she had made, while she was with them." Thus had this woman's faith evidenced itself by good works; and the Spirit of piety and of prayer had gone hand in hand with that of industrious beneficence. Hail, Tabitha! thou hast the highest glory, and of the most solid kind, which is attainable on earth! But the reader sees how simple and low Christian exploits must appear in the eyes of worldly men. They are not like the swelling deeds of heroes and statesmen, which have hitherto, for the most part, monopolized the historic page. But the persons who are influenced by the Spirit of Christ, like Tabitha, will yet know with whom they would wish to be numbered. The female sex, almost excluded from civil history, will appear perhaps more conspicuous in ecclesiastical. Less immersed in secular concerns, and less haughty and independent in spirit, they seem, in all ages, to have had their full proportion, or more than the other sex, of the grace of the Gospel.

CHAP. III.

SAMARIA.

THIS Country lay in the midst, between Judea and Galilee, though distinguished from them both in its polity and religion. The inhabitants possessed a large part of the district which had belonged to the ten tribes, whom the kings of Assyria had carried into captivity. These conquerors had filled their vacant place with various colonists, who mixed the worship of Jehovah with their idols, vainly boasted of their relation to Jacob,† professed to regard the law of Moses, and despised or at least depreciated the rest of the Old Testament. Our Saviour clearly decides the contest, which for ages had been carried on between them and the Jews, in favour of the latter. But though the Samaritan was an idolator in his very foundation, yet in moral practice he appears not worse than the Jew. Both, indeed, were at this time extremely corrupt, and gloried in cherishing an enmity, which forbad them the exercise of common humanity to one another. * 2 Kings xvii. 24.

+ John iv. 12.

John iv. 22.

The Divine Saviour pitied this people. He visited them himself, and some sinners were thereby converted. He made a second attempt;t but the bigotry of the village to which he approached, prevented them from receiving him there, a circumstance which excited the fiery zeal of the two sons of Zebedee, and gave occasion to our Lord to say, "The son of man is not come to destroy men's lives, but to save them." He meekly bore the repulse, and went to another village. But the effusions of his kindness toward this unhappy people were now to appear in abundance.

Among the seven deacons, the next person to Stephen, in zeal and activity, was Philip. Driven from Jerusalem by the persecution, he was directed to go to the city of Samaria, perhaps to the same city called Sychar, where our Lord had conversed with the woman over Jacob's well. There he preached Christ, and the gospel entered the hearts of many, so that "there was great joy in that city."‡ The inhabitants appear to have been a very ignorant simple people; but now that the Spirit of God was poured upon them, none received the Gospel with more cordial satisfaction. One effect immediately appeared, which indeed never fails to attend the hearty reception of the Gospel. Superstition and diabolical delusions vanished. A person, named Simon, had deceived this people with sorceries; I dare not say with pretended sorceries. We shall see sufficient proof, before we have done with the apostolical history, that sorcery was a real thing. For a long time they had been infatuated; but Philip's doctrine expelled their regard for these things, and numbers of both sexes were baptized. Simon himself, though a stranger to the nature and power of Christ's religion, was yet convinced, that Christianity in general was true; and this seems the just idea of a mere historical believer.

The Apostles hearing of the happy reception of the Gospel at Samaria, sent down Peter and John, who prayed on the behalf of the people, that the Holy Ghost might be imparted through the imposition of hands. The Spirit was communicated, not only in extraordinary gifts, but also in an effusion of the same holy graces, which had

* John iv.

+ Luke ix. 52.

Acts viii. 8.

appeared in Judea. The former were those which only attracted the attention of Simon. His avaricious heart immediately conceiving the prospect of vast wealth to be acquired were he only once possessed of this supernatural power, he offered the Apostles a sum of money for the communication of the secret. Peter, who saw distinctly both his covetousness and his ignorance, rebuked him in the severest manner, assured him that his heart was wrong altogether, and his state accursed, notwithstanding his baptism and profession of Christianity. At the same time he exhorted him to repent, and to seek the divine forgiveness. Here we see how singularly remote the religion of Jesus is from all worldly plans and schemes, and what an awful difference there ever is between a real and a nominal Christian. The conscience of Simon felt the reproof: he begged the Apostle's prayers; but it does not appear that he prayed for himself. Peter and John preached through many Samaritan villages, and then returned to Jerusalem.

The Samaritans, a sort of half Jews, for they were all circumcised, being favoured with the same spiritual blessings as the rest, the minds of Christians were prepared to expect a similar extension of heavenly grace to uncircumcised idolaters. And among the wonders of divine love which we have reviewed, these are pleasing circumstances, that Jews and Samaritans, who, for ages, had disagreed in rites, should now be united in Jesus; and while each felt the same obligations to grace, should have learned mutual charity for the first time.

CHAP. IV.

ETHIOPIA.*

Ir is instructive to observe, by what gentle degrees the goodness of God was preparing the way for the general diffusion of his grace in the world. The first Christians,

*The Ethiopia to which this chapter is confined, seems to be that part of the country, whose metropolis is called Meroe, situated in a large island encompassed by the Nile and the rivers of Astapus and Astoborra: For in these parts (as the elder Pliny informs us) Queens had a long time governed, under the title of Candace.-See Cave's Life of Philip.

even the Apostles themselves, were by no means disposed to think with any particular compassion of Gentiles, and would scarcely have thought of spreading the Gospel beyond the bounds of their own nation, had not the persecution driven many out of Jerusalem. The teachers themselves needed to be taught of God in this part of their office. So helpless is man in divine things, even after he has been favoured with some spiritual light, that only by fresh communications, can he be induced to make any additional improvement. After Philip had finished his work at Samaria, he was by an extraordinary commission, ordered to travel southward toward the desert. He soon discovered the reason he fell in with an Ethiopian eunuch, a minister of Candace, Queen of the Ethiopians, who had been worshipping at Jerusalem, and was returning home in his chariot. Men, who feel the worth of their souls, will not be unemployed when alone. Their concern for their best interests will operate most powerfully, when they are most disengaged from business. The man was reading the prophet Esaias, and the adorable providence of God had directed him at that particular time to the fifty-third chapter, which gives so clear a description of Christ crucified. Philip asked him, if he understood what he was reading. The man confessing his ignorance, desired Philip to come and sit with him. The evangelist took the opportunity of expounding to him the Gospel, from the passage he was then reading, which at once lays open the guilty and the miserable condition of mankind, their recovery only by the grace of Jesus Christ, the nature, end, and efficacy of his death and resurrection, and the doctrine of justification before God by the knowledge of the same Jesus and by HIS merits. The Ethiopian's mind had been prepared for the doctrine he had been at the pains to attend Jewish instructions, the best then to be had in the world, except the Christian, which he now heard for the first time; nor had the scandalous wickedness of the Jewish nation hindered him from attending that worship, which he believed to be of divine origin. The ignorance of his own country suited not even the weakest and most glimmering light of a serious mind. His case is an encouragement

for men, however ignorant and mistaken at present, to seek earnestly to God, for HE will take care that they shall FIND. The man felt himself guilty and wicked, and the views of the prophetical chapter before us, laid open by the preacher, discovered to him the remedy, which it pleased God so powerfully to apply to his heart, that as soon as they came to a certain water, he desired to be baptized. Philip assured him that there was no impediment, if he was sincere in the faith of Christ. On which he professed his belief that the Jesus of Nazareth, whom Philip had preached to him, was indeed the Son of God prophesied of by Isaiah, and that he answered the character of Saviour there given to him. Philip then baptized the Ethiopian, who, though his instructor was, by the Spirit of the Lord, immediately taken from him, went on his way into his own country rejoicing.* Doubtless this joy had a solid and powerful cause: and if this case be compared with that of the three thousand first converts, and both of them with the doctrine of the fifty-third chapter of Isaiah, conversion will appear to be a spiritual, internal work, humbling men for sin, and comforting them with forgiveness by Christ. The nominal profession, with which great numbers of persons content themselves, may seem to fit them for little else, than to disgrace Christianity by their practice.

It is impossible that the Ethiopian, thus powerfully enlightened and rejoicing in God, could be silent when he returned home. His influence and character would at least secure to him a respectful attention from some of his countrymen; and thus, the Gospel, most probably, was first planted in Ethiopia. But we have no more scripturelight on the subject.

CHAP. V.

CÆSAREA.

THE great mixture of Jews and Gentiles, in some of the extreme parts of the Holy Land or its neighbourhood, afforded a providential opportunity for the gradual illu

*Acts viii. 26-39.