portraiture of the Gentiles, as it presented itself to the mind of the inspired Apostle. Yet we find that they were not swept off the face of the earth as with a besom of destruction. The same Apostle says,—"And the times of this ignorance God winked at"[1] i. e. He bore with them in mercy, in order to give them a clear and explicit call to repentance. But we need not confine your attention to facts of ancient date, since we have a sufficient illustration of the truth under consideration, in our own day and time. See, how the Lord's day is profaned; the day consecrated to holiness and God is devoted by multitudes, young and old, to idleness, frivolity and sinful pleasures. How many acts of inhumanity, cruelty, oppression, high-handed robbery, murder, treachery, and lewdness, are every day practised amidst the blaze of moral and religious light. These things are of so frequent occurrence, that they almost cease to
- ↑ Acts xvii., 30.
