in between walls of lime and planks, it is the life of those who have no other eyes wherewith to see, than those for which they received in their bodily birth: But the life of even the meanest among the faithful is rich, I might say,-is the highest and most true ideality and poetry. Light of the eternal spheres is poured out gloriously over it. Return we to our dungeon scene. The melody resounds throughout, and all around in the dark cells are awoke by it. The robbers, murderers, state criminals, all sit up in their chairs, listening, and say, the silence of midnight has never been thus interrupted within those dread walls. Singing ascending from out of the most wretched depths of the prison-house, and what singing; singing, such as has never been heard before. Prayer, praise of God, and ah, how rich in peace, how sincere, how fervent! These men in chains are astounded, wonder-struck, and who can tell if it be not more with many a one than the mere perchance, that here and there with the tones of the Spirit, grace penetrated through the prison, and through them awoke within the one and the other of these sinners forebodings and hopes, through which subsequently greater effects should follow? And O, how anxious am I to imagine, that many a one of those poor bound mortals, sitting there with hollow sunken eye, for the first time perhaps in their life, feel, although only in the most general sense, an impression of something more elevated and holy. Suddenly, however,-ah, what is that? The foundation of the building trembles and shakes, and throughout the whole house is heard a rattling, and clashing, as if all were tottering and about to fall together. And the bolts and the dungeon doors slide back, the doors themselves burst open, the chains on the hands and feet of the prisoners fly into shivers, like glass, and in a moment all stand free and disencumbered, and among them Paul and Silas, and these, O, how blessed!-For in the earthquake was visibly the Lord; and that is something for his children, when he thus comes forth, so that it may be said: Behold, here he comes! That is something, when he thus sings for himself, even in the storm, the hymn of praise, and throwing aside the veil, glorifies himself openly in acts of demonstration of omnipotence or love, and declares His relationship to them afresh. O what jubilees are those for them! How does the heart incline and bend itself before him in joy and delight, how does it meet him with rejoicings, and how |