Doubt

from the first sentence of his masterful discourse. less he gave the proofs of Christ's resurrection, not forgetting the prophecies relating thereto; and declared this. resurrection, which was an established fact, to be God's sanction of the words and works of Christ.

The name of Jesus seems not to have been mentioned, but the attention of all is centered on him, and every listener must have recalled what Paul had said concerning him.

With this the apostle closes, having grasped and given to this Athenian audience the great facts of our holy religion. These philosophers seem to have listened with respectful attention, but to have had no serious thoughts, for the future history of that time makes no mention of any Christian church being founded there as an immediate or remote result of Paul's words. The proud philosophy of Athens proved uncongenial soil for the humbling truths of the gospel of the grace of God.

Let every man take heed how he hears. Salvation comes nigh to many who fail to embrace it. The day of grace is of momentous concern to every soul.

Justin E. Twitchell.

PAUL AT CORINTH.

ACTS 18: I-II.

"After these things Paul departed from Athens, and came to Corinth."

IT has been said that Corinth was the Vanity Fair of the Roman empire; at once the London and the Paris of the first century after Christ. If you would appreciate Paul's position in that vast metropolis, imagine yourself an absolute stranger in New York City or London, standing at the corner of one of the great thoroughfares through which the endless stream of humanity is whirling and roaring. The crowded vehicles roll by filled with men and women, who care no more about you than they do for some possible inhabitant of the planet Jupiter.

The sidewalk is filled with a hurrying, self-absorbed multitude, in whose eyes you catch no glimpse of recognition, and whose hearts give not a beat of sympathy for you in your loneliness. You are a poor man, without money, without friends, and with no letter of recommendation to any person or firm in the great city. What would it mean for you to make a place and a reputation for yourself under such circumstances? Think how many forces within and without you would have to be involved in order to lift your single obscure personality into a commanding position, from which you could attract public attention and determine public opinion and action! The very thought of the task is calculated to discourage and even appall the average mind. And yet, Paul not only faced this thought, but he actualized it. The question arises: How did he do it?

In trying to answer this question, we shall find ourselves touching some of the secret springs of the power of a Christian personality in a great metropolis.

The study of soul-power is intensely interesting. The history of the gradual development of a personal character as it emerges from obscurity to eminence, from dependence to dominion, is full of inspiration to everybody who has in him a spark of that spirit which hints of our angelic origin and destiny.

Not every man illustrates this, evolution of soul-power. Too often the process is in the other direction. More frequently the development stops where a good many peach crops do, under the late spring frosts, and ends only in leaves. Now and then a man or a woman becomes a power in the community, asserts an individual influence, makes an impression upon, and sometimes revolutionizes, society. While it is true that all men and women have not the natural endowments for making these great impressions upon their age and generation, it is also true that most men and women, by a right adjustment and discipline of the powers which God has given them, might do much more than they are doing to change and better the world.

Let us look for a few moments at the picture which our sacred artist has given us of Paul in Corinth.

The first thing which the apostle did was to find employment. Every man who is without work, and is honestly willing to earn his bread by the sweat of his brow, can appreciate Paul's feelings as he came, a stranger in a strange place, and knew not where to-morrow's dinner was coming from. Fortunately he had a trade and was not afraid of work. He knew how to make tents. His early education in this line served him a good turn in this emergency. The first thing which a man must do if he would gain for himself an influence in any community is

to show his ability to take care of himself in a material way. Labor is one of the foundation stones of soulpower. A trade or a profession is the vantage ground within which the character is to grow, and from which it is to make itself felt upon the world at large. The man who will not work cannot rule. Jesus of Nazareth was a carpenter. His workshop was his graduating platform. It was there that he gathered and assimilated into his life. those elements which gave him such a power over the common people. One of the first questions for a man to settle is, "What shall my lifework be? What employment shall I follow, in order that I may do my share in adding to the productive forces of the world?” There is no place in society for the idle or the lazy man. The parasite is the abomination of nature. Among men, as among animals, parasitism leads to degeneration and uselessness. Wealth which stops work kills character. Paul, by showing that he was able to take care of himself in a city, the chief motto of which was "Look out for number one," got his first strong hold upon the respect of every self-respecting Corinthian whom he met.

In the next place, I notice that Paul preached while he worked. "He reasoned in the synagogue every sabbath, and persuaded the Jews and the Greeks." He did what a good many Sunday-school teachers and lay workers are doing to-day. He did what every man and woman must do if they hope to make any permanent impression upon the community in which they live. He mingled his religious and secular life in such a way that the two played into each, or rather the one grew out of the other as the blossom grows out of the stem.

Paul's religious and moral influence was the fragrant flower which everywhere appeared upon the stock of his secular, workaday life. He was tentmaker and moral teacher. Ay, more than that a gospel preacher !

The man who has within him possibilities of eternity, and the powers which belong to heaven, must of necessity be a preacher and a reformer wherever he lives and moves. If he has Christ in his soul as the motive power of his life, he must express Christ under the conditions of that life, not merely on Sunday and on prayer-meeting day, but all through the week. Thus only will he save his trade or profession from the charge of being merely a makeshift whereby to earn his bread and butter, and make of it a constant fulcrum over which he is working a spiritual lever, and by which he is every day lifting his friends morally and spiritually. Such a man's store is his synagogue. His business as a merchant is a means of presenting Jesus Christ to clerk and customer. Like Paul he is not only diligent in business, but he is at the same time fervent in spirit and is always serving the Lord. The most effective preaching of this day, I venture to say, is that which is done by the average layman, by the man who is following some honorable business, and at the same time by word and act ministering to the needs of the world in the name of Jesus Christ.

But I notice again that "when Silas and Timotheus were come from Macedonia, Paul was pressed in the spirit." That is, he was wholly seized and arrested by the truth of his religion, so that he applied himself to it with the utmost earnestness. I find here a very important suggestion in the line of developing personal influence in the community.

The presence of Paul's two friends greatly added to his efficiency. A man works a good deal better with congenial spirits than he does alone. It is astonishing how the presence of even one sympathetic friend often more than doubles a man's courage and influence, when he is fighting against great odds. Every reformer knows what I mean when I speak of that loneliness which is necessarily