{"collection":"scripture-revelation","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/gutenberg_8397/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/gutenberg_8397","id":"gutenberg_8397","license":"Public Domain (US)","rights_basis":"gutenberg_metadata_copyright_false","source":"gutenberg","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/8397","summary":null,"tags":["Bible. Acts -- Commentaries","Category: Religion/Spirituality","Christianity"],"text":"Produced by Charles Franks, John Hagerson and the Online\nDistributed Proofreading Team\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nEXPOSITIONS OF HOLY SCRIPTURE\n\nALEXANDER MACLAREN, D.D., Litt. D.\n\n\nTHE ACTS\n\n\n\nEXPOSITIONS OF HOLY SCRIPTURE\n\nALEXANDER MACLAREN, D.D., Litt. D.\n\n\nTHE ACTS\n\n_Chaps. I to XII_ VERSE 17.\n\n\n\nCONTENTS\n\nTHE ASCENSION (Acts i. 1-14)\n\nTHE THEME OF ACTS (Acts i. 1, 2; xxviii. 30, 31)\n\nTHE FORTY DAYS (Acts i. 3)\n\nTHE UNKNOWN TO-MORROW (Acts i. 7)\n\nTHE APOSTOLIC WITNESSES (Acts i. 21, 22)\n\nTHE ABIDING GIFT AND ITS TRANSITORY ACCOMPANIMENTS (Acts ii. 1-13)\n\nTHE FOURFOLD SYMBOLS OF THE SPIRIT (Acts ii. 2, 3, 17; 1 John ii. 20)\n\nPETER'S FIRST SERMON (Acts ii. 32-47)\n\nTHE NAME ABOVE EVERY NAME (Acts ii. 36)\n\nA FOURFOLD CORD (Acts ii. 42)\n\nA PURE CHURCH AN INCREASING CHURCH (Acts ii. 47)\n\n'THEN SHALL THE LAME MAN LEAP AS AN HART' (Acts iii. 1-16)\n\n'THE PRINCE OF LIFE' (Acts iii. 14, 15)\n\nTHE HEALING POWER OF THE NAME (Acts iii. 16)\n\nTHE SERVANT OF THE LORD (Acts iii. 26)\n\nTHE FIRST BLAST OF TEMPEST (Acts iv. 1-14)\n\nWITH AND LIKE CHRIST (Acts iv. 13)\n\nOBEDIENT DISOBEDIENCE (Acts iv. 19-31)\n\nIMPOSSIBLE SILENCE (Acts iv. 20)\n\nTHE SERVANT AND THE SLAVES (Acts iv. 25, 27, 29)\n\nTHE WHEAT AND THE TARES (Acts iv. 32; v. 11)\n\nWHOM TO OBEY,--ANNAS OR ANGEL? (Acts v. 17-32)\n\nOUR CAPTAIN (Acts v. 31)\n\nGAMALIEL'S COUNSEL (Acts v. 38, 39)\n\nFILLED WITH THE SPIRIT (Acts vi. 3, 5, 8)\n\nSTEPHEN'S VISION (Acts vii. 56)\n\nTHE YOUNG SAUL AND THE AGED PAUL (Acts vii. 58; Philemon 9)\n\nTHE DEATH OF THE MASTER AND THE DEATH OF THE SERVANT (Acts vii. 59, 60)\n\nSEED SCATTERED AND TAKING ROOT (Acts viii. 1-17)\n\nSIMON THE SORCERER (Acts viii. 21)\n\nA MEETING IN THE DESERT (Acts viii. 26-40)\n\nPHILIP THE EVANGELIST (Acts viii. 40)\n\nGRACE TRIUMPHANT (Acts ix. 1-12; 17-20)\n\n'THIS WAY' (Acts ix. 2)\n\nA BIRD'S-EYE VIEW OF THE EARLY CHURCH (Acts ix. 31)\n\nCOPIES OF CHRIST'S MANNER (Acts ix. 34, 40)\n\nWHAT GOD HATH CLEANSED (Acts x. 1-20)\n\n'GOD IS NO RESPECTER OF PERSONS' (Acts x. 30-44)\n\nPETER'S APOLOGIA (Acts xi. 1-18)\n\nTHE FIRST PREACHING AT ANTIOCH (Acts xi. 20, 21)\n\nTHE EXHORTATION OF BARNABAS (Acts xi. 23)\n\nWHAT A GOOD MAN IS, AND HOW HE BECOMES SO (Acts xi. 24)\n\nA NICKNAME ACCEPTED (Acts xi. 26)\n\nTHE MARTYRDOM OF JAMES (Acts xii. 2)\n\nPETER'S DELIVERANCE FROM PRISON (Acts xii. 5, R.V.)\n\nTHE ANGEL'S TOUCH (Acts xii. 7, 23)\n\n'SOBER CERTAINTY' (Acts xii. 11)\n\nRHODA (Acts xii. 13)\n\nPETER AFTER HIS ESCAPE (Acts xii. 17)\n\n\n\nTHE ASCENSION\n\n'The former treatise have I made, O Theophilus, of all that Jesus began\nboth to do and teach, 2. Until the day in which He was taken up, after\nthat He through the Holy Ghost had given commandments unto the Apostles\nwhom He had chosen: 3. To whom also He shewed Himself alive after His\npassion by many infallible proofs, being seen of them forty days, and\nspeaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God: 4. And, being\nassembled together with them, commanded them that they should not\ndepart from Jerusalem, but wait for the promise of the Father, which,\nsaith He, ye have heard of Me. 5. For John truly baptized with water;\nbut ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost not many days hence. 6.\nWhen they therefore were come together, they asked of Him, saying,\nLord, wilt Thou at this time restore again the kingdom to Israel? 7.\nAnd He said unto them, It is not for you to know the times or the\nseasons, which the Father hath put in His own power. 8. But ye shall\nreceive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall\nbe witnesses unto Me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in\nSamaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth. 9. And when He had\nspoken these things, while they beheld, He was taken up; and a cloud\nreceived Him out of their sight. 10. And while they looked stedfastly\ntoward heaven as He went up, behold, two men stood by them in white\napparel; 11. Which also said, Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up\ninto heaven? this same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven,\nshall so come in like manner as ye have seen Him go into heaven. 12.\nThen returned they unto Jerusalem from the mount called Olivet, which\nis from Jerusalem a Sabbath day's journey. 13. And when they were come\nin, they went up into an upper room, where abode both Peter, and James,\nand John, and Andrew, Philip, and Thomas, Bartholomew, and Matthew,\nJames the son of Alphaeus, and Simon Zelotes, and Judas the brother of\nJames. 14. These all continued with one accord in prayer and\nsupplication, with the women, and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with\nHis brethren.'--ACTS i. 1-14.\n\nThe Ascension is twice narrated by Luke. The life begun by the\nsupernatural birth ends with the supernatural Ascension, which sets the\nseal of Heaven on Christ's claims and work. Therefore the Gospel ends\nwith it. But it is also the starting-point of the Christ's heavenly\nactivity, of which the growth of His Church, as recorded in the Acts,\nis the issue. Therefore the Book of the Acts of the Apostles begins\nwith it.\n\nThe keynote of the 'treatise' lies in the first words, which describe\nthe Gospel as the record of what 'Jesus _began_ to do and teach,' Luke\nwould have gone on to say that this second book of his contained the\nstory of what Jesus went on to do and teach after He was 'taken up,' if\nhe had been strictly accurate, or had carried out his first intention,\nas shown by the mould of his introductory sentence; but he is swept on\ninto the full stream of his narrative, and we have to infer the\ncontrast between his two volumes from his statement of the contents of\nhis first.\n\nThe book, then, is misnamed Acts of the Apostles, both because the\ngreater number of the Apostles do nothing in it, and because, in\naccordance with the hint of the first verse, Christ Himself is the doer\nof all, as comes out distinctly in many places where the critical\nevents of the Church's progress and extension are attributed to 'the\nLord.' In one aspect, Christ's work on earth was finished on the Cross;\nin another, that finished work is but the beginning both of His doing\nand teaching. Therefore we are not to regard His teaching while on\nearth as the completion of Christian revelation. To set aside the\nEpistles on the plea that the Gospels contain Christ's own teaching,\nwhile the Epistles are only Paul's or John's, is to misconceive the\nrelation between the earthly and the heavenly activity of Jesus.\n\nThe statement of the theme of the book is followed by a brief summary\nof the events between the Resurrection and Ascension. Luke had spoken\nof these in the end of his Gospel, but given no note of time, and run\ntogether the events of the day of the Resurrection and of the following\nweeks, so that it might appear, as has been actually contended that he\nmeant, that the Ascension took place on the very day of Resurrection.\nThe fact that in this place he gives more detailed statements, and\ntells how long elapsed between the Resurrection Sunday and the\nAscension, might have taught hasty critics that an author need not be\nignorant of what he does not mention, and that a detailed account does\nnot contradict a summary one,--truths which do not seem very recondite,\nbut have often been forgotten by very learned commentators.\n\nThree points are signalised as occupying the forty days: commandments\nwere given, Christ's actual living presence was demonstrated (by sight,\ntouch, hearing, etc.), and instructions concerning the kingdom were\nimparted. The old blessed closeness and continuity of companionship had\nceased. Our Lord's appearances were now occasional. He came to the\ndisciples, they knew not whence; He withdrew from them, they knew not\nwhither. Apparently a sacred awe restrained them from seeking to detain\nHim or to follow Him. Their hearts would be full of strangely mingled\nfeelings, and they were being taught by gentle degrees to do without\nHim. Not only a divine decorum, but a most gracious tenderness,\ndictated the alternation of presence and absence during these days.\n\nThe instructions then given are again referred to in Luke's Gospel, and\nare there represented as principally directed to opening their minds\n'that they might understand the Scriptures.' The main thing about the\nkingdom which they had then to learn, was that it was founded on the\ndeath of Christ, who had fulfilled all the Old Testament predictions.\nMuch remained untaught, which after years were to bring to clear\nknowledge; but from the illumination shed during these fruitful days\nflowed the remarkable vigour and confidence of the Apostolic appeal to\nthe prophets, in the first conflicts of the Church with the rulers.\nChrist is the King of the kingdom, and His Cross is His throne,--these\ntruths being grasped revolutionised the Apostles' conceptions. They are\nas needful for us.\n\nFrom verse 4 onwards the last interview seems to be narrated. Probably\nit began in the city, and ended on the slopes of Olivet. There was a\nsolemn summoning together of the Eleven, which is twice referred to\n(vs. 4, 6). What awe of expectancy would rest on the group as they\ngathered round Him, perhaps half suspecting that it was for the last\ntime! His words would change the suspicion into certainty, for He\nproceeded to tell them what they were not to do and to do, when left\nalone. The tone of leave-taking is unmistakable.\n\nThe prohibition against leaving Jerusalem implies that they would have\ndone so if left to themselves; and it would have been small wonder if\nthey had been eager to hurry back to quiet Galilee, their home, and to\nshake from their feet the dust of the city where their Lord had been\nslain. Truly they would feel like sheep in the midst of wolves when He\nhad gone, and Pharisees and priests and Roman officers ringed them\nround. No wonder if, like a shepherdless flock, they had broken and\nscattered! But the theocratic importance of Jerusalem, and the fact\nthat nowhere else could the Apostles secure such an audience for their\nwitness, made their 'beginning at Jerusalem' necessary. So they were to\ncrush their natural longing to get back to Galilee, and to stay in\ntheir dangerous position. We have all to ask, not where we should be\nmost at ease, but where we shall be most efficient as witnesses for\nChrist, and to remember that very often the presence of adversaries\nmakes the door 'great and effectual.'\n\nThese eleven poor men were not left by their Master with a hard task\nand no help. He bade them 'wait' for the promised Holy Spirit, the\ncoming of whom they had heard from Him when in the upper room He spoke\nto them of 'the Comforter.' They were too feeble to act alone, and\nsilence and retirement were all that He enjoined till they had been\nplunged into the fiery baptism which should quicken, strengthen, and\ntransform them.\n\nThe order in which promise and command occur here shows how graciously\nJesus considered the Apostles' weakness. Not a word does He say of\ntheir task of witnessing, till He has filled their hearts with the\npromise of the Spirit. He shows them the armour of power in which they\nare to be clothed, before He points them to the battlefield. Waiting\ntimes are not wasted times. Over-eagerness to rush into work,\nespecially into conspicuous and perilous work, is sure to end in\ndefeat. Till we feel the power coming into us, we had better be still.\n\nThe promise of this great gift, the nature of which they but dimly\nknew, set the Apostles' expectations on tiptoe, and they seem to have\nthought that their reception of it was in some way the herald of the\nestablishment of the Messianic kingdom. So it was, but in a very\ndifferent fashion from their dream. They had not learned so much from\nthe forty days' instructions concerning the kingdom as to be free from\ntheir old Jewish notions, which colour their question, 'Wilt Thou at\nthis time restore again the kingdom to Israel?' They believed that\nJesus could establish His kingdom when He would. They were right, and\nalso wrong,--right, for He is King; wrong, for its establishment is not\nto be effected by a single act of power, but by the slow process of\npreaching the gospel.\n\nOur Lord does not deal with their misconceptions which could only be\ncured by time and events; but He lays down great principles, which we\nneed as much as the Eleven did. The 'times and seasons,' the long\nstretches of days, and the critical epoch-making moments, are known to\nGod only; our business is, not to speculate curiously about these, but\nto do the plain duty which is incumbent on the Church at all times. The\nperpetual office of Christ's people to be His witnesses, their\nequipment for that function (namely, the power of the Holy Spirit\ncoming on them), and the sphere of their work (namely, in ever-widening\ncircles, Jerusalem, Samaria, and the whole world), are laid down, not\nfor the first hearers only, but for all ages and for each individual,\nin these last words of the Lord as He stood on Olivet, ready to depart.\n\nThe calm simplicity of the account of the Ascension is remarkable. So\ngreat an event told in such few, unimpassioned words! Luke's Gospel\ngives the further detail that it was in the act of blessing with\nuplifted hands that our Lord was parted from the Eleven. Two\nexpressions are here used to describe the Ascension, one of which ('was\ntaken up') implies that He was passive, the other of which ('He went')\nimplies that He was active. Both are true. As in the accounts of the\nResurrection He is sometimes said to have been raised, and sometimes to\nhave risen, so here. The Father took the Son back to the glory, the Son\nleft the world and went to the Father. No chariot of fire, no\nwhirlwind, was needed to lift Him to the throne. Elijah was carried by\nsuch agency into a sphere new to him; Jesus ascended up where He was\nbefore.\n\nNo other mode of departure from earth would have corresponded to His\nvoluntary, supernatural birth. He  carried manhood up to the throne of\nGod. The cloud which received Him while yet He was well within sight of\nthe gazers was probably that same bright cloud, the symbol of the\nDivine Presence, which of old dwelt between the cherubim. His entrance\ninto it visibly symbolised the permanent participation, then begun, of\nHis glorified manhood in the divine glory.\n\nMost true to human nature is that continued gaze upwards after He had\npassed into the hiding brightness of the glory-cloud. How many of us\nknow what it is to look long at the spot on the horizon where the last\nglint of sunshine struck the sails of the ship that bore dear ones away\nfrom us! It was fitting that angels, who had heralded His birth and\nwatched His grave, should proclaim His Second Coming to earth.\n\nIt was gracious that, in the moment of keenest sense of desolation and\nloss, the great hope of reunion should be poured into the hearts of the\nApostles. Nothing can be more distinct and assured than the terms of\nthat angel message. It gives for the faith and hope of all ages the\nassurance that He will come; that He who comes will be the very Jesus\nwho went; that His coming will be, like His departure, visible,\ncorporeal, local. He will bring again all His tenderness, all His\nbrother's heart, all His divine power, and will gather His servants to\nHimself.\n\nNo wonder that, with such hopes flowing over the top of their sorrow,\nlike oil on troubled waters, the little group went back to the upper\nroom, hallowed by memories of the Last Supper, and there waited in\nprayer and supplication during the ten days which elapsed till\nPentecost. So should we use the interval between any promise and its\nfulfilment. Patient expectation, believing prayer, harmonious\nassociation with our brethren, will prepare us for receiving the gift\nof the Spirit, and will help to equip us as witnesses for Jesus.\n\n\n\nTHE THEME OF ACTS\n\n'The former treatise have I made, O Theophilus, of all that Jesus began\nboth to do and teach. 2. Until the day in which He was taken up.'--ACTS\ni. 1, 2.\n\n'And Paul dwelt two whole years in his own hired house, and received\nall that came in unto him, 31. Preaching the kingdom of God, and\nteaching those things which concern the Lord Jesus Christ, with all\nconfidence, no man forbidding him.'--ACTS xxviii. 30, 31.\n\nSo begins and so ends this Book. I connect the commencement and the\nclose, because I think that the juxtaposition throws great light upon\nthe purpose of the writer, and suggests some very important lessons.\nThe reference to 'the former treatise' (which is, of course, the Gospel\naccording to Luke) implies that this Book is to be regarded as its\nsequel, and the terms of the reference show the writer's own conception\nof what he was going to do in his second volume. 'The former treatise\nhave I made ... of all that Jesus _began_ both to do and teach until\nthe day in which He was taken up.' Is not the natural inference that\nthe latter treatise will tell us what Jesus _continued_ 'to do and\nteach' _after_ He was taken up? I think so. And thus the writer sets\nforth at once, for those that have eyes to see, what he means to do,\nand what he thinks his book is going to be about.\n\nSo, then, the name 'The Acts of the Apostles,' which is not coeval with\nthe book itself, is somewhat of a misnomer. Most of the Apostles are\nnever heard of in it. There are, at the most, only three or four of\nthem concerning whom anything in the book is recorded. But our first\ntext supplies a deeper reason for regarding that title as inadequate,\nand even misleading. For, if the theme of the story be what Christ did,\nthen the book is, not the 'Acts of the _Apostles_,' but the 'Acts of\n_Jesus Christ_' through His servants. He, and He alone, is the Actor;\nand the men who appear in it are but instruments in His hands, He alone\nbeing the mover of the pawns on the board.\n\nThat conception of the purpose of the book seems to me to have light\ncast upon it by, and to explain, the singular abruptness of its\nconclusion, which must strike every reader. No doubt it is quite\npossible that the reason why the book ends in such a singular fashion,\nplanting Paul in Rome, and leaving him there, may be that the date of\nits composition was that imprisonment of Paul in the Imperial City, in\na part of which, at all events, we know that Luke was his companion.\nBut, whilst that consideration may explain the point at which the book\nstops, it does not explain the way in which it stops. The historian\nlays down his pen, possibly because he had brought his narrative up to\ndate. But a word of conclusion explaining that it was so would have\nbeen very natural, and its absence must have had some reason. It is\nalso possible that the arrival of the Apostle in the Imperial City, and\nhis unhindered liberty of preaching there, in the very centre of power,\nthe focus of intellectual life, and the hot-bed of corruption for the\nknown world, may have seemed to the writer an epoch which rounded off\nhis story. But I think that the reason for the abruptness of the\nrecord's close is to be found in the continuity of the work of which it\ntells a part. It is the unfinished record of an incomplete work. The\ntheme is the work of Christ through the ages, of which each successive\ndepository of His energies can do but a small portion, and must leave\nthat portion unfinished; the book does not so much end as stop. It is a\nfragment, because the work of which it tells is not yet a whole.\n\nIf, then, we put these two things--the beginning and the ending of the\nActs--together, I think we get some thoughts about what Christ began to\ndo and teach on earth; what He continues to do and teach in heaven; and\nhow small and fragmentary a share in that work each individual servant\nof His has. Let us look at these points briefly.\n\nI. First, then, we have here the suggestion of what Christ began to do\nand teach on earth.\n\nNow, at first sight, the words of our text seem to be in strange and\nstartling contradiction to the solemn cry which rang out of the\ndarkness upon Calvary. Jesus said, 'It is finished!' and 'gave up the\nghost.' Luke says He 'began to do and teach.' Is there any\ncontradiction between the two? Certainly not. It is one thing to lay a\nfoundation; it is another thing to build a house. And the work of\nlaying the foundation must be finished before the work of building the\nstructure upon it can be begun. It is one thing to create a force; it\nis another thing to apply it. It is one thing to compound a medicine;\nit is another thing to administer it. It is one thing to unveil a\ntruth; it is another to unfold its successive applications, and to work\nit into a belief and practice in the world. The former is the work of\nChrist which was finished on earth; the latter is the work which is\ncontinuous throughout the ages.\n\n'He began to do and teach,' not in the sense that any should come after\nHim and do, as the disciples of most great discoverers and thinkers\nhave had to do: namely, systematise, rectify, and complete the first\nglimpses of truth which the master had given. 'He began to do and\nteach,' not in the sense that after He had 'passed into the heavens'\nany new truth or force can for evermore be imparted to humanity in\nregard of the subjects which He taught and the energies which He\nbrought. But whilst thus His work is complete, His earthly work is also\ninitial. And we must remember that whatever distinction my text may\nmean to draw between the work of Christ in the past and that in the\npresent and the future, it does not mean to imply that when He\n'ascended up on high' He had not completed the task for which He came,\nor that the world had to wait for anything more, either from Him or\nfrom others, to eke out the imperfections of His doctrine or the\ninsufficiencies of His work.\n\nLet us ever remember that the initial work of Christ on earth is\ncomplete in so far as the revelation of God to men is concerned. There\nwill be no other. There is needed no other. Nothing more is possible\nthan what He, by His words and by His life, by His gentleness and His\ngrace, by His patience and His Passion, has unveiled to all men, of the\nheart and character of God. The revelation is complete, and he that\nprofesses to add anything to, or to substitute anything for, the\nfinished teaching of Jesus Christ concerning God, and man's relation to\nGod, and man's duty, destiny, and hopes, is a false teacher, and to\nfollow him is fatal. All that ever come after Him and say, 'Here is\nsomething that Christ has not told you,' are thieves and robbers, 'and\nthe sheep will not hear them.'\n\nIn like manner that work of Christ, which in some sense is initial, is\ncomplete as Redemption. 'This Man has offered up one sacrifice for sins\nfor ever.' And nothing more can He do than He has done; and nothing\nmore can any man or all men do than was accomplished on the Cross of\nCalvary as giving a revelation, as effecting a redemption, as lodging\nin the heart of humanity, and in the midst of the stream of human\nhistory, a purifying energy, sufficient to cleanse the whole black\nstream. The past work which culminated on the Cross, and was sealed as\nadequate and accepted of God in the Resurrection and Ascension, needs\nno supplement, and can have no continuation, world without end. And so,\nwhatever may be the meaning of that singular phrase, 'began to do and\nteach,' it does not, in the smallest degree, conflict with the\nassurance that He hath ascended up on high, 'having obtained eternal\nredemption for us,' and 'having finished the work which the Father gave\nHim to do.'\n\nII. But then, secondly, we have to notice what Christ continues to do\nand to teach after His Ascension.\n\nI have already suggested that the phraseology of the first of my texts\nnaturally leads to the conclusion that the theme of this Book of the\nActs is the continuous work of the ascended Saviour, and that the\nlanguage is not forced by being thus interpreted is very plain to any\none who will glance even cursorily over the contents of the book\nitself. For there is nothing in it more obvious and remarkable than the\nway in which, at every turn in the narrative, all is referred to Jesus\nChrist Himself.\n\nFor instance, to cull one or two cases in order to bring the matter\nmore plainly before you--When the Apostles determined to select another\nApostle to fill Judas' place, they asked Jesus Christ to show which 'of\nthese two Thou hast chosen.' When Peter is called upon to explain the\ntongues at Pentecost he says, 'Jesus hath shed forth this which ye now\nsee and hear.' When the writer would tell the reason of the large first\nincrease to the Church, he says, 'The Lord added to the Church daily\nsuch as should be saved.' Peter and John go into the Temple to heal the\nlame man, and their words to him are, 'Do not think that our power or\nholiness is any factor in your cure. The Name hath made this man\nwhole.' It is the Lord that appears to Paul and to Ananias, to the one\non the road to Damascus and to the other in the city. It is the Lord to\nwhom Peter refers Aeneas when he says, 'Jesus Christ maketh thee\nwhole.' It was the Lord that 'opened the heart of Lydia.' It was the\nLord that appeared to Paul in Corinth, and said to him, 'I have much\npeople in this city'; and again, when in the prison at Jerusalem, He\nassured the Apostle that he would be carried to Rome. And so, at every\nturn in the narrative, we find that Christ is presented as influencing\nmen's hearts, operating upon outward events, working miracles,\nconfirming His word, leading His servants, and prescribing for them\ntheir paths, and all which they do is done by the hand of the Lord with\nthem confirming the word which they spoke. Jesus Christ is the Actor,\nand He only is the Actor; men are His implements and instruments.\n\nThe same point of view is suggested by another of the characteristics\nof this book, which it shares in common with all Scripture narratives,\nand that is the stolid indifference with which it picks up and drops\nmen, according to the degree in which, for the moment, they are the\ninstruments of Christ's power. Supposing a man had been writing Acts of\nthe Apostles, do you think it would have been possible that of the\ngreater number of them he should not say a word, that concerning those\nof whom he does speak he should deal with them as this book does,\nbarely mentioning the martyrdom of James, one of the four chief\nApostles; allowing Peter to slip out of the narrative after the great\nmeeting of the Church at Jerusalem; letting Philip disappear without a\nhint of what he did thereafter; lodging Paul in Rome and leaving him\nthere, with no account of his subsequent work or martyrdom? Such\nphenomena--and they might be largely multiplied--are only explicable\nupon one hypothesis. As long as electricity streams on the carbon point\nit glows and is visible, but when the current is turned to another lamp\nwe see no more of the bit of carbon. As long as God uses a man the man\nis of interest to the writers of the Scriptures. When God uses another\none, they drop the first, and have no more care about him, because\ntheir theme is not men and their doings, but God's doings through men.\n\nOn us, and in us, and by us, and for us, if we are His servants, Jesus\nChrist is working all through the ages. He is the Lord of Providence,\nHe is the King of history, in His hand is the book with the seven\nseals; He sends His Spirit, and where His Spirit is He is; and what His\nSpirit does He does. And thus He continues to teach and to work from\nHis throne in the heavens.\n\nHe continues to teach, not by the communication of new truth. That is\nfinished. The volume of Revelation is complete. The last word of the\ndivine utterances hath been spoken until that final word which shall\nend Time and crumble the earth. But the application of the completed\nRevelation, the unfolding of all that is wrapped in germ in it; the\ngrowing of the seed into a tree, the realisation more completely by\nindividuals and communities of the principles and truths which Jesus\nChrist has brought us by His life and His death--that is the work that\nis going on to-day, and that will go on till the end of the world. For\nthe old Puritan belief is true, though the modern rationalistic\nmutilations of it are false, 'God hath more light yet to break\nforth'--and our modern men stop there. But what the sturdy old Puritan\nsaid was, 'more light yet to break forth from His holy Word.' Jesus\nChrist teaches the ages--through the lessons of providence and the\ncommunication of His Spirit to His Church--to understand what He gave\nthe world when He was here.\n\nIn like manner He works. The foundation is laid, the healing medicine\nis prepared, the cleansing element is cast into the mass of humanity;\nwhat remains is the application and appropriation, and incorporation in\nconduct, of the redeeming powers that Jesus Christ has brought. And\nthat work is going on, and will go on, till the end.\n\nNow these truths of our Lord's continuous activity in teaching and\nworking from heaven may yield us some not unimportant lessons. What a\ndepth and warmth and reality the thoughts give to the Christian's\nrelation to Jesus Christ! We have to look back to that Cross as the\nfoundation of all our hope. Yes! But we have to think, not only of a\nChrist who did something for us long ago in the past, and there an end,\nbut of a Christ who to-day lives and reigns, 'to do and to teach'\naccording to our necessities. What a sweetness and sacredness such\nthoughts impart to all external events, which we may regard as being\nthe operation of His love, and as moved by the hands that were nailed\nto the Cross for us, and now hold the sceptre of the universe for the\nblessing of mankind! What a fountain of hope they open in estimating\nfuture probabilities of victory for truth and goodness! The forces of\ngood and evil in the world seem very disproportionate, but we forget\ntoo often to take Christ into account. It is not _we_ that have to\nfight against evil; at the best we are but the sword which Christ\nwields, and all the power is in the hand that wields it. Great men die,\ngood men die; Jesus Christ is not dead. Paul was martyred: Jesus lives;\nHe is the anchor of our hope. We see miseries and mysteries enough, God\nknows. The prospects of all good causes seem often clouded and dark.\nThe world has an awful power of putting drags upon all chariots that\nbear blessings, and of turning to evil every good. You cannot diffuse\neducation, but you diffuse the taste for rubbish and something worse,\nin the shape of books. No good thing but has its shadow of evil\nattendant upon it. And if we had only to estimate by visible or human\nforces, we might well sit down and wrap ourselves in the sackcloth of\npessimism. 'We see not yet all things put under Him'; but 'we see Jesus\ncrowned with glory and honour,' and the vision that cheered the first\nmartyr--of Christ 'standing at the right hand of God'--is the rebuke of\nevery fear and every gloomy anticipation for ourselves or for the world.\n\nWhat a lesson of lowliness and of diligence it gives us! The jangling\nchurch at Corinth fought about whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas was\nthe man to lead the Church, and the experience has been repeated over\nand over again. 'Who is Paul? Who is Apollos? but ministers by whom ye\nbelieved, even as the Lord gave to every man. Be not puffed up one\nagainst another. Be not wise in your own conceits.' You are only a\ntool, only a pawn in the hand of the Great Player. If you have\nanything, it is because you get it from Him. See that you use it, and\ndo not boast about it. Jesus Christ is the Worker, the only Worker; the\nTeacher, the only Teacher. All our wisdom is derived, all our light is\nenkindled. We are but the reeds through which His breath makes music.\nAnd 'shall the axe boast itself,' either 'against' or apart from 'Him\nthat heweth therewith'?\n\nIII. Lastly, we note the incompleteness of each man's share in the\ngreat work.\n\nAs I said, the book which is to tell the story of Christ's continuous\nunfinished work must stop abruptly. There is no help for it. If it was\na history of Paul it would need to be wound up to an end and a selvage\nput to it, but as it is the history of Christ's working, the web is not\nhalf finished, and the shuttle stops in the middle of a cast. The book\nmust be incomplete, because the work of which it is the record does not\nend until 'He shall have delivered up the Kingdom to the Father, and\nGod shall be all in all.'\n\nSo the work of each man is but a fragment of that great work. Every man\ninherits unfinished tasks from his predecessors, and leaves unfinished\ntasks to his successors. It is, as it used to be in the Middle Ages,\nwhen the hands that dug the foundations, or laid the first courses, of\nsome great cathedral, were dead long generations before the gilded\ncross was set on the apex of the needlespire, and the glowing glass\nfilled in to the painted windows. Enough for us, if we lay a stone,\nthough it be but one stone in one of the courses of the great building.\n\nLuke has left plenty of blank paper at the end of his second\n'treatise,' on which he meant that succeeding generations should write\ntheir partial contributions to the completed work. Dear friends, let us\nsee that we write our little line, as monks in their monasteries used\nto keep the chronicle of the house, on which scribe after scribe toiled\nat its illuminated letters with loving patience for a little while, and\nthen handed the pen from his dying hand to another. What does it matter\nthough we drop, having done but a fragment? He gathers up the fragments\ninto His completed work, and the imperfect services which He enabled\nany of us to do will all be represented in the perfect circle of His\nfinished work. The Lord help us to be faithful to the power that works\nin us, and to leave Him to incorporate our fragments in His mighty\nwhole!\n\n\n\nTHE FORTY DAYS\n\n'To whom also He shewed Himself alive after His passion by many\ninfallible proofs, being seen of them forty days, and speaking of the\nthings pertaining to the kingdom of God.'--ACTS i. 3.\n\nThe forty days between the Resurrection and the Ascension have\ndistinctly marked characteristics. They are unlike to the period before\nthem in many respects, but completely similar in others; they have a\npreparatory character throughout; they all bear on the future work of\nthe disciples, and hearten them for the time when they should be left\nalone.\n\nThe words of the text give us their leading features. They bring out--\n\n1. Their evidential value, as confirming the fact of the Resurrection.\n\n'He showed Himself alive after His passion by ... proofs.'\n\nBy sight, repeated, to individuals, to companies, to Mary in her\nsolitary sadness, to Peter the penitent, to the two on the road to\nEmmaus. At all hours: in the evening when the doors were shut; in the\nmorning; in grey twilight; in daytime on the road. At many places--in\nhouses, out of doors.\n\nThe signs of true corporeity--the sight, the eating.\n\nThe signs of bodily identity,--'Reach hither thy hand.' 'He showed them\nHis hands and His side.'\n\nWas this the glorified body?\n\nThe affirmative answer is usually rested on the facts that He was not\nknown by Mary or the disciples on the road to Emmaus, and that He came\ninto the upper room when the doors were shut. But the force of these\nfacts is broken by remembering that Mary saw nothing about Him unlike\nother men, but supposed Him to be the gardener--which puts the idea of\na glorified body out of the question, and leaves us to suppose that she\nwas full of weeping indifference to any one.\n\nThen as to the disciples on the road to Emmaus, Luke carefully tells us\nthat the reason why they did not know Him was _in them_ and not in\nHim--that it was 'because their eyes were holden,' not because His body\nwas changed.\n\nAnd as to His coming when the doors were shut, why should not that be\nlike the other miracles, when 'He conveyed Himself away, a multitude\nbeing in the place,' and when He walked on the waters?\n\nThere cannot then be anything decidedly built on these facts, and the\nconsiderations on the other side are very strong. Surely the whole\ndrift of the narrative goes in the direction of representing Christ's\n'glory' as beginning with His Ascension, and consequently the 'body of\nHis glory' as being then assumed. Further, the argument of 1 Cor. xv.\ngoes on the assumption that 'flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom\nof God,' that is, that the material corporeity is incongruous with, and\nincapable of entrance into, the conditions of that future life, and, by\nparity of reasoning, that the spiritual body, which is to be conformed\nto the body of Christ's glory, is incongruous with, and incapable of\nentrance into, the conditions of this earthly life. As is the\nenvironment, so must be the 'body' that is at home in it.\n\nFurther, the facts of our Lord's eating and drinking after His\nResurrection are not easily reconcilable with the contention that He\nwas then invested with the glorified body.\n\nWe must, then, think of transfiguration, rather than of resurrection\nonly, as the way by which He passed into the heavens. He 'slept' but\nwoke, and, as He ascended, was 'changed.'\n\nII. The renewal of the old bond by the tokens of His unchanged\ndisposition.\n\nRecall the many beautiful links with the past: the message to Peter;\nthat to Mary; 'Tell My brethren,' 'He was known in breaking of bread,'\n'Peace be with you!' (repetition from John xvii.), the miraculous\ndraught of fishes, and the meal and conversation afterwards, recalling\nthe miracle at the beginning of the closer association of the four\nApostles of the first rank with their Lord. The forty days revealed the\nold heart, the old tenderness. He remembers all the past. He sends a\nmessage to the penitent; He renews to the faithful the former gift of\n'peace.'\n\nHow precious all this is as a revelation of the impotence of death in\nregard to Him and us! It assures us of the perpetuity of His love. He\nshowed Himself after His passion as the same old Self, the same old\ntender Lover. His appearances then prepare us for the last vision of\nHim in the Apocalypse, in which we see His perpetual humanity, His\nperpetual tenderness, and hear Him saying: 'I am ... the Living One,\nand I became dead, and behold, I am alive for evermore.'\n\nThese forty days assure us of the narrow limits of the power of death.\nLove lives through death, memory lives through it. Christ has lived\nthrough it and comes up from the grave, serene and tender, with\nunruffled peace, with all the old tones of tenderness in the voice that\nsaid 'Mary!' So may we be sure that through death and after it we shall\nlive and be ourselves. We, too, shall show ourselves alive after we\nhave experienced the superficial change of death.\n\nIII. The change in Christ's relations to the disciples and to the\nworld. 'Appearing unto them by the space of forty days.'\n\nThe words mark a contrast to Christ's former constant intercourse with\nthe disciples. This is occasional; He appears at intervals during the\nforty days. He comes amongst them and disappears. He is seen again in\nthe morning light by the lake-side and goes away. He tells them to come\nand meet Him in Galilee. That intermittent presence prepared the\ndisciples for His departure. It was painful and educative. It carried\nout His own word, 'And now I am no more in the world.'\n\nWe observe in the disciples traces of a deeper awe. They say little.\n'Master!' 'My Lord and my God!' 'None durst ask Him, Who art Thou?'\nEven Peter ventures only on 'Lord, Thou knowest all things,' and on one\nflash of the old familiarity: 'What shall this man do?' John, who\nrecalls very touchingly, in that appendix to his Gospel, the blessed\ntime when he leaned on Jesus' breast at supper, now only humbly\nfollows, while the others sit still and awed, by that strange fire on\nthe banks of the lonely lake.\n\nA clearer vision of the Lord on their parts, a deeper sense of who He\nis, make them assume more of the attitude of worshippers, though not\nless that of friends. And He can no more dwell with them, and go in and\nout among them.\n\nAs for the world--'It seeth Me no more, but ye see Me.' He was 'seen of\n_them_,' not of others. There is no more appeal to the people, no more\nteaching, no more standing in the Temple. Why is this? Is it not the\ncommentary on His own word on the Cross, 'It is finished!' marking most\ndistinctly that His work on earth was ended when He died, and so\nconfirming that conception of His earthly mission which sees its\nculmination and centre of power in the Cross?\n\nIV. Instruction and prophecy for the future.\n\nThe preparation of the disciples for their future work and condition\nwas a chief purpose of the forty days. Jesus spoke 'of the things\npertaining to the Kingdom of God.' He also 'gave commandments to the\nApostles.'\n\nNote how much there is, in His conversations with them--\n\n1. Of opening to them the Scriptures. 'Christ must needs suffer,' etc.\n\n2. Of lessons for their future, thus fitting them for their task.\n\n3. Mark how this transitional period taught them that His going away\nwas not to be sorrow and loss, but joy and gain, 'Touch Me not, for I\nhave not yet ascended.'\n\nOur present relation to the ascended Lord is as much an advance on that\nof the disciples to the risen Lord, as that was on their relation to\nHim during His earthly life. They had more real communion with Him\nwhen, with opened hearts, they heard Him interpret the Scriptures\nconcerning Himself, and fell at His feet crying 'My Lord and my God!'\nthough they saw Him but for short seasons and at intervals, than when\nday by day they were with Him and knew Him not. As they grew in love\nand ripened in knowledge, they knew Him better and better.\n\nFor us, too, these forty days are full of blessed lessons, teaching us\nthat real communion with Jesus is attained by faith in Him, and that He\nis still working in and for us, and is still present with us. The joy\nwith which the disciples saw Him ascend should live on in us as we\nthink of Him enthroned. The hope that the angels' message lit up in\ntheir hearts should burn in ours. The benediction which the Risen Lord\nuttered on those who have not seen and yet have believed falls in\ndouble measure on those who, though now they see Him not, yet believing\nrejoice in Jesus with joy unspeakable and full of glory.\n\n\n\nTHE UNKNOWN TO-MORROW\n\n_A New Year's Sermon_\n\n'It is not for you to know the times or the seasons, which the Father\nhath put in His own power.'--ACTS i. 7.\n\nThe New Testament gives little encouragement to a sentimental view of\nlife. Its writers had too much to do, and too much besides to think\nabout, for undue occupation with pensive remembrances or imaginative\nforecastings. They bid us remember as a stimulus to thanksgiving and a\nground of hope. They bid us look forward, but not along the low levels\nof earth and its changes. One great future is to draw all our longings\nand to fix our eyes, as the tender hues of the dawn kindle infinite\nyearnings in the soul of the gazer. What may come is all hidden; we can\nmake vague guesses, but reach nothing more certain. Mist and cloud\nconceal the path in front of the portion which we are actually\ntraversing, but when it climbs, it comes out clear from the fogs that\nhang about the flats. We can track it winding up to the throne of\nChrist. Nothing is certain, but the coming of the Lord and 'our\ngathering together to Him.'\n\nThe words of this text in their original meaning point only to the\nignorance of the time of the end which Christ had been foretelling. But\nthey may allow of a much wider application, and their lessons are in\nentire consonance with the whole tone of Scripture in regard to the\nfuture. We are standing now at the beginning of a New Year, and the\ninfluence of the season is felt in some degree by us all. Not for the\nsake of repressing any wise forecasting which has for its object our\npreparation for probable duties and exigencies; not for the purpose of\nrepressing that trustful anticipation which, building on our past time\nand on God's eternity, fronts the future with calm confidence; not for\nthe sake of discouraging that pensive and softened mood which if it\ndoes nothing more, at least delivers us for a moment from the tyrannous\npower of the present, do we turn to these words now; but that we may\ntogether consider how much they contain of cheer and encouragement, of\nstimulus to our duty, and of calming for our hearts in the prospect of\na New Year. They teach us the limits of our care for the future, as\nthey give us the limits of our knowledge of it. They teach us the best\nremedies for all anxiety, the great thoughts that tranquillise us in\nour ignorance, viz. that all is in God's merciful hand, and that\nwhatever may come, we have a divine power which will fit us for it; and\nthey bid us anticipate our work and do it, as the best counterpoise for\nall vain curiosity about what may be coming on the earth.\n\nI. The narrow limits of our knowledge of the future.\n\nWe are quite sure that we shall die. We are sure that a mingled web of\njoy and sorrow, light shot with dark, will be unrolled before us--but\nof anything more we are really ignorant. We know that certainly the\ngreat majority of us will be alive at the close of this New Year; but\nwho will be the exceptions? A great many of us, especially those of us\nwho are in the monotonous stretch of middle life, will go on\nsubstantially as we have been going on for years past, with our\nordinary duties, joys, sorrows, cares; but to some of us, in all\nprobability, this year holds some great change which may darken all our\ndays or brighten them. In all our forward-looking there ever remains an\nelement of uncertainty. The future fronts us like some statue beneath\nits canvas covering. Rolling mists hide it all, except here and there a\npeak.\n\nI need not remind you how merciful and good it is that it is so.\nTherefore coming sorrows do not diffuse anticipatory bitterness as of\ntainted water percolating through gravel, and coming joys are not\ndiscounted, and the present has a reality of its own, and is not\ncoloured by what is to come.\n\nThen this being so--what is the wise course of conduct? Not a confident\nreckoning on to-morrow. There is nothing elevating in anticipation\nwhich paints the blank surface of the future with the same earthly\ncolours as dye the present. There is no more complete waste of time\nthan that. Nor is proud self-confidence any wiser, which jauntily takes\nfor granted that 'tomorrow will be as this day.' The conceit that\nthings are to go on as they have been fools men into a dream of\npermanence which has no basis. Nor is the fearful apprehension of evil\nany wiser. How many people spoil the present gladness with thoughts of\nfuture sorrow, and cannot enjoy the blessedness of united love for\nthinking of separation!\n\nIn brief, it is wise to be but little concerned with the future,\nexcept--\n\n1. In the way of taking reasonable precautions to prepare for its\nprobabilities.\n\n2. To fit ourselves for its duties.\n\nOne future we may contemplate. Our fault is not that we look forward,\nbut that we do not look far enough forward. Why trouble with the world\nwhen we have heaven? Why look along the low level among the mists of\nearth and forests and swamps, when we can see the road climbing to the\nheights? Why be anxious about what three hundred and sixty-five days\nmay bring, when we know what Eternity will bring? Why divert our\nGod-given faculty of hope from its true object? Why torment ourselves\nwith casting the fashion of uncertain evils, when we can enter into the\ngreat peace of looking for 'that blessed Hope'?\n\nII. The safe Hands which keep the future.\n\n'The Father hath put in His own power.' We have not to depend upon an\nimpersonal Fate; nor upon a wild whirl of Chance; nor upon 'laws of\naverages,' 'natural laws,' 'tendencies' and 'spirit of the age'; nor\neven on a theistic Providence, but upon a Father who holds all things\n'in His own power,' and wields all for us. So will not our way be made\nright?\n\nWhatever the future may bring, it will be loving, paternal discipline.\nHe shapes it all and keeps it in His hands. Why should we be anxious?\nThat great name of 'Father' binds Him to tender, wise, disciplinary\ndealing, and should move us to calm and happy trust.\n\nIII. The sufficient strength to face the future.\n\n'The power of the Holy Ghost coming upon you' is promised here to the\ndisciples for a specific purpose; but it is promised and given to us\nall through Christ, if we will only take it. And in Him we shall be\nready for all the future.\n\nThe Spirit of God is the true Interpreter of Providence. He calms our\nnature, and enlightens our understanding to grasp the meaning of all\nour experiences. The Spirit makes joy more blessed, by keeping us from\nundue absorption in it. The Spirit is the Comforter. The Spirit fits us\nfor duty.\n\nSo be quite sure that nothing will come to you in your earthly future,\nwhich He does not Himself accompany to interpret it, and to make it\npure blessing.\n\nIV. The practical duty in view of the future.\n\n(a) The great thing we ought to look to in the future is our work,--not\nwhat we shall enjoy or what we shall endure, but what we shall do. This\nis healthful and calming.\n\n(b) The great remedy for morbid anticipation lies in regarding life as\nthe opportunity for service. Never mind about the future, let it take\ncare of itself. Work! That clears away cobwebs from our brains, as when\na man wakes from troubled dreams, to hear 'the sweep of scythe in\nmorning dew,' and the shout of the peasant as he trudges to his task,\nand the lowing of the cattle, and the clink of the hammer.\n\n(c) The great work we have to do in the future is to be witnesses for\nChrist. This is the meaning of all life; we can do it in joy and in\nsorrow, and we shall bear a charmed life till it be done. So the words\nof the text are a promise of preservation.\n\nThen, dear brethren, how do you stand fronting that Unknown? How can\nyou face it without going mad, unless you know God and trust Him as\nyour Father through Christ? If you do, you need have no fear. To-morrow\nlies all dim and strange before you, but His gentle and strong hand is\nworking in the darkness and He will shape it right. He will fit you to\nbear it all. If you regard it as your supreme duty and highest honour\nto be Christ's witness, you will be kept safe, 'delivered out of the\nmouth of the lion,' that by you 'the preaching may be fully known.'\n\nIf not, how dreary is that future to you, 'all dim and cheerless, like\na rainy sea,' from which wild shapes may come up and devour you! Love\nand friendship will pass, honour and strength will fail, life will ebb\naway, and of all that once stretched before you, nothing will be left\nbut one little strip of sand, fast jellying with the tide beneath your\nfeet, and before you a wild unlighted ocean!\n\n\n\nTHE APOSTOLIC WITNESSES\n\n'Wherefore of these men which have companied with us all the time that\nthe Lord Jesus went in and out among us ... must one be ordained to be\na witness with us of His resurrection.'--ACTS i. 21, 22.\n\nThe fact of Christ's Resurrection was the staple of the first Christian\nsermon recorded in this Book of the Acts of the Apostles. They did not\ndeal so much in doctrine; they did not dwell very distinctly upon what\nwe call, and rightly call, the atoning death of Christ; out they\nproclaimed what they had seen with their eyes--that He died and rose\nagain.\n\nAnd not only was the main subject of their teaching the Resurrection,\nbut it was the Resurrection in one of its aspects and for one specific\npurpose. There are, speaking roughly, three main connections in which\nthe fact of Christ's rising from the dead is viewed in Scripture, and\nthese three successively emerge in the consciousness of the Early\nChurch.\n\nIt was, first, a fact affecting Him, a testimony concerning Him,\ncarrying with it necessarily some great truths with regard to Him, His\ncharacter, His nature, and His work. And it was in that aspect mainly\nthat the earliest preachers dealt with it. Then, as reflection and the\nguidance of God's good Spirit led them to understand more and more of\nthe treasure which lay in the fact, it came to be to them, next, a\npattern, and a pledge, and a prophecy of their own resurrection. The\ndoctrine of man's immortality and the future life was evolved from it,\nand was felt to be implied in it. And then it came to be, thirdly and\nlastly, a symbol or figure of the spiritual resurrection and newness of\nlife into which all they were born who participated in His death. They\nknew Him first by His Resurrection; they then knew 'the power of His\nResurrection' as a pledge of their own; and lastly, they knew it as\nbeing the pattern to which they were to be conformed even whilst here\non earth.\n\nThe words which I have read for my text are the Apostle Peter's own\ndescription of what was the office of an Apostle--'to be a witness with\nus of Christ's Resurrection.' And the statement branches out, I think,\ninto three considerations, to which I ask your attention now. First, we\nhave here the witnesses; secondly, we have the sufficiency of their\ntestimony; and thirdly, we have the importance of the fact to which\nthey bear their witness. The Apostles are testimony-bearers. Their\nwitness is enough to establish the fact. The fact to which they witness\nis all-important for the religion and the hopes of the world.\n\nI. First, then, the Witnesses.\n\nHere we have the 'head of the Apostolic College,' the 'primate' of the\nTwelve, on whose supposed primacy--which is certainly not a\n'rock'--such tremendous claims have been built, laying down the\nqualifications and the functions of an Apostle. How simply they present\nthemselves to his mind! The qualification is only personal knowledge of\nJesus Christ in His earthly history, because the function is only to\nattest His Resurrection. Their work was to bear witness to what they\nhad seen with their eyes; and what was needed, therefore, was nothing\nmore than such familiarity with Christ as should make them competent\nwitnesses to the fact that He died, and to the fact that the same Jesus\nwho had died, and whom they knew so well, rose again and went up to\nheaven.\n\nThe same conception of an Apostle's work lies in Christ's last solemn\ndesignation of them for their office, where their whole commission is\nincluded in the simple words, 'Ye shall be witnesses unto Me.' It\nappears again and again in the earlier addresses reported in this book.\n'This Jesus hath God raised up, whereof we all are witnesses.' 'Whom\nGod hath raised from the dead, whereof we are witnesses.' 'With great\npower gave the Apostles witness of the Resurrection.' 'We are His\nwitnesses of these things.' To Cornelius, Peter speaks of the Apostles\nas 'witnesses chosen before of God, who did eat and drink with Him\nafter He rose from the dead'--and whose charge, received from Christ,\nwas 'to testify that it is He which was ordained of God to be the Judge\nof quick and dead.' Paul at Antioch speaks of the Twelve, from whom he\ndistinguishes himself, as being 'Christ's witnesses to _the\npeople_'--and seems to regard them as specially commissioned to the\nJewish nation, while he was sent to 'declare unto you'--Gentiles--the\nsame 'glad tidings,' in that 'God had raised up Jesus again.' So we\nmight go on accumulating passages, but these will suffice.\n\nI need not spend time in elaborating or emphasising the contrast which\nthe idea of the Apostolic office contained in these simple words\npresents to the portentous theories of later times. I need only remind\nyou that, according to the Gospels, the work of the Apostles in\nChrist's lifetime embraced three elements, none of which were peculiar\nto them--to be with Christ, to preach, and to work miracles; that their\ncharacteristic work after His Ascension was this of witness-bearing;\nthat the Church did not owe to them as a body its extension, nor\nChristian doctrine its form; that whilst Peter and James and John\nappear in the history, and Matthew perhaps wrote a Gospel, and the\nother James and Jude are probably the authors of the brief Epistles\nwhich bear their names--the rest of the Twelve never appear in the\nsubsequent history. The Acts of the Apostles is a misnomer for Luke's\nsecond 'treatise.' It tells the work of Peter alone among the Twelve.\nThe Hellenists Stephen and Philip, the Cypriote Barnabas, and the man\nof Tarsus--greater than them all--these spread the name of Christ\nbeyond the limits of the Holy City and the chosen people. The solemn\npower of 'binding and loosing' was not a prerogative of the Twelve, for\nwe read that Jesus came where 'the _disciples_ were assembled,' and\nthat 'the _disciples_ were glad when they saw the Lord'; and 'He\nbreathed on _them_, and said, \"Receive ye the Holy Ghost: whose soever\nsins ye remit, they are remitted.\"'\n\nWhere in all this is there a trace of the special Apostolic powers\nwhich have been alleged to be transmitted from them? Nowhere. Who was\nit that came and said, 'Brother Saul, the Lord hath sent me that thou\nmightest be filled with the Holy Ghost'? A simple 'layman'! Who was it\nthat stood by, a passive and astonished spectator of the communication\nof spiritual gifts to Gentile converts, and could only say, 'Forasmuch,\nthen, as God gave them the like gift, as He did unto us, what was I\nthat I could withstand God?' Peter, the leader of the Twelve!\n\nTheir task was apparently a humbler, really a far more important one.\nTheir place was apparently a lowlier, really a loftier one. They had to\nlay broad and deep the basis for all the growth and grace of the\nChurch, in the facts which they witnessed. Their work abides; and when\nthe Celestial City is revealed to our longing hearts, in its\nfoundations will be read 'the names of the twelve Apostles of the\nLamb.' Their office was testimony; and their testimony was to this\neffect--'Hearken, we eleven men knew this Jesus. Some of us knew Him\nwhen He was a boy, and lived beside that little village where He was\nbrought up. We were with Him for three whole years in close contact day\nand night. We all of us, though we were cowards, stood afar off with a\nhandful of women when He was crucified. We saw Him dead. We saw His\ngrave. We saw Him living, and we touched Him, and handled Him, and He\nate and drank with us; and we, sinners that we are that tell it you, we\nwent out with Him to the top of Olivet, and we saw Him go up into the\nskies. Do you believe us or do you not? We do not come in the first\nplace to preach doctrines. We are not thinkers or moralists. We are\nplain men, telling a plain story, to the truth of which we pledge our\nsenses. We do not want compliments about our spiritual elevation, or\nour pure morality. We do not want reverence as possessors of mysterious\nand exclusive powers. We want you to believe us as honest men, relating\nwhat we have seen. There are eleven of us, and there are five hundred\nat our back, and we have all got the one simple story to tell. It is,\nindeed, a gospel, a philosophy, a theology, the reconciliation of earth\nand heaven, the revelation of God to man, and of man to himself, the\nunveiling of the future world, the basis of hope; but we bring it to\nyou first as a thing that happened upon this earth of ours, which we\nsaw with our eyes, and of which we are the witnesses.'\n\nTo that work there can be no successors. Some of the Apostles were\ninspired to be the writers of the authoritative fountains of religious\ntruth; but that gift did not belong to them all, and was not the\ndistinctive possession of the Twelve. The power of working miracles,\nand of communicating supernatural gifts, was not confined to them, but\nis found exercised by other believers, as well as by a whole\n'presbytery.' And as for what was properly their task, and their\nqualifications, there can be no succession, for there is nothing to\nsucceed to, but what cannot be transmitted--the sight of the risen\nSaviour, and the witness to His Resurrection as a fact certified by\ntheir senses.\n\nII. The sufficiency of the testimony.\n\nPeter regards (as does the whole New Testament, and as did Peter's\nMaster, when He appointed these men) the witness which he and his\nfellows bore as enough to lay firm and deep the historical fact of the\nResurrection of Jesus Christ.\n\nThe first point that I would suggest here is this: if we think of\nChristianity as being mainly a set of truths--spiritual, moral,\nintellectual--then, of course, the way to prove Christianity is to show\nthe consistency of that body of truths with one another, their\nconsistency with other truths, their derivation from admitted\nprinciples, their reasonableness, their adaptation to men's nature, the\nrefining and elevating effects of their adoption, and so on. If we\nthink of Christianity, on the other hand, as being first a set of\nhistorical facts which carry the doctrines, then the way to prove\nChristianity is not to show how reasonable it is, not to show how it\nhas been anticipated and expected and desired, not to show how it\ncorresponds with men's needs and men's longings, not to show what large\nand blessed results follow from its acceptance. All these are\nlegitimate ways of establishing principles; but the way to establish a\nfact is only one--that is, to find somebody that can say, 'I know it,\nfor I saw it.'\n\nAnd my belief is that the course of modern 'apologetics,' as they are\ncalled--methods of defending Christianity--has followed too slavishly\nthe devious course of modern antagonism, and has departed from its real\nstronghold when it has consented to argue the question on these (as I\ntake them to be) lower and less sufficing grounds. I am thankful to\nadopt all that wise Christian apologists may have said in regard to the\nreasonableness of Christianity; its correspondence with men's wants,\nthe blessings that follow from it, and so forth; but the Gospel is\nfirst and foremost a history, and you cannot prove that a thing has\nhappened by showing how very desirable it is that it should happen, how\nreasonable it is to expect that it should happen, what good results\nwould follow from believing that it has happened--all that is\nirrelevant. Think of it as first a history, and then you are shut up to\nthe old-fashioned line of evidence, irrefragable as I take it to be, to\nwhich all these others may afterwards be appended as confirmatory. It\nis true, because sufficient eye-witnesses assert it. It did happen,\nbecause it is commended to us by the ordinary canons of evidence which\nwe accept in regard to all other matters of fact.\n\nWith regard to the sufficiency of the specific evidence here, I wish to\nmake only one or two observations.\n\nSuppose you yield up everything that the most craving and unreasonable\nmodern scepticism can demand as to the date and authorship of these\ntracts that make the New Testament, we have still left four letters of\nthe Apostle Paul, which no one has ever denied, which the very\nextremest professors of the 'higher criticism' themselves accept. These\nfour are the Epistles to the Romans, the first and second to the\nCorinthians, and that to the Galatians. The dates which are assigned to\nthese four letters by any one, believer or unbeliever, bring them\nwithin five-and-twenty years of the alleged date of Christ's\nresurrection.\n\nThen what do we find in these undeniably and admittedly genuine\nletters, written a quarter of a century after the supposed fact? We\nfind in all of them reference to it--the distinct allegation of it. We\nfind in one of them that the Apostle states it as being the substance\nof his preaching and of his brethren's preaching, that 'Christ died and\nrose again according to the Scriptures,' and that He was seen by\nindividuals, by multitudes, by a whole five hundred, the greater\nportion of whom were living and available as witnesses when he wrote.\n\nAnd we find that side by side with this statement, there is the\nreference to his own vision of the risen Saviour, which carries us up\nwithin ten years of the alleged fact. So, then, by the evidence of\nadmittedly genuine documents, which are dealing with a state of things\nten years after the supposed resurrection, there was a unanimous\nconcurrence of belief on the part of the whole primitive Church, so\nthat even the heretics who said that there was no resurrection of the\ndead could be argued with on the ground of their belief in Christ's\nResurrection. The whole Church with one voice asserted it. And there\nwere hundreds of living men ready to attest it. It was not a handful of\nwomen who fancied they had seen Him once, very early in the dim\ntwilight of a spring morning--but it was half a thousand that had\nbeheld Him. He had been seen by them not once, but often; not far off,\nbut close at hand; not in one place, but in Galilee and Jerusalem; not\nunder one set of circumstances, but at all hours of the day, abroad and\nin the house, walking and sitting, speaking and eating, by them singly\nand in numbers. He had not been seen only by excited expectants of His\nappearance, but by incredulous eyes and surprised hearts, who doubted\nere they worshipped, and paused before they said, 'My Lord and my God!'\nThey neither hoped that He would rise, nor believed that He had risen;\nand the world may be thankful that they were 'slow of heart to believe.'\n\nWould not the testimony which can be alleged for Christ's Resurrection\nbe enough to guarantee any event but this? And if so, why is it not\nenough to guarantee this too? If, as nobody denies, the Early Church,\nwithin ten years of Christ's Resurrection, believed in His\nResurrection, and were ready to go, and did, many of them, go to the\ndeath in assertion of their veracity in declaring it, then one of two\nthings--Either they were right or they were wrong; and if the latter,\none of two things--If the Resurrection be not a fact, then that belief\nwas either a delusion or a deceit.\n\nIt was not a delusion, for such an illusion is altogether unexampled;\nand it is absurd to think of it as being shared by a multitude like the\nEarly Church. Nations have said, 'Our King is not dead--he is gone away\nand he will come back.' Loving disciples have said, 'Our Teacher lives\nin solitude and will return to us.' But this is no parallel to these.\nThis is not a fond imagination giving an apparent substance to its own\ncreation, but sense recognising first the fact, 'He _is_ dead,' and\nthen, in opposition to expectation, and when hope had sickened to\ndespair, recognising the astounding fact, 'He liveth that was dead';\nand to suppose that that should have been the rooted conviction of\nhundreds of men who were not idiots, finds no parallel in the history\nof human illusions, and no analogy in such legends as those to which I\nhave referred.\n\nIt was not a myth, for a myth does not grow in ten years. And there was\nno motive to frame one, if Christ was dead and all was over. It was not\na deceit, for the character of the men, and the character of the\nassociated morality, and the obvious absence of all self-interest, and\nthe persecutions and sorrows which they endured, make it inconceivable\nthat the fairest building that ever hath been reared in the world, and\nwhich is cemented by men's blood, should be built upon the mud and\nslime of a conscious deceit!\n\nAnd all this we are asked to put aside at the bidding of a glaring\nbegging of the whole question, and an outrageous assertion which no man\nthat believes in a God at all can logically maintain, viz. that no\ntestimony can reach to the miraculous, or that miracles are impossible.\n\nNo testimony reach to the miraculous! Well, put it into a concrete\nform. Can testimony not reach to this: 'I know, because I saw, that a\nman was dead; I know, because I saw, a dead man live again'? If\ntestimony can do that, I think we may safely leave the verbal sophism\nthat it cannot reach to the miraculous to take care of itself.\n\nAnd, then, with regard to the other assumption--miracle is impossible.\nThat is an illogical begging of the whole question in dispute. It\ncannot avail to brush aside testimony. You cannot smother facts by\ntheories in that fashion. Again, one would like to know how it comes\nthat our modern men of science, who protest so much against science\nbeing corrupted by metaphysics, should commit themselves to an\nassertion like that? Surely that is stark, staring metaphysics. It\nseems as if they thought that the 'metaphysics' which said that there\nwas anything behind the physical universe was unscientific; but that\nthe metaphysics which said that there was nothing behind physics was\nquite legitimate, and ought to be allowed to pass muster. What have the\nvotaries of pure physical science, who hold the barren word-contests of\ntheology and the proud pretensions of philosophy in such contempt, to\ndo out-Heroding Herod in that fashion, and venturing on metaphysical\nassertions of such a sort? Let them keep to their own line, and tell us\nall that crucibles and scalpels can reveal, and we will listen as\nbecomes us. But when they contradict their own principles in order to\ndeny the possibility of miracle, we need only give them back their own\nwords, and ask that the investigation of facts shall not be hampered\nand clogged with metaphysical prejudices. No! no! Christ made no\nmistake when He built His Church upon that rock--the historical\nevidence of a resurrection from the dead, though all the wise men of\nAreopagus hill may make its cliffs ring with mocking laughter when we\nsay, upon Easter morning, 'The Lord is risen indeed!'\n\nIII. There is a final consideration connected with these words, which I\nmust deal with very briefly--the importance of the fact which is thus\nborne witness to.\n\nI have already pointed out that the Resurrection of Christ is viewed in\nScripture in three aspects: in its bearing upon His nature and work, as\na pattern for our future, and as a symbol of our present newness of\nlife. The importance to which I refer now applies only to that first\naspect.\n\nWith the Resurrection of Jesus Christ stands or falls the Divinity of\nChrist. As Paul said, in that letter to which I have referred,\n'Declared to be the Son of God, with power by the resurrection from the\ndead.' As Peter said in the sermon that follows this one of our text,\n'God hath made this same Jesus, whom ye have crucified, both Lord and\nChrist.' As Paul said, on Mars Hill, 'He will judge the world in\nrighteousness by that Man whom He hath ordained, whereof He hath given\nassurance unto all men, in that He hath raised Him from the dead.'\n\nThe case is this. Jesus lived as we know, and in the course of that\nlife claimed to be the Son of God. He made such broad and strange\nassertions as these--'I and My Father are One.' 'I am the Way, and the\nTruth, and the Life.' 'I am the Resurrection and the Life.' 'He that\nbelieveth on Me shall never die.' 'The Son of Man must suffer many\nthings, and the third day He shall rise again.' Thus speaking He dies,\nand rises again and passes into the heavens. That is the last mightiest\nutterance of the same testimony, which spake from heaven at His\nbaptism, 'This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased!' If He be\nrisen from the dead, then His loftiest claims are confirmed from the\nthrone, and we can see in Him, the Son of God. But if death holds Him\nstill, and 'the Syrian stars look down upon His grave,' as a modern\npoet tells us in his dainty English that they do, then what becomes of\nthese words of His, and of our estimate of the character of Him, the\nspeaker? Let us hear no more about the pure morality of Jesus Christ,\nand the beauty of His calm and lofty teaching, and the rest of it. Take\naway His resurrection from the dead, and we have left beautiful\nprecepts, and fair wisdom, deformed with a monstrous self-assertion and\nthe constant reiteration of claims which the event proves to have been\nbaseless. Either He has risen from the dead or His words were\nblasphemy. Men nowadays talk very lightly of throwing aside the\nsupernatural portions of the Gospel history, and retaining reverence\nfor the great Teacher, the pure moralist of Nazareth. The Pharisees put\nthe issue more coarsely and truly when they said, 'That deceiver said,\nwhile He was yet alive, after three days I will rise again.' Yes! one\nor the other. 'Declared to be the Son of God with power by the\nresurrection from the dead,' or--that which our lips refuse to say even\nas a hypothesis!\n\nStill further, with the Resurrection stands or falls Christ's whole\nwork for our redemption. If He died, like other men--if that awful bony\nhand has got its grip upon Him too, then we have no proof that the\ncross was anything but a martyr's cross. His Resurrection is the proof\nof His completed work of redemption. It is the proof--followed as it is\nby His Ascension--that His death was not the tribute which for Himself\nHe had to pay, but the ransom for us. His Resurrection is the condition\nof His present activity. If He has not risen, He has not put away sin;\nand if He has not put it away by the sacrifice of Himself, none has,\nand it remains. We come back to the old dreary alternative: 'if Christ\nbe not risen, your faith is vain, and our preaching is vain. Ye are yet\nin your sins, and they which have fallen asleep in Christ' with\nunfulfilled hopes fixed upon a baseless vision--they of whom we hoped,\nthrough our tears, that they live with Him--they 'are perished.' For,\nif He be not risen, there is no resurrection; and, if He be not risen,\nthere is no forgiveness; and, if He be not risen, there is no Son of\nGod; and the world is desolate, and the heaven is empty, and the grave\nis dark, and sin abides, and death is eternal. If Christ be dead, then\nthat awful vision is true, 'As I looked up into the immeasurable\nheavens for the Divine Eye, it froze me with an empty, bottomless\neye-socket.'\n\nThere is nothing between us and darkness, despair, death, but that\nancient message, 'I declare unto you the Gospel which I preach, by\nwhich ye are saved if ye keep in memory what I preached unto you, how\nthat Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He\nwas raised the third day according to the Scriptures.'\n\nWell, then, may we take up the ancient glad salutation, 'The Lord is\nrisen!' and, turning from these thoughts of the disaster and despair\nthat that awful supposition drags after it, fall back upon sober\ncertainty, and with the Apostle break forth in triumph, 'Now is Christ\nrisen from the dead, and become the first-fruits of them that slept'!\n\n\n\nTHE ABIDING GIFT AND ITS TRANSITORY ACCOMPANIMENTS\n\n'And when the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all with one\naccord in one place. 2 And suddenly there came a sound from heaven as\nof a rushing mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were\nsitting. 3. And there appeared unto them cloven tongues like as of\nfire, and it sat upon each of them. 4. And they were all filled with\nthe Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit\ngave them utterance. 5. And there were dwelling at Jerusalem Jews,\ndevout men, out of every nation under heaven. 6. Now when this was\nnoised abroad, the multitude came together, and were confounded,\nbecause that every man heard them speak in his own language. 7. And\nthey were all amazed and marvelled, saying one to another, Behold, are\nnot all these which speak Galileans? 8. And how we hear every man in\nour own tongue, wherein we were born? 9. Parthians, and Medes, and\nElamites, and the dwellers in Mesopotamia, and in Judaea, and\nCappadocia, in Pontus, and Asia, 10. Phrygia, and Pamphylia, in Egypt,\nand in the parts of Libya about Cyrene, and strangers of Rome, Jews and\nproselytes. 11. Cretes, and Arabians, we do hear them speak in our\ntongues the wonderful works of God. 12. And they were all amazed, and\nwere in doubt, saying one to another, What meaneth this? 13. Others,\nmocking, said, These men are full of new wine.'--ACTS ii. 1-13.\n\nOnly ten days elapsed between the Ascension and Pentecost. The attitude\nof the Church during that time should be carefully noted. They obeyed\nimplicitly Christ's command to wait for the 'power from on high.' The\nonly act recorded is the election of Matthias to fill Judas's place,\nand it is at least questionable whether that was not a mistake, and\nshown to be such by Christ's subsequent choice of Paul as an Apostle.\nBut, with the exception of that one flash of doubtful activity, prayer,\nsupplication, patient waiting, and clinging together in harmonious\nexpectancy, characterised the hundred and twenty brethren.\n\nThey must have been wrought to an intense pitch of anticipation, for\nthey knew that their waiting was to be short, and they knew, at least\npartially, what they were to receive, namely, 'power from on high,' or\n'the promise of the Father.' Probably, too, the great Feast, so near at\nhand, would appear to them a likely time for the fulfilment of the\npromise.\n\nSo, very early on that day of Pentecost, they betook themselves to\ntheir usual place of assembling, probably the 'large upper room,'\nalready hallowed to their memories; and in each heart the eager\nquestion would spring, 'Will it be to-day?' It is as true now as it was\nthen, that the spirits into whom the Holy Spirit breathes His power\nmust keep themselves still, expectant, prayerful. Perpetual occupation\nmay be more loss of time than devout waiting, with hands folded,\nbecause the heart is wide open to receive the power which will fit the\nhands for better work.\n\nIt was but 'the third hour of the day' when Peter stood up to speak; it\nmust have been little after dawn when the brethren came together. How\nlong they had been assembled we do not know, but we cannot doubt how\nthey had been occupied. Many a prayer had gone up through the morning\nair, and, no doubt, some voice was breathing the united desires, when a\ndeep, strange sound was heard at a distance, and rapidly gained volume,\nand was heard to draw near. Like the roaring of a tempest hurrying\ntowards them, it hushed human voices, and each man would feel, 'Surely\nnow the Gift comes!' Nearer and nearer it approached, and at last burst\ninto the chamber where they sat silent and unmoving.\n\nBut if we look carefully at Luke's words, we see that what filled the\nhouse was not agitated air, or wind, but 'a sound as of wind.' The\nlanguage implies that there was no rush of atmosphere that lifted a\nhair on any cheek, or blew on any face, but only such a sound as is\nmade by tempest. It suggested wind, but it was not wind. By that first\nsymbolic preparation for the communication of the promised gift, the\nold symbolism which lies in the very word 'Spirit,' and had been\nbrought anew to the disciples' remembrance by Christ's words to\nNicodemus, and by His breathing on them when He gave them an\nanticipatory and partial bestowment of the Spirit, is brought to view,\nwith its associations of life-giving power and liberty. 'Thou hearest\nthe sound thereof,' could scarcely fail to be remembered by some in\nthat chamber.\n\nBut it is not to be supposed that the audible symbol continued when the\nsecond preparatory one, addressed to the eye, appeared. As the former\nhad been not wind, but like it, the latter was not fire, but 'as of\nfire.' The language does not answer the question whether what was seen\nwas a mass from which the tongues detached themselves, or whether only\nthe separate tongues were visible as they moved overhead. But the final\nresult was that 'it sat on each.' The verb has no expressed subject,\nand 'fire' cannot be the subject, for it is only introduced as a\ncomparison. Probably, therefore, we are to understand 'a tongue' as the\nunexpressed subject of the verb.\n\nClearly, the point of the symbol is the same as that presented in the\nBaptist's promise of a baptism 'with the Holy Ghost and fire.' The\nSpirit was to be in them as a Spirit of burning, thawing natural\ncoldness and melting hearts with a genial warmth, which should beget\nflaming enthusiasm, fervent love, burning zeal, and should work\ntransformation into its own fiery substance. The rejoicing power, the\nquick energy, the consuming force, the assimilating action of fire, are\nall included in the symbol, and should all be possessed by Christ's\ndisciples.\n\nBut were the tongue-like shapes of the flames significant too? It is\ndoubtful, for, natural as is the supposition that they were, it is to\nbe remembered that 'tongues of fire' is a usual expression, and may\nmean nothing more than the flickering shoots of flame into which a fire\nnecessarily parts.\n\nBut these two symbols are only symbols. The true fulfilment of the\ngreat promise follows. Mark the brief simplicity of the quiet words in\nwhich the greatest bestowment ever made on humanity, the beginning of\nan altogether new era, the equipment of the Church for her age-long\nconflict, is told. There was an actual impartation to men of a divine\nlife, to dwell in them and actuate them; to bring all good to victory\nin them; to illuminate, sustain, direct, and elevate; to cleanse and\nquicken. The gift was complete. They were 'filled.' No doubt they had\nmuch more to receive, and they received it, as their natures became, by\nfaithful obedience to the indwelling Spirit, capable of more. But up to\nthe measure of their then capacities they were filled; and, since their\nspirits were expansible, and the gift was infinite, they were in a\nposition to grow steadily in possession of it, till they were 'filled\nwith all the fulness of God.'\n\nFurther, 'they were _all_ filled,'--not the Apostles only, but the\nwhole hundred and twenty. Peter's quotation from Joel distinctly\nimplies the universality of the gift, which the 'servants and\nhandmaidens,' the brethren and the women, now received. Herein is the\ntrue democracy of Christianity. There are still diversities of\noperations and degrees of possession, but all Christians have the\nSpirit. All 'they that believe on Him,' and only they, have received\nit. Of old the light shone only on the highest peaks,--prophets, and\nkings, and psalmists; now the lowest depths of the valleys are flooded\nwith it. Would that Christians generally believed more fully in, and\nset more store by, that great gift!\n\nAs symbols preceded, tokens followed. The essential fact of Pentecost\nis neither the sound and fire, nor the speaking with other tongues, but\nthe communication of the Holy Spirit. The sign and result of that was\nthe gift of utterance in various languages, not their own, nor learned\nby ordinary ways. No twisting of the narrative can weaken the plain\nmeaning of it, that these unlearned Galileans spake in tongues which\ntheir users recognised to be their own. The significance of the fact\nwill appear presently, but first note the attestation of it by the\nmultitude.\n\nOf course, the foreign-born Jews, who, from motives of piety, however\nmistaken, had come to dwell in Jerusalem, are said to have been 'from\nevery nation under heaven,' by an obvious and ordinary license. It is\nenough that, as the subsequent catalogue shows, they came from all\ncorners of the then known world, though the extremes of territory\nmentioned cover but a small space on a terrestrial globe.\n\nThe 'sound' of the rushing wind had been heard hurtling through the\ncity in the early morning hours, and had served as guide to the spot. A\ncurious crowd came hurrying to ascertain what this noise of tempest in\na calm meant, and they were met by something more extraordinary still.\nTry to imagine the spectacle. As would appear from verse 33, the\ntongues of fire remained lambently glowing on each head ('which ye\nsee'), and the whole hundred and twenty, thus strangely crowned, were\npouring out rapturous praises, each in some strange tongue. When the\nastonished ears had become accustomed to the apparent tumult, every man\nin the crowd heard some one or more speaking in his own tongue,\nlanguage, or dialect, and all were declaring the mighty works of God;\nthat is, probably, the story of the crucified, ascended Jesus.\n\nWe need not dwell on subordinate questions, as to the number of\nlanguages represented there, or as to the catalogue in verses 9 and 10.\nBut we would emphasise two thoughts. First, the natural result of being\nfilled with God's Spirit is utterance of the great truths of Christ's\nGospel. As surely as light radiates, as surely as any deep emotion\ndemands expression, so certainly will a soul filled with the Spirit be\nforced to break into speech. If professing Christians have never known\nthe impulse to tell of the Christ whom they have found, their religion\nmust be very shallow and imperfect. If their spirits are full, they\nwill overflow in speech.\n\nSecond, Pentecost is a prophecy of the universal proclamation of the\nGospel, and of the universal praise which shall one day rise to Him\nthat was slain. 'This company of brethren praising God in the tongues\nof the whole world represented the whole world which shall one day\npraise God in its various tongues' (Bengel). Pentecost reversed Babel,\nnot by bringing about a featureless monopoly, but by consecrating\ndiversity, and showing that each language could be hallowed, and that\neach lent some new strain of music to the chorus.\n\nIt prophesied of the time when 'men of every tribe, and tongue, and\npeople, and nation' should lift up their voices to Him who has\npurchased them unto God with His blood. It began a communication of the\nSpirit to all believers which is never to cease while the world stands.\nThe mighty rushing sound has died into silence, the fiery tongues rest\non no heads now, the miraculous results of the gifts of the Spirit have\npassed away also, but the gift remains, and the Spirit of God abides\nfor ever with the Church of Christ.\n\n\n\nTHE FOURFOLD SYMBOLS OF THE SPIRIT\n\n'A rushing mighty wind.' ... 'Cloven tongues like as of fire.' ... 'I\nwill pour out of My Spirit upon all flesh.'--ACTS ii. 2, 3, 17.\n\n'Ye have an unction from the Holy One.'--1 JOHN ii. 20.\n\nWind, fire, water, oil,--these four are constant Scriptural symbols for\nthe Spirit of God. We have them all in these fragments of verses which\nI have taken for my text now, and which I have isolated from their\ncontext for the purpose of bringing out simply these symbolical\nreferences. I think that perhaps we may get some force and freshness to\nthe thoughts proper to this day [Footnote: Whit Sunday.] by looking at\nthese rather than by treating the subject in some more abstract form.\nWe have then the Breath of the Spirit, the Fire of the Spirit, the\nWater of the Spirit, and the Anointing Oil of the Spirit. And the\nconsideration of these four will bring out a great many of the\nprincipal Scriptural ideas about the gift of the Spirit of God which\nbelongs to all Christian souls.\n\nI. First, 'a rushing mighty wind.'\n\nOf course, the symbol is but the putting into picturesque form of the\nidea that lies in the name. 'Spirit' is 'breath.' Wind is but air in\nmotion. Breath is the synonym for life. 'Spirit' and 'life' are two\nwords for one thing. So then, in the symbol, the 'rushing mighty wind,'\nwe have set forth the highest work of the Spirit--the communication of\na new and supernatural life.\n\nWe are carried hack to that grand vision of the prophet who saw the\nbones lying, very many and very dry, sapless and disintegrated, a heap\ndead and ready to rot. The question comes to him: 'Son of man! Can\nthese bones live?' The only possible answer, if he consult experience,\nis, 'O Lord God! Thou knowest.' Then follows the great invocation:\n'Come from the four winds, O Breath! and breathe upon these slain that\nthey may live.' And the Breath comes and 'they stand up, an exceeding\ngreat army.' 'It is the Spirit that quickeneth.' The Scripture treats\nus all as dead, being separated from God, unless we are united to Him\nby faith in Jesus Christ. According to the saying of the Evangelist,\n'They which believe on Him receive' the Spirit, and thereby receive the\nlife which He gives, or, as our Lord Himself speaks, are 'born of the\nSpirit.' The highest and most characteristic office of the Spirit of\nGod is to enkindle this new life, and hence His noblest name, among the\nmany by which He is called, is the Spirit of life.\n\nAgain, remember, 'that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.' If there\nbe life given it must be kindred with the life which is its source.\nReflect upon those profound words of our Lord: 'The wind bloweth where\nit listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell\nwhence it cometh nor whither it goeth. So is every one that is born of\nthe Spirit.' They describe first the operation of the life-giving\nSpirit, but they describe also the characteristics of the resulting\nlife.\n\n'The wind bloweth where it listeth.' That spiritual life, both in the\ndivine source and in the human recipient, is its own law. Of course the\nwind has its laws, as every physical agent has; but these are so\ncomplicated and undiscovered that it has always been the very symbol of\nfreedom, and poets have spoken of these 'chartered libertines,' the\nwinds, and 'free as the air' has become a proverb. So that Divine\nSpirit is limited by no human conditions or laws, but dispenses His\ngifts in superb disregard of conventionalities and externalisms. Just\nas the lower gift of what we call 'genius' is above all limits of\nculture or education or position, and falls on a wool-stapler in\nStratford-on-Avon, or on a ploughman in Ayrshire, so, in a similar\nmanner, the altogether different gift of the divine, life-giving Spirit\nfollows no lines that Churches or institutions draw. It falls upon an\nAugustinian monk in a convent, and he shakes Europe. It falls upon a\ntinker in Bedford gaol, and he writes _Pilgrim's Progress_. It falls\nupon a cobbler in Kettering, and he founds modern Christian missions.\nIt blows 'where it listeth,' sovereignly indifferent to the\nexpectations and limitations and the externalisms, even of organised\nChristianity, and touching this man and that man, not arbitrarily but\naccording to 'the good pleasure' that is a law to itself, because it is\nperfect in wisdom and in goodness.\n\nAnd as thus the life-giving Spirit imparts Himself according to higher\nlaws than we can grasp, so in like manner the life that is derived from\nit is a life which is its own law. The Christian conscience, touched by\nthe Spirit of God, owes allegiance to no regulations or external\ncommandments laid down by man. The Christian conscience, enlightened by\nthe Spirit of God, at its peril will take its beliefs from any other\nthan from that Divine Spirit. All authority over conduct, all authority\nover belief is burnt up and disappears in the presence of the grand\ndemocracy of the true Christian principle: 'Ye are all the children of\nGod by faith in Jesus Christ'; and every one of you possesses the\nSpirit which teaches, the Spirit which inspires, the Spirit which\nenlightens, the Spirit which is the guide to all truth. So 'the wind\nbloweth where it listeth,' and the voice of that Divine Quickener is,\n\n  'Myself shall to My darling be\n    Both law and impulse.'\n\nUnder the impulse derived from the Divine Spirit, the human spirit\n'listeth' what is right, and is bound to follow the promptings of its\nhighest desires. Those men only are free as the air we breathe, who are\nvitalised by the Spirit of the Lord, for 'where the Spirit of the Lord\nis, there,' and there alone, 'is liberty.'\n\nIn this symbol there lies not only the thought of a life derived,\nkindred with the life bestowed, and free like the life which is given,\nbut there lies also the idea of power. The wind which filled the house\nwas not only mighty but 'borne onward'--fitting type of the strong\nimpulse by which in olden times 'holy men spake as they were \"borne\nonward\"' (the word is the same) 'by the Holy Ghost.' There are\ndiversities of operations, but it is the same breath of God, which\nsometimes blows in the softest _pianissimo_ that scarcely rustles the\nsummer woods in the leafy month of June, and sometimes storms in wild\ntempest that dashes the seas against the rocks. So this mighty\nlife-giving Agent moves in gentleness and yet in power, and sometimes\nswells and rises almost to tempest, but is ever the impelling force of\nall that is strong and true and fair in Christian hearts and lives.\n\nThe history of the world, since that day of Pentecost, has been a\ncommentary upon the words of my text. With viewless, impalpable energy,\nthe mighty breath of God swept across the ancient world and 'laid the\nlofty city' of paganism 'low; even to the ground, and brought it even\nto the dust.' A breath passed over the whole civilised world, like the\nbreath of the west wind upon the glaciers in the spring, melting the\nthick-ribbed ice, and wooing forth the flowers, and the world was made\nover again. In our own hearts and lives this is the one Power that will\nmake us strong and good. The question is all-important for each of us,\n'Have I this life, and does it move me, as the ships are borne along by\nthe wind?' 'As many as are impelled by the Spirit of God,\nthey'--_they_--'are the sons of God.' Is that the breath that swells\nall the sails of your lives, and drives you upon your course? If it be,\nyou are Christians; if it be not, you are not.\n\nII. And now a word as to the second of these symbols--'Cloven tongues\nas of fire'--the fire of the Spirit.\n\nI need not do more than remind you how frequently that emblem is\nemployed both in the Old and in the New Testament. John the Baptist\ncontrasted the cold negative efficiency of his baptism, which at its\nbest, was but a baptism of repentance, with the quickening power of the\nbaptism of Him who was to follow him; when he said, 'I indeed baptise\nyou with water, but He that cometh after me is mightier than I. He\nshall baptise you with the Holy Ghost and with fire.' The two words\nmean but one thing, the fire being the emblem of the Spirit.\n\nYou will remember, too, how our Lord Himself employs the same metaphor\nwhen He speaks about His coming to bring fire on the earth, and His\nlonging to see it kindled into a beneficent blaze. In this connection\nthe fire is a symbol of a quick, triumphant energy, which will\ntransform us into its own likeness. There are two sides to that emblem:\none destructive, one creative; one wrathful, one loving. There are the\nfire of love, and the fire of anger. There is the fire of the sunshine\nwhich is the condition of life, as well as the fire of the lightning\nwhich burns and consumes. The emblem of fire is selected to express the\nwork of the Spirit of God, by reason of its leaping, triumphant,\ntransforming energy. See, for instance, how, when you kindle a pile of\ndead green-wood, the tongues of fire spring from point to point until\nthey have conquered the whole mass, and turned it all into a ruddy\nlikeness of the parent flame. And so here, this fire of God, if it fall\nupon you, will burn up all your coldness, and will make you glow with\nenthusiasm, working your intellectual convictions in fire not in frost,\nmaking your creed a living power in your lives, and kindling you into a\nflame of earnest consecration.\n\nThe same idea is expressed by the common phrases of every language. We\nspeak of the fervour of love, the warmth of affection, the blaze of\nenthusiasm, the fire of emotion, the coldness of indifference.\nChristians are to be set on fire of God. If the Spirit dwell in us, He\nwill make us fiery like Himself, even as fire turns the wettest\ngreen-wood into fire. We have more than enough of cold Christians who\nare afraid of nothing so much as of being betrayed into warm emotion.\n\nI believe, dear brethren, and I am bound to express the belief, that\none of the chief wants of the Christian Church of this generation, the\nChristian Church of this city, the Christian Church of this chapel, is\nmore of the fire of God! We are all icebergs compared with what we\nought to be. Look at yourselves; never mind about your brethren. Let\neach of us look at his own heart, and say whether there is any trace in\nhis Christianity of the power of that Spirit who is fire. Is our\nreligion flame or ice? Where among us are to be found lives blazing\nwith enthusiastic devotion and earnest love? Do not such words sound\nlike mockery when applied to us? Have we not to listen to that solemn\nold warning that never loses its power, and, alas! seems never to lose\nits appropriateness: 'Because thou art neither cold nor hot, I will\nspue thee out of My mouth.' We ought to be like the burning beings\nbefore God's throne, the seraphim, the spirits that blaze and serve. We\nought to be like God Himself, all aflame with love. Let us seek\npenitently for that Spirit of fire who will dwell in us all if we will.\n\nThe metaphor of fire suggests also--purifying. 'The Spirit of burning'\nwill burn the filth out of us. That is the only way by which a man can\never be made clean. You may wash and wash and wash with the cold water\nof moral reformation, you will never get the dirt out with it. No\nwashing and no rubbing will ever cleanse sin. The way to purge a soul\nis to do with it as they do with foul clay--thrust it into the fire and\nthat will burn all the blackness out of it. Get the love of God into\nyour hearts, and the fire of His Divine Spirit into your spirits to\nmelt you down, as it were, and then the scum and the dross will come to\nthe top, and you can skim them off. Two powers conquer my sin: the one\nis the blood of Jesus Christ, which washes me from all the guilt of the\npast; the other is the fiery influence of that Divine Spirit which\nmakes me pure and clean for all the time to come. Pray to be kindled\nwith the fire of God.\n\nIII. Then once more, take that other metaphor, 'I will pour out of My\nSpirit.'\n\nThat implies an emblem which is very frequently used, both in the Old\nand in the New Testament, viz., the Spirit as water. As our Lord said\nto Nicodemus: 'Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he\ncannot enter into the kingdom of God.' The 'water' stands in the same\nrelation to the 'Spirit' as the 'fire' does in the saying of John the\nBaptist already referred to--that is to say, it is simply a symbol or\nmaterial emblem of the Spirit. I suppose nobody would say that there\nwere two baptisms spoken of by John, one of the Holy Ghost and one of\nfire,--and I suppose that just in the same way, there are not two\nagents of regeneration pointed at in our Lord's words, nor even two\nconditions, but that the Spirit is the sole agent, and 'water' is but a\nfigure to express some aspect of His operations. So that there is no\nreference to the water of baptism in the words, and to see such a\nreference is to be led astray by sound, and out of a metaphor to\nmanufacture a miracle.\n\nThere are other passages where, in like manner, the Spirit is compared\nto a flowing stream, such as, for instance, when our Lord said, 'He\nthat believeth on Me, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living\nwater,' and when John saw a 'river of water of life proceeding from the\nthrone.' The expressions, too, of 'pouring out' and 'shedding forth'\nthe Spirit, point in the same direction, and are drawn from more than\none passage of Old Testament prophecy. What, then, is the significance\nof comparing that Divine Spirit with a river of water? First,\ncleansing, of which I need not say any more, because I have dealt with\nIt in the previous part of my sermon. Then, further, refreshing, and\nsatisfying. Ah! dear brethren, there is only one thing that will slake\nthe immortal thirst in your souls. The world will never do it; love or\nambition gratified and wealth possessed, will never do it. You will be\nas thirsty after you have drunk of these streams as ever you were\nbefore. There is one spring 'of which if a man drink, he shall never\nthirst' with unsatisfied, painful longings, but shall never cease to\nthirst with the longing which is blessedness, because it is fruition.\nOur thirst can be slaked by the deep draught of 'the river of the Water\nof Life, which proceeds from the Throne of God and the Lamb.' The\nSpirit of God, drunk in by my spirit, will still and satisfy my whole\nnature, and with it I shall be glad. Drink of this. 'Ho! every one that\nthirsteth, come ye to the waters!'\n\nThe Spirit is not only refreshing and satisfying, but also productive\nand fertilising. In Eastern lands a rill of water is all that is needed\nto make the wilderness rejoice. Turn that stream on to the barrenness\nof your hearts, and fair flowers will grow that would never grow\nwithout it. The one means of lofty and fruitful Christian living is a\ndeep, inward possession of the Spirit of God. The one way to fertilise\nbarren souls is to let that stream flood them all over, and then the\nflush of green will soon come, and that which is else a desert will\n'rejoice and blossom as the rose.'\n\nSo this water will cleanse, it will satisfy and refresh, it will be\nproductive and will fertilise, and 'everything shall live whithersoever\nthat river cometh.'\n\nIV. Then, lastly, we have the oil of the Spirit.\n\n'Ye have an unction,' says St. John in our last text, 'from the Holy\nOne.' I need not remind you, I suppose, of how in the old system,\nprophets, priests, and kings were anointed with consecrating oil, as a\nsymbol of their calling, and of their fitness for their special\noffices. The reason for the use of such a symbol, I presume, would lie\nin the invigorating and in the supposed, and possibly real,\nhealth-giving effect of the use of oil in those climates. Whatever may\nhave been the reason for the use of oil in official anointings, the\nmeaning of the act was plain. It was a preparation for a specific and\ndistinct service. And so, when we read of the oil of the Spirit, we are\nto think that it is that which fits us for being prophets, priests, and\nkings, and which calls us to, because it fits us for, these functions.\n\nYou are anointed to be prophets that you may make known Him who has\nloved and saved you, and may go about the world evidently inspired to\nshow forth His praise, and make His name glorious. That anointing calls\nand fits you to be priests, mediators between God and man, bringing God\nto men, and by pleading and persuasion, and the presentation of the\ntruth, drawing men to God. That unction calls and fits you to be kings,\nexercising authority over the little monarchy of your own natures, and\nover the men round you, who will bow in submission whenever they come\nin contact with a man all evidently aflame with the love of Jesus\nChrist, and filled with His Spirit. The world is hard and rude; the\nworld is blind and stupid; the world often fails to know its best\nfriends and its truest benefactors; but there is no crust of stupidity\nso crass and dense but that through it there will pass the penetrating\nshafts of light that ray from the face of a man who walks in fellowship\nwith Jesus. The whole nation of old was honoured with these sacred\nnames. They were a kingdom of priests; and the divine Voice said of the\nnation, 'Touch not Mine anointed, and do My prophets no harm!' How much\nmore are all Christian men, by the anointing of the Holy Spirit, made\nprophets, priests, and kings to God! Alas for the difference between\nwhat they ought to be and what they are!\n\nAnd then, do not forget also that when the Scriptures speak of\nChristian men as being anointed, it really speaks of them as being\nMessiahs. 'Christ' means _anointed_, does it not? 'Messiah' means\n_anointed_. And when we read in such a passage as that of my text, 'Ye\nhave an unction from the Holy One,' we cannot but feel that the words\npoint in the same direction as the great words of our Master Himself,\n'As My Father hath sent Me, even so send I you.' By authority derived,\nno doubt, and in a subordinate and secondary sense, of course, we are\nMessiahs, anointed with that Spirit which was given to Him, not by\nmeasure, and which has passed from Him to us. 'If any man have not the\nSpirit of Christ, he is none of His.'\n\nSo, dear brethren, all these things being certainly so, what are we to\nsay about the present state of Christendom? What are we to say about\nthe present state of English Christianity, Church and Dissent alike? Is\nPentecost a vanished glory, then? Has that 'rushing mighty wind' blown\nitself out, and a dead calm followed? Has that leaping fire died down\ninto grey ashes? Has the great river that burst out then, like the\nstream from the foot of the glaciers of Mont Blanc, full-grown in its\nbirth, been all swallowed up in the sand, like some of those rivers in\nthe East? Has the oil dried in the cruse? People tell us that\nChristianity is on its death-bed; and the aspect of a great many\nprofessing Christians seems to confirm the statement. But let us\nthankfully recognise that 'we are not straitened in God, but in\nourselves.' To how many of us the question might be put: 'Did you\nreceive the Holy Ghost when you believed?' And how many of us by our\nlives answer: 'We have not so much as heard whether there be any Holy\nGhost.' Let us go where we can receive Him; and remember the blessed\nwords: 'If ye, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your\nchildren, how much more will your Heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit\nto them that ask Him'!\n\n\n\nPETER'S FIRST SERMON\n\n'This Jesus hath God raised up, whereof we all are witnesses. 33.\nTherefore being by the right hand of God exalted, and having received\nof the Father the promise of the Holy Ghost, He hath shed forth this,\nwhich ye now see and hear. 34. For David is not ascended into the\nheavens: but he saith himself, The Lord said unto my Lord, Sit Thou on\nMy right hand, 35. Until I make Thy foes Thy footstool. 36. Therefore\nlet all the house of Israel know assuredly, that God hath made that\nsame Jesus, whom ye have crucified, both Lord and Christ. 37. Now when\nthey heard this, they were pricked in their heart, and said unto Peter\nand to the rest of the apostles, Men and brethren, what shall we do?\n38. Then Peter said unto them, Repent, and be baptized every one of you\nin the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall\nreceive the gift of the Holy Ghost. 39. For the promise is unto you,\nand to your children, and to all that are afar off, even as many as the\nLord our God shall call. 40. And with many other words did he testify\nand exhort, saying, Save yourselves from this untoward generation. 41.\nThen they that gladly received his word were baptized: and the same day\nthere were added unto them about three thousand souls. 42. And they\ncontinued stedfastly in the apostles' doctrine and fellowship, and in\nbreaking of bread, and in prayers. 43. And fear came upon every soul:\nand many wonders and signs were done by the apostles. 44. And all that\nbelieved were together, and had all things common; 45. And sold their\npossessions and goods, and parted them to all men, as every man had\nneed. 46. And they, continuing daily with one accord in the temple, and\nbreaking bread from house to house, did eat their meat with gladness\nand singleness of heart, 47. Praising God, and having favour with all\nthe people. And the Lord added to the church daily such as should be\nsaved.'--ACTS ii. 32-47.\n\nThis passage may best be dealt with as divided into three parts: the\nsharp spear-thrust of Peter's closing words (vs. 32-36), the wounded\nand healed hearers (vs. 37-41), and the fair morning dawn of the Church\n(vs. 42-47).\n\nI. Peter's address begins with pointing out the fulfilment of prophecy\nin the gift of the Spirit (vs. 14-21). It then declares the\nResurrection of Jesus as foretold by prophecy, and witnessed to by the\nwhole body of believers (vs. 22-32), and it ends by bringing together\nthese two facts, the gift of the Spirit and the Resurrection and\nAscension, as effect and cause, and as establishing beyond all doubt\nthat Jesus is the Christ of prophecy, and the Lord on whom Joel had\ndeclared that whoever called should be saved. We now begin with the\nlast verse of the second part of the address.\n\nObserve the significant alternation of the names of 'Christ' and\n'Jesus' in verses 31 and 32. The former verse establishes that prophecy\nhad foretold the Resurrection of the Messiah, whoever he might be; the\nlatter asserts that 'this Jesus' has fulfilled the prophetic\nconditions. That is not a thing to be argued about, but to be attested\nby competent witnesses. It was presented to the multitude on Pentecost,\nas it is to us, as a plain matter of fact, on which the whole fabric of\nChristianity is built, and which itself securely rests on the\nconcordant testimony of those who knew Him alive, saw Him dead, and\nwere familiar with Him risen.\n\nThere is a noble ring of certitude in Peter's affirmation, and of\nconfidence that the testimony producible was overwhelming. Unless Jesus\nhad risen, there would neither have been a Pentecost nor a Church to\nreceive the gift. The simple fact which Peter alleged in that first\nsermon, 'whereof we all are witnesses,' is still too strong for the\ndeniers of the Resurrection, as their many devices to get over it prove.\n\nBut, a listener might ask, what has this witness of yours to do with\nJoel's prophecy, or with this speaking with tongues? The answer follows\nin the last part of the sermon. The risen Jesus has ascended up; that\nis inseparable from the fact of resurrection, and is part of our\ntestimony. He is 'exalted by,' or, perhaps, at, 'the right hand of\nGod.' And that exaltation is to us the token that there He has received\nfrom the Father the Spirit, whom He promised to send when He left us.\nTherefore it is He--'this Jesus'--who has 'poured forth this,'--this\nnew strange gift, the tokens of which you see flaming on each head, and\nhear bursting in praise from every tongue.\n\nWhat triumphant emphasis is in that 'He'! Peter quotes Joel's word\n'pour forth.' The prophet had said, as the mouthpiece of God, '_I_ will\npour forth'; Peter unhesitatingly transfers the word to Jesus. We must\nnot assume in him at this stage a fully-developed consciousness of our\nLord's divine nature, but neither must we blink the tremendous\nassumption which he feels warranted in making, that the exaltation of\nJesus to the right hand of God meant His exercising the power which\nbelonged to God Himself.\n\nIn verse 34, he stays for a moment to establish by prophecy that the\nAscension, of which he had for the first time spoken in verse 33, is\npart of the prophetic characteristics of the Messiah. His demonstration\nruns parallel with his preceding one as to the Resurrection. He quotes\nPsalm cx., which he had learned to do from his Master, and just as he\nhad argued about the prediction of Resurrection, that the dead\nPsalmist's words could not apply to himself, and must therefore apply\nto the Messiah; so he concludes that it was not 'David' who was called\nby Jehovah to sit as 'Lord' on His right hand. If not David, it could\nonly be the Messiah who was thus invested with Lordship, and exalted as\nparticipator of the throne of the Most High.\n\nThen comes the final thrust of the spear, for which all the discourse\nhas been preparing. The Apostle rises to the full height of his great\ncommission, and sets the trumpet to his mouth, summoning 'all the house\nof Israel,' priests, rulers, and all the people, to acknowledge his\nMaster. He proclaims his supreme dignity and Messiahship. He is the\n'Lord' of whom the Psalmist sang, and the prophet declared that whoever\ncalled on His name should be saved; and He is the Christ for whom\nIsrael looked.\n\nLast of all, he sets in sharp contrast what God had done with Jesus,\nand what Israel had done, and the barb of his arrow lies in the last\nwords, 'whom ye crucified.' And this bold champion of Jesus, this\nundaunted arraigner of a nation's crimes, was the man who, a few weeks\nbefore, had quailed before a maid-servant's saucy tongue! What made the\nchange? Will anything but the Resurrection and Pentecost account for\nthe psychological transformation effected in him and the other Apostles?\n\nII. No wonder that 'they were pricked in their heart'! Such a thrust\nmust have gone deep, even where the armour of prejudice was thick. The\nscene they had witnessed, and the fiery words of explanation, taken\ntogether, produced incipient conviction, and the conviction produced\nalarm. How surely does the first glimpse of Jesus as Christ and Lord\nset conscience to work! The question, 'What shall we do?' is the\nbeginning of conversion. The acknowledgment of Jesus which does not\nlead to it is shallow and worthless. The most orthodox accepter, so far\nas intellect goes, of the gospel, who has not been driven by it to ask\nhis own duty in regard to it, and what he is to do to receive its\nbenefits, and to escape from his sins, has not accepted it at all.\n\nPeter's answer lays down two conditions: repentance and baptism. The\nformer is often taken in too narrow a sense as meaning sorrow for sin,\nwhereas it means a change of disposition or mind, which will be\naccompanied, no doubt, with 'godly sorrow,' but is in itself deeper\nthan sorrow, and is the turning away of heart and will from past love\nand practice of evil. The second, baptism, is 'in the name of Jesus\nChrist,' or more accurately, '_upon_ the name,'--that is, on the ground\nof the revealed character of Jesus. That necessarily implies faith in\nthat Name; for, without such faith, the baptism would not be on the\nground of the Name. The two things are regarded as inseparable, being\nthe inside and the outside of the Christian discipleship. Repentance,\nfaith, baptism, these three, are called for by Peter.\n\nBut 'remission of sins' is not attached to the immediately preceding\nclause, so as that baptism is said to secure remission, but to the\nwhole of what goes before in the sentence. Obedience to the\nrequirements would bring the same gift to the obedient as the disciples\nhad received; for it would make them disciples also. But, while\nrepentance and baptism which presupposed faith were the normal,\nprecedent conditions of the Spirit's bestowal, the case of Cornelius,\nwhere the Spirit was given before baptism, forbids the attempt to link\nthe rite and the divine gift more closely together.\n\nThe Apostle was eager to share the gift. The more we have of the\nSpirit, the more shall we desire that others may have Him, and the more\nsure shall we be that He is meant for all. So Peter went on to base his\nassurance, that his hearers might all possess the Spirit, on the\nuniversal destination of the promise. Joel had said, 'on all flesh';\nPeter declares that word to point downwards through all generations,\nand outwards to all nations. How swiftly had he grown in grasp of the\nsweep of Christ's work! How far beneath that moment of illumination\nsome of his subsequent actions fell!\n\nWe have only a summary of his exhortations, the gist of which was\nearnest warning to separate from the fate of the nation by separating\nin will and mind from its sins. Swift conviction followed the\nSpirit-given words, as it ever will do when the speaker is filled with\nthe Holy Spirit, and has therefore a tongue of fire. Three thousand new\ndisciples were made that day, and though there must have been many\nsuperficial adherents, and none with much knowledge, it is perhaps not\nfanciful to see in Luke's speaking of them as 'souls' a hint that, in\ngeneral, the acceptance of Jesus as Messiah was deep and real. Not only\nwere three thousand 'names' added to the hundred and twenty, but three\nthousand souls.\n\nIII. The fair picture of the morning brightness, so soon overclouded,\nso long lost, follows. First, the narrative tells how the raw converts\nwere incorporated in the community, and assimilated to its character.\nThey, too, 'continued steadfastly' (Acts i. 14). Note the four points\nenumerated: 'teaching,' which would be principally instruction in the\nlife of Jesus and His Messianic dignity, as proved by prophecy;\n'fellowship,' which implies community of disposition and oneness of\nheart manifested in outward association; 'breaking of bread,'--that is,\nthe observance of the Lord's Supper; and 'the prayers,' which were the\nvery life-breath of the infant Church (i. 14). Thus oneness in faith\nand in love, participation in the memorial feast and in devotional acts\nbound the new converts to the original believers, and trained them\ntowards maturity. These are still the methods by which a sudden influx\nof converts is best dealt with, and babes in Christ nurtured to full\ngrowth. Alas! that so often churches do not know what to do with\nnovices when they come in numbers.\n\nA wider view of the state of the community as a whole closes the\nchapter. It is the first of several landing-places, as it were, on\nwhich Luke pauses to sum up an epoch. A reverent awe laid hold of the\npopular mind, which was increased by the miraculous powers of the\nApostles. The Church will produce that impression on the world in\nproportion as it is manifestly filled with the Spirit. Do we? The\nso-called community of goods was not imposed by commandment, as is\nplain from Peter's recognition of Ananias' right to do as he chose with\nhis property. The facts that Mark's mother, Mary, had a house of her\nown, and that Barnabas, her relative, is specially signalised as having\nsold his property, prove that it was not universal. It was an\nirrepressible outcrop of the brotherly feeling that filled all hearts.\nChrist has not come to lay down laws, but to give impulses. Compelled\ncommunism is not the repetition of that oneness of sympathy which\neffloresced in the bright flower of this common possession of\nindividual goods. But neither is the closed purse, closed because the\nheart is shut, which puts to shame so much profession of brotherhood,\njustified because the liberality of the primitive disciples was not by\nconstraint nor of obligation, but willing and spontaneous.\n\nVerses 46 and 47 add an outline of the beautiful daily life of the\ncommunity, which was, like their liberality, the outcome of the feeling\nof brotherhood, intensified by the sense of the gulf between them and\nthe crooked generation from which they had separated themselves. Luke\nshows it on two sides. Though they had separated from the nation, they\nclung to the Temple services, as they continued to do till the end.\nThey had not come to clear consciousness of all that was involved in\ntheir discipleship, It was not God's will that the new spirit should\nviolently break with the old letter. Convulsions are not His way,\nexcept as second-best. The disciples had to stay within the fold of\nIsrael, if they were to influence Israel. The time of outward parting\nbetween the Temple and the Church was far ahead yet.\n\nBut the truest life of the infant Church was not nourished in the\nTemple, but in the privacy of their homes. They were one family, and\nlived as such. Their 'breaking bread at home' includes both their\nordinary meals and the Lord's Supper; for in these first days every\nmeal, at least the evening meal of every day, was hallowed by having\nthe Supper as a part of it. Each meal was thus a religious act, a token\nof brotherhood, and accompanied with praise. Surely _then_ 'men did eat\nangels' food,' and on platter and cup was written 'Holiness to the\nLord.' The ideal of human fellowship was realised, though but for a\nmoment, and on a small scale. It was inevitable that divergences should\narise, but it was not inevitable that the Church should depart so far\nfrom the brief brightness of its dawn. Still the sweet concordant\nbrotherhood of these morning hours witnesses what Christian love can\ndo, and prophesies what shall yet be and shall not pass.\n\nNo wonder that such a Church won favour with all the people! We hear\nnothing of its evangelising activity, but its life was such that,\nwithout recorded speech, multitudes were drawn into so sweet a\nfellowship. If we were like the Pentecostal Christians, we should\nattract wearied souls out of the world's Babel into the calm home where\nlove and brotherhood reigned, and God would 'add' to _us_ 'day by day\nthose that were being saved.'\n\n\n\nTHE NAME ABOVE EVERY NAME\n\n'Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly, that God hath\nmade that same Jesus, whom ye have crucified, both Lord and\nChrist.'--ACTS ii. 36.\n\nIt is no part of my purpose at this time to consider the special\ncircumstances under which these words were spoken, nor even to enter\nupon an exposition of their whole scope. I select them for one reason,\nthe occurrence in them of the three names by which we designate our\nSaviour--Jesus, Lord, Christ. To us they are very little more than\nthree proper names; they were very different to these men who listened\nto the characteristically vehement discourse of the Apostle Peter. It\nwanted some courage to stand up at Pentecost and proclaim on the\nhousetop what he had spoken in the ear long ago, 'Thou art the Christ,\nthe Son of the living God!' To most of his listeners to say 'Jesus is\nthe Christ' was folly, and to say 'Jesus is the Lord' was blasphemy.\n\nThe three names are names of the same Person, but they proclaim\naltogether different aspects of His work and His character. The name\n'Jesus' is the name of the Man, and brings to us a Brother; the name\n'Christ' is the name of office, and brings to us a Redeemer; the name\n'Lord' is the name of dignity, and brings to us a King.\n\nI. First, then, the name Jesus is the name of the Man, and tells us of\na Brother.\n\nThere were many men in Palestine who bore the name of 'Jesus' when He\nbore it. We find that one of the early Christians had it; and it comes\nupon us with almost a shock when we read that 'Jesus, called Justus,'\nwas the name of one of the friends of the Apostle Paul (Col. iv. 11).\nBut, through reverence on the part of Christians, and through horror on\nthe part of Jews, the name ceased to be a common one; and its\ndisappearance from familiar use has hid from us the fact of its common\nemployment at the time when our Lord bore it. Though it was given to\nHim as indicative of His office of saving His people from their sins,\nyet none of all the crowds who knew Him as Jesus of Nazareth supposed\nthat in His name there was any greater significance than in those of\nthe 'Simons,' 'Johns,' and 'Judahs' in the circle of His disciples.\n\nNow the use of Jesus as the proper name of our Lord is very noticeable.\nIn the Gospels, as a rule, it stands alone hundreds of times, whilst in\ncombination with any other of the titles it is rare. 'Jesus Christ,'\nfor instance, only occurs, if I count aright, twice in Matthew, once in\nMark, twice in John. But if you turn to the Epistles and the latter\nbooks of the Scriptures, the proportions are reversed. There you have a\nnumber of instances of the occurrence of such combinations as 'Jesus\nChrist,' 'Christ Jesus,' 'The Lord Jesus,' 'Christ the Lord,' and more\nrarely the full solemn title, 'The Lord Jesus Christ,' but the\noccurrence of the proper name 'Jesus' alone is the exception. So far as\nI know, there are only some thirty or forty instances of its use singly\nin the whole of the books of the New Testament outside of the four\nEvangelists. The occasions where it is used are all of them occasions\nin which one may see that the writer's intention is to put strong\nemphasis, for some reason or other, on the Manhood of our Lord Jesus,\nand to assert, as broadly as may be, His entire participation with us\nin the common conditions of our human nature, corporeal and mental.\n\nAnd I think I shall best bring out the meaning and worth of the name by\nputting a few of these instances before you.\n\nFor example, more than once we find phrases like these: 'we believe\nthat _Jesus_ died,' 'having therefore boldness to enter into the\nholiest by the blood of _Jesus_,' and the like--which emphasise His\ndeath as the death of a man like ourselves, and bring us close to the\nhistorical reality of His human pains and agonies for us. '_Christ_\ndied' is a statement which makes the purpose and efficacy of His death\nmore plain, but '_Jesus_ died' shows us His death as not only the work\nof the appointed Messiah, but as the act of our brother man, the\noutcome of His human love, and never rightly to be understood if His\nwork be thought of apart from His personality.\n\nThere is brought into view, too, prominently, the side of Christ's\nsufferings which we are all apt to forget--the common human side of His\nagonies and His pains. I know that a certain school of preachers, and\nsome unctuous religious hymns, and other forms of composition, dwell, a\ngreat deal too much for reverence, upon the mere physical aspect of\nChrist's sufferings. But the temptation, I believe, with most of us is\nto dwell too little upon that,--to argue about the death of Christ, to\nthink about it as a matter of speculation, to regard it as a mysterious\npower, to look upon it as an official act of the Messiah who was sent\ninto the world for us; and to forget that He bore a manhood like our\nown, a body that was impatient of pains and wounds and sufferings, and\na human life which, like all human lives, naturally recoiled and shrank\nfrom the agony of death.\n\nAnd whilst, therefore, the great message, 'It is Christ that died,' is\never to be pondered, we have also to think with sympathy and gratitude\non the homelier representation coming nearer to our hearts, which\nproclaims that 'Jesus died.' Let us not forget the Brother's manhood\nthat had to agonise and to suffer and to die as the price of our\nsalvation.\n\nAgain, when the Scripture would set our Lord before us, as in His\nhumanity, our pattern and example, it sometimes uses this name, in\norder to give emphasis to the thought of His Manhood--as, for example,\nin the words of the Epistle to the Hebrews, 'looking unto Jesus, the\nAuthor and Perfecter of faith.' That is to say--a mighty stimulus to\nall brave perseverance in our efforts after higher Christian nobleness\nlies in the vivid and constant realisation of the true manhood of our\nLord, as the type of all goodness, as having Himself lived by faith,\nand that in a perfect degree and manner. We are to turn away our eyes\nfrom contemplating all other lives and motives, and to 'look off' from\nthem to Him. In all our struggles let us think of Him. Do not take poor\nhuman creatures for your ideal of excellence, nor tune your harps to\ntheir keynotes. To imitate men is degradation, and is sure to lead to\ndeformity. None of them, is a safe guide. Black veins are in the purest\nmarble, and flaws in the most lustrous diamonds. But to imitate Jesus\nis freedom, and to be like Him is perfection. Our code of morals is His\nlife. He is the Ideal incarnate. The secret of all progress is,\n'Run--looking unto Jesus.'\n\nThen, again, we have His manhood emphasised when His sympathy is to be\ncommended to our hearts. 'The great High Priest, who is passed into the\nheavens' is '_Jesus_' ... 'who was in all points tempted like as we\nare.' To every sorrowing soul, to all men burdened with heavy tasks,\nunwelcome duties, pains and sorrows of the imagination, or of the\nheart, or of memory, or of physical life, or of circumstances--to all\nthere comes the thought, 'Every ill that flesh is heir to' He knows by\nexperience, and in the Man Jesus we find not only the pity of a God,\nbut the sympathy of a Brother.\n\nWhen one of our princes goes for an afternoon into the slums in East\nLondon, everybody says, and says deservedly, 'right!' and 'princely!'\n_This_ prince has learned pity in 'the huts where poor men lie,' and\nknows by experience all their squalor and misery. The Man Jesus is the\nsympathetic Priest. The Rabbis, who did not usually see very far into\nthe depth of things, yet caught a wonderful glimpse when they said:\n'Messias will be found sitting outside the gate of the city _amongst\nthe lepers_.' That _is_ where He sits; and the perfectness of His\nsympathy, and the completeness of His identification of Himself with\nall our tears and our sorrows, are taught us when we read that our High\nPriest is not merely Christ the Official, but Jesus the Man.\n\nAnd then we find such words as these: 'If we believe that _Jesus_ died\nand rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring\nwith Him': I think any one that reads with sympathy must feel how very\nmuch closer to our hearts that consolation comes, 'Jesus rose again,'\nthan even the mighty word which the Apostle uses on another occasion,\n'Christ is risen from the dead.' The one tells us of the risen\nRedeemer, the other tells us of the risen Brother. And wherever there\nare sorrowing souls, enduring loss and following their dear ones into\nthe darkness with yearning hearts, they are comforted when they feel\nthat the beloved dead lie down beside their Brother, and with their\nBrother they shall rise again.\n\nSo, again, most strikingly, and yet somewhat singularly, in the words\nof Scripture which paint most loftily the exaltation of the risen\nSaviour to the right hand of God, and His wielding of absolute power\nand authority, it is the old human name that is used; as if the writers\nwould bind together the humiliation and the exaltation, and were\nholding up hands of wonder at the thought that a Man had risen thus to\nthe Throne of the Universe. What an emphasis and glow of hope there is\nin such words as these: 'We see not yet all things put under Him, but\nwe see _Jesus_'--the very Man that was here with us--'crowned with\nglory and honour.' So in the Book of the Revelation the chosen name for\nHim who sits amidst the glories of the heavens, and settles the\ndestinies of the universe, and orders the course of history, is Jesus.\nAs if the Apostle would assure us that the face which looked down upon\nhim from amidst the blaze of the glory was indeed the face that he knew\nlong ago upon earth, and the breast that 'was girded with a golden\ngirdle' was the breast upon which he so often had leaned his happy head.\n\nSo the ties that bind us to the Man Jesus should be the human bonds\nthat knit us to one another, transferred to Him and purified and\nstrengthened. All that we have failed to find in men we can find in\nHim. Human wisdom has its limits, but here is a Man whose word is\ntruth, who is Himself the truth. Human love is sometimes hollow, often\nimpotent; it looks down upon us, as a great thinker has said, like the\nVenus of Milo, that lovely statue, smiling in pity, but it has no arms.\nBut here is a love that is mighty to help, and on which we can rely\nwithout disappointment or loss. Human excellence is always limited and\nimperfect, but here is One whom we may imitate and be pure. So let us\ndo like that poor woman in the Gospel story--bring our precious\nalabaster box of ointment--the love of these hearts of ours, which is\nthe most precious thing we have to give. The box of ointment that we\nhave so often squandered upon unworthy heads--let us come and pour it\nupon His, not unmingled with our tears, and anoint Him, our beloved and\nour King. This Man has loved each of us with a brother's heart; let us\nlove Him with all our hearts.\n\nII. So much for the first name. The second--'Christ'--is the name of\noffice, and brings to us a Redeemer.\n\nI need not dwell at any length upon the original significance and force\nof the name; it is familiar, of course, to us all. It stands as a\ntransference into Greek of the Hebrew Messias; the one and the other\nmeaning, as we all know, the 'Anointed.' But what is the meaning of\nclaiming for Jesus that He is anointed? A sentence will answer the\nquestion. It means that He fulfils all which the inspired imagination\nof the great ones of the past had seen in that dim Figure that rose\nbefore prophet and psalmist. It means that He is anointed or inspired\nby the divine indwelling to be Prophet, Priest, and King all over the\nworld. It means that He is--though the belief had faded away from the\nminds of His generation--a sufferer whilst a Prince, and appointed to\n'turn away unrighteousness' from the world, and not from 'Jacob' only,\nby a sacrifice and a death.\n\nI cannot see less in the contents of the Jewish idea, the prophetic\nidea, of the Messias, than these points: divine inspiration or\nanointing; a sufferer who is to redeem; the fulfiller of all the\nrapturous visions of psalmist and of prophet in the past.\n\nAnd so, when Peter stood up amongst that congregation of wondering\nstrangers and scowling Pharisees, and said, 'The Man that died on the\nCross, the Rabbi-peasant from half-heathen Galilee, is the Person to\nwhom Law and Prophets have been pointing,'--no wonder that no one\nbelieved him except those whose hearts were touched, for it is never\npossible for the common mind, at any epoch, to believe that a man who\nstands beside them is very much bigger than themselves. Great men have\nalways to die, and get a halo of distance around them, before their\ntrue stature can be seen.\n\nAnd now two remarks are all I can afford myself upon this point, and\none is this: the hearty recognition of His Messiahship is the centre of\nall discipleship. The earliest and the simplest Christian creed, which\nyet--like the little brown roll in which the infant beech-leaves lie\nfolded up--contains in itself all the rest, was this: 'Jesus is\nChrist.' Although it is no part of my business to say how much\nimperfection and confusion of head comprehension may co-exist with a\nheart acceptance of Jesus that saves a soul from sin, yet I cannot in\nfaithfulness to my own convictions conceal my belief that he who\ncontents himself with 'Jesus' and does not grasp 'Christ' has cast away\nthe most valuable and characteristic part of the Christianity which he\nprofesses. Surely a most simple inference is that a _Christian_ is at\nleast a man who recognises the Christship of Jesus. And I press that\nupon you, my friends. It is not enough for the sustenance of your own\nsouls and for the cultivation of a vigorous religious life that men\nshould admire, howsoever profoundly and deeply, the humanity of the\nLord unless that humanity leads them on to see the office of the\nMessiah to whom their whole hearts cleave. 'Jesus is the Christ' is the\nminimum Christian creed.\n\nAnd then, still further, let me remind you how the recognition of Jesus\nas Christ is essential to giving its full value to the facts of the\nmanhood. 'Jesus died!' Yes. What then? What is that to me? Is that all\nthat I have to say? If His is simply a human death, like all others, I\nwant to know what makes the story of it a Gospel. I want to know what\nmore interest I have in it than I have in the death of Socrates, or in\nthe death of any man or woman whose name was in the obituary column of\nyesterday's newspaper. 'Jesus died.' That is a fact. What is wanted to\nturn the fact into a gospel? That I shall know who it was that died,\nand why He died. 'I declare unto you the gospel which I preach,' Paul\nsays, 'how that _Christ_ died for our sins, according to the\nScriptures.' The belief that the death of Jesus was the death of the\nChrist is needful in order that it shall be the means of my deliverance\nfrom the burden of sin. If it be only the death of Jesus, it is\nbeautiful, pathetic, as many another martyr's has been, but if it be\nthe death of Christ, then 'my faith can lay her hand' on that great\nSacrifice 'and know her guilt was there.'\n\nSo in regard to His perfect example. If we only see His manhood when we\nare 'looking unto Jesus,' the contemplation of His perfection would be\nas paralysing as spectacles of supreme excellence usually are. But when\nwe can say, '_Christ_ also suffered for us, leaving us an example,' and\nso can deepen the thought of His Manhood into that of His Messiahship,\nand the conception of His work as example into that of His work as\nsacrifice, we can hope that His divine power will dwell in us to mould\nour lives to the likeness of His human life of perfect obedience.\n\nSo in regard to His Resurrection and glorious Ascension to the right\nhand of God. We have not only to think of the solitary man raised from\nthe grave and caught up to the throne. If it were only 'Jesus' who rose\nand ascended, His Resurrection and Ascension might be as much to us as\nthe raising of Lazarus, or the rapture of Elijah--namely, a\ndemonstration that death did not destroy conscious being, and that a\nman could rise to heaven; but they would be no more. But if '_Christ_\nis risen from the dead,' He is 'become the first-fruits of them that\nslept.' If _Jesus_ has gone up on high, others may or may not follow in\nHis train. He may show that manhood is not incapable of elevation to\nheaven, but has no power to draw others up after Him. But if _Christ_\nis gone up, He is gone to prepare a place for us, not to fill a\nsolitary throne, and His Ascension is the assurance that He will lift\nus too to dwell with Him and share His triumph over death and sin.\n\nMost of the blessedness and beauty of His Example, all the mystery and\nmeaning of His Death, and all the power of His Resurrection, depend on\nthe fact that 'it is _Christ_ that died, yea rather, that is risen\nagain, who is even at the right hand of God.'\n\nIII. 'The Lord' is the name of dignity and brings before us the King.\n\nThere are three grades, so to speak, of dignity expressed by this one\nword 'Lord' in the New Testament. The lowest is that in which it is\nalmost the equivalent of our own English title of respectful courtesy,\n'Sir,' in which sense it is often used in the Gospels, and applied to\nour Lord as to many other of the persons there. The second is that in\nwhich it expresses dignity and authority--and in that sense it is\nfrequently applied to Christ. The third and highest is that in which it\nis the equivalent of the Old Testament 'Lord,' as a divine name; in\nwhich sense also it is applied to Christ in the New Testament.\n\nThe first and last of these may be left out of consideration now: the\ncentral one is the meaning of the word here. I have only time to touch\nupon two thoughts--to connect this name of dignity first with one and\nthen with the other of the two names that we have already considered.\n\nJesus is Lord, that is to say, wonderful as it is, His manhood is\nexalted to supreme dignity. It is the teaching of the New Testament,\nthat in Jesus, the Child of Mary, our nature sits on the throne of the\nuniverse and rules over all things. Those rude herdsmen, brothers of\nJoseph, who came into Pharaoh's palace--strange contrast to their\ntents!--there found their brother ruling over that ancient and highly\ncivilised land! We have the Man Jesus for the Lord over all. Trust His\ndominion and rejoice in His rule, and bow before His authority. Jesus\nis Lord.\n\nChrist is Lord. That is to say: His sovereign authority and dominion\nare built upon the fact of His being Deliverer, Redeemer, Sacrifice.\nHis Kingdom is a Kingdom that rests upon His suffering. 'Wherefore God\nalso hath exalted Him, and given Him a Name that is above every name.'\n\nIt is because He wears a vesture dipped in blood, that 'on the vesture\nis the name written \"King of kings, and Lord of lords.\"' It is 'because\nHe shall deliver the needy when he crieth,' as the prophetic psalm has\nit, that 'all kings shall fall down before Him and all nations shall\nserve Him.' Because He has given His life for the world He is the\nMaster of the World. His humanity is raised to the throne because His\nhumanity stooped to the cross. As long as men's hearts can be touched\nby absolute unselfish surrender, and as long as they can know the\nblessedness of responsive surrender, so long will He who gave Himself\nfor the world be the Sovereign of the world, and the First-born from\nthe dead be the Prince of all the kings of the earth.\n\nAnd so, dear friends, our thoughts to-day all point to this lesson--do\nnot you content yourselves with a maimed Christ. Do not tarry in the\nManhood; do not think it enough to cherish reverence for the nobility\nof His soul, the gentle wisdom of His words, the beauty of His\ncharacter, the tenderness of His compassion. All these will be\ninsufficient for your needs. There is more in His mission than\nthese--even His death for you and for all men. Take Him for your Christ,\nbut do not lose the Person in the Work, any more than you lose the work in\nthe Person. And be not content with an intellectual recognition of Him,\nbut bring Him the faith which cleaves to Him and His work as its only\nhope and peace, and the love which, because of His work as Christ,\nflows out to the beloved Person who has done it all. Thus loving Jesus\nand trusting Christ, you will bring obedience to your Lord and homage\nto your King, and learn the sweetness and power of 'the name that is\nabove every name'--the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.\n\nMay we all be able, with clear and unfaltering conviction of our\nunderstandings and loving affiance of our whole souls, to repeat as our\nown the grand words in which so many centuries have proclaimed their\nfaith--words which shed a spell of peacefulness over stormy lives, and\nfling a great light of hope into the black jaws of the grave: 'I\nbelieve in Jesus Christ, His only Son, our Lord!'\n\n\n\nA FOURFOLD CORD\n\n'And they continued stedfastly in the Apostles' doctrine and\nfellowship, and in breaking of bread, and in prayers.'--ACTS ii. 42.\n\nThe Early Church was not a pattern for us, and the idea of its greatly\nsuperior purity is very largely a delusion. But still, though that be\ntrue, the occasional glimpses that we get at intervals in the early\nchapters of this Book of the Acts of the Apostles do present a very\ninstructive and beautiful picture of what a Christian society may be,\nand therefore of what Christian Churches and Christian individuals\nought to be.\n\nThe words that I have read, however, are not the description of the\ndemeanour of the whole community, but of that portion of it which had\nbeen added so swiftly to the original nucleus on the Day of Pentecost.\nThink, on the morning of that day 'the number of the names was one\nhundred and twenty,' on the evening of that day it was three thousand\nover that number--a sufficiently swift and large increase to have\nswamped the original nucleus, unless there had been a great power of\nassimilation to itself lodged in that little body. These new converts\nheld to the Apostolic 'doctrine' and 'fellowship,' and to 'breaking of\nbread' and to 'prayers,' and so became homogeneous with the others, and\nall worked to one end.\n\nNow, these four points which are signalised in this description may\nwell afford us material for consideration. They give us the ideal of a\nChurch's inner life, which in the divine order should precede, and be\nthe basis of, a Church's work in the world. But, while we speak of an\nideal for a Church, let us not forget that it is realised only by the\nlives of individuals being conformed to it.\n\nI. The first point, which is fundamental to all the others, is 'They\ncontinued steadfastly in the Apostles' doctrine.'\n\nAn earnest desire after fuller knowledge is the basis of all healthy\nChristian life. We cannot realise, without a great effort, the\nignorance of these new converts. 'Parthians and Medes and Elamites,'\nand Jews gathered from every corner of the Roman world, they had come\nup to Jerusalem, and the bulk of them knew no more about Christ and\nChristianity than what they picked up out of Peter's sermon on the Day\nof Pentecost. But that was enough to change their hearts and their\nwills and to lead them to a real faith. And though the _contents_ of\ntheir faith were very incomplete, the _power_ of their faith was very\ngreat. For there is no necessary connection between the amount believed\nand the grasp with which it is held. Believing, they were eager for\nmore light to be poured on to their half-seeing eyes. They had no\nGospels, they had no written record, they had no means of learning\nanything about the faith which they were now professing except\nlistening to one or other of the original Eleven, with the addition of\nany of the other 'old disciples'--that is, _early_ disciples--who might\nperchance have equal claims to be listened to as 'witnesses from the\nbeginning.' We shall very much misunderstand the meaning of the words\nhere, if we suppose that these novices were dosed with theological\ninstruction, or that 'the Apostles' doctrine' consisted of such fully\ndeveloped truths as we find later on in Paul's writings. If you will\nlook at the first sermons that Peter is recorded as having delivered,\nin the early chapters of the Acts, you will find that he by no means\nenunciates a definite theology such as he unfolds in his later Epistle.\nThere is no word about the divinity of our Lord Jesus Christ; His\ndesignation is 'Thy holy child Jesus.' There is no word about the\natoning nature of Christ's sacrifice; His death is simply the great\ncrime of the Jewish people, and His Resurrection the great divine fact\nwitnessing to the truth of His Messiahship. All that which we now\nregard, and rightly regard, as the very centre and living focus of\ndivine truth was but beginning to shine out on the Apostles' minds, or\nrather to gather itself into form, and to shape itself by slow degrees\ninto propositions. 'The Apostles' teaching'--for 'doctrine' does not\nconvey to modern ears what Luke meant by the word--must have been very\nlargely, if not exclusively, of the same kind as is preserved to us in\nthe four Gospels, and especially in the first three of them. The\nrecital to these listeners, to whom it was all so fresh and strange and\ntranscendent, of the story that has become worn and commonplace to us\nby its familiarity, of Christ in His birth, Christ in His gentleness,\nChrist in His deeds, Christ in the deep words that the Apostles were\nonly beginning to understand; Christ in His Death, Resurrection, and\nAscension--these were the themes on the narration of which this company\nof three thousand waited with such eagerness.\n\nBut, of course, there was necessarily involved in the story a certain\namount of what we now call doctrine--that is, theological\nteaching--because one cannot tell the story of Jesus Christ, as it is\ntold in the four Gospels, without impressing upon the hearers the\nconviction that His nature was divine and that His death was a\nsacrifice. Beyond these truths we know not how far the Apostles went.\nTo these, perhaps, they did not at first rise. But whether they did so\nor no, and although the facts that the hearers were thus eager to\nreceive, and treasured when they received, are the commonplaces of our\nSunday-schools, and quite uninteresting to many of us, the spirit which\nmarked these early converts is the spirit that must lie at the\nfoundation of progressive and healthy Christianity in us. The\nconsciousness of our own ignorance, of the great sweep of God's\nrevealed mind and will, the eager desire to fill up the gaps in the\ncircle, and to widen the diameter, of our knowledge, and the consequent\nsteadfastness and persistence of our continuance in the teachings--far\nfuller and deeper and richer and nobler than were heard in the upper\nroom at Jerusalem by the first three thousand--which, through the\ndivine Spirit and the experience of the Church for nineteen hundred\nyears are available for us, ought to characterise us all.\n\nNow, dear friends, ask yourselves the question very earnestly, Does\nthis desire of fuller Christian knowledge at all mark my Christian\ncharacter, and does it practically influence my Christian conduct and\nlife? There are thousands of men and women in all our churches who know\nno more about the rich revelation of God in Jesus Christ than they did\non that day long, long ago, when first they began to apprehend that He\nwas the Saviour of their souls. When I sometimes get glimpses into the\nutter Biblical ignorance of educated members of my own and of other\ncongregations, I am appalled; I do not wonder how we ministers do so\nlittle by our preaching, when the minds of the people to whom we speak\nare so largely in such a chaotic state in reference to Scriptural\ntruth. I believe that there is an intolerance of plain, sober,\ninstructive Christian teaching from the pulpit, which is one of the\nworst signs of the Christianity of this generation. And I believe that\nthere are a terribly large number of professing Christians, and good\npeople after a fashion, whose Bibles are as clean to-day, except on one\nor two favourite pages, as they were when they came out of the\nbookseller's shop years and years ago. You will never be strong\nChristians, you will never be happy ones, until you make conscience of\nthe study of God's Word and 'continue steadfastly in the Apostles'\nteaching.' You may produce plenty of emotional Christianity, and of\nbusy and sometimes fussy work without it, but you will not get depth. I\nsometimes think that the complaint of the writer of the Epistle to the\nHebrews might be turned upside down nowadays. He says: 'When for the\ntime ye ought to be teachers, ye have need that one teach you again\nwhich be the first principles.' Nowadays we might say in Sunday-schools\nand other places of church work: 'When for the time ye ought to be\n_learners_, you have taken to teaching before you know what you are\nteaching, and so neither you nor your scholars will profit much.' The\nvase should be full before you begin to empty it.\n\nAgain, there ought to be, and we ought to aim after, an equable temper\nof mutual brotherhood conquering selfishness.\n\n'They continued in the Apostles' doctrine and in fellowship.'\n'Fellowship' here, as I take it, applies to community of feeling. A\nverse or two afterwards it is applied to community of goods, but we\nhave nothing to do with that subject at present. What is meant is that\nthese three thousand, as was most natural, cut off altogether from\ntheir ancient associations, finding themselves at once separated by a\ngreat gulf from their nation and its hopes and its religion, were\ndriven together as sheep are when wolves are prowling around. And,\nbeing individually weak, they held on by one another, so that many\nweaknesses might make a strength, and glimmering embers raked together\nmight break into a flame.\n\nNow, all these circumstances, or almost all of them, that drove the\nprimitive believers together, are at an end, and the tendencies of this\nday are rather to drive Christian people apart than to draw them\ntogether. Differences of position, occupation, culture, ways of looking\nat things, views of Christian truth and the like, all come powerfully\nin to the reinforcement of the natural selfishness which tempts us all,\nunless the grace of God overcomes it. Although we do not want any\nhysterical or histrionic presentation of Christian sympathy and\nbrotherhood, we do need--far more than any of us have awakened to the\nconsciousness of the need--for the health of our own souls we need to\nmake definite efforts to cultivate more of that sense of Christian\nbrotherhood with all that hold the same Lord Christ, and to realise\nthis truth: that they and we, however separate, are nearer one another\nthan are we and those nearest to us who do not share in our Christian\nfaith.\n\nI do not dwell upon this point. It is one on which it is easy to gush,\nand it has got a bad name because there has been so much unreal and\nsickly talk about it. But if any Christian man will honestly try to\ncultivate the brotherly feeling which my text suggests, and to which\nour common relation to Jesus Christ binds us, and will try it in\nreference to _A_, _B_, or _C_, whom he does not much like, with whose\nways he has no kind of sympathy, whom he believes to be a heretic, and\nwho perhaps returns the belief about him with interest, he will find it\nis a pretty sharp test of his Christian principle. Let us be real, at\nany rate, and not pretend to have more love than we really have in our\nhearts. And let us remember that 'he that loveth Him that begat, loveth\nHim also that is begotten of Him.'\n\nII. Another characteristic which comes out in the words before us is\nthe blending of worship with life.\n\n'They continued steadfastly in the Apostles' doctrine ... and in\nbreaking of bread.' Commentators who can only see one thing at a\ntime--and there are a good many of that species--have got up great\ndiscussions as to whether this phrase means eating ordinary meals or\npartaking of the Lord's Supper. I venture to say it means both,\nbecause, clearly enough, in the beginning, the common meal was hallowed\nby what we now call the Lord's Supper being associated with it, and\nevery day's evening repast was eaten 'in remembrance of Him.'\n\nSo, naturally, and without an idea of anything awful or sacred about\nthe rite, the first Christians, when they went home after a hard day's\nwork and sat down to take their own suppers, blessed the bread and the\nwine, and whether they ate or drank, did the one and the other 'in\nremembrance of Him.'\n\nThe gradual growth of the sentiment attaching to the Lord's Supper,\nuntil it reached the portentous height of regarding it as a 'tremendous\nsacrifice' which could only be administered by priests with ordained\nhands in Apostolic succession, can be partly traced even in New\nTestament times. The Lord's Supper began as an appendage to, or rather\nas a heightening of, the evening meal, and at first, as this chapter\ntells us in a subsequent verse, was observed day by day. Then, before\nthe epoch of the Acts of the Apostles is ended, we find it has become a\nweekly celebration, and forms part of the service on the first day of\nthe week. But even when the observance had ceased to be daily, the\nassociation with an ordinary meal continued, and that led to the\ndisorders at Corinth which Paul rebuked, and which would have been\nimpossible if later ideas of the Lord's Supper had existed then.\n\nThe history of the transformation of that simple Supper into 'the\nbloodless sacrifice' of the Mass, and all the mischief consequent\nthereon, does not concern us now. But it does concern us to note that\nthese first believers hallowed common things by doing them, and common\nfood by partaking of it, with the memory of His great sacrifice in\ntheir minds. The poorest fare, the coarsest bread, the sourest wine, on\nthe humblest table, became a memorial of that dear Lord. Religion and\nlife, the domestic and the devout, were so closely braided together\nthat when a household sat at table it was both a family and a church;\nand while they were eating their meat for the strength of their body,\nthey were partaking of the memorial of their dying Lord.\n\nIs your house like that? Is your daily life like that? Do you bring the\nsacred and the secular as close together as that? Are the dying words\nof your Master, 'This do in remembrance of Me,' written by you over\neverything you do? And so is all life worship, and all worship hope?\n\nIII. The last thing here is habitual devotion.\n\nI suppose the disciples had no forms of set Christian prayers. They\nstill used the Jewish liturgy, for we read that 'they continued daily\nwith one accord in the Temple.' I am sure that no two things can be\nless like one another than the worship of the primitive Church and the\nworship, say, of one of our congregations. Did you ever try to paint\nfor yourselves, for instance, the scene described in the First Epistle\nto the Corinthians? When they came together in their meetings for\nworship, 'every one had a psalm, a doctrine, an interpretation.' 'Let\nthe prophets speak, by ones, or at most by twos'; and if another gets\nup to interrupt, let the first speaker sit down. Paul goes on to say,\n'Let all things be done decently and in order.' So there must have been\ntendencies to disorder, and much at which some of our modern\necclesiastical martinets would have been very much scandalised as\n'unbecoming.' Wise men are in no haste to change forms. Forms change of\nthemselves when their users change; but it would be a good day for\nChristendom if the faith and devoutness of a community of believers\nsuch as we, for instance, profess to be, were so strong and so\ndemanding expression as that, instead of my poor voice continually\nsounding here, every one of you had a psalm or a doctrine, and every\none of you were able and impelled to speak out of the fulness of the\nSpirit which God poured into you. It will come some day; it must come\nif Christendom is not to die of its own dignity. But we do not need to\nhurry matters, only let us remember that unless a Church continues\nsteadfast in prayer it is worth very little.\n\nNow, dear brethren, it is said about us Free Churchmen that we think a\ngreat deal too much of preaching and a great deal too little of the\nprayers of the congregation. That is a stock criticism. I am bound to\nsay that there is a grain of truth in it, and that there is not, with\ntoo many of our congregations, as lofty a conception of the power and\nblessedness of the united prayers of the congregation as there ought to\nbe, or else you would not hear about 'introductory services.'\nIntroductory to what? Do we speak to God merely by way of preface to\none of us talking to his brethren? Is that the proper order? 'They\ncontinued steadfastly in the Apostles' teaching,' no doubt; but also\n'steadfastly in prayer.' I pray you to try to make this picture of the\nPentecostal converts the ideal of your own lives, and to do your best\nto help forward the time when it shall be the reality in this church,\nand in every other society of professing Christians.\n\n\n\nA PURE CHURCH AN INCREASING CHURCH\n\n'And the Lord added to the church daily such as should be saved.'--ACTS\nii. 47.\n\n'And the Lord added to them day by day those that were being\nsaved.'--(R. V.)\n\nYou observe that the principal alterations of these words in the\nRevised Version are two: the one the omission of 'the church,' the\nother the substitution of 'were being saved' for 'such as should be\nsaved.' The former of these changes has an interest as suggesting that\nat the early period referred to the name of 'the church' had not yet\nbeen definitely attached to the infant community, and that the word\nafterwards crept into the text at a time when ecclesiasticism had\nbecome a great deal stronger than it was at the date of the writing of\nthe Acts of the Apostles. The second of the changes is of more\nimportance. The Authorised Version's rendering suggests that salvation\nis a future thing, which in one aspect is partially true. The Revised\nVersion, which is also by far the more literally accurate, suggests the\nother idea, that salvation is a process going on all through the course\nof a Christian man's life. And that carries very large and important\nlessons.\n\nI. I ask you to notice here, first, the profound conception which the\nwriter had of the present action of the ascended Christ. 'The Lord\nadded to them day by day those that were being saved.'\n\nThen Christ (for it is He that is here spoken of as the Lord), the\nliving, ascended Christ, was present in, and working with, that little\ncommunity of believing souls. You will find that the thought of a\npresent Saviour, who is the life-blood of the Church on earth, and the\nspring of action for all good that is done in it and by it, runs\nthrough the whole of this Book of the Acts of the Apostles. The keynote\nis struck in its first verses: 'The former treatise have I made, O\nTheophilus, of all that Jesus began to do and to teach, until the day\nin which He was taken up.' That is the description of Luke's Gospel,\nand it implies that the Acts of the Apostles is the _second_ treatise,\nwhich tells all that Jesus continued to do and teach _after_ that He\nwas taken up. So the Lord, the ascended Christ, is the true theme and\nhero of this book. It is He, for instance, who sends down the Spirit on\nthe Day of Pentecost. It is He whom the dying martyr sees 'standing at\nthe right hand of God,' ready to help. It is He who appears to the\npersecutor on the road to Damascus. It is He who sends Paul and his\ncompany to preach in Europe. It is He who opens hearts for the\nreception of their message. It is He who stands by the Apostle in a\nvision, and bids him 'be of good cheer,' and go forth upon his work.\nThus, at every crisis in the history of the Church, it is the\nLord--that is to say, Christ Himself--who is revealed as working in\nthem and for them, the ascended but yet ever-present Guide, Counsellor,\nInspirer, Protector, and Rewarder of them that put their trust in Him.\nSo here it is He that 'adds to the Church daily them that were being\nsaved.'\n\nI believe, dear brethren, that modern Christianity has far too much\nlost the vivid impression of this present Christ as actually dwelling\nand working among us. What is good in us and what is bad in us conspire\nto make us think more of the past work of an ascended Christ than of\nthe present work of an indwelling Christ. We cannot think too much of\nthat Cross by which He has laid the foundation for the salvation and\nreconciliation of all the world; but we may easily think too\nexclusively of it, and so fix our thoughts upon that work which He\ncompleted when on Calvary He said, 'It is finished!' as to forget the\ncontinual work which will never be finished until His Church is\nperfected, and the world is redeemed. If we are a Church of Christ at\nall, we have Christ in very deed among us, and working through us and\non us. And unless we have, in no mystical and unreal and metaphorical\nsense, but in the simplest and yet grandest prose reality, that living\nSaviour here in our hearts and in our fellowship, better that these\nwalls were levelled with the ground, and this congregation scattered to\nthe four winds of heaven. The present Christ is the life of His Church.\n\nNotice, and that but for a moment, for I shall have to deal with it\nmore especially at another part of this discourse,--the specific action\nwhich is here ascribed to Him. _He_ adds to the Church, not _we_, not\nour preaching, not our eloquence, our fervour, our efforts. These may\nbe the weapons in His hands, but the hand that wields the weapon gives\nit all its power to wound and to heal, and it is Christ Himself who, by\nHis present energy, is here represented as being the Agent of all the\ngood that is done by any Christian community, and the Builder-up of His\nChurches, in numbers and in power.\n\nIt is His will for, His ideal of, a Christian Church, that continuously\nit should be gathering into its fellowship those that are being saved.\nThat is His meaning in the establishment of His Church upon earth, and\nthat is His will concerning it and concerning us, and the question\nshould press on every society of Christians: Does our reality\ncorrespond to Christ's ideal? Are we, as a portion of His great\nheritage, being continually replenished by souls that come to tell what\nGod has done for them? Is there an unbroken flow of such into what we\ncall our communion? I speak to you members of this church, and I ask\nyou to ponder the question,--Is it so? and the other question, If it is\nnot so, wherefore? 'The Lord added daily,'--why does not the Lord add\ndaily to us?\n\nII. Let us go to the second part of this text, and see if we can find\nan answer. Notice how emphatically there is brought out here the\nattractive power of an earnest and pure Church.\n\nMy text is the end of a sentence. What is the beginning of the\nsentence? Listen,--'All that believed were together, and had all things\ncommon; and sold their possessions and goods, and parted them to all\nmen, as every man had need. And they, continuing daily with one accord\nin the Temple, and breaking bread from house to house, did eat their\nmeat with gladness and singleness of heart, praising God, and having\nfavour with all the people. And the Lord added.' Yes; of course.\nSuppose you were like these people. Suppose this church and\ncongregation bore stamped upon it, plain and deep as the broad arrow of\nthe king, these characteristics--manifest fraternal unity, plain\nunselfish unworldliness, habitual unbroken devotion, gladness which had\nin it the solemnity of Heaven, and a transparent simplicity of life and\nheart, which knew nothing of by-ends and shabby, personal motives or\ndistracting duplicity of purpose--do you not think that the Lord would\nadd to you daily such as should be saved? Or, to put it into other\nwords, wherever there is a little knot of men obviously held together\nby a living Christ, and obviously manifesting in their lives and\ncharacters the likeness of that Christ transforming and glorifying\nthem, there will be drawn to them--by natural gravitation, I was going\nto say, but we may more correctly say, by the gravitation which is\nnatural in the supernatural realm--souls that have been touched by the\ngrace of the Lord, and souls to whom that grace has been brought the\nnearer by looking upon _them_. Wherever there is inward vigour of life\nthere will be outward growth; and the Church which is pure, earnest,\nliving will be a Church which spreads and increases.\n\nHistorically, it has always been the case that in God's Church seasons\nof expansion have followed upon seasons of deepened spiritual life on\nthe part of His people. And the only kind of growth which is wholesome,\nand to be desired in a Christian community, is growth as a consequence\nof the revived religiousness of the individuals who make up the\ncommunity.\n\nAnd just in like manner as such a community will draw to it men who are\nlike-minded, so it will repel from it all the formalist people. There\nare congregations that have the stamp of worldliness so deep upon them\nthat any persons who want to be burdened with as little religion as may\nbe respectable will find themselves at home there. And I come to you\nChristian people here, for whose Christian character I am in some sense\nand to some degree responsible, with this appeal: Do you see to it\nthat, so far as your influence extends, this community of ours be such\nas that half-dead Christians will never think of coming near us, and\nthose whose religion is tepid will be repelled from us, but that they\nwho love the Lord Jesus Christ with earnest devotion and lofty\nconsecration, and seek to live unworldly and saint-like lives, shall\nrecognise in us men like-minded, and from whom they may draw help. I\nbeseech you--if you will not misunderstand the expression--make your\ncommunion such that it will repel as well as attract; and that people\nwill find nothing here to draw them to an easy religion of words and\nformalism, beneath which all vermin of worldliness and selfishness may\nlurk, but will recognise in us a church of men and women who are bent\nupon holiness, and longing for more and more conformity to the divine\nMaster.\n\nNow, if all this be true, it is possible for worldly and stagnant\ncommunities calling themselves 'Churches' to thwart Christ's purpose,\nand to make it both impossible and undesirable that He should add to\nthem souls for whom He has died. It is a solemn thing to feel that we\nmay clog Christ's chariot-wheels, that there may be so little spiritual\nlife in us, as a congregation, that, if I may so say, He dare not\nintrust us with the responsibility of guarding and keeping the young\nconverts whom He loves and tends. We may not be fit to be trusted with\nthem, and that may be why we do not get them. It may not be good for\nthem that they should be dropped into the refrigerating atmosphere of\nsuch a church, and that may be why they do not come.\n\nDepend upon it, brethren, that, far more than my preaching, your lives\nwill determine the expansion of this church of ours. And if my\npreaching is pulling one way and your lives the other, and I have half\nan hour a week for talk and you have seven days for contradictory life,\nwhich of the two do you think is likely to win in the tug? I beseech\nyou, take the words that I am now trying to speak, to yourselves. Do\nnot pass them to the man in the next pew and think how well they fit\nhim, but accept them as needed by you. And remember, that just as a bit\nof sealing-wax, if you rub it on your sleeve and so warm it, develops\nan attractive power, the Church which is warmed will draw many to\nitself. If the earlier words of this context apply to any Christian\ncommunity, then certainly its blessed promise too will apply to it, and\nto such a church the Lord will 'add day by day them that are being\nsaved.'\n\nIII. And now, lastly, observe the definition given here of the class of\npersons gathered into the community.\n\nI have already observed, in the earlier portion of this discourse, that\nhere we have salvation represented as a process, a progressive thing\nwhich runs on all through life. In the New Testament there are various\npoints of view from which that great idea of salvation is represented.\nIt is sometimes spoken of as past, in so far as in the definite act of\nconversion and the first exercise of faith in Jesus Christ the whole\nsubsequent evolution and development are involved, and the process of\nsalvation has its beginning then, when a man turns to God. It is\nsometimes spoken of as present, in so far as the joy of deliverance\nfrom evil and possession of good, which is God, is realised day by day.\nIt is sometimes spoken of as future, in so far as all the imperfect\npossession and pre-libations of salvation which we taste here on earth\nprophesy and point onwards to their own perfecting in the climax of\nheaven. But all these three points of view, past, present, and future,\nmay be merged into this one of my text, which speaks of every saint on\nearth, from the infantile to the most mature, as standing in the same\nrow, though at different points; walking on the same road, though\nadvanced different distances; all participant of the same process of\n'being saved.'\n\nThrough all life the deliverance goes on, the deliverance from sin, the\ndeliverance from wrath. The Christian salvation, then, according to the\nteaching of this emphatic phrase, is a process begun at conversion,\ncarried on progressively through the life, and reaching its climax in\nanother state. Day by day, through the spring and the early summer, the\nsun shines longer in the sky, and rises higher in the heavens; and the\npath of the Christian is as the shining light. Last year's greenwood is\nthis year's hardwood; and the Christian, in like manner, has to 'grow\nin the grace and knowledge of the Lord and Saviour.' So these\nprogressively, and, therefore, as yet imperfectly, saved people, were\ngathered into the Church.\n\nNow I have but two things to say about that. If that be the description\nof the kind of folk that come into a Christian Church, the duties of\nthat Church are very plainly marked. And the first great one is to see\nto it that the community help the growth of its members. There are\nChristian Churches--I do not say whether ours is one of them or\nnot--into which, if a young plant is brought, it is pretty sure to be\nkilled. The temperature is so low that the tender shoots are nipped as\nwith frost, and die. I have seen people, coming all full of fervour and\nof faith, into Christian congregations, and finding that the average\nround them was so much lower than their own, that they have cooled down\nafter a time to the fashionable temperature, and grown indifferent like\ntheir brethren. Let us, dear friends, remember that a Christian Church\nis a nursery of imperfect Christians, and, for ourselves and for one\nanother, try to make our communion such as shall help shy and tender\ngraces to unfold themselves, and woo out, by the encouragement of\nexample, the lowest and the least perfect to lofty holiness and\nconsecration like the Master's.\n\nAnd if I am speaking to any in this congregation who hold aloof from\nChristian fellowship for more or less sufficient reasons, let me press\nupon them, in one word, that if they are conscious of a possession,\nhowever imperfect, of that incipient salvation, their place is thereby\ndetermined, and they are doing wrong if they do not connect themselves\nwith some Christian Communion, and stand forth as members of Christ's\nChurch.\n\nAnd now one last word. I have tried to show you that salvation, in the\nNew Testament, is regarded as a process. The opposite thing is a\nprocess too. There is a very awful contrast in one of Paul's Epistles.\n'The preaching of the Cross is to them _who are in the act of\nperishing_ foolishness; unto us who are _being saved_, it is the power\nof God.' These two processes start, as it were, from the same point,\none by slow degrees and almost imperceptible motion, rising higher and\nhigher, the other, by slow degrees and almost unconscious descent,\nsliding steadily and fatally downward ever further and further. And my\npoint now is that in each of us one or other of these processes is\ngoing on. Either you are slowly rising or you are slipping down. Either\na larger measure of the life of Christ, which is salvation, is passing\ninto your hearts, or bit by bit you are dying like some man with\ncreeping paralysis that begins at the extremities, and with fell,\nsilent, inexorable footstep, advances further and further towards the\ncitadel of the heart, where it lays its icy hand at last, and the man\nis dead. You are either 'being saved' or you are 'perishing.' No man\nbecomes a devil all at once, and no man becomes an angel all at once.\nTrust yourself to Christ, and He will lift you to Himself; turn your\nback upon Him, as some of you are doing, and you will settle down,\ndown, down in the muck and the mire of your own sensuality and\nselfishness, until at last the foul ooze spreads over your head, and\nyou are lost in the bog for ever.\n\n\n\n'THEN SHALL THE LAME MAN LEAP AS AN HART'\n\n'Now Peter and John went up together into the temple at the hour of\nprayer, being the ninth hour. 2. And a certain man lame from his\nmother's womb was carried, whom they laid daily at the gate of the\ntemple which is called Beautiful, to ask alms of them that entered into\nthe temple; 3. Who, seeing Peter and John about to go into the temple,\nasked an alms. 4. And Peter, fastening his eyes upon him, with John,\nsaid, Look on us. 5. And he gave heed unto them, expecting to receive\nsomething of them. 6. Then Peter said, Silver and gold have I none; but\nsuch as I have give I thee: In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth\nrise up and walk. 7. And he took him by the right hand, and lifted him\nup: and immediately his feet and ankle bones received strength. 8. And\nhe leaping up, stood, and walked, and entered with them into the\ntemple, walking, and leaping, and praising God. 9. And all the people\nsaw him walking and praising God: 10. And they knew that it was he\nwhich sat for alms at the Beautiful gate of the temple: and they were\nfilled with wonder and amazement at that which had happened unto him.\n11. And as the lame man which was healed held Peter and John, all the\npeople ran together unto them in the porch that is called Solomon's,\ngreatly wondering. 12. And when Peter saw it, he answered unto the\npeople, Ye men of Israel, why marvel ye at this? or why look ye so\nearnestly on us, as though by our own power or holiness we had made\nthis man to walk? 13. The God of Abraham, and of Isaac, and of Jacob,\nthe God of our fathers, hath glorified His Son Jesus; whom ye delivered\nup, and denied Him in the presence of Pilate, when he was determined to\nlet Him go. 14. But ye denied the Holy One and the Just, and desired a\nmurderer to be granted unto you; 15. And killed the Prince of Life,\nwhom God hath raised from the dead, whereof we are witnesses. 16. And\nHis name through faith in His name hath made this man strong, whom ye\nsee and know; yea, the faith which is by Him hath given him this\nperfect soundness in the presence of you all.'--ACTS iii. 1-16.\n\n'Many wonders and signs were done by the Apostles' (Acts ii. 43), but\nthis one is recorded in detail, both because it was conspicuous as\nwrought in the Temple, and because it led to weighty consequences. The\nnarrative is so vivid and full of minute particulars that it suggests\nan eye-witness. Was Peter Luke's informant? The style of the story is\nso like that of Mark's Gospel that we might reasonably presume so.\n\nThe scene and the persons are first set before us. It was natural that\na close alliance should be cemented between Peter and John, both\nbecause they were the principal members of the quartet which stood\nfirst among the Apostles, and because they were so unlike each other,\nand therefore completed each other. Peter's practical force and eye for\nexternals, and John's more contemplative nature and eye for the unseen,\nneeded one another. So we find them together in the judgment hall, at\nthe sepulchre, and here.\n\nThey 'went up to the Temple,' or, to translate more exactly and more\npicturesquely, 'were going up,' when the incident to be recorded stayed\nthem. They had passed through the court, and came to a gate leading\ninto the inner court, which was called 'Beautiful.' from its artistic\nexcellence, when they were arrested by the sight of a lame beggar, who\nhad been carried there every day for many years to appeal, by the\ndisplay of his helplessness, to the entering worshippers. Precisely\nsimilar sights may be seen to-day at the doors of many a famous\nEuropean church and many a mosque. He mechanically wailed out his\nformula, apparently scarcely looking at the two strangers, nor\nexpecting a response. Long habit and many rebuffs had not made him\nhopeful, but it was his business to ask, and so he asked.\n\nSome quick touch of pity shot through the two friends' hearts, which\ndid not need to be spoken in order that each might feel it to be shared\nby the other. So they paused, and, as was in keeping with their\ncharacters, Peter took speech in hand, while John stood by assenting.\nPurposed devotion is well delayed when postponed in order to lighten\nmisery.\n\nThere must have been something magnetic in Peter's voice and steady\ngaze as he said, 'Look on us!' It was a strange preface, if only some\nsmall coin was to follow. It kindled some flicker of hope of he knew\nnot what in the beggar. He expected to receive 'something' from them,\nand, no doubt, was asking himself what. Expectation and receptivity\nwere being stirred in him, though he could not divine what was coming.\nWe have no right to assume that his state of mind was operative in\nfitting him to be cured, nor to call his attitude 'faith,' but still he\nwas lifted from his usual dreary hopelessness, and some strange\nanticipation was creeping into his heart.\n\nThen comes the grand word of power. Again Peter is spokesman, but John\ntakes part, though silently. With a fixed gaze, which told of\nconcentrated purpose, and went to the lame man's heart, Peter\ntriumphantly avows what most men are ashamed of, and try to hide:\n'Silver and gold have I none.' He had 'left all and followed Christ';\nhe had not made demands on the common stock. Empty pockets may go along\nwith true wealth.\n\nThere is a fine flash of exultant confidence in Peter's next words,\nwhich is rather spoiled by the Authorised Version. He did not say\n'_such_ as I have,' as it it was inferior to money, which he had not,\nbut he said '_what_ I have' (Rev. Ver.),--a very different tone. The\nexpression eloquently magnifies the power which he possessed as far\nmore precious than wealth, and it speaks of his assurance that he did\npossess it--an assurance which rested, not only on his faith in his\nLord's promise and gift, but on his experience in working former\nmiracles.\n\nHow deep his words go into the obligations of possession! 'What I have\nI give' should be the law for all Christians in regard to all that they\nhave, and especially in regard to spiritual riches. God gives us these,\nnot only in order that we may enjoy them ourselves, but in order that\nwe may impart, and so in our measure enter into the joy of our Lord and\nknow the greater blessedness of giving than of receiving. How often it\nhas been true that a poor church has been a miracle-working church, and\nthat, when it could not say 'Silver and gold have I none' it has also\nlost the power of saying, 'In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth,\nwalk'!\n\nThe actual miracle is most graphically narrated. With magnificent\nboldness Peter rolls out his Master's name, there, in the court of the\nTemple, careless who may hear. He takes the very name that had been\nused in scorn, and waves it like a banner of victory. His confidence in\nhis possession of power was not confidence in himself, but in his Lord.\nWhen we can peal forth the Name with as much assurance of its\nmiracle-working power as Peter did, we too shall be able to make the\nlame walk. A faltering voice is unworthy to speak such words, and will\nspeak them in vain.\n\nThe process of cure is minutely described. Peter put out his hand to\nhelp the lame man up, and, while he was doing so, power came into the\nshrunken muscles and weak ankles, so that the cripple felt that he\ncould raise himself, and, though all passed in a moment, the last part\nof his rising was his own doing, and what began with his being 'lifted\nup' ended in his 'leaping up.' Then came an instant of standing still,\nto steady himself and make sure of his new strength, and then he began\nto walk.\n\nThe interrupted purpose of devotion could now be pursued, but with a\ngladsome addition to the company. How natural is that 'walking and\nleaping and praising God'! The new power seemed so delightful, so\nwonderful, that sober walking did not serve. It was a strange way of\ngoing into the Temple, but people who are borne along by the sudden joy\nof new gifts beyond hope need not be expected to go quietly, and\nsticklers for propriety who blamed the man's extravagance, and would\nhave had him pace along with sober gait and downcast eyes, like a\nPharisee, did not know what made him thus obstreperous, even in his\ndevout thankfulness. 'Leaping and praising God' do make a singular\ncombination, but before we blame, let us be sure that we understand.\n\nOne of the old manuscripts inserts a clause which brings out more\nclearly that there was a pause, during which the three remained in the\nTemple in prayer. It reads, 'And when Peter and John came out, he came\nout with them, holding them, and they [the people] being astonished,\nstood in the porch,' etc. So we have to think of the buzzing crowd,\nwaiting in the court for their emergence from the sanctuary. Solomon's\nporch was, like the Beautiful gate, on the east side of the Temple\nenclosure, and may probably have been a usual place of rendezvous for\nthe brethren, as it had been a resort of their Lord.\n\nIt was a great moment, and Peter, the unlearned Galilean, the former\ncowardly renegade, rose at once to the occasion. Truly it was given him\nin that hour what to speak. His sermon is distinguished by its\nundaunted charging home the guilt of Christ's death on the nation, its\npitying recognition of the ignorance which had done the deed, and its\nurgent entreaty. We here deal with its beginning only. 'Why marvel ye\nat this?'--it would have been a marvel if they had not marvelled. The\nthing was no marvel to the Apostle, because he believed that Jesus was\nthe Christ and reigned in Heaven. Miracles fall into their place and\nbecome supremely 'natural' when we have accepted that great truth.\n\nThe fervent disavowal of their 'own power or holiness' as concerned in\nthe healing is more than a modest disclaimer. It leads on to the\ndeclaration of who is the true Worker of all that is wrought for men by\nthe hands of Christians. That disavowal has to be constantly repeated\nby us, not so much to turn away men's admiration or astonishment from\nus, as to guard our own foolish hearts from taking credit for what it\nmay please Jesus to do by us as His tools.\n\nThe declaration of Christ as the supreme Worker is postponed till after\nthe solemn indictment of the nation. But the true way to regard the\nmiracle is set forth at once, as being God's glorifying of Jesus. Peter\nemploys a designation of our Lord which is peculiar to these early\nchapters of Acts. He calls Him God's 'Servant,' which is a quotation of\nthe Messianic title in the latter part of Isaiah, 'the Servant of the\nLord.'\n\nThe fiery speaker swiftly passes to contrast God's glorifying with\nIsrael's rejection. The two points on which he seizes are noteworthy.\n'Ye delivered Him up'; that is, to the Roman power. That was the\ndeepest depth of Israel's degradation. To hand over their Messiah to\nthe heathen,--what could be completer faithlessness to all Israel's\ncalling and dignity? But that was not all: 'ye denied Him.' Did Peter\nremember some one else than the Jews who had done the same, and did a\nsudden throb of conscious fellowship even in that sin make his voice\ntremble for a moment? Israel's denial was aggravated because it was 'in\nthe presence of Pilate,' and had overborne his determination to release\nhis prisoner. The Gentile judge would rise in the judgment to condemn\nthem, for he had at least seen that Jesus was innocent, and they had\nhounded him on to an illegal killing, which was murder as laid to his\naccount, but national apostasy as laid to theirs.\n\nThese were daring words to speak in the Temple to that crowd. But the\nhumble fisherman had been filled with the Spirit, who is the\nStrengthener, and the fear of man was dead in him. If we had never\nheard of Pentecost, we should need to invent something of the sort to\nmake intelligible the transformation of these timid folk, the first\ndisciples, into heroes. A dead Christ, lying in an unknown grave, could\nnever have inspired His crushed followers with such courage, insight,\nand elastic confidence and gladness in the face of a frowning world.\n\n\n\n'THE PRINCE OF LIFE'\n\n'But ye denied the Holy One and the Just, and desired a murderer to be\ngranted unto you; 15. And killed the Prince of life, whom God hath\nraised from the dead; whereof we are witnesses.'--ACTS iii. 14, 15.\n\nThis early sermon of Peter's, to the people, is marked by a comparative\nabsence of the highest view of Christ's person and work. It is open to\nus to take one of two explanations of that fact. We may either say that\nthe Apostle was but learning the full significance of the marvellous\nevents that had passed so recently, or we may say that he suited his\nwords to his audience, and did not declare all that he knew.\n\nAt the same time, we should not overlook the significance of the\nChristology which it does contain. 'His child Jesus' is really a\ntranslation of Isaiah's 'Servant of the Lord.' 'The Holy One and the\nJust' is a distinct assertion of Jesus' perfect, sinless manhood, and\n'the Prince of Life' plainly asserts Jesus to be the Lord and Source of\nit.\n\nNotice, too, the pathetic 'denied': was Peter thinking of the shameful\nhour in his own experience? It is a glimpse into the depth of his\npenitence, and the tenderness with others' sins which it had given him,\nthat he twice uses the word here, as if he had said 'You have done no\nmore than I did myself. It is not for me to heap reproaches on you. We\nhave been alike in sin--and I can preach forgiveness to you sinners,\nbecause I have received it for myself.'\n\nNotice, too, the manifold antitheses of the words. Barabbas is set\nagainst Christ; the Holy One and the Just against a robber, the Prince\nof Life against a murderer. 'You killed'--'the Prince of Life.' 'You\nkilled'--'God raised.'\n\nThere are here three paradoxes, three strange and contradictory things:\nthe paradoxes of man's perverted and fatal choice, of man's hate\nbringing death to the Lord of life, and of God's love and power causing\nlife to come by death.\n\nI. The paradox of man's fatal choice.\n\nThere occurs often in history a kind of irony in which the whole\ntendency of a time or of a conflict is summed up in a single act, and\ncertainly the fact which is referred to here is one of these. Let us\nput it as it would have seemed to an onlooker then, leaving out for the\nmoment any loftier meaning which may attach to it.\n\nPeter's words here, thus boldly addressed to the people, are a strong\ntestimony to the impression which the character of Christ had made on\nHis contemporaries. 'The Holy One and the Just' implies moral\nperfection. The whole narrative of the Crucifixion brings out that\nimpression. Pilate's wife speaks with awe of 'that just person.' 'Which\nof you convinceth me of sin?' 'If I have done evil, bear witness of the\nevil.' 'I find no fault in Him.' We may take it for granted that the\nimpression Jesus made among His contemporaries was, at the lowest, that\nHe was a pure and good man.\n\nThe nation had to choose one of two. Jesus was the one; who was the\nother? A man half brigand, half rebel, who had raised some petty revolt\nagainst Rome, more as a pretext for robbery and crime than from\npatriotism, and whose hands reeked with blood. And this was the\nnation's hero!\n\nThe juxtaposition throws a strong light on the people's motive for\nrejecting Jesus. The rulers may have condemned Him for blasphemy, but\nthe people had a more practical reason, and in it no doubt the rulers\nshared. It was not because He claimed to be the Messiah that they gave\nHim up to Pilate, but because He would not meet their notions of what\nthe Messiah should be and do. If He had called them to arms, not a man\nof them would have betrayed Him to Pilate, but all, or the more daring\nof them, would have rallied to His standard. Their hate was the measure\nof their deep disappointment with His course. If instead of showing\nlove and meekness, He had blown up the coals of religious hatred; if\ninstead of going about doing good, He had mustered the men of lawless\nGalilee for a revolt, would these fawning hypocrites have dragged him\nto Pilate on the charge of forbidding to give tribute to Caesar, and of\nclaiming to be a King? Why, there was not one of them but would have\nbeen glad to murder every tax-gatherer in Palestine, not one of them\nbut bore inextinguishable in his inmost heart the faith in 'one Christ\na King.' And if that meek and silent martyr had only lifted His finger,\nHe might have had legions of His accusers at His back, ready to sweep\nPilate and his soldiers out of Jerusalem. They saw Christ's goodness\nand holiness. It did not attract them. They wanted a Messiah who would\nbring them outward freedom by the use of outward weapons, and so they\nall shouted 'Not this man but Barabbas!' The whole history of the\nnation was condensed in that one cry--their untamable obstinacy, their\nblindness to the light of God, their fierce grasp of the promises which\nthey did not understand, their hard worldliness, their cruel\npatriotism, their unquenchable hatred of their oppressors, which was\nonly equalled by their unquenchable hatred of those who showed them the\nonly true way for deliverance.\n\nAnd this strange paradox is not confined to these Jews. It is repeated\nwherever Christ is presented to men. We are told that all men naturally\nadmire goodness, and so on. Men mostly know it when they see it, but I\ndoubt whether they all either admire or like it. People generally had\nrather have something more outward and tangible. It is not\nspiritualising this incident, but only referring it to the principle of\nwhich it is an illustration, to ask you to see in it the fatal choice\nof multitudes. Christ is set before us all, and His beauty is partially\nseen but is dimmed by externals. Men's desires are fixed on gross\nsensuous delights, or on success in business, or on intellectual\neminence, or on some of the thousand other visible and temporal objects\nthat outshine, to vulgar eyes, the less dazzling lustre of the things\nunseen. They appreciate these, and make heroes of the men who have won\nthem. These are their ideals, but of Jesus they have little care.\n\nAnd is it not true that all such competitors of His, when they lead men\nto prefer them to Him, are 'murderers,' in a sadder sense than Barabbas\nwas? Do they not slay the souls of their admirers? Is it not but too\nghastly a reality that all who thus choose them draw down ruin on\nthemselves and 'love death'?\n\nThis fatal paradox is being repeated every day in the lives of\nthousands. The crowds who yelled, 'Not this man but Barabbas!' were\nless guilty and less mad than those who to-day cry, 'Not Jesus but\nworldly wealth, or fleeting bodily delights, or gratified ambition!'\n\nII. The paradox of Death's seeming conquest over the Lord of Life.\n\nThe word rendered 'Prince' means an originator, and hence a leader and\nhence a lord. Whether Peter had yet reached a conception of the\ndivinity of Jesus or not, he had clearly reached a much higher one of\nHim than he had attained before His death. In some sense he was\nbeginning to recognise that His relation to 'life' was loftier and more\nmysterious than that of other men. Was it His death only that thus\nelevated the disciples' thoughts of Jesus? Strange that if He died and\nthere an end, such a result should have followed. One would have\nexpected His death to have shattered their faith in Him, but somehow it\nstrengthened their faith. Why did they not all continue to lament, as\ndid the two of them on the road to Emmaus: 'We trusted that this had\nbeen He who should have redeemed Israel'--but now we trust no more, and\nour dreams are buried in His grave? Why did they not go back to Galilee\nand their nets? What raised their spirits, their courage, and increased\ntheir understanding of Him, and their faith in Him? How came His death\nto be the occasion of consolidating, not of shattering, their\nfellowship? How came Peter to be so sure that a man who had died was\nthe 'Prince of Life'? The answer, the only one psychologically\npossible, is in what Peter here proclaims to unwilling ears, 'Whom God\nraised from the dead.'\n\nThe fact of the Resurrection sets the fact of the Death in another\nlight. Meditating on these twin facts, the Death and Resurrection of\nJesus, we hear Himself speaking as He did to John in Patmos: 'I am the\nLiving One who became dead, and lo, I am alive for evermore!'\n\nIf we try to listen with the ears of these first hearers of Peter's\nwords, we shall better appreciate his daring paradox. Think of the\ntremendous audacity of the claim which they make, that Jesus should be\nthe 'Prince of Life,' and of the strange contradiction to it which the\nfact that they 'killed' Him seems to give. How could death have power\nover the Prince of Life? That sounds as if, indeed, the 'sun were\nturned into darkness,' or as if fire became ice. That brief clause 'ye\nkilled the Prince of Life' must have seemed sheer absurdity to the\nhearers whose hands were still red with the blood of Jesus.\n\nBut there is another paradox here. It was strange that death should be\nable to invade that Life, but it is no less strange that men should be\nable to inflict it. But we must not forget that Jesus died, not because\nmen slew Him, but because He willed to die. The whole of the narratives\nof the Crucifixion in the Gospels avoid using the word 'death.' Such\nexpressions as He 'gave up the ghost,' or the like, are used, implying\nwhat is elsewhere distinctly asserted, that His death was His offering\nof Himself, the result of His own volition, not of exhaustion or of\ntorture. Thus, even in dying, He showed Himself the Lord of Life and\nthe Master of Death. Men indeed fastened Jesus to the Cross, but He\ndied, not because He was so fastened, but because He willed to 'make\nHis soul an offering for sin.' Bound as it were to a rock in the midst\nof the ocean, He, of His own will, and at His own time, bowed His head,\nand let the waves of the sea of death roll over it.\n\nIII. The triumphant divine paradox of life given and death conquered\nthrough a death.\n\nJesus is 'Prince' in the sense of being source of life to mankind, just\nbecause He died. Hie death is the death of Death. His apparent defeat\nis His real victory.\n\nBy His death He takes away our sins.\n\nBy His death He abolishes death.\n\nThe physical fact remains, but all else which makes the 'sting of\ndeath' to men is gone. It is no more a solitude, for He has died, and\nthereby He becomes a companion in that hour to every lover of His. Its\ndarkness changes into light to those who, by 'following Him,' have,\neven there, 'the light of life.' This Samson carried away the gates of\nthe prison on His own strong shoulders when He came forth from it. It\nis His to say, 'O death! I will be thy plague.'\n\nBy His death He diffuses life.\n\n'The Spirit was not given' till Jesus was 'glorified,' which\nglorification is John's profound synonym for His crucifixion. When the\nalabaster box of His pure body was broken, the whole house of humanity\nwas filled with the odour of the ointment.\n\nSo the great paradox becomes a blessed truth, that man's deepest sin\nworks out God's highest act of Love and Pardon.\n\n\n\nTHE HEALING POWER OF THE NAME\n\n'And His name through faith in His name hath made this man strong, whom\nye see and know: yea, the faith which is by Him hath given him this\nperfect soundness in the presence of you all.'--ACTS iii. 16.\n\nPeter said, 'Why look ye so earnestly on us, as though by our own power\nor holiness we had made this man to walk?' eagerly disclaiming being\nanything else than a medium through which Another's power operated.\nJesus Christ said, 'That ye may know that the Son of Man hath power on\nearth to forgive sins, I say unto thee, Arise, take up thy bed, and\nwalk'--unmistakably claiming to be a great deal more than a medium. Why\nthe difference? Jesus Christ did habitually in His miracles adopt the\ntone on which Moses once ventured when he smote the rock and said, 'Ye\nrebels! must _we_ bring the water for you?' and he was punished for it\nby exclusion from the Promised Land. Why the difference? Moses was 'in\nall his house as a servant, but Christ as a Son over His own house';\nand what was arrogance in the servant was natural and reasonable in the\nSon.\n\nThe gist of this verse is a reference to Jesus Christ as a source of\nmiraculous power, not merely because He wrought miracles when on earth,\nbut because from heaven He gave the power of which Peter was but the\nchannel. Now it seems to me that in these emphatic and singularly\nreduplicated words of the Apostle there are two or three very important\nlessons which I offer for your consideration.\n\nI. The first is the power of the Name.\n\nNow the Name of which Peter is speaking is not the collocation of\nsyllables which are sounded 'Jesus Christ.' His hearers were familiar\nwith the ancient and Eastern method of regarding names as very much\nmore than distinguishing labels. They are, in the view of the Old\nTestament, attempts at a summary description of things by their\nprominent characteristics. They are condensed definitions. And so the\nOld Testament uses the expression, the 'Name' of God, as equivalent to\n'that which God is manifested to be.' Hence, in later days--and there\nare some tendencies thither even in Scripture--in Jewish literature\n'the Name' came to be a reverential synonym for God Himself. And there\nare traces that this peculiar usage with regard to the divine Name was\nbeginning to shape itself in the Church with reference to the name of\nJesus, even at that period in which my text was spoken. For instance,\nin the fifth chapter we read that the Apostles 'departed from the\ncouncil rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for the\nName,' and we find at a much later date that missionaries of the Gospel\nare described by the Apostle John as going forth 'for the sake of the\nName.'\n\nThe name of Christ, then, is the representation or embodiment of that\nwhich Christ is declared to be for us men, and it is that Name, the\ntotality of what He is manifested to be, in which lies all power for\nhealing and for strengthening. The Name, that is, the whole Christ, in\nHis nature, His offices, His work, His Incarnation, His Life, His\nDeath, Resurrection, Session at the right hand of God--it is this\nChrist whose Name made that man strong, and will make us strong.\nBrethren, let us remember that, while fragments of the Name will have\nfragmentary power, as the curative virtue that resides in any substance\nbelongs to the smallest grain of it, if detached from the mass--whilst\nfragments of the Name of Christ have power, thanks be to Him! so that\nno man can have even a very imperfect and rudimentary view of what\nJesus Christ is and does, without getting strength and healing in\nproportion to the completeness of his conception, yet in order to\nrealise all that He can be and do, a man must take the whole Christ as\nHe is revealed.\n\nThe Early Church had a symbol for Jesus Christ, a fish, to which they\nwere led because the Greek word for a fish is made up of the initials\nof the words which they conceived to be the Name. And what was it?\n'_Jesus Christ_, _God's Son_, _Saviour_'; _Jesus_, humanity; _Christ_,\nthe apex of Revelation, the fulfilment of prophecy, the Anointed\nProphet, Priest, and King; _Son of God_, the divine nature: and all\nthese, the humanity, the Messiahship, the divinity, found their sphere\nof activity in the last name, which, without them, would in its fulness\nhave been impossible--_Saviour_. He is not such a Saviour as He may be\nto each of us, unless our conception of the Name grasps these three\ntruths: His humanity, His Messiahship, His divinity. 'His Name has made\nthis man strong.'\n\nII. Notice how the power of the Name comes to operate.\n\nNow, if you will observe the language of my text, you will note that\nPeter says, as it would appear, the same thing twice over: 'His Name,\nthrough faith in His Name, hath made this man strong.' And then, as if\nhe were saying something else, he adds what seems to be the same thing:\n'Yea! the faith which is by Him hath given him this perfect soundness.'\n\nNow, note that in the first of these two statements nothing appears\nexcept the 'man,' the 'Name,' and 'faith' I take it, though of course\nit may be questionable, that that clause refers to the man's faith, and\nthat we have in it the intentional exclusion of the human workers, and\nare presented with the only two parties really concerned--at the one\nend the Name, at the other end 'this man made strong.' And the link of\nconnection between the two in this clause is faith--that is, the man's\ntrust. But then, if we come to the next clause, we find that although\nPeter has just previously disclaimed all merit in the cure, yet there\nis a sense in which some one's faith, working as from without, _gave_\nto the man 'this perfect soundness.' And it seems very natural to me to\nunderstand that here, where human faith is represented as being, in\nsome subordinate sense, the bestower of the healing which really the\nName had bestowed, it is the faith of the human miracle-worker or\nmedium which is referred to. Peter's faith did give, but Peter only\ngave what he had received through faith. And so let all the praise be\ngiven to the water, and none to the cup.\n\nWhether that be a fair interpretation of the words of my text, with\ntheir singular and apparently meaningless tautology or no, at all\nevents the principle which is involved in the explanation is one that I\nwish to dwell upon briefly now; and that is, that in order for the\nName, charged and supercharged with healing and strengthening power as\nit is, to come into operation, there must be a twofold trust.\n\nThe healer, the medium of healing, must have faith in the Name. Yes! of\ncourse. In all regions the first requisite, the one indispensable\ncondition, of a successful propagandist, is enthusiastic confidence in\nwhat he promulgates. 'That man will go far,' said a cynical politician\nabout one of his rivals; 'he believes every word he says.' And that is\nthe condition always of getting other people to believe us. Faith is\ncontagious; men catch from other people's tongues the accent of\nconviction. If one wants to enforce any opinion upon others, the first\ncondition is that he shall be utterly self-oblivious; and when he is\nmanifestly saying, as the Apostles in this context did, 'Do not fix\nyour eyes on us, as though we were doing anything,' then hearts will\nbow before him, as the trees of the wood are bowed by the wind.\n\nIf that is true in all regions, it is eminently true in regard to\nreligion. For what we need there most is not to be instructed, but to\nbe impressed. Most of us have, lying dormant in the bedchamber and\ninfirmary of our brains, convictions which only need to be awakened to\nrevolutionise our lives. Now one of the most powerful ways of waking\nthem is contact with any man in whom they are awake. So all successful\nteachers and messengers of Jesus Christ have had this characteristic in\ncommon, however unlike each other they have been. The divergences of\ntemperament, of moods, of point of view, of method of working which\nprevailed even in the little group of Apostles, and broadly\ndistinguished Paul from Peter, Peter from James, and Paul and Peter and\nJames from John, are only types of what has been repeated ever since.\nGet together the great missionaries of the Cross, and you would have\nthe most extraordinary collection of miscellaneous idiosyncrasies that\nthe world ever saw, and they would not understand each other, as some\nof them wofully misunderstood each other when here together. But there\nwas one characteristic in them all, a flaming earnestness of belief in\nthe power of the Name. And so it did not matter much, if at all, what\ntheir divergences were. Each of them was fitted for the Master's use.\n\nAnd so, brethren, here is the reason--I do not say the only reason, but\nthe main one, and that which most affects us--for the slow progress,\nand even apparent failure, of Christianity. It has fallen into the\nhands of a Church that does not half believe its own Gospel. By reason\nof formality and ceremonial and sacerdotalism and a lazy kind of\nexpectation that, somehow or other, the benefits of Christ's love can\ncome to men apart from their own personal faith in Him, the Church has\nlargely ceased to anticipate that great things can be done by its\nutterance of the Name. And if you have, I do not say ministers, or\nteachers, or official proclaimers, or Sunday-school teachers, or the\nlike, but I say if you have a _Church_, that is honeycombed with doubt,\nand from which the strength and flood-tide of faith have in many cases\nebbed away, why, it may go on uttering its formal proclamations of the\nName till the Day of Judgment, and all that will come of it will\nbe--'The man in whom the devils were, leaped upon them, and overcame\nthem, and said'--as he had a good right to say--'Jesus I know, and Paul\nI know, but who are ye?' You cannot kindle a fire with snowballs. If\nthe town crier goes into a quiet corner of the marketplace and rings\nhis bell apologetically, and gives out his message in a whisper, it is\nsmall wonder if nobody listens. And that is the way in which too many\nso-called Christian teachers and communities hold forth the Name, as if\nbegging pardon of the world for being so narrow and old-fashioned as to\nbelieve in it still.\n\nAnd no less necessary is faith on the other side. The recipient must\nexercise trust. This lame man, no doubt, like the other that Paul\nlooked at in a similar case, had faith to be healed. That was the\nlength of his tether. He believed that he was going to have his legs\nmade strong, and they were made strong accordingly. If he had believed\nmore, he would have got more. Let us hope that he did get more, because\nhe believed more, at a later day. But in the meantime the Apostles'\nfaith was not enough to cure him; and it is not enough for you that\nJesus Christ should be standing with all His power at your elbow, and\nthat, earnestly and enthusiastically, some of Christ's messengers may\npress upon you the acceptance of Him as a Saviour. He is of no good in\nthe world to you, and never will be, unless you have the personal faith\nthat knits you to Him.\n\nIt cannot be otherwise. Depend upon it, if Jesus Christ could save\nevery one without terms and conditions at all, He would be only too\nglad to do it. But it cannot be done. The nature of His work, and the\nsort of blessings that He brings by His work, are such as that it is an\nimpossibility that any man should receive them unless he has that trust\nwhich, beginning with the acceptance by the understanding of Christ as\nSaviour, passes on to the assent of the will, and the outgoing of the\nheart, and the yielding of the whole nature to Him. How can a truth do\nany good to any one who does not believe in it? How is it possible\nthat, if you do not take a medicine, it will work? How can you expect\nto see, unless you open your eyes? How do you propose to have your\nblood purified, if you do not fill your lungs with air? Is it of any\nuse to have gas-fittings in your house, if they are not connected with\nthe main? Will a water tap run in your sculleries, if there is no pipe\nthat joins it with the source of supply? My dear friend, these rough\nillustrations are only approximations to the absolute impossibility\nthat Christ can help, heal, or save any man without the man's personal\nfaith. 'Whosoever believeth' is no arbitrary limitation, but is\ninseparable from the very nature of the salvation given.\n\nIII. And now, lastly, note the effects of the power of the Name.\n\nThe Apostle puts in two separate clauses what, in the case in hand, was\nreally one thing--'hath made this man strong,' and 'hath given him\nperfect soundness.' Ah! we can part the two, cannot we? There is the\ndisease, the disease of an alienated heart, of a perverted will, of a\nswollen self, all of which we need to have cured and checked before we\ncan do right. And there is weakness, the impotence to do what is good,\n'how to perform I find not,' and we need to be strengthened as well as\ncured. There is only one thing that will do these two, and that is that\nChrist's power, ay, and Christ's own life, should pass, as it will pass\nif we trust Him, into our foulness and precipitate all the\nimpurity--into our weakness and infuse strength. 'A reed shaken with\nthe wind,' and without substance or solidity to resist, may be placed\nin what is called a petrifying well, and, by the infiltration of stony\nsubstance into its structure, may be turned into a rigid mass, like a\nlittle bar of iron. So, if Christ comes into my poor, weak, tremulous\nnature, there will be an infiltration into the very substance of my\nbeing of a present power which will make me strong.\n\nMy brother, you and I need, first and foremost, the healing, and then\nthe strength-giving power, which we never find in its completeness\nanywhere but in Christ, and which we shall always find in Him.\n\nAnd now notice, Jesus Christ does not make half cures--'this _perfect_\nsoundness.' If any man, in contact with Him, is but half delivered from\nhis infirmities and purged from his sins, it is not because Christ's\npower is inadequate, but because his own faith is defective.\n\nChrist's cures should be visible to all around. A man's own testimony\nis not the most satisfactory. Peter appeals to the bystanders. 'You\nhave seen him lying here for years, a motionless lump of mendicancy, at\nthe Temple gate. Now you see him walking and leaping and praising God.\nIs it a cure, or is it not?' You professing Christians, would you like\nto stand that test, to empanel a jury of people that have no sympathy\nwith your religion, in order that they might decide whether you were\nhealed and strengthened or not? It is a good thing for us when the\nworld bears witness that Jesus Christ's power has come into us, and\nmade us what we are.\n\nAnd so, dear friends, I lay all these thoughts on your hearts. Christ's\ngift is amply sufficient to deliver us from all evils of weakness,\nsickness, incapacity: to endue us with all gifts of spiritual and\nimmortal strength. But, while the limit of what Christ gives is His\nboundless wealth, the limit of what you possess is your faith. The\nrainfall comes down in the same copiousness on rock and furrow, but it\nruns off the one, having stimulated no growth and left no blessing, and\nit sinks into the other and quickens every dormant germ into life which\nwill one day blossom into beauty. We are all of us either rock or soil,\nand which we are depends on the reality, the firmness, and the force of\nour faith in Christ. He Himself has laid down the principle on which He\nbestows His gifts when He says, 'According to thy faith be it unto\nthee!'\n\n\n\nTHE SERVANT OF THE LORD\n\n'Unto you first God, having raised up His Son Jesus, sent Him to bless\nyou, In turning away every one of you from his iniquities.'--ACTS iii.\n26.\n\nSo ended Peter's bold address to the wondering crowd gathered in the\nTemple courts around him, with his companion John and the lame man whom\nthey had healed. A glance at his words will show how extraordinarily\noutspoken and courageous they are. He charges home on his hearers the\nguilt of Christ's death, unfalteringly proclaims His Messiahship, bears\nwitness to His Resurrection and Ascension, asserts that He is the End\nand Fulfilment of ancient revelation, and offers to all the great\nblessings that Christ brings. And this fiery, tender oration came from\nthe same lips which, a few weeks before, had been blanched with fear\nbefore a flippant maidservant, and had quivered as they swore, 'I know\nnot the man!'\n\nOne or two simple observations may be made by way of introduction.\n'Unto you _first_'--'first' implies second; and so the Apostle has\nshaken himself clear of the Jews' narrow belief that Messias belonged\nto them only, and is already beginning to contemplate the possibility\nof a transference of the kingdom of God to the outlying Gentiles. 'God\nhaving raised up His Son'--that expression has no reference, as it\nmight at first seem, to the fact of the Resurrection; but is employed\nin the same sense as, and indeed looks back to, previous words. For he\nhad just quoted Moses' declaration, 'A prophet shall the Lord your God\nraise up unto you from your brethren.' So it is Christ's equipment and\nappointment for His office, and not His Resurrection, which is spoken\nabout here. 'His Son Jesus'--the Revised Version more accurately\ntranslates 'His Servant Jesus.' I shall have a word or two to say about\nthat translation presently, but in the meantime I simply note the fact.\n\nWith this slight explanation let us now turn to two or three of the\naspects of the words before us.\n\nI. First, I note the extraordinary transformation which they indicate\nin the speaker.\n\nI have already referred to his cowardice a very short time before. That\ntransformation from a coward to a hero he shared in common with his\nbrethren. On one page we read, 'They all forsook Him and fled.' We turn\nover half a dozen leaves and we read: 'They departed from the council,\nrejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for His name.'\nWhat did that?\n\nThen there is another transformation no less swift, sudden, and\ninexplicable, except on one hypothesis. All through Christ's life the\ndisciples had been singularly slow to apprehend the highest aspects of\nHis teachings, and they had clung with a strange obstinacy to their\nnarrow Pharisaic and Jewish notions of the Messiah as coming to\nestablish a temporal dominion, in which Israel was to ride upon the\nnecks of the subject nations. And now, all at once, this Apostle, and\nhis fellows with him, have stepped from these puerile and narrow ideas\nout into this large place, that he and they recognise that the Jew had\nno exclusive possession of Messiah's blessings, and that these\nblessings consisted in no external kingdom, but lay mainly and\nprimarily in His 'turning every one of you from your iniquities.' At\none time the Apostles stood upon a gross, low, carnal level, and in a\nfew weeks they were, at all events, feeling their way to, and to a\nlarge extent had possession of, the most spiritual and lofty aspects of\nChrist's mission. What did that?\n\nSomething had come in between which wrought more, in a short space,\nthan all the three years of Christ's teaching and companionship had\ndone for them. What was it? Why did they not continue in the mood which\ntwo of them are reported to have been in, after the Crucifixion, when\nthey said--'It is all up! we trusted that this had been He,' but the\nforce of circumstances has shivered the confidence into fragments, and\nthere is no such hope left for us any longer. What brought them out of\nthat Slough of Despond?\n\nI would put it to any fair-minded man whether the psychological facts\nof this sudden maturing of these childish minds, and their sudden\nchange from slinking cowards into heroes who did not blanch before the\ntorture and the scaffold, are accountable, if you strike out the\nResurrection, the Ascension, and Pentecost? It seems to me that, for\nthe sake of avoiding a miracle, the disbelievers in the Resurrection\naccept an impossibility, and tie themselves to an intellectual\nabsurdity. And I for one would rather believe in a miracle than believe\nin an uncaused change, in which the Apostles take exactly the opposite\ncourse from that which they necessarily must have taken, if there had\nnot been the facts that the New Testament asserts that there were,\nChrist's rising again from the dead, and Ascension.\n\nWhy did not the Church share the fate of John's disciples, who\nscattered like sheep without a shepherd when Herod chopped off their\nmaster's head? Why did not the Church share the fate of that abortive\nrising, of which we know that when Theudas, its leader, was slain,\n'all, as many as believed on him, came to nought.' Why did these men\nact in exactly the opposite way? I take it that, as you cannot account\nfor Christ except on the hypothesis that He is the Son of the Highest,\nyou cannot account for the continuance of the Christian Church for a\nweek after the Crucifixion, except on the hypothesis that the men who\ncomposed it were witnesses of His Resurrection, and saw Him floating\nupwards and received into the Shechinah cloud and lost to their sight.\nPeter's change, witnessed by the words of my text--these bold and\nclear-sighted words--seems to me to be a perfect monstrosity, and\nincapable of explication, unless he saw the risen Lord, beheld the\nascended Christ, was touched with the fiery Spirit descending on\nPentecost, and so 'out of weakness was made strong,' and from a babe\nsprang to the stature of a man in Christ.\n\nII. Look at these words as setting forth a remarkable view of Christ.\n\nI have already referred to the fact that the word rendered 'son' ought\nrather to be rendered 'servant.' It literally means 'child' or 'boy,'\nand appears to have been used familiarly, just in the same fashion as\nwe use the same expression 'boy,' or its equivalent 'maid,' as a more\ngentle designation for a servant. Thus the kindly centurion, when he\nwould bespeak our Lord's care for his menial, calls him his 'boy'; and\nour Bible there translates rightly 'servant.'\n\nAgain, the designation is that which is continually employed in the\nGreek translation of the Old Testament as the equivalent for the\nwell-known prophetic phrase 'the Servant of Jehovah,' which, as you\nwill remember, is characteristic of the second portion of the\nprophecies of Isaiah. And consequently we find that, in a quotation of\nIsaiah's prophecy in the Gospel of Matthew, the very phrase of our text\nis there employed: 'Behold My Servant whom I uphold!'\n\nNow, it seems as if this designation of our Lord as God's Servant was\nvery familiar to Peter's thoughts at this stage of the development of\nChristian doctrine. For we find the name employed twice in this\ndiscourse--in the thirteenth verse, 'the God of our Fathers hath\nglorified His Servant Jesus,' and again in my text. We also find it\ntwice in the next chapter, where Peter, offering up a prayer amongst\nhis brethren, speaks of 'Thy Holy Child Jesus,' and prays 'that signs\nand wonders may be done through the name' of that 'Holy Child.' So,\nthen, I think we may fairly take it that, at the time in question, this\nthought of Jesus as the 'Servant of the Lord' had come with especial\nforce to the primitive Church. And the fact that the designation never\noccurs again in the New Testament seems to show that they passed on\nfrom it into a deeper perception than even it attests of who and what\nthis Jesus was in relation to God.\n\nBut, at all events, we have in our text the Apostle looking back to\nthat dim, mysterious Figure which rises up with shadowy lineaments out\nof the great prophecy of 'Isaiah,' and thrilling with awe and wonder,\nas he sees, bit by bit, in the Face painted on the prophetic canvas,\nthe likeness of the Face into which he had looked for three blessed\nyears, that now began to tell him more than they had done whilst their\nmoments were passing.\n\n'The Servant of the Lord'--that means, first of all, that Christ, in\nall which He does, meekly and obediently executes the Father's will. As\nHe Himself said, 'I come not to do Mine own will, but the will of Him\nthat sent Me.' But it carries us further than that, to a point about\nwhich I would like to say one word now; and that is, the clear\nrecognition that the very centre of Jewish prophecy is the revelation\nof the personality of the Christ. Now, it seems to me that present\ntendencies, discussions about the nature and limits of inspiration,\ninvestigations which, in many directions, are to be welcomed and are\nfruitful as to the manner of origin of the books of the Old Testament,\nand as to their collection into a Canon and a whole--that all this new\nlight has a counterbalancing disadvantage, in that it tends somewhat to\nobscure in men's minds the great central truth about the revelation of\nGod in Israel--viz. that it was all progressive, and that its goal and\nend was Jesus Christ. 'The testimony of Jesus is the spirit of\nprophecy,' and however much we may have to learn--and I have no doubt\nthat we have a great deal to learn, about the composition, the\nstructure, the authorship, the date of these ancient books--I take\nleave to say that the unlearned reader, who recognises that they all\nconverge on Jesus Christ, has hold of the clue of the labyrinth, and\nhas come nearer to the marrow of the books than the most learned\ninvestigators, who see all manner of things besides in them, and do not\nsee that 'they that went before cried, saying, Hosanna! Blessed be He\nthat cometh in the name of the Lord!'\n\nAnd so I venture to commend to you, brethren--not as a barrier against\nany reverent investigation, not as stopping any careful study--this as\nthe central truth concerning the ancient revelation, that it had, for\nits chief business, to proclaim the coming of the Servant of Jehovah,\nJesus the Christ.\n\nIII. And now, lastly, look at these words as setting forth the true\ncentre of Christ's work.\n\n'He has sent Him to bless you in turning away every one of you from his\niniquities.' I have already spoken about the gross, narrow, carnal\napprehensions of Messiah's work which cleaved to the disciples during\nall our Lord's life here, and which disturbed even the sanctity of the\nupper chamber at that last meal, with squabbles about precedence which\nhad an eye to places in the court of the Messiah when He assumed His\nthrone. But here Peter has shaken himself clear of all these, and has\ngrasped the thought that, whatever derivative and secondary blessings\nof an external and visible sort may, and must, come in Messiah's train,\n_the_ blessing which He brings is of a purely spiritual and inward\ncharacter, and consists in turning away single souls from their love\nand practice of evil. That is Christ's true work.\n\nThe Apostle does not enlarge as to how it is done. We know how it is\ndone. Jesus turns away men from sin because, by the magnetism of His\nlove, and the attractive raying out of influence from His Cross, He\nturns them to Himself. He turns us from our iniquities by the expulsive\npower of a new affection, which, coming into our hearts like a great\nriver into some foul Augean stable, sweeps out on its waters all the\nfilth that no broom can ever clear out in detail. He turns men from\ntheir iniquities by His gift of a new life, kindred with that from\nwhich it is derived.\n\nThere is an old superstition that lightning turned whatever it struck\ntowards the point from which the flash came, so that a tree with its\nthousand leaves had each of them pointed to that quarter in the heavens\nwhere the blaze had been.\n\nAnd so Christ, when He flings out the beneficent flash that slays only\nour evil, and vitalises ourselves, turns us to Him, and away from our\ntransgressions. 'Turn us, O Christ, and we shall be turned.'\n\nAh, brethren! that is the blessing that we need most, for 'iniquities'\nare universal; and so long as man is bound to his sin it will embitter\nall sweetnesses, and neutralise every blessing. It is not culture,\nvaluable as that is in many ways, that will avail to stanch man's\ndeepest wounds. It is not a new social order that will still the\ndiscontent and the misery of humanity. You may adopt collective\neconomic and social arrangements, and divide property out as it pleases\nyou. But as long as man continues selfish he will continue sinful, and\nas long as he continues sinful _any_ social order will be pregnant with\nsorrow, 'and when it is finished it will bring forth death.' You have\nto go deeper down than all that, down as deep as this Apostle goes in\nthis sermon of his, and recognise that Christ's prime blessing is the\nturning of men from their iniquities, and that only after that has been\ndone will other good come.\n\nHow shallow, by the side of that conception, do modern notions of Jesus\nas the great social Reformer look! These are true, but they want their\nbasis, and their basis lies only here, that He is the Redeemer of\nindividuals from their sins. There were people in Christ's lifetime who\nwere all untouched by His teachings, but when they found that He gave\nbread miraculously they said, 'This is of a truth the Prophet! That's\nthe prophet for my money; the Man that can make bread, and secure\nmaterial well-being.' Have not certain modern views of Christ's work\nand mission a good deal in common with these vulgar old Jews--views\nwhich regard Him mainly as contributing to the material good, the\nsocial and economical well-being of the world?\n\nNow, I believe that He does that. And I believe that Christ's\nprinciples are going to revolutionise society as it exists at present.\nBut I am sure that we are on a false scent if we attempt to preach\nconsequences without proclaiming their antecedents, and that such\npreaching will end, as all such attempts have ended, in confusion and\ndisappointment.\n\nThey used to talk about Jesus Christ, in the first French Revolution,\nas 'the Good _Sansculotte_.' Perfectly true! But as the basis of that,\nand of all representations of Him, that will have power on the diseases\nof the community, we have to preach Him as the Saviour of the\nindividual from his sin.\n\nAnd so, brethren, has He saved you? Do you begin your notions of Jesus\nChrist where His work begins? Do you feel that what you want most is\nneither culture nor any superficial and external changes, but something\nthat will deal with the deep, indwelling, rooted, obstinate self-regard\nwhich is the centre of all sin? And have you gone alone to Him as a\nsinful man? As the Apostle here suggests, Jesus Christ does not save\ncommunities. The doctor has his patients into the consulting-room one\nby one. There is no applying of Christ's benefits to men in batches, by\nplatoons and regiments, as Clovis baptized his Franks; but you have to\ngo, every one of you, through the turnstile singly, and alone to\nconfess, and alone to be absolved, and alone to be turned, from your\niniquity.\n\nIf I might venture to alter the position of words in my text, I would\nlay them, so modified, on the hearts of all my friends whom my words\nmay reach now, and say, 'Unto you--_unto thee_, God, having raised up\nHis Son Jesus, sent Him to bless you, _first_ in turning away every one\nof you from his iniquities.'\n\n\n\nTHE FIRST BLAST OF TEMPEST\n\n'And as they spake unto the people, the priests, and the captain of the\ntemple, and the Sadducees, came upon them, 2. Being grieved that they\ntaught the people, and preached through Jesus the resurrection from the\ndead. 3. And they laid hands on them, and put them in hold unto the\nnext day: for it was now even-tide. 4. Howbeit many of them which heard\nthe word believed; and the number of the men was about five thousand.\n5. And it came to pass on the morrow, that their rulers, and elders,\nand scribes, 6. And Annas the high priest, and Caiaphas, and John, and\nAlexander, and as many as were of the kindred of the high priest, were\ngathered together at Jerusalem. 7. And when they had set them in the\nmidst, they asked, By what power, or by what name, have ye done this?\n8. Then Peter, filled with the Holy Ghost, said unto them, Ye rulers of\nthe people, and elders of Israel, 9. If we this day be examined of the\ngood deed done to the impotent man, by what means he is made whole; 10.\nBe it known unto you all, and to all the people of Israel, that by the\nname of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom ye crucified, whom God raised\nfrom the dead, even by Him doth this man stand here before you whole.\n11. This is the stone which was set at nought of you builders, which is\nbecome the head of the corner. 12. Neither is there salvation in any\nother: for there is none other name under heaven given among men,\nwhereby we must be saved. 13. Now when they saw the boldness of Peter\nand John, and perceived that they were unlearned and ignorant men, they\nmarvelled; and they took knowledge of them, that they had been with\nJesus. 14. And beholding the man which was healed standing with them,\nthey could say nothing against it.'--ACTS iv. 1-14.\n\nHitherto the Jewish authorities had let the disciples alone, either\nbecause their attention had not been drawn even by Pentecost and the\nconsequent growth of the Church, or because they thought that to ignore\nthe new sect was the best way to end it. But when its leaders took to\nvehement preaching in Solomon's porch, and crowds eagerly listened, it\nwas time to strike in.\n\nOur passage describes the first collision of hostile authority with\nChristian faith, and shows, as in a glass, the constant result of that\ncollision in all ages.\n\nThe motives actuating the assailants are significantly analysed, and\nmay be distributed among the three classes enumerated. The priests and\nthe captain of the Temple would be annoyed by the very fact that Peter\nand John taught the people: the former, because they were jealous of\ntheir official prerogative: the latter, because he was responsible for\npublic order, and a riot in the Temple court would have been a scandal.\nThe Saddueees were indignant at the substance of the teaching, which\naffirmed the resurrection of the dead, which they denied, and alleged\nit as having occurred 'in Jesus.'\n\nThe position of Sadducees and Pharisees is inverted in Acts as compared\nwith the Gospels. While Christ lived, the Pharisees were the soul of\nthe opposition to Him, and His most solemn warnings fell on them; after\nthe Resurrection, the Sadducees head the opposition, and among the\nPharisees are some, like Gamaliel and afterwards Paul, who incline to\nthe new faith. It was the Resurrection that made the difference, and\nthe difference is an incidental testimony to the fact that Christ's\nResurrection was proclaimed from the first. To ask whether Jesus had\nrisen, and to examine the evidence, were the last things of which the\ncombined assailants thought. This public activity of the Apostles\nthreatened their influence or their pet beliefs, and so, like\npersecutors in all ages, they shut their eyes to the important\nquestion, 'Is this preaching true or false?' and took the easier course\nof laying hands on the preachers.\n\nSo the night fell on Peter and John in prison, the first of the\nthousands who have suffered bonds and imprisonment for Christ, and have\ntherein found liberty. What lofty faith, and what subordination of the\nfate of the messengers to the progress of the message, are expressed in\nthat abrupt introduction, in verse 4, of the statistics of the increase\nof the Church from that day's work! It mattered little that it ended\nwith the two Apostles in custody, since it ended too with five thousand\nrejoicing in Christ.\n\nThe arrest seems to have been due to a sudden thought on the part of\nthe priests, captain, and Sadducees, without commands from the\nSanhedrin or the high priest. But when these inferior authorities had\ngot hold of their prisoners, they probably did not quite know what to\ndo with them, and so moved the proper persons to summon the Sanhedrin.\nIn all haste, then, a session was called for next morning. 'Rulers,\nelders, and scribes' made up the constituent members of the court, and\nthe same two 'high priests' who had tried Jesus are there, attended by\na strong contingent of dependants, who could be trusted to vote as they\nwere bidden. Annas was an _emeritus_ high priest, whose age and\nrelationship to Caiaphas, the actual holder of the post and Annas's\nson-in-law, gave him an influential position. He retained the title,\nthough he had ceased to hold the office, as a cleric without a charge\nis usually called 'Reverend.'\n\nIt was substantially the same court which had condemned Jesus, and\nprobably now sat in the same hall as then. So that Peter and John would\nremember the last time when they had together been in that room, and\nWho had stood in the criminal's place where they now were set.\n\nThe court seems to have been somewhat at a loss how to proceed. The\nApostles had been arrested for their words, but they are questioned\nabout the miracle. It was no crime to teach in the Temple, but a crime\nmight be twisted out of working a miracle in the name of any but\nJehovah. To do that would come near blasphemy or worshipping strange\ngods. The Sanhedrin knew what the answer to their question would be,\nand probably they intended, as soon as the anticipated answer was\ngiven, to 'rend their clothes,' and say, as they had done once before,\n'What need we further witnesses? They have spoken blasphemy.' But\nthings did not go as was expected. The crafty question was put. It does\nnot attempt to throw doubt on the reality of the miracle, but there is\na world of arrogant contempt in it, both in speaking of the cure as\n'this,' and in the scornful emphasis with which, in the Greek, 'ye'\nstands last in the sentence, and implies, 'ye poor, ignorant fishermen.'\n\nThe last time that Peter had been in the judgment-hall his courage had\noozed out of him at the prick of a maid-servant's sharp tongue, but now\nhe fronts all the ecclesiastical authorities without a tremor. Whence\ncame the transformation of the cowardly denier into the heroic\nconfessor, who turns the tables on his judges and accuses them? The\nnarrative answers. He was 'filled with the Holy Ghost.' That abiding\npossession of the Spirit, begun on Pentecost, did not prevent special\ninspiration for special needs, and the Greek indicates that there was\ngranted such a temporary influx in this critical hour.\n\nOne cannot but note the calmness of the Apostle, so unlike his old\ntumultuous self. He begins with acknowledging the lawful authority of\nthe court, and goes on, with just a tinge of sarcasm, to put the vague\n'this' of the question in its true light. It was 'a good deed done to\nan impotent man,' for which John and he stood there. Singular sort of\ncrime that! Was there not a presumption that the power which had\nwrought so 'good' a deed was good? 'Do men gather grapes of thorns?'\nMany a time since then Christianity has been treated as criminal,\nbecause of its beneficence to bodies and souls.\n\nBut Peter rises to the full height of the occasion, when he answers the\nSanhedrin's question with the pealing forth of his Lord's name. He\nrepeats in substance his former contrast of Israel's treatment of Jesus\nand God's; but, in speaking to the rulers, his tone is more severe than\nit was to the people. The latter had been charged, at Pentecost and in\nthe Temple, with crucifying _Jesus_; the former are here charged with\ncrucifying the _Christ_. It was their business to have tested his\nclaims, and to have welcomed the Messiah. The guilt was shared by both,\nbut the heavier part lay on the shoulders of the Sanhedrin.\n\nMark, too, the bold proclamation of the Resurrection, the stone of\noffence to the Sadducees. How easy it would have been for them to\nsilence the Apostle, if they could have pointed to the undisturbed and\noccupied grave! That would have finished the new sect at once. Is there\nany reason why it was not done but the one reason that it could not be\ndone?\n\nThus far Peter has been answering the interrogation legally put, and\nhas done as was anticipated. Now was the time for Annas and the rest to\nstrike in; but they could not carry out their programme, for the fiery\nstream of Peter's words does not stop when they expected, and instead\nof a timid answer followed by silence, they get an almost defiant\nproclamation of the Name, followed by a charge against them, which\nturns the accused into the accuser, and puts them at the bar. Peter\nlearned to apply the passage in the Psalm (v. 11) to the rulers, from\nhis Master's use of it (Matt. xxi. 42); and there is no quaver in his\nvoice nor fear in his heart when, in the face of all these learned\nRabbis and high and mighty dignitaries, he brands them as foolish\nbuilders, blind to the worth of the Stone 'chosen of God, and\nprecious,' and tells them that the course of divine Providence will run\ncounter to their rejection of Jesus, and make him the very 'Head of the\ncorner,'--the crown, as well as the foundation, of God's building.\n\nBut not even this bold indictment ends the stream of his speech. The\nproclamation of the power of the Name was fitly followed by pressing\nhome the guilt and madness of rejecting Jesus, and that again by the\nglad tidings of salvation for all, even the rejecters. Is not the\nsequence in Peter's defence substantially that which all Christian\npreaching should exhibit? First, strong, plain proclamation of the\ntruth; then pungent pressing home of the sin of turning away from\nJesus; and then earnest setting forth of the salvation in His name,--a\nsalvation wide as the world, and deep as our misery and need, but\nnarrow, inasmuch as it is 'in none other.' The Apostle will not end\nwith charging his hearers with guilt, but with offering them salvation.\nHe will end with lifting up 'the Name' high above all other, and\nsetting it in solitary clearness before, not these rulers only, but the\nwhole world. The salvation which it had wrought on the lame man was but\na parable and picture of the salvation from all ills of body and\nspirit, which was stored in that Name, and in it alone.\n\nThe rulers' contempt had been expressed by their emphatic ending of\ntheir question with that 'ye.' Peter expresses his brotherhood and\nlonging for the good of his judges by ending his impassioned, or,\nrather, inspired address with a loving, pleading 'we.' He puts himself\non the same level with them as needing salvation, and would fain have\nthem on the same level with himself and John as receiving it. That is\nthe right way to preach.\n\nLittle need be said as to the effect of this address. Whether it went\nany deeper in any susceptible souls or not, it upset the schemes of the\nleaders. Something in the manner and matter of it awed them into\nwonder, and paralysed them for the time. Here was the first instance of\nthe fulfilment of that promise, which has been fulfilled again and\nagain since, of 'a mouth and wisdom, which all your adversaries shall\nnot be able to gainsay nor resist.' 'Unlearned,' as ignorant of\nRabbinical traditions, and 'ignorant,' or, rather, 'private,' as\nholding no official position, these two wielded a power over hearts and\nconsciences which not even official indifference and arrogance could\nshake off. Thank God, that day's experience is repeated still, and any\nof us may have the same Spirit to clothe us with the same armour of\nlight!\n\nThe Sanhedrin knew well enough that the Apostles had been with Jesus,\nand the statement that 'they took knowledge of them' cannot mean that\nthat fact dawned on the rulers for the first time. Rather it means that\ntheir wonder at the 'boldness' of the two drove home the fact of their\nassociation with Him to their minds. That association explained the\nmarvel; for the Sanhedrin remembered how He had stood, meek but unawed,\nat the same bar. They said to themselves, 'We know where these men get\nthis brave freedom of speech,--from that Nazarene.' Happy shall we be\nif our demeanour recalls to spectators the ways of our Lord!\n\nHow came the lame man there? He had not been arrested with the\nApostles. Had he voluntarily and bravely joined them? We do not know,\nbut evidently he was not there as accused, and probably had come as a\nwitness of the reality of the miracle. Notice the emphatic 'standing,'\nas in verse 10,--a thing that he had never done all his life. No wonder\nthat the Sanhedrin were puzzled, and settled down to the 'lame and\nimpotent conclusion' which follows. So, in the first round of the\nworld-long battle between the persecutors and the persecuted, the\nvictory is all on the side of the latter. So it has been ever since,\nthough often the victors have died in the conflict. 'The Church is an\nanvil which has worn out many hammers,' and the story of the first\ncollision is, in essentials, the story of all.\n\n\n\nWITH AND LIKE CHRIST\n\n'Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that\nthey were unlearned and ignorant men, they marvelled; and they took\nknowledge of them, that they had been with Jesus.'--ACTS iv. 13.\n\nTwo young Galilean fishermen, before the same formidable tribunal which\na few weeks before had condemned their Master, might well have quailed.\nAnd evidently 'Annas, the high priest, and Caiaphas, and John, and\nAlexander, and as many as were of the kindred of the high priest,' were\nvery much astonished that their united wisdom and dignity did not\nproduce a greater impression on these two contumacious prisoners. They\nwere 'unlearned,' knowing nothing about Rabbinical wisdom; they were\n'ignorant,' or, as the word ought rather to be rendered, 'persons in a\nprivate station,' without any kind of official dignity. And yet there\nthey stood, perfectly unembarrassed and at their ease, and said what\nthey wanted to say, all of it, right out. So, as great astonishment\ncrept over the dignified ecclesiastics who were sitting in judgment\nupon them, their astonishment led them to remember what, of course,\nthey knew before, only that it had not struck them so forcibly, as\nexplaining the Apostles' demeanour--viz.,'that they had been with\nJesus.' So they said to themselves: 'Ah, that explains it all! There is\nthe root of it. The company that they have kept accounts for their\nunembarrassed boldness.'\n\nNow, I need not notice by more than a word in passing, what a testimony\nit is to the impression that that meek and gracious Sufferer had made\nupon His judges, that when they saw these two men standing there\nunfaltering, they began to remember how that other Prisoner had stood.\nAnd perhaps some of them began to think that they had made a mistake in\nthat last trial. It is a testimony to the impression that Christ had\nmade that the strange demeanour of His two servants recalled the Master\nto the mind of the judges.\n\nI. The first thing that strikes us here is the companionship that\ntransforms.\n\nThe rulers were partly right, and they were partly wrong. The source\nfrom which these men had drawn their boldness was their being with\nChrist; but it was not such companionship with Christ, as Annas and\nCaiaphas had in view, that had given them courage. For as long as the\nApostles had His personal presence with them, there was no perceptible\ntransforming or elevating process going on in them; and it was not\nuntil after they had lost that corporeal presence that there came upon\nthem the change which even the prejudiced eyes of these judges could\nnot help seeing.\n\nThe writer of Acts gives a truer explanation with which we may fill out\nthe incomplete explanation of the rulers, when he says, 'Then Peter,\n_filled with the Holy Ghost_, said unto them.' Ah, that is it! They had\nbeen with Jesus all the days that He went in and out amongst them. They\nhad companioned with Him, and they had gained but little from it. But\nwhen He went away, and they were relegated to the same kind of\ncompanionship with Him that you and I have or may have, then a change\nbegan to take place on them. And so the companionship that transforms\nis not what the Apostle calls 'knowing Christ after the flesh,' but\ninward communion with Him, the companionship and familiarity which are\nas possible for us as for any Peter or John of them all, and without\nwhich our Christianity is nothing but sounding brass and tinkling\ncymbal.\n\nThey were 'with Jesus,' as each of us may be. Their communion was in no\nrespect different from the communion that is open and indispensable to\nany real Christian. To be with Him is possible for us all. When we go\nto our daily work, when we are compassed about by distracting and\ntrivial cares, when men come buzzing round us, and the ordinary\nsecularities of life seem to close in upon us like the walls of a\nprison, and to shut out the blue and the light--oh! it is hard, but it\n_is_ possible, for every one of us to think these all away, and to\ncarry with us into everything that blessed thought of a Presence that\nis not to be put aside, that sits beside me at my study table, that\nstands beside you at your tasks, that goes with you in shop and mart,\nthat is always near, with its tender encircling, with its mighty\nprotection, with its all-sufficing sweetness and power. To be with\nChrist is no prerogative, either of Apostles and teachers of the\nprimitive age, or of saints that have passed into the higher vision;\nbut it is possible for us all. No doubt there are as yet unknown forms\nand degrees of companionship with Christ in the future state, in\ncomparison with which to be 'present in the body is to be absent from\nthe Lord'; but in the inmost depth of reality, the soul that loves is\nwhere it loves, and has whom it loves ever with it. 'Where the treasure\nis, there will the heart be also,' and we may be with Christ if only we\nwill honestly try hour by hour to keep ourselves in touch with Him, and\nto make Him the motive as well as the end of the work that other men do\nalong with us, and do from altogether secular and low motives.\n\nAnother phase of being with Christ lies in frank, full, and familiar\nconversation with Him. I do not understand a dumb companionship. When\nwe are with those that we love, and with whom we are at ease, speech\ncomes instinctively. If we are co-denizens of the Father's house with\nthe Elder Brother, we shall talk to Him. We shall not need to be\nreminded of the 'duty of prayer,' but shall rather instinctively and as\na matter of course, without thinking of what we are doing, speak to Him\nour momentary wants, our passing discomforts, our little troubles.\nThere may be a great deal more virtue in monosyllabic prayers than in\nlong liturgies. Little jets of speech or even of unspoken speech that\ngo up to Him are likely to be heart-felt and to be heard. It is said of\nIsrael's army on one occasion, 'they cried unto God in the battle, and\nHe was entreated of them.' Do you think that theirs would be very\nelaborate prayers? Was there any time to make a long petition when the\nsword of a Philistine was whizzing about the suppliant's ears? It was\nonly a cry, but it _was_ a cry; and so 'He was entreated of them.' If\nwe are 'with Christ' we shall talk to Him; and if we are with Christ He\nwill talk to us. It is for us to keep in the attitude of listening and,\nso far as may be, to hush other voices, in order that His may be heard,\nIf we do so, even here 'shall we ever be with the Lord.'\n\nII. Now, note next the character that this companionship produces.\n\nAnnas and Caiaphas said to each other: 'Ah, these two have been with\nthat Jesus! That is where they have got their boldness. They are like\nHim.'\n\nAs is the Master, so is the servant. That is the broad, general\nprinciple that lies in my text. To be with Christ makes men Christlike.\nA soul habitually in contact with Jesus will imbibe sweetness from Him,\nas garments laid away in a drawer with some preservative perfume absorb\nfragrance from that beside which they lie. Therefore the surest way for\nChristian people to become what God would have them to be, is to direct\nthe greater part of their effort, not so much to the acquirement of\nindividual characteristics and excellences, as to the keeping up of\ncontinuity of communion with the Master. Then the excellences will\ncome. Astronomers, for instance, have found out that if they take a\nsensitive plate and lay it so as to receive the light from a star, and\nkeep it in place by giving it a motion corresponding with the apparent\nmotion of the heavens, for hours and hours, there will become visible\nupon it a photographic image of dim stars that no human eye or\ntelescope can see. Persistent lying before the light stamps the image\nof the light upon the plate. Communion with Christ is the secret of\nChristlikeness. So instead of all the wearisome, painful, futile\nattempts at tinkering one's own character apart from Him, here is the\nroyal road. Not that there is no effort in it. We must never forget nor\nundervalue the necessity for struggle in the Christian life. But that\ntruth needs to be supplemented with the thought that comes from my\ntext--viz. that the fruitful direction in which the struggle is to be\nmainly made lies in keeping ourselves in touch with Jesus Christ, and\nif we do that, then transformation comes by beholding. 'We all,\nreflecting as a mirror does, the glory of the Lord, are transformed\ninto the same image.' 'They have been with Jesus,' and so they were\nlike Him.\n\nBut now look at the specific kinds of excellence which seem to have\ncome out of this communion. 'They beheld the _boldness_ of Peter and\nJohn.' The word that is translated 'boldness' no doubt conveys that\nidea, but it also conveys another. Literally it means 'the act of\nsaying everything.' It means openness of unembarrassed speech, and so\ncomes to have the secondary signification, which the text gives, of\n'boldness.'\n\nThen, to be with Christ gives a living knowledge of Him and of truth,\nfar in advance of the head knowledge of wise and learned people. It was\na fact that these two knew nothing about what Rabbi _This_, or Rabbi\n_That_, or Rabbi _The Other_ had said, and yet could speak, as they had\nbeen speaking, large religious ideas that astonished these hide-bound\nPharisees, who thought that there was no way to get to the knowledge of\nthe revelation of God made to Israel, except by the road of their own\nmusty and profitless learning. Ay! and it always is so. An ounce of\nexperience is worth a ton of theology. The men that have summered and\nwintered with Jesus Christ may not know a great many things that are\nsupposed to be very important parts of religion, but they have got hold\nof the central truth of it, with a power, and in a fashion, that men of\nbooks, and ideas, and systems, and creeds, and theological learning,\nmay know nothing about. 'Not many wise men after the flesh, not many\nmighty, are called.' Let a poor man at his plough-tail, or a poor woman\nin her garret, or a collier in the pit, have Jesus Christ for their\nCompanion, and they have got the kernel; and the gentlemen that like\nsuch diet may live on the shell if they will, and can. Religious ideas\nare of little use unless there be heart-experiences; and\nheart-experiences are wonderful teachers of religious truth.\n\nAgain, to be with Christ frees from the fear of man. It was a new thing\nfor such persons as Peter and John to stand cool and unawed before the\nCouncil. Not so very long ago one of the two had been frightened into a\nmomentary apostasy by dread of being haled before the rulers, and now\nthey are calmly heroic, and threats are idle words to them. I need not\npoint to the strong presumption, raised by the contrast of the\nApostles' past cowardice and present courage, of the occurrence of some\nsuch extraordinary facts as the Resurrection, the Ascension, and the\nDescent of the Spirit. Something had happened which revolutionised\nthese men. It was their communion with Jesus, made more real and deep\nby the cessation of His bodily presence, which made these unlearned and\nnon-official Galileans front the Council with calmly beating hearts and\nunfaltering tongues. Doubtless, temperament has much to do with\ncourage, but, no doubt, he who lives near Jesus is set free from undue\ndependence on things seen and on persons. Perfect love casts out fear,\nnot only of the Beloved, but of all creatures. It is the bravest thing\nin the world.\n\nFurther, to be with Christ will open a man's lips. The fountain, if it\nis full, must well up. 'Light is light which circulates. Heat is heat\nwhich radiates.' The true possession of Jesus Christ will always make\nit impossible for the possessor to be dumb. I pray you to test\nyourselves, as I would that all professing Christians should test\nthemselves, by that simple truth, that a full heart must find\nutterance. The instinct that drives a man to speak of the thing in\nwhich he is interested should have full play in the Christian life. It\nseems to me a terribly sad fact that there are such hosts of good, kind\npeople, with some sort of religion about them, who never feel any\nanxiety to say a word to any soul concerning the Master whom they\nprofess to love. I know, of course, that deep feeling is silent, and\nthat the secrets of Christian experience are not to be worn on the\nsleeve for daws to peck at. And I know that the conventionalities of\nthis generation frown very largely upon the frank utterance of\nreligious convictions on the part of religious people, except on\nSundays, in Sunday-schools, pulpits, and the like. But for all that,\nwhat is in you will come out. If you have never felt 'I was weary of\nforbearing, and I could not stay,' I do not think that there is much\nsign in you of a very deep or a very real being with Jesus.\n\nIII. The last point to be noted is, the impression which such a\ncharacter makes.\n\nIt was not so much what Peter and John said that astonished the\nCouncil, as the fact of their being composed and bold enough to say\nanything.\n\nA great deal more is done by character than by anything else. Most\npeople in the world take their notions of Christianity from its\nconcrete embodiments in professing Christians. For one man that has\nread his Bible, and has come to know what religion is thereby, there\nare a hundred that look at you and me, and therefrom draw their\nconclusions as to what religion is. It is not my sermons, but your\nlife, that is the most important agency for the spread of the Gospel in\nthis congregation. And if we, as Christian people, were to live so as\nto make men say, 'Dear me, that is strange. That is not the kind of\nthing that one would have expected from that man. That is of a higher\nstrain than he is of. Where did it come from, I wonder?' 'Ah, he\nlearned it of that Jesus'--if people were constrained to speak in that\nstyle to themselves about us, dear friends, and about all our brethren,\nEngland would be a different England from what it is to-day. It is\nChristians' lives, after all, that make dints in the world's conscience.\n\nDo you remember one of the Apostle's lovely and strong metaphors? Paul\nsays that that little Church in Thessalonica rung out clear and strong\nthe name of Jesus Christ--resonant like the clang of a bugle, 'so that\nwe need not to speak anything.' The word that he employs for 'sounded\nout' is a technical expression for the ringing blast of a trumpet. Very\nsmall penny whistles would be a better metaphor for the instruments\nwhich the bulk of professing Christians play on.\n\n'Adorn the doctrine of Christ.' And that you may, listen to His own\nword, which says all I have been trying to say in this sermon: 'Abide\nin Me. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself except it abide in the\nvine, no more can ye, except ye abide in Me.'\n\n\n\nOBEDIENT DISOBEDIENCE\n\n'But Peter and John answered and said unto them, Whether it be right in\nthe sight of God to hearken unto you more than unto God, judge ye. 20.\nFor we cannot but speak the things which we have seen and heard. 21. So\nwhen they had further threatened them, they let them go, finding\nnothing how they might punish them, because of the people: for all men\nglorified God for that which was done. 22. For the man was above forty\nyears old, on whom this miracle of healing was shewed. 23. And being\nlet go they went to their own company, and reported all that the chief\npriests and elders had said unto them. 24. And when they heard that,\nthey lifted up their voice to God with one accord, and said, Lord, Thou\nart God, which hast made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and all that\nin them is: 25. Who by the mouth of Thy servant David hast said, Why\ndid the heathen rage, and the people imagine vain things? 26. The kings\nof the earth stood up, and the rulers were gathered together against\nthe Lord, and against His Christ. 27. For of a truth against Thy holy\nchild Jesus, whom Thou hast anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate,\nwith the Gentiles, and the people of Israel, were gathered together,\n28. For to do whatsoever Thy hand and Thy counsel determined before to\nbe done. 29. And now, Lord, behold their threatenings: and grant unto\nThy servants, that with all boldness they may speak Thy word, 30. By\nstretching forth Thine hand to heal; and that signs and wonders may be\ndone by the name of Thy holy child Jesus. 31. And when they had prayed,\nthe place was shaken where they were assembled together; and they were\nall filled with the Holy Ghost, and they spake the word of God with\nboldness.'--ACTS iv. 19-31.\n\nThe only chance for persecution to succeed is to smite hard and\nswiftly. If you cannot strike, do not threaten. Menacing words only\ngive courage. The rulers betrayed their hesitation when the end of\ntheir solemn conclave was but to 'straitly threaten'; and less heroic\nconfessors than Peter and John would have disregarded the prohibition\nas mere wind. None the less the attitude of these two Galilean\nfishermen is noble and singular, when their previous cowardice is\nremembered. This first collision with civil authority gives, as has\nbeen already noticed, the main lines on which the relations of the\nChurch to hostile powers have proceeded.\n\nI. The heroic refusal of unlawful obedience. We shall probably not do\ninjustice to John if we suppose that Peter was spokesman. If so, the\ncontrast of the tone of his answer with all previously recorded\nutterances of his is remarkable. Warm-hearted impulsiveness, often\nwrong-headed and sometimes illogical, had been their mark; but here we\nhave calm, fixed determination, which, as is usually its manner, wastes\nno words, but in its very brevity impresses the hearers as being\nimmovable. Whence did this man get the power to lay down once for all\nthe foundation principles of the limits of civil obedience, and of the\nduty of Christian confession? His words take rank with the\never-memorable sayings of thinkers and heroes, from Socrates in his\nprison telling the Athenians that he loved them, but that he must 'obey\nGod rather than you,' to Luther at Worms with his 'It is neither safe\nnor right to do anything against conscience. Here I stand; I can do\nnothing else. God help me! Amen.' Peter's words are the first of a long\nseries.\n\nThis first instance of persecution is made the occasion for the clear\nexpression of the great principles which are to guide the Church. The\nanswer falls into two parts, in the first of which the limits of\nobedience to civil authority are laid down in a perfectly general form\nto which even the Council are expected to assent, and in the second an\nirresistible compulsion to speak is boldly alleged as driving the two\nApostles to a flat refusal to obey.\n\nIt was a daring stroke to appeal to the Council for an endorsement of\nthe principle in verse 19, but the appeal was unanswerable; for this\ntribunal had no other ostensible reason for existence than to enforce\nobedience to the law of God, and to Peter's dilemma only one reply was\npossible. But it rested on a bold assumption, which was calculated to\nirritate the court; namely, that there was a blank contradiction\nbetween their commands and God's, so that to obey the one was to\ndisobey the other. When that parting of the ways is reached, there\nremains no doubt as to which road a religious man must take.\n\nThe limits of civil obedience are clearly drawn. It is a duty, because\n'the powers that be are ordained of God,' and obedience to them is\nobedience to Him. But if they, transcending their sphere, claim\nobedience which can only be rendered by disobedience to Him who has\nappointed them, then they are no longer His ministers, and the duty of\nallegiance falls away. But there must be a plain conflict of commands,\nand we must take care lest we substitute whims and fancies of our own\nfor the injunctions of God. Peter was not guided by his own conceptions\nof duty, but by the distinct precept of his Master, which had bid him\nspeak. It is not true that it is the cause which makes the martyr, but\nit is true that many good men have made themselves martyrs needlessly.\nThis principle is too sharp a weapon to be causelessly drawn and\nbrandished. Only an unmistakable opposition of commandments warrants\nits use; and then, he has little right to be called Christ's soldier\nwho keeps the sword in the scabbard.\n\nThe articulate refusal in verse 20 bases itself on the ground of\nirrepressible necessity: 'We cannot but speak.' The immediate\napplication was to the facts of Christ's life, death, and glory. The\nApostles could not help speaking of these, both because to do so was\ntheir commission, and because the knowledge of them and of their\nimportance forbade silence. The truth implied is of wide reach. Whoever\nhas a real, personal experience of Christ's saving power, and has heard\nand seen Him, will be irresistibly impelled to impart what he has\nreceived. Speech is a relief to a full heart. The word, concealed in\nthe prophet's heart, burned there 'like fire in his bones, and he was\nweary of forbearing.' So it always is with deep conviction. If a man\nhas never felt that he must speak of Christ, he is a very imperfect\nChristian. The glow of his own heart, the pity for men who know Him\nnot, his Lord's command, all concur to compel speech. The full river\ncannot be dammed up.\n\nII. The lame and impotent conclusion of the perplexed Council. How\nplain the path is when only duty is taken as a guide, and how\nvigorously and decisively a man marches along it! Peter had no\nhesitation, and his resolved answer comes crashing in a straight\ncourse, like a cannon-ball. The Council had a much more ambiguous\noracle to consult in order to settle their course, and they hesitate\naccordingly, and at last do a something which is a nothing. They wanted\nto trim their sails to catch popular favour, and so they could not do\nanything thoroughly. To punish or acquit was the only alternative for\njust judges. But they were not just; and as Jesus had been crucified,\nnot because Pilate thought Him guilty, but to please the people, so His\nApostles were let off, not because they were innocent, but for the same\nreason. When popularity-hunters get on the judicial bench, society must\nbe rotten, and nearing its dissolution. To 'decree unrighteousness by a\nlaw' is among the most hideous of crimes. Judges 'willing to wound, and\nyet afraid to strike,' are portents indicative of corruption. We may\nremark here how the physician's pen takes note of the patient's age, as\nmaking his cure more striking, and manifestly miraculous.\n\nIII. The Church's answer to the first assault of the world's power. How\nbeautifully natural that is, 'Being let go, they went to their own,'\nand how large a principle is expressed in the naive words! The great\nlaw of association according to spiritual affinity has much to do in\ndetermining relations here. It aggregates men, according to sorts; but\nits operation is thwarted by other conditions, so that companionship is\noften misery. But a time comes when it will work unhindered, and men\nwill be united with their like, as the stones on some sea-beaches are\nlaid in rows, according to their size, by the force of the sea. Judas\n'went to his own place,' and, in another world, like will draw to like,\nand prevailing tendencies will be increased by association with those\nwho share them.\n\nThe prayer of the Church was probably the inspired outpouring of one\nvoice, and all the people said 'Amen,' and so made it theirs. Whose\nvoice it was which thus put into words the common sentiment we should\ngladly have known, but need not speculate. The great fact is that the\nChurch answered threats by prayer. It augurs healthy spiritual life\nwhen opposition and danger neither make cheeks blanch with fear nor\nflush with anger. No man there trembled nor thought of vengeance, or of\nrepaying threats with threats. Every man there instinctively turned\nheavenwards, and flung himself, as it were, into God's arms for\nprotection. Prayer is the strongest weapon that a persecuted Church can\nuse. Browning makes a tyrant say, recounting how he had tried to crush\na man, that his intended victim\n\n  'Stood erect, caught at God's skirts, and prayed,\n    So _I_ was afraid.'\n\nThe contents of the prayer are equally noteworthy. Instead of minutely\nstudying it verse by verse, we may note some of its salient points.\nObserve its undaunted courage. That company never quivered or wavered.\nThey had no thought of obeying the mandate of the Council. They were a\nlittle army of heroes. What had made them so? What but the conviction\nthat they had a living Lord at God's right hand, and a mighty Spirit in\ntheir spirits? The world has never seen a transformation like that.\nUnique effects demand unique causes for their explanation, and nothing\nbut the historical truth of the facts recorded in the last pages of the\nGospels and first of the Acts accounts for the demeanour of these men.\n\nTheir courage is strikingly marked by their petition. All they ask is\n'boldness' to speak a word which shall not be theirs, but God's. Fear\nwould have prayed for protection; passion would have asked retribution\non enemies. Christian courage and devotion only ask that they may not\nshrink from their duty, and that the word may be spoken, whatever\nbecomes of the speakers. The world is powerless against men like that.\nWould the Church of to-day meet threats with like unanimity of desire\nfor boldness in confession? If not, it must be because it has not the\nsame firm hold of the Risen Lord which these first believers had. The\ntruest courage is that which is conscious of its weakness, and yet has\nno thought of flight, but prays for its own increase.\n\nWe may observe, too, the body of belief expressed in the prayer. First\nit lays hold on the creative omnipotence of God, and thence passes to\nthe recognition of His written revelation. The Church has begun to\nlearn the inmost meaning of the Old Testament, and to find Christ\nthere. David may not have written the second Psalm. Its attribution to\nhim by the Church stands on a different level from Christ's attribution\nof authorship, as, for instance, of the hundred and tenth Psalm. The\nprophecy of the Psalm is plainly Messianic, however it may have had a\nhistorical occasion in some forgotten revolt against some Davidic king;\nand, while the particular incidents to which the prayer alludes do not\nexhaust its far-reaching application, they are rightly regarded as\npartly fulfilling it. Herod is a 'king of the earth,' Pilate is a\n'ruler'; Roman soldiers are Gentiles; Jewish rulers are the\nrepresentatives of 'the people.' Jesus is 'God's Anointed.' The fact\nthat such an unnatural and daring combination of rebels was predicted\nin the Psalm bears witness that even that crime at Calvary was\nforeordained to come to pass, and that God's hand and counsel ruled.\nTherefore all other opposition, such as now threatened, will turn out\nto be swayed by that same Mighty Hand, to work out His counsel. Why,\nthen, should the Church fear? If we can see God's hand moving all\nthings, terror is dead for us, and threats are like the whistling of\nidle wind.\n\nMark, too, the strong expression of the Church's dependence on God.\n'Lord' here is an unusual word, and means 'Master,' while the Church\ncollectively is called 'Thy servants,' or properly, 'slaves.' It is a\ndifferent word from that of 'servant' (rather than 'child') applied to\nJesus in verses 27 and 30. God is the Master, we are His 'slaves,'\nbound to absolute obedience, unconditional submission, belonging to\nHim, not to ourselves, and therefore having claims on Him for such care\nas an owner gives to his slaves or his cattle. He will not let them be\nmaltreated nor starved. He will defend them and feed them; but they\nmust serve him by life, and death if need be. Unquestioning submission\nand unreserved dependence are our duties. Absolute ownership and\nunshared responsibility for our well-being belong to Him.\n\nFurther, the view of Christ's relationship to God is the same as occurs\nin other of the early chapters of the Acts. The title of 'Thy holy\nServant Jesus' dwells on Christ's office, rather than on His nature.\nHere it puts Him in contrast with David, also called 'Thy servant.' The\nlatter was imperfectly what Jesus was perfectly. His complete\nrealisation of the prophetic picture of the Servant of the Lord in\nIsaiah is emphasised by the adjective 'holy,' implying complete\ndevotion or separation to the service of God, and unsullied, unlimited\nmoral purity. The uniqueness of His relation in this aspect is\nexpressed by the definite article in the original. He is _the_ Servant,\nin a sense and measure all His own. He is further _the_ Anointed\nMessiah. This was the Church's message to Israel and the stay of its\nown courage, that Jesus was the Christ, the Anointed and perfect\nServant of the Lord, who was now in heaven, reigning there. All that\nthis faith involved had not yet become clear to their consciousness,\nbut the Spirit was guiding them step by step into all the truth; and\nwhat they saw and heard, not only in the historical facts of which they\nwere the witnesses, but in the teaching of that Spirit, they could not\nbut speak.\n\nThe answer came swift as the roll of thunder after lightning. They who\nask for courage to do God's will and speak Christ's name have never\nlong to wait for response. The place 'was shaken,' symbol of the effect\nof faithful witness-bearing, or manifestation of the power which was\ngiven in answer to their prayer. 'They were all filled with the Holy\nGhost,' who now did not, as before, confer ability to speak with other\ntongues, but wrought no less worthily in heartening and fitting them to\nspeak 'in their own tongue, wherein they were born,' in bold defiance\nof unlawful commands.\n\nThe statement of the answer repeats the petition verbatim: 'With all\nboldness they spake the word.' What we desire of spiritual gifts we\nget, and God moulds His replies so as to remind us of our petitions,\nand to show by the event that these have reached His ear and guided His\ngiving hand.\n\n\n\nIMPOSSIBLE SILENCE\n\n'We cannot but speak the things which we have seen and heard.'--ACTS\niv. 20.\n\nThe context tells us that the Jewish Council were surprised, as they\nwell might be, at the boldness of Peter and John, and traced it to\ntheir having been with Jesus. But do you remember that they were by no\nmeans bold when they were with Jesus, and that the bravery came after\nwhat, in ordinary circumstances, would have destroyed any of it in a\nman? A leader's execution is not a usual recipe for heartening his\nfollowers, but it had that effect in this case, and the Peter who was\nfrightened out of all his heroics by a sharp-eyed, sharp-tongued\nservant-maid, a few weeks after bearded the Council and 'rejoiced that\nhe was counted worthy to suffer shame for His Name.' It was not\nChrist's death that did that, and it was not His life that did that.\nYou cannot understand, to use a long word, the 'psychological'\ntransformation of these cowardly deniers who fled and forsook Him,\nunless you bring in three things: Resurrection, Ascension, Pentecost.\nThen it is explicable.\n\nHowever the boldness came; these two men before the Council were making\nan epoch at that moment, and their grand words are the Magna Charta of\nthe right of every sincere conviction to free speech. They are the\ndirect parent of hundreds of similar sayings that flash out down the\nworld's history. Two things Peter and John adduced as making silence\nimpossible--a definite divine command, and an inward impulse. 'Whether\nit is right in the sight of God to hearken unto you more than unto God,\njudge ye. We cannot but speak the things which we have seen and heard.'\n\nBut I wish to use these words now in a somewhat wider application. They\nmay suggest that there are great facts which make silence and\nnon-aggressiveness an impossibility for an individual or a Church, and\nthat by the very law of its being, a Church must be a missionary\nChurch, and a Christian cannot be a dumb Christian, unless he is a dead\nChristian. And so I turn to look at these words as suggesting to us two\nor three of the grounds on which Christian effort, in some form or\nanother, is inseparable from Christian experience.\n\nAnd, first, I wish you to notice that there is--\n\nI. An inward necessity which makes silence impossible.\n\n'We cannot but speak the things which we have seen and heard,' is a\nprinciple that applies far more widely than to the work of a Christian\nChurch, or to any activity that is put in force to spread the name of\nJesus Christ. For there is a universal impulse which brings it about\nthat whatever, in the nature of profound conviction, of illuminating\ntruth, especially as affecting moral and spiritual matters, is granted\nto any man, knocks at the inner side of the door of his lips, and\ndemands an exit and free air and utterance. As surely as the tender\ngreen spikelet of the springing corn pushes its way through the hard\nclods, or as the bud in the fig-tree's polished stem swells and opens,\nso surely whatever a man, in his deepest heart, knows to be true, calls\nupon him to let it out and manifest itself in his words and in his\nlife. 'We believe, and therefore speak,' is a universal sequence. There\nwere four leprous men long ago that, in their despair, made their way\ninto the camp of the beleaguering enemy, found it empty; and after they\nfeasted themselves--and small blame to them--then flashed upon them the\nthought, 'We do not well, this is a day of good tidings, and we hold\nour peace; if we tarry till the morning light, some evil will befall\nus.' Something like that is the uniform accompaniment of all profound\nconviction. And if so, especially imperative and urgent will this\nnecessity be, wherever there is true Christian life. For whether we\nconsider the greatness of the gift that is imparted to us, in the very\nact of our receiving that Lord, or whether we consider the soreness of\nthe need of a world that is without Him, surely there can be nothing\nthat so reinforces the natural necessity and impulse to impart what we\npossess of truth or beauty or goodness as the greatness of the\nunspeakable gift, and the wretchedness of a world that wants it.\nBrethren, there are many things that come in the way--and perhaps never\nmore than in our own generation--of Christian men and women making\ndirect and specific efforts, by lip as well as by life, to speak about\nJesus Christ to other people. There is the standing hindrance of love\nof ease and selfish absorption in our own concerns. There are the\nconventional hindrances of our canons of social intercourse which make\nit 'bad form' to speak to men about anything beneath the surface, and\nGod forbid that I should urge any man to a brusque, and indiscriminate,\nand unwise forcing of his faith upon other people. But I believe, that\ndeep down below all these reasons, there are two main reasons why the\npractice of the clear utterance of their faith on the part of Christian\npeople is so rare. The one is a deficient conception of what the Gospel\nis, and the other is a feeble grasp of it for ourselves. If you do not\nthink that you have very much to say, you will not be very anxious to\nsay it; and if your notion of Christianity, and of Christ's relation to\nthe world, is that of the superficial professing Christian, then of\ncourse you will be smitten with no earnestness of desire to impart the\ntruth to others. Types of Christianity which enfeeble or obscure the\ncentral thought of Christ's work for the salvation of a world that\nneeds a Saviour, and is perishing without Him, never were, never are,\nnever will be, missionary or aggressive. There is no driving force in\nthem. They have little to say, and naturally they are in no hurry to\nsay it. But there is a deeper reason than that. I said a minute ago\nthat a dumb Christian was an impossibility unless he were a dead\nChristian. And _there_ is the reason why so many of us feel so little,\nso very little, of that knocking at the door of our hearts, and saying,\n'Let me out!' which we should feel if we deeply believed, and felt, as\nwell as intellectually accepted, the gospel of our salvation.\n\nThe cause of a silent Church is a defective conception of the Gospel\nentrusted to it, or a feeble grasp of the same. And as our silence or\nindifference is the symptom, so by reaction it is in its turn the cause\nof a greater enfeeblement of our faith, and of a weaker grasp of the\nGospel. Of course I know that it is perfectly possible for a man to\ntalk away his convictions, and I am afraid that that temptation which\nbesets all men of my profession, is not always resisted by us as it\nought to be. But, on the other hand, sure am I that no better way can\nbe devised of deepening my own hold of the truths of Christianity than\nan honest, right attempt to make another share my morsel with me.\nConvictions bottled, like other things bottled up, are apt to evaporate\nand to spoil. They say that sometimes wine-growers, when they go down\ninto their cellars, find in a puncheon no wine, but a huge fungus. That\nis what befalls the Christianity of people that never let air in, and\nnever speak their faith out. 'We cannot but speak the things which we\nhave seen and heard'; and if we do not speak, the vision fades and the\nsound becomes faint.\n\nNow there is another side to this same inward necessity of which I have\nbeen speaking, on which I must just touch. I have referred to the\nimpulse which flows from the possession of the Gospel. There is an\nimpulse which flows from that which is but another way of putting the\nsame thing, the union with Jesus Christ, which is the result of our\nfaith in the Gospel. If I am a Christian I am, in a very profound and\nreal sense, one with Jesus Christ, and have His Spirit for the life of\nmy spirit. And in the measure in which I am thus one with Him, I shall\nlook at things as He looks at them, and do such things as He did. If\nthe mind of Jesus Christ is in us 'Who for the joy that was set before\nHim endured the Cross,' who 'counted not equality with God a thing to\nbe desired, but made Himself of no reputation,' and 'was found in\nfashion as a man,' then we too shall feel that our work in the world is\nnot done, and our obligations to Him are not discharged, unless to the\nvery last particle of our power we spread His name. Brethren, if there\nwere no commandment at all from Christ's lips laying upon His followers\nthe specific duty of making His gospel known, still this inward impulse\nof which I am speaking would have created all the forms of Christian\naggressiveness which we see round about us, because, if we have Christ\nand His Gospel in our hearts, 'we cannot but speak the things which we\nhave seen and heard.'\n\nAnd now turn to another aspect of this matter. There is--\n\nII. A command which makes silence criminal.\n\nI do not need to do more than remind you of the fact that the very last\nwords which our Lord has left us according to the two versions of them\nwhich are given in the Gospel of Matthew, and the beginning of this\nBook of the Acts, coincide in this. 'You are to be My witnesses to the\nends of the earth. Go ye into all the world and preach the Gospel to\nevery creature.' Did you ever think what an extraordinary thing it is\nthat that confident anticipation of a worldwide dominion, and of being\nHimself adapted to all mankind, in every climate and in every age, and\nat every stage of culture, should have been the conviction which the\ndeparting Christ sought to stamp upon the minds of those eleven poor\nmen? What audacity! What tremendous confidence! What a task to which to\nset them! What an unexampled belief in Himself and His work! And it is\nall coming true; for the world is finding out, more and more, that\nJesus Christ is its Saviour and its King.\n\nThis commandment which is laid upon us Christian men submerges all\ndistinctions of race, and speech, and nationality, and culture. There\nare high walls parting men off from one another. This great message and\ncommission, like some rising tide, rolls over them all, and obliterates\nthem, and flows boundless, having drowned the differences, from horizon\nto horizon, east and west and south and north.\n\nNow let me press the thought that this commandment makes indifference\nand silence criminal. We hear people talk, people whose Christianity it\nis not for me to question, though I may question two things about it,\nits clearness and its depth--we hear them talk as if to help or not to\nhelp, in the various forms of Christian activity, missionary or\notherwise, was a matter left to their own inclination. No! it is not.\nLet us distinctly understand that to help or not to help is not the\nchoice open to any man who would obey Jesus Christ. Let us distinctly\nunderstand--and God grant that we may all feel it more--that we dare\nnot stand aside, be negligent, do nothing, leave other people to give\nand to toil, and say, 'Oh! my sympathies do not go in that direction.'\nJesus Christ told you that they were to go in that direction, and if\nthey do not, so much the worse for the sympathies for one thing, and so\nmuch the worse for you, the rebel, the disobedient in heart. I do not\nwant to bring down this great gift and token of love which Jesus Christ\nhas given to His servants, in entrusting them with the spread of the\nGospel, to the low level of a mere commandment, but I do sometimes\nthink that the tone of feeling, ay! and of speech, and still more the\nmanner of action, among professing Christian people, in regard to the\nwhole subject of the missionary work of God's Church, shows that they\nneed to be reminded; as the Duke of Wellington said, 'There are your\nmarching orders!' and the soldier who does not obey his marching orders\nis a mutineer. There is a definite commandment which makes indifference\ncriminal.\n\nThere is another thing I should like to say, viz. that this definite\ncommandment overrides everything else. We hear a great deal from\nunsympathetic critics, which is but a reproduction of an old grumble\nthat did not come from a very creditable source. 'To what purpose is\nthis waste?' Why do you not spend your money upon technical schools,\nsoup-kitchens, housing of the poor, and the like? Well, our answer is,\n'He told us.' We hear, too, especially just in these days, a great deal\nabout the necessity for increased caution in pursuing missionary\noperations in heathen lands. And some people that do not know anything\nabout the subject have ventured to say, for instance, that the\nmissionaries are responsible for Chinese antagonism to Europeans, and\nfor similar phenomena. Well, we are ready to be as wise and prudent as\nyou like. We do not ask any consuls to help us. Our brethren are men\nwho have hazarded their lives; and I never heard of a Baptist\nmissionary running under the skirts of an ambassador, or praying the\ngovernment to come and protect him. We do not ask for cathedrals to be\nbuilt, or territory to be ceded, as compensation for the loss of\nprecious lives. But if these advisers of caution mean no more than they\nsay, 'Caution!' we agree. But if they mean, what some of them mean,\nthat we are to be silent for fear of consequences, then, whether it be\nprime ministers, or magistrates, or mobs that say it, our answer is,\n'Whether it be right to hearken unto you more than unto God, judge ye!\nWe cannot but speak the things which we have seen and heard.'\n\nSo, lastly, there is--\n\nIII. The bond of brotherhood which makes silence unnatural.\n\nI have spoken of an inward impulse. That thought turns our attention to\nour own hearts. I have spoken of a definite command; that turns our\neyes to the Throne. I speak now of a bond of brotherhood. That sends\nour thoughts out over the whole world. There is such a bond. Jesus\nChrist by His Incarnation has taken the nature of every man upon\nHimself, and has brought all men into one. Jesus Christ 'by the grace\nof God, has tasted death for every man,' and has brought all men into\nunity. And so the much-abused and vulgarised conception of\n'fraternity,' and even the very word 'humanity,' are the creation of\nChristianity, and flow from these two facts--the Cradle of Bethlehem\nand the Cross of Calvary, besides that prior one that 'God hath made of\none blood all nations of men.' If that be so, then what flows from that\nunity, from that brotherhood thus sacredly founded upon the facts of\nthe life and death of Jesus Christ, the world's Redeemer? This to begin\nwith, that Christian men are bound to look out over humanity with\nChrist's eyes, and not--as is largely the case to-day--to regard other\nnations as enemies and rivals, and the 'lower races' as existing to be\nexploited for our wealth, to be coerced for our glory, to be conquered\nfor our Empire. We have to think of them as Jesus Christ thought. I\ncannot but remember days in England when the humanitarian sentiment in\nregard to the inferior races was far more vigorous, and far more\noperative in national life than it is to-day. I can go back in\nboyhood's memory to the emancipation of the West Indian slaves, and\nthat was but the type of the general tendency of thought amongst the\nbetter minds of England in those days. Would that it were so now!\n\nBut further, brethren, we as Christian people have laid upon us this\nresponsibility by that very bond of brotherhood, that we should carry\nwhithersoever our influence may go the great message of the Elder\nBrother who makes us all one. We give much to the 'heathen' populations\nwithin our Empire or the reach of our trade. We give them English laws,\nEnglish science, English literature, English outlooks on life, the\nEnglish tongue, English vices--opium, profligacy, and the like. Are\nthese all the gifts that we are bound to carry to heathen lands?\nDynamos and encyclopaedias, gin and rifles, shirtings and castings?\nHave we not to carry Christ? And all the more because we are so closely\nknit with so many of them. I wonder how many of you get the greater\npart of your living out of India and China?\n\nSurely, if there is a place in England where the missionary appeal\nshould be responded to, it is Manchester. 'As a nest hast thou gathered\nthe riches of the nations.' What have you given? Make up the\nbalance-sheet, brethren. 'We are debtors,' let us put down the items:--\n\nDebtors by a common brotherhood.\n\nDebtors by the possession of Christ for ourselves.\n\nDebtors by benefits received.\n\nDebtors by injuries inflicted.\n\nThe debit side of the account is heavy. Let us try to discharge some\nportion of the debt, in the fashion in which the Apostle from whom I\nhave been quoting thought that he would best discharge it when, after\ndeclaring himself debtor to many kinds of men, he added, 'So as much as\nin me is, I am ready to preach the Gospel.' May we all say, more truly\nthan we have ever said before, 'We cannot but speak the things which we\nhave seen and heard!'\n\n\n\nTHE SERVANT AND THE SLAVES\n\n'Thy servant David...'; 'Thy Holy Servant Jesus...'; 'Thy\nservants...'--ACTS iv. 26, 27, 29.\n\nI do not often take fragments of Scripture for texts; but though these\nare fragments, their juxtaposition results in by no means fragmentary\nthoughts. There is obvious intention in the recurrence of the\nexpression so frequently in so few verses, and to the elucidation of\nthat intention my remarks will be directed. The words are parts of the\nChurch's prayer on the occasion of its first collision with the civil\npower. The incident is recorded at full length because it is the\n_first_ of a long and bloody series, in order that succeeding\ngenerations might learn their true weapon and their sure defence.\nPrayer is the right answer to the world's hostility, and they who only\nask for courage to stand by their confession will never ask in vain.\nBut it is no part of my intention to deal either with the incident or\nwith this noble prayer.\n\nA word or two of explanation may be necessary as to the language of our\ntexts. You will observe that, in the second of them, I have followed\nthe Revised Version, which, instead of 'Thy holy child,' as in the\nAuthorised Version, reads 'Thy holy Servant.' The alteration is clearly\ncorrect. The word, indeed, literally means 'a child,' but, like our own\nEnglish 'boy,' or even 'man,' or 'maid,' it is used to express the\nrelation of servant, when the desire is to cover over the harsher\nfeatures of servitude, and to represent the servant as a part of the\nfamily. Thus the kindly centurion, who besought Jesus to come and heal\nhis servant, speaks of him as his 'boy.' And that the word is here used\nin this secondary sense of 'servant' is unmistakable. For there is no\ndiscernible reason why, if stress were meant to be laid on Christ as\nbeing the Son of God, the recognised expression for that relationship\nshould not have been employed. Again, the Greek translation of the Old\nTestament, with which the Apostles were familiar, employs the very\nphrase that is here used as its translation of the well-known Old\nTestament designation of the Messiah, 'the Servant of the Lord' and the\nwords here are really a quotation from the great prophecies of the\nsecond part of the Book of Isaiah. Further, the same word is employed\nin reference to King David and in reference to Jesus Christ. In regard\nto the former, it is evident that it must have the meaning of\n'servant'; and it would be too harsh to suppose that in the compass of\nso few verses the same expression should be used, at one time in the\none signification, and at another in the other. So, then, David and\nJesus are in some sense classified here together as both servants of\nGod. That is the first point that I desire to make.\n\nThen, in regard to the third of my texts, the expression is not the\nsame there as in the other two. The disciples do not venture to take\nthe loftier designation. Rather they prefer the humble one, 'slaves,'\nbondmen, the familiar expression found all through the New Testament as\nalmost a synonym to Christians.\n\nSo, then, we have here three figures: the Psalmist-king, the Messiah,\nthe disciples; Christ in the midst, on the one hand a servant with whom\nHe deigns to be classed, on the other hand the slaves who, through Him,\nhave become sons. And I think I shall best bring out the intended\nlessons of these clauses in their connection if I ask you to note these\ntwo contrasts, the servants and the Servant; the Servant and the\nslaves. 'David Thy servant'; 'Thy holy Servant Jesus'; us 'Thy\nservants.'\n\nI. First, then, notice the servants and the Servant.\n\nThe reason for the application of the name to the Psalmist lies, not so\nmuch in his personal character or in his religious elevation, as in the\nfact that he was chosen of God for a specific purpose, to carry on the\ndivine plans some steps towards their realisation. Kings, priests,\nprophets, the collective Israel, as having a specific function in the\nworld, and being, in some sense, the instruments and embodiments of the\nwill of God amongst men, have in an eminent degree the designation of\nHis 'servants.' And we might widen out the thought and say that all men\nwho, like the heathen Cyrus, are God's shepherds, though they do not\nknow it--guided by Him, though they understand not whence comes their\npower, and blindly do His work in the world, being 'epoch-making' men,\nas the fashionable phrase goes now--are really, though in a subordinate\nsense, entitled to the designation.\n\nBut then, whilst this is true, and whilst Jesus Christ comes into this\ncategory, and is one of these special men raised up and adapted for\nspecial service in connection with the carrying out of the divine\npurpose, mark how emphatically and broadly the line is drawn here\nbetween Him and the other members of the class to which, in a certain\nsense, He does belong. Peter says, 'Thy servant David,' but he says\n'Thy _holy_ Servant Jesus.' And in the Greek the emphasis is still\nstronger, because the definite article is employed before the word\n'servant.' '_The_ holy Servant of Thine'--that is His specific and\nunique designation.\n\nThere are many imperfect instruments of the divine will. Thinkers and\nheroes and saints and statesmen and warriors, as well as prophets and\npriests and kings, are so regarded in Scripture, and may profitably be\nso regarded by us; but amongst them all there is One who stands in\ntheir midst and yet apart from them, because He, and He alone, can say,\n'I have done all Thy pleasure, and into my doing of Thy pleasure no\nbitter leaven of self-regard or by-ends has ever, in the faintest\ndegree, entered.' 'Thy holy Servant Jesus' is the unique designation of\n_the_ Servant of the Lord.\n\nAnd what is the meaning of _holy_? The word does not originally and\nprimarily refer to character so much as to relation to God. The root\nidea of holiness is not righteousness nor moral perfectness, but\nsomething that lies behind these--viz, separation for the service and\nuses of God. The first notion of the word is consecration, and, built\nupon that and resulting from it, moral perfection. So then these men,\nsome of whom had lived beside Jesus Christ for all those years, and had\nseen everything that He did, and studied Him through and through, had\nsummered and wintered with Him, came away from the close inspection of\nHis character with this thought; He is utterly and entirely devoted to\nthe service of God, and in Him there is neither spot nor wrinkle nor\nblemish such as is found in all other men.\n\nI need not remind you with what strange persistence of affirmation, and\nyet with what humility of self-consciousness, our Lord Himself always\nclaimed to be in possession of this entire consecration, and complete\nobedience, and consequent perfection. Think of human lips saying, 'I do\nalways the things that please Him.' Think of human lips saying, 'My\nmeat is to do the will of Him that sent me.' Think of a man whose whole\nlife's secret was summed up in this: 'As the Father hath given Me\ncommandment, _so_'--no more, no less, no otherwise--'so I speak.' Think\nof a man whose inspiring principle was, consciously to himself, 'not My\nwill, but Thine be done'; and who could say that it was so, and not be\nmet by universal ridicule. There followed in Jesus the moral\nperfectness that comes from such uninterrupted and complete\nconsecration of self to God. 'Thy servant David,'--what about\nBathsheba, David? What about a great many other things in your life?\nThe poet-king, with the poet-nature so sensitive to all the delights of\nsense, and so easily moved in the matter of pleasure, is but like all\nGod's other servants in the fact of imperfection. In every machine\npower is lost through friction; and in every man, the noblest and the\npurest, there is resistance to be overcome ere motion in conformity\nwith the divine impulse can be secured. We pass in review before our\nminds saints and martyrs and lovely characters by the hundred, and\namongst them all there is not a jewel without a flaw, not a mirror\nwithout some dint in it where the rays are distorted, or some dark\nplace where the reflecting surface has been rubbed away by the\nattrition of sin, and where there is no reflection of the divine light.\nAnd then we turn to that meek Figure who stands there with the question\nthat has been awaiting an answer for nineteen centuries upon His lips,\nand is unanswered yet: 'Which of you convinceth Me of sin?' 'He is the\nholy Servant,' whose consecration and character mark Him off from all\nthe class to which He belongs as the only one of them all who, in\ncompleteness, has executed the Father's purpose, and has never\nattempted anything contrary to it.\n\nNow there is another step to be taken, and it is this. The Servant who\nstands out in front of all the group--though the noblest names in the\nworld's history are included therein--could not be _the_ Servant unless\nHe were the Son. This designation, as applied to Jesus Christ, is\npeculiar to these three or four earlier chapters of the Acts of the\nApostles. It is interesting because it occurs over and over again\nthere, and because it never occurs anywhere else in the New Testament.\nIf we recognise what I think must be recognised, that it is a quotation\nfrom the ancient prophecies, and is an assertion of the Messianic\ncharacter of Jesus, then I think we here see the Church in a period of\ntransition in regard to their conceptions of their Lord. There is no\nsign that the proper Sonship and Divinity of our Lord was clear before\nthem at this period. They had the facts, but they had not yet come to\nthe distinct apprehension of how much was involved in these. But, if\nthey knew that Jesus Christ had died and had risen again--and they knew\nthat, for they had seen Him--and if they believed that He was the\nMessiah, and if they were certain that in His character of Messiah\nthere had been faultlessness and absolute perfection--and they were\ncertain of that, because they had lived beside Him--then it would not\nbe long before they took the next step, and said, as I say, 'He cannot\nbe the Servant unless He is more than man.'\n\nAnd we may well ask ourselves the question, if we admit, as the world\ndoes admit, the moral perfectness of Jesus Christ, how comes it that\nthis Man alone managed to escape failures and deflections from the\nright, and sins, and that He only carried through life a stainless\ngarment, and went down to the grave never having needed, and not\nneeding then, the exercise of divine forgiveness? Brethren, I venture\nto say that it is hopeless to account for Jesus Christ on naturalistic\nprinciples; and that either you must give up your belief in His\nsinlessness, or advance, as the Christian Church as a whole advanced,\nto the other belief, on which alone that perfectness is explicable:\n'Thou art the King of Glory, O Christ! Thou art the Everlasting Son of\nthe Father!'\n\nII. And so, secondly, let us turn to the other contrast here--the\nServant and the slaves.\n\nI said that the humble group of praying, persecuted believers seemed to\nhave wished to take a lower place than their Master's, even whilst they\nventured to assume that, in some sense, they too, like Him, were doing\nthe Father's will. So they chose, by a fine instinct of humility rather\nthan from any dogmatical prepossessions, the name that expresses, in\nits most absolute and roughest form, the notion of bondage and\nservitude. He is the Servant; we standing here are slaves. And that\nthis is not an overweighting of the word with more than is meant by it\nseems to be confirmed by the fact that in the first clause of this\nprayer, we have, for the only time in the New Testament, God addressed\nas 'Lord' by the correlative word to _slave_, which has been\ntransferred into English, namely, _despot_.\n\nThe true position, then, for a man is to be God's slave. The harsh,\nrepellent features of that wicked institution assume an altogether\ndifferent character when they become the features of my relation to\nHim. Absolute submission, unconditional obedience, on the slave's part;\nand on the part of the Master complete ownership, the right of life and\ndeath, the right of disposing of all goods and chattels, the right of\nseparating husband and wife, parents and children, the right of issuing\ncommandments without a reason, the right to expect that those\ncommandments shall be swiftly, unhesitatingly, punctiliously, and\ncompletely performed--these things inhere in our relation to God.\nBlessed the man who has learned that they do, and has accepted them as\nhis highest glory and the security of his most blessed life! For,\nbrethren, such submission, absolute and unconditional, the blending and\nthe absorption of my own will in His will, is the secret of all that\nmakes manhood glorious and great and happy.\n\nRemember, however, that in the New Testament these names of slave and\nowner are transferred to Christians and Jesus Christ. 'The Servant' has\nHis slaves; and He who is God's Servant, and does not His own will but\nthe Father's will, has us for His servants, imposes His will upon us,\nand we are bound to render to Him a revenue of entire obedience like\nthat which He hath laid at His Father's feet.\n\nSuch slavery is the only freedom. Liberty does not mean doing as you\nlike, it means liking as you ought, and doing that. He only is free who\nsubmits to God in Christ, and thereby overcomes himself and the world\nand all antagonism, and is able to do that which it is his life to do.\nA prison out of which we do not desire to go is no restraint, and the\nwill which coincides with law is the only will that is truly free. You\ntalk about the bondage of obedience. Ah! 'the weight of too much\nliberty' is a far sorer bondage. They are the slaves who say, 'Let us\nbreak His bonds asunder, and cast away His cords from us'; and they are\nthe free men who say, 'Lord, put Thy blessed shackles on my arms, and\nimpose Thy will upon my will, and fill my heart with Thy love; and then\nwill and hands will move freely and delightedly.' 'If the Son make you\nfree, ye shall be free indeed.'\n\nSuch slavery is the only nobility. In the wicked old empires, as in\nsome of their modern survivals to-day, viziers and prime ministers were\nmostly drawn from the servile classes. It is so in God's kingdom. They\nwho make themselves God's slaves are by Him made kings and priests, and\nshall reign with Him on earth. If we are slaves, then are we sons and\nheirs of God through Jesus Christ.\n\nRemember the alternative. You cannot be your own masters without being\nyour own slaves. It is a far worse bondage to live as chartered\nlibertines than to walk in the paths of obedience. Better serve God\nthan the devil, than the world, than the flesh. Whilst they promise men\nliberty, they make them 'the most abject and downtrodden vassals of\nperdition.'\n\nThe Servant-Son makes us slaves and sons. It matters nothing to me that\nJesus Christ perfectly fulfilled the law of God; it is so much the\nbetter for Him, but of no value for me, unless He has the power of\nmaking me like Himself. And He has it, and if you will trust yourselves\nto Him, and give your hearts to Him, and ask Him to govern you, He will\ngovern you; and if you will abandon your false liberty which is\nservitude, and take the sober freedom which is obedience, then He will\nbring you to share in His temper of joyful service; and even we may be\nable to say, 'My meat and my drink is to do the will of Him that sent\nme,' and truly saying that, we shall have the key to all delights, and\nour feet will be, at least, on the lower rungs of the ladder whose top\nreaches to Heaven.\n\n'What fruit had ye in the things of which ye are now ashamed? But being\nmade free from sin, and become the slaves of God, ye have your fruit\nunto holiness; and the end everlasting life.' Brethren, I beseech you,\nby the mercies of God, that ye yield yourselves to Him, crying, 'O\nLord, truly I am Thy servant. Thou hast loosed my bonds.'\n\n\n\nTHE WHEAT AND THE TARES\n\n'And the multitude of them that believed were of one heart and of one\nsoul: neither said any of them that aught of the things which he\npossessed was his own; but they had all things common.'--ACTS iv. 32.\n\n'And great fear came upon all the church, and upon as many as heard\nthese things.'--ACTS v. 11.\n\nOnce more Luke pauses and gives a general survey of the Church's\ncondition. It comes in appropriately at the end of the account of the\ntriumph over the first assault of civil authority, which assault was\nitself not only baffled, but turned to good. Just because persecution\nhad driven them closer to God and to one another, were the disciples so\nfull of brotherly love and of grace as Luke delights to paint them.\n\nI. We note the fair picture of what the Church once was. The recent\nlarge accessions to it might have weakened the first feelings of\nbrotherhood, so that it is by no means superfluous to repeat\nsubstantially the features of the earlier description (Acts ii. 44,\n45). 'The multitude' is used with great meaning, for it was a triumph\nof the Spirit's influence that the warm stream of brotherly love ran\nthrough so many hearts, knit together only by common submission to\nJesus. That oneness of thought and feeling was the direct issue of the\ninflux of the Spirit mentioned as the blessed result of the disciples'\ndauntless devotion (Acts iv. 31). If our Churches were 'filled with the\nHoly Ghost,' we too should be fused into oneness of heart and mind,\nthough our organisations as separate communities continued, just as all\nthe little pools below high-water mark are made one when the tide comes\nup.\n\nThe first result and marvellous proof of that oneness was the so-called\n'community of goods,' the account of which is remarkable both because\nit all but fills this picture, and because it is broken into two by\nverse 33, rapidly summarising other characteristics. The two halves may\nbe considered together, and it may be noted that the former presents\nthe sharing of property as the result of brotherly unity, while the\nlatter traces it ('for,' v. 34) to the abundant divine grace resting on\nthe whole community. The terms of the description should be noted, as\ncompletely negativing the notion that the fact in question was anything\nlike compulsory abolition of the right of individual ownership. 'Not\none of them said that aught of the things which he possessed was his\nown.' That implies that the right of possession was not abolished. It\nimplies, too, that the common feeling of brotherhood was stronger than\nthe self-centred regard which looks on possessions as to be used for\nself. Thus they possessed as though they possessed not, and each held\nhis property as a trust from God for his brethren.\n\nWe must observe, further, that the act of selling was the owners', as\nwas the act of handing the proceeds to the Apostles. The community had\nnothing to do with the money till it had been given to them. Further,\nthe distribution was not determined by the rule of equality, but by the\n'need' of the recipients; and its result was not that all had share and\nshare alike, but that 'none lacked.'\n\nThere is nothing of modern communism in all this, but there is a lesson\nto the modern Church as to the obligations of wealth and the claims of\nbrotherhood, which is all but universally disregarded. The spectre of\ncommunism is troubling every nation, and it will become more and more\nformidable, unless the Church learns that the only way to lay it is to\nlive by the precepts of Jesus and to repeat in new forms the spirit of\nthe primitive Church. The Christian sense of stewardship, not the\nabolition of the right of property, is the cure for the hideous facts\nwhich drive men to shriek 'Property is theft.'\n\nLuke adds two more points to his survey,--the power of the Apostolic\ntestimony, and the great grace which lay like a bright cloud on the\nwhole Church. The Apostles' special office was to bear witness to the\nResurrection. They held a position of prominence in the Church by\nvirtue of having been chosen by Jesus and having been His companions,\nbut the Book of Acts is silent about any of the other mysterious powers\nwhich later ages have ascribed to them. The only Apostles who appear in\nit are Peter, John, and James, the last only in a parenthesis recording\nHis martyrdom. Their peculiar work was to say, 'Behold! we saw, and\nknow that He died and rose again.'\n\nII. The general description is followed by one example of the surrender\nof wealth, which is noteworthy as being done by one afterwards to play\na great part in the book, and also as leading on to an example of\nhypocritical pretence. Side by side stand Barnabas and the wretched\ncouple, Ananias and Sapphira.\n\nLuke introduces the new personage with some particularity, and, as He\ndoes not go into detail without good reason, we must note his\ndescription. First, the man's character is given, as expressed in the\nname bestowed by the Apostles, in imitation of Christ's frequent\ncustom. He must have been for some time a disciple, in order that his\nspecial gift should have been recognised. He was a 'son of\nexhortation'; that is, he had the power of rousing and encouraging the\nfaith and stirring the believing energy of the brethren. An example of\nthis was given in Antioch, where he 'exhorted them all, that with\npurpose of heart they would cleave unto the Lord.' So much the more\nbeautiful was his self-effacement when with Paul, for it was the latter\nwho was 'the chief speaker.' Barnabas felt that his gift was less than\nhis brother's, and so, without jealousy, took the second place. He,\nbeing silent, yet speaketh, and bids us learn our limits, and be\ncontent to be surpassed.\n\nWe are next told his rank. He was a Levite. The tribe to which a\ndisciple belongs is seldom mentioned, but probably the reason for\nspecifying Barnabas' was the same as led Luke, in another place, to\nrecord that 'a great company of the priests was obedient to the faith.'\nThe connection of the tribe of Levi with the Temple worship made\naccessions from it significant, as showing how surely the new faith was\ncreeping into the very heart of the old system, and winning converts\nfrom the very classes most interested in opposing it. Barnabas'\nsignificance is further indicated by the notice that he was 'a man of\nCyprus,' and as such, the earliest mentioned of the Hellenists or\nforeign-born and Greek-speaking Jews, who were to play so important a\npart in the expansion of the Church.\n\nHis first appearance witnessed to the depth and simple genuineness of\nhis character and faith. The old law forbidding Levites to hold land\nhad gradually become inoperative, and perhaps Barnabas' estate was in\nCyprus, though more probably it was, like that of his relative Mary,\nthe mother of Mark, in Jerusalem. He did as many others were doing, and\nbrought the proceeds to the assembly of the brethren, and there\npublicly laid them at the Apostles' feet, in token of their authority\nto administer them as they thought well.\n\nIII. Why was Barnabas' act singled out for mention, since there was\nnothing peculiar about it? Most likely because it stimulated Ananias\nand his wife to imitation. Wherever there are signal instances of\nChristian self-sacrifice, there will spring up a crop of base copies.\nAnanias follows Barnabas as surely as the shadow the substance. It was\nvery likely a pure impulse which led him and his wife to agree to sell\ntheir land; and it was only when they had the money in their hands, and\nhad to take the decisive step of parting with it, and reducing\nthemselves to pennilessness, that they found the surrender harder than\nthey could carry out. Satan spoils many a well-begun work, and we often\nbreak down half-way through a piece of Christian unselfishness. Well\nbegun is half--but only half--ended.\n\nBe that as it may, Peter's stern words to Ananias put all the stress of\nthe sin on its being an acted lie. The motives of the trick are not\ndisclosed. They may have been avarice, want of faith, greed of\napplause, reluctance to hang back when others were doing like Barnabas.\nIt is hard to read the mingled motives which lead ourselves wrong, and\nharder to separate them in the case of another. How much Ananias kept\nback is of no moment; indeed, the less he retained the greater the sin;\nfor it is baser, as well as more foolish, to do wrong for a little\nadvantage than for a great one.\n\nPeter's two questions bring out very strikingly the double source of\nthe sin. 'Why hath Satan filled thy heart?'--an awful antithesis to\nbeing filled with the Spirit. Then there is a real, malign Tempter, who\ncan pour evil affections and purposes into men's hearts. But he cannot\ndo it unless the man opens his heart, as that 'why?' implies. The same\nthought of our co-operation and concurrence, so that, however Satan\nsuggests, it is we who are guilty, comes out in the second question,\n'How is it that _thou_ hast conceived this thing in thy heart?'\nReverently we may venture to say that not only Christ stands at the\ndoor and knocks, but that the enemy of Him and His stands there too,\nand he too enters 'if any man opens the door.' Neither heaven nor hell\ncan come in unless we will.\n\nThe death of Ananias was not inflicted by Peter, 'Hearing these words'\nhe 'fell down and' died. Surely that expression suggests that the stern\nwords had struck at his life, and that his death was the result of the\nagitation of shame and guilt which they excited. That does not at all\nconflict with regarding his death as a punitive divine act.\n\nOne can fancy the awed silence that fell on the congregation, and the\nrestrained, mournful movement that ran through it when Sapphira\nentered. Why the two had not come in company can only be conjectured.\nPerhaps the husband had gone straight to the Apostles after completing\nthe sale, and had left the wife to follow at her convenience. Perhaps\nshe had not intended to come at all, but had grown alarmed at the delay\nin Ananias' return. She may have come in fear that something had gone\nwrong, and that fear would be increased by her not seeing her husband\nin her quick glance round the company.\n\nIf she came expecting to receive applause, the silence and constraint\nthat hung over the assembly must have stirred a fear that something\nterrible had happened, which would be increased by Peter's question. It\nwas a merciful opportunity given her to separate herself from the sin\nand the punishment; but her lie was glib, and indicated determination\nto stick to the fraud. That moment was heavy with her fate, and she\nknew it not; but she knew that she had the opportunity of telling the\ntruth, and she did not take it. She had to make the hard choice which\nwe have sometimes to make, to be true to some sinful bargain or be true\nto God, and she chose the worse part. Which of the two was tempter and\nwhich was tempted matters little. Like many a wife, she thought that it\nwas better to be loyal to her husband than to God, and so her honour\nwas 'rooted in dishonour,' and she was falsely true and truly false.\n\nThe judgment on Sapphira was not inflicted by Peter. He foretold it by\nhis prophetic power, but it was the hand of God which vindicated the\npurity of the infant Church. The terrible severity of the punishment\ncan only be understood by remembering the importance of preserving the\nyoung community from corruption at the very beginning. Unless the\nvermin are cleared from the springing plant, it will not grow. As\nAchan's death warned Israel at the beginning of their entrance into the\npromised land, so Ananias and Sapphira perished, that all generations\nof the Church might fear to pretend to self-surrender while cherishing\nits opposite, and might feel that they have to give account to One who\nknows the secrets of the heart, and counts nothing as given if anything\nis surreptitiously kept back.\n\n\n\nWHOM TO OBEY,--ANNAS OR ANGEL?\n\n'Then the high priest rose up, and all they that were with him, (which\nis the sect of the Sadducees,) and were filled with indignation, 18.\nAnd laid their hands on the apostles, and put them in the common\nprison. 19. But the angel of the Lord by night opened the prison doors,\nand brought them forth, and said, 20. Go, stand and speak in the temple\nto the people all the words of this life. 21. And when they heard that,\nthey entered into the temple early in the morning, and taught. But the\nhigh priest came, and they that were with him, and called the council\ntogether, and all the senate of the children of Israel, and sent to the\nprison to have them brought. 22. But when the officers came, and found\nthem not in the prison, they returned, and told, 23. Saying, The prison\ntruly found we shut with all safety, and the keepers standing without\nbefore the doors: but when we had opened, we found no man within. 24.\nNow when the high priest and the captain of the temple and the chief\npriests heard these things, they doubted of them whereunto this would\ngrow. 25. Then came one and told them, saying. Behold, the men whom ye\nput in prison are standing in the temple, and teaching the people. 26.\nThen went the captain with the officers, and brought them without\nviolence: for they feared the people, lest they should have been\nstoned. 27. And when they had brought them, they set them before the\ncouncil: and the high priest asked them, 28. Saying, Did not we\nstraitly command you that ye should not teach in this name? and,\nbehold, ye have filled Jerusalem with your doctrine, and intend to\nbring this man's blood upon us. 29. Then Peter and the other apostles\nanswered and said, We ought to obey God rather than men. 30. The God of\nour fathers raised up Jesus, whom ye slew and hanged on a tree. 31. Him\nhath God exalted with His right hand to be a Prince and a Saviour, for\nto give repentance to Israel, and forgiveness of sins. 32. And we are\nHis witnesses of these things; and so is also the Holy Ghost, whom God\nhath given to them that obey Him.'--ACTS v. 17-32.\n\nThe Jewish ecclesiastics had been beaten in the first round of the\nfight, and their attempt to put out the fire had only stirred the\nblaze. Popular sympathy is fickle, and if the crowd does not shout with\nthe persecutors, it will make heroes and idols of the persecuted. So\nthe Apostles had gained favour by the attempt to silence them, and that\nled to the second round, part of which is described in this passage.\n\nThe first point to note is the mean motives which influenced the\nhigh-priest and his adherents. As before, the Sadducees were at the\nbottom of the assault; for talk about a resurrection was gall and\nwormwood to them. But Luke alleges a much more contemptible emotion\nthan zeal for supposed truth as the motive for action. The word\nrendered in the Authorised Version 'indignation,' is indeed literally\n'zeal,' but it here means, as the Revised Version has it, nothing\nnobler than 'jealousy.' 'Who are those ignorant Galileans that they\nshould encroach on the office of us dignified teachers? and what fools\nthe populace must be to listen to them! Our prestige is threatened. If\nwe don't bestir ourselves, our authority will be gone.' A lofty spirit\nin which to deal with grave movements of opinion, and likely to lead\nits possessors to discern truth!\n\nThe Sanhedrin, no doubt, talked solemnly about the progress of error,\nand the duty of firmly putting it down, and, like Jehu, said, 'Come,\nand see our zeal for the Lord'; but it was zeal for greetings in the\nmarketplace, and the chief seats in the synagogues, and the other\nadvantages of their position. So it has often been since. The\ninstruments which zeal for truth uses are argument, Scripture, and\npersuasion. That zeal which betakes itself to threats and force is, at\nthe best, much mingled with the wrath and jealousy of man.\n\nThe arrest of the Apostles and their committal to prison was simply for\ndetention, not punishment. The rulers cast their net wider this time,\nand secured all the Apostles, and, having them safe under lock and key,\nthey went home triumphant, and expecting to deal a decisive blow\nto-morrow. Then comes one of the great 'buts' of Scripture. Annas and\nCaiaphas thought that they had scored a success, but an angel upset\ntheir calculations. To try to explain the miracle away is hopeless. It\nis wiser to try to understand it.\n\nThe very fact that it did not lead to the Apostles' deliverance, but\nthat the trial and scourging followed next day, just as if it had not\nhappened, which has been alleged as a proof of its uselessness, and\ninferentially of its falsehood, puts us on the right track. It was not\nmeant for their deliverance, but for their heartening, and for the\nbracing of all generations of Christians, by showing, at the first\nconflict with the civil power, that the Lord was with His Church. His\nstrengthening power is operative when no miracle is wrought. If His\nservants are not delivered, it is not that He lacks angels, but that it\nis better for them and the Church that they should lie in prison or die\nat the stake.\n\nThe miracle was a transient revelation of a perpetual truth, and has\nshed light on many a dark dungeon where God's servants have lain\nrotting. It breathed heroic constancy into the Twelve. How striking and\nnoble was their prompt obedience to the command to resume the perilous\nwork of preaching! As soon as the dawn began to glimmer over Olivet,\nand the priests were preparing for the morning sacrifice, there were\nthese irrepressible disturbers, whom the officials thought they had\nshut up safely last night, lifting up their voices again as if nothing\nhad happened. What a picture of dauntless persistence, and what a\nlesson for us! The moment the pressure is off, we should spring back to\nour work of witnessing for Christ.\n\nThe bewilderment of the Council comes in strong contrast with the\nunhesitating action of the Apostles. There is a half ludicrous side to\nit, which Luke does not try to hide. There was the pompous assembling\nof all the great men at early morning, and their dignified waiting till\ntheir underlings brought in the culprits. No doubt, Annas put on his\nseverest air of majesty, and all were prepared to look their sternest\nfor the confusion of the prisoners. The prison, the Temple, and the\njudgment hall, were all near each other. So there was not long to wait.\nBut, behold! the officers come back alone, and their report shakes the\nassembly out of its dignity. One sees the astonished underlings coming\nup to the prison, and finding all in order, the sentries patrolling,\nthe doors fast (so the angel had shut them as well as opened them), and\nthen entering ready to drag out the prisoners, and--finding all silent.\nSuch elaborate guard kept over an empty cage!\n\nIt was not the officers' business to offer explanations, and it does\nnot seem that any were asked. One would have thought that the sentries\nwould have been questioned. Herod went the natural way to work, when he\nhad Peter's guards examined and put to death. But Annas and his fellows\ndo not seem to have cared to inquire how the escape had been made.\nPossibly they suspected a miracle, or perhaps feared that inquiry might\nreveal sympathisers with the prisoners among their own officials. At\nany rate, they were bewildered, and lost their heads, wondering what\nwas to come next, and how this thing was to end.\n\nThe further news that these obstinate fanatics were at their old work\nin the Temple again, must have greatly added to the rulers' perplexity,\nand they must have waited the return of the officers sent off for the\nsecond time to fetch the prisoners, with somewhat less dignity than\nbefore. The officers felt the pulse of the crowd, and did not venture\non force, from wholesome fear for their own skins. An excited mob in\nthe Temple court was not to be trifled with, so persuasion was adopted.\nThe brave Twelve went willingly, for the Sanhedrin had no terrors for\nthem, and by going they secured another opportunity of ringing out\ntheir Lord's salvation. Wherever a Christian can witness for Christ, he\nshould be ready to go.\n\nThe high-priest discreetly said nothing about the escape. Possibly he\nhad no suspicion of a miracle, but, even if he had, chapter iv. 16\nshows that that would not have led to any modification of his\nhostility. Persecutors, clothed with a little brief authority, are\nstrangely blind to the plainest indications of the truth spoken by\ntheir victims. Annas did not know what a question about the escape\nmight bring out, so he took the safer course of charging the Twelve\nwith disobedience to the Sanhedrin's prohibition. How characteristic of\nall his kind that is! Never mind whether what the martyr says is true\nor not. He has broken our law, and defied our authority; that is\nenough. Are we to be chopping logic, and arguing with every ignorant\nupstart who chooses to vent his heresies? Gag him,--that is easier and\nmore dignified.\n\nA world of self-consequence peeps out in that '_we_ straitly charged\nyou,' and a world of contempt peeps out in the avoidance of naming\nJesus. 'This name' and 'this man' is the nearest that the proud priest\nwill come to soiling his lips by mentioning Him. He bears unconscious\ntestimony to the Apostles' diligence, and to the popular inclination to\nthem, by charging them with having filled the city with what he\ncontemptuously calls '_your_ teaching,' as if it had no other source\nthan their own ignorant notions.\n\nThen the deepest reason for the Sanhedrin's bitterness leaks out in the\ncharge of inciting the mob to take vengeance on them for the death of\nJesus. It was true that the Apostles had charged that guilt home on\nthem, but not on them only, but on the whole nation, so that no\nincitement to revenge lay in the charge. It was true that they had\nbrought 'this man's blood' on the rulers, but only to draw them to\nrepentance, not to hound at them their sharers in the guilt. Had Annas\nforgot 'His blood be on us, and on our children'? But, when an evil\ndeed is complete, the doers try to shuffle off the responsibility which\nthey were ready to take in the excitement of hurrying to do it. Annas\ndid not trouble himself about divine vengeance; it was the populace\nwhom he feared.\n\nSo, in its attempt to browbeat the accused, in its empty airs of\nauthority, in its utter indifference to the truth involved, in its\ncontempt for the preachers and their message, in its brazen denial of\nresponsibility, its dread of the mob, and its disregard of the far-off\ndivine judgment, his bullying speech is a type of how persecutors, from\nRoman governors down, have hectored their victims.\n\nAnd Peter's brave answer is, thank God! the type of what thousands of\ntrembling women and meek men have answered. His tone is severer now\nthan on his former appearance. Now he has no courteous recognition of\nthe court's authority. Now he brushes aside all Annas's attempts to\nimpose on him the sanctity of its decrees, and flatly denies that the\nCouncil has any more right to command than any other 'men.' They\nclaimed to be depositaries of God's judgments. This revolutionary\nfisherman sees nothing in them but 'men,' whose commands point one way,\nwhile God's point the other. The angel bade them 'speak'; the Council\nhad bid them be dumb. To state the opposition was to determine their\nduty. Formerly Peter had said 'judge ye' which command it is right to\nobey. Now, he wraps his refusal in no folds of courtesy, but thrusts\nthe naked 'We must obey God' in the Council's face. That was a great\nmoment in the history of the world and the Church. How much lay in it,\nas in a seed,--Luther's 'Here I stand, I can do none other. God help\nme! Amen'; Plymouth Rock, and many a glorious and blood-stained page in\nthe records of martyrdom.\n\nPeter goes on to vindicate his assumption that in disobeying Annas they\nare obeying God, by reiterating the facts which since Pentecost he had\npressed on the national conscience. Israel had slain, and God had\nexalted, Jesus to His right hand. That was God's verdict on Israel's\naction. But it was also the ground of hope for Israel; for the\nexaltatior of Jesus was that He might be 'Prince [or Leader] and\nSaviour,' and from His exalted hand were shed the gifts of 'repentance\nand remission of sins,' even of the great sin of slaying Him. These\nthings being so, how could the Apostles be silent? Had not God bid them\nspeak, by their very knowledge of these? They were Christ's witnesses,\nconstituted as such by their personal acquaintance with Him and their\nhaving seen Him raised and ascending, and appointed to be such by His\nown lips, and inspired for their witnessing by the Holy Spirit shed on\nthem at Pentecost. Peter all but reproduces the never-to-be-forgotten\nwords heard by them all in the upper room, 'He shall bear witness of\nMe: and ye also shall bear witness, because ye have been with Me from\nthe beginning.' Silence would be treason. So it is still. What were\nAnnas and his bluster to men whom Christ had bidden to speak, and to\nwhom He had given the Spirit of the Father to speak in them?\n\n\n\nOUR CAPTAIN\n\n'Him hath God exalted with His right hand to be a Prince.'--ACTS v. 31.\n\nThe word rendered 'Prince' is a rather infrequent designation of our\nLord in Scripture. It is only employed in all four times--twice in\nPeter's earlier sermons recorded in this Book of the Acts; and twice in\nthe Epistle to the Hebrews. In a former discourse of the Apostle's he\nhad spoken of the crime of the Jews in killing 'the Prince of life.'\nHere he uses the word without any appended epithet. In the Epistle to\nthe Hebrews we read once of the 'Captain of Salvation,' and once of the\n'Author of Faith.'\n\nNow these three renderings 'Prince,' 'Captain,' 'Author,' seem\nsingularly unlike. But the explanation of their being all substantially\nequivalent to the original word is not difficult to find. It seems to\nmean properly a Beginner, or Originator, who takes the lead in\nanything, and hence the notions of chieftainship and priority are\neasily deduced from it. Then, very naturally, it comes to mean\nsomething very much like _cause_; with only this difference, that it\nimplies that the person who is the Originator is Himself the Possessor\nof that of which He is the Cause to others. So the two ideas of a\nLeader, and of a Possessor who imparts, are both included in the word.\n\nMy intention in this sermon is to deal with the various forms of this\nexpression, in order to try to bring out the fulness of the notion\nwhich Scripture attaches to this leadership of Jesus Christ. He is\nfirst of all, generally, as our text sets Him forth, the Leader,\nabsolutely. Then there are the specific aspects, expressed by the other\nthree passages, in which He is set forth as the Leader through death to\nlife; the Leader through suffering to salvation; and the Leader in the\npath of faith. Let us look, then, at these points in succession.\n\nI. First, we have the general notion of Christ the Leader.\n\nNow I suppose we are all acquainted with the fact that the names\n'Joshua' and 'Jesus' are, in the original, one. It is further to be\nnoticed that, in the Greek translation of the Old Testament, which was\nfamiliar to Peter's hearers, the word of our text is that employed to\ndescribe the office of the military leaders of Israel. It is still\nfurther to be observed that, in all the instances in the New Testament,\nit is employed in immediate connection with the name of Jesus. Now,\nputting all these things together, remembering to whom Peter was\nspeaking, remembering the familiarity which many of his audience must\nhave had with the Old Testament in its Greek translation, remembering\nthe identity of the two names Joshua and Jesus, it is difficult to\navoid the supposition that the expression of our text is coloured by a\nreference to the bold soldier who successfully led his brethren into\nthe Promised Land. Joshua was the 'Captain of the Lord's host' to lead\nthem to Canaan; the second Joshua is the Captain of the Host of the\nLord to lead them to a better rest. Of all the Old Testament heroes\nperhaps there is none, at first sight, less like the second Joshua than\nthe first was. He is only a rough, plain, prompt, and bold soldier. No\nprophet was he, no word of wisdom ever fell from his lips, no trace of\ntenderness was in anything that he did; meekness was alien from his\ncharacter, he was no sage, he was no saint, but decisive, swift,\nmerciless when necessary, full of resource, sharp and hard as his own\nsword. And yet a parallel may be drawn.\n\nThe second Joshua is the Captain of the Lord's host, as was typified to\nthe first one, in that strange scene outside the walls of Jericho,\nwhere the earthly commander, sunk in thought, was brooding upon the\nhard nut which he had to crack, when suddenly he lifted up his eyes,\nand beheld a man with a drawn sword. With the instinctive alertness of\nhis profession and character, his immediate question was, 'Art thou for\nus or for our enemies?' And he got the answer 'No! I am not on thy\nside, nor on the other side, but thou art on Mine. As Captain of the\nLord's host am I come up.'\n\nSo Jesus Christ, the 'Strong Son of God,' is set forth by this military\nemblem as being Himself the first Soldier in the army of God, and the\nLeader of all the host. We forget far too much the militant character\nof Jesus Christ. We think of His meekness, His gentleness, His\npatience, His tenderness, His humility, and we cannot think of these\ntoo much, too lovingly, too wonderingly, too adoringly, but we too\noften forget the strength which underlay the gentleness, and that His\nlife, all gracious as it was, when looked at from the outside, had\nbeneath it a continual conflict, and was in effect the warfare of God\nagainst all the evils and the sorrows of humanity. We forget the\ncourage that went to make the gentleness of Jesus, the daring that\nunderlay His lowliness; and it does us good to remember that all the\nso-called heroic virtues were set forth in supreme form, not in some\nvulgar type of excellence, such as a conqueror, whom the world\nrecognises, but in that meek King whose weapon was love, yet was\nwielded with a soldier's hand.\n\nThis general thought of Jesus Christ as the first Soldier and Captain\nof the Lord's army not only opens for us a side of His character which\nwe too often pass by, but it also says something to us as to what our\nduties ought to be. He stands to us in the relation of General and\nCommander-in-Chief; then we stand to Him in the relation of private\nsoldiers, whose first duty is unhesitating obedience, and who in doing\ntheir Master's will must put forth a bravery far higher than the vulgar\ncourage that is crowned with wreathed laurels on the bloody\nbattlefield, even the bravery that is caught from Him who 'set His face\nas a flint' to do His work.\n\nJoshua's career has in it a great stumbling-block to many people, in\nthat merciless destruction of the Canaanite sinners, which can only be\nvindicated by remembering, first, that it was a divine appointment, and\nthat God has the right to punish; and, second, that those old days were\nunder a different law, or at least a less manifestly developed law of\nloving-kindness and mercy than, thank God! we live in. But whilst we\nlook with wonder on these awful scenes of destruction, may there not\nlie in them the lesson for us that antagonism and righteous wrath\nagainst evil in all its forms is the duty of the soldiers of Christ?\nThere are many causes to-day which to further and fight for is the\nbounden duty of every Christian, and to further and fight for which\nwill tax all the courage that any of us can muster. Remember that the\nleadership of Christ is no mere pretty metaphor, but a solemn fact,\nwhich brings with it the soldier's responsibilities. When our Centurion\nsays to us, 'Come!' we must come. When He says to us, 'Go!' we must go.\nWhen He says to us 'Do this!' we must do it, though heart and flesh\nshould shrink and fail. Unhesitating obedience to His authoritative\ncommand will deliver us from many of the miseries of self-will; and\nbrave effort at Christ's side is as much the privilege as the duty of\nHis servants and soldiers.\n\nII. So note, secondly, the Leader through death to life.\n\nPeter, in the sermon which is found in the third chapter of this Book\nof the Acts, has his mind and heart filled with the astounding fact of\nthe Resurrection and Ascension of Jesus Christ, and in the same breath\nas he gives forth the paradoxical indictment of the Jewish sin, 'You\nhave killed the Prince of Life'--the Leader of Life--he also says, 'And\nGod hath raised Him from the dead.' So that the connection seems to\npoint to the risen and glorified life into which Christ Himself passed,\nand by passing became capable of imparting it to others. The same idea\nis here as in Paul's other metaphor: 'Now is Christ risen from the\ndead, and become the first-fruits of them that slept'--the first sheaf\nof the harvest, which was carried into the Temple and consecrated to\nGod, and was the pledge and prophecy of the reaping in due season of\nall the miles of golden grain that waved in the autumn sunshine. 'So,'\nsays Peter, 'He is the Leader of Life, who Himself has passed through\nthe darkness, for \"you killed Him\"; mystery of mysteries as it is that\nyou should have been able to do it, deeper mystery still that you\nshould have been willing to do it, deepest mystery of all that you did\nit not when you did it, but that \"He became dead and is alive for\nevermore.\" You killed the Prince of Life, and God raised Him from the\ndead.'\n\nHe has gone before us. He is 'the first that should rise from the\ndead.' For, although the partial power of His communicated life did\nbreathe for a moment resuscitation into two dead men and one dead\nmaiden, these shared in no resurrection-life, but only came back again\ninto mortality, and were quickened for a time, but to die at last the\ncommon death of all. But Jesus Christ is the first that has gone into\nthe darkness and come back again to live for ever. Across the untrodden\nwild there is one track marked, and the footprints upon it point both\nways--to the darkness and from the darkness. So the dreary waste is not\npathless any more. The broad road that all the generations have trodden\non their way into the everlasting darkness is left now, and the\n'travellers pass by the byway' which Jesus Christ has made by the touch\nof His risen feet.\n\nThus, not only does this thought teach us the priority of His\nresurrection-life, but it also declares to us that Jesus Christ,\npossessing the risen life, possesses it to impart it. For, as I\nremarked in my introductory observations, the conception of this word\nincludes not only the idea of a Leader, but that of One who, Himself\npossessing or experiencing something, gives it to others. All men rise\nagain. Yes, 'but every man in his own order.' There are two principles\nat work in the resurrection of all men. They are raised on different\ngrounds, and they are raised to different issues. They that are\nChrist's are brought again from the dead, because the life of Christ is\nin them; and it is as 'impossible' that they, as that 'He, should be\nholden of it.' Union with Jesus Christ by simple faith is the means,\nand the only means revealed to us, whereby men shall be raised from the\ndead at the last by a resurrection which is anything else than a\nprolonged death. As for others, 'some shall rise unto shame and\neverlasting contempt,' rising dead, and dead after they are risen--dead\nas long as they live. There be two resurrections, whether simultaneous\nin time or not is of no moment, and all of us must have our part in the\none or the other; and faith in Jesus Christ is the only means by which\nwe can take a place in the great army and procession that He leads down\ninto the valley and up to the sunny heights.\n\nIf He be the Leader through death unto life, then it is certain that\nall who follow in His train shall attain to His side and shall share in\nHis glory. The General wears no order which the humblest private in the\nranks may not receive likewise, and whomsoever He leads, His leading\nwill not end till He has led them close to His side, if they trust Him.\nSo, calmly, confidently, we may each of us look forward to that dark\njourney waiting for us all. All our friends will leave us at the\ntunnel's mouth, but He will go with us through the gloom, and bring us\nout into the sunny lands on the southern side of the icy white\nmountains. The Leader of our souls will be our Guide, not only unto\ndeath, but far beyond it, into His own life.\n\nIII. So, thirdly, note the Leader through suffering to salvation.\n\nIn the Epistle to the Hebrews it is written, 'It became Him for whom\nare all things, and by whom are all things, in bringing many sons unto\nglory, to make the Captain'--or the Leader--'of their salvation perfect\nthrough sufferings.' That expression might seem at first to shut Jesus\nChrist out from any participation in the thing which He gives. For\nsalvation is His gift, but not that which He Himself possesses and\nenjoys; but it is to be noticed that in the context of the words which\nI have quoted, 'glory' is put as substantially synonymous with\nsalvation, and that the whole is suffused with the idea of a long\nprocession, as shown by the phrase, 'bringing many sons.' Of this\nprocession Jesus Christ Himself is the Leader.\n\nSo, clearly, the notion in the context now under consideration is that\nthe life of Jesus Christ is the type to which all His servants are to\nbe conformed. He is the Representative Man, who Himself passes through\nthe conditions through which we are to pass, and Himself reaches the\nglory which, given to us, becomes salvation.\n\n'Christ is perfected through sufferings.' So must we be. Perfected\nthrough sufferings? you say. Then did His humanity need perfecting?\nYes, and No. There needed nothing to be hewn away from that white\nmarble. There was nothing to be purged by fire out of that pure life.\nBut I suppose that Jesus Christ's human nature needed to be unfolded by\nlife; as the Epistle to the Hebrews says, 'He learned obedience, though\nHe were a Son, through the things which He suffered.' And fitness for\nHis office of leading us to glory required to be reached through the\nsufferings which were the condition of our forgiveness and of our\nacceptance with God. So, whether we regard the word as expressing the\nagony of suffering in unfolding His humanity, or in fitting Him for His\nredeeming work, it remains true that He was perfected by His sufferings.\n\nSo must we be. Our characters will never reach the refinement, the\ndelicacy, the unworldliness, the dependence upon God, which they\nrequire for their completion, unless we have been passed through many a\nsorrow. There are plants which require a touch of frost to perfect\nthem, and we all need the discipline of a Father's hand. The sorrows\nthat come to us all are far more easily borne when we think that Christ\nbore them all before us. It is but a blunted sword which sorrow wields\nagainst any of us; it was blunted on His armour. It is but a spent ball\nthat strikes us; its force was exhausted upon Him. Sorrow, if we keep\nclose to Him, may become solemn joy, and knit us more thoroughly to\nHimself. Ah, brother! we can better spare our joys than we can spare\nour sorrows. Only let us cleave to Him when they fall upon us.\n\nChrist's sufferings led Him to His glory, so will ours if we keep by\nHis side--and only if we do. There is nothing in the mere fact of being\ntortured and annoyed here on earth, which has in itself any direct and\nnecessary tendency to prepare us for the enjoyment, or to secure to us\nthe possession, of future blessedness. You often hear superficial\npeople saying, 'Oh! he has been very much troubled here, but there will\nbe amends for it hereafter.' Yes; God would wish to make amends for it\nhereafter, but He cannot do so unless we comply with the conditions.\nAnd it needs that we should keep close to Jesus Christ in sorrow, in\norder that it should work for us 'the peaceable fruit of\nrighteousness.' The glory will come if the patient endurance has\npreceded, and has been patience drawn from Jesus.\n\n  'I wondered at the beauteous hours,\n  The slow result of winter showers,\n  You scarce could see the grass for flowers.'\n\nThe sorrows that have wounded any man's head like a crown of thorns\nwill be covered with the diadem of Heaven, if they are sorrows borne\nwith Christ.\n\nIV. Lastly, we have Jesus, the Leader in the path of faith.\n\n'The Author of faith,' says the verse in the Epistle to the Hebrews.\n'Author' does not cover all the ground, though it does part of it. We\nmust include the other ideas which I have been trying to set forth He\nis 'Possessor' first and 'Giver' afterwards. For Jesus Christ Himself\nis both the Pattern and the Inspirer of our faith. It would unduly\nprotract my remarks to dwell adequately upon this; but let me just\nbriefly hint some thoughts connected with it.\n\nJesus Christ Himself walked by continual faith. His manhood depended\nupon God, just as ours has to depend upon Jesus. He lived in the\ncontinued reception of continual strength from above by reason of His\nfaith, just as our faith is the condition of our reception of His\nstrength. We are sometimes afraid to recognise the fact that the Man\nJesus, who is our pattern in all things, is our pattern in this, the\nmost special and peculiarly human aspect of the religious life. But if\nChrist was not the first of believers, His pattern is wofully defective\nin its adaptation to our need. Rather let us rejoice in the thought\nthat all that great muster-roll of the heroes of the faith, which the\nEpistle to the Hebrews has been dealing with, have for their\nLeader--though, chronologically, He marches in the centre--Jesus\nChrist, of whose humanity this is the document and proof that He says,\nin the Prophet's words: 'I will put My trust in Him.'\n\nRemember, too, that the same Jesus who is the Pattern is the Object and\nthe Inspirer of our faith; and that if we fulfil the conditions in the\ntext now under consideration, 'looking off' from all others,\nstimulating and beautiful as their example may be, sweet and tender as\ntheir love may be, and 'looking unto Jesus,' He will be in us, and\nabove us--in us to inspire, and above us to receive and to reward our\nhumble confidence.\n\nSo, dear friends, it all comes to this, 'Follow thou Me!' In that\ncommandment all duty is summed, and in obeying it all blessedness and\npeace are ensured. If we will take Christ for our Captain, He will\nteach our fingers to fight. If we obey Him we shall not want guidance,\nand be saved from perplexities born of self-will. If we keep close to\nHim and turn our eyes to Him, away from all the false and fleeting joys\nand things of earth, we shall not walk in darkness, howsoever earthly\nlights may be quenched, but the gloomiest path will be illuminated by\nHis presence, and the roughest made smooth by His bleeding feet that\npassed along it. If we follow Him, He will lead us down into the dark\nvalley, and up into the blessed sunshine, where participation in His\nown eternal life and glory will be salvation. If we march in His ranks\non earth, then shall we\n\n  'With joy upon our heads arise\n  And meet our Captain in the skies.'\n\n\n\nGAMALIEL'S COUNSEL\n\n'Refrain from these men, and let them alone; for if this counsel or\nthis work be of men, it will come to nought: 39. But if it be of God,\nye cannot overthrow it; lest haply ye be found even to fight against\nGod.'--ACTS v. 38, 39.\n\nThe little that is known of Gamaliel seems to indicate just such a man\nas would be likely to have given the advice in the text. His was a\ncharacter which, on its good side and by its admirers, would be\ndescribed as prudent, wise, cautious and calm, tolerant, opposed to\nfanaticism and violence. His position as president of the Sanhedrin,\nhis long experience, his Rabbinical training, his old age, and his\nknowledge that the national liberty depended on keeping things quiet,\nwould be very likely to exaggerate such tendencies into what his\nenemies would describe as worldly shrewdness without a trace of\nenthusiasm, indifference to truth, and the like.\n\nIt is, of course, possible that he bases his counsel of letting the\nfollowers of Jesus alone, on the grounds which he adduces, because he\nknew that reasons more favourable to Christians would have had no\nweight with the Sanhedrin. Old Church traditions make him out to have\nbeen a Christian, and the earliest Christian romance, a very singular\nbook, of which the main object was to blacken the Apostle Paul, roundly\nasserts that at the date of this advice he was 'secretly our brother,'\nand that he remained in the Sanhedrin to further Christian views. But\nthere seems not the slightest reason to suppose that. He lived and died\na Jew, spared the sight of the destruction of Jerusalem which,\naccording to his own canon in the text, would have proved that the\nsystem to which he had given his life was not of God; and the only\nrelic of his wisdom is a prayer against Christian heretics.\n\nIt is remarkable that he should have given this advice; but two things\noccur to account for it. Thus far Christianity had been very\nemphatically the preaching of the Resurrection, a truth which the\nPharisees believed and held as especially theirs in opposition to the\nSadducees, and Gamaliel was old and worldly-wise enough to count all as\nhis friends who were the enemies of his enemies. He was not very\nparticular where he looked for allies, and rather shrank from helping\nSadducees to punish men whose crime was that they 'preached through\nJesus a resurrection from the dead.'\n\nThen the Jewish rulers had a very ticklish part to play. They were\nafraid of any popular shout which might bring down the avalanche of\nRoman power on them, and they were nervously anxious to keep things\nquiet. So Gamaliel did not wish to have any fuss made about 'these\nmen,' lest it should be supposed that another popular revolt was on\nfoot; and he thought that to let them alone was the best way to reduce\ntheir importance. Perhaps, too, there was a secret hope in the old\nman's mind, which he scarcely ventured to look at and dared not speak,\nthat here might be the beginning of a rising which had more promise in\nit than that abortive one under Theudas. He could not venture to say\nthis, but perhaps it made him chary of voting for repression. He had no\nobjection to let these poor Galileans fling away their lives in\nstorming against the barrier of Rome. If they fail, it is but one more\nfailure. If they succeed, he and his like will say that they have done\nwell. But while the enterprise is too perilous for him to approve or be\nmixed up in it, he would let it have its chance.\n\nNote that Gamaliel regards the whole movement as the probable germ of\nan uprising against Rome, as is seen from the parallels that he quotes.\nIt is not as a religious teaching which is true or false, but as a\npolitical agitation, that he looks at Christianity.\n\nIt is to his credit that he stood calm and curbed the howling of the\nfanatics round him, and that he was the first and only Jewish authority\nwho counselled abstinence from persecution.\n\nIt is interesting to compare him with Gallio, who had a glimpse of the\ntrue relation of the civil magistrate to religious opinion. Gamaliel\nhas a glimpse of the truth of the impotence of material force against\ntruth, how it is of a quick and spiritual essence, which cannot be\ncleaved in pieces with a sword, but lives on in spite of all. But while\nall this may be true, the advice on the whole is a low and bad one. It\nrests on false principles; it takes a false view of a man's duty; it is\nnot wholly sincere; and it is one impossible to be carried out. It is\nsingularly in accordance with many of the tendencies of this age, and\nwith modes of thought and counsels of action which are in active\noperation amongst us to-day, and we may therefore criticise it now.\n\nI. Here is disbelief professing to be 'honest doubt.' Gamaliel\nprofesses not to have materials for judging. 'If--if'; was it a time\nfor 'ifs'? What was that Sanhedrin there for, but to try precisely such\ncases as these?\n\nThey had had the works of Christ; miracles which they had investigated\nand could not disprove; a life which was its own witness; prophecies\nfulfilled; His own presence before their bar; the Resurrection and the\nPentecost.\n\nI am not saying whether these facts were enough to have convinced them,\nnor even whether the alleged miracles were true. All that I am\nconcerned with is that, so far as we know, neither Gamaliel nor any of\nhis tribe had ever made the slightest attempt to inquire into them, but\nhad, without examination, complacently treated them as lies. All that\nbody of evidence had been absolutely ignored. And now he is, with his\n'ifs,' posing as very calm and dispassionate.\n\nSo to-day it is fashionable to doubt, to hang up most of the Christian\ntruths in the category of uncertainties.\n\n(_a_) When that is the fashion, we need to be on our guard.\n\n(_b_) If you doubt, have you ever taken the pains to examine?\n\n(_c_) If you doubt, you are bound to go further, and either reach\nbelief or rejection. Doubt is not the permanent condition for a man.\nThe central truth of Christianity is either to be received or rejected.\n\nII. Here is disbelief masquerading as suspension of judgment.\n\nGamaliel talked as if he did not know, or had not decided in his own\nmind, whether the disciples' claims for their Master were just or not.\nBut the attitude of impartiality and hesitation was the cover of rooted\nunbelief. He speaks as if the alternative was that either this 'counsel\nand work' was 'of man' or 'of God.' But he would have been nearer the\ntruth if he had stated the antithesis--God or devil; a glorious truth\nor a hell-born lie. If Christ's work was not a revelation from above,\nit was certainly an emanation from beneath.\n\nWe sometimes hear disbelief, in our own days, talking in much the same\nfashion. Have we never listened to teachers who first of all prove to\ntheir own satisfaction that Jesus is a myth, that all the gospel story\nis unreliable, and all the gospel message a dream, and then turn round\nand overflow in praise of Him and in admiration of it? Browning's\nprofessor in _Christmas Day_ first of all reduces 'the pearl of price'\nto dust and ashes, and then\n\n  'Bids us, when we least expect it,\n  Take back our faith--if it be not just whole,\n  Yet a pearl indeed, as his tests affect it.'\n\nAnd that is very much the tone of not a few very superior persons\nto-day. But let us have one thing or the other--a Christ who was what\nHe claimed to be, the Incarnate Word of God, who died for our sins and\nrose again for our justification; or a Galilean peasant who was either\na visionary or an impostor, like Judas of Galilee and Theudas.\n\nIII. Here is success turned into a criterion of truth.\n\nIt is such, no doubt, in the long run, but not till then, and so till\nthe end it is utterly false to argue that a thing is true because\nmultitudes think it to be so. The very opposite is more nearly true. It\nin usually minorities who have been right.\n\nGamaliel laid down an immoral principle, which is only too popular\nto-day, in relation to religion and to much else.\n\nIV. Here is a selfish neutrality pretending to be judicial calmness.\n\nEven if it were true that success is a criterion, we have to help God\nto ensure the success of His truth. No doubt, taking sides is very\ninconvenient to a cool, tolerant man of the world. And it is difficult\nto be in a party without becoming a partisan. We know all the beauty of\nmild, tolerant wisdom, and that truth is usually shared between\ncombatants, but the dangers of extremes and exaggeration must be faced,\nand perhaps these are better than the cool indifference of the\neclectic, sitting apart, holding no form of creed, but contemplating\nall. It is not good for a man to stand aloof when his brethren are\nfighting.\n\nIn every age some great causes which are God's are pressing for\ndecision. In many of them we may be disqualified for taking sides. But\nfeel that you are bound to cast your influence on the side which\nconscience approves, and bound to settle which side that is, Deborah's\nfierce curse against Meroz because its people came not up to the help\nof the Lord against the mighty was deserved.\n\nBut the region in which such judicial calmness, which shrinks from\ntaking its side, is most fatal and sadly common, is in regard to our\nown individual relation to Jesus, and in regard to the establishment of\nHis kingdom among men.\n\n'He that is not with Me is against Me.' Neutrality is opposition. Not\nto gather with Him is to scatter. Not to choose Him is to reject Him.\n\nGamaliel had a strange notion of what constituted 'refraining from\nthese men and letting them alone,' and he betrayed his real position\nand opposition by his final counsel to scourge them, before letting\nthem go. That is what the world's neutrality comes to.\n\nHow poor a figure this politic ecclesiastic, mostly anxious not to\ncommit himself, ready to let whoever would risk a struggle with Rome,\nso that he kept out of the fray and survived to profit by it, cuts\nbeside the disciples, who had chosen their side, had done with 'ifs,'\nand went away from the Council rejoicing 'that they were counted worthy\nto suffer shame for His Name'! Who would not rather be Peter or John\nwith their bleeding backs than Gamaliel, sitting soft in his\npresidential chair, and too cautious to commit himself to an opinion\nwhether the name of Jesus was that of a prophet or a pretender?\n\n\n\nFILLED WITH THE SPIRIT\n\n'Men ... full of the Holy Ghost and wisdom.' ... 'A man full of faith\nand of the Holy Ghost....' 'Stephen, full of faith and power.'--ACTS\nvi. 3, 5, 8.\n\nI have taken the liberty of wrenching these three fragments from their\ncontext, because of their remarkable parallelism, which is evidently\nintended to set us thinking of the connection of the various\ncharacteristics which they set forth. The first of them is a\ndescription, given by the Apostles, of the sort of man whom they\nconceived to be fit to look after the very homely matter of stifling\nthe discontent of some members of the Church, who thought that their\npoor people did not get their fair share of the daily ministration. The\nsecond and third of them are parts of the description of the foremost\nof these seven men, the martyr Stephen. In regard to the first and\nsecond of our three fragmentary texts, you will observe that the cause\nis put first and the effect second. The 'deacons' were to be men 'full\nof the Holy Ghost,' and that would make them 'full of wisdom.' Stephen\nwas 'full of faith,' and that made him 'full of the Holy Ghost.'\nProbably the same relation subsists in the third of our texts, of which\nthe true reading is not, as it appears in our Authorised Version, 'full\nof faith and power,' but as it is given in the Revised Version, 'full\nof grace and power.' He was filled with grace--by which apparently is\nhere meant the sum of the divine spiritual gifts--and therefore he was\nfull of power. Whether that is so or not, if we link these three\npassages together, as I have taken the liberty of doing, we get a point\nof view appropriate for such a day [Footnote: Preached on Whit Sunday.]\nas this, when all that calls itself Christendom is commemorating the\ndescent of the Holy Spirit, and His abiding influence upon the Church.\nSo I simply wish to gather together the principles that come out of\nthese three verses thus concatenated.\n\nI. We may all, if we will, be full of the Holy Spirit.\n\nIf there is a God at all, there is nothing more reasonable than to\nsuppose that He can come into direct contact with the spirits of the\nmen whom He has made. And if that Almighty God is not an Almighty\nindifference, or a pure devil--if He is love--then there is nothing\nmore certain than that, if He can touch and influence men's hearts\ntowards goodness and His own likeness, He most certainly will.\n\nThe probability, which all religion recognises, and in often crude\nforms tries to set forth, and by superstitious acts to secure, is\nraised to an absolute certainty, if we believe that Jesus Christ, the\nIncarnate Truth, speaks truth to us about this matter. For there is\nnothing more certain than that the characteristic which distinguishes\nHim from all other teachers, is to be found not only in the fact that\nHe did something for us on the Cross, as well as taught us by His word;\nbut that in His teaching He puts in the forefront, not the\nprescriptions of our duty, but the promise of God's gift; and ever says\nto us, 'Open your hearts and the divine influences will flow in and\nfill you and fit you for all goodness.' The Spirit of God fills the\nhuman spirit, as the mysterious influence which we call life permeates\nand animates the whole body, or as water lies in a cup.\n\nConsider how that metaphor is caught up, and from a different point of\nview is confirmed, in regard to the completeness which it predicates,\nby other metaphors of Scripture. What is the meaning of the Baptist's\nsaying, 'He shall baptise you in the Holy Ghost and fire'? Does that\nnot mean a complete immersion in, and submersion under, the cleansing\nflood? What is the meaning of the Master's own saying, 'Tarry ye...\ntill ye be clothed with power from on high'? Does not that mean\ncomplete investiture of our nakedness with that heavenly-woven robe? Do\nnot all these emblems declare to us the possibility of a human spirit\nbeing charged to the limits of its capacity with a divine influence?\n\nWe do not here discuss questions which separate good Christian people\nfrom one another in regard of this matter. My object now is not to lay\ndown theological propositions, but to urge upon Christian men the\nacquirement of an experience which is possible for them. And so,\nwithout caring to enter by argument on controversial matters, I desire\nsimply to lay emphasis upon the plain implication of that word,\n'_filled_ with the Holy Ghost.' Does it mean less than the complete\nsubjugation of a man's spirit by the influence of God's Spirit brooding\nupon him, as the prophet laid himself on the dead child, lip to lip,\nface to face, beating heart to still heart, limb to limb, and so\ndiffused a supernatural life into the dead? That is an emblem of what\nall you Christian people may have if you like, and if you will adopt\nthe discipline and observe the conditions which God has plainly laid\ndown.\n\nThat fulness will be a growing fulness, for our spirits are capable, if\nnot of infinite, at any rate of indefinite, expansion, and there is no\nlimit known to us, and no limit, I suppose, which will ever be reached,\nso that we can go no further--to the possible growth of a created\nspirit that is in touch with God, and is having itself enlarged and\nelevated and ennobled by that contact. The vessel is elastic, the walls\nof the cup of our spirit, into which the new wine of the divine Spirit\nis poured, widen out as the draught is poured into them. The more a man\npossesses and uses of the life of God, the more is he capable of\npossessing and the more he will receive. So a continuous expansion in\ncapacity, and a continuous increase in the amount of the divine life\npossessed, are held out as the happy prerogative and possibility of a\nChristian soul.\n\nThis Stephen had but a very small amount of the clear Christian\nknowledge that you and I have, but he was leagues ahead of most\nChristian people in regard to this, that he was 'filled with the Holy\nSpirit.' Brethren, you can have as much of that Spirit as you want. It\nis my own fault if my Christian life is not what the Christian lives of\nsome of us, I doubt not, are. 'Filled with the Holy Spirit'! rather a\nlittle drop in the bottom of the cup, and all the rest gaping\nemptiness; rather the fire died down, Pentecostal fire though it be,\nuntil there is scarcely anything but a heap of black cinders and grey\nashes in your grate, and a little sandwich of flickering flame in one\ncorner; rather the rushing mighty wind died down into all but a dead\ncalm, like that which afflicts sailing-ships in the equatorial regions,\nwhen the thick air is deadly still, and the empty sails have not\nstrength even to flap upon the masts; rather the 'river of the water of\nlife' that pours 'out of the throne of God, and of the Lamb,' dried up\ninto a driblet.\n\nThat is the condition of many Christian people. I say not of which of\nus. Let each man settle for himself how that may be. At all events here\nis the possibility, which may be realised with increasing completeness\nall through a Christian man's life. We may be filled with the Holy\nSpirit.\n\nII. If we are 'full of faith' we shall be filled with the Spirit.\n\nThat is the condition as suggested by one of our texts--'a man full of\nfaith,' and therefore 'of the Holy Ghost.' Now, of course, I believe,\nas I suppose all people who have made any experience of their own\nhearts must believe, that before a soul exercises confidence in Jesus\nChrist, and passes into the household of faith, there have been playing\nupon it the influences of that divine Comforter whose first mission is\nto 'convince the world of sin.' But between such operations as these,\nwhich I believe are universally diffused, wheresoever the Word of God\nand the message of salvation are proclaimed--between such operations as\nthese, and those to which I now refer, whereby the divine Spirit not\nonly operates upon, but dwells in, a man's heart, and not only brings\nconviction to the world of sin, there is a wide gulf fixed; and for all\nthe hallowing, sanctifying, illuminating and strength-giving operations\nof that divine Spirit, the pre-requisite condition is our trust. Jesus\nChrist taught us so, in more than one utterance, and His Apostle, in\ncommenting on one of the most remarkable of His sayings on this\nsubject, says, 'This spake He concerning the Holy Spirit which _they\nthat believed_ in Him were to receive.' Faith is the condition of\nreceiving that divine influence. But what kind of faith? Well, let us\nput away theological words. If you do not believe that there is any\nsuch influence to be got, you will not get it. If you do not want it,\nyou will not get it. If you do not expect it, you will not get it. If\nprofessing to believe it, and to wish it, and to look for it, you are\nbehaving yourself in such a way as to show that you do not really\ndesire it, you will never get it. It is all very well to talk about\nfaith as the condition of receiving that divine Spirit. Do not let us\nlose ourselves in the word, but try to translate the somewhat\nthreadbare expression, which by reason of its familiarity produces\nlittle effect upon some of us, and to turn it into non-theological\nEnglish. It just comes to this,--if we are simply trusting ourselves to\nJesus Christ our Lord, and if in that trust we do believe in the\npossibility of even _our_ being filled with the divine Spirit, and if\nthat possibility lights up a leaping flame of desire in our hearts\nwhich aspires towards the possession of such a gift, and if belief that\nour reception of that gift is possible because we trust ourselves to\nJesus Christ, and longing that we may receive it, combine to produce\nthe confident expectation that we shall, and if all of these combine to\nproduce conduct which neither quenches nor grieves that divine Guest,\nthen, and only then, shall we indeed be filled with the Spirit.\n\nI know of no other way by which a man can receive God into his heart\nthan by opening his heart for God to come in. I know of no other way by\nwhich a man can woo--if I may so say--the Divine Lover to enter into\nhis spirit than by longing that He would come, waiting for His coming,\nexpecting it, and being supremely blessed in the thought that such a\nunion is possible. Faith, that is trust, with its appropriate and\nnecessary sequels of desire and expectation and obedience, is the\ncompleting of the electric circuit, and after it the spark is sure to\ncome. It is the opening of the windows, after which sunshine cannot but\nflood the chamber. It is the stretching out of the hand, and no man\nthat ever, with love and longing, lifted an empty hand to God, dropped\nit still empty. And no man who, with penitence for his own act, and\ntrust in the divine act, lifted blood-stained and foul hands to God,\never held them up there without the gory patches melting away, and\nbecoming white as snow. Not 'all the perfumes of Araby' can sweeten\nthose bloody hands. Lift them up to God, and they become pure.\nWhosoever wishes that he may, and believes that he shall, receive from\nChrist the fulness of the Spirit, will not be disappointed. Brethren,\n'Ye have not because ye ask not.' 'If ye, being evil, know how to give\ngood gifts to your children,' shall not 'your Heavenly Father give the\nHoly Spirit to them that ask Him?'\n\nIII. Lastly, if we are filled with the Spirit we shall be 'full of\nwisdom, grace, and power.'\n\nThe Apostles seemed to think that it was a very important business to\nlook after a handful of poor widows, and see that they had their fair\nshare in the dispensing of the modest charity of the half-pauper\nJerusalem church, when they said that for such a purely secular thing\nas that a man would need to be 'full of the Holy Ghost and wisdom.'\nSurely, something a little less august might have served their turn to\nqualify men for such a task! 'Wisdom' here, I suppose, means practical\nsagacity, common sense, the power of picking out an impostor when she\ncame whining for a dole. Very commonplace virtues!--but the Apostles\nevidently thought that such everyday operations of the understanding as\nthese were not too secular and commonplace to owe their origin to the\ncommunication to men of the fulness of the Holy Spirit.\n\nMay we not take a lesson from that, that God's great influences, when\nthey come into a man, do not concern themselves only with great\nintellectual problems and the like, but that they will operate to make\nhim more fit to do the most secular and the most trivial things that\ncan be put into his hand to do? The Holy Ghost had to fill Stephen\nbefore he could hand out loaves and money to the widows in Jerusalem.\n\nAnd do you not think that your day's work, and your business\nperplexities, come under the same category? Perhaps the best way to\nsecure understanding of what we ought to do, in regard to very small\nand secular matters, is to keep ourselves very near to God, with the\nwindows of our hearts opened towards Jerusalem, that all the guidance\nand light that can come from Him may come into us. Depend upon it,\nunless we have God's guidance in the trivialities of life, ninety per\ncent., ay! and more, of our lives will be without God's guidance;\nbecause trivialities make up life. And unless my Father in heaven can\nguide me about what we, very mistakenly, call 'secular' things, and\nwhat we very vulgarly call trivial things, His guidance is not worth\nmuch. The Holy Ghost will give you wisdom for to-morrow, and all its\nlittle cares, as well as for the higher things, of which I am not going\nto speak now, because they do not come within my text.\n\n'Full of grace,'--that is a wide word, as I take it. If, by our faith,\nwe have brought into our hearts that divine influence, the Spirit of\nGod does not come empty-handed, but He communicates to us whatsoever\nthings are lovely and of good report, whatsoever things are fair and\nhonourable, whatsoever things in the eyes of men are worthy to be\npraised, and by the tongues of men have been called virtue. These\nthings will all be given to us step by step, not without our own\ndiligent co-operation, by that divine Giver. Effort without faith, and\nfaith without effort, are equally incomplete, and the co-operation of\nthe two is that which is blessed by God.\n\nThen the things which are 'gracious,' that is to say, given by His\nlove, and also gracious in the sense of partaking of the celestial\nbeauty which belongs to all virtue, and to all likeness in character to\nGod, these things will give us a strange, supernatural _power_ amongst\nmen. The word is employed in my third text, I presume, in its narrow\nsense of miracle-working power, but we may fairly widen it to something\nmuch more than that. Our Lord once said, when He was speaking about the\ngift of the Holy Spirit, that there were two stages in its operation.\nIn the first, it availed for the refreshment and the satisfying of the\ndesires of the individual; in the second it became, by the ministration\nof that individual, a source of blessing to others. He said, 'If any\nman thirst, let him come to Me and drink,' and then, immediately, 'He\nthat believeth on Me, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living\nwater.' That is to say, whoever lives in touch with God, having that\ndivine Spirit in his heart, will walk amongst men the wielder of an\nunmistakable power, and will be able to bear witness to God, and move\nmen's hearts, and draw them to goodness and truth. The only power for\nChristian service is the power that comes from being clothed with God's\nSpirit. The only power for self-government is the power that comes from\nbeing clothed with God's Spirit. The only power which will keep us in\nthe way that leads to life, and will bring us at last to the rest and\nthe reward, is the power that comes from being clothed with God's\nSpirit.\n\nI am charged to all who hear me now with this message. Here is a gift\noffered to you. You cannot pare and batter at your own characters so as\nto make them what will satisfy your own consciences, still less what\nwill satisfy the just judgment of God; but you can put yourself under\nthe moulding influences of Christ's love. Dear brethren, the one hope\nfor dead humanity, the bones very many and very dry, is that from the\nfour winds there should come the breath of God, and breathe in them,\nand they shall live, 'an exceeding great army.' Forget all else that I\nhave been saying now, if you like, but take these two sentences to your\nhearts, and do not rest till they express your own personal experience;\nIf I am to be good I must have God's Spirit within me. If I am to have\nGod's Spirit within me, I must be 'full of faith.'\n\n\n\nSTEPHEN'S VISION\n\n'Behold, I see the heavens opened, and the Son of man standing on the\nright hand of God'--ACTS vii. 56.\n\nI. The vision of the Son of Man, or the abiding manhood of Jesus.\n\nStephen's Greek name, and his belonging to the Hellenistic part of the\nChurch, make it probable that he had never seen Jesus during His\nearthly life. If so, how beautiful that he should thus see and\nrecognise Him! How significant, in any case, is it he should\ninstinctively have taken on his lips that name, 'the Son of Man,' to\ndesignate Him whom he saw, through the opened heavens, standing on the\nright hand of God! We remember that in the same Council-chamber and\nbefore the same court, Jesus had lashed the rulers into a paroxysm of\nfury by declaring, 'Hereafter ye shall see the Son of Man sitting at\nthe right hand of power,' and now here is one of His followers, almost,\nas it were, flinging in their teeth the words which they had called\n'blasphemy,' and witnessing that he, at all events, saw their partial\nfulfilment. They saw only the roof of the chamber, or, if the Council\nmet in the open court of the Temple, the quivering blue of the Syrian\nsky; but to him the blue was parted, and a brighter light than that of\nits lustre was flashed upon his inward eye. His words roused them to an\neven wilder outburst than those of Jesus had set loose, and with yells\nof fury, and stopping their ears that they might not hear the\nblasphemy, they flung themselves on him, unresisting, and dragged him\nto his doom. Their passion is a measure of the preciousness to the\nChristian consciousness of that which Stephen saw, and said that he saw.\n\nWhatever more the great designation, 'Son of Man,' means, it\nunmistakably means the embodiment of perfect manhood. Stephen's vision\nswept into his soul, as on a mighty wave, the fact, overwhelming if it\nhad not been so transcendently strengthening to the sorely bestead\nprisoner, that the Jesus whom he had trusted unseen, was still the same\nJesus that He had been 'in the days of His flesh,' and, with whatever\nchanges, still was 'found in fashion as a man.' He still 'bent on earth\na brother's eye.' Whatever He had dropped from Him as He ascended, His\nmanhood had not fallen away, and, whatever changes had taken place in\nHis body so as to fit it for its enthronement in the heavens, all that\nhad knit Him to His humble friends on earth was still His. The bonds\nthat united Him and them had not been snapped by being stretched to\nspan the distance between the Council-chamber and the right hand of\nGod. His sympathy still continued. All that had won their hearts was\nstill in Him, and every tender remembrance of His love and leading was\ntransformed into the assurance of a present possession. He was still\nthe Son of Man.\n\nWe are all too apt to feel as if the manhood of Jesus was now but a\nmemory, and, though our creed affirms the contrary, yet our faith has\ndifficulty in realising the full force and blessedness of its\naffirmations. For the Resurrection and Ascension seem to remove Him\nfrom close contact with us, and sometimes we feel as if we stretch out\ngroping fingers into the dark and find no warm human hand to grasp. His\nexaltation seems to withdraw Him from our brotherhood, and the cloud,\nthough it is a cloud of glory, sometimes seems to hide Him from our\nsight. The thickening veil of increasing centuries becomes more and\nmore difficult for faith to pierce. What Stephen saw was not for him\nonly but for us all, and its significance becomes more and more\nprecious as we drift further and further away in time from the days of\nthe life of Jesus on earth. More and more do we need to make very\nvisible to ourselves this vision, and to lay on our hearts the strong\nconsolation of gazing steadfastly into heaven and seeing there the Son\nof Man. So we shall feel that He is all to us that He was to those who\ncompanied with Him here. So shall we be more ready to believe that\n'this same Jesus shall so come in like manner as He went,' and that\ntill He come, He is knit to us and we to Him, by the bonds of a common\nmanhood.\n\nII. The vision of the Son of Man at the right hand of God, or the glory\nof the Man Jesus.\n\nWe will not discuss curious questions which may be asked in connection\nwith Stephen's vision, such as whether the glorified humanity of Jesus\nimplies His special presence in a locality; but will rather try to\ngrasp its bearings on topics more directly related to more important\nmatters than dim speculations on points concerning which confident\naffirmations are sure to be wrong. Whether the representation implies\nlocality or not, it is clear that the deepest meaning of the expression\n'the right hand of God,' is the energy of His unlimited power, and\nthat, therefore, the deepest meaning of the expression 'to be at His\nright hand,' is wielding the might of the divine Omnipotence. The\nvision is but the visible confirmation of Jesus' words, 'All power is\ngiven unto Me in heaven and on earth.'\n\nIt is to be taken into account that Scripture usually represents the\nChrist as seated at the right hand of God, and that posture, taken in\nconjunction with that place, indicates the completion of His work, the\nmajestic calm of His repose, like that creative rest, which did not\nfollow the creative work because the Worker was weary, but because He\nhad fulfilled His ideal. God rested because His work was finished, and\nwas 'very good.' So Jesus sits, because He, too, has finished His work\non earth. 'When,' and because 'He had by Himself purged our sins, He\nsat down on the right hand of God.'\n\nFurther, that place at the right hand of God certifies that He is the\nJudge.\n\nFurther, it is a blessed vision for His children, as being the sure\npledge of their glory.\n\nIt is a glorious revelation of the capabilities of sinless human nature.\n\nIt makes heaven habitable for us.\n\n'I go to prepare a place for you.' An emigrant does not feel a stranger\nin new country, if his elder brother has gone before him, and waits to\nmeet him when he lands. The presence of Jesus makes that dim, heavenly\nstate, which is so hard to imagine, and from which we often feel that\neven its glories repel, or, at least, do not attract, home to those who\nlove Him. To be where He is, and to be as He is--that is heaven.\n\nIII. The vision of the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God, or\nthe ever-ready help of the glorified Jesus.\n\nThe divergence of the vision from the usual representation of the\nattitude of Jesus is not the least precious of its elements. Stephen\nsaw Him 'standing,' as if He had risen to His feet to see His servant's\nneed and was preparing to come to his help.\n\nWhat a rush of new strength for victorious endurance would flood\nStephen's soul as he beheld his Lord thus, as it were, starting to His\nfeet in eagerness to watch and to succour! He looks down from amid the\nglory, and His calm repose does not involve passive indifference to His\nservant's sufferings. Into it comes full knowledge of all that they\nbear for Him, and His rest is not the negation of activity on their\nbehalf, but its intensest energy. Just as one of the Gospels ends with\na twofold picture, which at first sight seems to draw a sad distinction\nbetween the Lord 'received up into heaven and set down at the right\nhand of God,' and His servants left below, who 'went everywhere,\npreaching the word,' but of which the two halves are fused together by\nthe next words, 'the Lord also working with them,' so Stephen's vision\nbrought together the glorified Lord and His servant, and filled the\nmartyr's soul with the fact that He not only 'worked,' but suffered\nwith those who suffered for His sake.\n\nThat vision is a transient revelation of an eternal fact. Jesus knows\nand shares in all that affects His servants. He stands in the attitude\nto help, and He wields the power of God. He is, as the prophet puts it,\n'the Arm of the Lord,' and the cry, 'Awake, O Arm of the Lord!' is\nnever unanswered. He helps His servants by actually directing the\ncourse of Providence for their sakes. He helps by wielding the forces\nof nature on their behalf. He 'rebukes kings for their sake, saying,\nTouch not Mine anointed, and do My prophets no harm.' He helps by\nbreathing His own life and strength into them. He helps by disclosing\nto them the vision of Himself. He helps even when, like Stephen, they\nare apparently left to the murderous hate of their enemies, for what\nbetter help could any of His followers get from Him than that He\nshould, as Stephen prayed that He would, receive their spirit, and 'so\ngive His beloved sleep'? Blessed they whose lives are lighted by that\nVision, and whose deaths are such a falling on sleep!\n\n\n\nTHE YOUNG SAUL AND THE AGED PAUL [Footnote: To the young.]\n\n'...the witnesses laid down their clothes at a young man's feet, whose\nname was Saul.'--ACTS vii. 58.\n\n'...Paul the aged, and now also a prisoner of Jesus Christ.'--PHILEMON\n9.\n\nA far greater difference than that which was measured by years\nseparated the young Saul from the aged Paul. By years, indeed, the\ndifference was, perhaps, not so great as the words might suggest, for\nJewish usage extended the term of youth farther than we do, and began\nage sooner. No doubt, too, Paul's life had aged him fast, and probably\nthere were not thirty years between the two periods. But the difference\nbetween him and himself at the beginning and the end of his career was\na gulf; and his life was not evolution, but revolution.\n\nAt the beginning you see a brilliant young Pharisee, Gamaliel's\npromising pupil, advanced above many who were his equals in his own\nreligion, as he says himself; living after its straitest sect, and\neager to have the smallest part in what seemed to him the righteous\nslaying of one of the followers of the blaspheming Nazarene. At the end\nhe was himself one of these followers. He had cast off, as folly, the\nwisdom which took him so much pains to acquire. He had turned his back\nupon all the brilliant prospects of distinction which were opening to\nhim. He had broken with countrymen and kindred. And what had he made of\nit? He had been persecuted, hunted, assailed by every weapon that his\nold companions could fashion or wield; he is a solitary man, laden with\nmany cares, and accustomed to look perils and death in the face; he is\na prisoner, and in a year or two more he will be a martyr. If he were\nan apostate and a renegade, it was not for what he could get by it.\n\nWhat made the change? The vision of Jesus Christ. If we think of the\ntransformation on Saul, its causes and its outcome, we shall get\nlessons which I would fain press upon your hearts now. Do you wonder\nthat I would urge on you just such a life as that of this man as your\nhighest good?\n\nI. I would note, then, first, that faith in Jesus Christ will transform\nand ennoble any life.\n\nIt has been customary of late years, amongst people who do not like\nmiracles, and do not believe in sudden changes of character, to allege\nthat Paul's conversion was but the appearance, on the surface, of an\nunderground process that had been going on ever since he kept the\nwitnesses' clothes. Modern critics know a great deal more about the\nhistory of Paul's conversion than Paul did. For to him there was no\nconsciousness of undermining, but the change was instantaneous. He left\nJerusalem a bitter persecutor, exceeding mad against the followers of\nthe Nazarene, thinking that Jesus was a blasphemer and an impostor, and\nHis disciples pestilent vermin, to be harried off the face of the\nearth. He entered Damascus a lowly disciple of that Christ. His\nconversion was not an underground process that had been silently\nsapping the foundations of his life; it was an explosion. And what\ncaused it? What was it that came on that day on the Damascus road, amid\nthe blinding sunshine of an Eastern noontide? The vision of Jesus\nChrist. An overwhelming conviction flooded his soul that He whom he had\ntaken to be an impostor, richly deserving the Cross that He endured,\nwas living in glory, and was revealing Himself to Saul then and there.\nThat truth crumbled his whole past into nothing; and he stood there\ntrembling and astonished, like a man the ruins of whose house have\nfallen about his ears. He bowed himself to the vision. He surrendered\nat discretion without a struggle. 'Immediately,' says he, 'I was not\ndisobedient to the heavenly vision,' and when he said 'Lord, Lord, what\nwilt Thou have me to do?' he flung open the gates of the fortress for\nthe Conqueror to come in. The vision of Christ reversed his judgments,\ntransformed his character, revolutionised his life.\n\nThat initial impulse operated through all the rest of his career.\nHearken to him: 'I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me. To me to\nlive is Christ. Whether we live, we live unto the Lord; or whether we\ndie, we die unto the Lord. Living or dying, we are the Lord's.' 'We\nlabour that whether present or absent, we may be accepted of Him.' The\ntransforming agency was the vision of Christ, and the bowing of the\nman's whole nature before the seen Saviour.\n\nNeed I recall to you how noble a life issued from that fountain? I am\nsure that I need do no more than mention in a word or two the wondrous\nactivity, flashing like a flame of fire from East to West, and\neverywhere kindling answering flames, the noble self-oblivion, the\ncontinual communion with God and the Unseen, and all the other great\nvirtues and nobleness which came from such sources as these. I need\nonly, I am sure, remind you of them, and draw this lesson, that the\nsecret of a transforming and noble life is to be found in faith in\nJesus Christ. The vision that changed Paul is as available for you and\nme. For it is all a mistake to suppose that the essence of it is the\nmiraculous appearance that flashed upon the Apostle's eyes. He speaks\nof it himself, in one of his letters, in other language, when he says,\n'It pleased God to reveal His Son _in_ me.' And that revelation in all\nits fulness, in all its sweetness, in all its transforming and\nennobling power, is offered to every one of us. For the eye of faith is\nno less gifted with the power of direct and certain vision--yea! is\neven more gifted with this--than is the eye of sense. 'If they hear not\nMoses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded though one rose\nfrom the dead.' Christ is revealed to each one of us as really, as\nveritably, and the revelation may become as strong an impulse and\nmotive in our lives as ever it was to the Apostle on the Damascus road.\nWhat is wanted is not revelation, but the bowed will--not the heavenly\nvision, but obedience to the vision. I suppose that most of you think\nthat you believe all that about Jesus Christ, which transformed\nGamaliel's pupil into Christ's disciple. And what has it done for you?\nIn many cases, nothing. Be sure of this, dear young friends, that the\nshortest way to a life adorned with all grace, with all nobility,\nfragrant with all goodness, and permanent as that life which does the\nwill of God must clearly be, is this, to bow before the seen Christ,\nseen in His word, and speaking to your hearts, and to take His yoke and\ncarry His burden. Then you will build upon what will stand, and make\nyour days noble and your lives stable. If you build on anything else,\nthe structure will come down with a crash some day, and bury you in its\nruins. Surely it is better to learn the worthlessness of a\nnon-Christian life, in the light of His merciful face, when there is\nyet time to change our course, than to see it by the fierce light of\nthe great White Throne set for judgment. We must each of us learn it\nhere or there.\n\nII. Faith in Christ will make a joyful life, whatever its circumstances.\n\nI have said that, judged by the standard of the Exchange, or by any of\nthe standards which men usually apply to success in life, this life of\nthe Apostle was a failure. We know, without my dwelling more largely\nupon it, what he gave up. We know what, to outward appearance, he\ngained by his Christianity. You remember, perhaps, how he himself\nspeaks about the external aspects of his life in one place, where he\nsays 'Even unto this present hour we both hunger and thirst, and are\nnaked, and are buffeted, and have no certain dwelling-place, and\nlabour, working with our own hands. Being reviled, we bless; being\npersecuted, we suffer it; being defamed, we entreat. We are made as the\nfilth of the world, and as the offscouring of all things unto this day.'\n\nThat was one side of it. Was that all? This man had that within him\nwhich enabled him to triumph over all trials. There is nothing more\nremarkable about him than the undaunted courage, the unimpaired\nelasticity of spirit, the buoyancy of gladness, which bore him high\nupon the waves of the troubled sea in which he had to swim. If ever\nthere was a man that had a bright light burning within him, in the\ndeepest darkness, it was that little weather-beaten Jew, whose 'bodily\npresence was weak, and his speech contemptible.' And what was it that\nmade him master of circumstances, and enabled him to keep sunshine in\nhis heart when winter bound all the world around him? What made this\nbird sing in a darkened cage? One thing--the continual presence,\nconsciously with Him by faith, of that Christ who had revolutionised\nhis life, and who continued to bless and to gladden it. I have quoted\nhis description of his external condition. Let me quote two or three\nwords that indicate how he took all that sea of troubles and of sorrows\nthat poured its waves and its billows over him. 'In all these things we\nare more than conquerors through Him that loved us.' 'As the sufferings\nof Christ abound in us, so our consolation aboundeth also by Christ.'\n'For which cause we faint not, but though our outward man perish, yet\nour inward man is renewed day by day.' 'Most gladly therefore will I\nrather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon\nme.' 'I have learned in whatsoever state I am therewith to be content.'\n'As sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; as poor, yet making many rich; as\nhaving nothing, yet possessing all things.'\n\nThere is the secret of blessedness, my friends; there is the fountain\nof perpetual joy. Cling to Christ, set His will on the throne of your\nhearts, give the reins of your life and of your character into His\nkeeping, and nothing 'that is at enmity with joy' can either 'abolish\nor destroy' the calm blessedness of your spirits.\n\nYou will have much to suffer; you will have something to give up. Your\nlife may look, to men whose tastes have been vulgarised by the glaring\nbrightnesses of this vulgar world, but grey and sombre, but it will\nhave in it the calm abiding blessedness which is more than joy, and is\ndiviner and more precious than the tumultuous transports of gratified\nsense or successful ambition. Christ is peace, and He gives His peace\nto us; and then He gives a joy which does not break but enhances peace.\nWe are all tempted to look for our gladness in creatures, each of which\nsatisfies but a part of our desire. But no man can be truly blessed who\nhas to find many contributories to make up his blessedness. That which\nmakes us rich must be, not a multitude of precious stones, howsoever\nprecious they may be, but one Pearl of great price; the one Christ who\nis our only joy. And He says to us that He gives us Himself, if we\nbehold Him and bow to Him, that His joy might remain in us, and that\nour joy might be full, while all other gladnesses are partial and\ntransitory. Faith in Christ makes life blessed. The writer of\nEcclesiastes asked the question which the world has been asking ever\nsince: 'Who knoweth what is good for a man in this life, all the days\nof this vain life which he passeth as a shadow?' You young people are\nasking, 'Who will show us any good?' Here is the answer--Faith in\nChrist and obedience to Him; that is the good part which no man taketh\nfrom us. Dear young friend, have you made it yours?\n\nIII. Faith in Christ produces a life which bears being looked back upon.\n\nIn a later Epistle than that from which my second text is taken, we get\none of the most lovely pictures that was ever drawn, albeit it is\nunconsciously drawn, of a calm old age, very near the gate of death;\nand looking back with a quiet heart over all the path of life. I am not\ngoing to preach to you, dear friends, in the flush of your early youth,\na gospel which is only to be recommended because it is good to die by,\nbut it will do even you, at the beginning, no harm to realise for a\nmoment that the end will come, and that retrospect will take the place\nin your lives which hope and anticipation fill now. And I ask you what\nyou expect to feel and say then?\n\nWhat did Paul say? 'I have fought the good fight, I have finished my\ncourse, I have kept the faith: henceforth there is laid up for me a\ncrown of righteousness.' He was not self-righteous; but it is possible\nto have lived a life which, as the world begins to fade, vindicates\nitself as having been absolutely right in its main trend, and to feel\nthat the dawning light of Eternity confirms the choice that we made.\nAnd I pray you to ask yourselves, 'Is my life of that sort?' How much\nof it would bear the scrutiny which will have to come, and which in\nPaul's case was so quiet and calm? He had had a stormy day, many a\nthundercloud had darkened the sky, many a tempest had swept across the\nplain; but now, as the evening draws on, the whole West is filled with\na calm amber light, and all across the plain, right away to the grey\nEast, he sees that he has been led by, and has been willing to walk in,\nthe right way to the 'City of habitation.' Would that be your\nexperience if the last moment came now?\n\nThere will be, for the best of us, much sense of failure and\nshortcoming when we look back on our lives. But whilst some of us will\nhave to say, 'I have played the fool and erred exceedingly,' it is\npossible for each of us to lay himself down in peace and sleep,\nawaiting a glorious rising again and a crown of righteousness.\n\nDear young friends, it is for you to choose whether your past, when you\nsummon it up before you, will look like a wasted wilderness, or like a\ngarden of the Lord. And though, as I have said, there will always be\nmuch sense of failure and shortcoming, yet that need not disturb the\ncalm retrospect; for whilst memory sees the sins, faith can grasp the\nSaviour, and quietly take leave of life, saying, 'I know in whom I have\nbelieved, and that He is able to keep that which I have committed to\nHim against that day.'\n\nSo I press upon you all this one truth, that faith in Jesus Christ will\ntransform, will ennoble, will make joyous your lives whilst you live,\nand will give you a quiet heart in the retrospect when you come to die.\nBegin right, dear young friends. You will never find it so easy to take\nany decisive step, and most of all this chiefest step, as you do\nto-day. You will get lean and less flexible as you get older. You will\nget set in your ways. Habits will twine their tendrils round you, and\nhinder your free movement. The truth of the Gospel will become\ncommonplace by familiarity. Associations and companions will have more\nand more power over you; and you will be stiffened as an old tree-trunk\nis stiffened. You cannot count on to-morrow; be wise to-day. Begin this\nyear aright. Why should you not now see the Christ and welcome Him? I\npray that every one of us may behold Him and fall before Him with the\ncry, 'Lord! what wilt Thou have me to do?'\n\n\n\nTHE DEATH OF THE MASTER AND THE DEATH OF THE SERVANT\n\n\n'And they stoned Stephen, calling upon God, and saying, Lord Jesus,\nreceive my spirit. 60. And he kneeled down, and cried with a loud\nvoice, Lord, lay not this sin to their charge. And, when he had said\nthis, he fell asleep.'--ACTS vii. 59, 60.\n\nThis is the only narrative in the New Testament of a Christian\nmartyrdom or death. As a rule, Scripture is supremely indifferent to\nwhat becomes of the people with whom it is for a time concerned. As\nlong as the man is the organ of the divine Spirit he is somewhat; as\nsoon as that ceases to speak through him he drops into insignificance.\nSo this same Acts of the Apostles--if I may so say--kills off James the\nbrother of John in a parenthesis; and his is the only other martyrdom\nthat it concerns itself even so much as to mention.\n\nWhy, then, this exceptional detail about the martyrdom of Stephen? For\ntwo reasons: because it is the first of a series, and the Acts of the\nApostles always dilates upon the first of each set of things which it\ndescribes, and condenses about the others. But more especially, I\nthink, because if we come to look at the story, it is not so much an\naccount of Stephen's death as of Christ's power in Stephen's death. And\nthe theme of this book is not the acts of the Apostles, but the acts of\nthe risen Lord, in and for His Church.\n\nThere is no doubt but that this narrative is modelled upon the story of\nour Lord's Crucifixion, and the two incidents, in their similarities\nand in their differences, throw a flood of light upon one another.\n\nI shall therefore look at our subject now with constant reference to\nthat other greater death upon which it is based. It is to be observed\nthat the two sayings on the lips of the proto-martyr Stephen are\nrecorded for us in their original form on the lips of Christ, in\n_Luke's_ Gospel, which makes a still further link of connection between\nthe two narratives.\n\nSo, then, my purpose now is merely to take this incident as it lies\nbefore us, to trace in it the analogies and the differences between the\ndeath of the Master and the death of the servant, and to draw from it\nsome thoughts as to what it is possible for a Christian's death to\nbecome, when Christ's presence is felt in it.\n\nI. Consider, in general terms, this death as the last act of imitation\nto Christ.\n\nThe resemblance between our Lord's last moments and Stephen's has been\nthought to have been the work of the narrator, and, consequently, to\ncast some suspicion upon the veracity of the narrative. I accept the\ncorrespondence, I believe it was intentional, but I shift the intention\nfrom the writer to the actor, and I ask why it should not have been\nthat the dying martyr should consciously, and of set purpose, have made\nhis death conformable to his Master's death? Why should not the dying\nmartyr have sought to put himself (as the legend tells one of the other\nApostles in outward form sought to do) in Christ's attitude, and to die\nas He died?\n\nRemember, that in all probability Stephen died on Calvary. It was the\nordinary place of execution, and, as many of you may know, recent\ninvestigations have led many to conclude that a little rounded knoll\noutside the city wall--not a 'green hill,' but still 'outside a city\nwall,' and which still bears a lingering tradition of connection with\nHim--was probably the site of that stupendous event. It was the place\nof stoning, or of public execution, and there in all probability, on\nthe very ground where Christ's Cross was fixed, His first martyr saw\n'the heavens opened and Christ standing on the right hand of God.' If\nthese were the associations of the place, what more natural, and even\nif they were not, what more natural, than that the martyr's death\nshould be shaped after his Lord's?\n\nIs it not one of the great blessings, in some sense the greatest of the\nblessings, which we owe to the Gospel, that in that awful solitude\nwhere no other example is of any use to us, His pattern may still gleam\nbefore us? Is it not something to feel that as life reaches its\nhighest, most poignant and exquisite delight and beauty in the measure\nin which it is made an imitation of Jesus, so for each of us death may\nlose its most poignant and exquisite sting and sorrow, and become\nsomething almost sweet, if it be shaped after the pattern and by the\npower of His? We travel over a lonely waste at last. All clasped hands\nare unclasped; and we set out on the solitary, though it be 'the\ncommon, road into the great darkness.' But, blessed be His Name! 'the\nBreaker is gone up before us,' and across the waste there are\nfootprints that we\n\n  'Seeing, may take heart again.'\n\nThe very climax and apex of the Christian imitation of Christ may be\nthat we shall bear the image of His death, and be like Him then.\n\nIs it not a strange thing that generations of martyrs have gone to the\nstake with their hearts calm and their spirits made constant by the\nremembrance of that Calvary where Jesus died with more of trembling\nreluctance, shrinking, and apparent bewildered unmanning than many of\nthe weakest of His followers? Is it not a strange thing that the death\nwhich has thus been the source of composure, and strength, and heroism\nto thousands, and has lost none of its power of being so to-day, was\nthe death of a Man who shrank from the bitter cup, and that cried in\nthat mysterious darkness, 'My God! Why hast Thou forsaken Me?'\n\nDear brethren, unless with one explanation of the reason for His\nshrinking and agony, Christ's death is less heroic than that of some\nother martyrs, who yet drew all their courage from Him.\n\nHow come there to be in Him, at one moment, calmness unmoved, and\nheroic self-oblivion, and at the next, agony, and all but despair? I\nknow only one explanation, 'The Lord hath laid on Him the iniquity of\nus all.' And when He died, shrinking and trembling, and feeling\nbewildered and forsaken, it was your sins and mine that weighed Him\ndown. The servant whose death was conformed to his Master's had none of\nthese experiences because he was only a martyr.\n\nThe Lord had them, because He was the Sacrifice for the whole world.\n\nII. We have here, next, a Christian's death as being the voluntary\nentrusting of the spirit to Christ.\n\n'They stoned Stephen.' Now, our ordinary English idea of the manner of\nthe Jewish punishment of stoning, is a very inadequate and mistaken\none. It did not consist merely in a miscellaneous rabble throwing\nstones at the criminal, but there was a solemn and appointed method of\nexecution which is preserved for us in detail in the Rabbinical books.\nAnd from it we gather that the _modus operandi_ was this. The\nblasphemer was taken to a certain precipitous rock, the height of which\nwas prescribed as being equal to that of two men. The witnesses by\nwhose testimony he had been condemned had to cast him over, and if he\nsurvived the fall it was their task to roll upon him a great stone, of\nwhich the weight is prescribed in the Talmud as being as much as two\nmen could lift. If he lived after that, then others took part in the\npunishment.\n\nNow, at some point in that ghastly tragedy, probably, we may suppose as\nthey were hurling him over the rock, the martyr lifts his voice in this\nprayer of our text.\n\nAs they were stoning him he 'called upon'--not _God_, as our Authorised\nVersion has supplied the wanting word, but, as is obvious from the\ncontext and from the remembrance of the vision, and from the language\nof the following supplication, 'called upon _Jesus_, saying, Lord\nJesus! receive my spirit.'\n\nI do not dwell at any length upon the fact that here we have a distinct\ninstance of prayer to Jesus Christ, a distinct recognition, in the\nearly days of His Church, of the highest conceptions of His person and\nnature, so as that a dying man turns to Him, and commits his soul into\nHis hands. Passing this by, I ask you to think of the resemblance, and\nthe difference, between this intrusting of the spirit by Stephen to his\nLord, and the committing of His spirit to the Father by His dying Son.\nChrist on the Cross speaks to God; Stephen, on Calvary, speaks, as I\nsuppose, to Jesus Christ. Christ, on the Cross, says, 'I commit.'\nStephen says, 'Receive,' or rather, 'Take.' The one phrase carries in\nit something of the notion that our Lord died not because He must, but\nbecause He would; that He was active in His death; that He chose to\nsummon death to do its work upon Him; that He 'yielded up His spirit,'\nas one of the Evangelists has it, pregnantly and significantly. But\nStephen says, 'Take!' as knowing that it must be his Lord's power that\nshould draw his spirit out of the coil of horror around him. So the one\ndying word has strangely compacted in it authority and submission; and\nthe other dying word is the word of a simple waiting servant. The\nChrist says, 'I commit.' 'I have power to lay down My life, and I have\npower to take it again.' Stephen says, 'Take my spirit,' as longing to\nbe away from the weariness and the sorrow and the pain and all the hell\nof hatred that was seething and boiling round about him, but yet\nknowing that he had to wait the Master's will.\n\nSo from the language I gather large truths, truths which unquestionably\nwere not present to the mind of the dying man, but are all the more\nconspicuous because they were unconsciously expressed by him, as to the\nresemblance and the difference between the death of the martyr, done to\ndeath by cruel hands, and the death of the atoning Sacrifice who gave\nHimself up to die for our sins.\n\nHere we have, in this dying cry, the recognition of Christ as the Lord\nof life and death. Here we have the voluntary and submissive surrender\nof the spirit to Him. So, in a very real sense, the martyr's death\nbecomes a sacrifice, and he too dies not merely because he must, but he\naccepts the necessity, and finds blessedness in it. We need not be\npassive in death; we need not, when it comes to our turn to die, cling\ndesperately to the last vanishing skirts of life. We may yield up our\nbeing, and pour it out as a libation; as the Apostle has it, 'If I be\noffered as a drink-offering upon the sacrifice of your faith, I joy and\nrejoice.' Oh! brethren, to die _like_ Christ, to die yielding oneself\nto Him!\n\nAnd then in these words there is further contained the thought coming\ngleaming out like a flash of light into some murky landscape--of\npassing into perennial union with Him. 'Take my spirit,' says the dying\nman; 'that is all I want. I see Thee standing at the right hand. For\nwhat hast Thou started to Thy feet, from the eternal repose of Thy\nsession at the right hand of God the Father Almighty? To help and\nsuccour me. And dost Thou succour me when Thou dost let these cruel\nhands cast me from the rock and bruise me with heavy stones? Yes, Thou\ndost. For the highest form of Thy help is to take my spirit, and to let\nme be with Thee.'\n\nChrist delivers His servant from death when He leads the servant into\nand through death. Brothers, can you look forward thus, and trust\nyourselves, living or dying, to that Master who is near us amidst the\ncoil of human troubles and sorrows, and sweetly draws our spirits, as a\nmother her child to her bosom, into His own arms when He sends us\ndeath? Is that what it will be to you?\n\nIII. Then, still further, there are other words here which remind us of\nthe final triumph of an all-forbearing charity.\n\nStephen had been cast from the rock, had been struck with the heavy\nstone. Bruised and wounded by it, he strangely survives, strangely\nsomehow or other struggles to his knees even though desperately\nwounded, and, gathering all his powers together at the impulse of an\nundying love, prays his last words and cries, 'Lord Jesus! Lay not this\nsin to their charge!'\n\nIt is an echo, as I have been saying, of other words, 'Father, forgive\nthem, for they know not what they do.' An echo, and yet an independent\ntone! The one cries 'Father!' the other invokes the 'Lord.' The one\nsays, 'They know not what they do'; the other never thinks of reading\nmen's motives, of apportioning their criminality, of discovering the\nsecrets of their hearts. It was fitting that the Christ, before whom\nall these blind instruments of a mighty design stood patent and naked\nto their deepest depths, should say, 'They know not what they do.' It\nwould have been unfitting that the servant, who knew no more of his\nfellows' heart than could be guessed from their actions, should have\noffered such a plea in his prayer for their forgiveness.\n\nIn the very humiliation of the Cross, Christ speaks as knowing the\nhidden depths of men's souls, and therefore fitted to be their Judge,\nand now His servant's prayer is addressed to Him as actually being so.\n\nSomehow or other, within a very few years of the time when our Lord\ndies, the Church has come to the distinctest recognition of _His_\nDivinity to whom the martyr prays; to the distinctest recognition of\n_Him_ as the Lord of life and death whom the martyr asks to take his\nspirit, and to the clearest perception of the fact that He is the Judge\nof the whole earth by whose acquittal men shall be acquitted, and by\nwhose condemnation they shall be condemned.\n\nStephen knew that Christ was the Judge. He knew that in two minutes he\nwould be standing at Christ's judgment bar. His prayer was not, 'Lay\nnot my sins to my charge,' but 'Lay not this sin to their charge.' Why\ndid he not ask forgiveness for himself? Why was he not thinking about\nthe judgment that he was going to meet so soon? He had done all that\nlong ago. He had no fear about that judgment for himself, and so when\nthe last hour struck, he was at leisure of heart and mind to pray for\nhis persecutors, and to think of his Judge without a tremor. Are you?\nIf you were as near the edge as Stephen was, would it be wise for you\nto be interceding for other people's forgiveness? The answer to that\nquestion is the answer to this other one,--have you sought your pardon\nalready, and got it at the hands of Jesus Christ?\n\nIV. One word is all that I need say about the last point of analogy and\ncontrast here--the serene passage into rest: 'When he had said this he\nfell asleep.'\n\nThe New Testament scarcely ever speaks of a Christian's death as death\nbut as sleep, and with other similar phrases. But that expression,\nfamiliar and all but universal as it is in the Epistles, in reference\nto the death of believers, is never in a single instance employed in\nreference to the death of Jesus Christ. He did die that you and I may\nlive. His death was death indeed--He endured not merely the physical\nfact, but that which is its sting, the consciousness of sin. And He\ndied that the sting might be blunted, and all its poison exhausted upon\nHim. So the ugly thing is sleeked and smoothed; and the foul form\nchanges into the sweet semblance of a sleep-bringing angel. Death is\ngone. The physical fact remains, but all the misery of it, the\nessential bitterness and the poison of it is all sucked out of it, and\nit is turned into 'he fell asleep,' as a tired child on its mother's\nlap, as a weary man after long toil.\n\n  'Thou thy worldly task hast done,\n  Home art gone, and ta'en thy wages.'\n\nDeath is but sleep now, because Christ has died, and that sleep is\nrestful, conscious, perfect life.\n\nLook at these two pictures, the agony of the one, the calm triumph of\nthe other, and see that the martyr's falling asleep was possible\nbecause the Christ had died before. And do you commit the keeping of\nyour souls to Him now, by true faith; and then, living you may have Him\nwith you, and, dying, a vision of His presence bending down to succour\nand to save, and when you are dead, a life of rest conjoined with\nintensest activity. To sleep in Jesus is to awake in His likeness, and\nto be satisfied.\n\n\n\nSEED SCATTERED AND TAKING ROOT\n\n'And Saul was consenting unto his death. And at that time there was a\ngreat persecution against the church which was at Jerusalem; and they\nwere all scattered abroad throughout the regions of Judaea and Samaria,\nexcept the apostles. 2. And devout men carried Stephen to his burial,\nand made great lamentation over him. 3. As for Saul, he made havock of\nthe church, entering into every house, and haling men and women\ncommitted them to prison. 4. Therefore they that were scattered abroad\nwent everywhere preaching the word. 5. Then Philip went down to the\ncity of Samaria, and preached Christ unto them. 6. And the people with\none accord gave heed unto those things which Philip spake, hearing and\nseeing the miracles which he did. 7. For unclean spirits, crying with\nloud voice, came out of many that were possessed with them: and many\ntaken with palsies, and that were lame, were healed. 8. And there was\ngreat joy in that city, 9. But there was a certain man, called Simon,\nwhich beforetime in the same city used sorcery, and bewitched the\npeople of Samaria, giving out that himself was some great one: 10. To\nwhom they all gave heed, from the least to the greatest, saying, This\nman is the great power of God. 11. And to him they had regard, because\nthat of long time he had bewitched them with sorceries. 12. But when\nthey believed Philip preaching the things concerning the kingdom of\nGod, and the name of Jesus Christ, they were baptized, both men and\nwomen. 13. Then Simon himself believed also: and when he was baptized,\nhe continued with Philip, and wondered, beholding the miracles and\nsigns which were done. 14. Now when the apostles which were at\nJerusalem heard that Samaria had received the word of God, they sent\nunto them Peter and John: 15. Who, when they were come down prayed for\nthem, that they might receive the Holy Ghost: 16 (For as yet he was\nfallen upon none of them: only they were baptized in the name of the\nLord Jesus.) 17. Then laid they their hands on them, and they received\nthe Holy Ghost.'--ACTS viii. 1-17.\n\nThe note of time in verse 1 is probably to be rendered as in the\nRevised Version, 'on that day.' The appetite for blood roused by\nStephen's martyrdom at once sought for further victims. Thus far the\npersecutors had been the rulers, and the persecuted the Church's\nleaders; but now the populace are the hunters, and the whole Church the\nprey. The change marks an epoch. Luke does not care to make much of the\npersecution, which is important to him chiefly for its bearing on the\nspread of the Church's message. It helped to diffuse the Gospel, and\nthat is why he tells of it. But before proceeding to narrate how it did\nso, he gives us a picture of things as they stood at the beginning of\nthe assault.\n\nThree points are noted: the flight of the Church except the Apostles,\nthe funeral of Stephen, and Saul's eager search for the disciples. We\nneed not press 'all,' as if it were to be taken with mathematical\naccuracy. Some others besides the Apostles may have remained, but the\ncommunity was broken up. They fled, as Christ had bid them do, if\npersecuted in one city. Brave faithfulness goes with prudent\nself-preservation, and a valuable 'part of valour is discretion.' But\nthe disciples who fled were not necessarily less courageous than the\nApostles who remained, nor were the latter less prudent than the\nbrethren who fled. For _noblesse oblige_; high position demands high\nvirtues, and the officers should be the last to leave a wreck. The\nApostles, no doubt, felt it right to hold together, and preserve a\ncentre to which the others might return when the storm had blown itself\nout.\n\nIn remarkable contrast with the scattering Church are the 'devout men'\nwho reverently buried the martyr. They were not disciples, but probably\nHellenistic Jews (Acts ii. 5); perhaps from the synagogue whose members\nhad disputed with Stephen and had dragged him to the council. His words\nor death may have touched them, as many a time the martyr's fire has\nlighted others to the martyr's faith. Stephen was like Jesus in his\nburial by non-disciples, as he had been in his death.\n\nThe eager zeal of the young Pharisee brought new severity into the\npersecution, in his hunting out his victims in their homes, and in his\nincluding women among his prisoners. There is nothing so cruel as\nso-called religious zeal. So Luke lifts the curtain for a moment, and\nin that glimpse of the whirling tumult of the city we see the three\nclasses, of the brave and prudent disciples, ready to flee or to stand\nand suffer as duty called; the good men who shrunk from complicity with\na bloodthirsty mob, and were stirred to sympathy with his victims; and\nthe zealot, who with headlong rage hated his brother for the love of\nGod. But the curtain drops, and Luke turns to his true theme. He picks\nup the threads again in verse 4, telling of the dispersal of the\ndisciples, with the significant addition of their occupation when\nscattered,--'preaching the word.'\n\nThe violent hand of the persecutor acted as the scattering hand of the\nsower. It flung the seeds broadcast, and wherever they fell they\nsprouted. These fugitives were not officials, nor were they\ncommissioned by the Apostles to preach. Without any special command or\nposition, they followed the instincts of believing hearts, and, as they\ncarried their faith with them, they spoke of it wherever they found\nthemselves. A Christian will be impelled to speak of Christ if his\npersonal hold of Him is vital. He should need no ecclesiastical\nauthorisation for that. It is riot every believer's duty to get into a\npulpit, but it _is_ his duty to 'preach Christ.' The scattering of the\ndisciples was meant by men to put out the fire, but, by Christ, to\nspread it. A volcanic explosion flings burning matter over a wide area.\n\nLuke takes up one of the lines of expansion, in his narrative of\nPhilip's doings in Samaria, which he puts first because Jesus had\nindicated Samaria first among the regions beyond Judaea (i. 8).\nPhilip's name comes second in the list of deacons (vi. 5), probably in\nanticipation of his work in Samaria. How unlike the forecast by the\nApostles was the actual course of things! They had destined the seven\nfor purely 'secular' work, and regarded preaching the word as their own\nspecial engagement. But Stephen saw and proclaimed more clearly than\nthey did the passing away of Temple and ritual; and Philip, on his own\ninitiative, and apparently quite unconscious of the great stride\nforward that he was taking, was the first to carry the gospel torch\ninto the regions beyond. The Church made Philip a 'deacon,' but Christ\nmade him an 'evangelist'; and an evangelist he continued, long after he\nhad ceased to be a deacon in Jerusalem (xxi. 8).\n\nObserve, too, that, as soon as Stephen is taken away, Philip rises up\nto take his place. The noble army of witnesses never wants recruits.\nIts Captain sends men to the front in unbroken succession, and they are\nwilling to occupy posts of danger because He bids them. Probably Philip\nfled to Samaria for convenience' sake, but, being there, he probably\nrecalled Christ's instructions in chapter i. 8, repealing His\nprohibition in Matthew x. 5. What a different world it would be, if it\nwas true of Christians now that they 'went down into the city of\nSo-and-So and proclaimed Christ'! Many run to and fro, but some of them\nleave their Christianity at home, or lock it up safely in their\ntravelling trunks.\n\nJerusalem had just expelled the disciples, and would fain have crushed\nthe Gospel; despised Samaria received it with joy. 'A foolish nation'\nwas setting Israel an example (Deut. xxxii. 21; Rom. x. 19). The\nSamaritan woman had a more spiritual conception of the Messiah than the\nrun of Jews had, and her countrymen seem to have been ready to receive\nthe word. Is not the faith of our mission converts often a rebuke to us?\n\nBut the Gospel met new foes as well as new friends on the new soil.\nSimon the sorcerer, probably a Jew or a Samaritan, would have been\nimpossible on Jewish ground, but was a characteristic product of that\nage in the other parts of the Roman empire. Just as, to-day, people who\nare weary of Christianity are playing with Buddhism, it was fashionable\nin that day of unrest to trifle with Eastern magic-mongers; and, of\ncourse, demand created supply, and where there was a crowd of willing\ndupes, there soon came to be a crop of profit-seeking deceivers. Very\ncharacteristically, the dupes claimed more for the deceiver than he did\nfor himself. He probably could perform some simple chemical experiments\nand conjuring tricks, and had a store of what sounded to ignorant\npeople profound teaching about deep mysteries, and gave forth\nenigmatical utterances about his own greatness. An accomplished\ncharlatan will leave much to be inferred from nods and hints, and his\nadmirers will generally spin even more out of them than he meant. So\nthe Samaritans bettered Simon's 'some great one' into 'that power of\nGod which is called great,' and saw in him some kind of emanation of\ndivinity.\n\nThe quack is great till the true teacher comes, and then he dwindles.\nSimon had a bitter pill to swallow when he saw this new man stealing\nhis audience, and doing things which he, with his sorceries, knew that\nhe only pretended to do. Luke points very clearly to the likeness and\ndifference between Simon and Philip by using the same word ('gave\nheed') in regard to the Samaritan's attitude to both, while in\nreference to Philip it was 'the things spoken by' him, and in reference\nto Simon it was himself to which they attended. The one preached\nChrist, the other himself; the one 'amazed' with 'sorceries,' the other\nbrought good tidings and hid himself, and his message called, not for\nstupid, open-mouthed astonishment, but for belief and obedience to the\nname of Jesus. The whole difference between the religion of Jesus and\nthe superstitions which the world calls religions, is involved in the\nsignificant contrast, so inartificially drawn.\n\n'Simon also himself believed.' Probably there was in his action a good\ndeal of swimming with the stream, in the hope of being able to divert\nit; but, also, he may have been all the more struck by Philip's\nmiracles, because he knew a real one, by reason of his experience of\nsham ones. At any rate, neither Philip nor Luke drew a distinction\nbetween his belief and that of the Samaritans; and, as in their cases,\nhis baptism followed on his profession of belief. But he seems not to\nhave got beyond the point of wondering at the miracles, as it is\nemphatically said that he did even after his baptism. He believed that\nJesus was the Messiah, but was more interested in studying Philip to\nfind out how he did the miracles than in listening to his teaching.\nSuch an imperfect belief had no transforming power, and left him the\nsame man as before, as was soon miserably manifest.\n\nThe news of Philip's great step forward reached the Apostles by some\nunrecorded means. It is not stated that Philip reported his action, as\nif to superiors whose authorisation was necessary. More probably the\ninformation filtered through other channels. At all events, sending a\ndeputation was natural, and needs not to be regarded as either a sign\nof suspicion or an act necessary in order to supplement imperfections\ninherent in the fact that Philip was not an Apostle. The latter meaning\nhas been read--not to say forced--into the incident; but Luke's\nlanguage does not support it. It was not because they thought that the\nSamaritans were not admissible to the full privileges of Christians\nwithout Apostolic acts, but because they 'heard that Samaria had\nreceived the word,' that the Apostles sent Peter and John.\n\nThe Samaritans had not yet received the Holy Ghost--that is, the\nspecial gifts, such as those of Pentecost. That fact proves that\nbaptism is not necessarily and inseparably connected with the gift of\nthe Spirit; and chapter x. 44, 47, proves that the Spirit may be given\nbefore baptism. As little does this incident prove that the imposition\nof Apostolic hands was necessary in order to the impartation of the\nSpirit. Luke, at any rate, did not think so; for he tells how Ananias'\nhand laid on the blind Saul conveyed the gift to him. The laying on of\nhands is a natural, eloquent symbol, but it was no prerogative of the\nApostles (Acts x. 17; 1 Tim. iv. 14).\n\nThe Apostles came down to Samaria to rejoice in the work which their\nLord had commanded, and which had been begun without their help, to\nwelcome the new brethren, to give them further instruction, and to knit\nclosely the bonds of unity between the new converts and the earlier\nones. But that they came to bestow spiritual gifts which, without them,\ncould not have been imparted, is imported into, not deduced from, the\nsimple narrative of Luke.\n\n\n\nSIMON THE SORCERER\n\n'Thou hast neither part nor lot in this matter: for thy heart is not\nright in the sight of God.'--ACTS viii. 21.\n\nThe era of the birth of Christianity was one of fermenting opinion and\ndecaying faith. Then, as now, men's minds were seething and unsettled,\nand that unrest which is the precursor of great changes in intellectual\nand spiritual habitudes affected the civilised world. Such a period is\never one of predisposition to superstition. The one true bond which\nunites God and man being obscured, and to the consciousness of many\nsnapped, men's minds become the prey of visionary terrors. Demand\ncreates supply, and the magician and miracle-worker, the possessor of\nmysterious ways into the Unknown, is never far off at such a time.\nPartly deceived and partly deceiving, he is as sure a sign of the lack\nof profound religious conviction and of the presence of unsatisfied\nreligious aspirations in men's souls, as the stormy petrel or the\nfloating seaweed is of a tempest on the seas.\n\nSo we find the early preachers of Christianity coming into frequent\ncontact with pretenders to magical powers. Sadly enough, they were\nmostly Jews, who prostituted their clearer knowledge to personal ends,\nand having tacked on to it some theosophic rubbish which they had\nlearned from Alexandria, or mysticism which had filtered to them from\nthe East, or magic arts from Phrygia, went forth, the only missionaries\nthat Judaism sent out, to bewilder and torture men's minds. What a fall\nfrom Israel's destination, and what a lesson for the stewards of the\n'oracles of God'!\n\nOf such a sort were Elymas, the sorcerer whom Paul found squatting at\nthe ear of the Roman Governor of Cyprus; the magicians at Ephesus; the\nvagabond Jews exorcists, who with profitable eclecticism, as they\nthought, tried to add the name of Jesus as one more spell to their\nconjurations; and, finally, this Simon the sorcerer. Established in\nSamaria, he had been juggling and conjuring and seeing visions, and\nprofessing to be a great mysterious personality, and had more than\npermitted the half-heathen Samaritans, who seem to have had more\nreligious susceptibility and less religious knowledge than the Jews,\nand so were a prepared field for all such pretenders, to think of him\nas in some sense an incarnation of God, and perhaps to set him up as a\nrival or caricature of Him who in the neighbouring Judaea was being\nspoken of as the power of God, God manifest in the flesh.\n\nTo the city thus moved comes no Apostle, but a Christian man who begins\nto preach, and by miracles and teaching draws many souls to Christ.\n\nThe story of Simon Magus in his attitude to the Gospel is a very\nstriking and instructive one. It presents for our purpose now mainly\nthree points to which I proceed to refer.\n\nI. An instance of a wholly unreal, because inoperative, faith.\n\n'He believed,' says the narrative, and believing was baptized. It is\nworth noting, in passing, how the profession of faith without anything\nmore was considered by the Early Church sufficient. But obviously his\nwas no true faith. The event showed that it was not.\n\nWhat was it which made his faith thus unreal?\n\nIt rested wholly on the miracles and signs; he 'wondered' when he saw\nthem. Of course, miracles were meant to lead to faith; but if they did\nnot lead on to a deeper sense of one's own evil and need, and so to a\nspiritual apprehension, then they were of no use.\n\nThe very beginning of the story points to the one bond that unites to\nGod, as being the sense of need and the acceptance with heart and will\nof the testimony of Jesus Christ. Such a disposition is shown in the\nSamaritans, who make a contrast with Simon in that they believed Philip\n_preaching_, while Simon believed him _working miracles_. The true\nplace of miracles is to attract attention, to prepare to listen to the\nword. They are only introductory. A faith may be founded on them, but,\non the other hand, the impressions which they produce may be\nevanescent. How subordinate then, their place at the most! And the one\nthing which avails is a living contact of heart and soul with Jesus\nChrist.\n\nAgain, Simon's belief was purely an affair of the understanding. We are\nnot to suppose, I think, that he merely believed in Philip as a\nmiracle-worker; he must have had some notion about Philip's Master, and\nwe know that it was belief in Jesus as the Christ that qualified in the\nApostolic age for baptism. So it is reasonable to suppose that he had\nso much of head knowledge. But it was only head knowledge. There was in\nit no penitence, no self-abandonment, no fruit in holy desires; or in\nother words, there was no heart. It was credence, but not trust.\n\nNow it does not matter how much or how little you know about Jesus\nChrist. It does not matter how you have come to that knowledge. It does\nnot matter though you have received Christian ordinances as Simon had.\nIf your faith is not a living power, leading to love and\nself-surrender, it is really nought. And here, on its earliest conflict\nwith heathen magic, the gospel proclaims by the mouth of the Apostle\nwhat is true as to all formalists and nominal Christians: 'Thou hast\nneither part nor lot in this matter, _for_ thy heart is not right.' One\nthing only unites to God--a faith which cleanses the heart, a faith\nwhich lays hold on Christ with will and conscience, a faith which,\nresting on penitent acknowledgment of sin, trusts wholly to His great\nmercy.\n\nII. An instance of the constant tendency to corrupt Christianity with\nheathen superstition.\n\nThe Apostles' bestowal of the Holy Ghost, which was evidently\naccompanied by visible signs, had excited Simon's desire for so useful\nan aid to his conjuring, and he offers to buy the power, judging of\nthem by himself, and betraying that what he was ready to buy he was\nalso intending to sell.\n\nThe offer to buy has been taken as his great sin. Surely it was but the\noutcome of a greater. It was not only what he offered, but what he\ndesired, that was wrong. He wanted that on 'whomsoever I lay hands, he\nmay receive the Holy Ghost.' That preposterous wish was quite as bad\nas, and was the root of, his absurd offer to bribe Peter. Bribe Peter,\nindeed! Some of Peter's successors would have been amenable to such\nconsiderations, but not the horny-handed fisherman who had once said,\n'Silver and gold have I none.'\n\nPeter's answer, especially the words of my text, puts the Christian\nprinciple in sharp antagonism to the heathen one.\n\nSimon regards what is sacred and spiritual purely as part of his\nstock-in-trade, contributing to his prestige. He offers to buy it. And\nthe foundation of all his errors is that he regards spiritual gifts as\ncapable of being received and exercised apart altogether from moral\nqualifications. He does not think at all of what is involved in the\nvery name, 'the Holy Ghost.'\n\nNow, on the other hand, Peter's answer lays down broadly and sharply\nthe opposite truth, the Christian principle that a heart right in the\nsight of God is the indispensable qualification for all possession of\nspiritual power, or of any of the blessings which Jesus gives.\n\nHow the heart is made right, and what constitutes righteousness is\nanother matter. That leads to the doctrine of repentance and faith.\n\nThe one thing that makes such participation impossible is being and\ncontinuing in 'the gall of bitterness, and the bond of iniquity.' Or,\nto put it into more modern words, all the blessings of the Gospel are a\ngift of God, and are bestowed only on moral conditions. Faith which\nleads to love and personal submission to the will of God makes a man a\nChristian. Therefore, outward ordinances are only of use as they help a\nman to that personal act.\n\nTherefore, no other man or body of men can do it for us, or come\nbetween us and God.\n\nAnd in confirmation, notice how Peter here speaks of forgiveness. His\nwords do not sound as if he thought that he held the power of\nabsolution, but he tells Simon to go to God who alone can forgive, and\nrefers Simon's fate to God's mercy.\n\nThese tendencies, which Simon expresses so baldly, are in us all, and\nare continually reappearing. How far much of what calls itself\nChristianity has drifted from Peter's principle laid down here, that\nmoral and spiritual qualifications are the only ones which avail for\nsecuring 'part or lot in the matter' of Christ's gifts received for,\nand bestowed on, men! How much which really rests on the opposite\nprinciple, that these gifts can be imparted by men who are supposed to\npossess them, apart altogether from the state of heart of the would-be\nrecipient, we see around us to-day! _Simony_ is said to be the securing\necclesiastical promotion by purchase. But it is much rather the belief\nthat 'the gift of God can be purchased with' anything but personal\nfaith in Jesus, the Giver and the Gift. The effects of it are patent\namong us. Ceremonies usurp the place of faith. A priesthood is exalted.\nThe universal Christian prerogative of individual access to God is\nobscured. Christianity is turned into a kind of magic.\n\nIII. An instance of the worthlessness of partial convictions.\n\nSimon was but slightly moved by Peter's stern rebuke. He paid no heed\nto the exhortation to pray for forgiveness and to repent of his\nwickedness, but still remained in substantially his old error, in that\nhe accredited Peter with power, and asked him to pray for him, as if\nthe Apostle's prayer would have some special access to God which his,\nthough he were penitent, could not have. Further, he showed no sense of\nsin. All that he wished was that 'none of the things which ye have\nspoken come upon me.'\n\nHow useless are convictions which go no deeper down than Simon's did!\n\nWhat became of him we do not know. But there are old ecclesiastical\ntraditions about him which represent him as a bitter enemy in future of\nthe Apostle. And Josephus has a story of a Simon who played a degrading\npart between Felix and Drusilla, and who is thought by some to have\nbeen he. But in any case, we have no reason to believe that he ever\nfollowed Peter's counsel or prayed to God for forgiveness. So he stands\nfor us as one more tragic example of a man, once 'not far from the\nkingdom of God' and drifting ever further away from it, because, at the\nfateful moment, he would not enter in. It is hard to bring such a man\nas near again as he once was. Let us learn that the one key which opens\nthe treasury of God's blessings, stored for us all in Jesus, is our own\npersonal faith, and let us beware of shutting our ears and our hearts\nagainst the merciful rebukes that convict us of 'this our wickedness,'\nand point us to the 'Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the\nworld,' and therefore our sin.\n\n\n\nA MEETING IN THE DESERT\n\n'And the angel of the Lord spake unto Philip, saying, Arise, and go\ntoward the south unto the way that goeth down from Jerusalem unto Gaza,\nwhich is desert. 27. And he arose and went: and, behold, a man of\nEthiopia, an eunuch of great authority under Candace queen of the\nEthiopians, who had the charge of all her treasure, and had come to\nJerusalem for to worship, 28. Was returning, and sitting in his\nchariot, read Esaias the prophet. 29. Then the Spirit said unto Philip,\nGo near, and join thyself to this chariot. 80. And Philip ran thither\nto him, and heard him read the prophet Esaias, and said, Understandest\nthou what thou readest? 31. And he said, How can I, except some man\nshould guide me? And he desired Philip that he would come up and sit\nwith him. 32. The place of the scripture which he read was this, He was\nled as a sheep to the slaughter; and like a lamb dumb before his\nshearer, so opened He not His mouth: 33. In His humiliation His\njudgment was taken away; and who shall declare His generation? for His\nlife is taken from the earth. 34. And the eunuch answered Philip, and\nsaid, I pray thee, of whom speaketh the prophet this? of himself, or of\nsome other man? 35. Then Philip opened his mouth, and began at the same\nscripture, and preached unto him Jesus. 36. And as they went on their\nway, they came unto a certain water: and the eunuch said, See, here is\nwater; what doth hinder me to be baptized? 37. And Philip said, If thou\nbelievest with all thine heart, thou mayest. And he answered and said,\nI believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. 38. And he commanded the\nchariot to stand still: and they went down both into the water, both\nPhilip and the eunuch; and he baptized him. 39. And when they were come\nup out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord caught away Philip, that\nthe eunuch saw him no more: and he went on his way rejoicing. 40. But\nPhilip was found at Azotus: and passing through, he preached in all the\ncities, till he came to Caesarea.'--ACTS viii. 26-40.\n\nPhilip had no special divine command either to flee to, or to preach\nin, Samaria, but 'an angel of the Lord' and afterwards 'the Spirit,'\ndirected him to the Ethiopian statesman. God rewards faithful work with\nmore work. Samaria was a borderland between Jew and Gentile, but in\npreaching to the eunuch Philip was on entirely Gentile ground. So great\na step in advance needed clear command from God to impel to it and to\njustify it.\n\nI. We have, then, first, the new commission. Philip might well wonder\nwhy he should be taken away from successful work in a populous city,\nand despatched to the lonely road to Gaza. But he obeyed at once. He\nknew not for what he was sent there, but that ignorance did not trouble\nor retard him. It should be enough for us to see the next step. 'We\nwalk by faith, not by sight,' for we none of us know what comes of our\nactions, and we get light as we go. Do to-day's plain duty, and when\nto-morrow is to-day its duty will be plain too. The river on which we\nsail winds, and not till we round the nearest bend do we see the course\nbeyond. So we are kept in the peaceful posture of dependent obedience,\nand need to hold our communications with God open, that we may be sure\nof His guidance.\n\nNo doubt, as Philip trudged along till he reached the Gaza road, he\nwould have many a thought as to what he was to find there, and, when he\ncame at last to the solitary track, would look eagerly over the\nuninhabited land for an explanation of his strange and vague\ninstructions. But an obedient heart is not long left perplexed, and he\nwho looks for duty to disclose itself will see it in due time.\n\nII. So we have next the explanation of the errand. Luke's 'Behold!'\nsuggests the sudden sight of the great man's cortege in the distance.\nNo doubt, he travelled with a train of attendants, as became his\ndignity, and would be conspicuous from afar. Philip, of course, did not\nknow who he was when he caught sight of him, but Luke tells his rank at\nonce, in order to lay stress on it, as well as to bring out the\nsignificance of his occupation and subsequent conversion. Here was a\nfull-blooded Gentile, an eunuch, a courtier, who had been drawn to\nIsrael's God, and was studying Israel's prophets as he rode. Perhaps he\nhad chosen that road to Egypt for its quietness. At any rate, his\noccupation revealed the bent of his mind.\n\nPhilip felt that the mystery of his errand was solved now, and he\nrecognised the impulse to break through conventional barriers and\naddress the evidently dignified stranger, as the voice of God's Spirit,\nand not his own. How he was sure of that we do not know, but the\ndistinction drawn between the former communication by an angel and this\nfrom the Spirit points to a clear difference in his experiences, and to\ncareful discrimination in the narrator. The variation is not made at\nrandom. Philip did not mistake a buzzing in his ears from the heating\nof his own heart for a divine voice. We have here no hallucinations of\nan enthusiast, but plain fact.\n\nHow manifestly the meeting of these two, starting so far apart, and so\nignorant of each other and of the purpose of their being thrown\ntogether, reveals the unseen hand that moved each on his own line, and\nbrought about the intersection of the two at that exact spot and hour!\nHow came it that at that moment the Ethiopian was reading, of all\nplaces in his roll, the very words which make the kernel of the gospel\nof the evangelical prophet? Surely such 'coincidences' are a hard nut\nto crack for deniers of a Providence that shapes our ends!\n\nIt is further to be noticed that the eunuch's conversion does not\nappear to have been of importance for the expansion of the Church. It\nexercised no recorded influence, and was apparently not communicated to\nthe Apostles, as, if it had been, it could scarcely have failed to have\nbeen referred to when the analogous case of Cornelius was under\ndiscussion. So, divine intervention and human journeying and work were\nbrought into play simply for the sake of one soul which God's eye saw\nto be ripe for the Gospel. He cares for the individual, and one sheep\nthat can be reclaimed is precious enough in the Shepherd's estimate to\nmove His hand to action and His heart to love. Not because he was a man\nof great authority at Candace's court, but because he was yearning for\nlight, and ready to follow it when it shone, did the eunuch meet Philip\non that quiet road.\n\nIII. The two men being thus strangely brought together, we have next\nthe conversation for the sake of which they were brought together. The\neunuch was reading aloud, as people not very much used to books, or who\nhave some difficult passage in hand, often do. Philip must have been\nstruck with astonishment when he caught the, to him, familiar words,\nand must have seen at once the open door for his preaching. His abrupt\nquestion wastes no time with apologies or polite, gradual approaches to\nhis object. Probably the very absence of the signs of deference to\nwhich he was accustomed impressed the eunuch with a dim sense of the\nstranger's authority, which would be deepened by the home-thrust of his\nquestion.\n\nThe wistful answer not only shows no resentment at the brusque\nstranger's thrusting himself in, but acknowledges bewilderment, and\nresponds to the undertone of proffered guidance in the question. A\nteacher has often to teach a pupil his ignorance, to begin with; but it\nshould be so done as to create desire for instruction, and to kindle\nconfidence in him as instructor. It is insolent to ask, 'Understandest\nthou?' unless the questioner is ready and able to help to understand.\n\nThe invitation to a seat in the great man's chariot showed how\neagerness to learn had obliterated distinctions of rank, and swiftly\nknit a new bond between these two, who had never heard of each other\nfive minutes before. A true heart will hail as its best and closest\nfriend him who leads it to know God's mind more clearly. How earthly\ndignities dwindle when God's messenger lays hold of a soul!\n\nSo the chariot rolls on, and through the silence of the desert the\nvoices of these two reach the wondering attendants, as they plod along.\nThe Ethiopian was reading the Septuagint translation of Isaiah, which,\nthough it missed part of the force of the original, brought clearly\nbefore him the great figure of a Sufferer, meek and dumb, swept from\nthe earth by unjust judgment. He understood so much, but what he did\nnot understand was who this great, tragic Figure represented. His\nquestion goes to the root of the matter, and is a burning question\nto-day, as it was all these centuries ago on the road to Gaza. Philip\nhad no doubt of the answer. Jesus was the 'lamb dumb before its\nshearers.' This is not the place to enter on such wide questions, but\nwe may at least affirm that, whatever advance modern schools have made\nin the criticism and interpretation of the Old Testament, the very\nspirit of the whole earlier Revelation is missed if Jesus is not\ndiscerned as the Person to whom prophet and ritual pointed, in whom law\nwas fulfilled and history reached its goal.\n\nNo doubt much instruction followed. How long they had rode together\nbefore they came to 'a certain water' we know not, but it cannot have\nbeen more than a few hours. Time is elastic, and when the soil is\nprepared, and rain and sunlight are poured down, the seed springs up\nquickly. People who deny the possibility of 'sudden conversions' are\nblind to facts, because they wear the blinkers of a theory. Not always\nhave they who 'anon with joy receive' the word 'no root in themselves.'\n\nAs is well known, the answer to the eunuch's question (v. 37) is\nwanting in authoritative manuscripts. The insertion may have been due\nto the creeping into the text of a marginal note. A recent and most\noriginal commentator on the Acts (Blass) considers that this, like\nother remarkable readings found in one set of manuscripts, was written\nby Luke in a draft of the book, which he afterwards revised and\nsomewhat abbreviated into the form which most of the manuscripts\npresent. However that may be, the required conditions in the doubtful\nverse are those which the practice of the rest of the Acts shows to\nhave been required. Faith in Jesus Christ the Son of God was the\nqualification for the baptisms there recorded.\n\nAnd there was no other qualification. Philip asked nothing about the\neunuch's proselytism, or whether he had been circumcised or not. He did\nnot, like Peter with Cornelius, need the evidence of the gift of the\nSpirit before he baptized; but, notwithstanding his experience of an\nunworthy candidate in Simon the sorcerer, he unhesitatingly\nadministered baptism. There was no Church present to witness the rite.\nWe do not read that the Holy Ghost fell on the eunuch.\n\nThat baptism in the quiet wady by the side of the solitary road, while\nthe swarthy attendants stood in wonder, was a mighty step in advance;\nand it was taken, not by an Apostle, nor with ecclesiastical sanction,\nbut at the bidding of Christian instinct, which recognised a brother in\nany man who had faith in Jesus, the Son of God. The new faith is\nbursting old bonds. The universality of the Gospel is overflowing the\nbanks of Jewish narrowness. Probably Philip was quite unconscious of\nthe revolutionary nature of his act, but it was done, and in it was the\nseed of many more.\n\nThe eunuch had said that he could not understand unless some man guided\nhim. But when Philip is caught away, he does not bewail the loss of his\nguide. He went on his road with joy, though his new faith might have\ncraved longer support from the crutch of a teacher, and fuller\nenlightenment. What made him able to do without the guide that a few\nhours before had been so indispensable? The presence in his heart of a\nbetter one, even of Him whom Jesus promised, to guide His servants into\nall truth. If those who believe that Scripture without an authorised\ninterpreter is insufficient to lead men aright, would consider the end\nof this story, they might find that a man's dependence on outward\nteachers ceases when he has God's Spirit to teach him, and that for\nsuch a man the Word of God in his hand and the Spirit of God in his\nspirit will give him light enough to walk by, so that, in the absence\nof all outward instructors, he may still be filled with true wisdom,\nand in absolute solitude may go 'on his way rejoicing.'\n\n\n\nPHILIP THE EVANGELIST\n\n'But Philip was found at Azotus: and passing through he preached in all\nthe cities, till he came to Caesarea.'--ACTS viii. 40.\n\nThe little that is known about Philip, the deacon and evangelist, may\nvery soon be told. His name suggests, though by no means conclusively,\nthat he was probably one of the so-called Hellenists, or foreign-born\nand Greek-speaking Jews. This is made the more probable because he was\none of the seven selected by the Church, and after that selection\nappointed by the Apostles, to dispense relief to the poor. The purpose\nof the appointment being to conciliate the grumblers in the Hellenist\nsection of the Church, the persons chosen would probably belong to it.\nHe left Jerusalem during the persecution 'that arose after the death of\nStephen.' As we know, he was the first preacher of the Gospel in\nSamaria; he was next the instrument honoured to carry the Word to the\nfirst heathen ever gathered into the Church; and then, after a journey\nalong the sea-coast to Caesarea, the then seat of government, he\nremained in that place in obscure toil for twenty years, dropped out of\nthe story, and we hear no more of him but for one glimpse of his home\nin Caesarea.\n\nThat is all that is told about him. And I think that if we note the\ncontrast of the office to which men called him, and the work to which\nGod set him; and the other still more striking contrast between the\nbrilliancy of the beginning of his course, and the obscurity of his\nlong years of work, we may get some lessons worth the learning. I take,\nthen, not only the words which I read for my text, but the whole of the\nincidents connected with Philip, as our starting-point now; and I draw\nfrom them two or three very well-worn, but none the less needful,\npieces of instruction.\n\nI. First, then, we may gather a thought as to Christ's sovereignty in\nchoosing His instruments.\n\nDid you ever notice that events exactly contradicted the intentions of\nthe Church and of the Apostles, in the selection of Philip and his six\nbrethren? The Apostles said, 'It is not reason that we should leave the\nWord of God and serve tables. Pick out seven relieving-officers; men\nwho shall do the secular work of the Church, and look after the poor;\nand we will give ourselves to prayer and to the ministry of the Word.'\nSo said man. And what did facts say? That as to these twelve, who were\nto 'give themselves to prayer and the ministry of the Word,' we never\nhear that by far the larger proportion of them were honoured to do\nanything worth mentioning for the spread of the Gospel. Their function\nwas to be 'witnesses,' and that was all. But, on the other hand, of the\nmen that were supposed to be fitted for secular work, two at all events\nhad more to do in the expansion of the Church, and in the development\nof the universal aspects of Christ's Gospel, than the whole of the\noriginal group of Apostles. So Christ picks His instruments. The\nApostles may say, 'These shall do so-and-so; and we will do so-and-so.'\nChrist says, 'Stephen shall proclaim a wider Gospel than the Apostles\nat first had caught sight of, and Philip shall be the first who will go\nbeyond the charmed circle of Judaism, and preach the Gospel.'\n\nIt is always so. Christ chooses His instruments where He will; and it\nis not the Apostle's business, nor the business of an ecclesiastic of\nany sort, to settle his own work or anybody else's. The\nCommander-in-Chief keeps the choosing of the men for special service in\nHis own hand. The Apostolic College said, 'Let them look after the\npoor, and leave us to look after the ministry of the Word'; Christ\nsays, 'Go and join thyself to that chariot, and speak there the speech\nthat I shall bid thee.'\n\nBrethren, do you listen for that voice calling you to your tasks, and\nnever mind what men may be saying. Wait till _He_ bids, and you will\nhear Him speaking to you if you will keep yourselves quiet. Wait till\nHe bids you, and then be sure that you do it. Christ chooses His\ninstruments, and chooses them often in strange places.\n\nII. The next lesson that I would take from this story is the\nspontaneous speech of a believing heart.\n\nThere came a persecution that scattered the Church. Men tried to fling\ndown the lamp; and all that they did was to spill the oil, and it ran\nflaming wherever it flowed. For the scattered brethren, without any\nApostle with them, with no instruction given to them to do so, wherever\nthey went carried their faith with them; and, as a matter of course,\nwherever they went they spoke their faith. And so we read that, not by\nappointment, nor of set purpose, nor in consequence of any\necclesiastical or official sanction, nor in consequence of any\nsupernatural and distinct commandment from heaven, but just because it\nwas the natural thing to do, and they could not help it, they went\neverywhere, these scattered men of Cyprus and Cyrene, preaching the\nword.\n\nAnd when this Philip, whom the officials had relegated to the secular\nwork of distributing charity, found himself in Samaria, he did the\nlike. The Samaritans were outcasts, and Peter and John had wanted to\nbring down fire from heaven to consume them. But Philip could not help\nspeaking out the truth that was in his heart.\n\nSo it always will be: we can all talk about what we are interested in.\nThe full heart cannot be condemned to silence. If there is no necessity\nfor speech felt by a professing Christian, that professing Christian's\nfaith is a very superficial thing. 'We cannot but speak the things that\nwe have seen and heard,' said one of the Apostles, thereby laying down\nthe great charter of freedom of speech for all profound convictions.\n'Thy word was as a fire in my bones when I said, I will speak no more\nin Thy name,' so petulant and self-willed was I, 'and I was weary with\nforbearing,' and ashamed of my rash vow; 'and I could not stay.'\n\nDear friends, do you carry with you the impulse for utterance of\nChrist's name wherever you go? And is it so sweet in your hearts that\nyou cannot but let its sweetness have expression by your lips? Surely,\nsurely this spontaneous instinctive utterance of Philip, by which a\nloving heart sought to relieve itself, puts to shame the 'dumb dogs'\nthat make up such an enormous proportion of professing Christians. And\nsurely such an experience as his may well throw a very sinister light\non the reality--nay! I will not say the _reality_, that would be too\nuncharitable--but upon the depth and vitality of the profession of\nChristianity which these silent ones make.\n\nIII. Another lesson that seems to me strikingly illustrated by the\nstory with which we are concerned, is the guidance of a divine hand in\ncommon life, and when there are no visible nor supernatural signs.\n\nPhilip goes down to Samaria because he must, and speaks because he\ncannot help it. He is next bidden to take a long journey, from the\ncentre of the land, away down to the southern desert; and at a certain\npoint there the Spirit says to him, 'Go! join thyself to this chariot.'\nAnd when his work with the Ethiopian statesman is done, then he is\nswept away by the power of the Spirit of God, as Ezekiel had been long\nbefore by the banks of the river Chebar, and is set down, no doubt all\nbewildered and breathless, at Azotus--the ancient Ashdod--the\nPhilistine city on the low-lying coast. Was Philip less under Christ's\nguidance when miracle ceased and he was left to ordinary powers? Did he\nfeel as if deserted by Christ, because, instead of being swept by the\nstrong wind of heaven, he had to tramp wearily along the flat shore\nwith the flashing Mediterranean on his left hand reflecting the hot\nsunshine? Did it seem to him as if his task in preaching the Gospel in\nthese villages through which he passed on his way to Caesarea was less\ndistinctly obedience to the divine command than when he heard the\nutterance of the Spirit, 'Go down to the road which leads to Gaza,\nwhich is desert'? By no means. To this man, as to every faithful soul,\nthe guidance that came through his own judgment and common sense,\nthrough the instincts and impulses of his sanctified nature, by the\ncircumstances which he devoutly believed to be God's providence, was as\ntruly direct divine guidance as if all the angels of heaven had blown\ncommandment with their trumpets into his waiting and stunned ears.\n\nAnd so you and I have to go upon our paths without angel voices, or\nchariots of storm, and to be contented with divine commandments less\naudible or perceptible to our senses than this man had at one point in\nhis career. But if we are wise we shall hear Him speaking the word. We\nshall not be left without His voice if we wait for it, stilling our own\ninclinations until His solemn commandment is made plain to us, and then\nstirring up our inclinations that they may sway us to swift obedience.\nThere is no gulf, for the devout heart, between what is called\nmiraculous and what is called ordinary and common. Equally in both does\nGod manifest His will to His servants, and equally in both is His\npresence perceived by faith. We do not need to envy Philip's brilliant\nbeginning. Let us see that we imitate his quiet close of life.\n\nIV. The last lesson that I would draw is this--the nobility of\npersistence in unnoticed work.\n\nWhat a contrast to the triumphs in Samaria, and the other great\nexpansion of the field for the Gospel effected by the God-commanded\npreaching to the eunuch, is presented by the succeeding twenty years of\naltogether unrecorded but faithful toil! Persistence in such unnoticed\nwork is made all the more difficult, and to any but a very true man\nwould have been all but impossible, by reason of the contrast which\nsuch work offered to the glories of the earlier days. Some of us may\nhave been tried in a similar fashion, all of us have more or less the\nsame kind of difficulty to face. Some of us perhaps may have had\ngleams, at the beginning of our career, that seemed to give hope of\nfields of activity more brilliant and of work far better than we have\never had or done again in the long weary toil of daily life. There may\nhave been abortive promises, at the commencement of your careers, that\nseemed to say that you would occupy a more conspicuous position than\nlife has had really in reserve for you. At any rate, we have all had\nour dreams, for\n\n  'If Nature put not forth her power\n  About the opening of the flower,\n  Who is there that could live an hour?'\n\nand no life is all that the liver of it meant it to be when he began.\nWe dream of building palaces or temples, and we have to content\nourselves if we can put up some little shed in which we may shelter.\n\nPhilip, who began so conspicuously, and so suddenly ceased to be the\nspecial instrument in the hands of the Spirit, kept plod, plod,\nplodding on, with no bitterness of heart. For twenty years he had no\nshare in the development of Gentile Christianity, of which he had sowed\nthe first seed, but had to do much less conspicuous work. He toiled\naway there in Caesarea patient, persevering, and contented, because he\nloved the work, and he loved the work because he loved Him that had set\nit. He seemed to be passed over by his Lord in His choice of\ninstruments. It was he who was selected to be the first man that should\npreach to the heathen. But did you ever notice that although he was\nprobably in Caesarea at the time, Cornelius was not bid to apply to\n_Philip_, who was at his elbow, but to send to Joppa for the Apostle\nPeter? Philip might have sulked and said: 'Why was I not chosen to do\nthis work? I will speak no more in this Name.'\n\nIt did not fall to his lot to be the Apostle to the Gentiles. One who\ncame after him was preferred before him, and the Hellenist Saul was set\nto the task which might have seemed naturally to belong to the\nHellenist Philip. He too might have said, 'He must increase, but I must\ndecrease.' No doubt he did say it in spirit, with noble self-abnegation\nand freedom from jealousy. He cordially welcomed Paul to his house in\nCaesarea twenty years afterwards, and rejoiced that one sows and\nanother reaps; and that so the division of labour is the multiplication\nof gladness.\n\nA beautiful superiority to all the low thoughts that are apt to mar our\npersistency in unobtrusive and unrecognised work is set before us in\nthis story. There are many temptations to-day, dear brethren, what with\ngossiping newspapers and other means of publicity for everything that\nis done, for men to say, 'Well, if I cannot get any notice for my work\nI shall not do it.'\n\nBoys in the street will refuse to join in games, saying, 'I shall not\nplay unless I am captain or have the big drum.' And there are not\nwanting Christian men who lay down like conditions. 'Play well thy\npart' wherever it is. Never mind the honour. Do the duty God appoints,\nand He that has the two mites of the widow in His treasury will never\nforget any of our works, and at the right time will tell them out\nbefore His Father, and before the holy angels.\n\n\n\nGRACE TRIUMPHANT\n\n'And Saul, yet breathing out threatenings and slaughter against the\ndisciples of the Lord, went unto the high priest, 2. And desired of him\nletters to Damascus to the synagogues, that if he found any of this\nway, whether they were men or women, he might bring them hound unto\nJerusalem. 3. And as he journeyed, he came near Damascus: and suddenly\nthere shined round about him a light from heaven: 4. And he fell to the\nearth, and heard a voice saying unto him, Saul, Saul, why persecutest\nthou Me? 5. And he said, Who art Thou, Lord? And the Lord said, I am\nJesus whom thou persecutest: it is hard for thee to kick against the\npricks. 6. And he trembling and astonished said, Lord, what wilt Thou\nhave me to do? And the Lord said unto him, Arise, and go into the city,\nand it shall be told thee what thou must do. 7. And the men which\njourneyed with him stood speechless, hearing a voice, but seeing no\nman. 8. And Saul arose from the earth: and when his eyes were opened,\nhe saw no man: but they led him by the hand, and brought him into\nDamascus. 9. And he was three days without sight, and neither did eat\nnor drink. 10. And there was a certain disciple at Damascus, named\nAnanias; and to him said the Lord in a vision, Ananias. And he said,\nBehold. I am here, Lord. 11. And the Lord said unto him, Arise, and go\ninto the street which is called Straight, and enquire in the house of\nJudas for one called Saul, of Tarsus; for, behold, he prayeth, 12. And\nhath seen in a vision a man named Ananias coming in, and putting his\nhand on him, that he might receive his sight.... 17. And Ananias went\nhis way, and entered Into the house; and putting his hands on him said,\nBrother Saul, the Lord, even Jesus, that appeared unto thee in the way\nas thou earnest, hath sent me, that thou mightest receive thy sight,\nand be filled with the Holy Ghost. 18. And immediately there fell from\nhis eyes as it had been scales: and he received sight forthwith, and\narose, and was baptized. 19. And when he had received meat, he was\nstrengthened. Then was Saul certain days with the disciples which were\nat Damascus. 20. And straightway he preached Christ in the synagogues,\nthat He is the Son of God.'--ACTS ix. 1-12; 17-20.\n\nThis chapter begins with 'but,' which contrasts Saul's persistent\nhatred, which led him to Gentile lands to persecute, with Philip's\nexpansive evangelistic work. Both men were in profound earnest, both\nwent abroad to carry on their work, but the one sought to plant what\nthe other was eager to destroy. If the 'but' in verse 1 contrasts, the\n'yet' connects the verse with chapter viii. 3. Saul's fury was no\npassing outburst, but enduring. Like other indulged passions, it grew\nwith exercise, and had come to be as his very life-breath, and now\nplanned, not only imprisonment, but death, for the heretics.\n\nNot content with carrying his hateful inquisition into the homes of the\nChristians in Jerusalem, he will follow the fugitives to Damascus. The\nextension of the persectution was his own thought. He was not the tool\nof the Sanhedrin, but their mover. They would probably have been\ncontent to cleanse Jerusalem, but the young zealot would not rest till\nhe had followed the dispersed poison into every corner where it might\nhave trickled. The high priest would not discourage such useful zeal,\nhowever he might smile at its excess.\n\nSo Saul got the letters he asked, and some attendants, apparently, to\nhelp him in his hunt, and set off for Damascus. Painters have imagined\nhim as riding thither, but more probably he and his people went on\nfoot. It was a journey of some five or six days. The noon of the last\nday had come, and the groves of Damascus were, perhaps, in sight. No\ndoubt, the young Pharisee's head was busy settling what he was to begin\nwith when he entered the city, and was exulting in the thought of how\nhe would harry the meek Christians, when the sudden light shone.\n\nAt all events, the narrative does not warrant the view, often taken\nnow, that there had been any preparatory process in Saul's mind, which\nhad begun to sap his confidence that Jesus was a blasphemer, and\nhimself a warrior for God. That view is largely adopted in order to get\nrid of the supernatural, and to bolster up the assumption that there\nare no sudden conversions; but the narrative of Luke, and Paul's own\nreferences, are dead against it. At one moment he is 'yet breathing\nthreatening and slaughter against the disciples of the Lord,' and in\nalmost the next he is prone on his face, asking, 'Lord, what wilt Thou\nhave me to do?' It was not a case of a landslide suddenly sweeping\ndown, but long prepared for by the gradual percolation of water to the\nslippery understrata, but the solid earth was shaken, and the mountain\ncrashed down in sudden ruin.\n\nThe causes of Saul's conversion are plain in the narrative, even though\nthe shortened form is adopted, which is found in the Revised Version.\nThe received text has probably been filled out by additions from Paul's\nown account in chapter xxvi. First came the blaze of light outshining\nthe midday sun, even in that land where its beams are like swords. That\nblinding light 'shone round about him,' enveloping him in its glory.\nChapter xxvi. (verse 13) tells that his companions also were wrapped in\nthe lustre, and that all fell to the earth, no doubt in terror.\n\nSaul is not said, either in this or in his own accounts, to have seen\nJesus, but I Corinthians xv. 8 establishes that he did so, and Ananias\n(v. 17) refers to Jesus as having 'appeared.' That appearance, whatever\nmay have been the psychological account of it, was by Paul regarded as\nbeing equal in evidential value to the flesh-and-blood vision of the\nrisen Lord which the other Apostles witnessed to, and as placing him in\nthe same line as a witness.\n\nIt is to be noted also, that, while the attendants saw the light, they\nwere not blinded, as Saul was; from which it may be inferred that he\nsaw with his bodily eyes the glorified manhood of Jesus, as we are told\nthat one day, when He returns as Judge, 'every eye shall see Him.' Be\nthat as it may,--and we have not material for constructing a theory of\nthe manner of Christ's appearance to Saul,--the overwhelming conviction\nwas flooded into his soul, that the Jesus whom he had thought of as a\nblasphemer, falsely alleged to have risen from the dead, lived in\nheavenly glory, amid celestial brightness too dazzling for human eyes.\n\nThe words of gentle remonstrance issuing from the flashing glory went\nstill further to shake the foundations of the young Pharisee's life;\nfor they, as with one lightning gleam, laid hare the whole madness and\nsin of the crusade which he had thought acceptable to God. 'Why\npersecutest thou Me?' Then the odious heretics were knit by some\nmysterious bond to this glorious One, so that He bled in their wounds\nand felt their pains! Then Saul had been, as his old teacher dreaded\nthey of the Sanhedrin might be, fighting against God! How the reasons\nfor Saul's persecution had crumbled away, till there were none left\nwith which to answer Jesus' question! Jesus lived, and was exalted to\nglory. He was identified with His servants. He had appeared to Saul,\nand deigned to plead with him.\n\nNo wonder that the man who had been planning fresh assaults on the\ndisciples ten minutes before, was crushed and abject as he lay there on\nthe road, and these tremendous new convictions rushed like a cataract\nover and into his soul! No wonder that the lessons burned in on him in\nthat hour of destiny became the centre-point of all his future\nteaching! That vision revolutionised his thinking and his life. None\ncan affirm that it was incompetent to do so.\n\nLuke's account here, like Paul's in chapter xxii., represents further\ninstructions from Jesus as postponed till Saul's meeting with Ananias,\nwhile Paul's other account in chapter xxvi. omits mention of the\nlatter, and gives the substance of what he said in Damascus as said on\nthe road by Jesus. The one account is more detailed than the other,\nthat is all. The gradual unfolding of the heavenly purpose which our\nnarrative gives is in accord with the divine manner. For the moment\nenough had been done to convert the persecutor into the servant, to\nlevel with the ground his self-righteousness, to reveal to him the\nglorified Jesus, to bend his will and make it submissive. The rest\nwould be told him in due time.\n\nThe attendants had fallen to the ground like him, but seem to have\nstruggled to their feet again, while he lay prostrate. They saw the\nbrightness, but not the Person: they heard the voice, but not the\nwords. Saul staggered by their help to his feet, and then found that\nwith open eyes he was blind. Imagination or hallucination does not play\ntricks of that sort with the organs of sense.\n\nThe supernatural is too closely intertwined with the story to be taken\nout of it without reducing it to tatters. The greatest of Christian\nteachers, who has probably exercised more influence than any man who\never lived, was made a Christian by a miracle. That fact is not to be\ngot rid of. But we must remember that once when He speaks of it He\npoints to God's revelation of His Son '_in_ Him' as its essential\ncharacter. The external appearance was the vehicle of the inward\nrevelation. It is to be remembered, too, that the miracle did not take\naway Saul's power of accepting or rejecting the Christ; for he tells\nAgrippa that he was 'not disobedient to the heavenly vision.'\n\nWhat a different entry he made into Damascus from what he expected, and\nwhat a different man it was that crawled up to the door of Judas, in\nthe street that is called Straight, from the self-confident young\nfanatic who had left Jerusalem with the high priest's letters in his\nbosom and fierce hate in his heart!\n\nAnanias was probably not one of the fugitives, as his language about\nSaul implies that he knew of his doings only by hearsay. The report of\nSaul's coming and authority to arrest disciples had reached Damascus\nbefore him, with the wonderful quickness with which news travels in the\nEast, nobody knows how. Ananias's fears being quieted, he went to the\nhouse where for three days Saul had been lying lonely in the dark,\nfasting, and revolving many things in his heart. No doubt his Lord had\nspoken many a word to him, though not by vision, but by whispering to\nhis spirit. Silence and solitude root truth in a soul. After such a\nshock, absolute seclusion was best.\n\nAnanias discharged his commission with lovely tenderness and power. How\nsweet and strange to speaker and hearer would that 'Brother Saul'\nsound! How strong and grateful a confirmation of his vision would\nAnanias's reference to the appearance of the Lord bring! How humbly\nwould the proud Pharisee bow to receive, laid on his head, the hands\nthat he had thought to bind with chains! What new eyes would look out\non a world in which all things had become new, when there fell from\nthem as it had been scales, and as quickly as had come the blinding, so\nquickly came the restored vision!\n\nAnanias was neither Apostle nor official, yet the laying on of his\nhands communicated 'the Holy Ghost.' Saul received that gift before\nbaptism, not after or through the ordinance. It was important for his\nfuture relations to the Apostles that he should not have been\nintroduced to the Church by them, or owed to them his first human\nChristian teaching. Therefore he could say that he was 'an Apostle, not\nfrom men, neither through man.' It was important for us that in that\ngreat instance that divine gift should have been bestowed without the\nconditions accompanying, which have too often been regarded as\nnecessary for, its possession.\n\n\n\n'THIS WAY'\n\n'Any of this way.'--ACTS ix. 2\n\nThe name of 'Christian' was not applied to themselves by the followers\nof Jesus before the completion of the New Testament. There were other\nnames in currency before that designation--which owed its origin to the\nscoffing wits of Antioch--was accepted by the Church. They called\nthemselves 'disciples,' 'believers, 'saints,' 'brethren,' as if feeling\nabout for a title.\n\nHere is a name that had obtained currency for a while, and was\nafterwards disused. We find it five times in the Book of the Acts of\nthe Apostles, never elsewhere; and always, with one exception, it\nshould be rendered, as it is in the Revised Version, not '_this_ way,'\nas if being one amongst many, but '_the_ way,' as being the only one.\n\nNow, I have thought that this designation of Christians as 'those of\nthe way' rests upon a very profound and important view of what\nChristianity is, and may teach us some lessons if we will ponder it;\nand I ask your attention to two or three of these for a few moments now.\n\nI. First, then, I take this name as being a witness to the conviction\nthat in Christianity we have the only road to God.\n\nThere may be some reference in the name to the remarkable words of our\nLord Jesus Christ: 'I am the Way. No man cometh to the Father but by\nMe,'--words of which the audacity is unparalleled and unpardonable,\nexcept upon the supposition that He bears an unique relation to God on\nthe one hand, and to all mankind upon the other. In them He claims to\nbe the sole medium of communication between heaven and earth, God and\nman. And that same exclusiveness is reflected in this name for\nChristians. It asserts that faith in Jesus Christ, the acceptance of\nHis teaching, mediation and guidance, is the only path that climbs to\nGod, and by it alone do we come into knowledge of, and communion with,\nour divine Father.\n\nI do not dwell upon the fact that, according to our Lord's own\nteaching, and according to the whole New Testament, Christ's work of\nmaking God known to man did not begin with His Incarnation and earthly\nlife, but that from the beginning that eternal Word was the agent of\nall divine activity in creation, and in the illumination of mankind. So\nthat, not only all the acts of the self-revealing God were through Him,\nbut that from Him, as from the light of men, came all the light in\nhuman hearts, of reason and of conscience, by which there were and are\nin all men, some dim knowledge of God, and some feeling after, or at\nthe lowest some consciousness of, Him. But the historical facts of\nChrist's incarnation, life, death, resurrection, and ascension are the\nsource of all solid certitude, and of all clear knowledge of our Father\nin Heaven. His words are spirit and life; His works are unspoken words;\nand by both He declares unto His brethren the Name, and is the\nself-manifestation of, the Father.\n\nThink of the contrast presented by the world's conceptions of Godhead,\nand the reality as unveiled in Christ! On the one hand you have gods\nlustful, selfish, passionate, capricious, cruel, angry, vile; or gods\nremote, indifferent, not only passionless, but heartless, inexorable,\nunapproachable, whom no man can know, whom no man can love, whom no man\ncan trust. On the other hand, if you look at Christ's tears as the\nrevelation of God; if you look at Christ's ruth and pity as the\nmanifestation of the inmost glory of the divine nature; if you take\nyour stand at the foot of the Cross--a strange place to see 'the power\nof God and the wisdom of God'!--and look up there at Him dying for the\nworld, and are able to say, 'Lo! this is our God! through all the weary\ncenturies we have waited for Him, and this is He!' then you can\nunderstand how true it is that there, and there only, is the good news\nproclaimed that lifts the burden from every heart, and reveals God the\nLover and the Friend of every soul.\n\nAnd if, further, we consider the difference between the dim\n'peradventures,' the doubts and fears, the uncertain conclusions drawn\nfrom questionable, and often partial, premises, which confessedly never\namount to demonstration, if we consider the contrast between these and\nthe daylight of fact which we meet in Jesus Christ, His love, life, and\ndeath, then we can feel how superior in certitude, as in substance, the\nrevelation of God in Jesus is to all these hopes, longings, doubts, and\nhow it alone is worthy to be called the knowledge of God, or is solid\nenough to abide comparison with the certainties of the most arrogant\nphysical science.\n\nThere never was a time in the history of the world when, so clearly and\nunmistakably, every thinking soul amongst cultivated nations was being\nbrought up to this alternative--Christ, the Revealer of God, or no\nknowledge of God at all. The old dreams of heathenism are impossible\nfor us; modern agnosticism will make very quick work of a deism which\ndoes not cling to the Christ as the Revealer of the Godhead. And I, for\nmy part, believe that there is one thing, and one thing only, which\nwill save modern Europe from absolute godlessness, and that is the\ncoming back to the old truth, 'No man hath seen God' by sense, or\nintuition, or reason, or conscience, 'at any time. The only begotten\nSon, which is in the bosom of the Father, He hath declared Him.'\n\nBut it is not merely as bringing to us the only certain knowledge of\nour Father God that Christianity is 'the way,' but it is also because\nby it alone we come into fellowship with the God whom it reveals to us.\nIf there rises up before your mind the thought of Him in the Heavens,\nthere will rise up also in your consciousness the sense of your own\nsin. And that is no delusion nor fancy; it is the most patent fact,\nthat between you and your Father in Heaven, howsoever loving, tender,\ncompassionate, and forgiving, there lies a great gulf. You cannot go to\nGod, my brother, with all that guilt heaped upon your conscience; you\ncannot come near to Him with all that mass of evil which you know is\nthere, working in your soul. How shall a sinful soul come to a holy\nGod? And there is only one answer--that great Lord, by His blessed\ndeath upon the Cross, has cleared away all the mountains of guilt and\nsin that rise up frowning between each single soul and the Father in\nHeaven; and through Him, by a new and living way, which He hath opened\nfor us, we have entrance to God, and dwell with Him.\n\nAnd it is not only that He brings to us the knowledge of God, and that\nHe clears away all obstacles, and makes fellowship between God and us\npossible for the most polluted and sinful of spirits, but it is also\nthat, by the knowledge of His great love to us, love is kindled in our\nhearts, and we are drawn into that path which, as a matter of fact, we\nshall not tread unless we yield to the magnetic attraction of the love\nof God as revealed 'in the face of Jesus Christ.'\n\nMen do not seek fellowship with God until they are drawn to Him by the\nlove that is revealed upon the Cross. Men do not yield their hearts to\nHim until their hearts are melted down by the fire of that Infinite\ndivine love which disdained not to be humiliated and refused not to die\nfor their sakes. Practically and really we come to God, when--and I\nventure upon the narrowness of saying, _only_ when--God has come to us\nin His dear Son. '_The_ way' to God is through Christ. Have you trod\nit, my friend--that new and living way, which leads within the veil,\ninto the secrets of loving communion with your Father in Heaven?\n\nII. Then there is another principle, of which this designation of our\ntext is also the witness, viz., that in Christianity we have the path\nof conduct and practical life traced out for us all.\n\nThe 'way of a man' is, of course, a metaphor for his outward life and\nconduct. It is connected with the familiar old image which belongs to\nthe poetry of all languages, by which life is looked at as a journey.\nThat metaphor speaks to us of the continual changefulness of our mortal\ncondition; it speaks to us, also, of the effort and the weariness which\noften attend it. It proclaims also the solemn thought that a man's life\nis a unity, and that, progressive, it goes some whither, and arrives at\na definite goal.\n\nAnd that idea is taken up in this phrase, '_the_ way,' in such a\nfashion as that there are two things asserted: first, that Christianity\nprovides _a_ way, a path for the practical activity, that it moulds our\nlife into a unity, that it prescribes the line of direction which it is\nto follow, that it has a starting-point, and stages, and an end; also,\nthat Christianity is _the_ way for practical life, the only path and\nmode of conduct which corresponds with all the obligations and nature\nof a man, and which reason, conscience, and experience will approve.\nLet us look, just for a moment or two, at these two thoughts:\nChristianity is _a_ way; Christianity is _the_ way.\n\nIt is a way. These early disciples must have grasped with great\nclearness and tenacity the practical side of the Gospel, or they would\nnever have adopted this name. If they had thought of it as being only a\ncreed, they would not have done so.\n\nAnd it is not only a creed. All creed is meant to influence conduct. If\nI may so say, _credenda_, 'things to be believed,' are meant to\nunderlie the _agenda_, the things to be done. Every doctrine of the New\nTestament, like the great blocks of concrete that are dropped into a\nriver in order to lay the foundation of a bridge, or the embankment\nthat is run across a valley in order to carry a railway upon it,--every\ndoctrine of the New Testament is meant to influence the conduct, the\n'walk and conversation,' and to provide a path on which activity may\nadvance and expatiate.\n\nI cannot, of course, dwell upon this point with sufficient elaboration,\nor take up one after another the teachings of the New Testament, in\norder to show how close is their bearing upon practical life. There is\nplenty of abstract theology in the form of theological systems,\nskeletons all dried up that have no life in them. There is nothing of\nthat sort in the principles as they lie on the pages of the New\nTestament. There they are all throbbing with life, and all meant to\ninfluence life and conduct.\n\nRemember, my friend, that unless your Christianity is doing that for\nyou, unless it has prescribed a path of life for you, and moulded your\nsteps into a great unity, and drawn you along the road, it is\nnought,--nought!\n\nBut the whole matter may be put into half a dozen sentences. The living\nheart of Christianity, either considered as a revelation to a man, or\nas a power within a man, that is to say, either objective or\nsubjective, is love. It is the revelation of the love of God that is\nthe inmost essence of it as revelation. It is love in my heart that is\nthe inmost essence of it as a fact of my nature. And is not love the\nmost powerful of all forces to influence conduct? Is it not 'the\nfulfilling of the law,' because its one single self includes all\ncommandments, and is the ideal of all duty, and also because it is the\npower which will secure the keeping of all the law which itself lays\ndown?\n\nBut love may be followed out into its two main effects. These are\nself-surrender and imitation. And I say that a religious system which\nis, in its inmost heart and essence, love, is thereby shown to be the\nmost practical of all systems, because thereby it is shown to be a\ngreat system of self-surrender and imitation.\n\nThe deepest word of the Gospel is, 'Yield yourselves to God.' Bring\nyour wills and bow them before Him, and say, 'Here am I; take me, and\nuse me as a pawn on Thy great chessboard, to be put where Thou wilt.'\nWhen once a man's will is absorbed into the divine will, as a drop of\nwater is into the ocean, he is free, and has happiness and peace, and\nis master and lord of himself and of the universe. That system which\nproclaims love as its heart sets in action self-surrender as the most\npractical of all the powers of life.\n\nLove is imitation. And Jesus Christ's life is set before us as the\npattern for all our conduct. We are to follow In His footsteps. These\nmark our path. We are to follow Him, as a traveller who knows not his\nway will carefully tread in the steps of his guide. We are to imitate\nHim, as a scholar who is learning to draw will copy every touch of the\nmaster's pencil.\n\nStrange that that short life, fragmentarily reported in four little\ntracts, full of unapproachable peculiarities, and having no part in\nmany of the relationships which make so large a portion of most lives,\nis yet so transparently under the influence of the purest and broadest\nprinciples of righteousness and morality as that every age and each\nsex, and men of all professions, idiosyncrasies, temperaments, and\npositions, all stages of civilisation and culture, of every period, and\nof every country, may find in it the all-sufficient pattern for them!\n\nThus in Christianity we have a way. It prescribes a line of direction\nfor the life, and brings all its power to bear in marking the course\nwhich we should pursue and in making us willing and able to pursue it.\n\nHow different, how superior to all other systems which aspire to\nregulate the outward life that system is! It is superior, in its\napplicability to all conditions. It is a very difficult thing for any\nman to apply the generalities of moral law and righteousness to the\nindividual cases in his life. The stars are very bright, but they do\nnot show me which street to turn up when I am at a loss; but Christ's\nexample comes very near to us, and guides us, not indeed in regard to\nquestions of prudence or expediency, but in regard to all questions of\nright or wrong. It is superior, in the help it gives to a soul\nstruggling with temptation. It is very hard to keep law or duty clearly\nbefore our eyes at such a moment, when it is most needful to do so. The\nlighthouse is lost in the fog, but the example of Jesus Christ\ndissipates many mists of temptation to the heart that loves Him; and\n'they that follow Him shall not walk in darkness.'\n\nIt is superior in this, further, that patterns fail because they are\nonly patterns, and cannot get themselves executed, and laws fail\nbecause they are only laws and cannot get themselves obeyed. What is\nthe use of a signpost to a man who is lame, or who does not want to go\ndown the road, though he knows it well enough? But Christianity brings\nboth the commandment and the motive that keeps the commandment.\n\nAnd so it is _the_ path along which we can travel. It is the only road\nthat corresponds to all our necessities, and capacities, and\nobligations.\n\nIt is the only path, my brother, that will be approved by reason,\nconscience, and experience. The greatest of our English mystics says\nsomewhere--I do not profess to quote with verbal accuracy--'There are\ntwo questions which put an end to all the vain projects and designs of\nhuman life. The one is, \"What for?\" the other, \"What good will the aim\ndo you if attained?\"'\n\nIf we look at 'all the ways of men' calmly, and with due regard to the\nwants of their souls, reason cannot but say that they are 'vain and\nmelancholy.' If we consult our own experience we cannot but confess\nthat whatsoever we have had or enjoyed, apart from God, has either\nproved disappointing in the very moment of its possession, or has been\nfollowed by a bitter taste on the tongue; or in a little while has\nfaded, and left us standing with the stalk in our hands from which the\nbloom has dropped. Generation after generation has sighed its 'Amen!'\nto the stern old word: 'Vanity of vanities; all is vanity!' And here\nto-day, in the midst of the boasted progress of this generation, we\nfind cultured men amongst us, lapped in material comfort, and with all\nthe light of this century blazing upon them, preaching again the old\nBuddhist doctrine that annihilation is the only heaven, and proclaiming\nthat life is not worth living, and that 'it were better not to be.'\n\nDear brother, one path, and one path only, leads to what all men\ndesire--peace and happiness. One path, and one path only, leads to what\nall men know they ought to seek--purity and godliness. We are like men\nin the backwoods, our paths go circling round and round, we have lost\nour way. 'The labour of the foolish wearieth every one of them, for he\nknoweth not how to come to the city.' Jesus Christ has cut a path\nthrough the forest. Tread you in it, and you will find that it is 'the\nway of pleasantness' and 'the path of peace.'\n\nIII. And now, one last word. This remarkable designation seems to me to\nbe a witness also to another truth, viz. that in Christianity we have\nthe only way home.\n\nThe only way home! All other modes and courses of life and conduct stop\nat the edge of a great gulf, like some path that goes down an incline\nto the edge of a precipice, and the heedless traveller that has been\ngoing on, not knowing whither it led, tilts over when he comes there.\nEvery other way that men can follow is broken short off by death. And\nif there were no other reason to allege, that is enough to condemn\nthem. What is a man to do in another world if all his life long he has\nonly cultivated tastes which want this world for their gratification?\nWhat is the sensualist to do when he gets there? What is the shrewd man\nof business in Manchester to do when he comes into a world where there\nare no bargains, and he cannot go on 'Change on Tuesdays and Fridays?\nWhat will he do with himself? What does he do with himself now, when he\ngoes away from home for a month, and does not get his ordinary work and\nsurroundings? What will he do then? What will a young lady do in an\nother world, who spends her days here in reading trashy novels and\nmagazines? What will any of us do who have set our affections and our\ntastes upon this poor, perishing, miserable world? Would you think it\nwas common sense in a young man who was going to be a doctor, and took\nno interest in anything but farming? Is it not as stupid a thing for\nmen and women to train themselves for a condition which is transient,\nand not to train themselves for the condition into which they are\ncertainly going?\n\nAnd, on the other hand, the path that Christ makes runs clear on,\nwithout a break, across the gulf, like some daring railway bridge\nthrown across a mountain gorge, and goes straight on on the other side\nwithout a curve, only with an upward gradient. The manner of work may\nchange; the spirit of the work and the principles of it will remain.\nSelf-surrender will be the law of Heaven, and 'they shall follow the\nLamb whithersoever He goeth.' Better to begin here as we mean to end\nyonder! Better to begin here what we can carry with us, in essence\nthough not in form, into the other life; and so, through all the\nchanges of life, and through the great change of death, to keep one\nunbroken straight course! 'They go from strength to strength; every one\nof them in Zion appeareth before God'.\n\nWe live in an else trackless waste, but across the desert Jesus Christ\nhas thrown a way; too high for ravenous beasts to spring on or raging\nfoes to storm; too firm for tempest to overthrow or make impair able;\ntoo plain for simple hearts to mistake. We may all journey on it, if we\nwill, and 'come to Zion with songs and everlasting joy upon our heads.'\n\nChrist is the Way. O brother I trust thy sinful soul to His blood and\nmediation, and thy sins will be forgiven. And then, loving Him, follow\nHim. 'This is the way; walk ye in it.'\n\n\n\nA BIRD'S-EYE VIEW OF THE EARLY CHURCH\n\n'So the Church throughout all Judaea and Galilee and Samaria had peace,\nbeing edified; and, walking in the fear of the Lord, and in the comfort\nof the Holy Ghost, was multiplied.'--ACTS ix. 31 (R.V.).\n\nA man climbing a hill stops every now and then to take breath and look\nabout him; and in the earlier part of this Book of the Acts of the\nApostles there are a number of such landing-places where the writer\nsuspends the course of his narrative, in order to give a general notion\nof the condition of the Church at the moment. We have in this verse one\nof the shortest, but perhaps the most significant, of these\nresting-places. The original and proper reading, instead of 'the\nChurches,' as our Version has it, reads 'the Church' as a whole--the\nwhole body of believers in the three districts named--Judaea, Galilee,\nand Samaria--being in the same circumstances and passing through like\nexperiences. The several small communities of disciples formed a whole.\nThey were 'churches' individually; they were collectively 'the Church.'\nChrist's order of expansion, given in chapter i., had been thus far\nfollowed, and the sequence here sums up the progress which the Acts has\nthus far recorded. Galilee had been the cradle of the Church, but the\nonward march of the Gospel had begun at Jerusalem. Before Luke goes on\nto tell how the last part of our Lord's programme--'to the uttermost\nparts of the earth'--began to be carried into execution by the\nconversion of Cornelius, he gives us this bird's-eye view. To its\nsignificant items I desire to draw your attention now.\n\nThere are three of them: outward rest, inward progress, outward\nincrease.\n\nI. Outward rest.\n\n'Then had the Church rest throughout all Judaea and Galilee and\nSamaria.'\n\nThe principal persecutor had just been converted, and that would\nsomewhat damp the zeal of his followers. Saul having gone over to the\nenemy, it would be difficult to go on harrying the Church with the same\nspirit, when the chief actor was turned traitor. And besides that,\nhistorians tell us that there were political complications which gave\nboth Romans and Jews quite enough to do to watch one another, instead\nof persecuting this little community of Christians. I have nothing to\ndo with these, but this one point I desire to make, that the condition\nof security and tranquillity in which the Church found itself conduced\nto spiritual good and growth. This has not always been the case. As one\nof our quaint divines says, 'as in cities where ground is scarce men\nbuild high up, so in times of straitness and persecution the Christian\ncommunity, and the individuals who compose it, are often raised to a\nhigher level of devotion than in easier and quieter times.' But these\nprimitive Christians utilised this breathing-space in order to grow,\nand having a moment of lull and stillness in the storm, turned it to\nthe highest and best uses. Is that what you and I do with our quiet\ntimes? None of us have any occasion to fear persecution or annoyance of\nthat sort, but there are other thorns in our pillows besides these, and\nother rough places in our beds, and we are often disturbed in our\nnests. When there does come a quiet time in which no outward\ncircumstances fret us, do we seize it as coming from God, in order\nthat, with undistracted energies, we may cast ourselves altogether into\nthe work of growing like our Master and doing His will more fully? How\nmany of us, dear brethren, have misused both our adversity and our\nprosperity by making the one an occasion for deeper worldliness, and\nthe other a reason for forgetting Him in the darkness as in the light?\nTo be absorbed by earthly things, whether by the enjoyment of their\npossession or by the bitter pain and misery of their withdrawal, is\nfatal to all our spiritual progress, and only they use things\nprosperous and things adverse aright, who take them both as means by\nwhich they may be wafted nearer to their God. Whatsoever forces act\nupon us, if we put the helm right and trim the sails as we ought, they\nwill carry us to our haven. And whatsoever forces act upon us, if we\nneglect the sailor's skill and duty, we shall be washed backwards and\nforwards in the trough of the sea, and make no progress in the voyage.\n'Then had the Church rest'--and grew lazy? 'Then had the Church\nrest'--and grew worldly? Then was I happy and prosperous and peaceful\nin my home and in my business, and I said, 'I shall never be moved,'\nand I forgot my God? 'Then had the Church rest, and was edified.'\n\nNow, in the next place, note the\n\nII. Inward progress.\n\nThere are difficulties about the exact relation of the clauses here to\none another, the discussion of which would be fitter for a lecture-room\nthan for a pulpit. I do not mean to trouble you with these, but it\nseems to me that we may perhaps best understand the writer's intention\nif we throw together the clauses which stand in the middle of this\nverse, and take them as being a description of the inward progress,\nbeing 'edified' and 'walking in the fear of the Lord, and in the\ncomfort of the Holy Ghost.' There are two things, then--the being\n'edified' and 'walking'; and I wish to say a word or two about each of\nthem.\n\nNow that word 'edified' and the cognate one 'edification' have been\nenfeebled in signification so as to mean very much less than they did\nto Luke. When we speak of 'being edified,' what do we mean? Little more\nthan that we have been instructed, and especially that we have been\ncomforted. And what is the instrument of edification in our ordinary\nreligious parlance? Good words, wise teaching, or pious speech. But the\nNew Testament means vastly more than this by the word, and looks not so\nmuch to other people's utterances as to a man's own strenuous efforts,\nas the means of edification. Much misunderstanding would have been\navoided if our translators had really translated, instead of putting us\noff with a Latinised word which to many readers conveys little meaning\nand none of the significant metaphor of the original. 'Being edified'\nsounds very theological and far away from daily life. Would it not\nsound more real if we read 'being built up'? That is the emblem of the\nprocess that ought to go on, not only in the Christian community as a\nwhole, but in every individual member of it. Each Christian is bound to\nbuild himself up and to help to build up other Christians; and God\nbuilds them all up by His Spirit. We have brought before us the picture\nof the rising of some stately fabric upon a firm foundation, course by\ncourse, stone by stone, each laid by a separate act of the builder's\nhand, and carefully bedded in its place until the whole is complete.\n\nThat is one emblem of the growth of the Christian community and of the\nChristian individual, and the other clause that is coupled with it in\nthe text seems to me to give the same idea under a slightly different\nfigure. The rising of a stately building and the advance on a given\npath suggest substantially the same notion of progress.\n\nAnd of these two metaphors, I would dwell chiefly on the former,\nbecause it is the less familiar of the two to modern readers, and\nbecause it is of some consequence to restore it to its weight and true\nsignificance in the popular mind. Edification, then, is the building up\nof Christian character, and it involves four things: a foundation, a\ncontinuous progress, a patient, persistent effort, and a completion.\n\nNow, Christian men and women, this is our office for ourselves, and,\naccording to our faculty and opportunities, for the Churches with which\nwe may stand connected, that on the foundation which is Jesus\nChrist--'and other foundation can no man lay'--we all should slowly,\ncarefully, unceasingly be at our building work; each day's attainment,\nlike the course of stones laid in some great temple, becoming the basis\nupon which to-morrow's work is to be piled, and each having in it the\ntoil of the builder and being a result and monument of his strenuous\neffort, and each being built in, according to the plan that the great\nArchitect has given, and each tending a little nearer to the roof-tree,\nand the time that 'the top stone shall be brought forth with the shout\nof rejoicing.' Is that a transcript of my life and yours? Do we make a\nbusiness of the cultivation of Christian character thus? Do we rest the\nwhole structure of our lives upon Jesus Christ? And then, do we, hour\nby hour, moment by moment, lay the fair stones, until\n\n  'Firm and fair the building rise,\n    A temple to His praise.'\n\nThe old worn metaphor, which we have vulgarised and degraded into a\nsynonym for a comfortable condition produced by a brother's words,\ncarries in it the solemnest teaching as to what the duty and privilege\nof all Christian souls is-to 'build themselves up for an habitation of\nGod through the Spirit.'\n\nBut note further the elements of which this progress consists. May we\nnot suppose that both metaphors refer to the clauses that follow, and\nthat 'the fear of the Lord' and 'the comfort of the Holy Ghost' are the\nparticulars in which the Christian is built up and walks?\n\n'The fear of the Lord' is eminently an Old Testament expression, and\noccurs only once or twice in the New. But its meaning is thoroughly in\naccordance with the loftiest teaching of the new revelation. 'The fear\nof the Lord' is that reverential awe of Him, by which we are ever\nconscious of His presence with us, and ever seek, as our supreme aim\nand end, to submit our wills to His commandment, and to do the things\nthat are pleasing in His sight. Are you and I building ourselves up in\nthat? Do we feel more thrillingly and gladly to-day than we did\nyesterday, that God is beside us? And do we submit ourselves more\nloyally, more easily, more joyously to His will, in blessed obedience,\nnow than ever before? Have we learned, and are we learning, moment by\nmoment, more of that 'secret of the Lord' which 'is with them that fear\nHim,' and of that 'covenant' which 'He will show' to them? Unless we\ndo, our growth in Christian character is a very doubtful thing. And are\nwe advancing, too, in that other element which so beautifully completes\nand softens the notion of the fear of the Lord, 'the encouragement'\nwhich the divine Spirit gives us? Are we bolder to-day than we were\nyesterday? Are we ready to meet with more undaunted confidence whatever\nwe may have to face? Do we feel ever increasing within us the full\nblessedness and inspiration of that divine visitant? And do these sweet\ncommunications take all the 'torment' away from 'fear,' and leave only\nthe bliss of reverential love? They who walk in the fear of the Lord,\nand who with the fear have the courage that the divine Spirit gives,\nwill 'have rest,' like the first Christians, whatsoever storms may howl\naround them, and whatsoever enemies may threaten to disturb their peace.\n\nAnd so, lastly, note\n\nIII. The outward growth.\n\nThus building themselves up, and thus growing, the Church 'was\nmultiplied.' Of course it was. Christian men and women that are\nspiritually alive, and who, because they are alive, grow, and grow in\nthese things, the manifest reverence of God, and the manifest 'comfort'\nof the divine Spirit's giving, will commend their gospel to a blind\nworld. They will be an attractive force in the midst of men, and their\ninward growth will make them eager to hold forth the word of life, and\nwill give them 'a mouth and wisdom' which nothing but genuine spiritual\nexperience can give.\n\nAnd so, dear friends, especially those of you who set yourselves to any\nof the many forms of Christian work which prevail in this day, learn\nthe lesson of my text, and make sure of '_a_' before you go on to\n'_b_,' and see to it that before you set yourselves to try to multiply\nthe Church, you set yourselves to build up yourselves in your most holy\nfaith.\n\nWe hear a great deal nowadays about 'forward movements,' and I\nsympathise with all that is said in favour of them. But I would remind\nyou that the precursor of every genuine forward movement is a Godward\nmovement, and that it is worse than useless to talk about lengthening\nthe cords unless you begin with strengthening the stakes. The little\nprop that holds up the bell-tent that will contain half-a-dozen\nsoldiers will be all too weak for the great one that will cover a\ncompany. And the fault of some Christian people is that they set\nthemselves to work upon others without remembering that the first\nrequisite is a deepened and growing godliness and devotion in their own\nsouls. Dear friends, begin at home, and remember that whilst what the\nworld calls eloquence may draw people, and oddities _will_ draw them,\nand all sorts of lower attractions will gather multitudes for a little\nwhile, the one solid power which Christian men and women can exercise\nfor the numerical increase of the Church is rooted in, and only tenable\nthrough, their own personal increase day by day in consecration and\nlikeness to the Saviour, in possession of the Spirit, and in loving\nfear of the Lord.\n\n\n\nCOPIES OF CHRIST'S MANNER\n\n'And Peter said unto him, Aeneas, Jesus Christ maketh thee whole:\narise, and make thy bed.... 40. But Peter put them all forth, and\nkneeled down and prayed; and, turning him to the body, said, Tabitha,\narise.--ACTS ix. 34, 40.\n\nI have put these two miracles together, not only because they were\nclosely connected in time and place, but because they have a very\nremarkable and instructive feature in common. They are both evidently\nmoulded upon Christ's miracles; are distinct imitations of what Peter\nhad seen Him do. And their likenesses to and differences from our\nLord's manner of working are equally noteworthy. It is to the lessons\nfrom these two aspects, common to both miracles, that I desire to turn\nnow.\n\nI. First, notice the similarities and the lesson which they teach.\n\nThe two cases before us are alike, in that both of them find parallels\nin our Lord's miracles. The one is the cure of a paralytic, which pairs\noff with the well-known story in the Gospels concerning the man that\nwas borne by four, and let down through the roof into Christ's\npresence. The other of them, the raising of Dorcas, or Tabitha, of\ncourse corresponds with the three resurrections of dead people which\nare recorded in the Gospels.\n\nAnd now, note the likenesses. Jesus Christ said to the paralysed man,\n'Arise, take up thy bed.' Peter says to Aeneas, 'Arise, and make thy\nbed.' The one command was appropriate to the circumstances of a man who\nwas not in his own house, and whose control over his long-disused\nmuscles in obeying Christ's word was a confirmation to himself of the\nreality and completeness of his cure. The other was appropriate to a\nman bedridden in his own house; and it had precisely the same purpose\nas the analogous injunction from our Lord, 'Take up thy bed and walk.'\nAeneas was lying at home, and so Peter, remembering how Jesus Christ\nhad demonstrated to others, and affirmed to the man himself, the\nreality of the miraculous blessing given to him, copies his Master's\nmethod, 'Aeneas, make thy bed.' It is an echo and resemblance of the\nformer incident, and is a distinct piece of imitation of it.\n\nAnd then, if we turn to the other narrative, the intentional moulding\nof the manner of the miracle, consecrated in the eyes of the loving\ndisciple, because it was Christ's manner, is still more obvious. When\nJesus Christ went into the house of Jairus there was the usual hubbub,\nthe noise of the loud Eastern mourning, and He put them all forth,\ntaking with Him only the father and mother of the damsel, and Peter\nwith James and John. When Peter goes into the upper room, where Tabitha\nis lying, there are the usual noise of lamentation and the clack of\nmany tongues, extolling the virtues of the dead woman. He remembers how\nChrist had gone about His miracle, and he, in his turn, 'put them all\nforth.' Mark, who was Peter's mouthpiece in his Gospel, gives us the\nvery Aramaic words which our Lord employed when He raised the little\ngirl, _Talitha_, the Aramaic word for 'a damsel,' or young girl;\n_cumi_, which means in that language 'arise.' Is it not singular and\nbeautiful that Peter's word by the bedside of the dead Dorcas is, with\nthe exception of one letter, absolutely identical? Christ says,\n_Talitha cumi_. Peter remembered the formula by which the blessing was\nconveyed, and he copied it. 'Tabitha cumi!' Is it not clear that he is\nposing after his Master's attitude; that he is, consciously or\nunconsciously, doing what he remembered so well had been done in that\nother upper room, and that the miracles are both of them shaped after\nthe pattern of the miraculous working of Jesus Christ?\n\nWell, now, although we are no miracle-workers, the very same principle\nwhich underlay these two works of supernatural power is to be applied\nto all our work, and to our lives as Christian people. I do not know\nwhether Peter _meant_ to do like Jesus Christ or not; I think rather\nthat he was unconsciously and instinctively dropping into the fashion\nthat to him was so sacred. Love always delights in imitation; and the\ndisciples of a great teacher will unconsciously catch the trick of his\nintonation, even the awkwardness of his attitudes or the peculiarities\nof his way of looking at things--only, unfortunately, outsides are a\ngood deal more easily imitated than insides. And many a disciple copies\nsuch external trifles, and talks in the tones that have, first of all,\nbrought blessed truths to him, whose resemblance to his teacher goes\nvery little further. The principle that underlies these miracles is\njust this--get near Jesus Christ, and you will catch His manner. Dwell\nin fellowship with Him, and whether you are thinking about it or not,\nthere will come some faint resemblance to that Lord into your\ncharacters and your way of doing things, so that men will 'take\nknowledge of you that you have been with Jesus.' The poor bit of cloth\nwhich has held some precious piece of solid perfume will retain\nfragrance for many a day afterwards, and will bless the scentless air\nby giving it forth. The man who keeps close to Christ, and has folded\nHim in his heart, will, like the poor cloth, give forth a sweetness not\nhis own that will gladden and refresh many nostrils. Live in the light,\nand you will become light. Keep near Christ, and you will be\nChristlike. Love Him, and love will do to you what it does to many a\nwedded pair, and to many kindred hearts: it will transfuse into you\nsomething of the characteristics of the object of your love. It is\nimpossible to trust Christ, to obey Christ, to hold communion with Him,\nand to live beside Him, without becoming like Him. And if such be our\ninward experience, so will be our outward appearance.\n\nBut there may be a specific point given to this lesson in regard to\nChristian people's ways of doing their work in the world and helping\nand blessing other folk. Although, as I say, we have no miraculous\npower at our disposal, we do not need it in order to manifest Jesus\nChrist and His way of working in our work. And if we dwell beside Him,\nthen, depend upon it, all the characteristics--far more precious than\nthe accidents of manner, or tone, or attitude in working a miracle--all\nthe characteristics so deeply and blessedly stamped upon His life of\nself-sacrifice and man-helping devotion will be reproduced in us. Jesus\nChrist, when He went through the wards of the hospital of the world,\nwas overflowing with quick sympathy for every sorrow that met His eye.\nIf you and I are living near Him, we shall never steel our hearts nor\nlock up our sensibilities against any suffering that it is within our\npower to stanch or to alleviate. Jesus Christ never grudged trouble,\nnever thought of Himself, never was impatient of interruption, never\nrepelled importunity, never sent away empty any outstretched hand. And\nif we live near Him, self-oblivious willingness to spend and be spent\nwill mark our lives, and we shall not consider that we have the right\nof possession or of sole enjoyment of any of the blessings that are\ngiven to us. Jesus Christ, according to the beautiful and significant\nwords of one of the Gospels, 'healed them that had need of healing.'\nWhy that singular designation for the people that were standing around\nHim but to teach us that wide as men's necessity was His sympathy, and\nthat broad as the sympathy of Christ were the help and healing which He\nbrought? And so, with like width of compassion, with like perfectness\nof self-oblivion, with equal remoteness from consciousness of\nsuperiority or display of condescension, Christian men should go\namongst the sorrowful and the sad and the outcast and do their\nmiracles--'greater works' than those which Christ did, as He Himself\nhas told us--after the manner in which He did His. If they did, the\nworld would be a different place, and the Church would be a different\nChurch, and you would not have people writing in the newspapers to\ndemonstrate that Christianity was 'played out.'\n\nII. Further, note the differences and the lessons from them.\n\nTake the first of the two miracles. 'Aeneas, Jesus Christ maketh thee\nwhole: arise, and make thy bed.' That first clause points to the great\ndifference. Take the second miracle, 'Jesus Christ put them all forth,\nand stretched out His hand, and said, Damsel, arise!' 'Peter put them\nall forth, ... and said, Tabitha, arise!' but between the putting forth\nand the miracle he did something which Christ did not do, and he did\nnot do something which Christ did do. 'He kneeled down and prayed.'\nJesus Christ did not do that. 'And Jesus put forth His hand, and said,\nArise!' Peter did not do that. But he put forth his hand _after_ the\nmiracle was wrought; not to communicate life, but to help the living\nwoman to get to her feet; and so, both by what he did in his prayer and\nby what he did not do after Christ's pattern, the extension of the hand\nthat was the channel of the vitality, he drew a broad distinction\nbetween the servant's copy and the Master's original.\n\nThe lessons from the differences are such as the following.\n\nChrist works miracles by His inherent power; His servants do their\nworks only as His instruments and organs. I need not dwell upon the\nformer thought; but it is the latter at which I wish to look for a\nmoment. The lesson, then, of the difference is that Christian men, in\nall their work for the Master and for the world, are ever to keep clear\nbefore themselves, and to make very obvious to other people, that they\nare nothing more than channels and instruments. The less the preacher,\nthe teacher, the Christian benefactor of any sort puts himself in the\nforeground, or in evidence at all, the more likely are his words and\nworks to be successful. If you hear a man, for instance, preaching a\nsermon, and you see that he is thinking about himself, he may talk with\nthe tongues of men and of angels, but he will do no good to anybody.\nThe first condition of work for the Lord is--hide yourself behind your\nmessage, behind your Master, and make it very plain that His is the\npower, and that you are but a tool in the Workman's hand.\n\nAnd then, further, another lesson is, Be very sure of the power that\nwill work in you. What a piece of audacity it was for Peter to go and\nstand by the paralytic man's couch and say, 'Aeneas, Jesus Christ\nmaketh thee whole.' Yes, audacity; unless he had been in such constant\nand close touch with his Master that he was sure that his Master was\nworking through him. And is it not beautiful to see how absolutely\nconfident he is that Jesus Christ's work was not ended when He went up\ninto heaven; but that there, in that little stuffy room, where the man\nhad lain motionless for eight long years, Jesus Christ was present, and\nworking? O brethren, the Christian Church does not half enough believe\nin the actual presence and operation of Jesus Christ, here and now, in\nand through all His servants! We are ready enough to believe that He\nworked when He was in the world long ago, that He is going to work when\nHe comes back to the world, at some far-off future period. But do we\nbelieve that He is verily putting forth His power, in no metaphor, but\nin simple reality, at present and here, and, if we will, through us?\n\n'Jesus Christ maketh thee whole.' Be sure that if you keep near Christ,\nif you will try to mould yourselves after His likeness, if you expect\nHim to work through you, and do not hinder His work by self-conceit and\nself-consciousness of any sort, then it will be no presumption, but\nsimple faith which He delights in and will vindicate, if you, too, go\nand stand by a paralytic and say, 'Jesus Christ maketh thee whole,' or\ngo and stand by people dead in trespasses and sins and say, after you\nhave prayed, 'Arise.'\n\nWe are here for the very purpose for which Peter was in Lydda and\nJoppa--to carry on and copy the healing and the quickening work of\nChrist, by His present power, and after His blessed example.\n\n\n\nWHAT GOD HATH CLEANSED\n\n'There was a certain man in Caesarea called Cornelius, a centurion of\nthe band called the Italian band, 2. A devout man, and one that feared\nGod with all his house, which gave much alms to the people, and prayed\nto God alway. 3. He saw in a vision evidently about the ninth hour of\nthe day an angel of God coming in to him, and saying unto him,\nCornelius. 4. And when he looked on him, he was afraid, and said, What\nis it, Lord? And he said unto him, Thy prayers and thine alms are come\nup for a memorial before God. 5. And now send men to Joppa, and call\nfor one Simon, whose surname is Peter: 6. He lodgeth with one Simon a\ntanner, whose house is by the sea-side: he shall tell thee what thou\noughtest to do. 7. And when the angel which spake unto Cornelius was\ndeparted, he called two of his household servants, and a devout soldier\nof them that waited on him continually; 8. And when he had declared all\nthese things unto them, he sent them to Joppa. 9. On the morrow, as\nthey went on their journey, and drew nigh unto the city, Peter went up\nupon the housetop to pray about the sixth hour: 10. And he became very\nhungry, and would have eaten: but while they made ready, he fell into a\ntrance, 11. And saw heaven opened, and a certain vessel descending unto\nhim, as it had been a great sheet knit at the four corners, and let\ndown to the earth: 12. Wherein were all manner of fourfooted beasts of\nthe earth, and wild beasts, and creeping things, and fowls of the air.\n13. And there came a voice to him, Rise, Peter; kill, and eat. 14. But\nPeter said, Not so, Lord; for I have never eaten any thing that is\ncommon or unclean. 15. And the voice spake unto him again the second\ntime, What God hath cleansed, that call not thou common. 16. This was\ndone thrice: and the vessel was received up again into heaven. 17. Now\nwhile Peter doubted in himself what this vision which he had seen\nshould mean, behold, the men which were sent from Cornelius had made\ninquiry for Simon's house, and stood before the gate, 18. And called,\nand asked whether Simon, which was surnamed Peter, were lodged there.\n19. While Peter thought on the vision, the Spirit said unto him,\nBehold, three men seek thee. 20. Arise therefore, and get thee down,\nand go with them, doubting nothing; for I have sent them.'--ACTS x.\n1-20.\n\nThe Church was at first in appearance only a Jewish sect; but the great\nstride is now to be taken which carries it over the border into the\nGentile world, and begins its universal aspect. If we consider the\nmagnitude of the change, and the difficulties of training and prejudice\nwhich it had to encounter in the Church itself, we shall not wonder at\nthe abundance of supernatural occurrences which attended it. Without\nsome such impulse, it is difficult to conceive of its having been\naccomplished.\n\nIn this narrative we see the supernatural preparation on both sides.\nGod, as it were, lays His right hand on Cornelius, and His left on\nPeter, and impels them towards each other. Philip had already preached\nto the Ethiopian, and probably the anonymous brethren in Acts xi. 20\nhad already spoken the word to pure Greeks at Antioch; but the\nimportance of Peter's action here is that by reason of his Apostleship,\nhis recognition of Gentile Christians becomes the act of the whole\ncommunity. His entrance into Cornelius's house ended the Jewish phase\nof the Church. The epoch was worthy of divine intervention, and the\nstep needed divine warrant. Therefore the abundance of miracle at this\npoint is not superfluous.\n\nI. We have the vision which guided the seeker to the light. Caesarea,\nas the seat of government, was the focus of Gentilism, and that the\nGospel should effect a lodgment there was significant. Still more so\nwas the person whom it first won,--an officer of the Roman army, the\nvery emblem of worldly power, loathed by every true Jew. A centurion\nwas not an officer of high rank, but Cornelius's name suggests the\npossibility of his connection with a famous Roman family, and the name\nof the 'band' or 'cohort,' of which his troop was part, suggests that\nit was raised in Italy, and therefore properly officered by Romans. His\nresidence in Judaea had touched his spirit with some knowledge of, and\nreverence for, the Jehovah whom this strange people worshipped. He was\none of a class numerous in these times of religious unrest, who had\nbeen more or less affected by the pure monotheism of the Jew.\n\nIt is remarkable that the centurions of the New Testament are all more\nor less favourably inclined towards Christ and Christianity, and the\nfact has been laid hold of to throw doubt on the narratives; but it is\nvery natural that similarity of position and training should have\nproduced similarity of thought; and that three or four such persons\nshould have come in contact with Jesus and His Apostles makes no\nviolent demands on probability, while there was no occasion to mention\nothers who were not like-minded. Quartered for considerable periods in\nthe country, and brought into close contact with its religion, and\nprofoundly sceptical of their own, as all but the lowest minds then\nwere, Cornelius and his brother in arms and spirit whose faith drew\nwondering praise from Jesus, are bright examples of the possibility of\nearnest religious life being nourished amid grave disadvantages, and\npreach a lesson, often neglected, that we should be slow to form\nunfavourable opinions of classes of men, or to decide that those of\nsuch and such a profession, or in such and such circumstances, must be\nof such and such a character.\n\nIt would have seemed that the last place to look for the first Gentile\nChristian would have been in the barracks at Caesarea; and yet there\nGod's angel went for him, and found him. It has often been discussed\nwhether Cornelius was a 'proselyte' or not. It matters very little. He\nwas drawn to the Jews' religion, had adopted their hours of prayer,\nreverenced their God, had therefore cast off idolatry, gave alms to the\npeople as acknowledgment that their God was his God, and cultivated\nhabitual devotion, which he had diffused among his household, both of\nslaves and soldiers. It is a beautiful picture of a soul feeling after\na deeper knowledge of God, as a plant turns its half-opened flowers to\nthe sun.\n\nSuch seekers do not grope without touching. It is not only 'unto the\nseed of Jacob' that God has never said, 'Seek ye Me in vain.' The story\nhas a message of hope to all such seekers, and sheds precious light on\ndark problems in regard to the relation of such souls in heathen lands\nto the light and love of God, The vision appeared to Cornelius in the\nmanner corresponding to his spiritual susceptibility, and it came at\nthe hour of prayer. God's angels ever draw near to hearts opened by\ndesire to receive them. Not in visible form, but in reality,\n'bright-harnessed angels stand' all around the chamber where prayer is\nmade. Our hours of supplication are God's hours of communication.\n\nThe vision to Cornelius is not to be whittled down to a mental\nimpression. It was an objective, supernatural appearance,--whether to\nsense or soul matters little. The story gives most graphically the\nfixed gaze of terror which Cornelius fastened on the angel, and very\ncharacteristically the immediate recovery and quick question to which\nhis courage and military promptitude helped him. 'What is it, Lord?'\ndoes not speak of terror, but of readiness to take orders and obey.\n'Lord' seems to be but a title of reverence here.\n\nIn the angel's answer, the order in which prayers and alms are named is\nthe reverse of that in verse 2. Luke speaks as a man, beginning with\nthe visible manifestation, and passing thence to the inward devotion\nwhich animated the external beneficence. The angel speaks as God sees,\nbeginning with the inward, and descending to the outward. The strong\n'anthropomorphism' of the representation that man's prayer and alms\nkeep God in mind of him needs no vindication and little explanation. It\nsubstitutes the mental state which in us originates certain acts for\nthe acts themselves. God's 'remembrance' is in Scripture frequently\nused to express His loving deeds, which show that their recipient is\nnot forgotten of Him.\n\nBut the all-important truth in the words is that the prayers and alms\n(coming from a devout heart) of a man who had never heard of Jesus\nChrist were acceptable to God. None the less Cornelius needed Jesus,\nand the recompense made to him was the knowledge of the Saviour. The\nbelief that in many a heathen heart such yearning after a dimly known\nGod has stretched itself towards light, and been accepted of God, does\nnot in the least conflict with the truth that 'there is none other Name\ngiven among men, whereby we must be saved,' but it sheds a bright and\nmost welcome light of hope into that awful darkness. Christ is the only\nSaviour, but it is not for us to say how far off from the channel in\nwhich it flows the water of life may percolate, and feed the roots of\ndistant trees. Cornelius's religion was not a substitute for Christ,\nbut was the occasion of his being led to Christ, and finding full,\nconscious salvation there. God leads seeking souls by His own wonderful\nways; and we may leave all such in His hand, assured that no heart ever\nhungered after righteousness and was not filled.\n\nThe instruction to send for Peter tested Cornelius's willingness to be\ntaught by an unknown Jew, and his belief in the divine origin of the\nvision. The direction given by which to find this teacher was not\npromising. A lodger in a tan-yard by the seaside was certainly not a\nman of position or wealth. But military discipline helped religious\nreverence; and without delay, as soon as the angel 'was departed' (an\nexpression which gives the outward reality of the appearance strongly),\nCornelius's confidential servants, sympathisers with him in his\nreligion, were told all the story, and before nightfall were on their\nmarch to Joppa. Swift obedience to whatever God points out as our path\ntowards the light, even if it seem somewhat unattractive, will always\nmark our conduct if we really long for the light, and believe that He\nis pointing our way.\n\nII. The vision which guided the light-bearer to the seeker.--All\nthrough the night the messengers marched along the maritime plain in\nwhich both Caesarea and Joppa lay, much discussing, no doubt, their\nstrange errand, and wondering what they would find. The preparation of\nPeter, which was as needful as that of Cornelius, was so timed as to be\ncompleted just as the messengers stood at the tanner's door.\n\nThe first point to note in regard to it is its scene. It is of\nsubordinate importance, but it can scarcely have been entirely\nunmeaning, that the flashing waters of the Mediterranean, blazing in\nmidday sunshine, stretched before Peter's eyes as he sat on the\nhousetop 'by the seaside.' His thoughts may have travelled across the\nsea, and he may have wondered what lay beyond the horizon, and whether\nthere were men there to whom Christ's commission extended. 'The isles'\nof which prophecy had told that they should 'wait for His law' were\naway out in the mysterious distance. Some expansion of spirit towards\nregions beyond may have accompanied his gaze. At all events, it was by\nthe shore of the great highway of nations and of truth that the vision\nwhich revealed that all men were 'cleansed' filled the eye and heart of\nthe Apostle, and told him that, in his calling as 'fisher of men,' a\nwider water than the land-locked Sea of Galilee was his.\n\nWe may also note the connection of the form of the vision with his\ncircumstances. His hunger determined its shape. The natural bodily\nsensations coloured his state of mind even in trance, and afforded the\npoint of contact for God's message. It does not follow that the vision\nwas only the consequence of his hunger, as has been suggested by\ncritics who wish to get rid of the supernatural. But the form which it\ntook teaches us how mercifully God is wont to mould His communications\naccording to our needs, and how wisely He shapes them, so as to find\nentrance through even the lower wants. The commonest bodily needs may\nbecome avenues for His truth, if our prayer accompanies our hunger.\n\nThe significance of the vision is plain to us, though Peter was 'much\nperplexed' about it. In the light of the event, we understand that the\n'great sheet let down from heaven by four corners,' and containing all\nmanner of creatures, is the symbol of universal humanity (to use modern\nlanguage). The four corners correspond to the four points of the\ncompass,--north, south, east, and west,--the contents to the swarming\nmillions of men. Peter would perceive no more in the command to 'kill\nand eat' than the abrogation of Mosaic restrictions. Meditation was\nneedful to disclose the full extent of the revolution shadowed by the\nvision and its accompanying words. The old nature of Peter was not so\ncompletely changed but that a flash of it breaks out still. The same\nself-confidence which had led him to 'rebuke' Jesus, and to say, 'This\nshall not be unto Thee,' speaks in his unhesitating and irreverent 'Not\nso, Lord!'\n\nThe naive reason he gives for not obeying--namely, his never having\ndone as he was now bid to do--is charmingly illogical and human. God\ntells him to do a new thing, and his reason for not doing it is that it\nis new. Use and wont are set up by us all against the fresh disclosures\nof God's will. The command to kill and eat was not repeated. It was but\nthe introduction to the truth which was repeated thrice, the same\nnumber of times as Peter had denied his Master and had received his\ncharge to feed His sheep.\n\nThat great truth has manifold applications, but its direct purpose as\nregards Peter is to teach that all restrictions which differentiated\nJew from Gentile are abolished. 'Cleansing' does not here apply to\nmoral purifying, but to the admission of all mankind to the same\nstanding as the Jew. Therefore the Gospel is to be preached to all men,\nand the Jewish Christian has no pre-eminence.\n\nPeter's perplexity as to the meaning of the vision is very\nintelligible. It was not so plain as to carry its own interpretation,\nbut, like most other of God's teachings, was explained by\ncircumstances. What was next done made the best commentary on what had\njust been beheld. While patient reflection is necessary to do due\nhonour to God's teachings and to discover their bearing on events, it\nis generally true that events unfold their significance as meditation\nalone never can. Life is the best commentator on God's word. The three\nmen down at the door poured light on the vision on the housetop. But\nthe explanation was not left to circumstances. The Spirit directed\nPeter to go with the messengers, and thus taught him the meaning of the\nenigmatical words which he had heard from heaven.\n\nIt is to be remembered that the Apostle had no need of fresh\nillumination as to the world-wide preaching of the Gospel. Christ's\ncommission to 'the uttermost parts of the earth' ever rang in his ears,\nas we may be sure. But what he did need was the lesson that the\nGentiles could come into the Church without going through the gate of\nJudaism. If all peculiar sanctity was gone from the Jew, and all men\nshared in the 'cleansing,' there was no need for keeping up any of the\nold restrictions, or insisting on Gentiles being first received into\nthe Israelitish community as a stage in their progress towards\nChristianity.\n\nIt took Peter and the others years to digest the lesson given on the\nhousetop, but he began to put it in practice that day. How little he\nknew the sweep of the truth then declared to him! How little we have\nlearned it yet! All exclusiveness which looks down on classes or races,\nall monkish asceticism which taboos natural appetites and tastes, all\nmorbid scrupulosity which shuts out from religious men large fields of\nlife, all Pharisaism which says 'The temple of the Lord are we,' are\nsmitten to dust by the great words which gather all men into the same\nample, impartial divine love, and, in another aspect, give Christian\nculture and life the charter of freest use of all God's fair world, and\nplace the distinction between clean and unclean in the spirit of the\nuser rather than in the thing used. 'Unto the pure all things are pure:\nbut unto them that are defiled... is nothing pure.'\n\n\n\n'GOD IS NO RESPECTER OF PERSONS'\n\n'And Cornelius said, Four days ago I was fasting until this hour; and\nat the ninth hour I prayed in my house, and, behold, a man stood before\nme in bright clothing, 31. And said, Cornelius, thy prayer is heard,\nand thine alms are had in remembrance in the sight of God. 32. Send\ntherefore to Joppa, and call hither Simon, whose surname is Peter; he\nis lodged in the house of one Simon a tanner by the sea-side: who, when\nhe cometh, shall speak unto thee. 83. Immediately therefore I sent to\nthee; and thou hast well done that thou art come. Now therefore are we\nall here present before God, to hear all things that art commanded thee\nof God. 34. Then Peter opened his mouth, and said, Of a truth I\nperceive that God is no respecter of persons: 35. But in every nation\nhe that feareth Him, and worketh righteousness, is accepted with Him.\n35. The word which God sent unto the children of Israel, preaching\npeace by Jesus Christ: (He is Lord of all:) 37. That word, I say, ye\nknow, which was published throughout all Judaea, and began from\nGalilee, after the baptism which John preached; 38. How God anointed\nJesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and with power: who went about\ndoing good, and healing all that were oppressed of the devil; for God\nwas with Him. 39. And we are witnesses of all things which He did both\nin the land of the Jews, and in Jerusalem; whom they slew and hanged on\na tree: 40. Him God raised up the third day, and shewed Him openly; 41.\nNot to all the people, but unto witnesses chosen before of God, even to\nus, who did eat and drink with Him after He rose from the dead. 42. And\nHe commanded us to preach unto the people, and to testify that it is He\nwhich was ordained of God to be the Judge of quick and dead. 43. To Him\ngive all the prophets witness, that through His Name whosoever\nbelieveth in Him shall receive remission of sins. 44. While Peter yet\nspake these words, the Holy Ghost fell on all them which heard the\nword.'--ACTS x. 30-44.\n\nThis passage falls into three parts: Cornelius's explanation, Peter's\nsermon, and the descent of the Spirit on the new converts. The last is\nthe most important, and yet is told most briefly. We may surely\nrecognise the influence of Peter's personal reminiscences in the scale\nof the narrative, and may remember that Luke and Mark were thrown\ntogether in later days.\n\nI. Cornelius repeats what his messengers had already told Peter, but in\nfuller detail. He tells how he was occupied when the angel appeared. He\nwas keeping the Jewish hour of prayer, and the fact that the vision\ncame to him as he prayed had attested to him its heavenly origin. If we\nwould see angels, the most likely place to behold them is in the secret\nplace of prayer. He tells, too, that the command to send for Peter was\na consequence of God's remembrance of his prayer ('therefore,' verse\n32). His prayers and alms showed that he was 'of the light,' and\ntherefore he was directed to what would yield further light.\n\nThe command to send for Peter is noteworthy in two respects. It was,\nfirst, a test of humility and obedience. Cornelius, as a Roman officer,\nwould be tempted to feel the usual contempt for one of the subject\nrace, and, unless his eagerness to know more of God's will overbore his\npride, to kick at the idea of sending to beg the favour of the presence\nand instruction of a Jew, and of one, too, who could find no better\nquarters than a tanner's house. The angel's voice commanded, but it did\nnot compel. Cornelius bore the test, and neither waived aside the\nvision as a hallucination to which it was absurd for a practical man to\nattend, nor recoiled from the lowliness of the proposed teacher. He\npocketed official and racial loftiness, and, as he emphasises,\n'forthwith' despatched his message. It was as if an English official in\nthe Punjab had been sent to a Sikh 'Guru' for teaching.\n\nThe other remarkable point about the command is that Philip was\nprobably in Caesarea at the time. Why should Peter have been brought,\nthen, by two visions and two long journeys? The subsequent history\nexplains why. For the storm of criticism in the Jerusalem church\nprovoked by Cornelius's baptism would have raged with tenfold fury if\nso revolutionary an act had been done by any less authoritative person\nthan the leader of the Apostles. The Lord would stamp His own approval\non the deed which marked so great an expansion of the Church, and\ntherefore He makes the first of the Apostles His agent, and that by a\ndouble vision.\n\n'Thou hast well done that thou art come,'--a courteous welcome, with\njust a trace of the doubt which had occupied Cornelius during the 'four\ndays,' whether this unknown Jew would obey so strange an invitation.\nCourtesy and preparedness to receive the unknown message beautifully\nblend in Cornelius's closing words, which do not directly ask Peter to\nspeak, but declare the auditors' eagerness to hear, as well as their\nconfidence that what he says will be God's voice.\n\nA variant reading in verse 33 gives 'in thy sight' for 'in the sight of\nGod,' and has much to recommend it. But in any case we have here the\nright attitude for us all in the presence of the uttered will and mind\nof God. Where such open-eared and open-hearted preparedness marks the\nlisteners, feebler teachers than Peter will win converts. The reason\nwhy much earnest Christian teaching is vain is the indifference and\nnon-expectant attitude of the hearers, who are not hearkeners. Seed\nthrown on the wayside is picked up by the birds.\n\nII. Peter's sermon is, on the whole, much like his other addresses\nwhich are abundantly reported in the early part of the Acts. The great\nbusiness of the preachers then was to tell the history of Jesus.\nChristianity is, first, a recital of historical events, from which, no\ndoubt, principles are deduced, and which necessarily lead on to\ndoctrines; but the facts are first.\n\nBut the familiar story is told to Cornelius with some variation of\ntone. And it is prefaced by a great word, which crystallises the large\ntruth that had sprung into consciousness and startling power in Peter,\nas the result of his own and Cornelius's experience. He had not\npreviously thought of God as 'a respecter of persons,' but the\nconviction that He was not had never blazed with such sun-clearness\nbefore him as it did now. Jewish narrowness had, unconsciously to\nhimself, somewhat clouded it; but these four days had burned in on him,\nas if it were a new truth, that 'in every nation' there may be men\naccepted of God, because they 'fear Him and work righteousness.'\n\nThat great saying is twisted from its right meaning when it is\ninterpreted as discouraging the efforts of Christians to carry the\nGospel to the heathen; for, if the 'light of nature' is sufficient,\nwhat was Peter sent to Caesarea for? But it is no less maltreated when\nevangelical Christians fail to grasp its world-wide significance, or\ndoubt that in lands where Christ's name has not been proclaimed there\nare souls groping for the light, and seeking to obey the law written on\ntheir hearts. That there are such, and that such are 'accepted of Him,'\nand led by His own ways to the fuller light, is obviously taught in\nthese words, and should be a welcome thought to us all.\n\nThe tangled utterances which immediately follow, sound as if speech\nstaggered under the weight of the thoughts opening before the speaker.\nWhatever difficulty attends the construction, the intention is\nclear,--to contrast the limited scope of the message, as confined to\nthe children of Israel, with its universal destination as now made\nclear. The statement which in the Authorised and Revised Versions is\nthrown into a parenthesis is really the very centre of the Apostle's\nthought. Jesus, who has hitherto been preached to Israel, is 'Lord of\nall,' and the message concerning Him is now to be proclaimed, not in\nvague outline and at second hand, as it had hitherto reached Cornelius,\nbut in full detail, and as a message in which he was concerned.\n\nContrast the beginning and the ending of the discourse,--'the word sent\nunto the children of Israel' and 'every one that believeth on Him shall\nreceive remission of sins.' A remarkable variation in the text is\nsuggested by Blass in his striking commentary, who would omit 'Lord'\nand read, 'The word which He sent to the children of Israel, bringing\nthe good tidings of peace through Jesus Christ,--this [word] belongs to\nall.' That reading does away with the chief difficulties, and brings\nout clearly the thought which is more obscurely expressed in a\ncontorted sentence by the present reading.\n\nThe subsequent _resume_ of the life of Jesus is substantially the same\nas is found in Peter's other sermons. But we may note that the highest\nconceptions of our Lord's nature are not stated. It is hard to suppose\nthat Peter after Pentecost had not the same conviction as burned in his\nconfession, 'Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God.' But in\nthese early discourses neither the Divinity and Incarnation nor the\natoning sacrifice of Jesus is set forth. He is the Christ, 'anointed\nwith the Holy Ghost and with power.' God is with Him (Nicodemus had got\nas far as that). He is 'ordained of God to be the judge of quick and\ndead.'\n\nWe note, too, that His teaching is not touched upon, nor any of the\nprofounder aspects of His work as the Revealer of God, but His\nbeneficence and miraculous deliverances of devil-ridden men. His death\nis declared, but without any of the accusations of His murderers,\nwhich, like lance-thrusts, 'pricked' Jewish hearers. Nor is the\nefficacy of that death as the sacrifice for the world's sin touched\nupon, but it is simply told as a fact, and set in contrast with the\nResurrection. These were the plain facts which had first to be accepted.\n\nThe only way of establishing facts is by evidence of eye-witnesses. So\nPeter twice (verses 39, 41) adduces his own and his colleagues'\nevidence. But the facts are not yet a gospel, unless they are further\nexplained as well as established. Did such things happen? The answer\nis, 'We saw them.' What did they mean? The answer begins by adducing\nthe 'witness' of the Apostles to a different order of truths, which\nrequires a different sort of witness. Jesus had bidden them 'testify'\nthat He is to be Judge of living and dead; that is, of all mankind.\nTheir witness to that can only rest on His word.\n\nNor is that all. There is yet another body of 'witnesses' to yet\nanother class of truths. 'All the prophets' bear witness to the great\ntruth which makes the biography of the Man the gospel for all\nmen,--that the deepest want of all men is satisfied through the name\nwhich Peter ever rang out as all-powerful to heal and bless. The\nforgiveness of sins through the manifested character and work of Jesus\nChrist is given on condition of faith to any and every one who\nbelieves, be he Jew or Gentile, Galilean fisherman or Roman centurion.\nCornelius may have known little of the prophets, but he knew the burden\nof sin. He did not know all that we know of Jesus, and of the way in\nwhich forgiveness is connected with His work, but he did know now that\nit was connected, and that this Jesus was risen from the dead, and was\nto be the Judge. His faith went out to that Saviour, and as he heard he\nbelieved.\n\nIII. Therefore the great gift, attesting the divine acceptance of him\nand the rest of the hearers, came at once. There had been no confession\nof their faith, much less had there been baptism, or laying on of\nApostolic hands. The sole qualification and condition for the reception\nof the Spirit which John lays down in his Gospel when he speaks of the\n'Spirit, which they that believe on Him should receive,' was present\nhere, and it was enough. Peter and his brethren might have hesitated\nabout baptizing an uncircumcised believer. The Lord of the Church\nshowed Peter that He did not hesitate.\n\nSo, like a true disciple, Peter followed Christ's lead, and though\n'they of the circumcision' were struck with amazement, he said to\nhimself, 'Who am I, that I should withstand God?' and opened his heart\nto welcome these new converts as possessors of 'like precious faith' as\nwas demonstrated by their possession of the same Spirit. Would that\nPeter's willingness to recognise all who manifest the Spirit of Christ,\nwhatever their relation to ecclesiastical regulations, had continued\nthe law and practice of the Church!\n\n\n\nPETER'S APOLOGIA\n\n'And the apostles and brethren that were in Judaea heard that the\nGentiles had also received the word of God. 2. And when Peter was come\nup to Jerusalem, they that were of the circumcision contended with him,\n3. Saying, Thou wentest in to men uncircumcised, and didst eat with\nthem. 4. But Peter rehearsed the matter from the beginning, and\nexpounded it by order unto them, saying, 5. I was in the city of Joppa\npraying: and in a trance I saw a vision, A certain vessel descend, as\nit had been a great sheet, let down from heaven by four corners; and it\ncame even to me: 6. Upon the which when I had fastened mine eyes, I\nconsidered, and saw fourfooted beasts of the earth, and wild beasts,\nand creeping things, and fowls of the air. 7. And I heard a voice\nsaying unto me, Arise, Peter; slay, and eat. 8. But I said, Not so,\nLord: for nothing common or unclean hath at any time entered into my\nmouth. 9. But the voice answered me again from heaven, What God hath\ncleansed, that call not thou common. 10. And this was done three times:\nand all were drawn up again into heaven. 11. And, behold, immediately\nthere were three men already come unto the house where I was, sent from\nCaesarea unto me. 12. And the Spirit bade me go with them, nothing\ndoubting. Moreover these six brethren accompanied me, and we entered\ninto the man's house: 13. And he shewed us how he had seen an angel in\nhis house, which stood and said unto him, Send men to Joppa, and call\nfor Simon, whose surname is Peter; 14. Who shall tell thee words,\nwhereby thou and all thy house shall be saved. 15. And as I began to\nspeak, the Holy Ghost fell on them, as on us at the beginning. 16. Then\nremembered I the word of the Lord, how that He said, John indeed\nbaptized with water; but ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost. 17.\nForasmuch then as God gave them the like gift as He did unto us, who\nbelieved on the Lord Jesus Christ; what was I, that I could withstand\nGod? 18. When they heard these things, they held their peace, and\nglorified God, saying, Then hath God also to the Gentiles granted\nrepentance unto life.'--ACTS xi. 1-18.\n\nPeter's action in regard to Cornelius precipitated a controversy which\nwas bound to come if the Church was to be anything more than a Jewish\nsect. It brought to light the first tendency to form a party in the\nChurch. 'They... of the circumcision' were probably 'certain of the\nsect of the Pharisees which believed,' and were especially zealous for\nall the separating prescriptions of the ceremonial law. They were\nscarcely a party as yet, but the little rift was destined to grow, and\nthey became Paul's bitterest opponents through all his life, dogging\nhim with calumnies and counterworking his toil. It is a black day for a\nChurch when differences of opinion lead to the formation of cliques.\nZeal for truth is sadly apt to enlist spite, malice, and blindness to a\nmanifest work of God, as its allies.\n\nPoor Peter, no doubt, expected that the brethren would rejoice with him\nin the extension of the Gospel to 'the Gentiles,' but his reception in\nJerusalem was very unlike his hopes. The critics did not venture to\ncavil at his preaching to Gentiles. Probably none of them had any\nobjection to such being welcomed into the Church, for they can scarcely\nhave wished to make the door into it narrower than that into the\nsynagogue, but they insisted that there was no way in but through the\nsynagogue. By all means, said they, let Gentiles come, but they must\nfirst become Jews, by submitting to circumcision and living as Jews do.\nThus they did not attack Peter for preaching to the Roman centurion and\nhis men, but for eating with them. That eating not only was a breach of\nthe law, but it implied the reception of Cornelius and his company into\nthe household of God, and so destroyed the whole fabric of Jewish\nexclusiveness. We condemn such narrowness, but do many of us not\npractise it in other forms? Wherever Christians demand adoption of\nexternal usages, over and above exercise of penitent faith, as a\ncondition of brotherly recognition, they are walking in the steps of\nthem 'of the circumcision.'\n\nPeter's answer to the critics is the true answer to all similar hedging\nup of the Church, for he contents himself with showing that he was only\nfollowing God's action in every step of the way which he took, and that\nGod, by the gift of the divine Spirit, had shown that He had taken\nthese uncircumcised men into His fellowship, before Peter dared to 'eat\nwith them.' He points to four facts which show God's hand in the\nmatter, and thinks that he has done enough to vindicate himself\nthereby. The first is his vision on the housetop. He tells that he was\npraying when it came, and what God shows to a praying spirit is not\nlikely to mislead. He tells that he was 'in a trance,'--a condition in\nwhich prophets had of old received their commands. That again was a\nguarantee for the divine origin of the vision in the eyes of every Jew,\nthough nowadays it is taken by anti-supernaturalists as a demonstration\nof its morbidness and unreliableness. He tells of his reluctance to\nobey the command to 'kill and eat.' A flash of the old brusque spirit\nimpelled his flat refusal, 'Not so, Lord!' and his daring to argue with\nhis Lord still, as he had done with Him on earth. He tells of the\ninterpreting and revolutionary word, evoked by his audacious objection,\nand then he tells how 'this was done thrice,' so that there could be no\nmistake in his remembrance of it, and then that the whole was drawn up\ninto heaven,--a sign that the purpose of the vision was accomplished\nwhen that word was spoken. What, then, was the meaning of it?\n\nClearly it swept away at once the legal distinction of clean and\nunclean meats, and of it, too, may be spoken what Mark, Peter's\nmouthpiece, writes of earthly words of Christ's: 'This He said, making\nall meats clean.' But with the sweeping away of that distinction much\nelse goes, for it necessarily involves the abrogation of the whole\nseparating ordinances of the law, and of the distinction between clean\nand unclean persons. Its wider application was not seen at the moment,\nbut it flashed on him, no doubt, when face to face with Cornelius. God\nhad cleansed him, in that his prayers had 'gone up for a memorial\nbefore God,' and so Peter saw that 'in every nation,' and not among\nJews only, there might be men cleansed by God. What was true of\nCornelius must be true of many others. So the whole distinction between\nJew and Gentile was cut up by the roots. Little did Peter know the\nwidth of the principle revealed to him then, as all of us know but\nlittle of the full application of many truths which we believe. But he\nobeyed so much of the command as he understood, and more of it\ngradually dawned on his mind, as will always be the case if we obey\nwhat we know.\n\nThe second fact was the coincident arrival of the messengers and the\ndistinct command to accompany them. Peter could distinguish quite\nassuredly his own thoughts from divine instructions, as his account of\nthe dialogue in the trance shows. How he distinguished is not told;\nthat he distinguished is. The coincidence in time clearly pointed to\none divine hand working at both ends of the line,--Caesarea and Joppa.\nIt interpreted the vision which had 'much perplexed' Peter as to what\nit 'might mean.' But he was not left to interpret it by his own\npondering. The Spirit spoke authoritatively, and the whole force of his\njustification of himself depends on the fact that he knew that the\nimpulse which made him set out to Caesarea was not his own. If the\nreading of the Revised Version is adopted in verse 12, 'making no\ndistinction,' the command plainly referred to the vision, and showed\nPeter that he was to make no distinction of 'clean and unclean' in his\nintercourse with these Gentiles.\n\nThe third fact is the vision to Cornelius, of which he was told on\narriving. The two visions fitted into each other, confirmed each other,\ninterpreted each other. We may estimate the greatness of the step in\nthe development of the Church which the admission of Cornelius into it\nmade, and the obstacles on both sides, by the fact that both visions\nwere needed to bring these two men together. Peter would never have\ndreamed of going with the messengers if he had not had his narrowness\nbeaten out of him on the housetop, and Cornelius would never have\ndreamed of sending to Joppa if he had not seen the angel. The cleft\nbetween Jew and Gentile was so wide that God's hand had to be applied\non both sides to press the separated parts together. He had plainly\ndone it, and that was Peter's defence.\n\nThe fourth fact is the gift of the Spirit to these Gentiles. That is\nthe crown of Peter's vindication, and his question, 'Who was I, that I\ncould withstand God?' might be profitably pondered and applied by those\nwhose ecclesiastical theories oblige them to deny the 'orders' and the\n'validity of the sacraments' and the very name of a Church, to bodies\nof Christians who do not conform to their polity. If God, by the gift\nof His Spirit manifest in its fruits, owns them, they have the true\n'notes of the Church,' and 'they of the circumcision' who recoil from\nrecognising them do themselves more harm thereby than they inflict on\nthese. 'As many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are the sons of\nGod,' even though some brother may be 'angry' that the Father welcomes\nthem.\n\n\n\nTHE FIRST PREACHING AT ANTIOCH\n\n'And some of them were men of Cyprus and Cyrene, which, when they ware\ncome to Antioch, spake unto the Grecians, preaching the Lord Jesus. 21.\nAnd the hand of the Lord was with them: and a great number believed,\nand turned unto the Lord.'--ACTS xi. 20, 21.\n\nThus simply does the historian tell one of the greatest events in the\nhistory of the Church. How great it was will appear if we observe that\nthe weight of authority among critics and commentators sees here an\nextension of the message of salvation to Greeks, that is, to pure\nheathens, and not a mere preaching to Hellenists, that is, to\nGreek-speaking Jews born outside Palestine.\n\nIf that be correct, this was a great stride forward in the development\nof the Church. It needed a vision to overcome the scruples of Peter,\nand impel him to the bold innovation of preaching to Cornelius and his\nhousehold, and, as we know, his doing so gave grave offence to some of\nhis brethren in Jerusalem. But in the case before us, some Cypriote and\nAfrican Jews--men of no note in the Church, whose very names have\nperished, with no official among them, with no vision nor command to\nimpel them, with no precedent to encourage them, with nothing but the\ntruth in their minds and the impulses of Christ's love in their\nhearts--solve the problem of the extension of Christ's message to the\nheathen, and, quite unconscious of the greatness of their act, do the\nthing about the propriety of which there had been such serious question\nin Jerusalem.\n\nThis boldness becomes even more remarkable if we notice that the\nincident of our text may have taken place before Peter's visit to\nCornelius. The verse before our text, 'They which were scattered abroad\nupon the persecution that arose about Stephen travelled, ... preaching\nthe word to none but unto the Jews only,' is almost a _verbatim_\nrepetition of words in an earlier chapter, and evidently suggests that\nthe writer is returning to that point of time, in order to take up\nanother thread of his narrative contemporaneous with those already\npursued. If so, three distinct lines of expansion appear to have\nstarted from the dispersion of the Jerusalem church in the\npersecution--namely, Philip's mission to Samaria, Peter's to Cornelius,\nand this work in Antioch. Whether prior in time or no, the preaching in\nthe latter city was plainly quite independent of the other two. It is\nfurther noteworthy that this, the effort of a handful of unnamed men,\nwas the true 'leader'--the shoot that grew. Philip's work, and Peter's\nso far as we know, were side branches, which came to little; this led\non to a church at Antioch, and so to Paul's missionary work, and all\nthat came of that.\n\nThe incident naturally suggests some thoughts bearing on the general\nsubject of Christian work, which we now briefly present.\n\nI. Notice the spontaneous impulse which these men obeyed.\n\nPersecution drove the members of the Church apart, and, as a matter of\ncourse, wherever they went they took their faith with them, and, as a\nmatter of course, spoke about it. The coals were scattered from the\nhearth in Jerusalem by the armed heel of violence. That did not put the\nfire out, but only spread it, for wherever they were flung they kindled\na blaze. These men had no special injunction 'to preach the Lord\nJesus.' They do not seem to have adopted this line of action\ndeliberately, or of set purpose. 'They believed, and therefore spoke.'\nA spontaneous impulse, and nothing more, leads them on. They find\nthemselves rejoicing in a great Saviour-Friend. They see all around\nthem men who need Him, and that is enough. They obey the promptings of\nthe voice within, and lay the foundations of the first Gentile Church.\n\nSuch a spontaneous impulse is ever the natural result of our own\npersonal possession of Christ. In regard to worldly good the instinct,\nexcept when overcome by higher motives, is to keep the treasure to\noneself. But even in the natural sphere there are possessions which to\nhave is to long to impart, such as truth and knowledge. And in the\nspiritual sphere, it is emphatically the case that real possession is\nalways accompanied by a longing to impart. The old prophet spoke a\nuniversal truth when he said: 'Thy word was as a fire shut up in my\nbones, and I was weary with forbearing, and I could not stay.' If we\nhave found Christ for ourselves, we shall undoubtedly wish to speak\nforth our knowledge of His love. Convictions which are deep demand\nexpression. Emotion which is strong needs utterance. If our hearts have\nany fervour of love to Christ in them, it will be as natural to tell it\nforth, as tears are to sorrow or smiles to happiness. True, there is a\nreticence in profound feeling, and sometimes the deepest love can only\n'love and be silent,' and there is a just suspicion of loud or vehement\nprotestations of Christian emotion, as of any emotion. But for all\nthat, it remains true that a heart warmed with the love of Christ needs\nto express its love, and will give it forth, as certainly as light must\nradiate from its centre, or heat from a fire.\n\nThen, true kindliness of heart creates the same impulse. We cannot\ntruly possess the treasure for ourselves without pity for those who\nhave it not. Surely there is no stranger contradiction than that\nChristian men and women can be content to keep Christ as if He were\ntheir special property, and have their spirits untouched into any\nlikeness of His divine pity for the multitudes who were as 'sheep\nhaving no shepherd.' What kind of Christians must they be who think of\nChrist as 'a Saviour for me,' and take no care to set Him forth as 'a\nSaviour for you'? What should we think of men in a shipwreck who were\ncontent to get into the lifeboat, and let everybody else drown? What\nshould we think of people in a famine feasting sumptuously on their\nprivate stores, whilst women were boiling their children for a meal and\nmen fighting with dogs for garbage on the dunghills? 'He that\nwithholdeth bread, the people shall curse him.' What of him who\nwithholds the Bread of Life, and all the while claims to be a follower\nof the Christ, who gave His flesh for the life of the world?\n\nFurther, loyalty to Christ creates the same impulse. If we are true to\nour Lord, we shall feel that we cannot but speak up and out for Him,\nand that all the more where His name is unloved and unhonoured. He has\nleft His good fame very much in our hands, and the very same impulse\nwhich hurries words to our lips when we hear the name of an absent\nfriend calumniated should make us speak for Him. He is a doubtfully\nloyal subject who, if he lives among rebels, is afraid to show his\ncolours. He is already a coward, and is on the way to be a traitor. Our\nMaster has made us His witnesses. He has placed in our hands, as a\nsacred deposit, the honour of His name. He has entrusted to us, as His\nselectest sign of confidence, the carrying out of the purposes for\nwhich on earth His blood was shed, on which in heaven His heart is set.\nHow can we be loyal to Him if we are not forced by a mighty constraint\nto respond to His great tokens of trust in us, and if we know nothing\nof that spirit which said: 'Necessity is laid upon me; yea, woe is unto\nme, if I preach not the gospel!' I do not say that a man cannot be a\nChristian unless he knows and obeys this impulse. But, at least, we may\nsafely say that he is a very weak and imperfect Christian who does not.\n\nII. This incident suggests the universal obligation on all Christians\nto make known Christ.\n\nThese men were not officials. In these early days the Church had a very\nloose organisation. But the fugitives in our narrative seem to have had\namong them none even of the humble office-bearers of primitive times.\nNeither had they any command or commission from Jerusalem. No one there\nhad given them authority, or, as would appear, knew anything of their\nproceedings. Could there be a more striking illustration of the great\ntruth that whatever varieties of function may be committed to various\nofficers in the Church, the work of telling Christ's love to men\nbelongs to every one who has found it for himself or herself? 'This\nhonour have all the saints.'\n\nWhatever may be our differences of opinion as to Church order and\noffices, they need not interfere with our firm grasp of this truth.\n'Preaching Christ,' in the sense in which that expression is used in\nthe New Testament, implies no one special method of proclaiming the\nglad tidings. A word written in a letter to a friend, a sentence\ndropped in casual conversation, a lesson to a child on a mother's lap,\nor any other way by which, to any listeners, the great story of the\nCross is told, is as truly--often more truly--preaching Christ as the\nset discourse which has usurped the name.\n\nWe profess to believe in the priesthood of all believers, we are ready\nenough to assert it in opposition to sacerdotal assumptions. Are we as\nready to recognise it as laying a very real responsibility upon us, and\ninvolving a very practical inference as to our own conduct? We all have\nthe power, therefore we all have the duty. For what purpose did God\ngive us the blessing of knowing Christ ourselves? Not for our own\nwell-being alone, but that through us the blessing might be still\nfurther diffused.\n\n  'Heaven doth with us as men with torches do,\n    Not light them for themselves.'\n\n'God hath shined into our hearts' that we might give to others 'the\nlight of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus\nChrist.' Every Christian is solemnly bound to fulfil this divine\nintention, and to take heed to the imperative command, 'Freely ye have\nreceived, freely give.'\n\nIII. Observe, further, the simple message which they proclaimed.\n\n'Preaching the Lord Jesus,' says the text--or more accurately\nperhaps--'preaching Jesus as Lord.' The substance, then, of their\nmessage was just this--proclamation of the person and dignity of their\nMaster, the story of the human life of the Man, the story of the divine\nsacrifice and self-bestowment by which He had bought the right of\nsupreme rule over every heart; and the urging of His claims on all who\nheard of His love. And this, their message, was but the proclamation of\ntheir own personal experience. They had found Jesus to be for\nthemselves Lover and Lord, Friend and Saviour of their souls, and the\njoy they had received they sought to share with these Greeks,\nworshippers of gods and lords many.\n\nSurely anybody can deliver that message who has had that experience.\nAll have not the gifts which would fit for public speech, but all who\nhave 'tasted that the Lord is gracious' can somehow tell how gracious\nHe is. The first Christian sermon was very short, and it was very\nefficacious, for it 'brought to Jesus' the whole congregation. Here it\nis: 'He first findeth his brother Simon, and saith unto him, We have\nfound the Messias.' Surely we can all say that, if we have found Him.\nSurely we shall all long to say it, if we are glad that we have found\nHim, and if we love our brother.\n\nNotice, too, how simple the form as well as the substance of the\nmessage. 'They _spake_.' It was no set address, no formal utterance,\nbut familiar, natural talk to ones and twos, as opportunity offered.\nThe form was so simple that we may say that there was none. What we\nwant is that Christian people should speak anyhow. What does the shape\nof the cup matter? What does it matter whether it be gold or clay? The\nmain thing is that it shall bear the water of life to some thirsty lip.\nAll Christians have to preach, as the word is used here, that is, to\ntell the good news. Their task is to carry a message--no refinement of\nwords is needed for that--arguments are not needed. They have to tell\nit simply and faithfully, as one who only cares to repeat what he has\nhad given to him. They have to tell it confidently, as having proved it\ntrue. They have to tell it beseechingly, as loving the souls to whom\nthey bring it. Surely we can all do that, if we ourselves are living on\nChrist and have drunk into His Spirit. Let His mighty salvation,\nexperienced by yourselves, be the substance of your message, and let\nthe form of it be guided by the old words, 'It shall be, when the\nSpirit of the Lord is come upon thee, that thou shalt do as occasion\nshall serve thee.'\n\nIV. Notice, lastly, the mighty Helper who prospered their work.\n\n'The hand of the Lord was with them.' The very keynote of this Book of\nthe Acts is the work of the ascended Christ in and for His Church. At\nevery turning-point in the history, and throughout the whole\nnarratives, forms of speech like this occur, bearing witness to the\nprofound conviction of the writer that Christ's active energy was with\nHis servants, and Christ's Hand the origin of all their security and of\nall their success.\n\nSo this is a statement of a permanent and universal fact. We do not\nlabour alone; however feeble our hands, that mighty Hand is laid on\nthem to direct their movements and to lend strength to their weakness.\nIt is not our speech which will secure results, but His presence with\nour words which will bring it about that even through them a great\nnumber shall believe and turn to the Lord. There is our encouragement\nwhen we are despondent. There is our rebuke when we are self-confident.\nThere is our stimulus when we are indolent. There is our quietness when\nwe are impatient. If ever we are tempted to think our task heavy, let\nus not forget that He who set it helps us to do it, and from His throne\nshares in all our toils, the Lord still, as of old, working with us. If\never we feel that our strength is nothing, and that we stand solitary\nagainst many foes, let us fall back upon the peace-giving thought that\none man against the world, with Christ to help him, is always in the\nmajority, and let us leave issues of our work in His hands, whose hand\nwill guard the seed sown in weakness, whose smile will bless the\nspringing thereof.\n\nHow little any of us know what will become of our poor work, under His\nfostering care! How little these men knew that they were laying the\nfoundations of the great change which was to transform the Christian\ncommunity from a Jewish sect into a world-embracing Church! So is it\never. We know not what we do when simply and humbly we speak His name.\nThe far-reaching results escape our eyes. Then, sow the seed, and He\nwill 'give it a body as it pleaseth Him.' On earth we may never know\nthe fruits of our labours. They will be among the surprises of heaven,\nwhere many a solitary worker shall exclaim with wonder, as he looks on\nthe hitherto unknown children whom God hath given him, 'Behold, I was\nleft alone; these, where had they been?' Then, though our names may\nhave perished from earthly memories, like those of the simple fugitives\nof Cyprus and Cyrene, who 'were the first that ever burst' into the\nnight of heathendom with the torch of the Gospel in their hands, they\nwill be written in the Lamb's book of life, and He will confess them in\nthe presence of His Father in heaven.\n\n\n\nTHE EXHORTATION OF BARNABAS [Footnote: Preached before the\nCongregational Union of England and Wales.]\n\n'Who, when he came, and had seen the grace of God, was glad, and\nexhorted them all, that with purpose of heart they would cleave unto\nthe Lord.'--ACTS xi. 23.\n\nThe first purely heathen converts had been brought into the Church by\nthe nameless men of Cyprus and Cyrene, private persons with no office\nor commission to preach, who, in simple obedience to the instincts of a\nChristian heart, leaped the barrier which seemed impassable to the\nChurch in Jerusalem, and solved the problem over which Apostles were\nhesitating. Barnabas is sent down to see into this surprising new\nphenomenon, and his mission, though probably not hostile, was, at all\nevents, one of inquiry and doubt. But like a true man, he yielded to\nfacts, and widened his theory to suit them. He saw the tokens of\nChristian life in these Gentile converts, and that compelled him to\nadmit that the Church was wider than some of his friends in Jerusalem\nthought. A pregnant lesson for modern theorists who, on one ground or\nanother of doctrine or of orders, narrow the great conception of\nChrist's Church! Can you see 'the grace of God' in the people? Then\nthey are in the Church, whatever becomes of your theories, and the\nsooner you let them out so as to fit the facts, the better for you and\nfor them.\n\nSatisfied as to their true Christian character, Barnabas sets himself\nto help them to grow. Now, remember how recently they had been\nconverted; how, from their Gentile origin, they can have had next to no\nsystematic instruction; how the taint of heathen morals, such as were\ncommon in that luxurious, corrupt Antioch, must have clung to them; how\nunformed must have been their loose Church organisation--and\nremembering all this, think of this one exhortation as summing up all\nthat Barnabas had to say to them. He does not say, Do this, or Believe\nthat, or Organise the other; but he says, Stick to Jesus Christ the\nLord. On this commandment hangs all the law; it is the one\nall-inclusive summary of the duties of the Christian life.\n\nSo, brethren and fathers, I venture to take these words now, as\ncontaining large lessons for us all, appropriate at all times, and\nespecially in a sermon on such an occasion as the present.\n\nWe may deal with the thoughts suggested by these words very simply,\njust looking at the points as they lie--what Barnabas _saw_, what he\n_felt_, what he _said_.\n\nI. What Barnabas saw.\n\nThe grace of God here has very probably the specific meaning of the\nmiracle-working gift of the Holy Spirit. That is rendered probable by\nthe analogy of other instances recorded in the Acts of the Apostles,\nsuch as Peter's experience at Caesarea, where all his hesitations and\nreluctance were swept away when 'the Holy Ghost fell on them as on us\nat the beginning, and they spake with tongues.' If so, what convinced\nBarnabas that these uncircumcised Gentiles were Christians like\nhimself, may have been their similar possession of the visible and\naudible effects of that gift of God. But the language does not compel\nthis interpretation; and the absence of all distinct reference to these\nextraordinary powers as existing there, among the new converts at\nAntioch, may be intended to mark a difference in the nature of the\nevidence. At any rate, the possibly intentional generality of the\nexpression is significant and fairly points to an extension of the\nspiritual gifts much beyond the limits of miraculous powers. There are\nother ways by which the grace of God may be seen and heard, thank God!\nthan by speaking with tongues and working miracles; and the first\nlesson of our text is that wherever that grace is made visible by its\nappropriate manifestations, there we are to recognise a brother.\n\nAugustine said, 'Where Christ is there is the Church,' and that is\ntrue, but vague; for the question still remains, 'And where _is_\nChrist?' The only satisfying answer is, Christ is wherever Christlike\nmen manifest a life drawn from, and kindred with, His life. And so the\ntrue form of the dictum for practical purposes comes to be: 'Where the\ngrace of Christ is visible, there is the Church.'\n\nThat great truth is sinned against and denied in many ways. Most\nchiefly, perhaps, by the successors in modern garb of the more Jewish\nportion of that Church at Jerusalem who sent Barnabas to Antioch. They\nhad no objection to Gentiles entering the Church, but they must come in\nby the way of circumcision; they quite believed that it was Christ who\nsaved, and His grace which sanctified, but they thought that His grace\nwould only flow in a given channel; and so do their modern\nrepresentatives, who exalt sacraments, and consequently priests, to the\nsame place as the Judaizers in the early Church did the rite of the old\nCovenant. Such teachers have much to say about the notes of the Church,\nand have elaborated a complicated system of identification by which you\nmay know the genuine article, and unmask impostors. The attempt is\nabout as wise as to try to weave a network fine enough to keep back a\nstream. The water will flow through the closest meshes, and when Christ\npours out the Spirit, He is apt to do it in utter disregard of notes of\nthe Church, and of channels of sacramental grace.\n\nWe Congregationalists, who have no orders, no sacraments, no Apostolic\nsuccession; who in order not to break loose from Christ and conscience\nhave had to break loose from 'Catholic tradition,' and have been driven\nto separation by the true schismatics, who have insisted on another\nbond of Church unity than union to Christ, are denied nowadays a place\nin His Church.\n\nThe true answer to all that arrogant assumption and narrow pedantry\nwhich confine the free flow of the water of life to the conduits of\nsacraments and orders, and will only allow the wind that bloweth where\nit listeth to make music in the pipes of their organs, is simply the\nhomely one which shivered a corresponding theory to atoms in the fair\nopen mind of Barnabas.\n\nThe Spirit of Christ at work in men's hearts, making them pure and\ngentle, simple and unworldly, refining their characters, elevating\ntheir aims, toning their whole being into accord with the music of His\nlife, is the true proof that men are Christians, and that communities\nof such men are Churches of His. Mysterious efficacy is claimed for\nChristian ordinances. Well, the question is a fair one: Is the type of\nChristian character produced within these sacred limits, which we are\nhopelessly outside, conspicuously higher and more manifestly Christlike\nthan that nourished by no sacraments, and grown not under glass, but in\nthe unsheltered open? Has not God set His seal on these communities to\nwhich we belong? With many faults for which we have to be, and are,\nhumble before Him, we can point to the lineaments of the family\nlikeness, and say, 'Are they Hebrews? so are we. Are they Israelites?\nso are we. Are they the seed of Abraham? so are we.'\n\nOnce get that truth wrought into men's minds, that the true test of\nChristianity is the visible presence of a grace in character which is\nevidently God's, and whole mountains of prejudice and error melt away.\nWe are just as much in danger of narrowing the Church in accordance\nwith our narrowness as any 'sacramentarian' of them all. We are tempted\nto think that no good thing can grow up under the baleful shadow of\nthat tree, a sacerdotal Christianity. We are tempted to think that all\nthe good people are Dissenters, just as Churchmen are to think that\nnobody can be a Christian who prays without a prayer-book. Our own type\nof denominational character--and there is such a thing--comes to be\naccepted by us as the all but exclusive ideal of a devout man; and we\nhave not imagination enough to conceive, nor charity enough to believe\nin, the goodness which does not speak our dialect, nor see with our\neyes. Dogmatical narrowness has built as high walls as ceremonial\nChristianity has reared round the fold of Christ, And the one\ndeliverance for us all from the transformed selfishness, which has so\nmuch to do with shaping all these wretched narrow theories of the\nChurch, is to do as this man did--open our eyes with sympathetic\neagerness to see God's grace in many an unexpected place, and square\nour theories with His dealings.\n\nIt used to be an axiom that there was no life in the sea beyond a\ncertain limit of a few hundred feet. It was learnedly and conclusively\ndemonstrated that pressure and absence of light, and I know not what\nbeside, made life at greater depths impossible. It was proved that in\nsuch conditions creatures could not live. And then, when that was\nsettled, the _Challenger_ put down her dredge five miles, and brought\nup healthy and good-sized living things, with eyes in their heads, from\nthat enormous depth. So, then, the savant had to ask, _How_ can there\nbe life? instead of asserting that there cannot be; and, no doubt, the\nanswer will be forth coming some day.\n\nWe have all been too much accustomed to set arbitrary limits to the\ndiffusion of the life of Christ among men. Let us rather rejoice when\nwe see forms of beauty, which bear the mark of His hand, drawn from\ndepths that we deemed waste, and thankfully confess that the bounds of\nour expectation, and the framework of our institutions, do not confine\nthe breadth of His working, nor the sweep of His grace.\n\nII. What Barnabas felt.\n\n'He was glad.' It was a triumph of Christian principle to recognise the\ngrace of God under new forms, and in so strange a place. It was a still\ngreater triumph to hail it with rejoicing. One need not have wondered\nif the acknowledgment of a fact, dead in the teeth of all his\nprejudices, and seemingly destructive of some profound convictions, had\nbeen somewhat grudging. Even a good, true man might have been\nbewildered and reluctant to let go so much as was destroyed by the\nadmission--'Then hath God granted to the Gentiles also repentance unto\nlife,'--and might have been pardoned if he had not been able to do more\nthan acquiesce and hold his peace. We are scarcely just to these early\nJewish Christians when we wonder at their hesitation on this matter,\nand are apt to forget the enormous strength of the prejudices and\nsacred conviction which they had to overcome. Hence the context seems\nto consider that the quick recognition of Christian character on the\npart of Barnabas, and his gladness at the discovery, need explanation,\nand so it adds, with special reference to these, as it would seem, 'for\nhe was a good man, full of the Holy Ghost and of faith,' as if nothing\nshort of such characteristics could have sufficiently emancipated him\nfrom the narrowness that would have refused to discern the good, or the\nbitterness that would have been offended at it.\n\nSo, dear brethren, we may well test ourselves with this question: Does\nthe discovery of the working of the grace of God outside the limits of\nour own Churches and communions excite a quick, spontaneous emotion of\ngladness in _our_ hearts? It may upset some of our theories; it may\nteach us that things which we thought very important, 'distinctive\nprinciples' and the like, are not altogether as precious as we thought\nthem; it may require us to give up some pleasant ideas of our\nsuperiority, and of the necessary conformity of all good people to our\ntype. Are we willing to let them all go, and without a twinge of envy\nor a hanging back from prejudice, to welcome the discovery that 'God\nfulfils Himself in many ways'? Have we schooled ourselves to say\nhonestly, 'Therein I do rejoice, yea, and will rejoice'?\n\nThere is much to overcome if we would know this Christlike gladness.\nThe good and the bad in us may both oppose it. The natural deeper\ninterest in the well-being of the Churches of our own faith and order,\nthe legitimate ties which unite us with these, our conscientious\nconvictions, our friendships, the _esprit de corps_ born of fighting\nshoulder to shoulder, will, of course, make our sympathies flow most\nquickly and deeply in denominational channels. And then come in\nabundance of less worthy motives, some altogether bad and some the\nexaggeration of what is good, and we get swallowed up in our own\nindividual work, or in that of our 'denomination,' and have but a very\ntepid joy in anybody else's prosperity.\n\nIn almost every town of England, your Churches, and those to which I\nbelong, with Presbyterians and Wesleyans, stand side by side. The\nconditions of our work make some rivalry inevitable, and none of us, I\nsuppose, object to that. It helps to keep us all diligent: a sturdy\nadherence to our several 'distinctive principles' and an occasional\nhard blow in fair fight on their behalf we shall all insist upon. Our\nbrotherhood is all the more real for frank speech, and 'the animated\nNo!' is an essential in all intercourse which is not stagnant or\nmawkish. There is much true fellowship and much good feeling among all\nthese. But we want far more of an honest rejoicing in each other's\nsuccess, a quicker and truer manly sympathy with each other's work, a\nfuller consciousness of our solidarity in Christ, and a clearer\nexhibition of it before the world.\n\nAnd on a wider view, as our eyes travel over the wide field of\nChristendom, and our memories go back over the long ages of the story\nof the Church, let gladness, and not wonder or reluctance, be the\ntemper with which we see the graces of Christian character lifting\ntheir meek blossoms in corners strange to us, and breathing their\nfragrance over the pastures of the wilderness. In many a cloister, in\nmany a hermit's cell, from amidst the smoke of incense, through the\ndust of controversies, we should see, and be glad to see, faces bright\nwith the radiance caught from Christ. Let us set a jealous watch over\nour hearts that self-absorption, or denominationalism, or envy do not\nmake the sight a pain instead of a joy; and let us remember that the\neye-salve which will purge our dim sight to behold the grace of God in\nall its forms is that grace itself, which ever recognises its own\nkindred, and lives in the gladness of charity, and the joy of beholding\na brother's good. If we are to have eyes to know the grace of God when\nwe see it, and a heart to rejoice when we know it, we must get them as\nBarnabas got his, and be good men, because we are full of the Holy\nGhost, and full of the Holy Ghost because we are full of faith.\n\nIII. What Barnabas said.\n\n'He exhorted them all, that with purpose of heart they would cleave\nunto the Lord.' The first thing that strikes one about this\nall-sufficient directory for Christian life is the emphasis with which\nit sets forth 'the Lord' as the one object to be grasped and held. The\nsum of all objective Religion is Christ--the sum of all subjective\nReligion is cleaving to Him. A living Person to be laid hold of, and a\npersonal relation to that Person, such is the conception of Religion,\nwhether considered as revelation or as inward life, which underlies\nthis exhortation. Whether we listen to His own words about Himself, and\nmark the altogether unprecedented way in which He was His own theme,\nand the unique decisiveness and plainness with which He puts His own\npersonality before us as the Incarnate Truth, the pattern for all human\nconduct, the refuge and the rest for the world of weary ones; or\nwhether we give ear to the teaching of His Apostles; from whatever\npoint of view we approach Christianity, it all resolves itself into the\nperson of Jesus Christ. He is the _Revelation_ of God; theology,\nproperly so called, is but the formulating of the facts which He gives\nus; and for the modern world the alternative is, Christ the manifested\nGod, or no God at all, other than the shadow of a name. He is the\nperfect _Exemplar_ of humanity! The law of life and the power to fulfil\nthe law are both in Him; and the superiority of Christian morality\nconsists not in this or that isolated precept, but in the embodiment of\nall goodness in His life, and in the new motive which He supplies for\nkeeping the commandment. Wrenched away from Him, Christian morality has\nno being. He is the sacrifice for the world, the salvation of which\nflows from what He does, and not merely from what He taught or was. His\npersonality is the foundation of His work, and the gospel of\nforgiveness and reconciliation is all contained in the name of Jesus.\n\nThere is a constant tendency to separate the results of Christ's life\nand death, whether considered as revelation, atonement, or ethics, from\nHim, and unconsciously to make these the sum of our Religion, and the\nobject of our faith. Especially is this the case in times of restless\nthought and eager canvassing of the very foundations of religious\nbelief, like the present. Therefore it is wholesome for us all to be\nbrought back to the pregnant simplicity of the thought which underlies\nthis text, and to mark how vividly these early Christians apprehended a\nliving Lord as the sum and substance of all which they had to grasp.\n\nThere is a whole world between the man to whom God's revelation\nconsists in certain doctrines given to us by Jesus Christ, and the man\nto whom it consists in that Christ Himself. Grasping a living person is\nnot the same as accepting a proposition. True, the propositions are\nabout Him, and we do not know Him without them. But equally true, we\nneed to be reminded that _He_ is our Saviour and not _they_, and that\nGod has revealed Himself to us not in words and sentences but in a life.\n\nFor, alas! the doctrinal element has overborne the personal among all\nChurches and all schools of thought, and in the necessary process of\nformulating and systematising the riches which are in Jesus, we are all\napt to confound the creeds with the Christ, and so to manipulate\nChristianity until, instead of being the revelation of a Person and a\ngospel, it has become a system of divinity. Simple, devout souls have\nto complain that they cannot find even a dead Christ, to say nothing of\na living one, for the theologians have 'taken away their Lord, and they\nknow not where they have laid Him.'\n\nIt is, therefore, to be reckoned as a distinct gain that one result of\nthe course of more recent thought, both among friends and foes, has\nbeen to make all men feel more than before, that all revelation is\ncontained in the living person of Jesus Christ. So did the Church\nbelieve before creeds were. So it is coming to feel again, with a\nconsciousness enriched and defined by the whole body of doctrine, which\nhas flowed from Him during all the ages. That solemn, gracious Figure\nrises day by day more clearly before men, whether they love Him or no,\nas the vital centre of this great whole of doctrines, laws,\ninstitutions, which we call Christianity. Round the story of His life\nthe final struggle is to be waged. The foe feels that, so long as that\nremains, all other victories count for nothing. We feel that if that\ngoes, there is nothing to keep. The principles and the precepts will\nperish alike, as the fair palace of the old legend, that crumbled to\ndust when its builder died. But so long as He stands before mankind as\nHe is painted in the Gospel, it will endure. If all else were\nannihilated, Churches, creeds and all, leave us these four Gospels, and\nall else would be evolved again. The world knows now, and the Church\nhas always known, though it has not always been true to the\nsignificance of the fact, that Jesus Christ is Christianity, and that\nbecause He lives, it will live also.\n\nAnd consequently the sum of all personal religion is this simple act\ndescribed here as _cleaving to Him_.\n\nNeed I do more than refer to the rich variety of symbols and forms of\nexpression under which that thought is put alike by the Master and by\nHis servants? Deepest of all are His own great words, of which our text\nis but a feeble echo, 'Abide in Me, and I in you.' Fairest of all is\nthat lovely emblem of the vine, setting forth the sweet mystery of our\nunion with Him. Far as it is from the outmost pliant tendril to the\nroot, one life passes to the very extremities, and every cluster swells\nand reddens and mellows because of its mysterious flow. 'So also is\nChrist.' We remember how often the invitation flowed from His lips,\n_Come_ unto Me; how He was wont to beckon men away from self and the\nworld with the great command, _Follow_ Me; how He explained the secret\nof all true life to consist in _eating_ Him. We may recall, too, the\nemphasis and perpetual reiteration with which Paul speaks of being 'in\nJesus' as the condition of all blessedness, power, and righteousness;\nand the emblems which he so often employs of the building bound into a\nwhole on the foundation from which it derives its stability, of the\nbody compacted and organised into a whole by the head from which it\nderives its life.\n\nWe begin to be Christians, as this context tells us, when we 'turn to\nthe Lord.' We continue to be Christians, as Barnabas reminded these\nignorant beginners, by 'cleaving to the Lord.' Seeing, then, that our\ngreat task is to preserve that which we have as the very foundation of\nour Christian life, clearly the truest method of so keeping it will be\nthe constant repetition of the act by which we got it at first. In\nother words, faith joined us to Christ, and continuously reiterated\nacts of faith keep us united to Him. So, if I may venture, fathers and\nbrethren, to cast my words into the form of exhortation, even to such\nan audience as the present, I would earnestly say, Let us cleave to\nChrist by continual renewal of our first faith in Him.\n\nThe longest line may be conceived of as produced simply by the motion\nof its initial point. So should our lives be, our progress not\nconsisting in leaving our early acts of faith behind us, but in\nrepeating them over and over again till the points coalesce in one\nunbroken line which goes straight to the Throne and Heart of Jesus.\nTrue, the repetition should be accompanied with fuller knowledge, with\ncalmer certitude, and should come from a heart ennobled and encircled\nby a Christ-possessing past. As in some great symphony the theme which\nwas given out in low notes on one poor instrument recurs over and over\nagain, embroidered with varying harmonies, and unfolding a richer\nmusic, till it swells into all the grandeur of the triumphant close, so\nour lives should be bound into a unity, and in their unity bound to\nChrist by the constant renewal of our early faith, and the fathers\nshould come round again to the place which they occupied when as\nchildren they first knew Him that is 'from the beginning' to the end\none and the same.\n\nSuch constant reiteration is needed, too, because yesterday's trust has\nno more power to secure to-day's union than the shreds of cloth and\nnails which hold last year's growth to the wall will fasten this year's\nshoots. Each moment must be united to Christ by its own act of faith,\nor it will be separated from Him. So living in the Lord we shall be\nstrong and wise, happy and holy. So dying in the Lord we shall be of\nthe dead who are blessed. So sleeping in Jesus we shall at the last be\nfound in Him at that day, and shall be raised up together, and made to\nsit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus.\n\nBut more specially let us cleave to Christ by habitual contemplation.\nThere can be no real continuous closeness of intercourse with Him,\nexcept by thought ever recurring to Him amidst all the tumult of our\nbusy days. I do not mean professional thinking or controversial\nthinking, of which we ministers have more than enough. There is another\nmood of mind in which to approach our Lord than these, a mood sadly\nunfamiliar, I am afraid, in these days: when poor Mary has hardly a\nchance of a reputation for 'usefulness' by the side of busy, bustling\nMartha--that still contemplation of the truth which we possess, not\nwith the view of discovering its foundations, or investigating its\napplications, or even of increasing our knowledge of its contents, but\nof bringing our own souls more completely under its influence, and\nsaturating our being with its fragrance. The Church has forgotten how\nto meditate. We are all so occupied arguing and deducing and\nelaborating, that we have no time for retired, still contemplation, and\ntherefore lose the finest aroma of the truth we profess to believe.\nMany of us are so busy thinking about Christianity that we have lost\nour hold of Christ. Sure I am that there are few things more needed by\nour modern religion than the old exhortation, 'Come, My people, enter\ninto thy chambers and shut thy doors about thee.' Cleave to the Lord by\nhabitual play of meditative thought on the treasures hidden in His\nname, and waiting like gold in the quartz, to be the prize of our\npatient sifting and close gaze.\n\nAnd when the great truths embodied in Him stand clear before us, then\nlet us remember that we have not done with them when we have _seen_\nthem. Next must come into exercise the moral side of faith, the\nvoluntary act of trust, the casting ourselves on Him whom we behold,\nthe making our own of the blessings which He holds out to us. Flee to\nChrist as to our strong habitation to which we may continually resort.\nHold tightly by Christ with a grasp which nothing can slacken (that\nwhitens your very knuckles as you clutch Him), lean on Christ all your\nweight and all your burdens. Cleave to the Lord with full purpose of\nheart.\n\nLet us cleave to the Lord by constant outgoings of our love to Him.\nThat is the bond which unites human spirits together in the only real\nunion, and Scripture teaches us to see in the sweetest, sacredest,\nclosest tie that men and women can know, a real, though faint, shadow\nof the far deeper and truer union between Christ and us. The same love\nwhich is the bond of perfectness between man and man, is the bond\nbetween us and Christ. In no dreamy, semi-pantheistic fusion of the\nbeliever with his Lord do we find the true conception of the unity of\nChrist and His Church, but in a union which preserves the\nindividualities lest it should slay the love. Faith knits us to Christ,\nand faith is the mother of love, which maintains the blessed union. So\nlet us not be ashamed of the _emotional_ side of our religion, nor deem\nthat we can cleave to Christ unless our hearts twine their tendrils\nround Him, and our love pours its odorous treasures on His sacred feet,\nnot without weeping and embraces. Cold natures may carp, but Love is\njustified of her children, and Christ accepts the homage that has a\nheart in it. Cleaving to the Lord is not merely love, but it is\nimpossible without it. The order is Faith, Love, Obedience--that\nthreefold cord knits men to Christ, and Christ to men. For the\nunderstanding, a continuous grasp of Him as the object of thought. For\nthe heart, a continuous outgoing to Him as the object of our love. For\nthe will, a continuous submission to Him as the Lord of our obedience.\nFor the whole nature, a continuous cleaving to Him as the object of our\nfaith and worship.\n\nSuch is the true discipline of the Christian life. Such is the\nall-sufficient command; as for the newest convert from heathenism, with\nlittle knowledge and the taint of his old vices in his soul, so for the\nsaint fullest of wisdom and nearest the Light.\n\nIt _is_ all-sufficient. If Barnabas had been like some of us, he would\nhave had a very different style of exhortation. He would have said,\n'This irregular work has been well done, but there are no authorised\nteachers here, and no provision has been made for the due\nadministration of the sacraments of the Church. The very first thing of\nall is to give these people the blessing of bishops and priests.' Some\nof us would have said, 'Valuable work has been done, but these good\npeople are terribly ignorant. The best thing would be to get ready as\nsoon as possible some manual of Christian doctrine, and in the meantime\nprovide for their systematic instruction in at least the elements of\nthe faith.' Some of us would have said, 'No doubt they have been\nconverted, but we fear there has been too much of the emotional in the\npreaching. The moral side of Christianity has not been pressed home,\nand what they chiefly need is to be taught that it is not feeling, but\nrighteousness. Plain, practical instruction in Christian duty is the\none thing they want.'\n\nBarnabas knew better. He did not despise organisation, nor orthodoxy,\nnor practical righteousness, but he knew that all three, and everything\nelse that any man needed for his perfecting would come, if only the\nconverts kept near to Christ, and that nothing else was of any use if\nthey did not. That same conviction should for us settle the relative\nimportance which we attach to these subordinate and derivative things,\nand to the primary and primitive duty. Obedience to it will secure\nthem. They, without it, are not worth securing.\n\nWe spend much pains and effort nowadays in perfecting our organisations\nand consolidating our resources, and I have not a word to say against\nthat. But heavier machinery needs more power in the engine, and that\nmeans greater capacity in your boilers and more fire in your furnace.\nThe more complete our organisation, the more do we need a firm hold of\nChrist, or we shall be overweighted by it, shall be in danger of\nburning incense to our own net, shall be tempted to trust in drill\nrather than in courage, in mechanism rather than in the life drawn from\nChrist. On the other hand, if we put as our first care the preservation\nof the closeness of our union with Christ, that life will shape a body\nfor itself, and 'to every seed its own body.'\n\nTrue conceptions of Him, and a definite theology, are good and needful.\nLet us cleave to Him with mind and heart, and we shall receive all the\nknowledge we need, and be guided into the deep things of God. In Him\nare hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge, and the basis of all\ntheology is the personal possession of Him who is 'the wisdom of God'\nand 'the Light of the world.' Every one that loveth is born of God and\nknoweth God. _Pectus facit Theologum_.\n\nPlain, straightforward morality and everyday righteousness are better\nthan all emotion and all dogmatism and all churchism, says the world,\nand Christianity says much the same; but plain, straightforward\nrighteousness and everyday morality come most surely when a man is\nkeeping close to Christ. In a word, everything that can adorn the\ncharacter with beauty, and clothe the Church with glorious apparel,\nwhatsoever things are lovely and of good report, all that the world or\nGod calls virtue and crowns with praise, they are all in their fulness\nin Him, and all are most surely derived from Him by keeping fast hold\nof His hand, and preserving the channels clear through which His\nmanifold grace may flow into our souls. The same life is strength in\nthe arm, pliancy in the fingers, swiftness in the foot, light in the\neye, music on the lips; so the same grace is Protean in its forms, and\nto His servants who trust Him Christ ever says, 'What would ye that I\nshould do unto you? Be it even as thou wilt.' The same mysterious power\nlives in the swaying branch, and in the veined leaf, and in the\nblushing clusters. With like wondrous transformations of the one grace,\nthe Lord pours Himself into our spirits, filling all needs and fitting\nfor all circumstances. Therefore for us all, individuals and Churches,\nthis remains the prime command, 'With purpose of heart cleave unto the\nLord.' Dear brethren in the ministry, how sorely we need this\nexhortation! Our very professional occupation with Christ and His truth\nis full of danger for us; we are so accustomed to handle these sacred\nthemes as a means of instructing or impressing others that we get to\nregard them as our weapons, even if we do not degrade them still\nfurther by thinking of them as our stock-in-trade and means of\noratorical effect. We must keep very firm hold of Christ for ourselves\nby much solitary communion, and so retranslating into the nutriment of\nour own souls the message we bring to men, else when we have preached\nto others we ourselves may be cast away. All the ordinary tendencies\nwhich draw men from Him work on us, and a host of others peculiar to\nourselves, and all around us run strong currents of thought which\nthreaten to sweep many away. Let us tighten our grasp of Him in the\nface of modern doubt; and take heed to ourselves that neither vanity,\nnor worldliness, nor sloth; neither the gravitation earthward common to\nall, nor the temptations proper to our office; neither unbelieving\nvoices without nor voices within, seduce us from His side. There only\nis our peace, there our wisdom, there our power.\n\nSubtly and silently the separating forces are ever at work upon us, and\nall unconsciously to ourselves our hold may relax, and the flow of this\ngrace into our spirits may cease, while yet we mechanically keep up the\nround of outward service, nor even suspect that our strength is\ndeparted from us. Many a stately elm that seems full of vigorous life,\nfor all its spreading boughs and clouds of dancing leaves, is hollow at\nthe heart, and when the storm comes goes down with a crash, and men\nwonder, as they look at the ruin, how such a mere shell of life with a\ncore of corruption could stand so long. It rotted within, and fell at\nlast, because its roots did not go deep down to the rich soil, where\nthey would have found nourishment, but ran along near the surface among\ngravel and stones. If we would stand firm, be sound within, and bring\nforth much fruit, we must strike our roots deep in Him who is the\nanchorage of our souls, and the nourisher of all our being.\n\nHearken, beloved brethren, in this great work of the ministry, not to\nthe exhortation of the servant, but to the solemn command of the\nMaster, 'Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of\nitself, except it abide in the vine, no more can ye, except ye abide in\nMe.' And let us, knowing our own weakness, take heed of the\nself-confidence that answers, 'Though all should forsake Thee, yet will\nnot I,' and turn the vows which spring to our lips into the lowly\nprayer, 'My soul cleaveth unto the dust, quicken Thou me according to\nThy word.' Then, thinking rather of His cleaving to us than of our\ncleaving to Him, let us resolutely take as the motto of our lives the\ngrand words: 'I follow after, if that I may lay hold of that for which\nI am also laid hold of by Christ Jesus!'\n\n\n\nWHAT A GOOD MAN IS, AND HOW HE BECOMES SO\n\n'He was a good man, and full of the Holy Ghost and of faith.'--ACTS\nxi, 24.\n\n'A good man.' How easily that title is often gained! There is, perhaps,\nno clearer proof that men are bad than the sort of people whom they\nconsent to call good.\n\nIt is a common observation that all words describing moral excellence\ntend to deteriorate and to contract their meaning, just as bright metal\nrusts by exposure, or coins become light and illegible by use. So it\ncomes to pass that any decently respectable man, especially if he has\nan easy temper and a dash of frankness and good humour, is christened\nwith this title 'good.' The Bible, which is the verdict of the Judge,\nis a great deal more chary in its use of the word. You remember how\nJesus Christ once rebuked a man for addressing Him so, not that He\nrepudiated the title, but that the giver had bestowed it lightly and\nout of mere conventional politeness. The word is too noble to be\napplied without very good reason.\n\nBut here we have a picture of Barnabas hung in the gallery of Scripture\nportraits, and this is the description of it in the catalogue, 'He was\na good man.'\n\nYou observe that my text is in the nature of an analysis. It begins at\nthe outside, and works inwards. 'He was a good man.' Indeed;--how came\nhe to be so? He was 'full of the Holy Ghost.' Full of the Holy Ghost,\nwas he? How came he to be that? He was 'full of faith.' So the writer\ndigs down, as it were, till he gets to the bed-rock, on which all the\nhigher strata repose; and here is his account of the way in which it is\npossible for human nature to win this resplendent title, and to be\nadjudged of God as 'good,' 'full of the Holy Ghost and of faith.'\n\nSo these three steps in the exposition of the character and its secret\nwill afford a framework for what I have to say now.\n\nI. Note, then, first, the sort of man whom the Judge will call 'good.'\n\nNow, I suppose I need not spend much time in massing together, in brief\noutline, the characteristics of Barnabas. He was a Levite, belonging to\nthe sacerdotal tribe, and perhaps having some slight connection with\nthe functions of the Temple ministry. He was not a resident in the Holy\nLand, but a Hellenistic Jew, a native of Cyprus, who had come into\ncontact with heathenism in a way that had beaten many a prejudice out\nof him. We first hear of him as taking a share in the self-sacrificing\nburst of brotherly love, which, whether it was wise or not, was noble.\n'He, having land, sold it, and brought the money, and laid it at the\nApostles' feet.' And, as would appear from a reference in one of Paul's\nletters, he had to support himself afterwards by manual labour.\n\nThen the next thing that we hear of him is that, when the young man who\nhad been a persecuting Pharisee, and the rising hope of the\nanti-Christian party, all at once came forward with some story of a\nvision which he had seen on the road to Damascus, and when the older\nChristians were suspicious of a trick to worm himself into their\nsecrets by a pretended conversion, Barnabas, with the generosity of an\nunsuspicious nature, which often sees deeper into men than do\nsuspicious eyes, was the first to cast the aegis of his recognition\nround him. In like manner, when Christianity took an entirely\nspontaneous and, to the Church at Jerusalem, rather unwelcome new\ndevelopment and expansion, when some unofficial believers, without any\nauthority from headquarters, took upon themselves to stride clean\nacross the wall of separation, and to speak of Jesus Christ to blank\nheathens, and found, to the not altogether gratified surprise of the\nChristians at Jerusalem, 'that on the Gentiles also was poured out the\ngift of the Holy Ghost,' it was Barnabas who was sent down to look into\nthis surprising new phenomenon, and we read that 'when he came and saw\nthe grace of God, he was glad.' The reason why he rejoiced over the\nmanifestation of the grace of God in such a strange form was because\n'he was a good man,' and his goodness recognised goodness in others and\nwas glad at the work of the Lord. The new condition of affairs sent him\nto look for Paul, and to put him to work. Then we find him set apart to\nmissionary service, and the leader of the first missionary band, in\nwhich he was accompanied by his friend Saul. He acquiesced frankly, and\nwithout a murmur, in the superiority of the junior, and yielded up\npre-eminence to him quite willingly. The story of that missionary\njourney begins 'Barnabas and Saul,' but very soon it comes to be 'Paul\nand Barnabas,' and it keeps that order throughout. He was an older man\nthan Paul, for when at Lystra the people thought that the gods had come\ndown in the likeness of men; Barnabas was Jupiter, and Paul the\nquick-footed Mercury, messenger of the gods. He was in the work before\nPaul was thought of, and it must have taken a great deal of goodness to\nacquiesce in 'He must increase and I must decrease.' Then came the\nquarrel between them, the foolish fondness for his runaway nephew John\nMark, whom he insisted on retaining in a place for which he was\nconspicuously unfitted. And so he lost his friend, the confidence of\nthe Church, and his work. He sulked away into Cyprus; he had his\nnephew, for whom he had given up all these other things. A little fault\nmay wreck a life, and the whiter the character the blacker the smallest\nstain upon it.\n\nWe do not hear anything more of him. Apparently, from one casual\nallusion, he continued to serve the Lord in evangelistic work, but the\nsweet communion of the earlier days, and the confident friendship with\nthe Apostle, seem to have come to an end with that sharp contention. So\nBarnabas drops out of the rank of Christian workers. And yet 'he was a\ngood man, full of the Holy Ghost and of faith.'\n\nNow I have spent more time than I meant over this brief outline of the\nsort of character here pointed at. Let me just gather into one or two\nsentences what seem to me to be the lessons of it. The first is this,\nthat the tap-root of all goodness is reference to God and obedience to\nHim. People tell us that morality is independent of religion. I admit\nthat many men are better than their creeds, and many men are worse than\ntheir creeds; but I would also venture to assert that morality is the\ngarment of religion; the body of which religion is the soul; the\nexpression of religion in daily life. And although I am not going to\nsay that nothing which a man does without reference to God has any\ncomparative goodness in it, or that all the acts which are thus void of\nreference to Him stand upon one level of evil, I do venture to say that\nthe noblest deed, which is not done in conscious obedience to the will\nof God, lacks its supreme nobleness. The loftiest perfection of conduct\nis obedience to God. And whatever excellence of self-sacrifice,\n'whatsoever things lovely and of good report,' there may be, apart from\nthe presence of this perfect motive, those deeds are imperfect. They do\nnot correspond either to the whole obligations or to the whole\npossibilities of man, and, therefore, they are beneath the level of the\nhighest good. Good is measured by reference to God.\n\nThen, further, let me remark that one broad feature which characterises\nthe truest goodness is the suppression of self. That is only another\nway of saying the same thing as I have been saying. It is illustrated\nfor us all through this story of Barnabas. Whosoever can say, 'I think\nnot of myself, but of others; of the cause; of the help I can give to\nmen; and I lay not goods only, nor prejudices only, nor the pride of\nposition and the supremacy of place only at the feet of God, but I lay\ndown my whole self; and I desire that self may be crucified, that God\nmay live in me,'--he, and only he, has reached the height of goodness.\nGoodness requires the suppression of self.\n\nFurther, note that the gentler traits of character are pre-eminent in\nChristian goodness. There is nothing about this man heroic or\nexceptional. His virtues are all of the meek and gracious sort--those\nwhich we relegate sometimes to an inferior place in our estimates.\nThese things make but a poor show by the side of some of the tawdry\nsplendours of what the vulgar world calls virtues. It requires an\neducated eye to see the harmony of the sober colouring of some great\npainter. A child, a clown, a vulgar person--and there are such in all\nranks--will prefer flaring reds and blues and yellows heaped together\nin staring contrast. A thrush or a blackbird is but a soberly clad\ncreature by the side of macaws and paroquets; but the one has a song\nand the others have only a screech. The gentle virtues are the truly\nChristian virtues--patience and meekness and long-suffering and\nsympathy and readiness to efface oneself for the sake of God and of men.\n\nSo there is a bit of comfort for us commonplace, humdrum people, to\nwhom God has only given one or two talents, and who can never expect to\nmake a figure before men. We may be little violets below a stone, if we\ncannot be flaunting hollyhocks and tiger lilies. We may have the beauty\nof goodness in us after Christ's example, and that is better than to be\ngreat.\n\nBarnabas was no genius. He was not even a genius in goodness; he did\nnot strike out anything original and out of the way. He seems to have\nbeen a commonplace kind of man enough; but 'he was a good man.' And the\nweakest and the humblest of us may hope to have the same thing said of\nus, if we will.\n\nAnd then, note further, that true goodness, thank God! does not exclude\nthe possibility of falling and sinning. There is a black spot in this\nman's history; and there are black spots in the histories of all\nsaints. Thank God! the Bible is, as some people would say, almost\nbrutally frank in telling us about the imperfections of the best. Very\noften imperfections are the exaggerations of characteristic goodnesses,\nand warn us to take care that we do not push, as Barnabas did, our\nfacility to the point of criminal complicity with weaknesses; and that\nwe do not indulge, instead of strenuously rebuking when need is. Never\nlet our gentleness fall away, like a badly made jelly, into a trembling\nheap, and never let our strength gather itself together into a\nrepulsive attitude, but guard against the exaggeration of virtue into\nvice.\n\nRemember that whilst there may be good men who sin, there is One entire\nand flawless, in whom all types of excellence do meet, and who alone of\nhumanity can front the verdict of the world, and has fronted it now for\nnineteen centuries, with the question upon His lips, which none have\ndared to answer, 'Which of you convinceth Me of sin?'\n\nII. Secondly, notice the divine Helper who makes men good.\n\nLuke, if he be the writer of the Acts, goes on with his analysis. He\nhas done with the first fold, the outer garment, as it were; he strips\nit off and shows us the next fold, 'full of the Holy Ghost.'\n\nA divine Helper, not merely a divine influence, but a divine Person,\nwho not only helps men from without, but so enters into a man as that\nthe man's whole nature is saturated with Him--that is strange language.\nMystical and unreal I dare say some of you may think it, but let us\nconsider whether some such divine Helper is not plainly pointed as\nnecessary, by the experience of every man that ever honestly tried to\nmake himself good.\n\nI have no doubt that I am speaking to many persons who, more or less\nconstantly and courageously and earnestly, have laboured at the task of\nself-improvement and self-culture. I venture to think that, if their\nstandard of what they wish to attain is high, their confession of what\nthey have attained will be very low. Ah, brother! if we think of what\nit is that we need to make us good--viz. the strengthening of these\nweak wills of ours, which we cannot strengthen but to a very limited\ndegree by any tonics that we can apply, or any supports with which we\nmay bind them round; if we consider the resistance which ourselves, our\npassions, our tastes, our habits, our occupations offer, and the\nresistance which the world around us, friends, companions, and all the\naggregate, dread and formidable, of material things present to our\nbecoming, in any lofty and comprehensive sense of the term, good men\nand women, I think we shall be ready to listen, as to a true Gospel, to\nthe message that says, 'You do not need to do it by yourself.' You have\ngot the wolf by the ears, perhaps, for a moment, but there is\ntremendous strength in the brute, and your hands and wrists will ache\nin holding him presently, and what will happen then? You do not need to\ntry it yourself. There is a divine Helper standing at your sides and\nwaiting to strengthen you, and that Helper does not work from outside;\nHe will pass within, and dwell in your hearts and mould and strengthen\nyour wills to what is good, and suppress your inclinations to evil,\nand, by His inward presence, teach 'your hands to war and your fingers\nto fight.'\n\nSurely, surely, the experience of the world from the beginning,\nconfirmed by the consciousness and conscience of every one of us, tells\nus that of ourselves we are impotent, and that the good that is within\nthe reach of our unaided efforts is poor and fragmentary and\nsuperficial indeed.\n\nThe great promise of the Gospel is precisely this promise. We terribly\nlimit and misunderstand what we call the Gospel if we give such\nexclusive predominance to one part of it, as some of us are accustomed\nto do. Thank God I the first word that Jesus Christ says to any soul\nis, 'Thy sins be forgiven thee.' But that first word has a second that\nfollows it, 'Arise! and walk!' and it is for the sake of the second\nthat the first is spoken. The gift of pardon, the consciousness of\nacceptance, the fact of reconciliation with God, the closing of the\ndoors of the place of retribution, the quieting of the stings of\naccusing conscience, all these are but meant to be introductory to that\nwhich Jesus Christ Himself, in the Gospel of John, emphatically calls\nmore than once '_the_ gift of God,' which He symbolised by 'living\nwater,' which whosoever drank should never thirst, and which whosoever\npossessed would give it forth in living streams of holy life and noble\ndeeds. The promise of the Gospel is the promise of new life, derived\nfrom Christ and maintained in us by the indwelling Spirit, which will\ncome like fresh reinforcements to an all but beaten army in some\nhard-fought field, which will stand like a stay behind a man, to us\nalmost blown over by the gusts of temptation, which will strengthen\nwhat is weak, raise what is low, illumine what is dark, and will make\nus who are evil good with a goodness given by God through His Son.\n\nSurely there is nothing more congruous with that divine character than\nthat He who Himself is good, and good from Himself, should rejoice in\nmaking us, His poor children, into His own likeness. Surely He would\nnot be good unless He delighted to make us good. Surely it is something\nvery like presumption in men to assert that the direct communication of\nthe Spirit of God with the spirits whom God has made is an\nimpossibility. Surely it is flying in the face of Scripture teaching to\ndeny that such communication is a promise. Surely it is a flagrant\ncontradiction of the depths of Christian experience to falter in the\nbelief that it is a very solid reality.\n\n'Full of the Holy Ghost,' as a vessel might be to its brim of golden\nwine; Christian men and women! does that describe you? Full? A\ndribbling drop or two in the bottom of the jar. Whose fault is it? Why,\nwith that rushing mighty wind to fill our sails if we like, should we\nbe lying in the sickly calms of the tropics, with the pitch oozing out\nof the seams, and the idle canvas flapping against the mast? Why, with\nthose tongues of fire hovering over our heads, should we be cowering\nover grey ashes in which there lives a little spark? Why, with that\ngreat rushing tide of the river of the water of life, should we be like\nthe dry watercourses of the desert, with bleached and white stones\nbaking where the stream should be running? 'O! Thou that art named the\nHouse of Israel, is the Spirit of the Lord straitened? Are these His\ndoings?'\n\nIII. And so, lastly, we are shown how that divine Helper comes to men.\n\n'Full of the Holy Ghost, and of faith.' There is no goodness without\nthe impulse and indwelling of the divine Spirit, and there is no divine\nSpirit to dwell in a man's heart without that man's trusting in Jesus\nChrist. The condition of receiving the gift that makes us good is\nsimply and solely that we should put our trust in Jesus Christ the\nGiver. That opens the door, and the divine Spirit enters.\n\nTrue! there are convincing operations which He effects upon the world;\nbut these are not in question here. These come prior to, and\nindependent of, faith. But the work of the Spirit of God, present\nwithin us to heal and hallow us, has as condition our trust in Jesus\nChrist, the Great Healer. If you open a chink, the water will come in.\nIf you trust in Jesus Christ, He will give you the new life of His\nSpirit, which will make you free from the law of sin and death. That\ndivine Spirit 'which they that believe in Him should receive' delights\nto enter into every heart where His presence is desired. Faith is\ndesire; and desires rooted in faith cannot be in vain. Faith is\nexpectation; and expectations based upon the divine promise can never\nbe disappointed. Faith is dependence, and dependence that reckons upon\nGod, and upon God's gift of His Spirit, will surely be recompensed.\n\nThe measure in which we possess the power that makes us good depends\naltogether upon ourselves. 'Open thy mouth wide and I will fill it.'\nYou may have as much of God as you want, and as little as you will. The\nmeasure of your faith will determine at once the measure of your\ngoodness, and of your possession of the Spirit that makes good. Just as\nwhen the prophet miraculously increased the oil in the cruse, the\ngolden stream flowed as long as they brought vessels, and stayed when\nthere were no more, so as long as we open our hearts for the reception,\nthe gift will not be withheld, but God will not let it run like water\nspilled upon the ground that cannot be gathered up. If we will desire,\nif we will expect, if we will reckon on, if we will look to, Jesus\nChrist, and, beside all this, if we will honestly use the power that we\npossess, our capacity will grow, and the gift will grow, and our\nholiness and purity will grow with it.\n\nSome of you have been trying more or less continuously, all your lives,\nto mend your own characters and improve yourselves. Brethren, there is\na better way than that. A modern poet says--\n\n  'Self-reverence, self-knowledge, self-control,\n  These three alone lift life to sovereign power.'\n\nTaken by itself that is pure heathenism. Self cannot improve self. Put\nself into God's keeping, and say, 'I cannot guard, keep, purge, hallow\nmine own self. Lord, do Thou do it for me!' It is no use to try to\nbuild a tower whose top shall reach to heaven. A ladder has been let\ndown on which we may pass upwards, and by which God's angels of grace\nand beauty will come down to dwell in our hearts. If the Judge is to\nsay of each of us, 'He was a good man,' He must also be able to say,\n'He was full of the Holy Ghost and of faith.'\n\n\n\nA NICKNAME ACCEPTED\n\n'The disciples were called Christians first in Antioch'--ACTS xi. 26.\n\nNations and parties, both political and religious, very often call\nthemselves by one name, and are known to the outside world by another.\nThese outside names are generally given in contempt; and yet they\nsometimes manage to hit the very centre of the characteristics of the\npeople on whom they are bestowed, and so by degrees get to be adopted\nby them, and worn as an honour.\n\nSo it has been with the name 'Christian.' It was given at the first by\nthe inhabitants of the Syrian city of Antioch, to a new sort of people\nthat had sprung up amongst them, and whom they could not quite make\nout. They would not fit into any of their categories, and so they had\nto invent a new name for them. It is never used in the New Testament by\nChristians about themselves. It occurs here in this text; it occurs in\nAgrippa's half-contemptuous exclamation: 'You seem to think it is a\nvery small matter to make me--me, a king!--a Christian, one of those\ndespised people!' And it occurs once more, where the Apostle Peter is\nspecifying the charges brought against them: 'If any man suffer as a\nChristian, let him not be ashamed; but let him glorify God on this\nbehalf (1 Peter iv. 16). That sounds like the beginning of the process\nwhich has gone on ever since, by which the nickname, flung by the\nsarcastic men of Antioch, has been turned into the designation by\nwhich, all over the world, the followers of Jesus Christ have been\nproud to call themselves.\n\nNow in this text there are the outside name by which the world calls\nthe followers of Jesus Christ, and one of the many interior names by\nwhich the Church called itself. I have thought it might be profitable\nnow to put all the New Testament names for Christ's followers together,\nand think about them.\n\nI. So, to begin with, we deal with this name given by the world to the\nChurch, which the Church has adopted.\n\nObserve the circumstances under which it was given. A handful of\nlarge-hearted, brave men, anonymous fugitives belonging to the little\nChurch in Jerusalem, had come down to Antioch; and there, without\npremeditation, without authority, almost without\nconsciousness--certainly without knowing what a great thing they were\ndoing--they took, all at once, as if it were the most natural thing in\nthe world, a great step by preaching the Gospel to pure heathen Greeks;\nand so began the process by which a small Jewish sect was transformed\ninto a world-wide church. The success of their work in Antioch, amongst\nthe pure heathen population, has for its crowning attestation this,\nthat it compelled the curiosity-hunting, pleasure-loving, sarcastic\nAntiocheans to find out a new name for this new thing; to write out a\nnew label for the new bottles into which the new wine was being put.\nClearly the name shows that the Church was beginning to attract the\nattention of outsiders.\n\nClearly it shows, too, that there was a novel element in the Church.\nThe earlier disciples had been all Jews, and could be lumped together\nalong with their countrymen, and come under the same category. But here\nwas something that could not be called either Jew or Greek, because it\nembraced both. The new name is the first witness to the cosmopolitan\ncharacter of the primitive Church. Then clearly, too, the name\nindicates that in a certain dim, confused way, even these superficial\nobservers had got hold of the right notion of what it was that _did_\nbind these people together. They called them 'Christians'--Christ's\nmen, Christ's followers. But it was only a very dim refraction of the\ntruth that had got to them; they had no notion that 'Christ' was not a\nproper name, but the designation of an office; and they had no notion\nthat there was anything peculiar or strange in the bond which united\nits adherents to Christ. Hence they called His followers 'Christians,'\njust as they would have called Herod's followers 'Herodians,' in the\npolitical world, or Aristotle's followers 'Aristotelians' in the\nphilosophical world. Still, in their groping way, they bad put their\nfinger on the fact that the one power that held this heterogeneous mass\ntogether, the one bond that bound up 'Jew and Gentile, barbarian,\nScythian, bond and free' into one vital unity, was a personal relation\nto a living Person. And so they said--not understanding the whole\nsignificance of it, but having got hold of the right end of the\nclue--they said, 'They are Christians!' 'Christ's people,' 'the\nfollowers of this Christ.'\n\nAnd their very blunder was a felicity. If they had called them\n'Jesuits' that would have meant the followers of the mere man. They did\nnot know how much deeper they had gone when they said, not followers of\nJesus, but 'followers of Christ'; for it is not Jesus the Man, but\nJesus Christ, the Man with His office, that makes the centre and the\nbond of the Christian Church.\n\nThese, then, are the facts, and the fair inferences from them. A plain\nlesson here lies on the surface. The Church--that is to say, the men\nand women who make its members--should draw to itself the notice of the\noutside world. I do not mean by advertising, and ostentation, and\nsounding trumpets, and singularities, and affectations. None of all\nthese are needed. If you are live Christians it will be plain enough to\noutsiders. It is a poor comment on your consistency, if, being Christ's\nfollowers, you can go through life unrecognised even by 'them that are\nwithout.' What shall we say of leaven which does _not_ leaven, or of\nlight which does _not_ shine, or of salt which does _not_ repel\ncorruption? It is a poor affair if, being professed followers of Jesus\nChrist, you do not impress the world with the thought that 'here is a\nman who does not come under any of our categories, and who needs a new\nentry to describe _him_.' The world ought to have the same impression\nabout you which Haman had about the Jews--'Their laws are diverse from\nall people.'\n\nChristian professors, are the world's names for each other enough to\ndescribe you by, or do you need another name to be coined for you in\norder to express the manifest characteristics that you display? The\nChurch that does not _provoke_ the attention--I use the word in its\netymological, not its offensive sense--the Church that does not call\nupon itself the attention and interest of outsiders, is not a Church as\nJesus Christ meant it to be, and it is not a Church that is worth\nkeeping alive; and the sooner it has decent burial the better for\nitself and for the world!\n\nThere is another thing here, viz.: this name suggests that the clear\nimpression made by our conduct and character, as well as by our words,\nshould be that we belong to Jesus Christ. The eye of an outside\nobserver may be unable to penetrate the secret of the deep sweet tie\nuniting us to Jesus, but there should be no possibility of the most\nsuperficial and hasty glance overlooking the fact that we _are_ His. He\nshould manifestly be the centre and the guide, the impulse and the\npattern, the strength and the reward, of our whole lives. We are\nChristians. That should be plain for all folks to see, whether we speak\nor be silent. Brethren, is it so with you? Does your life need no\ncommentary of your words in order that men should know what is the\nhidden spring that moves all its wheels; what is the inward spirit that\nco-ordinates all its motions into harmony and beauty? Is it true that\nlike 'the ointment of the right hand which bewrayeth itself' your\nallegiance to Jesus Christ, and the overmastering and supreme authority\nwhich He exercises upon you, and upon your life, 'cannot be hid'? Do\nyou think that, without your words, if you, living in the way you do,\nwere put down into the middle of Pekin, as these handful of people were\nput down into the middle of the heathen city of Antioch, the wits of\nthe Chinese metropolis would have to invent a name for you, as the\nclever men of Antioch did for these people; and do you think that if\nthey had to invent a name, the name that would naturally come to their\nlips, looking at you, would be 'Christians,' 'Christ's men'? If it\nwould not, there is something wrong.\n\nThe last word that I say about this first part of my text is this. It\nis a very sad thing, but it is one that is always occurring, that the\nworld's inadequate notions of what makes a follower of Jesus Christ get\naccepted by the Church. Why was it that the name 'Christian' ran all\nover Christendom in the course of a century and a half? I believe very\nlargely because it was a conveniently vague name; because it did not\ndescribe the deepest and sacredest of the bonds that unite us to Jesus\nChrist. Many a man is quite willing to say, 'I am a Christian,' who\nwould hesitate a long time before he said, 'I am a believer,' 'I am a\ndisciple.' The vagueness of the name, the fact that it erred by defect\nin not touching the central, deepest relation between man and Jesus\nChrist, made it very appropriate to the declining spirituality and\nincreasing formalism of the Christian Church in the post-Apostolic age.\nIt is a sad thing when the Church drops its standard down to the\nworld's notion of what It ought to be, and adopts the world's name for\nitself and its converts.\n\nII. I turn now to set side by side with this vague, general, outside\nname the more specific and _interior_ names--if I may so call them--by\nwhich Christ's followers at first knew themselves.\n\nThe world said, 'You are Christ's men'; and the names which were\nself-imposed and are now to be considered might be taken as being the\nChurch's explanation of what the world was fumbling at when it so\ncalled them. There are four of them: of course, I can only just touch\non them.\n\n(_a_) The first is in this verse-'_disciples_.' The others are\n_believers_, _saints_, _brethren_. These four are the Church's own\nchristening of itself; its explanation and expansion, its deepening and\nheightening, of the vague name given by the world.\n\nAs to the first, _disciples_, any concordance will show that the name\nwas employed almost exclusively during the time of Christ's life upon\nearth. It is the only name for Christ's followers in the Gospels; it\noccurs also, mingled with others, in the Acts of the Apostles, and it\nnever occurs thereafter.\n\nThe name 'disciple,' then, carries us back to the historical beginning\nof the whole matter, when Jesus was looked upon as a Rabbi having\nfollowers called disciples; just as were John the Baptist and his\nfollowers, Gamaliel and his school, or Socrates and his. It sets forth\nChrist as being the Teacher, and His followers as being His adherents,\nHis scholars, who learned at His feet.\n\nNow that is always true. _We_ are Christ's scholars quite as much as\nwere the men who heard and saw with their eyes and handled with their\nhands, of the Word of Life. Not by words only, but by gracious deeds\nand fair, spotless life, He taught them and us and all men to the end\nof time, our highest knowledge of God of whom He is the final\nrevelation, our best knowledge of what men should and shall be by His\nperfect life in which is contained all morality, our only knowledge of\nthat future in that He has died and is risen and lives to help and\nstill to teach. He teaches us still by the record of His life, and by\nthe living influence of that Spirit whom He sends forth to guide us\ninto all truth. He is the Teacher, the only Teacher, the Teacher for\nall men, the Teacher of all truth, the Teacher for evermore. He speaks\nfrom Heaven. Let us give heed to His voice.\n\nBut that Name is not enough to tell all that He is to us, or we to Him,\nand so after He had passed from earth it unconsciously and gradually\ndropped out of use by the disciples, as they felt a deepened bond\nuniting them to Him who was not only their Teacher of the Truth which\nwas Himself, but was their Sacrifice and Advocate with the Father. And\nfor all who hold the, as I believe, essentially imperfect conception of\nJesus Christ as being mainly a Teacher, either by word or by pattern;\nwhether it be put into the old form or into the modern form of\nregarding Him as the Ideal and Perfect Man, it seems to me a fact well\nworthy of consideration, that the name of disciple and the relation\nexpressed by it were speedily felt by the Christian Church to be\ninadequate as a representation of the bond that knit them to Him. He is\nour Teacher, we His scholars. He is more than that, and a more sacred\nbond unites us to Him. As our Master we owe Him absolute submission.\nWhen He speaks, we have to accept His dictum. What He says is truth,\npure and entire. His utterance is the last word upon any subject that\nHe touches, it is the ultimate appeal, and the Judge that ends the\nstrife. We owe Him submission, an open eye for all new truth, constant\ndocility, as conscious of our own imperfections, and a confident\nexpectation that He will bless us continuously with high and as yet\nunknown truths that come from His inexhaustible stores of wisdom and\nknowledge.\n\n(_b_) Teacher and scholars move in a region which, though it be\nimportant, is not the central one. And the word that was needed next to\nexpress what the early Church felt Christ was to them, and they to Him,\nlifts us into a higher atmosphere altogether,--'_believers_,' they who\nare exercising not merely intellectual submission to the dicta of the\nTeacher, but who are exercising living trust in the person of the\nRedeemer. The belief which is faith is altogether a higher thing than\nits first stage, which is the belief of the understanding. There is in\nit the moral element of trust. We believe a truth, we trust a Person;\nand the trust which we are to exercise in Jesus Christ, and which knits\nus to Him, is our trust in Him, not in any character that we may choose\nto ascribe to Him, but in the character in which He is revealed in the\nNew Testament--Redeemer, Saviour, Manifest God; and therefore, the\nInfinite Friend and Helper of our souls.\n\nThat trust, my brethren, is the one bond that binds, men to God, and\nthe one thing that makes us Christ's men. Apart from it, we may be very\nnear Him, but we are not joined to Him. By it, and by it alone, the\nunion is completed, and His power and His grace flow into our spirits.\nAre you, not merely a 'Christian,' in the world's notion, being bound\nin some vague way to Jesus Christ, but are you a Christian in the sense\nof trusting your soul's salvation to Him?\n\n(_c_) Then, still further, there is another name--'_saints_.' It has\nsuffered perhaps more at the hands both of the world and of the Church\nthan any other. It has been taken by the latter and restricted to the\ndead, and further restricted to those who excel, according to the\nfantastic, ascetic standard of mediaeval Christianity. It has suffered\nfrom the world in that it has been used with a certain bitter emphasis\nof resentment at the claim of superior purity supposed to be implied in\nit, and so has come to mean on the world's lips one who pretends to be\nbetter than other people and whose actions contradict his claim. But\nthe name belongs to all Christ's followers. It makes no claim to\nspecial purity, for the central idea of the word 'saint' is not purity.\nHoliness, which is the English for the Latinised 'sanctity,' holiness\nwhich is attributed in the Old Testament to God first, to men only\nsecondarily, does not primarily mean _purity_, but _separation_. God is\nholy, inasmuch as by that whole majestic character of His, He is lifted\nabove all bounds of creatural limitations, as well as above man's sin.\nA sacrifice, the Sabbath, a city, a priest's garment, a mitre--all\nthese things are 'holy,' not when they are pure, but when they are\ndevoted to Him. And men are holy, not because they are clean, but\nbecause by free self-surrender they have consecrated themselves to Him.\n\nHoliness is consecration, that is to say, holiness is giving myself up\nto Him to do what He will with. 'I am holy' is not the declaration of\nmy estimate 'I am pure,' but the declaration of the fact 'I am thine, O\nLord.' So the New Testament idea of saint has in it these\nelements--consecration, consecration resting on faith in Christ, and\nconsecration leading to separation from the world and its sin. And that\nglad yielding of oneself to God, as wooed by His mercies, and thereby\ndrawn away from communion with our evil surroundings and from\nsubmission to our evil selves, must be a part of the experience of\nevery true Christian. All His people are saints, not as being pure, but\nas being given up to Him, in union with whom alone will the cleansing\npowers flow into their lives and clothe them with 'the righteousness of\nsaints.' Have you thus consecrated yourself to God?\n\n(_d_) The last name is '_brethren_,'--a name which has been much\nmaltreated both by the insincerity of the Church, and by the sarcasm of\nthe world. It has been an unreal appellation which has meant nothing\nand been meant to mean nothing, so that the world has said that our\n'brethren' signified a good deal less than their 'brothers.' ''Tis\ntrue, 'tis pity; pity 'tis, 'tis true.'\n\nBut what I ask you to notice is that the main thing about that name\n'brethren' is not the relation of the brethren to one another, but\ntheir common relation to their Father.\n\nWhen we call ourselves as Christian people 'brethren,' we mean first\nthis: that we are the possessors of a supernatural life, which has come\nfrom one Father, and which has set us in altogether new relations to\none another, and to the world round about us. Do you believe that if\nyou have any of that new life which comes through faith in Jesus\nChrist, then you are the brethren of all those that possess the same?\n\nAs society becomes more complicated, as Christian people grow unlike\neach other in education, in social position, in occupation, in their\ngeneral outlook into the world, it is more and more difficult to feel\nwhat is nevertheless true: that any two Christian people, however\nunlike each other, are nearer each other in the very roots of their\nnature, than a Christian and a non-Christian, however like each other.\nIt is difficult to feel that, and it is getting more and more\ndifficult, but for all that it is a fact.\n\nAnd now I wish to ask you, Christian men and women, whether you feel\nmore at home with people who love Jesus Christ--as you say that you\nlove Him--or whether you like better to be with people who do not?\n\nThere are some of you who choose your intimate associates, whom you ask\nto your homes and introduce to your children as desirable companions,\nwith no reference at all to their religious character. The duties of\nyour position, of course, oblige each of you to be much among people\nwho do not share your faith, and it is cowardly and wrong to shrink\nfrom the necessity. But for Christian people to make choice of heart\nfriends, or close intimates, among those who have no sympathy with\ntheir professed belief about, and love to, Jesus Christ, does not say\nmuch for the depth and reality of their religion. A man is known by the\ncompany he keeps, and if your friends are picked out for other reasons,\nand their religion is no part of their attraction, it is not an unfair\nconclusion that there are other things for which you care more than you\ndo for faith in Jesus Christ and love to Him. If you deeply feel the\nbond that knits you to Christ, and really live near to Him, you will be\nnear to your brethren. You will feel that 'blood is thicker than\nwater,' and however like you may be to irreligious people in many\nthings, you will feel that the deepest bond of all knits you to the\npoorest, the most ignorant, the most unlike you in social position; ay!\nand the most unlike you in theological opinion, who love the Lord Jesus\nChrist in sincerity.\n\nNow that is the sum of the whole matter. And my last word to you is\nthis: Do not you be contented with the world's vague notions of what\nmakes Christ's man. I do not ask you if you are Christians; plenty of\nyou would say: 'Oh yes! of course! Is not this a Christian country? Was\nnot I christened when I was a child? Are we not all members of the\nChurch of England by virtue of our birth? Yes! of course I am!'\n\nI do not ask you that; _I_ do not ask you anything; but I pray you to\nask yourselves these four questions: Am I Christ's scholar? Am I\nbelieving on Him? Am I consecrated to Him? Am I the possessor of a new\nlife from Him? And never give yourselves rest until you can say humbly\nand yet confidently, 'Yes! thank God, I am!'\n\n\n\nTHE MARTYRDOM OF JAMES\n\n'Herod killed James the brother of John with the sword.'--ACTS xii. 2.\n\nOne might have expected more than a clause to be spared to tell the\ndeath of a chief man and the first martyr amongst the Apostles. James,\nas we know, was one of the group of the Apostles who were in especially\nclose connection with Jesus Christ. He is associated in the Gospels\nwith Peter and his brother John, and is always named before John, as if\nhe were the more important of the two, by reason of age or of other\ncircumstances unknown to us. But yet we know next to nothing about him.\nIn the Acts of the Apostles he is a mere lay figure; his name is only\nmentioned in the catalogue at the beginning, and here again in the\nbrief notice of his death. The reticent and merely incidental character\nof the notice of his martyrdom is sufficiently remarkable. I think the\nlessons of the fact, and of the, I was going to say, slight way in\nwhich the writer of this book refers to it, may perhaps be most\npointedly brought out if we take four contrasts--James and Stephen,\nJames and Peter, James and John, James and James. Now, if we take these\nfour I think we shall learn something.\n\nI. First, then, James and Stephen.\n\nLook at the different scale on which the incidents of the deaths of\nthese two are told: the martyrdom of the one is beaten out over\nchapters, the martyrdom of the other is crammed into a corner of a\nsentence. And yet, of the two men, the one who is the less noticed\nfilled the larger place officially, and the other was only a simple\ndeacon and preacher of the Word. The fact that Stephen was the first\nChristian to follow his Lord in martyrdom is not sufficient to account\nfor the extraordinary difference. The difference is to be sought for in\nanother direction altogether. The Bible cares so little about the\npeople whom it names because its true theme is the works of God, and\nnot of man; and the reason why the 'Acts of the Apostles' kills off one\nof the chief Apostles in this fashion is simply that, as the writer\ntells us, his theme is 'all that _Jesus_' continued 'to do and to teach\nafter He was taken up.' Since it is Christ who is the true actor, it\nmatters uncommonly little what becomes of James or of the other ten.\nThis book is _not_ the 'Acts of the Apostles,' but it is the Acts of\nJesus Christ.\n\nI might suggest, too, in like manner, that there is another contrast\nwhich I have not included in my four, between the scale on which the\ndeath of Jesus Christ is told by Luke, and that on which this death is\nnarrated. What is the reason why so disproportionate a space of the\nGospel is concerned with the last two days of our Lord's life on earth?\nWhat is the reason why years are leaped over in silence and moments are\nspread out in detail, but that the death of a man is only a death, but\nthe death of the Christ is the life of the world? It is little needful\nthat we should have poetical, emotional, picturesque descriptions of\nmartyrdoms and the like in a book which is altogether devoted to\ntracking the footsteps of Christ in history; and which regards men as\nnothing more than the successive instruments of His purpose, and the\ndepositories of His grace.\n\nAnother lesson which we may draw from the reticence in the case of the\nApostle, and the expansiveness in the case of the protomartyr, is that\nof a wise indifference to the utterly insignificant accident of\nposthumous memory or oblivion of us and our deeds and sufferings. James\nsleeps none the less sweetly in his grave, or, rather, wakes none the\nless triumphantly in heaven, because his life and death are both so\nscantily narrated. If we 'self-infold the large results' of faithful\nservice, we need not trouble ourselves about its record on earth.\n\nBut another lesson which may be learned from this cursory notice of the\nApostle's martyrdom is--how small a thing death really is! Looked at\nfrom beside the Lord of life and death, which is the point of view of\nthe author of this narrative, 'great death' dwindles to a very little\nthing. We need to revise our notions if we would understand how trivial\nit really is. To us it frowns like a black cliff blocking the upper end\nof our valley, but there is a path round its base, and though the\nthroat of the pass be narrow, it has room for us to get through and up\nto the sunny uplands beyond. From a mountain top the country below\nseems level plain, and what looked like an impassable precipice has\ndwindled to be indistinguishable. The triviality of death, to those who\nlook upon it from the heights of eternity, is well represented by these\nbrief words which tell of the first breach thereby in the circle of the\nApostles.\n\nII. There is another contrast, James and Peter.\n\nNow this chapter tells of two things: the death of one of that pair of\nfriends; the miracle that was wrought for the deliverance of the other\nfrom death. Why could not the parts have been exchanged, or why could\nnot the miraculous hand that was stretched out to save the one\nfisherman of Bethsaida have been put forth to save the other? Why\nshould James be slain, and Peter miraculously delivered? A question\neasily asked; a question not to be answered by us. We may say that the\none was more useful for the development of the Church than the other.\nBut we have all seen lives that, to our poor vision, seemed to be all\nbut indispensable, ruthlessly swept away, and lives that seemed to be,\nand were, perfectly profitless, prolonged to extreme old age. We may\nsay that maturity of character, development of Christian graces, made\nthe man ready for glory. But we have all seen some struck down when\nanything but ready; and others left for the blessing of mankind many,\nmany a day after they were far fitter for heaven than thousands that,\nwe hope, have gone there.\n\nSo all these little explanations do not go down to the bottom of the\nmatter, and we are obliged just to leave the whole question in the\nloving Hands that hold the keys of life and death for us all. Only we\nmay be sure of this, that James was as dear to Christ as Peter was, and\nthat there was no greater love shown in sending the angel that\ndelivered the one out of the 'hand of Herod and from all the\nexpectation of the people of the Jews,' than was shown in sending the\nangel that stood behind the headsman and directed the stroke of the\nfatal sword on the neck of the other.\n\nThe one was as dear to the Christ as the other--ay, and the one was as\nsurely, and more blessedly, delivered 'from the mouth of the lion' as\nthe other was, though the one seemed to be dragged from his teeth, and\nthe other seemed to be crushed by his powerful jaws. James escaped from\nHerod when Herod slew him but could not make him unfaithful to his\nMaster, and his deliverance was not less complete than the deliverance\nof his friend.\n\nBut let us remember, also, that if thus, to two equally beloved, there\nwere dealt out these two different fates, it must be because that evil,\nwhich, as I said, is not so great as it looks, is also not so bitter as\nit tastes, and there is no real evil, for the loving heart, in the\nstroke that breaks its bands and knits it to Jesus Christ. If we are\nChristians, the deepest desire of our souls is fuller communion with\nour Lord. We realise that, in some stunted and scanty measure, by life;\nbut oh! is it not strange that we should shrink from that change which\nwill enable us to realise it fully and eternally? The contrast of James\nand Peter may teach us the equal love that presides over the life of\nthe living and the death of the dying.\n\nIII. Another contrast is that of James and John.\n\nThe close union, and subsequent separation by this martyrdom, of that\npair of brothers is striking and pathetic. They seem to have together\npursued their humble trade of fishermen in the little fishing village\nof Bethsaida, apparently as working partners with their father Zebedee.\nThey were not divided by discipleship, as was the sad fate of many a\nbrother delivered by a brother to death. If we may attach any weight to\nthe suggestion that the expression in John's narrative, 'He first\nfindeth _his own_ brother, Simon,' implies that 'the other disciple'\ndid the same by _his_ brother, James was brought to Jesus by John, and\nnew tenderness and strength thereby given to their affection. They were\nclosely associated in their Apostleship, and were together the\ncompanions of Jesus in the chief incidents of His life. They were\nafterwards united in the leadership of the Church. By death they were\nseparated very far: the one the first of all the Apostles to 'become a\nprey to Satan's rage,' the other 'lingering out his fellows all,' and\n'dying in bloodless age,' living to be a hundred years old or more, and\nlooking back through all the long parting to the brother who had joined\nwith him in the wish that even Messiah's Kingdom should not part them,\nand yet had been parted so soon and parted so long.\n\nAh! may we not learn the lesson that we should recognise the mercy and\nwisdom of the ministry of Death the separator, and should tread with\npatience the lonely road, do calmly the day's work, and tarry till He\ncomes, though those that stood beside us be gone? We may look forward\nwith the assurance that 'God keeps a niche in heaven to hide our\nidols'; and 'albeit He breaks them to our face,' yet shall we find them\nagain, like Memnon's statue, vocal in the rising sunshine of the\nheavens.\n\nThe brothers, so closely knit, so soon parted, so long separated, were\nat last reunited. Even to us here, with the chronology of earth still\nours, the few years between the early martyrdom of James and the death\nof the centenarian John seem but a span. The lapse of the centuries\nthat have rolled away since then makes the difference of the dates of\nthe two deaths seem very small, even to us. What a mere nothing it will\nhave looked to them, joined together once more before God!\n\nIV. Lastly, James and James. In his hot youth, when he deserved the\nname of a son of thunder--so energetic, boisterous, I suppose,\ndestructive perhaps, he was--he and his brother, and their foolish\nmother, whose name is kindly not told us, go to Christ and say, 'Grant\nthat we may sit, the one on Thy right hand and the other on Thy left,\nin Thy kingdom.' That was what he wished and hoped for, and what he got\nwas years of service, and a taste of persecution, and finally the swish\nof the headsman's sword.\n\nAnd so our dreams get disappointed, and their disappointment is often\nthe road to their fulfilment, for Jesus Christ was answering James'\nprayer, 'Grant that we may sit on Thy right hand in Thy kingdom,' when\nHe called him to Himself, by the brief and bloody passage of martyrdom.\nJames said, when he did not know what he meant, and the vow was noble\nthough it was ignorant, 'we can drink of the cup that Thou drinkest.'\nAnd all honour to him! he stuck to his vow; and when the cup was\nproffered to him he manfully, and like a Christian, took it and drank\nit to the dregs; and, I suppose, went silently to his grave. But the\nchange between his ardent anticipations and his calm resignation, and\nbetween his foolish dream and the stern reality, may well teach us\nthat, whether our wishes be fulfilled or disappointed, they all need to\nbe purified, and that the disappointment of them on earth is often\nGod's way of fulfilling them for us in higher fashion than we dreamed\nor asked.\n\nSo, brethren, let us leave for ourselves, and for all dear ones, that\nquestion of living or dying, to His decision. Only let us be sure that\nwhether our lives be long like John's, or short like James', 'living or\ndying we are the Lord's.' And then, whatever be the length of life or\nthe manner of death, both will bring us the fulfilment of our highest\nwishes, and will lead us to His side at whose right hand all those\nshall sit who have loved Him here, and, though long parted, shall be\nreunited in common enjoyment of the pleasures for evermore which bloom\nunfading there. 'And so shall we ever be with the Lord.'\n\n\n\nPETER'S DELIVERANCE FROM PRISON\n\n'Peter therefore was kept in the prison: but prayer was made earnestly\nof the Church unto God for him.'--ACTS xii. 5 (R.V.)\n\nThe narrative of Peter's miraculous deliverance from prison is full of\nlittle vivid touches which can only have come from himself. The whole\ntone of it reminds us of the Gospel according to St. Mark, which is in\nlike manner stamped with peculiar minuteness and abundance of detail.\nOne remembers that at a late period in the life of the Apostle Paul,\nMark and Luke were together with him; and no doubt in those days in\nRome, Mark, who had been Peter's special companion and is called by one\nof the old Christian writers his 'interpreter,' was busy in telling\nLuke the details about Peter which appear in the first part of this\nBook of the Acts.\n\nThe whole story seems to me to be full of instruction as well as of\npicturesque detail; and I desire to bring out the various lessons which\nappear to me to lie in it.\n\nI. The first of them is this: the strength of the helpless.\n\nLook at that eloquent 'but' in the verse that I have taken as a\nstarting-point: 'Peter therefore was kept in prison, _but_ prayer was\nmade earnestly of the Church unto God for him.' There is another\nsimilarly eloquent 'but' at the end of the chapter:\n\n'Herod ... was eaten of worms, and gave up the ghost, _but_ the Word of\nGod grew and multiplied.' Here you get, on the one hand, all the\npompous and elaborate preparations--'four quaternions of\nsoldiers'--four times four is sixteen--sixteen soldiers, two chains,\nthree gates with guards at each of them, Herod's grim determination,\nthe people's malicious expectation of having an execution as a pleasant\nsensation with which to wind up the Passover Feast. And what had the\nhandful of Christian people? Well, they had prayer; and they had Jesus\nChrist. That was all, and that is more than enough. How ridiculous all\nthe preparation looks when you let the light of that great 'but' in\nupon it! Prayer, earnest prayer, 'was made of the Church unto God for\nhim.' And evidently, from the place in which that fact is stated, it is\nintended that we should say to ourselves that it was _because_ prayer\nwas made for him that what came to pass did come to pass. It is not\njerked out as an unconnected incident; it is set in a logical sequence.\n'Prayer was made earnestly of the Church unto God for him'--and so\nwhen Herod would have brought him forth, behold, the angel of the Lord\ncame, and the light shined into the prison. It is the same sequence of\nthought that occurs in that grand theophany in the eighteenth Psalm,\n'My cry entered into His ears; then the earth shook and trembled'; and\nthere came all the magnificence of the thunderstorm and the earthquake\nand the divine manifestation; and this was the purpose of it all--'He\nsent from above, He took me, He drew me out of many waters.' The whole\nenergy of the divine nature is set in motion and comes swooping down\nfrom highest heaven to the trembling earth. And of that fact the one\nend is one poor man's cry, and the other end is his deliverance. The\nmoving spring of the divine manifestation was an individual's prayer;\nthe aim of it was the individual's deliverance. A little water is put\ninto a hydraulic ram at the right place, and the outcome is the lifting\nof tons. So the helpless men who could only pray are stronger than\nHerod and his quaternions and his chains and his gates. 'Prayer was\nmade,' therefore all that happened was brought to pass, and Peter was\ndelivered.\n\nPeter's companion, James, was killed off, as we read in a verse or two\nbefore. Did not the Church pray for him? Surely they did. Why was their\nprayer not answered, then? God has not any step-children. James was as\ndear to God as Peter was. One prayer was answered; was the other left\nunanswered? It was the divine purpose that Peter, being prayed for,\nshould be delivered; and we may reverently say that, if there had not\nbeen the many in Mary's house praying, there would have been no angel\nin Peter's cell.\n\nSo here are revealed the strength of the weak, the armour of the\nunarmed, the defence of the defenceless. If the Christian Church in its\ntimes of persecution and affliction had kept itself to the one weapon\nthat is allowed it, it would have been more conspicuously victorious.\nAnd if we, in our individual lives--where, indeed, we have to do\nsomething else besides pray--would remember the lesson of that eloquent\n'but,' we should be less frequently brought to perplexity and reduced\nto something bordering on despair. So my first lesson is the strength\nof the weak.\n\nII. My next is the delay of deliverance.\n\nPeter had been in prison for some time before the Passover, and the\npraying had been going on all the while, and there was no answer. Day\nafter day 'of the unleavened bread' and of the festival was slipping\naway. The last night had come; 'and the same night' the light shone,\nand the angel appeared. Why did Jesus Christ not hear the cry of these\npoor suppliants sooner? For their sakes; for Peter's sake; for our\nsakes; for His own sake. For the eventual intervention, at the very\nlast moment, and yet at a sufficiently early moment, tested faith. And\nlook how beautifully all bore the test. The Apostle who was to be\nkilled to-morrow is lying quietly sleeping in his cell. Not a very\ncomfortable pillow he had to lay his head upon, with a chain on each\narm and a legionary on each side of him. But he slept; and whilst he\nwas asleep Christ was awake, and the brethren were awake. Their faith\nwas tested, and it stood the test, and thereby was strengthened. And\nPeter's patience and faith, being tested in like manner and in like\nmanner standing the test, were deepened and confirmed. Depend upon it,\nhe was a better man all his days, because he had been brought close up\nto Death and looked it in the fleshless eye-sockets, unwinking and\nunterrified. And I dare say if, long after, he had been asked, 'Would\nyou not have liked to have escaped those two or three days of suspense,\nand to have been let go at an earlier moment?' he would have said, 'Not\nfor worlds! For I learned in those days that my Lord's time is the\nbest. I learned patience'--a lesson which Peter especially needed--'and\nI learned trust.'\n\nDo you remember another incident, singularly parallel in essence,\nthough entirely unlike in circumstances, to this one? The two weeping\nsisters at Bethany send their messenger across the Jordan, grudging\nevery moment that he takes to travel to the far-off spot where Jesus\nis. The message sent is only this: 'He whom Thou lovest is sick.' What\nan infinite trust in Christ's heart that form of the message showed!\nThey would not say 'Come!'; they would not ask Him to do anything; they\ndid not think that to do so was needful: they were quite sure that what\nHe would do would be right.\n\nAnd how was the message received? 'Jesus loved Martha and Mary and\nLazarus.' Well, did that not make Him hurry as fast as He could to the\nbedside? No; it rooted Him to the spot. 'He abode,\n_therefore_'--because He loved them--'two days still in the same place\nwhere He was,' to give him plenty of time to die, and the sisters\nplenty of time to test their confidence in Him. Their confidence does\nnot seem to have altogether stood the test. 'Lord, if Thou hadst been\nhere my brother had not died.' 'And why wast Thou _not_ here?' is\nimplied. Christ's time was the best time. It was better to get a dead\nbrother back to their arms and to their house than that they should not\nhave lost him for those dreary four days. So delay tests faith, and\nmakes the deliverance, when it comes, not only the sweeter, but the\nmore conspicuously divine. So, brother, 'men ought always to pray, and\nnot to faint'--always to trust that 'the Lord will help them, and that\nright early.'\n\nIII. The next lesson that I would suggest is the leisureliness of the\ndeliverance.\n\nA prisoner escaping might be glad to make a bolt for it, dressed or\nundressed, anyhow. But when the angel comes into the cell, and the\nlight shines, look how slowly and, as I say, leisurely, he goes about\nit. 'Put on thy shoes.' He had taken them off, with his girdle and his\nupper garment, that he might lie the less uncomfortably. 'Put on thy\nshoes; lace them; make them all right. Never mind about these two\nlegionaries; they will not wake. Gird thyself; tighten thy girdle. Put\non thy garment. Do not be afraid. Do not be in a hurry; there is plenty\nof time. Now, are you ready? Come!' It would have been quite as easy\nfor the angel to have whisked him out of the cell and put him down at\nMary's door; but that was not to be the way. Peter was led past all the\nobstacles--'the first ward,' and the soldiers at it; 'the second ward,'\nand the soldiers at it; 'and the third gate that leads into the city,'\nwhich was no doubt bolted and barred. There was a leisurely procession\nthrough the prison.\n\nWhy? Because Omnipotence is never in a hurry, and God, not only in His\njudgments but in His mercies, very often works slowly, as becomes His\nmajesty. 'Ye shall not go out with haste; nor go by flight, for the\nLord will go before you; and the God of Israel shall be your rereward.'\nWe are impatient, and hurry our work over; God works slowly; for He\nworks certainly. That is the law of the divine working in all regions;\nand we have to regulate the pace of our eager expectation so as to fall\nin with the slow, solemn march of the divine purposes, both in regard\nto our individual salvation and the providences that affect us\nindividually, and in regard to the world's deliverance from the world's\nevils. 'An inheritance may be gotten hastily in the beginning, but the\nend thereof shall not be blessed.' 'He that believeth shall not make\nhaste.'\n\nIV. We see here, too, the delivered prisoner left to act for himself as\nsoon as possible.\n\nAs long as the angel was with Peter, he was dazed and amazed. He did\nnot know--and small blame to him--whether he was sleeping or waking;\nbut he gets through the gates, and out into the empty street,\nglimmering in the morning twilight, and the angel disappears, and the\nslumbering city is lying around him. When he is _left_ to himself, he\n_comes_ to himself. He could not have passed the wards without a\nmiracle, but he can find his way to Mary's house without one. He needed\nthe angel to bring him as far as the gate and down into the street, but\nhe did not need him any longer. So the angel vanished into the morning\nlight, and then he felt himself, and steadied himself, when\nresponsibility came to him. That is the thing to sober a man. So he\nstood in the middle of the unpeopled street, and 'he considered the\nthing,' and found in his own wits sufficient guidance, so that he did\nnot miss the angel. He said to himself, 'I will go to Mary's house.'\nProbably he did not know that there were any praying there, but it was\nnear, and it was, no doubt, convenient in other respects that we do not\nknow of. The economy of miraculous power is a remarkable feature in\nScriptural miracles. God never does anything for us that we could do\nfor ourselves. Not but that our doing for ourselves is, in a deeper\nsense, His working on us and in us, but He desires us to take the share\nthat belongs to us in completing the deliverance which must begin by\nsupernatural intervention of a Mightier than the angel, even the Lord\nof angels.\n\nAnd so this little picture of the angel leading Peter through the\nprison, and then leaving him to his own common sense and courage as\nsoon as he came out into the street, is just a practical illustration\nof the great text, 'Work out your own salvation with fear and\ntrembling, for it is God that worketh in you.'\n\n\n\nTHE ANGEL'S TOUCH\n\n'And, behold, the angel of the Lord ... smote Peter.... 23. And\nimmediately the angel of the Lord smote him [Herod].'--ACTS xii. 7, 23.\n\nThe same heavenly agent performs the same action on Peter and on Herod.\nTo the one, his touch brings freedom and the dropping off of his\nchains; to the other it brings gnawing agonies and a horrible death.\nThese twofold effects of one cause open out wide and solemn thoughts,\non which it is well to look.\n\nI. The one touch has a twofold effect.\n\nSo it is always when God's angels come, or God Himself lays His hand on\nmen. Every manifestation of the divine power, every revelation of the\ndivine presence, all our lives' experiences, are charged with the\nsolemn possibility of bringing us one or other of two directly opposite\nresults. They all offer us an alternative, a solemn 'either--or.'\n\nThe Gospel too comes charged with that double possibility, and is the\nintensest and most fateful example of the dual effect of all God's\nmessages and dealings. Just as the ark maimed Dagon and decimated the\nPhilistine cities and slew Uzzah, but brought blessing and prosperity\nto the house of Obed-edom, just as the same pillar was light to Israel\nall the night long, but cloud and darkness to the Egyptians, so is\nChrist set 'for the fall of' some and 'for the rising of' others amidst\nthe 'many in Israel,' and His Gospel is either 'the savour of life unto\nlife or of death unto death,' but in both cases is in itself 'unto\nGod,' one and the same 'sweet savour in Christ.'\n\nII. These twofold effects are parts of one plan and purpose.\n\nPeter's liberation and Herod's death tended in the same direction--to\nstrengthen and conserve the infant Church, and thus to prepare the way\nfor the conquering march of the Gospel. And so it is in all God's\nself-revelations and manifested energies, whatever may be their\neffects. They come from one source and one motive, they are\nfundamentally the operations of one changeless Agent, and, as they are\none in origin and character, so they are one in purpose. We are not to\nseparate them into distinct classes and ascribe them to different\nelements in the divine nature, setting down this as the work of Love\nand that as the outcome of Wrath, or regarding the acts of deliverance\nas due to one part of that great whole and the acts of destruction as\ndue to another part of it. The angel was the same, and his celestial\nfingers were moved by the same calm, celestial will when he smote Peter\ninto liberty and life, and Herod to death.\n\nGod changes His ways, but not His heart. He changes His acts, but not\nHis purposes. Opposite methods conduce to one end, as winter storms and\nJune sunshine equally tend to the yellowed harvest.\n\nIII. The character of the effects depends on the men who are touched.\n\nAs is the man, so is the effect of the angel's touch. It could only\nbring blessing to the one who was the friend of the angel's Lord, and\nit could bring only death to the other, who was His enemy. It could do\nnothing to the Apostle but cause his chains to drop from his wrists,\nnor anything to the vainglorious king but bring loathsome death.\n\nThis, too, is a universal truth. It is we ourselves who settle what\nGod's words and acts will be to us. The trite proverb, 'One man's meat\nis another man's poison,' is true in the highest regions. It is\neminently, blessedly or tragically true in our relation to the Gospel,\nwherein all God's self-revelation reaches its climax, wherein 'the arm\nof the Lord' is put forth in its most blessed energy, wherein is laid\non each of us the touch, tender and more charged with blessing than\nthat of the angel who smote the calmly sleeping Apostle. That Gospel\nmay either be to us the means of freeing us from our chains, and\nleading us out of our prison-house into sunshine and security, or be\nthe fatal occasion of condemnation and death. Which it shall be depends\non ourselves. Which shall I make it for myself?\n\n\n\n'SOBER CERTAINTY'\n\n'And when Peter was come to himself, he said, Now I know of a surety,\nthat the Lord hath sent His angel, and hath delivered me out of the\nhand of Herod, and from all the expectation of the people of the\nJews.'--ACTS xii. 11.\n\nWhere did Luke get his information of Peter's thoughts in that hour?\nThis verse sounds like first-hand knowledge. Not impossibly John Mark\nmay have been his informant, for we know that both were in Rome\ntogether at a later period. In any case, it is clear that, through\nwhatever channels this piece of minute knowledge reached Luke, it must\nhave come originally from Peter himself. And what a touch of\nnaturalness and evident truth it is! No wonder that the Apostle was\nhalf dazed as he came from his dungeon, through the prison corridors\nand out into the street. To be wakened by an angel, and to have such\nfollowing experiences, would amaze most men.\n\nI. The bewilderment of the released captive.\n\nGod's mercies often come suddenly, and with a rush and a completeness\nthat outrun our expectations and our power of immediate comprehension.\nAnd sometimes He sends us sorrows in such battalions and so\noverwhelming that we are dazed for the moment. A Psalmist touched a\ndeep experience when he sang, 'When the Lord turned again the captivity\nof Zion, we were like unto them that dream.'\n\nThe angel has to be gone before we are sure that he was really here.\nThe tumult of emotion in an experience needs to be calmed down before\nwe understand the experience. Reflection discovers more of heaven and\nof God in the great moments of our lives than was visible to us while\nwe were living through them,\n\nThere is one region in which this is especially true--that of the\nreligious life. There sometimes attend its beginnings in a soul a\ncertain excitement and perturbation which disable from calm realising\nof the greatness of the change which has passed. And it is well when\nthat excitement is quieted down and succeeded by meditative reflection\non the treasures that have been poured into the lap, almost as in the\ndark. No man understands what he has received when he first receives\nChrist and Christ's gifts. It occupies a lifetime to take possession of\nthat which we possess from the first in Him, and the oldest saint is as\nfar from full possession of the unspeakable and infinite 'gift of God,'\nas the babes in Christ are.\n\nBut, looking more generally at this characteristic of not rightly\nunderstanding the great epochs of our lives till they are past, we may\nnote that, while in part it is inevitable and natural, there is an\nelement of fault in it. If we lived in closer fellowship with God, we\nshould live in an atmosphere of continual calm, and nothing, either\nsorrowful or joyful, would be able so to sweep us off our feet that we\nshould be bewildered by it. Astonishment would never so fill our souls\nas that we could not rightly appraise events, nor should we need any\ntime, even in the thick of the most wonderful experiences, to 'come to'\nourselves and discern the angel.\n\nBut if it be so that our lives disclose their meanings best, when we\nlook back on them, how much of the understanding of them, and the\ndrawing of all its sweetness out of each event in them, is entrusted to\nmemory! And how negligent of a great means of happiness and strength we\nare, if we do not often muse on 'all the way by which God the Lord has\nled us these many years in the wilderness'! It is needful for Christian\nprogress to 'forget the things that are behind,' and not to let them\nlimit our expectations nor prescribe our methods, but it is quite as\nneedful to remember our past, or rather God's past with us, in order to\nconfirm our grateful faith and enlarge our boundless hope.\n\nII. The disappearance of the angel.\n\nWhy did he leave Peter standing there, half dazed and with his\ndeliverance incomplete? He 'led him through one street' only, and\n'straightway departed from him.' The Apostle delivered by miracle has\nnow to use his brains. One distinguishing characteristic of New\nTestament miracles is their economy of miraculous power. Jesus raised\nLazarus, for He alone could do that, but other hands must 'loose him\nand let him go,' He gave life to Jairus's little daughter, but He bid\nothers 'give her something to eat' God does nothing for us that we can\ndo for ourselves. That economy was valuable as a preservative of the\nApostles from the possible danger of expecting or relying on miracles,\nand as stirring them to use their own energies. Reliance on divine\npower should not lead us to neglect ordinary means. Alike in the\nnatural and in the spiritual life we have to do our part, and to be\nsure that God will do His.\n\nIII. The symbol here of a greater deliverance.\n\nFancy may legitimately employ this story as setting forth for us under\na lovely image the facts of Christian death, if only we acknowledge\nthat such a use is entirely the work of fancy. But, making that\nacknowledgment, may we not make the use? Is not Death, too, God's\nmessenger to souls that love Him, 'mighty and beauteous, though his\nface be hid'? Would it not be more Christian-like, and more congruous\nwith our eternal hope, if we pictured him thus than by the hideous\nemblems of our cemeteries and tombs? He comes to Christ's servants, and\nhis touch is gentle though his fingers are icy-cold. He removes only\nthe chains that bind us, and we ourselves are emancipated by his touch.\nHe leads us to 'the iron gate that leadeth into the city,' and it opens\nto us 'of its own accord.' But he disappears as soon as our happy feet\nhave touched the pavement of that street of the city which is 'pure\ngold, as transparent as glass,' and in the midst of which flows the\nriver of the crystal-bright 'water of life proceeding out of the throne\nof God and of the Lamb.' Then, when we see the Face as of the sun\nshining in his strength, we shall come to ourselves, and 'know of a\nsurety that the Lord hath sent His angel and delivered' us from all our\nfoes and ills for evermore.\n\n\n\nRHODA\n\n'A damsel ... named Rhoda.'--ACTS xii 13.\n\n'Rhoda' means 'a rose,' and _this_ rose has kept its bloom for eighteen\nhundred years, and is still sweet and fragrant! What a lottery undying\nfame is! Men will give their lives to earn it; and this servant-girl\ngot it by one little act, and never knew that she had it, and I suppose\nshe does not know to-day that, everywhere throughout the whole world\nwhere the Gospel is preached, 'this that she hath done is spoken of as\na memorial to her.' Is the love of fame worthy of being called 'the\nlast infirmity of noble minds'? Or is it the delusion of ignoble ones?\nWhy need we care whether anybody ever hears of us after we are dead and\nburied, so long as God knows about us? The 'damsel named Rhoda' was\nlittle the better for the immortality which she had unconsciously won.\n\nNow there is a very singular resemblance between the details of this\nincident and those of another case, when Peter was recognised in dim\nlight by his voice, and the Evangelist Luke, who is the author of the\nActs of the Apostles, seems to have had the resemblance between the two\nscenes--that in the high priest's palace and that outside Mary's\ndoor--in his mind, because he uses in this narrative a word which\noccurs, in the whole of the New Testament, only here and in his account\nof what took place on that earlier occasion. In both instances a\nmaid-servant recognises Peter by his voice, and in both 'she constantly\naffirms' that it was so. I do not think that there is anything to be\nbuilt upon the resemblance, but at all events I think that the use of\nthe same unusual word in the two cases, and nowhere else, seems to\nsuggest that Luke felt how strangely events sometimes double\nthemselves; and how the Apostle who is here all but a martyr is\nre-enacting, with differences, something like the former scene, when he\nwas altogether a traitor. But, be that as it may, there are some\nlessons which we may gather from this vivid picture of Rhoda and her\nbehaviour on the one side of the door, while Peter stood hammering, in\nthe morning twilight, on the other.\n\nI. We may notice in the relations of Rhoda to the assembled believers a\nstriking illustration of the new bond of union supplied by the Gospel.\n\nRhoda was a slave. The word rendered in our version 'damsel' means a\nfemale slave. Her name, which is a Gentile name, and her servile\ncondition, make it probable that she was not a Jewess. If one might\nventure to indulge in a guess, it is not at all unlikely that her\nmistress, Mary, John Mark's mother, Barnabas' sister, a well-to-do\nwoman of Jerusalem, who had a house large enough to take in the members\nof the Church in great numbers, and to keep up a considerable\nestablishment, had brought this slave-girl from the island of Cyprus.\nAt all events, she was a slave. In the time of our Lord, and long\nafter, these relations of slavery brought an element of suspicion,\nfear, and jealous espionage into almost every Roman household, because\nevery master knew that he passed his days and nights among men and\nwomen who wanted nothing better than to wreak their vengeance upon him.\nA man's foes were eminently those of his own household. And now here\nthis child-slave, a Gentile, has been touched by the same mighty love\nas her mistress; and Mary and Rhoda were kneeling together in the\nprayer-meeting when Peter began to hammer at the door. Neither woman\nthought now of the unnatural, unwholesome relation which had formerly\nbound them. In God's good time, and by the slow process of leavening\nsociety with Christian ideas, that diabolical institution perished in\nChristian lands. Violent reformation of immoralities is always a\nblunder. 'Raw haste' is 'half-sister to delay.' Settlers in forest\nlands have found that it is endless work to grub up the trees, or even\nto fell them. 'Root and branch' reform seldom answers. The true way is\nto girdle the tree by taking off a ring of bark round the trunk, and\nletting nature do the rest. Dead trees are easily dealt with; living\nones blunt many axes and tire many arms, and are alive after all. Thus\nthe Gospel waged no direct war with slavery, but laid down principles\nwhich, once they are wrought into Christian consciousness, made its\ncontinuance impossible. But, pending that consummation, the immediate\naction of Christianity was to ameliorate the condition of the slave.\nThe whole aspect of the ugly thing was changed as soon as master and\nslave together became the slaves of the Lord Jesus Christ. The Gospel\nhas the same sort of work to do to-day, and there are institutions in\nfull flourishing existence in this and every other civilised community\nas entirely antagonistic to the spirit and principles of Christianity\nas Roman slavery was. I, for my part, believe that the one uniting bond\nand healing medicine for society is found in Jesus Christ; and that in\nHim, and that the principles deducible from His revelation by word and\nwork, applied to all social evils, are their cure, and their only cure.\nThat slight, girlish figure standing at the door of Mary, her slave and\nyet her sister in Christ, may be taken as pointing symbolically the way\nby which the social and civic evils of this day are to be healed, and\nthe war of classes to cease.\n\nII. Note how we get here a very striking picture of the sacredness and\ngreatness of small common duties.\n\nBhoda came out from the prayer-meeting to open the gate. It was her\nbusiness, as we say, 'to answer the door,' and so she left off praying\nto go and do it. So doing, she was the means of delivering the Apostle\nfrom the danger which still dogged him. It was of little use to be\npraying on one side of the shut door when on the other he was standing\nin the street, and the day was beginning to dawn; Herod's men would be\nafter him as soon as daylight disclosed his escape. The one thing\nneedful for him was to be taken in and sheltered. So the praying group\nand the girl who stops praying when she hears the knock, to which it\nwas her business to attend, were working in the same direction. It is\nnot necessary to insist that no heights or delights of devotion and\nsecret communion are sufficient excuses for neglecting or delaying the\ndoing of the smallest and most menial task which is our task. If your\nbusiness is to keep the door, you will not be leaving, but abiding in,\nthe secret place of the Most High, if you get up from your knees in the\nmiddle of your prayer, and go down to open it. The smallest, commonest\nacts of daily life are truer worship than is rapt and solitary\ncommunion or united prayer, if the latter can only be secured by the\nneglect of the former. Better to be in the lower parts of the house\nattending to the humble duties of the slave than to be in the upper\nchamber, uniting with the saints in supplication and leaving tasks\nunperformed.\n\nLet us remember how we may find here an illustration of another great\ntruth, that the smallest things, done in the course of the quiet\ndischarge of recognised duty, and being, therefore, truly worship of\nGod, have in them a certain quality of immortality, and may be\neternally commemorated. It was not only the lofty and unique expression\nof devotion, which another woman gave when she broke the alabaster box\nto anoint the feet of the Saviour which were to be pierced with nails\nto-morrow, that has been held worthy of undying remembrance. The name\nand act of a poor slave girl have been commemorated by that Spirit who\npreserves nothing in vain, in order that we should learn that things\nwhich we vulgarly call great, and those which we insolently call small,\nare regarded by Him, not according to their apparent magnitude, but\naccording to their motive and reference to Him. He says, 'I will never\nforget any of their works'; and this little deed of Rhoda's, like the\nrose petals that careful housekeepers in the country keep upon the\nsideboard in china bowls to diffuse a fragance through the room, is\ngiven us to keep in memory for ever, a witness of the sanctity of\ncommon life when filled with acts of obedience to Him.\n\nIII. The same figure of the 'damsel named Rhoda' may give us a warning\nas to the possibility of forgetting very plain duties under the\npressure of very legitimate excitement.\n\n'She opened not the door for gladness,' but ran in and told them. And\nif, whilst she was running in with her message, Herod's quaternions of\nsoldiers had come down the street, there would have been 'no small\nstir' in the church as to 'what had become of Peter.' He would have\ngone back to his prison sure enough. Her _first_ duty was to open the\ndoor; her _second_ one was to go and tell the brethren, 'we have got\nhim safe inside'; but in the rush of joyous emotions she naively forgot\nwhat her first business was, 'lost her head,' as we say, and so went\noff to tell that he was outside, instead of letting him in. Now joy and\nsorrow are equally apt to make us forget plain and pressing duties, and\nwe may learn from this little incident the old-fashioned, but always\nnecessary advice, to keep feeling well under control, to use it as\nimpulse, not as guide, and never to let emotion, which should be down\nin the engine-room, come on deck and take the helm. It is dangerous to\nobey feeling, unless its decrees are countersigned by calm common sense\nilluminated by Scripture. Sorrow is apt to obscure duty by its\ndarkness, and joy to do so by its dazzle. It is hard to see the road at\nmidnight, or at midday when the sun is in our eyes. Both need to be\ncontrolled. Duty remains the same, whether my heart is beating like a\nsledge-hammer, or whether 'my bosom's lord sits lightly on its throne.'\nWhether I am sad or glad, the door that God has given me to watch has\nto be opened and shut by me. And whether I am a door-keeper in the\nhouse of the Lord, like Rhoda in Mary's, or have an office that people\nthink larger and more important, the imperativeness of my duties is\nequally independent of my momentary emotions and circumstances.\nRemember, then, that duty remains while feeling fluctuates, and that,\nsorrowful or joyful, we have still the same Lord to serve and the same\ncrown to win.\n\nIV. Lastly, we have here an instance of a very modest but positive and\nfully-warranted trust in one's own experience in spite of opposition.\n\nI need not speak about that extraordinary discussion which the brethren\ngot up in the upper room. They had been praying, as has often been\nremarked, for Peter's deliverance, and now that he is delivered they\nwill not believe it. I am afraid that there is often a dash of unbelief\nin immediate answers to our prayers mingling with the prayers. And\nalthough the petitions in this case were intense and fervent, as the\noriginal tells us, and had been kept up all night long, and although\ntheir earnestness and worthiness are guaranteed by the fact that they\nwere answered, yet when the veritable Peter, in flesh and blood, stood\nbefore the door, the suppliants first said to the poor girl, 'Thou art\nmad,' and then, 'It is his angel! It cannot be he.' Nobody seems to\nhave thought of going to the door to see whether it was he or not, but\nthey went on arguing with Rhoda as to whether she was right or wrong.\nThe unbelief that alloys even golden faith is taught us in this\nincident.\n\nRhoda 'constantly affirmed that it was so,' like the other porteress\nthat had picked out Peter's voice amongst the men huddled round the\nfire in the high priest's chamber.\n\nThe lesson is--trust your own experience, whatever people may have to\nsay against it. If you have found that Jesus Christ can help you, and\nhas loved you, and that your sins have been forgiven, because you have\ntrusted in Him, do not let anybody laugh or talk you out of that\nconviction. If you cannot argue, do like Rhoda, 'constantly affirm that\nit is so.' That is the right answer, especially if you can say to the\nantagonistic party, 'Have you been down to the door, then, to see?' And\nif they have to say 'No!' then the right answer is, 'You go and look as\nI did, and you will come back with the same belief which I have.'\n\nSo at last they open the door and there he stands. Peter's hammer,\nhammer, hammer at the gate is wonderfully given in the story. It goes\non as a kind of running accompaniment through the talk between Rhoda\nand the friends. It might have put a stop to the conversation, one\nwould have thought. But Another stands at the door knocking, still more\npersistently, still more patiently. 'Behold! I stand at the door and\nknock. If any man open the door I will come in.'\n\n\n\nPETER AFTER HIS ESCAPE\n\n'But he, beckoning unto them with the hand to hold their peace,\ndeclared unto them how the Lord had brought him forth out of the\nprison. And he said, Go shew these things unto James, and to the\nbrethren, And he departed, and went into another place.'--ACTS xii. 17.\n\nWhen the angel 'departed from him,' Peter had to fall back on his own\nwits, and they served him well. He 'considered the thing,' and resolved\nto make for the house of Mary. He does not seem to have intended to\nremain there, so dangerously near Herod, but merely to have told its\ninmates of his deliverance, and then to have hidden himself somewhere,\ntill the heat of the hunt after him was abated. Apparently he did not\ngo into the house at all, but talked to the brethren, when they came\ntrooping after Rhoda to open the gate. The signs of haste in the latter\npart of the story, where Peter has to think and act for himself,\ncontrast strikingly with the majestic leisureliness of the action of\nthe angel, who gave his successive commands to him to dress completely,\nas if careless of the sleeping legionaries who might wake at any\nmoment. There was need for haste, for the night was wearing thin, and\nthe streets of Jerusalem were no safe promenade for a condemned\nprisoner, escaped from his guards.\n\nWe do not deal here with the scene in Mary's house and at the gate. We\nonly note, in a word, the touch of nature in Rhoda's forgetting to open\n'for gladness,' and so leaving Peter in peril, if a detachment of his\nguards had already been told off to chase him. Equally true to nature,\nalas, is the incredulity of the praying 'many,' when the answer to\ntheir prayers was sent to them. They had rather believe that the poor\ngirl was 'mad' or that, for all their praying, Peter was dead, and this\nwas his 'angel,' than that their intense prayer had been so swiftly and\ncompletely answered. Is their behaviour not a mirror in which we may\nsee our own?\n\nVery like Peter, as well as very intelligible in the circumstances, is\nit that he 'continued knocking,' Well he might, and evidently his\nenergetic fusillade of blows was heard even above the clatter of eager\ntongues, discussing Rhoda's astonishing assertions. Some one, at last,\nseems to have kept his head sufficiently to suggest that perhaps,\ninstead of disputing whether these were true or not, it might be well\nto go to the door and see. So they all went in a body, Rhoda being\npossibly afraid to go alone, and others afraid to stay behind, and\nthere they saw his veritable self. But we notice that there is no sign\nof his being taken in and refreshed or cared for. He waved an\nimperative hand, to quiet the buzz of talk, spoke two or three brief\nwords, and departed.\n\nI. Note Peter's account of his deliverance.\n\nWe have often had occasion to remark that the very keynote of this Book\nof Acts is the working of Christ from heaven, which to its writer is as\nreal and efficient as was His work on earth. Peter here traces his\ndeliverance to 'the Lord.' He does not stay to mention the angel. His\nthoughts went beyond the instrument to the hand which wielded it. Nor\ndoes he seem to have been at all astonished at his deliverance. His\nmoment of bewilderment, when he did not know whether he was dreaming or\nawake, soon passed, and as soon as 'the sober certainty of his waking\nbliss' settled on his mind, his deliverance seemed to him perfectly\nnatural. What else was it to be expected that 'the Lord' would do? Was\nit not just like Him? There was nothing to be astonished at, there was\neverything to be thankful for. That is how Christian hearts should\nreceive the deliverances which the Lord is still working for them.\n\nII. Note Peter's message to the brethren.\n\nJames, the Lord's brother, was not an Apostle. That he should have been\nnamed to receive the message indicates that already he held some\nconspicuous position, perhaps some office, in the Church. It may also\nimply that there were no Apostles in Jerusalem then. We note also that\nthe 'many' who were gathered in Mary's house can have been only a small\npart of the whole. We here get a little glimpse into the conditions of\nthe life of a persecuted Church, which a sympathetic imagination can\ndwell on till it is luminous. Such gatherings as would attract notice\nhad to be avoided, and what meetings were held had to be in private\nhouses and with shut doors, through which entrance was not easy. Mary's\n'door' had a 'gate' in it, and only that smaller postern, which\nadmitted but one at a time, was opened to visitors, and that after\nscrutiny. But though assemblies were restricted, communications were\nkept up, and by underground ways information of events important to the\ncommunity spread through its members. The consciousness of brotherhood\nwas all the stronger because of the common danger, the universal peril\nhad not made the brethren selfish, but sympathetic. We may note, too,\nhow great a change had come since the time when the Christians were in\nfavour with all the people, and may reflect how fickle are the world's\nsmiles for Christ's servants.\n\nIII. Note Peter's disappearance.\n\nAll that is said of it is that he 'went into another place.' Probably\nLuke did not know where he went. It would be prudent at the time to\nconceal it, and the habit of concealment may have survived the need for\nit. But two points suggest themselves in regard to the Apostle's\nflight. There may be a better use for an Apostle than to kill him, and\nChrist's boldest witnesses are sometimes bound to save themselves by\nfleeing into another city. To hide oneself 'till the calamity be\noverpast' may be rank cowardice or commendable prudence. All depends on\nthe circumstances of each case. Prudence is an element in courage, and\ncourage without it is fool-hardiness. There are outward dangers from\nwhich it is Christian duty to run, and there are outward dangers which\nit is Christian duty to face. There are inward temptations which it is\nbest to avoid, as there are others which have to be fought to the\ndeath. Peter was as brave and braver when he went and hid himself, than\nwhen he boasted, 'Though all should forsake Thee, yet will not I!' A\nmorbid eagerness for martyrdom wrought much harm in the Church at a\nlater time. The primitive Church was free from it.\n\nBut we must not omit to note that here Peter is dropped out of the\nhistory, and is scarcely heard of any more. We have a glimpse of him in\nchapter xv., at the Council in Jerusalem, but, with that exception,\nthis is the last mention of him in Acts. How little this Book cares for\nits heroes! Or rather how it has only one Hero, and one Name which it\ncelebrates, the name of that Lord to whom Peter ascribed his\ndeliverance, and of whom he himself declared that 'there is none other\nName under heaven, given among men, whereby we must be saved.'\n\n\n\nEND OF VOL. I.\n\n\n\nEXPOSITIONS OF HOLY SCRIPTURE\n\nALEXANDER MACLAREN, D. D., Litt. D.\n\nTHE ACTS\n\n_CHAP. XIII TO END_\n\n\n\nCONTENTS\n\nTO THE REGIONS BEYOND (Acts xiii. 1-13)\n\nWHY SAUL BECAME PAUL (Acts xiii. 9)\n\nJOHN MARK (Acts xiii. 13)\n\nTHE FIRST PREACHING IN ASIA MINOR (Acts xiii. 26-39)\n\nLUTHER--A STONE ON THE CAIRN (Acts xiii. 36, 37)\n\nREJECTERS AND RECEIVERS (Acts xiii. 44-52; xiv. 1-7)\n\nUNWORTHY OF LIFE (Acts xiii. 46)\n\n'FULL OF THE HOLY GHOST' (Acts xiii. 52)\n\nDEIFIED AND STONED (Acts xiv. 11-22)\n\nDREAM AND REALITY (Acts xiv. 11)\n\n'THE DOOR OF FAITH' (Acts xiv. 27)\n\nTHE BREAKING OUT OF DISCORD (Acts xv. 1-6)\n\nTHE CHARTER OF GENTILE LIBERTY (Acts xv. 12-29)\n\nA GOOD MAN'S FAULTS (Acts xv. 37, 38)\n\nHOW TO SECURE A PROSPEROUS VOYAGE (Acts xvi. 10, 11)\n\nPAUL AT PHILIPPI (Acts xvi. 13, R.V.)\n\nTHE RIOT AT PHILIPPI (Acts xvi. 19-34)\n\nTHE GREAT QUESTION AND THE PLAIN ANSWER (Acts xvi. 30, 31)\n\nTHESSALONICA AND BEREA (Acts xvii. 1-12)\n\nPAUL AT ATHENS (Acts xvii. 22-34)\n\nTHE MAN WHO IS JUDGE (Acts xvii. 31)\n\nPAUL AT CORINTH (Acts xviii. 1-11)\n\n'CONSTRAINED BY THE WORD' (Acts xviii. 5)\n\nGALLIO (Acts xviii. 14, 15)\n\nTWO FRUITFUL YEARS (Acts xix. 1-12)\n\nWOULD-BE EXORCISTS (Acts xix. 15)\n\nTHE FIGHT WITH WILD BEASTS AT EPHESUS (Acts xix. 21-34)\n\nPARTING COUNSELS (Acts xx. 22-85)\n\nA FULFILLED ASPIRATION (Acts xx. 24; 2 Tim. iv. 7)\n\nPARTING WORDS (Acts xx. 32)\n\nTHE BLESSEDNESS OF GIVING (Acts xx. 35)\n\nDRAWING NEARER TO THE STORM (Acts xxi. 1-15)\n\nPHILIP THE EVANGELIST (Acts xxi. 8)\n\nAN OLD DISCIPLE (Acts xxi. 16)\n\nPAUL IN THE TEMPLE (Acts xxi. 27-39)\n\nPAUL ON HIS OWN CONVERSION (Acts xxii. 6-16)\n\nROME PROTECTS PAUL (Acts xxii. 17-30)\n\nCHRIST'S WITNESSES (Acts xxiii. 11)\n\nA PLOT DETECTED (Acts xxiii. 12-22)\n\nA LOYAL TRIBUTE (Acts xxiv. 2, 3)\n\nPAUL BEFORE FELIX (Acts xxiv. 10-25)\n\nFELIX BEFORE PAUL (Acts xxiv. 25)\n\nCHRIST'S REMONSTRANCES (Acts xxvi. 14)\n\nFAITH IN CHRIST (Acts xxvi. 18)\n\n'BEFORE GOVERNORS AND KINGS' (Acts xxvi. 19-32)\n\n'THE HEAVENLY VISION' (Acts xxvi. 19)\n\n'ME A CHRISTIAN!' (Acts xxvi. 28)\n\nTEMPEST AND TRUST (Acts xxvii 13-26)\n\nA SHORT CONFESSION OF FAITH (Acts xxvii. 23)\n\nA TOTAL WRECK, ALL HANDS SAVED (Acts xxvii. 30-44)\n\nAFTER THE WRECK (Acts xxviii. 1-16)\n\nTHE LAST GLIMPSE OF PAUL (Acts xxviii. 17-31)\n\nPAUL IN ROME (Acts xxviii. 30, 31)\n\n\n\nTO THE REGIONS BEYOND\n\n'Now there were in the church that was at Antioch certain prophets and\nteachers; as Barnabas, and Simeon that was called Niger, and Lucius of\nCyrene, and Manaen, which had been brought up with Herod the tetrarch,\nand Saul. 2. As they ministered to the Lord, and fasted, the Holy Ghost\nsaid, Separate me Barnabas and Saul for the work whereunto I have\ncalled them. 3. And when they had fasted and prayed, and laid their\nhands on them, they sent them away. A. So they, being sent forth by the\nHoly Ghost, departed unto Seleucia; and from thence they sailed to\nCyprus. 5. And when they were at Salamis, they preached the word of God\nin the synagogues of the Jews; and they had also John to their\nminister. 6. And when they had gone through the isle unto Paphos, they\nfound a certain sorcerer, a false prophet, a Jew, whose name was\nBar-jesus: 7. Which was with the deputy of the country, Sergius Paulus,\na prudent man, who called for Barnabas and Saul, and desired to hear\nthe word of God. 8. But Elymas the sorcerer (for so is his name by\ninterpretation) withstood them, seeking to turn away the deputy from\nthe faith. 9. Then Saul, (who also is called Paul,) filled with the\nHoly Ghost, set his eyes on him, 10. And said, O full of all subtilty\nand all mischief, thou child of the devil, thou enemy of all\nrighteousness, wilt thou not cease to pervert the right ways of the\nLord? 11. And now, behold, the hand of the Lord is upon thee, and thou\nshalt be blind, not seeing the sun for a season. And immediately there\nfell on him a mist and a darkness; and he went about seeking some to\nlead him by the hand. 12. Then the deputy, when he saw what was done,\nbelieved, being astonished at the doctrine of the Lord. 13. Now when\nPaul and his company loosed from Paphos, they came to Perga in\nPamphylia: and John departing from them returned to Jerusalem.'--ACTS\nxiii. 1-13.\n\nWe stand in this passage at the beginning of a great step forward.\nPhilip and Peter had each played a part in the gradual expansion of the\nchurch beyond the limits of Judaism; but it was from the church at\nAntioch that the messengers went forth who completed the process. Both\nits locality and its composition made that natural.\n\nI. The solemn designation of the missionaries is the first point in the\nnarrative. The church at Antioch was not left without signs of Christ's\ngrace and presence. It had its band of 'prophets and teachers.' As\nmight be expected, four of the five named are Hellenists,--that is,\nJews born in Gentile lands, and speaking Gentile languages. Barnabas\nwas a Cypriote, Simeon's byname of Niger ('Black') was probably given\nbecause of his dark complexion, which was probably caused by his birth\nin warmer lands. He may have been a North African, as Lucius of Cyrene\nwas. Saul was from Tarsus, and only Manaen remains to represent the\npure Palestinian Jew. His had been a strange course, from being\nfoster-brother of the Herod who killed John to becoming a teacher in\nthe church at Antioch. Barnabas was the leader of the little group, and\nthe younger Pharisee from Tarsus, who had all along been Barnabas's\n_protege_, brought up the rear.\n\nThe order observed in the list is a little window which shows a great\ndeal. The first and last names all the world knows; the other three are\nnever heard of again. Immortality falls on the two, oblivion swallows\nup the three. But it matters little whether our names are sounded in\nmen's ears, if they are in the Lamb's book of life.\n\nThese five brethren were waiting on the Lord by fasting and prayer.\nApparently they had reason to expect some divine communication, for\nwhich they were thus preparing themselves. Light will come to those who\nthus seek it. They were commanded to set apart two of their number for\n'the work whereunto I have called them.' That work is not specified,\nand yet the two, like carrier pigeons on being let loose, make straight\nfor their line of flight, and know exactly whither they are to go.\n\nIf we strictly interpret Luke's words ('I _have_ called them'), a\nprevious intimation from the Spirit had revealed to them the sphere of\ntheir work. In that case, the _separation_ was only the recognition by\nthe brethren of the divine appointment. The inward call must come\nfirst, and no ecclesiastical designation can do more than confirm that.\nBut the solemn designation by the Church identifies those who remain\nbehind with the work of those who go forth; it throws responsibility\nfor sympathy and support on the former, and it ministers strength and\nthe sense of companionship to the latter, besides checking that\ntendency to isolation which accompanies earnestness. To go forth on\neven Christian service, unrecognised by the brethren, is not good for\neven a Paul.\n\nBut although Luke speaks of the Church sending them away, he takes care\nimmediately to add that it was the Holy Ghost who 'sent them forth.'\nRamsay suggests that 'sent them away' is not the meaning of the phrase\nin verse 3, but that it should be rendered 'gave them leave to depart.'\nIn any case, a clear distinction is drawn between the action of the\nChurch and that of the Spirit, which constituted Paul's real commission\nas an Apostle. He himself says that he was an Apostle, 'not from men,\nneither through man.'\n\nII. The events in the first stage of the journey are next summarily\npresented. Note the local colouring in 'went _down_ to Seleucia,' the\nseaport of Antioch, at the mouth of the river. The missionaries were\nnaturally led to begin at Cyprus, as Barnabas's birthplace, and that of\nsome of the founders of the church at Antioch.\n\nSo, for the first time, the Gospel went to sea, the precursor of so\nmany voyages. It was an 'epoch-making moment' when that ship dropped\ndown with the tide and put out to sea. Salamis was the nearest port on\nthe south-eastern coast of Cyprus, and there they landed,--Barnabas, no\ndoubt, familiar with all he saw; Saul probably a stranger to it all.\nTheir plan of action was that to which Paul adhered in all his after\nwork,--to carry the Gospel to the Jew first, a proceeding for which the\nmanner of worship in the synagogues gave facilities. No doubt, many\nsuch were scattered through Cyprus, and Barnabas would be well known in\nmost.\n\nThey thus traversed the island from east to west. It is noteworthy that\nonly now is John Mark's name brought in as their attendant. He had come\nwith them from Antioch, but Luke will not mention him, when he is\ntelling of the sending forth of the other two, because Mark was not\nsent by the Spirit, but only chosen by his uncle, and his subsequent\ndefection did not affect the completeness of their embassy. His\nentirely subordinate place is made obvious by the point at which he\nappears.\n\nNothing of moment happened on the tour till Paphos was reached. That\nwas the capital, the residence of the pro-consul, and the seat of the\nfoul worship of Venus. There the first antagonist was met. It is not\nSergius Paulus, pro-consul though he was, who is the central figure of\ninterest to Luke, but the sorcerer who was attached to his train. His\ncharacter is drawn in Luke's description, and in Paul's fiery\nexclamation. Each has three clauses, which fall 'like the beats of a\nhammer.' 'Sorcerer, false prophet, Jew,' make a climax of wickedness.\nThat a Jew should descend to dabble in the black art of magic, and play\ntricks on the credulity of ignorant people by his knowledge of some\nsimple secrets of chemistry; that he should pretend to prophetic gifts\nwhich in his heart he knew to be fraud, and should be recreant to his\nancestral faith, proved him to deserve the penetrating sentence which\nPaul passed on him. He was a trickster, and knew that he was: his\ninspiration came from an evil source; he had come to hate righteousness\nof every sort.\n\nPaul was not flinging bitter words at random, or yielding to passion,\nbut was laying the black heart bare to the man's own eyes, that the\nseeing himself as God saw him might startle him into penitence. 'The\ncorruption of the best is the worst.' The bitterest enemies of God's\nways are those who have cast aside their early faith. A Jew who had\nstooped to be a juggler was indeed causing God's 'name to be blasphemed\namong the Gentiles.'\n\nHe and Paul each recognised in the other his most formidable foe.\nElymas instinctively felt that the pro-consul must be kept from\nlistening to the teaching of these two fellow-countrymen, and 'sought\nto _pervert_ him from the faith,' therein _perverting_ (the same word\nis used in both cases) 'the right ways of the Lord'; that is, opposing\nthe divine purpose. He was a specimen of a class who attained influence\nin that epoch of unrest, when the more cultivated and nobler part of\nRoman society had lost faith in the old gods, and was turning wistfully\nand with widespread expectation to the mysterious East for\nenlightenment.\n\nSo, like a ship which plunges into the storm as soon as it clears the\npier-head, the missionaries felt the first dash of the spray and blast\nof the wind directly they began their work. Since this was their first\nencounter with a foe which they would often have to meet, the duel\nassumes importance, and we understand not only the fulness of the\nnarrative, but the miracle which assured Paul and Barnabas of Christ's\nhelp, and was meant to diffuse its encouragement along the line of\ntheir future work. For Elymas it was chastisement, which might lead him\nto cease to pervert the ways of the Lord, and himself begin to walk in\nthem. Perhaps, after a season, he did see 'the better Sun.'\n\nSaul's part in the incident is noteworthy. We observe the vivid touch,\nhe 'fastened his eyes on him.' There must have been something very\npiercing in the fixed gaze of these flashing eyes. But Luke takes pains\nto prevent our thinking that Paul spoke from his own insight or was\nmoved by human passion. He was 'filled with the Holy Ghost,' and, as\nHis organ, poured out the scorching words that revealed the cowering\napostate to himself, and announced the merciful punishment that was to\nfall. We need to be very sure that we are similarly filled before\nventuring to imitate the Apostle's tone.\n\nIII. The shifting of the scene to the mainland presents some noteworthy\npoints. It is singular that there is no preaching mentioned as having\nbeen attempted in Perga, or anywhere along the coast, but that the two\nevangelists seem to have gone at once across the great mountain range\nof Taurus to Antioch of Pisidia.\n\nA striking suggestion is made by Ramsay to the effect that the reason\nwas a sudden attack of the malarial fever which is endemic in the\nlow-lying coast plains, and for which the natural remedy is to get up\namong the mountains. If so, the journey to Antioch of Pisidia may not\nhave been in the programme to which John Mark had agreed, and his\nreturn to Jerusalem may have been due to this departure from the\noriginal intention. Be that as it may, he stands for us as a beacon,\nwarning against hasty entrance on great undertakings of which we have\nnot counted the cost, no less than against cowardly flight from work,\nas soon as it begins to involve more danger or discomfort than we had\nreckoned on.\n\nJohn Mark was willing to go a-missionarying as long as he was in\nCyprus, where he was somebody and much at home, by his relationship to\nBarnabas; but when Perga and the climb over Taurus into strange lands\ncame to be called for, his zeal and courage oozed out at his\nfinger-ends, and he skulked back to his mother's house at Jerusalem. No\nwonder that Paul 'thought not good to take with them him who withdrew\nfrom them.' But even such faint hearts as Mark's may take courage from\nthe fact that he nobly retrieved his youthful error, and won back\nPaul's confidence, and proved himself 'profitable to him for the\nministry.'\n\n\n\nWHY SAUL BECAME PAUL\n\n'Saul (who also is called Paul)' ...--ACTS xiii. 9\n\nHitherto the Apostle has been known by the former of these names,\nhenceforward he is known exclusively by the latter. Hitherto he has\nbeen second to his friend Barnabas, henceforward he is first. In an\nearlier verse of the chapter we read that 'Barnabas and Saul' were\nseparated for their missionary work, and again, that it was 'Barnabas\nand Saul' for whom the governor of Cyprus sent, to hear the word of the\nLord. But in a subsequent verse of the chapter we read that 'Paul and\nhis company loosed from Paphos.'\n\nThe change in the order of the names is significant, and the change in\nthe names not less so. Why was it that at this period the Apostle took\nup this new designation? I think that the coincidence between his name\nand that of the governor of Cyprus, who believed at his preaching,\nSergius Paulus, is too remarkable to be accidental. And though, no\ndoubt, it was the custom for the Jews of that day, especially for those\nof them who lived in Gentile lands, to have, for convenience' sake, two\nnames, one Jewish and one Gentile--one for use amongst their brethren,\nand one for use amongst the heathen--still we have no distinct\nintimation that the Apostle bore a Gentile name before this moment. And\nthe fact that the name which he bears now is the same as that of his\nfirst convert, seems to me to point the explanation.\n\nI take it, then, that the assumption of the name of Paul instead of the\nname of Saul occurred at this point, stood in some relation to his\nmissionary work, and was intended in some sense as a memorial of his\nfirst victory in the preaching of the Gospel.\n\nI think that there are lessons to be derived from the substitution of\none of these names for the other which may well occupy us for a few\nmoments.\n\nI. First of all, then, the new name expresses a new nature.\n\nJesus Christ gave the Apostle whom He called to Himself in the early\ndays, a new name, in order to prophesy the change which, by the\ndiscipline of sorrow and the communication of the grace of God, should\npass over Simon Barjona, making him into a Peter, a 'Man of Rock.' With\ncharacteristic independence, Saul chooses for himself a new name, which\nshall express the change that he feels has passed over his inmost\nbeing. True, he does not assume it at his conversion, but that is no\nreason why we should not believe that he assumes it because he is\nbeginning to understand what it is that has happened to him at his\nconversion.\n\nThe fact that he changes his name as soon as he throws himself into\npublic and active life, is but gathering into one picturesque symbol\nhis great principle; 'If any man be in Christ Jesus, he is a new\ncreature. Old things are passed away and all things are become new.'\n\nSo, dear brethren, we may, from this incident before us, gather this\none great lesson, that the central heart of Christianity is the\npossession of a new life, communicated to us through faith in that Son\nof God, Who is the Lord of the Spirit. Wheresoever there is a true\nfaith, there is a new nature. Opinions may play upon the surface of a\nman's soul, like moonbeams on the silver sea, without raising its\ntemperature one degree or sending a single beam into its dark caverns.\nAnd that is the sort of Christianity that satisfies a great many of\nyou--a Christianity of opinion, a Christianity of surface creed, a\nChristianity which at the best slightly modifies some of our outward\nactions, but leaves the whole inner man unchanged.\n\nPaul's Christianity meant a radical change in his whole nature. He went\nout of Jerusalem a persecutor, he came into Damascus a Christian. He\nrode out of Jerusalem hating, loathing, despising Jesus Christ; he\ngroped his way into Damascus, broken, bruised, clinging contrite to His\nfeet, and clasping His Cross as his only hope. He went out proud,\nself-reliant, pluming himself upon his many prerogatives, his blue\nblood, his pure descent, his Rabbinical knowledge, his Pharisaical\ntraining, his external religious earnestness, his rigid morality; he\nrode into Damascus blind in the eyes, but seeing in the soul, and\ndiscerning that all these things were, as he says in his strong,\nvehement way, 'but dung' in comparison with his winning Christ.\n\nAnd his theory of conversion, which he preaches in all his Epistles, is\nbut the generalisation of his own personal experience, which suddenly,\nand in a moment, smote his old self to shivers, and raised up a new\nlife, with new tastes, views, tendencies, aspirations, with new\nallegiance to a new King. Such changes, so sudden, so revolutionary,\ncannot be expected often to take place amongst people who, like us,\nhave been listening to Christian teaching all our lives. But unless\nthere be this infusion of a new life into men's spirits which shall\nmake them love and long and aspire after new things that once they did\nnot care for, I know not why we should speak of them as being\nChristians at all. The transition is described by Paul as 'passing from\ndeath unto life.' That cannot be a surface thing. A change which needs\na new name must be a profound change. Has our Christianity\nrevolutionised our nature in any such fashion? It is easy to be a\nChristian after the superficial fashion which passes muster with so\nmany of us. A verbal acknowledgment of belief in truths which we never\nthink about, a purely external performance of acts of worship, a\nsubscription or two winged by no sympathy, and a fairly respectable\nlife beneath the cloak of which all evil may burrow undetected--make\nthe Christianity of thousands. Paul's Christianity transformed him;\ndoes yours transform you? If it does not, are you quite sure that it\n_is_ Christianity at all?\n\nII. Then, again, we may take this change of name as being expressive of\na life's work.\n\n_Paul_ is a Roman name. He strips himself of his Jewish connections and\nrelationships. His fellow-countrymen who lived amongst the Gentiles\nwere, as I said at the beginning of these remarks, in the habit of\ndoing the same thing; but they carried _both_ their names; their Jewish\nfor use amongst their own people, their Gentile one for use amongst\nGentiles. Paul seems to have altogether disused his old name of Saul.\nIt was almost equivalent to seceding from Judaism. It is like the acts\nof the renegades whom one sometimes hears of, who are found by\ntravellers, dressed in turban and flowing robes, and bearing some\nTurkish name, or like some English sailor, lost to home and kindred,\nwho deserts his ship in an island of the Pacific, and drops his English\nname for a barbarous title, in token that he has given up his faith and\nhis nationality.\n\nSo Paul, contemplating for his life's work preaching amongst the\nGentiles, determines at the beginning, 'I lay down all of which I used\nto be proud. If my Jewish descent and privileges stand in my way I cast\nthem aside. \"Circumcised the eighth day, of the stock of Israel, of the\ntribe of Benjamin, an Hebrew of the Hebrews, as touching the law, a\nPharisee,\"--all these I wrap together in one bundle, and toss them\nbehind me that I may be the better able to help some to whom they would\nhave hindered my access.' A man with a heart will throw off his silken\nrobes that his arm may be bared to rescue, and his feet free to run to\nsuccour.\n\nSo we may, from the change of the Apostle's name, gather this lesson,\nnever out of date, that the only way to help people is to go down to\ntheir level. If you want to bless men, you must identify yourself with\nthem. It is no use standing on an eminence above them, and\npatronisingly talking down to them. You cannot scold, or hector, or\nlecture men into the possession and acceptance of religious truth if\nyou take a position of superiority. As our Master has taught us, if we\nwant to make blind beggars see we must take the blind beggars by the\nhand.\n\nThe spirit which led the Apostle to change the name of Saul, with its\nmemories of the royal dignity which, in the person of its great wearer,\nhad honoured his tribe, for a Roman name is the same which he formally\nannounces as a deliberately adopted law of his life. 'To them that are\nwithout law I became as without law ... that I might gain them that are\nwithout law ... I am made all things to all men, that I might by all\nmeans save some.'\n\nIt is the very inmost principle of the Gospel. The principle that\ninfluenced the servant in this comparatively little matter, is the\nprinciple that influenced the Master in the mightiest of all events.\n'He who was in the form of God, and thought not equality with God a\nthing to be eagerly snatched at, made Himself of no reputation, and was\nfound in fashion as a man and in form as a servant, and became obedient\nunto death.' 'For as much as the children were partakers of flesh and\nblood, He Himself likewise took part of the same'; and the mystery of\nincarnation came to pass, because when the Divine would help men, the\nonly way by which the Infinite love could reach its end was that the\nDivine should become man; identifying Himself with those whom He would\nhelp, and stooping to the level of the humanity that He would lift.\n\nAnd as it is the very essence and heart of Christ's work, so, my\nbrother, it is the condition of all work that benefits our fellows. It\napplies all round. We must stoop if we would raise. We must put away\ngifts, culture, everything that distinguishes us, and come to the level\nof the men that we seek to help. Sympathy is the parent of all wise\ncounsel, because it is the parent of all true understanding of our\nbrethren's wants. Sympathy is the only thing to which people will\nlisten, sympathy is the only disposition correspondent to the message\nthat we Christians are entrusted with. For a Christian man to carry the\nGospel of Infinite condescension to his fellows in a spirit other than\nthat of the Master and the Gospel which he speaks, is an anomaly and a\ncontradiction.\n\nAnd, therefore, let us all remember that a vast deal of so-called\nChristian work falls utterly dead and profitless, for no other reason\nthan this, that the doers have forgotten that they must come to the\nlevel of the men whom they would help, before they can expect to bless\nthem.\n\nYou remember the old story of the heroic missionary whose heart burned\nto carry the Gospel of Jesus Christ amongst captives, and as there was\nno other way of reaching them, let himself be sold for a slave, and put\nout his hands to have the manacles fastened upon them. It is the law\nfor all Christian service; become like men if you will help them,--'To\nthe weak as weak, all things to all men, that we might by all means\nsave some.'\n\nAnd, my brother, there was no obligation on Paul's part to do Christian\nwork which does not lie on you.\n\nIII. Further, this change of name is a memorial of victory.\n\nThe name is that of Paul's first convert. He takes it, as I suppose,\nbecause it seemed to him such a blessed thing that at the very moment\nwhen he began to sow, God helped him to reap. He had gone out to his\nwork, no doubt, with much trembling, with weakness and fear. And lo!\nhere, at once, the fields were white already to the harvest,\n\nGreat conquerors have been named from their victories; Africanus,\nGermanicus, Nelson of the Nile, Napier of Magdala, and the like. Paul\nnames himself from the first victory that God gives him to win; and so,\nas it were, carries ever on his breast a memorial of the wonder that\nthrough him it had been given to preach, and that not without success,\namongst the Gentiles 'the unsearchable riches of Christ.'\n\nThat is to say, this man thought of it as his highest honour, and the\nthing best worthy to be remembered about his life, that God had helped\nhim to help his brethren to know the common Master. Is that your idea\nof the best thing about a life? What would you, a professing Christian,\nlike to have for an epitaph on your grave? 'He was rich; he made a big\nbusiness in Manchester'; 'He was famous, he wrote books'; 'He was happy\nand fortunate'; or, 'He turned many to righteousness'? This man flung\naway his literary tastes, his home joys, and his personal ambition, and\nchose as that for which he would live, and by which he would fain be\nremembered, that he should bring dark hearts to the light in which he\nand they together walked.\n\nHis name, in its commemoration of his first success, would act as a\nstimulus to service and to hope. No doubt the Apostle, like the rest of\nus, had his times of indolence and languor, and his times of\ndespondency when he seemed to have laboured in vain, and spent his\nstrength for nought. He had but to say 'Paul' to find the antidote to\nboth the one and the other, and in the remembrance of the past to find\na stimulus for service for the future, and a stimulus for hope for the\ntime to come. His first convert was to him the first drop that predicts\nthe shower, the first primrose that prophesies the wealth of yellow\nblossoms and downy green leaves that will fill the woods in a day or\ntwo. The first convert 'bears in his hand a glass which showeth many\nmore.' Look at the workmen in the streets trying to get up a piece of\nthe roadway. How difficult it is to lever out the first paving stone\nfrom the compacted mass! But when once it has been withdrawn, the rest\nis comparatively easy. We can understand Paul's triumph and joy over\nthe first stone which he had worked out of the strongly cemented wall\nand barrier of heathenism; and his conviction that having thus made a\nbreach, if it were but wide enough to let the end of his lever in, the\nfall of the whole was only a question of time. I suppose that if the\nold alchemists had turned but one grain of base metal into gold they\nmight have turned tons, if only they had had the retorts and the\nappliances with which to do it. And so, what has brought one man's soul\ninto harmony with God, and given one man the true life, can do the same\nfor all men. In the first fruits we may see the fields whitening to the\nharvest. Let us rejoice then, in any little work that God helps us to\ndo, and be sure that if so great be the joy of the first fruits, great\nbeyond speech will be the joy of the ingathering.\n\nIV. And now last of all, this change of name is an index of the spirit\nof a life's work.\n\n'Paul' means 'little'; 'Saul' means 'desired.' He abandons the name\nthat prophesied of favour and honour, to adopt a name that bears upon\nits very front a profession of humility. His very name is the\ncondensation into a word of his abiding conviction: 'I am less than the\nleast of all saints.' Perhaps even there may be an allusion to his low\nstature, which may be pointed at in the sarcasm of his enemies that his\nletters were strong, though his bodily presence was 'weak.' If he was,\nas Renan calls him, 'an ugly little Jew,' the name has a double\nappropriateness.\n\nBut, at all events, it is an expression of the spirit in which he\nsought to do his work. The more lofty the consciousness of his vocation\nthe more lowly will a true man's estimate of himself be. The higher my\nthought of what God has given me grace to do, the more shall I feel\nweighed down by the consciousness of my unfitness to do it. And the\nmore grateful my remembrance of what He has enabled me to do, the more\nshall I wonder that I have been enabled, and the more profoundly shall\nI feel that it is not my strength but His that has won the victories.\n\nSo, dear brethren, for all hope, for all success in our work, for all\ngrowth in Christian grace and character, this disposition of lowly\nself-abasement and recognised unworthiness and infirmity is absolutely\nindispensable. The mountain-tops that lift themselves to the stars are\nbarren, and few springs find their rise there. It is in the lowly\nvalleys that the flowers grow and the rivers run. And it is they who\nare humble and lowly in heart to whom God gives strength to serve Him,\nand the joy of accepted service.\n\nI beseech you, then, learn your true life's task. Learn how to do it by\nidentifying yourselves with the humbler brethren whom you would help.\nLearn the spirit in which it must be done; the spirit of lowly\nself-abasement. And oh! above all, learn this, that unless you have the\nnew life, the life of God in your hearts, you have no life at all.\n\nHave you, my brother, that faith by which we receive into our spirits\nChrist's own Spirit, to be our life? If you have, then you are a new\ncreature, with a new name, perhaps but dimly visible and faintly\naudible, amidst the imperfections of earth, but sure to shine out on\nthe pages of the Lamb's Book of Life; and to be read 'with tumults of\nacclaim' before the angels of Heaven. 'I will give him a white stone,\nand in the stone a new name written, which no man knoweth save he that\nreceiveth it.'\n\n\n\nJOHN MARK\n\n'... John, departing from them, returned to Jerusalem.'--ACTS xiii. 13.\n\nThe few brief notices of John Mark in Scripture are sufficient to give\nus an outline of his life, and some inkling of his character. He was\nthe son of a well-to-do Christian woman in Jerusalem, whose house\nappears to have been the resort of the brethren as early as the period\nof Peter's miraculous deliverance from prison. As the cousin of\nBarnabas he was naturally selected to be the attendant and secular\nfactotum of Paul and Barnabas on their first missionary journey. For\nsome reason, faint-heartedness, lack of interest, levity of\ndisposition, or whatever it may have been, he very quickly abandoned\nthat office and returned to his home. His kindly-natured and indulgent\nrelative sought to reinstate him in his former position on the second\njourney of Paul and himself. Paul's kinder severity refused to comply\nwith the wish of his colleague Barnabas, and so they part, and Barnabas\nand Mark sail away to Cyprus, and drop out of the Acts of the Apostles.\nWe hear no more about him until near the end of the Apostle Paul's\nlife, when the Epistles to the Colossians and Philemon show him as\nagain the companion of Paul in his captivity. He seems to have left him\nin Rome, to have gone to Asia Minor for a space, to have returned to\nthe Apostle during his last imprisonment and immediately prior to his\ndeath, and then to have attached himself to the Apostle Peter, and\nunder his direction and instruction to have written his Gospel.\n\nNow these are the bones of his story; can we put flesh and blood upon\nthem: and can we get any lessons out of them? I think we may; at any\nrate I am going to try.\n\nI. Consider then, first, his--what shall I call it? well, if I may use\nthe word which Paul himself designates it by, in its correct\nsignification, we may call it his--apostasy.\n\nIt was not a departure from Christ, but it was a departure from very\nplain duty. And if you will notice the point of time at which Mark\nthrew up the work that was laid upon him, you will see the reason for\nhis doing so. The first place to which the bold evangelists went was\nCyprus. Barnabas was a native of Cyprus, which was perhaps the reason\nfor selecting it as the place in which to begin the mission. For the\nsame reason, because it was the native place of his relative, it would\nbe very easy work for John Mark as long as they stopped in Cyprus,\namong his friends, with people that knew him, and with whom no doubt he\nwas familiar. But as soon as they crossed the strait that separated the\nisland from the mainland, and set foot upon the soil of Asia Minor, so\nsoon he turned tail; like some recruit that goes into battle, full of\nfervour, but as soon as the bullets begin to 'ping' makes the best of\nhis way to the rear. He was quite ready for missionary work as long as\nit was easy work; quite ready to do it as long as he was moving upon\nknown ground and there was no great call upon his heroism, or his\nself-sacrifice; he does not wait to test the difficulties, but is\nfrightened by the imagination of them, does not throw himself into the\nwork and see how he gets on with it, but before he has gone a mile into\nthe land, or made any real experience of the perils and hardships, has\nhad quite enough of it, and goes away back to his mother in Jerusalem.\n\nYes, and we find exactly the same thing in all kinds of strenuous life.\nMany begin to run, but one after another, as 'lap' after 'lap' of the\nracecourse is got over, has had enough of it, and drops on one side; a\nhundred started, and at the end the field is reduced to three or four.\nAll you men that have grey hairs on your heads can remember many of\nyour companions that set out in the course with you, 'did run well' for\na little while: what has become of them? This thing hindered one, the\nother thing hindered another; the swiftly formed resolution died down\nas fast as it blazed up; and there are perhaps some three or four that,\n'by patient continuance in well-doing,' have been tolerably faithful to\ntheir juvenile ideal; and to use the homely word of the homely Abraham\nLincoln, kept 'pegging away' at what they knew to be the task that was\nlaid upon them.\n\nThis is very 'threadbare' morality, very very familiar and\nold-fashioned teaching; but I am accustomed to believe that no teaching\nis threadbare until it is practised; and that however well-worn the\nplatitudes may be, you and I want them once again unless we have obeyed\nthem, and done all which they enjoin. And so in regard to every career\nwhich has in it anything of honour and of effort, let John Mark teach\nus the lesson not swiftly to begin and inconsiderately to venture upon\na course, but once begun to let nothing discourage, 'nor bate one jot\nof heart or hope, but still bear up and steer right onward.'\n\nAnd still further and more solemnly still, how like this story is to\nthe experience of hundreds and thousands of young Christians! Any man\nwho has held such an office as I hold, for as many years as I have\nfilled it, will have his memory full--and, may I say, his eyes not\nempty--of men and women who began like this man, earnest, fervid, full\nof zeal, and who, like him, have slackened in their work; who were\nSunday-school teachers, workers amongst the poor, I know not what, when\nthey were young men and women, and who now are idle and unprofitable\nservants.\n\nSome of you, dear brethren, need the word of exhortation and earnest\nbeseeching to contrast the sluggishness, the indolence of your present,\nwith the brightness and the fervour of your past. And I beseech you, do\nnot let your Christian life be like that snow that is on the ground\nabout us to-day--when it first lights upon the earth, radiant and\nwhite, but day by day gets more covered with a veil of sooty blackness\nuntil it becomes dark and foul.\n\nMany of us have to acknowledge that the fervour of early days has died\ndown into coldness. The river that leapt from its source rejoicing, and\nbickered amongst the hills in such swift and musical descent, creeps\nsluggish and almost stagnant amongst the flats of later life, or has\nbeen lost and swallowed up altogether in the thirsty and encroaching\nsands of a barren worldliness. Oh! my friends, let us all ponder this\nlesson, and see to it that no repetition of the apostasy of this man\ndarken our Christian lives and sadden our Christian conscience.\n\nII. And now let me ask you to look next, in the development of this\nlittle piece of biography, to Mark's eclipse.\n\nPaul and Barnabas differed about how to treat the renegade. Which of\nthem was right? Would it have been better to have put him back in his\nold post, and given him another chance, and said nothing about the\nfailure; or was it better to do what the sterner wisdom of Paul did,\nand declare that a man who had once so forgotten himself and abandoned\nhis work was not the man to put in the same place again? Barnabas'\nhighest quality, as far as we know, was a certain kind of broad\ngenerosity and rejoicing to discern good in all men. He was a 'son of\nconsolation'; the gentle kindness of his natural disposition, added to\nthe ties of relationship, influenced him in his wish regarding his\ncousin Mark. He made a mistake. It would have been the cruellest thing\nthat could have been done to his relative to have put him back again\nwithout acknowledgment, without repentance, without his riding\nquarantine for a bit, and holding his tongue for a while. He would not\nthen have known his fault as he ought to have known it, and so there\nwould never have been the chance of his conquering it.\n\nThe Church manifestly sympathised with Paul, and thought that he took\nthe right view; for the contrast is very significant between the\nunsympathising silence which the narrative records as attending the\ndeparture of Barnabas and Mark--'Barnabas took Mark, and sailed away to\nCyprus'--and the emphasis with which it tells us that the other partner\nin the dispute, Paul, 'took Silas and departed, being recommended by\nthe brethren to the grace of God.'\n\nThe people at Antioch had no doubt who was right, and I think they were\nright in so deciding. So let us learn that God treats His renegades as\nPaul treated Mark, and not as Barnabas would have treated him, He is\nready, even infinitely ready, to forgive and to restore, but desires to\nsee the consciousness of the sin first, and desires, before large tasks\nare re-committed to hands that once have dropped them, to have some\nkind of evidence that the hands have grown stronger and the heart\npurified from its cowardice and its selfishness. Forgiveness does not\nmean impunity. The infinite mercy of God is not mere weak indulgence\nwhich so deals with a man's failures and sins as to convey the\nimpression that these are of no moment whatsoever. And Paul's severity\nwhich said: 'No, such work is not fit for such hands until the heart\nhas been \"broken and healed,\"' is of a piece with God's severity which\nis love. 'Thou wast a God that forgavest them, though Thou tookest\nvengeance of their inventions.' Let us learn the difference between a\nweak charity which loves too foolishly, and therefore too selfishly, to\nlet a man inherit the fruit of his doings, and the large mercy which\nknows how to take the bitterness out of the chastisement, and yet knows\nhow to chastise.\n\nAnd still further, this which I have called Mark's eclipse may teach us\nanother lesson, viz., that the punishment for shirking work is to be\ndenied work, just as the converse is true, that in God's administration\nof the world and of His Church, the reward for faithful work is to get\nmore to do, and the filling a narrower sphere is the sure way to have a\nwider sphere to fill. So if a man abandons plain duties, then he will\nget no work to do. And that is why so many Christian men and women are\nidle in this world; and stand in the market-place, saying, with a\ncertain degree of truth, 'No man hath hired us.' No; because so often\nin the past tasks have been presented to you, forced upon you, almost\npressed into your unwilling hands, that you have refused to take; and\nyou are not going to get any more. You have been asked to work,--I\nspeak now to professing Christians--duties have been pressed upon you,\nfields of service have opened plainly before you, and you have not had\nthe heart to go into them. And so you stand idle all the day now, and\nthe work goes to other people that will do it. Thus God honours them,\nand passes you by.\n\nMark sails away to Cyprus, he does not go back to Jerusalem; he and\nBarnabas try to get up some little schismatic sort of mission of their\nown. Nothing comes of it; nothing ought to have come of it. He drops\nout of the story; he has no share in the joyful conflicts and\nsacrifices and successes of the Apostle. When he heard how Paul, by\nGod's help, was flaming like a meteor from East to West, do you not\nthink he wished that he had not been such a coward? When the Lord was\nopening doors, and he saw how the work was prospering in the hands of\nancient companions, and Silas filled the place that he might have\nfilled, if he had been faithful to God, do you not think the bitter\nthought occupied his mind, of how he had flung away what never could\ncome back to him now? The punishment of indolence is absolute idleness.\n\nSo, my friends, let us learn this lesson, that the largest reward that\nGod can give to him that has been faithful in a few things, is to give\nhim many things to be faithful over. Beware, all of you professing\nChristians, lest to you should come the fate of the slothful servant\nwith his one burled talent, to whom the punishment of burying it unused\nwas to lose it altogether; according to that solemn word which was\nfulfilled in the temporal sphere in this story on which I am\ncommenting: 'To him that hath shall be given, and from him that hath\nnot, even that he hath shall be taken away.'\n\nIII. Again consider the process of recovery.\n\nConcerning it we read nothing indeed in Scripture; but concerning it we\nknow enough to be able at least to determine what its outline must have\nbeen. The silent and obscure years of compulsory inactivity had their\nfruit, no doubt. There is only one road, with well-marked stages, by\nwhich a backsliding or apostate Christian can return to his Master. And\nthat road has three halting-places upon it, through which the heart\nmust pass if it have wandered from its early faith, and falsified its\nfirst professions. The first of them is the consciousness of the fall,\nthe second is the resort to the Master for forgiveness; and the last is\nthe deepened consecration to Him.\n\nThe patriarch Abraham, in a momentary lapse from faith to sense,\nthought himself compelled to leave the land to which God had sent him,\nbecause a famine threatened; and when he came back from Egypt, as the\nnarrative tells us with deep significance, he went to the 'place where\nhe had pitched his tent at the beginning; to the altar which lie had\nreared at the first.' Yes, my friends, we must begin over again, tread\nall the old path, enter by the old wicket-gate, once more take the\nplace of the penitent, once more make acquaintance with the pardoning\nChrist, once more devote ourselves in renewed consecration to His\nservice. No man that wanders into the wilderness but comes back by the\nKing's highway, if he comes back at all.\n\nIV. And so lastly, notice the reinstatement of the penitent renegade.\n\nIf you turn at your leisure to the remaining notices of John Mark in\nScripture, you will find, in two of Paul's Epistles of the captivity,\nviz., those to the Colossians and Philemon, references to him; and\nthese references are of a very interesting and beautiful nature. Paul\nsays that in Rome Mark was one of the four born Jews who had been a\ncordial and a comfort to him in his imprisonment. He commends him, in\nthe view of a probable journey, to the loving reception of the church\nat Colosse, as if they knew something derogatory to his character, the\nimpression of which the Apostle desired to remove. He sends to Philemon\nthe greetings of the repentant renegade in strange juxtaposition with\nthe greetings of two other men, one who was an apostate at the end of\nhis career instead of at the beginning, and of whom we do not read that\nhe ever came back, and one who all his life long is the type of a\nfaithful friend and companion, 'Mark, Demas, Luke' are bracketed as\ngreeting Philemon; the first a runaway that came back, the second a\nfugitive who, so far as we know, never returned, and the last the\nfaithful friend throughout.\n\nAnd then in Paul's final Epistle, and in almost the last words of it,\nwe read his request to Timothy. 'Take Mark, and bring him with thee,\nfor he is profitable to me for the ministry.' The first notice of him\nwas: 'They had John to their minister'; the last word about him is: 'he\nis profitable for the ministry.' The Greek words in the original are\nnot identical, but their meaning is substantially the same. So\nnotwithstanding the failure, notwithstanding the wise refusal of Paul\nyears before to have anything more to do with him, he is now reinstated\nin his old office, and the aged Apostle, before he dies, would like to\nhave the comfort of his presence once more at his side. Is not the\nlesson out of that, this eternal Gospel that even early failures,\nrecognised and repented of, may make a man better fitted for the tasks\nfrom which once he fled? Just as they tell us--I do not know whether it\nis true or not, it will do for an illustration--just as they tell us\nthat a broken bone renewed is stronger at the point of fracture than it\never was before, so the very sin that we commit, when once we know it\nfor a sin, and have brought it to Christ for forgiveness, may minister\nto our future efficiency and strength. The Israelites fought twice upon\none battlefield. On the first occasion they were shamefully defeated;\non the second, on the same ground, and against the same enemies, they\nvictoriously emerged from the conflict, and reared the stone which\nsaid, 'Ebenezer!' 'Hitherto the Lord hath helped us.'\n\nAnd so the temptations which have been sorest may be overcome, the sins\ninto which we most naturally fall we may put our foot upon; the past is\nno specimen of what the future may be. The page that is yet to be\nwritten need have none of the blots of the page that we have turned\nover shining through it. Sin which we have learned to know for sin and\nto hate, teaches us humility, dependence, shows us where our weak\nplaces are. Sin which is forgiven knits us to Christ with deeper and\nmore fervid love, and results in a larger consecration. Think of the\ntwo ends of this man's life--flying like a frightened hare from the\nvery first suspicion of danger or of difficulty, sulking in his\nsolitude, apart from all the joyful stir of consecration and of\nservice; and at last made an evangelist to proclaim to the whole world\nthe story of the Gospel of the Servant. God works with broken reeds,\nand through them breathes His sweetest music.\n\nSo, dear brethren, 'Take with you words, and return unto the Lord; say\nunto Him, Take away all iniquity, and receive us graciously,' and the\nanswer will surely be:--'I will heal their backsliding; I will love\nthem freely; I will be as the dew unto Israel.'\n\n\n\nTHE FIRST PREACHING IN ASIA MINOR\n\n'Men and brethren, children of the stock of Abraham, and whosoever\namong you feareth God, to you is the word of this salvation sent. 27.\nFor they that dwell at Jerusalem, and their rulers, because they knew\nHim not, nor yet the voices of the prophets which are read every\nSabbath day, they have fulfilled them in condemning Him. 28. And though\nthey found no cause of death in Him, yet desired they Pilate that he\nshould be slain. 29. And when they had fulfilled all that was written\nof Him, they took Him down from the tree, and laid Him in a sepulchre.\n30. But God raised Him from the dead: 31. And He was seen many days of\nthem which came up with Him from Galilee to Jerusalem, who are His\nwitnesses unto the people. 32. And we declare unto you glad tidings,\nhow that the promise which was made unto the fathers, 33. God hath\nfulfilled the same unto us their children, in that He hath raised up\nJesus again; as it is also written in the second psalm. Thou art my\nSon, this day have I begotten Thee. 34. And as concerning that He\nraised Him up from the dead, now no more to return to corruption, He\nsaid on this wise, I will give you the sure mercies of David. 35.\nWherefore He saith also in another psalm, Thou shalt not suffer thine\nHoly One to see corruption. 36. For David, after he had served his own\ngeneration by the will of God, fell on sleep, and was laid unto his\nfathers, and saw corruption: 37. But He, whom God raised again, saw no\ncorruption. 38. Be it known unto you therefore, men and brethren, that\nthrough this Man is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins: 39. And\nby Him all that believe are justified from all things, from which ye\ncould not be justified by the law of Moses.'--ACTS xiii. 26-39.\n\nThe extended report of Paul's sermon in the synagogue at Antioch of\nPisidia marks it, in accordance with Luke's method, as the first of a\nseries. It was so because, though the composition of the audience was\nidentical with that of those in the synagogues of Cyprus, this was the\nbeginning of the special work of the tour, the preaching in the cities\nof Asia Minor. The part of the address contained in the passage falls\ninto three sections,--the condensed narrative of the Gospel facts (vs.\n26-31), the proof that the resurrection was prophesied (vs. 32-37), and\nthe pungent personal application (v. 38 to end).\n\nI. The substance of the narrative coincides, as it could not but do,\nwith Peter's sermons, but yet with differences, partly due to the\ndifferent audience, partly to Paul's idiosyncrasy. After the preceding\nhistorical _resume_, he girds himself to his proper work of proclaiming\nthe Gospel, and he marks the transition in verse 26 by reiterating his\nintroductory words.\n\nHis audience comprised the two familiar classes of Jews and Gentile\nproselytes, and he seeks to win the ears of both. His heart goes out in\nhis address to them all as 'brethren,' and in his classing himself and\nBarnabas among them as receivers of the message which he has to\nproclaim. What skill, if it were not something much more sacred, even\nhumility and warm love, lies in that 'to _us_ is the word of this\nsalvation sent'! He will not stand above them as if he had any other\npossession of his message than they might have. He, too, has received\nit, and what he is about to say is not his word, but God's message to\nthem and him. That is the way to preach.\n\nNotice, too, how skilfully he introduces the narrative of the rejection\nof Jesus as the reason why the message has now come to them his hearers\naway in Antioch. It is 'sent forth' 'to us,' Asiatic Jews, _for_ the\npeople in the sacred city would not have it. Paul does not prick his\nhearers' consciences, as Peter did, by charging home the guilt of the\nrejection of Jesus on them. They had no share in that initial crime.\nThere is a faint purpose of dissociating himself and his hearers from\nthe people of Jerusalem, to whom the Dispersion were accustomed to look\nup, in the designation, 'they that dwell in Jerusalem, and _their_\nrulers.' Thus far the Antioch Jews had had hands clean from that crime;\nthey had now to choose whether they would mix themselves up with it.\n\nWe may further note that Paul says nothing about Christ's life of\ngentle goodness, His miracles or teaching, but concentrates attention\non His death and resurrection. From the beginning of his ministry these\nwere the main elements of his 'Gospel' (1 Cor. xv. 3, 4). The full\nsignificance of that death is not declared here. Probably it was\nreserved for subsequent instruction. But it and the Resurrection, which\ninterpreted it, are set in the forefront, as they should always be. The\nmain point insisted on is that the men of Jerusalem were fulfilling\nprophecy in slaying Jesus. With tragic deafness, they knew not the\nvoices of the prophets, clear and unanimous as they were, though they\nheard them every Sabbath of their lives, and yet they fulfilled them. A\nprophet's words had just been read in the synagogue; Paul's words might\nset some hearer asking whether a veil had been over his heart while his\nears had heard the sound of the word.\n\nThe Resurrection is established by the only evidence for a historical\nfact, the testimony of competent eyewitnesses. Their competence is\nestablished by their familiar companionship with Jesus during His whole\ncareer; their opportunities for testing the reality of the fact, by the\n'many days' of His appearances.\n\nPaul does not put forward his own testimony to the Resurrection, though\nwe know, from 1 Corinthians xv. 8, that he regarded Christ's appearance\nto him as being equally valid evidence with that afforded by the other\nappearances; but he distinguishes between the work of the Apostles, as\n'witnesses unto the people'--that is, the Jews of Palestine--and that\nof Barnabas and himself. They had to bear the message to the regions\nbeyond. The Apostles and he had the same work, but different spheres.\n\nII. The second part turns with more personal address to his hearers.\nIts purport is not so much to preach the Resurrection, which could only\nbe proved by testimony, as to establish the fact that it was the\nfulfilment of the promises to the fathers. Note how the idea of\nfulfilled prophecy runs in Paul's head. The Jews had _fulfilled_ it by\ntheir crime; God _fulfilled_ it by the Resurrection. This reiteration\nof a key-word is a mark of Paul's style in his Epistles, and its\nappearance here attests the accuracy of the report of his speech.\n\nThe second Psalm, from which Paul's first quotation is made, is\nprophetic of Christ, inasmuch as it represents in vivid lyrical\nlanguage the vain rebellion of earthly rulers against Messiah, and\nJehovah's establishing Him and His kingdom by a steadfast decree. Peter\nquoted its picture of the rebels, as fulfilled in the coalition of\nHerod, Pilate, and the Jewish rulers against Christ. The Messianic\nreference of the Psalm, then, was already seen; and we may not be going\ntoo far if we assume that Jesus Himself had included it among things\nwritten in the Psalms 'concerning Himself,' which He had explained to\nthe disciples after the Resurrection. It depicts Jehovah speaking to\nMessiah, _after_ the futile attempts of the rebels: 'This day have I\nbegotten Thee.' That day is a definite point in time. The Resurrection\nwas a birth from the dead; so Paul, in Colossians i. 18, calls Jesus\n'the first begotten from the dead.' Romans i. 4,'declared to be the Son\nof God ... by the resurrection from the dead,' is the best commentary\non Paul's words here.\n\nThe second and third quotations must apparently be combined, for the\nsecond does not specifically refer to resurrection, but it promises to\n'you,' that is to those who obey the call to partake in the Messianic\nblessings, a share in the 'sure' and enduring 'mercies of David'; and\nthe third quotation shows that not 'to see corruption' was one of these\n'mercies.' That implies that the speaker in the Psalm was, in Paul's\nview, David, and that his words were his believing answer to a divine\npromise. But David was dead. Had the 'sure mercy' proved, then, a\nbroken reed? Not so: for Jesus, who is Messiah, and is God's 'Holy One'\nin a deeper sense than David was, has not seen corruption. The\nPsalmist's hopes are fulfilled in Him, and through Him, in all who will\n'eat' that their 'souls may live,'\n\nIII. But Paul's yearning for his brethren's salvation is not content\nwith proclaiming the fact of Christ's resurrection, nor with pointing\nto it as fulfilling prophecy; he gathers all up into a loving, urgent\noffer of salvation for every believing soul, and solemn warning to\ndespisers. Here the whole man flames out. Here the characteristic\nevangelical teaching, which is sometimes ticketed as 'Pauline' by way\nof stigma, is heard. Already had he grasped the great antithesis\nbetween Law and Gospel. Already his great word 'justified' has taken\nits place in his terminology. The essence of the Epistles to Romans and\nGalatians is here. Justification is the being pronounced and treated as\nnot guilty. Law cannot justify. 'In Him' we are justified. Observe that\nthis is an advance on the previous statement that 'through Him' we\nreceive remission of sins.\n\n'In Him' points, thought but incidentally and slightly, to the great\ntruth of incorporation with Jesus, of which Paul had afterwards so much\nto write. The justifying in Christ is complete and absolute. And the\nsole sufficient condition of receiving it is faith. But the greater the\nglory of the light the darker the shadow which it casts. The broad\noffer of complete salvation has ever to be accompanied with the plain\nwarning of the dread issue of rejecting it. Just because it is so free\nand full, and to be had on such terms, the warning has to be rung into\ndeaf ears, 'Beware _therefore_!' Hope and fear are legitimately\nappealed to by the Christian evangelist. They are like the two wings\nwhich may lift the soul to soar to its safe shelter in the Rock of Ages.\n\n\n\nLUTHER--A STONE ON THE CAIRN\n\n'For David, after he had served his own generation by the will of God,\nfell on sleep, and was laid unto his fathers, and saw corruption: 37.\nBut He, whom God raised again, saw no corruption.'--ACTS xiii. 36, 37.\n\nI take these words as a motto rather than as a text. You will have\nanticipated the use which I purpose to make of them in connection with\nthe Luther Commemoration. They set before us, in clear sharp contrast,\nthe distinction between the limited, transient work of the servants and\nthe unbounded, eternal influence of the Master. The former are\nservants, and that but for a time; they do their work, they are laid in\nthe grave, and as their bodies resolve into their elements, so their\ninfluence, their teaching, the institutions which they may have\nfounded, disintegrate and decay. He lives. His relation to the world is\nnot as theirs; He is 'not for an age, but for all time.' Death is not\nthe end of His work. His Cross is the eternal foundation of the world's\nhope. His life is the ultimate, perfect revelation of the divine Nature\nwhich can never be surpassed, or fathomed, or antiquated. Therefore the\nlast thought, in all commemorations of departed teachers and guides,\nshould be of Him who gave them all the force that they had; and the\nfinal word should be: 'They were not suffered to continue by reason of\ndeath, this Man continueth ever.'\n\nIn the same spirit then as the words of my text, and taking them as\ngiving me little more than a starting-point and a framework, I draw\nfrom them some thoughts appropriate to the occasion.\n\nI. First, we have to think about the limited and transient work of this\ngreat servant of God.\n\nThe miner's son, who was born in that little Saxon village four hundred\nyears ago, presents at first sight a character singularly unlike the\ntraditional type of mediaeval Church fathers and saints. Their ascetic\nhabits, and the repressive system under which they were trained,\nwithdraw them from our sympathy; but this sturdy peasant, with his\nfull-blooded humanity, unmistakably a man, and a man all round, is a\nnew type, and looks strangely out of place amongst doctors and\nmediaeval saints.\n\nHis character, though not complex, is many-sided and in some respects\ncontradictory. The face and figure that look out upon us from the best\nportraits of Luther tell us a great deal about the man. Strong,\nmassive, not at all elegant; he stands there, firm and resolute, on his\nown legs, grasping a _Bible_ in a muscular hand. There is plenty of\nanimalism--a source of power as well as of weakness--in the thick neck;\nan iron will in the square chin; eloquence on the full, loose lips; a\nmystic, dreamy tenderness and sadness in the steadfast eyes--altogether\na true king and a leader of men!\n\nThe first things that strike one in the character are the iron will\nthat would not waver, the indomitable courage that knew no fear, the\nsplendid audacity that, single-handed, sprang into the arena for a\ncontest to the death with Pope, Emperors, superstitions, and devils;\nthe insight that saw the things that were 'hid from the wise and\nprudent,' and the answering sincerity that would not hide what he saw,\nnor say that he saw what he did not.\n\nBut there was a great deal more than that in the man. He was no mere\nbrave revolutionary, he was a cultured scholar, abreast of all the\nlearning of his age, capable of logic-chopping and scholastic\ndisputation on occasion, and but too often the victim of his own\nover-subtle refinements. He was a poet, with a poet's dreaminess and\nwaywardness, fierce alternations of light and shade, sorrow and joy.\nAll living things whispered and spoke to him, and he walked in\ncommunion with them all. Little children gathered round his feet, and\nhe had a big heart of love for all the weary and the sorrowful.\n\nEverybody knows how he could write and speak. He made the German\nlanguage, as we may say, lifting it up from a dialect of boors to\nbecome the rich, flexible, cultured speech that it is. And his Bible,\nhis single-handed work, is one of the colossal achievements of man;\nlike Stonehenge or the Pyramids. 'His words were half-battles,' 'they\nwere living creatures that had hands and feet'; his speech, direct,\nstrong, homely, ready to borrow words from the kitchen or the gutter,\nis unmatched for popular eloquence and impression. There was music in\nthe man. His flute solaced his lonely hours in his home at Wittemberg;\nand the Marseillaise of the Reformation, as that grand hymn of his has\nbeen called, came, words and music, from his heart. There was humour in\nhim, coarse horseplay often; an honest, hearty, broad laugh frequently,\nlike that of a Norse god. There were coarse tastes in him, tastes of\nthe peasant folk from whom he came, which clung to him through life,\nand kept him in sympathy with the common people, and intelligible to\nthem. And withal there was a constitutional melancholy, aggravated by\nhis weary toils, perilous fightings, and fierce throes, which led him\ndown often into the deep mire where there was no standing; and which\nsighs through all his life. The penitential Psalms and Paul's wail: 'O\nwretched man that I am,' perhaps never woke more plaintive echo in any\nhuman heart than they did in Martin Luther's.\n\nFaults he had, gross and plain as the heroic mould in which he was\ncast. He was vehement and fierce often; he was coarse and violent\noften. He saw what he did see so clearly, that he was slow to believe\nthat there was anything that he did not see. He was oblivious of\ncounterbalancing considerations, and given to exaggerated, incautious,\nunguarded statements of precious truths. He too often aspired to be a\ndriver rather than a leader of men; and his strength of will became\nobstinacy and tyranny. It was too often true that he had dethroned the\npope of Rome to set up a pope at Wittemberg. And foul personalities\ncame from his lips, according to the bad controversial fashion of his\nday, which permitted a licence to scholars that we now forbid to\nfishwives.\n\nAll that has to be admitted; and when it is all admitted, what then?\nThis is a fastidious generation; Erasmus is its heroic type a great\ndeal more than Luther--I mean among the cultivated classes of our\nday--and that very largely because in Erasmus there is no quick\nsensibility to religious emotion as there is in Luther, and no\ninconvenient fervour. The faults are there--coarse, plain,\npalpable--and perhaps more than enough has been made of them. Let us\nremember, as to his violence, that he was following the fashion of the\nday; that he was fighting for his life; that when a man is at\ndeath-grips with a tiger he may be pardoned if he strikes without\nconsidering whether he is going to spoil the skin or not; and that on\nthe whole you cannot throttle snakes in a graceful attitude. Men fought\nthen with bludgeons; they fight now with dainty polished daggers,\ndipped in cold, colourless poison of sarcasm. Perhaps there was less\nmalice in the rougher old way than in the new.\n\nThe faults are there, and nobody who is not a fool would think of\npainting that homely Saxon peasant-monk's face without the warts and\nthe wrinkles. But it is quite as unhistorical, and a great deal more\nwicked, to paint nothing but the warts and wrinkles; to rake all the\nfaults together and make the most of them; and present them in answer\nto the question: 'What sort of a man was Martin Luther?'\n\nAs to the work that he did, like the work of all of us, it had its\nlimitations, and it will have its end. The impulse that he\ncommunicated, like all impulses that are given from men, will wear out\nits force. New questions will arise of which the dead leaders never\ndreamed, and in which they can give no counsel. The perspective of\ntheological thought will alter, the centre of interest will change, a\nnew dialect will begin to be spoken. So it comes to pass that all\nreligious teachers and thinkers are left behind, and that their words\nare preserved and read rather for their antiquarian and historical\ninterest than because of any impulse or direction for the present which\nmay linger in them; and if they founded institutions, these too, in\ntheir time, will crumble and disappear.\n\nBut I do not mean to say that the truths which Luther rescued from the\ndust of centuries, and impressed upon the conscience of Teutonic\nEurope, are getting antiquated. I only mean that his connection with\nthem and his way of putting them, had its limitations and will have its\nend: 'This man, having served his own generation by the will of God,\nwas gathered to his fathers, and saw corruption.'\n\nWhat _were_ the truths, what was his contribution to the illumination\nof Europe, and to the Church? Three great principles--which perhaps\ncloser analysis might reduce to one; but which for popular use, on such\nan occasion as the present, had better be kept apart--will state his\nservice to the world.\n\nThere were three men in the past who, as it seems to me, reach out\ntheir hands to one another across the centuries--Paul, St. Augustine,\nand Martin Luther, The three very like each other, all three of them\njoining the same subtle speculative power with the same capacity of\nreligious fervour, and of flaming up at the contemplation of divine\ntruth; all of them gifted with the same exuberant, and to fastidious\neyes, incorrect eloquence; all three trained in a school of religious\nthought of which each respectively was destined to be the antagonist\nand all but the destroyer.\n\nThe young Pharisee, on the road to Damascus, blinded, bewildered, with\nall that vision flaming upon him, sees in its light his past, which he\nthought had been so pure, and holy, and God-serving, and amazedly\ndiscovers that it had been all a sin and a crime, and a persecution of\nthe divine One. Beaten from every refuge, and lying there, he cries:\n'What wouldst Thou have me to do, Lord?'\n\nThe young Manichean and profligate in the fourth century, and the young\nmonk in his convent in the fifteenth, passed through a similar\nexperience;--different in form, identical in substance--with that of\nPaul the persecutor. And so Paul's Gospel, which was the description\nand explanation, the rationale, of his own experience, became their\nGospel; and when Paul said: 'Not by works of righteousness which our\nown hands have done, but by His mercy He saved us' (Titus iii. 5), the\ngreat voice from the North African shore, in the midst of the agonies\nof barbarian invasions and a falling Rome, said 'Amen. Man lives by\nfaith,' and the voice from the Wittemberg convent, a thousand years\nafter, amidst the unspeakable corruption of that phosphorescent and\ndecaying Renaissance, answered across the centuries, 'It is true!'\n'Herein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith.'\nLuther's word to the world was Augustine's word to the world; and\nLuther and Augustine were the echoes of Saul of Tarsus--and Paul\nlearned his theology on the Damascus road, when the voice bade him go\nand proclaim 'forgiveness of sins, and inheritance among them which are\nsanctified by faith that is in Me' (Acts xxvi. 18). That is Luther's\nfirst claim on our gratitude, that he took this truth from the shelves\nwhere it had reposed, dust-covered, through centuries, that he lifted\nthis truth from the bier where it had lain, smothered with sacerdotal\ngarments, and called with a loud voice, 'I say unto thee, arise!' and\nthat now the commonplace of Christianity is this: All men are sinful\nmen, justice condemns us all, our only hope is God's infinite mercy,\nthat mercy comes to us all in Jesus Christ that died for us, and he\nthat gets that into his heart by simple faith, he is forgiven, pure,\nand he is an heir of Heaven.\n\nThere are other aspects of Christian truth which Luther failed to\napprehend. The Gospel is, of course, not merely a way of reconciliation\nand forgiveness. He pushed his teaching of the uselessness of good\nworks as a means of salvation too far. He said rash and exaggerated\nthings in his vehement way about the 'justifying power' of faith alone.\nDoubtless his language was often overstrained, and his thoughts\none-sided, in regard to subjects that need very delicate handling and\ncareful definition. But after all this is admitted, it remains true\nthat his strong arm tossed aside the barriers and rubbish that had been\npiled across the way by which prodigals could go home to their Father,\nand made plain once more the endless mercy of God, and the power of\nhumble faith. He was right when he declared that whatever heights and\ndepths there may be in God's great revelation, and however needful it\nis for a complete apprehension of the truth as it is in Jesus that\nthese should find their place in the creed of Christendom, still the\nfirmness with which that initial truth of man's sinfulness and his\nforgiveness and acceptance through simple faith in Christ is held, and\nthe clear earnestness with which it is proclaimed, are the test of a\nstanding or a falling Church.\n\nAnd then closely connected with this central principle, and yet\nsusceptible of being stated separately, are the other two; of neither\nof which do I think it necessary to say more than a word. Following on\nthat great discovery--for it was a discovery--by the monk in his\nconvent, of justification by faith, there comes the other principle of\nthe entire sweeping away of all priesthood, and the direct access to\nGod of every individual Christian soul. There are no more external\nrites to be done by a designated and separate class. There is one\nsacrificing Priest, and one only, and that is Jesus Christ, who has\nsacrificed Himself for us all, and there are no other priests, except\nin the sense in which every Christian man is a priest and minister of\nthe most high God. And no man comes between me and my Father; and no\nman has power to do anything for me which brings me any grace, except\nin so far as mine own heart opens for the reception, and mine own faith\nlays hold of the grace given.\n\nLuther did not carry that principle so far as some of us modern\nNonconformists carry it. He left illogical fragments of sacramentarian\nand sacerdotal theories in his creed and in his Church. But, for all\nthat, we owe mainly to him the clear utterance of that thought, the\nwarm breath of which has thawed the ice chains which held Europe in\nbarren bondage. Notwithstanding the present portentous revival of\nsacerdotalism, and the strange turning again of portions of society to\nthese beggarly elements of the past, I believe that the figments of a\nsacrificing priesthood and sacramental efficacy will never again\npermanently darken the sky in this land, the home of the men who speak\nthe tongue of Milton, and owe much of their religious and political\nfreedom to the reformation of Luther.\n\nAnd the third point, which is closely connected with these other two,\nis this, the declaration that every illuminated Christian soul has a\nright and is bound to study God's Word without the Church at his elbow\nto teach him what to think about it. It was Luther's great achievement\nthat, whatever else he did, he put the Bible into the hands of the\ncommon people. In that department and region, his work perhaps bears\nmore distinctly the traces of limitation and imperfection than anywhere\nelse, for he knew nothing--how could he?--of the difficult questions of\nthis day in regard to the composition and authority of Scripture, nor\nhad he thought out his own system or done full justice to his own\nprinciple.\n\nHe could be as inquisitorial and as dogmatic as any Dominican of them\nall. He believed in force; he was as ready as all his fellows were to\ninvoke the aid of the temporal power. The idea of the Church, as helped\nand sustained--which means fettered, and weakened, and paralysed--by\nthe civic government, bewitched him as it did his fellows. We needed to\nwait for George Fox, and Roger Williams, and more modern names still,\nbefore we understood fully what was involved in the rejection of\npriesthood, and the claim that God's Word should speak directly to each\nChristian soul. But for all that, we largely owe to Luther the creed\nthat looks in simple faith to Christ, a Church without a priest, in\nwhich every man is a priest of the Most High,--the only true democracy\nthat the world will ever see--and a Church in which the open Bible and\nthe indwelling Spirit are the guides of every humble soul within its\npale. These are his claims on our gratitude.\n\nLuther's work had its limitations and its imperfections, as I have been\nsaying to you. It will become less and less conspicuous as the ages go\non. It cannot be otherwise. That is the law of the world. As a whole\ngreen forest of the carboniferous era is represented now in the rocks\nby a thin seam of coal, no thicker than a sheet of paper, so the stormy\nlives and the large works of the men that have gone before, are\ncompressed into a mere film and line, in the great cliff that slowly\nrises above the sea of time and is called the history of the world.\n\nII. Be it so; be it so! Let us turn to the other thought of our text,\nthe perpetual work of the abiding Lord.\n\n'He whom God raised up saw no corruption.' It is a fact that there are\nthousands of men and women in the world to-day who have a feeling about\nthat nineteen-centuries-dead Galilean carpenter's son that they have\nabout no one else. All the great names of antiquity are but ghosts and\nshadows, and all the names in the Church and in the world, of men whom\nwe have not seen, are dim and ineffectual to us. They may evoke our\nadmiration, our reverence, and our wonder, but none of them can touch\nour hearts. But here is this unique, anomalous fact that men and women\nby the thousand love Jesus Christ, the dead One, the unseen One, far\naway back there in the ages, and feel that there is no mist of oblivion\nbetween them and Him.\n\nThat is because He does for you and me what none of these other men can\ndo. Luther preached about the Cross; Christ _died_ on it. 'Was Paul\ncrucified for you?' there is the secret of His undying hold upon the\nworld. The further secret lies in this, that He is not a past force but\na present one. He is no exhausted power but a power mighty to-day;\nworking in us, around us, on us, and for us--a living Christ. 'This Man\nwhom God raised up from the dead saw no corruption,' the others move\naway from us like figures in a fog, dim as they pass into the mists,\nhaving a blurred half-spectral outline for a moment, and then gone.\n\nChrist's death has a present and a perpetual power. He has 'offered one\nsacrifice for sins for ever'; and no time can diminish the efficacy of\nHis Cross, nor our need of it, nor the full tide of blessings which\nflow from it to the believing soul. Therefore do men cling to Him today\nas if it was but yesterday that He had died for them. When all other\nnames carved on the world's records have become unreadable, like\nforgotten inscriptions on decaying grave-stones, His shall endure for\never, deep graven on the fleshly tables of the heart. His revelation of\nGod is the highest truth. Till the end of time men will turn to His\nlife for their clearest knowledge and happiest certainty of their\nFather in heaven. There is nothing limited or local in His character or\nworks. In His meek beauty and gentle perfectness, He stands so high\nabove us all that, to-day, the inspiration of His example and the\nlessons of His conduct touch us as much as if He had lived in this\ngeneration, and will always shine before men as their best and most\nblessed law of conduct. Christ will not be antiquated till He is\noutgrown, and it will be some time before that happens.\n\nBut Christ's power is not only the abiding influence of His earthly\nlife and death. He is not a past force, but a present one. He is\nputting forth fresh energies to-day, working in and for and by all who\nlove Him. We believe in a living Christ.\n\nTherefore the final thought, in all our grateful commemoration of dead\nhelpers and guides, should be of the undying Lord. He sent whatsoever\npower was in them. He is with His Church to-day, still giving to men\nthe gifts needful for their times. Aaron may die on Hor, and Moses be\nlaid in his unknown grave on Pisgah, but the Angel of the Covenant, who\nis the true Leader, abides in the pillar of cloud and fire, Israel's\nguide in the march, and covering shelter in repose. That is our\nconsolation in our personal losses when our dear ones are 'not suffered\nto continue by reason of death.' He who gave them all their sweetness\nis with us still, and has all the sweetness which He lent them for a\ntime. So if we have Christ with us we cannot be desolate. Looking on\nall the men, who in their turn have helped forward His cause a little\nway, we should let their departure teach us His presence, their\nlimitations His all-sufficiency, their death His life.\n\nLuther was once found, at a moment of peril and fear, when he had need\nto grasp unseen strength, sitting in an abstracted mood, tracing on the\ntable with his finger the words '_Vivit_! _vivit_!'--'He lives! He\nlives!' It is our hope for ourselves, and for God's truth, and for\nmankind. Men come and go; leaders, teachers, thinkers speak and work\nfor a season and then fall silent and impotent. He abides. They die,\nbut He lives. They are lights kindled, and therefore sooner or later\nquenched, but He is the true light from which they draw all their\nbrightness, and He shines for evermore. Other men are left behind and,\nas the world glides forward, are wrapped in ever-thickening folds of\noblivion, through which they shine feebly for a little while, like\nlamps in a fog, and then are muffled in invisibility. We honour other\nnames, and the coming generations will forget them, but 'His name shall\nendure for ever, His name shall continue as long as the sun, and men\nshall be blessed in Him; all nations shall call Him blessed.'\n\n\n\nJEWISH REJECTERS AND GENTILE RECEIVERS\n\n'And the next Sabbath day came almost the whole city together to hear\nthe word of God. 45. But when the Jews saw the multitudes, they were\nfilled with envy, and spake against those things which were spoken by\nPaul, contradicting and blaspheming. 46. Then Paul and Barnabas waxed\nbold, and said, It was necessary that the word of God should first have\nbeen spoken to you: but seeing ye put it from you, and judge yourselves\nunworthy of everlasting life, lo, we turn to the Gentiles. 47. For so\nhath the Lord commanded us, saying, I have set thee to be a light of\nthe Gentiles, that thou shouldest be for salvation unto the ends of the\nearth. 48. And when the Gentiles heard this, they were glad, and\nglorified the word of the Lord: and as many as were ordained to eternal\nlife believed. 49. And the word of the Lord was published throughout\nall the region. 50. But the Jews stirred up the devout and honourable\nwomen, and the chief men of the city, and raised persecution against\nPaul and Barnabas, and expelled them out of their coasts. 51. But they\nshook off the dust of their feet against them, and came unto Iconium.\n52. And the disciples were filled with joy, and with the Holy Ghost.\n\n'And it came to pass in Iconium, that they went both together into the\nsynagogue of the Jews, and so spake, that a great multitude both of the\nJews and also of the Greeks believed. 2. But the unbelieving Jews\nstirred up the Gentiles, and made their minds evil affected against the\nbrethren. 3. Long time therefore abode they speaking boldly in the\nLord, which gave testimony unto the word of His grace, and granted\nsigns and wonders to be done by their hands. 4. But the multitude of\nthe city was divided: and part held with the Jews, and part with the\nApostles. 5. And when there was an assault made both of the Gentiles,\nand also of the Jews with their rulers, to use them despitefully, and\nto stone them, 6. They were ware of it, and fled unto Lystra and Derbe,\ncities of Lycaonia, and unto the region that lieth round about: 7. And\nthere they preached the Gospel.'--ACTS xiii. 44-52; xiv. 1-7.\n\nIn general outline, the course of events in the two great cities of\nAsia Minor, with which the present passage is concerned, was the same.\nIt was only too faithful a forecast of what was to be Paul's experience\neverywhere. The stages are: preaching in the synagogue, rejection\nthere, appeal to the Gentiles, reception by them, a little nucleus of\nbelievers formed; disturbances fomented by the Jews, who swallow their\nhatred of Gentiles by reason of their greater hatred of the Apostles,\nand will riot with heathens, though they will not pray nor eat with\nthem; and finally the Apostles' departure to carry the gospel farther\nafield. This being the outline, we have mainly to consider any special\nfeatures diversifying it in each case.\n\nTheir experience in Antioch was important, because it forced Paul and\nBarnabas to put into plain words, making very clear to themselves as\nwell as to their hearers, the law of their future conduct. It is always\na step in advance when circumstances oblige us to formularise our\nmethod of action. Words have a wonderful power in clearing up our own\nvision. Paul and Barnabas had known all along that they were sent to\nthe Gentiles; but a conviction in the mind is one thing, and the same\nconviction driven in on us by facts is quite another. The discipline of\nAntioch crystallised floating intentions into a clear statement, which\nhenceforth became the rule of Paul's conduct. Well for us if we have\nopen eyes to discern the meaning of difficulties, and promptitude and\ndecision to fix and speak out plainly the course which they prescribe!\n\nThe miserable motives of the Jews' antagonism are forcibly stated in\nvs. 44, 45. They did not 'contradict and blaspheme,' because they had\ntaken a week to think over the preaching and had seen its falseness,\nbut simply because, dog-in-the-manger like, they could not bear that\n'the whole city' should be welcome to share the message. No doubt there\nwas a crowd of 'Gentile dogs' thronging the approach to the synagogue;\nand one can almost see the scowling faces and hear the rustle of the\nrobes drawn closer to avoid pollution. Who were these wandering\nstrangers that they should gather such a crowd? And what had the\nuncircumcised rabble of Antioch to do with 'the promises made to the\nfathers'? It is not the only time that religious men have taken offence\nat crowds gathering to hear God's word. Let us take care that we do not\nrepeat the sin. There are always some who--\n\n  'Taking God's word under wise protection,\n  Correct its tendency to diffusiveness.'\n\nIt needed some courage to front the wild excitement of such a mob, with\ncalm, strong words likely to increase the rage.\n\n'Lo, we turn to the Gentiles.' This is not to be regarded as announcing\na general course of action, but simply as applying to the actual\nrejecters in Antioch. The necessity that the word should first be\nspoken to the Jews continued to be recognised, in each new sphere of\nwork, by the Apostle; but wherever, as here, men turned from the\nmessage, the messengers turned from them without further waste of time.\nPaul put into words here the law for his whole career. The fit\npunishment of rejection is the withdrawal of the offer. There is\nsomething pathetic in the persistence with which, in place after place,\nPaul goes through the same sequence, his heart yearning over his\nbrethren according to the flesh, and hoping on, after all repulses. It\nwas far more than natural patriotism; it was an offshoot of Christ's\nown patient love.\n\nNote also the divine command. Paul bases his action on a prophecy as to\nthe Messiah. But the relation on which prophecy insists between the\npersonal servant of Jehovah and the collective Israel, is such that the\ngreat office of being the Light of the world devolves from Him on it\nand the true Israel is to be a light to the Gentiles. These very Jews\nin Antioch, lashing themselves into fury because Gentiles were to be\noffered a share in Israel's blessings, ought to have been discharging\nthis glorious function. Their failure showed that they were no parts of\nthe real Israel. No doubt the two missionaries left the synagogue as\nthey spoke, and, as the door swung behind them, it shut hope out and\nunbelief in. The air was fresh outside, and eager hearts welcomed the\nword. Very beautifully is the gladness of the Gentile hearers set in\ncontrast with the temper of the Jews. It is strange news to heathen\nhearts that there is a God who loves them, and a divine Christ who has\ndied for them. The experience of many a missionary follows Paul's here.\n\n'As many as were ordained to eternal life believed.' The din of many a\ntheological battle has raged round these words, the writer of which\nwould have probably needed a good deal of instruction before he could\nhave been made to understand what the fighting was about. But it is to\nbe noted that there is evidently intended a contrast between the\nenvious Jews and the gladly receptive Gentiles, which is made more\nobvious by the repetition of the words 'eternal life.' It would seem\nmuch more relevant and accordant with the context to understand the\nword rendered 'ordained' as meaning 'adapted' or 'fitted,' than to find\nin it a reference to divine foreordination. Such a meaning is\nlegitimate, and strongly suggested by the context. The reference then\nwould be to the 'frame of mind of the heathen, and not to the decrees\nof God.'\n\nThe only points needing notice in the further developments at Antioch\nare the agents employed by the Jews, the conduct of the Apostles, and\nthe sweet little picture of the converts. As to the former, piously\ninclined women in a heathen city would be strongly attracted by Judaism\nand easily lend themselves to the impressions of their teachers. We\nknow that many women of rank were at that period powerfully affected in\nthis manner; and if a Rabbi could move a Gentile of influence through\nwhispers to the Gentile's wife, he would not be slow to do it. The ease\nwith which the Jews stirred up tumults everywhere against the Apostle\nindicates their possession of great influence; and their willingness to\nbe hand in glove with heathen for so laudable an object as crushing one\nof their own people who had become a heretic, measures the venom of\ntheir hate and the depth of their unscrupulousness.\n\nThe Apostles had not to fear violence, as their enemies were content\nwith turning them out of Antioch and its neighbourhood; but they obeyed\nChrist's command, shaking off the dust against them, in token of\nrenouncing all connection. The significant act is a trace of early\nknowledge of Christ's words, long before the date of our Gospels.\n\nWhile the preachers had to leave the little flock in the midst of\nwolves, there was peace in the fold. Like the Ethiopian courtier when\ndeprived of Philip, the new believers at Antioch found that the\nwithdrawal of the earthly brought the heavenly Guide. 'They were filled\nwith joy.' What! left ignorant, lonely, ringed about with enemies, how\ncould they be glad? Because they were filled 'with the Holy Ghost.'\nSurely joy in such circumstances was no less supernatural a token of\nHis presence than rushing wind or parting flames or lips opened to\nspeak with tongues. God makes us lonely that He may Himself be our\nCompanion.\n\nIt was a long journey to the great city of Iconium. According to some\ngeographers, the way led over savage mountains; but the two brethren\ntramped along, with an unseen Third between them, and that Presence\nmade the road light. They had little to cheer them in their prospects,\nif they looked with the eye of sense; but they were in good heart, and\nthe remembrance of Antioch did not embitter or discourage them.\nStraight to the synagogue, as before, they went. It was their best\nintroduction to the new field. There, if we take the plain words of\nActs xiv. 1, they found a new thing, 'Greeks,' heathens pure and\nsimple, not Hellenists or Greek-speaking Jews, nor even proselytes, in\nthe synagogue. This has seemed so singular that efforts have been made\nto impose another sense on the words, or to suppose that the notice of\nGreeks, as well as Jews, believing is loosely appended to the statement\nof the preaching in the synagogue, omitting notice of wider\nevangelising. But it is better to accept than to correct our narrative,\nas we know nothing of the circumstances that may have led to this\npresence of Greeks in the synagogue. Some modern setters of the Bible\nwriters right would be all the better for remembering occasionally that\nimprobable things have a strange knack of happening.\n\nThe usual results followed the preaching of the Gospel. The Jews were\nagain the mischief-makers, and, with the astuteness of their race,\npushed the Gentiles to the front, and this time tried a new piece of\nannoyance. 'The brethren' bore the brunt of the attack; that is, the\nconverts, not Paul and Barnabas. It was a cunning move to drop\nsuspicions into the minds of influential townsmen, and so to harass,\nnot the two strangers, but their adherents. The calculation was that\nthat would stop the progress of the heresy by making its adherents\nuncomfortable, and would also wound the teachers through their\ndisciples.\n\nBut one small element had been left out of the calculation--the sort of\nmen these teachers were; and another factor which had not hitherto\nappeared came into play, and upset the whole scheme. Paul and Barnabas\nknew when to retreat and when to stand their ground. This time they\nstood; and the opposition launched at their friends was the reason why\nthey did so. 'Long time _therefore_ abode they.' If their own safety\nhad been in question, they might have fled; but they could not leave\nthe men whose acceptance of their message had brought them into\nstraits. But behind the two bold speakers stood 'the Lord,' Christ\nHimself, the true Worker. Men who live in Him are made bold by their\ncommunion with Him, and He witnesses for those who witness for Him.\n\nNote the designation of the Gospel as 'the word of His grace.' It has\nfor its great theme the condescending, giving love of Jesus. Its\nsubject is grace; its origin is grace; its gift is grace. Observe, too,\nthat the same connection between boldness of speech and signs and\nwonders is found in Acts iv. 29, 30. Courageous speech for Christ is\never attended by tokens of His power, and the accompanying tokens of\nHis power make the speech more courageous.\n\nThe normal course of events was pursued. Faithful preaching provoked\nhostility, which led to the alliance of discordant elements, fused for\na moment by a common hatred--alas! that enmity to God's truth should be\noften a more potent bond of union than love!--and then to a wise\nwithdrawal from danger. Sometimes it is needful to fling away life for\nJesus; but if it can be preserved without shirking duty, it is better\nto flee than to die. An unnecessary martyr is a suicide. The Christian\nreadiness to be offered has nothing in common with fanatical\ncarelessness of life, and still less with the morbid longing for\nmartyrdom which disfigures some of the most pathetic pages of the\nChurch's history. Paul living to preach in the regions beyond was more\nuseful than Paul dead in a street riot in Iconium. A heroic prudence\nshould ever accompany a trustful daring, and both are best learned in\ncommunion with Jesus.\n\n\n\nUNWORTHY OF LIFE\n\n'... Seeing ye put it from you, and judge yourselves unworthy of\neverlasting life, lo, we turn to the Gentiles.'--ACTS xiii. 46.\n\nSo ended the first attempt on Paul's great missionary journey to preach\nto the Jews. It is described at great length and the sermon given in\nfull because it is the first. A wonderful sermon it was; touching all\nkeys of feeling, now pleading almost with tears, now flashing with\nindignation, now calmly dealing with Scripture prophecies, now glowing\nas it tells the story of Christ's death for men. It melted some of the\nhearers, but the most were wrought up to furious passion--and with\ncharacteristic vehemence, like their ancestors and their descendants\nthrough long dreary generations, fell to 'contradicting and\nblaspheming.' We can see the scene in the synagogue, the eager faces,\nthe vehement gestures, the hubbub of tongues, the bitter words that\nstormed round the two in the midst, Barnabas like Jupiter, grave,\nmajestic, and venerable; Paul like Mercury, agile, mobile, swift of\nspeech. They bore the brunt of the fury till they saw it to be hopeless\nto try to calm it, and then departed with these remarkable words.\n\nThey are even more striking if we notice that 'judge' here may be used\nin its full legal sense. It is not merely equivalent to _consider_, for\nthese Jews by no means thought themselves unworthy of eternal life, but\nit means, 'ye adjudge and pass sentence on yourselves to be.' Their\nrejection of the message was a self-pronounced sentence. It proved them\nto be, and made them, 'unworthy of eternal life.' There are two or\nthree very striking thoughts to be gathered from these words which I\nwould dwell on now.\n\nI. What constitutes worthiness and unworthiness.\n\nThere are two meanings to the word 'worthy'--deserving or fit. They run\ninto each other and yet they may be kept quite apart. For instance you\nmay say of a man that 'he is worthy' to be something or other, for\nwhich he is obviously qualified, not thinking at all whether he\ndeserves it or not.\n\nNow in the first of these senses--we are all unworthy of eternal life.\nThat is just to state in other words the tragic truth of universal\nsinfulness. The natural outcome and issue of the course which all men\nfollow is death. But yet there are men who are fit for and capable of\neternal life. Who they are and what fitness is can only be ascertained\nwhen we rightly understand what eternal life is. It is not merely\nfuture blessedness or a synonym for a vulgar heaven. That is the common\nnotion of its meaning. Men think of that future as a blessed state to\nwhich God can admit anybody if He will, and, as He is good, will admit\npretty nearly everybody. But eternal life is a present possession as\nwell as a future one, and passing by its deeper aspects, it includes--\n\nDeliverance from evil habits and desires.\n\nPurity, and love of all good and fair things.\n\nCommunion with God.\n\nAs well as forgiveness and removal of punishment.\n\nWhat then are the qualifications making a man worthy of, in the sense\nof fit for, such a state?\n\n(_a_) To know oneself to be unworthy.\n\nHe who judges himself to be worthy is unworthy. He who knows himself to\nbe unworthy is worthy.\n\nThe first requisite is consciousness of sin, leading to repentance.\n\n(_b_) To abandon striving to make oneself worthy.\n\nBy ourselves we never can do so. Many of us think that we must do our\nbest, and then God will do the rest.\n\nThere must be the entire cessation of all attempt to work out by our\nown efforts characters that would entitle us to eternal life.\n\n(_c_) To be willing to accept life on God's terms.\n\nAs a mere gift.\n\n(_d_) To desire it.\n\nGod cannot give it to any one who does not want it. He cannot force His\ngifts on us.\n\nThis then is the worthiness.\n\nII. How we pass sentence on ourselves as unworthy.\n\nIt is quite clear that 'judge' here does not mean consider, for a sense\nof unworthiness is not the reason which keeps men away from the Gospel.\nRather, as we have seen, a proud belief in our worthiness keeps very\nmany away. But 'judge' here means 'adjudicate' or 'pronounce sentence\non,' and worthy means fit, qualified.\n\nConsider then--\n\n(_a_) That our attitude to the Gospel is a revelation of our deepest\nselves.\n\nThe Gospel is a 'discerner of thoughts and intents of the heart.' It\njudges us here and now, and by their attitude to it 'the thoughts of\nmany hearts shall be revealed.'\n\n(_b_) That our rejection of it plainly shows that we have not the\nqualifications for eternal life.\n\nNo doubt some men are kept from accepting Christ by intellectual doubts\nand difficulties, but even these would alter their whole attitude to\nHim if they had a profound consciousness of sin, and a desire for\ndeliverance from it.\n\nBut with regard to the great bulk of its hearers, no doubt the\nhindrance is chiefly moral. Many causes may combine to produce the\nabsence of qualification. The excuses in the parable'--farm, oxen,\nwife'--all amount to engrossment with this present world, and such\nabsorption in the things seen and temporal deadens desire. So the\nGospel preached excites no longings, and a man hears the offer of\nsalvation without one motion of his heart towards it, and thus\nproclaims himself 'unworthy of eternal life.'\n\nBut the great disqualification is the absence of all consciousness of\nsin. This is the very deepest reason which keeps men away from Christ.\n\nHow solemn a thing the preaching and hearing of this word is!\n\nHow possible for you to make yourselves fit!\n\nHow simple the qualification! We have but to know ourselves sinners and\nto trust Jesus and then we 'shall be counted worthy to obtain that\nworld and the resurrection from the dead.' Then we shall be 'worthy to\nescape and to stand before the Son of Man.' Then shall we be 'worthy of\nthis calling,' and the Judge himself shall say: 'They shall walk with\nMe in white, for they are worthy.'\n\n\n\n'FULL OF THE HOLY GHOST'\n\n'And the disciples were filled with joy, and with the Holy\nGhost.'--Acts xiii. 52.\n\nThat joy was as strange as a garden full of flowers would be in bitter\nwinter weather. For everything in the circumstances of these disciples\ntended to make them sad. They had been but just won from heathenism,\nand they were raw, ignorant, unfit to stand alone. Paul and Barnabas,\ntheir only guides, had been hunted out of Antioch by a mob, and it\nwould have been no wonder if these disciples had felt as if they had\nbeen taken on to the ice and then left, when they most needed a hand to\nsteady them. Luke emphasises the contrast between what might have been\nexpected, and what was actually the case, by that eloquent 'and' at the\nbeginning of our verse, which links together the departure of the\nApostles and the joy of the disciples. But the next words explain the\nparadox. These new converts, left in a great heathen city, with no\nhelpers, no guides, to work out as best they might a faith of which\nthey had but newly received the barest rudiments, were 'full of joy'\nbecause they were 'full of the Holy Ghost.'\n\nNow that latter phrase, so striking here, is characteristic of this\nbook of the Acts, and especially of its earlier chapters, which are\nall, as it were, throbbing with wonder at the new gift which Pentecost\nhad brought. Let me for a moment, in the briefest possible fashion, try\nto recall to you the instances of its occurrence, for they are very\nsignificant and very important.\n\nYou remember how at Pentecost 'all' the disciples were 'filled with the\nHoly Ghost.' Then when the first persecution broke over the Church,\nPeter before the Council is 'filled with the Holy Spirit,' and\ntherefore he beards them, and 'speaks with all boldness.' When he goes\nback to the Church and tells them of the threatening cloud that was\nhanging over them, they too are filled with the Holy Spirit, and\ntherefore rise buoyantly upon the tossing wave, as a ship might do when\nit passes the bar and meets the heaving sea. Then again the Apostles\nlay down the qualifications for election to the so-called office of\ndeacon as being that the men should be 'full of the Holy Ghost and\nwisdom'; and in accordance therewith, we read of the first of the\nseven, Stephen, that he was 'full of faith and of the Holy Ghost,' and\ntherefore 'full of grace and power.' When he stood before the Council\nhe was 'full of the Holy Ghost,' and therefore looked up into heaven\nand saw it opened, and the Christ standing ready to help him. In like\nmanner we read of Barnabas that he 'was a good man, full of the Holy\nGhost and of faith.' And finally we read in our text that these new\nconverts, left alone in Antioch of Pisidia, were 'full of joy and of\nthe Holy Ghost.'\n\nNow these are the principal instances, and my purpose now is rather to\ndeal with the whole of these instances of the occurrence of this\nremarkable expression than with the one which I have selected as a\ntext, because I think that they teach us great truths bearing very\nclosely on the strength and joyfulness of the Christian life which are\nfar too much neglected, obscured, and forgotten by us to-day.\n\nI wish then to point you, first, to the solemn thought that is here, as\nto what should be--\n\nI. The experience of every Christian,\n\nNote the two things, the universality and the abundance of this divine\ngift. I have often had occasion to say to you, and so I merely repeat\nit again in the briefest fashion, that we do not grasp the central\nblessedness of the Christian faith unless, beyond forgiveness and\nacceptance, beyond the mere putting away of the dread of punishment\neither here or hereafter, we see that the gift of God in Jesus Christ\nis the communication to every believing soul of that divine life which\nis bestowed by the Spirit of Christ granted to every believing heart.\nBut I would have you notice how the universality of the gift is\nunmistakably taught us by the instances which I have briefly gathered\ntogether in my previous remarks. It was no official class on which, on\nthe day of Pentecost, the tongues of fire fluttered down. It was to the\nwhole Church that courage to front the persecutor was imparted. When in\nSamaria the preaching of Philip brought about the result of the\ncommunication of the Holy Spirit, it was to all the believers that it\nwas granted, and when, in the Roman barracks at Caesarea, Cornelius and\nhis companion listened to Peter, it was upon them all that that Divine\nSpirit descended.\n\nI suppose I need not remind you of how, if we pass beyond this book of\nthe Acts into the Epistles of Paul, his affirmations do most\nemphatically insist upon the fact that 'we are all made to drink into\none Spirit'; and so convinced is he of the universality of the\npossession of that divine life by every Christian, that he does not\nhesitate to say that 'if any man have not the Spirit of Christ he is\nnone of His,' and to clear away all possibility of misunderstanding the\ndepth and wonderfulness of the gift, he further adds in another place,\n'Know ye not that the Spirit is in you, except ye be reprobates?'\nSimilarly another of the New Testament writers declares, in the\nbroadest terms, that 'this spake he of the Holy Spirit,\nwhich'--Apostles? no; office-bearers? no; ordained men? no;\ndistinguished and leading men? No--'_they that believe on Him_ should\nreceive.' Christianity is the true democracy, because it declares that\nupon all, handmaidens and servants, young men and old men, there comes\nthe divine gift. The world thinks of a divine inspiration in a more or\nless superficial fashion, as touching only the lofty summits, the great\nthinkers and teachers and artists and mighty men of light and leading\nof the race. The Old Testament regarded prophets and kings, and those\nwho were designated to important offices, as the possessors of the\nDivine Spirit. But Christianity has seen the sun rising so high in the\nheavens that the humblest floweret, in the deepest valley, basks in its\nbeams and opens to its light. 'We have _all_ been made to drink into\nthe one Spirit.'\n\nLet me remind you too of how, from the usage of this book, as well as\nfrom the rest of the New Testament teaching, there rises the other\nthought of the abundance of the gift. 'Full of the Holy Spirit'--the\ncup is brimming with generous wine. Not that that fulness is such as to\nmake inconsistencies impossible, as, alas, the best of us know. The\nhighest condition for us is laid down in the sad words which yet have\ntriumph in their sadness--'The flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and\nthe Spirit against the flesh.' But whilst the fulness is not such as to\nexclude the need of conflict, it is such as to bring the certainty of\nvictory.\n\nAgain if we turn to the instances to which I have already referred, we\nshall find that they fall into two classes, which are distinguished in\nthe original by a slight variation in the form of the words employed.\nSome instances refer to a habitual possession of an abundant spiritual\nlife moulding the character constantly, as in the cases of Stephen and\nBarnabas. Others refer rather to occasional and special influxes of\nspecial power on account of special circumstances, and drawn forth by\nspecial exigencies, as when there poured into Peter's heart the Divine\nSpirit that made him bold before the Council; or as when the dying\nmartyr's spirit was flooded with a new clearness of vision that pierced\nthe heavens and beheld the Christ. So then there may be and ought to\nbe, in each of us, a fulness of the Spirit, up to the edge of our\ncapacity, and yet of such a kind as that it may be reinforced and\nincreased when special needs arise.\n\nNot only so, but that which fills me to-day should not fill me\nto-morrow, because, as in earthly love, so in heavenly, no man can tell\nto what this thing shall grow. The more of fruition the more there will\nbe of expansion, and the more of expansion the more of desire, and the\nmore of desire the more of capacity, and the more of capacity the more\nof possession. So, brethren, the man who receives a spark of the divine\nlife, through his most rudimentary and tremulous faith, if he is a\nfaithful steward of the gift that is given to him, will find that it\ngrows and grows, and that there is no limit to its growth, and that in\nits limitless growth there lies the surest prophecy of an eternal\ngrowth in the heavens.\n\nA universal gift, that is to say, a gift to each of us if we are\nChristians, an abundant gift that fills the whole nature of a man,\naccording to the measure of his present power to receive--that is the\nideal, that is what God means, that is what these first believers had.\nIt did not make them perfect, it did not save them from faults or from\nerrors, but it was real, it was influential, it was moulding their\ncharacters, it was progressive. And that is the ideal for all\nChristians. Is it our actual? We are meant to be full of the Holy\nGhost. Ah! how many of us have never realised that there is such a\nthing as being thus possessed with a divine life, partly because we do\nnot understand that such a fulness will not be distinguishable from our\nown self, except by bettering of the works of self, and partly because\nof other reasons which I shall have to touch upon presently! Brethren,\nwe may, every one of us, be filled with the Spirit. Let each of us ask,\n'Am I? and if I am not, why this emptiness in the presence of such\nabundance?'\n\nAnd now let me ask you to look, in the second place, at what we gather\nfrom these instances as to--\n\nII. The results of that universal, abundant life.\n\nDo not let us run away with the idea that the New Testament, or any\npart of it, regards miracles and tongues and the like as being the\nnormal and chiefest gifts of that Divine Spirit. People read this book\nof the Acts of the Apostles and, averse from the supernatural,\nexaggerate the extent to which the primitive gift of the Holy Spirit\nwas manifested by signs and wonders, tongues of fire, and so on. We\nhave only to look at the instances to which I have already referred to\nsee that far more lofty and far more conspicuous than any such external\nand transient manifestations, which yet have their place, are the\npermanent and inward results, moulding character, and making men. And\nPaul's First Epistle to the Corinthians goes as far in the way of\nsetting the moral and spiritual effects of the divine influence above\nthe merely miraculous and external ones, as the most advanced opponent\nof the supernatural could desire.\n\nLet us look, and it can only be briefly, at the various results which\nare presented in the instances to which I have referred. The most\ngeneral expression for all, which is the result of the Divine Spirit\ndwelling in a man, is that it makes him good. Look at one of the\ninstances to which we have referred. 'Barnabas was a good man'--was he?\nHow came he to be so? Because he was 'full of the Holy Ghost.' And how\ncame he to be 'full of the Holy Ghost'? Because he was 'full of faith.'\nGet the divine life into you, and that will make you good; and,\nbrethren, nothing else will. It is like the bottom heat in a\ngreen-house, which makes all the plants that are there, whatever their\norders, grow and blossom and be healthy and strong. Therein is the\ndifference between Christian morality and the world's ethics. They may\nnot differ much, they do in some respects, in their ideal of what\nconstitutes goodness, but they differ in this, that the one says, 'Be\ngood, be good, be good!' but, like the Pharisees of old, puts out not a\nfinger to help a man to bear the burdens that it lays upon him. The\nother says, 'Be good,' but it also says, 'take this and it will make\nyou good.' And so the one is Gospel and the other is talk, the one is a\nword of good tidings, and the other is a beautiful speculation, or a\ncrushing commandment that brings death rather than life. 'If there had\nbeen a law given which could have given life, verily righteousness had\nbeen by the law.' But since the clearest laying down of duty brings us\nno nearer to the performance of duty, we need and, thank God! we have,\na gift bestowed which invests with power. He in whom the 'Spirit of\nHoliness' dwells, and he alone, will be holy. The result of the life of\nGod in the heart is a life growingly like God's, manifested in the\nworld.\n\nThen again let me remind you of how, from another of our instances,\nthere comes another thought. The result of this majestic, supernatural,\nuniversal, abundant, divine life is practical sagacity in the commonest\naffairs of life. 'Look ye out from among you seven men, full of the\nHoly Ghost and of wisdom.' What to do? To meet wisely the claims of\nsuspicious and jealous poverty, and to distribute fairly a little\nmoney. That was all. And are you going to invoke such a lofty gift as\nthis, to do nothing grander than that? Yes. Gravitation holds planets\nin their orbits, and keeps grains of dust in their places. And one\nresult of the inspiration of the Almighty, which is granted to\nChristian people, is that they will be wise for the little affairs of\nlife. But Stephen was also 'full of grace and power,' two things that\ndo not often go together--grace, gentleness, loveliness, graciousness,\non the one side, and strength on the other, which divorced, make wild\nwork of character, and which united, make men like God. So if we desire\nour lives to be full of sweetness and light and beauty, the best way is\nto get the life of Christ into them; and if we desire our lives not to\nbe made placid and effeminate by our cult of graciousness and\ngracefulness, but to have their beauty stiffened and strengthened by\nmanly energy, then the best way is to get the life of the 'strong Son\nof God, immortal love,' into our lives.\n\nThe same Stephen, 'full of the Holy Ghost,' looked up into heaven and\nsaw the Christ. So one result of that abundant life, if we have it,\nwill be that even though as with him, when he saw the heavens opened,\nthere may be some smoke-darkened roof above our heads, we can look\nthrough all the shows of this vain world, and our purged eyes can\nbehold the Christ. Again the disciples in our text 'were full of joy,'\nbecause 'they were full of the Holy Spirit,' and we, if we have that\nabundant life within us, shall not be dependent for our gladness on the\nouter world, but like explorers in the Arctic regions, even if we have\nto build a hut of snow, shall be warm within it when the thermometer is\nfar below zero; and there will be light there when the long midnight is\nspread around the dwelling. So, dear friends, let us understand what is\nthe main thing for a Christian to endeavour after,--not so much the\ncultivation of special graces as the deepening of the life of Christ in\nthe spirit.\n\nWe gather from some of these instances--\n\nIII. The way by which we may be thus filled.\n\nWe read that Stephen was 'full of faith and of the Holy Spirit,' and\nthat Barnabas was 'full of the Holy Ghost and of faith,' and it is\nquite clear from the respective contexts that, though the order in\nwhich these fulnesses are placed is different in the two clauses, their\nrelation to each other is the same. Faith is the condition of\npossessing the Spirit. And what do we mean in this connection by faith?\nI mean, first, a belief in the truth of the possible abiding of the\ndivine Spirit in our spirits, a truth which the superficial\nChristianity of this generation sorely needs to have forced upon its\nconsciousness far more than it has it. I mean aspiration and desire\nafter; I mean confident expectation of. Your wish measures your\npossession. You have as much of God as you desire. If you have no more,\nit is because you do not desire any more. The Christian people of\nto-day, many of whom are so empty of God, are in a very tragic sense,\n'full,' because they have as much as they can take in. If you bring a\ntiny cup, and do not much care whether anything pours into it or not,\nyou will get it filled, but you might have had a gallon vessel filled\nif you had chosen to bring it. Of course there are other conditions\ntoo. We have to use the life that is given us. We have to see that we\ndo not quench it by sin, which drives the dove of God from a man's\nheart. But the great truth is that if I open the door of my heart by\nfaith, Christ will come in, in His Spirit. If I take away the blinds\nthe light will shine into the chamber. If I lift the sluice the water\nwill pour in to drive my mill. If I deepen the channels, more of the\nwater of life can flow into them, and the deeper I make them the fuller\nthey will be.\n\nBrethren, we have wasted much time and effort in trying to mend our\ncharacters. Let us try to get that into them which will mend them. And\nlet us remember that, if we are full of faith, we shall be full of the\nHoly Spirit, and therefore full of wisdom, full of grace and power,\nfull of goodness, full of joy, whatever our circumstances. And when\ndeath comes, though it may be in some cruel form, we shall be able to\nlook up and see the opened heavens and the welcoming Christ.\n\n\n\nDEIFIED AND STONED\n\n'And when the people saw what Paul had done, they lifted up their\nvoices, saying in the speech of Lycaonia, The gods are come down to us\nin the likeness of men. 12. And they called Barnabas, Jupiter; and\nPaul, Mercurius, because he was the chief speaker. 13. Then the priest\nof Jupiter, which was before their city, brought oxen and garlands unto\nthe gates, and would have done sacrifice with the people. 14. Which\nwhen the apostles, Barnabas and Paul, heard of, they rent their\nclothes, and ran in among the people, crying out. 15. And saying, Sirs,\nwhy do ye these things? We also are men of like passions with you, and\npreach unto you that ye should turn from these vanities unto the living\nGod, which made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and all things that are\ntherein: 16. Who in times past suffered all nations to walk in their\nown ways. 17. Nevertheless he left not himself without witness, in that\nhe did good, and gave us rain from heaven, and fruitful seasons,\nfilling our hearts with food and gladness. 18. And with these sayings\nscarce restrained they the people, that they had not done sacrifice\nunto them. 19. And there came thither certain Jews from Antioch and\nIconium, who persuaded the people, and, having stoned Paul, drew him\nout of the city, supposing he had been dead. 20. Howbeit, as the\ndisciples stood round about him, he rose up, and came into the city:\nand the next day he departed with Barnabas to Derbe. 21. And when they\nhad preached the gospel to that city, and had taught many, they\nreturned again to Lystra, and to Iconium, and Antioch. 22. Confirming\nthe souls of the disciples, and exhorting them to continue in the\nfaith, and that we must through much tribulation enter into the kingdom\nof God.'--ACTS xiv. 11-22.\n\nThe scene at Lystra offers a striking instance of the impossibility of\neliminating the miraculous element from this book. The cure of a lame\nman is the starting-point of the whole story. Without it the rest is\nmotiveless and inexplicable. There can be no explosion without a train\nand a fuse. The miracle, and the miracle only, supplies these. We may\nchoose between believing and disbelieving it, but the rejection of the\nsupernatural does not make this book easier to accept, but utterly\nchaotic.\n\nI. We have, first, the burst of excited wonder which floods the crowd\nwith the conviction that the two Apostles are incarnations of deities.\nIt is difficult to grasp the indications of locality in the story, but\nprobably the miracle was wrought in some crowded place, perhaps the\nforum. At all events, it was in full view of 'the multitudes,' and they\nwere mostly of the lower orders, as their speaking in 'the speech of\nLycaonia' suggests.\n\nThis half-barbarous crowd had the ancient faith in the gods unweakened,\nand the legends, which had become dim to pure Greek and Roman, some of\nwhich had originated in their immediate neighbourhood, still found full\ncredence among them. A Jew's first thought on seeing a miracle was, 'by\nthe prince of the devils'; an average Greek's or Roman's was 'sorcery';\nthese simple people's, like many barbarous tribes to which white men\nhave gone with the marvels of modern science, was 'the gods have come\ndown'; our modern superior person's, on reading of one, is\n'hallucination,' or 'a mistake of an excited imagination.' Perhaps the\ncry of the multitudes at Lystra gets nearer the heart of the thing than\nthose others. For the miracle is a witness of present divine power, and\nthough the worker of it is not an incarnation of divinity, 'God _is_\nwith him.'\n\nBut that joyful conviction, which shot through the crowd, reveals how\ndeep lies the longing for the manifestation of divinity in the form of\nhumanity, and how natural it is to believe that, if there is a divine\nbeing, he is sure to draw near to us poor men, and that in our own\nlikeness. Then is the Christian doctrine of the Incarnation but one\nmore of the many reachings out of the heart to paint a fair picture of\nthe fulfilment of its longings? Well, since it is the only such that is\nalleged to have taken place in historic times, and the only one that\ncomes with any body of historic evidence, and the only one that brings\nwith it transforming power, and since to believe in a God, and also to\nbelieve that He has never broken the awful silence, nor done anything\nto fulfil a craving which He has set in men's hearts, is absurd, it is\nreasonable to answer, No. 'The gods are come down in the likeness of\nmen' is a wistful confession of need, and a dim hope of its supply.\n'The Word became flesh, and dwelt among us' is the supply.\n\nBarnabas was the older man, and his very silence suggested his superior\ndignity. So he was taken for Jupiter (Zeus in the Greek), and the\nyounger man for his inferior, Mercury (Hermes in the Greek), 'the\nmessenger of the gods.' Clearly the two missionaries did not understand\nwhat the multitudes were shouting in their 'barbarous' language, or\nthey would have intervened. Perhaps they had left the spot before the\nexcitement rose to its height, for they knew nothing of the\npreparations for the sacrifice till they '_heard_ of it, and then they\n'sprang forth,' which implies that they were within some place,\npossibly their lodging.\n\nIf we could be sure what 'gates' are meant in verse 13, the course of\nevents would be plainer. Were they those of the city, in which case the\npriest and procession would be coming from the temple outside the\nwalls? or those of the temple itself? or those of the Apostles'\nlodging? Opinions differ, and the material for deciding is lacking. At\nall events, whether from sharing in the crowd's enthusiasm, or with an\neye to the reputation of his shrine, the priest hurriedly procured oxen\nfor a sacrifice, which one reading of the text specifies as an\n'additional' offering--that is, over and above the statutory\nsacrifices. Is it a sign of haste that the 'garlands,' which should\nhave been twined round the oxen's horns, are mentioned separately? If\nso, we get a lively picture of the exultant hurry of the crowd.\n\nII. The Apostles are as deeply moved as the multitude is, but by what\ndifferent emotions! The horror of idolatry, which was their inheritance\nfrom a hundred generations, flamed up at the thought of themselves\nbeing made objects of worship. They had met many different sorts of\nreceptions on this journey, but never before anything like this.\nOpposition and threats left them calm, but this stirred them to the\ndepths. 'Scoff at us, fight with us, maltreat us, and we will endure;\nbut do not make gods of us.' I do not know that their 'successors' have\nalways felt exactly so.\n\nIn verse 14 Barnabas is named first, contrary to the order prevailing\nsince Paphos, the reason being that the crowd thought him the superior.\nThe remonstrance ascribed to both, but no doubt spoken by Paul,\ncontains nothing that any earnest monotheist, Jew or Gentile\nphilosopher, might not have said. The purpose of it was not to preach\nChrist, but to stop the sacrifice. It is simply a vehemently earnest\nprotest against idolatry, and a proclamation of one living God. The\ncomparison with the speech in Athens is interesting, as showing Paul's\nexquisite felicity in adapting his style to his audience. There is\nnothing to the peasants of Lycaonia about poets, no argumentation about\nthe degradation of the idea of divinity by taking images as its\nlikeness, no wide view of the course of history, no glimpse of the\nmystic thought that all creatures live and move in Him. All that might\nsuit the delicate ears of Athenians, but would have been wasted in\nLystra amidst the tumultuous crowd. But we have instead of these the\nfearless assertion, flung in the face of the priest of Jupiter, that\nidols are 'vanities,' as Paul had learned from Isaiah and Jeremiah; the\nplain declaration of the one God, 'living,' and not like these\ninanimate images; of His universal creative power; and the earnest\nexhortation to turn to Him.\n\nIn verse 16 Paul meets an objection which rises in his mind as likely\nto be springing in his hearers: 'If there is such a God, why have we\nnever heard of Him till now?' That is quite in Paul's manner. The\nanswer is undeveloped, as compared with the Athenian address or with\nRomans i. But there is couched in verse 16 a tacit contrast between\n'the generations gone by' and the present, which is drawn out in the\nspeech on Mars Hill: 'but _now_ commandeth all men everywhere to\nrepent,' and also a contrast between the 'nations' left to walk in\ntheir own ways, and Israel to whom revelation had been made. The place\nand the temper of the listeners did not admit of enlarging on such\nmatters.\n\nBut there was a plain fact, which was level to every peasant's\napprehension, and might strike home to the rustic crowd. God _had_ left\n'the nations to walk in their own ways,' and yet not altogether. That\nthought is wrought out in Romans i., and the difference between its\ndevelopment there and here is instructive. Beneficence is the\nsign-manual of heaven. The orderly sequence of the seasons, the rain\nfrom heaven, the seat of the gods from which the two Apostles were\nthought to have come down, the yearly miracle of harvest, and the\ngladness that it brings--all these are witnesses to a living Person\nmoving the processes of the universe towards a beneficent end for man.\n\nIn spite of all modern impugners, it still remains true that the\nphenomena of 'nature,' their continuity, their co-operation, and their\nbeneficent issues, demand the recognition of a Person with a loving\npurpose moving them all. '_Thou_ crownest the year with Thy goodness;\nand _Thy_ paths drop fatness.'\n\nIII. The malice of the Jews of Antioch is remarkable. Not content with\nhounding the Apostles from that city, they came raging after them to\nLystra, where there does not appear to have been a synagogue, since we\nhear only of their stirring up the 'multitudes.' The mantle of Saul had\nfallen on them, and they were now 'persecuting' _him_ 'even unto\nstrange cities.'\n\nNo note is given of the time between the attempted sacrifice and the\naccomplished stoning, but probably some space intervened. Persuading\nthe multitudes, however fickle they were, would take some time; and\nindeed one ancient text of Acts has an expansion of the verse: 'They\npersuaded the multitudes to depart from them [the Apostles], saying\nthat they spake nothing true, but lied in everything.'\n\nNo doubt some time elapsed, but few emotions are more transient than\nsuch impure religious excitement as the crowd had felt, and the ebb is\nas great as the flood, and the oozy bottom laid bare is foul. Popular\nfavourites in other departments have to experience the same fate--one\nday, 'roses, roses, all the way'; the next, rotten eggs and curses.\nOther folks than the ignorant peasants at Lystra have had devout\nemotion surging over them and leaving them dry.\n\nWho are 'they' who stoned Paul? Grammatically, the Jews, and probably\nit was so. They hated him so much that they themselves began the\nstoning; but no doubt the mob, which is always cruel, because it needs\nstrong excitement, lent willing hands. Did Paul remember Stephen, as\nthe stones came whizzing on him? It is an added touch of brutality that\nthey dragged the supposed corpse out of the city, with no gentle hands,\nwe may be sure. Perhaps it was flung down near the very temple 'before\nthe city,' where the priest that wanted to sacrifice was on duty.\n\nThe crowd, having wreaked their vengeance, melted away, but a handful\nof brave disciples remained, standing round the bruised, unconscious\nform, ready to lay it tenderly in some hastily dug grave. No previous\nmention of disciples has been made. The narrative of Acts does not\nprofess to be complete, and the argument from its silence is precarious.\n\nLuke shows no disposition to easy belief in miracles. He does not know\nthat Paul was dead; his medical skill familiarised him with protracted\nstates of unconsciousness; so all he vouches for is that Paul lay as if\ndead on some rubbish heap 'without the camp,' and that, with courage\nand persistence which were supernatural, whether his reviving was so or\nnot, the man thus sorely battered went back to the city, and next day\nwent on with his work, as if stoning was a trifle not to be taken\naccount of.\n\nThe Apostles turned at Derbe, and coming back on their outward route,\nreached Antioch, encouraging the new disciples, who had now to be left\ntruly like shepherdless sheep among wolves. They did not encourage them\nby making light of the dangers waiting them, but they plainly set\nbefore them the law of the Kingdom, which they had seen exemplified in\nPaul, that we must suffer if we would reign with the King. That 'we' in\nverse 22 is evidently quoted from Paul, and touchingly shows how he\npointed to his own stoning as what they too must be prepared to suffer.\nIt is a thought frequently recurring in his letters. It remains true in\nall ages, though the manner of suffering varies.\n\n\n\nDREAM AND REALITY\n\n'The gods are come down to us in the likeness of men.'--ACTS xiv. 11.\n\nThis was the spontaneous instinctive utterance of simple villagers when\nthey saw a deed of power and kindness. Many an English traveller and\nsettler among rude people has been similarly honoured. And in Lycaonia\nthe Apostles were close upon places that were celebrated in Greek\nmythology as having witnessed the very two gods, here spoken of,\nwandering among the shepherds and entertained with modest hospitality\nin their huts.\n\nThe incident is a very striking and picturesque one. The shepherd\npeople standing round, the sudden flash of awe and yet of gladness\nwhich ran through them, the tumultuous outcry, which, being in their\nrude dialect, was unintelligible to the Apostles till it was\ninterpreted by the appearance of the priest of Jupiter with oxen and\ngarlands for offerings, the glimpse of the two Apostles--the older,\ngraver, venerable Barnabas, the younger, more active, ready-tongued\nPaul, whom their imaginations converted into the Father of gods and\nmen, and the herald Mercury, who were already associated in local\nlegends; the priest, eager to gain credit for his temple 'before the\ncity,' the lowing oxen, and the vehement appeal of the Apostles, make a\npicture which is more vividly presented in the simple narrative than\neven in the cartoon of the great painter whom the narrative has\ninspired.\n\nBut we have not to deal with the picturesque element alone. The\nnarratives of Scripture are representative because they are so\npenetrating and true. They go to the very heart of the men and things\nwhich they describe: and hence the words and acts which they record are\nfound to contain the essential characteristics of whole classes of men,\nand the portrait of an individual becomes that of a class. This joyful\noutburst of the people of Lycaonia gives utterance to one of the most\nstriking and universal convictions of heathenism, and stands in very\nclose and intimate relations with that greatest of all facts in the\nhistory of the world, the Incarnation of the Eternal Word. That the\ngods come down in the likeness of men is the dream of heathenism. 'The\nWord was made flesh and dwelt among us,' is the sober, waking truth\nwhich meets and vindicates and transcends that cry.\n\nI. The heathen dream of incarnation.\n\nIn all lands we find this belief in the appearance of the gods in human\nform. It inspired the art and poetry of Greece. Rome believed that gods\nhad charged in front of their armies and given their laws. The solemn,\ngloomy religion of Egypt, though it worshipped animal forms, yet told\nof incarnate and suffering gods. The labyrinthine mythologies of the\nEast have their long-drawn stories of the avatars of their gods\nfloating many a rood on the weltering ocean of their legends. Tibet\ncherishes each living sovereign as a real embodiment of the divine. And\nthe lowest tribes, in their degraded worship, have not departed so far\nfrom the common type but that they too have some faint echoes of the\nuniversal faith.\n\nDo these facts import anything at all to us? Are we to dismiss them as\nsimply the products of a stage which we have left far behind, and to\nplume ourselves that we have passed out of the twilight?\n\nEven if we listen to what comparative mythology has to say, it still\nremains to account for the tendency to shape legends of the earthly\nappearance of the gods; and we shall have to admit that, while they\nbelong to an early stage of the world's progress, the feelings which\nthey express belong to all stages of it.\n\nNow I think we may note these thoughts as contained in this universal\nbelief:\n\nThe consciousness of the need of divine help.\n\nThe certainty of a fellowship between heaven and earth.\n\nThe high ideal of the capacities and affinities of man.\n\nWe may note further what were the general characteristics of these\nincarnations. They were transient, they were 'docetic,' as they are\ncalled--that is, they were merely apparent assumptions of human form\nwhich brought the god into no nearer or truer kindred with humanity,\nand they were, for the most part, for very self-regarding and often\nmost immoral ends, the god's personal gratification of very ungodlike\npassions and lust, or his winning victories for his favourites, or\nsatisfying his anger by trampling on those who had incurred his very\nhuman wrath.\n\nII. The divine answer which transcends the human dream.\n\nWe have to insist that the truth of the Incarnation is the corner-stone\nof Christianity. If that is struck out the whole fabric falls. Without\nit there may be a Christ who is the loftiest and greatest of men, but\nnot the Christ who 'saves His people from their sins.'\n\nThat being so, and Christianity having this feature in common with all\nthe religions of men, how are we to account for the resemblance? Are we\nto listen to the rude solution which says, 'All lies alike'? Are we to\nsee in it nothing but the operation of like tendencies, or rather\nillusions, of human thought--man's own shadow projected on an\nilluminated mist? Are we to let the resemblance discredit the Christian\nmessage? Or are we to say that all these others are unconscious\nprophecies--man's half-instinctive expression of his deep need and much\nmisunderstood longing, and that the Christian proclamation that Jesus\nis 'God manifest in the flesh' is the trumpet-toned announcement of\nHeaven's answer to earth's cry?\n\nFairly to face that question is to go far towards answering it. For as\nsoon as we begin to look steadily at the facts, we find that the\ndifferences between all these other appearances and the Incarnation are\nso great as to raise the presumption that their origins are different.\nThe 'gods' slipped on the appearance of humanity over their garment of\ndeity in appearance only, and that for a moment. Jesus is 'bone of our\nbone and flesh of our flesh,' and is not merely 'found in fashion as a\nman,' but is 'in all points like as we are.' And that garb of manhood\nHe wears for ever, and in His heavenly glory is 'the Man Christ Jesus.'\n\nBut _the_ difference between all these other appearances of gods and\nthe Incarnation lies in the acts to which they and it respectively led,\nand the purposes for which they and it respectively took place. A god\nwho came down to suffer, a god who came to die, a god who came to be\nthe supreme example of all fair humanities, a god who came to suffer\nand to die that men might have life and be victors over sin--where is\nhe in all the religions of the world? And does not the fact that\nChristianity alone sets before men such a God, such an Incarnation, for\nsuch ends, make the assertion a reasonable one, that the sources of the\nuniversal belief in gods who come down among men and of the Christian\nproclamation that the Eternal Word became flesh are not the same, but\nthat these are men's half-understood cries, and this is Heaven's answer?\n\n\n\n'THE DOOR OF FAITH'\n\n'And when they were come, and had gathered the church together, they\nrehearsed all that God had done with them, and how he had opened the\ndoor of faith unto the Gentiles.'--ACTS xiv. 27.\n\nThere are many instances of the occurrence of this metaphor in the New\nTestament, but none is exactly like this. We read, for example, of 'a\ngreat door and effectual' being opened to Paul for the free ministry of\nthe word; and to the angel of the Church in Philadelphia, 'He that\nopeneth and none shall shut' graciously says, 'I have set before thee a\ndoor opened, which none can shut.' But here the door is faith, that is\nto say faith is conceived of as the means of entrance for the Gentiles\ninto the Kingdom, which, till then, Jews had supposed to be entered by\nhereditary rite.\n\nI. Faith is the means of our entrance into the Kingdom.\n\nThe Jew thought that birth and the rite of circumcision were the door,\nbut the 'rehearsing' of the experiences of Paul and Barnabas on their\nfirst missionary tour shattered that notion by the logic of facts.\nInstead of that narrow postern another doorway had been broken in the\nwall of the heavenly city, and it was wide enough to admit of\nmultitudes entering. Gentiles had plainly come in. How had they come\nin? By believing in Jesus. Whatever became of previous exclusive\ntheories, there was a fact that had to be taken into account. It\ndistinctly proved that faith was 'the gate of the Lord into which,' not\nthe circumcised but the 'righteous,' who were righteous because\nbelieving, 'should enter.'\n\nWe must not forget the other use of the metaphor, by our Lord Himself,\nin which. He declares that He is the Door. The two representations are\nvarying but entirely harmonious, for the one refers to the objective\nfact of Christ's work as making it possible that we should draw near to\nand dwell with God, and the other to our subjective appropriation of\nthat possibility, and making it a reality in our own blessed experience.\n\nII. Faith is the means of God's entrance into our hearts.\n\nWe possess the mysterious and awful power of shutting God out of these\nhearts. And faith, which in one aspect is our means of entrance into\nthe Kingdom of God, is, in another, the means of God's entrance into\nus. The Psalm, which invokes the divine presence in the Temple, calls\non the 'everlasting doors' to be 'lifted up,' and promises that then\n'the King of Glory will come in.' And the voice of the ascended Christ,\nthe King of Glory, knocking at the closed door, calls on us with our\nown hands to open the door, and promises that He 'will come in.'\n\nPaul prayed for the Ephesian Christians 'that Christ may dwell in your\nhearts through faith,' and there is no other way by which His\nindwelling is possible. Faith is not constituted the condition of that\ndivine indwelling by any arbitrary appointment, as a sovereign might\ndetermine that he would enter a city by a certain route, chosen without\nany special reason from amongst many, but in the nature of things it is\nnecessary that trust, and love which follows trust, and longing which\nfollows love should be active in a soul if Christ is to enter in and\nabide there.\n\nIII. Faith is the means of the entrance of the Kingdom into us.\n\nIf Christ comes in He comes with His pierced hands full of gifts.\nThrough our faith we receive all spiritual blessings. But we must ever\nremember, what this metaphor most forcibly sets forth, that faith is\nbut the means of entrance. It has no worth in itself, but is precious\nonly because it admits the true wealth. The door is nothing. It is only\nan opening. Faith is the pipe that brings the water, the flinging wide\nthe shutters that the light may flood the dark room, the putting\noneself into the path of the electric circuit. Salvation is not\narbitrarily connected with faith. It is not the reward of faith but the\npossession of what comes through faith, and cannot come in any other\nway. Our 'hearts' are 'purified by faith,' because faith admits into\nour hearts the life, and instals as dominant in them the powers, the\nmotives, the Spirit, which purify. We are 'saved by faith,' for faith\nbrings into our spirits the Christ who saves His people from their\nsins, when He abides in them and they abide in Him through their faith.\n\n\n\nTHE BREAKING OUT OF DISCORD\n\n'And certain men which came down from Judaea taught the brethren, and\nsaid, Except ye be circumcised after the manner of Moses, ye cannot be\nsaved. 2. When therefore Paul and Barnabas had no small dissension and\ndisputation with them, they determined that Paul and Barnabas, and\ncertain other of them, should go up to Jerusalem unto the apostles and\nelders about this question. 3. And being brought on their way by the\nchurch, they passed through Phenice and Samaria, declaring the\nconversion of the Gentiles: and they caused great joy unto all the\nbrethren. 4. And when they were come to Jerusalem, they were received\nof the church, and of the apostles and elders, and they declared all\nthings that God had done with them. 5. But there rose up certain of the\nsect of the Pharisees which believed, saying, That it was needful to\ncircumcise them, and to command them to keep the law of Moses. 6. And\nthe apostles and elders came together 'for to consider of this\nmatter.'--ACTS xv. 1-6.\n\nThe question as to the conditions on which Gentiles could be received\ninto Christian communion had already been raised by the case of\nCornelius, but it became more acute after Paul's missionary journey.\nThe struggle between the narrower and broader views was bound to come\nto a head. Traces of the cleft between Palestinian and Hellenist\nbelievers had appeared as far back as the 'murmuring' about the unfair\nneglect of the Hellenist widows in the distribution of relief, and the\nwhole drift of things since had been to widen the gap.\n\nWhether the 'certain men' had a mission to the Church in Antioch or\nnot, they had no mandate to lay down the law as they did. Luke\ndelicately suggests this by saying that they 'came down from Judaea,'\nrather than from Jerusalem. We should be fair to these men, and\nremember how much they had to say in defence of their position. They\ndid not question that Gentiles could be received into the Church, but\n'kept on teaching' (as the word in the Greek implies) that the divinely\nappointed ordinance of circumcision was the 'door' of entrance. God had\nprescribed it, and through all the centuries since Moses, all who came\ninto the fold of Israel had gone in by that gate. Where was the\ncommandment to set it aside? Was not Paul teaching men to climb up some\nother way, and so blasphemously abrogating a divine law?\n\nNo wonder that honest believers in Jesus as Messiah shrank with horror\nfrom such a revolutionary procedure. The fact that they were\nPalestinian Jews, who had never had their exclusiveness rubbed off, as\nHellenists like Paul and Barnabas had had, explains, and to some extent\nexcuses, their position. And yet their contention struck a fatal blow\nat the faith, little as they meant it. Paul saw what they did not\nsee--that if anything else than faith was brought in as necessary to\nknit men to Christ, and make them partakers of salvation, faith was\ndeposed from its place, and Christianity sank back to be a religion of\n'works.' Experience has proved that anything whatever introduced as\nassociated with faith ejects faith from its place, and comes to be\nrecognised as _the_ means of salvation. It must be faith _or_\ncircumcision, it cannot be faith _and_ circumcision. The lesson is\nneeded to-day as much as in Antioch. The controversy started then is a\nperennial one, and the Church of the present needs Paul's exhortation,\n'Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us\nfree, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage.'\n\nThe obvious course of appealing to Jerusalem was taken, and it is\nnoteworthy that in verse 2 the verb 'appointed' has no specified\nsubject. Plainly, however, it was the Church which acted, and so\nnatural did that seem to Luke that he felt it unnecessary to say so. No\ndoubt Paul concurred, but the suggestion is not said to have come from\nhim. He and Barnabas might have asserted their authority, and declined\nto submit what they had done by the Spirit's guidance to the decision\nof the Apostles, but they seek the things that make for peace.\n\nNo doubt the other side was represented in the deputation. Jerusalem\nwas the centre of unity, and remained so till its fall. The Apostles\nand elders were the recognised leaders of the Church. Elders here\nappear as holding a position of authority; the only previous mention of\nthem is in Acts xi. 30, where they receive the alms sent from Antioch.\nIt is significant that we do not hear of their first appointment. The\norganisation of the Church took shape as exigencies prescribed.\n\nThe deputation left Antioch, escorted lovingly for a little way by the\nChurch, and, journeying by land, gladdened the groups of believers in\n'Phenicia and Samaria' with the news that the Gentiles were turning to\nGod. We note that they are not said to have spoken of the thorny\nquestion in these countries, and that it is not said that there was joy\nin Judaea. Perhaps the Christians in it were in sympathy with the\nnarrower view.\n\nThe first step taken in Jerusalem was to call a meeting of the Church\nto welcome the deputation. It is significant that the latter did not\nbroach the question in debate, but told the story of the success of\ntheir mission. That was the best argument for receiving Gentile\nconverts without circumcision. God had received them; should not the\nChurch do so? Facts are stronger than theories. It was Peter's argument\nin the case of Cornelius: they 'have received the Holy Ghost as well as\nwe,' 'who was I, that I could withstand God?' It is the argument which\nshatters all analogous narrowing of the conditions of Christian life.\nIf men say, 'Except ye be' this or that 'ye cannot be saved,' it is\nenough to point to the fruits of Christian character, and say, 'These\nshow that the souls which bring them forth _are_ saved, and you must\nwiden your conceptions of the possibilities to include these\nactualities.' It is vain to say 'Ye cannot be' when manifestly they are.\n\nBut the logic of facts does not convince obstinate theorists, and so\nthe Judaising party persisted in their 'It is needful to circumcise\nthem.' None are so blind as those to whom religion is mainly a matter\nof ritual. You may display the fairest graces of Christian character\nbefore them, and you get no answer but the reiteration of 'It is\nneedful to circumcise you.' But on their own ground, in Jerusalem, the\nspokesmen of that party enlarged their demands. In Antioch they had\ninsisted on circumcision, in Jerusalem they added the demand for entire\nconformity to the Mosaic law. They were quite logical; their principle\ndemanded that extension of the requirement, and was thereby condemned\nas utterly unworkable. Now that the whole battery was unmasked the\nissue was clear--Is Christianity to be a Jewish sect or the universal\nreligion? Clear as it was, few in that assembly saw it. But the parting\nof the ways had been reached.\n\n\n\nTHE CHARTER OF GENTILE LIBERTY\n\n'Then all the multitude kept silence, and gave audience to Barnabas and\nPaul, declaring what miracles and wonders God had wrought among the\nGentiles by them. 13. And after they had held their peace, James\nanswered, saying, Men and brethren, hearken unto me: 14. Simeon hath\ndeclared how God at the first did visit the Gentiles, to take out of\nthem a people for His name. 15. And to this agree the words of the\nprophets; as it is written, 16. After this I will return, and will\nbuild again the tabernacle of David, which is fallen down; and I will\nbuild again the ruins thereof, and I will set it up: 17. That the\nresidue of men might seek after the Lord, and all the Gentiles, upon\nwhom My name is called, saith the Lord, who doeth all these things. 18.\nKnown unto God are all His works from the beginning of the world. 19.\nWherefore my sentence is, that we trouble not them, which from among\nthe Gentiles are turned to God: 20. But that we write unto them, that\nthey abstain from pollutions of idols, and from fornication, and from\nthings strangled, and from blood. 21. For Moses of old time hath in\nevery city them that preach Him, being read in the synagogues every\nsabbath day. 22. Then pleased it the apostles and elders, with the\nwhole church, to send chosen men of their own company to Antioch with\nPaul and Barnabas; namely, Judas surnamed Barsabas, and Silas, chief\nmen among the brethren: 23. And they wrote letters by them after this\nmanner; The apostles and elders and brethren send greeting unto the\nbrethren which are of the Gentiles in Antioch and Syria and Cilicia:\n24. Forasmuch as we have heard, that certain which went out from us\nhave troubled you with words, subverting your souls, saying, Ye must be\ncircumcised, and keep the law: to whom we gave no such commandment: 25.\nIt seemed good unto us, being assembled with one accord, to send chosen\nmen unto you with our beloved Barnabas and Paul, 26. Men that have\nhazarded their lives for the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. 27. We have\nsent therefore Judas and Silas, who shall also tell you the same things\nby mouth. 28. For it seemed good to the Holy Ghost, and to us, to lay\nupon you no greater burden than these necessary things; 29. That ye\nabstain from meats offered to idols, and from blood, and from things\nstrangled, and from fornication: from which if ye keep yourselves, ye\nshall do well. Fare ye well.'--ACTS xv. 12-29.\n\nMuch was at stake in the decision of this gathering of the Church. If\nthe Jewish party triumphed, Christianity sank to the level of a Jewish\nsect. The question brought up for decision was difficult, and there was\nmuch to be said for the view that the Mosaic law was binding on Gentile\nconverts. It must have been an uprooting of deepest beliefs for a\nJewish Christian to contemplate the abrogation of that law, venerable\nby its divine origin, by its hoary antiquity, by its national\nassociations. We must not be hard upon men who clung to it; but we\nshould learn from their final complete drifting away from Christianity\nhow perilous is the position which insists on the necessity to true\ndiscipleship of any outward observance.\n\nOur passage begins in the middle of the conference. Peter has, with\ncharacteristic vehemence, dwelt upon the divine attestation of the\ngenuine equality of the uncircumcised converts with the Jewish, given\nby their possession of the same divine Spirit, and has flung fiery\nquestions at the Judaisers, which silenced them. Then, after the\nimpressive hush following his eager words, Barnabas and Paul tell their\nstory once more, and clinch the nail driven by Peter by asserting that\nGod had already by 'signs and wonders' given His sanction to the\nadmission of Gentiles without circumcision. Characteristically, in\nJerusalem Barnabas is restored to his place above Paul, and is named\nfirst as speaking first, and regarded by the Jerusalem Church as the\nsuperior of the missionary pair.\n\nThe next speaker is James, not an Apostle, but the bishop of the Church\nin Jerusalem, of whom tradition tells that he was a zealous adherent to\nthe Mosaic law in his own person, and that his knees were as hard as a\ncamel's through continual prayer. It is singular that this meeting\nshould be so often called 'the Apostolic council,' when, as a fact,\nonly one Apostle said a word, and he not as an Apostle, but as the\nchosen instrument to preach to the Gentiles. 'The elders,' of whose\nexistence we now hear for the first time in this wholly incidental\nmanner, were associated with the Apostles (ver. 6), and the 'multitude'\n(ver. 12) is most naturally taken to be 'the whole Church' (ver. 22).\nJames represents the eldership, and as bishop in Jerusalem and an eager\nobserver of legal prescriptions, fittingly speaks. His words\npractically determined the question. Like a wise man, he begins with\nfacts. His use of the intensely Jewish form of the name Simeon is an\ninteresting reminiscence of old days. So he had been accustomed to call\nPeter when they were all young together, and so he calls him still,\nthough everybody else named him by his new name. What God had done by\nhim seems to James to settle the whole question; for it was nothing\nelse than to put the Gentile converts without circumcision on an\nequality with the Jewish part of the Church.\n\nNote the significant juxtaposition of the words 'Gentiles' and\n'people'--the former the name for heathen, the latter the sacred\ndesignation of the chosen nation. The great paradox which, through\nPeter's preaching at Caesarea, had become a fact was that the 'people\nof God' were made up of Gentiles as well as Jews--that His name was\nequally imparted to both. If God had made Gentiles His people, had He\nnot thereby shown that the special observances of Israel were put\naside, and that, in particular, circumcision was no longer the\ncondition of entrance? The end of national distinction and the opening\nof a new way of incorporation among the people of God were clearly\ncontained in the facts. How much Christian narrowness would be blown to\natoms if its advocates would do as James did, and let God's facts teach\nthem the width of God's purposes and the comprehensiveness of Christ's\nChurch! We do wisely when we square our theories with facts; but many\nof us go to work in the opposite way, and snip down facts to the\ndimension of our theories.\n\nJames's next step is marked equally by calm wisdom and open-mindedness.\nHe looks to God's word, as interpreted by God's deeds, to throw light\nin turn on the deeds and to confirm the interpretation of these. Two\nthings are to be noted in considering his quotation from Amos--its\nbearing on the question in hand, and its divergence from the existing\nHebrew text. As to the former, there seems at first sight nothing\nrelevant to James's purpose in the quotation, which simply declares\nthat the Gentiles will seek the Lord when the fallen tabernacle of\nDavid is rebuilt. That period of time has at least begun, thinks James,\nin the work of Jesus, in whom the decayed dominion of David is again in\nhigher form established. The return of the Gentiles does not merely\nsynchronise with, but is the intended issue of, Christ's reign. Lifted\nfrom the earth, He will draw all men unto Him, and they shall 'seek the\nLord,' and on them His name will be called.\n\nNow the force of this quotation lies, as it seems, first in the fact\nthat Peter's experience at Caesarea is to be taken as an indication of\nhow God means the prophecy to be fulfilled, namely, without\ncircumcision; and secondly, in the _argumentum a silentio_, since the\nprophet says nothing about ritual or the like, but declares that moral\nand spiritual qualifications--on the one hand a true desire after God,\nand on the other receiving the proclamation of His name and calling\nthemselves by it--are all that are needed to make Gentiles God's\npeople. Just because there is nothing in the prophecy about observing\nJewish ceremonies, and something about longing and faith, James thinks\nthat these are the essentials, and that the others may be dropped by\nthe Church, as God had dropped them in the case of Cornelius, and as\nAmos had dropped them in his vision of the future kingdom. God knew\nwhat He meant to do when He spoke through the prophet, and what He has\ndone has explained the words, as James says in verse 18.\n\nThe variation from the Hebrew text requires a word of comment. The\nquotation is substantially from the Septuagint, with a slight\nalteration. Probably James quoted the version familiar to many of his\nhearers. It seems to have been made from a somewhat different Hebrew\ntext in verse 17, but the difference is very much slighter than an\nEnglish reader would suppose. Our text has 'Edom' where the Septuagint\nhas 'men'; but the Hebrew words without vowels are identical but for\nthe addition of one letter in the former. Our text has 'inherit' where\nthe Septuagint has 'seek after'; but there again the difference in the\ntwo Hebrew words would be one letter only, so that there may well have\nbeen a various reading as preserved in the Septuagint and Acts. James\nadds to the Septuagint 'seek' the evidently correct completion 'the\nLord.'\n\nNow it is obvious that, even if we suppose his rendering of the whole\nverse to be a paraphrase of the same Hebrew text as we have, it is a\ncorrect representation of the meaning; for the 'inheriting of Edom' is\nno mere external victory, and Edom is always in the Old Testament the\ntype of the godless man. The conquest of the Gentiles by the restorer\nof David's tabernacle is really the seeking after the Lord, and the\ncalling of His name upon the Gentiles.\n\nThe conclusion drawn by James is full of practical wisdom, and would\nhave saved the Church from many a sad page in its history, if its\nspirit had been prevalent in later 'councils.' Note how the very\ndesignation given to the Gentile converts in verse 19 carries\nargumentative force. 'They turn to God from among the Gentiles'--if\nthey have done that, surely their new separation and new attachment are\nenough, and make insistence on circumcision infinitely ridiculous. They\nhave the thing signified; what does it matter about the sign, which is\ngood for us Jews, but needless for them? If Church rulers had always\nbeen as open-eyed as this bishop in Jerusalem, and had been content if\npeople were joined to God and parted from the world, what torrents of\nblood, what frowning walls of division, what scandals and partings of\nbrethren would have been spared!\n\nThe observances suggested are a portion of the precepts enjoined by\nJudaism on proselytes. The two former were necessary to the Christian\nlife; the two latter were not, but were concessions to the Jewish\nfeelings of the stricter party. The conclusion may be called a\ncompromise, but it was one dictated by the desire for unity, and had\nnothing unworthy in it. There should be giving and taking on both\nsides. If the Jewish Christians made the, to them, immense concession\nof waiving the necessity of circumcision, the Gentile section might\nsurely make the small one of abstinence from things strangled and from\nblood. Similarities in diet would daily assimilate the lives of the two\nparties, and would be a more visible and continuous token of their\noneness than the single act of circumcision.\n\nBut what does the reason in verse 21 mean? Why should the reading of\nMoses every Sabbath be a reason for these concessions? Various answers\nare given: but the most natural is that the constant promulgation of\nthe law made respect for the feelings (even if mistaken) of Jewish\nChristians advisable, and the course suggested the most likely to win\nJews who were not yet Christians. Both classes would be flung farther\napart if there were not some yielding. The general principle involved\nis that one cannot be too tender with old and deeply rooted convictions\neven if they be prejudices, and that Christian charity, which is truest\nwisdom, will consent to limitations of Christian liberty, if thereby\nany little one who believes in Him shall be saved from being offended,\nor any unbeliever from being repelled.\n\nThe letter embodying James's wise suggestion needs little further\nnotice. We may observe that there was no imposing and authoritative\ndecision of the Ecclesia, but that the whole thing was threshed out in\nfree talk, and then the unanimous judgment of the community, 'Apostles,\nelders and the whole Church,' was embodied in the epistle. Observe the\naccurate rendering of verse 25 (R.V.), 'having _come_ to one accord,'\nwhich gives a lively picture of the process. Note too that James's\nproposal of a letter was mended by the addition of a deputation,\nconsisting of an unknown 'Judas called Barsabas' (perhaps a relative of\n'Joseph called Barsabas,' the unsuccessful nominee for Apostleship in\nchap. i.), and the well-known Silas or Silvanus, of whom we hear so\nmuch in Paul's letters. That journey was the turning-point in his life,\nand he henceforward, attracted by the mass and magnetism of Paul's\ngreat personality, revolved round him, and forsook Jerusalem.\n\nProbably James drew up the document, which has the same somewhat\nunusual 'greeting' as his Epistle. The sharp reference to the Judaising\nteachers would be difficult for their sympathisers to swallow, but\ncharity is not broken by plain repudiation of error and its teachers.\n'Subverting your souls' is a heavy charge. The word is only here found\nin the New Testament, and means to unsettle, the image in it being that\nof packing up baggage for removal. The disavowal of these men is more\ncomplete if we follow the Revised Version in reading (ver. 24) 'no\ncommandment' instead of 'no such commandment.'\n\nThese unauthorised teachers 'went'; but, in strong contrast with them,\nJudas and Silas are chosen out and sent. Another thrust at the\nJudaising teachers is in the affectionate eulogy of Paul and Barnabas\nas 'beloved,' whatever disparaging things had been said about them, and\nas having 'hazarded their lives,' while these others had taken very\ngood care of themselves, and had only gone to disturb converts whom\nPaul and Barnabas had won at the peril of their lives.\n\nThe calm matter-of-course assertion that the decision which commended\nitself to 'us' is the decision of 'the Holy Ghost' was warranted by\nChrist's promises, and came from the consciousness that they had\nobserved the conditions which He had laid down. They had brought their\nminds to bear upon the question, with the light of facts and of\nScripture, and had come to a unanimous conclusion. If they believed\ntheir Lord's parting words, they could not doubt that His Spirit had\nguided them. If we lived more fully in that Spirit, we should know more\nof the same peaceful assurance, which is far removed from the delusion\nof our own infallibility, and is the simple expression of trust in the\nveracious promises of our Lord.\n\nThe closing words of the letter are beautifully brotherly, sinking\nauthority, and putting in the foreground the advantage to the Gentile\nconverts of compliance with the injunctions. 'Ye shall do well,'\nrightly and conformably with the requirements of brotherly love to\nweaker brethren. And thus doing well, they will 'fare well,' and be\nstrong. That is not the way in which 'lords over God's heritage' are\naccustomed to end their decrees. Brotherly affection, rather than\nauthority imposing its will, breathes here. Would that all succeeding\n'Councils' had imitated this as well as 'it seemed good to the Holy\nGhost, and to us'!\n\n\n\nA GOOD MAN'S FAULTS\n\n'And Barnabas determined to take with them John, whose surname was\nMark. 38. But Paul thought not good to take him with them, who departed\nfrom them from Pamphylia, and went not with them to the work.'--ACTS\nxv. 37, 38.\n\nScripture narratives are remarkable for the frankness with which they\ntell the faults of the best men. It has nothing in common with the\ncynical spirit in historians, of which this age has seen eminent\nexamples, which fastens upon the weak places in the noblest natures,\nlike a wasp on bruises in the ripest fruit, and delights in showing how\nall goodness is imperfect, that it may suggest that none is genuine.\nNor has it anything in common with that dreary melancholy which also\nhas its representatives among us, that sees everywhere only failures\nand fragments of men, and has no hope of ever attaining anything beyond\nthe common average of excellence. But Scripture frankly confesses that\nall its noblest characters have fallen short of unstained purity, and\nwith boldness of hope as great as its frankness teaches the weakest to\naspire, and the most sinful to expect perfect likeness to a perfect\nLord, It is a plane mirror, giving back all images without distortion.\n\nWe recall how emphatically and absolutely it eulogised Barnabas as 'a\ngood man, full of the Holy Ghost and of faith'--and now we have to\nnotice how this man, thus full of the seminal principle of all\ngoodness, derived into his soul by deep and constant communion through\nfaith, and showing in his life practical righteousness and holiness,\nyet goes sadly astray, tarnishes his character, and mars his whole\nfuture.\n\nThe two specific faults recorded of him are his over-indulgence in the\ncase of Mark, and his want of firmness in opposition to the Judaising\nteachers who came down to Antioch. They were neither of them grave\nfaults, but they were real. In the one he was too facile in overlooking\na defect which showed unfitness for the work, and seems to have yielded\nto family affection and to have sacrificed the efficiency of a mission\nto it. Not only was he wrong in proposing to condone Mark's desertion,\nbut he was still more wrong in his reception of the opposition to his\nproposal. With the firmness which weak characters so often display at\nthe wrong time, he was resolved, come what would, to have his own way.\nTemper rather than principle made him obstinate where he should have\nbeen yielding, as it had made him in Antioch yielding, where he should\nhave been firm. Paul's remonstrances have no effect. He will rather\nhave his own way than the companionship of his old friend, and so there\ncome alienation and separation. The Church at Antioch takes Paul's\nview--all the brethren are unanimous in disapproval. But Barnabas will\nnot move. He sets up his own feeling in opposition to them all. The\nsympathy of his brethren, the work of his life, the extension of\nChrist's kingdom, are all tossed aside. His own foolish purpose is more\nto him in that moment of irritation than all these. So he snaps the\ntie, abandons his work, and goes away without a kindly word, without a\nblessing, without the Church's prayers--but with his nephew for whom he\nhad given up all these. Paul sails away to do God's work, and the\nChurch 'recommends him to the grace of God,' but Barnabas steals away\nhome to Cyprus, and his name is no more heard in the story of the\nplanting of the kingdom of Christ.\n\nOne hopes that his work did not stop thus, but his recorded work does,\nand in the band of friends who surrounded the great Apostle, the name\nof his earliest friend appears no more. Other companions and associates\nin labour take his place; he, as it appears, is gone for ever. One\nreference (1 Cor. ix. 6) at a later date seems most naturally to\nsuggest that he still continued in the work of an evangelist, and still\npractised the principle to which he and Paul had adhered when together,\nof supporting himself by manual labour. The tone of the reference\nimplies that there were relations of mutual respect. But the most we\ncan believe is that probably the two men still thought kindly of each\nother and honoured each other for their work's sake, but found it\nbetter to labour apart, and not to seek to renew the old companionship\nwhich had been so violently torn asunder.\n\nThe other instance of weakness was in some respects of a still graver\nkind. The cause of it was the old controversy about the obligations of\nJewish law on Gentile Christians. Paul, Peter, and Barnabas all\nconcurred in neglecting the restrictions imposed by Judaism, and in\nliving on terms of equality and association in eating and drinking with\nthe heathen converts at Antioch. A principle was involved, to which\nBarnabas had bean the first to give in his adhesion, in the frank\nrecognition of the Antioch Church. But as soon as emissaries from the\nother party came down, Peter and he abandoned their association with\nGentile converts, not changing their convictions but suppressing the\naction to which their convictions should have led. They pretended to be\nof the same mind with these narrow Jews from Jerusalem. They insulted\ntheir brethren, they deserted Paul, they belied their convictions, they\nimperilled the cause of Christian liberty, they flew in the face of\nwhat Peter had said that God Himself had showed him, they did their\nutmost to degrade Christianity into a form of Judaism--all for the sake\nof keeping on good terms with the narrow bigotry of these Judaising\nteachers.\n\nNow if we take these two facts together, and set them side by side with\nthe eulogy pronounced on Barnabas as 'a good man, full of the Holy\nGhost and of faith,' we have brought before us in a striking form some\nimportant considerations.\n\nI. The imperfect goodness of good men.\n\nA good man does not mean a faultless man. Of course the power which\nworks on a believing soul is always tending to produce goodness and\nonly goodness. But its operation is not such that we are always\nequally, uniformly, perfectly under its influence. Power in germ is one\nthing, in actual operation another. There may be but a little ragged\npatch of green in the garden, and yet it may be on its way to become a\nflower-bed. A king may not have established dominion over all his land.\nThe actual operation of that transforming Spirit at any given moment is\nlimited, and we can withdraw ourselves from it. It does not begin by\nleavening all our nature.\n\nSo we have to note--\n\nThe root of goodness.\n\nThe main direction of a life.\n\nThe progressive character of goodness.\n\nThe highest style of Christian life is a struggle. So we draw practical\ninferences as to the conduct of life.\n\nThis thought of imperfection does not diminish the criminality of\nindividual acts.\n\nIt does not weaken aspiration and effort towards higher life.\n\nIt does alleviate our doubts and fears when we find evil in ourselves.\n\nII. The possible evil lurking in our best qualities.\n\nIn Barnabas, his amiability and openness of nature, the very\ncharacteristics that had made him strong, now make him weak and wrong.\n\nHow clearly then there is brought out here the danger that lurks even\nin our good! I need not remind you how every virtue may be run to an\nextreme and become a vice. Liberality is exaggerated into prodigality;\nfirmness, into obstinacy; mercy, into weakness; gravity, into severity;\ntolerance, into feeble conviction; humility, into abjectness.\n\nAnd these extremes are reached when these graces are developed at the\nexpense of the symmetry of the character.\n\nWe are not simple but complex, and what we need to aim at is a\ncharacter, not an excrescence. Some people's goodness is like a wart or\na wen. Their virtues are cases of what medical technicality calls\nhypertrophy. But our goodness should be like harmonious Indian\npatterns, where all colours blend in a balanced whole.\n\nSuch considerations enforce the necessity for rigid self-control. And\nthat in two directions.\n\n(_a_) Beware of your excellences, your strong points.\n\n(_b_) Cultivate sedulously the virtues to which you are not inclined.\n\nThe special form of error into which Barnabas fell is worth notice. It\nwas over-indulgence, tolerance of evil in a person; feebleness of\ngrasp, a deficiency of boldness in carrying out his witness to a\ndisputed truth. In this day liberality, catholicity, are pushed so far\nthat there is danger of our losing the firmness of our grasp of\nprinciples, and indulgence for faults goes so far that we are apt to\nlose the habit of unsparing, though unangry, condemnation of unworthy\ncharacters. This generation is like Barnabas; very quick in sympathy,\ngenerous in action, ready to recognise goodness where-ever it is\nbeheld. But Barnabas may be a beacon, warning us of the possible evils\nthat dog these excellences like their shadows.\n\nIII. The grave issues of small faults.\n\nComparatively trivial as was Barnabas's error, it seems to have wrecked\nhis life, at least to have marred it for long years, and to have broken\nhis sweet companionship with Paul. I think we may go further and say,\nthat most good men are in more danger from trivial faults than from\ngreat ones. No man reaches the superlative degree of wickedness all at\nonce. Few men spring from the height to the abyss, they usually slip\ndown. The erosive action of the sand of the desert is said to be\ngradually cutting off the Sphinx's head. The small faults are most\nnumerous. We are least on our guard against them. There is a\nmicroscopic weed that chokes canals. Snow-flakes make the sky as dark\nas an eclipse does. White ants eat a carcase quicker than a lion does.\n\nSo we urge the necessity for bringing ordinary deeds and small actions\nto be ruled and guided by God's Spirit.\n\nHow the contemplation of the imperfection, which is the law of life,\nshould lead us to hope for that heaven where perfection is.\n\nHow the contemplation of the limits of all human goodness should lead\nus to exclusive faith in, and imitation of, the one perfect Lord. He\nstands stainless among the stained. In Him alone is no sin, from Him\nalone like goodness may be ours.\n\n\n\nHOW TO SECURE A PROSPEROUS VOYAGE\n\n'And after [Paul] had seen the vision, immediately we endeavoured to go\ninto Macedonia, assuredly gathering that the Lord had called us for to\npreach the gospel unto them. 11. Therefore ... we came with a straight\ncourse.'--ACTS xvi. 10, 11.\n\nThis book of the Acts is careful to point out how each fresh step in\nthe extension of the Church's work was directed and commanded by Jesus\nChrist Himself. Thus Philip was sent by specific injunction to 'join\nhimself' to the chariot of the Ethiopian statesman. Thus Peter on the\nhouse-top at Joppa, looking out over the waters of the western sea, had\nthe vision of the great sheet, knit at the four corners. And thus Paul,\nin singularly similar circumstances, in the little seaport of Troas,\nlooking out over the narrower sea which there separates Asia from\nEurope, had the vision of the man of Macedonia, with his cry, 'Come\nover and help _us_!' The whole narrative before us bears upon the one\npoint, that Christ Himself directs the expansion of His kingdom. And\nthere never was a more fateful moment than that at which the Gospel, in\nthe person of the Apostle, crossed the sea, and effected a lodgment in\nthe progressive quarter of the world.\n\nNow what I wish to do is to note how Paul and his little company\nbehaved themselves when they had received Christ's commandment. For I\nthink there are lessons worth the gathering to be found there. There\nwas no doubt about the vision; the question was what it meant. So note\nthree stages. First, careful consideration, with one's own common\nsense, of what God wants us to do--'Assuredly gathering that the Lord\nhad called us.' Then, let no grass grow under our feet--immediate\nobedience--'Straightway we endeavoured to go into Macedonia.' And then,\npatient pondering and instantaneous submission get the reward--'We came\nwith a straight course.' He gave the winds and the waves charge\nconcerning them. Now there are three lessons for us. Taken together,\nthey are patterns of what ought to be in our experience, and will be,\nif the conditions are complied with.\n\nI. First, Careful Consideration.\n\nPaul had no doubt that what he saw was a vision from Christ, and not a\nmere dream of the night, born of the reverberation of waking thoughts\nand anxieties, that took the shape of the plaintive cry of the man of\nMacedonia. But then the next step was to be quite sure of what the\nvision meant. And so, wisely, he does not make up his mind himself, but\ncalls in the three men who were with him. And what a significant little\ngroup it was! There were Timothy, Silas, and Luke--Silas, from\nJerusalem; Timothy, half a Gentile; Luke, altogether a Gentile; and\nPaul himself--and these four shook the world. They come together, and\nthey talk the matter over. The word of my text rendered 'assuredly\ngathering' is a picturesque one. It literally means 'laying things\ntogether.' They set various facts side by side, or as we say in our\ncolloquial idiom, 'They put this and that together,' and so they came\nto understand what the vision meant.\n\nWhat had they to help them to understand it? Well, they had this fact,\nthat in all the former part of their journey they had been met by\nhindrances; that their path had been hedged up here, there, and\neverywhere. Paul set out from Antioch, meaning a quiet little tour of\nvisitation amongst the churches that had been already established.\nJesus Christ meant Philippi and Athens and Corinth and Ephesus, before\nPaul got back again. So we read in an earlier portion of the chapter\nthat the Spirit of Jesus forbade them to speak the Word in one region,\nand checked and hindered them when, baffled, they tried to go to\nanother. There then remained only one other road open to them, and that\nled to the coast. Thus putting together their hindrances and their\nstimuluses, they came to the conclusion that unitedly the two said\nplainly, 'Go across the sea, and preach the word there.'\n\nNow it is a very commonplace and homely piece of teaching to remind you\nthat time is not wasted in making quite sure of the meaning of\nprovidences which seem to declare the will of God, before we begin to\nact. But the commonest duties are very often neglected; and we\npreachers, I think, would very often do more good by hammering at\ncommonplace themes than by bringing out original and fresh ones. And so\nI venture to say a word about the immense importance to Christian life\nand Christian service of this preliminary step--'assuredly gathering\nthat the Lord had called us.' What have we to do in order to be quite\nsure of God's intention for us?\n\nWell, the first thing seems to me to make quite sure that we want to\nknow it, and that we do not want to force our intentions upon Him, and\nthen to plume ourselves upon being obedient to His call, when we are\nonly doing what we like. There is a vast deal of unconscious\ninsincerity in us all; and especially in regard to Christian work there\nis an enormous amount of it. People will say, 'Oh, I have such a strong\nimpulse in a given direction, to do certain kinds of Christian service,\nthat I am quite sure that it is God's will.' How are you sure? A strong\nimpulse may be a temptation from the devil as well as a call from God.\nAnd men who simply act on untested impulses, even the most benevolent\nwhich spring directly from large Christian principles, may be making\ndeplorable mistakes. It is not enough to have pure motives. It is\nuseless to say, 'Such and such a course of action is clearly the result\nof the truths of the Gospel.' That may be all perfectly true, and yet\nthe course may not be the course for you. For there may be practical\nconsiderations, which do not come into our view unless we carefully\nthink about them, which forbid us to take such a path. So remember that\nstrong impulses are not guiding lights; nor is it enough to vindicate\nour pursuing some mode of Christian service that it is in accordance\nwith the principles of the Gospel. 'Circumstances alter cases' is a\nvery homely old saying; but if Christian people would only bring the\ncommon sense to bear upon their religious life which they need to bring\nto bear upon their business life, unless they are going into the\n_Gazette_, there would be less waste work in the Christian Church than\nthere is to-day. I do not want less zeal; I want that the reins of the\nfiery steed shall be kept well in hand. The difference between a\nfanatic, who is a fool, and an enthusiast, who is a wise man, is that\nthe one brings calm reason to bear, and an open-eyed consideration of\ncircumstances all round; and the other sees but one thing at a time,\nand shuts his eyes, like a bull in a field, and charges at that. So let\nus be sure, to begin with, that we want to know what God wants us to\ndo; and that we are not palming our wishes upon Him, and calling them\nHis providences.\n\nThen there is another plain, practical consideration that comes out of\nthis story, and that is, Do not be above being taught by failures and\nhindrances. You know the old proverb, 'It is waste time to flog a dead\nhorse.' There is not a little well-meant work flung away, because it is\nexpended on obviously hopeless efforts to revivify, perhaps, some\nmoribund thing or to continue, perhaps, in some old, well-worn rut,\ninstead of striking out into a new path. Paul was full of enthusiasm\nfor the evangelisation of Asia Minor, and he might have said a great\ndeal about the importance of going to Ephesus. He tried to do it, but\nChrist said 'No.' and Paul did not knock his head against the stone\nwall that lay between him and the accomplishment of his purpose, but he\ngave it up and tried another tack. He next wished to go up into\nBithynia, and he might have said a great deal about the needs of the\npeople by the Euxine; but again down came the barrier, and he had once\nmore to learn the lesson, 'Not as thou wilt, but as I will.' He was not\nabove being taught by his failures. Some of us are; and it is very\ndifficult, and needs a great deal of Christian wisdom and\nunselfishness, to distinguish between hindrances in the way of work\nwhich are meant to evoke larger efforts, and hindrances which are meant\nto say, 'Try another path, and do not waste time here any longer.'\n\nBut if we wish supremely to know God's will, He will help us to\ndistinguish between these two kinds of difficulties. Some one has said,\n'Difficulties are things to be overcome.' Yes, but not always. They\nvery often are, and we should thank God for them then; but they\nsometimes are God's warnings to us to go by another road. So we need\ndiscretion, and patience, and suspense of judgment to be brought to\nbear upon all our purposes and plans.\n\nThen, of course, I need not remind you that the way to get light is to\nseek it in the Book and in communion with Him whom the Book reveals to\nus as the true Word of God: 'He that followeth Me shall not walk in\ndarkness, but shall have the light of life.' So careful consideration\nis a preliminary to all good Christian work. And, if you can, talk to\nsome Timothy and Silas and Luke about your course, and do not be above\ntaking a brother's advice.\n\nII. The next step is Immediate Submission.\n\nWhen they had assuredly gathered that the Lord had called them,\n'immediately'--there is great virtue in that one word--'we endeavoured\nto go into Macedonia.' Delayed obedience is the brother--and, if I may\nmingle metaphors, sometimes the father--of disobedience. It sometimes\nmeans simple feebleness of conviction, indolence, and a general lack of\nfervour. It means very often a reluctance to do the duty that lies\nplainly before us. And, dear brethren, as I have said about the former\nlesson, so I say about this. The homely virtue, which we all know to be\nindispensable to success in common daily life and commercial\nundertakings, is no less indispensable to all vigour of Christian life\nand to all nobleness of Christian service. We have no hours to waste;\nthe time is short. In the harvest-field, especially when it is getting\nnear the end of the week, and the Sunday is at hand, there are little\nleisure and little tolerance of slow workers. And for us the fields are\nwhite, the labourers are few, the Lord of the harvest is imperative,\nthe sun is hurrying to the west, and the sickles will have to be laid\ndown before long. So, '_immediately_ we endeavoured.'\n\nDelayed duty is present discomfort. As long as a man has a conscience,\nso long will he be restless and uneasy until he has, as the Quakers\nsay, 'cleared himself of his burden,' and done what he knows that he\nought to do, and got done with it. Delayed obedience means wasted\npossibilities of service, and so is ever to be avoided. The more\ndisagreeable anything is which is plainly a duty, the more reason there\nis for doing it right away. 'I made haste, and delayed not, but made\nhaste to keep Thy commandments.'\n\nDid you ever count how many '_straightways_' there are in the first\nchapter of Mark's Gospel? If you have not, will you do it when you go\nhome; and notice how they come in? In the story of Christ's opening\nministry every fresh incident is tacked on to the one before it, in\nthat chapter, by that same word 'straightway.' 'Straightway' He does\nthat; 'anon' He does this; 'immediately' He does the other thing. All\nis one continuous stream of acts of service. The Gospel of Mark is the\nGospel of the servant, and it sets forth the pattern to which all\nChristian service ought to be conformed.\n\nSo if we take Jesus Christ for our Example, unhasting and unresting in\nthe work of the Lord, we shall let no moment pass burdened with\nundischarged duty; and we shall find that all the moments are few\nenough for the discharge of the duties incumbent upon us.\n\nIII. So, lastly, careful consideration and unhesitating obedience lead\nto a Straight Course.\n\nWell, it is not so always, but it is so generally. There is a wonderful\npower in diligent doing of God's known will to smooth away difficulties\nand avoid troubles. I do not, of course, mean that a man who thus\nlives, patiently ascertaining and then promptly doing what God would\nhave him do, has any miraculous exemption from the ordinary sorrows and\ntrials of life. But sure I am that a very, very large proportion of all\nthe hindrances and disappointments, storms and quicksands, calms which\nprevent progress and headwinds that beat in our faces, are directly the\nproducts of our negligence in one or other of these two respects, and\nthat although by no means absolutely, yet to an extent that we should\nnot believe if we had not the experience of it, the wish to do God's\nwill and the doing of it with our might when we know what it is have a\ntalismanic power in calming the seas and bringing us to the desired\nhaven.\n\nBut though this is not always absolutely true in regard of outward\nthings, it is, without exception or limitation, true in regard of the\ninward life. For if my supreme will is to do God's will then nothing\nwhich is His will, and comes to me because it is can be a hindrance in\nmy doing that.\n\nAs an old proverb says, 'Travelling merchants can never be out of their\nroad.' And a Christian man whose path is simple obedience to the will\nof God can never be turned from that path by whatever hindrances may\naffect his outward life. So, in deepest truth, there is always a calm\nvoyage for the men whose eyes are open to discern, and whose hands are\nswift to fulfil, the commandments of their Father in heaven. For them\nall winds blow them to their port; for them 'all things work together\nfor good'; with them God's servants who hearken to the voice of His\ncommandments, and are His ministers to do His pleasure, can never be\nother than in amity and alliance. He who is God's servant is the\nworld's master. 'All things are yours if ye are Christ's.'\n\nSo, brethren, careful study of providences and visions, of hindrances\nand stimulus, careful setting of our lives side by side with the\nMaster's, and a swift delight in doing the will of the Lord, will\nsecure for us, in inmost truth, a prosperous voyage, till all storms\nare hushed, 'and they are glad because they be quiet; so He bringeth\nthem to their desired haven.'\n\n\n\nPAUL AT PHILIPPI\n\n'And on the sabbath day we went forth without the gate, by a river\nside, where we supposed there was a place of prayer; and we sat down,\nand spake unto the women which were come together.'--ACTS xvi. 13\n(R.V.).\n\nThis is the first record of the preaching of the Gospel in Europe, and\nprobably the first instance of it. The fact that the vision of the man\nof Macedonia was needed in order to draw the Apostle across the straits\ninto Macedonia, and the great length at which the incidents at Philippi\nare recorded, make this probable. If so, we are here standing, as it\nwere, at the wellhead of a mighty river, and the thin stream of water\nassumes importance when we remember the thousand miles of its course,\nand the league-broad estuary in which it pours itself into the ocean.\nHere is the beginning; the Europe of to-day is what came out of it.\nThere is no sign whatever that the Apostle was conscious of an epoch in\nthis transference of the sphere of his operations, but we can scarcely\nhelp being conscious of such.\n\nAnd so, looking at the words of my text, and seeing here how\nunobtrusively there stole into the progressive part of the world the\npower which was to shatter and remould all its institutions, to guide\nand inform the onward march of its peoples, to be the basis of their\nliberties, and the starting-point of their literature, we can scarcely\navoid drawing lessons of importance.\n\nThe first point which I would suggest, as picturesquely enforced for us\nby this incident, is--\n\nI. The apparent insignificance and real greatness of Christian work.\n\nThere did not seem in the whole of that great city that morning a more\ncompletely insignificant knot of people than the little weather-beaten\nJew, travel-stained, of weak bodily presence, and of contemptible\nspeech, with the handful of his attendants, who slipped out in the\nearly morning and wended their way to the quiet little oratory, beneath\nthe blue sky, by the side of the rushing stream, and there talked\ninformally and familiarly to the handful of women. The great men of\nPhilippi would have stared if any one had said to them, 'You will be\nforgotten, but two of these women will have their names embalmed in the\nmemory of the world for ever. Everybody will know Euodia and Syntyche.\nYour city will be forgotten, although a battle that settled the fate of\nthe civilised world was fought outside your gates. But that little Jew\nand the letter that he will write to that handful of believers that are\nto be gathered by his preaching will last for ever.' The mightiest\nthing done in Europe that morning was when the Apostle sat down by the\nriverside, 'and spake to the women which resorted thither.'\n\nThe very same vulgar mistake as to what is great and as to what is\nsmall is being repeated over and over again; and we are all tempted to\nit by that which is worldly and vulgar in ourselves, to the enormous\ndetriment of the best part of our natures. So it is worth while to stop\nfor a moment and ask what is the criterion of greatness in our deeds? I\nanswer, three things--their motive, their sphere, their consequences.\nWhat is done for God is always great. You take a pebble and drop it\ninto a brook, and immediately the dull colouring upon it flashes up\ninto beauty when the sunlight strikes through the ripples, and the\nmagnitude of the little stone is enlarged. If I may make use of such a\nviolent expression, drop your deeds into God, and they will all be\ngreat, however small they are. Keep them apart from Him, and they will\nbe small, though all the drums of the world beat in celebration, and\nall the vulgar people on the earth extol their magnitude. This altar\nmagnifies and sanctifies the giver and the gift. The great things are\nthe things that are done for God.\n\nA deed is great according to its sphere. What bears on and is confined\nto material things is smaller than what affects the understanding. The\nteacher is more than the man who promotes material good. And on the\nvery same principle, above both the one and the other, is the doer of\ndeeds which touch the diviner part of a man's nature, his will, his\nconscience, his affections, his relations to God. Thus the deeds that\nimpinge upon these are the highest and the greatest; and far above the\nscientific inventor, and far above the mere teacher, as I believe, and\nas I hope you believe, stands the humblest work of the poorest\nChristian who seeks to draw any other soul into the light and liberty\nwhich he himself possesses. The greatest thing in the world is charity,\nand the purest charity in the world is that which helps a man to\npossess the basis and mother-tincture of all love, the love towards God\nwho has first loved us, in the person and the work of His dear Son.\n\nThat which being done has consequences that roll through souls, 'and\ngrow for ever and for ever,' is a greater work than the deed whose\nissues are more short-lived. And so the man who speaks a word which may\ndeflect a soul into the paths which have no end until they are\nswallowed up in the light of the God who 'is a Sun,' is a worker whose\nwork is truly great. Brethren, it concerns the nobleness of the life of\nus Christian people far more closely than we sometimes suppose, that we\nshould purge our souls from the false estimate of magnitudes which\nprevails so extensively in the world's judgment of men and their\ndoings. And though it is no worthy motive for a man to seek to live so\nthat he may do great things, it is a part of the discipline of the\nChristian mind, as well as heart, that we should be able to reduce the\nswollen bladders to their true flaccidity and insignificance, and that\nwe should understand that things done for God, things done on men's\nsouls, things done with consequences which time will not exhaust, nor\neternity put a period to, are, after all, the great things of human\nlife.\n\nAh, there will be a wonderful reversal of judgments one day! Names that\nnow fill the trumpet of fame will fall silent. Pages that now are read\nas if they were leaves of the 'Book of Life' will be obliterated and\nunknown, and when all the flashing cressets in Vanity Fair have smoked\nand stunk themselves out, 'They that be wise shall shine as the\nbrightness of the firmament, and they that turn many to righteousness\nas the stars for ever and ever.' The great things are the Christian\nthings, and there was no greater deed done that day, on this round\nearth, than when that Jewish wayfarer, travel-stained and\ninsignificant, sat himself down in the place of prayer, and 'spake unto\nthe women which resorted thither.' Do not be over-cowed by the loud\ntalk of the world, but understand that Christian work is the mightiest\nwork that a man can do.\n\nLet us take from this incident a hint as to--\n\nII. The law of growth in Christ's Kingdom.\n\nHere, as I have said, is the thin thread of water at the source. We\nto-day are on the broad bosom of the expanded stream. Here is the\nlittle beginning; the world that we see around us has come from this,\nand there is a great deal more to be done yet before all the power that\nwas transported into Europe, on that Sabbath morning, has wrought its\nlegitimate effects. That is to say, 'the Kingdom of God cometh not by\nobservation.' Let me say a word, and only a word, based on this\nincident, about the law of small beginnings and the law of slow,\ninconspicuous development.\n\nWe have here an instance of the law of small, silent beginnings. Let us\ngo back to the highest example of everything that is good; the life of\nJesus Christ. A cradle at Bethlehem, a carpenter's shop in Nazareth,\nthirty years buried in a village, two or three years, at most, going up\nand down quietly in a remote nook of the earth, and then He passed away\nsilently and the world did not know Him. 'He shall not strive nor cry,\nnor cause His voice to be heard in the streets.' And as the Christ so\nHis Church, and so His Gospel, and so all good movements that begin\nfrom Him. Destructive preparations may be noisy; they generally are.\nConstructive beginnings are silent and small. If a thing is launched\nwith a great beating of drums and blowing of trumpets, you may be\npretty sure there is very little in it. Drums are hollow, or they would\nnot make such a noise. Trumpets only catch and give forth wind. They\nsay--I know not whether it is true--that the _Wellingtonia gigantea_,\nthe greatest of forest trees, has a smaller seed than any of its\ncongeners. It may be so, at any rate it does for an illustration. The\ngerm-cell is always microscopic. A little beginning is a prophecy of a\ngreat ending.\n\nIn like manner there is another large principle suggested here which,\nin these days of impatient haste and rushing to and fro, and religious\nas well as secular advertising and standing at street corners, we are\nvery apt to forget, but which we need to remember, and that is that the\nrate of growth is swift when the duration of existence is short. A reed\nsprings up in a night. How long does an oak take before it gets too\nhigh for a sheep to crop at? The moth lives its full life in a day.\nThere is no creature that has helpless infancy so long as a man. We\nhave the slow work of mining; the dynamite will be put into the hole\none day, and the spark applied--and then? So 'an inheritance may be\ngotten hastily at the beginning, but the end thereof shall not be\nblessed.'\n\nLet us apply that to our own personal life and work, and to the growth\nof Christianity in the world, and let us not be staggered because\neither are so slow. 'The Lord is not slack concerning His promises, as\nsome men count slackness. One day is with the Lord as a thousand years,\nand a thousand years as one day.' How long will that day be of which a\nthousand years are but as the morning twilight? Brethren, you have need\nof patience. You Christian workers, and I hope I am speaking to a great\nmany such now; how long does it take before we can say that we are\nmaking any impression at all on the vast masses of evil and sin that\nare round about us? God waited, nobody knows how many millenniums and\nmore than millenniums, before He had the world ready for man. He waited\nfor more years than we can tell before He had the world ready for the\nIncarnation. His march is very slow because it is ever onwards. Let us\nbe thankful if we forge ahead the least little bit; and let us not be\nimpatient for swift results which are the fool's paradise, and which\nthe man who knows that he is working towards God's own end can well\nafford to do without.\n\nAnd now, lastly, let me ask you to notice, still further as drawn from\nthis incident--\n\nIII. The simplicity of the forces to which God entrusts the growth of\nHis Kingdom.\n\nIt is almost ludicrous to think, if it were not pathetic and sublime,\nof the disproportion between the end that was aimed at and the way that\nwas taken to reach it, which the text opens before us. 'We went out to\nthe riverside, and we spake unto the women which resorted thither.'\nThat was all. Think of Europe as it was at that time. There was Greece\nover the hills, there was Rome ubiquitous and ready to exchange its\ncontemptuous toleration for active hostility. There was the unknown\nbarbarism of the vague lands beyond. Think of the established\nidolatries which these men had to meet, around which had gathered, by\nthe superstitious awe of untold ages, everything that was obstinate,\neverything that was menacing, everything that was venerable. Think of\nthe subtleties to which they had to oppose their unlettered message.\nThink of the moral corruption that was eating like an ulcer into the\nvery heart of society. Did ever a Cortez on the beach, with his ships\nin flames behind him, and a continent in arms before, cast himself on a\nmore desperate venture? And they conquered! How? What were the small\nstones from the brook that slew Goliath? Have we got them? Here they\nare, the message that they spoke, the white heat of earnestness with\nwhich they spoke it, and the divine Helper who backed them up. And we\nhave this message. Brethren, that old word, 'God was in Christ\nreconciling the world to Himself,' is as much needed, as potent, as\ntruly adapted to the complicated civilisation of this generation, as\nsurely reaching the deepest wants of the human soul, as it was in the\ndays when first the message poured, like a red-hot lava flood, from the\nutterances of Paul. Like lava it has gone cold to-day, and stiff in\nmany places, and all the heat is out of it. That is the fault of the\nspeaker, never of the message. It is as mighty as ever it was, and if\nthe Christian Church would keep more closely to it, and would realise\nmore fully that the Cross does not need to be propped up so much as to\nbe proclaimed, I think we should see that it is so. That sword has not\nlost its temper, and modern modes of warfare have not antiquated it. As\nDavid said to the high priests at Nob, when he was told that Goliath's\nsword was hid behind the ephod, 'Give me that. There is none like it.'\nIt was not miracles, it was the Gospel that was preached, which was\n'the power of God unto salvation.'\n\nAnd that message was preached with earnestness. There is one point in\nwhich every successful servant of Jesus Christ who has done work for\nHim, winning men to Him, has been like every other successful servant,\nand there is only one point. Some of them have been wise men, some of\nthem have been foolish. Some of them have been clad with many puerile\nnotions and much rubbish of ceremonial and sacerdotal theories. Some of\nthem have been high Calvinists, some of them low Arminians; some of\nthem have been scholars, some of them could hardly read. But they have\nall had this one thing: they believed with all their hearts what they\nspake. They fulfilled the Horatian principle, 'If you wish me to weep,\nyour own eyes must overflow'--and if you wish me to believe, you must\nspeak, not 'with bated breath and whispering humbleness,' but as if you\nyourself believed it, and were dead set on getting other people to\nbelieve it, too.\n\nAnd then the third thing that Paul had we have, and that is the\npresence of the Christ. Note what it says in the context about one\nconvert who was made that morning, Lydia, 'whose heart the Lord\nopened.' Now I am not going to deduce Calvinism or any other 'ism' from\nthese words, but I pray you to note that there is emerging on the\nsurface here what runs all through this book of Acts, and animates the\nwhole of it, viz., that Jesus Christ Himself is working, doing all the\nwork that is done through His servants. Wherever there are men aflame\nwith that with which every Christian man and woman should be aflame,\nthe consciousness of the preciousness of their Master, and their own\nresponsibility for the spreading of His Name, there, depend upon it,\nwill be the Christ to aid them. The picture with which one of the\nEvangelists closes his Gospel will be repeated: 'They went everywhere\npreaching the word, the Lord working with them, and confirming the word\nwith signs following.'\n\nDear brethren, the vision of the man of Macedonia which drew Paul\nacross the water from Troas to Philippi speaks to us. 'Come over and\nhelp us,' comes from many voices. And if we, in however humble and\nobscure, and as the foolish purblind world calls it, 'small,' way,\nyield to the invitation, and try to do what in us lies, then we shall\nfind that, like Paul by the riverside in that oratory, we are building\nbetter than we know, and planting a little seed, the springing whereof\nGod will bless. 'Thou sowest not that which shall be, but bare grain\n... and God giveth it a body as it hath pleased Him.'\n\n\n\nTHE RIOT AT PHILIPPI\n\n'And when her masters saw that the hope of their gains was gone, they\ncaught Paul and Silas, and drew them into the marketplace unto the\nrulers, 20. And brought them to the magistrates, saying, These men,\nbeing Jews, do exceedingly trouble our city, 21. And teach customs,\nwhich are not lawful for us to receive, neither to observe, being\nRomans. 22. And the multitude rose up together against them: and the\nmagistrates rent off their clothes, and commanded to beat them. 23. And\nwhen they had laid many stripes upon them, they cast them into prison,\ncharging the jailer to keep them safely: 24. Who, having received such\na charge, thrust them into the inner prison, and made their feet fast\nin the stocks. 25. And at midnight Paul and Silas prayed, and sang\npraises unto God: and the prisoners heard them. 26. And suddenly there\nwas a great earthquake, so that the foundations of the prison were\nshaken: and immediately all the doors were opened, and every one's\nbands were loosed. 27. And the keeper of the prison awaking out of his\nsleep, and seeing the prison doors open, he drew out his sword, and\nwould have killed himself, supposing that the prisoners had been fled.\n28. But Paul cried with a loud voice, saying, Do thyself no harm: for\nwe are all here. 29. Then he called for a light, and sprang in, and\ncame trembling, and fell down before Paul and Silas, 30. And brought\nthem out, and said, Sirs, what must I do to be saved? 31. And they\nsaid, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and\nthy house. 32. And they spake unto him the word of the Lord, and to all\nthat were in his house. 33. And he took them the same hour of the\nnight, and washed their stripes; and was baptized, he and all his,\nstraightway. 34. And when he had brought them into his house, he set\nmeat before them, and rejoiced, believing In God with all his\nhouse.'--ACTS xvi. 19-34.\n\nThis incident gives us the Apostle's first experience of purely Gentile\nopposition. The whole scene has a different stamp from that of former\nantagonisms, and reminds us that we have passed into Europe. The\naccusers and the grounds of accusation are new. Formerly Jews had led\nthe attack; now Gentiles do so. Crimes against religion were charged\nbefore; now crimes against law and order. Hence the narrative is more\nextended, in accordance with the prevailing habit of the book, to\ndilate on the first of a series and to summarise subsequent members of\nit. We may note the unfounded charge and unjust sentence; the joyful\nconfessors and the answer to their trust; the great light that shone on\nthe jailer's darkness.\n\nI. This was a rough beginning of the work undertaken at the call of\nChrist. Less courageous and faithful men might have thought, 'Were we\nright in \"assuredly gathering\" that His hand pointed us hither, since\nthis is the reception we find?' But though the wind meets us as soon as\nwe clear the harbour, the salt spray dashing in our faces is no sign\nthat we should not have left shelter. A difficult beginning often means\na prosperous course; and hardships are not tokens of having made a\nmistake.\n\nThe root of the first antagonism to the Gospel in Europe was purely\nmercenary. The pythoness's masters had no horror of Paul's doctrines.\nThey were animated by no zeal for Apollo. They only saw a source of\nprofit drying up. Infinitely more respectable was Jewish opposition,\nwhich was, at all events, the perverted working of noble sentiments.\nZeal for religion, even when the zeal is impure and the notions of\nreligion imperfect, is higher than mere anger at pecuniary loss. How\nmuch of the opposition since and to-day comes from the same mean\nsource! Lust and appetite organise profitable trades, in which 'the\nmoney has no smell,' however foul the cesspool from which it has been\nbrought. And when Christian people set themselves against these\nabominations, capital takes the command of the mob of drink-sellers and\nconsumers, or of those from haunts of fleshly sin, and shrieks about\ninterfering with honest industry, and seeking to enforce sour-faced\nPuritanism on society. The Church may be very sure that it is failing\nin some part of its duty, if there is no class of those who fatten on\nproviding for sin howling at its heels, because it is interfering with\nthe hope of their gains.\n\nThe charge against the little group took no heed of the real character\nof their message. It artfully put prominent their nationality. These\nearly anti-Semitic agitators knew the value of a good solid prejudice,\nand of a nickname. 'Jews'--that was enough. The rioters were\n'Romans'--of a sort, no doubt, but it was poor pride for a Macedonian\nto plume himself on having lost his nationality. The great crime laid\nto Paul's charge was--troubling the city. So it always is. Whether it\nbe George Fox, or John Wesley, or the Salvation Army, the disorderly\nelements of every community attack the preachers of the Gospel in the\nname of order, and break the peace in their eagerness to have it kept.\nThere was no 'trouble' in Philippi, but the uproar which they\nthemselves were making. The quiet praying-place by the riverside, and\nthe silencing of the maiden's shout in the streets, were not exactly\nthe signs of disturbers of civic tranquillity.\n\nThe accuracy of the charge may be measured by the ignorance of the\naccusers that Paul and his friends were in any way different from the\nrun of Jews. No doubt they were supposed to be teaching Jewish\npractices, which were supposed to be inconsistent with Roman\ncitizenship. But if the magistrates had said, 'What customs?' the\ncharge would have collapsed. Thank God, the Gospel has a witness to\nbear against many 'customs'; but it does not begin by attacking even\nthese, much less by prescribing illegalities. Its errand was and is to\nthe individual first. It sets the inner man right with God, and then\nthe new life works itself out, and will war against evils which the old\nlife deemed good; but the conception of Christianity as a code\nregulating actions is superficial, whether it is held by friends or\nfoes.\n\nThere is always a mob ready to follow any leader, especially if there\nis the prospect of hurting somebody. The lovers of tranquillity showed\nhow they loved it by dragging Paul and Silas into the forum, and\nbellowing untrue charges against them. The mob seconded them; 'they\nrose up together [with the slave-owners] against Paul and Silas.' The\nmagistrates, knowing the ticklish material that they had to deal with,\nand seeing only a couple of Jews from nobody knew where, did not think\nit worth while to inquire or remonstrate. They were either cowed or\nindifferent; and so, to show how zealous they and the mob were for\nRoman law, they drove a coach-and-six clean through it, and without the\nshow of investigation, scourged and threw into prison the silent\nApostles. It was a specimen of what has happened too often since. How\nmany saints have been martyred to keep popular feeling in good tune!\nAnd how many politicians will strain conscience to-day, because they\nare afraid of what Luke here unpolitely calls 'the multitude,' or as we\nmight render it, 'the mob,' but which we now fit with a much more\nrespectful appellation!\n\nThe jailer, on his part, in the true spirit of small officials, was\nready to better his instructions. It is dangerous to give vague\ndirections to such people. When the judge has ordered unlawful\nscourging, the turnkey is not likely to interpret the requirement of\nsafe keeping too leniently. One would not look for much human kindness\nin a Philippian jail. So it was natural that the deepest, darkest, most\nfoul-smelling den should be chosen for the two, and that they should he\nthrust, bleeding backs and all, into the stocks, to sleep if they could.\n\nII. These birds could sing in a darkened cage. The jailer's treatment\nof them after his conversion shows what he had neglected to do at\nfirst. They had no food; their bloody backs were unsponged; they were\nthrust into a filthy hole, and put in a posture of torture. No wonder\nthat they could not sleep! But what hindered sleep would, with most\nmen, have sorely dimmed trust and checked praise. Not so with them. God\ngave them 'songs in the night.' We can hear the strains through all the\ncenturies, and they bid us be cheerful and trustful, whatever befalls.\nSurely Christian faith never is more noble than when it triumphs over\ncircumstances, and brings praises from lips which, if sense had its\nway, would wail and groan. 'This is the victory that overcometh the\nworld.' The true anaesthetic is trust in God. No wonder that the baser\nsort of prisoners--and base enough they probably were--'were listening\nto them,' for such sounds had never been heard there before. In how\nmany a prison have they been heard since!\n\nWe are not told that the Apostles prayed for deliverance. Such\ndeliverance had not been always granted. Peter indeed had been set\nfree, but Stephen and James had been martyred, and these two heroes had\nno ground to expect a miracle to free them. But thankful trust is\nalways an appeal to God. And it is always answered, whether by\ndeliverance from or support in trial.\n\nThis time deliverance came. The tremor of the earth was the token of\nGod's answer. It does not seem likely that an earthquake could loosen\nfetters in a jail full of prisoners, but more probably the opening of\nthe doors and the falling off of the chains were due to a separate act\nof divine power, the earthquake being but the audible token thereof. At\nall events, here again, the first of a series has distinguishing\nfeatures, and may stand as type of all its successors. God will never\nleave trusting hearts to the fury of enemies. He sometimes will stretch\nout a hand and set them free, He sometimes will leave them to bear the\nutmost that the world can do, but He will always hear their cry and\nsave them. Paul had learned the lesson which Philippi was meant to\nteach, when he said, though anticipating a speedy death by martyrdom,\n'The Lord will deliver me from every evil work, and will save me into\nHis heavenly Kingdom.'\n\nIII. The jailer behaves as such a man in his position would do. He\napparently slept in a place that commanded a view of the doors; and he\nlay dressed, with his sword beside him, in case of riot or attempted\nescape. His first impulse on awaking is to look at the gates. They are\nopen; then some of his charge have broken them. His immediate thought\nof suicide not only shows the savage severity of punishment which he\nknew would fall on him, but tells a dreary tale of the desperate sense\nof the worthlessness of life and blank ignorance of anything beyond\nwhich then infected the Roman world. Suicide, the refuge of cowards or\nof pessimists, sometimes becomes epidemic. Faith must have died and\nhope vanished before a man can say, 'I will take the leap into the\ndark.'\n\nPaul's words freed the man from one fear, but woke a less selfish and\nprofounder awe. What did all this succession of strange things mean?\nHere are doors open; how came that? Here are prisoners with the\npossibility of escape refusing it; how came that? Here is one of his\nvictims tenderly careful of his life and peacefulness, and taking the\nupper hand of him; how came that? A nameless awe begins to creep over\nhim; and when he gets lights, and sees the two whom he had made fast in\nthe stocks standing there free, and yet not caring to go forth, his\nrough nature is broken down. He recognises his superiors. He remembers\nthe pythoness's testimony, that they told 'the way of salvation.'\n\nHis question seems 'psychologically impossible' to critics, who have\nprobably never asked it themselves. Wonderful results follow from the\njudicious use of that imposing word 'psychologically'; but while we are\nnot to suppose that this man knew all that 'salvation' meant, there is\nno improbability in his asking such a question, if due regard is paid\nto the whole preceding events, beginning with the maiden's words, and\nincluding the impression of Paul's personality and the mysterious\nfreeing of the prisoners.\n\nHis dread was the natural fear that springs when a man is brought face\nto face with God; and his question, vague and ignorant as it was, is\nthe cry of the dim consciousness that lies dormant in all men--the\nconsciousness of needing deliverance and healing. It erred in supposing\nthat he had to 'do' anything; but it was absolutely right in supposing\nthat he needed salvation, and that Paul could tell him how to get it.\nHow many of us, knowing far more than he, have never asked the same\nwise question, or have never gone to Paul for an answer? It is a\nquestion which we should all ask; for we all need salvation, which is\ndeliverance from danger and healing for soul-sickness.\n\nPaul's answer is blessedly short and clear. Its brevity and decisive\nplainness are the glory of the Gospel. It crystallises into a short\nsentence the essential directory for all men.\n\nSee how little it takes to secure salvation. But see how much it takes;\nfor the hardest thing of all is to be content to accept it as a gift,\n'without money and without price.' Many people have listened to sermons\nall their lives, and still have no clear understanding of the way of\nsalvation. Alas that so often the divine simplicity and brevity of\nPaul's answer are darkened by a multitude of irrelevant words and\nexplanations which explain nothing!\n\nThe passage ends with the blessing which we may all receive. Of course\nthe career begun then had to be continued by repeated acts of faith,\nand by growing knowledge and obedience. The incipient salvation is very\nincomplete, but very real. There is no reason to doubt that, for some\ncharacters, the only way of becoming Christians is to become so by one\ndead-lift of resolution. Some things are best done slowly; some things\nbest quickly. One swift blow makes a cleaner fracture than filing or\nsawing. The light comes into some lives like sunshine in northern\nlatitudes, with long dawn and slowly growing brightness; but in some\nthe sun leaps into the sky in a moment, as in the tropics. What matter\nhow long it takes to rise, if it does rise, and climb to the zenith?\n\n\n\nTHE GREAT QUESTION AND THE PLAIN ANSWER\n\n'He brought them out, and said, Sirs, what must I do to be saved? 31.\nAnd they said, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shall be\nsaved.'--ACTS xvi. 30, 31.\n\nThe keeper of a Macedonian jail was not likely to be a very nervous or\nsusceptible person. And so the extraordinary state of agitation and\npanic into which this rough jailer was cast needs some kind of\nexplanation. There had been, as you will all remember, an earthquake of\na strange kind, for it not only opened the prison doors, but shook the\nprisoner's chains off. The doors being opened, there was on the part of\nthe jailer, who probably ought not to have been asleep, a very natural\nfear that his charge had escaped.\n\nSo he was ready, with that sad willingness for suicide which marked his\nage, to cast himself on his sword, when Paul encouraged him.\n\nThat fear then was past; what was he afraid of now? He knew the\nprisoners were all safe; why should he have come pale and trembling?\nPerhaps we shall find an answer to the question in another one. Why\nshould he have gone to Paul and Silas, his two prisoners, for an\nanodyne to his fears?\n\nThe answer to that may possibly be found in remembering that for many\ndays before this a singular thing had happened. Up and down the streets\nof Philippi a woman possessed with 'a spirit of divination' had gone at\nthe heels of these two men, proclaiming in such a way as to disturb\nthem: 'These are the servants of the Most High God, which show unto us\nthe way of salvation.' It was a new word and a new idea in Philippi or\nin Macedonia. This jailer had got it into his mind that these two men\nhad in their hands a good which he only dimly understood. The panic\ncaused by the earthquake deepened into a consciousness of some\nsupernatural atmosphere about him, and stirred in his rude nature\nunwonted aspirations and terrors other than he had known, which cast\nhim at Paul's feet with this strange question.\n\nNow do you think that the jailer's question was a piece of foolish\nsuperstition? I daresay some of you do, or some of you may suppose too\nthat it was one very unnecessary for him or anybody to ask. So I wish\nnow, in a very few words, to deal with these three points--the question\nthat we should all ask, the answer that we may all take, the blessing\nthat we may all have.\n\nI. The question that we should all ask.\n\nI know that it is very unfashionable nowadays to talk about 'salvation'\nas man's need. The word has come to be so worn and commonplace and\ntechnical that many men turn away from it; but for all that, let me try\nto stir up the consciousness of the deep necessity that it expresses.\n\nWhat is it to be saved? Two things; to be healed and to be safe. In\nboth aspects the expression is employed over and over again in\nScripture. It means either restoration from sickness or deliverance\nfrom peril. I venture to press upon every one of my hearers these two\nconsiderations--we all need healing from sickness; we all need safety\nfrom peril.\n\nDear brethren, most of you are entire strangers to me; I daresay many\nof you never heard my voice before, and probably may never hear it\nagain. But yet, because 'we have all of us one human heart,' a\nbrother-man comes to you as possessing with you one common experience,\nand ventures to say on the strength of his knowledge of himself, if on\nno other ground, 'We have all sinned and come short of the glory of\nGod.'\n\nMind, I am not speaking about vices. I have no doubt you are a\nperfectly respectable man, in all the ordinary relations of life. I am\nnot speaking about crimes. I daresay there may be a man or two here\nthat has been in a dock in his day. Possibly. It does not matter\nwhether there is or not. But I am not speaking about either vices or\ncrimes; I am speaking about how we stand in reference to God. And I\npray you to bring yourselves--for no one can do it for you, and no\nwords of mine can do anything but stimulate you to the act--face to\nface with the absolute and dazzlingly pure righteousness of your Father\nin Heaven, and to feel the contrast between your life and what you know\nHe desires you to be. Be honest with yourselves in asking and answering\nthe question whether or not _you_ have this sickness of sin, its\nparalysis in regard to good or its fevered inclination to evil. If\nsalvation means being healed of a disease, we all have the disease; and\nwhether we wish it or no, we want the healing.\n\nAnd what of the other meaning of the word? Salvation means being safe.\nAre you safe? Am I safe? Is anybody safe standing in front of that\nawful law that rules the whole universe, 'Whatsoever a man soweth, that\nshall he also reap'? I am not going to talk about any of the moot\npoints which this generation has such a delight in discussing, as to\nthe nature, the duration, the purpose, or the like, of future\nretribution. All that I am concerned in now is that all men, deep down\nin the bottom of their consciousness--and you and I amongst the\nrest--know that there _is_ such a thing as retribution here; and if\nthere be a life beyond the grave at all, necessarily in an infinitely\nintenser fashion there. Somewhere and somehow, men will have to lie on\nthe beds that they have made; to drink as they have brewed. If sin\nmeans separation from God, and separation from God means, as it\nassuredly does, death, then I ask you--and there is no need for any\nexaggerated words about it--Are we not in danger? And if salvation be a\nstate of deliverance from sickness, and a state of deliverance from\nperil, do we not need it?\n\nAh, brethren, I venture to say that we need it more than anything else.\nYou will not misunderstand me as expressing the slightest depreciation\nof other remedies that are being extensively offered now for the\nvarious evils under which society and individuals groan. I heartily\nsympathise with them all, and would do my part to help them forward;\nbut I cannot but feel that whilst culture of the intellect, of the\ntaste, of the sense of beauty, of the refining agencies generally, is\nvery valuable; and whilst moral and social and economical and political\nchanges will all do something, and some of them a great deal, to\ndiminish the sum of human misery, you have to go deeper down than these\nreach. It is not culture that we want most; it is salvation. Brethren,\nyou and I are wrong in our relation to God, and that means death\nand--if you do not shrink from the vulgar old word--damnation. We are\nwrong in our relation to God, and that has to be set right before we\nare fundamentally and thoroughly right. That is to say, salvation is\nour deepest need.\n\nThen how does it come that men go on, as so many of my friends here now\nhave gone on, all their days paying no attention to that need? Is there\nany folly, amidst all the irrationalities of that irrational creature\nman, to be matched with the folly of steadily refusing to look forward\nand settle for ourselves the prime element in our condition--viz., our\nrelation to God? Strange is it not--that power that we have of refusing\nto look at the barometer when it is going down, of turning away from\nunwholesome subjects just because we know them to be so unwelcome and\nthreatening, and of buying a moment's exemption from discomfort at the\nprice of a life's ruin?\n\nDo you remember that old story of the way in which the prisoners in the\ntime of the French Revolution used to behave? The tumbrils came every\nmorning and carried off a file of them to the guillotine, and the rest\nof them had a ghastly make-believe of carrying on the old frivolities\nof the life of the _salons_ and of society. And it lasted for an hour\nor two, but the tumbril came next morning all the same, and the\nguillotine stood there gaping in the _Place_. And so it is useless,\nalthough it is so frequently done by so many of us, to try to shut out\nfacts instead of facing them. A man is never so wise as when he says to\nhimself, 'Let me fairly know the whole truth of my relation to the\nunseen world in so far as it can be known here, and if that is wrong,\nlet me set about rectifying it if it be possible.' 'What will ye do in\nthe end?' is the wisest question that a man can ask himself, when the\nend is as certain as it is with us, and as unsatisfactory as I am\nafraid it threatens to be with some of us if we continue as we are.\n\nHave I not a right to appeal to the half-sleeping and half-waking\nconsciousness that endorses my words in some hearts as I speak? O\nbrethren, you would be far wiser men if you did like this jailer in the\nMacedonian prison, came and gave yourselves no rest till you have this\nquestion cleared up, 'What must I do to be saved?'\n\nThere was an old Rabbi who used to preach to his disciples, 'Repent the\nday before you die.' And when they said to him, 'Rabbi, we do not know\nwhat day we are going to die.' 'Then,' said he, 'repent to-day.' And so\nI say to you, 'Settle about the end before the end comes, and as you do\nnot know when it may come, settle about it now.'\n\nII. That brings me to the next point here, viz., the blessed, clear\nanswer that we may all take.\n\nPaul and Silas were not non-plussed by this question, nor did they\nreply to it in the fashion in which many men would have answered it.\nTake a specimen of other answers. If anybody were so far left to\nhimself as to go with this question to some of our modern wise men and\nteachers, they would say, 'Saved? My good fellow, there is nothing to\nbe saved from. Get rid of delusions, and clear your mind of cant and\nsuperstition.' Or they would say, 'Saved? Well, if you have gone wrong,\ndo the best you can in the time to come.' Or if you went to some of our\nfriends they would say, 'Come and be baptized, and receive the grace of\nregeneration in holy baptism; and then come to the sacraments, and be\nfaithful and loyal members of the Church which has Apostolic succession\nin it.' And some would say, 'Set yourselves to work and toil and\nlabour.' And some would say, 'Don't trouble yourselves about such\nwhims. A short life and a merry one; make the best of it, and jump the\nlife to come.' Neither cold morality, nor godless philosophy, nor wild\ndissipation, nor narrow ecclesiasticism prompted Paul's answer. He\nsaid, 'Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved.'\n\nWhat did that poor heathen man know about the Lord Jesus Christ? Next\nto nothing. How could he believe upon Him if he knew so little about\nHim? Well, you hear in the context that this summary answer to the\nquestion was the beginning, and not the end, of a conversation, which\nconversation, no doubt, consisted largely in extending and explaining\nthe brief formulary with which it had commenced. But it is a grand\nthing that we can put the all-essential truth into half a dozen simple\nwords, and then expound and explain them as may be necessary. And I\ncome to you now, dear brethren, with nothing newer or more wonderful,\nor more out of the ordinary way than the old threadbare message which\nmen have been preaching for nineteen hundred years, and have not\nexhausted, and which some of you have heard for a lifetime, and have\nnever practised, 'Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ.'\n\nNow I am not going to weary you with mere dissertations upon the\nsignificance of these words. But let me single out two points about\nthem, which perhaps though they may be perfectly familiar to you, may\ncome to you with fresh force from my lips now.\n\nMark, first, whom it is that we are to believe on. '_The Lord_,' that\nis the divine Name; '_Jesus_,' that is the name of a Man; '_Christ_,'\nthat is the name of an office. And if you put them all together, they\ncome to this, that He on whom we sinful men may put our sole trust and\nhope for our healing and our safety, is the Son of God, who came down\nupon earth to live our life and to die our death that He might bear on\nHimself our sins, and fulfil all which ancient prophecy and symbol had\nproclaimed as needful, and therefore certain to be done, for men. It is\nnot a starved half-Saviour whose name is only Jesus, and neither Lord\nnor Christ, faith in whom will save you. You must grasp the whole\nrevelation of His nature and His power if from Him there is to flow the\nlife that you need.\n\nAnd note what it is that we are to exercise towards Jesus Christ. To\n'believe on Him' is a very different thing from _believing Him_. You\nmay accept all that I have been saying about who and what He is, and be\nas far away from the faith that saves a soul as if you had never hoard\nHis name. To believe on the Lord Jesus Christ is to lean the whole\nweight of yourselves upon Him. What do you do when you trust a man who\npromises you any small gift or advantage? What do you do when dear ones\nsay, 'Rest on my love'? You simply trust them. And the very same\nexercise of heart and mind which is the blessed cement that holds human\nsociety together, and the power that sheds peace and grace over\nfriendships and love, is the power which, directed to Jesus Christ,\nbrings all His saving might into exercise in our lives. Brethren, trust\nHim, trust Him as Lord, trust Him as Jesus, trust Him as Christ. Learn\nyour sickness, learn your danger; and be sure of your Healer and\nrejoice in your security. 'Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou\nshalt be saved.'\n\nIII. Lastly, consider the blessing we may all receive. This jailer\nabout whom we have been speaking was a heathen when the sun set and a\nChristian when it rose. On the one day he was groping in darkness, a\nworshipper of idols, without hope in the future, and ready in\ndesperation to plunge himself into the darkness beyond, when he thought\nhis prisoners had fled. In an hour or two 'he rejoiced, believing in\nGod with all his house.'\n\nA sudden conversion, you say, and sudden conversions are always\nsuspicious. I am not so sure about that; they may be, or they may not\nbe, according to circumstances. I know very well that it is not\nfashionable now to preach the possibility or the probability of men\nturning all at once from darkness to light, and that people shrug their\nshoulders at the old theory of sudden conversions. I think, so much the\nworse. There are a great many things in this world that have to be done\nsuddenly if they are ever to be done at all. And I, for my part, would\nhave far more hope for a man who, in one leap, sprung from the depth of\nthe degradation of that coarse jailer into the light and joy of the\nChristian life, than for a man who tried to get to it by slow steps.\nYou have to do everything in this world worth doing by a sudden\nresolution, however long the preparation may have been which led up to\nthe resolution. The act of resolving is always the act of an instant.\nAnd when men are plunged in darkness and profligacy, as are, perhaps,\nsome of my hearers now, there is far more chance of their casting off\ntheir evil by a sudden jerk than of their unwinding the snake by slow\ndegrees from their arms. There is no reason whatever why the soundest\nand solidest and most lasting transformation of character should not\nbegin in a moment's resolve.\n\nAnd there is an immense danger that with some of you, if that change\ndoes not begin in a moment's resolve now, you will be further away from\nit than ever you were. I have no doubt there are many of you who, at\nany time for years past, have known that you ought to be Christians,\nand who, at any time for years past, have been saying to yourselves:\n'Well, I will think about it, and I am tending towards it, but I cannot\nquite make the plunge.' Why not; and why not now? You can if you will;\nyou ought; you will be a better and happier man if you do. You will be\nsaved from your sickness and safe from your danger.\n\nThe outcast jailer changed nationalities in a moment. You who have\ndwelt in the suburbs of Christ's Kingdom all your lives--why cannot you\ngo inside the gate as quickly? For many of us the gradual 'growing up\nin the nurture and admonition of the Lord' has been the appointed way.\nFor some of us I verily believe the sudden change is the best. Some of\nus have a sunrise as in the tropics, where the one moment is grey and\ncold, and next moment the seas are lit with the glory. Others of us\nhave a sunrise as at the poles, where a long slowly-growing light\nprecedes the rising, and the rising itself is scarce observable. But it\nmatters little as to how we get to Christ, if we are there, and it\nmatters little whether a man's faith grows up in a moment, or is the\nslow product of years. If only it be rooted in Christ it will bear\nfruit unto life eternal.\n\nAnd so, dear brethren, I come to you with my last question, this man\nrejoiced, believing in the Lord; why should not you; and why should not\nyou now? 'Look unto Me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth.' A\nlook is a swift act, but if it be the beginning of a lifelong gaze, it\nwill be the beginning of salvation and of a glory longer than life.\n\n\n\nTHESSALONICA AND BEREA\n\n'Now, when they had passed through Amphipolis and Apollonia, they came\nto Thessalonica, where was a synagogue of the Jews: 2. And Paul, as his\nmanner was, went in unto them, and three sabbath-days reasoned with\nthem out of the scriptures, 3. Opening and alleging, that Christ must\nneeds have suffered, and risen again from the dead; and that this\nJesus, whom I preach unto you, is Christ. 4. And some of them believed,\nand consorted with Paul and Silas; and of the devout Greeks a great\nmultitude, and of the chief women not a few. 5. But the Jews which\nbelieved not, moved with envy, took unto them certain lewd fellows of\nthe baser sort, and gathered a company, and set all the city on an\nuproar, and assaulted the house of Jason, and sought to bring them out\nto the people, 6. And when they found them not, they drew Jason and\ncertain brethren unto the rulers of the city, crying, These that have\nturned the world upside down are come hither also; 7. Whom Jason hath\nreceived; and these all do contrary to the decrees of Caesar, saying\nthat there is another king, one Jesus. 8. And they troubled the people\nand the rulers of the city, when they heard these things. 9. And when\nthey had taken security of Jason, and of the other, they let them go.\n10. And the brethren immediately sent away Paul and Silas by night unto\nBerea: who coming thither went into the synagogue of the Jews. 11.\nThese were more noble than those in Thessalonica, in that they received\nthe word with all readiness of mind, and searched the scriptures daily,\nwhether those things were so. 12. Therefore many of them believed; also\nof honourable women which were Greeks, and of men, not a few.'--ACTS\nxvii. 1-12.\n\n'Shamefully entreated at Philippi,' Paul tells the Thessalonians, he\n'waxed bold in our God to' preach to them. His experience in the former\ncity might well have daunted a feebler faith, but opposition affected\nPaul as little as a passing hailstorm dints a rock. To change the field\nwas common sense; to abandon the work would have been sin. But Paul's\nbrave persistence was not due to his own courage; he drew it from God.\nBecause he lived in communion with Him, his courage 'waxed' as dangers\ngathered. He knew that he was doing a daring thing, but he knew who was\nhis helper. So he went steadily on, whatever might front him. His\ntemper of mind and the source of it are wonderfully revealed in his\nsimple words.\n\nThe transference to Thessalonica illustrates another principle of his\naction; namely, his preference of great centres of population as fields\nof work. He passes through two less important places to establish\nhimself in the great city. It is wise to fly at the head. Conquer the\ncities, and the villages will fall of themselves. That was the policy\nwhich carried Christianity through the empire like a prairie fire.\nWould that later missions had adhered to it!\n\nThe methods adopted in Thessalonica were the usual ones. Luke bids us\nnotice that Paul took the same course of action in each place: namely,\nto go to the synagogue first, when there was one, and there to prove\nthat Jesus was the Christ. The three Macedonian towns already mentioned\nseem not to have had synagogues. Probably there were comparatively few\nJews in them, and these were ecclesiastically dependent on\nThessalonica. We can fancy the growing excitement in the synagogue, as\nfor three successive Sabbaths the stranger urged his proofs of the two\nall-important but most unwelcome assertions, that their own scriptures\nforetold a suffering Messiah,--a side of Messianic prophecy which was\nignored or passionately denied--and that Jesus was that Messiah. Many a\nvehement protest would be shrieked out, with flashing eyes and abundant\ngesticulation, as he 'opened' the sense of Scripture, and 'quoted\npassages'--for that is the meaning here of the word rendered\n'alleging.' He gives us a glimpse of the hot discussions when he says\nthat he preached 'in much conflict'(1 Thess. ii. 2).\n\nWith whatever differences in manner of presentation, the true message\nof the Christian teacher is still the message that woke such opposition\nin the synagogue of Thessalonica,--the bold proclamation of the\npersonal Christ, His death and resurrection. And with whatever\ndifferences, the instrument of conviction is still the Scriptures, 'the\nsword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God.' The more closely we\nkeep ourselves to that message and that weapon the better.\n\nThe effects of the faithful preaching of the gospel are as uniform as\nthe method. It does one of two things to its hearers--either it melts\ntheir hearts and leads them to faith, or it stirs them to more violent\nenmity. It is either a stone of stumbling or a sure corner-stone. We\neither build on or fall over it, and at last are crushed by it. The\nconverts included Jews and proselytes in larger numbers, as may be\ngathered from the distinction drawn by 'some'--referring to the former,\nand 'a great multitude'--referring to the latter. Besides these there\nwere a good many ladies of rank and refinement, as was also the case\npresently at Beroea. Probably these, too, were proselytes.\n\nThe prominence of women among the converts, as soon as the gospel is\nbrought into Europe, is interesting and prophetic. The fact of the\nsocial position of these ladies may suggest that the upper classes were\nfreer from superstition than the lower, and may point a not favourable\ncontrast with present social conditions, which do not result in a\nsimilar accession of women of 'honourable estate' to the Church.\n\nOpposition follows as uniform a course as the preaching. The broad\noutlines are the same in each case, while the local colouring varies.\nIf we compare Paul's narrative in I Thessalonians, which throbs with\nemotion, and, as it were, pants with the stress of the conflict, with\nLuke's calm account here, we see not only how Paul felt, but why the\nJews got up a riot. Luke says that they 'became jealous.' Paul expands\nthat into 'they are contrary to all men; forbidding us to speak to the\nGentiles that they may be saved.' Then it was not so much dislike to\nthe preaching of Jesus as Messiah as it was rage that their Jewish\nprerogative was infringed, and the children's bread offered to the\ndogs, that stung them to violent opposition. Israel had been chosen,\nthat it might be God's witness, and diffuse the treasure it possessed\nthrough all the world. It had become, not the dispenser, but the\nwould-be monopolist, of its gift. Have there been no Christian\ncommunities in later days animated by the same spirit?\n\nThere were plenty of loafers in the market-place ready for any\nmischief, and by no means particular about the pretext for a riot.\nAnything that would give an opportunity for hurting somebody, and for\nloot, would attract them as corruption does flesh-flies. So the Jewish\nringleaders easily got a crowd together. To tell their real reasons\nwould scarcely have done, but to say that there was a house to be\nattacked, and some foreigners to be dragged out, was enough for the\npresent. Jason's house was probably Paul's temporary home, where, as he\ntells us in 1 Thessalonians ii. 9, he had worked at his trade, that he\nmight not be burdensome to any. Possibly he and Silas had been warned\nof the approach of the rioters and had got away elsewhere. At all\nevents, the nest was empty, but the crowd must have its victims, and\nso, failing Paul, they laid hold of Jason. His offence was a very\nshadowy one. But since his day there have been many martyrs, whose only\ncrime was 'harbouring' Christians, or heretics, or recusant priests, or\nCovenanters. If a bull cannot gore a man, it will toss his cloak.\n\nThe charge against Jason is that he receives the Apostle and his party,\nand constructively favours their designs. The charge against them is\nthat they are revolutionists, rebels against the Emperor, and partisans\nof a rival. Now we may note three things about the charge. First, it\ncomes with a very distinct taint of insincerity from Jews, who were, to\nsay the least, not remarkable for loyalty or peaceful obedience. The\nGracchi are complaining of sedition! A Jew zealous for Caeesar is an\nanomaly, which might excite the suspicions of the least suspicious\nruler. The charge of breaking the peace comes with remarkable\nappropriateness from the leaders of a riot. They were the troublers of\nthe city, not Paul, peacefully preaching in the synagogue. The wolf\nscolds the lamb for fouling the river.\n\nAgain, the charges are a violent distortion of the truth. Possibly the\nJewish ringleaders believed what they said, but more probably they\nconsciously twisted Paul's teachings, because they knew that no other\ncharges would excite so much hostility or be so damning as those which\nthey made. The mere suggestion of treason was often fatal. The wild\nexaggeration that the Christians had 'turned the whole civilised world\nupside down' betrays passionate hatred and alarm, if it was genuine, or\ncrafty determination to rouse the mob, if it was consciously trumped\nup. But whether the charges were believed or not by those who made\nthem, here were Jews disclaiming their nation's dearest hope, and, like\nthe yelling crowd at the Crucifixion, declaring they had no king but\nCaesar. The degradation of Israel was completed by these fanatical\nupholders of its prerogatives.\n\nBut, again, the charges were true in a far other sense than their\nbringers meant. For Christianity is revolutionary, and its very aim is\nto turn the world upside down, since the wrong side is uppermost at\npresent, and Jesus, not Caesar, or any king or emperor or czar, is the\ntrue Lord and ruler of men. But the revolution which He makes is the\nrevolution of individuals, turning them from darkness to light; for He\nmoulds single souls first and society afterwards. Violence is always a\nmistake, and the only way to change evil customs is to change men's\nnatures, and then the customs drop away of themselves. The true rule\nbegins with the sway of hearts; then wills are submissive, and conduct\nis the expression of inward delight in a law which is sweet because the\nlawgiver is dear.\n\nMissing Paul, the mob fell on Jason and the brethren. They were 'bound\nover to keep the peace.' Evidently the rulers had little fear of these\nalleged desperate revolutionaries, and did as little as they dared,\nwithout incurring the reproach of being tepid in their loyalty.\n\nProbably the removal of Paul and his travelling companions from the\nneighbourhood was included in the terms to which Jason had to submit.\nTheir hurried departure does not seem to have been caused by a renewal\nof disturbances. At all events, their Beroean experience repeated that\nof Philippi and of Thessalonica, with one great and welcome difference.\nThe Beroean Jews did exactly what their compatriots elsewhere would not\ndo--they looked into the subject with their own eyes, and tested Paul's\nassertions by Scripture. 'Therefore,' says Luke, with grand confidence\nin the impregnable foundations of the faith, 'many of them believed.'\nTrue nobility of soul consists in willingness to receive the Word,\ncombined with diligent testing of it. Christ asks for no blind\nadhesion. The true Christian teacher wishes for no renunciation, on the\npart of his hearers, of their own judgments. 'Open your mouth and shut\nyour eyes, and swallow what I give you,' is not the language of\nChristianity, though it has sometimes been the demand of its professed\nmissionaries, and not the teacher only, but the taught also, have been\nbut too ready to exercise blind credulity instead of intelligent\nexamination and clear-eyed faith. If professing Christians to-day were\nbetter acquainted with the Scriptures, and more in the habit of\nbringing every new doctrine to them as its touchstone, there would be\nless currency of errors and firmer grip of truth.\n\n\n\nPAUL AT ATHENS\n\n'Then Paul stood In the midst of Mars-hill, and said, Ye men of Athens,\nI perceive that in all things ye are too superstitious. 23. For as I\npassed by, and beheld your devotions, I found an altar with this\ninscription, To the Unknown God. Whom therefore ye ignorantly worship,\nhim declare I unto you. 24. God, that made the world, and all things\ntherein, seeing that He is Lord of heaven and earth, dwelleth not in\ntemples made with hands; 25. Neither is worshipped with men's hands, as\nthough He needed any thing, seeing He giveth to all life, and breath,\nand all things; 26. And hath made of one blood all nations of men for\nto dwell on all the face of the earth, and hath determined the times\nbefore appointed, and the bounds of their habitation; 27. That they\nshould seek the Lord, if haply they might feel after Him, and find Him,\nthough He be not far from every one of us: 28. For in Him we live, and\nmove, and have our being; as certain also of your own poets have said,\nFor we are also His offspring. 29. Forasmuch then as we are the\noffspring of God, we ought not to think that the Godhead is like unto\ngold, or silver, or stone, graven by art and man's device. 30. And the\ntimes of this ignorance God winked at; but now commandeth all men every\nwhere to repent: 31. Because he hath appointed a day, in the which He\nwill judge the world in righteousness by that Man whom He hath\nordained; whereof He hath given assurance unto all men, in that He hath\nraised Him from the dead. 32. And when they heard of the resurrection\nof the dead, some mocked: and others said, We will hear thee again of\nthis matter. 33. So Paul departed from among them. 34. Howbeit certain\nmen clave unto him, and believed: among the which was Dionysius the\nAreopagite, and a woman named Damaris, and others with them.'--ACTS\nxvii. 22-34.\n\n'I am become all things to all men,' said Paul, and his address at\nAthens strikingly exemplifies that principle of his action. Contrast it\nwith his speech in the synagogue of Pisidian Antioch, which appeals\nentirely to the Old Testament, and is saturated with Jewish ideas, or\nwith the remonstrance to the rude Lycaonian peasants (Acts xiv. 15,\netc.), which, while handling some of the same thoughts as at Athens,\ndoes so in a remarkably different manner. There he appealed to God's\ngifts of 'rain from heaven, and fruitful seasons,' the things most\nclose to his hearers' experience; here, speaking to educated\n'philosophers,' he quotes Greek poetry, and sets forth a reasoned\ndeclaration of the nature of the Godhead and the relations of a\nphilosophy of history and an argument against idolatry. The glories of\nGreek art were around him; the statues of Pallas Athene and many more\nfair creations looked down on the little Jew who dared to proclaim\ntheir nullity as representations of the Godhead.\n\nPaul's flexibility of mind and power of adapting himself to every\ncircumstance were never more strikingly shown than in that great\naddress to the quick-witted Athenians. It falls into three parts: the\nconciliatory prelude (vers. 22, 23); the declaration of the Unknown God\n(vers. 24-29); and the proclamation of the God-ordained Man (vers. 30,\n31).\n\nI. We have, first, the conciliatory prelude. It is always a mistake for\nthe apostle of a new truth to begin by running a tilt at old errors. It\nis common sense to seek to find some point in the present beliefs of\nhis hearers to which his message may attach itself. An orator who\nflatters for the sake of securing favour for himself is despicable; a\nmissionary who recognises the truth which lies under the system which\nhe seeks to overthrow, is wise.\n\nIt is incredible that Paul should have begun his speech to so critical\nan audience by charging them with excessive superstition, as the\nAuthorised Version makes him do. Nor does the modified translation of\nthe Revised Version seem to be precisely what is meant. Paul is not\nblaming the Athenians, but recording a fact which he had noticed, and\nfrom which he desired to start. Ramsay's translation gives the truer\nnotion of his meaning--'more than others respectful of what is divine.'\n'Superstition' necessarily conveys a sense of blame, but the word in\nthe original does not.\n\nWe can see Paul as a stranger wandering through the city, and noting\nwith keen eyes every token of the all-pervading idolatry. He does not\ntell his hearers that his spirit burned within him when he saw the city\nfull of idols; but he smothers all that, and speaks only of the\ninscription which he had noticed on one, probably obscure and\nforgotten, altar: 'To the Unknown God.' Scholars have given themselves\na great deal of trouble to show from other authors that there were such\naltars. But Paul is as good an 'authority' as these, and we may take\nhis word that he did see such an inscription. Whether it had the full\nsignificance which he reads into it or not, it crystallised in an\nexpress avowal that sense of Something behind and above the 'gods many'\nof Greek religion, which found expression in the words of their noblest\nthinkers and poets, and lay like a nightmare on them.\n\nTo charge an Athenian audience, proud of their knowledge, with\nignorance, was a hazardous and audacious undertaking; to make them\ncharge themselves was more than an oratorical device. It appealed to\nthe deepest consciousness even of the popular mind. Even with this\nprelude, the claims of this wandering Jew to pose as the instructor of\nEpicureans and Stoics, and to possess a knowledge of the Divine which\nthey lacked, were daring. But how calmly and confidently Paul makes\nthem, and with what easy and conciliatory adoption of their own\nterminology, if we adopt the reading of verse 23 in Revised Version\n('What ye worship ... this,' etc.), which puts forward the abstract\nconception of divinity rather than the personal God.\n\nThe spirit in which Paul approached his difficult audience teaches all\nChristian missionaries and controversialists a needed and neglected\nlesson. We should accentuate points of resemblance rather than of\ndifference, to begin with. We should not run a tilt against even\nerrors, and so provoke to their defence, but rather find in creeds and\npractices an ignorant groping after, and so a door of entrance for, the\ntruth which we seek to recommend.\n\nII. The declaration of the Unknown God has been prepared for, and now\nfollows, and with it is bound up a polemic against idolatry.\nConciliation is not to be carried so far as to hide the antagonism\nbetween the truth and error. We may give non-Christian systems of\nreligion credit for all the good in them, but we are not to blink their\ncontrariety to the true religion. Conciliation and controversy are both\nneedful; and he is the best Christian teacher who has mastered the\nsecret of the due proportion between them.\n\nEvery word of Paul's proclamation strikes full and square at some\ncounter belief of his hearers. He begins with creation, which he\ndeclares to have been the act of one personal God, and neither of a\nmultitude of deities, as some of his hearers held, nor of an impersonal\nblind power, as others believed, nor the result of chance, nor eternal,\nas others maintained. He boldly proclaims there, below the shadow of\nthe Parthenon, that there is but one God,--the universal Lord, because\nthe universal Creator. Many consequences from that fact, no doubt,\ncrowded into Paul's mind; but he swiftly turns to its bearing on the\npomp of temples which were the glory of Athens, and the multitude of\nsacrifices which he had beheld on their altars. The true conception of\nGod as the Creator and Lord of all things cuts up by the roots the\npagan notions of temples as dwelling-places of a god and of sacrifices\nas ministering to his needs. With one crushing blow Paul pulverises the\nfair fanes around him, and declares that sacrifice, as practised there,\ncontradicted the plain truth as to God's nature. To suppose that man\ncan give anything to Him, or that He needs anything, is absurd. All\nheathen worship reverses the parts of God and man, and loses sight of\nthe fact that He is the giver continually and of everything. Life in\nits origination, the continuance thereof (breath), and all which\nenriches it, are from Him. Then true worship will not be giving to, but\nthankfully accepting from and using for, Him, His manifold gifts.\n\nSo Paul declares the one God as Creator and Sustainer of all. He goes\non to sketch in broad outline what we may call a philosophy of history.\nThe declaration of the unity of mankind was a wholly strange message to\nproud Athenians, who believed themselves to be a race apart, not only\nfrom the 'barbarians,' whom all Greeks regarded as made of other clay\nthan they, but from the rest of the Greek world. It flatly contradicted\none of their most cherished prerogatives. Not only does Paul claim one\norigin for all men, but he regards all nations as equally cared for by\nthe one God. His hearers believed that each people had its own patron\ndeities, and that the wars of nations were the wars of their gods, who\nwon for them territory, and presided over their national fortunes. To\nall that way of thinking the Apostle opposes the conception, which\nnaturally follows from his fundamental declaration of the one Creator,\nof His providential guidance of all nations in regard to their place in\nthe world and the epochs of their history.\n\nBut he rises still higher when he declares the divine purpose in all\nthe tangled web of history--the variety of conditions of nations, their\nrise and fall, their glory and decay, their planting in their lands and\ntheir rooting out,--to be to lead all men to 'seek God.' That is the\ndeepest meaning of history. The whole course of human affairs is God's\ndrawing men to Himself. Not only in Judea, nor only by special\nrevelation, but by the gifts bestowed, and the schooling brought to\nbear on every nation, He would stir men up to seek for Him.\n\nBut that great purpose has not been realised. There is a tragic 'if\nhaply' inevitable; and men may refuse to yield to the impulses towards\nGod. They are the more likely to do so, inasmuch as to find Him they\nmust 'feel after Him,' and that is hard. The tendrils of a plant turn\nto the far-off light, but men's spirits do not thus grope after God.\nSomething has come in the way which frustrates the divine purpose, and\nmakes men blind and unwilling to seek Him.\n\nPaul docs not at once draw the two plain inferences, that there must be\nsomething more than the nations have had, if they are to find God, even\nHis seeking them in some new fashion; and that the power which\nneutralises God's design in creation and providence is sin. He has a\nword to say about both these, but for the moment he contents himself\nwith pointing to the fact, attested by his hearers' consciousness, and\nby many a saying of thinkers and poets, that the failure to find God\ndoes not arise from His hiding Himself in some remote obscurity. Men\nare plunged, as it were, in the ocean of God, encompassed by Him as an\natmosphere, and--highest thought of all, and not strange to Greek\nthought of the nobler sort--kindred with Him as both drawing life from\nHim and being in His image. Whence, then, but from their own fault,\ncould men have failed to find God? If He is 'unknown,' it is not\nbecause He has shrouded Himself in darkness, but because they do not\nlove the light. One swift glance at the folly of idolatry, as\ndemonstrated by this thought of man's being the offspring of God, leads\nnaturally to the properly Christian conclusion of the address.\n\nIII. It is probable that this part of it was prematurely ended by the\nmockery of some and the impatience of others, who had had enough of\nPaul and his talk, and who, when they said, 'We will hear thee again,'\nmeant, 'We will not hear you now.' But, even in the compass permitted\nhim, he gives much of his message.\n\nWe can but briefly note the course of thought. He comes back to his\nformer word 'ignorance,' bitter pill as it was for the Athenian\ncultured class to swallow. He has shown them how their religion ignores\nor contradicts the true conceptions of God and man. But he no sooner\nbrings the charge than he proclaims God's forbearance. And he no sooner\nproclaims God's forbearance than he rises to the full height of his\nmission as God's ambassador, and speaks in authoritative tones, as\nbearing His 'commands.'\n\nNow the hint in the previous part is made more plain. The demand for\nrepentance implies sin. Then the 'ignorance' was not inevitable or\ninnocent. There was an element of guilt in men's not feeling after God,\nand sin is universal, for 'all men everywhere' are summoned to repent.\nPhilosophers and artists, and cultivated triflers, and sincere\nworshippers of Pallas and Zeus, and all 'barbarian' people, are alike\nhere. That would grate on Athenian pride, as it grates now on ours. The\nreason for repentance would be as strange to the hearers as the command\nwas--a universal judgment, of which the principle was to be rigid\nrighteousness, and the Judge, not Minos or Rhadamanthus, but 'a Man'\nordained for that function.\n\nWhat raving nonsense that would appear to men who had largely lost the\nbelief in a life beyond the grave! The universal Judge a man! No wonder\nthat the quick Athenian sense of the ridiculous began to rise against\nthis Jew fanatic, bringing his dreams among cultured people like them!\nAnd the proof which he alleged as evidence to all men that it is so,\nwould sound even more ridiculous than the assertion meant to be proved.\n'A man has been raised from the dead; and this anonymous Man, whom\nnobody ever heard of before, and who is no doubt one of the speaker's\ncountrymen, is to judge us, Stoics, Epicureans, polished people, and we\nare to be herded to His bar in company with Boeotians and barbarians!\nThe man is mad.'\n\nSo the assembly broke up in inextinguishable laughter, and Paul\nsilently 'departed from among them,' having never named the name of\nJesus to them. He never more earnestly tried to adapt his teaching to\nhis audience; he never was more unsuccessful in his attempt by all\nmeans to gain some. Was it a remembrance of that scene in Athens that\nmade him write to the Corinthians that his message was 'to the Greeks\nfoolishness'?\n\n\n\nTHE MAN WHO IS JUDGE\n\n'...He will judge the world in righteousness by that Man whom He hath\nordained; whereof He hath given assurance unto all men, in that He hath\nraised Him from the dead.'--ACTS xvii. 31.\n\nI. The Resurrection of Jesus gives assurance of judgment.\n\n(_a_) Christ's Resurrection is the pledge of ours.\n\nThe belief in a future life, as entertained by Paul's hearers on Mars\nHill, was shadowy and dashed with much unbelief. Disembodied spirits\nwandered ghostlike and spectral in a shadowy underworld.\n\nThe belief in the Resurrection of Jesus converts the Greek peradventure\ninto a fact. It gives that belief solidity and makes it easier to grasp\nfirmly. Unless the thought of a future life is completed by the belief\nthat it is a corporeal life, it will never have definiteness and\nreality enough to sustain itself as a counterpoise to the weight of\nthings seen.\n\n(_b_) Resurrection implies judgment.\n\nA future bodily life affirms individual identity as persisting beyond\nthe accident of death, and can only be conceived of as a state in which\nthe earthly life is fully developed in its individual results. The\ndead, who are raised, are raised that they may 'receive the things done\nin the body, according to that they have done, whether it be good or\nbad.' Historically, the two thoughts have always gone together; and as\nhas been the clearness with which a resurrection has been held as\ncertain, so has been the force with which the anticipation of judgment\nto come has impinged on conscience.\n\nJesus is, even in this respect, our Example, for the glory to which He\nwas raised and in which He reigns now is the issue of His earthly life;\nand in His Resurrection and Ascension we have the historical fact which\ncertifies to all men that a life of self-sacrifice here will assuredly\nflower into a life of glory there, 'Ours the Cross, the grave, the\nskies.'\n\nII. The Resurrection of Jesus gives the assurance that He is Judge.\n\nThe bare fact that He is risen does not carry that assurance; we have\nto take into account that He has risen.\n\nAfter such a life.\n\nHis Resurrection was God's setting the seal of His approval and\nacceptance on Christ's work; His endorsement of Christ's claims to\nspecial relations with Him; His affirmation of Christ's sinlessness.\nJesus had declared that He did always the things that pleased the\nFather; had claimed to be the pure and perfect realisation of the\ndivine ideal of manhood; had presented Himself as the legitimate object\nof utter devotion and of religious trust, love, and obedience, and as\nthe only way to God. Men said that He was a blasphemer; God said, and\nsaid most emphatically, by raising Him from the dead: 'This is My\nbeloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.'\n\nWith such a sequel.\n\n'Christ being raised from the dead, dieth no more,' and that fact sets\nHim apart from others who, according to Scripture, have been raised.\nHis resurrection is, if we may use such a figure, a point; His\nAscension and Session at the right hand of God are the line into which\nthe point is prolonged. And from both the point and the line come the\nassurance that He is the Judge.\n\nIII. The risen Jesus is Judge because He is Man.\n\nThat seems a paradox. It is a commonplace that we are incompetent to\njudge another, for human eyes cannot read the secrets of a human heart,\nand we can only surmise, not know, each other's motives, which are the\nall-important part of our deeds. But when we rightly understand\nChrist's human nature, we understand how fitted He is to be our Judge,\nand how blessed it is to think of Him as such. Paul tells the Athenians\nwith deep significance that He who is to be their and the world's Judge\nis 'the Man.' He sums up human nature in Himself, He is the ideal and\nthe real Man.\n\nAnd further, Paul tells his hearers that God judges 'through' Him, and\ndoes so 'in righteousness.' He is fitted to be our Judge, because He\nperfectly and completely bears our nature, knows by experience all its\nweaknesses and windings, as from the inside, so to speak, and is\n'wondrous kind' with the kindness which 'fellow-feeling' enkindles. He\nknows us with the knowledge of a God; He knows us with the sympathy of\na brother.\n\nThe Man who has died for all men thereby becomes the Judge of all. Even\nin this life, Jesus and His Cross judge us. Our disposition towards Him\nis the test of our whole character. By their attitude to Him, the\nthoughts of many hearts are revealed. 'What think ye of Christ?' is the\nquestion, the answer to which determines our fate, because it reveals\nour inmost selves and their capacities for receiving blessing or harm\nfrom God and His mercy. Jesus Himself has taught us that 'in that day'\nthe condition of entrance into the Kingdom is 'doing the will of My\nFather which is in heaven.' He has also taught us that 'this is the\nwork of God, that ye believe on Him whom He hath sent.' Faith in Jesus\nas our Saviour is the root from which will grow the good tree which\nwill bring forth good fruit, bearing which our love will be 'made\nperfect, that we may have boldness before Him in the day of judgment.'\n\n\n\nPAUL AT CORINTH\n\n'After these things Paul departed from Athens, and came to Corinth; 2.\nAnd found a certain Jew named Aquila, born in Pontus, lately come from\nItaly, with his wife Priscilla; (because that Claudius had commanded\nall Jews to depart from Rome:) and came unto them. 3. And because he\nwas of the same craft, he abode with them, and wrought: for by their\noccupation they were tent-makers. 4. And he reasoned in the synagogue\nevery sabbath, and persuaded the Jews and the Greeks. 5. And when Silas\nand Timotheus were come from Macedonia, Paul was pressed in the spirit,\nand testified to the Jews that Jesus was Christ. 6. And when they\nopposed themselves, and blasphemed, he shook his raiment, and said unto\nthem, Your blood be upon your own heads; I am clean: from henceforth I\nwill go unto the Gentiles. 7. And he departed thence, and entered into\na certain man's house, named Justus, one that worshipped God, whose\nhouse joined hard to the synagogue. 8. And Crispus, the chief ruler of\nthe synagogue, believed on the Lord with all his house; and many of the\nCorinthians hearing believed, and were baptized. 9. Then spake the Lord\nto Paul in the night by a vision, Be not afraid, but speak, and hold\nnot thy peace: 10. For I am with thee, and no man shall set on thee to\nhurt thee: for I have much people in this city. 11. And he continued\nthere a year and six months, teaching the word of God among\nthem.'--ACTS xviii. 1-11.\n\nSolitude is a hard trial for sensitive natures, and tends to weaken\ntheir power of work. Paul was entirely alone in Athens, and appears to\nhave cut his stay there short, since his two companions, who were to\nhave joined him in that city, did not do so till after he had been some\ntime in Corinth. His long stay there has several well-marked stages,\nwhich yield valuable lessons.\n\nI. First, we note the solitary Apostle, seeking friends, toiling for\nbread, and withal preaching Christ. Corinth was a centre of commerce,\nof wealth, and of moral corruption. The celebrated local worship of\nAphrodite fed the corruption as well as the wealth. The Apostle met\nthere with a new phase of Greek life, no less formidable in antagonism\nto the Gospel than the culture of Athens. He tells us that he entered\non his work in Corinth 'in weakness, and in fear, and in much\ntrembling,' but also that he did not try to attract by adaptation of\nhis words to the prevailing tastes either of Greek or Jew, but preached\n'Jesus Christ, and Him crucified,' knowing that, while that appeared to\ngo right in the teeth of the demands of both, it really met their\nwants. This ministry was begun, in his usual fashion, very\nunobtrusively and quietly. His first care was to find a home; his\nsecond, to provide his daily bread; and then he was free to take the\nSabbath for Christian work in the synagogue.\n\nWe cannot tell whether he had had any previous acquaintance with Aquila\nand his wife, nor indeed is it certain that they had previously been\nChristians. Paul's reason for living with them was simply the\nconvenience of getting work at his trade, and it seems probable that,\nif they had been disciples, that fact would have been named as part of\nhis reason. Pontus lay to the north of Cilicia, and though widely\nseparated from it, was near enough to make a kind of bond as of\nfellow-countrymen, which would be the stronger because they had the\nsame craft at their finger-ends.\n\nIt was the wholesome practice for every Rabbi to learn some trade. If\nall graduates had to do the same now there would be fewer educated\nidlers, who are dangerous to society and burdens to themselves and\ntheir friends. What a curl of contempt would have lifted the lips of\nthe rich men of Corinth if they had been told that the greatest man in\ntheir city was that little Jew tent-maker, and that in this\nunostentatious fashion he had begun to preach truths which would be\nlike a charge of dynamite to all their social and religious order! True\nzeal can be patiently silent.\n\nSewing rough goat's-hair cloth into tents may be as truly serving\nChrist as preaching His name. All manner of work that contributes to\nthe same end is the same in worth and in recompense. Perhaps the\nwholesomest form of Christian ministry is that after the Apostolic\npattern, when the teacher can say, as Paul did to the people of\nCorinth, 'When I was present with you and was in want, I was not a\nburden on any man.' If not in letter, at any rate in spirit, his\nexample must be followed. If the preacher would win souls he must be\nfree from any taint of suspicion as to money.\n\nII. The second stage in Paul's Corinthian residence is the increased\nactivity when his friends, Silas and Timothy, came from Beroea. We\nlearn from Philippians iv. 15, and 2 Corinthians xi. 9, that they\nbrought gifts from the Church at Philippi; and from 1 Thessalonians\niii. 6, that they brought something still more gladdening namely, good\naccounts of the steadfastness of the Thessalonian converts. The money\nwould make it less necessary to spend most of the week in manual\nlabour; the glad tidings of the Thessalonians' 'faith and love' did\nbring fresh life, and the presence of his helpers would cheer him. So a\nperiod of enlarged activity followed their coming.\n\nThe reading of verse 5, 'Paul was constrained by the word,' brings out\nstrikingly the Christian impulse which makes speech of the Gospel a\nnecessity. The force of that impulse may vary, as it did with Paul; but\nif we have any deep possession of the grace of God for ourselves, we\nshall, like him, feel it pressing us for utterance, as soon as the need\nof providing daily bread becomes less stringent and our hearts are\ngladdened by Christian communion. It augurs ill for a man's hold of the\nword if the word does not hold him. He who never felt that he was weary\nof forbearing, and that the word was like a fire, if it was 'shut up in\nhis bones,' has need to ask himself if he has any belief in the Gospel.\nThe craving to impart ever accompanies real possession.\n\nThe Apostle's solemn symbolism, announcing his cessation of efforts\namong the Jews, has of course reference only to Corinth, for we find\nhim in his subsequent ministry adhering to his method, 'to the Jew\nfirst.' It is a great part of Christian wisdom in evangelical work to\nrecognise the right time to give up efforts which have been fruitless.\nMuch strength is wasted, and many hearts depressed, by obstinate\ncontinuance in such methods or on such fields as have cost much effort\nand yielded no fruit. We often call it faith, when it is only pride,\nwhich prevents the acknowledgment of failure. Better to learn the\nlessons taught by Providence, and to try a new 'claim,' than to keep on\ndigging and washing when we only find sand and mud. God teaches us by\nfailures as well as by successes. Let us not be too conceited to learn\nthe lesson or to confess defeat, and shift our ground accordingly.\n\nIt is a solemn thing to say 'I am clean.' We need to have been very\ndiligent, very loving, very prayerful to God, and very persuasive in\npleading with men, before we dare to roll all the blame of their\ncondemnation on themselves. But we have no right to say, 'Henceforth I\ngo to' others, until we can say that we have done all that man--or, at\nany rate, that we--can do to avert the doom.\n\nPaul did not go so far away but that any whose hearts God had touched\ncould easily find him. It was with a lingering eye to his countrymen\nthat he took up his abode in the house of 'one that feared God,' that\nis, a proselyte; and that he settled down next door to the synagogue.\nWhat a glimpse of yearning love which cannot bear to give Israel up as\nhopeless, that simple detail gives us! And may we not say that the\nyearning of the servant is caught from the example of the Master? 'How\nshall I give thee up, Ephraim?' Does not Christ, in His long-suffering\nlove, linger in like manner round each closed heart? and if He\nwithdraws a little way, does He not do so rather to stimulate search\nafter Him, and tarry near enough to be found by every seeking heart?\n\nPaul's purpose in his solemn warning to the Jews of Corinth was partly\naccomplished. The ruler of the synagogue 'believed in the Lord with all\nhis house.' Thus men are sometimes brought to decision for Christ by\nthe apparently impending possibility of His Gospel leaving them to\nthemselves. 'Blessings brighten as they take their flight.' Severity\nsometimes effects what forbearance fails to achieve. If the train is on\nthe point of starting, the hesitating passenger will swiftly make up\nhis mind and rush for a seat. It is permissible to press for immediate\ndecision on the ground that the time is short, and that soon these\nthings 'will be hid from the eyes.'\n\nWe learn from 1 Corinthians i. 14, that Paul deviated from his usual\npractice, and himself baptized Crispus. We may be very sure that his\ndoing so arose from no unworthy subserviency to an important convert,\nbut indicated how deeply grateful he was to the Lord for giving him, as\na seal to a ministry which had seemed barren, so encouraging a token.\nThe opposition and blasphemy of many are outweighed, to a true\nevangelist, by the conversion of one; and while all souls are in one\naspect equally valuable, they are unequal in the influence which they\nmay exert on others. So it was with Crispus, for 'many of the\nCorinthians hearing' of such a signal fact as the conversion of the\nchief of the synagogue, likewise 'believed.' We may distinguish in our\nestimate of the value of converts, without being untrue to the great\nprinciple that all men are equally precious in Christ's eyes.\n\nIII. The next stage is the vision to Paul and his consequent protracted\nresidence in Corinth. God does not waste visions, nor bid men put away\nfears which are not haunting them. This vision enables us to conceive\nPaul's state of mind when it came to him. He was for some reason cast\ndown. He had not been so when things looked much more hopeless. But\nthough now he had his friends and many converts, some mood of sadness\ncrept over him. Men like him are often swayed by impulses rising\nwithin, and quite apart from outward circumstances. Possibly he had\nreason to apprehend that his very success had sharpened hostility, and\nto anticipate danger to life. The contents of the vision make this not\nimprobable.\n\nBut the mere calming of fear, worthy object as it is, is by no means\nthe main part of the message of the vision. 'Speak, and hold not thy\npeace,' is its central word. Fear which makes a Christian dumb is\nalways cowardly, and always exaggerated. Speech which comes from\ntrembling lips may be very powerful, and there is no better remedy for\nterror than work for Christ. If we screw ourselves up to do what we\nfear to do, the dread vanishes, as a bather recovers himself as soon as\nhis head has once been under water.\n\nWhy was Paul not to be afraid? It is easy to say, 'Fear not,' but\nunless the exhortation is accompanied with some good reason shown, it\nis wasted breath. Paul got a truth put into his heart which ends all\nfear--'For I am with thee.' Surely that is enough to exorcise all\ndemons of cowardice or despondency, and it is the assurance that all\nChrist's servants may lay up in their hearts, for use at all moments\nand in all moods. His presence, in no metaphor, but in deepest inmost\nreality, is theirs, and whether their fears come from without or\nwithin, His presence is more than enough to make them brave and strong.\n\nPaul needed a vision, for Paul had never seen Christ 'after the flesh,'\nnor heard His parting promise. We do not need it, for we have the\nunalterable word, which He left with all His disciples when He\nascended, and which remains true to the ends of the world and till the\nworld ends.\n\nThe consequence of Christ's presence is not exemption from attacks, but\npreservation in them. Men may 'set on' Paul, but they cannot 'hurt'\nhim. The promise was literally fulfilled when the would-be accusers\nwere contemptuously sent away by Gallio, the embodiment of Roman\neven-handedness and despising of the deepest things. It is fulfilled no\nless truly to-day; for no hurt can come to us if Christ is with us, and\nwhatever does come is not hurt.\n\n'I have much people in this city.' Jesus saw what Paul did not, the\nsouls yet to be won for Him. That loving Eye gladly beholds His own\nsheep, though they may be yet in danger of the wolves, and far from the\nShepherd. 'Them also He must bring'; and His servants are wise if, in\nall their labours, they cherish the courage that comes from the\nconsciousness of His presence, and the unquenchable hope, which sees in\nthe most degraded and alienated those whom the Good Shepherd will yet\nfind in the wilderness and bear back to the fold. Such a hope will\nquicken them for all service, and such a vision will embolden them in\nall peril.\n\n\n\n'CONSTRAINED BY THE WORD'\n\n'And when Silas and Timotheus were come from Macedonia, Paul was\npressed in the spirit, and testified.'--ACTS xviii. 5.\n\nThe Revised Version, in concurrence with most recent authorities,\nreads, instead of 'pressed in the spirit,' 'constrained by the word.'\nOne of these alterations depends on a diversity of reading, the other\non a difference of translation. The one introduces a significant\ndifference of meaning; the other is rather a change of expression. The\nword rendered here 'pressed,' and by the Revised Version 'constrained,'\nis employed in its literal use in 'Master, the multitude throng Thee\nand _press_ Thee,' and in its metaphorical application in 'The love of\nChrist _constraineth us_.' There is not much difference between\n'constrained' and 'pressed,' but there is a large difference between\n'in the spirit' and 'by the word.' 'Pressed in the spirit' simply\ndescribes a state of feeling or mind; 'constrained by the word'\ndeclares the force which brought about that condition of pressure or\nconstraint. What then does 'constrained by the word' refer to? It\nindicates that Paul's message had a grip of him, and held him hard, and\nforced him to deliver it.\n\nOne more preliminary remark is that our text evidently brings this\nstate of mind of the Apostle, and the coming of his two friends Silas\nand Timothy, into relation as cause and effect. He had been alone in\nCorinth. His work of late had not been encouraging. He had been\ncomparatively silent there, and had spent most of his time in\ntent-making. But when his two friends came a cloud was lifted off his\nspirit, and he sprang back again, as it were, to his old form and to\nhis old work.\n\nNow if we take that point of view with regard to the passage before us,\nI think we shall find that it yields valuable lessons, some of which I\nwish to try to enforce now.\n\nI. Let me ask you to look with me at the downcast Apostle.\n\n'Downcast,' you say; 'is not that an unworthy word to use about a\nminister of Jesus Christ inspired as Paul was?' By no means. We shall\nvery much mistake both the nature of inspiration and the character of\nthis inspired Apostle, if we do not recognise that he was a man of many\nmoods and tremulously susceptible to external influences. Such music\nwould never have come from him if his soul had not been like an Aeolian\nharp, hung in a tree and vibrating in response to every breeze. And so\nwe need not hesitate to speak of the Apostle's mood, as revealed to us\nin the passage before us, as being downcast.\n\nNow notice that in the verses preceding my text his conduct is\nextremely abnormal and unlike his usual procedure. He goes into\nCorinth, and he does next to nothing in evangelistic work. He repairs\nto the synagogue once a week, and talks to the Jews there. But that is\nall. The notice of his reasoning in the synagogue is quite subordinate\nto the notice that he was occupied in finding a lodging with another\npauper Jew and stranger in the great city, and that these two poor men\nwent into a kind of partnership, and tried to earn a living by hard\nwork. Such procedure makes a singular contrast to Paul's usual methods\nin a strange city.\n\nNow the reason for that slackening of impulse and comparative cessation\nof activity is not far to seek. The first Epistle to Thessalonica was\nwritten immediately after these two brethren rejoined Paul. And how\ndoes the Apostle describe in that letter his feelings before they came?\nHe speaks of 'all our distress and affliction.' He tells that he was\ntortured by anxiety as to how the new converts in Thessalonica were\ngetting on, and could not forbear to try to find out whether they were\nstill standing steadfast. Again in the first Epistle to the\nCorinthians, you will find that there, looking back to this period, he\ndescribes his feelings in similar fashion and says: 'I was with you in\nweakness, and in fear, and in much trembling.' And if you look forward\na verse or two in our chapter you will see that a vision came to Paul,\nwhich presupposes that some touch of fear, and some temptation to\nsilence, were busy in his heart. For God shapes His communications\naccording to our need, and would not have said, 'Do not be afraid, and\nhold not thy peace, but speak,' unless there had been a danger both of\nPaul's being frightened and of his being dumb.\n\nAnd what thus brought a cloud over his sky? A little exercise of\nhistorical imagination will very sufficiently answer that. A few weeks\nbefore, in obedience, as he believed, to a direct divine command, Paul\nhad made a plunge, and ventured upon an altogether new phase of work.\nHe had crossed into Europe, and from the moment that he landed at the\nharbour of Philippi, up to the time when he took refuge in some quiet\nlittle room in Corinth, he had had nothing but trouble and danger and\ndisappointment. The prison at Philippi, the riots that hounded him out\nof Thessalonica, the stealthy, hurried escape from Beroea, the almost\nentire failure of his first attempt to preach the Gospel to Greeks in\nAthens, his loneliness, and the strangeness of his surroundings in the\nluxurious, wicked, wealthy Greek city of Corinth--all these things\nweighed on him, and there is no wonder that his spirits went down, and\nhe felt that now he must lie fallow for a time and rest, and pull\nhimself together again.\n\nSo here we have, in this great champion of the faith, in this strong\nrunner of the Christian race, in this chief of men, an example of the\nfluctuation of mood, the variation in the way in which we look at our\nduties and our obligations and our difficulties, the slackening of the\nimpulse which dominates our lives, that are too familiar to us all. It\nbrings Paul nearer us to feel that he, too, knew these ups and downs.\nThe force that drove this meteor through the darkness varied, as the\nforce that impels us varies to our consciousness. It is the prerogative\nof God to be immutable; men have their moods and their fluctuations.\nKindled lights flicker; the sun burns steadily. An Elijah to-day beards\nAhab and Jezebel and all their priests, and to-morrow hides his head in\nhis hands, and says, 'Take me away, I am not better than my fathers.'\nThere will be ups and down in the Christian vigour of our lives, as\nwell as in all other regions, so long as men dwell in this material\nbody and are surrounded by their present circumstances.\n\nBrethren, it is no small part of Christian wisdom and prudence to\nrecognise this fact, both in order that it may prevent us from becoming\nunduly doubtful of ourselves when the ebb tide sets in on our souls,\nand also in order that we may lay to heart this other truth, that\nbecause these moods and changes of aspect and of vigour _will_ come to\nus, therefore the law of life must be effort, and the duty of every\nChristian man be to minimise, in so far as possible, the fluctuations\nwhich, in some degree, are inevitable. No human hand has ever drawn an\nabsolutely straight line. That is the ideal of the mathematician, but\nall ours are crooked. But we may indefinitely diminish the magnitude of\nthe curves. No two atoms are so close together as that there is no film\nbetween them. No human life has ever been an absolutely continuous,\nunbroken series of equally holy and devoted thoughts and acts, but we\nmay diminish the intervals between kindred states, and may make our\nlives so far uniform as that to a bystander they shall look like the\nbright circle, which a brand whirled round in the air makes the\nimpression of, on the eye that beholds. We shall have times of\nbrightness and of less brilliancy, of vigour and of consequent reaction\nand exhaustion. But Christianity has, for one of its objects, to help\nus to master our moods, and to bring us nearer and nearer, by continual\ngrowth, to the steadfast, immovable attitude of those whose faith is\never the same.\n\nDo not forget the plain lesson which comes from the incident before\nus--viz., that the wisest thing that a man can do, when he feels that\nthe wheels of his religious being are driving heavily, is to set\nhimself doggedly to the plain, homely work of daily life. Paul did not\nsit and bemoan himself because he felt this slackening of impulse, but\nhe went away to Aquila, and said, 'Let us set to work and make\ncamel's-hair cloth and tents.' Be thankful for your homely, prosaic,\nsecular, daily task. You do not know from how many sickly fancies it\nsaves you, and how many breaches in the continuity of your Christian\nfeeling it may bridge over. It takes you away from thinking about\nyourselves, and sometimes you cannot think about anything less\nprofitably. So stick to your work; and if ever you feel, as Paul did,\n'cast down,' be sure that the workshop, the office, the desk, the\nkitchen will prevent you from being 'destroyed,' if you give yourselves\nto the plain duties which no moods alter, but which can alter a great\nmany moods.\n\nII. And now note the 'constraining word.'\n\nI have already said that the return of the two, who had been sent to\nsee how things were going with the recent converts in the infant\nChurches, brought the Apostle good tidings, and so lifted off a great\nload of anxiety from his heart. No wonder! He had left raw recruits\nunder fire, with no captain, and he might well doubt whether they would\nkeep their ranks. But they did. So the pressure was lifted off, and the\npressure being lifted off, spontaneously the old impulse gripped him\nonce more; like a spring which leaps back to its ancient curve when\nsome alien force is taken from it. It must have been a very deep and a\nvery habitual impulse, which thus instantly reasserted itself the\nmoment that the pressure of anxiety was taken out of the way.\n\nThe word constrained him. What to do? To declare it. Paul's example\nbrings up two thoughts--that that impulse may vary at times, according\nto the pressure of circumstances, and may even be held in abeyance for\na while; and that if a man is honestly and really a Christian, as soon\nas the incumbent pressure is taken away, he will feel, 'Necessity is\nlaid upon me; yea, woe is me if I preach not the Gospel.' For though\nPaul's sphere of work was different from ours, his obligation to work\nand his impulse to work were such as are, or should be, common to all\nChristians. The impulse to utter the word that we believe and live by\nseems to me to be, in its very nature, inseparable from earnest\nChristian faith. All emotion demands expression; and if a man has never\nfelt that he must let his Christian faith have vent, it is a very bad\nsign. As certainly as fermentation or effervescence demands outgush, so\ncertainly does emotion demand expression. We all know that. The same\nimpulse that makes a mother bend over her babe with unmeaning words and\ntokens that seem to unsympathetic onlookers foolish, ought to influence\nall Christians to speak the Name they love. All conviction demands\nexpression. There may be truths which have so little bearing upon human\nlife that he who perceives them feels little obligation to say anything\nabout them. But these are the exceptions; and the more weighty and the\nmore closely affecting human interests anything that we have learned to\nbelieve as truth is, the more do we feel in our hearts that, in making\nus its believers, it has made us its apostles. Christ's saying, 'What\nye hear in the ear, that preach ye on the housetops,' expresses a\nuniversal truth which is realised in many regions, and ought to be most\nemphatically realised in the Christian. For surely of all the truths\nthat men can catch a glimpse of, or grapple to their hearts, or store\nin their understandings, there are none which bring with them such\ntremendous consequences, and therefore are of so solemn import to\nproclaim to all the children of men, as the truth, which we profess we\nhave received, of personal salvation through Jesus Christ.\n\nIf there never had been a single commandment to that effect, I know not\nhow the Christian Church or the Christian individual could have\nabstained from declaring the great and sweet Name to which it and he\nowe so much. I do not care to present this matter as a commandment, nor\nto speak now of obligation or responsibility. The _impulse_ is what I\nwould fix your attention upon. It is inseparable from the Christian\nlife. It may vary in force, as we see in the incident before us. It\nwill vary in grip, according as other circumstances and duties insist\nupon being attended to. The form in which it is yielded to will vary\nindefinitely in individuals. But if they are Christian people it is\nalways there.\n\nWell then, what about the masses of so-called Christians who feel\nnothing of any such constraining force? And what about the many who\nfeel enough of it to make them also feel that they are wrong in not\nyielding to it, but not enough to make their conduct be influenced by\nit? Brethren, I venture to believe that the measure in which this\nimpulse to speak the word and use direct efforts for somebody's\nconversion is felt by Christians, is a very fair test of the depth of\ntheir own religion. If a vessel is half empty it will not run over. If\nit is full to the brim, the sparkling treasure will fall on all sides.\nA weak plant may never push its green leaves above the ground, but a\nstrong one will rise into the light. A spark may be smothered in a heap\nof brushwood, but a steady flame will burn its way out. If this word\nhas not a grip of you, impelling you to its utterance, I would have you\nnot to be too sure that you have a grip of it.\n\nIII. Lastly, we have here the witness to the word.\n\n'He was constrained by the word, _testifying_.' Now I do not know\nwhether it is imposing too much meaning upon a non-significant\ndifference of expression, if I ask you to note the difference between\nthat phrase and the one which describes his previous activity: 'He\n_reasoned_ in the synagogue every Sabbath, and tried to persuade' the\nJews and the Greeks, but when the old impulse came back in new force,\n_reasoning_ was far too cold a method, and Paul took to _testifying_.\nWhether that be so or no, mark that the witness of one's own personal\nconviction and experience is the strongest weapon that a Christian can\nuse. I do not despise the place of reasoning, but arguments do not\noften change opinions; they never change hearts. Logic and\ncontroversial discoursing may 'prepare the way of the Lord,' but it is\n'in the wilderness.' But when a man calls aloud, 'Come and hear all ye,\nand I will declare what God hath done for my soul'; or when he tells\nhis brother, 'We have found the Messias'; or when he sticks to 'One\nthing I know, that whereas I was blind, now I see,' it is difficult for\nany one to resist, and impossible for any one to answer, that way of\ntestifying,\n\nIt is a way that we can all adopt if we will. Christian men and women\ncan all say such things. I do not forget that there are indirect ways\nof spreading the Gospel. Some of you think that you do enough when you\ngive your money and your interest in order to diffuse it. You can buy a\nsubstitute in the militia, but you cannot buy a substitute in Christ's\nservice. You have each some congregation to which you can speak, if it\nis no larger than Paul's--namely, two people, Aquila and Priscilla.\nWhat talks they would have in their lodging, as they plaited the wisps\nof black hair into rough cloth, and stitched the strips into tents!\nAquila was not a Christian when Paul picked him up, but he became one\nvery soon; and it was the preaching in the workshop, amidst the dust,\nthat made him one. If we long to speak about Christ we shall find\nplenty of people to speak to. 'Ye are my witnesses, saith the Lord.'\n\nNow, dear friends, I have only one word more. I have no doubt there are\nsome among us who have been saying, 'This sermon does not apply to me\nat all.' Does it not? If it does not, what does that mean? It means\nthat you have not the first requisite for spreading the word--viz.\npersonal faith in the word. It means that you have put away, or at\nleast neglected to take in, the word and the Saviour of whom it speaks,\ninto your own lives. But it does _not_ mean that you have got rid of\nthe word thereby. It will not in that case lay the grip of which I have\nbeen speaking upon you, but it will not let you go. It will lay on you\na far more solemn and awful clutch, and like a jailer with his hand on\nthe culprit's shoulder, will 'constrain' you into the presence of the\nJudge. You can make it a savour of life unto life, or of death unto\ndeath. And though you do not grasp it, it grasps and holds you. 'The\nword that I speak unto him, the same shall judge him at the last day.'\n\n\n\nGALLIO\n\n'And when Paul was now about to open his mouth, Gallio said unto the\nJews, If it were a matter of wrong: or wicked lewdness, O ye Jews,\nreason would that I should bear with you: 15. But if it be a question\nof words and names, and of your law, look ye to it; for I will be no\njudge of such matters.'--ACTS xviii. 14, 15.\n\nThere is something very touching in the immortality of fame which comes\nto the men who for a moment pass across the Gospel story, like shooting\nstars kindled for an instant as they enter our atmosphere. How little\nGallio dreamed that he would live for ever in men's mouths by reason of\nthis one judicial dictum! He was Seneca's brother, and was possibly\nleavened by his philosophy and indisposed to severity. He has been\nunjustly condemned. There are some striking lessons from the story.\n\nI. The remarkable anticipation of the true doctrine as to the functions\nof civil magistrates.\n\nGallio draws a clear distinction between conduct and opinion, and\nexcepts the whole of the latter region from his sway. It is the first\ncase in which the civil authorities refused to take cognisance of a\ncharge against a man on account of his opinions. Nineteen hundred years\nhave not brought all tribunals up to that point yet. Gallio indeed was\ninfluenced mainly by philosophic contempt for the trivialities of what\nhe thought a superstition. We are influenced by our recognition of the\nsanctity of individual conviction, and still more by reverence for\ntruth and by the belief that it should depend only on its own power for\nprogress and on itself for the defeat of its enemies.\n\nII. The tragic mistake about the nature of the Gospel which men make.\n\nThere is something very pathetic in the erroneous estimates made by\nthose persons mentioned in Acts who some once or twice come in contact\nwith the preachers of Christ. How little they recognise what was before\nthem! Their responsibility is in better hands than ours. But in Gallio\nthere is a trace of tendencies always in operation.\n\nWe see in him the practical man's contempt for mere ideas. The man of\naffairs, be he statesman or worker, is always apt to think that things\nare more than thoughts. Gallio, proconsul in Corinth, and his brother\nofficial, Pilate, in Jerusalem, both believed in powers that they could\nsee. The question of the one, for an answer to which he did not wait,\nwas not the inquiry of a searcher after truth, but the exclamation of a\nsceptic who thought all the contradictory answers that rang through the\nworld to be demonstrations that the question had no answer. The\nimpatient refusal of the other to have any concern in settling 'such\nmatters' was steeped in the same characteristically Roman spirit of\nimpatient distrust and suspicion of mere ideas. He believed in Roman\nforce and authority, and thought that such harmless visionaries as Paul\nand his company might be allowed to go their own way, and he did not\nknow that they carried with them a solvent and constructive power\nbefore which the solid-seeming structure of the Empire was destined to\ncrumble, as surely as thick-ribbed ice before the sirocco.\n\nAnd how many of us believe in wealth and material progress, and regard\nthe region of truth as very shadowy and remote! This is a danger\nbesetting us all. The true forces that sway the world are ideas.\n\nWe see in Gallio supercilious indifference to mere 'theological\nsubtleties.' To him Paul's preaching and the Jews' passionate denials\nof it seemed only a squabble about 'words and names.' Probably he had\ngathered his impression from Paul's eager accusers, who would charge\nhim with giving the name of 'Christ' to Jesus.\n\nGallio's attitude was partly Stoical contempt for all superstitions,\npartly, perhaps, an eclectic belief that all these warring religions\nwere really saying the same thing and differed only in words and names;\nand partly sheer indifference to the whole subject. Thus Christianity\nappears to many in this day.\n\nWhat is it in reality? Not words but power: a Name, indeed, but a Name\nwhich is life. Alas for us, who by our jangling have given colour to\nthis misconception!\n\nWe see in Gallio the mistake that the Gospel has little relation to\nconduct. Gallio drew a broad distinction between conduct and opinion,\nand there he was right. But he imagined that this opinion had nothing\nto do with conduct, and how wrong he was there we need not elaborate.\n\nThe Gospel is the mightiest power for shaping conduct.\n\nIII. The ignorant levity with which men pass the crisis of their lives.\n\nHow little Gallio knew of what a possibility was opened out before him!\nAngels were hovering unseen. We seldom recognise the fateful moments of\nour lives till they are past.\n\nThe offer of salvation in Christ is ever a crisis. It may never be\nrepeated. Was Gallio ever again brought into contact with Paul or\nPaul's Lord? We know not. He passes out of sight, the search-light is\nturned in another direction, and we lose him in the darkness. The\nextent of his criminality is in better hands than ours, though we\ncannot but let our thoughts go forward to the time when he, like us\nall, will stand at the judgment bar of Jesus, no longer a judge but\njudged. Let us hope that before he passed hence, he learned how full of\nspirit and of life the message was, which he once took for a mere\nsquabble about 'words and names,' and thought too trivial to occupy his\ncourt. And let us remember that the Jesus, whom we are sometimes\ntempted to judge as of little importance to us, will one day judge us,\nand that His judgment will settle our fate for evermore.\n\n\n\nTWO FRUITFUL YEARS\n\n'And it came to pass, that, while Apollos was at Corinth, Paul having\npassed through the upper coasts came to Ephesus: and finding certain\ndisciples. 2. He said unto them, Have ye received the Holy Ghost since\nye believed? And they said unto him, We have not so much as heard\nwhether there be any Holy Ghost. 3. And he said unto them, Unto what\nthen were ye baptized? And they said, Unto John's baptism. 4. Then said\nPaul, John verily baptized with the baptism of repentance, saying unto\nthe people, that they should believe on Him which should come after\nhim, that is, on Christ Jesus. 5. When they heard this, they were\nbaptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. 6. And when Paul had laid his\nhands upon them, the Holy Ghost came on them; and they spake with\ntongues, and prophesied. 7. And all the men were about twelve. 8. And\nhe went into the synagogue, and spake boldly for the space of three\nmonths, disputing and persuading the things concerning the kingdom of\nGod. 9. But when divers were hardened, and believed not, but spake evil\nof that way before the multitude, he departed from them, and separated\nthe disciples, disputing daily in the school of one Tyrannus. 10. And\nthis continued by the space of two years; so that all they which dwelt\nin Asia heard the word of the Lord Jesus, both Jews and Greeks. 11. And\nGod wrought special miracles by the hands of Paul: 12. So that from his\nbody were brought unto the sick handkerchiefs or aprons, and the\ndiseases departed from them, and the evil spirits went out of\nthem.'--ACTS xix. 1-12.\n\nThis passage finds Paul in Ephesus. In the meantime he had paid that\ncity a hasty visit on his way back from Greece, had left his friends,\nAquila and Priscilla, in it, and had gone on to Jerusalem, thence\nreturning to Antioch, and visiting the churches in Asia Minor which he\nhad planted on his former journeys. From the inland and higher\ndistricts he has come down to the coast, and established himself in the\ngreat city of Ephesus, where the labours of Aquila, and perhaps others,\nhad gathered a small band of disciples. Two points are especially made\nprominent in this passage--the incorporation of John's disciples with\nthe Church, and the eminent success of Paul's preaching in Ephesus.\n\nThe first of these is a very remarkable and, in some respects, puzzling\nincident. It is tempting to bring it into connection with the\nimmediately preceding narrative as to Apollos. The same stage of\nspiritual development is presented in these twelve men and in that\neloquent Alexandrian. They and he were alike in knowing only of John's\nbaptism; but if they had been Apollos' pupils, they would most probably\nhave been led by him into the fuller light which he received through\nPriscilla and Aquila. More probably, therefore, they had been John's\ndisciples, independently of Apollos. Their being recognised as\n'disciples' is singular, when we consider their very small knowledge of\nChristian truth; and their not having been previously instructed in its\nrudiments, if they were associating with the Church, is not less so.\nBut improbable things do happen, and part of the reason for an event\nbeing recorded is often its improbability. Luke seems to have been\nstruck by the singular similarity between Apollos and these men, and to\nhave told the story, not only because of its importance but because of\nits peculiarity.\n\nThe first point to note is the fact that these men were disciples. Paul\nspeaks of their having 'believed,' and they were evidently associated\nwith the Church. But the connection must have been loose, for they had\nnot received baptism. Probably there was a fringe of partial converts\nhanging round each church, and Paul, knowing nothing of the men beyond\nthe fact that he found them along with the others, accepted them as\n'disciples.' But there must have been some reason for doubt, or his\nquestion would not have been asked. They 'believed' in so far as John\nhad taught the coming of Messiah. But they did not know that Jesus was\nthe Messiah whose coming John had taught.\n\nPaul's question is, 'Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you\nbelieved?' Obviously he missed the marks of the Spirit in them, whether\nwe are to suppose that these were miraculous powers or moral and\nreligious elevation. Now this question suggests that the possession of\nthe Holy Spirit is the normal condition of all believers; and that\ntruth cannot be too plainly stated or urgently pressed to-day. He is\n'the Spirit, which they that believe on Him' shall 'receive.' The outer\nmethods of His bestowment vary: sometimes He is given after baptism,\nand sometimes, as to Cornelius, before it; sometimes by laying on of\nApostolic hands, sometimes without it. But one thing constantly\nprecedes, namely, faith; and one thing constantly follows faith,\nnamely, the gift of the Holy Spirit. Modern Christianity does not grasp\nthat truth as firmly or make it as prominent as it ought.\n\nThe question suggests, though indirectly, that the signs of the\nSpirit's presence are sadly absent in many professing Christians. Paul\nasked it in wonder. If he came into modern churches, he would have to\nask it once more. Possibly he looked for the visible tokens in powers\nof miracle-working and the like. But these were temporary accidents,\nand the permanent manifestations are holiness, consciousness of\nsonship, God-directed longings, religious illumination, victory over\nthe flesh. These things should be obvious in disciples. They will be,\nif the Spirit is not quenched. Unless they are, what sign of being\nChristians do we present?\n\nThe answer startles. They had not heard whether the Holy Ghost had been\n_given_; for that is the true meaning of their reply. John had foretold\nthe coming of One who should baptize with the fire of that divine\nSpirit. His disciples, therefore, could not be ignorant of the\nexistence thereof; but they had never heard whether their Master's\nprophecy had been fulfilled. What a glimpse that gives us of the small\npublicity attained by the story of Jesus!\n\nPaul's second question betrays even more astonishment than did his\nfirst. He had taken for granted that, as disciples, the men had been\nbaptized; and his question implies that a pre-requisite of Christian\nbaptism was the teaching which they said that they had not had, and\nthat a consequence of it was the gift of the Spirit, which he saw that\nthey did not possess. Of course Paul's teaching is but summarised here.\nIts gist was that Jesus was the Messiah whom John had heralded, that\nJohn had himself taught that his mission was preliminary, and that\ntherefore his true disciples must advance to faith in Christ.\n\nThe teaching was welcomed, for these men were not of the sort who saw\nin Jesus a rival to John, as others of his disciples did. They became\n'disciples indeed,' and then followed baptism, apparently not\nadministered by Paul, and imposition of Paul's hands. The Holy Spirit\nthen came on them, as on the disciples on Pentecost, and 'they spoke\nwith tongues and prophesied.' It was a repetition of that day, as a\ntestimony that the gifts were not limited by time or place, but were\nthe permanent possession of believers, as truly in heathen Ephesus as\nin Jerusalem; and we miss the meaning of the event unless we add, as\ntruly in Britain to-day as in any past. The fire lit on Pentecost has\nnot died down into grey ashes. If we 'believe,' it will burn on our\nheads and, better, in our spirits.\n\nMuch ingenuity has been expended in finding profound meanings in the\nnumber of 'twelve' here. The Apostles and their supernatural gifts, the\npatriarchs as founders of Israel, have been thought of as explaining\nthe number, as if these men were founders of a new Israel, or\nApostolate. But all that is trifling with the story, which gives no\nhint that the men were of any special importance, and it omits the fact\nthat they were '_about_ twelve,' not precisely that number. Luke simply\nwishes us to learn that there was a group of them, but how many he does\nnot exactly know. More important is it to notice that this is the last\nreference to John or his disciples in the New Testament. The narrator\nrejoices to point out that some at least of these were led onwards into\nfull faith.\n\nThe other part of the section presents mainly the familiar features of\nApostolic ministration, the first appeal to the synagogue, the\nrejection of the message by it, and then the withdrawal of Paul and the\nJewish disciples. The chief characteristics of the narrative are Paul's\nprotracted stay in Ephesus, the establishment of a centre of public\nevangelising in the lecture hall of a Gentile teacher, the unhindered\npreaching of the Gospel, and the special miracles accompanying it. The\nimportance of Ephesus as the eye and heart of proconsular Asia explains\nthe lengthened stay. 'A great door and effectual,' said Paul, 'is\nopened unto me'; and he was not the man to refrain from pushing in at\nit because 'there are many adversaries.' Rather opposition was part of\nhis reason for persistence, as it should always he.\n\nThere comes a point in the most patient labour, however, when it is\nbest no longer to 'cast pearls' before those who 'trample them under\nfoot,' and Paul set an example of wise withdrawal as well as of brave\npertinacity, in leaving the synagogue when his remaining there only\nhardened disobedient hearts. Note that word _disobedient_. It teaches\nthat the moral element in unbelief is resistance of the will. The two\nwords are not synonyms, though they apply to the same state of mind.\nRather the one lays bare the root of the other and declares its guilt.\nUnbelief comes from disobedience, and therefore is fit subject for\npunishment. Again observe that expression for Christianity, 'the Way,'\nwhich occurs several times in the Acts. The Gospel points the path for\nus to tread. It is not a body of truth merely, but it is a guide for\npractice. Discipleship is manifested in conduct. This Gospel points the\nway through the wilderness to Zion and to rest. It is '_the_ Way,' the\nonly path, 'the Way everlasting.'\n\nIt was a bold step to gather the disciples in 'the school of Tyrannus.'\nHe was probably a Greek professor of rhetoric or lecturer on\nphilosophy, and Paul may have hired his hall, to the horror, no doubt,\nof the Rabbis. It was a complete breaking with the synagogue and a bold\nappeal to the heathen public. Ephesus must have been better governed\nthan Philippi and Lystra, and the Jewish element must have been\nrelatively weaker, to allow of Paul's going on preaching with so much\npublicity for two years.\n\nNote the flexibility of his methods, his willingness to use even a\nheathen teacher's school for his work, and the continuous energy of the\nman. Not on Sabbath days only, but daily, he was at his post. The\nmultitudes of visitors from all parts to the great city supplied a\nconstant stream of listeners, for Ephesus was a centre for the whole\ncountry. We may learn from Paul to concentrate work in important\ncentres, not to be squeamish about where we stand to preach the Gospel,\nand not to be afraid of making ourselves conspicuous. Paul's message\nhallows the school of Tyrannus; and the school of Tyrannus, where men\nhave been accustomed to go for widely different teaching, is a good\nplace for Paul to give forth his message in.\n\nThe 'special miracles' which were wrought are very remarkable, and\nunlike the usual type of miracles. It does not appear that Paul himself\nsent the 'handkerchiefs and aprons,' which conveyed healing virtue, but\nthat he simply permitted their use. The converts had faith to believe\nthat such miracles would be wrought, and God honoured the faith. But\nnote how carefully the narrative puts Paul's part in its right place.\nGod 'wrought'; Paul was only the channel. If the eager people, who\ncarried away the garments, had superstitiously fancied that there was\nvirtue in Paul, and had not looked beyond him to God, it is implied\nthat no miracles would have been wrought. But still the cast of these\nhealings is anomalous, and only paralleled by the similar instances in\nPeter's case.\n\nThe principle laid down by Peter (ch. iii. 12) is to be kept in view in\nthe study of all the miracles in the Acts. It is Jesus Christ who\nworks, and not His servants who heal by their 'own power or holiness.'\nJesus can heal with or without material channels, but sometimes chooses\nto employ such vehicles as these, just as on earth He chose to anoint\nblind eyes with clay, and to send the man to wash it off at the pool.\nSense-bound faith is not rejected, but is helped according to its need,\nthat it may be strengthened and elevated.\n\n\n\nWOULD-BE EXORCISTS\n\n'...Jesus I know, and Paul I know; but who are ye?'--ACTS xix. 15.\n\nThese exorcists had no personal union with Jesus. To them He was only\n'Jesus whom Paul preached.' They spoke His name tentatively, as an\nexperiment, and imitatively. To command 'in the name of Jesus' was an\nappeal to Jesus to glorify His name and exert His power, and so when\nthe speaker had no real faith in the name or the power, there was no\nanswer, because there was really no appeal.\n\nI. The only power which can cast out the evil spirits is the name of\nJesus.\n\nThat is a commonplace of Christian belief. But it is often held in a\ndangerously narrow way and leads to most unwise pitting of the Gospel\nagainst other modes of bettering and elevating men, instead of\nrecognising them as allies. Earnest Christian workers are tempted to\nforget Jesus' own word: 'He that is not against us is for us.' There is\nno need to disparage other agencies because we believe that it is the\nGospel which is 'the power of God unto salvation.' Many of the popular\nphilanthropic movements of the day, many of its curbing and\nenlightening forces, many of its revolutionary social ideas, are really\nin their essence and historically in their origin, profoundly\nChristian, and are the application of the principles inherent in 'the\nName' to the evils of society. No doubt many of their eager apostles\nare non-Christian or even anti-Christian, but though some of them have\ntried violently to pluck up the plant by the root from the soil in\nwhich it first flowered, much of that soil still adheres to it, and it\nwill not live long if torn from its native 'habitat.'\n\nIt is not narrowness or hostility to non-Christian efforts to cast out\nthe demons from humanity, but only the declaration of a truth which is\ntaught by the consideration of what is the difference between all other\nsuch efforts and Christianity, and is confirmed by experience, if we\nmaintain that, whatever good results may follow from these other\ninfluences, it is the powers lodged in the Name of Jesus, and these\nalone which can, radically and completely, conquer and eject the demons\nfrom a single soul, and emancipate society from their tyranny.\n\nFor consider that the Gospel which proclaims Jesus as the Saviour is\nthe only thing which deals with the deepest fact in our natures, the\nfact of sin; gives a personal Deliverer from its power; communicates a\nnew life of which the very essence is righteousness, and which brings\nwith it new motives, new impulses, and new powers.\n\nContrast with this the inadequate diagnosis of the disease and the\nconsequent imperfection of the remedy which other physicians of the\nworld's sickness present. Most of them only aim at repressing outward\nacts. None of them touch more than a part of the whole dreadful\ncircumference of the dark orb of evil. Law restrains actions. Ethics\nproclaims principles which it has no power to realise. It shows men a\nshining height, but leaves them lame and grovelling in the mire.\nEducation casts out the demon of ignorance, and makes the demons whom\nit does not cast out more polite and perilous. It brings its own evils\nin its train. Every kind of crop has weeds which spring with it. The\nsocial and political changes, which are eagerly preached now, will do\nmuch; but one thing, which is the all-important thing, they will not\ndo, they will not change the nature of the individuals who make up the\ncommunity. And till that nature is changed any form of society will\nproduce its own growth of evils. A Christless democracy will be as bad\nas, if not worse than, a Christless monarchy or aristocracy. If the\nbricks remain the same, it does not much matter into what shape you\nbuild them.\n\nThese would-be exorcists but irritated the demons by their vain\nattempts at ejecting them, and it is sometimes the case that efforts to\ncure social diseases only result in exacerbating them. If one hole in a\nDutch dyke is stopped up, more pressure is thrown on another weak point\nand a leak will soon appear there. There is but one Name that casts a\nspell over all the ills that flesh is heir to. There is but one Saviour\nof society--Jesus who saves from sin through His death, and by\nparticipation in His life delivers men from that life of self which is\nthe parent of all the evils from which society vainly strives to be\ndelivered by any power but His.\n\nII. That Name must be spoken by believing men if it is to put forth its\nfull power.\n\nThese exorcists had no faith. All that they knew of Jesus was that He\nwas the one 'whom Paul preached.' Even the name of Jesus is spoiled and\nis powerless on the lips of one who repeats it, parrot-like, because he\nhas seen its power when it came flame-like from the fiery lips of some\nman of earnest convictions.\n\nIn all regions, and especially in the matter of art or literature,\nimitators are poor creatures, and men are quick to detect the\ndifference between the original and the copy. The copyists generally\nimitate the weak points, and seldom get nearer than the imitation of\nexternal and trivial peculiarities. It is more feasible to reproduce\nthe 'contortions of the Sibyl' than to catch her 'inspiration.'\n\nThis absence or feebleness of personal faith is the explanation of much\nfailure in so-called Christian work. No doubt there may be other causes\nfor the want of success, but after all allowance is made for these, it\nstill remains true that the chief reason why the Gospel message is\noften proclaimed without casting out demons is that it is proclaimed\nwith faltering faith, tentatively and without assured confidence in its\npower, or imitatively, with but little, if any, inward experience of\nthe magic of its spell. The demons have ears quick to discriminate\nbetween Paul's fiery accents and the cold repetition of them.\nIncomparably the most powerful agency which any man can employ in\nproducing conviction in others is the utterance of his own intense\nconviction. 'If you wish me to weep, your own tears must flow,' said\nthe Roman poet. Other factors may powerfully aid the exorcising power\nof the word spoken by faith, and no wise man will disparage these, but\nthey are powerless without faith and it is powerful without them.\n\nConsider the effect of that personal faith on the speaker--in bringing\nall his force to bear on his words; in endowing him for a time with\nmany of the subsidiary qualities which make our words winged and\nweighty; in lifting to a height of self-oblivion, which itself is\nmagnetic.\n\nConsider its effect on the hearers--how it bows hearts as trees are\nbent before a rushing wind.\n\nConsider its effect in bringing into action God's own power. Of the\nman, all aflame with Christian convictions and speaking them with the\nconfidence and urgency which become them and him, it may truly be said,\n'It is not ye that speak, but the Spirit of your Father that speaketh\nin you.'\n\nHere then we have laid bare the secret of success and a cause of\nfailure, in Christian enterprise. Here we see, as in a concrete\nexample, the truth exemplified, which all who long for the emancipation\nof demon-ridden humanity would be wise to lay to heart, and thereby to\nbe saved from much eager travelling on a road that leads nowhither, and\nmuch futile expenditure of effort and sympathy, and many\ndisappointments. It is as true to-day as it was long ago in Ephesus,\nthat the evil spirits 'feel the Infant's hand from far Judea's land,'\nand are forced to confess, 'Jesus we know and Paul we know'; but to\nother would-be exorcists their answer is, 'Who are ye?' 'When a strong\nman armed keepeth his house, his goods are in peace.' There is but 'One\nstronger than he who can come upon him, and having overcome him, can\ntake from him all his armour wherein he trusted and divide the spoils,'\nand that is the Christ, at whose name, faithfully spoken, 'the devils\nfear and fly.'\n\n\n\nTHE FIGHT WITH WILD BEASTS AT EPHESUS\n\n'After these things were ended, Paul purposed in the spirit, when he\nhad passed through Macedonia and Achaia, to go to Jerusalem, saying,\nAfter I have been there, I must also see Rome. 22. So he sent into\nMacedonia two of them that ministered unto him, Timotheus and Erastus;\nbut he himself stayed in Asia for a season. 23. And the same time there\narose no small stir about that way. 24. For a certain man named\nDemetrius, a silversmith, which made silver shrines for Diana, brought\nno small gain unto the craftsmen; 25. Whom he called together with the\nworkmen of like occupation, and said, Sirs, ye know that by this craft\nwe have our wealth. 26. Moreover ye see and hear, that not alone at\nEphesus, but almost throughout all Asia, this Paul hath persuaded and\nturned away much people, saying that they be no gods, which are made\nwith hands: 27. So that not only this our craft is in danger to be set\nat nought; but also that the temple of the great goddess Diana should\nbe despised, and her magnificence should be destroyed, whom all Asia\nand the world worshippeth. 28. And when they heard these sayings, they\nwere full of wrath, and cried out, saying, Great is Diana of the\nEphesians. 29. And the whole city was filled with confusion: and having\ncaught Gaius and Aristarchus, men of Macedonia, Paul's companions in\ntravel, they rushed with one accord into the theatre. 30. And when Paul\nwould have entered in unto the people, the disciples suffered him not.\n31. And certain of the chief of Asia, which were his friends, sent unto\nhim, desiring him that he would not adventure himself into the theatre.\n32. Some therefore cried one thing, and some another: for the assembly\nwas confused; and the more part knew not wherefore they were come\ntogether. 33. And they drew Alexander out of the multitude, the Jews\nputting him forward. And Alexander beckoned with the hand, and would\nhave made his defence unto the people. 34. But when they knew that he\nwas a Jew, all with one voice about the space of two hours cried out,\nGreat is Diana of the Ephesians.'--ACTS xix. 21-34.\n\nPaul's long residence in Ephesus indicates the importance of the\nposition. The great wealthy city was the best possible centre for\nevangelising all the province of Asia, and that was to a large extent\neffected during the Apostle's stay there. But he had a wider scheme in\nhis mind. His settled policy was always to fly at the head, as it were.\nThe most populous cities were his favourite fields, and already his\nthoughts were travelling towards the civilised world's capital, the\ncentre of empire--Rome. A blow struck there would echo through the\nworld. Paul had his plan, and God had His, and Paul's was not realised\nin the fashion he had meant, but it was realised in substance. He did\nnot expect to enter Rome as a prisoner. God shaped the ends which Paul\nhad only rough-hewn.\n\nThe programme in verses 21 and 22 was modified by circumstances, as\nsome people would say; Paul would have said, by God. The riot hastened\nhis departure from Ephesus. He did go to Jerusalem, and he did see\nRome, but the chain of events that drew him there seemed to him, at\nfirst sight, the thwarting, rather than the fulfilment, of his\nlong-cherished hope. Well it is for us to carry all our schemes to God,\nand to leave them in His hands.\n\nThe account of the riot is singularly vivid and lifelike. It reveals a\nnew phase of antagonism to the Gospel, a kind of trades-union\ndemonstration, quite unlike anything that has met us in the Acts. It\ngives a glimpse into the civic life of a great city, and shows\ndemagogues and mob to be the same in Ephesus as in England. It has many\npoints of interest for the commentator or scholar, and lessons for all.\nLuke tells the story with a certain dash of covert irony.\n\nWe have, first, the protest of the shrine-makers' guild or\ntrades-union, got up by the skilful manipulation of Demetrius. He was\nevidently an important man in the trade, probably well-to-do. As his\nspeech shows, he knew exactly how to hit the average mind. The small\nshrines which he and his fellow-craftsmen made were of various\nmaterials, from humble pottery to silver, and were intended for\n'votaries to dedicate in the temple,' and represented the goddess\nArtemis sitting in a niche with her lions beside her. Making these was\na flourishing industry, and must have employed a large number of men\nand much capital. Trade was beginning to be slack, and sales were\nfalling off. No doubt there is exaggeration in Demetrius's rhetoric,\nbut the meeting of the craft would not have been held unless a\nperceptible effect had been produced by Paul's preaching. Probably\nDemetrius and the rest were more frightened than hurt; but men are very\nquick to take alarm when their pockets are threatened.\n\nThe speech is a perfect example of how self-interest masquerades in the\ngarb of pure concern for lofty objects, and yet betrays itself. The\ndanger to 'our craft' comes first, and the danger to the 'magnificence'\nof the goddess second; but the precedence given to the trade is salved\nover by a 'not only,' which tries to make the religious motive the\nchief. No doubt Demetrius was a devout worshipper of Artemis, and\nthought himself influenced by high motives in stirring up the craft. It\nis natural to be devout or moral or patriotic when it pays to be so.\nOne would not expect a shrine-maker to be easily accessible to the\nconviction that 'they be no gods which are made with hands.'\n\nSuch admixture of zeal for some great cause, with a shrewd eye to\nprofit, is very common, and may deceive us if we are not always\nwatchful. Jehu bragged about his 'zeal for the Lord' when it urged him\nto secure himself on the throne by murder; and he may have been quite\nhonest in thinking that the impulse was pure, when it was really\nmingled. How many foremost men in public life everywhere pose as pure\npatriots, consumed with zeal for national progress, righteousness,\netc., when all the while they are chiefly concerned about some private\nbit of log-rolling of their own! How often in churches there are men\nprofessing to be eager for the glory of God, who are, perhaps\nhalf-unconsciously, using it as a stalking-horse, behind which they may\nshoot game for their own larder! A drop of quicksilver oxidises and\ndims as soon as exposed to the air. The purest motives get a scum on\nthem quickly unless we constantly keep them clear by communion with God.\n\nDemetrius may teach us another lesson. His opposition to Paul was based\non the plain fact that, if Paul's teaching prevailed, no more shrines\nwould be wanted. That was a new ground of opposition to the Gospel,\nresembled only by the motive for the action of the owners of the slave\ngirl at Philippi; but it is a perennial source of antagonism to it. In\nour cities especially there are many trades which would be wiped out if\nChrist's laws of life were universally adopted. So all the purveyors of\ncommodities and pleasures which the Gospel forbids a Christian man to\nuse are arrayed against it. We have to make up our minds to face and\nfight them. A liquor-seller, for instance, is not likely to look\ncomplacently on a religion which would bring his 'trade into\ndisrepute'; and there are other occupations which would be gone if\nChrist were King, and which therefore, by the instinct of\nself-preservation, are set against the Gospel, unless, so to speak, its\nteeth are drawn.\n\nAccording to one reading, the shouts of the craftsmen which told that\nDemetrius had touched them in the tenderest part, their pockets, was an\ninvocation, 'Great Diana!' not a profession of faith; and we have a\nmore lively picture of an excited crowd if we adopt the alteration. It\nis easy to get a mob to yell out a watchword, whether religious or\npolitical; and the less they understand it, the louder are they likely\nto roar. In Athanasius' days the rabble of Constantinople made the city\nring with cries, degrading the subtlest questions as to the Trinity,\nand examples of the same sort have not been wanting nearer home. It is\ncriminal to bring such incompetent judges into religious or political\nor social questions, it is cowardly to be influenced by them. 'The\nvoice of the people' is not always 'the voice of God.' It is better to\n'be in the right with two or three' than to swell the howl of Diana's\nworshippers,\n\nII. A various reading of verse 28 gives an additional particular, which\nis of course implied in the received text, but makes the narrative more\ncomplete and vivid if inserted. It adds that the craftsmen rushed 'into\nthe street,' and there raised their wild cry, which naturally 'filled'\nthe city with confusion. So the howling mob, growing larger and more\nexcited every minute, swept through Ephesus, and made for the theatre,\nthe common place of assembly.\n\nOn their road they seem to have come across two of Paul's companions,\nwhom they dragged with them. What they meant to do with the two they\nhad probably not asked themselves. A mob has no plans, and its most\nsavage acts are unpremeditated. Passion let loose is almost sure to end\nin bloodshed, and the lives of Gaius and Aristarchus hung by a thread.\nA gust of fury storming over the mob, and a hundred hands might have\ntorn them to atoms, and no man have thought himself their murderer.\n\nWhat a noble contrast to the raging crowd the silent submission, no\ndoubt accompanied by trustful looks to Heaven and unspoken prayers,\npresents! And how grandly Paul comes out! He had not been found,\nprobably had not been sought for, by the rioters, whose rage was too\nblind to search for him, but his brave soul could not bear to leave his\nfriends in peril and not plant himself by their sides. So he 'was\nminded to enter in unto the people,' well knowing that there he had to\nface more ferocious 'wild beasts' than if a cageful of lions had been\nloosed on him. Faith in God and fellowship with Christ lift a soul\nabove fear of death. The noblest kind of courage is not that born of\nflesh or temperament, or of the madness of battle, but that which\nsprings from calm trust in and absolute surrender to Christ.\n\nNot only did the disciples restrain Paul as feeling that if the\nshepherd were smitten the sheep would be scattered, but interested\nfriends started up in an unlikely quarter. The 'chief of Asia' or\nAsiarchs, who sent to dissuade him, 'were the heads of the imperial\npolitical-religious organisation of the province, in the worship of\n\"Rome and the emperors\"; and their friendly attitude is a proof both\nthat the spirit of the imperial policy was not as yet hostile to the\nnew teaching, and that the educated classes did not share the hostility\nof the superstitious vulgar' (Ramsay, _St. Paul the Traveller_, p.\n281). It is probable that, in that time of crumbling faith and\nreligious unrest, the people who knew most about the inside of the\nestablished worship believed in it least, and in their hearts agreed\nwith Paul that 'they be no gods which are made with hands.'\n\nSo we have in these verses the central picture of calm Christian faith\nand patient courage, contrasted on the one hand with the ferocity and\nexcitement of heathen fanatical devotees, and on the other with the\nprudent regard to their own safety of the Asiarchs, who had no such\nfaith in Diana as to lead them to joining the rioters, nor such faith\nin Paul's message as to lead them to oppose the tumult, or to stand by\nhis side, but contented themselves with _sending_ to warn him. Who can\ndoubt that the courage of the Christians is infinitely nobler than the\nfury of the mob or the cowardice of the Asiarchs, kindly as they were?\nIf they were his friends, why did they not do something to shield him?\n'A plague on such backing!'\n\nIII. The scene in the theatre, to which Luke returns in verse 32, is\ndescribed with a touch of scorn for the crowd, who mostly knew not what\nhad brought them together. One section of it kept characteristically\ncool and sharp-eyed for their own advantage. A number of Jews had\nmingled in it, probably intending to fan the flame against the\nChristians, if they could do it safely. As in so many other cases in\nActs, common hatred brought Jew and Gentile together, each pocketing\nfor the time his disgust with the other. The Jews saw their\nopportunity. Half a dozen cool heads, who know what they want, can\noften sway a mob as they will. Alexander, whom they 'put forward,' was\nno doubt going to make a speech disclaiming for the Jews settled in\nEphesus any connection with the obnoxious Paul. We may be very sure\nthat his 'defence' was of the former, not of the latter.\n\nBut the rioters were in no mood to listen to fine distinctions among\nthe members of a race which they hated so heartily. Paul was a Jew, and\nthis man was a Jew; that was enough. So the roar went up again to Great\nDiana, and for two long hours the crowd surged and shouted themselves\nhoarse, Gaius and Aristarchus standing silent all the while and\nexpecting every moment to be their last. The scene reminds one of\nBaal's priests shrieking to him on Carmel. It is but too true a\nrepresentation of the wild orgies which stand for worship in all\nheathen religions. It is but too lively an example of what must always\nhappen when excited crowds are ignorantly stirred by appeals to\nprejudice or self-interest.\n\nThe more democratic the form of government under which we live, the\nmore needful is it to distinguish the voice of the people from the\nvoice of the mob, and to beware of exciting, or being governed by,\nclamour however loud and long.\n\n\n\nPARTING COUNSELS\n\n'And now, behold, I go bound in the spirit unto Jerusalem, not knowing\nthe things that shall befall me there: 23. Save that the Holy Ghost\nwitnesseth in every city, saying that bonds and afflictions abide me.\n24. But none of these things move me, neither count I my life dear unto\nmyself, so that I might finish my course with joy, and the ministry,\nwhich I have received of the Lord Jesus, to testify the gospel of the\ngrace of God. 25. And now, behold, I know that ye all, among whom I\nhave gone preaching the kingdom of God, shall see my face no more. 26.\nWherefore I take you to record this day, that I am pure from the blood\nof all men. 27. For I have not shunned to declare unto you all the\ncounsel of God. 28. Take heed therefore unto yourselves, and to all the\nflock, over the which the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers, to feed\nthe church of God, which He hath purchased with His own blood. 29. For\nI know this, that after my departing shall grievous wolves enter in\namong you, not sparing the flock. 30. Also of your own selves shall men\narise, speaking perverse things, to draw away disciples after them. 31.\nTherefore watch, and remember, that by the space of three years I\nceased not to warn every one night and day with tears. 32. And now,\nbrethren, I commend you to God, and to the word of His grace, which is\nable to build you up, and to give you an inheritance among all them\nwhich are sanctified. 33. I have coveted no man's silver, or gold, or\napparel. 34. Yea, ye yourselves know, that these hands have ministered\nunto my necessities, and to them that were with me. 35. I have shewed\nyou all things, how that so labouring ye ought to support the weak, and\nto remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how He said, It is more\nblessed to give than to receive.'--ACTS xx. 22-35.\n\nThis parting address to the Ephesian elders is perfect in simplicity,\npathos, and dignity. Love without weakness and fervent yet restrained\nself-devotion throb in every line. It is personal without egotism, and\nsoars without effort. It is 'Pauline' through and through, and if Luke\nor some unknown second-century Christian made it, the world has lost\nthe name of a great genius. In reading it, we have to remember the\nApostle's long stay in Ephesus, and his firm conviction that he was\nparting for ever from those over whom he had so long watched, and so\nlong loved, as well as guided. Parting words should be tender and\nsolemn, and these are both in the highest degree.\n\nThe prominence given to personal references is very marked and equally\nnatural. The whole address down to verse 27 inclusive is of that\nnature, and the same theme recurs in verse 31, is caught up again in\nverse 33, and continues thence to the end. That abundance of allusions\nto himself is characteristic of the Apostle, even in his letters; much\nmore is it to be looked for in such an outpouring of his heart to\ntrusted friends, seen for the last time. Few religious teachers have\never talked so much of themselves as Paul did, and yet been as free as\nhe is from taint of display or self-absorption.\n\nThe personal references in verses 22 to 27 turn on two points--his\nheroic attitude in prospect of trials and possible martyrdom, and his\nsolemn washing his hands of all responsibility for 'the blood' of those\nto whom he had declared all the counsel of God. He looks back, and his\nconscience witnesses that he has discharged his ministry; he looks\nforward, and is ready for all that may confront him in still\ndischarging it, even to the bloody end.\n\nNothing tries a man's mettle more than impending evil which is equally\ncertain and undefined. Add that the moment of the sword's falling is\nunknown, and you have a combination which might shake the firmest\nnerves. Such a combination fronted Paul now. He told the elders, what\nwe do not otherwise know, that at every halting-place since setting his\nface towards Jerusalem he had been met by the same prophetic warnings\nof 'bonds and afflictions' waiting for him. The warnings were vague,\nand so the more impressive. Fear has a vivid imagination, and\nanticipates the worst.\n\nPaul was not afraid, but he would not have been human if he had not\nrecognised the short distance for him between a prison and a scaffold.\nBut the prospect did not turn him a hairsbreadth from his course. True,\nhe was 'bound in the spirit,' which may suggest that he was not so much\ngoing joyfully as impelled by a constraint felt to be irresistible. But\nwhatever his feelings, his will was iron, and he went calmly forward on\nthe road, though he knew that behind some turn of it lay in wait, like\nbeasts of prey, dangers of unknown kinds.\n\nAnd what nerved him thus to front death itself without a quiver? The\nsupreme determination to do what Jesus had given him to do. He knew\nthat his Lord had set him a task, and the one thing needful was to\naccomplish that. We have no such obstacles in our course as Paul had in\nhis, but the same spirit must mark us if we are to do our work.\nConsciousness of a mission, fixed determination to carry it out, and\nconsequent contempt of hindrances, belong to all noble lives, and\nespecially to true Christian ones. Perils and hardships and possible\nevils should have no more power to divert us from the path which Christ\nmarks for us than storms or tossing of the ship have to deflect the\nneedle from pointing north.\n\nIt is easy to talk heroically when no foes are in sight; but Paul was\nlooking dangers in the eyes, and felt their breath on his cheeks when\nhe spoke. His longing was to 'fulfil his course.' 'With joy' is a\nweakening addition. It was not 'joy,' but the discharge of duty, which\nseemed to him infinitely desirable. What was aspiration at Miletus\nbecame fact when, in his last Epistle, he wrote, 'I have finished my\ncourse.'\n\nIn verses 25 to 27 the Apostle looks back as well as forward. His\nanticipation that he was parting for ever from the Ephesian elders was\nprobably mistaken, but it naturally leads him to think of the long\nministry among them which was now, as he believed, closed. And his\nretrospect was very different from what most of us, who are teachers,\nfeel that ours must be. It is a solemn thought that if we let either\ncowardice or love of ease and the good opinion of men hold us back from\nspeaking out all that we know of God's truth, our hands are reddened\nwith the blood of souls.\n\nWe are all apt to get into grooves of favourite thoughts, and to teach\nbut part of the whole Gospel. If we do not seek to widen our minds to\ntake in, and our utterances to give forth, all the will of God as seen\nby us, our limitations and repetitions will repel some from the truth,\nwho might have been won by a completer presentation of it, and their\nblood will be required at our hands. None of us can reach to the\napprehension, in its full extent and due proportion of its parts, of\nthat great gospel; but we may at least seek to come nearer the ideal\ncompleteness of a teacher, and try to remember that we are 'pure from\nthe blood of all men,' only when we have not 'shrunk from declaring all\nGod's counsel.' We are not required to know it completely, but we are\nrequired not to shrink from declaring it as far as we know it.\n\nPaul's purpose in this retrospect was not only to vindicate himself,\nbut to suggest to the elders their duty. Therefore he passes\nimmediately to exhortation to them, and a forecast of the future of the\nEphesian Church. 'Take heed to yourselves.' The care of one's own soul\ncomes first. He will be of little use to the Church whose own personal\nreligion is not kept warm and deep. All preachers and teachers and men\nwho influence their fellows need to lay to heart this exhortation,\nespecially in these days when calls to outward service are so\nmultiplied. The neglect of it undermines all real usefulness, and is a\nworm gnawing at the roots of the vines.\n\nWe note also the condensed weightiness of the following exhortation, in\nwhich solemn reasons are suggested for obeying it. The divine\nappointment to office, the inclusion of the 'bishops' in the flock, the\ndivine ownership of the flock, and the cost of its purchase, are all\nfocussed on the one point, 'Take heed to all the flock.' Of course a\ncomparison with verse 17 shows that _elder_ and _bishop_ were two\ndesignations for one officer; but the question of the primitive\norganisation of church offices, important as it is, is less important\nthan the great thoughts as to the relation of the Church to God, and as\nto the dear price at which men have been won to be truly His.\n\nWe note the reading in the Revised Version of v.28 (margin), 'the flock\nof the Lord,' but do not discuss it. The chief thought of the verse is\nthat the Church is God's flock, and that the death of Jesus has bought\nit for His, and that negligent under-shepherds are therefore guilty of\ngrievous sin.\n\nThe Apostle had premonitions of the future for the Church as well as\nfor himself, and the horizons were dark in both outlooks. He foresaw\nevils from two quarters, for 'wolves' would come from without, and\nperverse teachers would arise within, drawing the disciples after them\nand away from the Lord. The simile of wolves may be an echo of Christ's\nwarning in Matthew vii 15. How sadly Paul's anticipations were\nfulfilled the Epistle to the Church in Ephesus (Revelation ii.) shows\ntoo clearly. Unslumbering alertness, as of a sentry in front of the\nenemy, is needed if the slinking onset of the wolf is to be beaten\nback. Paul points to his own example, and that in no vainglorious\nspirit, but to stimulate and also to show how watchfulness is to be\ncarried out. It must be unceasing, patient, tenderly solicitous, and\ngrieving over the falls of others as over personal calamities. If there\nwere more such 'shepherds,' there would be fewer stray sheep.\n\nAnxious forebodings and earnest exhortations naturally end in turning\nto God and invoking His protecting care. The Apostle's heart runs over\nin his last words (vs. 32-35). He falls back for himself, in the\nprospect of having to cease his care of the Church, on the thought that\na better Guide will not leave it, and he would comfort the elders as\nwell as himself by the remembrance of God's power to keep them. So\nJacob, dying, said, 'I die, but God shall be with you.' So Moses,\ndying, said, 'The Lord hath said unto me, thou shalt not go over this\nJordan. The Lord thy God, He will go before thee.' Not even Paul is\nindispensable. The under-shepherds die, _the_ Shepherd lives, and\nwatches against wolves and dangers. Paul had laid the foundation, and\nthe edifice would not stand unfinished, like some half-reared palace\nbegun by a now dead king. The growth of the Church and of its\nindividual members is sure. It is wrought by God.\n\nHis instrument is 'the word of His grace.' Therefore if we would grow,\nwe must use that word. Christian progress is no more possible, if the\nword of God is not our food, than is an infant's growth if it refuses\nmilk. That building up or growth or advance (for all three metaphors\nare used, and mean the same thing) has but one natural end, the\nentrance of each redeemed soul into its own allotment in the true land\nof promise, the inheritance of those who are sanctified. If we\nfaithfully use that word which tells of and brings God's grace, that we\nmay grow thereby, He will bring us at last to dwell among those who\nhere have growingly been made saints. He is able to do these things. It\nis for us to yield to His power, and to observe the conditions on which\nit will work on us.\n\nEven at the close Paul cannot refrain from personal references. He\npoints to his example of absolute disinterestedness, and with a\ndramatic gesture holds out 'these hands' to show how they are hardened\nby work. Such a warning against doing God's work for money would not\nhave been his last word, at a time when all hearts were strung up to\nthe highest pitch, unless the danger had been very real. And it is very\nreal to-day. If once the suspicion of being influenced by greed of gain\nattaches to a Christian worker, his power ebbs away, and his words lose\nweight and impetus.\n\nIt is that danger which Paul is thinking of when he tells the elders\nthat by 'labouring' they 'ought to support the weak'; for by _weak_ he\nmeans not the poor, but those imperfect disciples who might be repelled\nor made to stumble by the sight of greed in an elder. Shepherds who\nobviously cared more for wool than for the sheep have done as much harm\nas 'grievous wolves.'\n\nPaul quotes an else unrecorded saying of Christ's which, like a\nsovereign's seal, confirms the subject's words. It gathers into a\nsentence the very essence of Christian morality. It reveals the inmost\nsecret of the blessedness of the giving God. It is foolishness and\nparadox to the self-centred life of nature. It is blessedly true in the\nexperience of all who, having received the 'unspeakable gift,' have\nthereby been enfranchised into the loftier life in which self is dead,\nand to which it is delight, kindred with God's own blessedness, to\nimpart.\n\n\n\nA FULFILLED ASPIRATION\n\n'So that I might finish my course....'--ACTS xx. 24.\n\n'I have finished my course....'--2 TIM. iv. 7.\n\nI do not suppose that Paul in prison, and within sight of martyrdom,\nremembered his words at Ephesus. But the fact that what was aspiration\nwhilst he was in the very thick of his difficulties came to be calm\nretrospect at the close is to me very beautiful and significant. 'So\nthat I may finish my course,' said he wistfully; whilst before him\nthere lay dangers clearly discerned and others that had all the more\npower over the imagination because they were but dimly discerned--'Not\nknowing the things that shall befall me there,' said he, but knowing\nthis, that 'bonds and afflictions abide me.' When a man knows exactly\nwhat he has to be afraid of he can face it. When he knows a little\ncorner of it, and also knows that there is a great stretch behind that\nis unknown, that is a state of things that tries his mettle. Many a man\nwill march up to a battery without a tremor who would not face a hole\nwhere a snake lay. And so Paul's ignorance, as well as Paul's\nknowledge, made it very hard for him to say 'None of these things move\nme' if only 'I might finish my course.'\n\nNow there are in these two passages, thus put together, three points\nthat I touch for a moment. These are, What Paul thought that life\nchiefly was; what Paul aimed at; and what Paul won thereby.\n\nI. What he thought that life chiefly was.\n\n'That I may finish my course.' Now 'course,' in our modern English, is\nfar too feeble a word to express the Apostle's idea here. It has come\nto mean with us a quiet sequence or a succession of actions which,\ntaken together, complete a career; but in its original force the\nEnglish word 'course,' and still more the Greek, of which it is a\ntranslation, contain a great deal more than that. If we were to read\n'race,' we should get nearer to at least one side of the Apostle's\nthought. This was the image under which life presented itself to him,\nas it does to every man that does anything in the world worth doing,\nwhether he be Christian or not--as being not a place for enjoyment, for\nselfish pursuits, making money, building family, satisfying love,\nseeking pleasure, or the like; but mainly as being an appointed field\nfor a succession of efforts, all in one direction, and leading\nprogressively to an end. In that image of life as a race, threadbare as\nit is, there are several grave considerations involved, which it will\ncontribute to the nobleness of our own lives to keep steadily in view.\n\nTo begin with, the metaphor regards life as a track or path marked out\nand to be kept to by us. Paul thought of his life as a racecourse,\ntraced for him by God, and from which it would be perilous and\nrebellious to diverge. The consciousness of definite duties loomed\nlarger than anything else before him. His first waking thought was,\n'What is God's will for me to-day? What stage of the course have I to\npass over to-day?' Each moment brought to him an appointed task which\nat all hazards he must do. And this elevating, humbling, and bracing\never-present sense of responsibility, not merely to circumstances, but\nto God, is an indispensable part of any life worth the living, and of\nany on which a man will ever dare to look back.\n\n'My course.' O brethren! if we carried with us, always present, that\nsolemn, severe sense of all-pervading duty and of obligation laid upon\nus to pursue faithfully the path that is appointed us, there would be\nless waste, less selfishness, less to regret, and less that weakens and\ndefiles, in the lives of us all. And blessed be His name! however\ntrivial be our tasks, however narrow our spheres, however secular and\ncommonplace our businesses or trades, we may write upon them, as on all\nsorts of lives, except weak and selfish ones, this inscription,\n'Holiness to the Lord.'\n\nThe broad arrow stamped on Crown property gives a certain dignity to\nwhatever bears it, and whatever small duty has the name of God written\nacross it is thereby ennobled. If our days are to be full-fraught with\nthe serenity and purity which it is possible for them to attain, and if\nwe ourselves are to put forth all our powers and make the most of\nourselves, we must cultivate the continual sense that life is a\ncourse--a series of definite duties marked out for us by God.\n\nAgain, the image suggests the strenuous efforts needed for discharge of\nour appointed tasks. The Apostle, like all men of imaginative and\nsensitive nature, was accustomed to speak in metaphors, which expressed\nhis fervid convictions more adequately than more abstract expressions\nwould have done. That vigorous figure of a 'course' speaks more\nstrongly of the stress of continual effort than many words. It speaks\nof the straining muscles, and the intense concentration, and the\nforward-flung body of the runner in the arena. Paul says in effect, 'I,\nfor my part, live at high pressure. I get the most that I can out of\nmyself. I do the very best that is in me.' And that is a pattern for us.\n\nThere is nothing to be done unless we are contented to live on the\nstretch. Easygoing lives are always contemptible lives. A man who never\ndoes anything except what he can do easily never comes to do anything\ngreater than what he began with, and never does anything worth doing at\nall. Effort is the law of life in all departments, as we all of us know\nand practise in regard to our daily business. But what a strange thing\nit is that we seem to think that our Christian characters can be formed\nand perfected upon other conditions, and in other fashions, than those\nby which men make their daily bread or their worldly fortunes!\n\nThe direction which effort takes is different in these two regions. The\nnecessity for concentration and vigorous putting into operation of\nevery faculty is far more imperative in the Christian course than in\nany other form of life.\n\nI believe most earnestly that we grow Christlike, not by effort only,\nbut by faith. But I believe that there is no faith without effort, and\nthat the growth which comes from faith will not be appropriated and\nmade ours without it. And so I preach, without in the least degree\nfeeling that it impinges upon the great central truth that we are\ncleansed and perfected by the power of God working upon us, the sister\ntruth that we must 'work out our own salvation with fear and trembling.'\n\nBrethren, unless we are prepared for the dust and heat of the race, we\nhad better not start upon the course. Christian men have an appointed\ntask, and to do it will take all the effort that they can put forth,\nand will assuredly demand continuous concentration and the summoning of\nevery faculty to its utmost energy.\n\nStill further, there is another idea that lies in the emblem, and that\nis that the appointed task which thus demands the whole man in vigorous\nexercise ought in fact to be, and in its nature is, progressive. Is the\nChristianity of the average church member and professing Christian a\ncontinuous advance? Is to-day better than yesterday? Are former\nattainments continually being left behind? Does it not seem the\nbitterest irony to talk about the usual life of a Christian as a\ncourse? Did you ever see a squad of raw recruits being drilled in the\nbarrack-yard? The first thing the sergeants do is to teach them the\n'goose-step,' which consists in lifting up one foot and then the other,\n_ad infinitum_, and yet always keeping on the same bit of ground. That\nis the kind of 'course' which hosts of so-called Christians content\nthemselves with running--a vast deal of apparent exercise and no\nadvance. They are just at the same spot at which they stood five, ten,\nor twenty years ago; not a bit wiser, more like Christ, less like the\ndevil and the world; having gained no more mastery over their\ncharacteristic evils; falling into precisely the same faults of temper\nand conduct as they used to do in the far-away past. By what right can\n_they_ talk of running the Christian race? Progress is essential to\nreal Christian life.\n\nII. Turn now to another thought here, and consider what Paul aimed at.\n\nIt is a very easy thing for a man to say, 'I take the discharge of my\nduty, given to me by Jesus Christ, as my great purpose in life,' when\nthere is nothing in the way to prevent him from carrying out that\npurpose. But it is a very different thing when, as was the case with\nPaul, there lie before him the certainties of affliction and bonds, and\nthe possibilities which very soon consolidated themselves into\ncertainties, of a bloody death and that swiftly. To say _then_, without\na quickened pulse or a tremor in the eyelid, or a quiver in the voice,\nor a falter in the resolution, to say then, 'none of these things move\nme, if only I may do what I was set to do'--that is to be in Christ\nindeed; and that is the only thing worth living for.\n\nLook how beautifully we see in operation in these heartfelt and few\nwords of the Apostle the power that there is in an absolute devotion to\nGod-enjoined duty, to give a man 'a solemn scorn of ills,' and to lift\nhim high above everything that would bar or hinder his path. Is it not\nbracing to see any one actuated by such motives as these? And why\nshould they not be motives for us all? The one thing worth our making\nour aim in life is to accomplish our course.\n\nNow notice that the word in the original here, 'finish,' does not\nmerely mean 'end,' which would be a very poor thing. Time will do that\nfor us all. It will end our course. But an ended course may yet be an\nunfinished course. And the meaning that the Apostle attaches to the\nword in both of our texts is not merely to scramble through anyhow, so\nas to get to the last of it; but to complete, accomplish the course,\nor, to put away the metaphor, to do all that it was meant by God that\nhe should do.\n\nNow some very early transcriber of the Acts of the Apostles mistook the\nApostle's meaning, and thought that he only said that he desired to end\nhis career; and so, with the best intentions in the world, he inserted,\nprobably on the margin, what he thought was a necessary addition--that\nunfortunate 'with joy,' which appears in our Authorised Version, but\nhas no place in the true text. If we put it in we necessarily limit the\nmeaning of the word 'finish' to that low, superficial sense which I\nhave already dismissed. If we leave it out we get a far nobler thought.\nPaul was not thinking about the joy at the end. What he wanted was to\ndo his work, all of it, right through to the very last. He knew there\nwould be joy, but he does not speak about it. What he wanted, as all\nfaithful men do, was to do the work, and let the joy take care of\nitself.\n\nAnd so for all of us, the true anaesthetic or 'painkiller' is that\nall-dominant sense of obligation and duty which lays hold upon us, and\ngrips us, and makes us, not exactly indifferent to, but very partially\nconscious of, the sorrows or the hindrances or the pains that may come\nin our way. You cannot stop an express train by stretching a rope\nacross the line, nor stay the flow of a river with a barrier of straw.\nAnd if a man has once yielded himself fully to that great conception of\nGod's will driving him on through life, and prescribing his path for\nhim, it is neither in sorrow nor in joy to arrest his course. They may\nroll all the golden apples out of the garden of the Hesperides in his\npath, and he will not stop to pick one of them up; or Satan may block\nit with his fiercest flames, and the man will go into them, saying,\n'When I pass through the fires He will be with me.'\n\nIII. Lastly, what Paul won thereby.\n\n'That I _may_ finish my course ... I _have_ finished my course'; in the\nsame lofty meaning, not merely _ended_, though that was true, but\n'completed, accomplished, perfected.'\n\nNow some hyper-sensitive people have thought that it was very strange\nthat the Apostle, who was always preaching the imperfection of all\nhuman obedience and service, should, at the end of his life, indulge in\nsuch a piece of what they fancy was self-complacent retrospect as to\nsay 'I have kept the faith; I have fought a good fight; I have finished\nmy course.' But it was by no means complacent self-righteousness. Of\ncourse he did not mean that he looked back upon a career free from\nfaults and flecks and stains. No. There is only one pair of human lips\nthat ever could say, in the full significance of the word, 'It is\nfinished! ... I have completed the work which Thou gavest Me to do.'\nJesus Christ's retrospect of a stainless career, without defect or\ndiscordance at any point from the divine ideal, is not repeated in any\nof His servants' experiences. But, on the other hand, if a man in the\nmiddle of his difficulties and his conflict pulls himself habitually\ntogether and says to himself, 'Nothing shall move me, so that I may\ncomplete this bit of my course,' depend upon it, his effort, his\nbelieving effort, will not be in vain; and at the last he will be able\nto look back on a career which, though stained with many imperfections,\nand marred with many failures, yet on the whole has realised the divine\npurpose, though not with absolute completeness, at least sufficiently\nto enable the faithful servant to feel that all his struggle has not\nbeen in vain.\n\nBrethren, no one else can. And oh! how different the two 'courses' of\nthe godly man and the worldling look, in their relative importance,\nwhen seen from this side, as we are advancing towards them, and from\nthe other as we look back upon them! Pleasures, escape from pains,\nease, comfort, popularity, quiet lives--all these things seem very\nattractive; and God's will often seems very hard and very repulsive,\nwhen we are advancing towards some unwelcome duty. But when we get\nbeyond it and look back, the two careers have changed their characters;\nand all the joys that could be bought at the price of the smallest\nneglected duty or the smallest perpetrated sin, dwindle and dwindle and\ndwindle, and the light is out of them, and they show for what they\nare--nothings, gilded nothings, painted emptinesses, lies varnished\nover. And on the other hand, to do right, to discharge the smallest\nduty, to recognise God's will, and with faithful effort to seek to do\nit in dependence upon Him, that towers and towers and towers, and there\nseems to be, as there really is, nothing else worth living for.\n\nSo let us live with the continual remembrance in our minds that all\nwhich we do has to be passed in review by us once more, from another\nstandpoint, and with another illumination falling upon it. And be sure\nof this, that the one thing worth looking back upon, and possible to be\nlooked back upon with peace and quietness, is the humble, faithful,\ncontinual discharge of our appointed tasks for the dear Lord's sake. If\nyou and I, whilst work and troubles last, do truly say, 'None of these\nthings move me, so that I _might_ finish my course,' we too, with all\nour weaknesses, may be able to say at the last, 'Thanks be to God! I\n_have_ finished my course.'\n\n\n\nPARTING WORDS [Footnote: Preached prior to a long absence in Australia.]\n\n'And now, brethren, I commend you to God, and to the word of His\ngrace....'--ACTS xx. 32.\n\nI may be pardoned if my remarks now should assume somewhat of a more\npersonal character than is my wont. I desire to speak mainly to my own\nfriends, the members of my own congregation; and other friends who have\ncome to give me a parting 'Godspeed' will forgive me if my observations\nhave a more special bearing on those with whom I am more immediately\nconnected.\n\nThe Apostle whose words I have taken for my text was leaving, as he\nsupposed, for the last time, the representatives of the Church in\nEphesus, to whom he had been painting in very sombre colours the\ndangers of the future and his own forebodings and warnings.\nExhortations, prophecies of evil, expressions of anxious solicitude,\nmotions of Christian affection, all culminate in this parting\nutterance. High above them all rises the thought of the present God,\nand of the mighty word which in itself, in the absence of all human\nteachers, had power to 'build them up, and to give them an inheritance\namongst them that are sanctified.'\n\nIf we think of that Church in Ephesus, this brave confidence of the\nApostle's becomes yet more remarkable. They were set in the midst of a\nfocus of heathen superstition, from which they themselves had only\nrecently been rescued. Their knowledge was little, they had no\nApostolic teacher to be present with them; they were left alone there\nto battle with the evils of that corrupt society in which they dwelt.\nAnd yet Paul leaves them--'sheep in the midst of wolves,' with a very\nimperfect Christianity, with no Bible, with no teachers--in the sure\nconfidence that no harm will come to them, because God is with them,\nand the 'word of His grace' is enough.\n\nAnd that is the feeling, dear brethren, with which I now look you in\nthe face for the last time for a little while. I desire that you and I\nshould together share the conviction that each of us is safe because\nGod and the 'word of His grace' will go and remain with us.\n\nI. So then, first of all, let me point you to the one source of\nsecurity and enlightenment for the Church and for the individual.\n\nWe are not to separate between God and the 'word of His grace,' but\nrather to suppose that the way by which the Apostle conceived of God as\nworking for the blessing and the guardianship of that little community\nin Ephesus was mainly, though not exclusively, through that which he\nhere designates 'the word of His grace.' We are not to forget the\never-abiding presence of the indwelling Spirit who guards and keeps the\nlife of the individual and of the community. But what is in the\nApostle's mind here is the objective revelation, the actual spoken word\n(not yet written) which had its origin in God's condescending love, and\nhad for its contents, mainly, the setting forth of that love. Or to put\nit into other words, the revelation of the grace of God in Jesus\nChrist, with all the great truths that cluster round and are evolved\nfrom it, is the all-sufficient source of enlightenment and security for\nindividuals and for Churches. And whosoever will rightly use and\nfaithfully keep that great word, no evil shall befall him, nor shall he\never make shipwreck of the faith. It is 'able to build you up,' says\nPaul. In God's Gospel, in the truth concerning Jesus Christ the divine\nRedeemer, in the principles that flow from that Cross and Passion, and\nthat risen life and that ascension to God, there is all that men need,\nall that they want for life, all that they want for godliness. The\nbasis of their creed, the sufficient guide for their conduct, the\nformative powers that will shape into beauty and nobleness their\ncharacters, all lie in the germ in this message, 'God was in Christ\nreconciling the world unto Himself.' Whoever keeps that in mind and\nmemory, ruminates upon it till it becomes the nourishment of his soul,\nmeditates on it till the precepts and the promises and the principles\nthat are enwrapped in it unfold themselves before Him, needs none other\nguide for life, none other solace in sorrow, none other anchor of hope,\nnone other stay in trial and in death. 'I commend you to God and the\nword of His grace,' which is a storehouse full of all that we need for\nlife and for godliness. Whoever has it is like a landowner who has a\nquarry on his estate, from which at will he can dig stones to build his\nhouse. If you truly possess and faithfully adhere to this Gospel, you\nhave enough.\n\nRemember that these believers to whom Paul thus spoke had no New\nTestament, and most of them, I dare say, could not read the Old. There\nwere no written Gospels in existence. The greater part of the New\nTestament was not written; what was written was in the shape of two or\nthree letters that belonged to Churches in another part of the world\naltogether. It was to the spoken word that he commended them. How much\nmore securely may we trust one another to that permanent record of the\ndivine revelation which we have here in the pages of Scripture!\n\nAs for the individual, so for the Church, that written word is the\nguarantee for its purity and immortality. Christianity is the only\nreligion that has ever passed through periods of decadence and purified\nitself again. They used to say that Thames water was the best to put on\nshipboard because, after it became putrid, it cleared itself and became\nsweet again. I do not know anything about whether that is true or not,\nbut I know that it is true about Christianity. Over and over again it\nhas rotted, and over and over again it has cleared itself, and it has\nalways been by the one process. Men have gone back to the word and laid\nhold again of it in its simple omnipotence, and so a decadent\nChristianity has sprung up again into purity and power. The word of\nGod, the principles of the revelation contained in Christ and recorded\nfor ever in this New Testament, are the guarantee of the Church's\nimmortality and of the Church's purity. This man and that man may fall\naway, provinces may be lost from the empire for a while, standards of\nrebellion and heresy may be lifted, but 'the foundation of God standeth\nsure,' and whoever will hark back again and dig down through the\nrubbish of human buildings to the living Rock will build secure and\ndwell at peace. If all our churches were pulverised to-morrow, and\nevery formal creed of Christendom were torn in pieces, and all the\ninstitutions of the Church were annihilated--if there was a New\nTestament left they would all be built up again. 'I commend you to God,\nand to the word of His grace.'\n\nII. Secondly, notice the possible benefit of the silencing of the\n_human_ voice.\n\nPaul puts together his absence and the power of the word. 'Now I know\nthat you will see my face no more'--'I commend you to God.' That is to\nsay, it is often a good thing that the voice of man may be hushed in\norder that the sweeter and deeper music of the word of God, sounding\nfrom no human lips, may reach our hearts. Of course I am not going to\ndepreciate preachers and books and religious literature and the thought\nand the acts of good and wise men who have been interpreters of God's\nmeaning and will to their brethren, but the human ministration of the\ndivine word, like every other help to knowing God, may become a\nhindrance instead of a help; and in all such helps there is a tendency,\nunless there be continual jealous watchfulness on the part of those who\nminister them, and on the part of those who use them, to assert\nthemselves instead of leading to God, and to become not mirrors in\nwhich we may behold God, but obscuring _media_ which come between us\nand Him. This danger belongs to the great ordinance and office of the\nChristian ministry, large as its blessings are, just as it belongs to\nall other offices which are appointed for the purpose of bringing men\nto God. We may make them ladders or we may make them barriers; we may\nclimb by them or we may remain in them. We may look at the colours on\nthe painted glass until we do not see or think of the light which\nstrikes through the colours.\n\nSo it is often a good thing that a human voice which speaks the divine\nword, should be silenced; just as it is often a good thing that other\nhelps and props should be taken away. No man ever leans all his weight\nupon God's arm until every other crutch on which he used to lean has\nbeen knocked from him.\n\nAnd therefore, dear brethren, applying these plain things to ourselves,\nmay I not say that it may and should be the result of my temporary\nabsence from you that some of you should be driven to a more first-hand\nacquaintance with God and with His word? I, like all Christian\nministers, have of course my favourite ways of looking at truth,\nlimitations of temperament, and idiosyncrasies of various sorts, which\ncolour the representations that I make of God's great word. All the\nriver cannot run through any pipe; and what does run is sure to taste\nsomewhat of the soil through which it runs. And for some of you, after\nthirty years of hearing my way of putting things--and I have long since\ntold you all that I have got to say--it will be a good thing to have\nsome one else to speak to you, who will come with other aspects of that\ngreat Truth, and look at it from other angles and reflect other hues of\nits perfect whiteness. So partly because of these limitations of mine,\npartly because you have grown so accustomed to my voice that the things\nthat I say do not produce half as much effect on many of you as if I\nwere saying them to somebody else, or somebody else were saying them to\nyou, and partly because the affection, born of so many years of united\nworship, for which in many respects I am your debtor, may lead you to\nlook at the vessel rather than the treasure, do you not think it may be\na means of blessing and help to this congregation that I should step\naside for a little while and some one else should stand here, and you\nshould be driven to make acquaintance with 'God and the word of His\ngrace' a little more for yourselves? What does it matter though you do\nnot have nay sermons? You have your Bibles and you have God's Spirit.\nAnd if my silence shall lead any of you to prize and to use _these_\nmore than you have done, then my silence will have done a great deal\nmore than my speech. Ministers are like doctors, the test of their\nsuccess is that they are not needed any more. And when we can say,\n'They can stand without us, and they do not need us,' that is the crown\nof our ministry.\n\nIII. Thirdly, notice the best expression of Christian solicitude and\naffection.\n\n'I commend you,' says Paul, 'to God, and to the word of His grace.' If\nwe may venture upon a very literal translation of the word, it is, 'I\nlay you down beside God.' That is beautiful, is it not? Here had Paul\nbeen carrying the Ephesian Church on his back for a long time now. He\nhad many cares about them, many forebodings as to their future, knowing\nvery well that after his departure grievous wolves were going to enter\nin. He says, 'I cannot carry the load any longer; here I lay it down at\nthe Throne, beneath those pure Eyes, and that gentle and strong Hand.'\nFor to commend them to God is in fact a prayer casting the care which\nPaul could no longer exercise, upon Him.\n\nAnd that is the highest expression of, as it is the only soothing for,\nmanly Christian solicitude and affection. Of course you and I, looking\nforward to these six months of absence, have all of us our anxieties\nabout what may be the issue. I may feel afraid lest there should be\nflagging here, lest good work should be done a little more languidly,\nlest there should be a beggarly account of empty pews many a time, lest\nthe bonds of Christian union here should be loosened, and when I come\nback I may find it hard work to reknit them. All these thoughts must be\nin the mind of a true man who has put most of his life, and as much of\nhimself as during that period he could command, into his work. What\nthen? 'I commend you to God.' You may have your thoughts and anxieties\nas well as I have mine. Dear brethren, let us make an end of solicitude\nand turn it into petition and bring one another to God, and leave one\nanother there.\n\nThis 'commending,' as it is the highest expression of Christian\nsolicitude, so it is the highest and most natural expression of\nChristian affection. I am not going to do what is so easy to do--bring\ntears at such a moment. I do not purpose to speak of the depth, the\nsacredness of the bond that unites a great many of us together. I think\nwe can take that for granted without saying any more about it. But,\ndear brethren, I do want to pledge you and myself to this, that our\nsolicitude and our affection should find voice in prayer, and that when\nwe are parted we may be united, because the eyes of both are turned to\nthe one Throne. There is a reality in prayer. Do you pray for me, as I\nwill for you, when we are far apart. And as the vapour that rises from\nthe southern seas where I go may fall in moisture, refreshing these\nnorthern lands, so what rises on one side of the world from believing\nhearts in loving prayers may fall upon the other in the rain of a\ndivine blessing. 'I commend you to God, and the word of His grace.'\n\nIV. Lastly, notice the parting counsels involved in the commendation.\n\nIf it be true that God and His Word are the source of all security and\nenlightenment, and are so, apart altogether from human agencies, then\nto commend these brethren to God was exhortation as well as prayer, and\nimplied pointing them to the one source of security that they might\ncling to that source. I am going to give no advices about little\nmatters of church order and congregational prosperity. These will all\ncome right, if the two main exhortations that are involved in this text\nare laid to heart; and if they are not laid to heart, then I do not\ncare one rush about the smaller things, of full pews and prosperous\nsubscription lists and Christian work. These are secondary, and they\nwill be consequent if you take these two advices that are couched in my\ntext:--\n\n(_a_) 'Cleave to the Lord with full purpose of heart,' as the limpet\ndoes to the rock. Cling to Jesus Christ, the revelation of God's grace.\nAnd how do we cling to Him? What is the cement of souls? Love and\ntrust; and whoever exercises these in reference to Jesus Christ is\nbuilt into Him, and belongs to Him, and has a vital unity knitting him\nwith that Lord. Cleave to Christ, brother, by faith and love, by\ncommunion and prayer, and by practical conformity of life. For remember\nthat the union which is effected by faith can be broken by sin, and\nthat there will be no reality in our union to Jesus unless it is\nmanifested and perpetuated by righteousness of conduct and character.\nTwo smoothly-ground pieces of glass pressed together will adhere. If\nthere be a speck of sand, microscopic in dimensions, between the two,\nthey will fall apart; and if you let tiny grains of sin come between\nyou and your Master, it is delusion to speak of being knit to Him by\nfaith and love. Keep near Jesus Christ and you will be safe.\n\n(_b_) Cleave to 'the word of His grace.' Try to understand its\nteachings better; study your Bibles with more earnestness; believe more\nfully than you have ever done that in that great Gospel there lie every\ntruth that we need and guidance in all circumstances. Bring the\nprinciples of Christianity into your daily life; walk by the light of\nthem; and live in the radiance of a present God. And then all these\nother matters which I have spoken of, which are important, highly\nimportant but secondary, will come right.\n\nMany of you, dear brethren, have listened to my voice for long years,\nand have not done the one thing for which I preach--viz. set your\nfaith, as sinful men, on the great atoning Sacrifice and Incarnate\nLord. I beseech you let my last word go deeper than its predecessors,\nand yield yourselves to God in Christ, bringing all your weakness and\nall your sin to Him, and trusting yourselves wholly and utterly to His\nsacrifice and life.\n\n'I commend you to God and to the word of His grace,' and beseech you\n'that, whether I come to see you or else be absent, I may hear of your\naffairs, that ye stand fast in one spirit, with one mind striving\ntogether for the faith of the Gospel.'\n\n\n\nTHE BLESSEDNESS OF GIVING\n\n'...It is more blessed to give than to receive.'--ACTS xx. 35.\n\nHow 'many other things Jesus did' and said 'which are not written in\nthis book'! Here is one precious unrecorded word, which was floating\ndown to the ocean of oblivion when Paul drew it to shore and so\nenriched the world. There is, however, a saying recorded, which is\nessentially parallel in content though differing in garb, 'The Son of\nMan came not to be ministered unto, but to minister.' It is tempting to\nthink that the text gives a glimpse into the deep fountains of the pure\nblessedness of Jesus Himself, and was a transcript of His own human\nexperience. It helps us to understand how the Man of Sorrows could give\nas a legacy to His followers 'My joy,' and could speak of it as abiding\nand full.\n\nI. The reasons on which this saying rests.\n\nIt is based not only on the fact that the act of giving has in it a\nsense of power and of superiority, and that the act of receiving may\nhave a painful consciousness of obligation, though a cynic might\nendorse it on that ground, but on a truth far deeper than these, that\nthere is a pure and godlike joy in making others blessed.\n\nThe foundation on which the axiom rests is that giving is the result of\nlove and self-sacrifice. Whenever they are not found, the giving is not\nthe giving which 'blesses him that gives.' If you give with some\n_arriere pensee_ of what you will get by it, or for the sake of putting\nsome one under obligation, or indifferently as a matter of compulsion\nor routine, if with your alms there be contempt to which pity is ever\nnear akin, then these are not examples of the giving on which Christ\npronounced His benediction. But where the heart is full of deep, real\nlove, and where that love expresses itself by a cheerful act of\nself-sacrifice, then there is felt a glow of calm blessedness far above\nthe base and greedy joys of self-centred souls who delight only in\nkeeping their possessions, or in using them for themselves. It comes\nnot merely from contemplating the relief or happiness in others of\nwhich our gifts may have been the source, but from the working in our\nown hearts of these two godlike emotions. To be delivered from making\nmyself my great object, and to be delivered from the undue value set\nupon having and keeping our possessions, are the twin factors of true\nblessedness. It is heaven on earth to love and to give oneself away.\n\nThen again, the highest joy and noblest use of all our possessions is\nfound in imparting them.\n\nTrue as to this world's goods.\n\nThe old epitaph is profoundly true, which puts into the dead lips the\ndeclaration: 'What I kept I lost. What I gave I kept.' Better to learn\nthat and act on it while living!\n\nTrue as to truth, and knowledge.\n\nTrue as to the Gospel of the grace of God.\n\nII. The great example in God of the blessedness of giving.\n\nGod gives--gives only--gives always--and He in giving has joy,\nblessedness. He would not be 'the ever-blessed God' unless He were 'the\ngiving God.' Creation we are perhaps scarcely warranted in affirming to\nbe a necessity to the divine nature, and we run on perilous heights of\nspeculation when we speak of it as contributing to His blessedness; but\nthis at least we may say, that He, in the deep words of the Psalmist,\n'delights in mercy.' Before creation was realised in time, the divine\nIdea of it was eternal, inseparable from His being, and therefore from\neverlasting He 'rejoiced in the habitable parts of the earth, and His\ndelights were with the sons of men.'\n\nThe light and glory thus thrown on His relation to us.\n\nHe gives. He does not exact until He has given. He gives what He\nrequires. The requirement is made in love and is itself a 'grace\ngiven,' for it permits to God's creatures, in their relation to Him,\nsome feeble portion and shadow of the blessedness which He possesses,\nby permitting them to bring offerings to His throne, and so to have the\njoy of giving to Him what He has given to them. 'All things come of\nThee, and of Thine own have we given Thee.' Then how this thought puts\nan end to all manner of slavish notions about God's commands and\ndemands, and about worship, and about merits, or winning heaven by our\nown works.\n\nNotice that the same emotions which we have found to make the\nblessedness of giving are those which come into play in the act of\nreceiving spiritual blessings. We receive the Gospel by faith, which\nassuredly has in it love and self-sacrifice.\n\nHaving thus the great Example of all giving in heaven, and the shadow\nand reflex of that example in our relations to Him on earth, we are\nthereby fitted for the exemplification of it in our relation to men. To\ngive, not to get, is to be our work, to love, to sacrifice ourselves.\n\nThis axiom should regulate Christians' relation to the world, and to\neach other, in every way. It should shape the Christian use of money.\nIt should shape our use of all which we have.\n\n\n\nDRAWING NEARER TO THE STORM\n\n'And it came to pass, that, after we were gotten from them, and had\nlaunched, we came with a straight course unto Coos, and the day\nfollowing unto Rhodes, and from thence unto Patara: 2. And finding a\nship sailing over unto Phenicia, we went aboard, and set forth. 3. Now\nwhen we had discovered Cyprus, we left it on the left hand, and sailed\ninto Syria, and landed at Tyre: for there the ship was to unlade her\nburden. 4. And finding disciples, we tarried there seven days: who said\nto Paul through the Spirit, that he should not go up to Jerusalem. 5.\nAnd when we had accomplished those days, we departed and went our way;\nand they all brought us on our way, with wives and children, till we\nwere out of the city: and we kneeled down on the shore, and prayed. 6.\nAnd when we had taken our leave one of another, we took ship; and they\nreturned home again. 7. And when we had finished our course from Tyre,\nwe came to Ptolemais, and saluted the brethren, and abode with them one\nday. 8. And the next day we that were of Paul's company departed, and\ncame unto Caesarea: and we entered into the house of Philip the\nevangelist, which was one of the seven; and abode with him. 9. And the\nsame man had four daughters, virgins, which did prophesy. 10. And as we\ntarried there many days, there came down from Judaea a certain prophet,\nnamed Agabus. 11. And when he was come unto us, he took Paul's girdle,\nand bound his own hands and feet, and said, Thus saith the Holy Ghost,\nSo shall the Jews at Jerusalem bind the man that owneth this girdle,\nand shall deliver him into the hands of the Gentiles. 12. And when we\nheard these things, both we, and they of that place, besought him not\nto go up to Jerusalem. 13. Then Paul answered, What mean ye to weep and\nto break mine heart? for I am ready not to be bound only, but also to\ndie at Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus. 14. And when he would\nnot be persuaded, we ceased, saying, The will of the Lord be done. 15.\nAnd after those days we took up our carriages, and went up to\nJerusalem.'--ACTS xxi. 1-15.\n\nPaul's heroic persistency in disregarding the warnings of 'bonds and\nafflictions' which were pealed into his ears in every city, is the main\npoint of interest in this section. But the vivid narrative abounds with\ndetails which fill it with life and colour. We may gather it all round\nthree points--the voyage, Tyre, and Caesarea.\n\nI. The log of the voyage, as given in verses 1-3, shows the leisurely\nway of navigation in those days and in that sea. Obviously the coaster\ntied up or anchored in port at night. Running down the coast from\nMiletus, they stayed overnight, first at the small island of Coos, then\nstretched across the next day to Rhodes, and on the third struck back\nto the mainland at Patara, from which, according to one reading, they\nran along the coast a little further east to Myra, the usual port of\ndeparture for Syria. Ramsay explains that the prevalent favourable wind\nfor a vessel bound for Syria blows steadily in early morning, and dies\ndown towards nightfall, so that there would have been no use in keeping\nat sea after sundown.\n\nAt Patara (or Myra) Paul and his party had to tranship, for their\nvessel was probably of small tonnage, and only fit to run along the\ncoast. In either port they would have no difficulty in finding some\nmerchantman to take them across to Syria. Accordingly they shifted into\none bound for Tyre, and apparently ready to sail. The second part of\ntheir voyage took them right out to sea, and their course lay to the\nwest, and then to the south of Cyprus, which Luke mentions as if to\nremind us of Paul's visit there when he was beginning his missionary\nwork. How much had passed since that day at Paphos (which they might\nhave sighted from the deck)! He had left Paphos with Barnabas and John\nMark--where were they? He had sailed away from Cyprus to carry the\nGospel among Gentiles; he sails past it, accompanied by a group of\nthese whom he had won for Christ. There he had begun his career; now\nthe omens indicated that possibly its end was near. Many a thought\nwould be in his mind as he looked out over the blue waters and saw the\nglittering roofs and groves of Paphos.\n\nTyre was the first port of call, and there the cargo was to be landed.\nThe travellers had to wait till that was done, and probably another one\nshipped. The seven days' stay is best understood as due to that cause;\nfor we find that Paul re-embarked in the same ship, and went in her as\nfar as Ptolemais, at all events, perhaps to Caesarea.\n\nWe note that no brethren are mentioned as having been met at any of the\nports of call, and no evangelistic work as having been done in them.\nThe party were simple passengers, who had to shape their movements to\nsuit the convenience of the master of the vessel, and were only in port\nat night, and off again next morning early. No doubt the leisure at sea\nwas as restorative to them as it often is to jaded workers now.\n\nII. Tyre was a busy seaport then, and in its large population the few\ndisciples would make but little show. They had to be sought out before\nthey were 'found.' One can feel how eagerly the travellers would\nsearch, and how thankfully they would find themselves again among\ncongenial souls. Since Miletus they had had no Christian communion, and\nthe sailors in such a ship as theirs would not be exactly kindred\nspirits. So that week in Tyre would be a blessed break in the voyage.\nWe hear nothing of visiting the synagogue, nor of preaching to the\nnon-Christian population, nor of instruction to the little Church.\n\nThe whole interest of the stay at Tyre is, for Luke, centred on the\nfact that here too the same message which had met Paul everywhere was\nrepeated to him. It was 'through the Spirit.' Then was Paul flying in\nthe face of divine prohibitions when he held on his way in spite of all\nthat could be said? Certainly not. We have to bring common sense to\nbear on the interpretation of the words in verse 4, and must suppose\nthat what came from 'the Spirit' was the prediction of persecutions\nwaiting Paul, and that the exhortation to avoid these by keeping clear\nof Jerusalem was the voice of human affection only. Such a blending of\nclear insight and of mistaken deductions from it is no strange\nexperience.\n\nNo word is said as to the effect of the Tyrian Christians' dissuasion.\nIt had none. Luke mentions it in order to show how continuous was the\nrepetition of the same note, and his silence as to the manner of its\nreception is eloquent. The parting scene at Tyre is like, and yet very\nunlike, that at Miletus. In both the Christians accompany Paul to the\nbeach, in both they kneel down and pray. It would scarcely have been a\nChristian parting without that. In both loving farewells are said, and\nperhaps waved when words could no longer be heard. But at Tyre, where\nthere were no bonds of old comradeship nor of affection to a spiritual\nfather, there was none of the yearning, clinging love that could not\nbear to part, none of the hanging on Paul's neck, none of the deep\nsorrow of final separation. The delicate shades of difference in two\nscenes so similar tell of the hand of an eye-witness. The touch that\n'all' the Tyrian Christians went down to the beach, and took their\nwives and children with them, suggests that they can have been but a\nsmall community, and so confirms the hint given by the use of the word\n'found' in verse 4.\n\nIII. The vessel ran down the coast to Ptolemais where one day's stop\nwas made, probably to land and ship cargo, if, as is possible, the\nfurther journey to Caesarea was by sea. But it may have been by land;\nthe narrative is silent on that point. At Ptolemais, as at Tyre, there\nwas a little company of disciples, the brevity of the stay with whom,\ncontrasted with the long halt in Caesarea, rather favours the\nsupposition that the ship's convenience ruled the Apostle's movements\ntill he reached the latter place. There he found a haven of rest, and,\nsurrounded by loving friends, no wonder that the burdened Apostle\nlingered there before plunging into the storm of which he had had so\nmany warnings.\n\nThe eager haste of the earlier part of the journey, contrasted with the\ndelay in Caesarea at the threshold of his goal, is explained by\nsupposing that at the beginning Paul's one wish had been to get to\nJerusalem in time for the Feast, and that at Caesarea he found that,\nthanks to his earlier haste and his good passages, he had a margin to\nspare. He did not wish to get to the Holy City much before the Feast.\n\nTwo things only are told as occurring in Caesarea--the intercourse with\nPhilip and the renewed warnings about going to Jerusalem. Apparently\nPhilip had been in Caesarea ever since we last heard of him (chap.\nviii.). He had brought his family there, and settled down in the\nheadquarters of Roman government. He had been used by Christ to carry\nthe Gospel to men outside the Covenant, and for a time it seemed as if\nhe was to be the messenger to the Gentiles; but that mission soon\nended, and the honour and toil fell to another. But neither did Philip\nenvy Paul, nor did Paul avoid Philip. The Master has the right to\nsettle what each slave has to do, and whether He sets him to high or\nlow office, it matters not.\n\nPhilip might have been contemptuous and jealous of the younger man, who\nhad been nobody when he was chosen as one of the Seven, but had so far\noutrun him now. But no paltry personal feeling marred the Christian\nintercourse of the two, and we can imagine how much each had to tell\nthe other, with perhaps Cornelius for a third in company, during the\nconsiderably extended stay in Caesarea. No doubt Luke too made good use\nof the opportunity of increasing his knowledge of the first days, and\nprobably derived much of the material for the first chapters of Acts\nfrom Philip, either then or at his subsequent longer residence in the\nsame city.\n\nWe have heard of the prophet Agabus before (chap, xi. 28). Why he is\nintroduced here, as if a stranger, we cannot tell, and it is useless to\nguess, and absurd to sniff suspicion of genuineness in the peculiarity.\nHis prophecy is more definite than any that preceded it. That is God's\nway. He makes things clearer as we go on, and warnings more emphatic as\ndanger approaches. The source of the 'afflictions' was now for the\nfirst time declared, and the shape which they would take. Jews would\ndeliver Paul to Gentiles, as they had delivered Paul's Master.\n\nBut there the curtain falls. What would the Gentiles do with him? That\nremained unrevealed. Half the tragedy was shown, and then darkness\ncovered the rest. That was more trying to nerves and courage than full\ndisclosure to the very end would have been. Imagination had just enough\nto work on, and was stimulated to shape out all sorts of horrors.\nSimilarly incomplete and testing to faith are the glimpses of the\nfuture which we get in our own lives. We see but a little way ahead,\nand then the road takes a sharp turn, and we fancy dreadful shapes\nhiding round the corner.\n\nPaul's courage was unmoved both by Agabus's incomplete prophecy and by\nthe tearful implorings of his companions and of the Caesarean\nChristians. His pathetic words to them are misunderstood if we take\n'break my heart' in the modern sense of that phrase, for it really\nmeans 'to melt away my resolution,' and shows that Paul felt that the\npassionate grief of his brethren was beginning to do what no fear for\nhimself could do--shake even his steadfast purpose. No more lovely\nblending of melting tenderness and iron determination has ever been put\ninto words than that cry of his, followed by the great utterance which\nproclaimed his readiness to bear all things, even death itself, for\n'the name of the Lord Jesus.' What kindled and fed that noble flame of\nself-devotion? The love of Jesus Christ, built on the sense that He had\nredeemed the soul of His servant, and had thereby bought him for His\nown.\n\nIf we feel that we have been 'bought with a price,' we too, in our\nsmall spheres, shall be filled with that ennobling passion of devoted\nlove which will not count life dear if He calls us to give it up. Let\nus learn from Paul how to blend the utmost gentleness and tender\nresponsiveness to all love with fixed determination to glorify the\nName. A strong will and a loving heart make a marvellously beautiful\ncombination, and should both abide in every Christian.\n\n\n\nPHILIP THE EVANGELIST\n\n'... We entered into the house of Philip the evangelist, which was one\nof the seven; and abode with him.'--ACTS xxi. 8.\n\nThe life of this Philip, as recorded, is a very remarkable one. It is\ndivided into two unequal halves: one full of conspicuous service, one\npassed in absolute obscurity. Like the moon in its second quarter, part\nof the disc is shining silver and the rest is invisible. Let us put\ntogether the notices of him.\n\nHe bears a name which makes it probable that he was not a Palestinian\nJew, but one of the many who, of Jewish descent, had lived in Gentile\nlands and contracted Gentile habits and associations. We first hear of\nhim as one of the Seven who were chosen by the Church, at the\nsuggestion of the Apostles, in order to meet the grumbling of that\nsection of the Church, who were called 'Hellenists,' about their people\nbeing neglected in the distribution of alms. He stands in that list\nnext to Stephen, who was obviously the leader. Then after Stephen's\npersecution, he flies from Jerusalem, like the rest of the Church, and\ncomes down to Samaria and preaches there. He did that because\ncircumstances drove him; he had become one of the Seven because his\nbrethren appointed him, but his next step was in obedience to a\nspecific command of Christ. He went and preached the Gospel to the\nEthiopian eunuch, and then he was borne away from the new convert, and\nafter the Spirit had put him down at Ashdod he had to tramp all the way\nup the Palestinian coast, left to the guidance of his own wits, until\nhe came to Caesarea. There he remained for twenty years; and we do not\nhear a word about him in all that time. But at last Paul and his\ncompanions, hurrying to keep the Feast at Jerusalem, found that they\nhad a little time to spare when they reached Caesarea, and so they came\nto 'the house of Philip the evangelist,' whom we last heard of twenty\nyears before, and spent 'many days' with him. That is the final glimpse\nthat we have of Philip.\n\nNow let us try to gather two or three plain lessons, especially those\nwhich depend on that remarkable contrast between the first and the\nsecond periods of this man's life. There is, first, a brief space of\nbrilliant service, and then there are long years of obscure toil.\n\nI. The brief space of brilliant service.\n\nThe Church was in a state of agitation, and there was murmuring going\non because, as I have already said, a section of it thought that their\npoor were unfairly dealt with by the native-born Jews in the Church.\nAnd so the Apostles said: 'What is the use of your squabbling thus?\nPick out any seven that you like, of the class that considers itself\naggrieved, and we will put the distribution of these eleemosynary\ngrants into their hands. That will surely stop your mouths. Do you\nchoose whom you please, and we will confirm your choice.' So the Church\nselected seven brethren, all apparently belonging to the 'Grecians' or\nGreek-speaking Jews, as the Apostles had directed that they should be,\nand one of them, not a Jew by birth, but a 'proselyte of Antioch.'\nThese men's partialities would all be in favour of the class to which\nthey belonged, and to secure fair play for which they were elected by\nit.\n\nNow these seven are never called 'deacons' in the New Testament, though\nit is supposed that they were the first holders of that office. It is\ninstructive to note how their office came into existence. It was\ncreated by the Apostles, simply as the handiest way of getting over a\ndifficulty. Is that the notion of Church organisation that prevails\namong some of our brethren who believe that organisation is everything,\nand that unless a Church has the three orders of bishops, priests, and\ndeacons, it is not worth calling a Church at all? The plain fact is\nthat the Church at the beginning had no organisation. What organisation\nit had grew up as circumstances required. The only two laws which\ngoverned organisation were, first, 'One is your Master, even Christ,\nand all ye are brethren'; and second, 'When the Spirit of the Lord is\ncome upon thee, thou shalt do as occasion shall serve thee.' Thus these\nseven were appointed to deal with a temporary difficulty and to\ndistribute alms when necessary; and their office dropped when it was no\nlonger required, as was probably the case when, very soon after, the\nJerusalem Church was scattered. Then, by degrees, came elders and\ndeacons. People fancy that there is but one rigid, unalterable type of\nChurch organisation, when the reality is that it is fluent and\nflexible, and that the primitive Church never was meant to be the\npattern according to which, in detail, and specifically, other Churches\nin different circumstances should be constituted. There are great\nprinciples which no organisation must break, but if these be kept, the\nform is a matter of convenience.\n\nThat is the first lesson that I take out of this story. Although it has\nnot much to do with Philip himself, still it is worth saying in these\ndays when a particular organisation of the Church is supposed to be\nessential to Christian fellowship, and we Nonconformists, who have not\nthe 'orders' that some of our brethren seem to think indispensable, are\nby a considerable school unchurched, because we are without them. But\nthe primitive Church also was without them.\n\nStill further and more important for us, in these brief years of\nbrilliant service I note the spontaneous impulse which sets a Christian\nman to do Christian work. It was his brethren that picked out Philip,\nand said, 'Now go and distribute alms,' but his brethren had nothing to\ndo with his next step. He was driven by circumstances out of Jerusalem,\nand he found himself in Samaria, and perhaps he remembered how Jesus\nChrist had said, on the day when He went up into Heaven, 'Ye shall be\nwitnesses unto Me, both in Jerusalem _and in Samaria_, and unto the\nuttermost parts of the earth.' But whether he remembered that or not,\nhe was here in Samaria, amongst the ancestral enemies of his nation.\nNobody told him to preach when he went to Samaria. He had no commission\nfrom the Apostles to do so. He did not hold any office in the Church,\nexcept that which, according to the Apostles' intention in establishing\nit, ought to have stopped his mouth from preaching. For they said, when\nthey appointed these seven, 'Let _them_ serve tables, and we will give\nourselves to the ministry of the word.' But Jesus Christ has a way of\nupsetting men's restrictions as to the functions of His servants. And\nso Philip, without a commission, and with many prejudices to stop his\nmouth, was the first to break through the limitations which confined\nthe message of salvation to the Jews. Because he found himself in\nSamaria, and they needed Christ there, he did not wait for Peter and\nJames and John to lay their hands upon his head, and say, 'Now you are\nentitled to speak about Him'; he did not wait for any appointment, but\nyielded to his own heart, a heart that was full of Jesus Christ, and\n_must_ speak about Him; find he proclaimed the Gospel in that city.\n\nSo he has the noble distinction of being the very first Christian man\nwho put a bold foot across the boundary of Judaism, and showed a light\nto men that were in darkness beyond. Remember he did it as a simple\nprivate Christian; uncalled, uncommissioned, unordained by anybody; and\nhe did it because he could not help it, and he never thought to\nhimself, 'I am doing a daring, new thing.' It seemed the most natural\nthing in the world that he should preach in Samaria. So it would be to\nus, if we were Christians with the depth of faith and of personal\nexperience which this man had.\n\nThere is another lesson that I take from these first busy years of\nPhilip's service. Christ provides wider spheres for men who have been\nfaithful in narrower ones. It was because he had 'won his spurs,' if I\nmay so say, in Samaria, and proved the stuff he was made of, that the\nangel of the Lord came and said to Philip, 'Go down on the road to\nGaza, which is desert. Do not ask now what you are to do when you get\nthere. Go!' So with his sealed orders be went. No doubt he thought to\nhimself, 'Strange that I should be taken from this prosperous work in\nSamaria, and sent to a desert road, where there is not a single human\nbeing!' But he went; and when he struck the point of junction of the\nroad from Samaria with that from Jerusalem, looked about to discover\nwhat he had been sent there for. The only thing in sight was one\nchariot, and he said to himself, 'Ah, that is it,' and he drew near to\nthe chariot, and heard the occupant reading aloud Isaiah's great\nprophecy. The Ethiopian chamberlain was probably not very familiar with\nthe Greek translation of the Old Testament, which he seems to have been\nusing and, as poor readers often do, helped his comprehension by\nspeaking the words he sees on the page. Philip knew at once that here\nwas the object of his mission, and so 'joined himself to the chariot,'\nand set himself to his work.\n\nSo Christ chooses His agents for further work from those who, out of\ntheir own spontaneous love of Him, have done what lay at their hands.\n'To him that hath shall be given.' If you are ambitious of a wider\nsphere, be sure that you fill your narrow one. It will widen quite fast\nenough for your capacities.\n\nII. Now let me say a word about the long years of obscurity.\n\nPhilip went down to Caesarea, and, as I said, he drops out of the story\nfor twenty years. I wonder why it was that when Jesus Christ desired\nthat Cornelius, who lived in Caesarea, should hear the gospel, He did\nnot direct him to Philip, who also was in Caesarea, but bid him send\nall the way to Joppa to bring Peter thence? I wonder why it was that\nwhen Barnabas at Antioch turned his face northwards to seek for young\nSaul at Tarsus, he never dreamed of turning southwards to call out\nPhilip from Caesarea? I wonder how it came to pass that this man, who\nat one time looked as if he was going to be the leader in the extension\nof the Church to the Gentiles, and who, as a matter of fact, was the\nfirst, not only in Samaria but on the desert road, to press beyond the\nnarrow bounds of Judaism, was passed over in the further stages by\nJesus, and why his brethren passed him over, and left him there all\nthese years in Caesarea, whilst there was so much going on that was the\ncontinuation and development of the very movement that he had begun. We\ndo not know why, and it is useless to try to speculate, but we may\nlearn lessons from the fact.\n\nHere is a beautiful instance of the contented acceptance of a lot very\nmuch less conspicuous, very much less brilliant, than the early\nbeginnings had seemed to promise. I suppose that there are very few of\nus but have had, back in the far-away past, moments when we seemed to\nhave opening out before us great prospects of service which have never\nbeen realised; and the remembrance of the brief moments of dawning\nsplendour is very apt to make the rest of the life look grey and dull,\nand common things flat, and to make us sour. We look back and we think,\n'Ah, the gates were opened for me then, but how they have slammed to\nsince! It is hard for me to go on in this lowly condition, and this\neclipsed state into which I have been brought, without feeling how\ndifferent it might have been if those early days had only continued.'\nWell, for Philip it was enough that Jesus Christ sent him to the eunuch\nand did not send him to Cornelius. He took the position that his Master\nput him in and worked away therein.\n\nAnd there is a further lesson for us, who, for the most part, have to\nlead obscure lives. For there was in Philip not only a contented\nacceptance of an obscure life, but there was a diligent doing of\nobscure work. Did you notice that one significant little word in the\nclause that I have taken for my text: 'We entered into the house of\nPhilip _the evangelist_, which was one of the seven'? Luke does not\nforget Philip's former office, but he dwells rather on what his other\noffice was, twenty years afterwards. He was 'an evangelist' now,\nalthough the evangelistic work was being done in a very quiet corner,\nand nobody was paying much attention to it. Time was when he had a\ngreat statesman to listen to his words. Time was when a whole city was\nmoved by his teaching. Time was when it looked as if he was going to do\nthe work that Paul did. But all these visions were shattered, and he\nwas left to toil for twenty long years in that obscure corner, and not\na soul knew anything about his work except the people to whom it was\ndirected and the four unmarried girls at home whom his example had\nhelped to bring to Jesus Christ, and who were 'prophetesses.' At the\nend of the twenty years he is 'Philip the evangelist.'\n\n_There_ is patient perseverance at unrecompensed, unrecorded, and\nunnoticed work. 'Great' and 'small' have nothing to do with the work of\nChristian people. It does not matter who knows our work or who does not\nknow it, the thing is that _He_ knows it. Now the most of us have to do\nabsolutely unnoticed Christian service. Those of us who are in\npositions like mine have a little more notoriety--and it is no\nblessing--and a year or two after a man's voice ceases to sound from a\npulpit he is forgotten. What does it matter? 'Surely I will never\nforget any of their works.' And in these advertising days, when\npublicity seems to be the great good that people in so many cases seek\nafter, and no one is contented to do his little bit of work unless he\ngets reported in the columns of the newspapers, we may all take example\nfrom the behaviour of Philip, and remember the man who began so\nbrilliantly, and for twenty years was hidden, and was 'the evangelist'\nall the time.\n\nIII. Now, there is one last lesson that I would draw, and that is the\nultimate recognition of the work and the joyful meeting of the workers.\n\nI think it is very beautiful to see that when Paul entered Philip's\nhouse he came into a congenial atmosphere; and although he had been\nhurrying, out of breath as it were, all the way from Corinth to get to\nJerusalem in time for the Feast, he slowed off at once; partly, no\ndoubt, because he found that he was in time, and partly, no doubt, that\nhe felt the congeniality of the society that he met.\n\nSo there was no envy in Philip's heart of the younger brother that had\nso outrun him. He was quite content to share the fate of pioneers, and\nrejoiced in the junior who had entered into his labour. 'One soweth and\nanother reapeth'; he was prepared for that, and rejoiced to hear about\nwhat the Lord had done by his brother, though once he had thought it\nmight have been done by him. How they would talk! How much there would\nbe to tell! How glad the old man would be at the younger man's success!\n\nAnd there was one sitting by who did not say very much, but had his\nears wide open, and his name was Luke. In Philip's long, confidential\nconversations he no doubt got some of the materials, which have been\npreserved for us in this book, for his account of the early days of the\nChurch in Jerusalem.\n\nSo Philip, after all, was not working in so obscure a corner as he\nthought. The whole world knows about him. He had been working behind a\ncurtain all the while, and he never knew that 'the beloved physician,'\nwho was listening so eagerly to all he had to tell about the early\ndays, was going to twitch down the curtain and let the whole world see\nthe work that he thought he was doing, all unknown and soon to be\nforgotten.\n\nAnd that is what will happen to us all. The curtain will be twitched\ndown, and when it is, it will be good for us if we have the same record\nto show that this man had--namely, toil for the Master, indifferent to\nwhether men see or do not see; patient labour for Him, coming out of a\nheart purged of all envy and jealousy of those who have been called to\nlarger and more conspicuous service.\n\nMay we not take these many days of quiet converse in Philip's house,\nwhen the pioneer and the perfecter of the work talked together, as\nbeing a kind of prophetic symbol of the time when all who had a share\nin the one great and then completed work will have a share in its joy?\nNo matter whether they have dug the foundations or laid the early\ncourses or set the top stone and the shining battlements that crown the\nstructure, they have all their share in the building and their portion\nin the gladness of the completed edifice, 'that he that soweth and he\nthat reapeth may rejoice together.'\n\n\n\nAN OLD DISCIPLE\n\n'... One Mnason of Cyprus, an old disciple, with whom we should\nlodge.'--ACTS xxi. 16.\n\nThere is something that stimulates the imagination in these mere\nshadows of men that we meet in the New Testament story. What a strange\nfate that is to be made immortal by a line in this book--immortal and\nyet so unknown! We do not hear another word about this host of Paul's,\nbut his name will be familiar to men's ears till the world's end. This\nfigure is drawn in the slightest possible outline, with a couple of\nhasty strokes of the pencil. But if we take even these few bare words\nand look at them, feeling that there is a man like ourselves sketched\nin them, I think we can get a real picture out of them, and that even\nthis dim form crowded into the background of the Apostolic story may\nhave a word or two to say to us.\n\nHis name and his birthplace show that he belonged to the same class as\nPaul, that is, he was a Hellenist, or a Jew by descent, but born on\nGentile soil, and speaking Greek. He came from Cyprus, the native\nisland of Barnabas, who may have been a friend of his. He was an 'old\ndisciple,' which does not mean simply that he was advanced in life, but\nthat he was 'a disciple from the beginning,' one of the original group\nof believers. If we interpret the word strictly, we must suppose him to\nhave been one of the rapidly diminishing nucleus, who thirty years or\nmore ago had seen Christ in the flesh, and been drawn to Him by His own\nwords. Evidently the mention of the early date of his conversion\nsuggests that the number of his contemporaries was becoming few, and\nthat there were a certain honour and distinction conceded by the second\ngeneration of the Church to the survivors of the primitive band. Then,\nof course, as one of the earliest believers, he must, by this time,\nhave been advanced in life. A Cypriote by birth, he had emigrated to,\nand resided in a village on the road to Jerusalem; and must have had\nmeans and heart to exercise a liberal hospitality there. Though a\nHellenist like Paul he does not seem to have known the Apostle before,\nfor the most probable rendering of the context is that the disciples\nfrom Caesarea, who were travelling with the Apostle from that place to\nJerusalem, 'brought us to Mnason,' implying that this was their first\nintroduction to each other. But though probably unacquainted with the\ngreat teacher of the Gentiles--whose ways were looked on with much\ndoubt by many of the Palestinian Christians--the old man, relic of the\noriginal disciples as he was, had full sympathy with Paul, and opened\nhis house and his heart to receive him. His adhesion to the Apostle\nwould no doubt carry weight with 'the many thousands of Jews which\nbelieved, and were all zealous of the law,' and was as honourable to\nhim as it was helpful to Paul.\n\nNow if we put all this together, does not the shadowy figure begin to\nbecome more substantial? and does it not preach to us some lessons that\nwe may well take to heart?\n\nI. The first thing which this old disciple says to us out of the misty\ndistance is: Hold fast to your early faith, and to the Christ whom you\nhave known.\n\nMany a year had passed since the days when perhaps the beauty of the\nMaster's own character and the sweetness of His own words had drawn\nthis man to Him. How much had come and gone since then--Calvary and the\nResurrection, Olivet and the Pentecost! His own life and mind had\nchanged from buoyant youth to sober old age. His whole feelings and\noutlook on the world were different. His old friends had mostly gone.\nJames indeed was still there, and Peter and John remained until this\npresent, but most had fallen on sleep. A new generation was rising\nround about him, and new thoughts and ways were at work. But one thing\nremained for him what it had been in the old days, and that was Christ.\n'One generation cometh and another goeth, but the \"Christ\" abideth for\never.'\n\n  'We all are changed by still degrees;\n    All but the basis of the soul,'\n\nand the 'basis of the soul,' in the truest sense, is that one God-laid\nfoundation on which whosoever buildeth shall never be confounded, nor\never need to change with changing time. Are we building there? and do\nwe find that life, as it advances, but tightens our hold on Jesus\nChrist, who is our hope?\n\nThere is no fairer nor happier experience than that of the old man who\nhas around him the old loves, the old confidences, and some measure of\nthe old joys. But who can secure that blessed unity in his life if he\ndepend on the love and help of even the dearest, or on the light of any\ncreature for his sunshine? There is but one way of making all our days\none, because one love, one hope, one joy, one aim binds them all\ntogether, and that is by taking the abiding Christ for ours, and\nabiding in Him all our days. Holding fast by the early convictions does\nnot mean stiffening in them. There is plenty of room for advancement in\nChrist. No doubt Mnason, when he was first a disciple, knew but very\nlittle of the meaning and worth of his Master and His work, compared\nwith what he had learned in all these years. And our true progress\nconsists, not in growing away from Jesus but in growing up into Him,\nnot in passing through and leaving behind our first convictions of Him\nas Saviour, but in having these verified by the experience of years,\ndeepened and cleared, unfolded and ordered into a larger, though still\nincomplete, whole. We may make our whole lives helpful to that\nadvancement and blessed shall we be if the early faith is the faith\nthat brightens till the end, and brightens the end. How beautiful it is\nto see a man, below whose feet time is crumbling away, holding firmly\nby the Lord whom he has loved and served all his days, and finding that\nthe pillar of cloud, which guided him while he lived, begins to glow in\nits heart of fire as the shadows fall, and is a pillar of light to\nguide him when he comes to die! Dear friends, whether you be near the\nstarting or near the prize of your Christian course, 'cast not away\nyour confidence, which hath great recompense of reward.' See to it that\nthe 'knowledge of the Father,' which is the 'little children's'\npossession, passes through the strength of youth, and the 'victory over\nthe world' into the calm knowledge of Him 'that is from the beginning,'\nwherein the fathers find their earliest convictions deepened and\nperfected, 'Grow in grace and in the knowledge' of Him, whom to know\never so imperfectly is eternal life, whom to know a little better is\nthe true progress for men, whom to know more and more fully is the\ngrowth and gladness and glory of the heavens. Look at this shadowy\nfigure that looks out on us here, and listen to his far-off voice\n'exhorting us all that with purpose of heart we should cleave unto the\nLord.'\n\nII. But there is another and, as some might think, opposite lesson to\nbe gathered from this outline sketch, namely, The welcome which we\nshould be ready to give to new thoughts and ways.\n\nIt is evidently meant that we should note Mnason's position in the\nChurch as significant in regard to his hospitable reception of the\nApostle. We can fancy how the little knot of 'original disciples' would\nbe apt to value themselves on their position, especially as time went\non, and their ranks were thinned. They would be tempted to suppose that\nthey must needs understand the Master's meaning a great deal better\nthan those who had never known Christ after the flesh; and no doubt\nthey would be inclined to share in the suspicion with which the\nthorough-going Jewish party in the Church regarded this Paul, who had\nnever seen the Lord. It would have been very natural for this good old\nman to have said, 'I do not like these new-fangled ways. There was\nnothing of this sort in my younger days. Is it not likely that we, who\nwere at the beginning of the Gospel, should understand the Gospel and\nthe Church's work without this new man coming to set us right? I am too\nold to go in with these changes.' All the more honourable is it that he\nshould have been ready with an open house to shelter the great champion\nof the Gentile Churches; and, as we may reasonably believe, with an\nopen heart to welcome his teaching. Depend on it, it was not every 'old\ndisciple' that would have done as much.\n\nNow does not this flexibility of mind and openness of nature to welcome\nnew ways of work, when united with the persistent constancy in his old\ncreed, make an admirable combination? It is one rare enough at any age,\nbut especially in elderly men. We are always disposed to rend apart\nwhat ought never to be separated, the inflexible adherence to a fixed\ncentre of belief, and the freest ranging around the whole changing\ncircumference. The man of strong convictions is apt to grip every\ntrifle of practice and every unimportant bit of his creed with the same\ntenacity with which he holds its vital heart, and to take obstinacy for\nfirmness, and dogged self-will for faithfulness to truth. The man who\nwelcomes new light, and reaches forward to greet new ways, is apt to\ndelight in having much fluid that ought to be fixed, and to value\nhimself on a 'liberality' which simply means that he has no central\ntruth and no rooted convictions. And as men grow older they stiffen\nmore and more, and have to leave the new work for new hands, and the\nnew thoughts for new brains. That is all in the order of nature, but so\nmuch the finer is it when we do see old Christian men who join to their\nfirm grip of the old Gospel the power of welcoming, and at least\nbidding God-speed to, new thoughts and new workers and new ways of work.\n\nThe union of these two characteristics should be consciously aimed at\nby us all. Hold unchanging, with a grasp that nothing can relax, by\nChrist our life and our all; but with that tenacity of mind, try to\ncultivate flexibility too. Love the old, but be ready to welcome the\nnew. Do not invest your own or other people's habits of thought or\nforms of work with the same sanctity which belongs to the central\ntruths of our salvation; do not let the willingness to entertain new\nlight lead you to tolerate any changes there. It is hard to blend the\ntwo virtues together, but they are meant to be complements, not\nopposites, to each other. The fluttering leaves and bending branches\nneed a firm stem and deep roots. The firm stem looks noblest in its\nunmoved strength when it is contrasted with a cloud of light foliage\ndancing in the wind. Try to imitate the persistency and the open mind\nof that 'old disciple' who was so ready to welcome and entertain the\nApostle of the Gentile Churches.\n\nIII. But there is still another lesson which, I think, this portrait\nmay suggest, and that is, the beauty that may dwell in an obscure life.\n\nThere is nothing to be said about this old man but that he was a\ndisciple. He had done no great thing for his Lord. No teacher or\npreacher was he. No eloquence or genius was in him. No great heroic\ndeed or piece of saintly endurance is to be recorded of him, but only\nthis, that he had loved and followed Christ all his days. And is not\nthat record enough? It is his blessed fate to live for ever in the\nworld's memory, with only that one word attached to his name--a\ndisciple.\n\nThe world may remember very little about us a year after we are gone.\nNo thought, no deed may be connected with our names but in some narrow\ncircle of loving hearts. There may be no place for us in any record\nwritten with a man's pen. But what does that matter, if our names, dear\nfriends, are written in the Lamb's Book of Life, with this for sole\nepitaph, 'a disciple'? That single phrase is the noblest summary of a\nlife. A thinker? a hero? a great man? a millionaire? No, a 'disciple.'\nThat says all. May it be your epitaph and mine!\n\nWhat Mnason could do he did. It was not his vocation to go into the\n'regions beyond,' like Paul; to guide the Church, like James; to put\nhis remembrances of his Master in a book, like Matthew; to die for\nJesus, like Stephen. But he could open his house for Paul and his\ncompany, and so take his share in their work. 'He that receiveth a\nprophet in the name of a prophet shall receive a prophet's reward.' He\nthat with understanding and sympathy welcomes and sustains the prophet,\nshows thereby that he stands on the same spiritual level, and has the\nmakings of a prophet in him, though he want the intellectual force and\nmay never open his lips to speak the burden of the Lord. Therefore he\nshall be one in reward as he is in spirit. The old law in Israel is the\nlaw for the warfare of Christ's soldiers. 'As his part is that goeth\ndown to the battle, so shall his part be that abideth by the stuff:\nthey shall part alike.' The men in the rear who guard the camp and keep\nthe communications open, may deserve honours, and crosses, and\nprize-money as much as their comrades who led the charge that cut\nthrough the enemy's line and scattered their ranks. It does not matter,\nso far as the real spiritual worth of the act is concerned, what we do,\nbut only why we do it. All deeds are the same which are done from the\nsame motive and with the same devotion; and He who judges, not by our\noutward actions but by the springs from which they come, will at last\nbracket together as equals many who were widely separated here in the\nform of their service and the apparent magnitude of their work.\n\n'She hath done what she could.' Her power determined the measure and\nthe manner of her work. One precious thing she had, and only one, and\nshe broke her one rich possession that she might pour the fragrant oil\nover His feet. Therefore her useless deed of utter love and\nuncalculating self-sacrifice was crowned by praise from His lips whose\npraise is our highest honour, and the world is still 'filled with the\nodour of the ointment.'\n\nSo this old disciple's hospitality is strangely immortal, and the\nrecord of it reminds us that the smallest service done for Jesus is\nremembered and treasured by Him. Men have spent their lives to win a\nline in the world's chronicles which are written on sand, and have\nbroken their hearts because they failed; and this passing act of one\nobscure Christian, in sheltering a little company of travel-stained\nwayfarers, has made his name a possession for ever. 'Seekest thou great\nthings for thyself? seek them not'; but let us fill our little corners,\ndoing our unnoticed work for love of our Lord, careless about man's\nremembrance or praise, because sure of Christ's, whose praise is the\nonly fame, whose remembrance is the highest reward. 'God is not\nunrighteous to forget your work and labour of love.'\n\n\n\nPAUL IN THE TEMPLE\n\n'And when the seven days were almost ended, the Jews which were of Asia\nwhen they saw him in the temple, stirred up all the people, and laid\nhands on him. 28. Crying out, Men of Israel, help: This is the man,\nthat teacheth all men everywhere against the people, and the law, and\nthis place: and further brought Greeks also into the temple, and hath\npolluted this holy place. 29. (For they had seen before with him in the\ncity Trophimus an Ephesian, whom they supposed that Paul had brought\ninto the temple.) 30. And all the city was moved, and the people ran\ntogether: and they took Paul, and drew him out of the temple: and\nforthwith the doors were shut. 31. And as they went about to kill him,\ntidings came unto the chief captain of the band, that all Jerusalem was\nin an uproar. 32. Who immediately took soldiers and centurions, and ran\ndown unto them: and when they saw the chief captain and the soldiers,\nthey left beating of Paul. 33. Then the chief captain came near, and\ntook him, and commanded him to be bound with two chains; and demanded\nwho he was, and what he had done. 34. And some cried one thing, some\nanother, among the multitude: and when he could not know the certainty\nfor the tumult, he commanded him to be carried into the castle. 35. And\nwhen he came upon the stairs, so it was, that he was borne of the\nsoldiers for the violence of the people. 36. For the multitude of the\npeople followed after, crying, Away with him. 37. And as Paul was to be\nled into the castle, he said unto the chief captain, May I speak unto\nthee? Who said, Canst thou speak Greek? 38. Art not thou that Egyptian,\nwhich before these days madest an uproar, and leddest out into the\nwilderness four thousand men that were murderers? 39. But Paul said, I\nam a man which am a Jew of Tarsus, a city in Cilicia, a citizen of no\nmean city: and, I beseech thee, suffer me to speak unto the\npeople.'--ACTS xxi. 27-39.\n\nThe stronger a man's faith, the greater will and should be his\ndisposition to conciliate. Paul may seem to have stretched\nconsideration for weak brethren to its utmost, when he consented to the\nproposal of the Jerusalem elders to join in performing the vow of a\nNazarite, and to appear in the Temple for that purpose. But he was\nquite consistent in so doing; for it was not Jewish ceremonial to which\nhe objected, but the insisting on it as necessary. For himself, he\nlived as a Jew, except in his freedom of intercourse with Gentiles. No\ndoubt he knew that the death-warrant of Jewish ceremonial had been\nsigned, but he could leave it to time to carry out the sentence. The\none thing which he was resolved should not be was its imposition on\nGentile Christians. Their road to Jesus was not through Temple or\nsynagogue. As for Jewish Christians, let them keep to the ritual if\nthey chose. The conciliatory plan recommended by the elders, though\nperfectly consistent with Paul's views and successful with the Jewish\nChristians, roused non-Christian Jews as might have been expected.\n\nThis incident brings out very strikingly the part played by each of the\ntwo factors in carrying out God's purposes for Paul. They are\nunconscious instruments, and co-operation is the last thing dreamed of\non either side; but Jew and Roman together work out a design of which\nthey had not a glimpse.\n\nI. Note the charge against Paul. The 'Jews from Asia' knew him by\nsight, as they had seen him in Ephesus and elsewhere; and possibly some\nof them had been fellow-passengers with him from Miletus. No wonder\nthat they construed his presence in the Temple into an insult to it. If\nLuther or John Knox had appeared in St. Peter's, he would not have been\nthought to have come as a worshipper. Paul's teaching may very\nnaturally have created the impression in hot-tempered partisans, who\ncould not draw distinctions, that he was the enemy of Temple and\nsacrifice.\n\nIt has always been the vice of religious controversy to treat\ninferences from heretical teaching, which appear plain to the critics,\nas if they were articles of the heretic's belief. These Jewish zealots\npractised a very common method when they fathered on Paul all which\nthey supposed to be involved in his position. Their charges against him\nare partly flat lies, partly conclusions drawn from misapprehension of\nhis position, partly exaggeration, and partly hasty assumptions. He had\nnever said a word which could be construed as 'against the people.' He\nhad indeed preached that the law was not for Gentiles, and was not the\nperfect revelation which brought salvation, and he had pointed to Jesus\nas in Himself realising all that the Temple shadowed; but such teaching\nwas not 'against' either, but rather for both, as setting both in their\ntrue relation to the whole process of revelation. He had not brought\n'Greeks' into the Temple, not even the one Greek whom malice multiplied\ninto many. When passion is roused, exaggerations and assumptions soon\nbecome definite assertions. The charges are a complete object-lesson in\nthe baser arts of religious (!) partisans; and they have been but too\nfaithfully reproduced in all ages. Did Paul remember how he had been\n'consenting' to the death of Stephen on the very same charges? How far\nhe has travelled since that day!\n\nII. Note the immediately kindled flame of popular bigotry. The always\ninflammable population of Jerusalem was more than usually excitable at\nthe times of the Feasts, when it was largely increased by zealous\nworshippers from a distance. Noble teaching would have left the mob as\nstolid as it found them; but an appeal to the narrow prejudices which\nthey thought were religion was a spark in gunpowder, and an explosion\nwas immediate. It is always easier to rouse men to fight for their\n'religion' than to live by it. Jehu was proud of what he calls his\n'zeal for the Lord,' which was really only ferocity with a mask on. The\nyelling crowd did not stop to have the charges proved. That they were\nmade was enough. In Scotland people used to talk of 'Jeddart justice,'\nwhich consisted in hanging a man first, and trying him leisurely\nafterwards. It was usually substantially just when applied to\nmoss-troopers, but does not do so well when administered to Apostles.\n\nNotice the carefulness to save the Temple from pollution, which is\nshown by the furious crowds dragging Paul outside before they kill him.\nThey were not afraid to commit murder, but they were horror-struck at\nthe thought of a breach of ceremonial etiquette. Of course! for when\nreligion is conceived of as mainly a matter of outward observances, sin\nis reduced to a breach of these. We are all tempted to shift the centre\nof gravity in our religion, and to make too much of ritual etiquette.\nKill Paul if you will, but get him outside the sacred precincts first.\nThe priests shut the doors to make sure that there should be no\nprofanation, and stopped inside the Temple, well pleased that murder\nshould go on at its threshold. They had better have rescued the victim.\nTime was when the altar was a sanctuary for the criminal who could\ngrasp its horns, but now its ministers wink at bloodshed with secret\napproval. Paul could easily have been killed in the crowd, and no\nresponsibility for his death have clung to any single hand. No doubt\nthat was the cowardly calculation which they made, and they were well\non the way to carry it out when the other factor comes into operation.\n\nIII. Note the source of deliverance. The Roman garrison was posted in\nthe fortress of Antonia, which commanded the Temple from a higher level\nat the north-west angle of the enclosure. Tidings 'came _up_' to the\nofficer in command, Claudius Lysias by name (Acts xxiii. 26), that all\nJerusalem was in confusion. With disciplined promptitude he turned out\na detachment and 'ran down upon them.' The contrast between the quiet\npower of the legionaries and the noisy feebleness of the mob is\nstriking. The best qualities of Roman sway are seen in this tribune's\nunhesitating action, before which the excited mob cowers in fright.\nThey 'left beating of Paul,' as knowing that a heavier hand would fall\non them for rioting. With swift decision Lysias acts first and talks\nafterwards, securing the man who was plainly the centre of disturbance,\nand then having got him fast with two chains on him, inquiring who he\nwas, and what he had been doing.\n\nThen the crowd breaks loose again in noisy and contradictory\nexplanations, all at the top of their voices, and each drowning the\nother. Clearly the bulk of them could not answer either of Lysias'\nquestions, though they could all bellow 'Away with him!' till their\nthroats were sore. It is a perfect picture of a mob, which is always\nferocious and volubly explanatory in proportion to its ignorance. One\nman kept his head in the hubbub, and that was Lysias, who determined to\nhold his prisoner till he did know something about him. So he ordered\nhim to be taken up into the castle; and as the crowd saw their prey\nescaping they made one last fierce rush, and almost swept away the\nsoldiers, who had to pick Paul up and carry him. Once on the stairs\nleading to the castle they were clear of the crowd, which could only\nsend a roar of baffled rage after them, and to this the stolid\nlegionaries were as deaf as were their own helmets.\n\nThe part here played by the Roman authority is that which it performs\nthroughout the Acts. It shields infant Christianity from Jewish\nassailants, like the wolf which, according to legend, suckled Romulus.\nThe good and the bad features of Roman rule were both valuable for that\npurpose. Its contempt for ideas, and above all for speculative\ndifferences in a religion which it regarded as a hurtful superstition,\nits unsympathetic incapacity for understanding its subject nations, its\nmilitary discipline, its justice, which though often tainted was yet\nbetter than the partisan violence which it coerced, all helped to make\nit the defender of the first Christians. Strange that Rome should\nshelter and Jerusalem persecute!\n\nMark, too, how blindly men fulfil God's purposes. The two bitter\nantagonists, Jew and Roman, seem to themselves to be working in direct\nopposition; but God is using them both to carry out His design. Paul\nhas to be got to Rome, and these two forces are combined by a wisdom\nbeyond their ken, to carry him thither. Two cogged wheels turning in\nopposite directions fit into each other, and grind out a resultant\nmotion, different from either of theirs. These soldiers and that mob\nwere like pawns on a chessboard, ignorant of the intentions of the hand\nwhich moves them.\n\nIV. Note the calm courage of Paul. He too had kept his head, and though\nbruised and hustled, and having but a minute or two beforehand looked\ndeath in the face, he is ready to seize the opportunity to speak a word\nfor his Master. Observe the quiet courtesy of his address, and his calm\nremembrance of the tribune's right to prevent his speaking. There is\nnothing more striking in Paul's character than his self-command and\ncomposure in all circumstances. This ship could rise to any wave, and\nride in any storm. It was not by virtue of happy temperament but of a\nfixed faith that his heart and mind were kept in perfect peace. It is\nnot easy to disturb a man who counts not his life dear if only he may\ncomplete his course. So these two men front each other, and it is hard\nto tell which has the quieter pulse and the steadier hand. The same\nsources of tranquil self-control and calm superiority to fortune which\nstood Paul in such good stead are open to us. If God is our rock and\nour high tower we shall not be moved.\n\nThe tribune had for some unknown reason settled in his mind that the\nApostle was a well-known 'Egyptian,' who had headed a band of 'Sicarii'\nor 'dagger-men,' of whose bloody doings Josephus tells us. How the Jews\nshould have been trying to murder such a man Lysias does not seem to\nhave considered. But when he heard the courteous, respectful Greek\nspeech of the Apostle he saw at once that he had got no uncultured\nruffian to deal with, and in answer to Paul's request and explanation\ngave him leave to speak. That has been thought an improbability. But\nstrong men recognise each other, and the brave Roman was struck with\nsomething in the tone and bearing of the brave Jew which made him\ninstinctively sure that no harm would come of the permission. There\nought to be that in the demeanour of a Christian which is as a\ntestimonial of character for him, and sways observers to favourable\nconstructions.\n\n\n\nPAUL ON HIS OWN CONVERSION\n\n'And it came to pass, that, as I made my journey, and was come nigh\nunto Damascus about noon, suddenly there shone from heaven a great\nlight round about me. 7. And I fell unto the ground, and heard a voice\nsaying unto me, Saul, Saul, why perseoutest thou Me? 8. And I answered,\nWho art Thou, Lord? And He said unto me, I am Jesus of Nazareth, whom\nthou persecutest. 9. And they that were with me saw indeed the light,\nand were afraid; but they heard not the voice of Him that spake to me.\n10. And I said, What shall I do, Lord? And the Lord said unto me,\nArise, and go into Damascus; and there it shall be told thee of all\nthings which are appointed for thee to do. 11. And when I could not see\nfor the glory of that light, being led by the hand of them that were\nwith me, I came into Damascus. 12. And one Ananias, a devout man\naccording to the law, having a good report of all the Jews which dwelt\nthere, 13. Came unto me, and stood, and said unto me, Brother Saul,\nreceive thy sight. And the same hour I looked up upon him. 14. And he\nsaid, The God of our fathers hath chosen thee, that thou shouldest know\nHis will, and see that Just One, and shouldest hear the voice of His\nmouth. 15. For thou shalt be His witness unto all men of what thou hast\nseen and heard. 16. And now why tarriest thou? arise, and be baptized,\nand wash away thy sins, calling on the name of the Lord.'--ACTS xxii.\n6-16.\n\nWe follow Paul's example when we put Jesus' appearance to him from\nheaven in a line with His appearances to the disciples on earth. 'Last\nof all, He appeared to me also.' But it does not follow that the\nappearances are all of the same kind, or that Paul thought that they\nwere. They were all equally real, equally 'objective,' equally valid\nproofs of Jesus' risen life. On two critical occasions Paul told the\nstory of Jesus' appearance as his best 'Apologia.' 'I saw and heard\nHim, and that revolutionised my life, and made me what I am.' The two\naccounts are varied, as the hearers were, but the differences are\neasily reconciled, and the broad facts are the same in both versions,\nand in Luke's rendering in chapter ix.\n\nA favourite theory in some quarters is that Paul's conversion was not\nsudden, but that misgivings had been working in him ever since\nStephen's death. Surely that view is clean against facts. Persecuting\nits adherents to the death is a strange result of dawning belief in\n'this way.' Paul may be supposed to have known his state of mind as\nwell as a critic nineteen centuries off does, and he had no doubt that\nhe set out from Jerusalem a bitter hater of the convicted impostor\nJesus, and stumbled into Damascus a convinced disciple because he had\nseen and heard Him. That is his account of the matter, which would not\nhave been meddled with if the meddlers had not taken offence at 'the\nsupernatural element.' We note the emphasis which Paul puts on the\nsuddenness of the appearance, implying that the light burst all in a\nmoment. A little bit of personal reminiscence comes up in his\nspecifying the time as 'about noon,' the brightest hour. He remembers\nhow the light outblazed even the blinding brilliance of a Syrian\nnoontide. He insists too on the fact that his senses were addressed,\nboth eye and ear. He saw the glory of that light, and heard the voice.\nHe does not say here that he saw Jesus, but that he did so is clear\nfrom Ananias' words, 'to see the Righteous One' (ver. 14), and from I\nCorinthians xv. 8. Further, he makes it very emphatic that the vision\nwas certified as no morbid fancy of his own, but yet was marked as\nmeant for him only, by the double fact that his companions did share in\nit, but only in part. They did see the light, but not 'the Righteous\nOne'; they did hear the sound of the voice, but not so as to know what\nit said. The difference between merely hearing a noise and discerning\nthe sense of the words is probably marked by the construction in the\nGreek, and is certainly to be understood.\n\nThe blaze struck all the company to the ground (Acts xxvi. 14). Prone\non the earth, and probably with closed eyes, their leader heard his own\nname twice sounded, with appeal, authority, and love in the tones. The\nstartling question which followed not only pierced conscience, and\ncalled for a reasonable vindication of his action, but flashed a new\nlight on it as being persecution which struck at this unknown heavenly\nspeaker. So the first thought in Saul's mind is not about himself or\nhis doings but about the identity of that Speaker. Awe, if not actual\nworship, is expressed in addressing Him as Lord. Wonder, with perhaps\nsome foreboding of what the answer would be, is audible in the\nquestion, 'Who art Thou?' Who can imagine the shock of the answer to\nSaul's mind? Then the man whom he had thought of as a vile apostate,\njustly crucified and not risen as his dupes dreamed, lived in heaven,\nknew him, Saul, and all that he had been doing, was 'apparelled in\ncelestial light,' and yet in heavenly glory was so closely identified\nwith these poor people whom he had been hunting to death that to strike\nthem was to hurt Him! A bombshell had burst, shattering the foundation\nof his fortifications. A deluge had swept away the ground on which he\nhad stood. His whole life was revolutionised. Its most solid elements\nwere dissolved into vapour, and what he had thought misty nonsense was\nnow the solid thing. To find a 'why' for his persecuting was\nimpossible, unless he had said (what in effect he did say), 'I did it\nignorantly.' When a man has a glimpse of Jesus exalted to heaven, and\nis summoned by Him to give a reason for his life of alienation, that\nlife looks very different from what it did, when seen by dimmer light.\nClothes are passable by candle-light that look very shabby in sunshine.\nWhen Jesus comes to us, His first work is to set us to judge our past,\nand no man can muster up respectable answers to His question, 'Why?'\nfor all sin is unreasonable, and nothing but obedience to Him can\nvindicate itself in His sight.\n\nSaul threw down his arms at once. His characteristic impetuosity and\neagerness to carry out his convictions impelled him to a surrender as\ncomplete as his opposition. The test of true belief in the ascended\nJesus is to submit the will to Him, to be chiefly desirous of knowing\nHis will, and ready to do it. 'Who art Thou, Lord?' should be followed\nby 'What shall I do, Lord?'\n\nBlind Saul, led by the hand into the city which he had expected to\nenter so differently, saw better than ever before. 'The glory of that\nlight' blinds us to things seen, but makes us able to see afar off the\nonly realities, the things unseen. Speaking to Jews, as here, Paul\ndescribed Ananias as a devout adherent of the law, in order to\nconciliate them and to suggest his great principle that a Christian was\nnot an apostate but a complete Jew. To Agrippa he drops all reference\nto Ananias as irrelevant, and throws together the words on the road and\nthe commission received through Ananias as equally Christ's voice. Here\nhe lays stress on his agency in restoring sight, and on his message as\nincluding two points--that it was 'the God of our fathers' who had\n'appointed' the vision, and that the purpose of the vision was to make\nSaul a witness to all men. The bearing of this on the conciliatory aim\nof the discourse is plain. We note also the precedence given in the\nstatement of the particulars of the vision to 'knowing his will'--that\nwas the end for which the light and the voice were given. Observe too\nhow the twofold evidence of sense is signalised, both in the reference\nto seeing the Righteous One and to hearing His voice and in the\ncommission to witness what Saul had seen and heard. The personal\nknowledge of Jesus, however attained, constitutes the qualification and\nthe obligation to be His witness. And the convincing testimony is when\nwe can say, as we all can say if we are Christ's, 'That which we have\nheard, that which we have seen with our eyes, that ... declare we unto\nyou.'\n\n\n\nROME PROTECTS PAUL\n\n'And it came to pass, that, when I was come again to Jerusalem, even\nwhile I prayed in the Temple, I was in a trance; 18. And saw Him saying\nunto me, Make haste, and get thee quickly out of Jerusalem: for they\nwill not receive thy testimony concerning Me. 19. And I said, Lord,\nthey know that I imprisoned and beat in every synagogue them that\nbelieved on Thee: 20. And when the blood of Thy martyr Stephen was\nshed, I also was standing by, and consenting unto his death, and kept\nthe raiment of them that slew him. 21. And He said unto me, Depart: for\nI will send thee far hence unto the Gentiles. 22. And they gave him\naudience unto this word, and then lifted up their voices, and said,\nAway with such a fellow from the earth: for it is not fit that he\nshould live. 23. And as they cried out, and cast off their clothes, and\nthrew dust into the air, 24. The chief captain commanded him to be\nbrought into the castle, and bade that he should be examined by\nscourging; that he might know wherefore they cried so against him. 25.\nAnd as they bound him with thongs, Paul said unto the centurion that\nstood by, Is it lawful for you to scourge a man that is a Roman, and\nuncondemned? 26. When the centurion heard that, he went and told the\nchief captain, saying, Take heed what thou doest: for this man is a\nRoman. 27. Then the chief captain came, and said, Tell me, art thou a\nRoman? He said, Yea. 28. And the chief captain answered, With a great\nsum obtained I this freedom. And Paul said, But I was free born. 29.\nThen straightway they departed from him which should have examined him:\nand the chief captain also was afraid, after he knew that he was a\nRoman, and because he had bound him. 30. On the morrow, because he\nwould have known the certainty wherefore he was accused of the Jews, he\nloosed him from his bands, and commanded the chief priests and all\ntheir council to appear, and brought Paul down, and set him before\nthem.'--ACTS xxii. 17-30.\n\nThe threatened storm soon burst on Paul in Jerusalem. On the third day\nafter his arrival he began the ceremonial recommended by the elders to\nprove his adherence to the law. Before the seven days during which it\nlasted were over the riot broke out, and he was saved from death only\nby the military tribune hurrying down to the Temple and dragging him\nfrom the mob.\n\nThe tribune's only care was to stamp out a riot, and whether the victim\nwas 'that Egyptian' or not, to prevent his being murdered. He knew\nnothing, and cared as little, about the grounds of the tumult, but he\nwas not going to let a crowd of turbulent Jews take the law into their\nown hands, and flout the majesty of Roman justice. So he lets the\nnearly murdered man say his say and keeps the mob off him. It was a\nstrange scene--below, the howling zealots; above, on the stairs, the\nChristian apologists guarded from his countrymen by a detachment of\nlegionaries; and the assembly presided over by a Roman tribune.\n\nIt is very characteristic of Paul that he thought that his own\nconversion was the best argument that he could use with his\nfellow-Israelites. So he tells his story, and this section strikes into\nhis speech at the point where he is coming to very thin ice indeed, and\nis about to vindicate his work among the Gentiles by declaring that it\nwas done in obedience to a command from heaven. We need not discuss the\ndate of the trance, whether it was in his first visit to Jerusalem\nafter his conversion or, as Ramsay strongly argues, is to be put at the\nvisit mentioned in Acts xi. 30 and xii. 25.\n\nWe note the delicate, conciliatory skill with which he brings out that\nhis conversion had not made him less a devout worshipper in the Temple,\nby specifying it as the scene of the trance, and prayer as his\noccupation then. The mention of the Temple also invested the vision\nwith sanctity.\n\nVery noticeable too is the avoidance of the name of Jesus, which would\nhave stirred passion in the crowd. We may also observe that the first\nwords of our Lord, as given by Paul, did not tell him whither he was to\ngo, but simply bade him leave Jerusalem. The full announcement of the\nmission to the Gentiles was delayed both by Jesus to Paul and by Paul\nto his brethren. He was to 'get quickly out of Jerusalem'; that was\ntragic enough. He was to give up working for his own people, whom he\nloved so well. And the reason was their rooted incredulity and their\nhatred of him. Other preachers might do something with them, but Paul\ncould not. 'They will not receive testimony of _thee_.'\n\nBut the Apostle's heart clung to his nation, and not even his Lord's\ncommand was accepted without remonstrance. His patriotism led him to\nthe verge of disobedience, and encouraged him to put in his 'But,\nLord,' with boldness that was all but presumption. He ventures to\nsuggest a reason why the Jews _would_, as he thinks, receive his\ntestimony. They knew what he had been, and they must bethink themselves\nthat there must be something real and mighty in the power which had\nturned his whole way of thinking and living right round, and made him\nlove all that he had hated, and count all that he had prized 'but\ndung.' The remonstrance is like Moses', like Jeremiah's, like that of\nmany a Christian set to work that goes against the grain, and called to\nrelinquish what he would fain do, and do what he would rather leave\nundone.\n\nBut Jesus does not take His servants' remonstrances amiss, if only they\nwill make them frankly to Him, and not keep muttering them under their\nbreath to themselves. Let us say all that is in our hearts. He will\nlisten, and clear away hesitations, and show us our path, and make us\nwilling to walk in it. Jesus did not discuss the matter with Paul, but\nreiterated the command, and made it more pointed and clear; and then\nPaul stopped objecting and yielded his will, as we should do. 'When he\nwould not be persuaded, we ceased, saying, The will of the Lord be\ndone.' The Apostle had kept from the obnoxious word as long as he\ncould, but it had to come, and he tells the enraged listeners at last,\nwithout circumlocution, that he is the Apostle of the Gentiles, that\nJesus has made him so against his will, and that therefore he must do\nthe work appointed him, though his heart-strings crack with seeming to\nbe cold to Israel.\n\nThe burst of fury, expressed in gestures which anybody who has ever\nseen two Easterns quarrelling can understand, looks fitter for a\nmadhouse than an audience of men in their senses. They yelled and tore\ntheir garments (and their beards, no doubt), and clutched handfuls of\ndust and tossed it in the air, like Shimei cursing David. What a\npicture of frenzied hate! And what was it all for? Because Gentiles\nwere to be allowed to share in Israel's privileges. And what were the\nprivileges which they thus jealously monopolised? The favour and\nprotection of the God who, as their own prophets had taught them, was\nthe God of the whole earth, and revealed Him to Israel that Israel\nmight reveal Him to the world.\n\nThe less they entered into the true possession of their heritage, the\nmore savagely they resented sharing it with the nations. The more their\nprerogative became a mere outward thing, the more they snarled at any\none who proposed to participate in it. To seek to keep religious\nblessings to one's self is a conclusive proof that they are not really\npossessed. If we have them we shall long to impart them. Formal\nreligionists always dislike missionary enterprise.\n\nThe tribune no doubt had been standing silently watching, in his\nstrong, contemptuous Roman way, the paroxysm of rage sweeping over his\ntroublesome charge. Of course he did not understand a word that the\nculprit had been saying, and could not make out what had produced the\noutburst. He felt that there was something here that he had not\nfathomed, and that he must get to the bottom of. It was useless to lay\nhold of any of these shrieking maniacs and try to get a reasonable word\nout of them. So he determined to see what he could make of the orator,\nwho had already astonished him by traces of superior education, and was\nevidently no mere vulgar firebrand or sedition-monger. He might have\ntried gentler means of extracting the truth than scourging, but that\nprocess of 'examination,' as it is flatteringly called, was common, and\nhas not been antiquated for so many centuries that we need wonder at\nthis Roman officer using it.\n\nPaul submitted, and was already tied up to some whipping-post, in an\nattitude which would expose his back to the lash, when he quietly\ndropped, to the inferior officer detailed to superintend the flogging,\nthe question which fell like a bombshell. Possibly the Apostle had not\nknown what the soldiers were ordered to do with him till he was tied\nup. We cannot tell why he did not plead his citizenship sooner. But we\nmay remember that at Philippi he did not plead it at all till after the\nscourging. Why he delayed so long in the present instance, and why he\nat last spoke the magic words, 'I am a Roman citizen,' we cannot say.\nBut we may gather the two lessons that Christ's servants are often wise\nin submitting silently to wrongs, and that they are within their rights\nin availing themselves of legal defences against illegal treatment.\nWhether silence or protest is the more expedient must be determined in\neach case by conscience, guided by the sought-for guidance of the\nenlightening Spirit. The determining consideration should be, Which\ncourse will best glorify my Master?\n\nThe information brought the tribune in haste to the place where the\nApostle was still tied up. The tables were turned indeed. His brief\nanswer, 'Yea,' was accepted at once, for to claim the sacred name of\nRoman falsely would have been too dangerous, and no doubt Paul's\nbearing impressed the tribune with a conviction of his truthfulness. A\nhint of contempt and doubt lies in his remark that he had paid dearly\nfor the franchise, which remark implies, 'Where did a poor man like you\nget the money then?' A shameful trade in selling citizens' rights was\ncarried on in the degraded days of the Empire by underlings at court,\nand no doubt the tribune had procured his citizenship in that way.\nPaul's answer explains that he was born free, and so was above his\nquestioner.\n\nThat discovery put an end to all thought of scourging. Paul was at once\nliberated, and the tribune, terrified that he might be reported, seeks\nto repair his error and changes his tactics, retaining Paul for safety\nin the castle, and summoning the Sanhedrim, to try to find out more of\nthis strange affair through them. The great council of the nation had\nsunk low indeed when it had to obey the call of a Roman soldier.\n\nThus once more, as so continually in the Acts, Rome is friendly to the\nChristian teachers and saves them from Jewish fury. To point out that\nearly protection and benevolent sufferance is one purpose of the whole\nbook. The days of Roman persecution had not yet come. The Empire was\nfavourable to Christianity, not only because its officials were too\nproud to take interest in petty squabbles between two sects of Jews\nabout their absurd superstitions, but reasons of political wisdom\ncombined with supercilious indifference to bring about this attitude.\n\nThe strong hand of Rome, too, if it crushed national independence, also\nsuppressed violence, kept men from flying at each other's throats,\nspread peace over wide lands, and made the journeyings of Paul and the\nplanting of the early Christian Churches possible. It was a\nGod-appointed, though an imperfect, and in some aspects, mischievous\nunity, and prepared the way for that higher form of unity realised in\nthe Church which finally shattered the coarser Empire which had at\nfirst sheltered it. The Caesars were doing God's work when they were\nfollowing their own lust of empire. They were yoked to Christ's\nchariot, though unwitting and unwilling. To them, as truly as to Cyrus,\nmight the divine voice have said, 'I girded thee, though thou hast not\nknown Me.'\n\n\n\nCHRIST'S WITNESSES\n\n'And the night following the Lord stood by him, and said, Be of good\ncheer, Paul: for as thou hast testified of Me in Jerusalem, so must\nthou bear witness also at Rome.'--ACTS xxiii. 11.\n\nIt had long been Paul's ambition to 'preach the Gospel to you that are\nat Rome also.' His settled policy, as shown by this Book of the Acts,\nwas to fly at the head, to attack the great centres of population. We\ntrace him from Antioch to Philippi, Thessalonica, Athens, Corinth,\nEphesus; and of course Rome was the goal, where a blow struck at the\nheart might reverberate through the empire. So he had planned for it,\nand prayed about it, and thought about it, and spoken about it. But his\nwish was accomplished, as our prayers and purposes so often are, in a\nmanner very strange to him. A popular riot in Jerusalem, a\nhalf-friendly arrest by the contemptuous impartiality of a Roman\nofficer, a final rejection by the Sanhedrim, a prison in Caesarea, an\nappeal to Caesar, a weary voyage, a shipwreck: this was the chain of\ncircumstances which fulfilled his desire, and brought him to the\nimperial city.\n\nMy text comes at the crisis of his fate. He has just been rejected by\nhis people, and for the moment is in safety in the castle under the\ncharge of the Roman garrison. One can fancy how, as he lay there in the\nbarrack that night, he felt that he had come to a turning-point; and\nthe thoughts were busy in his mind, 'Is this for life or for death? Am\nI to do any more work for Christ, or am I silenced for ever?'--'And the\nLord stood by him and said, Be of good cheer, Paul!' The divine message\nassured him that he should live; it testified of Christ's approbation\nof his past, and promised him that, in recompense for that past, he\nshould have wider work to do. So he passed to the unknown future\nquietly; and went on his way with the Master by his side.\n\nNow, dear friends, it seems to me that in these great words there lie\nlessons applying to all Christian people as truly, though in different\nfashion, as they did to the Apostle, and having an especial bearing on\nthat great enterprise of Christian missions, with which I would connect\nthem in this sermon. I desire, then, to draw out the lessons which seem\nto me to lie under the surface of this great promise.\n\nI. To live ought to be, for a Christian, to witness.\n\nThe promise in form is a promise of continued testimony-bearing; in its\nsubstance, one might say, it is a promise of continued life. Paul is\ncheered, not by being told that the wrath of the enemy will launch\nitself at his head in vain, and that he will bear a charmed life\nthrough it all, but by being told that there is work for him to do yet.\nThat is the shape in which the promise of life is held out to him. So\nit always ought to be; a Christian man's life ought to be one\ncontinuous witnessing for that Lord Christ who stood by the Apostle in\nthe castle at Jerusalem.\n\nLet me just urge this upon you for a few moments. It seems to me that\nto raise up witnesses for Himself is, in one aspect, the very purpose\nof all Christ's work. You and I, dear brethren, if we have any living\nhold of that Lord, have received Him into our hearts, not only in order\nthat for ourselves we may rejoice in Him, but in order that, for\nourselves rejoicing in Him, we may 'show forth the virtues of Him who\nhath called us out of darkness into His marvellous light.' There is no\ncreature so great as that he is not regarded as a means to a further\nend; and there is no creature so small but that he has the right to\nclaim happiness and blessing from the Hand that made him. Jesus Christ\nhas drawn us to Himself, that we may know the sweetness of His\npresence, the cleansing of His blood, the stirring and impulse of His\nindwelling life in us for our own joy and our own completion, but also\nthat we may be His witnesses and weapons, according to that great word:\n'This people have I formed for Myself. They shall shew forth My praise.'\n\nGod has 'shined into our hearts in order that we may give,' reflecting\nthe beams that fall upon them, 'the light of the knowledge of the glory\nof God, in the face of Jesus Christ.' Brother and sister, if you have\nthe Christian life in your souls, one purpose of your possessing it is\nthat you may bear witness for Him.\n\nAgain, such witness-bearing is the result of all true, deep, Christian\nlife. All life longs to manifest itself in action. Every conviction\nthat a man has seeks for utterance; especially so do the beliefs that\ngo deepest and touch the moral and spiritual nature and relationships\nof a man. He that perceives them is thereby impelled to desire to utter\nthem. There can be no real, deep possession of that great truth of the\nGospel which we profess to be the foundation of our personal lives,\nunless we have felt the impulse to spread the name and to declare the\nsweetness of the Lord. The very same impulse that makes the loving\nheart carve the beloved name on the smooth rind of the tree makes it\nsweet to one who is in real touch and living fellowship with Jesus\nChrist to speak about Him. O brother! _there_ is a very sharp test for\nus. I know that there are hundreds of professing Christians--decent,\nrespectable sort of people, with a tepid, average amount of Christian\nfaith and principle in them--who never felt that overmastering desire,\n'I _must_ let this thing out through my lips.' Why? Why do they not\nfeel it? Because their own possession of Christ is so superficial and\npartial. Jeremiah's experience will be repeated where there is vigorous\nChristian life: 'Thy word shut up in my bones was like a fire'--that\nburned itself through all the mass that was laid upon it, and ate its\nway victoriously into the light--'and I was weary with forbearing, and\nI could not stay.' Christian men and women, do you know anything of\nthat o'er-mastering impulse? If you do not, look to the depth and\nreality of your Christian profession.\n\nAgain, this witnessing is the condition of all strong life. If you keep\nnipping the buds off a plant you will kill it. If you never say a word\nto a human soul about your Christianity, your Christianity will tend to\nevaporate. Action confirms and strengthens convictions; speech deepens\nconviction; and although it is possible for any one--and some of us\nministers are in great danger of making the possibility a reality--to\ntalk away his religion, for one of us who loses it by speaking too much\nabout it, there are twenty that damage it by speaking too little. Shut\nit up, and it will be like some wild creature put into a cellar, fast\nlocked and unventilated; when you open the door it will be dead. Shut\nit up, as so many of our average Christian professors and members of\nour congregations and churches do, and when you come to take it out, it\nwill be like some volatile perfume that has been put into a vial and\nlocked away in a drawer and forgotten; there will be nothing left but\nan empty bottle, and a rotten cork. Speak your faith if you would have\nyour faith strengthened. Muzzle it, and you go a long way to kill it.\nYou are witnesses, and you cannot blink the obligation nor shirk the\nduties without damaging that in yourselves to which you are to witness.\n\nFurther, this task of witnessing for Christ can be done by all kinds of\nlife. I do not need to dwell upon the distinction between the two great\nmethods which open themselves out before every one of us. They do so;\nfor direct work in speaking the name of Jesus Christ is possible for\nevery Christian, whoever he or she is, however weak, ignorant,\nuninfluential, with howsoever narrow a circle. There is always somebody\nthat God means to be the audience of His servant whenever that servant\nspeaks of Christ. Do you not know that there are people in this world,\nas wives, children, parents, friends of different sorts, who would\nlisten to you more readily than they would listen to any one else\nspeaking about Jesus Christ? Friend, have you utilised these\nrelationships in the interests of that great Name, and in the highest\ninterests of the persons that sustain them to you, and of yourselves\nwho sustain these to them?\n\nAnd then there is indirect work that we can all do in various ways, I\ndo not mean only by giving money, though of course that is important,\nbut I mean all the manifold ways in which Christian people can show\ntheir sympathy with, and their interest in, the various forms in which\nadventurous, chivalrous, enterprising Christian benevolence expresses\nitself. It was an old law in Israel that 'as his part was that went\ndown into the battle, so should his part be that tarried by the stuff.'\nWhen victory was won and the spoil came to be shared, the men who had\nstopped behind and looked after the base of operations and kept open\nthe communications received the same portion as the man that, in the\nfront rank of the battle, had rushed upon the spears of the Amalekites.\nWhy? Because from the same motive they had been co-operant to the same\ngreat end. The Master has taken up that very thought, and has applied\nit in relation to the indirect work of His people, when He says, 'He\nthat receiveth a prophet in the name of a prophet shall receive a\nprophet's reward.' The motive is the same; therefore the essential\ncharacter of the act is the same; therefore the recompense is\nidentical. You can witness for Christ directly, if you can say--and you\ncan all say if you like--'We have found the Messias,' and you can\nwitness for Christ by casting yourselves earnestly into sympathy with\nand, so far as possible, help to the work that your brethren are doing.\nDear friends, I beseech you to remember that we are all of us, if we\nare His followers, bound in our humble measure and degree, and with a\nreverent apprehension of the gulf between us and Him, still to take up\nHis words and say, 'To this end was I born, and for this cause came I\ninto the world, that I might bear witness to the truth.'\n\nII. There is a second thought that I would suggest from these words,\nand that is that secular events are ordered with a view to this\nwitnessing.\n\nTake the case before us. Here are two independent and hostile powers;\non the one hand the bigoted Jewish Sanhedrim, hating the Roman yoke;\nand on the other hand the haughty and cruel pressure of that yoke on a\nrecalcitrant and reluctant people: and these two internecine enemies\nare working on their own lines, each very willing to thwart the other,\nMechanicians talk of the 'composition of forces,' by which two\npressures acting at right angles to each other on a given object,\nimpart to it a diagonal motion. The Sanhedrim on the one side,\nrepresenting Judaism, and the captain of the castle on the other,\nrepresenting the Roman power, work into each other's hands, although\nneither of them knows it; and work out the fulfilment of a purpose that\nis hidden from them both.\n\nNo doubt it would be a miserably inadequate account of things to say\nthat the Roman Empire came into existence for the sake of propagating\nChristianity. No doubt it is always dangerous to account for any\nphenomenon by the ends which, to our apprehension, it serves. But at\nthe same time the study of the purposes which a given thing, being in\nexistence, serves, and the study of the forces which brought it into\nexistence, ought to be combined, and when combined, they present a\ndouble reason for adoring that great Providence which 'makes the wrath\nof men to praise' it, and uses for moral and spiritual ends the\ncreatures that exist, the events that emerge, and even the godless\ndoings of godless men.\n\nSo here we have a standing example of the way in which, like silk-worms\nthat are spinning threads for a web that they have no notion of, the\ndeeds of men that think not so are yet grasped and twined together by\nJesus Christ, the Lord of providence, so as to bring about the\nrealisation of His great purposes. And that is always so, more or less\nclearly.\n\nFor instance, if we wish to understand our own lives, do not let us\ndwell upon the superficialities of joy or sorrow, gain or loss, but let\nus get down to the depth, and see that all these externals have two\ngreat purposes in view--first, that we may be made like our Lord, as\nthe Scripture itself says, 'That we may be partakers of His holiness,'\nand then that we may bear our testimony to His grace and love. Oh, if\nwe would only look at life from that point of view, we should be\nbrought to a stand less often at what we choose to call the mysteries\nof providence! Not enjoyment, not sorrow, but our perfecting in\ngodliness and of the increase of our power and opportunities to bear\nwitness to Him, are the intention of all that befalls us.\n\nI need not speak about how this same principle must be applied, by\nevery man who believes in a divine providence, to the wider events of\nthe world's history, I need not dwell upon that, nor will your time\nallow me to do it, but one word I should like to say, and that is that\nsurely the two facts that we, as Christians, possess, as we believe,\nthe pure faith, and that we, as Englishmen, are members of a community\nwhose influence is world-wide, do not come together for nothing, or\nonly that some of you might make fortunes out of the East Indian and\nChina trade, but in order that all we English Christians might feel\nthat, our speaking as we do the language which is destined, as it would\nappear, to run round the whole world, and our having, as we have, the\nfaith which we believe brings salvation to every man of every race and\ntongue who accepts it, and our having this responsible necessary\ncontact with the heathen races, lay upon us English Christians\nobligations the pressure and solemnity of which we have yet failed to\nappreciate.\n\nPaul was immortal till his work was done. 'Be of good cheer, Paul; thou\nmust bear witness at Rome.' And so, for ourselves and for the Gospel\nthat we profess, the same divine Providence which orders events so that\nHis servants may have the opportunities of witnessing to it, will take\ncare that it shall not perish--notwithstanding all the premature\njubilation of anti-Christian literature and thought in this day--until\nit has done its work. We need have no fear for ourselves, for though\nour blind eyes often fail to see, and our bleeding hearts often fail to\naccept, the conviction that there are no unfinished lives for His\nservants, yet we may be sure that He will watch over each of His\nchildren till they have finished the work that He gives them to do. And\nwe may be sure, in regard to His great Gospel, that nothing can sink\nthe ship that carries Christ and His fortunes. 'Be of good cheer ...\nthou hast borne witness ... thou must bear witness.'\n\nIII. Lastly, we have here another principle--namely that faithful\nwitnessing is rewarded by further witnessing.\n\n'Thou hast ... in Jerusalem,' the little city perched upon its crag;\n'Thou must ... in Rome,' the great capital seated on its seven hills.\nThe reward for work is more work. Jesus Christ did not say to the\nApostle, though he was 'wearied with that which came upon him daily,\nthe care of all the churches,' 'Thou hast borne witness, and now come\napart and rest'; but He said to him, 'Thou hast filled the smaller\nsphere; for recompense I put thee into a larger.'\n\nThat is the law for life and everywhere, the tools to the hand that can\nuse them. The man that can do a thing gets it to do in too large a\nmeasure, as he sometimes thinks; but he gets it, and it is all right\nthat he should. 'To him that hath shall be given.' And it is the law\nfor heaven. 'Thou hast borne witness down on the little dark earth;\ncome up higher and witness for Me here, amid the blaze.'\n\nIt is the law for this Christian work of ours. If you have shone\nfaithfully in your 'little corner,' as the child's hymn says, you will\nbe taken out and set upon the lamp-stand, that you 'may give light to\nall that are in the house.' And it is the law for this great enterprise\nof Christian missions, as we all know. We are overwhelmed with our\nsuccess. Doors are opening around us on every side. There is no limit\nto the work that English Churches can do, except their inclination to\ndo it. But the opportunities open to us require a far deeper\nconsecration and a far closer dwelling beside our Master than we have\never realised. We are half asleep yet; we do not know our resources in\nmen, in money, in activity, in prayer.\n\nSurely there can be no sadder sign of decadence and no surer precursor\nof extinction than to fall beneath the demands of our day; to have\ndoors opening at which we are too lazy or selfish to go in; to be so\nsound asleep that we never hear the man of Macedonia when he stands by\nus and cries, 'Come over and help us!' We are members of a Church that\nGod has appointed to be His witnesses to the ends of the earth. We are\ncitizens of a nation whose influence is ubiquitous and felt in every\nland. By both characters, God summons us to tasks which will tax all\nour resources worthily to do. We inherit a work from our fathers which\nGod has shown that He owns by giving us these golden opportunities. He\nsummons us: 'Lengthen thy cords and strengthen thy stakes. Come out of\nJerusalem; come into Rome.' Shall we respond? God give us grace to fill\nthe sphere in which He has set us, till He lifts us to the wider one,\nwhere the faithfulness of the steward is exchanged for the authority of\nthe ruler, and the toil of the servant for the joy of the Lord!\n\n\n\nA PLOT DETECTED\n\n'And when it was day, certain of the Jews banded together, and bound\nthemselves under a curse, saying that they would neither eat nor drink\ntill they had killed Paul. 13. And they were more than forty which had\nmade this conspiracy. 14. And they came to the chief priests and\nelders, and said, We have bound ourselves under a great curse, that we\nwill eat nothing until we have slain Paul. 15. Now therefore ye with\nthe council signify to the chief captain that he bring him down unto\nyou to-morrow, as though ye would inquire something more perfectly\nconcerning him: and we, or ever he come near, are ready to kill him.\n16. And when Paul's sister's son heard of their lying in wait, he went\nand entered into the castle, and told Paul. 17. Then Paul called one of\nthe centurions unto him, and said, Bring this young man unto the chief\ncaptain: for he hath a certain thing to tell him. 18. So he took him,\nand brought him to the chief captain, and said, Paul the prisoner\ncalled me unto him, and prayed me to bring this young man unto thee,\nwho hath something to say unto thee. 19. Then the chief captain took\nhim by the hand, and went with him aside privately, and asked him, What\nis that thou hast to tell me? 20. And he said, The Jews have agreed to\ndesire thee that thou wouldest bring down Paul to-morrow into the\ncouncil, as though they would enquire somewhat of him more perfectly.\n21. But do not thou yield unto them: for there lie in wait for him of\nthem more than forty men, which have bound themselves with an oath,\nthat they will neither eat nor drink till they have killed him: and now\nare they ready, looking for a promise from thee. 22. So the chief\ncaptain then let the young man depart, and charged him, See thou tell\nno man that thou hast shewed these things to me.'--ACTS xxiii. 12-22.\n\n'The wicked plotteth against the just.... The Lord will laugh at him.'\nThe Psalmist's experience and his faith were both repeated in Paul's\ncase. His speech before the Council had set Pharisees and Sadducees\nsquabbling, and the former had swallowed his Christianity for the sake\nof his being 'a Pharisee and the son of a Pharisee.' Probably,\ntherefore, the hatchers of this plot were Sadducees, who hated\nPharisees even more than they did Christians. The Apostle himself was\nafterwards not quite sure that his skilful throwing of the apple of\ndiscord between the two parties was right (Acts xxiv. 21), and\napparently it was the direct occasion of the conspiracy. A Christian\nman's defence of himself and his faith gains nothing by clever tactics.\nIt is very doubtful whether what Paul spoke 'in that hour' was taught\nhim by the Spirit.\n\n'The corruption of the best is the worst.' There is a close and strange\nalliance between formal religion and murderous hatred and vulpine\ncraft, as the history of ecclesiastical persecution shows; and though\nwe have done with fire and faggot now, the same evil passions and\ntempers do still in modified form lie very near to a Christianity which\nhas lost its inward union with Jesus and lives on surface adherence to\nforms. In that sense too 'the letter killeth.' We lift up our hands in\nhorror at these fierce fanatics, 'ready to kill' Paul, because he\nbelieved in resurrection, angel, and spirit. We need to guard ourselves\nlest something of their temper should be in us. There is a devilish\ningenuity about the details of the plot, and a truly Oriental mixture\nof murderous passion and calculating craft. The serpent's wisdom and\nhis poison fangs are both apparent. The forty conspirators must have\nbeen 'ready,' not only to kill Paul, but to die in the attempt, for the\ndistance from the castle to the council-chamber was short, and the\ndetachment of legionaries escorting the prisoner would have to be\nreckoned with.\n\nThe pretext of desiring to inquire more fully into Paul's opinions\nderived speciousness from his ambiguous declaration, which had set the\nCouncil by the ears and had stopped his examination. Luke does not tell\nus what the Council said to the conspirators, but we learn from what\nPaul's nephew says in verse 20 that it 'agreed to ask thee to bring\ndown Paul.' So once more the tail drove on the head, and the Council\nbecame the tool of fierce zealots. No doubt most of its members would\nhave shrunk from themselves killing Paul, but they did not shrink from\nhaving a hand in his death. They were most religious and respectable\nmen, and probably soothed their consciences with thinking that, after\nall, the responsibility was on the shoulders of the forty conspirators.\nHow men can cheat themselves for a while as to the criminality of\nindirectly contributing to criminal acts, and how rudely the thin veil\nwill be twitched aside one day!\n\nII. The abrupt introduction of Paul's nephew into the story piques\ncuriosity, but we cannot say more about him than is told us here. We do\nnot know whether he was moved by being a fellow-believer in Jesus, or\nsimply by kindred and natural affection. Possibly he was, as his uncle\nhad been, a student under some distinguished Rabbi. At all events, he\nmust have had access to official circles to have come on the track of\nthe plot, which would, of course, be covered up as much as possible.\nThe rendering in the margin of the Revised Version gives a possible\nexplanation of his knowledge of it by suggesting that he had 'come in\nupon them'; that is, upon the Council in their deliberations. But\nprobably the rendering preferred in the text is preferable, and we are\nleft to conjecture his source of information, as almost everything else\nabout him. But it is more profitable to note how God works out His\npurposes and delivers His servants by 'natural' means, which yet are as\ntruly divine working as was the sending of the angel to smite off\nPeter's chains, or the earthquake at Philippi.\n\nThis lad was probably not an inhabitant of Jerusalem, and that he\nshould have been there then, and come into possession of the carefully\nguarded secret, was more than a fortunate coincidence. It was divinely\nordered, and God's finger is as evident in the concatenation of\nco-operating natural events as in any 'miracle.' To co-ordinate these\nso that they concur to bring about the fulfilment of His will may be a\nless conspicuous, but is not a less veritable, token of a sovereign\nWill at work in the world than any miracle is. And in this case how\nwonderfully separate factors, who think themselves quite independent,\nare all handled like pawns on a chessboard by Him who 'makes the wrath\nof man to praise Him, and girds Himself with the remainder thereof!'\nLittle did the fiery zealots who were eager to plunge their daggers\ninto Paul's heart, or the lad who hastened to tell him the secret he\nhad discovered, or the Roman officer who equally hastened to get rid of\nhis troublesome prisoner, dream that they were all partners in bringing\nabout one God-determined result--the fulfilment of the promise that had\ncalmed Paul in the preceding night: 'So must thou bear witness also at\nRome.'\n\nIII. Paul had been quieted after his exciting day by the vision which\nbrought that promise, and this new peril did not break his peace. With\ncharacteristic clear-sightedness he saw the right thing to do in the\ncircumstances, and with characteristic promptitude he did it at once.\nLuke wastes no words in telling of the Apostle's emotions when this\nformidable danger was sprung on him, and the very reticence deepens the\nimpression of Paul's equanimity and practical wisdom. A man who had had\nsuch a vision last night might well possess his soul in patience, even\nthough such a plot was laid bare this morning; and each servant of\nJesus may be as well assured, as was Paul the prisoner, that the Lord\nshall 'keep him from all evil,' and that if his life is 'witness' it\nwill not end till his witness is complete. Our faith should work in us\ncalmness of spirit, clearness of perception of the right thing to do,\nswift seizing of opportunities. Paul trusted Jesus' word that he should\nbe safe, whatever dangers threatened, but that trust stimulated his own\nefforts to provide for his safety.\n\nIV. The behaviour of the captain is noteworthy, as showing that he had\nbeen impressed by Paul's personal magnetism, and that he had in him a\nstrain of courtesy and kindliness. He takes the lad by the hand to\nencourage him, and he leads him aside that he may speak freely, and\nthereby shows that he trusted him. No doubt the youth would be somewhat\nflustered at being brought into the formidable presence and by the\nweight of his tidings, and the great man's gentleness would be a\ncordial. A superior's condescension is a wonderful lip-opener. We all\nhave some people who look up to us, and to whom small kindlinesses from\nus are precious. We do not 'render to all their dues,' unless we give\ngracious courtesy to those beneath, as well as 'honour' to those above,\nus. But the captain could clothe himself too with official reserve and\nkeep up the dignity of his office. He preserved an impenetrable silence\nas to his intentions, and simply sealed the young man's lips from\ntattling about the plot or the interview with him. Promptly he acted,\nwithout waiting for the Council's application to him. At once he\nprepared to despatch Paul to Caesarea, glad enough, no doubt, to wash\nhis hands of so troublesome a charge. Thus he too was a cog in the\nwheel, an instrument to fulfil the promise made in vision, God's\nservant though he knew it not.\n\n\n\nA LOYAL TRIBUTE [Footnote: Preached on the occasion of the Jubilee of\nQueen Victoria.]\n\n'...Seeing that by thee we enjoy great quietness, and that very worthy\ndeeds are done unto this nation by thy providence, 3. We accept it\nalways ... with all thankfulness.'--ACTS xxiv. 2-3.\n\nThese words were addressed by a professional flatterer to one of the\nworst of the many bad Roman governors of Syria. The speaker knew that\nhe was lying, the listeners knew that the eulogium was undeserved; and\namong all the crowd of bystanders there was perhaps not a man who did\nnot hate the governor, and would not have been glad to see him lying\ndead with a dagger in his breast.\n\nBut both the fawning Tertullus and the oppressor Felix knew in their\nheart of hearts that the words described what a governor ought to be.\nAnd though they are touched with the servility which is not loyalty,\nand embrace a conception of the royal function attributing far more to\nthe personal influence of a monarch than our State permits, still we\nmay venture to take them as the starting-point for two or three\nconsiderations suggested to us, by the celebrations of the past week.\n\nI almost feel that I owe an apology for turning to that subject, for\neverything that can be said about it has been said far better than I\ncan say it. But still, partly because my silence might be\nmisunderstood, and partly because an opportunity is thereby afforded\nfor looking from a Christian point of view at one or two subjects that\ndo not ordinarily come within the scope of one's ministry, I venture to\nchoose such a text now.\n\nI. The first thing that I would take it as suggesting is the grateful\nacknowledgment of personal worth.\n\nI suppose the world never saw a national rejoicing like that through\nwhich we have passed. For the reigns that have been long enough to\nadmit of it have been few, and those in which intelligently and\nsincerely a whole nation of freemen could participate have been fewer\nstill. But now all England has been one; whatever our divisions of\nopinion, there have been no divisions here. Not only have the bonfires\nflared from hill to hill in this little island of ours, but all over\nthe world, into every out of the way corner where our widely-spread\nrace has penetrated, the same sentiment has extended. All have yielded\nto the common impulse, the rejoicing of a free people in a good Queen.\n\nThat common sentiment has embraced two things, the office and the\nperson. There was a pathetic contrast between these two when that\nsad-hearted widow walked alone up the nave of Westminster Abbey, and\ntook her seat on the stone of destiny on which for a millennium kings\nhave been crowned. The contrast heightened both the reverence due to\nthe office and the sympathy due to the woman. The Sovereign is the\nvisible expression of national power, the incarnation of England,\nliving history, the outcome of all the past, the representative of\nharmonised and blended freedom and law, a powerful social influence\nfrom which much good might flow, a moderating and uniting power amidst\nfierce partisan bitterness and hate, a check against rash change. There\nis no nobler office upon earth.\n\nAnd when, as is the case in this long reign, that office has been\nfilled with some consciousness of its responsibilities, the recognition\nof the fact is no flattery but simple duty. We cannot attribute to the\npersonal initiative of the Queen the great and beneficent changes which\nhave coincided with her reign. Thank God, no monarch can make or mar\nEngland now. But this we can say,\n\n  'Her court was pure, her life serene.'\n\nA life touched with many gracious womanly charities, delighting in\nsimple country pleasures, not strange to the homes of the poor, quick\nto sympathise with sorrow, especially the humblest, as many a weeping\nwidow at a pit mouth has thankfully felt; sternly repressive of some\nforms of vice in high places, and, as we may believe, not ignorant of\nthe great Comforter nor disobedient to the King of kings,--for such a\nroyal life a nation may well be thankful. We outsiders do not know how\nfar personal influence from the throne has in any case restrained or\nfurthered national action, but if it be true, as is alleged, that twice\nin her reign the Queen has kept England from the sin and folly of war,\nonce from a fratricidal conflict with the great new England across the\nAtlantic, then we owe her much. If in later years that life has\nsomewhat shrunk into itself and sat silent, with Grief for a companion,\nthose who know a like desolation will understand, and even the happy\nmay honour an undying love and respect the seclusion of an undying\nsorrow. So I say: 'Forasmuch as under thee we enjoy great quietness, we\naccept it with all thankfulness.'\n\nII. My text may suggest for us a wider view of progress which, although\nnot initiated by the Queen, has coincided with her fifty years' reign.\n\nIn the Revised Version, instead of 'worthy deeds are done,' we read\n'_evils are corrected_'; and that is the true rendering. The double\nfunction which is here attributed falsely to an oppressive tyrant is\nthe ancient ideal of monarchy--first, that it shall repress disorders\nand secure tranquillity within the borders and across the frontiers;\nand second, that abuses and evils shall be corrected by the foresight\nof the monarch.\n\nNow, in regard to both these functions we have learned that a nation\ncan do them a great deal better than a sovereign. And so when we speak\nof progress during this fifty years' reign, we largely mean the\nprogress which England in its toiling millions and in its thinking few\nhas won for itself. Let me in very brief words try to touch upon the\nsalient points of that progress for which as members of the nation it\nbecomes us as Christian people to be thankful. Enough hosannas have\nbeen sung already, and I need not add my poor voice to them, about\nmaterial progress and commercial prosperity and the growth of\nmanufacturing industry and inventions and all the rest of it. I do not\nfor a moment mean to depreciate these, but it is of more importance\nthat a telegraph should have something to say than that it should be\nable to speak across the waters, and 'man doth not live by bread alone,\nbut by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.' We who live\nin a great commercial community and know how solid comfort and hope and\ngladness are all contingent, in millions of humble homes, upon the\nmanufacturing industry of these districts, shall never be likely to\nunderrate the enormous expansion in national industry, and the\nconsequent enormous increase in national wealth, which belongs to this\nlast half century. I need say nothing about these.\n\nLet me remind you, and I can only do it in a sentence or two, of more\nimportant changes in these fifty years. English manners and morals have\nbeen bettered, much of savagery and coarseness has been got rid of;\nlow, cruel amusements have been abandoned. Thanks to the great Total\nAbstinence movement very largely, the national conscience has been\nstirred in regard to the great national sin of intoxication. A national\nsystem of education has come into operation and is working wonders in\nthis land. Newspapers and books are cheapened; political freedom has\nbeen extended and 'broadened slowly down,' as is safe, 'from precedent\nto precedent,' so that no party thinks now of reversing any of the\nchanges, howsoever fiercely they were contested ere they were won.\nReligious thought has widened, the sects have come nearer each other,\nmen have passed from out of a hard doctrinal Christianity, in which the\nperson of Christ was buried beneath the cobwebs of theology, into a far\nfreer and a far more Christ-regarding and Christ-centred faith. And if\nwe are to adopt such a point of view as the brave Apostle Paul took,\nthe antagonism against religion, which is a marked feature of our\ngeneration, and contrasts singularly with the sleepy acquiescence of\nfifty years ago, is to be put down to the credit side of the account.\n'For,' he said, like a bold man believing that he had an irrefragable\ntruth in his hands, 'I will tarry here, for a great door and an\neffectual is opened, and there are many adversaries.' Wherever a whole\nnation is interested and stirred about religious subjects, even though\nit may be in contradiction and antagonism, God's truth can fight\nopposition far better than it can contend with indifference. Then if we\nlook upon our churches, whilst there is amongst them all abounding\nworldliness much to be deplored, there is also, thank God, springing up\namongst us a new consciousness of responsibility, which is not confined\nto Christian people, for the condition of the poor and the degraded\naround us; and everywhere we see good men and women trying to stretch\ntheir hands across these awful gulfs in our social system which make\nsuch a danger in our modern life, and to reclaim the outcasts of our\ncities, the most hopeless of all the heathen on the face of the earth.\nThese things, on which I have touched with the lightest hand, all taken\ntogether do make a picture for which we may be heartily thankful.\n\nOnly, brethren, let us remember that that sort of talk about England's\nprogress may very speedily become offensive self-conceit, and a\nmeasuring of ourselves with ludicrous self-satisfaction against all\nother nations. There is a bastard patriotism which has been very\nloud-mouthed in these last days, of which wise men should beware.\n\nFurther, such a contemplation of the elements of national progress,\nwhich we owe to no monarch and to no legislature, but largely to the\nindomitable pluck and energy of our people, to Anglo-Saxon persistence\nnot knowing when it is beaten, and to the patient meditation of\nthoughtful minds and the self-denying efforts of good philanthropical\nand religious people--such a contemplation, I say, may come between us\nand the recognition of the highest source from which it flows, and be\ncorrupted into forgetfulness of God. 'Beware lest when thou hast eaten\nand art full, and thy silver and thy gold is multiplied, and all that\nthou hast is multiplied, then thine heart be lifted up, and thou forget\nthe Lord thy God... and thou say in thine heart, My power, and the\nmight of mine hand, hath gotten me this wealth. But thou shalt remember\nthe Lord thy God, for it is He that giveth thee power to get wealth.'\n\nAnd the last caution that I would put in here is, let us beware lest\nthe hosannas over national progress shall be turned into 'Rest and be\nthankful,' or shall ever come in the way of the strenuous and\npersistent reaching forth to the fair ideal that lies so far before us.\n\nIII. That leads me to the last point on which I would say a word, viz.,\nthat my text with its reference to the correction of evils, as one of\nthe twin functions of the monarch, naturally suggests to us the thought\nwhich should follow all recognition of progress in the past--the\nconsideration of what yet remains to be done.\n\nA great controversy has been going on, or at least a remarkable\ndifference of opinion has been expressed in recent months by two of the\ngreatest minds and clearest heads in England; one of our greatest poets\nand one of our greatest statesmen. The one looking back over sixty\nyears sees but foiled aspirations and present devildom and misery. The\nother looking back over the same period sees accomplished dreams and\nthe prophecy of further progress. It is not for me to enter upon the\nstrife between such authorities. Both are right. Much has been\nachieved. 'There remaineth yet very much land to be possessed.'\nWhatever have been the victories and the blessings of the past, there\nare rotten places in our social state which, if not cauterised and\nhealed, will break out into widespread and virulent sores. There are\ndangers in the near future which may well task the skill of the bravest\nand the faith of the most trustful. There are clouds on the horizon\nwhich may speedily turn jubilations into lamentations, and the best\nsecurity against these is that each of us in his place, as a unit\nhowever insignificant in the great body politic, should use our little\ninfluence on the side that makes for righteousness, and see to it that\nwe leave some small corner of this England, which God has given us in\ncharge, sweeter and holier because of our lives. The ideal for you\nChristian men and women is the organisation of society on Christian\nprinciples. Have we got to that yet, or within sight of it, do you\nsuppose? Look round you. Does anybody believe that the present\narrangements in connection with unrestricted competition and the\ndistribution of wealth coincide accurately with the principles of the\nNew Testament? Will anybody tell me that the state of a hundred streets\nwithin a mile of this spot is what it would be if the Christian men of\nthis nation lived the lives that they ought to live? Could there be\nsuch rottenness and corruption if the 'salt' had not 'lost his savour'?\nWill anybody tell me that the disgusting vice which our newspapers do\nnot think themselves degraded by printing in loathsome detail, and so\nbringing the foulness of a common sewer on to every breakfast-table in\nthe kingdom, is in accordance with the organisation of society on\nChristian principles? Intemperance, social impurity, wide, dreary\ntracts of ignorance, degradation, bestiality, the awful condition of\nthe lowest layer in our great cities, crushed like some crumbling\nbricks beneath the ponderous weight of the splendid superstructure, the\nbitter partisan spirit of politics, where the followers of each chief\nthink themselves bound to believe that he is immaculate and that the\nother side has no honour or truth belonging to it--these things testify\nagainst English society, and make one almost despair when one thinks\nthat, after a thousand years and more of professing Christianity, that\nis all that we can show for it.\n\nO brethren! we may be thankful for what has been accomplished, but\nsurely there had need also to be penitent recognition of failure and\ndefect. And I lay it on the consciences of all that listen to me now to\nsee to it that they do their parts as members of this body politic of\nEngland. A great heritage has come down from our fathers; pass it on\nbettered by your self-denial and your efforts. And remember that the\nway to mend a kingdom is to begin by mending yourselves, and letting\nChrist's kingdom come in your own hearts. Next we are bound to try to\nfurther its coming in the hearts of others, and so to promote its\nleavening society and national life. No Christian is clear from the\nblood of men and the guilt of souls who does not, according to\nopportunity and capacity, repair before his own door, and seek to make\nsome one know the unsearchable riches of the Gospel of Christ.\n\nThere is no finality for a Christian patriot until his country be\norganised on Christian principles, and so from being merely a 'kingdom\nof the world' become 'a Kingdom of our God and of His Christ.' To help\nforward that consummation, by however little, is the noblest service\nthat prince or peasant can render to his country. By conformity to the\nwill of God and not by material progress or intellectual enlightenment\nis a state prosperous and strong. To keep His statutes and judgments is\n'your wisdom and understanding in the sight of the nations, which shall\nhear all these statutes and say, Surely this great nation is a wise and\nunderstanding people.'\n\n\n\nPAUL BEFORE FELIX\n\n'Then Paul, after that the governor had beckoned unto him to speak,\nanswered, Forasmuch as I know that thou hast been of many years a judge\nunto this nation, I do the more cheerfully answer for myself: 11.\nBecause that thou mayest understand, that there are yet but twelve days\nsince I went up to Jerusalem for to worship. 12. And they neither found\nme in the temple disputing with any man, neither raising up the people,\nneither in the synagogues, nor in the city: 13. Neither can they prove\nthe things whereof they now accuse me. 14. But this I confess unto\nthee, that after the way which they call heresy, so worship I the God\nof my fathers, believing all things which are written in the law and in\nthe prophets: 15. And have hope toward God, which they themselves also\nallow, that there shall be a resurrection of the dead, both of the just\nand unjust. 16. And herein do I exercise myself, to have always a\nconscience void of offence toward God, and toward men. 17. Now after\nmany years I came to bring alms to my nation, and offerings. 18.\nWhereupon certain Jews from Asia found me purified in the temple,\nneither with multitude, nor with tumult 19. Who ought to have been here\nbefore thee, and object, if they had ought against me. 20. Or else let\nthese same here say, if they have found any evil-doing in me, while I\nstood before the council, 21. Except it be for this one voice, that I\ncried standing among them, Touching the resurrection of the dead I am\ncalled in question by you this day. 22. And when Felix heard these\nthings, having more perfect knowledge of that way, he deferred them,\nand said, When Lysias the chief captain shall come down, I will know\nthe uttermost of your matter. 23. And he commanded a centurion to keep\nPaul, and to let him have liberty, and that he should forbid none of\nhis acquaintance to minister or come unto him. 24. And after certain\ndays, when Felix came with his wife Drusilla, which was a Jewess, he\nsent for Paul, and heard him concerning the faith in Christ. 25. And as\nhe reasoned of righteousness, temperance, and judgment to come, Felix\ntrembled, and answered, Go thy way for this time; when I have a\nconvenient season, I will call for thee.'--ACTS xxiv. 10-25.\n\nTertellus made three charges against Paul: first, that he incited to\nrebellion; second, that he was a principal member of a 'sect'; third\n(with a 'moreover,' as if an afterthought), that he had profaned the\nTemple. It was more clever than honest to put the real cause of Jewish\nhatred last, since it was a trifle in Roman eyes, and to put first the\nonly thing that Felix would think worth notice. A duller man than he\nmight have scented something suspicious in Jewish officials being so\nanxious to suppress insurrection against Rome, and probably he had his\nown thoughts about the good faith of the accusers, though he said\nnothing. Paul takes up the three points in order. Unsupported charges\ncan only be met by emphatic denials.\n\nI. Paul's speech is the first part of the passage. Its dignified,\ncourteous beginning contrasts well with the accuser's dishonest\nflattery. Paul will not lie, but he will respect authority, and will\nconciliate when he can do so with truth. Felix had been 'judge' for\nseveral years, probably about six. What sort of a judge he had been\nPaul will not say. At any rate he had gained experience which might\nhelp him in picking his way through Tertullus's rhetoric.\n\nThe Apostle answers the first charge with a flat denial, with the\nremark that as the whole affair was less than a fortnight old the truth\ncould easily be ascertained, and that the time was very short for the\nJews to have 'found' him such a dangerous conspirator, and with the\nobviously unanswerable demand for proof to back up the charge. In the\nabsence of witnesses there was nothing more to be done about number one\nof the accusations, and a just judge would have said so and sent\nTertullus and his clients about their business.\n\nThe second charge Paul both denies and admits. He does belong to the\nfollowers of Jesus of Nazareth. But that is not a 'sect'; it is 'the\nWay.' It is not a divergence from the path in which the fathers have\nwalked, trodden only by some self-willed schismatics, but it is the one\nGod-appointed path of life, 'the old way,' the only road by which a man\ncan walk nobly and travel to the skies. Paul's whole doctrine as to the\nrelation of Judaism to Christianity is here in germ and in a form\nadapted to Felix's comprehension. This so-called sect (ver. 14 takes up\nTertullus's word in ver. 5) is the true Judaism, and its members are\nmore truly 'Jews' than they who are such 'outwardly.' For what has Paul\ncast away in becoming a Christian? Not the worship of the God of\nAbraham and of Isaac and of Jacob, not the law, not the prophets, not\nthe hope of a resurrection.\n\nHe does not say that he practises all the things written in the law,\nbut that he 'believes' them. Then the law was revelation as well as\nprecept, and was to be embraced by faith before it could be obeyed in\npractice; it was, as he says elsewhere, a 'schoolmaster to bring us\nunto Christ.' Judaism is the bud; Christianity is the bright consummate\nflower. Paul was not preaching his whole Gospel, but defending himself\nfrom a specific charge; namely that, as being a 'Nazarene,' he had\nstarted off from the main line of Jewish religion. He admits that he is\na 'Nazarene,' and he assumes correctly that Felix knew something about\nthem, but he denies that he is a sectary, and he assumes that the\ncharge would be more truly made against those who, accusing him,\ndisbelieved in Christ. He hints that they did not believe in either law\nor prophets, else they would have been Nazarenes too.\n\nThe practical results of his faith are stated. 'Herein'; that is in the\nfaith and hope just spoken of. He will not say that these make him\nblameless towards God and men, but that such blamelessness is his aim,\nwhich he pursues with earnest toil and self-control. A Christianity\nwhich does not sovereignly sway life and brace its professor up to the\nself-denial needful to secure a conscience void of offence is not\nPaul's kind of Christianity. If we move in the circle of the great\nChristian truths we shall gird ourselves to subdue the flesh, and will\ncovet more than aught else the peace of a good conscience. But, like\nPaul, we shall be slow to say that we have attained, yet not afraid to\nsay that we strive towards, that ideal.\n\nThe third charge is met by a plain statement of his real purpose in\ncoming to Jerusalem and frequenting the Temple. 'Profane the Temple!\nWhy, I came all the way from Greece on purpose to worship at the Feast;\nand I did not come empty-handed either, for I brought alms for my\nnation'--the contributions of the Gentiles to Jews--'and I was a\nworshipper, discharging the ceremonial purifications.' They called him\na 'Nazarene'; he was in the Temple as a 'Nazarite.' Was it likely that,\nbeing there on such an errand, he should have profaned it?\n\nHe begins a sentence, which would probably have been an indignant one,\nabout the 'certain Jews from Asia,' the originators of the whole\ntrouble, but he checks himself with a fine sense of justice. He will\nsay nothing about absent men. And that brings him back to his strong\npoint, already urged, the absence of proof of the charges. Tertullus\nand company had only hearsay. What had become of the people who said\nthey saw him in the Temple? No doubt they had thought discretion the\nbetter part of valour, and were not anxious to face the Roman procedure.\n\nThe close of the speech carries the war into the enemy's quarters,\nchallenging the accusers to tell what they had themselves heard. They\n_could_ be witnesses as to the scene at the Council, which Tertullus\nhad wisely said nothing about. Pungent sarcasm is in Paul's closing\nwords, especially if we remember that the high officials, like Ananias\nthe high-priest, were Sadducees. The Pharisees in the Council had\nacquitted him when they heard his profession of faith in a\nresurrection. That was his real crime, not treason against Rome or\nprofanation of the Temple. The present accusers might be eager for his\ncondemnation, but half of their own Sanhedrim had acquitted him. 'And\nthese unworthy Jews, who have cast off the nation's hope and believe in\nno resurrection, are accusing me of being an apostate! Who is the\nsectary--I or they?'\n\nII. There was only one righteous course for Felix, namely, to discharge\nthe prisoner. But he yielded to the same temptation as had mastered\nPilate, and shrank from provoking influential classes by doing the\nright thing. He was the less excusable, because his long tenure of\noffice had taught him something, at all events, of 'the Way.' He had\ntoo many crimes to venture on raising enemies in his government; he had\ntoo much lingering sense of justice to give up an innocent man. So like\nall weak men in difficult positions he temporised, and trusted to\naccident to make the right thing easier for him.\n\nHis plea for delay was conveniently indefinite. When was Lysias coming?\nHis letter said nothing about such an intention, and took for granted\nthat all the materials for a decision would be before Felix. Lysias\ncould tell no more. The excuse was transparent, but it served to stave\noff a decision, and to-morrow would bring some other excuse. Prompt\ncarrying out of all plain duty is the only safety. The indulgence given\nto Paul, in his light confinement, only showed how clearly Felix knew\nhimself to be doing wrong, but small alleviations do not patch up a\ngreat injustice.\n\nIII. One reading inserts in verse 24 the statement that Drusilla wished\nto see Paul, and that Felix summoned him in order to gratify her. Very\nprobably she, as a Jewess, knew something of 'the Way,' and with a love\nof anything odd and new, which such women cannot do without, she wanted\nto see this curious man and hear him talk. It might amuse her, and pass\nan hour, and be something to gossip about.\n\nShe and Felix got more than they bargained for. Paul was not now the\nprisoner, but the preacher; and his topics were not wanting in\ndirectness and plainness. He 'reasoned of righteousness' to one of the\nworst of unrighteous governors; of 'temperance' to the guilty couple\nwho, in calling themselves husband and wife, were showing themselves\ngiven over to sinful passions; and of 'judgment to come' to a man who,\nto quote the Roman historian, 'thought that he could commit all evil\nwith impunity.'\n\nPaul's strong hand shook even that obdurate soul, and roused one of the\ntwo sleeping consciences. Drusilla may have been too frivolous to be\nimpressed, but Felix had so much good left that he could be conscious\nof evil. Alas! he had so much evil that he suppressed the good. His\n'convenient season' was then; it never came again. For though he\ncommuned with Paul often, he trembled only once. So he passed into the\ndarkness.\n\n\n\nFELIX BEFORE PAUL\n\n_A Sermon to the Young_\n\n'And as Paul reasoned of righteousness, temperance, and judgment to\ncome, Felix trembled, and answered, Go thy way for this time; when I\nhave a convenient season, I will call for thee.'--ACTS xxiv. 25.\n\nFelix and his brother had been favourite slaves of the Emperor, and so\nhad won great power at court. At the date of this incident he had been\nfor some five or six years the procurator of the Roman province of\nJudaea; and how he used his power the historian Tacitus tells us in one\nof his bitter sentences, in which he says, 'He wielded his kingly\nauthority with the spirit of a slave, in all cruelty and lust.'\n\nHe had tempted from her husband, Drusilla, the daughter of that Herod\nwhose dreadful death is familiar to us all; and his court reeked with\nblood and debauchery. He is here face to face with Paul for the second\ntime. On a former interview he had seen good reason to conclude that\nthe Roman Empire was not in much danger from this one Jew whom his\ncountrymen, with suspicious loyalty, were charging with sedition; and\nso he had allowed him a very large margin of liberty.\n\nOn this second occasion he had sent for him evidently not as a judge,\nbut partly with a view to try to get a bribe out of him, and partly\nbecause he had some kind of languid interest, as most Romans then had,\nin Oriental thought--some languid interest perhaps too in this strange\nman. Or he and Drusilla were possibly longing for a new sensation, and\nnot indisposed to give a moment's glance at Paul with his singular\nideas.\n\nSo they called for the Apostle, and the guilty couple found a judge in\ntheir prisoner. Paul does not speak to them as a Greek philosopher,\nanxious to please high personages, might have done, but he goes\nstraight at their sins: he reasons 'of righteousness' with the unjust\njudge, 'of temperance' with the self-indulgent, sinful pair, 'of the\njudgment to come' with these two who thought that they could do\nanything they liked with impunity. Christianity has sometimes to be\nexceedingly rude in reference to the sins of the upper classes.\n\nAs Paul went on, a strange fear began to creep about the heart of\nFelix. It is the watershed of his life that he has come to, the crisis\nof his fate. Everything depends on the next five minutes. Will he\nyield? Will he resist? The tongue of the balance trembles and hesitates\nfor a moment, and then, but slowly, the wrong scale goes down; 'Go thy\nway for this time.' Ah! if he had said, 'Come and help me to get rid of\nthis strange fear,' how different all might have been! The metal was at\nthe very point of melting. What shape would it take? It ran into the\nwrong mould, and, as far as we know, it was hardened there. 'It might\nhave been once, and he missed it, lost it for ever. No sign marked out\nthat moment from the common uneventful moments, though it saw the death\nof a soul.'\n\nNow, my dear young friends, I do not intend to say anything more to you\nof this man and his character, but I wish to take this incident and its\nlessons and urge them on your hearts and consciences.\n\nI. Let me say a word or two about the fact, of which this incident is\nan example, and of which I am afraid the lives of many of you would\nfurnish other examples, that men lull awakened consciences to sleep and\nexcuse delay in deciding for Christ by half-honest promises to attend\nto religion at some future time.\n\n'Go thy way for this time' is what Felix is really anxious about. His\none thought is to get rid of Paul and his disturbing message for the\npresent. But he does not wish to shut the door altogether. He gives a\nsop to his conscience to stop its barking, and he probably deceives\nhimself as to the gravity of his present decision by the lightly given\npromise and its well-guarded indefiniteness, 'When I have a convenient\nseason I will send for thee.' The thing he really means is--Not now, at\nall events; the thing he hoodwinks himself with is--By and by. Now that\nis what I know that some of you are doing; and my purpose and earnest\nprayer are to bring you now to the decision which, by one vigorous act\nof your wills, will settle the question for the future as to which God\nyou are going to follow.\n\nSo then I have just one or two things to say about this first part of\nmy subject. Let me remind you that however beautiful, however gracious,\nhowever tender and full of love and mercy and good tidings the message\nof God's love in Jesus Christ is, there is another side to it, a side\nwhich is meant to rouse men's consciences and to awaken men's fears.\n\nIf you bring a man like the man in the story, Felix, or a very much\nbetter man than he--any of you who hear me now--into contact with these\nthree thoughts, 'Righteousness, temperance, judgment to come,' the\neffect of such a direct appeal to moral convictions will always be more\nor less to awaken a sense of failure, insufficiency, defect, sin, and\nto create a certain creeping dread that if I set myself against the\ngreat law of God, that law of God will have a way of crushing me. The\nfear is well founded, and not only does the contemplation of God's\n_law_ excite it. God's gospel comes to us, and just because it is a\ngospel, and is intended to lead you and me to love and trust Jesus\nChrist, and give our whole hearts and souls to Him--just because it is\nthe best 'good news' that ever came into the world, it begins often\n(not always, perhaps) by making a man feel what a sinful man he is, and\nhow he has gone against God's law, and how there hang over him, by the\nvery necessities of the case and the constitution of the universe,\nconsequences bitter and painful. Now I believe that there are very few\npeople who, like you, come occasionally into contact with the preaching\nof the truth, who have not had their moments when they felt--'Yes, it\nis all true--it is all true. I _am_ bad, and I _have_ broken God's law,\nand there _is_ a dark lookout before me!' I believe that most of us\nknow what that feeling is.\n\nAnd now my next step is--that the awakened conscience is just like the\nsense of pain in the physical world, it has a work to do and a mission\nto perform. It is meant to warn you off dangerous ground. Thank God for\npain! It keeps off death many a time. And in like manner thank God for\na swift conscience that speaks! It is meant to ring an alarm-bell to\nus, to make us, as the Bible has it, 'flee for refuge to the hope that\nis set before us.' My imploring question to my young friends now is:\n'Have you used that sense of evil and wrongdoing, when it has been\naroused in your consciences, to lead you to Jesus Christ, or what have\nyou done with it?'\n\nThere are two persons in this Book of the Acts of the Apostles who pass\nthrough the same stages of feeling up to a certain point, and then they\ndiverge. And the two men's outline history is the best sermon that I\ncan preach upon this point. Felix becoming afraid, recoils, shuts\nhimself up, puts away the message that disturbs him, and settles\nhimself back into his evil. The Philippian jailer becoming afraid (the\nphrases in the original being almost identical), like a sensible man\ntries to find out the reason of his fear and how to get rid of it; and\nfalls down at the Apostles' feet and says, 'Sirs, what must I do to be\nsaved?'\n\nThe fear is not meant to last; it is of no use in itself. It is only an\nimpelling motive that leads us to look to the Saviour, and the man that\nuses it so has used it rightly. Yet there rises in many a heart that\ntransparent self-deception of delay. 'They all with one consent began\nto make excuse'; that is as true to-day as it was true then. My\nexperience tells me that it will be true in regard to a sad number of\nyou who will go away feeling that my poor word has gone a little way\ninto their hardened hide, but settling themselves back into their\ncarelessness, and forgetting all impressions that have been made. O\ndear young friend, do not do that, I beseech you! Do not stifle the\nwholesome alarm and cheat yourself with the notion of a little delay!\n\nII. And now I wish next to pass very swiftly in review before you some\nof the reasons why we fall into this habit of self-deceiving,\nindecision, and delay--'Go thy way' would be too sharp and unmistakable\nif it were left alone, so it is fined off. 'I will not commit myself\nbeyond to-day,' 'for this time go thy way, and when I have a convenient\nseason I will call for thee.'\n\nWhat are the reasons for such an attitude as that? Let me enumerate one\nor two of them as they strike me. First, there is the instinctive,\nnatural wish to get rid of a disagreeable subject--much as a man,\nwithout knowing what he is doing, twitches his hand away from the\nsurgeon's lancet. So a great many of us do not like--and no wonder that\nwe do not like--these thoughts of the old Book about 'righteousness and\ntemperance and judgment to come,' and make a natural effort to turn our\nminds away from the contemplation of the subject, because it is painful\nand unpleasant. Do you think it would be a wise thing for a man, if he\nbegan to suspect that he was insolvent, to refuse to look into his\nbooks or to take stock, and let things drift, till there was not a\nhalfpenny in the pound for anybody? What do you suppose his creditors\nwould call him? They would not compliment him on either his honesty or\nhis prudence, would they? And is it not the part of a wise man, if he\nbegins to see that something is wrong, to get to the bottom of it and,\nas quickly as possible, to set it right? And what do you call people\nwho, suspecting that there may be a great hole in the bottom of the\nship, never man the pumps or do any caulking, but say, 'Oh, she will\nvery likely keep afloat until we get into harbour'?\n\nDo you not think that it would be a wiser thing for you if, _because_\nthe subject is disagreeable, you would force yourself to think about it\nuntil it became agreeable to you? You can change it if you will, and\nmake it not at all a shadow or a cloud or a darkness over you. And you\ncan scarcely expect to claim the designation of wise and prudent\norderers of your lives until you do. Certainly it is not wise to\nshuffle a thing out of sight because it is not pleasing to think about.\n\nThen there is another reason. A number of our young people say, 'Go thy\nway for this time,' because you have a notion that it is time enough\nfor you to begin to think about serious things and be religious when\nyou grow a bit older. And some of you even, I dare say, have an idea\nthat religion is all very well for people that are turned sixty and are\ngoing down the hill, but that it is quite unnecessary for you.\nShakespeare puts a grim word into the mouth of one of his characters,\nwhich sets the theory of many of us in its true light, when, describing\na dying man calling on God, he makes the narrator say: 'I, to comfort\nhim, bid him he should not think of God. I hoped there was no need to\ntrouble himself with any such thoughts yet.'\n\nSome of my hearers practically live on that principle, and are tempted\nto regard thoughts of God as in place only among medicine bottles, or\nwhen the shadows of the grave begin to fall cold and damp on our path.\n'Young men will be young men,' 'We must sow our wild oats,' 'You can't\nput old heads on young shoulders'--and such like sayings, often\npractically mean that vice and godlessness belong to youth, and virtue\nand religion to old age, just as flowers do to spring and fruit to\nautumn. Let me beseech you not to be deceived by such a notion; and to\nsearch your own thoughts and see whether it be one of the reasons which\nleads you to say, 'Go thy way for this time.'\n\nThen again some of us fall into this habit of putting off the decision\nfor Christ, not consciously, not by any distinct act of saying, 'No, I\nwill not,' but simply by letting the impressions made on our hearts and\nconsciences be crowded out of them by cares and enjoyments and\npleasures and duties of this world. If you had not so much to study at\nCollege, you would have time to think about religion. If you had not so\nmany parties and balls to go to, you would have time to nourish and\nfoster these impressions. If you had not your place to make in the\nwarehouse, if you had not this, that, and the other thing to do; if you\nhad not love and pleasure and ambition and advancement and mental\nculture to attend to, you would have time for religion; but as soon as\nthe seed is sown and the sower's back is turned, hovering flocks of\nlight-winged thoughts and vanities pounce down upon it and carry it\naway, seed by seed. And if some stray seed here and there remains and\nbegins to sprout, the ill weeds which grow apace spring up with ranker\nstems and choke it. 'The cares of this world, and the deceitfulness of\nriches, and the lusts of other things entering in, choke the word, and\nefface the impression made upon your hearts.\n\nHere as I speak some serious thought is roused; by to-morrow at midday\nit has all gone. You did not intend it to go, you did not set yourself\nto banish it, you simply opened the door to the flocking in of the\nwhole crowd of the world's cares and occupations, and away went the\nshy, solitary thought that, if it had been cared for and tended, might\nhave led you at last to the Cross of Jesus Christ. Do not allow\nyourselves to be drifted, by the rushing current of earthly cares, from\nthe impressions that are made upon your consciences and from the duty\nthat you know you ought to do!\n\nAnd then some of you fall into this attitude of delay, and say to the\nmessenger of God's love, 'Go thy way for this time,' because you do not\nlike to give up something that you know is inconsistent with His love\nand service. Felix would not part with Drusilla nor disgorge the\nill-gotten gains of his province. Felix therefore was obliged to put\naway from him the thoughts that looked in that direction. I wonder if\nthere is any young man listening to me now who feels that if he lets my\nwords carry him where they seek to carry him, he will have to give up\n'fleshly lusts which war against the soul'? I wonder if there is any\nyoung woman listening to me now who feels that if she lets my words\ncarry her where they would carry her, she will have to live a different\nlife from that which she has been living, to have more of a high and a\nnoble aim in it, to live for something else than pleasure? I wonder if\nthere are any of you who are saying, 'I cannot give up that'? My dear\nyoung friend, 'If thine eye offend thee, pluck it out and cast it from\nthee. It is better for thee to enter into life blind than with both\neyes to be cast into hell-fire.'\n\nReasons for delay, then, are these: first, getting rid of an unpleasant\nsubject; second, thinking that there is time enough; third, letting the\nworld obliterate the impressions that have been made; and fourth,\nshrinking from the surrender of something that you know you will have\nto give up.\n\nIII. And now let me very briefly, as my last point, put before you one\nor two of the reasons which I would fain might be conclusive with you\nfor present decision to take Christ for your Saviour and your Master.\n\nAnd I say, Do not delay, but _now_ choose Him for your Redeemer, your\nFriend, your Helper, your Commander, your All; because delay is really\ndecision in the wrong way. Do not delay, but take Jesus Christ as the\nSaviour of your sinful souls, and rest your hearts upon Him to-night\nbefore you sleep; because there is no real reason for delay. No season\nwill be more convenient than the present season. Every time is the\nright time to do the right thing, every time is the right time to begin\nfollowing Him. There is nothing to wait for. There is no reason at all,\nexcept their own disinclination, why every man and woman listening to\nme should not now grasp the Cross of Christ as their only hope for\nforgiveness and acceptance, and yield themselves to that Lord, to live\nin His service for ever. Let not this day pass without your giving\nyourselves to Jesus Christ, because every time that you have this\nmessage brought to you, and you refuse to accept it, or delay to accept\nit, you make yourselves less capable of receiving it another time.\n\nIf you take a bit of phosphorus and put it upon a slip of wood and\nignite the phosphorus, bright as the blaze is, there drops from it a\nwhite ash that coats the wood and makes it almost incombustible. And so\nwhen the flaming conviction laid upon your hearts has burnt itself out,\nit has coated the heart, and it will be very difficult to kindle the\nlight there again. Felix said, 'Go thy way, when I have a more\nconvenient season I will send for thee.' Yes, and he did send for Paul,\nand he talked with him often--he repeated the conversation, but we do\nnot know that he repeated the trembling. He often communed with Paul,\nbut it was only once that he was alarmed. You are less likely to be\ntouched by the Gospel message for every time that you have heard it and\nput it away. That is what makes my place here so terribly responsible,\nand makes me feel that my words are so very feeble in comparison with\nwhat they ought to be. I know that I may be doing harm to men just\nbecause they listen and are not persuaded, and so go away less and less\nlikely to be touched.\n\nAh, dear friends! you will perhaps never again have as deep impressions\nas you have now; or at least they are not to be reckoned upon as\nprobable, for the tendency of all truth is to lose its power by\nrepetition, and the tendency of all emotion which is not acted upon is\nto become fainter and fainter. And so I beseech you that now you would\ncherish any faint impression that is being made upon your hearts and\nconsciences. Let it lead you to Christ; and take Him for your Lord and\nSaviour now.\n\nI say to you: Do that now because delay robs you of large blessing. You\nwill never want Jesus Christ more than you do to-day. You need Him in\nyour early hours. Why should it be that a portion of your lives should\nbe left unfilled by that rich mercy? Why should you postpone possessing\nthe purest joy, the highest blessing, the divinest strength? Why should\nyou put off welcoming your best Friend into your heart? Why should you?\n\nI say to you again, Take Christ for your Lord, because delay inevitably\nlays up for you bitter memories and involves dreadful losses. There are\ngood Christian men and women, I have no doubt, in this world now, who\nwould give all they have, if they could blot out of the tablets of\ntheir memories some past hours of their lives, before they gave their\nhearts to Jesus Christ. I would have you ignorant of such\ntransgression. O young men and women! if you grow up into middle life\nnot Christians, then should you ever become so, you will have habits to\nfight with, and remembrances that will smart and sting; and some of\nyou, perhaps, remembrances that will pollute, even though you are\nconscious that you are forgiven. It is a better thing not to know the\ndepths of evil than to know them and to have been raised from them. You\nwill escape infinite sorrows by an early cleaving to Christ your Lord.\n\nAnd last of all I say to you, give yourselves now to Jesus Christ,\nbecause no to-morrow may be yours. Delay is gambling, very\nirrationally, with a very uncertain thing--your life and your future\nopportunities. 'You know not what shall be on the morrow.'\n\nFor a generation I have preached in Manchester these annual sermons to\nthe young. Ah, how many of those that heard the early ones are laid in\ntheir graves; and how many of them were laid in _early_ graves; and how\nmany of them said, as some of you are saying, 'When I get older I will\nturn religious'! And they never got older. It is a commonplace word\nthat, but I leave it on your hearts. You have no time to lose.\n\nDo not delay, because delay is decision in the wrong way; do not delay,\nbecause there is no reason for delay; do not delay, because delay robs\nyou of a large blessing; do not delay, because delay lays up for you,\nif ever you come back, bitter memories; do not delay, because delay may\nend in death. And for all these reasons, come as a sinful soul to\nChrist the Saviour; and ask Him to forgive you, and follow in His\nfootsteps, and do it now! 'To-day, if ye will hear His voice, harden\nnot your hearts.'\n\n\n\nCHRIST'S REMONSTRANCES\n\n'And when we were all fallen to the earth, I heard a voice speaking\nunto me, and saying in the Hebrew tongue, Saul, Saul, why perseoutest\nthou Me! it is hard for thee to kick against the pricks.'--ACTS xxvi.\n14.\n\n'Can the Ethiopian change his skin, or the leopard his spots?' No. But\nGod can change the skin, because He can change the nature. In this\nstory of the conversion of the Apostle Paul--the most important thing\nthat happened that day--we have an instance how brambles may become\nvines; tares may become wheat; and a hater of Jesus Christ may be\nchanged in a moment into His lover and servant, and, if need be, His\nmartyr.\n\nNow the very same motives and powers which were brought to bear upon\nthe Apostle Paul by miracle are being brought to bear upon every one of\nus; and my object now is just to trace the stages of the process set\nforth here, and to ask some of you, if you, like Paul, have been\n'obedient to the heavenly vision.' Stages, I call them, though they\nwere all crowded into a moment, for even the lightning has to pass\nthrough the intervening space when it flashes from one side of the\nheavens to another, and we may divide its path into periods. Time is\nvery elastic, as any of us whose lives have held great sorrows or great\njoys or great resolutions well know.\n\nI. The first of these all but simultaneous and yet separable stages was\nthe revelation of Jesus Christ.\n\nOf course to the Apostle it was mediated by miracle; but real as he\nbelieved that appearance of the risen Lord in the heavens to be, and\nvalid as he maintained that it was as the ground of his Apostleship, he\nhimself, in one of his letters, speaks of the whole incident as being\nthe revelation of God's Son in him. The revelation in heart and mind\nwas the main thing, of which the revelation to eye and ear were but\nmeans. The means, in his case, are different from those in ours; the\nend is the same. To Paul it came like the rush of a cataract that the\nChrist whom he had thought of as lying in an unknown grave was living\nin the heavens and ruling there. You and I, I suppose, do not need to\nbe convinced by miracle of the resurrection of Jesus Christ; but the\nbare fact that Jesus was living in the heavens would have had little\neffect upon Saul, unless it had been accompanied with the revelation of\nthe startling fact that between him and Jesus Christ there were close\npersonal relations, so that he had to do with Jesus, and Jesus with him.\n\n'Saul, Saul! why persecutest thou Me?' They used to think that they\ncould wake sleep-walkers by addressing them by name. Jesus Christ, by\nspeaking His name to the Apostle, wakes him out of his diseased\nslumber, and brings him to wholesome consciousness. There are\nstringency and solemnity of address in that double use of the name\n'Saul, Saul!'\n\nWhat does such an address teach you and me? That Jesus Christ, the\nliving, reigning Lord of the universe, has perfect knowledge of each of\nus, and that we each stand isolated before Him, as if all the light of\nomniscience were focussed upon us. He knows our characters; He knows\nall about us, and more than that, He directly addresses Himself to each\nman and woman among us.\n\nWe are far too apt to hide ourselves in the crowd, and let all the\nmessages of God's love, the warnings of His providences, as well as the\nteachings and invitations and pleadings of His gospel, fly over our\nheads as if they were meant vaguely for anybody. But they are all\nintended for _thee_, as directly as if thou, and thou only, wert in the\nworld. I beseech you, lay this to heart, that although no audible\nsounds may rend the silent heavens, nor any blaze may blind thine eye,\nyet that as really, though not in the same outward fashion as Saul,\nwhen they were all fallen to the earth, felt himself to be singled out,\nand heard a voice 'speaking to _him_ in the Hebrew tongue, saying,\nSaul, Saul!' _thou_ mayest hear a voice speaking to thee in the English\ntongue, by thy name, and directly addressing its gracious remonstrances\nand its loving offers to thy listening ear. I want to sharpen the blunt\n'whosoever' into the pointed 'thou.' And I would fain plead with each\nof my friends hearing me now to believe that the gospel of Jesus Christ\nis meant for thee, and that Christ speaks to _thee_. 'I have a message\nfrom God unto thee,' just as Nathan said unto David. '_Thou_ art the\nman!'\n\nDo not lose yourselves in the crowd or hide yourselves from the\npersonal incidence of Christ's offer, but feel that you stand, as you\ndo indeed, alone the hearer of His voice, the possible recipient of His\nsaving mercy.\n\nII. Secondly, notice, as another stage in this process the discovery of\nthe true character of the past.\n\n'Why persecutest thou Me?' Now I am not going to be tempted from my\nmore direct purpose in this sermon to dwell even for a moment on the\nbeautiful, affecting, strengthening thought here, of the unity of Jesus\nChrist with all the humble souls that love Him, so as that, whatsoever\nany member suffers, the Head suffers with it. I must leave that truth\nuntouched.\n\nSaul was brought to look at all his past life as standing in immediate\nconnection with Jesus Christ. Of course he knew before the vision that\nhe had no love to Him whom he thought to be a Galilean impostor, and\nthat the madness with which he hated the servants was only the glancing\noff of the arrow that he would fain have aimed at the Master. But he\ndid not know that Jesus Christ counted every blow struck at one of His\nservants as being struck at Him. Above all he did not know that the\nChrist whom he was persecuting was reigning in the heavens. And so his\nwhole past life stood before him in a new aspect when it was brought\ninto close connection with Christ, and looked at as in relation to Him.\n\nThe same process would yield very remarkable results if applied to our\nlives. If I could only get you for one quiet ten minutes, to lay all\nyour past, as far as memory brought it to your minds, right before that\npure and loving Face, I should have done much. One infallible way of\njudging of the rottenness or goodness of our actions is that we should\nbring them where they will all be brought one day, into the brightness\nof Christ's countenance. If you want to find out the flaws in some\nthin, badly-woven piece of cloth, you hold it up against the light, do\nyou not? and then you see all the specks and holes, and the irregular\nthreads. Hold up your lives in like fashion against the light, and I\nshall be surprised if you do not find enough there to make you very\nmuch ashamed of yourselves. Were you ever on the stage of a theatre in\nthe daytime? Did you ever see what miserable daubs the scenes look, and\nhow seamy it all is when the pitiless sunshine comes in? Let that great\nlight pour on your life, and be thankful if you find out what a daub it\nhas been, whilst yet colours and brushes and time are at your disposal,\nand you may paint the future fairer than the past.\n\nAgain, this revelation of Saul's past life disclosed its utter\nunreasonableness. That one question, '_Why_ persecutest thou Me?'\npulverised the whole thing. It was like the wondering question so\nunanswerable in the Psalm, 'Why do the heathen rage, and the people\nimagine a vain thing?' If you take into account what you are, and where\nyou stand, you can find no reason, except utterly unreasonable ones,\nfor the lives that I fear some of us are living--lives of godlessness\nand Christlessness. There is nothing in all the world a tithe so stupid\nas sin. There is nothing so unreasonable, if there be a God at all, and\nif we depend upon Him, and have duties to Him, as the lives that some\nof you are living. You admit, most of you, that there is such a God;\nyou admit, most of you, that you do hang upon Him; you admit, in\ntheory, that you ought to love and serve Him. The bulk of you call\nyourselves Christians. That is to say, you believe, as a piece of\nhistorical fact, that Jesus Christ, the Son of God, came into this\nworld and died for men. And, believing that, you turn your back on Him,\nand neither love nor serve nor trust Him nor turn away from your\niniquity. Is there anything outside a lunatic asylum more madlike than\nthat? 'Why persecutest thou?' 'And he was speechless,' for no answer\nwas possible. Why neglectest thou? Why forgettest thou? Why, admitting\nwhat thou dost, art thou not an out-and-out Christian? If we think of\nall our obligations and relations, and the facts of the universe, we\ncome back to the old saying, 'The fear of the Lord is the beginning of\nwisdom,' and any man who, like many of my hearers, fails to give his\nheart and life to Jesus Christ will one day have to say, 'Behold, I\nhave played the fool, and erred exceedingly.' Wake up, my brother, to\napply calm reason to your lives while yet there is time, and face the\nquestion, Why dost thou stand as thou dost to Jesus Christ? There is\nnothing sadder than the small share that deliberate reason and\nintelligent choice have in the ordering of most men's lives. You live\nby impulse, by habit, by example, by constraint of the outward\nnecessities of your position. But I am sure that there are many amongst\nus now who have very seldom, if ever, sat down and said, 'Now let me\nthink, until I get to the ultimate grounds of the course of life that I\nam pursuing.' You can carry on the questions very gaily for a step or\ntwo, but then you come to a dead pause. 'What do I do so-and-so for?'\n'Because I like it.' 'Why do I like it?' 'Because it meets my needs, or\nmy desires, or my tastes, or my intellect.' Why do you make the meeting\nof your needs, or your desires, or your tastes, or your intellect your\nsole object? Is there any answer to that? The Hindoos say that the\nworld rests upon an elephant, and the elephant rests upon a tortoise.\nWhat does the tortoise rest on? Nothing! Then that is what the world\nand the elephant rest on. And so, though you may go bravely through the\nfirst stages of the examination, when you come to the last question of\nall, you will find out that your whole scheme of life is built upon a\nblunder; and the blunder is this, that anybody can be blessed without\nGod.\n\nFurther, this disclosure of the true character of his life revealed to\nSaul, as in a lightning flash, the ingratitude of it.\n\n'Why persecutest thou Me?' That was as much as to say, 'What have I\ndone to merit thy hate? What have I _not_ done to merit rather thy\nlove?' Paul did not know all that Jesus Christ had done for him. It\ntook him a lifetime to learn a little of it, and to tell his brethren\nsomething of what he had learned. And he has been learning it ever\nsince that day when, outside the walls of Rome, they hacked off his\nhead. He has been learning more and more of what Jesus Christ has done\nfor him, and why he should not persecute Him but love Him.\n\nBut the same appeal comes to each of us. What has Jesus Christ done for\nthee, my friend, for me, for every soul of man? He has loved me better\nthan His own life. He has given Himself for me. He has lingered beside\nme, seeking to draw me to Himself, and He still lingers. And this, at\nthe best, tremulous faith, this, at the warmest, tepid love, this, at\nthe completest, imperfect devotion and service, are all that we bring\nto Him; and some of us do not bring even these. Some of us have never\nknown what it was to sacrifice one inclination for the sake of Christ,\nnor to do one act for His dear love's sake, nor to lean our weakness\nupon Him, nor to turn to Him and say, 'I give Thee myself, that I may\npossess Thee.' 'Do ye thus requite the Lord, O foolish people and\nunwise?' I have heard of wounded soldiers striking with their bayonets\nat the ambulance men who came to help them. That is like what some of\nyou do to the Lord who died for your healing, and comes as the\nPhysician, with bandages and with balm, to bind up the brokenhearted.\n'Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou Me?'\n\nIII. Lastly, we have here a warning against self-inflicted wounds.\n\nThat second clause of the remonstrance on the lips of Christ in my text\nis, according to the true reading, not found in the account of Paul's\nconversion in the ninth chapter of this book. My text is from Paul's\nown story; and it is interesting to notice that he adds this eminently\npathetic and forcible appeal to the shorter account given by the writer\nof the book. It had gone deep into his heart, and he could not forget.\n\nThe metaphor is a very plain one. The ox-goad was a formidable weapon,\nsome seven or eight feet in length, shod with an iron point, and\ncapable of being used as a spear, and of inflicting deadly wounds at a\npinch. Held in the firm hand of the ploughman, it presented a sharp\npoint to the rebellious animal under the yoke. If the ox had readily\nyielded to the gentle prick, given, not in anger, but for guidance, it\nhad been well. But if it lashes out with its hoofs against the point,\nwhat does it get but bleeding flanks? Paul had been striking out\ninstead of obeying, and he had won by it only bloody hocks.\n\nThere are two truths deducible from this saying, which may have been a\nproverb in common use. One is the utter futility of lives that are\nspent in opposing the divine will. There is a strong current running,\nand if you try to go against it you will only be swept away by it.\nThink of some little fishing coble coming across the bow of a great\nocean-going steamer. What will be the end of that? Think of a\npony-chaise jogging up the line, and an express train thundering down\nit. What will be the end of that? Think of a man lifting himself up and\nsaying to God, 'I will _not_!' when God says, 'Do thou this!' or 'Be\nthou this!' What will be the end of that? 'The world passeth away, and\nthe lusts thereof, but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever.'\n'It is hard for thee to kick against the pricks'--hard in regard to\nbreaches of common morality, as some of my friends sitting quietly in\nthese pews very well know. It is hard to indulge in sensual sin. You\ncannot altogether dodge what people call the 'natural consequences';\nbut it was God who made Nature; and so I call them God-inflicted\npenalties. It is hard to set yourselves against Christianity. I am not\ngoing to speak of that at all now, only when we think of the\nexpectations of victory with which so many antagonists of the Cross\nhave gaily leaped into the arena, and of how the foes have been\nforgotten and there stands the Cross still, we may say of the whole\ncrowd, beginning with the earliest, and coming down to the latest\nbrand-new theory that is going to explode Christianity--'it is hard to\nkick against the pricks.' Your own limbs you may wound; you will not do\nthe goad much harm.\n\nBut there is another side to the proverb of my text, and that is the\nself-inflicted harm that comes from resisting the pricks of God's\nrebukes and remonstrances, whether inflicted by conscience or by any\nother means; including, I make bold to say, even such poor words as\nthese of mine. For if the first little prick of conscience, a warning\nand a guide, be neglected, the next will go a great deal deeper. The\nvoice which, before you do the wrong thing, says to you, 'Do not do\nit,' in tones of entreaty and remonstrance, speaks, after you have done\nit, more severely and more bitterly. The Latin word _remorse_, and the\nold English name for conscience, 'again-bite'--which latter is a\ntranslation of the other--teach us the same lesson, that the gnawing\nwhich comes after wrong done is far harder to bear than the touch that\nshould have kept us from the evil. The stings of marine jelly-fish will\nburn for days after, if you wet them. And so all wrong-doing, and all\nneglect of right-doing of every sort, carries with it a subsequent\npain, or else the wounded limb _mortifies_, and that is worse. There is\nno pain then; it would be better if there were. There is such a\npossibility as to have gone on so obstinately kicking against the\npricks and leaving the wounds so unheeded, as that they mortify and\nfeeling goes. A conscience 'seared with a hot iron' is ten times more\ndreadful than a conscience that pains and stings.\n\nSo, dear brethren, let me beseech you to listen to the pitying Christ,\nwho says to us each, more in sorrow than in anger, 'It is hard for thee\nto kick against the pricks.' It is no pleasure to Him to hold the goad,\nnor that we should wound ourselves upon it. He has another question to\nput to us, with another 'why,' 'Why should ye be stricken any more?\nTurn ye, turn ye; why will ye die, O house of Israel?'\n\nThere is another metaphor drawn from the employment of oxen which we\nmay set side by side with this of my text: 'Take My yoke upon you, and\nye shall find rest unto your souls.' The yoke accepted, the goad is\nlaid aside; and repose and healing from its wounds are granted to us.\nDear brethren, if you will listen to the Christ revealed in the\nheavens, as knowing all about you, and remonstrating with you for your\nunreasonableness and ingratitude, and setting before you the miseries\nof rebellion and the suicide of sin, then you will have healing for all\nyour wounds, and your lives will neither be self-tormenting, futile,\nnor unreasonable. The mercy of Jesus Christ lavished upon you makes\nyour yielding yourselves to Him your only rational course. Anything\nelse is folly beyond comparison and harm and loss beyond count.\n\n\n\nFAITH IN CHRIST\n\n'...Faith that is in Me.'--ACTS xxvi. 18.\n\nIt is commonly said, and so far as the fact is concerned, said truly,\nthat what are called the distinguishing doctrines of Christianity are\nrather found in the Epistles than in the Gospels. If we wish the\nclearest statements of the nature and person of Christ, we turn to\nPaul's Epistle to the Colossians. If we wish the fullest dissertation\nupon Christ's work as a sacrifice, we go to the Epistle to the Hebrews.\nIf we seek to prove that men are justified by faith, and not by works,\nit is to the Epistles to Romans and Galatians that we betake\nourselves,--to the writings of the servant rather than the words of the\nMaster. Now this fuller development of Christian doctrine contained in\nthe teaching of the Apostles cannot be denied, and need not be wondered\nat. The reasons for it I am not going to enter upon at present; they\nare not far to seek. Christ came not to _speak_ the Gospel, but _to be_\nthe Gospel. But then, this truth of a fuller development is often\nover-strained, as if Christ 'spake nothing concerning priesthood,'\nsacrifices, faith. He _did_ so speak when on earth. It is often misused\nby being made the foundation of an inference unfavourable to the\nauthority of the Apostolic teaching, when we are told, as we sometimes\nare, that not Paul but Jesus speaks the words which we are to receive.\n\nHere we have Christ Himself speaking from the heavens to Paul at the\nvery beginning of the Apostle's course, and if any one asks us where\ndid Paul get the doctrines which he preached, the answer is, Here, on\nthe road to Damascus, when blind, bleeding, stunned, with all his\nself-confidence driven out of him--with all that he had been crushed\ninto shivers--he saw his Lord, and heard Him speak. These words spoken\nthen are the germ of all Paul's Epistles, the keynote to which all his\nwritings are but the melody that follows, the mighty voice of which all\nhis teaching is but the prolonged echo. 'Delivering thee,' says Christ\nto him, 'from the people, and from the Gentiles, unto whom now I send\nthee, to open their eyes, to turn them from darkness to light, and from\nthe power of Satan unto God; that they may receive forgiveness of sins,\nand inheritance among them that are sanctified by faith that is in Me.'\nNow, I ask you, what of Paul's Gospel is not here? Man's ruin, man's\ndepravity and state of darkness, the power of Satan, the sole\nredemptive work of Christ, justification by belief in that,\nsanctification coming with justification, and glory and rest and heaven\nat last--there they all are in the very first words that sounded upon\nthe quickened ear of the blinded man when he turned from darkness to\nlight.\n\nIt would be foolish, of course, to try to exhaust such a passage as\nthis in a sermon. But notice, what a complete summary of Christian\ntruth there lies in that one last clause of the verse, 'Inheritance\namong them which are sanctified by faith that is in Me.' Translate that\ninto distinct propositions, and they are these: Faith refers to Christ;\nthat is the first thing. Holiness depends on faith; that is the next:\n'_sanctified_ by faith.' Heaven depends on holiness: that is the last:\n'_inheritance_ among them which are sanctified by faith that is in Me.'\nSo there we have the whole gospel!\n\nTo the one part of this comprehensive summary which is contained in my\ntext I desire to turn now, in hope of gathering from it some truths as\nto that familiar word 'faith' which may be of use to us all. The\nexpression is so often on our lips that it has come to be almost\nmeaningless in many minds. These keywords of Scripture meet the same\nfate as do coins that have been long in circulation. They pass through\nso many fingers that the inscriptions get worn off them. We can all\ntalk about faith and forgiveness and justifying and sanctifying, but\nhow few of us have definite notions as to what these words that come so\neasily from our lips mean! There is a vast deal of cloudy haze in the\nminds of average church and chapel goers as to what this wonder-working\nfaith may really be. Perhaps we may then be able to see large and\nneedful truths gleaming in these weighty syllables which Christ Jesus\nspoke from heaven to Paul, 'faith that is in Me.'\n\nI. In the first place, then, the object of faith is Christ.\n\n'Faith that is in Me' is that which is directed towards Christ as its\nobject. Christianity is not merely a system of truths about God, nor a\ncode of morality deducible from these. In its character of a\nrevelation, it is the revelation of God in the person of His Son.\nChristianity in the soul is not the belief of these truths about God,\nstill less the acceptance and practice of these pure ethics, but the\naffiance and the confidence of the whole spirit fixed upon the\nredeeming, revealing Christ,\n\nTrue, the object of our faith is Christ as made known to us in the\nfacts of His recorded life and the teaching of His Apostles. True, our\nonly means of knowing Him as of any other person whom we have never\nseen, are the descriptions of Him, His character and work, which are\ngiven. True, the empty name 'Christ' has to be filled with the\ndoctrinal and biographical statements of Scripture before the Person on\nwhom faith is to fix can be apprehended or beheld. True, it is Christ\nas He is made known to us in the word of God, the Incarnate Son, the\nperfect Man, the atoning Sacrifice, the risen Lord, the ascended\nIntercessor in whom we have to trust. The characteristics and\nattributes of Christ are known to us only by biographical statements\nand by doctrinal propositions. These must be understood in some measure\nand accepted, ere there can be faith in Him. Apart from them, the image\nof Christ must stand a pale, colourless phantom before the mind, and\nthe faith which is directed towards such a nebula will be an\nunintelligent emotion, as nebulous and impotent as the vagueness\ntowards which it turns.\n\nThus far, then, the attempt which is sometimes made to establish a\nChristianity without doctrines on the plea that the object of faith is\nnot a proposition, but a person, must be regarded as nugatory; for how\ncan the 'person' be an object of thought at all, but through the\ndespised 'propositions'?\n\nBut while on the one hand it is true that Christ as revealed in these\ndoctrinal statements of Scripture, the divine human Saviour, is the\nObject of faith, on the other hand it is to be remembered that it is\nHe, and not the statements about Him, who is the Object.\n\nLook at His own words. He does not merely say to us, 'Believe this,\nthat, and the other thing about Me; put your credence in this and the\nother doctrine; accept this and the other promise; hope for this and\nthe other future thing.' All these come with but are not the central\nact. He says, 'Believe: believe in Me! \"_I_ am the Way, and the Truth,\nand the Life\": He that cometh to _Me_ shall never hunger, and he that\nbelieveth in _Me_ shall never thirst.' Do we rightly appreciate that? I\nthink that if people firmly grasped this truth--that Christ is the\nGospel, and that the Object of faith is not simply the truths that are\nrecorded here in the word, but He with regard to whom these truths are\nrecorded--it would clear away rolling wreaths of fog and mist from\ntheir perceptions. The whole feeling and attitude of a man's mind is\ndifferent, according as he is trusting a person, or according as he is\nbelieving something about a person. And this, therefore, is the first\nbroad truth that lies here. Faith has reference not merely to a\ndoctrine, not to a system; but deeper than all these, to a living\nLord--'faith that is _in Me_.'\n\nI cannot help observing, before I go on--though it may be somewhat of a\ndigression--what a strong inference with regard to the divinity of\nChrist is deducible from this first thought that He is the Object to\nwhom faith has reference. If you look into the Old Testament, you will\nfind constantly, 'Trust ye in the Lord for ever'; 'Put thy trust in\nJehovah!' There, too, though under the form of the Law, there, too,\nfaith was the seed and germ of all religion. There, too, though under\nthe hard husk of apparently external obedience and ceremonial\nsacrifices, the just lived by faith. Its object was the Jehovah of that\nancient covenant. Religion has always been the same in every\ndispensation. At every time, that which made a man a devout man has\nbeen identically the same thing. It has always been true that it has\nbeen faith which has bound man to God, and given man hope. But when we\ncome to the New Testament, the centre is shifted, as it would seem.\nWhat has become of the grand old words, 'Trust ye in the Lord Jehovah'?\nLook! Christ stands there, and says, 'Believe upon Me'! With calm,\nsimple, profound dignity, He lays His hand upon all the ancient and\nconsecrated words, upon all the ancient and hallowed emotions that used\nto set towards the unseen God between the cherubim, throned above\njudgment and resting upon mercy; and He says, 'They are Mine--give them\nto Me! That ancient trust, I claim the right to have it. That old\nobedience, it belongs to Me. I am He to whom in all time the loving\nhearts of them that loved God, have set. I am the Angel of the\nCovenant, in whom whoever trusteth shall never be confounded.' And I\nask you just to take that one simple fact, that Christ thus steps, in\nthe New Testament--in so far as the direction of the religious emotions\nof faith and love are concerned--that Christ steps into the place\nfilled by the Jehovah of the Old; and ask yourselves honestly what\ntheory of Christ's nature and person and work explains that fact, and\nsaves Him from the charge of folly and blasphemy? 'He that believeth\nupon Me shall never hunger.' Ah, my brother! He was no mere _man_ who\nsaid that. He that spake from out of the cloud to the Apostle on the\nroad to Damascus, and said, 'Sanctified by faith that is in Me,' was no\nmere _man_. Christ was our brother and a man, but He was the Son of\nGod, the divine Redeemer. The Object of faith is Christ; and as Object\nof faith He must needs be divine.\n\nII. And now, secondly, closely connected with and springing from this\nthought as to the true object of faith, arises the consideration as to\nthe nature and the essence of the act of faith itself.\n\n_Whom_ we are to trust in we have seen: what it is to _have_ faith may\nbe very briefly stated. If the Object of faith were certain truths, the\nassent of the understanding would be enough. If the Object of faith\nwere unseen things, the confident persuasion of them would be\nsufficient. If the Object of faith were promises of future good, the\nhope rising to certainty of the possession of these would be\nsufficient. But if the Object be more than truths, more than unseen\nrealities, more than promises; if the Object be a living Person,--then\nthere follows inevitably this, that faith is not merely the assent of\nthe understanding, that faith is not merely the persuasion of the\nreality of unseen things, that faith is not merely the confident\nexpectation of future good; but that faith is the personal relation of\nhim who has it to the living Person its Object,--the relation which is\nexpressed not more clearly, perhaps a little more forcibly to us, by\nsubstituting another word, and saying, Faith is _trust_.\n\nAnd I think that there again, by laying hold of that simple principle,\nBecause Christ is the Object of Faith, therefore Faith must be trust,\nwe get bright and beautiful light upon the grandest truths of the\nGospel of God. If we will only take that as our explanation, we have\nnot indeed defined faith by substituting the other word for it, but we\nhave made it a little more clear to our apprehensions, by using a\nnon-theological word with which our daily acts teach us to connect an\nintelligible meaning. If we will only take that as our explanation, how\nsimple, how grand, how familiar too it sounds,--to _trust_ Him! It is\nthe very same kind of feeling, though different in degree, and\nglorified by the majesty and glory of its Object, as that which we all\nknow how to put forth in our relations with one another. We trust each\nother. That is faith. We have confidence in the love that has been\naround us, breathing benedictions and bringing blessings ever since we\nwere little children. When the child looks up into the mother's face,\nthe symbol to it of all protection, or into the father's eye, the\nsymbol to it of all authority,--that emotion by which the little one\nhangs upon the loving hand and trusts the loving heart that towers\nabove it in order to bend over it and scatter good, is the same as the\none which, glorified and made divine, rises strong and immortal in its\npower, when fixed and fastened on Christ, and saves the soul. The\nGospel rests upon a mystery, but the practical part of it is no\nmystery. When we come and preach to you, 'Trust in Christ and thou\nshalt be saved,' we are not asking you to put into exercise some\nmysterious power. We are only asking you to give to Him that which you\ngive to others, to transfer the old emotions, the blessed emotions, the\nexercise of which makes gladness in life here below, to transfer them\nto Him, and to rest safe in the Lord. Faith is trust. The living Person\nas its Object rises before us there, in His majesty, in His power, in\nHis gentleness, and He says, 'I shall be contented if thou wilt give to\nMe these emotions which thou dost fix now, to thy death and loss, on\nthe creatures of a day.' Faith is mighty, divine, the gift of God; but\nOh! it is the exercise of a familiar habit, only fixed upon a divine\nand eternal Person.\n\nAnd if this be the very heart and kernel of the Christian doctrine of\nfaith--that it is simple personal trust in Jesus Christ; it is worthy\nof notice, how all the subsidiary meanings and uses of the word flow\nout of that, whilst it cannot be explained by any of them. People are\nin the habit of setting up antitheses betwixt faith and reason, betwixt\nfaith and sight, betwixt faith and possession. They say, 'We do not\n_know_, we must _believe_'; they say, 'We do not _see_, we must have\nfaith'; they say, 'We do not _possess_, we must trust.' Now faith--the\ntrust in Christ--the simple personal relation of confidence in\nHim--_that_ lies beneath all these other meanings of the word. For\ninstance, faith is, in one sense, the opposite and antithesis of sight;\nbecause Christ, unseen, having gone into the unseen world, the\nconfidence which is directed towards Him must needs pass out beyond the\nregion of sense, and fix upon the immortal verities that are veiled by\nexcess of light at God's right hand. Faith is the opposite of sight;\ninasmuch as Christ, having given us assurance of an unseen and\neverlasting world, we, trusting in Him, believe what He says to us, and\nare persuaded and know that there are things yonder which we have never\nseen with the eye nor handled with the hand. Similarly, faith is the\ncompletion of reason; because, trusting Christ, we believe what He\nsays, and He has spoken to us truths which we in ourselves are unable\nto discover, but which, when revealed, we accept on the faith of His\ntruthfulness, and because we rely upon Him. Similarly, faith is\ncontrasted with present possession, because Christ has promised us\nfuture blessings and future glories; and having confidence in the\nPerson, we believe what He says, and know that we shall possess them.\nBut the root from which spring the power of faith as the opposite of\nsight, the power of faith as the telescope of reason, the power of\nfaith as the 'confidence of things not possessed,' is the deeper\nthing--faith in the Person, which leads us to believe Him whether He\npromises, reveals, or commands, and to take His words as verity because\nHe _is_ 'the Truth.'\n\nAnd then, again, if this, the personal trust in Christ as our living\nRedeemer--if this be faith, then there come also, closely connected\nwith it, certain other emotions or feelings in the heart. For instance,\nif I am trusting to Christ, there is inseparably linked with it\nself-distrust. There are two sides to the emotion; where there is\nreliance upon another, there must needs be non-reliance upon self. Take\nan illustration. There is the tree: the trunk goes upward from the\nlittle seed, rises into the light, gets the sunshine upon it, and has\nleaves and fruit. That is the upward tendency of faith--trust in\nChrist. There is the root, down deep, buried, dark, unseen. Both are\nspringing, but springing in apposite directions, from the one seed.\nThat is, as it were, the negative side, the downward\ntendency--self-distrust. The two things go together--the positive\nreliance upon another, the negative distrust of myself. There must be\ndeep consciousness not only of my own impotence, but of my own\nsinfulness. The heart must be emptied that the seed of faith may grow;\nbut the entrance in of faith is itself the means for the emptying of\nthe heart. The two things co-exist; we can divide them in thought. We\ncan wrangle and squabble, as divided sects hare done, about which comes\nfirst, the fact being, that though you can part them in thought, you\ncannot part them in experience, inasmuch as they are but the obverse\nand the reverse, the two sides of the same coin. Faith and\nrepentance--faith and self-distrust--they are done in one and the same\nindissoluble act.\n\nAnd again, faith, as thus conceived of, will obviously have for its\ncertain and immediate consequence, love. Nay, the two emotions will be\ninseparable and practically co-existent. In thought we can separate\nthem. Logically, faith comes first, and love next, but in life they\nwill spring up together. The question of their order of existence is an\noften-trod battle-ground of theology, all strewed with the relics of\nformer fights. But in the real history of the growth of religious\nemotions in the soul, the interval which separates them is impalpable,\nand in every act of trust, love is present, and fundamental to every\nemotion of love to Christ is trust in Christ.\n\nBut without further reference to such matters, here is the broad\nprinciple of our text. Trust in Christ, not mere assent to a principle,\npersonal dependence upon Him revealed as the 'Lamb of God that taketh\naway the sin of the world,' an act of the will as well as of the\nunderstanding, and essentially an act of the will and not of the\nunderstanding--that is the thing by which a soul is saved. And much of\nthe mist and confusion about saving faith, and non-saving faith, might\nbe lifted and dispersed if we once fully apprehended and firmly held by\nthe divine simplicity of the truth, that faith is trust in Jesus Christ.\n\nIII. Once more: from this general definition there follows, in the\nthird place, an explanation of the power of faith.\n\n'We are justified,' says the Bible, 'by faith.' If a man believes, he\nis saved. Why so? Not, as some people sometimes seem to fancy, as if in\nfaith itself there was any merit. There is a very strange and subtle\nresurrection of the whole doctrine of works in reference to this\nmatter; and we often hear belief in the Gospel of Christ spoken about\nas if _it_, the work of the man believing, was, in a certain way and to\nsome extent, that which God rewarded by giving him salvation. What is\nthat but the whole doctrine of works come up again in a new form? What\ndifference is there between what a man does with his hands and what a\nman feels in his heart? If the one merit salvation, or if the other\nmerit salvation, equally we are shut up to this,--Men get heaven by\nwhat they do; and it does not matter a bit what they do it with,\nwhether it be body or soul. When we say we are saved by faith, we mean\naccurately, _through_ faith. It is God that saves. It is Christ's life,\nChrist's blood, Christ's sacrifice, Christ's intercession, that saves.\nFaith is simply the channel through which there flows over into my\nemptiness the divine fulness; or, to use the good old illustration, it\nis the hand which is held up to receive the benefit which Christ lays\nin it. A living trust in Jesus has power unto salvation, only because\nit is the means by which 'the power of God unto salvation' may come\ninto my heart. On one side is the great ocean of Christ's love,\nChrist's abundance, Christ's merits, Christ's righteousness; or,\nrather, there is the great ocean of Christ Himself, which includes them\nall; and on the other is the empty vessel of my soul--and the little\nnarrow pipe that has nothing to do but to bring across the refreshing\nwater, is the act of faith in Him. There is no merit in the dead lead,\nno virtue in the mere emotion. It is not faith that saves us; it is\nChrist that saves us, and saves us through faith.\n\nAnd now, lastly, these principles likewise help us to understand\nwherein consists the guilt and criminality of unbelief. People are\nsometimes disposed to fancy that God has arbitrarily selected this one\nthing, believing in Jesus Christ, as the means of salvation, and do not\ndistinctly see why and how non-belief is so desperate and criminal a\nthing. I think that the principles that I have been trying feebly to\nwork out now, help us to see how faith is not arbitrarily selected as\nthe instrument and means of our salvation. There is no other way of\neffecting it. God could not save us in any other way than that,\nsalvation being provided, the condition of receiving it should be trust\nin His Son.\n\nAnd next they show where the guilt of unbelief lies. Faith is not first\nand principally an act of the understanding; it is not the mere assent\nto certain truths. I believe, for my part, that men are responsible\neven for their intellectual processes, and for the beliefs at which\nthey arrive by the working of these; and I think it is a very shallow\nphilosophy that stands up and says--(it is almost exploded now, and\nperhaps not needful even to mention it)--that men are 'no more\nresponsible for their belief than they are for the colour of their\nhair.' Why, if faith were no more than an intellectual process, it\nwould still be true that they are responsible for it; but the faith\nthat saves a man, and unbelief that ruins a man, are not processes of\nthe understanding alone. It is the will, the heart, the whole moral\nbeing, that is concerned. Why does any one not trust Jesus Christ? For\none reason only: because _he will not_. Why has any one not faith in\nthe Lamb of God? Because his whole nature is turning away from that\ndivine and loving Face, and is setting itself in rebellion against it.\nWhy does any one refuse to believe? Because he has confidence in\nhimself; because he has not a sense of his sins; because he has not\nlove in his heart to his Lord and Saviour. Men are responsible for\nunbelief. Unbelief is criminal, because it is a moral act--an act of\nthe whole nature. Belief or unbelief is the test of a man's whole\nspiritual condition, just because it is the whole being, affections,\nwill, conscience and all, as well as the understanding, which are\nconcerned in it. And therefore Christ, who says, 'Sanctified by faith\nthat is in Me,' says likewise, 'He that believeth not, shall be\ncondemned.'\n\nAnd now, brethren, take this one conviction into your hearts, that what\nmakes a man a Christian--what saves my soul and yours--what brings the\nlove of Christ into any life, and makes the sacrifice of Christ a power\nto pardon and purify,--that that is not merely believing this Book, not\nmerely understanding the doctrines that are there, but a far more\nprofound act than that. It is the casting of myself upon Himself, the\nbending of my willing heart to His loving Spirit; the close contact,\nheart to heart, soul to soul, will to will, of my emptiness with His\nfulness, of my sinfulness with His righteousness, of my death with His\nlife: that I may live by Him, be sanctified by Him, be saved by Him,\n'with an everlasting salvation.' Faith is trust: Christ is the Objeet\nof faith. Faith is the condition of salvation; and unbelief is your\nfault, your loss--the crime which ruins men's souls!\n\n\n\n'BEFORE GOVERNORS AND KINGS'\n\n'Whereupon, O king Agrippa, I was not disobedient unto the heavenly\nvision: 20. But shewed first unto them of Damascus, and at Jerusalem,\nand throughout all the coasts of Judsea, and then to the Gentiles, that\nthey should repent and turn to God, and do works meet for repentance.\n21. For these causes the Jews caught me in the temple, and went about\nto kill me. 22. Having therefore obtained help of God, I continue unto\nthis day, witnessing both to small and great, saying none other things\nthan those which the prophets and Moses did say should come; 23. That\nChrist should suffer, and that He should be the first that should rise\nfrom the dead, and should show light unto the people, and to the\nGentiles. 24. And as he thus spake for himself, Festus said with a loud\nvoice, Paul, thou art beside thyself; much learning doth make thee mad.\n25. But he said, I am not mad, most noble Festus; but speak forth the\nwords of truth and soberness. 26. For the king knoweth of these things,\nbefore whom also I speak freely: for I am persuaded that none of these\nthings are hidden from him; for this thing was not done in a corner.\n27. King Agrippa, believest thou the prophets? I know that thou\nbelievest. 28. Then Agrippa said unto Paul, Almost thou persuadest me\nto be a Christian. 29. And Paul said, I would to God, that not only\nthou, but also all that hear me this day, were both almost and\naltogether such as I am, except these bonds. 30. And when he had thus\nspoken, the king rose up, and the governor, and Bernice, and they that\nsat with them: 31. And when they were gone aside, they talked between\nthemselves, saying, This man doeth nothing worthy of death or of bonds.\n32. Then said Agrippa unto Festus, This man might have been set at\nliberty, if he had not appealed unto Caesar.'--ACTS xxvi. 19-32.\n\nFestus was no model of a righteous judge, but he had got hold of the\ntruth as to Paul, and saw that what he contemptuously called 'certain\nquestions of their own superstition,' and especially his assertion of\nthe Resurrection, were the real crimes of the Apostle in Jewish eyes.\nBut the fatal wish to curry favour warped his course, and led him to\npropose a removal of the 'venue' to Jerusalem. Paul knew that to return\nthither would seal his death-warrant, and was therefore driven to\nappeal to Rome.\n\nThat took the case out of Festus's jurisdiction. So that the hearing\nbefore Agrippa was an entertainment, got up for the king's diversion,\nwhen other amusements had been exhausted, rather than a regular\njudicial proceeding. Paul was examined 'to make a Roman holiday.'\nFestus's speech (chap. xxv. 24-27) tries to put on a colour of desire\nto ascertain more clearly the charges, but that is a very thin pretext.\nAgrippa had said that he would like 'to hear the man,' and so the\nperformance was got up 'by request.' Not a very sympathetic audience\nfronted Paul that day. A king and his sister, a Roman governor, and all\nthe elite of Caesarean society, ready to take their cue from the faces\nof these three, did not daunt Paul. The man who had seen Jesus on the\nDamascus road could face 'small and great.'\n\nThe portion of his address included in the passage touches\nsubstantially the same points as did his previous 'apologies.' We may\nnote how strongly he puts the force that impelled him on his course,\nand lays bare the secret of his life. 'I was not disobedient to the\nheavenly vision'; then the possibility of disobedience was open after\nhe had heard Christ ask, 'Why persecutest thou Me?' and had received\ncommands from His mouth. Then, too, the essential character of the\ncharge against him was that, instead of kicking against the owner's\ngoad, he had bowed his neck to his yoke, and that his obstinate will\nhad melted. Then, too, the 'light above the brightness of the sun'\nstill shone round him, and his whole life was one long act of obedience.\n\nWe note also how he sums up his work in verse 20, representing his\nmission to the Gentiles as but the last term in a continuous widening\nof his field, from Damascus to Jerusalem, from Jerusalem to Judaea (a\nphase of his activity not otherwise known to us, and for which, with\nour present records, it is difficult to find a place), from Judaea to\nthe Gentiles. Step by step he had been led afield, and at each step the\n'heavenly vision' had shone before him.\n\nHow superbly, too, Paul overleaps the distinction of Jew and Gentile,\nwhich disappeared to him in the unity of the broad message, which was\nthe same to every man. Repentance, turning to God, works worthy of\nrepentance, are as needful for Jew as for Gentile, and as open to\nGentile as to Jew. What but universal can such a message be? To limit\nit would be to mutilate it.\n\nWe note, too, the calmness with which he lays his finger on the real\ncause of Jewish hate, which Festus had already found out. He does not\ncondescend to rebut the charge of treason, which he had already\nrepelled, and which nobody in his audience believed. He is neither\nafraid nor angry, as he quietly points to the deadly malice which had\nno ground but his message.\n\nWe further note the triumphant confidence in God and assurance of His\nhelp in all the past, so that, like some strong tower after the most\ncrashing blows of the battering-ram, he still 'stands.' 'His steps had\nwellnigh slipped,' when foe after foe stormed against him, but 'Thy\nmercy, O Lord, held me up.'\n\nFinally, Paul gathers himself together, to leave as his last word the\nmighty sentence in which he condenses his whole teaching, in its aspect\nof witness-bearing, in its universal destination and identity to the\npoorest and to loftily placed men and women, such as sat languidly\nlooking at him now, in its perfect concord with the earlier revelation,\nand in its threefold contents, that it was the message of the Christ\nwho suffered, who rose from the dead, who was the Light of the world.\nSurely the promise was fulfilled to him, and it was 'given him in that\nhour what he should speak.'\n\nThe rustle in the crowd was scarcely over, when the strong masterful\nvoice of the governor rasped out the coarse taunt, which, according to\none reading, was made coarser (and more lifelike) by repetition, 'Thou\nart mad, Paul; thou art mad.' So did a hard 'practical man' think of\nthat strain of lofty conviction, and of that story of the appearance of\nthe Christ. To be in earnest about wealth or power or science or\npleasure is not madness, so the world thinks; but to be in earnest\nabout religion, one's own soul, or other people's, is. Which was the\nsaner, Paul, who 'counted all things but dung that he might win\nChrist,' or Festus, who counted keeping his governorship, and making\nall that he could out of it, the one thing worth living for? Who is the\nmadman, he who looks up and sees Jesus, and bows before Him for\nlifelong service, or he who looks up and says, 'I see nothing up there;\nI keep my eyes on the main chance down here'? It would be a saner and a\nhappier world if there were more of us mad after Paul's fashion.\n\nPaul's unruffled calm and dignity brushed aside the rude exclamation\nwith a simple affirmation that his words were true in themselves, and\nspoken by one who had full command over his faculties; and then he\nturned away from Festus, who understood nothing, to Agrippa, who, at\nany rate, did understand a little. Indeed, Festus has to take the\nsecond place throughout, and it may have been the ignoring of him that\nnettled him. For all his courtesy to Agrippa, he knew that the latter\nwas but a vassal king, and may have chafed at Paul's addressing him\nexclusively.\n\nThe Apostle has finished his defence, and now he towers above the petty\ndignitaries before him, and goes straight at the conscience of the\nking. Festus had dismissed the Resurrection of 'one Jesus' as\nunimportant: Paul asserted it, the Jews denied it. It was not worth\nwhile to ask which was right. The man was dead, that was agreed. If\nPaul said He was alive after death, that was only another proof of\nmadness, and a Roman governor had more weighty things to occupy him\nthan investigating such obscure and absurd trifles. But Agrippa, though\nnot himself a Jew, knew enough of the history of the last twenty years\nto have heard about the Resurrection and the rise of the Church. No\ndoubt he would have been ready to admit his knowledge, but Paul shows a\ndisposition to come to closer quarters by his swift thrust, 'Believest\nthou the prophets?' and the confident answer which the questioner gives.\n\nWhat was the Apostle bringing these two things--the publicity given to\nthe facts of Christ's life, and the belief in the prophets--together\nfor? Obviously, if Agrippa said Yes, then the next question would be,\n'Believest thou the Christ, whose life and death and resurrection thou\nknowest, and who has fulfilled the prophets thereby?' That would have\nbeen a hard question for the king to answer. His conscience begins to\nbe uncomfortable, and his dignity is wounded by this extremely rude\nperson, who ventures to talk to him as if he were a mere common man. He\nhas no better answer ready than a sarcasm; not a very forcible one,\nbetraying, however, his penetration into, and his dislike of, and his\nembarrassment at, Paul's drift. His ironical words are no confession of\nbeing 'almost persuaded,' but a taunt. 'And do you really suppose that\nit is so easy a matter to turn me--the great Me, a Herod, a king,' and\nhe might have added, a sensual bad man, 'into a Christian?'\n\nPaul met the sarcastic jest with deep earnestness, which must have\nhushed the audience of sycophants ready to laugh with the king, and\nevidently touched him and Festus. His whole soul ran over in yearning\ndesire for the salvation of them all. He took no notice of the gibe in\nthe word _Christian_, nor of the levity of Agrippa. He showed that\npurest love fills his heart, that he has found the treasure which\nenriches the poorest and adds blessedness to the highest. So peaceful\nand blessed is he, a prisoner, that he can wish nothing better for any\nthan to be like him in his faith. He hints his willingness to take any\npains and undergo any troubles for such an end; and, with almost a\nsmile, he looks at his chains, and adds, 'except these bonds.'\n\nDid Festus wince a little at the mention of these, which ought not to\nhave been on his wrists? At all events, the entertainment had taken\nrather too serious a turn for the taste of any of the three,--Festus,\nAgrippa, or Bernice. If this strange man was going to shake their\nconsciences in that fashion, it was high time to end what was, after\nall, as far as the rendering of justice was concerned, something like a\nfarce.\n\nSo with a rustle, and amid the obeisances of the courtiers, the three\nrose, and, followed by the principal people, went through the form of\ndeliberation. There was only one conclusion to be come to. He was\nperfectly innocent. So Agrippa solemnly pronounced, what had been known\nbefore, that he had done nothing worthy of death or bonds, though he\nhad 'these bonds' on his arms; and salved the injustice of keeping an\ninnocent man in custody by throwing all the blame on Paul himself for\nappealing to Csesar. But the person to blame was Festus, who had forced\nPaul to appeal in order to save his life.\n\n\n\n'THE HEAVENLY VISION'\n\n'Whereupon, O King Agrippa, I was not disobedient unto the heavenly\nvision.' Acts xxvi. 19.\n\nThis is Paul's account of the decisive moment in his life on which all\nhis own future, and a great deal of the future of Christianity and of\nthe world, hung. The gracious voice had spoken from heaven, and now\neverything depended on the answer made in the heart of the man lying\nthere blind and amazed. Will he rise melted by love, and softened into\nsubmission, or hardened by resistance to the call of the exalted Lord?\nThe somewhat singular expression which he employs in the text, makes us\nspectators of the very process of his yielding. For it might be\nrendered, with perhaps an advantage, 'I _became_ not disobedient'; as\nif the 'disobedience' was the prior condition, from which we see him in\nthe very act of passing, by the melting of his nature and the yielding\nof his will. Surely there have been few decisions in the world's\nhistory big with larger destinies than that which the captive described\nto Agrippa in the simple words: 'I became not disobedient unto the\nheavenly vision.'\n\nI. Note, then, first, that this heavenly vision shines for us too.\n\nPaul throughout his whole career looked back to the miraculous\nappearance of Jesus Christ in the heavens, as being equally availably\nas valid ground for his Christian convictions as were the appearances\nof the Lord in bodily form to the Eleven after His resurrection. And I\nmay venture to work the parallel in the inverse direction, and to say\nto you that what we see and know of Jesus Christ is as valid a ground\nfor our convictions, and as true and powerful a call for our obedience,\nas when the heaven was rent, and the glory above the midday sun bathed\nthe persecutor and his followers on the stony road to Damascus. For the\nrevelation that is made to the understanding and the heart, to the\nspirit and the will, is the same whether it be made, as it was to Paul,\nthrough a heavenly vision, or, as it was to the other Apostles, through\nthe facts of the life, death, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus,\nwhich their senses certified to them, or, as it is to us, by the record\nof the same facts, permanently enshrined in Scripture. Paul's sight of\nChrist was for a moment; we can see Him as often and as long as we\nwill, by turning to the pages of this Book. Paul's sight of Christ was\naccompanied with but a partial apprehension of the great and\nfar-reaching truths which he was to learn and to teach, as embodied in\nthe Lord whom he saw. To see Him was the work of a moment, to 'know\nHim' was the effort of a lifetime. We have the abiding results of the\nlifelong process lying ready to our hands in Paul's own letters, and we\nhave not only the permanent record of Christ in the Gospels instead of\nthe transient vision in the heavens, and the unfolding of the meaning\nand bearings of the historical facts, in the authoritative teaching of\nthe Epistles, but we have also, in the history of the Church founded on\nthese, in the manifest workings of a divine power for and through the\ncompany of believers, as well as in the correspondence between the\nfacts and doctrines of Christianity and the wants of humanity, a vision\ndisclosed and authenticated as heavenly, more developed, fuller of\nmeaning and more blessed to the eyes which see it, than that which was\nrevealed to the persecutor as he reeled from his horse on the way to\nthe great city.\n\nDear brethren, they who see Christ in the word, In the history of the\nworld, in the pleading of the preacher, in the course of the ages, and\nwho sometimes hear His voice in the warnings which He breathes into\ntheir consciences, and in the illuminations which He flashes on their\nunderstanding, need ask for no loftier, no more valid and irrefragable\nmanifestation of His gracious self. To each of us this vision is\ngranted. May I say, without seeming egotism to you it is granted even\nthrough the dark and cloudy envelope of my poor words?\n\nII. The vision of Christ, howsoever perceived, comes demanding\nobedience.\n\nThe purpose for which Jesus Christ made Himself known to Paul was to\ngive him a charge which should influence his whole life. And the manner\nin which the Lord, when He had appeared, prepared the way for the\ncharge was twofold. He revealed Himself in His radiant glory, in His\nexalted being, in His sympathetic and mysterious unity with them that\nloved Him and trusted Him, in His knowledge of the doings of the\npersecutor; and He disclosed to Saul the inmost evil that lurked in his\nown heart, and showed him to his bewilderment and confusion, how the\ncourse that he thought to be righteousness and service was blasphemy\nand sin. So, by the manifestation of Himself enthroned omniscient,\nbound by the closest ties of identity and of sympathy with all that\nlove Him, and by the disclosure of the amazed gazer's evil and sin,\nJesus Christ opened the way for the charge which bore in its very heart\nan assurance of pardon, and was itself a manifestation of His love.\n\nIn like manner all heavenly visions are meant to secure human\nobedience. We have not done what God means us to do with any knowledge\nof Him which He grants, unless we utilise it to drive the wheels of\nlife and carry it out into practice in our daily conduct. Revelation is\nnot meant to satisfy mere curiosity or the idle desire to know. It\nshines above us like the stars, but, unlike them, it shines to be the\nguide of our lives. And whatsoever glimpse of the divine nature, or of\nChrist's love, nearness, and power, we have ever caught, was meant to\nbow our wills in glad submission, and to animate our hands for diligent\nservice and to quicken our feet to run in the way of His commandments.\n\nThere is plenty of idle gazing, with more or less of belief, at the\nheavenly vision. I beseech you to lay to heart this truth, that Christ\nrends the heavens and shows us God, not that men may know, but that men\nmay, knowing, do; and all His visions are the bases of commandments. So\nthe question for us all is, What are we doing with what we know of\nJesus Christ? Nothing? Have we translated our thoughts of Him into\nactions, and have we put all our actions under the control of our\nthoughts of Him? It is not enough that a man should say, 'Whereupon I\n_saw_ the vision,' or, 'Whereupon I was _convinced_ of the vision,' or,\n'Whereupon I _understood_ the vision.' Sight, apprehension, theology,\northodoxy, they are all very well, but the right result is, 'Whereupon\nI was _not disobedient_ to the heavenly vision.' And unless your\nknowledge of Christ makes you do, and keep from doing, a thousand\nthings, it is only an idle vision, which adds to your guilt.\n\nBut notice, in this connection, the peculiarity of the obedience which\nthe vision requires. There is not a word, in this story of Paul's\nconversion, about the thing which Paul himself always puts in the\nforeground as the very hinge upon which conversion turns--viz. faith.\nNot a word. The name is not here, but the thing is here, if people will\nlook. For the obedience which Paul says that he rendered to the vision\nwas not rendered with his hands. He got up to his feet on the road\nthere, 'not disobedient,' though he had not yet done anything. This is\nto say, the man's will had melted. It had all gone with a run, so to\nspeak, and the inmost being of him was subdued. The obedience was the\nsubmission of self to God, and not the more or less diligent and\ncontinuous consequent external activity in the way of God's\ncommandments.\n\nFurther, Paul's obedience is also an obedience based upon the vision of\nJesus Christ enthroned, living, bound by ties that thrill at the\nslightest touch to all hearts that love Him, and making common cause\nwith them.\n\nAnd furthermore, it is an obedience based upon the shuddering\nrecognition of Paul's own unsuspected evil and foulness, how all the\nlife, that he had thought was being built up into a temple that God\nwould inhabit, was rottenness and falsehood.\n\nAnd it is an obedience, further, built upon the recognition of pity and\npardon in Christ, who, after His sharp denunciation of the sin, looks\ndown from Heaven with a smile of forgiveness upon His lips, and says:\n'But rise and stand upon thy feet, for I will send thee to make known\nMy name.'\n\nAn obedience which is the inward yielding of the will, which is all\nbuilt upon the revelation of the living Christ, who was dead and is\nalive for evermore, and close to all His followers; and is, further,\nthe thankful tribute of a heart that knows itself to be sinful, and is\ncertain that it is forgiven--what is that but the obedience which is of\nfaith? And thus, when I say that the heavenly vision demands obedience,\nI do not mean that Christ shows Himself to you to set you to work, but\nI mean that Christ shows Himself to you that you may yield yourselves\nto Him, and in the act may receive power to do all His sweet and sacred\nwill.\n\nIII. Thirdly, this obedience is in our own power to give or to withhold.\n\nPaul, as I said in my introductory remarks, puts us here as spectators\nof the very act of submission. He shows it to us in its beginning--he\nshows us the state from which he came and that into which he passed,\nand he tells us, 'I _became_--not disobedient.' In his case it was a\ncomplete, swift, and permanent revolution, as if some thick-ribbed ice\nshould all at once melt into sweet water. But whether swift or slow it\nwas his own act, and after the Voice had spoken it was possible that\nPaul should have resisted and risen from the ground, not a servant, but\na persecutor still. For God's grace constrains no man, and there is\nalways the possibility open that when He calls we refuse, and that when\nHe beseeches we say, 'I will not.'\n\nThere is the mystery on which the subtlest intellects have tasked their\npowers and blunted the edge of their keenness in all generations; and\nit is not likely to be settled in five minutes of a sermon of mine. But\nthe practical point that I have to urge is simply this: there are two\nmysteries, the one that men _can_, and the other that men _do_, resist\nChrist's pleading voice. As to the former, we cannot fathom it. But do\nnot let any difficulty deaden to you the clear voice of your own\nconsciousness. If I cannot trust my sense that I can do this thing or\nnot do it, as I choose, there is nothing that I can trust. Will is the\npower of determining which of two roads I shall go, and, strange as it\nis, incapable of statement in any more general terms than the\nreiteration of the fact; yet here stands the fact, that God, the\ninfinite Will, has given to men, whom He made in His own image, this\ninexplicable and awful power of coinciding with or opposing His\npurposes and His voice.\n\n  'Our wills are ours, we know not how;\n  Our wills are ours, to make them Thine.'\n\nFor the other mystery is, that men _do_ consciously set themselves\nagainst the will of God, and refuse the gifts which they know all the\nwhile are for their good. It is of no use to say that sin is ignorance.\nNo; that is only a surface explanation. You and I know too well that\nmany a time when we have been as sure of what God wanted us to do as if\nwe had seen it written in flaming letters on the sky there, we have\ngone and done the exact opposite. I know that there are men and women\nwho are convinced in their inmost souls that they ought to be\nChristians, and that Jesus Christ is pleading with them at the present\nhour, and yet in whose hearts there is no yielding to what, they yet\nare certain, is the will and voice of Jesus Christ.\n\nIV. Lastly, this obedience may, in a moment, revolutionise a life.\n\nPaul rode from Jerusalem 'breathing out threatenings and slaughters.'\nHe fell from his warhorse, a persecutor of Christians, and a bitter\nenemy of Jesus. A few moments pass. There was one moment in which the\ncrucial decision was made; and he staggered to his feet, loving all\nthat he had hated, and abandoning all in which he had trusted. His own\ndoctrine that 'if any man be in Christ he is a new creature, old things\nare passed away and all things are become new,' is but a generalisation\nof what befell himself on the Damascus road. It is of no use trying to\nsay that there had been a warfare going on in this man's mind long\nbefore, of which his complete capitulation was only the final visible\noutcome. There is not a trace of anything of the kind in the story. It\nis a pure hypothesis pressed into the service of the anti-supernatural\nexplanation of the fact.\n\nThere are plenty of analogies of such sudden and entire revolution. All\nreformation of a moral kind is best done quickly. It is a very hopeless\ntask, as every one knows, to tell a drunkard to break off his habits\ngradually. There must be one moment in which he definitely turns\nhimself round and sets his face in the other direction. Some things are\nbest done with slow, continuous pressure; other things need to be done\nwith a wrench if they are to be done at all.\n\nThere used to be far too much insistence upon one type of religious\nexperience, and all men that were to be recognised as Christians were,\nby evangelical Nonconformists, required to be able to point to the\nmoment when, by some sudden change, they passed from darkness to light.\nWe have drifted away from that very far now, and there is need for\ninsisting, not upon the necessity, but upon the possibility, of sudden\nconversions. However some may try to show that such experiences cannot\nbe, the experience of every earnest Christian teacher can answer--well!\nwhether they can be or not, they are. Jesus Christ cured two men\ngradually, and all the others instantaneously. No doubt, for young\npeople who have been born amidst Christian influences, and have grown\nup in Christian households, the usual way of becoming Christians is\nthat slowly and imperceptibly they shall pass into the consciousness of\ncommunion with Jesus Christ. But for people who have grown up\nirreligious and, perhaps, profligate and sinful, the most probable way\nis a sudden stride out of the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of\nGod's dear Son. So I come to you all with this message. No matter what\nyour past, no matter how much of your life may have ebbed away, no\nmatter how deeply rooted and obstinate may be your habits of evil, no\nmatter how often you may have tried to mend yourself and have failed,\nit is possible by one swift act of surrender to break the chains and go\nfree. In every man's life there have been moments into which years have\nbeen crowded, and which have put a wider gulf between his past and his\npresent self than many slow, languid hours can dig. A great sorrow, a\ngreat joy, a great, newly discerned truth, a great resolve will make\n'one day as a thousand years.' Men live through such moments and feel\nthat the past is swallowed up as by an earthquake. The highest instance\nof thus making time elastic and crowding it with meaning is when a man\nforms and keeps the swift resolve to yield himself to Christ. It may be\nthe work of a moment, but it makes a gulf between past and future, like\nthat which parted the time before and the time after that in which 'God\nsaid, Let there be light: and there was light.' If you have never yet\nbowed before the heavenly vision and yielded yourself as conquered by\nthe love which pardons, to be the glad servant of the Lord Jesus who\ntakes all His servants into wondrous oneness with Himself, do it now.\nYou can do it. Delay is disobedience, and may be death. Do it now, and\nyour whole life will be changed. Peace and joy and power will come to\nyou, and you, made a new man, will move in a new world of new\nrelations, duties, energies, loves, gladnesses, helps, and hopes. If\nyou take heed to prolong the point into a line, and hour by hour to\nrenew the surrender and the cry, 'Lord, what wilt Thou have me to do?'\nyou will ever have the vision of the Christ enthroned, pardoning,\nsympathising, and commanding, which will fill your sky with glory,\npoint the path of your feet, and satisfy your gaze with His beauty, and\nyour heart with His all-sufficing and ever-present love.\n\n\n\n'ME A CHRISTIAN!'\n\n'Then Agrlppa said unto Paul, Almost thou persuadest me to be a\nChristian.'--ACTS xxvi 28.\n\nThis Agrippa was son of the other Herod of whom we hear in the Acts as\na persecutor. This one appears from other sources, to have had the\nvices but not the force of character of his bad race. He was weak and\nindolent, a mere hanger-on of Rome, to which he owed his kingdom, and\nto which he stoutly stuck during all the tragedy of the fall of\nJerusalem. In position and in character (largely resulting from the\nposition) he was uncommonly like those semi-independent rajahs in\nIndia, who are allowed to keep up a kind of shadow of authority on\ncondition of doing what Calcutta bids them. Of course frivolity and\ndebauchery become the business of such men. What sort of a man this was\nmay be sufficiently inferred from the fact that Bernice was his sister.\n\nBut he knew a good deal about the Jews, about their opinions, their\nreligion, and about what had been going on during the last half century\namongst them. Or grounds of policy he professed to accept the Jewish\nfaith--of which an edifying example is given in the fact that, on one\noccasion, Bernice was prevented from accompanying him to Rome because\nshe was fulfilling a Nazarite vow in the Temple at Jerusalem!\n\nSo the Apostle was fully warranted in appealing to Agrippa's knowledge,\nnot only of Judaism, but of the history of Jesus Christ, and in his\nfurther assertion, 'I know that thou believest.' But the home-thrust\nwas too much for the king. His answer is given in the words of our text.\n\nThey are very familiar words, and they have been made the basis of a\ngreat many sermons upon being all but persuaded to accept of Christ as\nSaviour. But, edifying as such a use of them is, it can scarcely be\nsustained by their actual meaning. Most commentators are agreed that\nour Authorised Version does not represent either Agrippa's words or his\ntone. He was not speaking in earnest. His words are sarcasm, not a half\nmelting into conviction, and the Revised Version gives what may, on the\nwhole, be accepted as being a truer representation of their intention\nwhen it reads, 'With but little persuasion thou wouldst fain make me a\nChristian.'\n\nHe is half amused and half angry at the Apostle's presumption in\nsupposing that so easily or so quickly he was going to land his fish.\n'It is a more difficult task than you fancy, Paul, to make a Christian\nof a man like me.' That is the real meaning of his words, and I think\nthat, rightly understood, they yield lessons of no less value than\nthose that have been so often drawn from them as they appear in our\nAuthorised Version. So I wish to try and gather up and urge upon you\nnow these lessons:--\n\nI. First, then, I see here an example of the danger of a superficial\nfamiliarity with Christian truth.\n\nAs I said, Agrippa knew, in a general way, a good deal not only about\nthe prophets and the Jewish religion, but of the outstanding facts of\nthe death and Resurrection of Jesus Christ. Paul's assumption that he\nknew would have been very quickly repudiated if it had not been based\nupon fact. And the inference from his acceptance without contradiction\nof the Apostle's statement is confirmed by his use of the word\n'Christian,' which had by no means come into general employment when he\nspoke; and in itself indicates that he knew a good deal about the\npeople who were so named. Mark the contrast, for instance, between him\nand the bluff Roman official at his side. To Festus, Paul's talking\nabout a dead man's having risen, and a risen Jew becoming a light to\nall nations, was such utter nonsense that, with characteristic Roman\ncontempt for men with ideas, he breaks in, with his rough, strident\nvoice, 'Much learning has made thee mad.' There was not much chance of\nthat cause producing that effect on Festus. But he was apparently\nutterly bewildered at this entirely novel and unintelligible sort of\ntalk. Agrippa, on the other hand, knows all about the Resurrection; has\nheard that there was such a thing, and has a general rough notion of\nwhat Paul believed as a Christian.\n\nAnd was he any better for it? No; he was a great deal worse. It took\nthe edge off a good deal of his curiosity. It made him fancy that he\nknew beforehand all that the Apostle had to say. It stood in the way of\nhis apprehending the truths which he thought that he understood.\n\nAnd although the world knows a great deal more about Jesus Christ and\nthe Gospel than he did, the very same thing is true about hundreds and\nthousands of people who have all their lives long been brought into\ncontact with Christianity. Superficial knowledge is the worst enemy of\naccurate knowledge, for the first condition of knowing a thing is to\nknow that we do not know it. And so there are a great many of us who,\nhaving picked up since childhood vague and partially inaccurate notions\nabout Christ and His Gospel and what He has done, are so satisfied on\nthe strength of these that we know all about it, that we listen to\npreaching about it with a very languid attention. The ground in our\nminds is preoccupied with our own vague and imperfect apprehensions. I\nbelieve that there is nothing that stands more in the way of hundreds\nof people coming into real intelligent contact with Gospel truth than\nthe half knowledge that they have had of it ever since they were\nchildren. You fancy that you know all that I can tell you. Very\nprobably you do. But have you ever taken a firm hold of the plain\ncentral facts of Christianity--your own sinfulness and helplessness,\nyour need of a Saviour, the perfect work of Jesus Christ who died on\nthe Cross for you, and the power of simple faith therein to join you to\nHim, and, if followed by consecration and obedience, to make you\npartakers of His nature, and heirs of the inheritance that is above?\nThese are but the fundamentals, the outlines of Gospel truth. But far\ntoo many of you see them, in such a manner as you see the figures cast\nupon a screen when the lantern is not rightly focussed, with a blurred\noutline, and the blurred outline keeps you from seeing the sharp-cut\ntruth as it is in Jesus. In all regions of thought inaccurate knowledge\nis the worst foe to further understanding, and eminently is this the\ncase in religion. Brethren, some of you are in that position.\n\nThen there is another way in which such knowledge as that of which the\nking in our text is an example is a hindrance, and that is, that it is\nknowledge which has no effect on character. What do hundreds of us do\nwith our knowledge of Christianity? Our minds seem built in watertight\ncompartments, and we keep the doors of them shut very close, so that\ntruths in the understanding have no influence on the will. Many of you\nbelieve the Gospel intellectually, and it does not make a hairsbreadth\nof difference to anything that you ever either thought or wished or\ndid. And because you so believe it, it is utterly impossible that it\nshould ever be of any use to you. 'Agrippa, believest thou the\nprophets? I know that thou believest.' 'Yes, believest the prophets,\nand Bernice sitting by thy side there--believest the prophets, and\nlivest in utter bestial godlessness.' What is the good of a knowledge\nof Christianity like that? And is it not such knowledge of Christianity\nthat blocks the way with some of you for anything more real and more\noperative? There is nothing more impotent than a firmly believed and\nutterly neglected truth. And that is what the Christianity of some of\nyou is when it is analysed.\n\nII. Now, secondly, notice how we have here the example of a proud man\nindignantly recoiling from submission,\n\nThere is a world of contempt in Agrippa's words, in the very putting\nside by side of the two things. 'Me! _Me_,' with a very large capital\nM--'Me a Christian?' He thinks of his dignity, poor creature. It was\nnot such a very tremendous dignity after all. He was a petty kinglet,\npermitted by the grace of Rome to live and to pose as if he were the\nreal thing, and yet he struts and claps his wings and crows on his\nlittle hillock as if it were a mountain. '_Me_ a Christian?' 'The great\nAgrippa a _Christian_!' And he uses that word 'Christian' with the\nintense contempt which coined it and adhered to it, until the men to\nwhom it was applied were wise enough to take it and bind it as a crown\nof honour upon their head. The wits at Antioch first of all hit upon\nthe designation. They meant a very exquisite piece of sarcasm by their\nnickname. These people were 'Christians,' just as some other people\nwere Herodians--Christ's men, the men of this impostor who pretended to\nbe a Messiah. That seemed such an intensely ludicrous thing to the wise\npeople in Antioch that they coined the name; and no doubt thought they\nhad done a very clever thing. It is only used in the Bible in tike\nnotice of its origin; here, with a very evident connotation of\ncontempt; and once more when Peter in his letter refers to it as being\nthe indictment on which certain disciples suffered. So when Agrippa\nsays, 'Me a Christian,' he puts all the bitterness that he can into\nthat last word. As if he said, 'Do you really think that I--I--am going\nto bow myself down to be a follower and adherent of that Christ of\nyours? The thing is too ridiculous! With but little persuasion you\nwould fain make me a Christian. But you will find it a harder task than\nyou fancy.'\n\nNow, my dear friends, the shape of this unwillingness is changed but\nthe fact of it remains. There are two or three features of what I take\nto be the plain Gospel of Jesus Christ which grate very much against\nall self-importance and self-complacency, and operate very largely,\nthough not always consciously, upon very many amongst us. I just run\nthem over, very briefly.\n\nThe Gospel insists on dealing with everybody in the same fashion, and\non regarding all as standing on the same level. Many of us do not like\nthat. Translate Agrippa's scorn into words that fit ourselves: 'I am a\nwell-to-do Manchester man. Am I to stand on the same level as my\noffice-boy?' Yes! the very same. 'I, a student, perhaps a teacher of\nscience, or a cultivated man, a scholar, a lawyer, a professional\nman--am I to stand on the same level as people that scarcely know how\nto read and write?' Yes, exactly. So, like the man in the Old\nTestament, 'he turned and went away in a rage.' Many of us would like\nthat there should be a little private door for us in consideration of\nour position or acquirements or respectability, or this, that, or the\nother thing. At any rate we are not to be classed in the same category\nwith the poor and the ignorant and the sinful and the savage all over\nthe world. But we are so classed. Do not you and the men in Patagonia\nbreathe the same air? Are not your bodies subject to the same laws?\nHave you not to be contented to be fed in the same fashion, and to\nsleep and eat and drink in the same way? 'We have all of us one human\nheart'; and 'there is no difference, for all have sinned and come short\nof the glory of God.' The identities of humanity, in all its examples,\nare deeper than the differences in any. We have all the one Saviour and\nare to be saved in the same fashion. That is a humbling thing for those\nof us who stand upon some little elevation, real or fancied, but it is\nonly the other side of the great truth that God's love is world-wide,\nand that Christ's Gospel is meant for humanity. Naaman, to whom I have\nalready referred in passing, wanted to be treated as a great man who\nhappened to be a leper; Elisha insisted on treating him as a leper who\nhappened to be a great man. And that makes all the difference. I\nremember seeing somewhere that a great surgeon had said that the late\nEmperor of Germany would have had a far better chance of being cured if\nhe had gone _incognito_ to the hospital for throat diseases. We all\nneed the same surgery, and we must be contented to take it in the same\nfashion. So, some of us recoil from humbling equality with the lowest\nand worst.\n\nThen again, another thing that sometimes makes people shrink back from\nthe Gospel is that it insists upon every one being saved solely by\ndependence on Another. We would like to have a part in our salvation,\nand many of us had rather do anything in the way of sacrifice or\nsuffering or penance than take this position:\n\n  'Nothing in my hand I bring,\n   Simply to Thy Cross I cling.'\n\nCorrupt forms of Christianity have taken an acute measure of the worst\nparts of human nature, when they have taught men that they can eke out\nChrist's work by their own, and have some kind of share in their own\nsalvation. Dear brethren, I have to bring to you another Gospel than\nthat, and to say, All is done for us, and all will be done in us, and\nnothing has to be done by us. Some of you do not like that. Just as a\nman drowning is almost sure to try to help himself, and get his limbs\ninextricably twisted round his would-be rescuer and drown them both, so\nmen will not, without a struggle, consent to owe everything to Jesus\nChrist, and to let Him draw them out of many waters and set them on the\nsafe shore. But unless we do so, we have little share in His Gospel.\n\nAnd another thing stands in the way--namely, that the Gospel insists\nupon absolute obedience to Jesus Christ. Agrippa fancied that it was an\nutterly preposterous idea that he should lower his flag, and doff his\ncrown, and become the servant of a Jewish peasant. A great many of us,\nthough we have a higher idea of our Lord than his, do yet find it quite\nas hard to submit our wills to His, and to accept the condition of\nabsolute obedience, utter resignation to Him, and entire subjection to\nHis commandment. We say, 'Let my own will have a little bit of play in\na corner.' Some of us find it very hard to believe that we are to bring\nall our thinking upon religious and moral subjects to Him, and to\naccept His word as conclusive, settling all controversies. 'I, with my\nculture; am I to accept what Christ says as the end of strife?' Yes,\nabsolute submission is the plainest condition of real Christianity. The\nvery name tells us that. We are Christians, _i.e._ Christ's men; and\nunless we are, we have no right to the name. But some of us had rather\nbe our own masters and enjoy the miseries of independence and\nself-will, and so be the slaves of our worse selves, than bow ourselves\nutterly before that dear Lord, and so pass into the freedom of a\nservice love-inspired, and by love accepted, 'Thou wouldst fain\npersuade _me_ to be a _Christian_,' is the recoil of a proud heart from\nsubmission. Brethren, let me beseech you that it may not be yours.\n\nIII. Again, we have here an example of instinctive shrinking from the\npersonal application of broad truths.\n\nAgrippa listened, half-amused and a good deal interested, to Paul as\nlong as he talked generalities and described his own experience. But\nwhen he came to point the generalities and to drive them home to the\nhearer's heart it was time to stop him. That question of the Apostle's,\nkeen and sudden as the flash of a dagger, went straight home, and the\nking at once gathered himself together into an attitude of resistance.\nAh, that is what hundreds of people do! You will let me preach as long\nas I like--only you will get a little weary sometimes--you will let me\npreach generalities _ad libitum_. But when I come to 'And thou?' then I\nam 'rude' and 'inquisitorial' and 'personal' and 'trespassing on a\nregion where I have no business,' and so on and so on. And so you shut\nup your heart if not your ears.\n\nAnd yet, brethren, what is the use of toothless generalities? What am I\nhere for if I am not here to take these broad, blunt truths and sharpen\nthem to a point, and try to get them in between the joints of your\narmour? Can any man faithfully preach the Gospel who is always flying\nover the heads of his hearers with universalities, and never goes\nstraight to their hearts with 'Thou--thou art the man!' 'Believest\n_thou_?'\n\nAnd so, dear friends, let me press that question upon you. Never mind\nabout other people. Suppose you and I were alone together and my words\nwere coming straight _to thee_. Would they not have more power than\nthey have now? They are so coming. Think away all these other people,\nand this place, ay, and me too, and let the word of Christ, which deals\nwith no crowds but with single souls, come to you in its\nindividualising force: 'Believest _thou_?' You will have to answer that\nquestion one day. Better to face it now and try to answer it than to\nleave it all vague until you get yonder, where 'each one of us shall\ngive account of _himself_ to God.\n\nIV. Lastly, we have here an example of a soul close to the light, but\npassing into the dark.\n\nAgrippa listens to Paul; Bernice listens; Festus listens. And what\ncomes of it? Only this, 'And when they were gone aside, they talked\nbetween themselves, saying, This man hath done nothing worthy of death\nor of bonds.' May I translate into a modern equivalent: And when they\nwere gone aside, they talked between themselves, saying, 'This man\npreached a very impressive sermon,' or, 'This man preached a very\nwearisome sermon,' and there an end.\n\nAgrippa and Bernice went their wicked way, and Festus went his, and\nnone of them knew what a fateful moment they had passed through. Ah,\nbrethren! there are many such in our lives when we make decisions that\ninfluence our whole future, and no sign shows that the moment is any\nway different from millions of its undistinguished fellows. It is\neminently so in regard to our relation to Jesus Christ and His Gospel.\nThese three had been in the light; they were never so near it again.\nProbably they never heard the Gospel preached any more, and they went\naway, not knowing what they had done when they silenced Paul and left\nhim. Now you will probably hear plenty of sermons in future. You may or\nyou may not. But be sure of this, that if you go away from this one,\nunmelted and unbelieving, you have not done a trivial thing. You have\nadded one more stone to the barrier that you yourself build to shut you\nout from holiness and happiness, from hope and heaven. It is not I that\nask you the question, it is not Paul that asks it, Jesus Christ Himself\nsays to you, as He said to the blind man, 'Dost thou believe on the Son\nof God?' or as He said to the weeping sister of Lazarus, 'Believest\nthou this?' O dear friends, do not answer like this arrogant bit of a\nking, but cry with tears, 'Lord, I believe; help Thou mine unbelief!'\n\n\n\nTEMPEST AND TRUST\n\nAnd when the south wind blew softly, supposing that they had obtained\ntheir purpose, loosing thence, they sailed close by Crete. 14. But not\nlong after there arose against it a tempestuous wind, called\nEuroclydon. 15. And when the ship was caught, and could not bear up\ninto the wind, we let her drive. 16. And running under a certain island\nwhich is called Clauda, we had much work to come by the boat: 17. Which\nwhen they had taken up, they used helps, undergirding the ship; and,\nfearing lest they should fall into the quicksands, strake sail, and so\nwere driven. 18. And we being exceedingly tossed with a tempest, the\nnext day they lightened the ship; 19. And the third day we cast out\nwith our own hands the tackling of the ship. 20. And when neither sun\nnor stars in many days appeared, and no small tempest lay on us, all\nhope that we should be saved was then taken away. 21. But after long\nabstinence Paul stood forth in the midst of them, and said, Sirs, ye\nshould have hearkened unto me, and not have loosed from Crete, and to\nhave gained this harm and loss. 22. And now I exhort you to be of good\ncheer: for there shall be no loss of any man's life among you, but of\nthe ship. 23. For there stood by me this night the angel of God, whose\nI am, and whom I serve, 24. Saying, Fear not, Paul; thou must be\nbrought before Caesar: and, lo, God hath given thee all them that sail\nwith thee. 25. Wherefore, sirs, be of good cheer: for I believe God,\nthat it shall be even as it was told me. 26. Howbeit we must be cast\nupon a certain island.'--ACTS xxvii. 13-26.\n\nLuke's minute account of the shipwreck implies that he was not a Jew.\nHis interest in the sea and familiarity with sailors' terms are quite\nunlike a persistent Jewish characteristic which still continues. We\nhave a Jew's description of a storm at sea in the Book of Jonah, which\nis as evidently the work of a landsman as Luke's is of one who, though\nnot a sailor, was well up in maritime matters. His narrative lays hold\nof the essential points, and is as accurate as it is vivid. This\nsection has two parts: the account of the storm, and the grand example\nof calm trust and cheery encouragement given in Paul's words.\n\nI. The consultation between the captain of the vessel and the\ncenturion, at which Paul assisted, strikes us, with our modern notions\nof a captain's despotic power on his own deck, and single\nresponsibility, as unnatural. But the centurion, as a military officer,\nwas superior to the captain of an Alexandrian corn-ship, and Paul had\nalready made his force of character so felt that it is not wonderful\nthat he took part in the discussion. Naturally the centurion was guided\nby the professional rather than by the amateur member of the council,\nand the decision was come to to push on as far and fast as possible.\n\nThe ship was lying in a port which gave scanty protection against the\nwinter weather, and it was clearly wise to reach a more secure harbour\nif possible. So when a gentle southerly breeze sprang up, which would\nenable them to make such a port, westward from their then position,\nthey made the attempt. For a time it looked as if they would succeed,\nbut they had a great headland jutting out in front which they must get\nround, and their ability to do this was doubtful. So they kept close in\nshore and weathered the point. But before they had made their harbour\nthe wind suddenly chopped round, as is frequent of that coast, and the\ngentle southerly breeze turned into a fierce squall from the north-east\nor thereabouts, sweeping down from the Cretan mountains. That began\ntheir troubles. To make the port was impossible. The unwieldy vessel\ncould not 'face the wind,' and so they had to run before it. It would\ncarry them in a south-westerly direction, and towards a small island,\nunder the lee of which they might hope for some shelter. Here they had\na little breathing time, and could make things rather more ship-shape\nthan they had been able to do when suddenly caught by the squall. Their\nboat had been towing behind them, and had to be hoisted on deck somehow.\n\nA more important, and probably more difficult, task was to get strong\nhawsers under the keel and round the sides, so as to help to hold the\ntimbers together. The third thing was the most important of all, and\nhas been misunderstood by commentators who knew more about Greek\nlexicons than ships. The most likely explanation of 'lowering the gear'\n(Rev. Ver.) is that it means 'leaving up just enough of sail to keep\nthe ship's head to the wind, and bringing down everything else that\ncould be got down' (Ramsay, _St. Paul_, p. 329).\n\nNote that Luke says 'we' about hauling in the boat, and 'they' about\nthe other tasks. He and the other passengers could lend a hand in the\nformer, but not in the latter, which required more skilled labour. The\nreason for bringing down all needless top-hamper, and leaving up a\nlittle sail, was to keep the vessel from driving on to the great\nquicksands off the African coast, to which they would certainly have\nbeen carried if the wind held.\n\nAs soon as they had drifted out from the lee of the friendly little\nisland they were caught again in the storm. They were in danger of\ngoing down. As they drifted they had their 'starboard' broadside to the\nforce of the wild sea, and it was a question how long the vessel's\nsides would last before they were stove in by the hammering of the\nwaves, or how long she would be buoyant enough to ship seas without\nfoundering. The only chance was to lighten her, so first the crew\n'jettisoned' the cargo, and next day, as that did not give relief\nenough,'they,' or, according to some authorities, 'we'--that is\npassengers and all--threw everything possible overboard.\n\nThat was the last attempt to save themselves, and after it there was\nnothing to do but to wait the apparently inevitable hour when they\nwould all go down together. Idleness feeds despair, and despair\nnourishes idleness. Food was scarce, cooking it was impossible,\nappetite there was none. The doomed men spent the long idle days--which\nwere scarcely day, so thick was the air with mist and foam and\ntempest--crouching anywhere for shelter, wet, tired, hungry, and\nhopeless. So they drifted 'for many days,' almost losing count of the\nlength of time they had been thus. It was a gloomy company, but there\nwas one man there in whom the lamp of hope burned when it had gone out\nin all others. Sun and stars were hidden, but Paul saw a better light,\nand his sky was clear and calm.\n\nII. A common danger makes short work of distinctions of rank. In such a\ntime some hitherto unnoticed man of prompt decision, resource, and\nconfidence, will take the command, whatever his position. Hope, as well\nas timidity and fear, is infectious, and one cheery voice will revive\nthe drooping spirits of a multitude. Paul had already established his\npersonal ascendency in that motley company of Roman soldiers,\nprisoners, sailors, and disciples. Now he stands forward with calm\nconfidence, and infuses new hope into them all. What a miraculous\nchange passes on externals when faith looks at them! The circumstances\nwere the same as they had been for many days. The wind was howling and\nthe waves pounding as before, the sky was black with tempest, and no\nsign of help was in sight, but Paul spoke, and all was changed, and a\nray of sunshine fell on the wild waters that beat on the doomed vessel.\n\nThree points are conspicuous in his strong tonic words. First, there is\nthe confident assurance of safety. A less noble nature would have said\nmore in vindication of the wisdom of his former advice. It is very\npleasant to small minds to say, 'Did I not tell you so? You see how\nright I was.' But the Apostle did not care for petty triumphs of that\nsort. A smaller man might have sulked because his advice had not been\ntaken, and have said to himself, 'They would not listen to me before, I\nwill hold my tongue now.' But the Apostle only refers to his former\ncounsel and its confirmation in order to induce acceptance of his\npresent words.\n\nIt is easy to 'bid' men 'be of good cheer,' but futile unless some\nreason for good cheer is given. Paul gave good reason. No man's life\nwas to be lost though the ship was to go. He had previously predicted\nthat life, as well as ship and lading, would be lost if they put to\nsea. That opinion was the result of his own calculation of\nprobabilities, as he lets us understand by saying that he 'perceived'\nit (ver. 10). Now he speaks with authority, not from his perception,\nbut from God's assurance. The bold words might well seem folly to the\ndespairing crew as they caught them amidst the roar of tempest and\nlooked at their battered hulk. So Paul goes at once to tell the ground\nof his confidence--the assurance of the angel of God.\n\nWhat a contrast between the furious gale, the almost foundering ship,\nthe despair in the hearts of the sleeping company, and the bright\nvision that came to Paul! Peter in prison, Paul in Caesarea and now in\nthe storm, see the angel form calm and radiant. God's messengers are\nwont to come into the darkest of our hours and the wildest of our\ntempests.\n\nPaul's designation of the heavenly messenger as 'an angel of the God\nwhose I am, whom also I serve,' recalls Jonah's confession of faith,\nbut far surpasses it, in the sense of belonging to God, and in the\nardour of submission and of active obedience, expressed in it. What\nPaul said to the Corinthians (1 Cor. vi. 19) he realised for himself:\n'Ye are not your own; for ye were bought with a price.' To recognise\nthat we are God's, joyfully to yield ourselves to Him, and with all the\nforces of our natures to serve Him, is to bring His angel to our sides\nin every hour of tempest and peril, and to receive assurance that\nnothing shall by any means harm us. To yield ourselves to be God's is\nto make God ours. It was because Paul owned that he belonged to God,\nand served Him, that the angel came to him, and he explains the vision\nto his hearers by his relation to God. Anything was possible rather\nthan that his God should leave him unhelped at such an hour of need.\n\nThe angel's message must have included particulars unnoticed in Luke's\nsummary; as, for instance, the wreck on 'a certain island.' But the two\nsalient points in it are the certainty of Paul's own preservation, that\nthe divine purpose of his appearing before Caesar might be fulfilled,\nand the escape of all the ship's company. As to the former, we may\nlearn how Paul's life, like every man's, is shaped according to a\ndivine plan, and how we are 'immortal till our work is done,' and till\nGod has done His work in and on and by us. As to the latter point, we\nmay gather from the word 'has _given_' the certainty that Paul had been\npraying for the lives of all that sailed with him, and may learn, not\nonly that the prayers of God's servants are a real element in\ndetermining God's dealings with men, but that a true servant of God's\nwill ever reach out his desires and widen his prayers to embrace those\nwith whom he is brought into contact, be they heathens, persecutors,\nrough and careless, or fellow-believers. If Christian people more\nfaithfully discharged the duty of intercession, they would more\nfrequently receive in answer the lives of 'all them that sail with'\nthem over the stormy ocean of life.\n\nThe third point in the Apostle's encouraging speech is the example of\nhis own faith, which is likewise an exhortation to the hearers to\nexercise the same. If God speaks by His angel with such firm promises,\nman's plain wisdom is to grasp the divine assurance with a firm hand.\nWe must build rock upon rock. 'I believe God,' that surely is a\ncredence demanded by common sense and warranted by the sanest reason.\nIf we do so believe, and take His word as the infallible authority\nrevealing present duty and future blessings, then, however lowering the\nsky, and wild the water, and battered the vessel, and empty of earthly\nsuccour the gloomy horizon, and heavy our hearts, we shall 'be of good\ncheer,' and in due time the event will warrant our faith in God and His\npromise, even though all around us seems to make our faith folly and\nour hope a mockery.\n\n\n\nA SHORT CONFESSION OF FAITH\n\n'...There stood by me this night the angel of God, whose I am, and whom\nI serve.'--ACTS xxvii. 23.\n\nI turn especially to those last words, 'Whose I am and whom I serve.'\n\nA great calamity, borne by a crowd of men in common, has a wonderful\npower of dethroning officials and bringing the strong man to the front.\nSo it is extremely natural, though it has been thought to be very\nunhistorical, that in this story of Paul's shipwreck he should become\nguide, counsellor, inspirer, and a tower of strength; and that\ncenturions and captains and all the rest of those who held official\npositions should shrink into the background. The natural force of his\ncharacter, the calmness and serenity that came from his faith--these\nthings made him the leader of the bewildered crowd. One can scarcely\nhelp contrasting this shipwreck--the only one in the New\nTestament--with that in the Old Testament. Contrast Jonah with Paul,\nthe guilty stupor of the one, down 'in the sides of the ship' cowering\nbefore the storm, with the calm behaviour and collected courage of the\nother.\n\nThe vision of which the Apostle speaks does not concern us here, but in\nthe words which I have read there are several noteworthy points. They\nbring vividly before us the essence of true religion, the bold\nconfession which it prompts, and the calmness and security which it\nensures. Let us then look at them from these points of view.\n\nI. We note the clear setting forth of the essence of true religion.\n\nRemember that Paul is speaking to heathens; that his present purpose is\nnot to preach the Gospel, but to make his own position clear. So he\nsays 'the God'--never mind who _He_ is at present--'the God to whom I\nbelong '--that covers all the inward life--'and whom I serve'--that\ncovers all the outward.\n\n'Whose I am.' That expresses the universal truth that men belong to God\nby virtue of their being the creatures of His hand. As the 100th Psalm\nsays, according to one, and that a probably correct reading, 'It is He\nthat hath made us, and _we are His_.' But the Apostle is going a good\ndeal deeper than any such thoughts, which he, no doubt, shared in\ncommon with the heathen men around him, when he declares that, in a\nspecial fashion, God had claimed him for His, and he had yielded to the\nclaim. 'I am Thine,' is the deepest thought of this man's mind and the\ndeepest feeling of his heart. And that is godliness in its purest form,\nthe consciousness of belonging to God. We must interpret this saying by\nothers of the Apostle's, such as, 'Ye are not your own, ye are bought\nwith a price. Therefore, glorify God in your bodies and spirits which\nare His.' He traces God's possession of him, not to that fact of\ncreation (which establishes a certain outward relationship, but nothing\nmore), nor even to the continuous facts of benefits showered upon his\nhead, but to the one transcendent act of the divine Love, which gave\nitself to us, and so acquired us for itself. For we must recognise as\nthe deepest of all thoughts about the relations of spiritual beings,\nthat, as in regard to ourselves in our earthly affections, so in regard\nto our relations with God, there is only one way by which a spirit can\nown a spirit, whether it be a man on the one side and a woman on the\nother, or whether it be God on the one side and a man on the other, and\nthat one way is by the sweetness of complete and reciprocal love. He\nwho gives himself to God gets God for himself. So when Paul said,\n'Whose I am,' he was thinking that he would never have belonged either\nto God or to himself unless, first of all, God, in His own Son, had\ngiven Himself to Paul. The divine ownership of us is only realised when\nwe are consciously His, because of the sacrifice of Jesus Christ.\n\nBrethren, God does not count that a man belongs to Him simply because\nHe made him, if the man does not feel his dependence, his obligation,\nand has not surrendered himself. He in the heavens loves you and me too\nwell to care for a formal and external ownership. He desires hearts,\nand only they who have yielded themselves unto God, moved thereto by\nthe mercies of God, and especially by the encyclopaediacal mercy which\nincludes all the rest in its sweep, only they belong to Him, in the\nestimate of the heavens.\n\nAnd if you and I are His, then that involves that we have deposed from\nhis throne the rebel Self, the ancient Anarch that disturbs and ruins\nus. They who belong to God cease to live to themselves. There are two\ncentres for human life, and I believe there are only two--the one is\nGod, the other is my wretched self. And if we are swept, as it were,\nout of the little orbit that we move in, when the latter is our centre,\nand are drawn by the weight and mass of the great central sun to become\nits satellites, then we move in a nobler orbit and receive fuller and\nmore blessed light and warmth. They who have themselves for their\ncentres are like comets, with a wide elliptical course, which carries\nthem away out into the cold abysses of darkness. They who have God for\ntheir sun are like planets. The old fable is true of these 'sons of the\nmorning'--they make music as they roll and they flash back His light.\n\nAnd then do not let us forget that this yielding of one's self to Him,\nswayed by His love, and this surrendering of will and purpose and\naffection and all that makes up our complex being, lead directly to the\ntrue possession of Him and the true possession of ourselves.\n\nI have said that the only way by which spirit possesses spirit is by\nlove, and that it must needs be on both sides. So we get God for\nourselves when we give ourselves to God. There is a wonderful\nalternation of giving and receiving between the loving God and his\nbeloved lovers; first the impartation of the divine to the human, then\nthe surrender of the human to the divine, and then the larger gift of\nGod to man, just as in some series of mirrors the light is flashed back\nfrom the one to the other, in bewildering manifoldness and shimmering\nof rays from either polished surface. God is ours when we are God's.\n'And this is the covenant that I will make with them after these days,\nsaith the Lord. I will be their God, and they shall be My people.'\n\nAnd, in like manner, we never own ourselves until we have given\nourselves to God. Each of us is like some feudatory prince, dependent\nupon an overlord. His subjects in his little territory rebel, and he\nhas no power to subdue the insurgents, but he can send a message to the\ncapital, and get the army of the king, who is his sovereign and theirs,\nto come down and bring them back to order, and establish his tottering\nthrone. So if you desire to own yourself or to know the sweetness that\nyou may get out of your own nature and the exercise of your powers, if\nyou desire to be able to govern the realm within, put yourself into\nGod's hands and say, 'I am Thine; hold Thou me up, and I shall be safe.'\n\nI need not say more than just a word about the other side of Paul's\nconfession of faith, 'Whom I serve.' He employs the word which means\nthe service of a worshipper, or even of a priest, and not that which\nmeans the service of a slave. His purpose was to represent how, as his\nwhole inward nature bowed in submission to, and was under the influence\nof, God to whom he belonged, so his whole outward life was a life of\ndevotion. He was serving Him there in the ship, amidst the storm and\nthe squalor and the terror. His calmness was service; his confidence\nwas service; the cheery words that he was speaking to these people were\nservice. And on his whole life he believed that this was stamped, that\nhe was devoted to God. So _there_ is the true idea of a Christian life,\nthat in all its aspects, attitudes, and acts it is to be a\nmanifestation, in visible form, of inward devotion to, and ownership\nby, God. All our work may be worship, and we may 'pray without\nceasing,' though no supplications come from our lips, if our hearts are\nin touch with Him and through our daily life we serve and honour Him.\nGod's priests never are far away from their altar, and never are\nwithout, somewhat to offer, as long as they have the activities of\ndaily duty and the difficulties of daily conflict to bring to Him and\nspread before Him.\n\nII. So let me turn for a moment to some of the other aspects of these\nwords to which I have already referred, I find in them, next, the bold\nconfession which true religion requires.\n\nShipboard is a place where people find out one another very quickly.\nCharacter cannot well be hid there. And such circumstances as Paul had\nbeen in for the last fortnight, tossing up and down in _Adria_, with\nDeath looking over the bulwarks of the crazy ship every moment, were\ncertain to have brought out the inmost secrets of character. Paul durst\nnot have said to these people 'the God whose I am and whom I serve' if\nhe had not known that he had been living day by day a consistent and\ngodly life amongst them.\n\nAnd so, I note, first of all, that this confession of individual and\npersonal relationship to God is incumbent on every Christian. We do not\nneed to be always brandishing it before people's faces. There is very\nlittle fear of the average Christian of this day blundering on that\nside. But we need, still less, to be always hiding it away. One hears a\ngreat deal from certain quarters about a religion that does not need to\nbe vocal but shows what it is, without the necessity for words. Blessed\nbe God! there is such a religion, but you will generally find that the\npeople who have most of it are the people who are least tongue-tied\nwhen opportunity arises; and that if they have been witnessing for God\nin their quiet discharge of duty, with their hands instead of their\nlips, they are quite as ready to witness with their lips when it is\nfitting that they should do so. And surely, surely, if a man belongs to\nGod, and if his whole life is to be the manifestation of the ownership\nthat he recognises, that which specially reveals him--viz., his own\narticulate speech--cannot be left out of his methods of manifestation.\n\nI am afraid that there are a great many professing Christian people\nnowadays who never, all their lives, have said to any one, 'The God\nwhose I am and whom I serve.' And I beseech you, dear brethren, suffer\nthis word of exhortation. To say so is a far more effectual, or at\nleast more powerful, means of appeal than any direct invitation to\nshare in the blessings. You may easily offend a man by saying to him,\n'Won't you be a Christian too?' But it is hard to offend if you simply\nsay that you are a Christian. The statement of personal experience is\nmore powerful by far than all argumentation or eloquence or pleading\nappeals. We do more when we say, 'That which we have tasted and felt\nand handled of the Word of Life, declare we unto you,' than by any\nother means.\n\nOnly remember that the avowal must be backed up by a life, as Paul's\nwas backed up on board that vessel. For unless it is so, the profession\ndoes far more harm than good. There are always keen critics round us,\nespecially if we say that we are Christians. There were keen critics on\nboard that ship. Do you think that these Roman soldiers, and the other\nprisoners, would not have smiled contemptuously at Paul, if this had\nbeen the first time that they had any reason to suppose that he was at\nall different from them? They would have said, 'The God whose _you_ are\nand whom _you_ serve? Why, you are just the same sort of man as if you\nworshipped Jupiter like the rest of us!' And that is what the world has\na right to say to Christian people. The clearer our profession, the\nholier must be our lives.\n\nIII. Last of all, I find in these words the calmness and security which\ntrue religion secures.\n\nThe story, as I have already glanced at it in my introductory remarks,\nbrings out very wonderfully and very beautifully Paul's promptitude,\nhis calmness in danger, his absolute certainty of safety, and his\nunselfish thoughtfulness about his companions in peril. And all these\nthings were the direct results of his entire surrender to God, and of\nthe consistency of his daily life. It needed the angel in the vision to\nassure him that his life would be spared. But whether the angel had\never come or not, and though death had been close at his hand, the\nserenity and the peaceful assurance of safety which come out so\nbeautifully in the story would have been there all the same. The man\nwho can say 'I belong to God' does not need to trouble himself about\ndangers. He will have to exercise his common sense, as the Apostle\nshows us; he will have to use all the means that are in his power for\nthe accomplishment of ends that he knows to be right and legitimate.\nBut having done all that, he can say, 'I belong to Him,' it is His\nbusiness to look after His own property. He is not going to hold His\npossessions with such a slack hand as that they shall slip between His\nfingers, and be lost in the mire. 'Thou wilt not lose the souls that\nare Thine in the grave, neither wilt Thou suffer the man whom Thou\nlovest to see corruption.' God keeps His treasures, and the surer we\nare that He is able to keep them unto that day, the calmer we may be in\nall our trouble.\n\nAnd the safety that followed was also the direct result of the\nrelationship of mutual possession and love established between God and\nthe Apostle. We do not know to which of the two groups of the\nshipwrecked Paul belonged; whether he could swim or whether he had to\nhold on to some bit of floating wreckage or other, and so got 'safe to\nland.' But whichever way it was, it was neither his swimming nor the\nspar to which, perhaps, he clung, that landed him safe on shore. It was\nthe God to whom he belonged. Faith is the true lifebelt that keeps us\nfrom being drowned in any stormy sea. And if you and I feel that we are\nHis, and live accordingly, we shall be calm amid all change, serene\nwhen others are troubled, ready to be helpers of others even when we\nourselves are in distress. And when the crash comes, and the ship goes\nto pieces: 'so it will come to pass that, some on boards, and some on\nbroken pieces of the ship, they all come safe to land,' and when the\nOwner counts His subjects and possessions on the quiet shore, as the\nmorning breaks, there will not be one who has been lost in the surges,\nor whose name will be unanswered to when the muster-roll of the crew is\ncalled.\n\n\n\nA TOTAL WRECK, ALL HANDS SAVED\n\n'And as the shipmen were about to flee out of the ship, when they had\nlet down the boat into the sea, under colour as though they would have\ncast anchors out of the foreship, 31. Paul said to the centurion and to\nthe soldiers, Except these abide in the ship, ye cannot be saved. 32.\nThen the soldiers cut off the ropes of the boat, and let her fall off.\n33. And while the day was coming on, Paul besought them all to take\nmeat, saying, This day is the fourteenth day that ye have tarried and\ncontinued fasting, having taken nothing. 34. Wherefore I pray you to\ntake some meat; for this is for your health; for there shall not an\nhair fall from the head of any of you. 35. And when he had thus spoken,\nhe took bread, and gave thanks to God in presence of them all; and when\nhe had broken it, he began to eat. 36. Then were they all of good\ncheer, and they also took some meat. 37. And we were in all in the ship\ntwo hundred threescore and sixteen souls. 38. And when they had eaten\nenough, they lightened the ship, and cast out the wheat into the sea.\n39. And when it was day, they knew not the land; but they discovered a\ncertain creek with a shore, into the which they were minded, if it were\npossible, to thrust in the ship. 40. And when they had taken up the\nanchors, they committed themselves unto the sea, and loosed the\nrudder-bands, and noised up the main-sail to the wind, and made toward\nshore. 41. And falling into a place where two seas met, they ran the\nship aground: and the fore part stuck fast, and remained unmoveable,\nbut the hinder part was broken with the violence of the waves. 42. And\nthe soldiers' counsel was to kill the prisoners, lest any-of them\nshould swim out, and escape. 43. But the centurion, willing to save\nPaul, kept them from their purpose: and commanded that they which could\nswim should cast themselves first into the sea, and get to land: 44.\nAnd the rest some on boards, and some on broken pieces of the ship. And\nso it came to pass, that they escaped all safe to land.'--ACTS xxvii\n30-44.\n\nThe Jews were not seafaring people. Their coast had no safe harbours,\nand they seldom ventured on the Mediterranean. To find Paul in a ship\nwith its bow pointed westwards is significant. It tells of the\nexpansion of Judaism into a world-wide religion, and of the future\ncourse of Christianity. The only Old Testament parallel is Jonah, and\nthe dissimilarities of the two incidents are as instructive as are\ntheir resemblances.\n\nThis minute narrative is evidently the work of one of the passengers\nwho knew a good deal about nautical matters. It reads like a log-book.\nBut as James Smith has well noted in his interesting monograph on the\nchapter, the writer's descriptions, though accurate, are\nunprofessional, thus confirming Luke's authorship. Where had the\n'beloved physician' learned so much about the sea and ships? Did the\ngreat galleys carry surgeons as now? At all events the story is one of\nthe most graphic accounts ever written. This narrative begins when the\ndoomed ship has cast anchor, with a rocky coast close under her lee.\nThe one question is, Will the four anchors hold? No wonder that the\npassengers longed for daylight!\n\nThe first point is the crew's dastardly trick to save themselves,\nfrustrated by Paul's insight and promptitude. The pretext for getting\ninto the boat was specious. Anchoring by the bow as well as by the\nstern would help to keep the ship from driving ashore; and if once the\ncrew were in the boat and pulled as far as was necessary to lay out the\nanchors, it would be easy, under cover of the darkness, to make good\ntheir escape on shore and leave the landsmen on board to shift for\nthemselves. The boat must have been of considerable size to hold the\ncrew of so large a ship. It was already lying alongside, and landsmen\nwould not suspect what lay under the apparently brave attempt to add to\nthe vessel's security, but Paul did so. His practical sagacity was as\nconspicuous a trait as his lofty enthusiasm. Common sense need not be\ndivorced from high aims or from the intensest religious self-devotion.\nThe idealist beat the practical centurion in penetrating the sailors'\nscheme.\n\nThat must have been a great nature which combined such different\ncharacteristics as the Apostle shows. Unselfish devotion is often\nwonderfully clear-sighted as to the workings of its opposite. The\nApostle's promptitude is as noticeable as his penetration. He wastes no\ntime in remonstrance with the cowards, who would have been over the\nside and off in the dark while he talked, but goes straight to the man\nin authority. Note, too, that he keeps his place as a prisoner. It is\nnot his business to suggest what is to be done. That might have been\nresented as presumptuous; but he has a right to point out the danger,\nand he leaves the centurion to settle how to meet it. Significantly\ndoes he say 'ye,' not 'we.' He was perfectly certain that he 'must be\nbrought before Caesar'; and though he believed that all on board would\nescape, he seems to regard his own safety as even more certain than\nthat of the others.\n\nThe lesson often drawn from his words is rightly drawn. They imply the\nnecessity of men's action in order to carry out God's purpose. The\nwhole shipful are to be saved, but 'except these abide ... ye cannot be\nsaved,' The belief that God wills anything is a reason for using all\nmeans to effect it, not for folding our hands and saying, 'God will do\nit, whether we do anything or not.' The line between fatalism and\nChristian reliance on God's will is clearly drawn in Paul's words.\n\nNote too the prompt, decisive action of the soldiers. They waste no\nwords, nor do they try to secure the sailors, but out with their knives\nand cut the tow-rope, and away into the darkness drifts the boat. It\nmight have been better to have kept it, as affording a chance of safety\nfor all; but probably it was wisest to get rid of it at once. Many\ntimes in every life it is necessary to sacrifice possible advantages in\norder to secure a more necessary good. The boat has to be let go if the\npassengers in the ship are to be saved. Misused good things have\nsometimes to be given up in order to keep people from temptation.\n\nThe next point brings Paul again to the front. In the night he had been\nthe saviour of the whole shipload of people. Now as the twilight is\nbeginning, and the time for decisive action will soon be here with the\nday, he becomes their encourager and counsellor. Again his saving\ncommon sense is shown. He knew that the moment for intense struggle was\nat hand, and so he prepares them for it by getting them to eat a\nsubstantial breakfast. It was because of his faith that he did so. His\nreligion did not lead him to do as some people would have done--begin\nto talk to the soldiers about their souls--but he looked after their\nbodies. Hungry, wet, sleepless, they were in no condition to scramble\nthrough the surf, and the first thing to be done was to get some food\ninto them. Of course he does not mean that they had eaten absolutely\nnothing for a fortnight, but only that they had had scanty nourishment.\nBut Paul's religion went harmoniously with his care for men's bodies.\nHe 'gave thanks to God in presence of them all'; and who shall say that\nthat prayer did not touch hearts more deeply than religious talk would\nhave done? Paul's calmness would be contagious; and the root of it, in\nhis belief in what his God had told him, would be impressively\nmanifested to all on board. Moods are infectious; so 'they were all of\ngood cheer,' and no doubt things looked less black after a hearty meal,\n\nA little point may be noticed here, namely, the naturalness of the\ninsertion of the numbers on board at this precise place in the\nnarrative. There would probably be a muster of all hands for the meal,\nand in view of the approaching scramble, in order that, if they got to\nshore, there might be certainty as to whether any were lost. So here\nthe numbers come in. They were still not without hope of saving the\nship, though Paul had told them it would be lost; and so they jettison\nthe cargo of wheat from Alexandria. By this time it is broad day and\nsomething must be done.\n\nThe next point is the attempt to beach the vessel. 'They knew not the\nland,' that is, the part of the coast where they had been driven; but\nthey saw that, while for the most part it was iron-bound, there was a\nshelving sandy bay at one point on to which it might be possible to run\nher ashore. The Revised Version gives a much more accurate and\nseaman-like account than the Authorised Version does. The anchors were\nnot taken on board, but to save time and trouble were 'left in the\nsea,' the cables being simply cut. The 'rudder-bands'--that is, the\nlashings which had secured the two paddle-like rudders, one on either\nbeam, which had been tied up to be out of the way when the stern\nanchors were put out--are loosed, and the rudders drop into place. The\nforesail (not 'mainsail,' as the Authorised Version has it) is set to\nhelp to drive the ship ashore. It is all exactly what we should expect\nto be done.\n\nBut an unexpected difficulty met the attempt, which is explained by the\nlie of the coast at St. Paul's Bay, Malta, as James Smith fully\ndescribes in his book. A little island, separated from the mainland by\na channel of not more than one hundred yards in breadth, lies off the\nnorth-east point of the bay, and to a beholder at the entrance to the\nbay looks as if continuous with it. When the ship got farther in, they\nwould see the narrow channel, through which a strong current sets and\nmakes a considerable disturbance as it meets the run of the water in\nthe bay. A bank of mud has been formed at the point of meeting. Thus\nnot only the water shoals, but the force of the current through the\nnarrows would hinder the ship from getting past it to the beach. The\ntwo things together made her ground, 'stem on' to the bank; and then,\nof course, the heavy sea running into the bay, instead of helping her\nto the shore, began to break up the stern which was turned towards it.\n\nCommon peril makes beasts of prey and their usual victims crouch\ntogether. Benefits received touch generous hearts. But the legionaries\non board had no such sentiments. Paul's helpfulness was forgotten. A\nstill more ignoble exhibition of the instinct of self-preservation than\nthe sailors had shown dictated that cowardly, cruel suggestion to kill\nthe prisoners. Brutal indifference to human life, and Rome's iron\ndiscipline holding terror over the legionaries' heads, are vividly\nillustrated in the 'counsel,' So were Paul's kindnesses requited! It is\nhard to melt rude natures even by kindness; and if Paul had been\nlooking for gratitude he would have been disappointed, as we so often\nare. But if we do good to men because we expect requital, even in\nthankfulness, we are not pure in motive. 'Looking for nothing again' is\nthe spirit enforced by God's pattern and by experience.\n\nThe centurion had throughout, like most of his fellows in Scripture,\nbeen kindly disposed, and showed more regard for Paul than the rank and\nfile did. He displays the good side of militarism, while they show its\nbad side; for he is collected, keeps his head in extremities, knows his\nown mind, holds the reins in a firm hand, even in that supreme moment,\nhas a quick eye to see what must be done, and decision to order it at\nonce. It was prudent to send first those who could swim; they could\nthen help the others. The distance was short, and as the bow was\naground, there would be some shelter under the lee of the vessel, and\nshoal water, where they could wade, would be reached in a few minutes\nor moments.\n\n'And so it came to pass, that they all escaped safe to the land.' So\nPaul had assured them they would. God needs no miracles in order to\nsway human affairs. Everything here was perfectly 'natural,' and yet\nHis hand wrought through all, and the issue was His fulfilment of His\npromises. If we rightly look at common things, we shall see God working\nin them all, and believe that He can deliver us as truly without\nmiracles as ever He did any by miracles. Promptitude, prudence, skill,\nand struggle with the waves, saved the whole two hundred and\nseventy-six souls in that battered ship; yet it was God who saved them\nall. Whether Paul was among the party that could swim, or among the\nmore helpless who had to cling to anything that would float, he was\nheld up by God's hand, and it was He who 'sent from above, took him,\nand drew him out of many waters.'\n\n\n\nAFTER THE WRECK\n\n'And when they were escaped, then they knew that the island was called\nMelita. 2. And the barbarous people showed us no little kindness: for\nthey kindled a fire, and received us every one, because of the present\nrain, and because of the cold. 3. And when Paul had gathered a bundle\nof sticks, and laid them on the fire, there came a viper out of the\nheat, and fastened on his hand. 4. And when the barbarians saw the\nvenomous beast hang on his hand, they said among themselves, No doubt\nthis man is a murderer, whom, though he hath escaped the sea, yet\nvengeance suffereth not to live. 5. And he shook off the beast into the\nfire, and felt no harm. 6. Howbeit they looked when he should have\nswollen, or fallen down dead suddenly: but after they had looked a\ngreat while, and saw no harm come to him, they changed their minds, and\nsaid that he was a god. 7. In the same quarters were possessions of the\nchief man of the island, whose name was Publius: who received us, and\nlodged us three days courteously. 8. And it came to pass, that the\nfather of Publius lay sick of a fever, and of a bloody flux: to whom\nPaul entered in, and prayed, and laid his hands on him, and healed him.\n9. So when this was done, others also, which had diseases in the\nisland, came, and were healed: 10. Who also honoured us with many\nhonours: and when we departed, they laded us with such things as were\nnecessary. 11. And after three months we departed in a ship of\nAlexandria, which had wintered in the isle, whose sign was Castor and\nPollux. 12. And landing at Syracuse, we tarried there three days. 13.\nAnd from thence we fetched a compass, and came to Rhegium: and after\none day the south wind blew, and we came the next day to Puteoli; 14.\nWhere we found brethren, and were desired to tarry with them seven\ndays: and so we went toward Rome. 15. And from thence, when the\nbrethren heard of us, they came to meet us as far as Appii Forum, and\nThe three taverns: whom when Paul saw, he thanked God, and took\ncourage. 16. And when we came to Rome, the centurion delivered the\nprisoners to the captain of the guard: but Paul was suffered to dwell\nby himself with a soldier that kept him.'--ACTS xxviii. 1-16.\n\n'They _all_ escaped safe to land,' says Luke with emphasis, pointing to\nthe verification of Paul's assurance that there should be no loss of\nlife. That two hundred and seventy-six men on a wreck should all be\nsaved was very improbable, but the angel had promised, and Paul had\nbelieved that it should be 'even so as it had been spoken unto him.'\nTherefore the improbable came to pass, and every man of the ship's\ncompany stood safe on the shore. Faith which grasps God's promise\n'laughs at impossibilities' and brings them into the region of facts.\n\nWet, cold, weary, and anxious, the rescued men huddled together on the\nshore in the early morning, and no doubt they were doubtful what\nreception they would have from the islanders who had been attracted to\nthe beach. Their first question was, 'Where are we?' so completely had\nthey lost their reckoning. Some of the inhabitants could speak Greek or\nLatin, and could tell them that they were on Melita, but the most part\nof the crowd that came round them could only speak in a tongue strange\nto Luke, and are therefore called by him 'barbarians,' not as being\nuncivilised, but as not speaking Greek. But they could speak the\neloquent language of kindness and pity. They were heathens, but they\nwere men. They had not come down to the wreck for plunder, as might\nhave been feared, but to help the unfortunates who were shivering on\nthe beach in the downpour of rain, and chilled to the bone by exposure.\n\nAs always, Paul fills Luke's canvas; the other two hundred and\nseventy-five were ciphers. Two incidents, in which the Apostle appears\nas protected by God from danger, and as a fountain of healing for\nothers, are all that is told of the three months' stay in Malta. Taken\ntogether, these cover the whole ground of the Christian's place in the\nworld; he is an object of divine care, he is a medium of divine\nblessing. In the former one, we see in Paul's activity in gathering his\nbundle of brushwood an example of how he took the humblest duties on\nhimself, and was not hindered either by the false sense of dignity\nwhich keeps smaller men from doing small things, as Chinese gentlemen\npride themselves on long nails as a token that they do no work, or by\nthe helplessness in practical matters which is sometimes natural to,\nand often affected by, men of genius, from taking his share in common\nduties.\n\nThe shipwreck took place in November probably, and the 'viper' had\ncurled itself up for its winter sleep, and had been lifted with the\ntwigs by Paul's hasty hand. Roused by the warmth, it darted at Paul's\nhand before it could be withdrawn, and fixed its fangs. The sight of it\ndangling there excited suspicions in the mind of the natives, who would\nknow that Paul was a prisoner, and so jumped to the conclusion that he\nwas a murderer pursued by the Goddess of Justice. These rude islanders\nhad consciences, which bore witness to a divine law of retribution.\n\nHowever mistaken may be heathens' conceptions of what constitutes right\nand wrong, they all know that it is wrong to do wrong, and the dim\nanticipation of God-inflicted punishment is in their hearts. The swift\nchange of opinion about Paul is like, though it is the reverse of, what\nthe people of Lystra thought of him. _They_ first took him for a god,\nand then for a criminal, worshipping him to-day and stoning him\nto-morrow. This teaches us how unworthy the heathen conception of a\ndeity is, and how lightly the name was given. It may teach us too how\nfickle and easily led popular judgments are, and how they are ever\nprone to rush from one extreme to another, so that the people's idol of\none week is their abhorrence the next, and the applause and execration\nare equally undeserved. These Maltese critics did what many of us are\ndoing with less excuse--arguing as to men's merits from their\ncalamities or successes. A good man may be stung by a serpent in the\nact of doing a good thing; that does not prove him to be a monster. He\nmay be unhurt by what seems fatal; that does not prove him to be a god\nor a saint.\n\nThe other incident recorded as occurring in Malta brings out the\nChristian's relation to others as a source of healing. An interesting\nincidental proof of Luke's accuracy is found in the fact that\ninscriptions discovered in Malta show that the official title of the\ngovernor was 'First of the Melitaeans.' The word here rendered 'chief'\nis literally 'first.' Luke's precision is shown in another direction in\nhis diagnosis of the diseases of Publius's father, which are described\nby technical medical terms. The healing seems to have been unasked.\nPaul 'went in,' as if from a spontaneous wish to render help. There is\nno record of any expectation or request from Publius.\n\nChristians are to be 'like the dew on the grass, which waiteth not for\nman,' but falls unsought. The manner of the healing brings out very\nclearly its divine source, and Paul's part as being simply that of the\nchannel for God's power. He prays, and then lays his hands on the sick\nman. There are no words assuring him of healing. God is invoked, and\nthen His power flows through the hands of the suppliant. So with all\nour work for men in bringing the better cure with which we are\nentrusted, we are but channels of the blessing, pipes through which the\nwater of life is brought to thirsty lips. Therefore prayer must precede\nand accompany all Christian efforts to communicate the healing of the\nGospel; and the most gifted are but, like Paul, 'ministers through\nwhom' faith and salvation come.\n\nThe argument from silence is precarious, but the entire omission of\nnotice of evangelistic work in Melita is noteworthy. Probably the\nApostle as a prisoner was not free to preach Christ in any public\nmanner.\n\nAncient navigation was conducted in a leisurely fashion very strange to\nus. Three months' delay in the island, rendered necessary by wintry\nstorms, would end about the early part of March, when the season for\nsafe sailing began. So the third ship which was used in this voyage set\nsail. Luke notices its 'sign' as being that of the Twin Brethren, the\npatrons of sailors, whose images were, no doubt, displayed on the bow,\njust as to-day boats in that region often have a Madonna nailed on the\nmast. Strange conjunction--Castor and Pollux on the prow, and Paul on\nthe deck!\n\nPuteoli, on the bay of Naples, was the landing-place, and there, after\nlong confinement with uncongenial companions, the three Christians,\nPaul, Aristarchus, and Luke, found brethren. We can understand the joy\nof such a meeting, and can almost hear the narrative of perils which\nwould be poured into sympathetic ears. Observe that, according to what\nseems the true reading, verse 14 says, 'We were consoled among them,\nremaining seven days.' The centurion could scarcely delay his march to\nplease the Christians at Puteoli; and the thought that the Apostle,\nwhose spirit had never flagged while danger was near and effort was\nneeded, felt some tendency to collapse, and required cheering when the\nstrain was off, is as natural as it is pathetic.\n\nSo the whole company set off on their march to Rome--about a hundred\nand forty miles. The week's delay in Puteoli would give time for\napprising the church in Rome of the Apostle's coming, and two parties\ncame out to meet him, one travelling as far as Appii Forum, about forty\nRoman miles from the city; the other as far as 'The Three Taverns,'\nsome ten miles nearer it. The simple notice of the meeting is more\ntouching than many words would have been. It brings out again the\nApostle's somewhat depressed state, partly due, no doubt, to nervous\ntension during the long and hazardous voyage, and partly to his\nconsciousness that the decisive moment was very near. But when he\ngrasped the hands and looked into the faces of the Roman brethren, whom\nhe had so long hungered to see, and to whom he had poured out his heart\nin his letter, he 'thanked God, and took courage.' The most heroic\nneed, and are helped by, the sympathy of the humble. Luther was braced\nfor the Diet of Worms by the knight who clapped him on the back as he\npassed in and spoke a hearty word of cheer.\n\nThere would be some old friends in the delegation of Roman Christians,\nperhaps some of those who are named in Romans xvi., such as Priscilla\nand Aquila, and the unnamed matron, Rufus's mother, whom Paul there\ncalls 'his mother and mine.' It would be an hour of love and effusion,\nand the shadow of appearing before Caesar would not sensibly dim the\nbrightness. Paul saw God's hand in that glad meeting, as we should do\nin all the sweetness of congenial intercourse. It was not only because\nthe welcomers were his friends that he was glad, but because they were\nChrist's friends and servants. The Apostle saw in them the evidence\nthat the kingdom was advancing even in the world's capital, and under\nthe shadow of Caesar's throne, and that gladdened him and made him\nforget personal anxieties. We too should be willing to sink our own\ninterests in the joy of seeing the spread of Christ's kingdom.\n\nPaul turned thankfulness for the past and present into calm hope for\nthe future: 'He took courage.' There was much to discourage and to\nexcuse tremors and forebodings, but he had God and Christ with him, and\ntherefore he could front the uncertain future without flinching, and\nleave all its possibilities in God's hands. Those who have such a past\nas every Christian has should put fear far from them, and go forth to\nmeet any future with quiet hearts, and minds kept in perfect peace\nbecause they are stayed on God.\n\n\n\nTHE LAST GLIMPSE OF PAUL\n\n'And it came to pass, that, after three days, Paul called the chief of\nthe Jews together: and when they were come together, he said unto them,\nMen and brethren, though I have committed nothing against the people or\ncustoms of our fathers, yet was I delivered prisoner from Jerusalem\ninto the hands of the Romans; 18. Who, when they had examined me, would\nhave let me go, because there was no cause of death in me. 19. But when\nthe Jews spake against it, I was constrained to appeal unto Caesar; not\nthat I had ought to accuse my nation of. 20. For this cause therefore\nhave I called for you, to see you, and to speak with you: because that\nfor the hope of Israel I am bound with this chain. 21. And they said\nunto him, We neither received letters out of Judaea concerning thee,\nneither any of the brethren that came shewed or spake any harm of thee.\n22. But we desire to hear of thee what thou thinkest: for as concerning\nthis sect, we know that everywhere it is spoken against. 23. And when\nthey had appointed him a day, there came many to him into his lodging;\nto whom he expounded and testified the kingdom of God, persuading them\nconcerning Jesus, both out of the law of Moses, and out of the\nprophets, from morning till evening. 24. And some believed the things\nwhich were spoken, and some believed not. 25. And when they agreed not\namong themselves, they departed, after that Paul had spoken one word,\nWell spake the Holy Ghost by Esias the prophet unto our fathers, 26.\nSaying, Go unto this people, and say. Hearing ye shall hear, and shall\nnot understand; and seeing ye shall see, and not perceive: 27. For the\nheart of this people is waxed gross, and their ears are dull of\nhearing, and their eyes have they closed; lest they should see with\ntheir eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart,\nand should be converted, and I should heal them. 28. Be it known\ntherefore unto you, that the salvation of God is sent unto the\nGentiles, and that they will hear it. 29. And when he had said these\nwords, the Jews departed, and had great reasoning among themselves. 30.\nAnd Paul dwelt two whole years in his own hired house, and received all\nthat came in unto him, 31. Preaching the kingdom of God, and teaching\nthose things which concern the Lord Jesus Christ, with all confidence,\nno man forbidding him.'--ACTS xxviii. 17-31.\n\nWe have here our last certain glimpse of Paul. His ambition had long\nbeen to preach in Rome, but he little knew how his desire was to be\nfulfilled. We too are often surprised at the shape which God's answers\nto our wishes take. Well for us if we take the unexpected or painful\nevents which accomplish some long-cherished purpose as cheerfully and\nboldly as did Paul. We see him in this last glimpse as the centre of\nthree concentric widening circles.\n\nI. We have Paul and the leaders of the Roman synagogue. He was not the\nman to let the grass grow under his feet. After such a voyage a pause\nwould have been natural for a less eager worker; but three days were\nall that he allowed himself, and these would, no doubt, be largely\noccupied by intercourse with the Roman Christians, and with the\nmultitude of little things to be looked after on entering on his new\nlodging. Paul had gifts that we have not, he exemplified many heroic\nvirtues which we are not called on to repeat; but he had eminently the\nprosaic virtue of diligence and persistence in work, and the humblest\nlife affords a sphere in which that indispensable though homely\nexcellence of his can be imitated. What a long holiday some of us would\nthink we had earned, if we had come through what Paul had encountered\nsince he left Caesarea!\n\nThe summoning of the 'chief of the Jews' to him was a prudent\npreparation for his trial rather than an evangelistic effort. It was\nimportant to ascertain their feelings, and if possible to secure their\nneutrality in regard to the approaching investigation. Hence the\nApostle seeks to put his case to them so as to show his true adherence\nto the central principles of Judaism, insisting that he is guiltless of\nrevolt against either the nation or the law and traditional\nobservances; that he had been found innocent by the Palestinian\nrepresentatives of Roman authority; that his appeal to Caesar, which\nwould naturally seem hostile to the rulers in Jerusalem, was not meant\nas an accusation of the nation to which he felt himself to belong, and\nso was no sign of deficient patriotism, but had been forced on him as\nhis only means of saving his life.\n\nIt was a difficult course which he had to steer, and he picked his way\nbetween the shoals with marvellous address. But his explanation of his\nposition is not only a skilful piece of _apologia_, but it embodies one\nof his strongest convictions, which it is worth our while to grasp\nfirmly; namely, that Christianity is the true fulfilment and perfecting\nof the old revelation. His declaration that, so far from his being a\ndeserter from Israel, he was a prisoner just because he was true to the\nMessianic hope which was Israel's highest glory, was not a clever piece\nof special pleading meant for the convincing of the Roman Jews, but was\na principle which runs through all his teaching. Christians were the\ntrue Jews. He was not a recreant in confessing, but they were deserters\nin denying, the fulfilment in Jesus of the hope which had shone before\nthe generation of 'the fathers.' The chain which bound him to the\nlegionary who 'kept him,' and which he held forth as he spoke, was the\nwitness that he was still 'an Hebrew of the Hebrews.'\n\nThe heads of the Roman synagogue went on the tack of non-committal, as\nwas quite natural. They were much too astute to accept at once an _ex\nparte_ statement, and so took refuge in professing ignorance. Probably\nthey knew a good deal more than they owned. Their statement has been\ncalled 'unhistorical,' and, oddly enough, has been used to discredit\nLuke's narrative. It is a remarkable canon of criticism that a reporter\nis responsible for the truthfulness of assertions which he reports, and\nthat, if he has occasion to report truthfully an untruth, he is\nconvicted of the untruth which he truthfully reports. Luke is\nresponsible for telling what these people found it convenient to say;\nthey are responsible for its veracity. But they did not say quite as\nmuch as is sometimes supposed. As the Revised Version shows, they\nsimply said that they had not had any official deputation or report\nabout Paul, which is perfectly probable, as it was extremely unlikely\nthat any ship leaving after Paul's could have reached Italy. They may\nhave known a great deal about him, but they had no information to act\nupon about his trial. Their reply is plainly shaped so as to avoid\nexpressing any definite opinion or pledging themselves to any course of\naction till they do hear from 'home.'\n\nThey are politely cautious, but they cannot help letting out some of\ntheir bile in their reference to 'this sect.' Paul had said nothing\nabout it, and their allusion betrays a fuller knowledge of him and it\nthan it suited their plea for delay to own. Their wish to hear what he\nthought sounded very innocent and impartial, but was scarcely the voice\nof candid seekers after truth. They must have known of the existence of\nthe Roman Church, which included many Jews, and they could scarcely be\nignorant of the beliefs on which it was founded; but they probably\nthought that they would hear enough from Paul in the proposed\nconference to enable them to carry the synagogue with them in doing all\nthey could to procure his condemnation. He had hoped to secure at least\ntheir neutrality; they seem to have been preparing to join his enemies.\nThe request for full exposition of a prisoner's belief has often been\nbut a trap to ensure his martyrdom. But we have to 'be ready to give to\nevery man a reason for the hope that is in us,' even when the motive\nfor asking it may be anything but the sincere desire to learn.\n\nII. Therefore Paul was willing to lay his heart's belief open, whatever\ndoing so might bring. So the second circle forms round him, and we have\nhim preaching the Gospel to 'many' of the Jews. He could not go to the\nsynagogue, so much of the synagogue came to him. The usual method was\npursued by Paul in arguing from the old revelation, but we may note the\ntwofold manner of his preaching, 'testifying' and 'persuading,' the\nformer addressed more to the understanding, and the latter to the\naffections and will, and may learn how Christian teachers should seek\nto blend both--to work their arguments, not in frost, but in fire, and\nnot to bully or scold or frighten men into the Kingdom, but to draw\nthem with cords of love. Persuasion without a basis of solid reasoning\nis puerile and impotent; reasoning without the warmth of persuasion is\nicy cold, and therefore nothing grows from it.\n\nNote too the protracted labour 'from morning till evening.' One can\nalmost see the eager disputants spending the livelong day over the\nrolls of the prophets, relays of Rabbis, perhaps, relieving one another\nin the assault on the one opponent's position, and he holding his\nground through all the hours--a pattern for us teachers of all degrees.\n\nThe usual effects followed. The multitude was sifted by the Gospel, as\nits hearers always are, some accepting and some rejecting. These double\neffects ever follow it, and to one or other of these two classes we\neach belong. The same fire melts wax and hardens clay; the same light\nis joy to sound eyes and agony to diseased ones; the same word is a\nsavour of life unto life and a savour of death unto death; the same\nChrist is set for the fall and for the rising of men, and is to some\nthe sure foundation on which they build secure, and to some the stone\non which, stumbling, they are broken, and which, falling on them,\ngrinds them to powder.\n\nPaul's solemn farewell takes up Isaiah's words, already used by Jesus.\nIt is his last recorded utterance to his brethren after the flesh,\nweighty, and full of repressed yearning and sorrow. It is heavy with\nprophecy, and marks an epoch in the sad, strange history of that\nstrange nation. Israel passes out of sight with that dread sentence\nfastened to its breast, like criminals of old, on whose front was fixed\nthe record of their crimes and their condemnation. So this tragic\nself-exclusion from hope and life is the end of all that wondrous\nhistory of ages of divine revelation and patience, and of man's\nrebellion. The Gospel passes to the Gentiles, and the Jew shuts himself\nout. So it has been for nineteen centuries. Was not that scene in\nPaul's lodging in Rome the end of an epoch and the prediction of a sad\nfuture?\n\nIII. Not less significant and epoch-making is the glimpse of Paul which\ncloses the Acts. We have the third concentric circle--Paul and the\nmultitudes who came to his house and heard the Gospel. We note two\npoints here. First, that his unhindered preaching in the very heart of\nthe world's capital for two whole years is, in one aspect, the\ncompletion of the book. As Bengel tersely says, 'The victory of the\nword of God, Paul at Rome. The apex of the Gospel, the end of Acts.'\n\nBut, second, as clearly, the ending is abrupt, and is not a satisfying\nclose. The lengthened account of the whole process of Paul's\nimprisonments and hearings before the various Roman authorities is most\nunintelligible if Luke intended to break off at the very crucial point,\nand say nothing about the event to which he had been leading up for so\nmany chapters. There is much probability in Ramsay's suggestion that\nLuke intended to write a third book, containing the account of the\ntrial and subsequent events, but was prevented by causes unknown,\nperhaps by martyrdom. Be that as it may, these two verses, with some\ninformation pieced out of the Epistles written during the imprisonment,\nare all that we know of Paul's life in Rome. From Philippians we learn\nthat the Gospel spread by reason of the earlier stages of his trial.\nFrom the other Epistles we can collect some particulars of his\ncompanions, and of the oversight which he kept up of the Churches.\n\nThe picture here drawn lays hold, not on anything connected with his\ntrial, but on his evangelistic activity, and shows us how,\nnotwithstanding all hindrances, anxieties about his fate, weariness,\nand past toils, the flame of evangelistic fervour burned undimmed in\n'Paul the aged,' as the flame of mistaken zeal had burned in the 'young\nman named Saul,' and how the work which had filled so many years of\nwandering and homelessness was carried on with all the old joyfulness,\nconfidence, and success, from the prisoner's lodging. In such\nunexpected fashion did God fulfil the Apostle's desire to 'preach the\nGospel to you that are at Rome also.' To preach the word with all\nboldness is the duty of us Christians who have entered into the\nheritage of fuller freedom than Paul's, and of whom it is truer than of\nhim that we can do it, 'no man forbidding' us.\n\n\n\nPAUL IN ROME\n\nAnd Paul dwelt two whole years in his own hired house, and received all\nthat came in unto him, 31. Preaching the kingdom of God, and teaching\nthose things which concern the Lord Jesus Christ, with all confidence,\nno man forbidding him.'--ACTS xxviii. 30, 31.\n\nSo ends this book. It stops rather than ends. Many reasons might be\nsuggested for closing here. Probably the simplest is the best, that\nnothing more is said for nothing more had yet been done. Probably the\nbook was written during these two years. This abrupt close suggests\nseveral noteworthy thoughts.\n\nI. The true theme of the book.\n\nHow convenient if Luke had told us a little more! But Paul's history is\nunfinished, like Peter's and John's. This book's treatment of all the\nApostles teaches, as we have often had to remark, that Christ and His\nacts are its true subject.\n\nWe are wise if we learn the lesson of keeping all human teachers, even\na Paul, in their inferior place, and if we say of each of them: 'He was\nnot the Light, but came that he might bear witness of the Light.'\n\nII. God's unexpected and unwelcome ways of fulfilling our desires, and\nHis purposes.\n\nIt had long been Paul's dream to 'see Rome.' How little he knew the\nsteps by which his dream was to be fulfilled! He told the Ephesian\nelders that he was going up to Jerusalem under compulsion of the\nSpirit, and 'not knowing the things that should befall him there,'\nexcept that he was certain of 'bonds and imprisonment.' He did not know\nthat these were God's way of bringing him to Rome. Jewish fury, Roman\nstatecraft and law-abidingness, two years of a prison, a stormy voyage,\na shipwreck, led him to his long-wished-for goal. God uses even man's\nmalice and opposition to the Gospel to advance the progress of the\nGospel. Men, like coral insects, build their little bit, all unaware of\nthe whole of which it is a part, but the reef rises above the waves and\nocean breaks against it in vain.\n\nSo we may gather lessons of submission, of patient acceptance of\napparently adverse circumstances, and of quiet faith that He who 'makes\nstormy winds to fulfil His word and flaming fires His ministers,' will\nbend to the carrying out of His designs all things, be they seemingly\nfriendly or hostile, and will realise our dreams, if in accordance with\nHis will, even through events which seem to shatter them. Let us trust\nand be patient till we see the issues of events.\n\nIII. The world's mistaken estimate of greatness.\n\nWho was the greatest man in Rome at that hour? Not the Caesar but the\npoor Jewish prisoner. How astonished both would have been if they had\nbeen told the truth! The two kingdoms were, so to speak, set face to\nface in these two, their representatives, and neither of them knew his\nown relative importance. The Caesar was all unaware that, for all his\nlegions and his power, he was but 'a noise'; Paul was as unconscious\nthat he was incomparably the most powerful of the influences that were\nthen at work in the world. The haughty and stolid eyes of Romans saw in\nhim nothing but a prisoner, sent up from a turbulent subject land on\nsome obscure charge, a mere nobody. The crowds in forum and\namphitheatre would have laughed at any one who had pointed to that\nhumble 'hired house,' and said, 'There lodges a man who bears a word\nthat will shatter and remould the city, the Empire, the world.'\n\nLet us have confidence in the greatness of the word, though the world\nmay be deaf to its music and blind to its power, and let us never fear\nto ally ourselves with a cause which we know to be God's, however it\nmay be unpopular and made light of by the 'leaders of opinion.'\n\nIV. The true relation between the Church and the State.\n\n'None forbidding him' marks a great step forward. Paul's unhindered\nfreedom of speech in Rome itself marks 'the victory of the word, the\napex of the Gospel.' The neutral attitude of the imperial power was,\nindeed, broken by subsequent persecutions, but we may say that on the\nwhole Rome let Christianity alone. That is the best service that the\nState can render to the Church. Anything more is help which encumbers\nand is harmful to the true spiritual power of the Gospel. The real\nrequirement which it makes on the civil power is simply what the Greek\nphilosopher asked of the king who was proffering his good offices,\n'Stand out of the sunshine!'","title":"Expositions of Holy Scripture: the Acts","tradition":"scripture-revelation","translated_text":null,"word_count":250051}