---

I. THE AWAKENING OF THE JAILER. The first circumstance that appears powerfully to have affected his mind was, great temporal calamity threatening his immediate ruin and death, Great and sudden and heavy afflictions are often sent by the providence of God that He may bring men to recollection and prayer. There were many things here, all concurring, which powerfully affected the jailer's mind. But these were only outward circumstances; and it was only by the special grace of God that they were made serviceable to his soul. Many people suffer huge afflictions, but never think of God in them; and so their afflictions come to no blessed issue. It was not, indeed, till after the jailer had come to himself that he thinks about his soul, and sees the hand of God in the surrounding circumstances. In the day of God's conviction men are thankful for help from those whom they had reviled: and in the great day of all, when the door of repentance shall be forever closed, the persecutors of the true Church of Jesus shall fall down before them, and be as ashes under the soles of their feet.

II. THE CONSEQUENCES OF HIS AWAKENING, in his earnest inquiry. Let me point out to you what it is to be saved.

1. To be delivered from all our sins.

2. To be delivered from all the penalty of all these evil acts.

3. To be placed in a capacity to overcome them.

4. To be saved from the practice of sin, as well as from the condemnation of it.

5. To be delivered from the devil.

6. To be delivered from the world.

7. To be saved from the curse of the Almighty.

8. To be delivered from hell.But to be saved is far more than this: it is to be brought from sin to holiness, from the curse to the blessing, from death to life, from unquietness to peace, from Satan to God.

III. THE ANSWER GIVEN TO THIS INQUIRING, AWAKENING MAN. They call away his attention at once from himself to Christ, to the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world. He entered into a new life from that very hour. And now, observe, the jailer has found Jesus; and his terror is turned into joy. As the blessed fruits of his believing, his heart is filled with joy and love to the brethren; and he attended, with swift obedience, to the Lord's laws, and entered, by baptism, upon his Christian course. Conclusion: In the narrative observe —

1. A remarkable instance of free and rich mercy to a desperate sinner reduced to the last extremity.

2. An instructive instance of the mysteriousness of God's ways in the accomplishment of His purposes of mercy.

3. That the salvation of God is as free as it is vast.

4. The simplicity of the gospel.

5. That all the children of God are not awakened in the same way.

6. A picture of the world.This earth is a prison; the persons in it are condemned to die — yea, a thousand are led forth to execution daily. And though the unconverted man may not draw a sword to plunge it into his own heart, the sword of Divine vengeance is unsheathed against him, and may pierce him at any moment. And whereas, while Paul and Silas were praising God for redemption, the earthquake shook the prison, and the fetters fell off the prisoners, we see, as it were, a picture of the blessings of the gospel, whereby "the prisoner leaps to loose his chains," and those who are enabled to believe are emancipated from the bondage of sin, and brought to the glorious liberty of the children of God.

(T. Snow, A. M.)

---

---

KJV: Then he called for a light, and sprang in, and came trembling, and fell down before Paul and Silas,

WEB: He called for lights and sprang in, and, fell down trembling before Paul and Silas,