SERMON XXVII.

ACTS xvi. 30.

What must I do to be saved?

SUCH was the question put by the trembling jailer to Paul and Silas, when amazed by the double miracle which was wrought before his eyes. The transaction is altogether a very remarkable one. The great apostle and his companion during their stay at the city of Philippi, had cast out from a young damsel an evil spirit of divination. This was not done in opposition to the will of the young woman, but as it appears at her own urgent and repeated request, for we read that "she followed Paul and us, and cried, saying, these men are the servants of the Most High God, which shew unto us the way of salvation. And this she did many days." The apostle feeling compassion for the darkness and error of a heart so struggling for the kingdom of God, relieved her from the illusion under which she laboured.

"Paul being grieved, turned and

said to the spirit, I command thee in the name of Jesus Christ, come out of her, and he came out the same hour." Her masters, however, enraged by the loss of the profitable trade which this demoniacal possession of their servant, had enabled them to pursue; dragged Paul and Silas before the magistrates, who having laid many stripes upon them, cast them into prison, with an especial charge to the jailer, to keep them safely. Upon this treatment we have first to observe, that it was to the highest degree oppressive and unjust. Philippi was a Roman colony, and was subject of course to all the laws and customs of ancient Rome. Now Paul and Silas themselves were Roman citizens, whose peculiar privilege it was, not to suffer scourging or imprisonment without a regular trial and condemnation. We find, indeed, that when it was subsequently reported to the magistrates that they were Romans, they feared, and came and besought the apostles to depart peaceably out of the city. Under such circumstances as these, can we wonder that the Providence of God, should be especially exerted for their deliverance. Accordingly "at midnight while Paul and Silas prayed and sang praises unto God, suddenly there was a great earthquake, so that the foundations of the prison were shaken, and immediately all the doors were opened, and every one's bands were loosed.

And the keeper of the prison awakening out of his sleep, and seeing the prison doors open, he drew out his sword and would have killed himself, supposing that the prisoners had been fled. But Paul cried with a loud voice, saying, Do thyself no harm, for we are all here." Here then was a double miracle. It was a natural miracle, that the foundations of the prison should be shaken, its doors opened, and the chains of the prisoners loosed; it was a moral miracle, that with such an opportunity of instant escape, they should all remain in the prison. This was, indeed, enough to strike the heart of the jailer, with a conviction at once sudden and irresistible. In such an event the arm of God was visible, at once, in its mercy, and its power, and by this double miracle did it declare the insulted apostles, to be its agents and its ministers. Before Paul and Silas, therefore, the trembling jailer "fell down, and brought them out, and said, Sirs, what must I do to be saved?" It could not be any temporal consequences that this man dreaded; for his prisoners were all safe under his care. It was not the anger of the magistrates which he feared, but it was the anger of God. He was not a Jew, we must remember, but a Heathen; of the Almighty, therefore, he had no distinct or certain notion; his mind was debased by superstition, or distracted by idolatry; and all that he could

see or know of God, was rather in terror than in love. The earthquake which he had just witnessed, had spoken in the language of just alarm to his soul. There is a something, indeed, even in the ordinary convulsions of the natural world, which seems to indicate the presence of an offended God. "The earth trembled and quaked, the very foundations also of the hills shook and were removed, because he was wroth." No man I believe was ever yet an Atheist in a thunderstorm; not from the sense of immediate danger, but from the fear of an immediate retribution; a fear which these awful scenes so uniformly generate. O! that the impressions which they create could but pass into a lasting principle of repentance, and of amendment in their souls! If then even in the most hardened minds, these wars of the elements create a moral and a just alarm; how much more must they have penetrated the very soul of the keeper of the prison before us, when attended, not by a momentary, but a continuing miracle. Confusion upon the one side, conscience upon the other, his knowledge of himself, his ignorance of God, all would unite in urging him to the eager and anxious enquiry, "What shall I do to be saved?" not from present danger, but from the wrath to come. The answer of the apostles is a very short one, but it contains all that either Heathen or Chris

tian can desire to know: "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house." To an Heathen in such a state of mind as was the jailer of Philippi, the Gospel would come a welcome guest. The terror of the Lord in the earthquake and in the miracle, had persuaded his heart to enquire, how, and in what manner, the anger of the Almighty could be appeased, and his just vengeance disarmed. How adapted now was the religion of Christ to dispel all his alarm, and to speak peace to his soul! His sense of utter helplessness before God, prepared him for the glad tidings of a Saviour, and his atoning blood. How literally, in such a case, was the promise of the prophet to the Gentile world fulfilled. "In righteousness shalt thou be established; thou shalt be far from oppression, for thou shalt not fear; and from terror, for it shall not come near thee." We find accordingly that Paul and Silas "spake unto him of the word of the Lord, and to all that were in his house," and that "he was baptized, he and all his straightway," and that he "rejoiced, believing in God with all his house."

Perhaps there are some among ourselves, who in the moment of just alarm, have put this question to their hearts: "What shall I do to be saved?" It may be, that some rapid affliction either of body or of mind, some sudden loss of