EXPOSITIONS OF HOLY SCRIPTURE

ALEXANDER MACLAREN, D. D. , Litt. D. 

THE ACTS

EXPOSITIONS OF HOLY SCRIPTURE

ALEXANDER MACLAREN, D. D. , Litt. D. 

THE ACTS

_Chaps. I to XII_VERSE 17. 

CONTENTS

THE ASCENSION (Acts i. 1-14)

THE THEME OF ACTS (Acts i. 1, 2; xxviii. 30, 31)

THE FORTY DAYS (Acts i. 3)

THE UNKNOWN TO-MORROW (Acts i. 7)

THE APOSTOLIC WITNESSES (Acts i. 21, 22)

THE ABIDING GIFT AND ITS TRANSITORY ACCOMPANIMENTS (Acts ii. 1-13)

THE FOURFOLD SYMBOLS OF THE SPIRIT (Acts ii. 2, 3, 17; 1 John ii. 20)

PETER'S FIRST SERMON (Acts ii. 32-47)

THE NAME ABOVE EVERY NAME (Acts ii. 36)

A FOURFOLD CORD (Acts ii. 42)

A PURE CHURCH AN INCREASING CHURCH (Acts ii. 47)

'THEN SHALL THE LAME MAN LEAP AS AN HART' (Acts iii. 1-16)

'THE PRINCE OF LIFE' (Acts iii. 14, 15)

THE HEALING POWER OF THE NAME (Acts iii. 16)

THE SERVANT OF THE LORD (Acts iii. 26)

THE FIRST BLAST OF TEMPEST (Acts iv. 1-14)

WITH AND LIKE CHRIST (Acts iv. 13)

OBEDIENT DISOBEDIENCE (Acts iv. 19-31)

IMPOSSIBLE SILENCE (Acts iv. 20)

THE SERVANT AND THE SLAVES (Acts iv. 25, 27, 29)

THE WHEAT AND THE TARES (Acts iv. 32; v. 11)

WHOM TO OBEY, --ANNAS OR ANGEL? (Acts v. 17-32)

OUR CAPTAIN (Acts v. 31)

GAMALIEL'S COUNSEL (Acts v. 38, 39)

FILLED WITH THE SPIRIT (Acts vi. 3, 5, 8)

STEPHEN'S VISION (Acts vii. 56)

THE YOUNG SAUL AND THE AGED PAUL (Acts vii. 58; Philemon 9)

THE DEATH OF THE MASTER AND THE DEATH OF THE SERVANT(Acts vii. 59, 60)

SEED SCATTERED AND TAKING ROOT (Acts viii. 1-17)

SIMON THE SORCERER (Acts viii. 21)

A MEETING IN THE DESERT (Acts viii. 26-40)

PHILIP THE EVANGELIST (Acts viii. 40)

GRACE TRIUMPHANT (Acts ix. 1-12; 17-20)

'THIS WAY' (Acts ix. 2)

A BIRD'S-EYE VIEW OF THE EARLY CHURCH (Acts ix. 31)

COPIES OF CHRIST'S MANNER (Acts ix. 34, 40)

WHAT GOD HATH CLEANSED (Acts x. 1-20)

'GOD IS NO RESPECTER OF PERSONS' (Acts x. 30-44)

PETER'S APOLOGIA (Acts xi. 1-18)

THE FIRST PREACHING AT ANTIOCH (Acts xi. 20, 21)

THE EXHORTATION OF BARNABAS (Acts xi. 23)

WHAT A GOOD MAN IS, AND HOW HE BECOMES SO (Acts xi. 24)

A NICKNAME ACCEPTED (Acts xi. 26)

THE MARTYRDOM OF JAMES (Acts xii. 2)

PETER'S DELIVERANCE FROM PRISON (Acts xii. 5, R. V. )

THE ANGEL'S TOUCH (Acts xii. 7, 23)

'SOBER CERTAINTY' (Acts xii. 11)

RHODA (Acts xii. 13)

PETER AFTER HIS ESCAPE (Acts xii. 17)

THE ASCENSION

'The former treatise have I made, O Theophilus, of all that Jesusbegan both to do and teach, 2. Until the day in which He wastaken up, after that He through the Holy Ghost had givencommandments unto the Apostles whom He had chosen: 3. To whomalso He shewed Himself alive after His passion by many infallibleproofs, being seen of them forty days, and speaking of the thingspertaining to the kingdom of God: 4. And, being assembledtogether with them, commanded them that they should not departfrom Jerusalem, but wait for the promise of the Father, which, saith He, ye have heard of Me. 5. For John truly baptized withwater; but ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost not many dayshence. 6. When they therefore were come together, they asked ofHim, saying, Lord, wilt Thou at this time restore again thekingdom to Israel? 7. And He said unto them, It is not for you toknow the times or the seasons, which the Father hath put in Hisown power. 8. But ye shall receive power, after that the HolyGhost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto Me both inJerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto theuttermost part of the earth. 9. And when He had spoken thesethings, while they beheld, He was taken up; and a cloud receivedHim out of their sight. 10. And while they looked stedfastlytoward heaven as He went up, behold, two men stood by them inwhite apparel; l1. Which also said, Ye men of Galilee, why standye gazing up into heaven? this same Jesus, which is taken up fromyou into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen Himgo into heaven. 12. Then returned they unto Jerusalem from themount called Olivet, which is from Jerusalem a Sabbath day'sjourney. 13. And when they were come in, they went up into anupper room, where abode both Peter, and James, and John, andAndrew, Philip, and Thomas, Bartholomew, and Matthew, James theson of Alphaeus, and Simon Zelotes, and Judas the brother ofJames. 14. These all continued with one accord in prayer andsupplication, with the women, and Mary the mother of Jesus, andwith His brethren. '--ACTS i. 1-14. 

The Ascension is twice narrated by Luke. The life begun by thesupernatural birth ends with the supernatural Ascension, which setsthe seal of Heaven on Christ's claims and work. Therefore the Gospelends with it. But it is also the starting-point of the Christ'sheavenly activity, of which the growth of His Church, as recorded inthe Acts, is the issue. Therefore the Book of the Acts of theApostles begins with it. 

The keynote of the 'treatise' lies in the first words, which describethe Gospel as the record of what 'Jesus _began_ to do and teach, 'Luke would have gone on to say that this second book of his containedthe story of what Jesus went on to do and teach after He was 'takenup, ' if he had been strictly accurate, or had carried out his firstintention, as shown by the mould of his introductory sentence; but heis swept on into the full stream of his narrative, and we have toinfer the contrast between his two volumes from his statement of thecontents of his first. 

The book, then, is misnamed Acts of the Apostles, both because thegreater number of the Apostles do nothing in it, and because, inaccordance with the hint of the first verse, Christ Himself is thedoer of all, as comes out distinctly in many places where thecritical events of the Church's progress and extension are attributedto 'the Lord. ' In one aspect, Christ's work on earth was finished onthe Cross; in another, that finished work is but the beginning bothof His doing and teaching. Therefore we are not to regard Histeaching while on earth as the completion of Christian revelation. Toset aside the Epistles on the plea that the Gospels contain Christ'sown teaching, while the Epistles are only Paul's or John's, is tomisconceive the relation between the earthly and the heavenlyactivity of Jesus. 

The statement of the theme of the book is followed by a brief summaryof the events between the Resurrection and Ascension. Luke had spokenof these in the end of his Gospel, but given no note of time, and runtogether the events of the day of the Resurrection and of thefollowing weeks, so that it might appear, as has been actuallycontended that he meant, that the Ascension took place on the veryday of Resurrection. The fact that in this place he gives moredetailed statements, and tells how long elapsed between theResurrection Sunday and the Ascension, might have taught hastycritics that an author need not be ignorant of what he does notmention, and that a detailed account does not contradict a summaryone, --truths which do not seem very recondite, but have often beenforgotten by very learned commentators. 

Three points are signalised as occupying the forty days: commandmentswere given, Christ's actual living presence was demonstrated (bysight, touch, hearing, etc. ), and instructions concerning the kingdomwere imparted. The old blessed closeness and continuity ofcompanionship had ceased. Our Lord's appearances were now occasional. He came to the disciples, they knew not whence; He withdrew fromthem, they knew not whither. Apparently a sacred awe restrained themfrom seeking to detain Him or to follow Him. Their hearts would befull of strangely mingled feelings, and they were being taught bygentle degrees to do without Him. Not only a divine decorum, but amost gracious tenderness, dictated the alternation of presence andabsence during these days. 

The instructions then given are again referred to in Luke's Gospel, and are there represented as principally directed to opening theirminds 'that they might understand the Scriptures. ' The main thingabout the kingdom which they had then to learn, was that it wasfounded on the death of Christ, who had fulfilled all the OldTestament predictions. Much remained untaught, which after years wereto bring to clear knowledge; but from the illumination shed duringthese fruitful days flowed the remarkable vigour and confidence ofthe Apostolic appeal to the prophets, in the first conflicts of theChurch with the rulers. Christ is the King of the kingdom, and HisCross is His throne, --these truths being grasped revolutionised theApostles' conceptions. They are as needful for us. 

From verse 4 onwards the last interview seems to be narrated. Probably it began in the city, and ended on the slopes of Olivet. There was a solemn summoning together of the Eleven, which is twicereferred to (vs. 4, 6). What awe of expectancy would rest on thegroup as they gathered round Him, perhaps half suspecting that it wasfor the last time! His words would change the suspicion intocertainty, for He proceeded to tell them what they were not to do andto do, when left alone. The tone of leave-taking is unmistakable. 

The prohibition against leaving Jerusalem implies that they wouldhave done so if left to themselves; and it would have been smallwonder if they had been eager to hurry back to quiet Galilee, theirhome, and to shake from their feet the dust of the city where theirLord had been slain. Truly they would feel like sheep in the midst ofwolves when He had gone, and Pharisees and priests and Roman officersringed them round. No wonder if, like a shepherdless flock, they hadbroken and scattered! But the theocratic importance of Jerusalem, andthe fact that nowhere else could the Apostles secure such an audiencefor their witness, made their 'beginning at Jerusalem' necessary. Sothey were to crush their natural longing to get back to Galilee, andto stay in their dangerous position. We have all to ask, not where weshould be most at ease, but where we shall be most efficient aswitnesses for Christ, and to remember that very often the presence ofadversaries makes the door 'great and effectual. '

These eleven poor men were not left by their Master with a hard taskand no help. He bade them 'wait' for the promised Holy Spirit, thecoming of whom they had heard from Him when in the upper room Hespoke to them of 'the Comforter. ' They were too feeble to act alone, and silence and retirement were all that He enjoined till they hadbeen plunged into the fiery baptism which should quicken, strengthen, and transform them. 

The order in which promise and command occur here shows howgraciously Jesus considered the Apostles' weakness. Not a word doesHe say of their task of witnessing, till He has filled their heartswith the promise of the Spirit. He shows them the armour of power inwhich they are to be clothed, before He points them to thebattlefield. Waiting times are not wasted times. Over-eagerness torush into work, especially into conspicuous and perilous work, issure to end in defeat. Till we feel the power coming into us, we hadbetter be still. 

The promise of this great gift, the nature of which they but dimlyknew, set the Apostles' expectations on tiptoe, and they seem to havethought that their reception of it was in some way the herald of theestablishment of the Messianic kingdom. So it was, but in a verydifferent fashion from their dream. They had not learned so much fromthe forty days' instructions concerning the kingdom as to be freefrom their old Jewish notions, which colour their question, 'WiltThou at this time restore again the kingdom to Israel?' They believedthat Jesus could establish His kingdom when He would. They wereright, and also wrong, --right, for He is King; wrong, for itsestablishment is not to be effected by a single act of power, but bythe slow process of preaching the gospel. 

Our Lord does not deal with their misconceptions which could only becured by time and events; but He lays down great principles, which weneed as much as the Eleven did. The 'times and seasons, ' the longstretches of days, and the critical epoch-making moments, are knownto God only; our business is, not to speculate curiously about these, but to do the plain duty which is incumbent on the Church at alltimes. The perpetual office of Christ's people to be His witnesses, their equipment for that function (namely, the power of the HolySpirit coming on them), and the sphere of their work (namely, inever-widening circles, Jerusalem, Samaria, and the whole world), arelaid down, not for the first hearers only, but for all ages and foreach individual, in these last words of the Lord as He stood onOlivet, ready to depart. 

The calm simplicity of the account of the Ascension is remarkable. Sogreat an event told in such few, unimpassioned words! Luke's Gospelgives the further detail that it was in the act of blessing withuplifted hands that our Lord was parted from the Eleven. Twoexpressions are here used to describe the Ascension, one of which('was taken up') implies that He was passive, the other of which ('Hewent') implies that He was active. Both are true. As in the accountsof the Resurrection He is sometimes said to have been raised, andsometimes to have risen, so here. The Father took the Son back to theglory, the Son left the world and went to the Father. No chariot offire, no whirlwind, was needed to lift Him to the throne. Elijah wascarried by such agency into a sphere new to him; Jesus ascended upwhere He was before. 

No other mode of departure from earth would have corresponded to Hisvoluntary, supernatural birth. He carried manhood up to the throneof God. The cloud which received Him while yet He was well withinsight of the gazers was probably that same bright cloud, the symbolof the Divine Presence, which of old dwelt between the cherubim. Hisentrance into it visibly symbolised the permanent participation, thenbegun, of His glorified manhood in the divine glory. 

Most true to human nature is that continued gaze upwards after He hadpassed into the hiding brightness of the glory-cloud. How many of usknow what it is to look long at the spot on the horizon where thelast glint of sunshine struck the sails of the ship that bore dearones away from us! It was fitting that angels, who had heralded Hisbirth and watched His grave, should proclaim His Second Coming toearth. 

It was gracious that, in the moment of keenest sense of desolationand loss, the great hope of reunion should be poured into the heartsof the Apostles. Nothing can be more distinct and assured than theterms of that angel message. It gives for the faith and hope of allages the assurance that He will come; that He who comes will be thevery Jesus who went; that His coming will be, like His departure, visible, corporeal, local. He will bring again all His tenderness, all His brother's heart, all His divine power, and will gather Hisservants to Himself. 

No wonder that, with such hopes flowing over the top of their sorrow, like oil on troubled waters, the little group went back to the upperroom, hallowed by memories of the Last Supper, and there waited inprayer and supplication during the ten days which elapsed tillPentecost. So should we use the interval between any promise and itsfulfilment. Patient expectation, believing prayer, harmoniousassociation with our brethren, will prepare us for receiving the giftof the Spirit, and will help to equip us as witnesses for Jesus. 

THE THEME OF ACTS

'The former treatise have I made, O Theophilus, of all thatJesus began both to do and teach. 2. Until the day in which Hewas taken up. '--ACTS i. 1, 2. 

'And Paul dwelt two whole years in his own hired house, andreceived all that came in unto him, 31. Preaching the kingdomof God, and teaching those things which concern the Lord JesusChrist, with all confidence, no man forbidding him. '--ACTS xxviii. 30, 31. 

So begins and so ends this Book. I connect the commencement and theclose, because I think that the juxtaposition throws great light uponthe purpose of the writer, and suggests some very important lessons. The reference to 'the former treatise' (which is, of course, theGospel according to Luke) implies that this Book is to be regarded asits sequel, and the terms of the reference show the writer's ownconception of what he was going to do in his second volume. 'Theformer treatise have I made . .. Of all that Jesus _began_ both to doand teach until the day in which He was taken up. ' Is not the naturalinference that the latter treatise will tell us what Jesus_continued_ 'to do and teach' _after_ He was taken up? I think so. And thus the writer sets forth at once, for those that have eyes tosee, what he means to do, and what he thinks his book is going to beabout. 

So, then, the name 'The Acts of the Apostles, ' which is not coevalwith the book itself, is somewhat of a misnomer. Most of the Apostlesare never heard of in it. There are, at the most, only three or fourof them concerning whom anything in the book is recorded. But ourfirst text supplies a deeper reason for regarding that title asinadequate, and even misleading. For, if the theme of the story bewhat Christ did, then the book is, not the 'Acts of the _Apostles_, 'but the 'Acts of _Jesus Christ_' through His servants. He, and Healone, is the Actor; and the men who appear in it are but instrumentsin His hands, He alone being the mover of the pawns on the board. 

That conception of the purpose of the book seems to me to have lightcast upon it by, and to explain, the singular abruptness of itsconclusion, which must strike every reader. No doubt it is quitepossible that the reason why the book ends in such a singularfashion, planting Paul in Rome, and leaving him there, may be thatthe date of its composition was that imprisonment of Paul in theImperial City, in a part of which, at all events, we know that Lukewas his companion. But, whilst that consideration may explain thepoint at which the book stops, it does not explain the way in whichit stops. The historian lays down his pen, possibly because he hadbrought his narrative up to date. But a word of conclusion explainingthat it was so would have been very natural, and its absence musthave had some reason. It is also possible that the arrival of theApostle in the Imperial City, and his unhindered liberty of preachingthere, in the very centre of power, the focus of intellectual life, and the hot-bed of corruption for the known world, may have seemed tothe writer an epoch which rounded off his story. But I think that thereason for the abruptness of the record's close is to be found in thecontinuity of the work of which it tells a part. It is the unfinishedrecord of an incomplete work. The theme is the work of Christ throughthe ages, of which each successive depository of His energies can dobut a small portion, and must leave that portion unfinished; the bookdoes not so much end as stop. It is a fragment, because the work ofwhich it tells is not yet a whole. 

If, then, we put these two things--the beginning and the ending ofthe Acts--together, I think we get some thoughts about what Christbegan to do and teach on earth; what He continues to do and teach inheaven; and how small and fragmentary a share in that work eachindividual servant of His has. Let us look at these points briefly. 

I. First, then, we have here the suggestion of what Christ began todo and teach on earth. 

Now, at first sight, the words of our text seem to be in strange andstartling contradiction to the solemn cry which rang out of thedarkness upon Calvary. Jesus said, 'It is finished!' and 'gave up theghost. ' Luke says He 'began to do and teach. ' Is there anycontradiction between the two? Certainly not. It is one thing to laya foundation; it is another thing to build a house. And the work oflaying the foundation must be finished before the work of buildingthe structure upon it can be begun. It is one thing to create aforce; it is another thing to apply it. It is one thing to compound amedicine; it is another thing to administer it. It is one thing tounveil a truth; it is another to unfold its successive applications, and to work it into a belief and practice in the world. The former isthe work of Christ which was finished on earth; the latter is thework which is continuous throughout the ages. 

'He began to do and teach, ' not in the sense that any should comeafter Him and do, as the disciples of most great discoverers andthinkers have had to do: namely, systematise, rectify, and completethe first glimpses of truth which the master had given. 'He began todo and teach, ' not in the sense that after He had 'passed into theheavens' any new truth or force can for evermore be imparted tohumanity in regard of the subjects which He taught and the energieswhich He brought. But whilst thus His work is complete, His earthlywork is also initial. And we must remember that whatever distinctionmy text may mean to draw between the work of Christ in the past andthat in the present and the future, it does not mean to imply thatwhen He 'ascended up on high' He had not completed the task for whichHe came, or that the world had to wait for anything more, either fromHim or from others, to eke out the imperfections of His doctrine orthe insufficiencies of His work. 

Let us ever remember that the initial work of Christ on earth iscomplete in so far as the revelation of God to men is concerned. There will be no other. There is needed no other. Nothing more ispossible than what He, by His words and by His life, by Hisgentleness and His grace, by His patience and His Passion, hasunveiled to all men, of the heart and character of God. Therevelation is complete, and he that professes to add anything to, orto substitute anything for, the finished teaching of Jesus Christconcerning God, and man's relation to God, and man's duty, destiny, and hopes, is a false teacher, and to follow him is fatal. All thatever come after Him and say, 'Here is something that Christ has nottold you, ' are thieves and robbers, 'and the sheep will not hearthem. '

In like manner that work of Christ, which in some sense is initial, is complete as Redemption. 'This Man has offered up one sacrifice forsins for ever. ' And nothing more can He do than He has done; andnothing more can any man or all men do than was accomplished on theCross of Calvary as giving a revelation, as effecting a redemption, as lodging in the heart of humanity, and in the midst of the streamof human history, a purifying energy, sufficient to cleanse the wholeblack stream. The past work which culminated on the Cross, and wassealed as adequate and accepted of God in the Resurrection andAscension, needs no supplement, and can have no continuation, worldwithout end. And so, whatever may be the meaning of that singularphrase, 'began to do and teach, ' it does not, in the smallest degree, conflict with the assurance that He hath ascended up on high, 'havingobtained eternal redemption for us, ' and 'having finished the workwhich the Father gave Him to do. '

II. But then, secondly, we have to notice what Christ continues to doand to teach after His Ascension. 

I have already suggested that the phraseology of the first of mytexts naturally leads to the conclusion that the theme of this Bookof the Acts is the continuous work of the ascended Saviour, and thatthe language is not forced by being thus interpreted is very plain toany one who will glance even cursorily over the contents of the bookitself. For there is nothing in it more obvious and remarkable thanthe way in which, at every turn in the narrative, all is referred toJesus Christ Himself. 

For instance, to cull one or two cases in order to bring the mattermore plainly before you--When the Apostles determined to selectanother Apostle to fill Judas' place, they asked Jesus Christ to showwhich 'of these two Thou hast chosen. ' When Peter is called upon toexplain the tongues at Pentecost he says, 'Jesus hath shed forth thiswhich ye now see and hear. ' When the writer would tell the reason ofthe large first increase to the Church, he says, 'The Lord added tothe Church daily such as should be saved. ' Peter and John go into theTemple to heal the lame man, and their words to him are, 'Do notthink that our power or holiness is any factor in your cure. The Namehath made this man whole. ' It is the Lord that appears to Paul and toAnanias, to the one on the road to Damascus and to the other in thecity. It is the Lord to whom Peter refers Aeneas when he says, 'JesusChrist maketh thee whole. ' It was the Lord that 'opened the heart ofLydia. ' It was the Lord that appeared to Paul in Corinth, and said tohim, 'I have much people in this city'; and again, when in the prisonat Jerusalem, He assured the Apostle that he would be carried toRome. And so, at every turn in the narrative, we find that Christ ispresented as influencing men's hearts, operating upon outward events, working miracles, confirming His word, leading His servants, andprescribing for them their paths, and all which they do is done bythe hand of the Lord with them confirming the word which they spoke. Jesus Christ is the Actor, and He only is the Actor; men are Hisimplements and instruments. 

The same point of view is suggested by another of the characteristicsof this book, which it shares in common with all Scripturenarratives, and that is the stolid indifference with which it picksup and drops men, according to the degree in which, for the moment, they are the instruments of Christ's power. Supposing a man had beenwriting Acts of the Apostles, do you think it would have beenpossible that of the greater number of them he should not say a word, that concerning those of whom he does speak he should deal with themas this book does, barely mentioning the martyrdom of James, one ofthe four chief Apostles; allowing Peter to slip out of the narrativeafter the great meeting of the Church at Jerusalem; letting Philipdisappear without a hint of what he did thereafter; lodging Paul inRome and leaving him there, with no account of his subsequent work ormartyrdom? Such phenomena--and they might be largely multiplied--areonly explicable upon one hypothesis. As long as electricity streamson the carbon point it glows and is visible, but when the current isturned to another lamp we see no more of the bit of carbon. As longas God uses a man the man is of interest to the writers of theScriptures. When God uses another one, they drop the first, and haveno more care about him, because their theme is not men and theirdoings, but God's doings through men. 

On us, and in us, and by us, and for us, if we are His servants, Jesus Christ is working all through the ages. He is the Lord ofProvidence, He is the King of history, in His hand is the book withthe seven seals; He sends His Spirit, and where His Spirit is He is;and what His Spirit does He does. And thus He continues to teach andto work from His throne in the heavens. 

He continues to teach, not by the communication of new truth. That isfinished. The volume of Revelation is complete. The last word of thedivine utterances hath been spoken until that final word which shallend Time and crumble the earth. But the application of the completedRevelation, the unfolding of all that is wrapped in germ in it; thegrowing of the seed into a tree, the realisation more completely byindividuals and communities of the principles and truths which JesusChrist has brought us by His life and His death--that is the workthat is going on to-day, and that will go on till the end of theworld. For the old Puritan belief is true, though the modernrationalistic mutilations of it are false, 'God hath more light yetto break forth'--and our modern men stop there. But what the sturdyold Puritan said was, 'more light yet to break forth from His holyWord. ' Jesus Christ teaches the ages--through the lessons ofprovidence and the communication of His Spirit to His Church--tounderstand what He gave the world when He was here. 

In like manner He works. The foundation is laid, the healing medicineis prepared, the cleansing element is cast into the mass of humanity;what remains is the application and appropriation, and incorporationin conduct, of the redeeming powers that Jesus Christ has brought. And that work is going on, and will go on, till the end. 

Now these truths of our Lord's continuous activity in teaching andworking from heaven may yield us some not unimportant lessons. What adepth and warmth and reality the thoughts give to the Christian'srelation to Jesus Christ! We have to look back to that Cross as thefoundation of all our hope. Yes! But we have to think, not only of aChrist who did something for us long ago in the past, and there anend, but of a Christ who to-day lives and reigns, 'to do and toteach' according to our necessities. What a sweetness and sacrednesssuch thoughts impart to all external events, which we may regard asbeing the operation of His love, and as moved by the hands that werenailed to the Cross for us, and now hold the sceptre of the universefor the blessing of mankind! What a fountain of hope they open inestimating future probabilities of victory for truth and goodness!The forces of good and evil in the world seem very disproportionate, but we forget too often to take Christ into account. It is not _we_that have to fight against evil; at the best we are but the swordwhich Christ wields, and all the power is in the hand that wields it. Great men die, good men die; Jesus Christ is not dead. Paul wasmartyred: Jesus lives; He is the anchor of our hope. We see miseriesand mysteries enough, God knows. The prospects of all good causesseem often clouded and dark. The world has an awful power of puttingdrags upon all chariots that bear blessings, and of turning to evilevery good. You cannot diffuse education, but you diffuse the tastefor rubbish and something worse, in the shape of books. No good thingbut has its shadow of evil attendant upon it. And if we had only toestimate by visible or human forces, we might well sit down and wrapourselves in the sackcloth of pessimism. 'We see not yet all thingsput under Him'; but 'we see Jesus crowned with glory and honour, ' andthe vision that cheered the first martyr--of Christ 'standing at theright hand of God'--is the rebuke of every fear and every gloomyanticipation for ourselves or for the world. 

What a lesson of lowliness and of diligence it gives us! The janglingchurch at Corinth fought about whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas wasthe man to lead the Church, and the experience has been repeated overand over again. 'Who is Paul? Who is Apollos? but ministers by whomye believed, even as the Lord gave to every man. Be not puffed up oneagainst another. Be not wise in your own conceits. ' You are only atool, only a pawn in the hand of the Great Player. If you haveanything, it is because you get it from Him. See that you use it, anddo not boast about it. Jesus Christ is the Worker, the only Worker;the Teacher, the only Teacher. All our wisdom is derived, all ourlight is enkindled. We are but the reeds through which His breathmakes music. And 'shall the axe boast itself, ' either 'against' orapart from 'Him that heweth therewith'?

III. Lastly, we note the incompleteness of each man's share in thegreat work. 

As I said, the book which is to tell the story of Christ's continuousunfinished work must stop abruptly. There is no help for it. If itwas a history of Paul it would need to be wound up to an end and aselvage put to it, but as it is the history of Christ's working, theweb is not half finished, and the shuttle stops in the middle of acast. The book must be incomplete, because the work of which it isthe record does not end until 'He shall have delivered up the Kingdomto the Father, and God shall be all in all. '

So the work of each man is but a fragment of that great work. Everyman inherits unfinished tasks from his predecessors, and leavesunfinished tasks to his successors. It is, as it used to be in theMiddle Ages, when the hands that dug the foundations, or laid thefirst courses, of some great cathedral, were dead long generationsbefore the gilded cross was set on the apex of the needlespire, andthe glowing glass filled in to the painted windows. Enough for us, ifwe lay a stone, though it be but one stone in one of the courses ofthe great building. 

Luke has left plenty of blank paper at the end of his second'treatise, ' on which he meant that succeeding generations shouldwrite their partial contributions to the completed work. Dearfriends, let us see that we write our little line, as monks in theirmonasteries used to keep the chronicle of the house, on which scribeafter scribe toiled at its illuminated letters with loving patiencefor a little while, and then handed the pen from his dying hand toanother. What does it matter though we drop, having done but afragment? He gathers up the fragments into His completed work, andthe imperfect services which He enabled any of us to do will all berepresented in the perfect circle of His finished work. The Lord helpus to be faithful to the power that works in us, and to leave Him toincorporate our fragments in His mighty whole!

THE FORTY DAYS

'To whom also He shewed Himself alive after His passion by manyinfallible proofs, being seen of them forty days, and speaking ofthe things pertaining to the kingdom of God. '--ACTS i. 3. 

The forty days between the Resurrection and the Ascension havedistinctly marked characteristics. They are unlike to the periodbefore them in many respects, but completely similar in others; theyhave a preparatory character throughout; they all bear on the futurework of the disciples, and hearten them for the time when they shouldbe left alone. 

The words of the text give us their leading features. They bringout--

1. Their evidential value, as confirming the fact of theResurrection. 

'He showed Himself alive after His passion by . .. Proofs. '

By sight, repeated, to individuals, to companies, to Mary in hersolitary sadness, to Peter the penitent, to the two on the road toEmmaus. At all hours: in the evening when the doors were shut; in themorning; in grey twilight; in daytime on the road. At many places--inhouses, out of doors. 

The signs of true corporeity--the sight, the eating. 

The signs of bodily identity, --'Reach hither thy hand. ' 'He showedthem His hands and His side. '

Was this the glorified body?

The affirmative answer is usually rested on the facts that He was notknown by Mary or the disciples on the road to Emmaus, and that Hecame into the upper room when the doors were shut. But the force ofthese facts is broken by remembering that Mary saw nothing about Himunlike other men, but supposed Him to be the gardener--which puts theidea of a glorified body out of the question, and leaves us tosuppose that she was full of weeping indifference to any one. 

Then as to the disciples on the road to Emmaus, Luke carefully tellsus that the reason why they did not know Him was _in them_ and not inHim--that it was 'because their eyes were holden, ' not because Hisbody was changed. 

And as to His coming when the doors were shut, why should not that belike the other miracles, when 'He conveyed Himself away, a multitudebeing in the place, ' and when He walked on the waters?

There cannot then be anything decidedly built on these facts, and theconsiderations on the other side are very strong. Surely the wholedrift of the narrative goes in the direction of representing Christ's'glory' as beginning with His Ascension, and consequently the 'bodyof His glory' as being then assumed. Further, the argument of 1 Cor. Xv. Goes on the assumption that 'flesh and blood cannot inherit thekingdom of God, ' that is, that the material corporeity is incongruouswith, and incapable of entrance into, the conditions of that futurelife, and, by parity of reasoning, that the spiritual body, which isto be conformed to the body of Christ's glory, is incongruous with, and incapable of entrance into, the conditions of this earthly life. As is the environment, so must be the 'body' that is at home in it. 

Further, the facts of our Lord's eating and drinking after HisResurrection are not easily reconcilable with the contention that Hewas then invested with the glorified body. 

We must, then, think of transfiguration, rather than of resurrectiononly, as the way by which He passed into the heavens. He 'slept' butwoke, and, as He ascended, was 'changed. '

II. The renewal of the old bond by the tokens of His unchangeddisposition. 

Recall the many beautiful links with the past: the message to Peter;that to Mary; 'Tell My brethren, ' 'He was known in breaking ofbread, ' 'Peace be with you!' (repetition from John xvii. ), themiraculous draught of fishes, and the meal and conversationafterwards, recalling the miracle at the beginning of the closerassociation of the four Apostles of the first rank with their Lord. The forty days revealed the old heart, the old tenderness. Heremembers all the past. He sends a message to the penitent; He renewsto the faithful the former gift of 'peace. '

How precious all this is as a revelation of the impotence of death inregard to Him and us! It assures us of the perpetuity of His love. Heshowed Himself after His passion as the same old Self, the same oldtender Lover. His appearances then prepare us for the last vision ofHim in the Apocalypse, in which we see His perpetual humanity, Hisperpetual tenderness, and hear Him saying: 'I am . .. The Living One, and I became dead, and behold, I am alive for evermore. '

These forty days assure us of the narrow limits of the power ofdeath. Love lives through death, memory lives through it. Christ haslived through it and comes up from the grave, serene and tender, withunruffled peace, with all the old tones of tenderness in the voicethat said 'Mary!' So may we be sure that through death and after itwe shall live and be ourselves. We, too, shall show ourselves aliveafter we have experienced the superficial change of death. 

III. The change in Christ's relations to the disciples and to theworld. 'Appearing unto them by the space of forty days. '

The words mark a contrast to Christ's former constant intercoursewith the disciples. This is occasional; He appears at intervalsduring the forty days. He comes amongst them and disappears. He isseen again in the morning light by the lake-side and goes away. Hetells them to come and meet Him in Galilee. That intermittentpresence prepared the disciples for His departure. It was painful andeducative. It carried out His own word, 'And now I am no more in theworld. '

We observe in the disciples traces of a deeper awe. They say little. 'Master!' 'My Lord and my God!' 'None durst ask Him, Who art Thou?'Even Peter ventures only on 'Lord, Thou knowest all things, ' and onone flash of the old familiarity: 'What shall this man do?' John, whorecalls very touchingly, in that appendix to his Gospel, the blessedtime when he leaned on Jesus' breast at supper, now only humblyfollows, while the others sit still and awed, by that strange fire onthe banks of the lonely lake. 

A clearer vision of the Lord on their parts, a deeper sense of who Heis, make them assume more of the attitude of worshippers, though notless that of friends. And He can no more dwell with them, and go inand out among them. 

As for the world--'It seeth Me no more, but ye see Me. ' He was 'seenof _them_, ' not of others. There is no more appeal to the people, nomore teaching, no more standing in the Temple. Why is this? Is it notthe commentary on His own word on the Cross, 'It is finished!'marking most distinctly that His work on earth was ended when Hedied, and so confirming that conception of His earthly mission whichsees its culmination and centre of power in the Cross?

IV. Instruction and prophecy for the future. 

The preparation of the disciples for their future work and conditionwas a chief purpose of the forty days. Jesus spoke 'of the thingspertaining to the Kingdom of God. ' He also 'gave commandments to theApostles. '

Note how much there is, in His conversations with them--

1. Of opening to them the Scriptures. 'Christ must needs suffer, 'etc. 

2. Of lessons for their future, thus fitting them for their task. 

3. Mark how this transitional period taught them that His going awaywas not to be sorrow and loss, but joy and gain, 'Touch Me not, for Ihave not yet ascended. '

Our present relation to the ascended Lord is as much an advance onthat of the disciples to the risen Lord, as that was on theirrelation to Him during His earthly life. They had more real communionwith Him when, with opened hearts, they heard Him interpret theScriptures concerning Himself, and fell at His feet crying 'My Lordand my God!' though they saw Him but for short seasons and atintervals, than when day by day they were with Him and knew Him not. As they grew in love and ripened in knowledge, they knew Him betterand better. 

For us, too, these forty days are full of blessed lessons, teachingus that real communion with Jesus is attained by faith in Him, andthat He is still working in and for us, and is still present with us. The joy with which the disciples saw Him ascend should live on in usas we think of Him enthroned. The hope that the angels' message litup in their hearts should burn in ours. The benediction which theRisen Lord uttered on those who have not seen and yet have believedfalls in double measure on those who, though now they see Him not, yet believing rejoice in Jesus with joy unspeakable and full ofglory. 

THE UNKNOWN TO-MORROW

_A New Year's Sermon_

'It is not for you to know the times or the seasons, which theFather hath put in His own power. '--ACTS i. 7. 

The New Testament gives little encouragement to a sentimental view oflife. Its writers had too much to do, and too much besides to thinkabout, for undue occupation with pensive remembrances or imaginativeforecastings. They bid us remember as a stimulus to thanksgiving anda ground of hope. They bid us look forward, but not along the lowlevels of earth and its changes. One great future is to draw all ourlongings and to fix our eyes, as the tender hues of the dawn kindleinfinite yearnings in the soul of the gazer. What may come is allhidden; we can make vague guesses, but reach nothing more certain. Mist and cloud conceal the path in front of the portion which we areactually traversing, but when it climbs, it comes out clear from thefogs that hang about the flats. We can track it winding up to thethrone of Christ. Nothing is certain, but the coming of the Lord and'our gathering together to Him. '

The words of this text in their original meaning point only to theignorance of the time of the end which Christ had been foretelling. But they may allow of a much wider application, and their lessons arein entire consonance with the whole tone of Scripture in regard tothe future. We are standing now at the beginning of a New Year, andthe influence of the season is felt in some degree by us all. Not forthe sake of repressing any wise forecasting which has for its objectour preparation for probable duties and exigencies; not for thepurpose of repressing that trustful anticipation which, building onour past time and on God's eternity, fronts the future with calmconfidence; not for the sake of discouraging that pensive andsoftened mood which if it does nothing more, at least delivers us fora moment from the tyrannous power of the present, do we turn to thesewords now; but that we may together consider how much they contain ofcheer and encouragement, of stimulus to our duty, and of calming forour hearts in the prospect of a New Year. They teach us the limits ofour care for the future, as they give us the limits of our knowledgeof it. They teach us the best remedies for all anxiety, the greatthoughts that tranquillise us in our ignorance, viz. That all is inGod's merciful hand, and that whatever may come, we have a divinepower which will fit us for it; and they bid us anticipate our workand do it, as the best counterpoise for all vain curiosity about whatmay be coming on the earth. 

I. The narrow limits of our knowledge of the future. 

We are quite sure that we shall die. We are sure that a mingled webof joy and sorrow, light shot with dark, will be unrolled before us--but of anything more we are really ignorant. We know that certainlythe great majority of us will be alive at the close of this New Year;but who will be the exceptions? A great many of us, especially thoseof us who are in the monotonous stretch of middle life, will go onsubstantially as we have been going on for years past, with ourordinary duties, joys, sorrows, cares; but to some of us, in allprobability, this year holds some great change which may darken allour days or brighten them. In all our forward-looking there everremains an element of uncertainty. The future fronts us like somestatue beneath its canvas covering. Rolling mists hide it all, excepthere and there a peak. 

I need not remind you how merciful and good it is that it is so. Therefore coming sorrows do not diffuse anticipatory bitterness as oftainted water percolating through gravel, and coming joys are notdiscounted, and the present has a reality of its own, and is notcoloured by what is to come. 

Then this being so--what is the wise course of conduct? Not aconfident reckoning on to-morrow. There is nothing elevating inanticipation which paints the blank surface of the future with thesame earthly colours as dye the present. There is no more completewaste of time than that. Nor is proud self-confidence any wiser, which jauntily takes for granted that 'tomorrow will be as this day. 'The conceit that things are to go on as they have been fools men intoa dream of permanence which has no basis. Nor is the fearfulapprehension of evil any wiser. How many people spoil the presentgladness with thoughts of future sorrow, and cannot enjoy theblessedness of united love for thinking of separation!

In brief, it is wise to be but little concerned with the future, except--

1. In the way of taking reasonable precautions to prepare for itsprobabilities. 

2. To fit ourselves for its duties. 

One future we may contemplate. Our fault is not that we look forward, but that we do not look far enough forward. Why trouble with theworld when we have heaven? Why look along the low level among themists of earth and forests and swamps, when we can see the roadclimbing to the heights? Why be anxious about what three hundred andsixty-five days may bring, when we know what Eternity will bring? Whydivert our God-given faculty of hope from its true object? Whytorment ourselves with casting the fashion of uncertain evils, whenwe can enter into the great peace of looking for 'that blessed Hope'?

II. The safe Hands which keep the future. 

'The Father hath put in His own power. ' We have not to depend upon animpersonal Fate; nor upon a wild whirl of Chance; nor upon 'laws ofaverages, ' 'natural laws, ' 'tendencies' and 'spirit of the age'; noreven on a theistic Providence, but upon a Father who holds all things'in His own power, ' and wields all for us. So will not our way bemade right?

Whatever the future may bring, it will be loving, paternaldiscipline. He shapes it all and keeps it in His hands. Why should webe anxious? That great name of 'Father' binds Him to tender, wise, disciplinary dealing, and should move us to calm and happy trust. 

III. The sufficient strength to face the future. 

'The power of the Holy Ghost coming upon you' is promised here to thedisciples for a specific purpose; but it is promised and given to usall through Christ, if we will only take it. And in Him we shall beready for all the future. 

The Spirit of God is the true Interpreter of Providence. He calms ournature, and enlightens our understanding to grasp the meaning of allour experiences. The Spirit makes joy more blessed, by keeping usfrom undue absorption in it. The Spirit is the Comforter. The Spiritfits us for duty. 

So be quite sure that nothing will come to you in your earthlyfuture, which He does not Himself accompany to interpret it, and tomake it pure blessing. 

IV. The practical duty in view of the future. 

(a) The great thing we ought to look to in the future is our work, --not what we shall enjoy or what we shall endure, but what we shalldo. This is healthful and calming. 

(b) The great remedy for morbid anticipation lies in regarding lifeas the opportunity for service. Never mind about the future, let ittake care of itself. Work! That clears away cobwebs from our brains, as when a man wakes from troubled dreams, to hear 'the sweep ofscythe in morning dew, ' and the shout of the peasant as he trudges tohis task, and the lowing of the cattle, and the clink of the hammer. 

(c) The great work we have to do in the future is to be witnesses forChrist. This is the meaning of all life; we can do it in joy and insorrow, and we shall bear a charmed life till it be done. So thewords of the text are a promise of preservation. 

Then, dear brethren, how do you stand fronting that Unknown? How canyou face it without going mad, unless you know God and trust Him asyour Father through Christ? If you do, you need have no fear. To-morrow lies all dim and strange before you, but His gentle and stronghand is working in the darkness and He will shape it right. He willfit you to bear it all. If you regard it as your supreme duty andhighest honour to be Christ's witness, you will be kept safe, 'delivered out of the mouth of the lion, ' that by you 'the preachingmay be fully known. '

If not, how dreary is that future to you, 'all dim and cheerless, like a rainy sea, ' from which wild shapes may come up and devour you!Love and friendship will pass, honour and strength will fail, lifewill ebb away, and of all that once stretched before you, nothingwill be left but one little strip of sand, fast jellying with thetide beneath your feet, and before you a wild unlighted ocean!

THE APOSTOLIC WITNESSES

'Wherefore of these men which have companied with us all thetime that the Lord Jesus went in and out among us . .. Must onebe ordained to be a witness with us of His resurrection. '--ACTS i. 21, 22. 

The fact of Christ's Resurrection was the staple of the firstChristian sermon recorded in this Book of the Acts of the Apostles. They did not deal so much in doctrine; they did not dwell verydistinctly upon what we call, and rightly call, the atoning death ofChrist; out they proclaimed what they had seen with their eyes--thatHe died and rose again. 

And not only was the main subject of their teaching the Resurrection, but it was the Resurrection in one of its aspects and for onespecific purpose. There are, speaking roughly, three main connectionsin which the fact of Christ's rising from the dead is viewed inScripture, and these three successively emerge in the consciousnessof the Early Church. 

It was, first, a fact affecting Him, a testimony concerning Him, carrying with it necessarily some great truths with regard to Him, His character, His nature, and His work. And it was in that aspectmainly that the earliest preachers dealt with it. Then, as reflectionand the guidance of God's good Spirit led them to understand more andmore of the treasure which lay in the fact, it came to be to them, next, a pattern, and a pledge, and a prophecy of their ownresurrection. The doctrine of man's immortality and the future lifewas evolved from it, and was felt to be implied in it. And then itcame to be, thirdly and lastly, a symbol or figure of the spiritualresurrection and newness of life into which all they were born whoparticipated in His death. They knew Him first by His Resurrection;they then knew 'the power of His Resurrection' as a pledge of theirown; and lastly, they knew it as being the pattern to which they wereto be conformed even whilst here on earth. 

The words which I have read for my text are the Apostle Peter's owndescription of what was the office of an Apostle--'to be a witnesswith us of Christ's Resurrection. ' And the statement branches out, Ithink, into three considerations, to which I ask your attention now. First, we have here the witnesses; secondly, we have the sufficiencyof their testimony; and thirdly, we have the importance of the factto which they bear their witness. The Apostles are testimony-bearers. Their witness is enough to establish the fact. The fact to which theywitness is all-important for the religion and the hopes of the world. 

I. First, then, the Witnesses. 

Here we have the 'head of the Apostolic College, ' the 'primate' ofthe Twelve, on whose supposed primacy--which is certainly not a'rock'--such tremendous claims have been built, laying down thequalifications and the functions of an Apostle. How simply theypresent themselves to his mind! The qualification is only personalknowledge of Jesus Christ in His earthly history, because thefunction is only to attest His Resurrection. Their work was to bearwitness to what they had seen with their eyes; and what was needed, therefore, was nothing more than such familiarity with Christ asshould make them competent witnesses to the fact that He died, and tothe fact that the same Jesus who had died, and whom they knew sowell, rose again and went up to heaven. 

The same conception of an Apostle's work lies in Christ's last solemndesignation of them for their office, where their whole commission isincluded in the simple words, 'Ye shall be witnesses unto Me. ' Itappears again and again in the earlier addresses reported in thisbook. 'This Jesus hath God raised up, whereof we all are witnesses. ''Whom God hath raised from the dead, whereof we are witnesses. ' 'Withgreat power gave the Apostles witness of the Resurrection. ' 'We areHis witnesses of these things. ' To Cornelius, Peter speaks of theApostles as 'witnesses chosen before of God, who did eat and drinkwith Him after He rose from the dead'--and whose charge, receivedfrom Christ, was 'to testify that it is He which was ordained of Godto be the Judge of quick and dead. ' Paul at Antioch speaks of theTwelve, from whom he distinguishes himself, as being 'Christ'switnesses to _the people_'--and seems to regard them as speciallycommissioned to the Jewish nation, while he was sent to 'declare untoyou'--Gentiles--the same 'glad tidings, ' in that 'God had raised upJesus again. ' So we might go on accumulating passages, but these willsuffice. 

I need not spend time in elaborating or emphasising the contrastwhich the idea of the Apostolic office contained in these simplewords presents to the portentous theories of later times. I need onlyremind you that, according to the Gospels, the work of the Apostlesin Christ's lifetime embraced three elements, none of which werepeculiar to them--to be with Christ, to preach, and to work miracles;that their characteristic work after His Ascension was this ofwitness-bearing; that the Church did not owe to them as a body itsextension, nor Christian doctrine its form; that whilst Peter andJames and John appear in the history, and Matthew perhaps wrote aGospel, and the other James and Jude are probably the authors of thebrief Epistles which bear their names--the rest of the Twelve neverappear in the subsequent history. The Acts of the Apostles is amisnomer for Luke's second 'treatise. ' It tells the work of Peteralone among the Twelve. The Hellenists Stephen and Philip, theCypriote Barnabas, and the man of Tarsus--greater than them all--these spread the name of Christ beyond the limits of the Holy Cityand the chosen people. The solemn power of 'binding and loosing' wasnot a prerogative of the Twelve, for we read that Jesus came where'the _disciples_ were assembled, ' and that 'the _disciples_ were gladwhen they saw the Lord'; and 'He breathed on _them_, and said, "Receive ye the Holy Ghost: whose soever sins ye remit, they areremitted. "'

Where in all this is there a trace of the special Apostolic powerswhich have been alleged to be transmitted from them? Nowhere. Who wasit that came and said, 'Brother Saul, the Lord hath sent me that thoumightest be filled with the Holy Ghost'? A simple 'layman'! Who wasit that stood by, a passive and astonished spectator of thecommunication of spiritual gifts to Gentile converts, and could onlysay, 'Forasmuch, then, as God gave them the like gift, as He did untous, what was I that I could withstand God?' Peter, the leader of theTwelve!

Their task was apparently a humbler, really a far more important one. Their place was apparently a lowlier, really a loftier one. They hadto lay broad and deep the basis for all the growth and grace of theChurch, in the facts which they witnessed. Their work abides; andwhen the Celestial City is revealed to our longing hearts, in itsfoundations will be read 'the names of the twelve Apostles of theLamb. ' Their office was testimony; and their testimony was to thiseffect--'Hearken, we eleven men knew this Jesus. Some of us knew Himwhen He was a boy, and lived beside that little village where He wasbrought up. We were with Him for three whole years in close contactday and night. We all of us, though we were cowards, stood afar offwith a handful of women when He was crucified. We saw Him dead. Wesaw His grave. We saw Him living, and we touched Him, and handledHim, and He ate and drank with us; and we, sinners that we are thattell it you, we went out with Him to the top of Olivet, and we sawHim go up into the skies. Do you believe us or do you not? We do notcome in the first place to preach doctrines. We are not thinkers ormoralists. We are plain men, telling a plain story, to the truth ofwhich we pledge our senses. We do not want compliments about ourspiritual elevation, or our pure morality. We do not want reverenceas possessors of mysterious and exclusive powers. We want you tobelieve us as honest men, relating what we have seen. There areeleven of us, and there are five hundred at our back, and we have allgot the one simple story to tell. It is, indeed, a gospel, aphilosophy, a theology, the reconciliation of earth and heaven, therevelation of God to man, and of man to himself, the unveiling of thefuture world, the basis of hope; but we bring it to you first as athing that happened upon this earth of ours, which we saw with oureyes, and of which we are the witnesses. '

To that work there can be no successors. Some of the Apostles wereinspired to be the writers of the authoritative fountains ofreligious truth; but that gift did not belong to them all, and wasnot the distinctive possession of the Twelve. The power of workingmiracles, and of communicating supernatural gifts, was not confinedto them, but is found exercised by other believers, as well as by awhole 'presbytery. ' And as for what was properly their task, andtheir qualifications, there can be no succession, for there isnothing to succeed to, but what cannot be transmitted--the sight ofthe risen Saviour, and the witness to His Resurrection as a factcertified by their senses. 

II. The sufficiency of the testimony. 

Peter regards (as does the whole New Testament, and as did Peter'sMaster, when He appointed these men) the witness which he and hisfellows bore as enough to lay firm and deep the historical fact ofthe Resurrection of Jesus Christ. 

The first point that I would suggest here is this: if we think ofChristianity as being mainly a set of truths--spiritual, moral, intellectual--then, of course, the way to prove Christianity is toshow the consistency of that body of truths with one another, theirconsistency with other truths, their derivation from admittedprinciples, their reasonableness, their adaptation to men's nature, the refining and elevating effects of their adoption, and so on. Ifwe think of Christianity, on the other hand, as being first a set ofhistorical facts which carry the doctrines, then the way to proveChristianity is not to show how reasonable it is, not to show how ithas been anticipated and expected and desired, not to show how itcorresponds with men's needs and men's longings, not to show whatlarge and blessed results follow from its acceptance. All these arelegitimate ways of establishing principles; but the way to establisha fact is only one--that is, to find somebody that can say, 'I knowit, for I saw it. '

And my belief is that the course of modern 'apologetics, ' as they arecalled--methods of defending Christianity--has followed too slavishlythe devious course of modern antagonism, and has departed from itsreal stronghold when it has consented to argue the question on these(as I take them to be) lower and less sufficing grounds. I amthankful to adopt all that wise Christian apologists may have said inregard to the reasonableness of Christianity; its correspondence withmen's wants, the blessings that follow from it, and so forth; but theGospel is first and foremost a history, and you cannot prove that athing has happened by showing how very desirable it is that it shouldhappen, how reasonable it is to expect that it should happen, whatgood results would follow from believing that it has happened--allthat is irrelevant. Think of it as first a history, and then you areshut up to the old-fashioned line of evidence, irrefragable as I takeit to be, to which all these others may afterwards be appended asconfirmatory. It is true, because sufficient eye-witnesses assert it. It did happen, because it is commended to us by the ordinary canonsof evidence which we accept in regard to all other matters of fact. 

With regard to the sufficiency of the specific evidence here, I wishto make only one or two observations. 

Suppose you yield up everything that the most craving andunreasonable modern scepticism can demand as to the date andauthorship of these tracts that make the New Testament, we have stillleft four letters of the Apostle Paul, which no one has ever denied, which the very extremest professors of the 'higher criticism'themselves accept. These four are the Epistles to the Romans, thefirst and second to the Corinthians, and that to the Galatians. Thedates which are assigned to these four letters by any one, believeror unbeliever, bring them within five-and-twenty years of the allegeddate of Christ's resurrection. 

Then what do we find in these undeniably and admittedly genuineletters, written a quarter of a century after the supposed fact? Wefind in all of them reference to it--the distinct allegation of it. We find in one of them that the Apostle states it as being thesubstance of his preaching and of his brethren's preaching, that'Christ died and rose again according to the Scriptures, ' and that Hewas seen by individuals, by multitudes, by a whole five hundred, thegreater portion of whom were living and available as witnesses whenhe wrote. 

And we find that side by side with this statement, there is thereference to his own vision of the risen Saviour, which carries us upwithin ten years of the alleged fact. So, then, by the evidence ofadmittedly genuine documents, which are dealing with a state ofthings ten years after the supposed resurrection, there was aunanimous concurrence of belief on the part of the whole primitiveChurch, so that even the heretics who said that there was noresurrection of the dead could be argued with on the ground of theirbelief in Christ's Resurrection. The whole Church with one voiceasserted it. And there were hundreds of living men ready to attestit. It was not a handful of women who fancied they had seen Him once, very early in the dim twilight of a spring morning--but it was half athousand that had beheld Him. He had been seen by them not once, butoften; not far off, but close at hand; not in one place, but inGalilee and Jerusalem; not under one set of circumstances, but at allhours of the day, abroad and in the house, walking and sitting, speaking and eating, by them singly and in numbers. He had not beenseen only by excited expectants of His appearance, but by incredulouseyes and surprised hearts, who doubted ere they worshipped, andpaused before they said, 'My Lord and my God!' They neither hopedthat He would rise, nor believed that He had risen; and the world maybe thankful that they were 'slow of heart to believe. '

Would not the testimony which can be alleged for Christ'sResurrection be enough to guarantee any event but this? And if so, why is it not enough to guarantee this too? If, as nobody denies, theEarly Church, within ten years of Christ's Resurrection, believed inHis Resurrection, and were ready to go, and did, many of them, go tothe death in assertion of their veracity in declaring it, then one oftwo things--Either they were right or they were wrong; and if thelatter, one of two things--If the Resurrection be not a fact, thenthat belief was either a delusion or a deceit. 

It was not a delusion, for such an illusion is altogether unexampled;and it is absurd to think of it as being shared by a multitude likethe Early Church. Nations have said, 'Our King is not dead--he isgone away and he will come back. ' Loving disciples have said, 'OurTeacher lives in solitude and will return to us. ' But this is noparallel to these. This is not a fond imagination giving an apparentsubstance to its own creation, but sense recognising first the fact, 'He _is_ dead, ' and then, in opposition to expectation, and when hopehad sickened to despair, recognising the astounding fact, 'He liveththat was dead'; and to suppose that that should have been the rootedconviction of hundreds of men who were not idiots, finds no parallelin the history of human illusions, and no analogy in such legends asthose to which I have referred. 

It was not a myth, for a myth does not grow in ten years. And therewas no motive to frame one, if Christ was dead and all was over. Itwas not a deceit, for the character of the men, and the character ofthe associated morality, and the obvious absence of all self-interest, and the persecutions and sorrows which they endured, makeit inconceivable that the fairest building that ever hath been rearedin the world, and which is cemented by men's blood, should be builtupon the mud and slime of a conscious deceit!

And all this we are asked to put aside at the bidding of a glaringbegging of the whole question, and an outrageous assertion which noman that believes in a God at all can logically maintain, viz. Thatno testimony can reach to the miraculous, or that miracles areimpossible. 

No testimony reach to the miraculous! Well, put it into a concreteform. Can testimony not reach to this: 'I know, because I saw, that aman was dead; I know, because I saw, a dead man live again'? Iftestimony can do that, I think we may safely leave the verbal sophismthat it cannot reach to the miraculous to take care of itself. 

And, then, with regard to the other assumption--miracle isimpossible. That is an illogical begging of the whole question indispute. It cannot avail to brush aside testimony. You cannot smotherfacts by theories in that fashion. Again, one would like to know howit comes that our modern men of science, who protest so much againstscience being corrupted by metaphysics, should commit themselves toan assertion like that? Surely that is stark, staring metaphysics. Itseems as if they thought that the 'metaphysics' which said that therewas anything behind the physical universe was unscientific; but thatthe metaphysics which said that there was nothing behind physics wasquite legitimate, and ought to be allowed to pass muster. What havethe votaries of pure physical science, who hold the barren word-contests of theology and the proud pretensions of philosophy in suchcontempt, to do out-Heroding Herod in that fashion, and venturing onmetaphysical assertions of such a sort? Let them keep to their ownline, and tell us all that crucibles and scalpels can reveal, and wewill listen as becomes us. But when they contradict their ownprinciples in order to deny the possibility of miracle, we need onlygive them back their own words, and ask that the investigation offacts shall not be hampered and clogged with metaphysical prejudices. No! no! Christ made no mistake when He built His Church upon thatrock--the historical evidence of a resurrection from the dead, thoughall the wise men of Areopagus hill may make its cliffs ring withmocking laughter when we say, upon Easter morning, 'The Lord is risenindeed!'

III. There is a final consideration connected with these words, whichI must deal with very briefly--the importance of the fact which isthus borne witness to. 

I have already pointed out that the Resurrection of Christ is viewedin Scripture in three aspects: in its bearing upon His nature andwork, as a pattern for our future, and as a symbol of our presentnewness of life. The importance to which I refer now applies only tothat first aspect. 

With the Resurrection of Jesus Christ stands or falls the Divinity ofChrist. As Paul said, in that letter to which I have referred, 'Declared to be the Son of God, with power by the resurrection fromthe dead. ' As Peter said in the sermon that follows this one of ourtext, 'God hath made this same Jesus, whom ye have crucified, bothLord and Christ. ' As Paul said, on Mars Hill, 'He will judge theworld in righteousness by that Man whom He hath ordained, whereof Hehath given assurance unto all men, in that He hath raised Him fromthe dead. '

The case is this. Jesus lived as we know, and in the course of thatlife claimed to be the Son of God. He made such broad and strangeassertions as these--'I and My Father are One. ' 'I am the Way, andthe Truth, and the Life. ' 'I am the Resurrection and the Life. ' 'Hethat believeth on Me shall never die. ' 'The Son of Man must suffermany things, and the third day He shall rise again. ' Thus speaking Hedies, and rises again and passes into the heavens. That is the lastmightiest utterance of the same testimony, which spake from heaven atHis baptism, 'This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased!' IfHe be risen from the dead, then His loftiest claims are confirmedfrom the throne, and we can see in Him, the Son of God. But if deathholds Him still, and 'the Syrian stars look down upon His grave, ' asa modern poet tells us in his dainty English that they do, then whatbecomes of these words of His, and of our estimate of the characterof Him, the speaker? Let us hear no more about the pure morality ofJesus Christ, and the beauty of His calm and lofty teaching, and therest of it. Take away His resurrection from the dead, and we haveleft beautiful precepts, and fair wisdom, deformed with a monstrousself-assertion and the constant reiteration of claims which the eventproves to have been baseless. Either He has risen from the dead orHis words were blasphemy. Men nowadays talk very lightly of throwingaside the supernatural portions of the Gospel history, and retainingreverence for the great Teacher, the pure moralist of Nazareth. ThePharisees put the issue more coarsely and truly when they said, 'Thatdeceiver said, while He was yet alive, after three days I will riseagain. ' Yes! one or the other. 'Declared to be the Son of God withpower by the resurrection from the dead, ' or--that which our lipsrefuse to say even as a hypothesis!

Still further, with the Resurrection stands or falls Christ's wholework for our redemption. If He died, like other men--if that awfulbony hand has got its grip upon Him too, then we have no proof thatthe cross was anything but a martyr's cross. His Resurrection is theproof of His completed work of redemption. It is the proof--followedas it is by His Ascension--that His death was not the tribute whichfor Himself He had to pay, but the ransom for us. His Resurrection isthe condition of His present activity. If He has not risen, He hasnot put away sin; and if He has not put it away by the sacrifice ofHimself, none has, and it remains. We come back to the old drearyalternative: 'if Christ be not risen, your faith is vain, and ourpreaching is vain. Ye are yet in your sins, and they which havefallen asleep in Christ' with unfulfilled hopes fixed upon a baselessvision--they of whom we hoped, through our tears, that they live withHim--they 'are perished. ' For, if He be not risen, there is noresurrection; and, if He be not risen, there is no forgiveness; and, if He be not risen, there is no Son of God; and the world isdesolate, and the heaven is empty, and the grave is dark, and sinabides, and death is eternal. If Christ be dead, then that awfulvision is true, 'As I looked up into the immeasurable heavens for theDivine Eye, it froze me with an empty, bottomless eye-socket. '

There is nothing between us and darkness, despair, death, but thatancient message, 'I declare unto you the Gospel which I preach, bywhich ye are saved if ye keep in memory what I preached unto you, howthat Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and thatHe was raised the third day according to the Scriptures. '

Well, then, may we take up the ancient glad salutation, 'The Lord isrisen!' and, turning from these thoughts of the disaster and despairthat that awful supposition drags after it, fall back upon sobercertainty, and with the Apostle break forth in triumph, 'Now isChrist risen from the dead, and become the first-fruits of them thatslept'!

THE ABIDING GIFT AND ITS TRANSITORY ACCOMPANIMENTS

'And when the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all withone accord in one place. 2 And suddenly there came a sound fromheaven as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled all the housewhere they were sitting. 3. And there appeared unto them cloventongues like as of fire, and it sat upon each of them. 4. Andthey were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak withother tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance. 5. And therewere dwelling at Jerusalem Jews, devout men, out of every nationunder heaven. 6. Now when this was noised abroad, the multitudecame together, and were confounded, because that every man heardthem speak in his own language. 7. And they were all amazed andmarvelled, saying one to another, Behold, are not all these whichspeak Galileans? 8. And how we hear every man in our own tongue, wherein we were born? 9. Parthians, and Medes, and Elamites, andthe dwellers in Mesopotamia, and in Judaea, and Cappadocia, inPontus, and Asia, 10. Phrygia, and Pamphylia, in Egypt, and inthe parts of Libya about Cyrene, and strangers of Rome, Jews andproselytes. 11. Cretes, and Arabians, we do hear them speak inour tongues the wonderful works of God. 12. And they were allamazed, and were in doubt, saying one to another, What meaneththis? 13. Others, mocking, said, These men are full of newwine. '--ACTS ii. 1-13. 

Only ten days elapsed between the Ascension and Pentecost. Theattitude of the Church during that time should be carefully noted. They obeyed implicitly Christ's command to wait for the 'power fromon high. ' The only act recorded is the election of Matthias to fillJudas's place, and it is at least questionable whether that was not amistake, and shown to be such by Christ's subsequent choice of Paulas an Apostle. But, with the exception of that one flash of doubtfulactivity, prayer, supplication, patient waiting, and clingingtogether in harmonious expectancy, characterised the hundred andtwenty brethren. 

They must have been wrought to an intense pitch of anticipation, forthey knew that their waiting was to be short, and they knew, at leastpartially, what they were to receive, namely, 'power from on high, 'or 'the promise of the Father. ' Probably, too, the great Feast, sonear at hand, would appear to them a likely time for the fulfilmentof the promise. 

So, very early on that day of Pentecost, they betook themselves totheir usual place of assembling, probably the 'large upper room, 'already hallowed to their memories; and in each heart the eagerquestion would spring, 'Will it be to-day?' It is as true now as itwas then, that the spirits into whom the Holy Spirit breathes Hispower must keep themselves still, expectant, prayerful. Perpetualoccupation may be more loss of time than devout waiting, with handsfolded, because the heart is wide open to receive the power whichwill fit the hands for better work. 

It was but 'the third hour of the day' when Peter stood up to speak;it must have been little after dawn when the brethren came together. How long they had been assembled we do not know, but we cannot doubthow they had been occupied. Many a prayer had gone up through themorning air, and, no doubt, some voice was breathing the uniteddesires, when a deep, strange sound was heard at a distance, andrapidly gained volume, and was heard to draw near. Like the roaringof a tempest hurrying towards them, it hushed human voices, and eachman would feel, 'Surely now the Gift comes!' Nearer and nearer itapproached, and at last burst into the chamber where they sat silentand unmoving. 

But if we look carefully at Luke's words, we see that what filled thehouse was not agitated air, or wind, but 'a sound as of wind. ' Thelanguage implies that there was no rush of atmosphere that lifted ahair on any cheek, or blew on any face, but only such a sound as ismade by tempest. It suggested wind, but it was not wind. By thatfirst symbolic preparation for the communication of the promisedgift, the old symbolism which lies in the very word 'Spirit, ' and hadbeen brought anew to the disciples' remembrance by Christ's words toNicodemus, and by His breathing on them when He gave them ananticipatory and partial bestowment of the Spirit, is brought toview, with its associations of life-giving power and liberty. 'Thouhearest the sound thereof, ' could scarcely fail to be remembered bysome in that chamber. 

But it is not to be supposed that the audible symbol continued whenthe second preparatory one, addressed to the eye, appeared. As theformer had been not wind, but like it, the latter was not fire, but'as of fire. ' The language does not answer the question whether whatwas seen was a mass from which the tongues detached themselves, orwhether only the separate tongues were visible as they movedoverhead. But the final result was that 'it sat on each. ' The verbhas no expressed subject, and 'fire' cannot be the subject, for it isonly introduced as a comparison. Probably, therefore, we are tounderstand 'a tongue' as the unexpressed subject of the verb. 

Clearly, the point of the symbol is the same as that presented in theBaptist's promise of a baptism 'with the Holy Ghost and fire. ' TheSpirit was to be in them as a Spirit of burning, thawing naturalcoldness and melting hearts with a genial warmth, which should begetflaming enthusiasm, fervent love, burning zeal, and should worktransformation into its own fiery substance. The rejoicing power, thequick energy, the consuming force, the assimilating action of fire, are all included in the symbol, and should all be possessed byChrist's disciples. 

But were the tongue-like shapes of the flames significant too? It isdoubtful, for, natural as is the supposition that they were, it is tobe remembered that 'tongues of fire' is a usual expression, and maymean nothing more than the flickering shoots of flame into which afire necessarily parts. 

But these two symbols are only symbols. The true fulfilment of thegreat promise follows. Mark the brief simplicity of the quiet wordsin which the greatest bestowment ever made on humanity, the beginningof an altogether new era, the equipment of the Church for her age-long conflict, is told. There was an actual impartation to men of adivine life, to dwell in them and actuate them; to bring all good tovictory in them; to illuminate, sustain, direct, and elevate; tocleanse and quicken. The gift was complete. They were 'filled. ' Nodoubt they had much more to receive, and they received it, as theirnatures became, by faithful obedience to the indwelling Spirit, capable of more. But up to the measure of their then capacities theywere filled; and, since their spirits were expansible, and the giftwas infinite, they were in a position to grow steadily in possessionof it, till they were 'filled with all the fulness of God. '

Further, 'they were _all_ filled, '--not the Apostles only, but thewhole hundred and twenty. Peter's quotation from Joel distinctlyimplies the universality of the gift, which the 'servants andhandmaidens, ' the brethren and the women, now received. Herein is thetrue democracy of Christianity. There are still diversities ofoperations and degrees of possession, but all Christians have theSpirit. All 'they that believe on Him, ' and only they, have receivedit. Of old the light shone only on the highest peaks, --prophets, andkings, and psalmists; now the lowest depths of the valleys areflooded with it. Would that Christians generally believed more fullyin, and set more store by, that great gift!

As symbols preceded, tokens followed. The essential fact of Pentecostis neither the sound and fire, nor the speaking with other tongues, but the communication of the Holy Spirit. The sign and result of thatwas the gift of utterance in various languages, not their own, norlearned by ordinary ways. No twisting of the narrative can weaken theplain meaning of it, that these unlearned Galileans spake in tongueswhich their users recognised to be their own. The significance of thefact will appear presently, but first note the attestation of it bythe multitude. 

Of course, the foreign-born Jews, who, from motives of piety, howevermistaken, had come to dwell in Jerusalem, are said to have been 'fromevery nation under heaven, ' by an obvious and ordinary license. It isenough that, as the subsequent catalogue shows, they came from allcorners of the then known world, though the extremes of territorymentioned cover but a small space on a terrestrial globe. 

The 'sound' of the rushing wind had been heard hurtling through thecity in the early morning hours, and had served as guide to the spot. A curious crowd came hurrying to ascertain what this noise of tempestin a calm meant, and they were met by something more extraordinarystill. Try to imagine the spectacle. As would appear from verse 33, the tongues of fire remained lambently glowing on each head ('whichye see'), and the whole hundred and twenty, thus strangely crowned, were pouring out rapturous praises, each in some strange tongue. Whenthe astonished ears had become accustomed to the apparent tumult, every man in the crowd heard some one or more speaking in his owntongue, language, or dialect, and all were declaring the mighty worksof God; that is, probably, the story of the crucified, ascendedJesus. 

We need not dwell on subordinate questions, as to the number oflanguages represented there, or as to the catalogue in verses 9 and10. But we would emphasise two thoughts. First, the natural result ofbeing filled with God's Spirit is utterance of the great truths ofChrist's Gospel. As surely as light radiates, as surely as any deepemotion demands expression, so certainly will a soul filled with theSpirit be forced to break into speech. If professing Christians havenever known the impulse to tell of the Christ whom they have found, their religion must be very shallow and imperfect. If their spiritsare full, they will overflow in speech. 

Second, Pentecost is a prophecy of the universal proclamation of theGospel, and of the universal praise which shall one day rise to Himthat was slain. 'This company of brethren praising God in the tonguesof the whole world represented the whole world which shall one daypraise God in its various tongues' (Bengel). Pentecost reversedBabel, not by bringing about a featureless monopoly, but byconsecrating diversity, and showing that each language could behallowed, and that each lent some new strain of music to the chorus. 

It prophesied of the time when 'men of every tribe, and tongue, andpeople, and nation' should lift up their voices to Him who haspurchased them unto God with His blood. It began a communication ofthe Spirit to all believers which is never to cease while the worldstands. The mighty rushing sound has died into silence, the fierytongues rest on no heads now, the miraculous results of the gifts ofthe Spirit have passed away also, but the gift remains, and theSpirit of God abides for ever with the Church of Christ. 

THE FOURFOLD SYMBOLS OF THE SPIRIT

'A rushing mighty wind. ' . .. 'Cloven tongues like as offire. ' . .. 'I will pour out of My Spirit upon all flesh. '--ACTS ii. 2, 3, 17. 

'Ye have an unction from the Holy One. '--1 JOHN ii. 20. 

Wind, fire, water, oil, --these four are constant Scriptural symbolsfor the Spirit of God. We have them all in these fragments of verseswhich I have taken for my text now, and which I have isolated fromtheir context for the purpose of bringing out simply these symbolicalreferences. I think that perhaps we may get some force and freshnessto the thoughts proper to this day [Footnote: Whit Sunday. ] bylooking at these rather than by treating the subject in some moreabstract form. We have then the Breath of the Spirit, the Fire of theSpirit, the Water of the Spirit, and the Anointing Oil of the Spirit. And the consideration of these four will bring out a great many ofthe principal Scriptural ideas about the gift of the Spirit of Godwhich belongs to all Christian souls. 

I. First, 'a rushing mighty wind. '

Of course, the symbol is but the putting into picturesque form of theidea that lies in the name. 'Spirit' is 'breath. ' Wind is but air inmotion. Breath is the synonym for life. 'Spirit' and 'life' are twowords for one thing. So then, in the symbol, the 'rushing mightywind, ' we have set forth the highest work of the Spirit--thecommunication of a new and supernatural life. 

We are carried hack to that grand vision of the prophet who saw thebones lying, very many and very dry, sapless and disintegrated, aheap dead and ready to rot. The question comes to him: 'Son of man!Can these bones live?' The only possible answer, if he consultexperience, is, 'O Lord God! Thou knowest. ' Then follows the greatinvocation: 'Come from the four winds, O Breath! and breathe uponthese slain that they may live. ' And the Breath comes and 'they standup, an exceeding great army. ' 'It is the Spirit that quickeneth. ' TheScripture treats us all as dead, being separated from God, unless weare united to Him by faith in Jesus Christ. According to the sayingof the Evangelist, 'They which believe on Him receive' the Spirit, and thereby receive the life which He gives, or, as our Lord Himselfspeaks, are 'born of the Spirit. ' The highest and most characteristicoffice of the Spirit of God is to enkindle this new life, and henceHis noblest name, among the many by which He is called, is the Spiritof life. 

Again, remember, 'that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. ' Ifthere be life given it must be kindred with the life which is itssource. Reflect upon those profound words of our Lord: 'The windbloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, butcanst not tell whence it cometh nor whither it goeth. So is every onethat is born of the Spirit. ' They describe first the operation of thelife-giving Spirit, but they describe also the characteristics of theresulting life. 

'The wind bloweth where it listeth. ' That spiritual life, both in thedivine source and in the human recipient, is its own law. Of coursethe wind has its laws, as every physical agent has; but these are socomplicated and undiscovered that it has always been the very symbolof freedom, and poets have spoken of these 'chartered libertines, 'the winds, and 'free as the air' has become a proverb. So that DivineSpirit is limited by no human conditions or laws, but dispenses Hisgifts in superb disregard of conventionalities and externalisms. Justas the lower gift of what we call 'genius' is above all limits ofculture or education or position, and falls on a wool-stapler inStratford-on-Avon, or on a ploughman in Ayrshire, so, in a similarmanner, the altogether different gift of the divine, life-givingSpirit follows no lines that Churches or institutions draw. It fallsupon an Augustinian monk in a convent, and he shakes Europe. It fallsupon a tinker in Bedford gaol, and he writes _Pilgrim's Progress_. Itfalls upon a cobbler in Kettering, and he founds modern Christianmissions. It blows 'where it listeth, ' sovereignly indifferent to theexpectations and limitations and the externalisms, even of organisedChristianity, and touching this man and that man, not arbitrarily butaccording to 'the good pleasure' that is a law to itself, because itis perfect in wisdom and in goodness. 

And as thus the life-giving Spirit imparts Himself according tohigher laws than we can grasp, so in like manner the life that isderived from it is a life which is its own law. The Christianconscience, touched by the Spirit of God, owes allegiance to noregulations or external commandments laid down by man. The Christianconscience, enlightened by the Spirit of God, at its peril will takeits beliefs from any other than from that Divine Spirit. Allauthority over conduct, all authority over belief is burnt up anddisappears in the presence of the grand democracy of the trueChristian principle: 'Ye are all the children of God by faith inJesus Christ'; and every one of you possesses the Spirit whichteaches, the Spirit which inspires, the Spirit which enlightens, theSpirit which is the guide to all truth. So 'the wind bloweth where itlisteth, ' and the voice of that Divine Quickener is, 'Myself shall to My darling be Both law and impulse. '

Under the impulse derived from the Divine Spirit, the human spirit'listeth' what is right, and is bound to follow the promptings of itshighest desires. Those men only are free as the air we breathe, whoare vitalised by the Spirit of the Lord, for 'where the Spirit of theLord is, there, ' and there alone, 'is liberty. '

In this symbol there lies not only the thought of a life derived, kindred with the life bestowed, and free like the life which isgiven, but there lies also the idea of power. The wind which filledthe house was not only mighty but 'borne onward'--fitting type of thestrong impulse by which in olden times 'holy men spake as they were"borne onward"' (the word is the same) 'by the Holy Ghost. ' There arediversities of operations, but it is the same breath of God, whichsometimes blows in the softest _pianissimo_ that scarcely rustles thesummer woods in the leafy month of June, and sometimes storms in wildtempest that dashes the seas against the rocks. So this mighty life-giving Agent moves in gentleness and yet in power, and sometimesswells and rises almost to tempest, but is ever the impelling forceof all that is strong and true and fair in Christian hearts andlives. 

The history of the world, since that day of Pentecost, has been acommentary upon the words of my text. With viewless, impalpableenergy, the mighty breath of God swept across the ancient world and'laid the lofty city' of paganism 'low; even to the ground, andbrought it even to the dust. ' A breath passed over the wholecivilised world, like the breath of the west wind upon the glaciersin the spring, melting the thick-ribbed ice, and wooing forth theflowers, and the world was made over again. In our own hearts andlives this is the one Power that will make us strong and good. Thequestion is all-important for each of us, 'Have I this life, and doesit move me, as the ships are borne along by the wind?' 'As many asare impelled by the Spirit of God, they'--_they_--'are the sons ofGod. ' Is that the breath that swells all the sails of your lives, anddrives you upon your course? If it be, you are Christians; if it benot, you are not. 

II. And now a word as to the second of these symbols--'Cloven tonguesas of fire'--the fire of the Spirit. 

I need not do more than remind you how frequently that emblem isemployed both in the Old and in the New Testament. John the Baptistcontrasted the cold negative efficiency of his baptism, which at itsbest, was but a baptism of repentance, with the quickening power ofthe baptism of Him who was to follow him; when he said, 'I indeedbaptise you with water, but He that cometh after me is mightier thanI. He shall baptise you with the Holy Ghost and with fire. ' The twowords mean but one thing, the fire being the emblem of the Spirit. 

You will remember, too, how our Lord Himself employs the samemetaphor when He speaks about His coming to bring fire on the earth, and His longing to see it kindled into a beneficent blaze. In thisconnection the fire is a symbol of a quick, triumphant energy, whichwill transform us into its own likeness. There are two sides to thatemblem: one destructive, one creative; one wrathful, one loving. There are the fire of love, and the fire of anger. There is the fireof the sunshine which is the condition of life, as well as the fireof the lightning which burns and consumes. The emblem of fire isselected to express the work of the Spirit of God, by reason of itsleaping, triumphant, transforming energy. See, for instance, how, when you kindle a pile of dead green-wood, the tongues of fire springfrom point to point until they have conquered the whole mass, andturned it all into a ruddy likeness of the parent flame. And so here, this fire of God, if it fall upon you, will burn up all yourcoldness, and will make you glow with enthusiasm, working yourintellectual convictions in fire not in frost, making your creed aliving power in your lives, and kindling you into a flame of earnestconsecration. 

The same idea is expressed by the common phrases of every language. We speak of the fervour of love, the warmth of affection, the blazeof enthusiasm, the fire of emotion, the coldness of indifference. Christians are to be set on fire of God. If the Spirit dwell in us, He will make us fiery like Himself, even as fire turns the wettestgreen-wood into fire. We have more than enough of cold Christians whoare afraid of nothing so much as of being betrayed into warm emotion. 

I believe, dear brethren, and I am bound to express the belief, thatone of the chief wants of the Christian Church of this generation, the Christian Church of this city, the Christian Church of thischapel, is more of the fire of God! We are all icebergs compared withwhat we ought to be. Look at yourselves; never mind about yourbrethren. Let each of us look at his own heart, and say whether thereis any trace in his Christianity of the power of that Spirit who isfire. Is our religion flame or ice? Where among us are to be foundlives blazing with enthusiastic devotion and earnest love? Do notsuch words sound like mockery when applied to us? Have we not tolisten to that solemn old warning that never loses its power, and, alas! seems never to lose its appropriateness: 'Because thou artneither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of My mouth. ' We ought tobe like the burning beings before God's throne, the seraphim, thespirits that blaze and serve. We ought to be like God Himself, allaflame with love. Let us seek penitently for that Spirit of fire whowill dwell in us all if we will. 

The metaphor of fire suggests also--purifying. 'The Spirit ofburning' will burn the filth out of us. That is the only way by whicha man can ever be made clean. You may wash and wash and wash with thecold water of moral reformation, you will never get the dirt out withit. No washing and no rubbing will ever cleanse sin. The way to purgea soul is to do with it as they do with foul clay--thrust it into thefire and that will burn all the blackness out of it. Get the love ofGod into your hearts, and the fire of His Divine Spirit into yourspirits to melt you down, as it were, and then the scum and the drosswill come to the top, and you can skim them off. Two powers conquermy sin: the one is the blood of Jesus Christ, which washes me fromall the guilt of the past; the other is the fiery influence of thatDivine Spirit which makes me pure and clean for all the time to come. Pray to be kindled with the fire of God. 

III. Then once more, take that other metaphor, 'I will pour out of MySpirit. '

That implies an emblem which is very frequently used, both in the Oldand in the New Testament, viz. , the Spirit as water. As our Lord saidto Nicodemus: 'Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, hecannot enter into the kingdom of God. ' The 'water' stands in the samerelation to the 'Spirit' as the 'fire' does in the saying of John theBaptist already referred to--that is to say, it is simply a symbol ormaterial emblem of the Spirit. I suppose nobody would say that therewere two baptisms spoken of by John, one of the Holy Ghost and one offire, --and I suppose that just in the same way, there are not twoagents of regeneration pointed at in our Lord's words, nor even twoconditions, but that the Spirit is the sole agent, and 'water' is buta figure to express some aspect of His operations. So that there isno reference to the water of baptism in the words, and to see such areference is to be led astray by sound, and out of a metaphor tomanufacture a miracle. 

There are other passages where, in like manner, the Spirit iscompared to a flowing stream, such as, for instance, when our Lordsaid, 'He that believeth on Me, out of his belly shall flow rivers ofliving water, ' and when John saw a 'river of water of life proceedingfrom the throne. ' The expressions, too, of 'pouring out' and'shedding forth' the Spirit, point in the same direction, and aredrawn from more than one passage of Old Testament prophecy. What, then, is the significance of comparing that Divine Spirit with ariver of water? First, cleansing, of which I need not say any more, because I have dealt with It in the previous part of my sermon. Then, further, refreshing, and satisfying. Ah! dear brethren, there is onlyone thing that will slake the immortal thirst in your souls. Theworld will never do it; love or ambition gratified and wealthpossessed, will never do it. You will be as thirsty after you havedrunk of these streams as ever you were before. There is one spring'of which if a man drink, he shall never thirst' with unsatisfied, painful longings, but shall never cease to thirst with the longingwhich is blessedness, because it is fruition. Our thirst can beslaked by the deep draught of 'the river of the Water of Life, whichproceeds from the Throne of God and the Lamb. ' The Spirit of God, drunk in by my spirit, will still and satisfy my whole nature, andwith it I shall be glad. Drink of this. 'Ho! every one thatthirsteth, come ye to the waters!'

The Spirit is not only refreshing and satisfying, but also productiveand fertilising. In Eastern lands a rill of water is all that isneeded to make the wilderness rejoice. Turn that stream on to thebarrenness of your hearts, and fair flowers will grow that wouldnever grow without it. The one means of lofty and fruitful Christianliving is a deep, inward possession of the Spirit of God. The one wayto fertilise barren souls is to let that stream flood them all over, and then the flush of green will soon come, and that which is else adesert will 'rejoice and blossom as the rose. '

So this water will cleanse, it will satisfy and refresh, it will beproductive and will fertilise, and 'everything shall livewhithersoever that river cometh. '

IV. Then, lastly, we have the oil of the Spirit. 

'Ye have an unction, ' says St. John in our last text, 'from the HolyOne. ' I need not remind you, I suppose, of how in the old system, prophets, priests, and kings were anointed with consecrating oil, asa symbol of their calling, and of their fitness for their specialoffices. The reason for the use of such a symbol, I presume, wouldlie in the invigorating and in the supposed, and possibly real, health-giving effect of the use of oil in those climates. Whatevermay have been the reason for the use of oil in official anointings, the meaning of the act was plain. It was a preparation for a specificand distinct service. And so, when we read of the oil of the Spirit, we are to think that it is that which fits us for being prophets, priests, and kings, and which calls us to, because it fits us for, these functions. 

You are anointed to be prophets that you may make known Him who hasloved and saved you, and may go about the world evidently inspired toshow forth His praise, and make His name glorious. That anointingcalls and fits you to be priests, mediators between God and man, bringing God to men, and by pleading and persuasion, and thepresentation of the truth, drawing men to God. That unction calls andfits you to be kings, exercising authority over the little monarchyof your own natures, and over the men round you, who will bow insubmission whenever they come in contact with a man all evidentlyaflame with the love of Jesus Christ, and filled with His Spirit. Theworld is hard and rude; the world is blind and stupid; the worldoften fails to know its best friends and its truest benefactors; butthere is no crust of stupidity so crass and dense but that through itthere will pass the penetrating shafts of light that ray from theface of a man who walks in fellowship with Jesus. The whole nation ofold was honoured with these sacred names. They were a kingdom ofpriests; and the divine Voice said of the nation, 'Touch not Mineanointed, and do My prophets no harm!' How much more are allChristian men, by the anointing of the Holy Spirit, made prophets, priests, and kings to God! Alas for the difference between what theyought to be and what they are!

And then, do not forget also that when the Scriptures speak ofChristian men as being anointed, it really speaks of them as beingMessiahs. 'Christ' means _anointed_, does it not? 'Messiah' means_anointed_. And when we read in such a passage as that of my text, 'Ye have an unction from the Holy One, ' we cannot but feel that thewords point in the same direction as the great words of our MasterHimself, 'As My Father hath sent Me, even so send I you. ' Byauthority derived, no doubt, and in a subordinate and secondarysense, of course, we are Messiahs, anointed with that Spirit whichwas given to Him, not by measure, and which has passed from Him tous. 'If any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of His. '

So, dear brethren, all these things being certainly so, what are weto say about the present state of Christendom? What are we to sayabout the present state of English Christianity, Church and Dissentalike? Is Pentecost a vanished glory, then? Has that 'rushing mightywind' blown itself out, and a dead calm followed? Has that leapingfire died down into grey ashes? Has the great river that burst outthen, like the stream from the foot of the glaciers of Mont Blanc, full-grown in its birth, been all swallowed up in the sand, like someof those rivers in the East? Has the oil dried in the cruse? Peopletell us that Christianity is on its death-bed; and the aspect of agreat many professing Christians seems to confirm the statement. Butlet us thankfully recognise that 'we are not straitened in God, butin ourselves. ' To how many of us the question might be put: 'Did youreceive the Holy Ghost when you believed?' And how many of us by ourlives answer: 'We have not so much as heard whether there be any HolyGhost. ' Let us go where we can receive Him; and remember the blessedwords: 'If ye, being evil, know how to give good gifts to yourchildren, how much more will your Heavenly Father give the HolySpirit to them that ask Him'!

PETER'S FIRST SERMON

'This Jesus hath God raised up, whereof we all are witnesses. 33. Therefore being by the right hand of God exalted, and havingreceived of the Father the promise of the Holy Ghost, He hathshed forth this, which ye now see and hear. 34. For David is notascended into the heavens: but he saith himself, The Lord saidunto my Lord, Sit Thou on My right hand, 35. Until I make Thyfoes Thy footstool. 36. Therefore let all the house of Israelknow assuredly, that God hath made that same Jesus, whom ye havecrucified, both Lord and Christ. 37. Now when they heard this, they were pricked in their heart, and said unto Peter and to therest of the apostles, Men and brethren, what shall we do? 38. Then Peter said unto them, Repent, and be baptized every one ofyou in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and yeshall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost. 39. For the promise isunto you, and to your children, and to all that are afar off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call. 40. And with manyother words did he testify and exhort, saying, Save yourselvesfrom this untoward generation. 41. Then they that gladly receivedhis word were baptized: and the same day there were added untothem about three thousand souls. 42. And they continuedstedfastly in the apostles' doctrine and fellowship, and inbreaking of bread, and in prayers. 43. And fear came upon everysoul: and many wonders and signs were done by the apostles. 44. And all that believed were together, and had all things common;45. And sold their possessions and goods, and parted them to allmen, as every man had need. 46. And they, continuing daily withone accord in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, did eat their meat with gladness and singleness of heart, 47. Praising God, and having favour with all the people. And the Lordadded to the church daily such as should be saved. '--ACTS ii. 32-47. 

This passage may best be dealt with as divided into three parts: thesharp spear-thrust of Peter's closing words (vs. 32-36), the woundedand healed hearers (vs. 37-41), and the fair morning dawn of theChurch (vs. 42-47). 

I. Peter's address begins with pointing out the fulfilment ofprophecy in the gift of the Spirit (vs. 14-21). It then declares theResurrection of Jesus as foretold by prophecy, and witnessed to bythe whole body of believers (vs. 22-32), and it ends by bringingtogether these two facts, the gift of the Spirit and the Resurrectionand Ascension, as effect and cause, and as establishing beyond alldoubt that Jesus is the Christ of prophecy, and the Lord on whom Joelhad declared that whoever called should be saved. We now begin withthe last verse of the second part of the address. 

Observe the significant alternation of the names of 'Christ' and'Jesus' in verses 31 and 32. The former verse establishes thatprophecy had foretold the Resurrection of the Messiah, whoever hemight be; the latter asserts that 'this Jesus' has fulfilled theprophetic conditions. That is not a thing to be argued about, but tobe attested by competent witnesses. It was presented to the multitudeon Pentecost, as it is to us, as a plain matter of fact, on which thewhole fabric of Christianity is built, and which itself securelyrests on the concordant testimony of those who knew Him alive, sawHim dead, and were familiar with Him risen. 

There is a noble ring of certitude in Peter's affirmation, and ofconfidence that the testimony producible was overwhelming. UnlessJesus had risen, there would neither have been a Pentecost nor aChurch to receive the gift. The simple fact which Peter alleged inthat first sermon, 'whereof we all are witnesses, ' is still toostrong for the deniers of the Resurrection, as their many devices toget over it prove. 

But, a listener might ask, what has this witness of yours to do withJoel's prophecy, or with this speaking with tongues? The answerfollows in the last part of the sermon. The risen Jesus has ascendedup; that is inseparable from the fact of resurrection, and is part ofour testimony. He is 'exalted by, ' or, perhaps, at, 'the right handof God. ' And that exaltation is to us the token that there He hasreceived from the Father the Spirit, whom He promised to send when Heleft us. Therefore it is He--'this Jesus'--who has 'poured forththis, '--this new strange gift, the tokens of which you see flaming oneach head, and hear bursting in praise from every tongue. 

What triumphant emphasis is in that 'He'! Peter quotes Joel's word'pour forth. ' The prophet had said, as the mouthpiece of God, '_I_will pour forth'; Peter unhesitatingly transfers the word to Jesus. We must not assume in him at this stage a fully-developedconsciousness of our Lord's divine nature, but neither must we blinkthe tremendous assumption which he feels warranted in making, thatthe exaltation of Jesus to the right hand of God meant His exercisingthe power which belonged to God Himself. 

In verse 34, he stays for a moment to establish by prophecy that theAscension, of which he had for the first time spoken in verse 33, ispart of the prophetic characteristics of the Messiah. Hisdemonstration runs parallel with his preceding one as to theResurrection. He quotes Psalm cx. , which he had learned to do fromhis Master, and just as he had argued about the prediction ofResurrection, that the dead Psalmist's words could not apply tohimself, and must therefore apply to the Messiah; so he concludesthat it was not 'David' who was called by Jehovah to sit as 'Lord' onHis right hand. If not David, it could only be the Messiah who wasthus invested with Lordship, and exalted as participator of thethrone of the Most High. 

Then comes the final thrust of the spear, for which all the discoursehas been preparing. The Apostle rises to the full height of his greatcommission, and sets the trumpet to his mouth, summoning 'all thehouse of Israel, ' priests, rulers, and all the people, to acknowledgehis Master. He proclaims his supreme dignity and Messiahship. He isthe 'Lord' of whom the Psalmist sang, and the prophet declared thatwhoever called on His name should be saved; and He is the Christ forwhom Israel looked. 

Last of all, he sets in sharp contrast what God had done with Jesus, and what Israel had done, and the barb of his arrow lies in the lastwords, 'whom ye crucified. ' And this bold champion of Jesus, thisundaunted arraigner of a nation's crimes, was the man who, a fewweeks before, had quailed before a maid-servant's saucy tongue! Whatmade the change? Will anything but the Resurrection and Pentecostaccount for the psychological transformation effected in him and theother Apostles?

II. No wonder that 'they were pricked in their heart'! Such a thrustmust have gone deep, even where the armour of prejudice was thick. The scene they had witnessed, and the fiery words of explanation, taken together, produced incipient conviction, and the convictionproduced alarm. How surely does the first glimpse of Jesus as Christand Lord set conscience to work! The question, 'What shall we do?' isthe beginning of conversion. The acknowledgment of Jesus which doesnot lead to it is shallow and worthless. The most orthodox accepter, so far as intellect goes, of the gospel, who has not been driven byit to ask his own duty in regard to it, and what he is to do toreceive its benefits, and to escape from his sins, has not acceptedit at all. 

Peter's answer lays down two conditions: repentance and baptism. Theformer is often taken in too narrow a sense as meaning sorrow forsin, whereas it means a change of disposition or mind, which will beaccompanied, no doubt, with 'godly sorrow, ' but is in itself deeperthan sorrow, and is the turning away of heart and will from past loveand practice of evil. The second, baptism, is 'in the name of JesusChrist, ' or more accurately, '_upon_ the name, '--that is, on theground of the revealed character of Jesus. That necessarily impliesfaith in that Name; for, without such faith, the baptism would not beon the ground of the Name. The two things are regarded asinseparable, being the inside and the outside of the Christiandiscipleship. Repentance, faith, baptism, these three, are called forby Peter. 

But 'remission of sins' is not attached to the immediately precedingclause, so as that baptism is said to secure remission, but to thewhole of what goes before in the sentence. Obedience to therequirements would bring the same gift to the obedient as thedisciples had received; for it would make them disciples also. But, while repentance and baptism which presupposed faith were the normal, precedent conditions of the Spirit's bestowal, the case of Cornelius, where the Spirit was given before baptism, forbids the attempt tolink the rite and the divine gift more closely together. 

The Apostle was eager to share the gift. The more we have of theSpirit, the more shall we desire that others may have Him, and themore sure shall we be that He is meant for all. So Peter went on tobase his assurance, that his hearers might all possess the Spirit, onthe universal destination of the promise. Joel had said, 'on allflesh'; Peter declares that word to point downwards through allgenerations, and outwards to all nations. How swiftly had he grown ingrasp of the sweep of Christ's work! How far beneath that moment ofillumination some of his subsequent actions fell!

We have only a summary of his exhortations, the gist of which wasearnest warning to separate from the fate of the nation by separatingin will and mind from its sins. Swift conviction followed the Spirit-given words, as it ever will do when the speaker is filled with theHoly Spirit, and has therefore a tongue of fire. Three thousand newdisciples were made that day, and though there must have been manysuperficial adherents, and none with much knowledge, it is perhapsnot fanciful to see in Luke's speaking of them as 'souls' a hintthat, in general, the acceptance of Jesus as Messiah was deep andreal. Not only were three thousand 'names' added to the hundred andtwenty, but three thousand souls. 

III. The fair picture of the morning brightness, so soon overclouded, so long lost, follows. First, the narrative tells how the rawconverts were incorporated in the community, and assimilated to itscharacter. They, too, 'continued steadfastly' (Acts i. 14). Note thefour points enumerated: 'teaching, ' which would be principallyinstruction in the life of Jesus and His Messianic dignity, as provedby prophecy; 'fellowship, ' which implies community of disposition andoneness of heart manifested in outward association; 'breaking ofbread, '--that is, the observance of the Lord's Supper; and 'theprayers, ' which were the very life-breath of the infant Church (i. 14). Thus oneness in faith and in love, participation in the memorialfeast and in devotional acts bound the new converts to the originalbelievers, and trained them towards maturity. These are still themethods by which a sudden influx of converts is best dealt with, andbabes in Christ nurtured to full growth. Alas! that so often churchesdo not know what to do with novices when they come in numbers. 

A wider view of the state of the community as a whole closes thechapter. It is the first of several landing-places, as it were, onwhich Luke pauses to sum up an epoch. A reverent awe laid hold of thepopular mind, which was increased by the miraculous powers of theApostles. The Church will produce that impression on the world inproportion as it is manifestly filled with the Spirit. Do we? The so-called community of goods was not imposed by commandment, as is plainfrom Peter's recognition of Ananias' right to do as he chose with hisproperty. The facts that Mark's mother, Mary, had a house of her own, and that Barnabas, her relative, is specially signalised as havingsold his property, prove that it was not universal. It was anirrepressible outcrop of the brotherly feeling that filled allhearts. Christ has not come to lay down laws, but to give impulses. Compelled communism is not the repetition of that oneness of sympathywhich effloresced in the bright flower of this common possession ofindividual goods. But neither is the closed purse, closed because theheart is shut, which puts to shame so much profession of brotherhood, justified because the liberality of the primitive disciples was notby constraint nor of obligation, but willing and spontaneous. 

Verses 46 and 47 add an outline of the beautiful daily life of thecommunity, which was, like their liberality, the outcome of thefeeling of brotherhood, intensified by the sense of the gulf betweenthem and the crooked generation from which they had separatedthemselves. Luke shows it on two sides. Though they had separatedfrom the nation, they clung to the Temple services, as they continuedto do till the end. They had not come to clear consciousness of allthat was involved in their discipleship, It was not God's will thatthe new spirit should violently break with the old letter. Convulsions are not His way, except as second-best. The disciples hadto stay within the fold of Israel, if they were to influence Israel. The time of outward parting between the Temple and the Church was farahead yet. 

But the truest life of the infant Church was not nourished in theTemple, but in the privacy of their homes. They were one family, andlived as such. Their 'breaking bread at home' includes both theirordinary meals and the Lord's Supper; for in these first days everymeal, at least the evening meal of every day, was hallowed by havingthe Supper as a part of it. Each meal was thus a religious act, atoken of brotherhood, and accompanied with praise. Surely _then_ 'mendid eat angels' food, ' and on platter and cup was written 'Holinessto the Lord. ' The ideal of human fellowship was realised, though butfor a moment, and on a small scale. It was inevitable thatdivergences should arise, but it was not inevitable that the Churchshould depart so far from the brief brightness of its dawn. Still thesweet concordant brotherhood of these morning hours witnesses whatChristian love can do, and prophesies what shall yet be and shall notpass. 

No wonder that such a Church won favour with all the people! We hearnothing of its evangelising activity, but its life was such that, without recorded speech, multitudes were drawn into so sweet afellowship. If we were like the Pentecostal Christians, we shouldattract wearied souls out of the world's Babel into the calm homewhere love and brotherhood reigned, and God would 'add' to _us_ 'dayby day those that were being saved. '

THE NAME ABOVE EVERY NAME

'Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly, that Godhath made that same Jesus, whom ye have crucified, both Lord andChrist. '--ACTS ii. 36. 

It is no part of my purpose at this time to consider the specialcircumstances under which these words were spoken, nor even to enterupon an exposition of their whole scope. I select them for onereason, the occurrence in them of the three names by which wedesignate our Saviour--Jesus, Lord, Christ. To us they are verylittle more than three proper names; they were very different tothese men who listened to the characteristically vehement discourseof the Apostle Peter. It wanted some courage to stand up at Pentecostand proclaim on the housetop what he had spoken in the ear long ago, 'Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God!' To most of hislisteners to say 'Jesus is the Christ' was folly, and to say 'Jesusis the Lord' was blasphemy. 

The three names are names of the same Person, but they proclaimaltogether different aspects of His work and His character. The name'Jesus' is the name of the Man, and brings to us a Brother; the name'Christ' is the name of office, and brings to us a Redeemer; the name'Lord' is the name of dignity, and brings to us a King. 

I. First, then, the name Jesus is the name of the Man, and tells usof a Brother. 

There were many men in Palestine who bore the name of 'Jesus' when Hebore it. We find that one of the early Christians had it; and itcomes upon us with almost a shock when we read that 'Jesus, calledJustus, ' was the name of one of the friends of the Apostle Paul (Col. Iv. 11). But, through reverence on the part of Christians, andthrough horror on the part of Jews, the name ceased to be a commonone; and its disappearance from familiar use has hid from us the factof its common employment at the time when our Lord bore it. Though itwas given to Him as indicative of His office of saving His peoplefrom their sins, yet none of all the crowds who knew Him as Jesus ofNazareth supposed that in His name there was any greater significancethan in those of the 'Simons, ' 'Johns, ' and 'Judahs' in the circle ofHis disciples. 

Now the use of Jesus as the proper name of our Lord is verynoticeable. In the Gospels, as a rule, it stands alone hundreds oftimes, whilst in combination with any other of the titles it is rare. 'Jesus Christ, ' for instance, only occurs, if I count aright, twicein Matthew, once in Mark, twice in John. But if you turn to theEpistles and the latter books of the Scriptures, the proportions arereversed. There you have a number of instances of the occurrence ofsuch combinations as 'Jesus Christ, ' 'Christ Jesus, ' 'The LordJesus, ' 'Christ the Lord, ' and more rarely the full solemn title, 'The Lord Jesus Christ, ' but the occurrence of the proper name'Jesus' alone is the exception. So far as I know, there are only somethirty or forty instances of its use singly in the whole of the booksof the New Testament outside of the four Evangelists. The occasionswhere it is used are all of them occasions in which one may see thatthe writer's intention is to put strong emphasis, for some reason orother, on the Manhood of our Lord Jesus, and to assert, as broadly asmay be, His entire participation with us in the common conditions ofour human nature, corporeal and mental. 

And I think I shall best bring out the meaning and worth of the nameby putting a few of these instances before you. 

For example, more than once we find phrases like these: 'we believethat _Jesus_ died, ' 'having therefore boldness to enter into theholiest by the blood of _Jesus_, ' and the like--which emphasise Hisdeath as the death of a man like ourselves, and bring us close to thehistorical reality of His human pains and agonies for us. '_Christ_died' is a statement which makes the purpose and efficacy of Hisdeath more plain, but '_Jesus_ died' shows us His death as not onlythe work of the appointed Messiah, but as the act of our brother man, the outcome of His human love, and never rightly to be understood ifHis work be thought of apart from His personality. 

There is brought into view, too, prominently, the side of Christ'ssufferings which we are all apt to forget--the common human side ofHis agonies and His pains. I know that a certain school of preachers, and some unctuous religious hymns, and other forms of composition, dwell, a great deal too much for reverence, upon the mere physicalaspect of Christ's sufferings. But the temptation, I believe, withmost of us is to dwell too little upon that, --to argue about thedeath of Christ, to think about it as a matter of speculation, toregard it as a mysterious power, to look upon it as an official actof the Messiah who was sent into the world for us; and to forget thatHe bore a manhood like our own, a body that was impatient of painsand wounds and sufferings, and a human life which, like all humanlives, naturally recoiled and shrank from the agony of death. 

And whilst, therefore, the great message, 'It is Christ that died, 'is ever to be pondered, we have also to think with sympathy andgratitude on the homelier representation coming nearer to our hearts, which proclaims that 'Jesus died. ' Let us not forget the Brother'smanhood that had to agonise and to suffer and to die as the price ofour salvation. 

Again, when the Scripture would set our Lord before us, as in Hishumanity, our pattern and example, it sometimes uses this name, inorder to give emphasis to the thought of His Manhood--as, forexample, in the words of the Epistle to the Hebrews, 'looking untoJesus, the Author and Perfecter of faith. ' That is to say--a mightystimulus to all brave perseverance in our efforts after higherChristian nobleness lies in the vivid and constant realisation of thetrue manhood of our Lord, as the type of all goodness, as havingHimself lived by faith, and that in a perfect degree and manner. Weare to turn away our eyes from contemplating all other lives andmotives, and to 'look off' from them to Him. In all our struggles letus think of Him. Do not take poor human creatures for your ideal ofexcellence, nor tune your harps to their keynotes. To imitate men isdegradation, and is sure to lead to deformity. None of them, is asafe guide. Black veins are in the purest marble, and flaws in themost lustrous diamonds. But to imitate Jesus is freedom, and to belike Him is perfection. Our code of morals is His life. He is theIdeal incarnate. The secret of all progress is, 'Run--looking untoJesus. '

Then, again, we have His manhood emphasised when His sympathy is tobe commended to our hearts. 'The great High Priest, who is passedinto the heavens' is '_Jesus_' . .. 'who was in all points temptedlike as we are. ' To every sorrowing soul, to all men burdened withheavy tasks, unwelcome duties, pains and sorrows of the imagination, or of the heart, or of memory, or of physical life, or ofcircumstances--to all there comes the thought, 'Every ill that fleshis heir to' He knows by experience, and in the Man Jesus we find notonly the pity of a God, but the sympathy of a Brother. 

When one of our princes goes for an afternoon into the slums in EastLondon, everybody says, and says deservedly, 'right!' and 'princely!'_This_ prince has learned pity in 'the huts where poor men lie, ' andknows by experience all their squalor and misery. The Man Jesus isthe sympathetic Priest. The Rabbis, who did not usually see very farinto the depth of things, yet caught a wonderful glimpse when theysaid: 'Messias will be found sitting outside the gate of the city_amongst the lepers_. ' That _is_ where He sits; and the perfectnessof His sympathy, and the completeness of His identification ofHimself with all our tears and our sorrows, are taught us when weread that our High Priest is not merely Christ the Official, butJesus the Man. 

And then we find such words as these: 'If we believe that _Jesus_died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will Godbring with Him': I think any one that reads with sympathy must feelhow very much closer to our hearts that consolation comes, 'Jesusrose again, ' than even the mighty word which the Apostle uses onanother occasion, 'Christ is risen from the dead. ' The one tells usof the risen Redeemer, the other tells us of the risen Brother. Andwherever there are sorrowing souls, enduring loss and following theirdear ones into the darkness with yearning hearts, they are comfortedwhen they feel that the beloved dead lie down beside their Brother, and with their Brother they shall rise again. 

So, again, most strikingly, and yet somewhat singularly, in the wordsof Scripture which paint most loftily the exaltation of the risenSaviour to the right hand of God, and His wielding of absolute powerand authority, it is the old human name that is used; as if thewriters would bind together the humiliation and the exaltation, andwere holding up hands of wonder at the thought that a Man had risenthus to the Throne of the Universe. What an emphasis and glow of hopethere is in such words as these: 'We see not yet all things put underHim, but we see _Jesus_'--the very Man that was here with us--'crowned with glory and honour. ' So in the Book of the Revelation thechosen name for Him who sits amidst the glories of the heavens, andsettles the destinies of the universe, and orders the course ofhistory, is Jesus. As if the Apostle would assure us that the facewhich looked down upon him from amidst the blaze of the glory wasindeed the face that he knew long ago upon earth, and the breast that'was girded with a golden girdle' was the breast upon which he sooften had leaned his happy head. 

So the ties that bind us to the Man Jesus should be the human bondsthat knit us to one another, transferred to Him and purified andstrengthened. All that we have failed to find in men we can find inHim. Human wisdom has its limits, but here is a Man whose word istruth, who is Himself the truth. Human love is sometimes hollow, often impotent; it looks down upon us, as a great thinker has said, like the Venus of Milo, that lovely statue, smiling in pity, but ithas no arms. But here is a love that is mighty to help, and on whichwe can rely without disappointment or loss. Human excellence isalways limited and imperfect, but here is One whom we may imitate andbe pure. So let us do like that poor woman in the Gospel story--bringour precious alabaster box of ointment--the love of these hearts ofours, which is the most precious thing we have to give. The box ofointment that we have so often squandered upon unworthy heads--let uscome and pour it upon His, not unmingled with our tears, and anointHim, our beloved and our King. This Man has loved each of us with abrother's heart; let us love Him with all our hearts. 

II. So much for the first name. The second--'Christ'--is the name ofoffice, and brings to us a Redeemer. 

I need not dwell at any length upon the original significance andforce of the name; it is familiar, of course, to us all. It stands asa transference into Greek of the Hebrew Messias; the one and theother meaning, as we all know, the 'Anointed. ' But what is themeaning of claiming for Jesus that He is anointed? A sentence willanswer the question. It means that He fulfils all which the inspiredimagination of the great ones of the past had seen in that dim Figurethat rose before prophet and psalmist. It means that He is anointedor inspired by the divine indwelling to be Prophet, Priest, and Kingall over the world. It means that He is--though the belief had fadedaway from the minds of His generation--a sufferer whilst a Prince, and appointed to 'turn away unrighteousness' from the world, and notfrom 'Jacob' only, by a sacrifice and a death. 

I cannot see less in the contents of the Jewish idea, the propheticidea, of the Messias, than these points: divine inspiration oranointing; a sufferer who is to redeem; the fulfiller of all therapturous visions of psalmist and of prophet in the past. 

And so, when Peter stood up amongst that congregation of wonderingstrangers and scowling Pharisees, and said, 'The Man that died on theCross, the Rabbi-peasant from half-heathen Galilee, is the Person towhom Law and Prophets have been pointing, '--no wonder that no onebelieved him except those whose hearts were touched, for it is neverpossible for the common mind, at any epoch, to believe that a man whostands beside them is very much bigger than themselves. Great menhave always to die, and get a halo of distance around them, beforetheir true stature can be seen. 

And now two remarks are all I can afford myself upon this point, andone is this: the hearty recognition of His Messiahship is the centreof all discipleship. The earliest and the simplest Christian creed, which yet--like the little brown roll in which the infant beech-leaves lie folded up--contains in itself all the rest, was this:'Jesus is Christ. ' Although it is no part of my business to say howmuch imperfection and confusion of head comprehension may co-existwith a heart acceptance of Jesus that saves a soul from sin, yet Icannot in faithfulness to my own convictions conceal my belief thathe who contents himself with 'Jesus' and does not grasp 'Christ' hascast away the most valuable and characteristic part of theChristianity which he professes. Surely a most simple inference isthat a _Christian_ is at least a man who recognises the Christship ofJesus. And I press that upon you, my friends. It is not enough forthe sustenance of your own souls and for the cultivation of avigorous religious life that men should admire, howsoever profoundlyand deeply, the humanity of the Lord unless that humanity leads themon to see the office of the Messiah to whom their whole heartscleave. 'Jesus is the Christ' is the minimum Christian creed. 

And then, still further, let me remind you how the recognition ofJesus as Christ is essential to giving its full value to the facts ofthe manhood. 'Jesus died!' Yes. What then? What is that to me? Isthat all that I have to say? If His is simply a human death, like allothers, I want to know what makes the story of it a Gospel. I want toknow what more interest I have in it than I have in the death ofSocrates, or in the death of any man or woman whose name was in theobituary column of yesterday's newspaper. 'Jesus died. ' That is afact. What is wanted to turn the fact into a gospel? That I shallknow who it was that died, and why He died. 'I declare unto you thegospel which I preach, ' Paul says, 'how that _Christ_ died for oursins, according to the Scriptures. ' The belief that the death ofJesus was the death of the Christ is needful in order that it shallbe the means of my deliverance from the burden of sin. If it be onlythe death of Jesus, it is beautiful, pathetic, as many anothermartyr's has been, but if it be the death of Christ, then 'my faithcan lay her hand' on that great Sacrifice 'and know her guilt wasthere. '

So in regard to His perfect example. If we only see His manhood whenwe are 'looking unto Jesus, ' the contemplation of His perfectionwould be as paralysing as spectacles of supreme excellence usuallyare. But when we can say, '_Christ_ also suffered for us, leaving usan example, ' and so can deepen the thought of His Manhood into thatof His Messiahship, and the conception of His work as example intothat of His work as sacrifice, we can hope that His divine power willdwell in us to mould our lives to the likeness of His human life ofperfect obedience. 

So in regard to His Resurrection and glorious Ascension to the righthand of God. We have not only to think of the solitary man raisedfrom the grave and caught up to the throne. If it were only 'Jesus'who rose and ascended, His Resurrection and Ascension might be asmuch to us as the raising of Lazarus, or the rapture of Elijah--namely, a demonstration that death did not destroy conscious being, and that a man could rise to heaven; but they would be no more. Butif '_Christ_ is risen from the dead, ' He is 'become the first-fruitsof them that slept. ' If _Jesus_ has gone up on high, others may ormay not follow in His train. He may show that manhood is notincapable of elevation to heaven, but has no power to draw others upafter Him. But if _Christ_ is gone up, He is gone to prepare a placefor us, not to fill a solitary throne, and His Ascension is theassurance that He will lift us too to dwell with Him and share Histriumph over death and sin. 

Most of the blessedness and beauty of His Example, all the mysteryand meaning of His Death, and all the power of His Resurrection, depend on the fact that 'it is _Christ_ that died, yea rather, thatis risen again, who is even at the right hand of God. '

III. 'The Lord' is the name of dignity and brings before us the King. 

There are three grades, so to speak, of dignity expressed by this oneword 'Lord' in the New Testament. The lowest is that in which it isalmost the equivalent of our own English title of respectfulcourtesy, 'Sir, ' in which sense it is often used in the Gospels, andapplied to our Lord as to many other of the persons there. The secondis that in which it expresses dignity and authority--and in thatsense it is frequently applied to Christ. The third and highest isthat in which it is the equivalent of the Old Testament 'Lord, ' as adivine name; in which sense also it is applied to Christ in the NewTestament. 

The first and last of these may be left out of consideration now: thecentral one is the meaning of the word here. I have only time totouch upon two thoughts--to connect this name of dignity first withone and then with the other of the two names that we have alreadyconsidered. 

Jesus is Lord, that is to say, wonderful as it is, His manhood isexalted to supreme dignity. It is the teaching of the New Testament, that in Jesus, the Child of Mary, our nature sits on the throne ofthe universe and rules over all things. Those rude herdsmen, brothersof Joseph, who came into Pharaoh's palace--strange contrast to theirtents!--there found their brother ruling over that ancient and highlycivilised land! We have the Man Jesus for the Lord over all. TrustHis dominion and rejoice in His rule, and bow before His authority. Jesus is Lord. 

Christ is Lord. That is to say: His sovereign authority and dominionare built upon the fact of His being Deliverer, Redeemer, Sacrifice. His Kingdom is a Kingdom that rests upon His suffering. 'WhereforeGod also hath exalted Him, and given Him a Name that is above everyname. '

It is because He wears a vesture dipped in blood, that 'on thevesture is the name written "King of kings, and Lord of lords. "' Itis 'because He shall deliver the needy when he crieth, ' as theprophetic psalm has it, that 'all kings shall fall down before Himand all nations shall serve Him. ' Because He has given His life forthe world He is the Master of the World. His humanity is raised tothe throne because His humanity stooped to the cross. As long asmen's hearts can be touched by absolute unselfish surrender, and aslong as they can know the blessedness of responsive surrender, solong will He who gave Himself for the world be the Sovereign of theworld, and the First-born from the dead be the Prince of all thekings of the earth. 

And so, dear friends, our thoughts to-day all point to this lesson--do not you content yourselves with a maimed Christ. Do not tarry inthe Manhood; do not think it enough to cherish reverence for thenobility of His soul, the gentle wisdom of His words, the beauty ofHis character, the tenderness of His compassion. All these will beinsufficient for your needs. There is more in His mission than these--even His death for you and for all men. Take Him for your Christ, but do not lose the Person in the Work, any more than you lose thework in the Person. And be not content with an intellectualrecognition of Him, but bring Him the faith which cleaves to Him andHis work as its only hope and peace, and the love which, because ofHis work as Christ, flows out to the beloved Person who has done itall. Thus loving Jesus and trusting Christ, you will bring obedienceto your Lord and homage to your King, and learn the sweetness andpower of 'the name that is above every name'--the name of the LordJesus Christ. 

May we all be able, with clear and unfaltering conviction of ourunderstandings and loving affiance of our whole souls, to repeat asour own the grand words in which so many centuries have proclaimedtheir faith--words which shed a spell of peacefulness over stormylives, and fling a great light of hope into the black jaws of thegrave: 'I believe in Jesus Christ, His only Son, our Lord!'

A FOURFOLD CORD

'And they continued stedfastly in the Apostles' doctrine andfellowship, and in breaking of bread, and in prayers. '--ACTS ii. 42. 

The Early Church was not a pattern for us, and the idea of itsgreatly superior purity is very largely a delusion. But still, thoughthat be true, the occasional glimpses that we get at intervals in theearly chapters of this Book of the Acts of the Apostles do present avery instructive and beautiful picture of what a Christian societymay be, and therefore of what Christian Churches and Christianindividuals ought to be. 

The words that I have read, however, are not the description of thedemeanour of the whole community, but of that portion of it which hadbeen added so swiftly to the original nucleus on the Day ofPentecost. Think, on the morning of that day 'the number of the nameswas one hundred and twenty, ' on the evening of that day it was threethousand over that number--a sufficiently swift and large increase tohave swamped the original nucleus, unless there had been a greatpower of assimilation to itself lodged in that little body. These newconverts held to the Apostolic 'doctrine' and 'fellowship, ' and to'breaking of bread' and to 'prayers, ' and so became homogeneous withthe others, and all worked to one end. 

Now, these four points which are signalised in this description maywell afford us material for consideration. They give us the ideal ofa Church's inner life, which in the divine order should precede, andbe the basis of, a Church's work in the world. But, while we speak ofan ideal for a Church, let us not forget that it is realised only bythe lives of individuals being conformed to it. 

I. The first point, which is fundamental to all the others, is 'Theycontinued steadfastly in the Apostles' doctrine. '

An earnest desire after fuller knowledge is the basis of all healthyChristian life. We cannot realise, without a great effort, theignorance of these new converts. 'Parthians and Medes and Elamites, 'and Jews gathered from every corner of the Roman world, they had comeup to Jerusalem, and the bulk of them knew no more about Christ andChristianity than what they picked up out of Peter's sermon on theDay of Pentecost. But that was enough to change their hearts andtheir wills and to lead them to a real faith. And though the_contents_ of their faith were very incomplete, the _power_ of theirfaith was very great. For there is no necessary connection betweenthe amount believed and the grasp with which it is held. Believing, they were eager for more light to be poured on to their half-seeingeyes. They had no Gospels, they had no written record, they had nomeans of learning anything about the faith which they were nowprofessing except listening to one or other of the original Eleven, with the addition of any of the other 'old disciples'--that is, _early_ disciples--who might perchance have equal claims to belistened to as 'witnesses from the beginning. ' We shall very muchmisunderstand the meaning of the words here, if we suppose that thesenovices were dosed with theological instruction, or that 'theApostles' doctrine' consisted of such fully developed truths as wefind later on in Paul's writings. If you will look at the firstsermons that Peter is recorded as having delivered, in the earlychapters of the Acts, you will find that he by no means enunciates adefinite theology such as he unfolds in his later Epistle. There isno word about the divinity of our Lord Jesus Christ; His designationis 'Thy holy child Jesus. ' There is no word about the atoning natureof Christ's sacrifice; His death is simply the great crime of theJewish people, and His Resurrection the great divine fact witnessingto the truth of His Messiahship. All that which we now regard, andrightly regard, as the very centre and living focus of divine truthwas but beginning to shine out on the Apostles' minds, or rather togather itself into form, and to shape itself by slow degrees intopropositions. 'The Apostles' teaching'--for 'doctrine' does notconvey to modern ears what Luke meant by the word--must have beenvery largely, if not exclusively, of the same kind as is preserved tous in the four Gospels, and especially in the first three of them. The recital to these listeners, to whom it was all so fresh andstrange and transcendent, of the story that has become worn andcommonplace to us by its familiarity, of Christ in His birth, Christin His gentleness, Christ in His deeds, Christ in the deep words thatthe Apostles were only beginning to understand; Christ in His Death, Resurrection, and Ascension--these were the themes on the narrationof which this company of three thousand waited with such eagerness. 

But, of course, there was necessarily involved in the story a certainamount of what we now call doctrine--that is, theological teaching--because one cannot tell the story of Jesus Christ, as it is told inthe four Gospels, without impressing upon the hearers the convictionthat His nature was divine and that His death was a sacrifice. Beyondthese truths we know not how far the Apostles went. To these, perhaps, they did not at first rise. But whether they did so or no, and although the facts that the hearers were thus eager to receive, and treasured when they received, are the commonplaces of our Sunday-schools, and quite uninteresting to many of us, the spirit whichmarked these early converts is the spirit that must lie at thefoundation of progressive and healthy Christianity in us. Theconsciousness of our own ignorance, of the great sweep of God'srevealed mind and will, the eager desire to fill up the gaps in thecircle, and to widen the diameter, of our knowledge, and theconsequent steadfastness and persistence of our continuance in theteachings--far fuller and deeper and richer and nobler than wereheard in the upper room at Jerusalem by the first three thousand--which, through the divine Spirit and the experience of the Church fornineteen hundred years are available for us, ought to characterise usall. 

Now, dear friends, ask yourselves the question very earnestly, Doesthis desire of fuller Christian knowledge at all mark my Christiancharacter, and does it practically influence my Christian conduct andlife? There are thousands of men and women in all our churches whoknow no more about the rich revelation of God in Jesus Christ thanthey did on that day long, long ago, when first they began toapprehend that He was the Saviour of their souls. When I sometimesget glimpses into the utter Biblical ignorance of educated members ofmy own and of other congregations, I am appalled; I do not wonder howwe ministers do so little by our preaching, when the minds of thepeople to whom we speak are so largely in such a chaotic state inreference to Scriptural truth. I believe that there is an intoleranceof plain, sober, instructive Christian teaching from the pulpit, which is one of the worst signs of the Christianity of thisgeneration. And I believe that there are a terribly large number ofprofessing Christians, and good people after a fashion, whose Biblesare as clean to-day, except on one or two favourite pages, as theywere when they came out of the bookseller's shop years and years ago. You will never be strong Christians, you will never be happy ones, until you make conscience of the study of God's Word and 'continuesteadfastly in the Apostles' teaching. ' You may produce plenty ofemotional Christianity, and of busy and sometimes fussy work withoutit, but you will not get depth. I sometimes think that the complaintof the writer of the Epistle to the Hebrews might be turned upsidedown nowadays. He says: 'When for the time ye ought to be teachers, ye have need that one teach you again which be the first principles. 'Nowadays we might say in Sunday-schools and other places of churchwork: 'When for the time ye ought to be _learners_, you have taken toteaching before you know what you are teaching, and so neither younor your scholars will profit much. ' The vase should be full beforeyou begin to empty it. 

Again, there ought to be, and we ought to aim after, an equabletemper of mutual brotherhood conquering selfishness. 

'They continued in the Apostles' doctrine and in fellowship. ''Fellowship' here, as I take it, applies to community of feeling. Averse or two afterwards it is applied to community of goods, but wehave nothing to do with that subject at present. What is meant isthat these three thousand, as was most natural, cut off altogetherfrom their ancient associations, finding themselves at once separatedby a great gulf from their nation and its hopes and its religion, were driven together as sheep are when wolves are prowling around. And, being individually weak, they held on by one another, so thatmany weaknesses might make a strength, and glimmering embers rakedtogether might break into a flame. 

Now, all these circumstances, or almost all of them, that drove theprimitive believers together, are at an end, and the tendencies ofthis day are rather to drive Christian people apart than to draw themtogether. Differences of position, occupation, culture, ways oflooking at things, views of Christian truth and the like, all comepowerfully in to the reinforcement of the natural selfishness whichtempts us all, unless the grace of God overcomes it. Although we donot want any hysterical or histrionic presentation of Christiansympathy and brotherhood, we do need--far more than any of us haveawakened to the consciousness of the need--for the health of our ownsouls we need to make definite efforts to cultivate more of thatsense of Christian brotherhood with all that hold the same LordChrist, and to realise this truth: that they and we, howeverseparate, are nearer one another than are we and those nearest to uswho do not share in our Christian faith. 

I do not dwell upon this point. It is one on which it is easy togush, and it has got a bad name because there has been so much unrealand sickly talk about it. But if any Christian man will honestly tryto cultivate the brotherly feeling which my text suggests, and towhich our common relation to Jesus Christ binds us, and will try itin reference to _A_, _B_, or _C_, whom he does not much like, withwhose ways he has no kind of sympathy, whom he believes to be aheretic, and who perhaps returns the belief about him with interest, he will find it is a pretty sharp test of his Christian principle. Let us be real, at any rate, and not pretend to have more love thanwe really have in our hearts. And let us remember that 'he thatloveth Him that begat, loveth Him also that is begotten of Him. '

II. Another characteristic which comes out in the words before us isthe blending of worship with life. 

'They continued steadfastly in the Apostles' doctrine . .. And inbreaking of bread. ' Commentators who can only see one thing at atime--and there are a good many of that species--have got up greatdiscussions as to whether this phrase means eating ordinary meals orpartaking of the Lord's Supper. I venture to say it means both, because, clearly enough, in the beginning, the common meal washallowed by what we now call the Lord's Supper being associated withit, and every day's evening repast was eaten 'in remembrance of Him. '

So, naturally, and without an idea of anything awful or sacred aboutthe rite, the first Christians, when they went home after a hardday's work and sat down to take their own suppers, blessed the breadand the wine, and whether they ate or drank, did the one and theother 'in remembrance of Him. '

The gradual growth of the sentiment attaching to the Lord's Supper, until it reached the portentous height of regarding it as a'tremendous sacrifice' which could only be administered by priestswith ordained hands in Apostolic succession, can be partly tracedeven in New Testament times. The Lord's Supper began as an appendageto, or rather as a heightening of, the evening meal, and at first, asthis chapter tells us in a subsequent verse, was observed day by day. Then, before the epoch of the Acts of the Apostles is ended, we findit has become a weekly celebration, and forms part of the service onthe first day of the week. But even when the observance had ceased tobe daily, the association with an ordinary meal continued, and thatled to the disorders at Corinth which Paul rebuked, and which wouldhave been impossible if later ideas of the Lord's Supper had existedthen. 

The history of the transformation of that simple Supper into 'thebloodless sacrifice' of the Mass, and all the mischief consequentthereon, does not concern us now. But it does concern us to note thatthese first believers hallowed common things by doing them, andcommon food by partaking of it, with the memory of His greatsacrifice in their minds. The poorest fare, the coarsest bread, thesourest wine, on the humblest table, became a memorial of that dearLord. Religion and life, the domestic and the devout, were so closelybraided together that when a household sat at table it was both afamily and a church; and while they were eating their meat for thestrength of their body, they were partaking of the memorial of theirdying Lord. 

Is your house like that? Is your daily life like that? Do you bringthe sacred and the secular as close together as that? Are the dyingwords of your Master, 'This do in remembrance of Me, ' written by youover everything you do? And so is all life worship, and all worshiphope?

III. The last thing here is habitual devotion. 

I suppose the disciples had no forms of set Christian prayers. Theystill used the Jewish liturgy, for we read that 'they continued dailywith one accord in the Temple. ' I am sure that no two things can beless like one another than the worship of the primitive Church andthe worship, say, of one of our congregations. Did you ever try topaint for yourselves, for instance, the scene described in the FirstEpistle to the Corinthians? When they came together in their meetingsfor worship, 'every one had a psalm, a doctrine, an interpretation. ''Let the prophets speak, by ones, or at most by twos'; and if anothergets up to interrupt, let the first speaker sit down. Paul goes on tosay, 'Let all things be done decently and in order. ' So there musthave been tendencies to disorder, and much at which some of ourmodern ecclesiastical martinets would have been very much scandalisedas 'unbecoming. ' Wise men are in no haste to change forms. Formschange of themselves when their users change; but it would be a goodday for Christendom if the faith and devoutness of a community ofbelievers such as we, for instance, profess to be, were so strong andso demanding expression as that, instead of my poor voice continuallysounding here, every one of you had a psalm or a doctrine, and everyone of you were able and impelled to speak out of the fulness of theSpirit which God poured into you. It will come some day; it must comeif Christendom is not to die of its own dignity. But we do not needto hurry matters, only let us remember that unless a Church continuessteadfast in prayer it is worth very little. 

Now, dear brethren, it is said about us Free Churchmen that we thinka great deal too much of preaching and a great deal too little of theprayers of the congregation. That is a stock criticism. I am bound tosay that there is a grain of truth in it, and that there is not, withtoo many of our congregations, as lofty a conception of the power andblessedness of the united prayers of the congregation as there oughtto be, or else you would not hear about 'introductory services. 'Introductory to what? Do we speak to God merely by way of preface toone of us talking to his brethren? Is that the proper order? 'Theycontinued steadfastly in the Apostles' teaching, ' no doubt; but also'steadfastly in prayer. ' I pray you to try to make this picture ofthe Pentecostal converts the ideal of your own lives, and to do yourbest to help forward the time when it shall be the reality in thischurch, and in every other society of professing Christians. 

A PURE CHURCH AN INCREASING CHURCH

'And the Lord added to the church daily such as should besaved. '--ACTS ii. 47. 

'And the Lord added to them day by day those that were beingsaved. '--(R. V. )

You observe that the principal alterations of these words in theRevised Version are two: the one the omission of 'the church, ' theother the substitution of 'were being saved' for 'such as should besaved. ' The former of these changes has an interest as suggestingthat at the early period referred to the name of 'the church' had notyet been definitely attached to the infant community, and that theword afterwards crept into the text at a time when ecclesiasticismhad become a great deal stronger than it was at the date of thewriting of the Acts of the Apostles. The second of the changes is ofmore importance. The Authorised Version's rendering suggests thatsalvation is a future thing, which in one aspect is partially true. The Revised Version, which is also by far the more literallyaccurate, suggests the other idea, that salvation is a process goingon all through the course of a Christian man's life. And that carriesvery large and important lessons. 

I. I ask you to notice here, first, the profound conception which thewriter had of the present action of the ascended Christ. 'The Lordadded to them day by day those that were being saved. '

Then Christ (for it is He that is here spoken of as the Lord), theliving, ascended Christ, was present in, and working with, thatlittle community of believing souls. You will find that the thoughtof a present Saviour, who is the life-blood of the Church on earth, and the spring of action for all good that is done in it and by it, runs through the whole of this Book of the Acts of the Apostles. Thekeynote is struck in its first verses: 'The former treatise have Imade, O Theophilus, of all that Jesus began to do and to teach, untilthe day in which He was taken up. ' That is the description of Luke'sGospel, and it implies that the Acts of the Apostles is the _second_treatise, which tells all that Jesus continued to do and teach_after_ that He was taken up. So the Lord, the ascended Christ, isthe true theme and hero of this book. It is He, for instance, whosends down the Spirit on the Day of Pentecost. It is He whom thedying martyr sees 'standing at the right hand of God, ' ready to help. It is He who appears to the persecutor on the road to Damascus. It isHe who sends Paul and his company to preach in Europe. It is He whoopens hearts for the reception of their message. It is He who standsby the Apostle in a vision, and bids him 'be of good cheer, ' and goforth upon his work. Thus, at every crisis in the history of theChurch, it is the Lord--that is to say, Christ Himself--who isrevealed as working in them and for them, the ascended but yet ever-present Guide, Counsellor, Inspirer, Protector, and Rewarder of themthat put their trust in Him. So here it is He that 'adds to theChurch daily them that were being saved. '

I believe, dear brethren, that modern Christianity has far too muchlost the vivid impression of this present Christ as actually dwellingand working among us. What is good in us and what is bad in usconspire to make us think more of the past work of an ascended Christthan of the present work of an indwelling Christ. We cannot think toomuch of that Cross by which He has laid the foundation for thesalvation and reconciliation of all the world; but we may easilythink too exclusively of it, and so fix our thoughts upon that workwhich He completed when on Calvary He said, 'It is finished!' as toforget the continual work which will never be finished until HisChurch is perfected, and the world is redeemed. If we are a Church ofChrist at all, we have Christ in very deed among us, and workingthrough us and on us. And unless we have, in no mystical and unrealand metaphorical sense, but in the simplest and yet grandest prosereality, that living Saviour here in our hearts and in ourfellowship, better that these walls were levelled with the ground, and this congregation scattered to the four winds of heaven. Thepresent Christ is the life of His Church. 

Notice, and that but for a moment, for I shall have to deal with itmore especially at another part of this discourse, --the specificaction which is here ascribed to Him. _He_ adds to the Church, not_we_, not our preaching, not our eloquence, our fervour, our efforts. These may be the weapons in His hands, but the hand that wields theweapon gives it all its power to wound and to heal, and it is ChristHimself who, by His present energy, is here represented as being theAgent of all the good that is done by any Christian community, andthe Builder-up of His Churches, in numbers and in power. 

It is His will for, His ideal of, a Christian Church, thatcontinuously it should be gathering into its fellowship those thatare being saved. That is His meaning in the establishment of HisChurch upon earth, and that is His will concerning it and concerningus, and the question should press on every society of Christians:Does our reality correspond to Christ's ideal? Are we, as a portionof His great heritage, being continually replenished by souls thatcome to tell what God has done for them? Is there an unbroken flow ofsuch into what we call our communion? I speak to you members of thischurch, and I ask you to ponder the question, --Is it so? and theother question, If it is not so, wherefore? 'The Lord added daily, '--why does not the Lord add daily to us?

II. Let us go to the second part of this text, and see if we can findan answer. Notice how emphatically there is brought out here theattractive power of an earnest and pure Church. 

My text is the end of a sentence. What is the beginning of thesentence? Listen, --'All that believed were together, and had allthings common; and sold their possessions and goods, and parted themto all men, as every man had need. And they, continuing daily withone accord in the Temple, and breaking bread from house to house, dideat their meat with gladness and singleness of heart, praising God, and having favour with all the people. And the Lord added. ' Yes; ofcourse. Suppose you were like these people. Suppose this church andcongregation bore stamped upon it, plain and deep as the broad arrowof the king, these characteristics--manifest fraternal unity, plainunselfish unworldliness, habitual unbroken devotion, gladness whichhad in it the solemnity of Heaven, and a transparent simplicity oflife and heart, which knew nothing of by-ends and shabby, personalmotives or distracting duplicity of purpose--do you not think thatthe Lord would add to you daily such as should be saved? Or, to putit into other words, wherever there is a little knot of men obviouslyheld together by a living Christ, and obviously manifesting in theirlives and characters the likeness of that Christ transforming andglorifying them, there will be drawn to them--by natural gravitation, I was going to say, but we may more correctly say, by the gravitationwhich is natural in the supernatural realm--souls that have beentouched by the grace of the Lord, and souls to whom that grace hasbeen brought the nearer by looking upon _them_. Wherever there isinward vigour of life there will be outward growth; and the Churchwhich is pure, earnest, living will be a Church which spreads andincreases. 

Historically, it has always been the case that in God's Churchseasons of expansion have followed upon seasons of deepened spirituallife on the part of His people. And the only kind of growth which iswholesome, and to be desired in a Christian community, is growth as aconsequence of the revived religiousness of the individuals who makeup the community. 

And just in like manner as such a community will draw to it men whoare like-minded, so it will repel from it all the formalist people. There are congregations that have the stamp of worldliness so deepupon them that any persons who want to be burdened with as littlereligion as may be respectable will find themselves at home there. And I come to you Christian people here, for whose Christiancharacter I am in some sense and to some degree responsible, withthis appeal: Do you see to it that, so far as your influence extends, this community of ours be such as that half-dead Christians willnever think of coming near us, and those whose religion is tepid willbe repelled from us, but that they who love the Lord Jesus Christwith earnest devotion and lofty consecration, and seek to liveunworldly and saint-like lives, shall recognise in us men like-minded, and from whom they may draw help. I beseech you--if you willnot misunderstand the expression--make your communion such that itwill repel as well as attract; and that people will find nothing hereto draw them to an easy religion of words and formalism, beneathwhich all vermin of worldliness and selfishness may lurk, but willrecognise in us a church of men and women who are bent upon holiness, and longing for more and more conformity to the divine Master. 

Now, if all this be true, it is possible for worldly and stagnantcommunities calling themselves 'Churches' to thwart Christ's purpose, and to make it both impossible and undesirable that He should add tothem souls for whom He has died. It is a solemn thing to feel that wemay clog Christ's chariot-wheels, that there may be so littlespiritual life in us, as a congregation, that, if I may so say, Hedare not intrust us with the responsibility of guarding and keepingthe young converts whom He loves and tends. We may not be fit to betrusted with them, and that may be why we do not get them. It may notbe good for them that they should be dropped into the refrigeratingatmosphere of such a church, and that may be why they do not come. 

Depend upon it, brethren, that, far more than my preaching, yourlives will determine the expansion of this church of ours. And if mypreaching is pulling one way and your lives the other, and I havehalf an hour a week for talk and you have seven days forcontradictory life, which of the two do you think is likely to win inthe tug? I beseech you, take the words that I am now trying to speak, to yourselves. Do not pass them to the man in the next pew and thinkhow well they fit him, but accept them as needed by you. Andremember, that just as a bit of sealing-wax, if you rub it on yoursleeve and so warm it, develops an attractive power, the Church whichis warmed will draw many to itself. If the earlier words of thiscontext apply to any Christian community, then certainly its blessedpromise too will apply to it, and to such a church the Lord will 'addday by day them that are being saved. '

III. And now, lastly, observe the definition given here of the classof persons gathered into the community. 

I have already observed, in the earlier portion of this discourse, that here we have salvation represented as a process, a progressivething which runs on all through life. In the New Testament there arevarious points of view from which that great idea of salvation isrepresented. It is sometimes spoken of as past, in so far as in thedefinite act of conversion and the first exercise of faith in JesusChrist the whole subsequent evolution and development are involved, and the process of salvation has its beginning then, when a man turnsto God. It is sometimes spoken of as present, in so far as the joy ofdeliverance from evil and possession of good, which is God, isrealised day by day. It is sometimes spoken of as future, in so faras all the imperfect possession and pre-libations of salvation whichwe taste here on earth prophesy and point onwards to their ownperfecting in the climax of heaven. But all these three points ofview, past, present, and future, may be merged into this one of mytext, which speaks of every saint on earth, from the infantile to themost mature, as standing in the same row, though at different points;walking on the same road, though advanced different distances; allparticipant of the same process of 'being saved. '

Through all life the deliverance goes on, the deliverance from sin, the deliverance from wrath. The Christian salvation, then, accordingto the teaching of this emphatic phrase, is a process begun atconversion, carried on progressively through the life, and reachingits climax in another state. Day by day, through the spring and theearly summer, the sun shines longer in the sky, and rises higher inthe heavens; and the path of the Christian is as the shining light. Last year's greenwood is this year's hardwood; and the Christian, inlike manner, has to 'grow in the grace and knowledge of the Lord andSaviour. ' So these progressively, and, therefore, as yet imperfectly, saved people, were gathered into the Church. 

Now I have but two things to say about that. If that be thedescription of the kind of folk that come into a Christian Church, the duties of that Church are very plainly marked. And the firstgreat one is to see to it that the community help the growth of itsmembers. There are Christian Churches--I do not say whether ours isone of them or not--into which, if a young plant is brought, it ispretty sure to be killed. The temperature is so low that the tendershoots are nipped as with frost, and die. I have seen people, comingall full of fervour and of faith, into Christian congregations, andfinding that the average round them was so much lower than their own, that they have cooled down after a time to the fashionabletemperature, and grown indifferent like their brethren. Let us, dearfriends, remember that a Christian Church is a nursery of imperfectChristians, and, for ourselves and for one another, try to make ourcommunion such as shall help shy and tender graces to unfoldthemselves, and woo out, by the encouragement of example, the lowestand the least perfect to lofty holiness and consecration like theMaster's. 

And if I am speaking to any in this congregation who hold aloof fromChristian fellowship for more or less sufficient reasons, let mepress upon them, in one word, that if they are conscious of apossession, however imperfect, of that incipient salvation, theirplace is thereby determined, and they are doing wrong if they do notconnect themselves with some Christian Communion, and stand forth asmembers of Christ's Church. 

And now one last word. I have tried to show you that salvation, inthe New Testament, is regarded as a process. The opposite thing is aprocess too. There is a very awful contrast in one of Paul'sEpistles. 'The preaching of the Cross is to them _who are in the actof perishing_ foolishness; unto us who are _being saved_, it is thepower of God. ' These two processes start, as it were, from the samepoint, one by slow degrees and almost imperceptible motion, risinghigher and higher, the other, by slow degrees and almost unconsciousdescent, sliding steadily and fatally downward ever further andfurther. And my point now is that in each of us one or other of theseprocesses is going on. Either you are slowly rising or you areslipping down. Either a larger measure of the life of Christ, whichis salvation, is passing into your hearts, or bit by bit you aredying like some man with creeping paralysis that begins at theextremities, and with fell, silent, inexorable footstep, advancesfurther and further towards the citadel of the heart, where it laysits icy hand at last, and the man is dead. You are either 'beingsaved' or you are 'perishing. ' No man becomes a devil all at once, and no man becomes an angel all at once. Trust yourself to Christ, and He will lift you to Himself; turn your back upon Him, as some ofyou are doing, and you will settle down, down, down in the muck andthe mire of your own sensuality and selfishness, until at last thefoul ooze spreads over your head, and you are lost in the bog forever. 

'THEN SHALL THE LAME MAN LEAP AS AN HART'

'Now Peter and John went up together into the temple at the hourof prayer, being the ninth hour. 2. And a certain man lame fromhis mother's womb was carried, whom they laid daily at the gateof the temple which is called Beautiful, to ask alms of them thatentered into the temple; 3. Who, seeing Peter and John about togo into the temple, asked an alms. 4. And Peter, fastening hiseyes upon him, with John, said, Look on us. 5. And he gave heedunto them, expecting to receive something of them. 6. Then Petersaid, Silver and gold have I none; but such as I have give Ithee: In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth rise up and walk. 7. And he took him by the right hand, and lifted him up: andimmediately his feet and ankle bones received strength. 8. And heleaping up, stood, and walked, and entered with them into thetemple, walking, and leaping, and praising God. 9. And all thepeople saw him walking and praising God: 10. And they knew thatit was he which sat for alms at the Beautiful gate of the temple:and they were filled with wonder and amazement at that which hadhappened unto him. 11. And as the lame man which was healed heldPeter and John, all the people ran together unto them in theporch that is called Solomon's, greatly wondering. 12. And whenPeter saw it, he answered unto the people, Ye men of Israel, whymarvel ye at this? or why look ye so earnestly on us, as thoughby our own power or holiness we had made this man to walk? 13. The God of Abraham, and of Isaac, and of Jacob, the God of ourfathers, hath glorified His Son Jesus; whom ye delivered up, anddenied Him in the presence of Pilate, when he was determined tolet Him go. 14. But ye denied the Holy One and the Just, anddesired a murderer to be granted unto you; 15. And killed thePrince of Life, whom God hath raised from the dead, whereof weare witnesses. 16. And His name through faith in His name hathmade this man strong, whom ye see and know; yea, the faith whichis by Him hath given him this perfect soundness in the presenceof you all. '--ACTS iii. 1-16. 

'Many wonders and signs were done by the Apostles' (Acts ii. 43), butthis one is recorded in detail, both because it was conspicuous aswrought in the Temple, and because it led to weighty consequences. The narrative is so vivid and full of minute particulars that itsuggests an eye-witness. Was Peter Luke's informant? The style of thestory is so like that of Mark's Gospel that we might reasonablypresume so. 

The scene and the persons are first set before us. It was naturalthat a close alliance should be cemented between Peter and John, bothbecause they were the principal members of the quartet which stoodfirst among the Apostles, and because they were so unlike each other, and therefore completed each other. Peter's practical force and eyefor externals, and John's more contemplative nature and eye for theunseen, needed one another. So we find them together in the judgmenthall, at the sepulchre, and here. 

They 'went up to the Temple, ' or, to translate more exactly and morepicturesquely, 'were going up, ' when the incident to be recordedstayed them. They had passed through the court, and came to a gateleading into the inner court, which was called 'Beautiful. ' from itsartistic excellence, when they were arrested by the sight of a lamebeggar, who had been carried there every day for many years toappeal, by the display of his helplessness, to the enteringworshippers. Precisely similar sights may be seen to-day at the doorsof many a famous European church and many a mosque. He mechanicallywailed out his formula, apparently scarcely looking at the twostrangers, nor expecting a response. Long habit and many rebuffs hadnot made him hopeful, but it was his business to ask, and so heasked. 

Some quick touch of pity shot through the two friends' hearts, whichdid not need to be spoken in order that each might feel it to beshared by the other. So they paused, and, as was in keeping withtheir characters, Peter took speech in hand, while John stood byassenting. Purposed devotion is well delayed when postponed in orderto lighten misery. 

There must have been something magnetic in Peter's voice and steadygaze as he said, 'Look on us!' It was a strange preface, if only somesmall coin was to follow. It kindled some flicker of hope of he knewnot what in the beggar. He expected to receive 'something' from them, and, no doubt, was asking himself what. Expectation and receptivitywere being stirred in him, though he could not divine what wascoming. We have no right to assume that his state of mind wasoperative in fitting him to be cured, nor to call his attitude'faith, ' but still he was lifted from his usual dreary hopelessness, and some strange anticipation was creeping into his heart. 

Then comes the grand word of power. Again Peter is spokesman, butJohn takes part, though silently. With a fixed gaze, which told ofconcentrated purpose, and went to the lame man's heart, Petertriumphantly avows what most men are ashamed of, and try to hide:'Silver and gold have I none. ' He had 'left all and followed Christ';he had not made demands on the common stock. Empty pockets may goalong with true wealth. 

There is a fine flash of exultant confidence in Peter's next words, which is rather spoiled by the Authorised Version. He did not say'_such_ as I have, ' as it it was inferior to money, which he had not, but he said '_what_ I have' (Rev. Ver. ), --a very different tone. Theexpression eloquently magnifies the power which he possessed as farmore precious than wealth, and it speaks of his assurance that he didpossess it--an assurance which rested, not only on his faith in hisLord's promise and gift, but on his experience in working formermiracles. 

How deep his words go into the obligations of possession! 'What Ihave I give' should be the law for all Christians in regard to allthat they have, and especially in regard to spiritual riches. Godgives us these, not only in order that we may enjoy them ourselves, but in order that we may impart, and so in our measure enter into thejoy of our Lord and know the greater blessedness of giving than ofreceiving. How often it has been true that a poor church has been amiracle-working church, and that, when it could not say 'Silver andgold have I none' it has also lost the power of saying, 'In the nameof Jesus Christ of Nazareth, walk'!

The actual miracle is most graphically narrated. With magnificentboldness Peter rolls out his Master's name, there, in the court ofthe Temple, careless who may hear. He takes the very name that hadbeen used in scorn, and waves it like a banner of victory. Hisconfidence in his possession of power was not confidence in himself, but in his Lord. When we can peal forth the Name with as muchassurance of its miracle-working power as Peter did, we too shall beable to make the lame walk. A faltering voice is unworthy to speaksuch words, and will speak them in vain. 

The process of cure is minutely described. Peter put out his hand tohelp the lame man up, and, while he was doing so, power came into theshrunken muscles and weak ankles, so that the cripple felt that hecould raise himself, and, though all passed in a moment, the lastpart of his rising was his own doing, and what began with his being'lifted up' ended in his 'leaping up. ' Then came an instant ofstanding still, to steady himself and make sure of his new strength, and then he began to walk. 

The interrupted purpose of devotion could now be pursued, but with agladsome addition to the company. How natural is that 'walking andleaping and praising God'! The new power seemed so delightful, sowonderful, that sober walking did not serve. It was a strange way ofgoing into the Temple, but people who are borne along by the suddenjoy of new gifts beyond hope need not be expected to go quietly, andsticklers for propriety who blamed the man's extravagance, and wouldhave had him pace along with sober gait and downcast eyes, like aPharisee, did not know what made him thus obstreperous, even in hisdevout thankfulness. 'Leaping and praising God' do make a singularcombination, but before we blame, let us be sure that we understand. 

One of the old manuscripts inserts a clause which brings out moreclearly that there was a pause, during which the three remained inthe Temple in prayer. It reads, 'And when Peter and John came out, hecame out with them, holding them, and they [the people] beingastonished, stood in the porch, ' etc. So we have to think of thebuzzing crowd, waiting in the court for their emergence from thesanctuary. Solomon's porch was, like the Beautiful gate, on the eastside of the Temple enclosure, and may probably have been a usualplace of rendezvous for the brethren, as it had been a resort oftheir Lord. 

It was a great moment, and Peter, the unlearned Galilean, the formercowardly renegade, rose at once to the occasion. Truly it was givenhim in that hour what to speak. His sermon is distinguished by itsundaunted charging home the guilt of Christ's death on the nation, its pitying recognition of the ignorance which had done the deed, andits urgent entreaty. We here deal with its beginning only. 'Whymarvel ye at this?'--it would have been a marvel if they had notmarvelled. The thing was no marvel to the Apostle, because hebelieved that Jesus was the Christ and reigned in Heaven. Miraclesfall into their place and become supremely 'natural' when we haveaccepted that great truth. 

The fervent disavowal of their 'own power or holiness' as concernedin the healing is more than a modest disclaimer. It leads on to thedeclaration of who is the true Worker of all that is wrought for menby the hands of Christians. That disavowal has to be constantlyrepeated by us, not so much to turn away men's admiration orastonishment from us, as to guard our own foolish hearts from takingcredit for what it may please Jesus to do by us as His tools. 

The declaration of Christ as the supreme Worker is postponed tillafter the solemn indictment of the nation. But the true way to regardthe miracle is set forth at once, as being God's glorifying of Jesus. Peter employs a designation of our Lord which is peculiar to theseearly chapters of Acts. He calls Him God's 'Servant, ' which is aquotation of the Messianic title in the latter part of Isaiah, 'theServant of the Lord. '

The fiery speaker swiftly passes to contrast God's glorifying withIsrael's rejection. The two points on which he seizes are noteworthy. 'Ye delivered Him up'; that is, to the Roman power. That was thedeepest depth of Israel's degradation. To hand over their Messiah tothe heathen, --what could be completer faithlessness to all Israel'scalling and dignity? But that was not all: 'ye denied Him. ' Did Peterremember some one else than the Jews who had done the same, and did asudden throb of conscious fellowship even in that sin make his voicetremble for a moment? Israel's denial was aggravated because it was'in the presence of Pilate, ' and had overborne his determination torelease his prisoner. The Gentile judge would rise in the judgment tocondemn them, for he had at least seen that Jesus was innocent, andthey had hounded him on to an illegal killing, which was murder aslaid to his account, but national apostasy as laid to theirs. 

These were daring words to speak in the Temple to that crowd. But thehumble fisherman had been filled with the Spirit, who is theStrengthener, and the fear of man was dead in him. If we had neverheard of Pentecost, we should need to invent something of the sort tomake intelligible the transformation of these timid folk, the firstdisciples, into heroes. A dead Christ, lying in an unknown grave, could never have inspired His crushed followers with such courage, insight, and elastic confidence and gladness in the face of afrowning world. 

'THE PRINCE OF LIFE'

'But ye denied the Holy One and the Just, and desired a murdererto be granted unto you; 15. And killed the Prince of life, whomGod hath raised from the dead; whereof we are witnesses. '--ACTS iii. 14, 15. 

This early sermon of Peter's, to the people, is marked by acomparative absence of the highest view of Christ's person and work. It is open to us to take one of two explanations of that fact. We mayeither say that the Apostle was but learning the full significance ofthe marvellous events that had passed so recently, or we may say thathe suited his words to his audience, and did not declare all that heknew. 

At the same time, we should not overlook the significance of theChristology which it does contain. 'His child Jesus' is really atranslation of Isaiah's 'Servant of the Lord. ' 'The Holy One and theJust' is a distinct assertion of Jesus' perfect, sinless manhood, and'the Prince of Life' plainly asserts Jesus to be the Lord and Sourceof it. 

Notice, too, the pathetic 'denied': was Peter thinking of theshameful hour in his own experience? It is a glimpse into the depthof his penitence, and the tenderness with others' sins which it hadgiven him, that he twice uses the word here, as if he had said 'Youhave done no more than I did myself. It is not for me to heapreproaches on you. We have been alike in sin--and I can preachforgiveness to you sinners, because I have received it for myself. '

Notice, too, the manifold antitheses of the words. Barabbas is setagainst Christ; the Holy One and the Just against a robber, thePrince of Life against a murderer. 'You killed'--'the Prince ofLife. ' 'You killed'--'God raised. '

There are here three paradoxes, three strange and contradictorythings: the paradoxes of man's perverted and fatal choice, of man'shate bringing death to the Lord of life, and of God's love and powercausing life to come by death. 

I. The paradox of man's fatal choice. 

There occurs often in history a kind of irony in which the wholetendency of a time or of a conflict is summed up in a single act, andcertainly the fact which is referred to here is one of these. Let usput it as it would have seemed to an onlooker then, leaving out forthe moment any loftier meaning which may attach to it. 

Peter's words here, thus boldly addressed to the people, are a strongtestimony to the impression which the character of Christ had made onHis contemporaries. 'The Holy One and the Just' implies moralperfection. The whole narrative of the Crucifixion brings out thatimpression. Pilate's wife speaks with awe of 'that just person. ''Which of you convinceth me of sin?' 'If I have done evil, bearwitness of the evil. ' 'I find no fault in Him. ' We may take it forgranted that the impression Jesus made among His contemporaries was, at the lowest, that He was a pure and good man. 

The nation had to choose one of two. Jesus was the one; who was theother? A man half brigand, half rebel, who had raised some pettyrevolt against Rome, more as a pretext for robbery and crime thanfrom patriotism, and whose hands reeked with blood. And this was thenation's hero!

The juxtaposition throws a strong light on the people's motive forrejecting Jesus. The rulers may have condemned Him for blasphemy, butthe people had a more practical reason, and in it no doubt the rulersshared. It was not because He claimed to be the Messiah that theygave Him up to Pilate, but because He would not meet their notions ofwhat the Messiah should be and do. If He had called them to arms, nota man of them would have betrayed Him to Pilate, but all, or the moredaring of them, would have rallied to His standard. Their hate wasthe measure of their deep disappointment with His course. If insteadof showing love and meekness, He had blown up the coals of religioushatred; if instead of going about doing good, He had mustered the menof lawless Galilee for a revolt, would these fawning hypocrites havedragged him to Pilate on the charge of forbidding to give tribute toCaesar, and of claiming to be a King? Why, there was not one of thembut would have been glad to murder every tax-gatherer in Palestine, not one of them but bore inextinguishable in his inmost heart thefaith in 'one Christ a King. ' And if that meek and silent martyr hadonly lifted His finger, He might have had legions of His accusers atHis back, ready to sweep Pilate and his soldiers out of Jerusalem. They saw Christ's goodness and holiness. It did not attract them. They wanted a Messiah who would bring them outward freedom by the useof outward weapons, and so they all shouted 'Not this man butBarabbas!' The whole history of the nation was condensed in that onecry--their untamable obstinacy, their blindness to the light of God, their fierce grasp of the promises which they did not understand, their hard worldliness, their cruel patriotism, their unquenchablehatred of their oppressors, which was only equalled by theirunquenchable hatred of those who showed them the only true way fordeliverance. 

And this strange paradox is not confined to these Jews. It isrepeated wherever Christ is presented to men. We are told that allmen naturally admire goodness, and so on. Men mostly know it whenthey see it, but I doubt whether they all either admire or like it. People generally had rather have something more outward and tangible. It is not spiritualising this incident, but only referring it to theprinciple of which it is an illustration, to ask you to see in it thefatal choice of multitudes. Christ is set before us all, and Hisbeauty is partially seen but is dimmed by externals. Men's desiresare fixed on gross sensuous delights, or on success in business, oron intellectual eminence, or on some of the thousand other visibleand temporal objects that outshine, to vulgar eyes, the less dazzlinglustre of the things unseen. They appreciate these, and make heroesof the men who have won them. These are their ideals, but of Jesusthey have little care. 

And is it not true that all such competitors of His, when they leadmen to prefer them to Him, are 'murderers, ' in a sadder sense thanBarabbas was? Do they not slay the souls of their admirers? Is it notbut too ghastly a reality that all who thus choose them draw downruin on themselves and 'love death'?

This fatal paradox is being repeated every day in the lives ofthousands. The crowds who yelled, 'Not this man but Barabbas!' wereless guilty and less mad than those who to-day cry, 'Not Jesus butworldly wealth, or fleeting bodily delights, or gratified ambition!'

II. The paradox of Death's seeming conquest over the Lord of Life. 

The word rendered 'Prince' means an originator, and hence a leaderand hence a lord. Whether Peter had yet reached a conception of thedivinity of Jesus or not, he had clearly reached a much higher one ofHim than he had attained before His death. In some sense he wasbeginning to recognise that His relation to 'life' was loftier andmore mysterious than that of other men. Was it His death only thatthus elevated the disciples' thoughts of Jesus? Strange that if Hedied and there an end, such a result should have followed. One wouldhave expected His death to have shattered their faith in Him, butsomehow it strengthened their faith. Why did they not all continue tolament, as did the two of them on the road to Emmaus: 'We trustedthat this had been He who should have redeemed Israel'--but now wetrust no more, and our dreams are buried in His grave? Why did theynot go back to Galilee and their nets? What raised their spirits, their courage, and increased their understanding of Him, and theirfaith in Him? How came His death to be the occasion of consolidating, not of shattering, their fellowship? How came Peter to be so surethat a man who had died was the 'Prince of Life'? The answer, theonly one psychologically possible, is in what Peter here proclaims tounwilling ears, 'Whom God raised from the dead. '

The fact of the Resurrection sets the fact of the Death in anotherlight. Meditating on these twin facts, the Death and Resurrection ofJesus, we hear Himself speaking as He did to John in Patmos: 'I amthe Living One who became dead, and lo, I am alive for evermore!'

If we try to listen with the ears of these first hearers of Peter'swords, we shall better appreciate his daring paradox. Think of thetremendous audacity of the claim which they make, that Jesus shouldbe the 'Prince of Life, ' and of the strange contradiction to it whichthe fact that they 'killed' Him seems to give. How could death havepower over the Prince of Life? That sounds as if, indeed, the 'sunwere turned into darkness, ' or as if fire became ice. That briefclause 'ye killed the Prince of Life' must have seemed sheerabsurdity to the hearers whose hands were still red with the blood ofJesus. 

But there is another paradox here. It was strange that death shouldbe able to invade that Life, but it is no less strange that menshould be able to inflict it. But we must not forget that Jesus died, not because men slew Him, but because He willed to die. The whole ofthe narratives of the Crucifixion in the Gospels avoid using the word'death. ' Such expressions as He 'gave up the ghost, ' or the like, areused, implying what is elsewhere distinctly asserted, that His deathwas His offering of Himself, the result of His own volition, not ofexhaustion or of torture. Thus, even in dying, He showed Himself theLord of Life and the Master of Death. Men indeed fastened Jesus tothe Cross, but He died, not because He was so fastened, but becauseHe willed to 'make His soul an offering for sin. ' Bound as it were toa rock in the midst of the ocean, He, of His own will, and at His owntime, bowed His head, and let the waves of the sea of death roll overit. 

III. The triumphant divine paradox of life given and death conqueredthrough a death. 

Jesus is 'Prince' in the sense of being source of life to mankind, just because He died. Hie death is the death of Death. His apparentdefeat is His real victory. 

By His death He takes away our sins. 

By His death He abolishes death. 

The physical fact remains, but all else which makes the 'sting ofdeath' to men is gone. It is no more a solitude, for He has died, andthereby He becomes a companion in that hour to every lover of His. Its darkness changes into light to those who, by 'following Him, 'have, even there, 'the light of life. ' This Samson carried away thegates of the prison on His own strong shoulders when He came forthfrom it. It is His to say, 'O death! I will be thy plague. '

By His death He diffuses life. 

'The Spirit was not given' till Jesus was 'glorified, ' whichglorification is John's profound synonym for His crucifixion. Whenthe alabaster box of His pure body was broken, the whole house ofhumanity was filled with the odour of the ointment. 

So the great paradox becomes a blessed truth, that man's deepest sinworks out God's highest act of Love and Pardon. 

THE HEALING POWER OF THE NAME

'And His name through faith in His name hath made this manstrong, whom ye see and know: yea, the faith which is by Him hathgiven him this perfect soundness in the presence of you all. '--ACTS iii. 16. 

Peter said, 'Why look ye so earnestly on us, as though by our ownpower or holiness we had made this man to walk?' eagerly disclaimingbeing anything else than a medium through which Another's poweroperated. Jesus Christ said, 'That ye may know that the Son of Manhath power on earth to forgive sins, I say unto thee, Arise, take upthy bed, and walk'--unmistakably claiming to be a great deal morethan a medium. Why the difference? Jesus Christ did habitually in Hismiracles adopt the tone on which Moses once ventured when he smotethe rock and said, 'Ye rebels! must _we_ bring the water for you?'and he was punished for it by exclusion from the Promised Land. Whythe difference? Moses was 'in all his house as a servant, but Christas a Son over His own house'; and what was arrogance in the servantwas natural and reasonable in the Son. 

The gist of this verse is a reference to Jesus Christ as a source ofmiraculous power, not merely because He wrought miracles when onearth, but because from heaven He gave the power of which Peter wasbut the channel. Now it seems to me that in these emphatic andsingularly reduplicated words of the Apostle there are two or threevery important lessons which I offer for your consideration. 

I. The first is the power of the Name. 

Now the Name of which Peter is speaking is not the collocation ofsyllables which are sounded 'Jesus Christ. ' His hearers were familiarwith the ancient and Eastern method of regarding names as very muchmore than distinguishing labels. They are, in the view of the OldTestament, attempts at a summary description of things by theirprominent characteristics. They are condensed definitions. And so theOld Testament uses the expression, the 'Name' of God, as equivalentto 'that which God is manifested to be. ' Hence, in later days--andthere are some tendencies thither even in Scripture--in Jewishliterature 'the Name' came to be a reverential synonym for GodHimself. And there are traces that this peculiar usage with regard tothe divine Name was beginning to shape itself in the Church withreference to the name of Jesus, even at that period in which my textwas spoken. For instance, in the fifth chapter we read that theApostles 'departed from the council rejoicing that they were countedworthy to suffer shame for the Name, ' and we find at a much laterdate that missionaries of the Gospel are described by the ApostleJohn as going forth 'for the sake of the Name. '

The name of Christ, then, is the representation or embodiment of thatwhich Christ is declared to be for us men, and it is that Name, thetotality of what He is manifested to be, in which lies all power forhealing and for strengthening. The Name, that is, the whole Christ, in His nature, His offices, His work, His Incarnation, His Life, HisDeath, Resurrection, Session at the right hand of God--it is thisChrist whose Name made that man strong, and will make us strong. Brethren, let us remember that, while fragments of the Name will havefragmentary power, as the curative virtue that resides in anysubstance belongs to the smallest grain of it, if detached from themass--whilst fragments of the Name of Christ have power, thanks be toHim! so that no man can have even a very imperfect and rudimentaryview of what Jesus Christ is and does, without getting strength andhealing in proportion to the completeness of his conception, yet inorder to realise all that He can be and do, a man must take the wholeChrist as He is revealed. 

The Early Church had a symbol for Jesus Christ, a fish, to which theywere led because the Greek word for a fish is made up of the initialsof the words which they conceived to be the Name. And what was it?'_Jesus Christ_, _God's Son_, _Saviour_'; _Jesus_, humanity;_Christ_, the apex of Revelation, the fulfilment of prophecy, theAnointed Prophet, Priest, and King; _Son of God_, the divine nature:and all these, the humanity, the Messiahship, the divinity, foundtheir sphere of activity in the last name, which, without them, wouldin its fulness have been impossible--_Saviour_. He is not such aSaviour as He may be to each of us, unless our conception of the Namegrasps these three truths: His humanity, His Messiahship, Hisdivinity. 'His Name has made this man strong. '

II. Notice how the power of the Name comes to operate. 

Now, if you will observe the language of my text, you will note thatPeter says, as it would appear, the same thing twice over: 'His Name, through faith in His Name, hath made this man strong. ' And then, asif he were saying something else, he adds what seems to be the samething: 'Yea! the faith which is by Him hath given him this perfectsoundness. '

Now, note that in the first of these two statements nothing appearsexcept the 'man, ' the 'Name, ' and 'faith' I take it, though of courseit may be questionable, that that clause refers to the man's faith, and that we have in it the intentional exclusion of the humanworkers, and are presented with the only two parties reallyconcerned--at the one end the Name, at the other end 'this man madestrong. ' And the link of connection between the two in this clause isfaith--that is, the man's trust. But then, if we come to the nextclause, we find that although Peter has just previously disclaimedall merit in the cure, yet there is a sense in which some one'sfaith, working as from without, _gave_ to the man 'this perfectsoundness. ' And it seems very natural to me to understand that here, where human faith is represented as being, in some subordinate sense, the bestower of the healing which really the Name had bestowed, it isthe faith of the human miracle-worker or medium which is referred to. Peter's faith did give, but Peter only gave what he had receivedthrough faith. And so let all the praise be given to the water, andnone to the cup. 

Whether that be a fair interpretation of the words of my text, withtheir singular and apparently meaningless tautology or no, at allevents the principle which is involved in the explanation is one thatI wish to dwell upon briefly now; and that is, that in order for theName, charged and supercharged with healing and strengthening poweras it is, to come into operation, there must be a twofold trust. 

The healer, the medium of healing, must have faith in the Name. Yes!of course. In all regions the first requisite, the one indispensablecondition, of a successful propagandist, is enthusiastic confidencein what he promulgates. 'That man will go far, ' said a cynicalpolitician about one of his rivals; 'he believes every word he says. 'And that is the condition always of getting other people to believeus. Faith is contagious; men catch from other people's tongues theaccent of conviction. If one wants to enforce any opinion uponothers, the first condition is that he shall be utterly self-oblivious; and when he is manifestly saying, as the Apostles in thiscontext did, 'Do not fix your eyes on us, as though we were doinganything, ' then hearts will bow before him, as the trees of the woodare bowed by the wind. 

If that is true in all regions, it is eminently true in regard toreligion. For what we need there most is not to be instructed, but tobe impressed. Most of us have, lying dormant in the bedchamber andinfirmary of our brains, convictions which only need to be awakenedto revolutionise our lives. Now one of the most powerful ways ofwaking them is contact with any man in whom they are awake. So allsuccessful teachers and messengers of Jesus Christ have had thischaracteristic in common, however unlike each other they have been. The divergences of temperament, of moods, of point of view, of methodof working which prevailed even in the little group of Apostles, andbroadly distinguished Paul from Peter, Peter from James, and Paul andPeter and James from John, are only types of what has been repeatedever since. Get together the great missionaries of the Cross, and youwould have the most extraordinary collection of miscellaneousidiosyncrasies that the world ever saw, and they would not understandeach other, as some of them wofully misunderstood each other whenhere together. But there was one characteristic in them all, aflaming earnestness of belief in the power of the Name. And so it didnot matter much, if at all, what their divergences were. Each of themwas fitted for the Master's use. 

And so, brethren, here is the reason--I do not say the only reason, but the main one, and that which most affects us--for the slowprogress, and even apparent failure, of Christianity. It has falleninto the hands of a Church that does not half believe its own Gospel. By reason of formality and ceremonial and sacerdotalism and a lazykind of expectation that, somehow or other, the benefits of Christ'slove can come to men apart from their own personal faith in Him, theChurch has largely ceased to anticipate that great things can be doneby its utterance of the Name. And if you have, I do not sayministers, or teachers, or official proclaimers, or Sunday-schoolteachers, or the like, but I say if you have a _Church_, that ishoneycombed with doubt, and from which the strength and flood-tide offaith have in many cases ebbed away, why, it may go on uttering itsformal proclamations of the Name till the Day of Judgment, and allthat will come of it will be--'The man in whom the devils were, leaped upon them, and overcame them, and said'--as he had a goodright to say--'Jesus I know, and Paul I know, but who are ye?' Youcannot kindle a fire with snowballs. If the town crier goes into aquiet corner of the marketplace and rings his bell apologetically, and gives out his message in a whisper, it is small wonder if nobodylistens. And that is the way in which too many so-called Christianteachers and communities hold forth the Name, as if begging pardon ofthe world for being so narrow and old-fashioned as to believe in itstill. 

And no less necessary is faith on the other side. The recipient mustexercise trust. This lame man, no doubt, like the other that Paullooked at in a similar case, had faith to be healed. That was thelength of his tether. He believed that he was going to have his legsmade strong, and they were made strong accordingly. If he hadbelieved more, he would have got more. Let us hope that he did getmore, because he believed more, at a later day. But in the meantimethe Apostles' faith was not enough to cure him; and it is not enoughfor you that Jesus Christ should be standing with all His power atyour elbow, and that, earnestly and enthusiastically, some ofChrist's messengers may press upon you the acceptance of Him as aSaviour. He is of no good in the world to you, and never will be, unless you have the personal faith that knits you to Him. 

It cannot be otherwise. Depend upon it, if Jesus Christ could saveevery one without terms and conditions at all, He would be only tooglad to do it. But it cannot be done. The nature of His work, and thesort of blessings that He brings by His work, are such as that it isan impossibility that any man should receive them unless he has thattrust which, beginning with the acceptance by the understanding ofChrist as Saviour, passes on to the assent of the will, and theoutgoing of the heart, and the yielding of the whole nature to Him. How can a truth do any good to any one who does not believe in it?How is it possible that, if you do not take a medicine, it will work?How can you expect to see, unless you open your eyes? How do youpropose to have your blood purified, if you do not fill your lungswith air? Is it of any use to have gas-fittings in your house, ifthey are not connected with the main? Will a water tap run in yoursculleries, if there is no pipe that joins it with the source ofsupply? My dear friend, these rough illustrations are onlyapproximations to the absolute impossibility that Christ can help, heal, or save any man without the man's personal faith. 'Whosoeverbelieveth' is no arbitrary limitation, but is inseparable from thevery nature of the salvation given. 

III. And now, lastly, note the effects of the power of the Name. 

The Apostle puts in two separate clauses what, in the case in hand, was really one thing--'hath made this man strong, ' and 'hath givenhim perfect soundness. ' Ah! we can part the two, cannot we? There isthe disease, the disease of an alienated heart, of a perverted will, of a swollen self, all of which we need to have cured and checkedbefore we can do right. And there is weakness, the impotence to dowhat is good, 'how to perform I find not, ' and we need to bestrengthened as well as cured. There is only one thing that will dothese two, and that is that Christ's power, ay, and Christ's ownlife, should pass, as it will pass if we trust Him, into our foulnessand precipitate all the impurity--into our weakness and infusestrength. 'A reed shaken with the wind, ' and without substance orsolidity to resist, may be placed in what is called a petrifyingwell, and, by the infiltration of stony substance into its structure, may be turned into a rigid mass, like a little bar of iron. So, ifChrist comes into my poor, weak, tremulous nature, there will be aninfiltration into the very substance of my being of a present powerwhich will make me strong. 

My brother, you and I need, first and foremost, the healing, and thenthe strength-giving power, which we never find in its completenessanywhere but in Christ, and which we shall always find in Him. 

And now notice, Jesus Christ does not make half cures--'this_perfect_ soundness. ' If any man, in contact with Him, is but halfdelivered from his infirmities and purged from his sins, it is notbecause Christ's power is inadequate, but because his own faith isdefective. 

Christ's cures should be visible to all around. A man's own testimonyis not the most satisfactory. Peter appeals to the bystanders. 'Youhave seen him lying here for years, a motionless lump of mendicancy, at the Temple gate. Now you see him walking and leaping and praisingGod. Is it a cure, or is it not?' You professing Christians, wouldyou like to stand that test, to empanel a jury of people that have nosympathy with your religion, in order that they might decide whetheryou were healed and strengthened or not? It is a good thing for uswhen the world bears witness that Jesus Christ's power has come intous, and made us what we are. 

And so, dear friends, I lay all these thoughts on your hearts. Christ's gift is amply sufficient to deliver us from all evils ofweakness, sickness, incapacity: to endue us with all gifts ofspiritual and immortal strength. But, while the limit of what Christgives is His boundless wealth, the limit of what you possess is yourfaith. The rainfall comes down in the same copiousness on rock andfurrow, but it runs off the one, having stimulated no growth and leftno blessing, and it sinks into the other and quickens every dormantgerm into life which will one day blossom into beauty. We are all ofus either rock or soil, and which we are depends on the reality, thefirmness, and the force of our faith in Christ. He Himself has laiddown the principle on which He bestows His gifts when He says, 'According to thy faith be it unto thee!'

THE SERVANT OF THE LORD

'Unto you first God, having raised up His Son Jesus, sent Him tobless you, In turning away every one of you from his iniquities. '--ACTS iii. 26. 

So ended Peter's bold address to the wondering crowd gathered in theTemple courts around him, with his companion John and the lame manwhom they had healed. A glance at his words will show howextraordinarily outspoken and courageous they are. He charges home onhis hearers the guilt of Christ's death, unfalteringly proclaims HisMessiahship, bears witness to His Resurrection and Ascension, assertsthat He is the End and Fulfilment of ancient revelation, and offersto all the great blessings that Christ brings. And this fiery, tenderoration came from the same lips which, a few weeks before, had beenblanched with fear before a flippant maidservant, and had quivered asthey swore, 'I know not the man!'

One or two simple observations may be made by way of introduction. 'Unto you _first_'--'first' implies second; and so the Apostle hasshaken himself clear of the Jews' narrow belief that Messias belongedto them only, and is already beginning to contemplate the possibilityof a transference of the kingdom of God to the outlying Gentiles. 'God having raised up His Son'--that expression has no reference, asit might at first seem, to the fact of the Resurrection; but isemployed in the same sense as, and indeed looks back to, previouswords. For he had just quoted Moses' declaration, 'A prophet shallthe Lord your God raise up unto you from your brethren. ' So it isChrist's equipment and appointment for His office, and not HisResurrection, which is spoken about here. 'His Son Jesus'--theRevised Version more accurately translates 'His Servant Jesus. ' Ishall have a word or two to say about that translation presently, butin the meantime I simply note the fact. 

With this slight explanation let us now turn to two or three of theaspects of the words before us. 

I. First, I note the extraordinary transformation which they indicatein the speaker. 

I have already referred to his cowardice a very short time before. That transformation from a coward to a hero he shared in common withhis brethren. On one page we read, 'They all forsook Him and fled. 'We turn over half a dozen leaves and we read: 'They departed from thecouncil, rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer shame forHis name. ' What did that?

Then there is another transformation no less swift, sudden, andinexplicable, except on one hypothesis. All through Christ's life thedisciples had been singularly slow to apprehend the highest aspectsof His teachings, and they had clung with a strange obstinacy totheir narrow Pharisaic and Jewish notions of the Messiah as coming toestablish a temporal dominion, in which Israel was to ride upon thenecks of the subject nations. And now, all at once, this Apostle, andhis fellows with him, have stepped from these puerile and narrowideas out into this large place, that he and they recognise that theJew had no exclusive possession of Messiah's blessings, and thatthese blessings consisted in no external kingdom, but lay mainly andprimarily in His 'turning every one of you from your iniquities. ' Atone time the Apostles stood upon a gross, low, carnal level, and in afew weeks they were, at all events, feeling their way to, and to alarge extent had possession of, the most spiritual and lofty aspectsof Christ's mission. What did that?

Something had come in between which wrought more, in a short space, than all the three years of Christ's teaching and companionship haddone for them. What was it? Why did they not continue in the moodwhich two of them are reported to have been in, after theCrucifixion, when they said--'It is all up! we trusted that this hadbeen He, ' but the force of circumstances has shivered the confidenceinto fragments, and there is no such hope left for us any longer. What brought them out of that Slough of Despond?

I would put it to any fair-minded man whether the psychological factsof this sudden maturing of these childish minds, and their suddenchange from slinking cowards into heroes who did not blanch beforethe torture and the scaffold, are accountable, if you strike out theResurrection, the Ascension, and Pentecost? It seems to me that, forthe sake of avoiding a miracle, the disbelievers in the Resurrectionaccept an impossibility, and tie themselves to an intellectualabsurdity. And I for one would rather believe in a miracle thanbelieve in an uncaused change, in which the Apostles take exactly theopposite course from that which they necessarily must have taken, ifthere had not been the facts that the New Testament asserts thatthere were, Christ's rising again from the dead, and Ascension. 

Why did not the Church share the fate of John's disciples, whoscattered like sheep without a shepherd when Herod chopped off theirmaster's head? Why did not the Church share the fate of that abortiverising, of which we know that when Theudas, its leader, was slain, 'all, as many as believed on him, came to nought. ' Why did these menact in exactly the opposite way? I take it that, as you cannotaccount for Christ except on the hypothesis that He is the Son of theHighest, you cannot account for the continuance of the ChristianChurch for a week after the Crucifixion, except on the hypothesisthat the men who composed it were witnesses of His Resurrection, andsaw Him floating upwards and received into the Shechinah cloud andlost to their sight. Peter's change, witnessed by the words of mytext--these bold and clear-sighted words--seems to me to be a perfectmonstrosity, and incapable of explication, unless he saw the risenLord, beheld the ascended Christ, was touched with the fiery Spiritdescending on Pentecost, and so 'out of weakness was made strong, 'and from a babe sprang to the stature of a man in Christ. 

II. Look at these words as setting forth a remarkable view of Christ. 

I have already referred to the fact that the word rendered 'son'ought rather to be rendered 'servant. ' It literally means 'child' or'boy, ' and appears to have been used familiarly, just in the samefashion as we use the same expression 'boy, ' or its equivalent'maid, ' as a more gentle designation for a servant. Thus the kindlycenturion, when he would bespeak our Lord's care for his menial, calls him his 'boy'; and our Bible there translates rightly'servant. '

Again, the designation is that which is continually employed in theGreek translation of the Old Testament as the equivalent for thewell-known prophetic phrase 'the Servant of Jehovah, ' which, as youwill remember, is characteristic of the second portion of theprophecies of Isaiah. And consequently we find that, in a quotationof Isaiah's prophecy in the Gospel of Matthew, the very phrase of ourtext is there employed: 'Behold My Servant whom I uphold!'

Now, it seems as if this designation of our Lord as God's Servant wasvery familiar to Peter's thoughts at this stage of the development ofChristian doctrine. For we find the name employed twice in thisdiscourse--in the thirteenth verse, 'the God of our Fathers hathglorified His Servant Jesus, ' and again in my text. We also find ittwice in the next chapter, where Peter, offering up a prayer amongsthis brethren, speaks of 'Thy Holy Child Jesus, ' and prays 'that signsand wonders may be done through the name' of that 'Holy Child. ' So, then, I think we may fairly take it that, at the time in question, this thought of Jesus as the 'Servant of the Lord' had come withespecial force to the primitive Church. And the fact that thedesignation never occurs again in the New Testament seems to showthat they passed on from it into a deeper perception than even itattests of who and what this Jesus was in relation to God. 

But, at all events, we have in our text the Apostle looking back tothat dim, mysterious Figure which rises up with shadowy lineamentsout of the great prophecy of 'Isaiah, ' and thrilling with awe andwonder, as he sees, bit by bit, in the Face painted on the propheticcanvas, the likeness of the Face into which he had looked for threeblessed years, that now began to tell him more than they had donewhilst their moments were passing. 

'The Servant of the Lord'--that means, first of all, that Christ, inall which He does, meekly and obediently executes the Father's will. As He Himself said, 'I come not to do Mine own will, but the will ofHim that sent Me. ' But it carries us further than that, to a pointabout which I would like to say one word now; and that is, the clearrecognition that the very centre of Jewish prophecy is the revelationof the personality of the Christ. Now, it seems to me that presenttendencies, discussions about the nature and limits of inspiration, investigations which, in many directions, are to be welcomed and arefruitful as to the manner of origin of the books of the OldTestament, and as to their collection into a Canon and a whole--thatall this new light has a counterbalancing disadvantage, in that ittends somewhat to obscure in men's minds the great central truthabout the revelation of God in Israel--viz. That it was allprogressive, and that its goal and end was Jesus Christ. 'Thetestimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy, ' and however much wemay have to learn--and I have no doubt that we have a great deal tolearn, about the composition, the structure, the authorship, the dateof these ancient books--I take leave to say that the unlearnedreader, who recognises that they all converge on Jesus Christ, hashold of the clue of the labyrinth, and has come nearer to the marrowof the books than the most learned investigators, who see all mannerof things besides in them, and do not see that 'they that went beforecried, saying, Hosanna! Blessed be He that cometh in the name of theLord!'

And so I venture to commend to you, brethren--not as a barrieragainst any reverent investigation, not as stopping any carefulstudy--this as the central truth concerning the ancient revelation, that it had, for its chief business, to proclaim the coming of theServant of Jehovah, Jesus the Christ. 

III. And now, lastly, look at these words as setting forth the truecentre of Christ's work. 

'He has sent Him to bless you in turning away every one of you fromhis iniquities. ' I have already spoken about the gross, narrow, carnal apprehensions of Messiah's work which cleaved to the disciplesduring all our Lord's life here, and which disturbed even thesanctity of the upper chamber at that last meal, with squabbles aboutprecedence which had an eye to places in the court of the Messiahwhen He assumed His throne. But here Peter has shaken himself clearof all these, and has grasped the thought that, whatever derivativeand secondary blessings of an external and visible sort may, andmust, come in Messiah's train, _the_ blessing which He brings is of apurely spiritual and inward character, and consists in turning awaysingle souls from their love and practice of evil. That is Christ'strue work. 

The Apostle does not enlarge as to how it is done. We know how it isdone. Jesus turns away men from sin because, by the magnetism of Hislove, and the attractive raying out of influence from His Cross, Heturns them to Himself. He turns us from our iniquities by theexpulsive power of a new affection, which, coming into our heartslike a great river into some foul Augean stable, sweeps out on itswaters all the filth that no broom can ever clear out in detail. Heturns men from their iniquities by His gift of a new life, kindredwith that from which it is derived. 

There is an old superstition that lightning turned whatever it strucktowards the point from which the flash came, so that a tree with itsthousand leaves had each of them pointed to that quarter in theheavens where the blaze had been. 

And so Christ, when He flings out the beneficent flash that slaysonly our evil, and vitalises ourselves, turns us to Him, and awayfrom our transgressions. 'Turn us, O Christ, and we shall be turned. '

Ah, brethren! that is the blessing that we need most, for'iniquities' are universal; and so long as man is bound to his sin itwill embitter all sweetnesses, and neutralise every blessing. It isnot culture, valuable as that is in many ways, that will avail tostanch man's deepest wounds. It is not a new social order that willstill the discontent and the misery of humanity. You may adoptcollective economic and social arrangements, and divide property outas it pleases you. But as long as man continues selfish he willcontinue sinful, and as long as he continues sinful _any_ socialorder will be pregnant with sorrow, 'and when it is finished it willbring forth death. ' You have to go deeper down than all that, down asdeep as this Apostle goes in this sermon of his, and recognise thatChrist's prime blessing is the turning of men from their iniquities, and that only after that has been done will other good come. 

How shallow, by the side of that conception, do modern notions ofJesus as the great social Reformer look! These are true, but theywant their basis, and their basis lies only here, that He is theRedeemer of individuals from their sins. There were people inChrist's lifetime who were all untouched by His teachings, but whenthey found that He gave bread miraculously they said, 'This is of atruth the Prophet! That's the prophet for my money; the Man that canmake bread, and secure material well-being. ' Have not certain modernviews of Christ's work and mission a good deal in common with thesevulgar old Jews--views which regard Him mainly as contributing to thematerial good, the social and economical well-being of the world?

Now, I believe that He does that. And I believe that Christ'sprinciples are going to revolutionise society as it exists atpresent. But I am sure that we are on a false scent if we attempt topreach consequences without proclaiming their antecedents, and thatsuch preaching will end, as all such attempts have ended, inconfusion and disappointment. 

They used to talk about Jesus Christ, in the first French Revolution, as 'the Good _Sansculotte_. ' Perfectly true! But as the basis ofthat, and of all representations of Him, that will have power on thediseases of the community, we have to preach Him as the Saviour ofthe individual from his sin. 

And so, brethren, has He saved you? Do you begin your notions ofJesus Christ where His work begins? Do you feel that what you wantmost is neither culture nor any superficial and external changes, butsomething that will deal with the deep, indwelling, rooted, obstinateself-regard which is the centre of all sin? And have you gone aloneto Him as a sinful man? As the Apostle here suggests, Jesus Christdoes not save communities. The doctor has his patients into theconsulting-room one by one. There is no applying of Christ's benefitsto men in batches, by platoons and regiments, as Clovis baptized hisFranks; but you have to go, every one of you, through the turnstilesingly, and alone to confess, and alone to be absolved, and alone tobe turned, from your iniquity. 

If I might venture to alter the position of words in my text, I wouldlay them, so modified, on the hearts of all my friends whom my wordsmay reach now, and say, 'Unto you--_unto thee_, God, having raised upHis Son Jesus, sent Him to bless you, _first_ in turning away everyone of you from his iniquities. '

THE FIRST BLAST OF TEMPEST

'And as they spake unto the people, the priests, and the captainof the temple, and the Sadducees, came upon them, 2. Beinggrieved that they taught the people, and preached through Jesusthe resurrection from the dead. 3. And they laid hands on them, and put them in hold unto the next day: for it was now even-tide. 4. Howbeit many of them which heard the word believed; and thenumber of the men was about five thousand. 5. And it came to passon the morrow, that their rulers, and elders, and scribes, 6. AndAnnas the high priest, and Caiaphas, and John, and Alexander, andas many as were of the kindred of the high priest, were gatheredtogether at Jerusalem. 7. And when they had set them in themidst, they asked, By what power, or by what name, have ye donethis? 8. Then Peter, filled with the Holy Ghost, said unto them, Ye rulers of the people, and elders of Israel, 9. If we this daybe examined of the good deed done to the impotent man, by whatmeans he is made whole; 10. Be it known unto you all, and to allthe people of Israel, that by the name of Jesus Christ ofNazareth, whom ye crucified, whom God raised from the dead, evenby Him doth this man stand here before you whole. 11. This is thestone which was set at nought of you builders, which is becomethe head of the corner. 12. Neither is there salvation in anyother: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved. 13. Now when they saw the boldness ofPeter and John, and perceived that they were unlearned andignorant men, they marvelled; and they took knowledge of them, that they had been with Jesus. 14. And beholding the man whichwas healed standing with them, they could say nothing againstit. '--ACTS iv. 1-14. 

Hitherto the Jewish authorities had let the disciples alone, eitherbecause their attention had not been drawn even by Pentecost and theconsequent growth of the Church, or because they thought that toignore the new sect was the best way to end it. But when its leaderstook to vehement preaching in Solomon's porch, and crowds eagerlylistened, it was time to strike in. 

Our passage describes the first collision of hostile authority withChristian faith, and shows, as in a glass, the constant result ofthat collision in all ages. 

The motives actuating the assailants are significantly analysed, andmay be distributed among the three classes enumerated. The priestsand the captain of the Temple would be annoyed by the very fact thatPeter and John taught the people: the former, because they werejealous of their official prerogative: the latter, because he wasresponsible for public order, and a riot in the Temple court wouldhave been a scandal. The Saddueees were indignant at the substance ofthe teaching, which affirmed the resurrection of the dead, which theydenied, and alleged it as having occurred 'in Jesus. '

The position of Sadducees and Pharisees is inverted in Acts ascompared with the Gospels. While Christ lived, the Pharisees were thesoul of the opposition to Him, and His most solemn warnings fell onthem; after the Resurrection, the Sadducees head the opposition, andamong the Pharisees are some, like Gamaliel and afterwards Paul, whoincline to the new faith. It was the Resurrection that made thedifference, and the difference is an incidental testimony to the factthat Christ's Resurrection was proclaimed from the first. To askwhether Jesus had risen, and to examine the evidence, were the lastthings of which the combined assailants thought. This public activityof the Apostles threatened their influence or their pet beliefs, andso, like persecutors in all ages, they shut their eyes to theimportant question, 'Is this preaching true or false?' and took theeasier course of laying hands on the preachers. 

So the night fell on Peter and John in prison, the first of thethousands who have suffered bonds and imprisonment for Christ, andhave therein found liberty. What lofty faith, and what subordinationof the fate of the messengers to the progress of the message, areexpressed in that abrupt introduction, in verse 4, of the statisticsof the increase of the Church from that day's work! It matteredlittle that it ended with the two Apostles in custody, since it endedtoo with five thousand rejoicing in Christ. 

The arrest seems to have been due to a sudden thought on the part ofthe priests, captain, and Sadducees, without commands from theSanhedrin or the high priest. But when these inferior authorities hadgot hold of their prisoners, they probably did not quite know what todo with them, and so moved the proper persons to summon theSanhedrin. In all haste, then, a session was called for next morning. 'Rulers, elders, and scribes' made up the constituent members of thecourt, and the same two 'high priests' who had tried Jesus are there, attended by a strong contingent of dependants, who could be trustedto vote as they were bidden. Annas was an _emeritus_ high priest, whose age and relationship to Caiaphas, the actual holder of the postand Annas's son-in-law, gave him an influential position. He retainedthe title, though he had ceased to hold the office, as a clericwithout a charge is usually called 'Reverend. '

It was substantially the same court which had condemned Jesus, andprobably now sat in the same hall as then. So that Peter and Johnwould remember the last time when they had together been in thatroom, and Who had stood in the criminal's place where they now wereset. 

The court seems to have been somewhat at a loss how to proceed. TheApostles had been arrested for their words, but they are questionedabout the miracle. It was no crime to teach in the Temple, but acrime might be twisted out of working a miracle in the name of anybut Jehovah. To do that would come near blasphemy or worshippingstrange gods. The Sanhedrin knew what the answer to their questionwould be, and probably they intended, as soon as the anticipatedanswer was given, to 'rend their clothes, ' and say, as they had doneonce before, 'What need we further witnesses? They have spokenblasphemy. ' But things did not go as was expected. The craftyquestion was put. It does not attempt to throw doubt on the realityof the miracle, but there is a world of arrogant contempt in it, bothin speaking of the cure as 'this, ' and in the scornful emphasis withwhich, in the Greek, 'ye' stands last in the sentence, and implies, 'ye poor, ignorant fishermen. '

The last time that Peter had been in the judgment-hall his couragehad oozed out of him at the prick of a maid-servant's sharp tongue, but now he fronts all the ecclesiastical authorities without atremor. Whence came the transformation of the cowardly denier intothe heroic confessor, who turns the tables on his judges and accusesthem? The narrative answers. He was 'filled with the Holy Ghost. 'That abiding possession of the Spirit, begun on Pentecost, did notprevent special inspiration for special needs, and the Greekindicates that there was granted such a temporary influx in thiscritical hour. 

One cannot but note the calmness of the Apostle, so unlike his oldtumultuous self. He begins with acknowledging the lawful authority ofthe court, and goes on, with just a tinge of sarcasm, to put thevague 'this' of the question in its true light. It was 'a good deeddone to an impotent man, ' for which John and he stood there. Singularsort of crime that! Was there not a presumption that the power whichhad wrought so 'good' a deed was good? 'Do men gather grapes ofthorns?' Many a time since then Christianity has been treated ascriminal, because of its beneficence to bodies and souls. 

But Peter rises to the full height of the occasion, when he answersthe Sanhedrin's question with the pealing forth of his Lord's name. He repeats in substance his former contrast of Israel's treatment ofJesus and God's; but, in speaking to the rulers, his tone is moresevere than it was to the people. The latter had been charged, atPentecost and in the Temple, with crucifying _Jesus_; the former arehere charged with crucifying the _Christ_. It was their business tohave tested his claims, and to have welcomed the Messiah. The guiltwas shared by both, but the heavier part lay on the shoulders of theSanhedrin. 

Mark, too, the bold proclamation of the Resurrection, the stone ofoffence to the Sadducees. How easy it would have been for them tosilence the Apostle, if they could have pointed to the undisturbedand occupied grave! That would have finished the new sect at once. Isthere any reason why it was not done but the one reason that it couldnot be done?

Thus far Peter has been answering the interrogation legally put, andhas done as was anticipated. Now was the time for Annas and the restto strike in; but they could not carry out their programme, for thefiery stream of Peter's words does not stop when they expected, andinstead of a timid answer followed by silence, they get an almostdefiant proclamation of the Name, followed by a charge against them, which turns the accused into the accuser, and puts them at the bar. Peter learned to apply the passage in the Psalm (v. 11) to therulers, from his Master's use of it (Matt. Xxi. 42); and there is noquaver in his voice nor fear in his heart when, in the face of allthese learned Rabbis and high and mighty dignitaries, he brands themas foolish builders, blind to the worth of the Stone 'chosen of God, and precious, ' and tells them that the course of divine Providencewill run counter to their rejection of Jesus, and make him the very'Head of the corner, '--the crown, as well as the foundation, of God'sbuilding. 

But not even this bold indictment ends the stream of his speech. Theproclamation of the power of the Name was fitly followed by pressinghome the guilt and madness of rejecting Jesus, and that again by theglad tidings of salvation for all, even the rejecters. Is not thesequence in Peter's defence substantially that which all Christianpreaching should exhibit? First, strong, plain proclamation of thetruth; then pungent pressing home of the sin of turning away fromJesus; and then earnest setting forth of the salvation in His name, --a salvation wide as the world, and deep as our misery and need, butnarrow, inasmuch as it is 'in none other. ' The Apostle will not endwith charging his hearers with guilt, but with offering themsalvation. He will end with lifting up 'the Name' high above allother, and setting it in solitary clearness before, not these rulersonly, but the whole world. The salvation which it had wrought on thelame man was but a parable and picture of the salvation from all illsof body and spirit, which was stored in that Name, and in it alone. 

The rulers' contempt had been expressed by their emphatic ending oftheir question with that 'ye. ' Peter expresses his brotherhood andlonging for the good of his judges by ending his impassioned, or, rather, inspired address with a loving, pleading 'we. ' He putshimself on the same level with them as needing salvation, and wouldfain have them on the same level with himself and John as receivingit. That is the right way to preach. 

Little need be said as to the effect of this address. Whether it wentany deeper in any susceptible souls or not, it upset the schemes ofthe leaders. Something in the manner and matter of it awed them intowonder, and paralysed them for the time. Here was the first instanceof the fulfilment of that promise, which has been fulfilled again andagain since, of 'a mouth and wisdom, which all your adversaries shallnot be able to gainsay nor resist. ' 'Unlearned, ' as ignorant ofRabbinical traditions, and 'ignorant, ' or, rather, 'private, ' asholding no official position, these two wielded a power over heartsand consciences which not even official indifference and arrogancecould shake off. Thank God, that day's experience is repeated still, and any of us may have the same Spirit to clothe us with the samearmour of light!

The Sanhedrin knew well enough that the Apostles had been with Jesus, and the statement that 'they took knowledge of them' cannot mean thatthat fact dawned on the rulers for the first time. Rather it meansthat their wonder at the 'boldness' of the two drove home the fact oftheir association with Him to their minds. That association explainedthe marvel; for the Sanhedrin remembered how He had stood, meek butunawed, at the same bar. They said to themselves, 'We know wherethese men get this brave freedom of speech, --from that Nazarene. 'Happy shall we be if our demeanour recalls to spectators the ways ofour Lord!

How came the lame man there? He had not been arrested with theApostles. Had he voluntarily and bravely joined them? We do not know, but evidently he was not there as accused, and probably had come as awitness of the reality of the miracle. Notice the emphatic'standing, ' as in verse 10, --a thing that he had never done all hislife. No wonder that the Sanhedrin were puzzled, and settled down tothe 'lame and impotent conclusion' which follows. So, in the firstround of the world-long battle between the persecutors and thepersecuted, the victory is all on the side of the latter. So it hasbeen ever since, though often the victors have died in the conflict. 'The Church is an anvil which has worn out many hammers, ' and thestory of the first collision is, in essentials, the story of all. 

WITH AND LIKE CHRIST

'Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceivedthat they were unlearned and ignorant men, they marvelled; andthey took knowledge of them, that they had been with Jesus. '--ACTS iv. 13. 

Two young Galilean fishermen, before the same formidable tribunalwhich a few weeks before had condemned their Master, might well havequailed. And evidently 'Annas, the high priest, and Caiaphas, andJohn, and Alexander, and as many as were of the kindred of the highpriest, ' were very much astonished that their united wisdom anddignity did not produce a greater impression on these twocontumacious prisoners. They were 'unlearned, ' knowing nothing aboutRabbinical wisdom; they were 'ignorant, ' or, as the word ought ratherto be rendered, 'persons in a private station, ' without any kind ofofficial dignity. And yet there they stood, perfectly unembarrassedand at their ease, and said what they wanted to say, all of it, rightout. So, as great astonishment crept over the dignified ecclesiasticswho were sitting in judgment upon them, their astonishment led themto remember what, of course, they knew before, only that it had notstruck them so forcibly, as explaining the Apostles' demeanour--viz. , 'that they had been with Jesus. ' So they said to themselves:'Ah, that explains it all! There is the root of it. The company thatthey have kept accounts for their unembarrassed boldness. '

Now, I need not notice by more than a word in passing, what atestimony it is to the impression that that meek and graciousSufferer had made upon His judges, that when they saw these two menstanding there unfaltering, they began to remember how that otherPrisoner had stood. And perhaps some of them began to think that theyhad made a mistake in that last trial. It is a testimony to theimpression that Christ had made that the strange demeanour of His twoservants recalled the Master to the mind of the judges. 

I. The first thing that strikes us here is the companionship thattransforms. 

The rulers were partly right, and they were partly wrong. The sourcefrom which these men had drawn their boldness was their being withChrist; but it was not such companionship with Christ, as Annas andCaiaphas had in view, that had given them courage. For as long as theApostles had His personal presence with them, there was noperceptible transforming or elevating process going on in them; andit was not until after they had lost that corporeal presence thatthere came upon them the change which even the prejudiced eyes ofthese judges could not help seeing. 

The writer of Acts gives a truer explanation with which we may fillout the incomplete explanation of the rulers, when he says, 'ThenPeter, _filled with the Holy Ghost_, said unto them. ' Ah, that is it!They had been with Jesus all the days that He went in and out amongstthem. They had companioned with Him, and they had gained but littlefrom it. But when He went away, and they were relegated to the samekind of companionship with Him that you and I have or may have, thena change began to take place on them. And so the companionship thattransforms is not what the Apostle calls 'knowing Christ after theflesh, ' but inward communion with Him, the companionship andfamiliarity which are as possible for us as for any Peter or John ofthem all, and without which our Christianity is nothing but soundingbrass and tinkling cymbal. 

They were 'with Jesus, ' as each of us may be. Their communion was inno respect different from the communion that is open andindispensable to any real Christian. To be with Him is possible forus all. When we go to our daily work, when we are compassed about bydistracting and trivial cares, when men come buzzing round us, andthe ordinary secularities of life seem to close in upon us like thewalls of a prison, and to shut out the blue and the light--oh! it ishard, but it _is_ possible, for every one of us to think these allaway, and to carry with us into everything that blessed thought of aPresence that is not to be put aside, that sits beside me at my studytable, that stands beside you at your tasks, that goes with you inshop and mart, that is always near, with its tender encircling, withits mighty protection, with its all-sufficing sweetness and power. Tobe with Christ is no prerogative, either of Apostles and teachers ofthe primitive age, or of saints that have passed into the highervision; but it is possible for us all. No doubt there are as yetunknown forms and degrees of companionship with Christ in the futurestate, in comparison with which to be 'present in the body is to beabsent from the Lord'; but in the inmost depth of reality, the soulthat loves is where it loves, and has whom it loves ever with it. 'Where the treasure is, there will the heart be also, ' and we may bewith Christ if only we will honestly try hour by hour to keepourselves in touch with Him, and to make Him the motive as well asthe end of the work that other men do along with us, and do fromaltogether secular and low motives. 

Another phase of being with Christ lies in frank, full, and familiarconversation with Him. I do not understand a dumb companionship. Whenwe are with those that we love, and with whom we are at ease, speechcomes instinctively. If we are co-denizens of the Father's house withthe Elder Brother, we shall talk to Him. We shall not need to bereminded of the 'duty of prayer, ' but shall rather instinctively andas a matter of course, without thinking of what we are doing, speakto Him our momentary wants, our passing discomforts, our littletroubles. There may be a great deal more virtue in monosyllabicprayers than in long liturgies. Little jets of speech or even ofunspoken speech that go up to Him are likely to be heart-felt and tobe heard. It is said of Israel's army on one occasion, 'they criedunto God in the battle, and He was entreated of them. ' Do you thinkthat theirs would be very elaborate prayers? Was there any time tomake a long petition when the sword of a Philistine was whizzingabout the suppliant's ears? It was only a cry, but it _was_ a cry;and so 'He was entreated of them. ' If we are 'with Christ' we shalltalk to Him; and if we are with Christ He will talk to us. It is forus to keep in the attitude of listening and, so far as may be, tohush other voices, in order that His may be heard, If we do so, evenhere 'shall we ever be with the Lord. '

II. Now, note next the character that this companionship produces. 

Annas and Caiaphas said to each other: 'Ah, these two have been withthat Jesus! That is where they have got their boldness. They are likeHim. '

As is the Master, so is the servant. That is the broad, generalprinciple that lies in my text. To be with Christ makes menChristlike. A soul habitually in contact with Jesus will imbibesweetness from Him, as garments laid away in a drawer with somepreservative perfume absorb fragrance from that beside which theylie. Therefore the surest way for Christian people to become what Godwould have them to be, is to direct the greater part of their effort, not so much to the acquirement of individual characteristics andexcellences, as to the keeping up of continuity of communion with theMaster. Then the excellences will come. Astronomers, for instance, have found out that if they take a sensitive plate and lay it so asto receive the light from a star, and keep it in place by giving it amotion corresponding with the apparent motion of the heavens, forhours and hours, there will become visible upon it a photographicimage of dim stars that no human eye or telescope can see. Persistentlying before the light stamps the image of the light upon the plate. Communion with Christ is the secret of Christlikeness. So instead ofall the wearisome, painful, futile attempts at tinkering one's owncharacter apart from Him, here is the royal road. Not that there isno effort in it. We must never forget nor undervalue the necessityfor struggle in the Christian life. But that truth needs to besupplemented with the thought that comes from my text--viz. That thefruitful direction in which the struggle is to be mainly made lies inkeeping ourselves in touch with Jesus Christ, and if we do that, thentransformation comes by beholding. 'We all, reflecting as a mirrordoes, the glory of the Lord, are transformed into the same image. ''They have been with Jesus, ' and so they were like Him. 

But now look at the specific kinds of excellence which seem to havecome out of this communion. 'They beheld the _boldness_ of Peter andJohn. ' The word that is translated 'boldness' no doubt conveys thatidea, but it also conveys another. Literally it means 'the act ofsaying everything. ' It means openness of unembarrassed speech, and socomes to have the secondary signification, which the text gives, of'boldness. '

Then, to be with Christ gives a living knowledge of Him and of truth, far in advance of the head knowledge of wise and learned people. Itwas a fact that these two knew nothing about what Rabbi _This_, orRabbi _That_, or Rabbi _The Other_ had said, and yet could speak, asthey had been speaking, large religious ideas that astonished thesehide-bound Pharisees, who thought that there was no way to get to theknowledge of the revelation of God made to Israel, except by the roadof their own musty and profitless learning. Ay! and it always is so. An ounce of experience is worth a ton of theology. The men that havesummered and wintered with Jesus Christ may not know a great manythings that are supposed to be very important parts of religion, butthey have got hold of the central truth of it, with a power, and in afashion, that men of books, and ideas, and systems, and creeds, andtheological learning, may know nothing about. 'Not many wise menafter the flesh, not many mighty, are called. ' Let a poor man at hisplough-tail, or a poor woman in her garret, or a collier in the pit, have Jesus Christ for their Companion, and they have got the kernel;and the gentlemen that like such diet may live on the shell if theywill, and can. Religious ideas are of little use unless there beheart-experiences; and heart-experiences are wonderful teachers ofreligious truth. 

Again, to be with Christ frees from the fear of man. It was a newthing for such persons as Peter and John to stand cool and unawedbefore the Council. Not so very long ago one of the two had beenfrightened into a momentary apostasy by dread of being haled beforethe rulers, and now they are calmly heroic, and threats are idlewords to them. I need not point to the strong presumption, raised bythe contrast of the Apostles' past cowardice and present courage, ofthe occurrence of some such extraordinary facts as the Resurrection, the Ascension, and the Descent of the Spirit. Something had happenedwhich revolutionised these men. It was their communion with Jesus, made more real and deep by the cessation of His bodily presence, which made these unlearned and non-official Galileans front theCouncil with calmly beating hearts and unfaltering tongues. Doubtless, temperament has much to do with courage, but, no doubt, hewho lives near Jesus is set free from undue dependence on things seenand on persons. Perfect love casts out fear, not only of the Beloved, but of all creatures. It is the bravest thing in the world. 

Further, to be with Christ will open a man's lips. The fountain, ifit is full, must well up. 'Light is light which circulates. Heat isheat which radiates. ' The true possession of Jesus Christ will alwaysmake it impossible for the possessor to be dumb. I pray you to testyourselves, as I would that all professing Christians should testthemselves, by that simple truth, that a full heart must findutterance. The instinct that drives a man to speak of the thing inwhich he is interested should have full play in the Christian life. It seems to me a terribly sad fact that there are such hosts of good, kind people, with some sort of religion about them, who never feelany anxiety to say a word to any soul concerning the Master whom theyprofess to love. I know, of course, that deep feeling is silent, andthat the secrets of Christian experience are not to be worn on thesleeve for daws to peck at. And I know that the conventionalities ofthis generation frown very largely upon the frank utterance ofreligious convictions on the part of religious people, except onSundays, in Sunday-schools, pulpits, and the like. But for all that, what is in you will come out. If you have never felt 'I was weary offorbearing, and I could not stay, ' I do not think that there is muchsign in you of a very deep or a very real being with Jesus. 

III. The last point to be noted is, the impression which such acharacter makes. 

It was not so much what Peter and John said that astonished theCouncil, as the fact of their being composed and bold enough to sayanything. 

A great deal more is done by character than by anything else. Mostpeople in the world take their notions of Christianity from itsconcrete embodiments in professing Christians. For one man that hasread his Bible, and has come to know what religion is thereby, thereare a hundred that look at you and me, and therefrom draw theirconclusions as to what religion is. It is not my sermons, but yourlife, that is the most important agency for the spread of the Gospelin this congregation. And if we, as Christian people, were to live soas to make men say, 'Dear me, that is strange. That is not the kindof thing that one would have expected from that man. That is of ahigher strain than he is of. Where did it come from, I wonder?' 'Ah, he learned it of that Jesus'--if people were constrained to speak inthat style to themselves about us, dear friends, and about all ourbrethren, England would be a different England from what it is to-day. It is Christians' lives, after all, that make dints in theworld's conscience. 

Do you remember one of the Apostle's lovely and strong metaphors?Paul says that that little Church in Thessalonica rung out clear andstrong the name of Jesus Christ--resonant like the clang of a bugle, 'so that we need not to speak anything. ' The word that he employs for'sounded out' is a technical expression for the ringing blast of atrumpet. Very small penny whistles would be a better metaphor for theinstruments which the bulk of professing Christians play on. 

'Adorn the doctrine of Christ. ' And that you may, listen to His ownword, which says all I have been trying to say in this sermon: 'Abidein Me. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself except it abide inthe vine, no more can ye, except ye abide in Me. '

OBEDIENT DISOBEDIENCE

'But Peter and John answered and said unto them, Whether it beright in the sight of God to hearken unto you more than unto God, judge ye. 20. For we cannot but speak the things which we haveseen and heard. 21. So when they had further threatened them, they let them go, finding nothing how they might punish them, because of the people: for all men glorified God for that whichwas done. 22. For the man was above forty years old, on whom thismiracle of healing was shewed. 23. And being let go they went totheir own company, and reported all that the chief priests andelders had said unto them. 24. And when they heard that, theylifted up their voice to God with one accord, and said, Lord, Thou art God, which hast made heaven, and earth, and the sea, andall that in them is: 25. Who by the mouth of Thy servant Davidhast said, Why did the heathen rage, and the people imagine vainthings? 26. The kings of the earth stood up, and the rulers weregathered together against the Lord, and against His Christ. 27. For of a truth against Thy holy child Jesus, whom Thou hastanointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles, andthe people of Israel, were gathered together, 28. For to dowhatsoever Thy hand and Thy counsel determined before to be done. 29. And now, Lord, behold their threatenings: and grant unto Thyservants, that with all boldness they may speak Thy word, 30. Bystretching forth Thine hand to heal; and that signs and wondersmay be done by the name of Thy holy child Jesus. 31. And whenthey had prayed, the place was shaken where they were assembledtogether; and they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and theyspake the word of God with boldness. '--ACTS iv. 19-31. 

The only chance for persecution to succeed is to smite hard andswiftly. If you cannot strike, do not threaten. Menacing words onlygive courage. The rulers betrayed their hesitation when the end oftheir solemn conclave was but to 'straitly threaten'; and less heroicconfessors than Peter and John would have disregarded the prohibitionas mere wind. None the less the attitude of these two Galileanfishermen is noble and singular, when their previous cowardice isremembered. This first collision with civil authority gives, as hasbeen already noticed, the main lines on which the relations of theChurch to hostile powers have proceeded. 

I. The heroic refusal of unlawful obedience. We shall probably not doinjustice to John if we suppose that Peter was spokesman. If so, thecontrast of the tone of his answer with all previously recordedutterances of his is remarkable. Warm-hearted impulsiveness, oftenwrong-headed and sometimes illogical, had been their mark; but herewe have calm, fixed determination, which, as is usually its manner, wastes no words, but in its very brevity impresses the hearers asbeing immovable. Whence did this man get the power to lay down oncefor all the foundation principles of the limits of civil obedience, and of the duty of Christian confession? His words take rank with theever-memorable sayings of thinkers and heroes, from Socrates in hisprison telling the Athenians that he loved them, but that he must'obey God rather than you, ' to Luther at Worms with his 'It isneither safe nor right to do anything against conscience. Here Istand; I can do nothing else. God help me! Amen. ' Peter's words arethe first of a long series. 

This first instance of persecution is made the occasion for the clearexpression of the great principles which are to guide the Church. Theanswer falls into two parts, in the first of which the limits ofobedience to civil authority are laid down in a perfectly generalform to which even the Council are expected to assent, and in thesecond an irresistible compulsion to speak is boldly alleged asdriving the two Apostles to a flat refusal to obey. 

It was a daring stroke to appeal to the Council for an endorsement ofthe principle in verse 19, but the appeal was unanswerable; for thistribunal had no other ostensible reason for existence than to enforceobedience to the law of God, and to Peter's dilemma only one replywas possible. But it rested on a bold assumption, which wascalculated to irritate the court; namely, that there was a blankcontradiction between their commands and God's, so that to obey theone was to disobey the other. When that parting of the ways isreached, there remains no doubt as to which road a religious man musttake. 

The limits of civil obedience are clearly drawn. It is a duty, because 'the powers that be are ordained of God, ' and obedience tothem is obedience to Him. But if they, transcending their sphere, claim obedience which can only be rendered by disobedience to Him whohas appointed them, then they are no longer His ministers, and theduty of allegiance falls away. But there must be a plain conflict ofcommands, and we must take care lest we substitute whims and fanciesof our own for the injunctions of God. Peter was not guided by hisown conceptions of duty, but by the distinct precept of his Master, which had bid him speak. It is not true that it is the cause whichmakes the martyr, but it is true that many good men have madethemselves martyrs needlessly. This principle is too sharp a weaponto be causelessly drawn and brandished. Only an unmistakableopposition of commandments warrants its use; and then, he has littleright to be called Christ's soldier who keeps the sword in thescabbard. 

The articulate refusal in verse 20 bases itself on the ground ofirrepressible necessity: 'We cannot but speak. ' The immediateapplication was to the facts of Christ's life, death, and glory. TheApostles could not help speaking of these, both because to do so wastheir commission, and because the knowledge of them and of theirimportance forbade silence. The truth implied is of wide reach. Whoever has a real, personal experience of Christ's saving power, andhas heard and seen Him, will be irresistibly impelled to impart whathe has received. Speech is a relief to a full heart. The word, concealed in the prophet's heart, burned there 'like fire in hisbones, and he was weary of forbearing. ' So it always is with deepconviction. If a man has never felt that he must speak of Christ, heis a very imperfect Christian. The glow of his own heart, the pityfor men who know Him not, his Lord's command, all concur to compelspeech. The full river cannot be dammed up. 

II. The lame and impotent conclusion of the perplexed Council. Howplain the path is when only duty is taken as a guide, and howvigorously and decisively a man marches along it! Peter had nohesitation, and his resolved answer comes crashing in a straightcourse, like a cannon-ball. The Council had a much more ambiguousoracle to consult in order to settle their course, and they hesitateaccordingly, and at last do a something which is a nothing. Theywanted to trim their sails to catch popular favour, and so they couldnot do anything thoroughly. To punish or acquit was the onlyalternative for just judges. But they were not just; and as Jesus hadbeen crucified, not because Pilate thought Him guilty, but to pleasethe people, so His Apostles were let off, not because they wereinnocent, but for the same reason. When popularity-hunters get on thejudicial bench, society must be rotten, and nearing its dissolution. To 'decree unrighteousness by a law' is among the most hideous ofcrimes. Judges 'willing to wound, and yet afraid to strike, ' areportents indicative of corruption. We may remark here how thephysician's pen takes note of the patient's age, as making his curemore striking, and manifestly miraculous. 

III. The Church's answer to the first assault of the world's power. How beautifully natural that is, 'Being let go, they went to theirown, ' and how large a principle is expressed in the naive words! Thegreat law of association according to spiritual affinity has much todo in determining relations here. It aggregates men, according tosorts; but its operation is thwarted by other conditions, so thatcompanionship is often misery. But a time comes when it will workunhindered, and men will be united with their like, as the stones onsome sea-beaches are laid in rows, according to their size, by theforce of the sea. Judas 'went to his own place, ' and, in anotherworld, like will draw to like, and prevailing tendencies will beincreased by association with those who share them. 

The prayer of the Church was probably the inspired outpouring of onevoice, and all the people said 'Amen, ' and so made it theirs. Whosevoice it was which thus put into words the common sentiment we shouldgladly have known, but need not speculate. The great fact is that theChurch answered threats by prayer. It augurs healthy spiritual lifewhen opposition and danger neither make cheeks blanch with fear norflush with anger. No man there trembled nor thought of vengeance, orof repaying threats with threats. Every man there instinctivelyturned heavenwards, and flung himself, as it were, into God's armsfor protection. Prayer is the strongest weapon that a persecutedChurch can use. Browning makes a tyrant say, recounting how he hadtried to crush a man, that his intended victim

 'Stood erect, caught at God's skirts, and prayed, So _I_ was afraid. '

The contents of the prayer are equally noteworthy. Instead ofminutely studying it verse by verse, we may note some of its salientpoints. Observe its undaunted courage. That company never quivered orwavered. They had no thought of obeying the mandate of the Council. They were a little army of heroes. What had made them so? What butthe conviction that they had a living Lord at God's right hand, and amighty Spirit in their spirits? The world has never seen atransformation like that. Unique effects demand unique causes fortheir explanation, and nothing but the historical truth of the factsrecorded in the last pages of the Gospels and first of the Actsaccounts for the demeanour of these men. 

Their courage is strikingly marked by their petition. All they ask is'boldness' to speak a word which shall not be theirs, but God's. Fearwould have prayed for protection; passion would have askedretribution on enemies. Christian courage and devotion only ask thatthey may not shrink from their duty, and that the word may be spoken, whatever becomes of the speakers. The world is powerless against menlike that. Would the Church of to-day meet threats with likeunanimity of desire for boldness in confession? If not, it must bebecause it has not the same firm hold of the Risen Lord which thesefirst believers had. The truest courage is that which is conscious ofits weakness, and yet has no thought of flight, but prays for its ownincrease. 

We may observe, too, the body of belief expressed in the prayer. First it lays hold on the creative omnipotence of God, and thencepasses to the recognition of His written revelation. The Church hasbegun to learn the inmost meaning of the Old Testament, and to findChrist there. David may not have written the second Psalm. Itsattribution to him by the Church stands on a different level fromChrist's attribution of authorship, as, for instance, of the hundredand tenth Psalm. The prophecy of the Psalm is plainly Messianic, however it may have had a historical occasion in some forgottenrevolt against some Davidic king; and, while the particular incidentsto which the prayer alludes do not exhaust its far-reachingapplication, they are rightly regarded as partly fulfilling it. Herodis a 'king of the earth, ' Pilate is a 'ruler'; Roman soldiers areGentiles; Jewish rulers are the representatives of 'the people. 'Jesus is 'God's Anointed. ' The fact that such an unnatural and daringcombination of rebels was predicted in the Psalm bears witness thateven that crime at Calvary was foreordained to come to pass, and thatGod's hand and counsel ruled. Therefore all other opposition, such asnow threatened, will turn out to be swayed by that same Mighty Hand, to work out His counsel. Why, then, should the Church fear? If we cansee God's hand moving all things, terror is dead for us, and threatsare like the whistling of idle wind. 

Mark, too, the strong expression of the Church's dependence on God. 'Lord' here is an unusual word, and means 'Master, ' while the Churchcollectively is called 'Thy servants, ' or properly, 'slaves. ' It is adifferent word from that of 'servant' (rather than 'child') appliedto Jesus in verses 27 and 30. God is the Master, we are His 'slaves, 'bound to absolute obedience, unconditional submission, belonging toHim, not to ourselves, and therefore having claims on Him for suchcare as an owner gives to his slaves or his cattle. He will not letthem be maltreated nor starved. He will defend them and feed them;but they must serve him by life, and death if need be. Unquestioningsubmission and unreserved dependence are our duties. Absoluteownership and unshared responsibility for our well-being belong toHim. 

Further, the view of Christ's relationship to God is the same asoccurs in other of the early chapters of the Acts. The title of 'Thyholy Servant Jesus' dwells on Christ's office, rather than on Hisnature. Here it puts Him in contrast with David, also called 'Thyservant. ' The latter was imperfectly what Jesus was perfectly. Hiscomplete realisation of the prophetic picture of the Servant of theLord in Isaiah is emphasised by the adjective 'holy, ' implyingcomplete devotion or separation to the service of God, and unsullied, unlimited moral purity. The uniqueness of His relation in this aspectis expressed by the definite article in the original. He is _the_Servant, in a sense and measure all His own. He is further _the_Anointed Messiah. This was the Church's message to Israel and thestay of its own courage, that Jesus was the Christ, the Anointed andperfect Servant of the Lord, who was now in heaven, reigning there. All that this faith involved had not yet become clear to theirconsciousness, but the Spirit was guiding them step by step into allthe truth; and what they saw and heard, not only in the historicalfacts of which they were the witnesses, but in the teaching of thatSpirit, they could not but speak. 

The answer came swift as the roll of thunder after lightning. Theywho ask for courage to do God's will and speak Christ's name havenever long to wait for response. The place 'was shaken, ' symbol ofthe effect of faithful witness-bearing, or manifestation of the powerwhich was given in answer to their prayer. 'They were all filled withthe Holy Ghost, ' who now did not, as before, confer ability to speakwith other tongues, but wrought no less worthily in heartening andfitting them to speak 'in their own tongue, wherein they were born, 'in bold defiance of unlawful commands. 

The statement of the answer repeats the petition verbatim: 'With allboldness they spake the word. ' What we desire of spiritual gifts weget, and God moulds His replies so as to remind us of our petitions, and to show by the event that these have reached His ear and guidedHis giving hand. 

IMPOSSIBLE SILENCE

'We cannot but speak the things which we have seen and heard. '--ACTS iv. 20. 

The context tells us that the Jewish Council were surprised, as theywell might be, at the boldness of Peter and John, and traced it totheir having been with Jesus. But do you remember that they were byno means bold when they were with Jesus, and that the bravery cameafter what, in ordinary circumstances, would have destroyed any of itin a man? A leader's execution is not a usual recipe for hearteninghis followers, but it had that effect in this case, and the Peter whowas frightened out of all his heroics by a sharp-eyed, sharp-tonguedservant-maid, a few weeks after bearded the Council and 'rejoicedthat he was counted worthy to suffer shame for His Name. ' It was notChrist's death that did that, and it was not His life that did that. You cannot understand, to use a long word, the 'psychological'transformation of these cowardly deniers who fled and forsook Him, unless you bring in three things: Resurrection, Ascension, Pentecost. Then it is explicable. 

However the boldness came; these two men before the Council weremaking an epoch at that moment, and their grand words are the MagnaCharta of the right of every sincere conviction to free speech. Theyare the direct parent of hundreds of similar sayings that flash outdown the world's history. Two things Peter and John adduced as makingsilence impossible--a definite divine command, and an inward impulse. 'Whether it is right in the sight of God to hearken unto you morethan unto God, judge ye. We cannot but speak the things which we haveseen and heard. '

But I wish to use these words now in a somewhat wider application. They may suggest that there are great facts which make silence andnon-aggressiveness an impossibility for an individual or a Church, and that by the very law of its being, a Church must be a missionaryChurch, and a Christian cannot be a dumb Christian, unless he is adead Christian. And so I turn to look at these words as suggesting tous two or three of the grounds on which Christian effort, in someform or another, is inseparable from Christian experience. 

And, first, I wish you to notice that there is--

I. An inward necessity which makes silence impossible. 

'We cannot but speak the things which we have seen and heard, ' is aprinciple that applies far more widely than to the work of aChristian Church, or to any activity that is put in force to spreadthe name of Jesus Christ. For there is a universal impulse whichbrings it about that whatever, in the nature of profound conviction, of illuminating truth, especially as affecting moral and spiritualmatters, is granted to any man, knocks at the inner side of the doorof his lips, and demands an exit and free air and utterance. Assurely as the tender green spikelet of the springing corn pushes itsway through the hard clods, or as the bud in the fig-tree's polishedstem swells and opens, so surely whatever a man, in his deepestheart, knows to be true, calls upon him to let it out and manifestitself in his words and in his life. 'We believe, and thereforespeak, ' is a universal sequence. There were four leprous men long agothat, in their despair, made their way into the camp of thebeleaguering enemy, found it empty; and after they feastedthemselves--and small blame to them--then flashed upon them thethought, 'We do not well, this is a day of good tidings, and we holdour peace; if we tarry till the morning light, some evil will befallus. ' Something like that is the uniform accompaniment of all profoundconviction. And if so, especially imperative and urgent will thisnecessity be, wherever there is true Christian life. For whether weconsider the greatness of the gift that is imparted to us, in thevery act of our receiving that Lord, or whether we consider thesoreness of the need of a world that is without Him, surely there canbe nothing that so reinforces the natural necessity and impulse toimpart what we possess of truth or beauty or goodness as thegreatness of the unspeakable gift, and the wretchedness of a worldthat wants it. Brethren, there are many things that come in the way--and perhaps never more than in our own generation--of Christian menand women making direct and specific efforts, by lip as well as bylife, to speak about Jesus Christ to other people. There is thestanding hindrance of love of ease and selfish absorption in our ownconcerns. There are the conventional hindrances of our canons ofsocial intercourse which make it 'bad form' to speak to men aboutanything beneath the surface, and God forbid that I should urge anyman to a brusque, and indiscriminate, and unwise forcing of his faithupon other people. But I believe, that deep down below all thesereasons, there are two main reasons why the practice of the clearutterance of their faith on the part of Christian people is so rare. The one is a deficient conception of what the Gospel is, and theother is a feeble grasp of it for ourselves. If you do not think thatyou have very much to say, you will not be very anxious to say it;and if your notion of Christianity, and of Christ's relation to theworld, is that of the superficial professing Christian, then ofcourse you will be smitten with no earnestness of desire to impartthe truth to others. Types of Christianity which enfeeble or obscurethe central thought of Christ's work for the salvation of a worldthat needs a Saviour, and is perishing without Him, never were, neverare, never will be, missionary or aggressive. There is no drivingforce in them. They have little to say, and naturally they are in nohurry to say it. But there is a deeper reason than that. I said aminute ago that a dumb Christian was an impossibility unless he werea dead Christian. And _there_ is the reason why so many of us feel solittle, so very little, of that knocking at the door of our hearts, and saying, 'Let me out!' which we should feel if we deeply believed, and felt, as well as intellectually accepted, the gospel of oursalvation. 

The cause of a silent Church is a defective conception of the Gospelentrusted to it, or a feeble grasp of the same. And as our silence orindifference is the symptom, so by reaction it is in its turn thecause of a greater enfeeblement of our faith, and of a weaker graspof the Gospel. Of course I know that it is perfectly possible for aman to talk away his convictions, and I am afraid that thattemptation which besets all men of my profession, is not alwaysresisted by us as it ought to be. But, on the other hand, sure am Ithat no better way can be devised of deepening my own hold of thetruths of Christianity than an honest, right attempt to make anothershare my morsel with me. Convictions bottled, like other thingsbottled up, are apt to evaporate and to spoil. They say thatsometimes wine-growers, when they go down into their cellars, find ina puncheon no wine, but a huge fungus. That is what befalls theChristianity of people that never let air in, and never speak theirfaith out. 'We cannot but speak the things which we have seen andheard'; and if we do not speak, the vision fades and the soundbecomes faint. 

Now there is another side to this same inward necessity of which Ihave been speaking, on which I must just touch. I have referred tothe impulse which flows from the possession of the Gospel. There isan impulse which flows from that which is but another way of puttingthe same thing, the union with Jesus Christ, which is the result ofour faith in the Gospel. If I am a Christian I am, in a very profoundand real sense, one with Jesus Christ, and have His Spirit for thelife of my spirit. And in the measure in which I am thus one withHim, I shall look at things as He looks at them, and do such thingsas He did. If the mind of Jesus Christ is in us 'Who for the joy thatwas set before Him endured the Cross, ' who 'counted not equality withGod a thing to be desired, but made Himself of no reputation, ' and'was found in fashion as a man, ' then we too shall feel that our workin the world is not done, and our obligations to Him are notdischarged, unless to the very last particle of our power we spreadHis name. Brethren, if there were no commandment at all from Christ'slips laying upon His followers the specific duty of making His gospelknown, still this inward impulse of which I am speaking would havecreated all the forms of Christian aggressiveness which we see roundabout us, because, if we have Christ and His Gospel in our hearts, 'we cannot but speak the things which we have seen and heard. '

And now turn to another aspect of this matter. There is--

II. A command which makes silence criminal. 

I do not need to do more than remind you of the fact that the verylast words which our Lord has left us according to the two versionsof them which are given in the Gospel of Matthew, and the beginningof this Book of the Acts, coincide in this. 'You are to be Mywitnesses to the ends of the earth. Go ye into all the world andpreach the Gospel to every creature. ' Did you ever think what anextraordinary thing it is that that confident anticipation of aworldwide dominion, and of being Himself adapted to all mankind, inevery climate and in every age, and at every stage of culture, shouldhave been the conviction which the departing Christ sought to stampupon the minds of those eleven poor men? What audacity! Whattremendous confidence! What a task to which to set them! What anunexampled belief in Himself and His work! And it is all coming true;for the world is finding out, more and more, that Jesus Christ is itsSaviour and its King. 

This commandment which is laid upon us Christian men submerges alldistinctions of race, and speech, and nationality, and culture. Thereare high walls parting men off from one another. This great messageand commission, like some rising tide, rolls over them all, andobliterates them, and flows boundless, having drowned thedifferences, from horizon to horizon, east and west and south andnorth. 

Now let me press the thought that this commandment makes indifferenceand silence criminal. We hear people talk, people whose Christianityit is not for me to question, though I may question two things aboutit, its clearness and its depth--we hear them talk as if to help ornot to help, in the various forms of Christian activity, missionaryor otherwise, was a matter left to their own inclination. No! it isnot. Let us distinctly understand that to help or not to help is notthe choice open to any man who would obey Jesus Christ. Let usdistinctly understand--and God grant that we may all feel it more--that we dare not stand aside, be negligent, do nothing, leave otherpeople to give and to toil, and say, 'Oh! my sympathies do not go inthat direction. ' Jesus Christ told you that they were to go in thatdirection, and if they do not, so much the worse for the sympathiesfor one thing, and so much the worse for you, the rebel, thedisobedient in heart. I do not want to bring down this great gift andtoken of love which Jesus Christ has given to His servants, inentrusting them with the spread of the Gospel, to the low level of amere commandment, but I do sometimes think that the tone of feeling, ay! and of speech, and still more the manner of action, amongprofessing Christian people, in regard to the whole subject of themissionary work of God's Church, shows that they need to be reminded;as the Duke of Wellington said, 'There are your marching orders!' andthe soldier who does not obey his marching orders is a mutineer. There is a definite commandment which makes indifference criminal. 

There is another thing I should like to say, viz. That this definitecommandment overrides everything else. We hear a great deal fromunsympathetic critics, which is but a reproduction of an old grumblethat did not come from a very creditable source. 'To what purpose isthis waste?' Why do you not spend your money upon technical schools, soup-kitchens, housing of the poor, and the like? Well, our answeris, 'He told us. ' We hear, too, especially just in these days, agreat deal about the necessity for increased caution in pursuingmissionary operations in heathen lands. And some people that do notknow anything about the subject have ventured to say, for instance, that the missionaries are responsible for Chinese antagonism toEuropeans, and for similar phenomena. Well, we are ready to be aswise and prudent as you like. We do not ask any consuls to help us. Our brethren are men who have hazarded their lives; and I never heardof a Baptist missionary running under the skirts of an ambassador, orpraying the government to come and protect him. We do not ask forcathedrals to be built, or territory to be ceded, as compensation forthe loss of precious lives. But if these advisers of caution mean nomore than they say, 'Caution!' we agree. But if they mean, what someof them mean, that we are to be silent for fear of consequences, then, whether it be prime ministers, or magistrates, or mobs that sayit, our answer is, 'Whether it be right to hearken unto you more thanunto God, judge ye! We cannot but speak the things which we have seenand heard. '

So, lastly, there is--

III. The bond of brotherhood which makes silence unnatural. 

I have spoken of an inward impulse. That thought turns our attentionto our own hearts. I have spoken of a definite command; that turnsour eyes to the Throne. I speak now of a bond of brotherhood. Thatsends our thoughts out over the whole world. There is such a bond. Jesus Christ by His Incarnation has taken the nature of every manupon Himself, and has brought all men into one. Jesus Christ 'by thegrace of God, has tasted death for every man, ' and has brought allmen into unity. And so the much-abused and vulgarised conception of'fraternity, ' and even the very word 'humanity, ' are the creation ofChristianity, and flow from these two facts--the Cradle of Bethlehemand the Cross of Calvary, besides that prior one that 'God hath madeof one blood all nations of men. ' If that be so, then what flows fromthat unity, from that brotherhood thus sacredly founded upon thefacts of the life and death of Jesus Christ, the world's Redeemer?This to begin with, that Christian men are bound to look out overhumanity with Christ's eyes, and not--as is largely the case to-day--to regard other nations as enemies and rivals, and the 'lower races'as existing to be exploited for our wealth, to be coerced for ourglory, to be conquered for our Empire. We have to think of them asJesus Christ thought. I cannot but remember days in England when thehumanitarian sentiment in regard to the inferior races was far morevigorous, and far more operative in national life than it is to-day. I can go back in boyhood's memory to the emancipation of the WestIndian slaves, and that was but the type of the general tendency ofthought amongst the better minds of England in those days. Would thatit were so now!

But further, brethren, we as Christian people have laid upon us thisresponsibility by that very bond of brotherhood, that we should carrywhithersoever our influence may go the great message of the ElderBrother who makes us all one. We give much to the 'heathen'populations within our Empire or the reach of our trade. We give themEnglish laws, English science, English literature, English outlookson life, the English tongue, English vices--opium, profligacy, andthe like. Are these all the gifts that we are bound to carry toheathen lands? Dynamos and encyclopaedias, gin and rifles, shirtingsand castings? Have we not to carry Christ? And all the more becausewe are so closely knit with so many of them. I wonder how many of youget the greater part of your living out of India and China?

Surely, if there is a place in England where the missionary appealshould be responded to, it is Manchester. 'As a nest hast thougathered the riches of the nations. ' What have you given? Make up thebalance-sheet, brethren. 'We are debtors, ' let us put down theitems:--

Debtors by a common brotherhood. 

Debtors by the possession of Christ for ourselves. 

Debtors by benefits received. 

Debtors by injuries inflicted. 

The debit side of the account is heavy. Let us try to discharge someportion of the debt, in the fashion in which the Apostle from whom Ihave been quoting thought that he would best discharge it when, afterdeclaring himself debtor to many kinds of men, he added, 'So as muchas in me is, I am ready to preach the Gospel. ' May we all say, moretruly than we have ever said before, 'We cannot but speak the thingswhich we have seen and heard!'

THE SERVANT AND THE SLAVES

'Thy servant David. .. '; 'Thy Holy Servant Jesus. .. '; 'Thyservants. .. '--ACTS iv. 26, 27, 29. 

I do not often take fragments of Scripture for texts; but thoughthese are fragments, their juxtaposition results in by no meansfragmentary thoughts. There is obvious intention in the recurrence ofthe expression so frequently in so few verses, and to the elucidationof that intention my remarks will be directed. The words are parts ofthe Church's prayer on the occasion of its first collision with thecivil power. The incident is recorded at full length because it isthe _first_ of a long and bloody series, in order that succeedinggenerations might learn their true weapon and their sure defence. Prayer is the right answer to the world's hostility, and they whoonly ask for courage to stand by their confession will never ask invain. But it is no part of my intention to deal either with theincident or with this noble prayer. 

A word or two of explanation may be necessary as to the language ofour texts. You will observe that, in the second of them, I havefollowed the Revised Version, which, instead of 'Thy holy child, ' asin the Authorised Version, reads 'Thy holy Servant. ' The alterationis clearly correct. The word, indeed, literally means 'a child, ' but, like our own English 'boy, ' or even 'man, ' or 'maid, ' it is used toexpress the relation of servant, when the desire is to cover over theharsher features of servitude, and to represent the servant as a partof the family. Thus the kindly centurion, who besought Jesus to comeand heal his servant, speaks of him as his 'boy. ' And that the wordis here used in this secondary sense of 'servant' is unmistakable. For there is no discernible reason why, if stress were meant to belaid on Christ as being the Son of God, the recognised expression forthat relationship should not have been employed. Again, the Greektranslation of the Old Testament, with which the Apostles werefamiliar, employs the very phrase that is here used as itstranslation of the well-known Old Testament designation of theMessiah, 'the Servant of the Lord' and the words here are really aquotation from the great prophecies of the second part of the Book ofIsaiah. Further, the same word is employed in reference to King Davidand in reference to Jesus Christ. In regard to the former, it isevident that it must have the meaning of 'servant'; and it would betoo harsh to suppose that in the compass of so few verses the sameexpression should be used, at one time in the one signification, andat another in the other. So, then, David and Jesus are in some senseclassified here together as both servants of God. That is the firstpoint that I desire to make. 

Then, in regard to the third of my texts, the expression is not thesame there as in the other two. The disciples do not venture to takethe loftier designation. Rather they prefer the humble one, 'slaves, 'bondmen, the familiar expression found all through the New Testamentas almost a synonym to Christians. 

So, then, we have here three figures: the Psalmist-king, the Messiah, the disciples; Christ in the midst, on the one hand a servant withwhom He deigns to be classed, on the other hand the slaves who, through Him, have become sons. And I think I shall best bring out theintended lessons of these clauses in their connection if I ask you tonote these two contrasts, the servants and the Servant; the Servantand the slaves. 'David Thy servant'; 'Thy holy Servant Jesus'; us'Thy servants. '

I. First, then, notice the servants and the Servant. 

The reason for the application of the name to the Psalmist lies, notso much in his personal character or in his religious elevation, asin the fact that he was chosen of God for a specific purpose, tocarry on the divine plans some steps towards their realisation. Kings, priests, prophets, the collective Israel, as having a specificfunction in the world, and being, in some sense, the instruments andembodiments of the will of God amongst men, have in an eminent degreethe designation of His 'servants. ' And we might widen out the thoughtand say that all men who, like the heathen Cyrus, are God'sshepherds, though they do not know it--guided by Him, though theyunderstand not whence comes their power, and blindly do His work inthe world, being 'epoch-making' men, as the fashionable phrase goesnow--are really, though in a subordinate sense, entitled to thedesignation. 

But then, whilst this is true, and whilst Jesus Christ comes intothis category, and is one of these special men raised up and adaptedfor special service in connection with the carrying out of the divinepurpose, mark how emphatically and broadly the line is drawn herebetween Him and the other members of the class to which, in a certainsense, He does belong. Peter says, 'Thy servant David, ' but he says'Thy _holy_ Servant Jesus. ' And in the Greek the emphasis is stillstronger, because the definite article is employed before the word'servant. ' '_The_ holy Servant of Thine'--that is His specific andunique designation. 

There are many imperfect instruments of the divine will. Thinkers andheroes and saints and statesmen and warriors, as well as prophets andpriests and kings, are so regarded in Scripture, and may profitablybe so regarded by us; but amongst them all there is One who stands intheir midst and yet apart from them, because He, and He alone, cansay, 'I have done all Thy pleasure, and into my doing of Thy pleasureno bitter leaven of self-regard or by-ends has ever, in the faintestdegree, entered. ' 'Thy holy Servant Jesus' is the unique designationof _the_ Servant of the Lord. 

And what is the meaning of _holy_? The word does not originally andprimarily refer to character so much as to relation to God. The rootidea of holiness is not righteousness nor moral perfectness, butsomething that lies behind these--viz, separation for the service anduses of God. The first notion of the word is consecration, and, builtupon that and resulting from it, moral perfection. So then these men, some of whom had lived beside Jesus Christ for all those years, andhad seen everything that He did, and studied Him through and through, had summered and wintered with Him, came away from the closeinspection of His character with this thought; He is utterly andentirely devoted to the service of God, and in Him there is neitherspot nor wrinkle nor blemish such as is found in all other men. 

I need not remind you with what strange persistence of affirmation, and yet with what humility of self-consciousness, our Lord Himselfalways claimed to be in possession of this entire consecration, andcomplete obedience, and consequent perfection. Think of human lipssaying, 'I do always the things that please Him. ' Think of human lipssaying, 'My meat is to do the will of Him that sent me. ' Think of aman whose whole life's secret was summed up in this: 'As the Fatherhath given Me commandment, _so_'--no more, no less, no otherwise--'soI speak. ' Think of a man whose inspiring principle was, consciouslyto himself, 'not My will, but Thine be done'; and who could say thatit was so, and not be met by universal ridicule. There followed inJesus the moral perfectness that comes from such uninterrupted andcomplete consecration of self to God. 'Thy servant David, '--whatabout Bathsheba, David? What about a great many other things in yourlife? The poet-king, with the poet-nature so sensitive to all thedelights of sense, and so easily moved in the matter of pleasure, isbut like all God's other servants in the fact of imperfection. Inevery machine power is lost through friction; and in every man, thenoblest and the purest, there is resistance to be overcome ere motionin conformity with the divine impulse can be secured. We pass inreview before our minds saints and martyrs and lovely characters bythe hundred, and amongst them all there is not a jewel without aflaw, not a mirror without some dint in it where the rays aredistorted, or some dark place where the reflecting surface has beenrubbed away by the attrition of sin, and where there is no reflectionof the divine light. And then we turn to that meek Figure who standsthere with the question that has been awaiting an answer for nineteencenturies upon His lips, and is unanswered yet: 'Which of youconvinceth Me of sin?' 'He is the holy Servant, ' whose consecrationand character mark Him off from all the class to which He belongs asthe only one of them all who, in completeness, has executed theFather's purpose, and has never attempted anything contrary to it. 

Now there is another step to be taken, and it is this. The Servantwho stands out in front of all the group--though the noblest names inthe world's history are included therein--could not be _the_ Servantunless He were the Son. This designation, as applied to Jesus Christ, is peculiar to these three or four earlier chapters of the Acts ofthe Apostles. It is interesting because it occurs over and over againthere, and because it never occurs anywhere else in the NewTestament. If we recognise what I think must be recognised, that itis a quotation from the ancient prophecies, and is an assertion ofthe Messianic character of Jesus, then I think we here see the Churchin a period of transition in regard to their conceptions of theirLord. There is no sign that the proper Sonship and Divinity of ourLord was clear before them at this period. They had the facts, butthey had not yet come to the distinct apprehension of how much wasinvolved in these. But, if they knew that Jesus Christ had died andhad risen again--and they knew that, for they had seen Him--and ifthey believed that He was the Messiah, and if they were certain thatin His character of Messiah there had been faultlessness and absoluteperfection--and they were certain of that, because they had livedbeside Him--then it would not be long before they took the next step, and said, as I say, 'He cannot be the Servant unless He is more thanman. '

And we may well ask ourselves the question, if we admit, as the worlddoes admit, the moral perfectness of Jesus Christ, how comes it thatthis Man alone managed to escape failures and deflections from theright, and sins, and that He only carried through life a stainlessgarment, and went down to the grave never having needed, and notneeding then, the exercise of divine forgiveness? Brethren, I ventureto say that it is hopeless to account for Jesus Christ onnaturalistic principles; and that either you must give up your beliefin His sinlessness, or advance, as the Christian Church as a wholeadvanced, to the other belief, on which alone that perfectness isexplicable: 'Thou art the King of Glory, O Christ! Thou art theEverlasting Son of the Father!'

II. And so, secondly, let us turn to the other contrast here--theServant and the slaves. 

I said that the humble group of praying, persecuted believers seemedto have wished to take a lower place than their Master's, even whilstthey ventured to assume that, in some sense, they too, like Him, weredoing the Father's will. So they chose, by a fine instinct ofhumility rather than from any dogmatical prepossessions, the namethat expresses, in its most absolute and roughest form, the notion ofbondage and servitude. He is the Servant; we standing here areslaves. And that this is not an overweighting of the word with morethan is meant by it seems to be confirmed by the fact that in thefirst clause of this prayer, we have, for the only time in the NewTestament, God addressed as 'Lord' by the correlative word to_slave_, which has been transferred into English, namely, _despot_. 

The true position, then, for a man is to be God's slave. The harsh, repellent features of that wicked institution assume an altogetherdifferent character when they become the features of my relation toHim. Absolute submission, unconditional obedience, on the slave'spart; and on the part of the Master complete ownership, the right oflife and death, the right of disposing of all goods and chattels, theright of separating husband and wife, parents and children, the rightof issuing commandments without a reason, the right to expect thatthose commandments shall be swiftly, unhesitatingly, punctiliously, and completely performed--these things inhere in our relation to God. Blessed the man who has learned that they do, and has accepted themas his highest glory and the security of his most blessed life! For, brethren, such submission, absolute and unconditional, the blendingand the absorption of my own will in His will, is the secret of allthat makes manhood glorious and great and happy. 

Remember, however, that in the New Testament these names of slave andowner are transferred to Christians and Jesus Christ. 'The Servant'has His slaves; and He who is God's Servant, and does not His ownwill but the Father's will, has us for His servants, imposes His willupon us, and we are bound to render to Him a revenue of entireobedience like that which He hath laid at His Father's feet. 

Such slavery is the only freedom. Liberty does not mean doing as youlike, it means liking as you ought, and doing that. He only is freewho submits to God in Christ, and thereby overcomes himself and theworld and all antagonism, and is able to do that which it is his lifeto do. A prison out of which we do not desire to go is no restraint, and the will which coincides with law is the only will that is trulyfree. You talk about the bondage of obedience. Ah! 'the weight of toomuch liberty' is a far sorer bondage. They are the slaves who say, 'Let us break His bonds asunder, and cast away His cords from us';and they are the free men who say, 'Lord, put Thy blessed shackles onmy arms, and impose Thy will upon my will, and fill my heart with Thylove; and then will and hands will move freely and delightedly. ' 'Ifthe Son make you free, ye shall be free indeed. '

Such slavery is the only nobility. In the wicked old empires, as insome of their modern survivals to-day, viziers and prime ministerswere mostly drawn from the servile classes. It is so in God'skingdom. They who make themselves God's slaves are by Him made kingsand priests, and shall reign with Him on earth. If we are slaves, then are we sons and heirs of God through Jesus Christ. 

Remember the alternative. You cannot be your own masters withoutbeing your own slaves. It is a far worse bondage to live as charteredlibertines than to walk in the paths of obedience. Better serve Godthan the devil, than the world, than the flesh. Whilst they promisemen liberty, they make them 'the most abject and downtrodden vassalsof perdition. '

The Servant-Son makes us slaves and sons. It matters nothing to methat Jesus Christ perfectly fulfilled the law of God; it is so muchthe better for Him, but of no value for me, unless He has the powerof making me like Himself. And He has it, and if you will trustyourselves to Him, and give your hearts to Him, and ask Him to governyou, He will govern you; and if you will abandon your false libertywhich is servitude, and take the sober freedom which is obedience, then He will bring you to share in His temper of joyful service; andeven we may be able to say, 'My meat and my drink is to do the willof Him that sent me, ' and truly saying that, we shall have the key toall delights, and our feet will be, at least, on the lower rungs ofthe ladder whose top reaches to Heaven. 

'What fruit had ye in the things of which ye are now ashamed? Butbeing made free from sin, and become the slaves of God, ye have yourfruit unto holiness; and the end everlasting life. ' Brethren, Ibeseech you, by the mercies of God, that ye yield yourselves to Him, crying, 'O Lord, truly I am Thy servant. Thou hast loosed my bonds. '

THE WHEAT AND THE TARES

'And the multitude of them that believed were of one heart and ofone soul: neither said any of them that aught of the things whichhe possessed was his own; but they had all things common. '--ACTS iv. 32. 

'And great fear came upon all the church, and upon as many asheard these things. '--ACTS v. 11. 

Once more Luke pauses and gives a general survey of the Church'scondition. It comes in appropriately at the end of the account of thetriumph over the first assault of civil authority, which assault wasitself not only baffled, but turned to good. Just because persecutionhad driven them closer to God and to one another, were the disciplesso full of brotherly love and of grace as Luke delights to paintthem. 

I. We note the fair picture of what the Church once was. The recentlarge accessions to it might have weakened the first feelings ofbrotherhood, so that it is by no means superfluous to repeatsubstantially the features of the earlier description (Acts ii. 44, 45). 'The multitude' is used with great meaning, for it was a triumphof the Spirit's influence that the warm stream of brotherly love ranthrough so many hearts, knit together only by common submission toJesus. That oneness of thought and feeling was the direct issue ofthe influx of the Spirit mentioned as the blessed result of thedisciples' dauntless devotion (Acts iv. 31). If our Churches were'filled with the Holy Ghost, ' we too should be fused into oneness ofheart and mind, though our organisations as separate communitiescontinued, just as all the little pools below high-water mark aremade one when the tide comes up. 

The first result and marvellous proof of that oneness was the so-called 'community of goods, ' the account of which is remarkable bothbecause it all but fills this picture, and because it is broken intotwo by verse 33, rapidly summarising other characteristics. The twohalves may be considered together, and it may be noted that theformer presents the sharing of property as the result of brotherlyunity, while the latter traces it ('for, ' v. 34) to the abundantdivine grace resting on the whole community. The terms of thedescription should be noted, as completely negativing the notion thatthe fact in question was anything like compulsory abolition of theright of individual ownership. 'Not one of them said that aught ofthe things which he possessed was his own. ' That implies that theright of possession was not abolished. It implies, too, that thecommon feeling of brotherhood was stronger than the self-centredregard which looks on possessions as to be used for self. Thus theypossessed as though they possessed not, and each held his property asa trust from God for his brethren. 

We must observe, further, that the act of selling was the owners', aswas the act of handing the proceeds to the Apostles. The communityhad nothing to do with the money till it had been given to them. Further, the distribution was not determined by the rule of equality, but by the 'need' of the recipients; and its result was not that allhad share and share alike, but that 'none lacked. '

There is nothing of modern communism in all this, but there is alesson to the modern Church as to the obligations of wealth and theclaims of brotherhood, which is all but universally disregarded. Thespectre of communism is troubling every nation, and it will becomemore and more formidable, unless the Church learns that the only wayto lay it is to live by the precepts of Jesus and to repeat in newforms the spirit of the primitive Church. The Christian sense ofstewardship, not the abolition of the right of property, is the curefor the hideous facts which drive men to shriek 'Property is theft. '

Luke adds two more points to his survey, --the power of the Apostolictestimony, and the great grace which lay like a bright cloud on thewhole Church. The Apostles' special office was to bear witness to theResurrection. They held a position of prominence in the Church byvirtue of having been chosen by Jesus and having been His companions, but the Book of Acts is silent about any of the other mysteriouspowers which later ages have ascribed to them. The only Apostles whoappear in it are Peter, John, and James, the last only in aparenthesis recording His martyrdom. Their peculiar work was to say, 'Behold! we saw, and know that He died and rose again. '

II. The general description is followed by one example of thesurrender of wealth, which is noteworthy as being done by oneafterwards to play a great part in the book, and also as leading onto an example of hypocritical pretence. Side by side stand Barnabasand the wretched couple, Ananias and Sapphira. 

Luke introduces the new personage with some particularity, and, as Hedoes not go into detail without good reason, we must note hisdescription. First, the man's character is given, as expressed in thename bestowed by the Apostles, in imitation of Christ's frequentcustom. He must have been for some time a disciple, in order that hisspecial gift should have been recognised. He was a 'son ofexhortation'; that is, he had the power of rousing and encouragingthe faith and stirring the believing energy of the brethren. Anexample of this was given in Antioch, where he 'exhorted them all, that with purpose of heart they would cleave unto the Lord. ' So muchthe more beautiful was his self-effacement when with Paul, for it wasthe latter who was 'the chief speaker. ' Barnabas felt that his giftwas less than his brother's, and so, without jealousy, took thesecond place. He, being silent, yet speaketh, and bids us learn ourlimits, and be content to be surpassed. 

We are next told his rank. He was a Levite. The tribe to which adisciple belongs is seldom mentioned, but probably the reason forspecifying Barnabas' was the same as led Luke, in another place, torecord that 'a great company of the priests was obedient to thefaith. ' The connection of the tribe of Levi with the Temple worshipmade accessions from it significant, as showing how surely the newfaith was creeping into the very heart of the old system, and winningconverts from the very classes most interested in opposing it. Barnabas' significance is further indicated by the notice that he was'a man of Cyprus, ' and as such, the earliest mentioned of theHellenists or foreign-born and Greek-speaking Jews, who were to playso important a part in the expansion of the Church. 

His first appearance witnessed to the depth and simple genuineness ofhis character and faith. The old law forbidding Levites to hold landhad gradually become inoperative, and perhaps Barnabas' estate was inCyprus, though more probably it was, like that of his relative Mary, the mother of Mark, in Jerusalem. He did as many others were doing, and brought the proceeds to the assembly of the brethren, and therepublicly laid them at the Apostles' feet, in token of their authorityto administer them as they thought well. 

III. Why was Barnabas' act singled out for mention, since there wasnothing peculiar about it? Most likely because it stimulated Ananiasand his wife to imitation. Wherever there are signal instances ofChristian self-sacrifice, there will spring up a crop of base copies. Ananias follows Barnabas as surely as the shadow the substance. Itwas very likely a pure impulse which led him and his wife to agree tosell their land; and it was only when they had the money in theirhands, and had to take the decisive step of parting with it, andreducing themselves to pennilessness, that they found the surrenderharder than they could carry out. Satan spoils many a well-begunwork, and we often break down half-way through a piece of Christianunselfishness. Well begun is half--but only half--ended. 

Be that as it may, Peter's stern words to Ananias put all the stressof the sin on its being an acted lie. The motives of the trick arenot disclosed. They may have been avarice, want of faith, greed ofapplause, reluctance to hang back when others were doing likeBarnabas. It is hard to read the mingled motives which lead ourselveswrong, and harder to separate them in the case of another. How muchAnanias kept back is of no moment; indeed, the less he retained thegreater the sin; for it is baser, as well as more foolish, to dowrong for a little advantage than for a great one. 

Peter's two questions bring out very strikingly the double source ofthe sin. 'Why hath Satan filled thy heart?'--an awful antithesis tobeing filled with the Spirit. Then there is a real, malign Tempter, who can pour evil affections and purposes into men's hearts. But hecannot do it unless the man opens his heart, as that 'why?' implies. The same thought of our co-operation and concurrence, so that, however Satan suggests, it is we who are guilty, comes out in thesecond question, 'How is it that _thou_ hast conceived this thing inthy heart?' Reverently we may venture to say that not only Christstands at the door and knocks, but that the enemy of Him and Hisstands there too, and he too enters 'if any man opens the door. 'Neither heaven nor hell can come in unless we will. 

The death of Ananias was not inflicted by Peter, 'Hearing thesewords' he 'fell down and' died. Surely that expression suggests thatthe stern words had struck at his life, and that his death was theresult of the agitation of shame and guilt which they excited. Thatdoes not at all conflict with regarding his death as a punitivedivine act. 

One can fancy the awed silence that fell on the congregation, and therestrained, mournful movement that ran through it when Sapphiraentered. Why the two had not come in company can only be conjectured. Perhaps the husband had gone straight to the Apostles aftercompleting the sale, and had left the wife to follow at herconvenience. Perhaps she had not intended to come at all, but hadgrown alarmed at the delay in Ananias' return. She may have come infear that something had gone wrong, and that fear would be increasedby her not seeing her husband in her quick glance round the company. 

If she came expecting to receive applause, the silence and constraintthat hung over the assembly must have stirred a fear that somethingterrible had happened, which would be increased by Peter's question. It was a merciful opportunity given her to separate herself from thesin and the punishment; but her lie was glib, and indicateddetermination to stick to the fraud. That moment was heavy with herfate, and she knew it not; but she knew that she had the opportunityof telling the truth, and she did not take it. She had to make thehard choice which we have sometimes to make, to be true to somesinful bargain or be true to God, and she chose the worse part. Whichof the two was tempter and which was tempted matters little. Likemany a wife, she thought that it was better to be loyal to herhusband than to God, and so her honour was 'rooted in dishonour, ' andshe was falsely true and truly false. 

The judgment on Sapphira was not inflicted by Peter. He foretold itby his prophetic power, but it was the hand of God which vindicatedthe purity of the infant Church. The terrible severity of thepunishment can only be understood by remembering the importance ofpreserving the young community from corruption at the very beginning. Unless the vermin are cleared from the springing plant, it will notgrow. As Achan's death warned Israel at the beginning of theirentrance into the promised land, so Ananias and Sapphira perished, that all generations of the Church might fear to pretend to self-surrender while cherishing its opposite, and might feel that theyhave to give account to One who knows the secrets of the heart, andcounts nothing as given if anything is surreptitiously kept back. 

WHOM TO OBEY, --ANNAS OR ANGEL?

'Then the high priest rose up, and all they that were with him, (which is the sect of the Sadducees, ) and were filled withindignation, 18. And laid their hands on the apostles, and putthem in the common prison. 19. But the angel of the Lord by nightopened the prison doors, and brought them forth, and said, 20. Go, stand and speak in the temple to the people all the words ofthis life. 21. And when they heard that, they entered into thetemple early in the morning, and taught. But the high priestcame, and they that were with him, and called the counciltogether, and all the senate of the children of Israel, and sentto the prison to have them brought. 22. But when the officerscame, and found them not in the prison, they returned, and told, 23. Saying, The prison truly found we shut with all safety, andthe keepers standing without before the doors: but when we hadopened, we found no man within. 24. Now when the high priest andthe captain of the temple and the chief priests heard thesethings, they doubted of them whereunto this would grow. 25. Thencame one and told them, saying. Behold, the men whom ye put inprison are standing in the temple, and teaching the people. 26. Then went the captain with the officers, and brought them withoutviolence: for they feared the people, lest they should have beenstoned. 27. And when they had brought them, they set them beforethe council: and the high priest asked them, 28. Saying, Did notwe straitly command you that ye should not teach in this name?and, behold, ye have filled Jerusalem with your doctrine, andintend to bring this man's blood upon us. 29. Then Peter and theother apostles answered and said, We ought to obey God ratherthan men. 30. The God of our fathers raised up Jesus, whom yeslew and hanged on a tree. 31. Him hath God exalted with Hisright hand to be a Prince and a Saviour, for to give repentanceto Israel, and forgiveness of sins. 32. And we are His witnessesof these things; and so is also the Holy Ghost, whom God hathgiven to them that obey Him. '--ACTS v. 17-32. 

The Jewish ecclesiastics had been beaten in the first round of thefight, and their attempt to put out the fire had only stirred theblaze. Popular sympathy is fickle, and if the crowd does not shoutwith the persecutors, it will make heroes and idols of thepersecuted. So the Apostles had gained favour by the attempt tosilence them, and that led to the second round, part of which isdescribed in this passage. 

The first point to note is the mean motives which influenced thehigh-priest and his adherents. As before, the Sadducees were at thebottom of the assault; for talk about a resurrection was gall andwormwood to them. But Luke alleges a much more contemptible emotionthan zeal for supposed truth as the motive for action. The wordrendered in the Authorised Version 'indignation, ' is indeed literally'zeal, ' but it here means, as the Revised Version has it, nothingnobler than 'jealousy. ' 'Who are those ignorant Galileans that theyshould encroach on the office of us dignified teachers? and whatfools the populace must be to listen to them! Our prestige isthreatened. If we don't bestir ourselves, our authority will begone. ' A lofty spirit in which to deal with grave movements ofopinion, and likely to lead its possessors to discern truth!

The Sanhedrin, no doubt, talked solemnly about the progress of error, and the duty of firmly putting it down, and, like Jehu, said, 'Come, and see our zeal for the Lord'; but it was zeal for greetings in themarketplace, and the chief seats in the synagogues, and the otheradvantages of their position. So it has often been since. Theinstruments which zeal for truth uses are argument, Scripture, andpersuasion. That zeal which betakes itself to threats and force is, at the best, much mingled with the wrath and jealousy of man. 

The arrest of the Apostles and their committal to prison was simplyfor detention, not punishment. The rulers cast their net wider thistime, and secured all the Apostles, and, having them safe under lockand key, they went home triumphant, and expecting to deal a decisiveblow to-morrow. Then comes one of the great 'buts' of Scripture. Annas and Caiaphas thought that they had scored a success, but anangel upset their calculations. To try to explain the miracle away ishopeless. It is wiser to try to understand it. 

The very fact that it did not lead to the Apostles' deliverance, butthat the trial and scourging followed next day, just as if it had nothappened, which has been alleged as a proof of its uselessness, andinferentially of its falsehood, puts us on the right track. It wasnot meant for their deliverance, but for their heartening, and forthe bracing of all generations of Christians, by showing, at thefirst conflict with the civil power, that the Lord was with HisChurch. His strengthening power is operative when no miracle iswrought. If His servants are not delivered, it is not that He lacksangels, but that it is better for them and the Church that theyshould lie in prison or die at the stake. 

The miracle was a transient revelation of a perpetual truth, and hasshed light on many a dark dungeon where God's servants have lainrotting. It breathed heroic constancy into the Twelve. How strikingand noble was their prompt obedience to the command to resume theperilous work of preaching! As soon as the dawn began to glimmer overOlivet, and the priests were preparing for the morning sacrifice, there were these irrepressible disturbers, whom the officials thoughtthey had shut up safely last night, lifting up their voices again asif nothing had happened. What a picture of dauntless persistence, andwhat a lesson for us! The moment the pressure is off, we shouldspring back to our work of witnessing for Christ. 

The bewilderment of the Council comes in strong contrast with theunhesitating action of the Apostles. There is a half ludicrous sideto it, which Luke does not try to hide. There was the pompousassembling of all the great men at early morning, and their dignifiedwaiting till their underlings brought in the culprits. No doubt, Annas put on his severest air of majesty, and all were prepared tolook their sternest for the confusion of the prisoners. The prison, the Temple, and the judgment hall, were all near each other. So therewas not long to wait. But, behold! the officers come back alone, andtheir report shakes the assembly out of its dignity. One sees theastonished underlings coming up to the prison, and finding all inorder, the sentries patrolling, the doors fast (so the angel had shutthem as well as opened them), and then entering ready to drag out theprisoners, and--finding all silent. Such elaborate guard kept over anempty cage!

It was not the officers' business to offer explanations, and it doesnot seem that any were asked. One would have thought that thesentries would have been questioned. Herod went the natural way towork, when he had Peter's guards examined and put to death. But Annasand his fellows do not seem to have cared to inquire how the escapehad been made. Possibly they suspected a miracle, or perhaps fearedthat inquiry might reveal sympathisers with the prisoners among theirown officials. At any rate, they were bewildered, and lost theirheads, wondering what was to come next, and how this thing was toend. 

The further news that these obstinate fanatics were at their old workin the Temple again, must have greatly added to the rulers'perplexity, and they must have waited the return of the officers sentoff for the second time to fetch the prisoners, with somewhat lessdignity than before. The officers felt the pulse of the crowd, anddid not venture on force, from wholesome fear for their own skins. Anexcited mob in the Temple court was not to be trifled with, sopersuasion was adopted. The brave Twelve went willingly, for theSanhedrin had no terrors for them, and by going they secured anotheropportunity of ringing out their Lord's salvation. Wherever aChristian can witness for Christ, he should be ready to go. 

The high-priest discreetly said nothing about the escape. Possibly hehad no suspicion of a miracle, but, even if he had, chapter iv. 16shows that that would not have led to any modification of hishostility. Persecutors, clothed with a little brief authority, arestrangely blind to the plainest indications of the truth spoken bytheir victims. Annas did not know what a question about the escapemight bring out, so he took the safer course of charging the Twelvewith disobedience to the Sanhedrin's prohibition. How characteristicof all his kind that is! Never mind whether what the martyr says istrue or not. He has broken our law, and defied our authority; that isenough. Are we to be chopping logic, and arguing with every ignorantupstart who chooses to vent his heresies? Gag him, --that is easierand more dignified. 

A world of self-consequence peeps out in that '_we_ straitly chargedyou, ' and a world of contempt peeps out in the avoidance of namingJesus. 'This name' and 'this man' is the nearest that the proudpriest will come to soiling his lips by mentioning Him. He bearsunconscious testimony to the Apostles' diligence, and to the popularinclination to them, by charging them with having filled the citywith what he contemptuously calls '_your_ teaching, ' as if it had noother source than their own ignorant notions. 

Then the deepest reason for the Sanhedrin's bitterness leaks out inthe charge of inciting the mob to take vengeance on them for thedeath of Jesus. It was true that the Apostles had charged that guilthome on them, but not on them only, but on the whole nation, so thatno incitement to revenge lay in the charge. It was true that they hadbrought 'this man's blood' on the rulers, but only to draw them torepentance, not to hound at them their sharers in the guilt. HadAnnas forgot 'His blood be on us, and on our children'? But, when anevil deed is complete, the doers try to shuffle off theresponsibility which they were ready to take in the excitement ofhurrying to do it. Annas did not trouble himself about divinevengeance; it was the populace whom he feared. 

So, in its attempt to browbeat the accused, in its empty airs ofauthority, in its utter indifference to the truth involved, in itscontempt for the preachers and their message, in its brazen denial ofresponsibility, its dread of the mob, and its disregard of the far-off divine judgment, his bullying speech is a type of howpersecutors, from Roman governors down, have hectored their victims. 

And Peter's brave answer is, thank God! the type of what thousands oftrembling women and meek men have answered. His tone is severer nowthan on his former appearance. Now he has no courteous recognition ofthe court's authority. Now he brushes aside all Annas's attempts toimpose on him the sanctity of its decrees, and flatly denies that theCouncil has any more right to command than any other 'men. ' Theyclaimed to be depositaries of God's judgments. This revolutionaryfisherman sees nothing in them but 'men, ' whose commands point oneway, while God's point the other. The angel bade them 'speak'; theCouncil had bid them be dumb. To state the opposition was todetermine their duty. Formerly Peter had said 'judge ye' whichcommand it is right to obey. Now, he wraps his refusal in no folds ofcourtesy, but thrusts the naked 'We must obey God' in the Council'sface. That was a great moment in the history of the world and theChurch. How much lay in it, as in a seed, --Luther's 'Here I stand, Ican do none other. God help me! Amen'; Plymouth Rock, and many aglorious and blood-stained page in the records of martyrdom. 

Peter goes on to vindicate his assumption that in disobeying Annasthey are obeying God, by reiterating the facts which since Pentecosthe had pressed on the national conscience. Israel had slain, and Godhad exalted, Jesus to His right hand. That was God's verdict onIsrael's action. But it was also the ground of hope for Israel; forthe exaltatior of Jesus was that He might be 'Prince [or Leader] andSaviour, ' and from His exalted hand were shed the gifts of'repentance and remission of sins, ' even of the great sin of slayingHim. These things being so, how could the Apostles be silent? Had notGod bid them speak, by their very knowledge of these? They wereChrist's witnesses, constituted as such by their personalacquaintance with Him and their having seen Him raised and ascending, and appointed to be such by His own lips, and inspired for theirwitnessing by the Holy Spirit shed on them at Pentecost. Peter allbut reproduces the never-to-be-forgotten words heard by them all inthe upper room, 'He shall bear witness of Me: and ye also shall bearwitness, because ye have been with Me from the beginning. ' Silencewould be treason. So it is still. What were Annas and his bluster tomen whom Christ had bidden to speak, and to whom He had given theSpirit of the Father to speak in them?

OUR CAPTAIN

'Him hath God exalted with His right hand to be a Prince. '--ACTS v. 31. 

The word rendered 'Prince' is a rather infrequent designation of ourLord in Scripture. It is only employed in all four times--twice inPeter's earlier sermons recorded in this Book of the Acts; and twicein the Epistle to the Hebrews. In a former discourse of the Apostle'she had spoken of the crime of the Jews in killing 'the Prince oflife. ' Here he uses the word without any appended epithet. In theEpistle to the Hebrews we read once of the 'Captain of Salvation, 'and once of the 'Author of Faith. '

Now these three renderings 'Prince, ' 'Captain, ' 'Author, ' seemsingularly unlike. But the explanation of their being allsubstantially equivalent to the original word is not difficult tofind. It seems to mean properly a Beginner, or Originator, who takesthe lead in anything, and hence the notions of chieftainship andpriority are easily deduced from it. Then, very naturally, it comesto mean something very much like _cause_; with only this difference, that it implies that the person who is the Originator is Himself thePossessor of that of which He is the Cause to others. So the twoideas of a Leader, and of a Possessor who imparts, are both includedin the word. 

My intention in this sermon is to deal with the various forms of thisexpression, in order to try to bring out the fulness of the notionwhich Scripture attaches to this leadership of Jesus Christ. He isfirst of all, generally, as our text sets Him forth, the Leader, absolutely. Then there are the specific aspects, expressed by theother three passages, in which He is set forth as the Leader throughdeath to life; the Leader through suffering to salvation; and theLeader in the path of faith. Let us look, then, at these points insuccession. 

I. First, we have the general notion of Christ the Leader. 

Now I suppose we are all acquainted with the fact that the names'Joshua' and 'Jesus' are, in the original, one. It is further to benoticed that, in the Greek translation of the Old Testament, whichwas familiar to Peter's hearers, the word of our text is thatemployed to describe the office of the military leaders of Israel. Itis still further to be observed that, in all the instances in the NewTestament, it is employed in immediate connection with the name ofJesus. Now, putting all these things together, remembering to whomPeter was speaking, remembering the familiarity which many of hisaudience must have had with the Old Testament in its Greektranslation, remembering the identity of the two names Joshua andJesus, it is difficult to avoid the supposition that the expressionof our text is coloured by a reference to the bold soldier whosuccessfully led his brethren into the Promised Land. Joshua was the'Captain of the Lord's host' to lead them to Canaan; the secondJoshua is the Captain of the Host of the Lord to lead them to abetter rest. Of all the Old Testament heroes perhaps there is none, at first sight, less like the second Joshua than the first was. He isonly a rough, plain, prompt, and bold soldier. No prophet was he, noword of wisdom ever fell from his lips, no trace of tenderness was inanything that he did; meekness was alien from his character, he wasno sage, he was no saint, but decisive, swift, merciless whennecessary, full of resource, sharp and hard as his own sword. And yeta parallel may be drawn. 

The second Joshua is the Captain of the Lord's host, as was typifiedto the first one, in that strange scene outside the walls of Jericho, where the earthly commander, sunk in thought, was brooding upon thehard nut which he had to crack, when suddenly he lifted up his eyes, and beheld a man with a drawn sword. With the instinctive alertnessof his profession and character, his immediate question was, 'Artthou for us or for our enemies?' And he got the answer 'No! I am noton thy side, nor on the other side, but thou art on Mine. As Captainof the Lord's host am I come up. '

So Jesus Christ, the 'Strong Son of God, ' is set forth by thismilitary emblem as being Himself the first Soldier in the army ofGod, and the Leader of all the host. We forget far too much themilitant character of Jesus Christ. We think of His meekness, Hisgentleness, His patience, His tenderness, His humility, and we cannotthink of these too much, too lovingly, too wonderingly, tooadoringly, but we too often forget the strength which underlay thegentleness, and that His life, all gracious as it was, when looked atfrom the outside, had beneath it a continual conflict, and was ineffect the warfare of God against all the evils and the sorrows ofhumanity. We forget the courage that went to make the gentleness ofJesus, the daring that underlay His lowliness; and it does us good toremember that all the so-called heroic virtues were set forth insupreme form, not in some vulgar type of excellence, such as aconqueror, whom the world recognises, but in that meek King whoseweapon was love, yet was wielded with a soldier's hand. 

This general thought of Jesus Christ as the first Soldier and Captainof the Lord's army not only opens for us a side of His characterwhich we too often pass by, but it also says something to us as towhat our duties ought to be. He stands to us in the relation ofGeneral and Commander-in-Chief; then we stand to Him in the relationof private soldiers, whose first duty is unhesitating obedience, andwho in doing their Master's will must put forth a bravery far higherthan the vulgar courage that is crowned with wreathed laurels on thebloody battlefield, even the bravery that is caught from Him who 'setHis face as a flint' to do His work. 

Joshua's career has in it a great stumbling-block to many people, inthat merciless destruction of the Canaanite sinners, which can onlybe vindicated by remembering, first, that it was a divineappointment, and that God has the right to punish; and, second, thatthose old days were under a different law, or at least a lessmanifestly developed law of loving-kindness and mercy than, thankGod! we live in. But whilst we look with wonder on these awful scenesof destruction, may there not lie in them the lesson for us thatantagonism and righteous wrath against evil in all its forms is theduty of the soldiers of Christ? There are many causes to-day which tofurther and fight for is the bounden duty of every Christian, and tofurther and fight for which will tax all the courage that any of uscan muster. Remember that the leadership of Christ is no mere prettymetaphor, but a solemn fact, which brings with it the soldier'sresponsibilities. When our Centurion says to us, 'Come!' we mustcome. When He says to us, 'Go!' we must go. When He says to us 'Dothis!' we must do it, though heart and flesh should shrink and fail. Unhesitating obedience to His authoritative command will deliver usfrom many of the miseries of self-will; and brave effort at Christ'sside is as much the privilege as the duty of His servants andsoldiers. 

II. So note, secondly, the Leader through death to life. 

Peter, in the sermon which is found in the third chapter of this Bookof the Acts, has his mind and heart filled with the astounding factof the Resurrection and Ascension of Jesus Christ, and in the samebreath as he gives forth the paradoxical indictment of the Jewishsin, 'You have killed the Prince of Life'--the Leader of Life--healso says, 'And God hath raised Him from the dead. ' So that theconnection seems to point to the risen and glorified life into whichChrist Himself passed, and by passing became capable of imparting itto others. The same idea is here as in Paul's other metaphor: 'Now isChrist risen from the dead, and become the first-fruits of them thatslept'--the first sheaf of the harvest, which was carried into theTemple and consecrated to God, and was the pledge and prophecy of thereaping in due season of all the miles of golden grain that waved inthe autumn sunshine. 'So, ' says Peter, 'He is the Leader of Life, whoHimself has passed through the darkness, for "you killed Him";mystery of mysteries as it is that you should have been able to doit, deeper mystery still that you should have been willing to do it, deepest mystery of all that you did it not when you did it, but that"He became dead and is alive for evermore. " You killed the Prince ofLife, and God raised Him from the dead. '

He has gone before us. He is 'the first that should rise from thedead. ' For, although the partial power of His communicated life didbreathe for a moment resuscitation into two dead men and one deadmaiden, these shared in no resurrection-life, but only came backagain into mortality, and were quickened for a time, but to die atlast the common death of all. But Jesus Christ is the first that hasgone into the darkness and come back again to live for ever. Acrossthe untrodden wild there is one track marked, and the footprints uponit point both ways--to the darkness and from the darkness. So thedreary waste is not pathless any more. The broad road that all thegenerations have trodden on their way into the everlasting darknessis left now, and the 'travellers pass by the byway' which JesusChrist has made by the touch of His risen feet. 

Thus, not only does this thought teach us the priority of Hisresurrection-life, but it also declares to us that Jesus Christ, possessing the risen life, possesses it to impart it. For, as Iremarked in my introductory observations, the conception of this wordincludes not only the idea of a Leader, but that of One who, Himselfpossessing or experiencing something, gives it to others. All menrise again. Yes, 'but every man in his own order. ' There are twoprinciples at work in the resurrection of all men. They are raised ondifferent grounds, and they are raised to different issues. They thatare Christ's are brought again from the dead, because the life ofChrist is in them; and it is as 'impossible' that they, as that 'He, should be holden of it. ' Union with Jesus Christ by simple faith isthe means, and the only means revealed to us, whereby men shall beraised from the dead at the last by a resurrection which is anythingelse than a prolonged death. As for others, 'some shall rise untoshame and everlasting contempt, ' rising dead, and dead after they arerisen--dead as long as they live. There be two resurrections, whethersimultaneous in time or not is of no moment, and all of us must haveour part in the one or the other; and faith in Jesus Christ is theonly means by which we can take a place in the great army andprocession that He leads down into the valley and up to the sunnyheights. 

If He be the Leader through death unto life, then it is certain thatall who follow in His train shall attain to His side and shall sharein His glory. The General wears no order which the humblest privatein the ranks may not receive likewise, and whomsoever He leads, Hisleading will not end till He has led them close to His side, if theytrust Him. So, calmly, confidently, we may each of us look forward tothat dark journey waiting for us all. All our friends will leave usat the tunnel's mouth, but He will go with us through the gloom, andbring us out into the sunny lands on the southern side of the icywhite mountains. The Leader of our souls will be our Guide, not onlyunto death, but far beyond it, into His own life. 

III. So, thirdly, note the Leader through suffering to salvation. 

In the Epistle to the Hebrews it is written, 'It became Him for whomare all things, and by whom are all things, in bringing many sonsunto glory, to make the Captain'--or the Leader--'of their salvationperfect through sufferings. ' That expression might seem at first toshut Jesus Christ out from any participation in the thing which Hegives. For salvation is His gift, but not that which He Himselfpossesses and enjoys; but it is to be noticed that in the context ofthe words which I have quoted, 'glory' is put as substantiallysynonymous with salvation, and that the whole is suffused with theidea of a long procession, as shown by the phrase, 'bringing manysons. ' Of this procession Jesus Christ Himself is the Leader. 

So, clearly, the notion in the context now under consideration isthat the life of Jesus Christ is the type to which all His servantsare to be conformed. He is the Representative Man, who Himself passesthrough the conditions through which we are to pass, and Himselfreaches the glory which, given to us, becomes salvation. 

'Christ is perfected through sufferings. ' So must we be. Perfectedthrough sufferings? you say. Then did His humanity need perfecting?Yes, and No. There needed nothing to be hewn away from that whitemarble. There was nothing to be purged by fire out of that pure life. But I suppose that Jesus Christ's human nature needed to be unfoldedby life; as the Epistle to the Hebrews says, 'He learned obedience, though He were a Son, through the things which He suffered. ' Andfitness for His office of leading us to glory required to be reachedthrough the sufferings which were the condition of our forgivenessand of our acceptance with God. So, whether we regard the word asexpressing the agony of suffering in unfolding His humanity, or infitting Him for His redeeming work, it remains true that He wasperfected by His sufferings. 

So must we be. Our characters will never reach the refinement, thedelicacy, the unworldliness, the dependence upon God, which theyrequire for their completion, unless we have been passed through manya sorrow. There are plants which require a touch of frost to perfectthem, and we all need the discipline of a Father's hand. The sorrowsthat come to us all are far more easily borne when we think thatChrist bore them all before us. It is but a blunted sword whichsorrow wields against any of us; it was blunted on His armour. It isbut a spent ball that strikes us; its force was exhausted upon Him. Sorrow, if we keep close to Him, may become solemn joy, and knit usmore thoroughly to Himself. Ah, brother! we can better spare our joysthan we can spare our sorrows. Only let us cleave to Him when theyfall upon us. 

Christ's sufferings led Him to His glory, so will ours if we keep byHis side--and only if we do. There is nothing in the mere fact ofbeing tortured and annoyed here on earth, which has in itself anydirect and necessary tendency to prepare us for the enjoyment, or tosecure to us the possession, of future blessedness. You often hearsuperficial people saying, 'Oh! he has been very much troubled here, but there will be amends for it hereafter. ' Yes; God would wish tomake amends for it hereafter, but He cannot do so unless we complywith the conditions. And it needs that we should keep close to JesusChrist in sorrow, in order that it should work for us 'the peaceablefruit of righteousness. ' The glory will come if the patient endurancehas preceded, and has been patience drawn from Jesus. 

 'I wondered at the beauteous hours, The slow result of winter showers, You scarce could see the grass for flowers. '

The sorrows that have wounded any man's head like a crown of thornswill be covered with the diadem of Heaven, if they are sorrows bornewith Christ. 

IV. Lastly, we have Jesus, the Leader in the path of faith. 

'The Author of faith, ' says the verse in the Epistle to the Hebrews. 'Author' does not cover all the ground, though it does part of it. Wemust include the other ideas which I have been trying to set forth Heis 'Possessor' first and 'Giver' afterwards. For Jesus Christ Himselfis both the Pattern and the Inspirer of our faith. It would undulyprotract my remarks to dwell adequately upon this; but let me justbriefly hint some thoughts connected with it. 

Jesus Christ Himself walked by continual faith. His manhood dependedupon God, just as ours has to depend upon Jesus. He lived in thecontinued reception of continual strength from above by reason of Hisfaith, just as our faith is the condition of our reception of Hisstrength. We are sometimes afraid to recognise the fact that the ManJesus, who is our pattern in all things, is our pattern in this, themost special and peculiarly human aspect of the religious life. Butif Christ was not the first of believers, His pattern is wofullydefective in its adaptation to our need. Rather let us rejoice in thethought that all that great muster-roll of the heroes of the faith, which the Epistle to the Hebrews has been dealing with, have fortheir Leader--though, chronologically, He marches in the centre--Jesus Christ, of whose humanity this is the document and proof thatHe says, in the Prophet's words: 'I will put My trust in Him. '

Remember, too, that the same Jesus who is the Pattern is the Objectand the Inspirer of our faith; and that if we fulfil the conditionsin the text now under consideration, 'looking off' from all others, stimulating and beautiful as their example may be, sweet and tenderas their love may be, and 'looking unto Jesus, ' He will be in us, andabove us--in us to inspire, and above us to receive and to reward ourhumble confidence. 

So, dear friends, it all comes to this, 'Follow thou Me!' In thatcommandment all duty is summed, and in obeying it all blessedness andpeace are ensured. If we will take Christ for our Captain, He willteach our fingers to fight. If we obey Him we shall not wantguidance, and be saved from perplexities born of self-will. If wekeep close to Him and turn our eyes to Him, away from all the falseand fleeting joys and things of earth, we shall not walk in darkness, howsoever earthly lights may be quenched, but the gloomiest path willbe illuminated by His presence, and the roughest made smooth by Hisbleeding feet that passed along it. If we follow Him, He will lead usdown into the dark valley, and up into the blessed sunshine, whereparticipation in His own eternal life and glory will be salvation. Ifwe march in His ranks on earth, then shall we

 'With joy upon our heads arise And meet our Captain in the skies. '

GAMALIEL'S COUNSEL

'Refrain from these men, and let them alone; for if this counselor this work be of men, it will come to nought: 39. But if it beof God, ye cannot overthrow it; lest haply ye be found even tofight against God. '--ACTS v. 38, 39. 

The little that is known of Gamaliel seems to indicate just such aman as would be likely to have given the advice in the text. His wasa character which, on its good side and by its admirers, would bedescribed as prudent, wise, cautious and calm, tolerant, opposed tofanaticism and violence. His position as president of the Sanhedrin, his long experience, his Rabbinical training, his old age, and hisknowledge that the national liberty depended on keeping things quiet, would be very likely to exaggerate such tendencies into what hisenemies would describe as worldly shrewdness without a trace ofenthusiasm, indifference to truth, and the like. 

It is, of course, possible that he bases his counsel of letting thefollowers of Jesus alone, on the grounds which he adduces, because heknew that reasons more favourable to Christians would have had noweight with the Sanhedrin. Old Church traditions make him out to havebeen a Christian, and the earliest Christian romance, a very singularbook, of which the main object was to blacken the Apostle Paul, roundly asserts that at the date of this advice he was 'secretly ourbrother, ' and that he remained in the Sanhedrin to further Christianviews. But there seems not the slightest reason to suppose that. Helived and died a Jew, spared the sight of the destruction ofJerusalem which, according to his own canon in the text, would haveproved that the system to which he had given his life was not of God;and the only relic of his wisdom is a prayer against Christianheretics. 

It is remarkable that he should have given this advice; but twothings occur to account for it. Thus far Christianity had been veryemphatically the preaching of the Resurrection, a truth which thePharisees believed and held as especially theirs in opposition to theSadducees, and Gamaliel was old and worldly-wise enough to count allas his friends who were the enemies of his enemies. He was not veryparticular where he looked for allies, and rather shrank from helpingSadducees to punish men whose crime was that they 'preached throughJesus a resurrection from the dead. '

Then the Jewish rulers had a very ticklish part to play. They wereafraid of any popular shout which might bring down the avalanche ofRoman power on them, and they were nervously anxious to keep thingsquiet. So Gamaliel did not wish to have any fuss made about 'thesemen, ' lest it should be supposed that another popular revolt was onfoot; and he thought that to let them alone was the best way toreduce their importance. Perhaps, too, there was a secret hope in theold man's mind, which he scarcely ventured to look at and dared notspeak, that here might be the beginning of a rising which had morepromise in it than that abortive one under Theudas. He could notventure to say this, but perhaps it made him chary of voting forrepression. He had no objection to let these poor Galileans flingaway their lives in storming against the barrier of Rome. If theyfail, it is but one more failure. If they succeed, he and his likewill say that they have done well. But while the enterprise is tooperilous for him to approve or be mixed up in it, he would let ithave its chance. 

Note that Gamaliel regards the whole movement as the probable germ ofan uprising against Rome, as is seen from the parallels that hequotes. It is not as a religious teaching which is true or false, butas a political agitation, that he looks at Christianity. 

It is to his credit that he stood calm and curbed the howling of thefanatics round him, and that he was the first and only Jewishauthority who counselled abstinence from persecution. 

It is interesting to compare him with Gallio, who had a glimpse ofthe true relation of the civil magistrate to religious opinion. Gamaliel has a glimpse of the truth of the impotence of materialforce against truth, how it is of a quick and spiritual essence, which cannot be cleaved in pieces with a sword, but lives on in spiteof all. But while all this may be true, the advice on the whole is alow and bad one. It rests on false principles; it takes a false viewof a man's duty; it is not wholly sincere; and it is one impossibleto be carried out. It is singularly in accordance with many of thetendencies of this age, and with modes of thought and counsels ofaction which are in active operation amongst us to-day, and we maytherefore criticise it now. 

I. Here is disbelief professing to be 'honest doubt. ' Gamalielprofesses not to have materials for judging. 'If--if'; was it a timefor 'ifs'? What was that Sanhedrin there for, but to try preciselysuch cases as these?

They had had the works of Christ; miracles which they hadinvestigated and could not disprove; a life which was its ownwitness; prophecies fulfilled; His own presence before their bar; theResurrection and the Pentecost. 

I am not saying whether these facts were enough to have convincedthem, nor even whether the alleged miracles were true. All that I amconcerned with is that, so far as we know, neither Gamaliel nor anyof his tribe had ever made the slightest attempt to inquire intothem, but had, without examination, complacently treated them aslies. All that body of evidence had been absolutely ignored. And nowhe is, with his 'ifs, ' posing as very calm and dispassionate. 

So to-day it is fashionable to doubt, to hang up most of theChristian truths in the category of uncertainties. 

(_a_) When that is the fashion, we need to be on our guard. 

(_b_) If you doubt, have you ever taken the pains to examine?

(_c_) If you doubt, you are bound to go further, and either reachbelief or rejection. Doubt is not the permanent condition for a man. The central truth of Christianity is either to be received orrejected. 

II. Here is disbelief masquerading as suspension of judgment. 

Gamaliel talked as if he did not know, or had not decided in his ownmind, whether the disciples' claims for their Master were just ornot. But the attitude of impartiality and hesitation was the cover ofrooted unbelief. He speaks as if the alternative was that either this'counsel and work' was 'of man' or 'of God. ' But he would have beennearer the truth if he had stated the antithesis--God or devil; aglorious truth or a hell-born lie. If Christ's work was not arevelation from above, it was certainly an emanation from beneath. 

We sometimes hear disbelief, in our own days, talking in much thesame fashion. Have we never listened to teachers who first of allprove to their own satisfaction that Jesus is a myth, that all thegospel story is unreliable, and all the gospel message a dream, andthen turn round and overflow in praise of Him and in admiration ofit? Browning's professor in _Christmas Day_ first of all reduces 'thepearl of price' to dust and ashes, and then

 'Bids us, when we least expect it, Take back our faith--if it be not just whole, Yet a pearl indeed, as his tests affect it. '

And that is very much the tone of not a few very superior persons to-day. But let us have one thing or the other--a Christ who was what Heclaimed to be, the Incarnate Word of God, who died for our sins androse again for our justification; or a Galilean peasant who waseither a visionary or an impostor, like Judas of Galilee and Theudas. 

III. Here is success turned into a criterion of truth. 

It is such, no doubt, in the long run, but not till then, and so tillthe end it is utterly false to argue that a thing is true becausemultitudes think it to be so. The very opposite is more nearly true. It in usually minorities who have been right. 

Gamaliel laid down an immoral principle, which is only too popularto-day, in relation to religion and to much else. 

IV. Here is a selfish neutrality pretending to be judicial calmness. 

Even if it were true that success is a criterion, we have to help Godto ensure the success of His truth. No doubt, taking sides is veryinconvenient to a cool, tolerant man of the world. And it isdifficult to be in a party without becoming a partisan. We know allthe beauty of mild, tolerant wisdom, and that truth is usually sharedbetween combatants, but the dangers of extremes and exaggeration mustbe faced, and perhaps these are better than the cool indifference ofthe eclectic, sitting apart, holding no form of creed, butcontemplating all. It is not good for a man to stand aloof when hisbrethren are fighting. 

In every age some great causes which are God's are pressing fordecision. In many of them we may be disqualified for taking sides. But feel that you are bound to cast your influence on the side whichconscience approves, and bound to settle which side that is, Deborah's fierce curse against Meroz because its people came not upto the help of the Lord against the mighty was deserved. 

But the region in which such judicial calmness, which shrinks fromtaking its side, is most fatal and sadly common, is in regard to ourown individual relation to Jesus, and in regard to the establishmentof His kingdom among men. 

'He that is not with Me is against Me. ' Neutrality is opposition. Notto gather with Him is to scatter. Not to choose Him is to reject Him. 

Gamaliel had a strange notion of what constituted 'refraining fromthese men and letting them alone, ' and he betrayed his real positionand opposition by his final counsel to scourge them, before lettingthem go. That is what the world's neutrality comes to. 

How poor a figure this politic ecclesiastic, mostly anxious not tocommit himself, ready to let whoever would risk a struggle with Rome, so that he kept out of the fray and survived to profit by it, cutsbeside the disciples, who had chosen their side, had done with 'ifs, 'and went away from the Council rejoicing 'that they were countedworthy to suffer shame for His Name'! Who would not rather be Peteror John with their bleeding backs than Gamaliel, sitting soft in hispresidential chair, and too cautious to commit himself to an opinionwhether the name of Jesus was that of a prophet or a pretender?

FILLED WITH THE SPIRIT

'Men . .. Full of the Holy Ghost and wisdom. ' . .. 'A man full offaith and of the Holy Ghost. .. . ' 'Stephen, full of faith andpower. '--ACTS vi. 3, 5, 8. 

I have taken the liberty of wrenching these three fragments fromtheir context, because of their remarkable parallelism, which isevidently intended to set us thinking of the connection of thevarious characteristics which they set forth. The first of them is adescription, given by the Apostles, of the sort of man whom theyconceived to be fit to look after the very homely matter of stiflingthe discontent of some members of the Church, who thought that theirpoor people did not get their fair share of the daily ministration. The second and third of them are parts of the description of theforemost of these seven men, the martyr Stephen. In regard to thefirst and second of our three fragmentary texts, you will observethat the cause is put first and the effect second. The 'deacons' wereto be men 'full of the Holy Ghost, ' and that would make them 'full ofwisdom. ' Stephen was 'full of faith, ' and that made him 'full of theHoly Ghost. ' Probably the same relation subsists in the third of ourtexts, of which the true reading is not, as it appears in ourAuthorised Version, 'full of faith and power, ' but as it is given inthe Revised Version, 'full of grace and power. ' He was filled withgrace--by which apparently is here meant the sum of the divinespiritual gifts--and therefore he was full of power. Whether that isso or not, if we link these three passages together, as I have takenthe liberty of doing, we get a point of view appropriate for such aday [Footnote: Preached on Whit Sunday. ] as this, when all that callsitself Christendom is commemorating the descent of the Holy Spirit, and His abiding influence upon the Church. So I simply wish to gathertogether the principles that come out of these three verses thusconcatenated. 

I. We may all, if we will, be full of the Holy Spirit. 

If there is a God at all, there is nothing more reasonable than tosuppose that He can come into direct contact with the spirits of themen whom He has made. And if that Almighty God is not an Almightyindifference, or a pure devil--if He is love--then there is nothingmore certain than that, if He can touch and influence men's heartstowards goodness and His own likeness, He most certainly will. 

The probability, which all religion recognises, and in often crudeforms tries to set forth, and by superstitious acts to secure, israised to an absolute certainty, if we believe that Jesus Christ, theIncarnate Truth, speaks truth to us about this matter. For there isnothing more certain than that the characteristic which distinguishesHim from all other teachers, is to be found not only in the fact thatHe did something for us on the Cross, as well as taught us by Hisword; but that in His teaching He puts in the forefront, not theprescriptions of our duty, but the promise of God's gift; and eversays to us, 'Open your hearts and the divine influences will flow inand fill you and fit you for all goodness. ' The Spirit of God fillsthe human spirit, as the mysterious influence which we call lifepermeates and animates the whole body, or as water lies in a cup. 

Consider how that metaphor is caught up, and from a different pointof view is confirmed, in regard to the completeness which itpredicates, by other metaphors of Scripture. What is the meaning ofthe Baptist's saying, 'He shall baptise you in the Holy Ghost andfire'? Does that not mean a complete immersion in, and submersionunder, the cleansing flood? What is the meaning of the Master's ownsaying, 'Tarry ye. .. Till ye be clothed with power from on high'?Does not that mean complete investiture of our nakedness with thatheavenly-woven robe? Do not all these emblems declare to us thepossibility of a human spirit being charged to the limits of itscapacity with a divine influence?

We do not here discuss questions which separate good Christian peoplefrom one another in regard of this matter. My object now is not tolay down theological propositions, but to urge upon Christian men theacquirement of an experience which is possible for them. And so, without caring to enter by argument on controversial matters, Idesire simply to lay emphasis upon the plain implication of thatword, '_filled_ with the Holy Ghost. ' Does it mean less than thecomplete subjugation of a man's spirit by the influence of God'sSpirit brooding upon him, as the prophet laid himself on the deadchild, lip to lip, face to face, beating heart to still heart, limbto limb, and so diffused a supernatural life into the dead? That isan emblem of what all you Christian people may have if you like, andif you will adopt the discipline and observe the conditions which Godhas plainly laid down. 

That fulness will be a growing fulness, for our spirits are capable, if not of infinite, at any rate of indefinite, expansion, and thereis no limit known to us, and no limit, I suppose, which will ever bereached, so that we can go no further--to the possible growth of acreated spirit that is in touch with God, and is having itselfenlarged and elevated and ennobled by that contact. The vessel iselastic, the walls of the cup of our spirit, into which the new wineof the divine Spirit is poured, widen out as the draught is pouredinto them. The more a man possesses and uses of the life of God, themore is he capable of possessing and the more he will receive. So acontinuous expansion in capacity, and a continuous increase in theamount of the divine life possessed, are held out as the happyprerogative and possibility of a Christian soul. 

This Stephen had but a very small amount of the clear Christianknowledge that you and I have, but he was leagues ahead of mostChristian people in regard to this, that he was 'filled with the HolySpirit. ' Brethren, you can have as much of that Spirit as you want. It is my own fault if my Christian life is not what the Christianlives of some of us, I doubt not, are. 'Filled with the Holy Spirit'!rather a little drop in the bottom of the cup, and all the restgaping emptiness; rather the fire died down, Pentecostal fire thoughit be, until there is scarcely anything but a heap of black cindersand grey ashes in your grate, and a little sandwich of flickeringflame in one corner; rather the rushing mighty wind died down intoall but a dead calm, like that which afflicts sailing-ships in theequatorial regions, when the thick air is deadly still, and the emptysails have not strength even to flap upon the masts; rather the'river of the water of life' that pours 'out of the throne of God, and of the Lamb, ' dried up into a driblet. 

That is the condition of many Christian people. I say not of which ofus. Let each man settle for himself how that may be. At all eventshere is the possibility, which may be realised with increasingcompleteness all through a Christian man's life. We may be filledwith the Holy Spirit. 

II. If we are 'full of faith' we shall be filled with the Spirit. 

That is the condition as suggested by one of our texts--'a man fullof faith, ' and therefore 'of the Holy Ghost. ' Now, of course, Ibelieve, as I suppose all people who have made any experience oftheir own hearts must believe, that before a soul exercisesconfidence in Jesus Christ, and passes into the household of faith, there have been playing upon it the influences of that divineComforter whose first mission is to 'convince the world of sin. ' Butbetween such operations as these, which I believe are universallydiffused, wheresoever the Word of God and the message of salvationare proclaimed--between such operations as these, and those to whichI now refer, whereby the divine Spirit not only operates upon, butdwells in, a man's heart, and not only brings conviction to the worldof sin, there is a wide gulf fixed; and for all the hallowing, sanctifying, illuminating and strength-giving operations of thatdivine Spirit, the pre-requisite condition is our trust. Jesus Christtaught us so, in more than one utterance, and His Apostle, incommenting on one of the most remarkable of His sayings on thissubject, says, 'This spake He concerning the Holy Spirit which _theythat believed_ in Him were to receive. ' Faith is the condition ofreceiving that divine influence. But what kind of faith? Well, let usput away theological words. If you do not believe that there is anysuch influence to be got, you will not get it. If you do not want it, you will not get it. If you do not expect it, you will not get it. Ifprofessing to believe it, and to wish it, and to look for it, you arebehaving yourself in such a way as to show that you do not reallydesire it, you will never get it. It is all very well to talk aboutfaith as the condition of receiving that divine Spirit. Do not let uslose ourselves in the word, but try to translate the somewhatthreadbare expression, which by reason of its familiarity produceslittle effect upon some of us, and to turn it into non-theologicalEnglish. It just comes to this, --if we are simply trusting ourselvesto Jesus Christ our Lord, and if in that trust we do believe in thepossibility of even _our_ being filled with the divine Spirit, and ifthat possibility lights up a leaping flame of desire in our heartswhich aspires towards the possession of such a gift, and if beliefthat our reception of that gift is possible because we trustourselves to Jesus Christ, and longing that we may receive it, combine to produce the confident expectation that we shall, and ifall of these combine to produce conduct which neither quenches norgrieves that divine Guest, then, and only then, shall we indeed befilled with the Spirit. 

I know of no other way by which a man can receive God into his heartthan by opening his heart for God to come in. I know of no other wayby which a man can woo--if I may so say--the Divine Lover to enterinto his spirit than by longing that He would come, waiting for Hiscoming, expecting it, and being supremely blessed in the thought thatsuch a union is possible. Faith, that is trust, with its appropriateand necessary sequels of desire and expectation and obedience, is thecompleting of the electric circuit, and after it the spark is sure tocome. It is the opening of the windows, after which sunshine cannotbut flood the chamber. It is the stretching out of the hand, and noman that ever, with love and longing, lifted an empty hand to God, dropped it still empty. And no man who, with penitence for his ownact, and trust in the divine act, lifted blood-stained and foul handsto God, ever held them up there without the gory patches meltingaway, and becoming white as snow. Not 'all the perfumes of Araby' cansweeten those bloody hands. Lift them up to God, and they becomepure. Whosoever wishes that he may, and believes that he shall, receive from Christ the fulness of the Spirit, will not bedisappointed. Brethren, 'Ye have not because ye ask not. ' 'If ye, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, ' shall not'your Heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask Him?'

III. Lastly, if we are filled with the Spirit we shall be 'full ofwisdom, grace, and power. '

The Apostles seemed to think that it was a very important business tolook after a handful of poor widows, and see that they had their fairshare in the dispensing of the modest charity of the half-pauperJerusalem church, when they said that for such a purely secular thingas that a man would need to be 'full of the Holy Ghost and wisdom. 'Surely, something a little less august might have served their turnto qualify men for such a task! 'Wisdom' here, I suppose, meanspractical sagacity, common sense, the power of picking out animpostor when she came whining for a dole. Very commonplace virtues!--but the Apostles evidently thought that such everyday operations ofthe understanding as these were not too secular and commonplace toowe their origin to the communication to men of the fulness of theHoly Spirit. 

May we not take a lesson from that, that God's great influences, whenthey come into a man, do not concern themselves only with greatintellectual problems and the like, but that they will operate tomake him more fit to do the most secular and the most trivial thingsthat can be put into his hand to do? The Holy Ghost had to fillStephen before he could hand out loaves and money to the widows inJerusalem. 

And do you not think that your day's work, and your businessperplexities, come under the same category? Perhaps the best way tosecure understanding of what we ought to do, in regard to very smalland secular matters, is to keep ourselves very near to God, with thewindows of our hearts opened towards Jerusalem, that all the guidanceand light that can come from Him may come into us. Depend upon it, unless we have God's guidance in the trivialities of life, ninety percent. , ay! and more, of our lives will be without God's guidance;because trivialities make up life. And unless my Father in heaven canguide me about what we, very mistakenly, call 'secular' things, andwhat we very vulgarly call trivial things, His guidance is not worthmuch. The Holy Ghost will give you wisdom for to-morrow, and all itslittle cares, as well as for the higher things, of which I am notgoing to speak now, because they do not come within my text. 

'Full of grace, '--that is a wide word, as I take it. If, by ourfaith, we have brought into our hearts that divine influence, theSpirit of God does not come empty-handed, but He communicates to uswhatsoever things are lovely and of good report, whatsoever thingsare fair and honourable, whatsoever things in the eyes of men areworthy to be praised, and by the tongues of men have been calledvirtue. These things will all be given to us step by step, notwithout our own diligent co-operation, by that divine Giver. Effortwithout faith, and faith without effort, are equally incomplete, andthe co-operation of the two is that which is blessed by God. 

Then the things which are 'gracious, ' that is to say, given by Hislove, and also gracious in the sense of partaking of the celestialbeauty which belongs to all virtue, and to all likeness in characterto God, these things will give us a strange, supernatural _power_amongst men. The word is employed in my third text, I presume, in itsnarrow sense of miracle-working power, but we may fairly widen it tosomething much more than that. Our Lord once said, when He wasspeaking about the gift of the Holy Spirit, that there were twostages in its operation. In the first, it availed for the refreshmentand the satisfying of the desires of the individual; in the second itbecame, by the ministration of that individual, a source of blessingto others. He said, 'If any man thirst, let him come to Me anddrink, ' and then, immediately, 'He that believeth on Me, out of hisbelly shall flow rivers of living water. ' That is to say, whoeverlives in touch with God, having that divine Spirit in his heart, willwalk amongst men the wielder of an unmistakable power, and will beable to bear witness to God, and move men's hearts, and draw them togoodness and truth. The only power for Christian service is the powerthat comes from being clothed with God's Spirit. The only power forself-government is the power that comes from being clothed with God'sSpirit. The only power which will keep us in the way that leads tolife, and will bring us at last to the rest and the reward, is thepower that comes from being clothed with God's Spirit. 

I am charged to all who hear me now with this message. Here is a giftoffered to you. You cannot pare and batter at your own characters soas to make them what will satisfy your own consciences, still lesswhat will satisfy the just judgment of God; but you can put yourselfunder the moulding influences of Christ's love. Dear brethren, theone hope for dead humanity, the bones very many and very dry, is thatfrom the four winds there should come the breath of God, and breathein them, and they shall live, 'an exceeding great army. ' Forget allelse that I have been saying now, if you like, but take these twosentences to your hearts, and do not rest till they express your ownpersonal experience; If I am to be good I must have God's Spiritwithin me. If I am to have God's Spirit within me, I must be 'full offaith. '

STEPHEN'S VISION

'Behold, I see the heavens opened, and the Son of man standing onthe right hand of God'--ACTS vii. 56. 

I. The vision of the Son of Man, or the abiding manhood of Jesus. 

Stephen's Greek name, and his belonging to the Hellenistic part ofthe Church, make it probable that he had never seen Jesus during Hisearthly life. If so, how beautiful that he should thus see andrecognise Him! How significant, in any case, is it he shouldinstinctively have taken on his lips that name, 'the Son of Man, ' todesignate Him whom he saw, through the opened heavens, standing onthe right hand of God! We remember that in the same Council-chamberand before the same court, Jesus had lashed the rulers into aparoxysm of fury by declaring, 'Hereafter ye shall see the Son of Mansitting at the right hand of power, ' and now here is one of Hisfollowers, almost, as it were, flinging in their teeth the wordswhich they had called 'blasphemy, ' and witnessing that he, at allevents, saw their partial fulfilment. They saw only the roof of thechamber, or, if the Council met in the open court of the Temple, thequivering blue of the Syrian sky; but to him the blue was parted, anda brighter light than that of its lustre was flashed upon his inwardeye. His words roused them to an even wilder outburst than those ofJesus had set loose, and with yells of fury, and stopping their earsthat they might not hear the blasphemy, they flung themselves on him, unresisting, and dragged him to his doom. Their passion is a measureof the preciousness to the Christian consciousness of that whichStephen saw, and said that he saw. 

Whatever more the great designation, 'Son of Man, ' means, itunmistakably means the embodiment of perfect manhood. Stephen'svision swept into his soul, as on a mighty wave, the fact, overwhelming if it had not been so transcendently strengthening tothe sorely bestead prisoner, that the Jesus whom he had trustedunseen, was still the same Jesus that He had been 'in the days of Hisflesh, ' and, with whatever changes, still was 'found in fashion as aman. ' He still 'bent on earth a brother's eye. ' Whatever He haddropped from Him as He ascended, His manhood had not fallen away, and, whatever changes had taken place in His body so as to fit it forits enthronement in the heavens, all that had knit Him to His humblefriends on earth was still His. The bonds that united Him and themhad not been snapped by being stretched to span the distance betweenthe Council-chamber and the right hand of God. His sympathy stillcontinued. All that had won their hearts was still in Him, and everytender remembrance of His love and leading was transformed into theassurance of a present possession. He was still the Son of Man. 

We are all too apt to feel as if the manhood of Jesus was now but amemory, and, though our creed affirms the contrary, yet our faith hasdifficulty in realising the full force and blessedness of itsaffirmations. For the Resurrection and Ascension seem to remove Himfrom close contact with us, and sometimes we feel as if we stretchout groping fingers into the dark and find no warm human hand tograsp. His exaltation seems to withdraw Him from our brotherhood, andthe cloud, though it is a cloud of glory, sometimes seems to hide Himfrom our sight. The thickening veil of increasing centuries becomesmore and more difficult for faith to pierce. What Stephen saw was notfor him only but for us all, and its significance becomes more andmore precious as we drift further and further away in time from thedays of the life of Jesus on earth. More and more do we need to makevery visible to ourselves this vision, and to lay on our hearts thestrong consolation of gazing steadfastly into heaven and seeing therethe Son of Man. So we shall feel that He is all to us that He was tothose who companied with Him here. So shall we be more ready tobelieve that 'this same Jesus shall so come in like manner as Hewent, ' and that till He come, He is knit to us and we to Him, by thebonds of a common manhood. 

II. The vision of the Son of Man at the right hand of God, or theglory of the Man Jesus. 

We will not discuss curious questions which may be asked inconnection with Stephen's vision, such as whether the glorifiedhumanity of Jesus implies His special presence in a locality; butwill rather try to grasp its bearings on topics more directly relatedto more important matters than dim speculations on points concerningwhich confident affirmations are sure to be wrong. Whether therepresentation implies locality or not, it is clear that the deepestmeaning of the expression 'the right hand of God, ' is the energy ofHis unlimited power, and that, therefore, the deepest meaning of theexpression 'to be at His right hand, ' is wielding the might of thedivine Omnipotence. The vision is but the visible confirmation ofJesus' words, 'All power is given unto Me in heaven and on earth. '

It is to be taken into account that Scripture usually represents theChrist as seated at the right hand of God, and that posture, taken inconjunction with that place, indicates the completion of His work, the majestic calm of His repose, like that creative rest, which didnot follow the creative work because the Worker was weary, butbecause He had fulfilled His ideal. God rested because His work wasfinished, and was 'very good. ' So Jesus sits, because He, too, hasfinished His work on earth. 'When, ' and because 'He had by Himselfpurged our sins, He sat down on the right hand of God. '

Further, that place at the right hand of God certifies that He is theJudge. 

Further, it is a blessed vision for His children, as being the surepledge of their glory. 

It is a glorious revelation of the capabilities of sinless humannature. 

It makes heaven habitable for us. 

'I go to prepare a place for you. ' An emigrant does not feel astranger in new country, if his elder brother has gone before him, and waits to meet him when he lands. The presence of Jesus makes thatdim, heavenly state, which is so hard to imagine, and from which weoften feel that even its glories repel, or, at least, do not attract, home to those who love Him. To be where He is, and to be as He is--that is heaven. 

III. The vision of the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God, or the ever-ready help of the glorified Jesus. 

The divergence of the vision from the usual representation of theattitude of Jesus is not the least precious of its elements. Stephensaw Him 'standing, ' as if He had risen to His feet to see Hisservant's need and was preparing to come to his help. 

What a rush of new strength for victorious endurance would floodStephen's soul as he beheld his Lord thus, as it were, starting toHis feet in eagerness to watch and to succour! He looks down fromamid the glory, and His calm repose does not involve passiveindifference to His servant's sufferings. Into it comes fullknowledge of all that they bear for Him, and His rest is not thenegation of activity on their behalf, but its intensest energy. Justas one of the Gospels ends with a twofold picture, which at firstsight seems to draw a sad distinction between the Lord 'received upinto heaven and set down at the right hand of God, ' and His servantsleft below, who 'went everywhere, preaching the word, ' but of whichthe two halves are fused together by the next words, 'the Lord alsoworking with them, ' so Stephen's vision brought together theglorified Lord and His servant, and filled the martyr's soul with thefact that He not only 'worked, ' but suffered with those who sufferedfor His sake. 

That vision is a transient revelation of an eternal fact. Jesus knowsand shares in all that affects His servants. He stands in theattitude to help, and He wields the power of God. He is, as theprophet puts it, 'the Arm of the Lord, ' and the cry, 'Awake, O Arm ofthe Lord!' is never unanswered. He helps His servants by actuallydirecting the course of Providence for their sakes. He helps bywielding the forces of nature on their behalf. He 'rebukes kings fortheir sake, saying, Touch not Mine anointed, and do My prophets noharm. ' He helps by breathing His own life and strength into them. Hehelps by disclosing to them the vision of Himself. He helps evenwhen, like Stephen, they are apparently left to the murderous hate oftheir enemies, for what better help could any of His followers getfrom Him than that He should, as Stephen prayed that He would, receive their spirit, and 'so give His beloved sleep'? Blessed theywhose lives are lighted by that Vision, and whose deaths are such afalling on sleep!

THE YOUNG SAUL AND THE AGED PAUL[Footnote: To the young. ]

'. .. The witnesses laid down their clothes at a young man's feet, whose name was Saul. '--ACTS vii. 58. 

'. .. Paul the aged, and now also a prisoner of Jesus Christ. '--PHILEMON 9. 

A far greater difference than that which was measured by yearsseparated the young Saul from the aged Paul. By years, indeed, thedifference was, perhaps, not so great as the words might suggest, forJewish usage extended the term of youth farther than we do, and beganage sooner. No doubt, too, Paul's life had aged him fast, andprobably there were not thirty years between the two periods. But thedifference between him and himself at the beginning and the end ofhis career was a gulf; and his life was not evolution, butrevolution. 

At the beginning you see a brilliant young Pharisee, Gamaliel'spromising pupil, advanced above many who were his equals in his ownreligion, as he says himself; living after its straitest sect, andeager to have the smallest part in what seemed to him the righteousslaying of one of the followers of the blaspheming Nazarene. At theend he was himself one of these followers. He had cast off, as folly, the wisdom which took him so much pains to acquire. He had turned hisback upon all the brilliant prospects of distinction which wereopening to him. He had broken with countrymen and kindred. And whathad he made of it? He had been persecuted, hunted, assailed by everyweapon that his old companions could fashion or wield; he is asolitary man, laden with many cares, and accustomed to look perilsand death in the face; he is a prisoner, and in a year or two more hewill be a martyr. If he were an apostate and a renegade, it was notfor what he could get by it. 

What made the change? The vision of Jesus Christ. If we think of thetransformation on Saul, its causes and its outcome, we shall getlessons which I would fain press upon your hearts now. Do you wonderthat I would urge on you just such a life as that of this man as yourhighest good?

I. I would note, then, first, that faith in Jesus Christ willtransform and ennoble any life. 

It has been customary of late years, amongst people who do not likemiracles, and do not believe in sudden changes of character, toallege that Paul's conversion was but the appearance, on the surface, of an underground process that had been going on ever since he keptthe witnesses' clothes. Modern critics know a great deal more aboutthe history of Paul's conversion than Paul did. For to him there wasno consciousness of undermining, but the change was instantaneous. Heleft Jerusalem a bitter persecutor, exceeding mad against thefollowers of the Nazarene, thinking that Jesus was a blasphemer andan impostor, and His disciples pestilent vermin, to be harried offthe face of the earth. He entered Damascus a lowly disciple of thatChrist. His conversion was not an underground process that had beensilently sapping the foundations of his life; it was an explosion. And what caused it? What was it that came on that day on the Damascusroad, amid the blinding sunshine of an Eastern noontide? The visionof Jesus Christ. An overwhelming conviction flooded his soul that Hewhom he had taken to be an impostor, richly deserving the Cross thatHe endured, was living in glory, and was revealing Himself to Saulthen and there. That truth crumbled his whole past into nothing; andhe stood there trembling and astonished, like a man the ruins ofwhose house have fallen about his ears. He bowed himself to thevision. He surrendered at discretion without a struggle. 'Immediately, ' says he, 'I was not disobedient to the heavenlyvision, ' and when he said 'Lord, Lord, what wilt Thou have me to do?'he flung open the gates of the fortress for the Conqueror to come in. The vision of Christ reversed his judgments, transformed hischaracter, revolutionised his life. 

That initial impulse operated through all the rest of his career. Hearken to him: 'I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me. To me tolive is Christ. Whether we live, we live unto the Lord; or whether wedie, we die unto the Lord. Living or dying, we are the Lord's. ' 'Welabour that whether present or absent, we may be accepted of Him. 'The transforming agency was the vision of Christ, and the bowing ofthe man's whole nature before the seen Saviour. 

Need I recall to you how noble a life issued from that fountain? I amsure that I need do no more than mention in a word or two thewondrous activity, flashing like a flame of fire from East to West, and everywhere kindling answering flames, the noble self-oblivion, the continual communion with God and the Unseen, and all the othergreat virtues and nobleness which came from such sources as these. Ineed only, I am sure, remind you of them, and draw this lesson, thatthe secret of a transforming and noble life is to be found in faithin Jesus Christ. The vision that changed Paul is as available for youand me. For it is all a mistake to suppose that the essence of it isthe miraculous appearance that flashed upon the Apostle's eyes. Hespeaks of it himself, in one of his letters, in other language, whenhe says, 'It pleased God to reveal His Son _in_ me. ' And thatrevelation in all its fulness, in all its sweetness, in all itstransforming and ennobling power, is offered to every one of us. Forthe eye of faith is no less gifted with the power of direct andcertain vision--yea! is even more gifted with this--than is the eyeof sense. 'If they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will theybe persuaded though one rose from the dead. ' Christ is revealed toeach one of us as really, as veritably, and the revelation may becomeas strong an impulse and motive in our lives as ever it was to theApostle on the Damascus road. What is wanted is not revelation, butthe bowed will--not the heavenly vision, but obedience to the vision. I suppose that most of you think that you believe all that aboutJesus Christ, which transformed Gamaliel's pupil into Christ'sdisciple. And what has it done for you? In many cases, nothing. Besure of this, dear young friends, that the shortest way to a lifeadorned with all grace, with all nobility, fragrant with allgoodness, and permanent as that life which does the will of God mustclearly be, is this, to bow before the seen Christ, seen in His word, and speaking to your hearts, and to take His yoke and carry Hisburden. Then you will build upon what will stand, and make your daysnoble and your lives stable. If you build on anything else, thestructure will come down with a crash some day, and bury you in itsruins. Surely it is better to learn the worthlessness of a non-Christian life, in the light of His merciful face, when there is yettime to change our course, than to see it by the fierce light of thegreat White Throne set for judgment. We must each of us learn it hereor there. 

II. Faith in Christ will make a joyful life, whatever itscircumstances. 

I have said that, judged by the standard of the Exchange, or by anyof the standards which men usually apply to success in life, thislife of the Apostle was a failure. We know, without my dwelling morelargely upon it, what he gave up. We know what, to outwardappearance, he gained by his Christianity. You remember, perhaps, howhe himself speaks about the external aspects of his life in oneplace, where he says 'Even unto this present hour we both hunger andthirst, and are naked, and are buffeted, and have no certaindwelling-place, and labour, working with our own hands. Beingreviled, we bless; being persecuted, we suffer it; being defamed, weentreat. We are made as the filth of the world, and as theoffscouring of all things unto this day. '

That was one side of it. Was that all? This man had that within himwhich enabled him to triumph over all trials. There is nothing moreremarkable about him than the undaunted courage, the unimpairedelasticity of spirit, the buoyancy of gladness, which bore him highupon the waves of the troubled sea in which he had to swim. If everthere was a man that had a bright light burning within him, in thedeepest darkness, it was that little weather-beaten Jew, whose'bodily presence was weak, and his speech contemptible. ' And what wasit that made him master of circumstances, and enabled him to keepsunshine in his heart when winter bound all the world around him?What made this bird sing in a darkened cage? One thing--the continualpresence, consciously with Him by faith, of that Christ who hadrevolutionised his life, and who continued to bless and to gladdenit. I have quoted his description of his external condition. Let mequote two or three words that indicate how he took all that sea oftroubles and of sorrows that poured its waves and its billows overhim. 'In all these things we are more than conquerors through Himthat loved us. ' 'As the sufferings of Christ abound in us, so ourconsolation aboundeth also by Christ. ' 'For which cause we faint not, but though our outward man perish, yet our inward man is renewed dayby day. ' 'Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in myinfirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. ' 'I havelearned in whatsoever state I am therewith to be content. ' 'Assorrowful, yet always rejoicing; as poor, yet making many rich; ashaving nothing, yet possessing all things. '

There is the secret of blessedness, my friends; there is the fountainof perpetual joy. Cling to Christ, set His will on the throne of yourhearts, give the reins of your life and of your character into Hiskeeping, and nothing 'that is at enmity with joy' can either 'abolishor destroy' the calm blessedness of your spirits. 

You will have much to suffer; you will have something to give up. Your life may look, to men whose tastes have been vulgarised by theglaring brightnesses of this vulgar world, but grey and sombre, butit will have in it the calm abiding blessedness which is more thanjoy, and is diviner and more precious than the tumultuous transportsof gratified sense or successful ambition. Christ is peace, and Hegives His peace to us; and then He gives a joy which does not breakbut enhances peace. We are all tempted to look for our gladness increatures, each of which satisfies but a part of our desire. But noman can be truly blessed who has to find many contributories to makeup his blessedness. That which makes us rich must be, not a multitudeof precious stones, howsoever precious they may be, but one Pearl ofgreat price; the one Christ who is our only joy. And He says to usthat He gives us Himself, if we behold Him and bow to Him, that Hisjoy might remain in us, and that our joy might be full, while allother gladnesses are partial and transitory. Faith in Christ makeslife blessed. The writer of Ecclesiastes asked the question which theworld has been asking ever since: 'Who knoweth what is good for a manin this life, all the days of this vain life which he passeth as ashadow?' You young people are asking, 'Who will show us any good?'Here is the answer--Faith in Christ and obedience to Him; that is thegood part which no man taketh from us. Dear young friend, have youmade it yours?

III. Faith in Christ produces a life which bears being looked backupon. 

In a later Epistle than that from which my second text is taken, weget one of the most lovely pictures that was ever drawn, albeit it isunconsciously drawn, of a calm old age, very near the gate of death;and looking back with a quiet heart over all the path of life. I amnot going to preach to you, dear friends, in the flush of your earlyyouth, a gospel which is only to be recommended because it is good todie by, but it will do even you, at the beginning, no harm to realisefor a moment that the end will come, and that retrospect will takethe place in your lives which hope and anticipation fill now. And Iask you what you expect to feel and say then?

What did Paul say? 'I have fought the good fight, I have finished mycourse, I have kept the faith: henceforth there is laid up for me acrown of righteousness. ' He was not self-righteous; but it ispossible to have lived a life which, as the world begins to fade, vindicates itself as having been absolutely right in its main trend, and to feel that the dawning light of Eternity confirms the choicethat we made. And I pray you to ask yourselves, 'Is my life of thatsort?' How much of it would bear the scrutiny which will have tocome, and which in Paul's case was so quiet and calm? He had had astormy day, many a thundercloud had darkened the sky, many a tempesthad swept across the plain; but now, as the evening draws on, thewhole West is filled with a calm amber light, and all across theplain, right away to the grey East, he sees that he has been led by, and has been willing to walk in, the right way to the 'City ofhabitation. ' Would that be your experience if the last moment camenow?

There will be, for the best of us, much sense of failure andshortcoming when we look back on our lives. But whilst some of uswill have to say, 'I have played the fool and erred exceedingly, ' itis possible for each of us to lay himself down in peace and sleep, awaiting a glorious rising again and a crown of righteousness. 

Dear young friends, it is for you to choose whether your past, whenyou summon it up before you, will look like a wasted wilderness, orlike a garden of the Lord. And though, as I have said, there willalways be much sense of failure and shortcoming, yet that need notdisturb the calm retrospect; for whilst memory sees the sins, faithcan grasp the Saviour, and quietly take leave of life, saying, 'Iknow in whom I have believed, and that He is able to keep that whichI have committed to Him against that day. '

So I press upon you all this one truth, that faith in Jesus Christwill transform, will ennoble, will make joyous your lives whilst youlive, and will give you a quiet heart in the retrospect when you cometo die. Begin right, dear young friends. You will never find it soeasy to take any decisive step, and most of all this chiefest step, as you do to-day. You will get lean and less flexible as you getolder. You will get set in your ways. Habits will twine theirtendrils round you, and hinder your free movement. The truth of theGospel will become commonplace by familiarity. Associations andcompanions will have more and more power over you; and you will bestiffened as an old tree-trunk is stiffened. You cannot count on to-morrow; be wise to-day. Begin this year aright. Why should you notnow see the Christ and welcome Him? I pray that every one of us maybehold Him and fall before Him with the cry, 'Lord! what wilt Thouhave me to do?'

THE DEATH OF THE MASTER AND THE DEATH OF THE SERVANT

'And they stoned Stephen, calling upon God, and saying, LordJesus, receive my spirit. 60. And he kneeled down, and cried witha loud voice, Lord, lay not this sin to their charge. And, whenhe had said this, he fell asleep. '--ACTS vii. 59, 60. 

This is the only narrative in the New Testament of a Christianmartyrdom or death. As a rule, Scripture is supremely indifferent towhat becomes of the people with whom it is for a time concerned. Aslong as the man is the organ of the divine Spirit he is somewhat; assoon as that ceases to speak through him he drops intoinsignificance. So this same Acts of the Apostles--if I may so say--kills off James the brother of John in a parenthesis; and his is theonly other martyrdom that it concerns itself even so much as tomention. 

Why, then, this exceptional detail about the martyrdom of Stephen?For two reasons: because it is the first of a series, and the Acts ofthe Apostles always dilates upon the first of each set of thingswhich it describes, and condenses about the others. But moreespecially, I think, because if we come to look at the story, it isnot so much an account of Stephen's death as of Christ's power inStephen's death. And the theme of this book is not the acts of theApostles, but the acts of the risen Lord, in and for His Church. 

There is no doubt but that this narrative is modelled upon the storyof our Lord's Crucifixion, and the two incidents, in theirsimilarities and in their differences, throw a flood of light uponone another. 

I shall therefore look at our subject now with constant reference tothat other greater death upon which it is based. It is to be observedthat the two sayings on the lips of the proto-martyr Stephen arerecorded for us in their original form on the lips of Christ, in_Luke's_ Gospel, which makes a still further link of connectionbetween the two narratives. 

So, then, my purpose now is merely to take this incident as it liesbefore us, to trace in it the analogies and the differences betweenthe death of the Master and the death of the servant, and to drawfrom it some thoughts as to what it is possible for a Christian'sdeath to become, when Christ's presence is felt in it. 

I. Consider, in general terms, this death as the last act ofimitation to Christ. 

The resemblance between our Lord's last moments and Stephen's hasbeen thought to have been the work of the narrator, and, consequently, to cast some suspicion upon the veracity of thenarrative. I accept the correspondence, I believe it was intentional, but I shift the intention from the writer to the actor, and I ask whyit should not have been that the dying martyr should consciously, andof set purpose, have made his death conformable to his Master'sdeath? Why should not the dying martyr have sought to put himself (asthe legend tells one of the other Apostles in outward form sought todo) in Christ's attitude, and to die as He died?

Remember, that in all probability Stephen died on Calvary. It was theordinary place of execution, and, as many of you may know, recentinvestigations have led many to conclude that a little rounded knolloutside the city wall--not a 'green hill, ' but still 'outside a citywall, ' and which still bears a lingering tradition of connection withHim--was probably the site of that stupendous event. It was the placeof stoning, or of public execution, and there in all probability, onthe very ground where Christ's Cross was fixed, His first martyr saw'the heavens opened and Christ standing on the right hand of God. ' Ifthese were the associations of the place, what more natural, and evenif they were not, what more natural, than that the martyr's deathshould be shaped after his Lord's?

Is it not one of the great blessings, in some sense the greatest ofthe blessings, which we owe to the Gospel, that in that awfulsolitude where no other example is of any use to us, His pattern maystill gleam before us? Is it not something to feel that as lifereaches its highest, most poignant and exquisite delight and beautyin the measure in which it is made an imitation of Jesus, so for eachof us death may lose its most poignant and exquisite sting andsorrow, and become something almost sweet, if it be shaped after thepattern and by the power of His? We travel over a lonely waste atlast. All clasped hands are unclasped; and we set out on thesolitary, though it be 'the common, road into the great darkness. 'But, blessed be His Name! 'the Breaker is gone up before us, ' andacross the waste there are footprints that we

 'Seeing, may take heart again. '

The very climax and apex of the Christian imitation of Christ may bethat we shall bear the image of His death, and be like Him then. 

Is it not a strange thing that generations of martyrs have gone tothe stake with their hearts calm and their spirits made constant bythe remembrance of that Calvary where Jesus died with more oftrembling reluctance, shrinking, and apparent bewildered unmanningthan many of the weakest of His followers? Is it not a strange thingthat the death which has thus been the source of composure, andstrength, and heroism to thousands, and has lost none of its power ofbeing so to-day, was the death of a Man who shrank from the bittercup, and that cried in that mysterious darkness, 'My God! Why hastThou forsaken Me?'

Dear brethren, unless with one explanation of the reason for Hisshrinking and agony, Christ's death is less heroic than that of someother martyrs, who yet drew all their courage from Him. 

How come there to be in Him, at one moment, calmness unmoved, andheroic self-oblivion, and at the next, agony, and all but despair? Iknow only one explanation, 'The Lord hath laid on Him the iniquity ofus all. ' And when He died, shrinking and trembling, and feelingbewildered and forsaken, it was your sins and mine that weighed Himdown. The servant whose death was conformed to his Master's had noneof these experiences because he was only a martyr. 

The Lord had them, because He was the Sacrifice for the whole world. 

II. We have here, next, a Christian's death as being the voluntaryentrusting of the spirit to Christ. 

'They stoned Stephen. ' Now, our ordinary English idea of the mannerof the Jewish punishment of stoning, is a very inadequate andmistaken one. It did not consist merely in a miscellaneous rabblethrowing stones at the criminal, but there was a solemn and appointedmethod of execution which is preserved for us in detail in theRabbinical books. And from it we gather that the _modus operandi_ wasthis. The blasphemer was taken to a certain precipitous rock, theheight of which was prescribed as being equal to that of two men. Thewitnesses by whose testimony he had been condemned had to cast himover, and if he survived the fall it was their task to roll upon hima great stone, of which the weight is prescribed in the Talmud asbeing as much as two men could lift. If he lived after that, thenothers took part in the punishment. 

Now, at some point in that ghastly tragedy, probably, we may supposeas they were hurling him over the rock, the martyr lifts his voice inthis prayer of our text. 

As they were stoning him he 'called upon'--not _God_, as ourAuthorised Version has supplied the wanting word, but, as is obviousfrom the context and from the remembrance of the vision, and from thelanguage of the following supplication, 'called upon _Jesus_, saying, Lord Jesus! receive my spirit. '

I do not dwell at any length upon the fact that here we have adistinct instance of prayer to Jesus Christ, a distinct recognition, in the early days of His Church, of the highest conceptions of Hisperson and nature, so as that a dying man turns to Him, and commitshis soul into His hands. Passing this by, I ask you to think of theresemblance, and the difference, between this intrusting of thespirit by Stephen to his Lord, and the committing of His spirit tothe Father by His dying Son. Christ on the Cross speaks to God;Stephen, on Calvary, speaks, as I suppose, to Jesus Christ. Christ, on the Cross, says, 'I commit. ' Stephen says, 'Receive, ' or rather, 'Take. ' The one phrase carries in it something of the notion that ourLord died not because He must, but because He would; that He wasactive in His death; that He chose to summon death to do its workupon Him; that He 'yielded up His spirit, ' as one of the Evangelistshas it, pregnantly and significantly. But Stephen says, 'Take!' asknowing that it must be his Lord's power that should draw his spiritout of the coil of horror around him. So the one dying word hasstrangely compacted in it authority and submission; and the otherdying word is the word of a simple waiting servant. The Christ says, 'I commit. ' 'I have power to lay down My life, and I have power totake it again. ' Stephen says, 'Take my spirit, ' as longing to be awayfrom the weariness and the sorrow and the pain and all the hell ofhatred that was seething and boiling round about him, but yet knowingthat he had to wait the Master's will. 

So from the language I gather large truths, truths whichunquestionably were not present to the mind of the dying man, but areall the more conspicuous because they were unconsciously expressed byhim, as to the resemblance and the difference between the death ofthe martyr, done to death by cruel hands, and the death of theatoning Sacrifice who gave Himself up to die for our sins. 

Here we have, in this dying cry, the recognition of Christ as theLord of life and death. Here we have the voluntary and submissivesurrender of the spirit to Him. So, in a very real sense, themartyr's death becomes a sacrifice, and he too dies not merelybecause he must, but he accepts the necessity, and finds blessednessin it. We need not be passive in death; we need not, when it comes toour turn to die, cling desperately to the last vanishing skirts oflife. We may yield up our being, and pour it out as a libation; asthe Apostle has it, 'If I be offered as a drink-offering upon thesacrifice of your faith, I joy and rejoice. ' Oh! brethren, to die_like_ Christ, to die yielding oneself to Him!

And then in these words there is further contained the thought cominggleaming out like a flash of light into some murky landscape--ofpassing into perennial union with Him. 'Take my spirit, ' says thedying man; 'that is all I want. I see Thee standing at the righthand. For what hast Thou started to Thy feet, from the eternal reposeof Thy session at the right hand of God the Father Almighty? To helpand succour me. And dost Thou succour me when Thou dost let thesecruel hands cast me from the rock and bruise me with heavy stones?Yes, Thou dost. For the highest form of Thy help is to take myspirit, and to let me be with Thee. '

Christ delivers His servant from death when He leads the servant intoand through death. Brothers, can you look forward thus, and trustyourselves, living or dying, to that Master who is near us amidst thecoil of human troubles and sorrows, and sweetly draws our spirits, asa mother her child to her bosom, into His own arms when He sends usdeath? Is that what it will be to you?

III. Then, still further, there are other words here which remind usof the final triumph of an all-forbearing charity. 

Stephen had been cast from the rock, had been struck with the heavystone. Bruised and wounded by it, he strangely survives, strangelysomehow or other struggles to his knees even though desperatelywounded, and, gathering all his powers together at the impulse of anundying love, prays his last words and cries, 'Lord Jesus! Lay notthis sin to their charge!'

It is an echo, as I have been saying, of other words, 'Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do. ' An echo, and yet anindependent tone! The one cries 'Father!' the other invokes the'Lord. ' The one says, 'They know not what they do'; the other neverthinks of reading men's motives, of apportioning their criminality, of discovering the secrets of their hearts. It was fitting that theChrist, before whom all these blind instruments of a mighty designstood patent and naked to their deepest depths, should say, 'Theyknow not what they do. ' It would have been unfitting that theservant, who knew no more of his fellows' heart than could be guessedfrom their actions, should have offered such a plea in his prayer fortheir forgiveness. 

In the very humiliation of the Cross, Christ speaks as knowing thehidden depths of men's souls, and therefore fitted to be their Judge, and now His servant's prayer is addressed to Him as actually beingso. 

Somehow or other, within a very few years of the time when our Lorddies, the Church has come to the distinctest recognition of _His_Divinity to whom the martyr prays; to the distinctest recognition of_Him_ as the Lord of life and death whom the martyr asks to take hisspirit, and to the clearest perception of the fact that He is theJudge of the whole earth by whose acquittal men shall be acquitted, and by whose condemnation they shall be condemned. 

Stephen knew that Christ was the Judge. He knew that in two minuteshe would be standing at Christ's judgment bar. His prayer was not, 'Lay not my sins to my charge, ' but 'Lay not this sin to theircharge. ' Why did he not ask forgiveness for himself? Why was he notthinking about the judgment that he was going to meet so soon? He haddone all that long ago. He had no fear about that judgment forhimself, and so when the last hour struck, he was at leisure of heartand mind to pray for his persecutors, and to think of his Judgewithout a tremor. Are you? If you were as near the edge as Stephenwas, would it be wise for you to be interceding for other people'sforgiveness? The answer to that question is the answer to this otherone, --have you sought your pardon already, and got it at the hands ofJesus Christ?

IV. One word is all that I need say about the last point of analogyand contrast here--the serene passage into rest: 'When he had saidthis he fell asleep. '

The New Testament scarcely ever speaks of a Christian's death asdeath but as sleep, and with other similar phrases. But thatexpression, familiar and all but universal as it is in the Epistles, in reference to the death of believers, is never in a single instanceemployed in reference to the death of Jesus Christ. He did die thatyou and I may live. His death was death indeed--He endured not merelythe physical fact, but that which is its sting, the consciousness ofsin. And He died that the sting might be blunted, and all its poisonexhausted upon Him. So the ugly thing is sleeked and smoothed; andthe foul form changes into the sweet semblance of a sleep-bringingangel. Death is gone. The physical fact remains, but all the miseryof it, the essential bitterness and the poison of it is all suckedout of it, and it is turned into 'he fell asleep, ' as a tired childon its mother's lap, as a weary man after long toil. 

 'Thou thy worldly task hast done, Home art gone, and ta'en thy wages. '

Death is but sleep now, because Christ has died, and that sleep isrestful, conscious, perfect life. 

Look at these two pictures, the agony of the one, the calm triumph ofthe other, and see that the martyr's falling asleep was possiblebecause the Christ had died before. And do you commit the keeping ofyour souls to Him now, by true faith; and then, living you may haveHim with you, and, dying, a vision of His presence bending down tosuccour and to save, and when you are dead, a life of rest conjoinedwith intensest activity. To sleep in Jesus is to awake in Hislikeness, and to be satisfied. 

SEED SCATTERED AND TAKING ROOT

'And Saul was consenting unto his death. And at that time therewas a great persecution against the church which was atJerusalem; and they were all scattered abroad throughout theregions of Judaea and Samaria, except the apostles. 2. And devoutmen carried Stephen to his burial, and made great lamentationover him. 3. As for Saul, he made havock of the church, enteringinto every house, and haling men and women committed them toprison. 4. Therefore they that were scattered abroad wenteverywhere preaching the word. 5. Then Philip went down to thecity of Samaria, and preached Christ unto them. 6. And the peoplewith one accord gave heed unto those things which Philip spake, hearing and seeing the miracles which he did. 7. For uncleanspirits, crying with loud voice, came out of many that werepossessed with them: and many taken with palsies, and that werelame, were healed. 8. And there was great joy in that city, 9. But there was a certain man, called Simon, which beforetime inthe same city used sorcery, and bewitched the people of Samaria, giving out that himself was some great one: 10. To whom they allgave heed, from the least to the greatest, saying, This man isthe great power of God. 11. And to him they had regard, becausethat of long time he had bewitched them with sorceries. 12. Butwhen they believed Philip preaching the things concerning thekingdom of God, and the name of Jesus Christ, they were baptized, both men and women. 13. Then Simon himself believed also: andwhen he was baptized, he continued with Philip, and wondered, beholding the miracles and signs which were done. 14. Now whenthe apostles which were at Jerusalem heard that Samaria hadreceived the word of God, they sent unto them Peter and John: 15. Who, when they were come down prayed for them, that they mightreceive the Holy Ghost: 16 (For as yet he was fallen upon none ofthem: only they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. ) 17. Then laid they their hands on them, and they received the HolyGhost. '--ACTS viii. 1-17. 

The note of time in verse 1 is probably to be rendered as in theRevised Version, 'on that day. ' The appetite for blood roused byStephen's martyrdom at once sought for further victims. Thus far thepersecutors had been the rulers, and the persecuted the Church'sleaders; but now the populace are the hunters, and the whole Churchthe prey. The change marks an epoch. Luke does not care to make muchof the persecution, which is important to him chiefly for its bearingon the spread of the Church's message. It helped to diffuse theGospel, and that is why he tells of it. But before proceeding tonarrate how it did so, he gives us a picture of things as they stoodat the beginning of the assault. 

Three points are noted: the flight of the Church except the Apostles, the funeral of Stephen, and Saul's eager search for the disciples. Weneed not press 'all, ' as if it were to be taken with mathematicalaccuracy. Some others besides the Apostles may have remained, but thecommunity was broken up. They fled, as Christ had bid them do, ifpersecuted in one city. Brave faithfulness goes with prudent self-preservation, and a valuable 'part of valour is discretion. ' But thedisciples who fled were not necessarily less courageous than theApostles who remained, nor were the latter less prudent than thebrethren who fled. For _noblesse oblige_; high position demands highvirtues, and the officers should be the last to leave a wreck. TheApostles, no doubt, felt it right to hold together, and preserve acentre to which the others might return when the storm had blownitself out. 

In remarkable contrast with the scattering Church are the 'devoutmen' who reverently buried the martyr. They were not disciples, butprobably Hellenistic Jews (Acts ii. 5); perhaps from the synagoguewhose members had disputed with Stephen and had dragged him to thecouncil. His words or death may have touched them, as many a time themartyr's fire has lighted others to the martyr's faith. Stephen waslike Jesus in his burial by non-disciples, as he had been in hisdeath. 

The eager zeal of the young Pharisee brought new severity into thepersecution, in his hunting out his victims in their homes, and inhis including women among his prisoners. There is nothing so cruel asso-called religious zeal. So Luke lifts the curtain for a moment, andin that glimpse of the whirling tumult of the city we see the threeclasses, of the brave and prudent disciples, ready to flee or tostand and suffer as duty called; the good men who shrunk fromcomplicity with a bloodthirsty mob, and were stirred to sympathy withhis victims; and the zealot, who with headlong rage hated his brotherfor the love of God. But the curtain drops, and Luke turns to histrue theme. He picks up the threads again in verse 4, telling of thedispersal of the disciples, with the significant addition of theiroccupation when scattered, --'preaching the word. '

The violent hand of the persecutor acted as the scattering hand ofthe sower. It flung the seeds broadcast, and wherever they fell theysprouted. These fugitives were not officials, nor were theycommissioned by the Apostles to preach. Without any special commandor position, they followed the instincts of believing hearts, and, asthey carried their faith with them, they spoke of it wherever theyfound themselves. A Christian will be impelled to speak of Christ ifhis personal hold of Him is vital. He should need no ecclesiasticalauthorisation for that. It is riot every believer's duty to get intoa pulpit, but it _is_ his duty to 'preach Christ. ' The scattering ofthe disciples was meant by men to put out the fire, but, by Christ, to spread it. A volcanic explosion flings burning matter over a widearea. 

Luke takes up one of the lines of expansion, in his narrative ofPhilip's doings in Samaria, which he puts first because Jesus hadindicated Samaria first among the regions beyond Judaea (i. 8). Philip's name comes second in the list of deacons (vi. 5), probablyin anticipation of his work in Samaria. How unlike the forecast bythe Apostles was the actual course of things! They had destined theseven for purely 'secular' work, and regarded preaching the word astheir own special engagement. But Stephen saw and proclaimed moreclearly than they did the passing away of Temple and ritual; andPhilip, on his own initiative, and apparently quite unconscious ofthe great stride forward that he was taking, was the first to carrythe gospel torch into the regions beyond. The Church made Philip a'deacon, ' but Christ made him an 'evangelist'; and an evangelist hecontinued, long after he had ceased to be a deacon in Jerusalem (xxi. 8). 

Observe, too, that, as soon as Stephen is taken away, Philip rises upto take his place. The noble army of witnesses never wants recruits. Its Captain sends men to the front in unbroken succession, and theyare willing to occupy posts of danger because He bids them. ProbablyPhilip fled to Samaria for convenience' sake, but, being there, heprobably recalled Christ's instructions in chapter i. 8, repealingHis prohibition in Matthew x. 5. What a different world it would be, if it was true of Christians now that they 'went down into the cityof So-and-So and proclaimed Christ'! Many run to and fro, but some ofthem leave their Christianity at home, or lock it up safely in theirtravelling trunks. 

Jerusalem had just expelled the disciples, and would fain havecrushed the Gospel; despised Samaria received it with joy. 'A foolishnation' was setting Israel an example (Deut. Xxxii. 21; Rom. X. 19). The Samaritan woman had a more spiritual conception of the Messiahthan the run of Jews had, and her countrymen seem to have been readyto receive the word. Is not the faith of our mission converts often arebuke to us?

But the Gospel met new foes as well as new friends on the new soil. Simon the sorcerer, probably a Jew or a Samaritan, would have beenimpossible on Jewish ground, but was a characteristic product of thatage in the other parts of the Roman empire. Just as, to-day, peoplewho are weary of Christianity are playing with Buddhism, it wasfashionable in that day of unrest to trifle with Eastern magic-mongers; and, of course, demand created supply, and where there was acrowd of willing dupes, there soon came to be a crop of profit-seeking deceivers. Very characteristically, the dupes claimed morefor the deceiver than he did for himself. He probably could performsome simple chemical experiments and conjuring tricks, and had astore of what sounded to ignorant people profound teaching about deepmysteries, and gave forth enigmatical utterances about his owngreatness. An accomplished charlatan will leave much to be inferredfrom nods and hints, and his admirers will generally spin even moreout of them than he meant. So the Samaritans bettered Simon's 'somegreat one' into 'that power of God which is called great, ' and saw inhim some kind of emanation of divinity. 

The quack is great till the true teacher comes, and then he dwindles. Simon had a bitter pill to swallow when he saw this new man stealinghis audience, and doing things which he, with his sorceries, knewthat he only pretended to do. Luke points very clearly to thelikeness and difference between Simon and Philip by using the sameword ('gave heed') in regard to the Samaritan's attitude to both, while in reference to Philip it was 'the things spoken by' him, andin reference to Simon it was himself to which they attended. The onepreached Christ, the other himself; the one 'amazed' with'sorceries, ' the other brought good tidings and hid himself, and hismessage called, not for stupid, open-mouthed astonishment, but forbelief and obedience to the name of Jesus. The whole differencebetween the religion of Jesus and the superstitions which the worldcalls religions, is involved in the significant contrast, soinartificially drawn. 

'Simon also himself believed. ' Probably there was in his action agood deal of swimming with the stream, in the hope of being able todivert it; but, also, he may have been all the more struck byPhilip's miracles, because he knew a real one, by reason of hisexperience of sham ones. At any rate, neither Philip nor Luke drew adistinction between his belief and that of the Samaritans; and, as intheir cases, his baptism followed on his profession of belief. But heseems not to have got beyond the point of wondering at the miracles, as it is emphatically said that he did even after his baptism. Hebelieved that Jesus was the Messiah, but was more interested instudying Philip to find out how he did the miracles than in listeningto his teaching. Such an imperfect belief had no transforming power, and left him the same man as before, as was soon miserably manifest. 

The news of Philip's great step forward reached the Apostles by someunrecorded means. It is not stated that Philip reported his action, as if to superiors whose authorisation was necessary. More probablythe information filtered through other channels. At all events, sending a deputation was natural, and needs not to be regarded aseither a sign of suspicion or an act necessary in order to supplementimperfections inherent in the fact that Philip was not an Apostle. The latter meaning has been read--not to say forced--into theincident; but Luke's language does not support it. It was not becausethey thought that the Samaritans were not admissible to the fullprivileges of Christians without Apostolic acts, but because they'heard that Samaria had received the word, ' that the Apostles sentPeter and John. 

The Samaritans had not yet received the Holy Ghost--that is, thespecial gifts, such as those of Pentecost. That fact proves thatbaptism is not necessarily and inseparably connected with the gift ofthe Spirit; and chapter x. 44, 47, proves that the Spirit may begiven before baptism. As little does this incident prove that theimposition of Apostolic hands was necessary in order to theimpartation of the Spirit. Luke, at any rate, did not think so; forhe tells how Ananias' hand laid on the blind Saul conveyed the giftto him. The laying on of hands is a natural, eloquent symbol, but itwas no prerogative of the Apostles (Acts x. 17; 1 Tim. Iv. 14). 

The Apostles came down to Samaria to rejoice in the work which theirLord had commanded, and which had been begun without their help, towelcome the new brethren, to give them further instruction, and toknit closely the bonds of unity between the new converts and theearlier ones. But that they came to bestow spiritual gifts which, without them, could not have been imparted, is imported into, notdeduced from, the simple narrative of Luke. 

SIMON THE SORCERER

'Thou hast neither part nor lot in this matter: for thy heart isnot right in the sight of God. '--ACTS viii. 21. 

The era of the birth of Christianity was one of fermenting opinionand decaying faith. Then, as now, men's minds were seething andunsettled, and that unrest which is the precursor of great changes inintellectual and spiritual habitudes affected the civilised world. Such a period is ever one of predisposition to superstition. The onetrue bond which unites God and man being obscured, and to theconsciousness of many snapped, men's minds become the prey ofvisionary terrors. Demand creates supply, and the magician andmiracle-worker, the possessor of mysterious ways into the Unknown, isnever far off at such a time. Partly deceived and partly deceiving, he is as sure a sign of the lack of profound religious conviction andof the presence of unsatisfied religious aspirations in men's souls, as the stormy petrel or the floating seaweed is of a tempest on theseas. 

So we find the early preachers of Christianity coming into frequentcontact with pretenders to magical powers. Sadly enough, they weremostly Jews, who prostituted their clearer knowledge to personalends, and having tacked on to it some theosophic rubbish which theyhad learned from Alexandria, or mysticism which had filtered to themfrom the East, or magic arts from Phrygia, went forth, the onlymissionaries that Judaism sent out, to bewilder and torture men'sminds. What a fall from Israel's destination, and what a lesson forthe stewards of the 'oracles of God'!

Of such a sort were Elymas, the sorcerer whom Paul found squatting atthe ear of the Roman Governor of Cyprus; the magicians at Ephesus;the vagabond Jews exorcists, who with profitable eclecticism, as theythought, tried to add the name of Jesus as one more spell to theirconjurations; and, finally, this Simon the sorcerer. Established inSamaria, he had been juggling and conjuring and seeing visions, andprofessing to be a great mysterious personality, and had more thanpermitted the half-heathen Samaritans, who seem to have had morereligious susceptibility and less religious knowledge than the Jews, and so were a prepared field for all such pretenders, to think of himas in some sense an incarnation of God, and perhaps to set him up asa rival or caricature of Him who in the neighbouring Judaea was beingspoken of as the power of God, God manifest in the flesh. 

To the city thus moved comes no Apostle, but a Christian man whobegins to preach, and by miracles and teaching draws many souls toChrist. 

The story of Simon Magus in his attitude to the Gospel is a verystriking and instructive one. It presents for our purpose now mainlythree points to which I proceed to refer. 

I. An instance of a wholly unreal, because inoperative, faith. 

'He believed, ' says the narrative, and believing was baptized. It isworth noting, in passing, how the profession of faith withoutanything more was considered by the Early Church sufficient. Butobviously his was no true faith. The event showed that it was not. 

What was it which made his faith thus unreal?

It rested wholly on the miracles and signs; he 'wondered' when he sawthem. Of course, miracles were meant to lead to faith; but if theydid not lead on to a deeper sense of one's own evil and need, and soto a spiritual apprehension, then they were of no use. 

The very beginning of the story points to the one bond that unites toGod, as being the sense of need and the acceptance with heart andwill of the testimony of Jesus Christ. Such a disposition is shown inthe Samaritans, who make a contrast with Simon in that they believedPhilip _preaching_, while Simon believed him _working miracles_. Thetrue place of miracles is to attract attention, to prepare to listento the word. They are only introductory. A faith may be founded onthem, but, on the other hand, the impressions which they produce maybe evanescent. How subordinate then, their place at the most! And theone thing which avails is a living contact of heart and soul withJesus Christ. 

Again, Simon's belief was purely an affair of the understanding. Weare not to suppose, I think, that he merely believed in Philip as amiracle-worker; he must have had some notion about Philip's Master, and we know that it was belief in Jesus as the Christ that qualifiedin the Apostolic age for baptism. So it is reasonable to suppose thathe had so much of head knowledge. But it was only head knowledge. There was in it no penitence, no self-abandonment, no fruit in holydesires; or in other words, there was no heart. It was credence, butnot trust. 

Now it does not matter how much or how little you know about JesusChrist. It does not matter how you have come to that knowledge. Itdoes not matter though you have received Christian ordinances asSimon had. If your faith is not a living power, leading to love andself-surrender, it is really nought. And here, on its earliestconflict with heathen magic, the gospel proclaims by the mouth of theApostle what is true as to all formalists and nominal Christians:'Thou hast neither part nor lot in this matter, _for_ thy heart isnot right. ' One thing only unites to God--a faith which cleanses theheart, a faith which lays hold on Christ with will and conscience, afaith which, resting on penitent acknowledgment of sin, trusts whollyto His great mercy. 

II. An instance of the constant tendency to corrupt Christianity withheathen superstition. 

The Apostles' bestowal of the Holy Ghost, which was evidentlyaccompanied by visible signs, had excited Simon's desire for souseful an aid to his conjuring, and he offers to buy the power, judging of them by himself, and betraying that what he was ready tobuy he was also intending to sell. 

The offer to buy has been taken as his great sin. Surely it was butthe outcome of a greater. It was not only what he offered, but whathe desired, that was wrong. He wanted that on 'whomsoever I layhands, he may receive the Holy Ghost. ' That preposterous wish wasquite as bad as, and was the root of, his absurd offer to bribePeter. Bribe Peter, indeed! Some of Peter's successors would havebeen amenable to such considerations, but not the horny-handedfisherman who had once said, 'Silver and gold have I none. '

Peter's answer, especially the words of my text, puts the Christianprinciple in sharp antagonism to the heathen one. 

Simon regards what is sacred and spiritual purely as part of hisstock-in-trade, contributing to his prestige. He offers to buy it. And the foundation of all his errors is that he regards spiritualgifts as capable of being received and exercised apart altogetherfrom moral qualifications. He does not think at all of what isinvolved in the very name, 'the Holy Ghost. '

Now, on the other hand, Peter's answer lays down broadly and sharplythe opposite truth, the Christian principle that a heart right in thesight of God is the indispensable qualification for all possession ofspiritual power, or of any of the blessings which Jesus gives. 

How the heart is made right, and what constitutes righteousness isanother matter. That leads to the doctrine of repentance and faith. 

The one thing that makes such participation impossible is being andcontinuing in 'the gall of bitterness, and the bond of iniquity. ' Or, to put it into more modern words, all the blessings of the Gospel area gift of God, and are bestowed only on moral conditions. Faith whichleads to love and personal submission to the will of God makes a mana Christian. Therefore, outward ordinances are only of use as theyhelp a man to that personal act. 

Therefore, no other man or body of men can do it for us, or comebetween us and God. 

And in confirmation, notice how Peter here speaks of forgiveness. Hiswords do not sound as if he thought that he held the power ofabsolution, but he tells Simon to go to God who alone can forgive, and refers Simon's fate to God's mercy. 

These tendencies, which Simon expresses so baldly, are in us all, andare continually reappearing. How far much of what calls itselfChristianity has drifted from Peter's principle laid down here, thatmoral and spiritual qualifications are the only ones which avail forsecuring 'part or lot in the matter' of Christ's gifts received for, and bestowed on, men! How much which really rests on the oppositeprinciple, that these gifts can be imparted by men who are supposedto possess them, apart altogether from the state of heart of thewould-be recipient, we see around us to-day! _Simony_ is said to bethe securing ecclesiastical promotion by purchase. But it is muchrather the belief that 'the gift of God can be purchased with'anything but personal faith in Jesus, the Giver and the Gift. Theeffects of it are patent among us. Ceremonies usurp the place offaith. A priesthood is exalted. The universal Christian prerogativeof individual access to God is obscured. Christianity is turned intoa kind of magic. 

III. An instance of the worthlessness of partial convictions. 

Simon was but slightly moved by Peter's stern rebuke. He paid no heedto the exhortation to pray for forgiveness and to repent of hiswickedness, but still remained in substantially his old error, inthat he accredited Peter with power, and asked him to pray for him, as if the Apostle's prayer would have some special access to Godwhich his, though he were penitent, could not have. Further, heshowed no sense of sin. All that he wished was that 'none of thethings which ye have spoken come upon me. '

How useless are convictions which go no deeper down than Simon's did!

What became of him we do not know. But there are old ecclesiasticaltraditions about him which represent him as a bitter enemy in futureof the Apostle. And Josephus has a story of a Simon who played adegrading part between Felix and Drusilla, and who is thought by someto have been he. But in any case, we have no reason to believe thathe ever followed Peter's counsel or prayed to God for forgiveness. Sohe stands for us as one more tragic example of a man, once 'not farfrom the kingdom of God' and drifting ever further away from it, because, at the fateful moment, he would not enter in. It is hard tobring such a man as near again as he once was. Let us learn that theone key which opens the treasury of God's blessings, stored for usall in Jesus, is our own personal faith, and let us beware ofshutting our ears and our hearts against the merciful rebukes thatconvict us of 'this our wickedness, ' and point us to the 'Lamb of Godwhich taketh away the sin of the world, ' and therefore our sin. 

A MEETING IN THE DESERT

'And the angel of the Lord spake unto Philip, saying, Arise, andgo toward the south unto the way that goeth down from Jerusalemunto Gaza, which is desert. 27. And he arose and went: and, behold, a man of Ethiopia, an eunuch of great authority underCandace queen of the Ethiopians, who had the charge of all hertreasure, and had come to Jerusalem for to worship, 28. Wasreturning, and sitting in his chariot, read Esaias the prophet. 29. Then the Spirit said unto Philip, Go near, and join thyselfto this chariot. 80. And Philip ran thither to him, and heard himread the prophet Esaias, and said, Understandest thou what thoureadest? 31. And he said, How can I, except some man should guideme? And he desired Philip that he would come up and sit with him. 32. The place of the scripture which he read was this, He was ledas a sheep to the slaughter; and like a lamb dumb before hisshearer, so opened He not His mouth: 33. In His humiliation Hisjudgment was taken away; and who shall declare His generation?for His life is taken from the earth. 34. And the eunuch answeredPhilip, and said, I pray thee, of whom speaketh the prophet this?of himself, or of some other man? 35. Then Philip opened hismouth, and began at the same scripture, and preached unto himJesus. 36. And as they went on their way, they came unto acertain water: and the eunuch said, See, here is water; what dothhinder me to be baptized? 37. And Philip said, If thou believestwith all thine heart, thou mayest. And he answered and said, Ibelieve that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. 38. And he commandedthe chariot to stand still: and they went down both into thewater, both Philip and the eunuch; and he baptized him. 39. Andwhen they were come up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lordcaught away Philip, that the eunuch saw him no more: and he wenton his way rejoicing. 40. But Philip was found at Azotus: andpassing through, he preached in all the cities, till he came toCaesarea. '--ACTS viii. 26-40. 

Philip had no special divine command either to flee to, or to preachin, Samaria, but 'an angel of the Lord' and afterwards 'the Spirit, 'directed him to the Ethiopian statesman. God rewards faithful workwith more work. Samaria was a borderland between Jew and Gentile, butin preaching to the eunuch Philip was on entirely Gentile ground. Sogreat a step in advance needed clear command from God to impel to itand to justify it. 

I. We have, then, first, the new commission. Philip might well wonderwhy he should be taken away from successful work in a populous city, and despatched to the lonely road to Gaza. But he obeyed at once. Heknew not for what he was sent there, but that ignorance did nottrouble or retard him. It should be enough for us to see the nextstep. 'We walk by faith, not by sight, ' for we none of us know whatcomes of our actions, and we get light as we go. Do to-day's plainduty, and when to-morrow is to-day its duty will be plain too. Theriver on which we sail winds, and not till we round the nearest benddo we see the course beyond. So we are kept in the peaceful postureof dependent obedience, and need to hold our communications with Godopen, that we may be sure of His guidance. 

No doubt, as Philip trudged along till he reached the Gaza road, hewould have many a thought as to what he was to find there, and, whenhe came at last to the solitary track, would look eagerly over theuninhabited land for an explanation of his strange and vagueinstructions. But an obedient heart is not long left perplexed, andhe who looks for duty to disclose itself will see it in due time. 

II. So we have next the explanation of the errand. Luke's 'Behold!'suggests the sudden sight of the great man's cortege in the distance. No doubt, he travelled with a train of attendants, as became hisdignity, and would be conspicuous from afar. Philip, of course, didnot know who he was when he caught sight of him, but Luke tells hisrank at once, in order to lay stress on it, as well as to bring outthe significance of his occupation and subsequent conversion. Herewas a full-blooded Gentile, an eunuch, a courtier, who had been drawnto Israel's God, and was studying Israel's prophets as he rode. Perhaps he had chosen that road to Egypt for its quietness. At anyrate, his occupation revealed the bent of his mind. 

Philip felt that the mystery of his errand was solved now, and herecognised the impulse to break through conventional barriers andaddress the evidently dignified stranger, as the voice of God'sSpirit, and not his own. How he was sure of that we do not know, butthe distinction drawn between the former communication by an angeland this from the Spirit points to a clear difference in hisexperiences, and to careful discrimination in the narrator. Thevariation is not made at random. Philip did not mistake a buzzing inhis ears from the heating of his own heart for a divine voice. Wehave here no hallucinations of an enthusiast, but plain fact. 

How manifestly the meeting of these two, starting so far apart, andso ignorant of each other and of the purpose of their being throwntogether, reveals the unseen hand that moved each on his own line, and brought about the intersection of the two at that exact spot andhour! How came it that at that moment the Ethiopian was reading, ofall places in his roll, the very words which make the kernel of thegospel of the evangelical prophet? Surely such 'coincidences' are ahard nut to crack for deniers of a Providence that shapes our ends!

It is further to be noticed that the eunuch's conversion does notappear to have been of importance for the expansion of the Church. Itexercised no recorded influence, and was apparently not communicatedto the Apostles, as, if it had been, it could scarcely have failed tohave been referred to when the analogous case of Cornelius was underdiscussion. So, divine intervention and human journeying and workwere brought into play simply for the sake of one soul which God'seye saw to be ripe for the Gospel. He cares for the individual, andone sheep that can be reclaimed is precious enough in the Shepherd'sestimate to move His hand to action and His heart to love. Notbecause he was a man of great authority at Candace's court, butbecause he was yearning for light, and ready to follow it when itshone, did the eunuch meet Philip on that quiet road. 

III. The two men being thus strangely brought together, we have nextthe conversation for the sake of which they were brought together. The eunuch was reading aloud, as people not very much used to books, or who have some difficult passage in hand, often do. Philip musthave been struck with astonishment when he caught the, to him, familiar words, and must have seen at once the open door for hispreaching. His abrupt question wastes no time with apologies orpolite, gradual approaches to his object. Probably the very absenceof the signs of deference to which he was accustomed impressed theeunuch with a dim sense of the stranger's authority, which would bedeepened by the home-thrust of his question. 

The wistful answer not only shows no resentment at the brusquestranger's thrusting himself in, but acknowledges bewilderment, andresponds to the undertone of proffered guidance in the question. Ateacher has often to teach a pupil his ignorance, to begin with; butit should be so done as to create desire for instruction, and tokindle confidence in him as instructor. It is insolent to ask, 'Understandest thou?' unless the questioner is ready and able to helpto understand. 

The invitation to a seat in the great man's chariot showed howeagerness to learn had obliterated distinctions of rank, and swiftlyknit a new bond between these two, who had never heard of each otherfive minutes before. A true heart will hail as its best and closestfriend him who leads it to know God's mind more clearly. How earthlydignities dwindle when God's messenger lays hold of a soul!

So the chariot rolls on, and through the silence of the desert thevoices of these two reach the wondering attendants, as they plodalong. The Ethiopian was reading the Septuagint translation ofIsaiah, which, though it missed part of the force of the original, brought clearly before him the great figure of a Sufferer, meek anddumb, swept from the earth by unjust judgment. He understood so much, but what he did not understand was who this great, tragic Figurerepresented. His question goes to the root of the matter, and is aburning question to-day, as it was all these centuries ago on theroad to Gaza. Philip had no doubt of the answer. Jesus was the 'lambdumb before its shearers. ' This is not the place to enter on suchwide questions, but we may at least affirm that, whatever advancemodern schools have made in the criticism and interpretation of theOld Testament, the very spirit of the whole earlier Revelation ismissed if Jesus is not discerned as the Person to whom prophet andritual pointed, in whom law was fulfilled and history reached itsgoal. 

No doubt much instruction followed. How long they had rode togetherbefore they came to 'a certain water' we know not, but it cannot havebeen more than a few hours. Time is elastic, and when the soil isprepared, and rain and sunlight are poured down, the seed springs upquickly. People who deny the possibility of 'sudden conversions' areblind to facts, because they wear the blinkers of a theory. Notalways have they who 'anon with joy receive' the word 'no root inthemselves. '

As is well known, the answer to the eunuch's question (v. 37) iswanting in authoritative manuscripts. The insertion may have been dueto the creeping into the text of a marginal note. A recent and mostoriginal commentator on the Acts (Blass) considers that this, likeother remarkable readings found in one set of manuscripts, waswritten by Luke in a draft of the book, which he afterwards revisedand somewhat abbreviated into the form which most of the manuscriptspresent. However that may be, the required conditions in the doubtfulverse are those which the practice of the rest of the Acts shows tohave been required. Faith in Jesus Christ the Son of God was thequalification for the baptisms there recorded. 

And there was no other qualification. Philip asked nothing about theeunuch's proselytism, or whether he had been circumcised or not. Hedid not, like Peter with Cornelius, need the evidence of the gift ofthe Spirit before he baptized; but, notwithstanding his experience ofan unworthy candidate in Simon the sorcerer, he unhesitatinglyadministered baptism. There was no Church present to witness therite. We do not read that the Holy Ghost fell on the eunuch. 

That baptism in the quiet wady by the side of the solitary road, while the swarthy attendants stood in wonder, was a mighty step inadvance; and it was taken, not by an Apostle, nor with ecclesiasticalsanction, but at the bidding of Christian instinct, which recogniseda brother in any man who had faith in Jesus, the Son of God. The newfaith is bursting old bonds. The universality of the Gospel isoverflowing the banks of Jewish narrowness. Probably Philip was quiteunconscious of the revolutionary nature of his act, but it was done, and in it was the seed of many more. 

The eunuch had said that he could not understand unless some manguided him. But when Philip is caught away, he does not bewail theloss of his guide. He went on his road with joy, though his new faithmight have craved longer support from the crutch of a teacher, andfuller enlightenment. What made him able to do without the guide thata few hours before had been so indispensable? The presence in hisheart of a better one, even of Him whom Jesus promised, to guide Hisservants into all truth. If those who believe that Scripture withoutan authorised interpreter is insufficient to lead men aright, wouldconsider the end of this story, they might find that a man'sdependence on outward teachers ceases when he has God's Spirit toteach him, and that for such a man the Word of God in his hand andthe Spirit of God in his spirit will give him light enough to walkby, so that, in the absence of all outward instructors, he may stillbe filled with true wisdom, and in absolute solitude may go 'on hisway rejoicing. '

PHILIP THE EVANGELIST

'But Philip was found at Azotus: and passing through he preachedin all the cities, till he came to Caesarea. '--ACTS viii. 40. 

The little that is known about Philip, the deacon and evangelist, mayvery soon be told. His name suggests, though by no meansconclusively, that he was probably one of the so-called Hellenists, or foreign-born and Greek-speaking Jews. This is made the moreprobable because he was one of the seven selected by the Church, andafter that selection appointed by the Apostles, to dispense relief tothe poor. The purpose of the appointment being to conciliate thegrumblers in the Hellenist section of the Church, the persons chosenwould probably belong to it. He left Jerusalem during the persecution'that arose after the death of Stephen. ' As we know, he was the firstpreacher of the Gospel in Samaria; he was next the instrumenthonoured to carry the Word to the first heathen ever gathered intothe Church; and then, after a journey along the sea-coast toCaesarea, the then seat of government, he remained in that place inobscure toil for twenty years, dropped out of the story, and we hearno more of him but for one glimpse of his home in Caesarea. 

That is all that is told about him. And I think that if we note thecontrast of the office to which men called him, and the work to whichGod set him; and the other still more striking contrast between thebrilliancy of the beginning of his course, and the obscurity of hislong years of work, we may get some lessons worth the learning. Itake, then, not only the words which I read for my text, but thewhole of the incidents connected with Philip, as our starting-pointnow; and I draw from them two or three very well-worn, but none theless needful, pieces of instruction. 

I. First, then, we may gather a thought as to Christ's sovereignty inchoosing His instruments. 

Did you ever notice that events exactly contradicted the intentionsof the Church and of the Apostles, in the selection of Philip and hissix brethren? The Apostles said, 'It is not reason that we shouldleave the Word of God and serve tables. Pick out seven relieving-officers; men who shall do the secular work of the Church, and lookafter the poor; and we will give ourselves to prayer and to theministry of the Word. ' So said man. And what did facts say? That asto these twelve, who were to 'give themselves to prayer and theministry of the Word, ' we never hear that by far the largerproportion of them were honoured to do anything worth mentioning forthe spread of the Gospel. Their function was to be 'witnesses, ' andthat was all. But, on the other hand, of the men that were supposedto be fitted for secular work, two at all events had more to do inthe expansion of the Church, and in the development of the universalaspects of Christ's Gospel, than the whole of the original group ofApostles. So Christ picks His instruments. The Apostles may say, 'These shall do so-and-so; and we will do so-and-so. ' Christ says, 'Stephen shall proclaim a wider Gospel than the Apostles at first hadcaught sight of, and Philip shall be the first who will go beyond thecharmed circle of Judaism, and preach the Gospel. '

It is always so. Christ chooses His instruments where He will; and itis not the Apostle's business, nor the business of an ecclesiastic ofany sort, to settle his own work or anybody else's. The Commander-in-Chief keeps the choosing of the men for special service in His ownhand. The Apostolic College said, 'Let them look after the poor, andleave us to look after the ministry of the Word'; Christ says, 'Goand join thyself to that chariot, and speak there the speech that Ishall bid thee. '

Brethren, do you listen for that voice calling you to your tasks, andnever mind what men may be saying. Wait till _He_ bids, and you willhear Him speaking to you if you will keep yourselves quiet. Wait tillHe bids you, and then be sure that you do it. Christ chooses Hisinstruments, and chooses them often in strange places. 

II. The next lesson that I would take from this story is thespontaneous speech of a believing heart. 

There came a persecution that scattered the Church. Men tried tofling down the lamp; and all that they did was to spill the oil, andit ran flaming wherever it flowed. For the scattered brethren, without any Apostle with them, with no instruction given to them todo so, wherever they went carried their faith with them; and, as amatter of course, wherever they went they spoke their faith. And sowe read that, not by appointment, nor of set purpose, nor inconsequence of any ecclesiastical or official sanction, nor inconsequence of any supernatural and distinct commandment from heaven, but just because it was the natural thing to do, and they could nothelp it, they went everywhere, these scattered men of Cyprus andCyrene, preaching the word. 

And when this Philip, whom the officials had relegated to the secularwork of distributing charity, found himself in Samaria, he did thelike. The Samaritans were outcasts, and Peter and John had wanted tobring down fire from heaven to consume them. But Philip could nothelp speaking out the truth that was in his heart. 

So it always will be: we can all talk about what we are interestedin. The full heart cannot be condemned to silence. If there is nonecessity for speech felt by a professing Christian, that professingChristian's faith is a very superficial thing. 'We cannot but speakthe things that we have seen and heard, ' said one of the Apostles, thereby laying down the great charter of freedom of speech for allprofound convictions. 'Thy word was as a fire in my bones when Isaid, I will speak no more in Thy name, ' so petulant and self-willedwas I, 'and I was weary with forbearing, ' and ashamed of my rash vow;'and I could not stay. '

Dear friends, do you carry with you the impulse for utterance ofChrist's name wherever you go? And is it so sweet in your hearts thatyou cannot but let its sweetness have expression by your lips?Surely, surely this spontaneous instinctive utterance of Philip, bywhich a loving heart sought to relieve itself, puts to shame the'dumb dogs' that make up such an enormous proportion of professingChristians. And surely such an experience as his may well throw avery sinister light on the reality--nay! I will not say the_reality_, that would be too uncharitable--but upon the depth andvitality of the profession of Christianity which these silent onesmake. 

III. Another lesson that seems to me strikingly illustrated by thestory with which we are concerned, is the guidance of a divine handin common life, and when there are no visible nor supernatural signs. 

Philip goes down to Samaria because he must, and speaks because hecannot help it. He is next bidden to take a long journey, from thecentre of the land, away down to the southern desert; and at acertain point there the Spirit says to him, 'Go! join thyself to thischariot. ' And when his work with the Ethiopian statesman is done, then he is swept away by the power of the Spirit of God, as Ezekielhad been long before by the banks of the river Chebar, and is setdown, no doubt all bewildered and breathless, at Azotus--the ancientAshdod--the Philistine city on the low-lying coast. Was Philip lessunder Christ's guidance when miracle ceased and he was left toordinary powers? Did he feel as if deserted by Christ, because, instead of being swept by the strong wind of heaven, he had to trampwearily along the flat shore with the flashing Mediterranean on hisleft hand reflecting the hot sunshine? Did it seem to him as if histask in preaching the Gospel in these villages through which hepassed on his way to Caesarea was less distinctly obedience to thedivine command than when he heard the utterance of the Spirit, 'Godown to the road which leads to Gaza, which is desert'? By no means. To this man, as to every faithful soul, the guidance that camethrough his own judgment and common sense, through the instincts andimpulses of his sanctified nature, by the circumstances which hedevoutly believed to be God's providence, was as truly direct divineguidance as if all the angels of heaven had blown commandment withtheir trumpets into his waiting and stunned ears. 

And so you and I have to go upon our paths without angel voices, orchariots of storm, and to be contented with divine commandments lessaudible or perceptible to our senses than this man had at one pointin his career. But if we are wise we shall hear Him speaking theword. We shall not be left without His voice if we wait for it, stilling our own inclinations until His solemn commandment is madeplain to us, and then stirring up our inclinations that they may swayus to swift obedience. There is no gulf, for the devout heart, between what is called miraculous and what is called ordinary andcommon. Equally in both does God manifest His will to His servants, and equally in both is His presence perceived by faith. We do notneed to envy Philip's brilliant beginning. Let us see that we imitatehis quiet close of life. 

IV. The last lesson that I would draw is this--the nobility ofpersistence in unnoticed work. 

What a contrast to the triumphs in Samaria, and the other greatexpansion of the field for the Gospel effected by the God-commandedpreaching to the eunuch, is presented by the succeeding twenty yearsof altogether unrecorded but faithful toil! Persistence in suchunnoticed work is made all the more difficult, and to any but a verytrue man would have been all but impossible, by reason of thecontrast which such work offered to the glories of the earlier days. Some of us may have been tried in a similar fashion, all of us havemore or less the same kind of difficulty to face. Some of us perhapsmay have had gleams, at the beginning of our career, that seemed togive hope of fields of activity more brilliant and of work far betterthan we have ever had or done again in the long weary toil of dailylife. There may have been abortive promises, at the commencement ofyour careers, that seemed to say that you would occupy a moreconspicuous position than life has had really in reserve for you. Atany rate, we have all had our dreams, for

 'If Nature put not forth her power About the opening of the flower, Who is there that could live an hour?'

and no life is all that the liver of it meant it to be when he began. We dream of building palaces or temples, and we have to contentourselves if we can put up some little shed in which we may shelter. 

Philip, who began so conspicuously, and so suddenly ceased to be thespecial instrument in the hands of the Spirit, kept plod, plod, plodding on, with no bitterness of heart. For twenty years he had noshare in the development of Gentile Christianity, of which he hadsowed the first seed, but had to do much less conspicuous work. Hetoiled away there in Caesarea patient, persevering, and contented, because he loved the work, and he loved the work because he loved Himthat had set it. He seemed to be passed over by his Lord in Hischoice of instruments. It was he who was selected to be the first manthat should preach to the heathen. But did you ever notice thatalthough he was probably in Caesarea at the time, Cornelius was notbid to apply to _Philip_, who was at his elbow, but to send to Joppafor the Apostle Peter? Philip might have sulked and said: 'Why was Inot chosen to do this work? I will speak no more in this Name. '

It did not fall to his lot to be the Apostle to the Gentiles. One whocame after him was preferred before him, and the Hellenist Saul wasset to the task which might have seemed naturally to belong to theHellenist Philip. He too might have said, 'He must increase, but Imust decrease. ' No doubt he did say it in spirit, with noble self-abnegation and freedom from jealousy. He cordially welcomed Paul tohis house in Caesarea twenty years afterwards, and rejoiced that onesows and another reaps; and that so the division of labour is themultiplication of gladness. 

A beautiful superiority to all the low thoughts that are apt to marour persistency in unobtrusive and unrecognised work is set before usin this story. There are many temptations to-day, dear brethren, whatwith gossiping newspapers and other means of publicity for everythingthat is done, for men to say, 'Well, if I cannot get any notice formy work I shall not do it. '

Boys in the street will refuse to join in games, saying, 'I shall notplay unless I am captain or have the big drum. ' And there are notwanting Christian men who lay down like conditions. 'Play well thypart' wherever it is. Never mind the honour. Do the duty Godappoints, and He that has the two mites of the widow in His treasurywill never forget any of our works, and at the right time will tellthem out before His Father, and before the holy angels. 

GRACE TRIUMPHANT

'And Saul, yet breathing out threatenings and slaughter againstthe disciples of the Lord, went unto the high priest, 2. Anddesired of him letters to Damascus to the synagogues, that if hefound any of this way, whether they were men or women, he mightbring them hound unto Jerusalem. 3. And as he journeyed, he camenear Damascus: and suddenly there shined round about him a lightfrom heaven: 4. And he fell to the earth, and heard a voicesaying unto him, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou Me? 5. And hesaid, Who art Thou, Lord? And the Lord said, I am Jesus whom thoupersecutest: it is hard for thee to kick against the pricks. 6. And he trembling and astonished said, Lord, what wilt Thou haveme to do? And the Lord said unto him, Arise, and go into thecity, and it shall be told thee what thou must do. 7. And the menwhich journeyed with him stood speechless, hearing a voice, butseeing no man. 8. And Saul arose from the earth: and when hiseyes were opened, he saw no man: but they led him by the hand, and brought him into Damascus. 9. And he was three days withoutsight, and neither did eat nor drink. 10. And there was a certaindisciple at Damascus, named Ananias; and to him said the Lord ina vision, Ananias. And he said, Behold. I am here, Lord. 11. Andthe Lord said unto him, Arise, and go into the street which iscalled Straight, and enquire in the house of Judas for one calledSaul, of Tarsus; for, behold, he prayeth, 12. And hath seen in avision a man named Ananias coming in, and putting his hand onhim, that he might receive his sight. .. . 17. And Ananias went hisway, and entered Into the house; and putting his hands on himsaid, Brother Saul, the Lord, even Jesus, that appeared unto theein the way as thou earnest, hath sent me, that thou mightestreceive thy sight, and be filled with the Holy Ghost. 18. Andimmediately there fell from his eyes as it had been scales: andhe received sight forthwith, and arose, and was baptized. 19. Andwhen he had received meat, he was strengthened. Then was Saulcertain days with the disciples which were at Damascus. 20. Andstraightway he preached Christ in the synagogues, that He is theSon of God. '--ACTS ix. 1-12; 17-20. 

This chapter begins with 'but, ' which contrasts Saul's persistenthatred, which led him to Gentile lands to persecute, with Philip'sexpansive evangelistic work. Both men were in profound earnest, bothwent abroad to carry on their work, but the one sought to plant whatthe other was eager to destroy. If the 'but' in verse 1 contrasts, the 'yet' connects the verse with chapter viii. 3. Saul's fury was nopassing outburst, but enduring. Like other indulged passions, it grewwith exercise, and had come to be as his very life-breath, and nowplanned, not only imprisonment, but death, for the heretics. 

Not content with carrying his hateful inquisition into the homes ofthe Christians in Jerusalem, he will follow the fugitives toDamascus. The extension of the persectution was his own thought. Hewas not the tool of the Sanhedrin, but their mover. They wouldprobably have been content to cleanse Jerusalem, but the young zealotwould not rest till he had followed the dispersed poison into everycorner where it might have trickled. The high priest would notdiscourage such useful zeal, however he might smile at its excess. 

So Saul got the letters he asked, and some attendants, apparently, tohelp him in his hunt, and set off for Damascus. Painters haveimagined him as riding thither, but more probably he and his peoplewent on foot. It was a journey of some five or six days. The noon ofthe last day had come, and the groves of Damascus were, perhaps, insight. No doubt, the young Pharisee's head was busy settling what hewas to begin with when he entered the city, and was exulting in thethought of how he would harry the meek Christians, when the suddenlight shone. 

At all events, the narrative does not warrant the view, often takennow, that there had been any preparatory process in Saul's mind, which had begun to sap his confidence that Jesus was a blasphemer, and himself a warrior for God. That view is largely adopted in orderto get rid of the supernatural, and to bolster up the assumption thatthere are no sudden conversions; but the narrative of Luke, andPaul's own references, are dead against it. At one moment he is 'yetbreathing threatening and slaughter against the disciples of theLord, ' and in almost the next he is prone on his face, asking, 'Lord, what wilt Thou have me to do?' It was not a case of a landslidesuddenly sweeping down, but long prepared for by the gradualpercolation of water to the slippery understrata, but the solid earthwas shaken, and the mountain crashed down in sudden ruin. 

The causes of Saul's conversion are plain in the narrative, eventhough the shortened form is adopted, which is found in the RevisedVersion. The received text has probably been filled out by additionsfrom Paul's own account in chapter xxvi. First came the blaze oflight outshining the midday sun, even in that land where its beamsare like swords. That blinding light 'shone round about him, 'enveloping him in its glory. Chapter xxvi. (verse 13) tells that hiscompanions also were wrapped in the lustre, and that all fell to theearth, no doubt in terror. 

Saul is not said, either in this or in his own accounts, to have seenJesus, but I Corinthians xv. 8 establishes that he did so, andAnanias (v. 17) refers to Jesus as having 'appeared. ' Thatappearance, whatever may have been the psychological account of it, was by Paul regarded as being equal in evidential value to the flesh-and-blood vision of the risen Lord which the other Apostles witnessedto, and as placing him in the same line as a witness. 

It is to be noted also, that, while the attendants saw the light, they were not blinded, as Saul was; from which it may be inferredthat he saw with his bodily eyes the glorified manhood of Jesus, aswe are told that one day, when He returns as Judge, 'every eye shallsee Him. ' Be that as it may, --and we have not material forconstructing a theory of the manner of Christ's appearance to Saul, --the overwhelming conviction was flooded into his soul, that the Jesuswhom he had thought of as a blasphemer, falsely alleged to have risenfrom the dead, lived in heavenly glory, amid celestial brightness toodazzling for human eyes. 

The words of gentle remonstrance issuing from the flashing glory wentstill further to shake the foundations of the young Pharisee's life;for they, as with one lightning gleam, laid hare the whole madnessand sin of the crusade which he had thought acceptable to God. 'Whypersecutest thou Me?' Then the odious heretics were knit by somemysterious bond to this glorious One, so that He bled in their woundsand felt their pains! Then Saul had been, as his old teacher dreadedthey of the Sanhedrin might be, fighting against God! How the reasonsfor Saul's persecution had crumbled away, till there were none leftwith which to answer Jesus' question! Jesus lived, and was exalted toglory. He was identified with His servants. He had appeared to Saul, and deigned to plead with him. 

No wonder that the man who had been planning fresh assaults on thedisciples ten minutes before, was crushed and abject as he lay thereon the road, and these tremendous new convictions rushed like acataract over and into his soul! No wonder that the lessons burned inon him in that hour of destiny became the centre-point of all hisfuture teaching! That vision revolutionised his thinking and hislife. None can affirm that it was incompetent to do so. 

Luke's account here, like Paul's in chapter xxii. , represents furtherinstructions from Jesus as postponed till Saul's meeting withAnanias, while Paul's other account in chapter xxvi. Omits mention ofthe latter, and gives the substance of what he said in Damascus assaid on the road by Jesus. The one account is more detailed than theother, that is all. The gradual unfolding of the heavenly purposewhich our narrative gives is in accord with the divine manner. Forthe moment enough had been done to convert the persecutor into theservant, to level with the ground his self-righteousness, to revealto him the glorified Jesus, to bend his will and make it submissive. The rest would be told him in due time. 

The attendants had fallen to the ground like him, but seem to havestruggled to their feet again, while he lay prostrate. They saw thebrightness, but not the Person: they heard the voice, but not thewords. Saul staggered by their help to his feet, and then found thatwith open eyes he was blind. Imagination or hallucination does notplay tricks of that sort with the organs of sense. 

The supernatural is too closely intertwined with the story to betaken out of it without reducing it to tatters. The greatest ofChristian teachers, who has probably exercised more influence thanany man who ever lived, was made a Christian by a miracle. That factis not to be got rid of. But we must remember that once when Hespeaks of it He points to God's revelation of His Son '_in_ Him' asits essential character. The external appearance was the vehicle ofthe inward revelation. It is to be remembered, too, that the miracledid not take away Saul's power of accepting or rejecting the Christ;for he tells Agrippa that he was 'not disobedient to the heavenlyvision. '

What a different entry he made into Damascus from what he expected, and what a different man it was that crawled up to the door of Judas, in the street that is called Straight, from the self-confident youngfanatic who had left Jerusalem with the high priest's letters in hisbosom and fierce hate in his heart!

Ananias was probably not one of the fugitives, as his language aboutSaul implies that he knew of his doings only by hearsay. The reportof Saul's coming and authority to arrest disciples had reachedDamascus before him, with the wonderful quickness with which newstravels in the East, nobody knows how. Ananias's fears being quieted, he went to the house where for three days Saul had been lying lonelyin the dark, fasting, and revolving many things in his heart. Nodoubt his Lord had spoken many a word to him, though not by vision, but by whispering to his spirit. Silence and solitude root truth in asoul. After such a shock, absolute seclusion was best. 

Ananias discharged his commission with lovely tenderness and power. How sweet and strange to speaker and hearer would that 'Brother Saul'sound! How strong and grateful a confirmation of his vision wouldAnanias's reference to the appearance of the Lord bring! How humblywould the proud Pharisee bow to receive, laid on his head, the handsthat he had thought to bind with chains! What new eyes would look outon a world in which all things had become new, when there fell fromthem as it had been scales, and as quickly as had come the blinding, so quickly came the restored vision!

Ananias was neither Apostle nor official, yet the laying on of hishands communicated 'the Holy Ghost. ' Saul received that gift beforebaptism, not after or through the ordinance. It was important for hisfuture relations to the Apostles that he should not have beenintroduced to the Church by them, or owed to them his first humanChristian teaching. Therefore he could say that he was 'an Apostle, not from men, neither through man. ' It was important for us that inthat great instance that divine gift should have been bestowedwithout the conditions accompanying, which have too often beenregarded as necessary for, its possession. 

'THIS WAY'

'Any of this way. '--ACTS ix. 2

The name of 'Christian' was not applied to themselves by thefollowers of Jesus before the completion of the New Testament. Therewere other names in currency before that designation--which owed itsorigin to the scoffing wits of Antioch--was accepted by the Church. They called themselves 'disciples, ' 'believers, 'saints, ' 'brethren, 'as if feeling about for a title. 

Here is a name that had obtained currency for a while, and wasafterwards disused. We find it five times in the Book of the Acts ofthe Apostles, never elsewhere; and always, with one exception, itshould be rendered, as it is in the Revised Version, not '_this_way, ' as if being one amongst many, but '_the_ way, ' as being theonly one. 

Now, I have thought that this designation of Christians as 'those ofthe way' rests upon a very profound and important view of whatChristianity is, and may teach us some lessons if we will ponder it;and I ask your attention to two or three of these for a few momentsnow. 

I. First, then, I take this name as being a witness to the convictionthat in Christianity we have the only road to God. 

There may be some reference in the name to the remarkable words ofour Lord Jesus Christ: 'I am the Way. No man cometh to the Father butby Me, '--words of which the audacity is unparalleled andunpardonable, except upon the supposition that He bears an uniquerelation to God on the one hand, and to all mankind upon the other. In them He claims to be the sole medium of communication betweenheaven and earth, God and man. And that same exclusiveness isreflected in this name for Christians. It asserts that faith in JesusChrist, the acceptance of His teaching, mediation and guidance, isthe only path that climbs to God, and by it alone do we come intoknowledge of, and communion with, our divine Father. 

I do not dwell upon the fact that, according to our Lord's ownteaching, and according to the whole New Testament, Christ's work ofmaking God known to man did not begin with His Incarnation andearthly life, but that from the beginning that eternal Word was theagent of all divine activity in creation, and in the illumination ofmankind. So that, not only all the acts of the self-revealing Godwere through Him, but that from Him, as from the light of men, cameall the light in human hearts, of reason and of conscience, by whichthere were and are in all men, some dim knowledge of God, and somefeeling after, or at the lowest some consciousness of, Him. But thehistorical facts of Christ's incarnation, life, death, resurrection, and ascension are the source of all solid certitude, and of all clearknowledge of our Father in Heaven. His words are spirit and life; Hisworks are unspoken words; and by both He declares unto His brethrenthe Name, and is the self-manifestation of, the Father. 

Think of the contrast presented by the world's conceptions ofGodhead, and the reality as unveiled in Christ! On the one hand youhave gods lustful, selfish, passionate, capricious, cruel, angry, vile; or gods remote, indifferent, not only passionless, butheartless, inexorable, unapproachable, whom no man can know, whom noman can love, whom no man can trust. On the other hand, if you lookat Christ's tears as the revelation of God; if you look at Christ'sruth and pity as the manifestation of the inmost glory of the divinenature; if you take your stand at the foot of the Cross--a strangeplace to see 'the power of God and the wisdom of God'!--and look upthere at Him dying for the world, and are able to say, 'Lo! this isour God! through all the weary centuries we have waited for Him, andthis is He!' then you can understand how true it is that there, andthere only, is the good news proclaimed that lifts the burden fromevery heart, and reveals God the Lover and the Friend of every soul. 

And if, further, we consider the difference between the dim'peradventures, ' the doubts and fears, the uncertain conclusionsdrawn from questionable, and often partial, premises, whichconfessedly never amount to demonstration, if we consider thecontrast between these and the daylight of fact which we meet inJesus Christ, His love, life, and death, then we can feel howsuperior in certitude, as in substance, the revelation of God inJesus is to all these hopes, longings, doubts, and how it alone isworthy to be called the knowledge of God, or is solid enough to abidecomparison with the certainties of the most arrogant physicalscience. 

There never was a time in the history of the world when, so clearlyand unmistakably, every thinking soul amongst cultivated nations wasbeing brought up to this alternative--Christ, the Revealer of God, orno knowledge of God at all. The old dreams of heathenism areimpossible for us; modern agnosticism will make very quick work of adeism which does not cling to the Christ as the Revealer of theGodhead. And I, for my part, believe that there is one thing, and onething only, which will save modern Europe from absolute godlessness, and that is the coming back to the old truth, 'No man hath seen God'by sense, or intuition, or reason, or conscience, 'at any time. Theonly begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, He hathdeclared Him. '

But it is not merely as bringing to us the only certain knowledge ofour Father God that Christianity is 'the way, ' but it is also becauseby it alone we come into fellowship with the God whom it reveals tous. If there rises up before your mind the thought of Him in theHeavens, there will rise up also in your consciousness the sense ofyour own sin. And that is no delusion nor fancy; it is the mostpatent fact, that between you and your Father in Heaven, howsoeverloving, tender, compassionate, and forgiving, there lies a greatgulf. You cannot go to God, my brother, with all that guilt heapedupon your conscience; you cannot come near to Him with all that massof evil which you know is there, working in your soul. How shall asinful soul come to a holy God? And there is only one answer--thatgreat Lord, by His blessed death upon the Cross, has cleared away allthe mountains of guilt and sin that rise up frowning between eachsingle soul and the Father in Heaven; and through Him, by a new andliving way, which He hath opened for us, we have entrance to God, anddwell with Him. 

And it is not only that He brings to us the knowledge of God, andthat He clears away all obstacles, and makes fellowship between Godand us possible for the most polluted and sinful of spirits, but itis also that, by the knowledge of His great love to us, love iskindled in our hearts, and we are drawn into that path which, as amatter of fact, we shall not tread unless we yield to the magneticattraction of the love of God as revealed 'in the face of JesusChrist. '

Men do not seek fellowship with God until they are drawn to Him bythe love that is revealed upon the Cross. Men do not yield theirhearts to Him until their hearts are melted down by the fire of thatInfinite divine love which disdained not to be humiliated and refusednot to die for their sakes. Practically and really we come to God, when--and I venture upon the narrowness of saying, _only_ when--Godhas come to us in His dear Son. '_The_ way' to God is through Christ. Have you trod it, my friend--that new and living way, which leadswithin the veil, into the secrets of loving communion with yourFather in Heaven?

II. Then there is another principle, of which this designation of ourtext is also the witness, viz. , that in Christianity we have the pathof conduct and practical life traced out for us all. 

The 'way of a man' is, of course, a metaphor for his outward life andconduct. It is connected with the familiar old image which belongs tothe poetry of all languages, by which life is looked at as a journey. That metaphor speaks to us of the continual changefulness of ourmortal condition; it speaks to us, also, of the effort and theweariness which often attend it. It proclaims also the solemn thoughtthat a man's life is a unity, and that, progressive, it goes somewhither, and arrives at a definite goal. 

And that idea is taken up in this phrase, '_the_ way, ' in such afashion as that there are two things asserted: first, thatChristianity provides _a_ way, a path for the practical activity, that it moulds our life into a unity, that it prescribes the line ofdirection which it is to follow, that it has a starting-point, andstages, and an end; also, that Christianity is _the_ way forpractical life, the only path and mode of conduct which correspondswith all the obligations and nature of a man, and which reason, conscience, and experience will approve. Let us look, just for amoment or two, at these two thoughts: Christianity is _a_ way;Christianity is _the_ way. 

It is a way. These early disciples must have grasped with greatclearness and tenacity the practical side of the Gospel, or theywould never have adopted this name. If they had thought of it asbeing only a creed, they would not have done so. 

And it is not only a creed. All creed is meant to influence conduct. If I may so say, _credenda_, 'things to be believed, ' are meant tounderlie the _agenda_, the things to be done. Every doctrine of theNew Testament, like the great blocks of concrete that are droppedinto a river in order to lay the foundation of a bridge, or theembankment that is run across a valley in order to carry a railwayupon it, --every doctrine of the New Testament is meant to influencethe conduct, the 'walk and conversation, ' and to provide a path onwhich activity may advance and expatiate. 

I cannot, of course, dwell upon this point with sufficientelaboration, or take up one after another the teachings of the NewTestament, in order to show how close is their bearing upon practicallife. There is plenty of abstract theology in the form of theologicalsystems, skeletons all dried up that have no life in them. There isnothing of that sort in the principles as they lie on the pages ofthe New Testament. There they are all throbbing with life, and allmeant to influence life and conduct. 

Remember, my friend, that unless your Christianity is doing that foryou, unless it has prescribed a path of life for you, and mouldedyour steps into a great unity, and drawn you along the road, it isnought, --nought!

But the whole matter may be put into half a dozen sentences. Theliving heart of Christianity, either considered as a revelation to aman, or as a power within a man, that is to say, either objective orsubjective, is love. It is the revelation of the love of God that isthe inmost essence of it as revelation. It is love in my heart thatis the inmost essence of it as a fact of my nature. And is not lovethe most powerful of all forces to influence conduct? Is it not 'thefulfilling of the law, ' because its one single self includes allcommandments, and is the ideal of all duty, and also because it isthe power which will secure the keeping of all the law which itselflays down?

But love may be followed out into its two main effects. These areself-surrender and imitation. And I say that a religious system whichis, in its inmost heart and essence, love, is thereby shown to be themost practical of all systems, because thereby it is shown to be agreat system of self-surrender and imitation. 

The deepest word of the Gospel is, 'Yield yourselves to God. ' Bringyour wills and bow them before Him, and say, 'Here am I; take me, anduse me as a pawn on Thy great chessboard, to be put where Thou wilt. 'When once a man's will is absorbed into the divine will, as a drop ofwater is into the ocean, he is free, and has happiness and peace, andis master and lord of himself and of the universe. That system whichproclaims love as its heart sets in action self-surrender as the mostpractical of all the powers of life. 

Love is imitation. And Jesus Christ's life is set before us as thepattern for all our conduct. We are to follow In His footsteps. Thesemark our path. We are to follow Him, as a traveller who knows not hisway will carefully tread in the steps of his guide. We are to imitateHim, as a scholar who is learning to draw will copy every touch ofthe master's pencil. 

Strange that that short life, fragmentarily reported in four littletracts, full of unapproachable peculiarities, and having no part inmany of the relationships which make so large a portion of mostlives, is yet so transparently under the influence of the purest andbroadest principles of righteousness and morality as that every ageand each sex, and men of all professions, idiosyncrasies, temperaments, and positions, all stages of civilisation and culture, of every period, and of every country, may find in it the all-sufficient pattern for them!

Thus in Christianity we have a way. It prescribes a line of directionfor the life, and brings all its power to bear in marking the coursewhich we should pursue and in making us willing and able to pursueit. 

How different, how superior to all other systems which aspire toregulate the outward life that system is! It is superior, in itsapplicability to all conditions. It is a very difficult thing for anyman to apply the generalities of moral law and righteousness to theindividual cases in his life. The stars are very bright, but they donot show me which street to turn up when I am at a loss; but Christ'sexample comes very near to us, and guides us, not indeed in regard toquestions of prudence or expediency, but in regard to all questionsof right or wrong. It is superior, in the help it gives to a soulstruggling with temptation. It is very hard to keep law or dutyclearly before our eyes at such a moment, when it is most needful todo so. The lighthouse is lost in the fog, but the example of JesusChrist dissipates many mists of temptation to the heart that lovesHim; and 'they that follow Him shall not walk in darkness. '

It is superior in this, further, that patterns fail because they areonly patterns, and cannot get themselves executed, and laws failbecause they are only laws and cannot get themselves obeyed. What isthe use of a signpost to a man who is lame, or who does not want togo down the road, though he knows it well enough? But Christianitybrings both the commandment and the motive that keeps thecommandment. 

And so it is _the_ path along which we can travel. It is the onlyroad that corresponds to all our necessities, and capacities, andobligations. 

It is the only path, my brother, that will be approved by reason, conscience, and experience. The greatest of our English mystics sayssomewhere--I do not profess to quote with verbal accuracy--'There aretwo questions which put an end to all the vain projects and designsof human life. The one is, "What for?" the other, "What good will theaim do you if attained?"'

If we look at 'all the ways of men' calmly, and with due regard tothe wants of their souls, reason cannot but say that they are 'vainand melancholy. ' If we consult our own experience we cannot butconfess that whatsoever we have had or enjoyed, apart from God, haseither proved disappointing in the very moment of its possession, orhas been followed by a bitter taste on the tongue; or in a littlewhile has faded, and left us standing with the stalk in our handsfrom which the bloom has dropped. Generation after generation hassighed its 'Amen!' to the stern old word: 'Vanity of vanities; all isvanity!' And here to-day, in the midst of the boasted progress ofthis generation, we find cultured men amongst us, lapped in materialcomfort, and with all the light of this century blazing upon them, preaching again the old Buddhist doctrine that annihilation is theonly heaven, and proclaiming that life is not worth living, and that'it were better not to be. '

Dear brother, one path, and one path only, leads to what all mendesire--peace and happiness. One path, and one path only, leads towhat all men know they ought to seek--purity and godliness. We arelike men in the backwoods, our paths go circling round and round, wehave lost our way. 'The labour of the foolish wearieth every one ofthem, for he knoweth not how to come to the city. ' Jesus Christ hascut a path through the forest. Tread you in it, and you will findthat it is 'the way of pleasantness' and 'the path of peace. '

III. And now, one last word. This remarkable designation seems to meto be a witness also to another truth, viz. That in Christianity wehave the only way home. 

The only way home! All other modes and courses of life and conductstop at the edge of a great gulf, like some path that goes down anincline to the edge of a precipice, and the heedless traveller thathas been going on, not knowing whither it led, tilts over when hecomes there. Every other way that men can follow is broken short offby death. And if there were no other reason to allege, that is enoughto condemn them. What is a man to do in another world if all his lifelong he has only cultivated tastes which want this world for theirgratification? What is the sensualist to do when he gets there? Whatis the shrewd man of business in Manchester to do when he comes intoa world where there are no bargains, and he cannot go on 'Change onTuesdays and Fridays? What will he do with himself? What does he dowith himself now, when he goes away from home for a month, and doesnot get his ordinary work and surroundings? What will he do then?What will a young lady do in an other world, who spends her days herein reading trashy novels and magazines? What will any of us do whohave set our affections and our tastes upon this poor, perishing, miserable world? Would you think it was common sense in a young manwho was going to be a doctor, and took no interest in anything butfarming? Is it not as stupid a thing for men and women to trainthemselves for a condition which is transient, and not to trainthemselves for the condition into which they are certainly going?

And, on the other hand, the path that Christ makes runs clear on, without a break, across the gulf, like some daring railway bridgethrown across a mountain gorge, and goes straight on on the otherside without a curve, only with an upward gradient. The manner ofwork may change; the spirit of the work and the principles of it willremain. Self-surrender will be the law of Heaven, and 'they shallfollow the Lamb whithersoever He goeth. ' Better to begin here as wemean to end yonder! Better to begin here what we can carry with us, in essence though not in form, into the other life; and so, throughall the changes of life, and through the great change of death, tokeep one unbroken straight course! 'They go from strength tostrength; every one of them in Zion appeareth before God'. 

We live in an else trackless waste, but across the desert JesusChrist has thrown a way; too high for ravenous beasts to spring on orraging foes to storm; too firm for tempest to overthrow or makeimpair able; too plain for simple hearts to mistake. We may alljourney on it, if we will, and 'come to Zion with songs andeverlasting joy upon our heads. '

Christ is the Way. O brother I trust thy sinful soul to His blood andmediation, and thy sins will be forgiven. And then, loving Him, follow Him. 'This is the way; walk ye in it. '

A BIRD'S-EYE VIEW OF THE EARLY CHURCH

'So the Church throughout all Judaea and Galilee and Samaria hadpeace, being edified; and, walking in the fear of the Lord, andin the comfort of the Holy Ghost, was multiplied. '--ACTS ix. 31(R. V. ). 

A man climbing a hill stops every now and then to take breath andlook about him; and in the earlier part of this Book of the Acts ofthe Apostles there are a number of such landing-places where thewriter suspends the course of his narrative, in order to give ageneral notion of the condition of the Church at the moment. We havein this verse one of the shortest, but perhaps the most significant, of these resting-places. The original and proper reading, instead of'the Churches, ' as our Version has it, reads 'the Church' as a whole--the whole body of believers in the three districts named--Judaea, Galilee, and Samaria--being in the same circumstances and passingthrough like experiences. The several small communities of disciplesformed a whole. They were 'churches' individually; they werecollectively 'the Church. ' Christ's order of expansion, given inchapter i. , had been thus far followed, and the sequence here sums upthe progress which the Acts has thus far recorded. Galilee had beenthe cradle of the Church, but the onward march of the Gospel hadbegun at Jerusalem. Before Luke goes on to tell how the last part ofour Lord's programme--'to the uttermost parts of the earth'--began tobe carried into execution by the conversion of Cornelius, he gives usthis bird's-eye view. To its significant items I desire to draw yourattention now. 

There are three of them: outward rest, inward progress, outwardincrease. 

I. Outward rest. 

'Then had the Church rest throughout all Judaea and Galilee andSamaria. '

The principal persecutor had just been converted, and that wouldsomewhat damp the zeal of his followers. Saul having gone over to theenemy, it would be difficult to go on harrying the Church with thesame spirit, when the chief actor was turned traitor. And besidesthat, historians tell us that there were political complicationswhich gave both Romans and Jews quite enough to do to watch oneanother, instead of persecuting this little community of Christians. I have nothing to do with these, but this one point I desire to make, that the condition of security and tranquillity in which the Churchfound itself conduced to spiritual good and growth. This has notalways been the case. As one of our quaint divines says, 'as incities where ground is scarce men build high up, so in times ofstraitness and persecution the Christian community, and theindividuals who compose it, are often raised to a higher level ofdevotion than in easier and quieter times. ' But these primitiveChristians utilised this breathing-space in order to grow, and havinga moment of lull and stillness in the storm, turned it to the highestand best uses. Is that what you and I do with our quiet times? Noneof us have any occasion to fear persecution or annoyance of thatsort, but there are other thorns in our pillows besides these, andother rough places in our beds, and we are often disturbed in ournests. When there does come a quiet time in which no outwardcircumstances fret us, do we seize it as coming from God, in orderthat, with undistracted energies, we may cast ourselves altogetherinto the work of growing like our Master and doing His will morefully? How many of us, dear brethren, have misused both our adversityand our prosperity by making the one an occasion for deeperworldliness, and the other a reason for forgetting Him in thedarkness as in the light? To be absorbed by earthly things, whetherby the enjoyment of their possession or by the bitter pain and miseryof their withdrawal, is fatal to all our spiritual progress, and onlythey use things prosperous and things adverse aright, who take themboth as means by which they may be wafted nearer to their God. Whatsoever forces act upon us, if we put the helm right and trim thesails as we ought, they will carry us to our haven. And whatsoeverforces act upon us, if we neglect the sailor's skill and duty, weshall be washed backwards and forwards in the trough of the sea, andmake no progress in the voyage. 'Then had the Church rest'--and grewlazy? 'Then had the Church rest'--and grew worldly? Then was I happyand prosperous and peaceful in my home and in my business, and Isaid, 'I shall never be moved, ' and I forgot my God? 'Then had theChurch rest, and was edified. '

Now, in the next place, note the

II. Inward progress. 

There are difficulties about the exact relation of the clauses hereto one another, the discussion of which would be fitter for alecture-room than for a pulpit. I do not mean to trouble you withthese, but it seems to me that we may perhaps best understand thewriter's intention if we throw together the clauses which stand inthe middle of this verse, and take them as being a description of theinward progress, being 'edified' and 'walking in the fear of theLord, and in the comfort of the Holy Ghost. ' There are two things, then--the being 'edified' and 'walking'; and I wish to say a word ortwo about each of them. 

Now that word 'edified' and the cognate one 'edification' have beenenfeebled in signification so as to mean very much less than they didto Luke. When we speak of 'being edified, ' what do we mean? Littlemore than that we have been instructed, and especially that we havebeen comforted. And what is the instrument of edification in ourordinary religious parlance? Good words, wise teaching, or piousspeech. But the New Testament means vastly more than this by theword, and looks not so much to other people's utterances as to aman's own strenuous efforts, as the means of edification. Muchmisunderstanding would have been avoided if our translators hadreally translated, instead of putting us off with a Latinised wordwhich to many readers conveys little meaning and none of thesignificant metaphor of the original. 'Being edified' sounds verytheological and far away from daily life. Would it not sound morereal if we read 'being built up'? That is the emblem of the processthat ought to go on, not only in the Christian community as a whole, but in every individual member of it. Each Christian is bound tobuild himself up and to help to build up other Christians; and Godbuilds them all up by His Spirit. We have brought before us thepicture of the rising of some stately fabric upon a firm foundation, course by course, stone by stone, each laid by a separate act of thebuilder's hand, and carefully bedded in its place until the whole iscomplete. 

That is one emblem of the growth of the Christian community and ofthe Christian individual, and the other clause that is coupled withit in the text seems to me to give the same idea under a slightlydifferent figure. The rising of a stately building and the advance ona given path suggest substantially the same notion of progress. 

And of these two metaphors, I would dwell chiefly on the former, because it is the less familiar of the two to modern readers, andbecause it is of some consequence to restore it to its weight andtrue significance in the popular mind. Edification, then, is thebuilding up of Christian character, and it involves four things: afoundation, a continuous progress, a patient, persistent effort, anda completion. 

Now, Christian men and women, this is our office for ourselves, and, according to our faculty and opportunities, for the Churches withwhich we may stand connected, that on the foundation which is JesusChrist--'and other foundation can no man lay'--we all should slowly, carefully, unceasingly be at our building work; each day'sattainment, like the course of stones laid in some great temple, becoming the basis upon which to-morrow's work is to be piled, andeach having in it the toil of the builder and being a result andmonument of his strenuous effort, and each being built in, accordingto the plan that the great Architect has given, and each tending alittle nearer to the roof-tree, and the time that 'the top stoneshall be brought forth with the shout of rejoicing. ' Is that atranscript of my life and yours? Do we make a business of thecultivation of Christian character thus? Do we rest the wholestructure of our lives upon Jesus Christ? And then, do we, hour byhour, moment by moment, lay the fair stones, until

 'Firm and fair the building rise, A temple to His praise. '

The old worn metaphor, which we have vulgarised and degraded into asynonym for a comfortable condition produced by a brother's words, carries in it the solemnest teaching as to what the duty andprivilege of all Christian souls is-to 'build themselves up for anhabitation of God through the Spirit. '

But note further the elements of which this progress consists. May wenot suppose that both metaphors refer to the clauses that follow, andthat 'the fear of the Lord' and 'the comfort of the Holy Ghost' arethe particulars in which the Christian is built up and walks?

'The fear of the Lord' is eminently an Old Testament expression, andoccurs only once or twice in the New. But its meaning is thoroughlyin accordance with the loftiest teaching of the new revelation. 'Thefear of the Lord' is that reverential awe of Him, by which we areever conscious of His presence with us, and ever seek, as our supremeaim and end, to submit our wills to His commandment, and to do thethings that are pleasing in His sight. Are you and I buildingourselves up in that? Do we feel more thrillingly and gladly to-daythan we did yesterday, that God is beside us? And do we submitourselves more loyally, more easily, more joyously to His will, inblessed obedience, now than ever before? Have we learned, and are welearning, moment by moment, more of that 'secret of the Lord' which'is with them that fear Him, ' and of that 'covenant' which 'He willshow' to them? Unless we do, our growth in Christian character is avery doubtful thing. And are we advancing, too, in that other elementwhich so beautifully completes and softens the notion of the fear ofthe Lord, 'the encouragement' which the divine Spirit gives us? Arewe bolder to-day than we were yesterday? Are we ready to meet withmore undaunted confidence whatever we may have to face? Do we feelever increasing within us the full blessedness and inspiration ofthat divine visitant? And do these sweet communications take all the'torment' away from 'fear, ' and leave only the bliss of reverentiallove? They who walk in the fear of the Lord, and who with the fearhave the courage that the divine Spirit gives, will 'have rest, ' likethe first Christians, whatsoever storms may howl around them, andwhatsoever enemies may threaten to disturb their peace. 

And so, lastly, note

III. The outward growth. 

Thus building themselves up, and thus growing, the Church 'wasmultiplied. ' Of course it was. Christian men and women that arespiritually alive, and who, because they are alive, grow, and grow inthese things, the manifest reverence of God, and the manifest'comfort' of the divine Spirit's giving, will commend their gospel toa blind world. They will be an attractive force in the midst of men, and their inward growth will make them eager to hold forth the wordof life, and will give them 'a mouth and wisdom' which nothing butgenuine spiritual experience can give. 

And so, dear friends, especially those of you who set yourselves toany of the many forms of Christian work which prevail in this day, learn the lesson of my text, and make sure of '_a_' before you go onto '_b_, ' and see to it that before you set yourselves to try tomultiply the Church, you set yourselves to build up yourselves inyour most holy faith. 

We hear a great deal nowadays about 'forward movements, ' and Isympathise with all that is said in favour of them. But I wouldremind you that the precursor of every genuine forward movement is aGodward movement, and that it is worse than useless to talk aboutlengthening the cords unless you begin with strengthening the stakes. The little prop that holds up the bell-tent that will contain half-a-dozen soldiers will be all too weak for the great one that will covera company. And the fault of some Christian people is that they setthemselves to work upon others without remembering that the firstrequisite is a deepened and growing godliness and devotion in theirown souls. Dear friends, begin at home, and remember that whilst whatthe world calls eloquence may draw people, and oddities _will_ drawthem, and all sorts of lower attractions will gather multitudes for alittle while, the one solid power which Christian men and women canexercise for the numerical increase of the Church is rooted in, andonly tenable through, their own personal increase day by day inconsecration and likeness to the Saviour, in possession of theSpirit, and in loving fear of the Lord. 

COPIES OF CHRIST'S MANNER

'And Peter said unto him, Aeneas, Jesus Christ maketh thee whole:arise, and make thy bed. .. . 40. But Peter put them all forth, andkneeled down and prayed; and, turning him to the body, said, Tabitha, arise. --ACTS ix. 34, 40. 

I have put these two miracles together, not only because they wereclosely connected in time and place, but because they have a veryremarkable and instructive feature in common. They are both evidentlymoulded upon Christ's miracles; are distinct imitations of what Peterhad seen Him do. And their likenesses to and differences from ourLord's manner of working are equally noteworthy. It is to the lessonsfrom these two aspects, common to both miracles, that I desire toturn now. 

I. First, notice the similarities and the lesson which they teach. 

The two cases before us are alike, in that both of them findparallels in our Lord's miracles. The one is the cure of a paralytic, which pairs off with the well-known story in the Gospels concerningthe man that was borne by four, and let down through the roof intoChrist's presence. The other of them, the raising of Dorcas, orTabitha, of course corresponds with the three resurrections of deadpeople which are recorded in the Gospels. 

And now, note the likenesses. Jesus Christ said to the paralysed man, 'Arise, take up thy bed. ' Peter says to Aeneas, 'Arise, and make thybed. ' The one command was appropriate to the circumstances of a manwho was not in his own house, and whose control over his long-disusedmuscles in obeying Christ's word was a confirmation to himself of thereality and completeness of his cure. The other was appropriate to aman bedridden in his own house; and it had precisely the same purposeas the analogous injunction from our Lord, 'Take up thy bed andwalk. ' Aeneas was lying at home, and so Peter, remembering how JesusChrist had demonstrated to others, and affirmed to the man himself, the reality of the miraculous blessing given to him, copies hisMaster's method, 'Aeneas, make thy bed. ' It is an echo andresemblance of the former incident, and is a distinct piece ofimitation of it. 

And then, if we turn to the other narrative, the intentional mouldingof the manner of the miracle, consecrated in the eyes of the lovingdisciple, because it was Christ's manner, is still more obvious. WhenJesus Christ went into the house of Jairus there was the usualhubbub, the noise of the loud Eastern mourning, and He put them allforth, taking with Him only the father and mother of the damsel, andPeter with James and John. When Peter goes into the upper room, whereTabitha is lying, there are the usual noise of lamentation and theclack of many tongues, extolling the virtues of the dead woman. Heremembers how Christ had gone about His miracle, and he, in his turn, 'put them all forth. ' Mark, who was Peter's mouthpiece in his Gospel, gives us the very Aramaic words which our Lord employed when Heraised the little girl, _Talitha_, the Aramaic word for 'a damsel, 'or young girl; _cumi_, which means in that language 'arise. ' Is itnot singular and beautiful that Peter's word by the bedside of thedead Dorcas is, with the exception of one letter, absolutelyidentical? Christ says, _Talitha cumi_. Peter remembered the formulaby which the blessing was conveyed, and he copied it. 'Tabitha cumi!'Is it not clear that he is posing after his Master's attitude; thathe is, consciously or unconsciously, doing what he remembered so wellhad been done in that other upper room, and that the miracles areboth of them shaped after the pattern of the miraculous working ofJesus Christ?

Well, now, although we are no miracle-workers, the very sameprinciple which underlay these two works of supernatural power is tobe applied to all our work, and to our lives as Christian people. Ido not know whether Peter _meant_ to do like Jesus Christ or not; Ithink rather that he was unconsciously and instinctively droppinginto the fashion that to him was so sacred. Love always delights inimitation; and the disciples of a great teacher will unconsciouslycatch the trick of his intonation, even the awkwardness of hisattitudes or the peculiarities of his way of looking at things--only, unfortunately, outsides are a good deal more easily imitated thaninsides. And many a disciple copies such external trifles, and talksin the tones that have, first of all, brought blessed truths to him, whose resemblance to his teacher goes very little further. Theprinciple that underlies these miracles is just this--get near JesusChrist, and you will catch His manner. Dwell in fellowship with Him, and whether you are thinking about it or not, there will come somefaint resemblance to that Lord into your characters and your way ofdoing things, so that men will 'take knowledge of you that you havebeen with Jesus. ' The poor bit of cloth which has held some preciouspiece of solid perfume will retain fragrance for many a dayafterwards, and will bless the scentless air by giving it forth. Theman who keeps close to Christ, and has folded Him in his heart, will, like the poor cloth, give forth a sweetness not his own that willgladden and refresh many nostrils. Live in the light, and you willbecome light. Keep near Christ, and you will be Christlike. Love Him, and love will do to you what it does to many a wedded pair, and tomany kindred hearts: it will transfuse into you something of thecharacteristics of the object of your love. It is impossible to trustChrist, to obey Christ, to hold communion with Him, and to livebeside Him, without becoming like Him. And if such be our inwardexperience, so will be our outward appearance. 

But there may be a specific point given to this lesson in regard toChristian people's ways of doing their work in the world and helpingand blessing other folk. Although, as I say, we have no miraculouspower at our disposal, we do not need it in order to manifest JesusChrist and His way of working in our work. And if we dwell besideHim, then, depend upon it, all the characteristics--far more preciousthan the accidents of manner, or tone, or attitude in working amiracle--all the characteristics so deeply and blessedly stamped uponHis life of self-sacrifice and man-helping devotion will bereproduced in us. Jesus Christ, when He went through the wards of thehospital of the world, was overflowing with quick sympathy for everysorrow that met His eye. If you and I are living near Him, we shallnever steel our hearts nor lock up our sensibilities against anysuffering that it is within our power to stanch or to alleviate. Jesus Christ never grudged trouble, never thought of Himself, neverwas impatient of interruption, never repelled importunity, never sentaway empty any outstretched hand. And if we live near Him, self-oblivious willingness to spend and be spent will mark our lives, andwe shall not consider that we have the right of possession or of soleenjoyment of any of the blessings that are given to us. Jesus Christ, according to the beautiful and significant words of one of theGospels, 'healed them that had need of healing. ' Why that singulardesignation for the people that were standing around Him but to teachus that wide as men's necessity was His sympathy, and that broad asthe sympathy of Christ were the help and healing which He brought?And so, with like width of compassion, with like perfectness of self-oblivion, with equal remoteness from consciousness of superiority ordisplay of condescension, Christian men should go amongst thesorrowful and the sad and the outcast and do their miracles--'greaterworks' than those which Christ did, as He Himself has told us--afterthe manner in which He did His. If they did, the world would be adifferent place, and the Church would be a different Church, and youwould not have people writing in the newspapers to demonstrate thatChristianity was 'played out. '

II. Further, note the differences and the lessons from them. 

Take the first of the two miracles. 'Aeneas, Jesus Christ maketh theewhole: arise, and make thy bed. ' That first clause points to thegreat difference. Take the second miracle, 'Jesus Christ put them allforth, and stretched out His hand, and said, Damsel, arise!' 'Peterput them all forth, . .. And said, Tabitha, arise!' but between theputting forth and the miracle he did something which Christ did notdo, and he did not do something which Christ did do. 'He kneeled downand prayed. ' Jesus Christ did not do that. 'And Jesus put forth Hishand, and said, Arise!' Peter did not do that. But he put forth hishand _after_ the miracle was wrought; not to communicate life, but tohelp the living woman to get to her feet; and so, both by what he didin his prayer and by what he did not do after Christ's pattern, theextension of the hand that was the channel of the vitality, he drew abroad distinction between the servant's copy and the Master'soriginal. 

The lessons from the differences are such as the following. 

Christ works miracles by His inherent power; His servants do theirworks only as His instruments and organs. I need not dwell upon theformer thought; but it is the latter at which I wish to look for amoment. The lesson, then, of the difference is that Christian men, inall their work for the Master and for the world, are ever to keepclear before themselves, and to make very obvious to other people, that they are nothing more than channels and instruments. The lessthe preacher, the teacher, the Christian benefactor of any sort putshimself in the foreground, or in evidence at all, the more likely arehis words and works to be successful. If you hear a man, forinstance, preaching a sermon, and you see that he is thinking abouthimself, he may talk with the tongues of men and of angels, but hewill do no good to anybody. The first condition of work for the Lordis--hide yourself behind your message, behind your Master, and makeit very plain that His is the power, and that you are but a tool inthe Workman's hand. 

And then, further, another lesson is, Be very sure of the power thatwill work in you. What a piece of audacity it was for Peter to go andstand by the paralytic man's couch and say, 'Aeneas, Jesus Christmaketh thee whole. ' Yes, audacity; unless he had been in suchconstant and close touch with his Master that he was sure that hisMaster was working through him. And is it not beautiful to see howabsolutely confident he is that Jesus Christ's work was not endedwhen He went up into heaven; but that there, in that little stuffyroom, where the man had lain motionless for eight long years, JesusChrist was present, and working? O brethren, the Christian Churchdoes not half enough believe in the actual presence and operation ofJesus Christ, here and now, in and through all His servants! We areready enough to believe that He worked when He was in the world longago, that He is going to work when He comes back to the world, atsome far-off future period. But do we believe that He is verilyputting forth His power, in no metaphor, but in simple reality, atpresent and here, and, if we will, through us?

'Jesus Christ maketh thee whole. ' Be sure that if you keep nearChrist, if you will try to mould yourselves after His likeness, ifyou expect Him to work through you, and do not hinder His work byself-conceit and self-consciousness of any sort, then it will be nopresumption, but simple faith which He delights in and willvindicate, if you, too, go and stand by a paralytic and say, 'JesusChrist maketh thee whole, ' or go and stand by people dead intrespasses and sins and say, after you have prayed, 'Arise. '

We are here for the very purpose for which Peter was in Lydda andJoppa--to carry on and copy the healing and the quickening work ofChrist, by His present power, and after His blessed example. 

WHAT GOD HATH CLEANSED

'There was a certain man in Caesarea called Cornelius, acenturion of the band called the Italian band, 2. A devout man, and one that feared God with all his house, which gave much almsto the people, and prayed to God alway. 3. He saw in a visionevidently about the ninth hour of the day an angel of God comingin to him, and saying unto him, Cornelius. 4. And when he lookedon him, he was afraid, and said, What is it, Lord? And he saidunto him, Thy prayers and thine alms are come up for a memorialbefore God. 5. And now send men to Joppa, and call for one Simon, whose surname is Peter: 6. He lodgeth with one Simon a tanner, whose house is by the sea-side: he shall tell thee what thououghtest to do. 7. And when the angel which spake unto Corneliuswas departed, he called two of his household servants, and adevout soldier of them that waited on him continually; 8. Andwhen he had declared all these things unto them, he sent them toJoppa. 9. On the morrow, as they went on their journey, and drewnigh unto the city, Peter went up upon the housetop to pray aboutthe sixth hour: 10. And he became very hungry, and would haveeaten: but while they made ready, he fell into a trance, 11. Andsaw heaven opened, and a certain vessel descending unto him, asit had been a great sheet knit at the four corners, and let downto the earth: 12. Wherein were all manner of fourfooted beasts ofthe earth, and wild beasts, and creeping things, and fowls of theair. 13. And there came a voice to him, Rise, Peter; kill, andeat. 14. But Peter said, Not so, Lord; for I have never eaten anything that is common or unclean. 15. And the voice spake unto himagain the second time, What God hath cleansed, that call not thoucommon. 16. This was done thrice: and the vessel was received upagain into heaven. 17. Now while Peter doubted in himself whatthis vision which he had seen should mean, behold, the men whichwere sent from Cornelius had made inquiry for Simon's house, andstood before the gate, 18. And called, and asked whether Simon, which was surnamed Peter, were lodged there. 19. While Peterthought on the vision, the Spirit said unto him, Behold, threemen seek thee. 20. Arise therefore, and get thee down, and gowith them, doubting nothing; for I have sent them. '--ACTS x. 1-20. 

The Church was at first in appearance only a Jewish sect; but thegreat stride is now to be taken which carries it over the border intothe Gentile world, and begins its universal aspect. If we considerthe magnitude of the change, and the difficulties of training andprejudice which it had to encounter in the Church itself, we shallnot wonder at the abundance of supernatural occurrences whichattended it. Without some such impulse, it is difficult to conceiveof its having been accomplished. 

In this narrative we see the supernatural preparation on both sides. God, as it were, lays His right hand on Cornelius, and His left onPeter, and impels them towards each other. Philip had alreadypreached to the Ethiopian, and probably the anonymous brethren inActs xi. 20 had already spoken the word to pure Greeks at Antioch;but the importance of Peter's action here is that by reason of hisApostleship, his recognition of Gentile Christians becomes the act ofthe whole community. His entrance into Cornelius's house ended theJewish phase of the Church. The epoch was worthy of divineintervention, and the step needed divine warrant. Therefore theabundance of miracle at this point is not superfluous. 

I. We have the vision which guided the seeker to the light. Caesarea, as the seat of government, was the focus of Gentilism, and that theGospel should effect a lodgment there was significant. Still more sowas the person whom it first won, --an officer of the Roman army, thevery emblem of worldly power, loathed by every true Jew. A centurionwas not an officer of high rank, but Cornelius's name suggests thepossibility of his connection with a famous Roman family, and thename of the 'band' or 'cohort, ' of which his troop was part, suggeststhat it was raised in Italy, and therefore properly officered byRomans. His residence in Judaea had touched his spirit with someknowledge of, and reverence for, the Jehovah whom this strange peopleworshipped. He was one of a class numerous in these times ofreligious unrest, who had been more or less affected by the puremonotheism of the Jew. 

It is remarkable that the centurions of the New Testament are allmore or less favourably inclined towards Christ and Christianity, andthe fact has been laid hold of to throw doubt on the narratives; butit is very natural that similarity of position and training shouldhave produced similarity of thought; and that three or four suchpersons should have come in contact with Jesus and His Apostles makesno violent demands on probability, while there was no occasion tomention others who were not like-minded. Quartered for considerableperiods in the country, and brought into close contact with itsreligion, and profoundly sceptical of their own, as all but thelowest minds then were, Cornelius and his brother in arms and spiritwhose faith drew wondering praise from Jesus, are bright examples ofthe possibility of earnest religious life being nourished amid gravedisadvantages, and preach a lesson, often neglected, that we shouldbe slow to form unfavourable opinions of classes of men, or to decidethat those of such and such a profession, or in such and suchcircumstances, must be of such and such a character. 

It would have seemed that the last place to look for the firstGentile Christian would have been in the barracks at Caesarea; andyet there God's angel went for him, and found him. It has often beendiscussed whether Cornelius was a 'proselyte' or not. It matters verylittle. He was drawn to the Jews' religion, had adopted their hoursof prayer, reverenced their God, had therefore cast off idolatry, gave alms to the people as acknowledgment that their God was his God, and cultivated habitual devotion, which he had diffused among hishousehold, both of slaves and soldiers. It is a beautiful picture ofa soul feeling after a deeper knowledge of God, as a plant turns itshalf-opened flowers to the sun. 

Such seekers do not grope without touching. It is not only 'untothe seed of Jacob' that God has never said, 'Seek ye Me in vain. 'The story has a message of hope to all such seekers, and shedsprecious light on dark problems in regard to the relation of suchsouls in heathen lands to the light and love of God, The visionappeared to Cornelius in the manner corresponding to his spiritualsusceptibility, and it came at the hour of prayer. God's angelsever draw near to hearts opened by desire to receive them. Not invisible form, but in reality, 'bright-harnessed angels stand' allaround the chamber where prayer is made. Our hours of supplicationare God's hours of communication. 

The vision to Cornelius is not to be whittled down to a mentalimpression. It was an objective, supernatural appearance, --whether tosense or soul matters little. The story gives most graphically thefixed gaze of terror which Cornelius fastened on the angel, and verycharacteristically the immediate recovery and quick question to whichhis courage and military promptitude helped him. 'What is it, Lord?'does not speak of terror, but of readiness to take orders and obey. 'Lord' seems to be but a title of reverence here. 

In the angel's answer, the order in which prayers and alms are namedis the reverse of that in verse 2. Luke speaks as a man, beginningwith the visible manifestation, and passing thence to the inwarddevotion which animated the external beneficence. The angel speaks asGod sees, beginning with the inward, and descending to the outward. The strong 'anthropomorphism' of the representation that man's prayerand alms keep God in mind of him needs no vindication and littleexplanation. It substitutes the mental state which in us originatescertain acts for the acts themselves. God's 'remembrance' is inScripture frequently used to express His loving deeds, which showthat their recipient is not forgotten of Him. 

But the all-important truth in the words is that the prayers and alms(coming from a devout heart) of a man who had never heard of JesusChrist were acceptable to God. None the less Cornelius needed Jesus, and the recompense made to him was the knowledge of the Saviour. Thebelief that in many a heathen heart such yearning after a dimly knownGod has stretched itself towards light, and been accepted of God, does not in the least conflict with the truth that 'there is noneother Name given among men, whereby we must be saved, ' but it sheds abright and most welcome light of hope into that awful darkness. Christ is the only Saviour, but it is not for us to say how far offfrom the channel in which it flows the water of life may percolate, and feed the roots of distant trees. Cornelius's religion was not asubstitute for Christ, but was the occasion of his being led toChrist, and finding full, conscious salvation there. God leadsseeking souls by His own wonderful ways; and we may leave all such inHis hand, assured that no heart ever hungered after righteousness andwas not filled. 

The instruction to send for Peter tested Cornelius's willingness tobe taught by an unknown Jew, and his belief in the divine origin ofthe vision. The direction given by which to find this teacher was notpromising. A lodger in a tan-yard by the seaside was certainly not aman of position or wealth. But military discipline helped religiousreverence; and without delay, as soon as the angel 'was departed' (anexpression which gives the outward reality of the appearancestrongly), Cornelius's confidential servants, sympathisers with himin his religion, were told all the story, and before nightfall wereon their march to Joppa. Swift obedience to whatever God points outas our path towards the light, even if it seem somewhat unattractive, will always mark our conduct if we really long for the light, andbelieve that He is pointing our way. 

II. The vision which guided the light-bearer to the seeker. --Allthrough the night the messengers marched along the maritime plain inwhich both Caesarea and Joppa lay, much discussing, no doubt, theirstrange errand, and wondering what they would find. The preparationof Peter, which was as needful as that of Cornelius, was so timed asto be completed just as the messengers stood at the tanner's door. 

The first point to note in regard to it is its scene. It is ofsubordinate importance, but it can scarcely have been entirelyunmeaning, that the flashing waters of the Mediterranean, blazing inmidday sunshine, stretched before Peter's eyes as he sat on thehousetop 'by the seaside. ' His thoughts may have travelled across thesea, and he may have wondered what lay beyond the horizon, andwhether there were men there to whom Christ's commission extended. 'The isles' of which prophecy had told that they should 'wait for Hislaw' were away out in the mysterious distance. Some expansion ofspirit towards regions beyond may have accompanied his gaze. At allevents, it was by the shore of the great highway of nations and oftruth that the vision which revealed that all men were 'cleansed'filled the eye and heart of the Apostle, and told him that, in hiscalling as 'fisher of men, ' a wider water than the land-locked Sea ofGalilee was his. 

We may also note the connection of the form of the vision with hiscircumstances. His hunger determined its shape. The natural bodilysensations coloured his state of mind even in trance, and affordedthe point of contact for God's message. It does not follow that thevision was only the consequence of his hunger, as has been suggestedby critics who wish to get rid of the supernatural. But the formwhich it took teaches us how mercifully God is wont to mould Hiscommunications according to our needs, and how wisely He shapes them, so as to find entrance through even the lower wants. The commonestbodily needs may become avenues for His truth, if our prayeraccompanies our hunger. 

The significance of the vision is plain to us, though Peter was 'muchperplexed' about it. In the light of the event, we understand thatthe 'great sheet let down from heaven by four corners, ' andcontaining all manner of creatures, is the symbol of universalhumanity (to use modern language). The four corners correspond to thefour points of the compass, --north, south, east, and west, --thecontents to the swarming millions of men. Peter would perceive nomore in the command to 'kill and eat' than the abrogation of Mosaicrestrictions. Meditation was needful to disclose the full extent ofthe revolution shadowed by the vision and its accompanying words. Theold nature of Peter was not so completely changed but that a flash ofit breaks out still. The same self-confidence which had led him to'rebuke' Jesus, and to say, 'This shall not be unto Thee, ' speaks inhis unhesitating and irreverent 'Not so, Lord!'

The naive reason he gives for not obeying--namely, his never havingdone as he was now bid to do--is charmingly illogical and human. Godtells him to do a new thing, and his reason for not doing it is thatit is new. Use and wont are set up by us all against the freshdisclosures of God's will. The command to kill and eat was notrepeated. It was but the introduction to the truth which was repeatedthrice, the same number of times as Peter had denied his Master andhad received his charge to feed His sheep. 

That great truth has manifold applications, but its direct purpose asregards Peter is to teach that all restrictions which differentiatedJew from Gentile are abolished. 'Cleansing' does not here apply tomoral purifying, but to the admission of all mankind to the samestanding as the Jew. Therefore the Gospel is to be preached to allmen, and the Jewish Christian has no pre-eminence. 

Peter's perplexity as to the meaning of the vision is veryintelligible. It was not so plain as to carry its own interpretation, but, like most other of God's teachings, was explained bycircumstances. What was next done made the best commentary on whathad just been beheld. While patient reflection is necessary to do duehonour to God's teachings and to discover their bearing on events, itis generally true that events unfold their significance as meditationalone never can. Life is the best commentator on God's word. Thethree men down at the door poured light on the vision on thehousetop. But the explanation was not left to circumstances. TheSpirit directed Peter to go with the messengers, and thus taught himthe meaning of the enigmatical words which he had heard from heaven. 

It is to be remembered that the Apostle had no need of freshillumination as to the world-wide preaching of the Gospel. Christ'scommission to 'the uttermost parts of the earth' ever rang in hisears, as we may be sure. But what he did need was the lesson that theGentiles could come into the Church without going through the gate ofJudaism. If all peculiar sanctity was gone from the Jew, and all menshared in the 'cleansing, ' there was no need for keeping up any ofthe old restrictions, or insisting on Gentiles being first receivedinto the Israelitish community as a stage in their progress towardsChristianity. 

It took Peter and the others years to digest the lesson given on thehousetop, but he began to put it in practice that day. How little heknew the sweep of the truth then declared to him! How little we havelearned it yet! All exclusiveness which looks down on classes orraces, all monkish asceticism which taboos natural appetites andtastes, all morbid scrupulosity which shuts out from religious menlarge fields of life, all Pharisaism which says 'The temple of theLord are we, ' are smitten to dust by the great words which gather allmen into the same ample, impartial divine love, and, in anotheraspect, give Christian culture and life the charter of freest use ofall God's fair world, and place the distinction between clean andunclean in the spirit of the user rather than in the thing used. 'Unto the pure all things are pure: but unto them that are defiled. .. Is nothing pure. '

'GOD IS NO RESPECTER OF PERSONS'

'And Cornelius said, Four days ago I was fasting until thishour; and at the ninth hour I prayed in my house, and, behold, aman stood before me in bright clothing, 31. And said, Cornelius, thy prayer is heard, and thine alms are had in remembrance inthe sight of God. 32. Send therefore to Joppa, and call hitherSimon, whose surname is Peter; he is lodged in the house of oneSimon a tanner by the sea-side: who, when he cometh, shall speakunto thee. 83. Immediately therefore I sent to thee; and thouhast well done that thou art come. Now therefore are we all herepresent before God, to hear all things that art commanded theeof God. 34. Then Peter opened his mouth, and said, Of a truth Iperceive that God is no respecter of persons: 35. But in everynation he that feareth Him, and worketh righteousness, isaccepted with Him. 35. The word which God sent unto the childrenof Israel, preaching peace by Jesus Christ: (He is Lord of all:)37. That word, I say, ye know, which was published throughoutall Judaea, and began from Galilee, after the baptism which Johnpreached; 38. How God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the HolyGhost and with power: who went about doing good, and healing allthat were oppressed of the devil; for God was with Him. 39. Andwe are witnesses of all things which He did both in the land ofthe Jews, and in Jerusalem; whom they slew and hanged on a tree:40. Him God raised up the third day, and shewed Him openly; 41. Not to all the people, but unto witnesses chosen before of God, even to us, who did eat and drink with Him after He rose fromthe dead. 42. And He commanded us to preach unto the people, andto testify that it is He which was ordained of God to be theJudge of quick and dead. 43. To Him give all the prophetswitness, that through His Name whosoever believeth in Him shallreceive remission of sins. 44. While Peter yet spake thesewords, the Holy Ghost fell on all them which heard the word. '--ACTS x. 30-44. 

This passage falls into three parts: Cornelius's explanation, Peter'ssermon, and the descent of the Spirit on the new converts. The lastis the most important, and yet is told most briefly. We may surelyrecognise the influence of Peter's personal reminiscences in thescale of the narrative, and may remember that Luke and Mark werethrown together in later days. 

I. Cornelius repeats what his messengers had already told Peter, butin fuller detail. He tells how he was occupied when the angelappeared. He was keeping the Jewish hour of prayer, and the fact thatthe vision came to him as he prayed had attested to him its heavenlyorigin. If we would see angels, the most likely place to behold themis in the secret place of prayer. He tells, too, that the command tosend for Peter was a consequence of God's remembrance of his prayer('therefore, ' verse 32). His prayers and alms showed that he was 'ofthe light, ' and therefore he was directed to what would yield furtherlight. 

The command to send for Peter is noteworthy in two respects. It was, first, a test of humility and obedience. Cornelius, as a Romanofficer, would be tempted to feel the usual contempt for one of thesubject race, and, unless his eagerness to know more of God's willoverbore his pride, to kick at the idea of sending to beg the favourof the presence and instruction of a Jew, and of one, too, who couldfind no better quarters than a tanner's house. The angel's voicecommanded, but it did not compel. Cornelius bore the test, andneither waived aside the vision as a hallucination to which it wasabsurd for a practical man to attend, nor recoiled from the lowlinessof the proposed teacher. He pocketed official and racial loftiness, and, as he emphasises, 'forthwith' despatched his message. It was asif an English official in the Punjab had been sent to a Sikh 'Guru'for teaching. 

The other remarkable point about the command is that Philip wasprobably in Caesarea at the time. Why should Peter have been brought, then, by two visions and two long journeys? The subsequent historyexplains why. For the storm of criticism in the Jerusalem churchprovoked by Cornelius's baptism would have raged with tenfold fury ifso revolutionary an act had been done by any less authoritativeperson than the leader of the Apostles. The Lord would stamp His ownapproval on the deed which marked so great an expansion of theChurch, and therefore He makes the first of the Apostles His agent, and that by a double vision. 

'Thou hast well done that thou art come, '--a courteous welcome, withjust a trace of the doubt which had occupied Cornelius during the'four days, ' whether this unknown Jew would obey so strange aninvitation. Courtesy and preparedness to receive the unknown messagebeautifully blend in Cornelius's closing words, which do not directlyask Peter to speak, but declare the auditors' eagerness to hear, aswell as their confidence that what he says will be God's voice. 

A variant reading in verse 33 gives 'in thy sight' for 'in the sightof God, ' and has much to recommend it. But in any case we have herethe right attitude for us all in the presence of the uttered will andmind of God. Where such open-eared and open-hearted preparednessmarks the listeners, feebler teachers than Peter will win converts. The reason why much earnest Christian teaching is vain is theindifference and non-expectant attitude of the hearers, who are nothearkeners. Seed thrown on the wayside is picked up by the birds. 

II. Peter's sermon is, on the whole, much like his other addresseswhich are abundantly reported in the early part of the Acts. Thegreat business of the preachers then was to tell the history ofJesus. Christianity is, first, a recital of historical events, fromwhich, no doubt, principles are deduced, and which necessarily leadon to doctrines; but the facts are first. 

But the familiar story is told to Cornelius with some variation oftone. And it is prefaced by a great word, which crystallises thelarge truth that had sprung into consciousness and startling power inPeter, as the result of his own and Cornelius's experience. He hadnot previously thought of God as 'a respecter of persons, ' but theconviction that He was not had never blazed with such sun-clearnessbefore him as it did now. Jewish narrowness had, unconsciously tohimself, somewhat clouded it; but these four days had burned in onhim, as if it were a new truth, that 'in every nation' there may bemen accepted of God, because they 'fear Him and work righteousness. '

That great saying is twisted from its right meaning when it isinterpreted as discouraging the efforts of Christians to carry theGospel to the heathen; for, if the 'light of nature' is sufficient, what was Peter sent to Caesarea for? But it is no less maltreatedwhen evangelical Christians fail to grasp its world-widesignificance, or doubt that in lands where Christ's name has not beenproclaimed there are souls groping for the light, and seeking to obeythe law written on their hearts. That there are such, and that suchare 'accepted of Him, ' and led by His own ways to the fuller light, is obviously taught in these words, and should be a welcome thoughtto us all. 

The tangled utterances which immediately follow, sound as if speechstaggered under the weight of the thoughts opening before thespeaker. Whatever difficulty attends the construction, the intentionis clear, --to contrast the limited scope of the message, as confinedto the children of Israel, with its universal destination as now madeclear. The statement which in the Authorised and Revised Versions isthrown into a parenthesis is really the very centre of the Apostle'sthought. Jesus, who has hitherto been preached to Israel, is 'Lord ofall, ' and the message concerning Him is now to be proclaimed, not invague outline and at second hand, as it had hitherto reachedCornelius, but in full detail, and as a message in which he wasconcerned. 

Contrast the beginning and the ending of the discourse, --'the wordsent unto the children of Israel' and 'every one that believeth onHim shall receive remission of sins. ' A remarkable variation in thetext is suggested by Blass in his striking commentary, who would omit'Lord' and read, 'The word which He sent to the children of Israel, bringing the good tidings of peace through Jesus Christ, --this [word]belongs to all. ' That reading does away with the chief difficulties, and brings out clearly the thought which is more obscurely expressedin a contorted sentence by the present reading. 

The subsequent _resume_ of the life of Jesus is substantially thesame as is found in Peter's other sermons. But we may note that thehighest conceptions of our Lord's nature are not stated. It is hardto suppose that Peter after Pentecost had not the same conviction asburned in his confession, 'Thou art the Christ, the Son of the livingGod. ' But in these early discourses neither the Divinity andIncarnation nor the atoning sacrifice of Jesus is set forth. He isthe Christ, 'anointed with the Holy Ghost and with power. ' God iswith Him (Nicodemus had got as far as that). He is 'ordained of Godto be the judge of quick and dead. '

We note, too, that His teaching is not touched upon, nor any of theprofounder aspects of His work as the Revealer of God, but Hisbeneficence and miraculous deliverances of devil-ridden men. Hisdeath is declared, but without any of the accusations of Hismurderers, which, like lance-thrusts, 'pricked' Jewish hearers. Noris the efficacy of that death as the sacrifice for the world's sintouched upon, but it is simply told as a fact, and set in contrastwith the Resurrection. These were the plain facts which had first tobe accepted. 

The only way of establishing facts is by evidence of eye-witnesses. So Peter twice (verses 39, 41) adduces his own and his colleagues'evidence. But the facts are not yet a gospel, unless they are furtherexplained as well as established. Did such things happen? The answeris, 'We saw them. ' What did they mean? The answer begins by adducingthe 'witness' of the Apostles to a different order of truths, whichrequires a different sort of witness. Jesus had bidden them 'testify'that He is to be Judge of living and dead; that is, of all mankind. Their witness to that can only rest on His word. 

Nor is that all. There is yet another body of 'witnesses' to yetanother class of truths. 'All the prophets' bear witness to the greattruth which makes the biography of the Man the gospel for all men, --that the deepest want of all men is satisfied through the name whichPeter ever rang out as all-powerful to heal and bless. Theforgiveness of sins through the manifested character and work ofJesus Christ is given on condition of faith to any and every one whobelieves, be he Jew or Gentile, Galilean fisherman or Romancenturion. Cornelius may have known little of the prophets, but heknew the burden of sin. He did not know all that we know of Jesus, and of the way in which forgiveness is connected with His work, buthe did know now that it was connected, and that this Jesus was risenfrom the dead, and was to be the Judge. His faith went out to thatSaviour, and as he heard he believed. 

III. Therefore the great gift, attesting the divine acceptance of himand the rest of the hearers, came at once. There had been noconfession of their faith, much less had there been baptism, orlaying on of Apostolic hands. The sole qualification and conditionfor the reception of the Spirit which John lays down in his Gospelwhen he speaks of the 'Spirit, which they that believe on Him shouldreceive, ' was present here, and it was enough. Peter and his brethrenmight have hesitated about baptizing an uncircumcised believer. TheLord of the Church showed Peter that He did not hesitate. 

So, like a true disciple, Peter followed Christ's lead, and though'they of the circumcision' were struck with amazement, he said tohimself, 'Who am I, that I should withstand God?' and opened hisheart to welcome these new converts as possessors of 'like preciousfaith' as was demonstrated by their possession of the same Spirit. Would that Peter's willingness to recognise all who manifest theSpirit of Christ, whatever their relation to ecclesiasticalregulations, had continued the law and practice of the Church!

PETER'S APOLOGIA

'And the apostles and brethren that were in Judaea heard thatthe Gentiles had also received the word of God. 2. And whenPeter was come up to Jerusalem, they that were of thecircumcision contended with him, 3. Saying, Thou wentest in tomen uncircumcised, and didst eat with them. 4. But Peterrehearsed the matter from the beginning, and expounded it byorder unto them, saying, 5. I was in the city of Joppa praying:and in a trance I saw a vision, A certain vessel descend, as ithad been a great sheet, let down from heaven by four corners;and it came even to me: 6. Upon the which when I had fastenedmine eyes, I considered, and saw fourfooted beasts of the earth, and wild beasts, and creeping things, and fowls of the air. 7. And I heard a voice saying unto me, Arise, Peter; slay, and eat. 8. But I said, Not so, Lord: for nothing common or unclean hathat any time entered into my mouth. 9. But the voice answered meagain from heaven, What God hath cleansed, that call not thoucommon. 10. And this was done three times: and all were drawn upagain into heaven. 11. And, behold, immediately there were threemen already come unto the house where I was, sent from Caesareaunto me. 12. And the Spirit bade me go with them, nothingdoubting. Moreover these six brethren accompanied me, and weentered into the man's house: 13. And he shewed us how he hadseen an angel in his house, which stood and said unto him, Sendmen to Joppa, and call for Simon, whose surname is Peter; 14. Who shall tell thee words, whereby thou and all thy house shallbe saved. 15. And as I began to speak, the Holy Ghost fell onthem, as on us at the beginning. 16. Then remembered I the wordof the Lord, how that He said, John indeed baptized with water;but ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost. 17. Forasmuch thenas God gave them the like gift as He did unto us, who believedon the Lord Jesus Christ; what was I, that I could withstandGod? 18. When they heard these things, they held their peace, and glorified God, saying, Then hath God also to the Gentilesgranted repentance unto life. '--ACTS xi. 1-18. 

Peter's action in regard to Cornelius precipitated a controversywhich was bound to come if the Church was to be anything more than aJewish sect. It brought to light the first tendency to form a partyin the Church. 'They. .. Of the circumcision' were probably 'certainof the sect of the Pharisees which believed, ' and were especiallyzealous for all the separating prescriptions of the ceremonial law. They were scarcely a party as yet, but the little rift was destinedto grow, and they became Paul's bitterest opponents through all hislife, dogging him with calumnies and counterworking his toil. It is ablack day for a Church when differences of opinion lead to theformation of cliques. Zeal for truth is sadly apt to enlist spite, malice, and blindness to a manifest work of God, as its allies. 

Poor Peter, no doubt, expected that the brethren would rejoice withhim in the extension of the Gospel to 'the Gentiles, ' but hisreception in Jerusalem was very unlike his hopes. The critics did notventure to cavil at his preaching to Gentiles. Probably none of themhad any objection to such being welcomed into the Church, for theycan scarcely have wished to make the door into it narrower than thatinto the synagogue, but they insisted that there was no way in butthrough the synagogue. By all means, said they, let Gentiles come, but they must first become Jews, by submitting to circumcision andliving as Jews do. Thus they did not attack Peter for preaching tothe Roman centurion and his men, but for eating with them. Thateating not only was a breach of the law, but it implied the receptionof Cornelius and his company into the household of God, and sodestroyed the whole fabric of Jewish exclusiveness. We condemn suchnarrowness, but do many of us not practise it in other forms?Wherever Christians demand adoption of external usages, over andabove exercise of penitent faith, as a condition of brotherlyrecognition, they are walking in the steps of them 'of thecircumcision. '

Peter's answer to the critics is the true answer to all similarhedging up of the Church, for he contents himself with showing thathe was only following God's action in every step of the way which hetook, and that God, by the gift of the divine Spirit, had shown thatHe had taken these uncircumcised men into His fellowship, beforePeter dared to 'eat with them. ' He points to four facts which showGod's hand in the matter, and thinks that he has done enough tovindicate himself thereby. The first is his vision on the housetop. He tells that he was praying when it came, and what God shows to apraying spirit is not likely to mislead. He tells that he was 'in atrance, '--a condition in which prophets had of old received theircommands. That again was a guarantee for the divine origin of thevision in the eyes of every Jew, though nowadays it is taken by anti-supernaturalists as a demonstration of its morbidness andunreliableness. He tells of his reluctance to obey the command to'kill and eat. ' A flash of the old brusque spirit impelled his flatrefusal, 'Not so, Lord!' and his daring to argue with his Lord still, as he had done with Him on earth. He tells of the interpreting andrevolutionary word, evoked by his audacious objection, and then hetells how 'this was done thrice, ' so that there could be no mistakein his remembrance of it, and then that the whole was drawn up intoheaven, --a sign that the purpose of the vision was accomplished whenthat word was spoken. What, then, was the meaning of it?

Clearly it swept away at once the legal distinction of clean andunclean meats, and of it, too, may be spoken what Mark, Peter'smouthpiece, writes of earthly words of Christ's: 'This He said, making all meats clean. ' But with the sweeping away of thatdistinction much else goes, for it necessarily involves theabrogation of the whole separating ordinances of the law, and of thedistinction between clean and unclean persons. Its wider applicationwas not seen at the moment, but it flashed on him, no doubt, whenface to face with Cornelius. God had cleansed him, in that hisprayers had 'gone up for a memorial before God, ' and so Peter sawthat 'in every nation, ' and not among Jews only, there might be mencleansed by God. What was true of Cornelius must be true of manyothers. So the whole distinction between Jew and Gentile was cut upby the roots. Little did Peter know the width of the principlerevealed to him then, as all of us know but little of the fullapplication of many truths which we believe. But he obeyed so much ofthe command as he understood, and more of it gradually dawned on hismind, as will always be the case if we obey what we know. 

The second fact was the coincident arrival of the messengers and thedistinct command to accompany them. Peter could distinguish quiteassuredly his own thoughts from divine instructions, as his accountof the dialogue in the trance shows. How he distinguished is nottold; that he distinguished is. The coincidence in time clearlypointed to one divine hand working at both ends of the line, --Caesarea and Joppa. It interpreted the vision which had 'muchperplexed' Peter as to what it 'might mean. ' But he was not left tointerpret it by his own pondering. The Spirit spoke authoritatively, and the whole force of his justification of himself depends on thefact that he knew that the impulse which made him set out to Caesareawas not his own. If the reading of the Revised Version is adopted inverse 12, 'making no distinction, ' the command plainly referred tothe vision, and showed Peter that he was to make no distinction of'clean and unclean' in his intercourse with these Gentiles. 

The third fact is the vision to Cornelius, of which he was told onarriving. The two visions fitted into each other, confirmed eachother, interpreted each other. We may estimate the greatness of thestep in the development of the Church which the admission ofCornelius into it made, and the obstacles on both sides, by the factthat both visions were needed to bring these two men together. Peterwould never have dreamed of going with the messengers if he had nothad his narrowness beaten out of him on the housetop, and Corneliuswould never have dreamed of sending to Joppa if he had not seen theangel. The cleft between Jew and Gentile was so wide that God's handhad to be applied on both sides to press the separated partstogether. He had plainly done it, and that was Peter's defence. 

The fourth fact is the gift of the Spirit to these Gentiles. That isthe crown of Peter's vindication, and his question, 'Who was I, thatI could withstand God?' might be profitably pondered and applied bythose whose ecclesiastical theories oblige them to deny the 'orders'and the 'validity of the sacraments' and the very name of a Church, to bodies of Christians who do not conform to their polity. If God, by the gift of His Spirit manifest in its fruits, owns them, theyhave the true 'notes of the Church, ' and 'they of the circumcision'who recoil from recognising them do themselves more harm thereby thanthey inflict on these. 'As many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are the sons of God, ' even though some brother may be 'angry'that the Father welcomes them. 

THE FIRST PREACHING AT ANTIOCH

'And some of them were men of Cyprus and Cyrene, which, when theyware come to Antioch, spake unto the Grecians, preaching the LordJesus. 21. And the hand of the Lord was with them: and a greatnumber believed, and turned unto the Lord. '--ACTS xi. 20, 21. 

Thus simply does the historian tell one of the greatest events in thehistory of the Church. How great it was will appear if we observethat the weight of authority among critics and commentators sees herean extension of the message of salvation to Greeks, that is, to pureheathens, and not a mere preaching to Hellenists, that is, to Greek-speaking Jews born outside Palestine. 

If that be correct, this was a great stride forward in thedevelopment of the Church. It needed a vision to overcome thescruples of Peter, and impel him to the bold innovation of preachingto Cornelius and his household, and, as we know, his doing so gavegrave offence to some of his brethren in Jerusalem. But in the casebefore us, some Cypriote and African Jews--men of no note in theChurch, whose very names have perished, with no official among them, with no vision nor command to impel them, with no precedent toencourage them, with nothing but the truth in their minds and theimpulses of Christ's love in their hearts--solve the problem of theextension of Christ's message to the heathen, and, quite unconsciousof the greatness of their act, do the thing about the propriety ofwhich there had been such serious question in Jerusalem. 

This boldness becomes even more remarkable if we notice that theincident of our text may have taken place before Peter's visit toCornelius. The verse before our text, 'They which were scatteredabroad upon the persecution that arose about Stephen travelled, . .. Preaching the word to none but unto the Jews only, ' is almost a_verbatim_ repetition of words in an earlier chapter, and evidentlysuggests that the writer is returning to that point of time, in orderto take up another thread of his narrative contemporaneous with thosealready pursued. If so, three distinct lines of expansion appear tohave started from the dispersion of the Jerusalem church in thepersecution--namely, Philip's mission to Samaria, Peter's toCornelius, and this work in Antioch. Whether prior in time or no, thepreaching in the latter city was plainly quite independent of theother two. It is further noteworthy that this, the effort of ahandful of unnamed men, was the true 'leader'--the shoot that grew. Philip's work, and Peter's so far as we know, were side branches, which came to little; this led on to a church at Antioch, and so toPaul's missionary work, and all that came of that. 

The incident naturally suggests some thoughts bearing on the generalsubject of Christian work, which we now briefly present. 

I. Notice the spontaneous impulse which these men obeyed. 

Persecution drove the members of the Church apart, and, as a matterof course, wherever they went they took their faith with them, and, as a matter of course, spoke about it. The coals were scattered fromthe hearth in Jerusalem by the armed heel of violence. That did notput the fire out, but only spread it, for wherever they were flungthey kindled a blaze. These men had no special injunction 'to preachthe Lord Jesus. ' They do not seem to have adopted this line of actiondeliberately, or of set purpose. 'They believed, and thereforespoke. ' A spontaneous impulse, and nothing more, leads them on. Theyfind themselves rejoicing in a great Saviour-Friend. They see allaround them men who need Him, and that is enough. They obey thepromptings of the voice within, and lay the foundations of the firstGentile Church. 

Such a spontaneous impulse is ever the natural result of our ownpersonal possession of Christ. In regard to worldly good theinstinct, except when overcome by higher motives, is to keep thetreasure to oneself. But even in the natural sphere there arepossessions which to have is to long to impart, such as truth andknowledge. And in the spiritual sphere, it is emphatically the casethat real possession is always accompanied by a longing to impart. The old prophet spoke a universal truth when he said: 'Thy word wasas a fire shut up in my bones, and I was weary with forbearing, and Icould not stay. ' If we have found Christ for ourselves, we shallundoubtedly wish to speak forth our knowledge of His love. Convictions which are deep demand expression. Emotion which is strongneeds utterance. If our hearts have any fervour of love to Christ inthem, it will be as natural to tell it forth, as tears are to sorrowor smiles to happiness. True, there is a reticence in profoundfeeling, and sometimes the deepest love can only 'love and besilent, ' and there is a just suspicion of loud or vehementprotestations of Christian emotion, as of any emotion. But for allthat, it remains true that a heart warmed with the love of Christneeds to express its love, and will give it forth, as certainly aslight must radiate from its centre, or heat from a fire. 

Then, true kindliness of heart creates the same impulse. We cannottruly possess the treasure for ourselves without pity for those whohave it not. Surely there is no stranger contradiction than thatChristian men and women can be content to keep Christ as if He weretheir special property, and have their spirits untouched into anylikeness of His divine pity for the multitudes who were as 'sheephaving no shepherd. ' What kind of Christians must they be who thinkof Christ as 'a Saviour for me, ' and take no care to set Him forth as'a Saviour for you'? What should we think of men in a shipwreck whowere content to get into the lifeboat, and let everybody else drown?What should we think of people in a famine feasting sumptuously ontheir private stores, whilst women were boiling their children for ameal and men fighting with dogs for garbage on the dunghills? 'Hethat withholdeth bread, the people shall curse him. ' What of him whowithholds the Bread of Life, and all the while claims to be afollower of the Christ, who gave His flesh for the life of the world?

Further, loyalty to Christ creates the same impulse. If we are trueto our Lord, we shall feel that we cannot but speak up and out forHim, and that all the more where His name is unloved and unhonoured. He has left His good fame very much in our hands, and the very sameimpulse which hurries words to our lips when we hear the name of anabsent friend calumniated should make us speak for Him. He is adoubtfully loyal subject who, if he lives among rebels, is afraid toshow his colours. He is already a coward, and is on the way to be atraitor. Our Master has made us His witnesses. He has placed in ourhands, as a sacred deposit, the honour of His name. He has entrustedto us, as His selectest sign of confidence, the carrying out of thepurposes for which on earth His blood was shed, on which in heavenHis heart is set. How can we be loyal to Him if we are not forced bya mighty constraint to respond to His great tokens of trust in us, and if we know nothing of that spirit which said: 'Necessity is laidupon me; yea, woe is unto me, if I preach not the gospel!' I do notsay that a man cannot be a Christian unless he knows and obeys thisimpulse. But, at least, we may safely say that he is a very weak andimperfect Christian who does not. 

II. This incident suggests the universal obligation on all Christiansto make known Christ. 

These men were not officials. In these early days the Church had avery loose organisation. But the fugitives in our narrative seem tohave had among them none even of the humble office-bearers ofprimitive times. Neither had they any command or commission fromJerusalem. No one there had given them authority, or, as wouldappear, knew anything of their proceedings. Could there be a morestriking illustration of the great truth that whatever varieties offunction may be committed to various officers in the Church, the workof telling Christ's love to men belongs to every one who has found itfor himself or herself? 'This honour have all the saints. '

Whatever may be our differences of opinion as to Church order andoffices, they need not interfere with our firm grasp of this truth. 'Preaching Christ, ' in the sense in which that expression is used inthe New Testament, implies no one special method of proclaiming theglad tidings. A word written in a letter to a friend, a sentencedropped in casual conversation, a lesson to a child on a mother'slap, or any other way by which, to any listeners, the great story ofthe Cross is told, is as truly--often more truly--preaching Christ asthe set discourse which has usurped the name. 

We profess to believe in the priesthood of all believers, we areready enough to assert it in opposition to sacerdotal assumptions. Are we as ready to recognise it as laying a very real responsibilityupon us, and involving a very practical inference as to our ownconduct? We all have the power, therefore we all have the duty. Forwhat purpose did God give us the blessing of knowing Christourselves? Not for our own well-being alone, but that through us theblessing might be still further diffused. 

 'Heaven doth with us as men with torches do, Not light them for themselves. '

'God hath shined into our hearts' that we might give to others 'thelight of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of JesusChrist. ' Every Christian is solemnly bound to fulfil this divineintention, and to take heed to the imperative command, 'Freely yehave received, freely give. '

III. Observe, further, the simple message which they proclaimed. 

'Preaching the Lord Jesus, ' says the text--or more accuratelyperhaps--'preaching Jesus as Lord. ' The substance, then, of theirmessage was just this--proclamation of the person and dignity oftheir Master, the story of the human life of the Man, the story ofthe divine sacrifice and self-bestowment by which He had bought theright of supreme rule over every heart; and the urging of His claimson all who heard of His love. And this, their message, was but theproclamation of their own personal experience. They had found Jesusto be for themselves Lover and Lord, Friend and Saviour of theirsouls, and the joy they had received they sought to share with theseGreeks, worshippers of gods and lords many. 

Surely anybody can deliver that message who has had that experience. All have not the gifts which would fit for public speech, but all whohave 'tasted that the Lord is gracious' can somehow tell how graciousHe is. The first Christian sermon was very short, and it was veryefficacious, for it 'brought to Jesus' the whole congregation. Hereit is: 'He first findeth his brother Simon, and saith unto him, Wehave found the Messias. ' Surely we can all say that, if we have foundHim. Surely we shall all long to say it, if we are glad that we havefound Him, and if we love our brother. 

Notice, too, how simple the form as well as the substance of themessage. 'They _spake_. ' It was no set address, no formal utterance, but familiar, natural talk to ones and twos, as opportunity offered. The form was so simple that we may say that there was none. What wewant is that Christian people should speak anyhow. What does theshape of the cup matter? What does it matter whether it be gold orclay? The main thing is that it shall bear the water of life to somethirsty lip. All Christians have to preach, as the word is used here, that is, to tell the good news. Their task is to carry a message--norefinement of words is needed for that--arguments are not needed. They have to tell it simply and faithfully, as one who only cares torepeat what he has had given to him. They have to tell itconfidently, as having proved it true. They have to tell itbeseechingly, as loving the souls to whom they bring it. Surely wecan all do that, if we ourselves are living on Christ and have drunkinto His Spirit. Let His mighty salvation, experienced by yourselves, be the substance of your message, and let the form of it be guided bythe old words, 'It shall be, when the Spirit of the Lord is come uponthee, that thou shalt do as occasion shall serve thee. '

IV. Notice, lastly, the mighty Helper who prospered their work. 

'The hand of the Lord was with them. ' The very keynote of this Bookof the Acts is the work of the ascended Christ in and for His Church. At every turning-point in the history, and throughout the wholenarratives, forms of speech like this occur, bearing witness to theprofound conviction of the writer that Christ's active energy waswith His servants, and Christ's Hand the origin of all their securityand of all their success. 

So this is a statement of a permanent and universal fact. We do notlabour alone; however feeble our hands, that mighty Hand is laid onthem to direct their movements and to lend strength to theirweakness. It is not our speech which will secure results, but Hispresence with our words which will bring it about that even throughthem a great number shall believe and turn to the Lord. There is ourencouragement when we are despondent. There is our rebuke when we areself-confident. There is our stimulus when we are indolent. There isour quietness when we are impatient. If ever we are tempted to thinkour task heavy, let us not forget that He who set it helps us to doit, and from His throne shares in all our toils, the Lord still, asof old, working with us. If ever we feel that our strength isnothing, and that we stand solitary against many foes, let us fallback upon the peace-giving thought that one man against the world, with Christ to help him, is always in the majority, and let us leaveissues of our work in His hands, whose hand will guard the seed sownin weakness, whose smile will bless the springing thereof. 

How little any of us know what will become of our poor work, underHis fostering care! How little these men knew that they were layingthe foundations of the great change which was to transform theChristian community from a Jewish sect into a world-embracing Church!So is it ever. We know not what we do when simply and humbly we speakHis name. The far-reaching results escape our eyes. Then, sow theseed, and He will 'give it a body as it pleaseth Him. ' On earth wemay never know the fruits of our labours. They will be among thesurprises of heaven, where many a solitary worker shall exclaim withwonder, as he looks on the hitherto unknown children whom God hathgiven him, 'Behold, I was left alone; these, where had they been?'Then, though our names may have perished from earthly memories, likethose of the simple fugitives of Cyprus and Cyrene, who 'were thefirst that ever burst' into the night of heathendom with the torch ofthe Gospel in their hands, they will be written in the Lamb's book oflife, and He will confess them in the presence of His Father inheaven. 

THE EXHORTATION OF BARNABAS[Footnote: Preached before the Congregational Union of England andWales. ]

'Who, when he came, and had seen the grace of God, was glad, andexhorted them all, that with purpose of heart they would cleaveunto the Lord. '--ACTS xi. 23. 

The first purely heathen converts had been brought into the Church bythe nameless men of Cyprus and Cyrene, private persons with no officeor commission to preach, who, in simple obedience to the instincts ofa Christian heart, leaped the barrier which seemed impassable to theChurch in Jerusalem, and solved the problem over which Apostles werehesitating. Barnabas is sent down to see into this surprising newphenomenon, and his mission, though probably not hostile, was, at allevents, one of inquiry and doubt. But like a true man, he yielded tofacts, and widened his theory to suit them. He saw the tokens ofChristian life in these Gentile converts, and that compelled him toadmit that the Church was wider than some of his friends in Jerusalemthought. A pregnant lesson for modern theorists who, on one ground oranother of doctrine or of orders, narrow the great conception ofChrist's Church! Can you see 'the grace of God' in the people? Thenthey are in the Church, whatever becomes of your theories, and thesooner you let them out so as to fit the facts, the better for youand for them. 

Satisfied as to their true Christian character, Barnabas sets himselfto help them to grow. Now, remember how recently they had beenconverted; how, from their Gentile origin, they can have had next tono systematic instruction; how the taint of heathen morals, such aswere common in that luxurious, corrupt Antioch, must have clung tothem; how unformed must have been their loose Church organisation--and remembering all this, think of this one exhortation as summing upall that Barnabas had to say to them. He does not say, Do this, orBelieve that, or Organise the other; but he says, Stick to JesusChrist the Lord. On this commandment hangs all the law; it is the oneall-inclusive summary of the duties of the Christian life. 

So, brethren and fathers, I venture to take these words now, ascontaining large lessons for us all, appropriate at all times, andespecially in a sermon on such an occasion as the present. 

We may deal with the thoughts suggested by these words very simply, just looking at the points as they lie--what Barnabas _saw_, what he_felt_, what he _said_. 

I. What Barnabas saw. 

The grace of God here has very probably the specific meaning of themiracle-working gift of the Holy Spirit. That is rendered probable bythe analogy of other instances recorded in the Acts of the Apostles, such as Peter's experience at Caesarea, where all his hesitations andreluctance were swept away when 'the Holy Ghost fell on them as on usat the beginning, and they spake with tongues. ' If so, what convincedBarnabas that these uncircumcised Gentiles were Christians likehimself, may have been their similar possession of the visible andaudible effects of that gift of God. But the language does not compelthis interpretation; and the absence of all distinct reference tothese extraordinary powers as existing there, among the new convertsat Antioch, may be intended to mark a difference in the nature of theevidence. At any rate, the possibly intentional generality of theexpression is significant and fairly points to an extension of thespiritual gifts much beyond the limits of miraculous powers. Thereare other ways by which the grace of God may be seen and heard, thankGod! than by speaking with tongues and working miracles; and thefirst lesson of our text is that wherever that grace is made visibleby its appropriate manifestations, there we are to recognise abrother. 

Augustine said, 'Where Christ is there is the Church, ' and that istrue, but vague; for the question still remains, 'And where _is_Christ?' The only satisfying answer is, Christ is wherever Christlikemen manifest a life drawn from, and kindred with, His life. And sothe true form of the dictum for practical purposes comes to be:'Where the grace of Christ is visible, there is the Church. '

That great truth is sinned against and denied in many ways. Mostchiefly, perhaps, by the successors in modern garb of the more Jewishportion of that Church at Jerusalem who sent Barnabas to Antioch. They had no objection to Gentiles entering the Church, but they mustcome in by the way of circumcision; they quite believed that it wasChrist who saved, and His grace which sanctified, but they thoughtthat His grace would only flow in a given channel; and so do theirmodern representatives, who exalt sacraments, and consequentlypriests, to the same place as the Judaizers in the early Church didthe rite of the old Covenant. Such teachers have much to say aboutthe notes of the Church, and have elaborated a complicated system ofidentification by which you may know the genuine article, and unmaskimpostors. The attempt is about as wise as to try to weave a networkfine enough to keep back a stream. The water will flow through theclosest meshes, and when Christ pours out the Spirit, He is apt to doit in utter disregard of notes of the Church, and of channels ofsacramental grace. 

We Congregationalists, who have no orders, no sacraments, noApostolic succession; who in order not to break loose from Christ andconscience have had to break loose from 'Catholic tradition, ' andhave been driven to separation by the true schismatics, who haveinsisted on another bond of Church unity than union to Christ, aredenied nowadays a place in His Church. 

The true answer to all that arrogant assumption and narrow pedantrywhich confine the free flow of the water of life to the conduits ofsacraments and orders, and will only allow the wind that blowethwhere it listeth to make music in the pipes of their organs, issimply the homely one which shivered a corresponding theory to atomsin the fair open mind of Barnabas. 

The Spirit of Christ at work in men's hearts, making them pure andgentle, simple and unworldly, refining their characters, elevatingtheir aims, toning their whole being into accord with the music ofHis life, is the true proof that men are Christians, and thatcommunities of such men are Churches of His. Mysterious efficacy isclaimed for Christian ordinances. Well, the question is a fair one:Is the type of Christian character produced within these sacredlimits, which we are hopelessly outside, conspicuously higher andmore manifestly Christlike than that nourished by no sacraments, andgrown not under glass, but in the unsheltered open? Has not God setHis seal on these communities to which we belong? With many faultsfor which we have to be, and are, humble before Him, we can point tothe lineaments of the family likeness, and say, 'Are they Hebrews? soare we. Are they Israelites? so are we. Are they the seed of Abraham?so are we. '

Once get that truth wrought into men's minds, that the true test ofChristianity is the visible presence of a grace in character which isevidently God's, and whole mountains of prejudice and error meltaway. We are just as much in danger of narrowing the Church inaccordance with our narrowness as any 'sacramentarian' of them all. We are tempted to think that no good thing can grow up under thebaleful shadow of that tree, a sacerdotal Christianity. We aretempted to think that all the good people are Dissenters, just asChurchmen are to think that nobody can be a Christian who prayswithout a prayer-book. Our own type of denominational character--andthere is such a thing--comes to be accepted by us as the all butexclusive ideal of a devout man; and we have not imagination enoughto conceive, nor charity enough to believe in, the goodness whichdoes not speak our dialect, nor see with our eyes. Dogmaticalnarrowness has built as high walls as ceremonial Christianity hasreared round the fold of Christ, And the one deliverance for us allfrom the transformed selfishness, which has so much to do withshaping all these wretched narrow theories of the Church, is to do asthis man did--open our eyes with sympathetic eagerness to see God'sgrace in many an unexpected place, and square our theories with Hisdealings. 

It used to be an axiom that there was no life in the sea beyond acertain limit of a few hundred feet. It was learnedly andconclusively demonstrated that pressure and absence of light, and Iknow not what beside, made life at greater depths impossible. It wasproved that in such conditions creatures could not live. And then, when that was settled, the _Challenger_ put down her dredge fivemiles, and brought up healthy and good-sized living things, with eyesin their heads, from that enormous depth. So, then, the savant had toask, _How_ can there be life? instead of asserting that there cannotbe; and, no doubt, the answer will be forth coming some day. 

We have all been too much accustomed to set arbitrary limits to thediffusion of the life of Christ among men. Let us rather rejoice whenwe see forms of beauty, which bear the mark of His hand, drawn fromdepths that we deemed waste, and thankfully confess that the boundsof our expectation, and the framework of our institutions, do notconfine the breadth of His working, nor the sweep of His grace. 

II. What Barnabas felt. 

'He was glad. ' It was a triumph of Christian principle to recognisethe grace of God under new forms, and in so strange a place. It was astill greater triumph to hail it with rejoicing. One need not havewondered if the acknowledgment of a fact, dead in the teeth of allhis prejudices, and seemingly destructive of some profoundconvictions, had been somewhat grudging. Even a good, true man mighthave been bewildered and reluctant to let go so much as was destroyedby the admission--'Then hath God granted to the Gentiles alsorepentance unto life, '--and might have been pardoned if he had notbeen able to do more than acquiesce and hold his peace. We arescarcely just to these early Jewish Christians when we wonder attheir hesitation on this matter, and are apt to forget the enormousstrength of the prejudices and sacred conviction which they had toovercome. Hence the context seems to consider that the quickrecognition of Christian character on the part of Barnabas, and hisgladness at the discovery, need explanation, and so it adds, withspecial reference to these, as it would seem, 'for he was a good man, full of the Holy Ghost and of faith, ' as if nothing short of suchcharacteristics could have sufficiently emancipated him from thenarrowness that would have refused to discern the good, or thebitterness that would have been offended at it. 

So, dear brethren, we may well test ourselves with this question:Does the discovery of the working of the grace of God outside thelimits of our own Churches and communions excite a quick, spontaneousemotion of gladness in _our_ hearts? It may upset some of ourtheories; it may teach us that things which we thought veryimportant, 'distinctive principles' and the like, are not altogetheras precious as we thought them; it may require us to give up somepleasant ideas of our superiority, and of the necessary conformity ofall good people to our type. Are we willing to let them all go, andwithout a twinge of envy or a hanging back from prejudice, to welcomethe discovery that 'God fulfils Himself in many ways'? Have weschooled ourselves to say honestly, 'Therein I do rejoice, yea, andwill rejoice'?

There is much to overcome if we would know this Christlike gladness. The good and the bad in us may both oppose it. The natural deeperinterest in the well-being of the Churches of our own faith andorder, the legitimate ties which unite us with these, ourconscientious convictions, our friendships, the _esprit de corps_born of fighting shoulder to shoulder, will, of course, make oursympathies flow most quickly and deeply in denominational channels. And then come in abundance of less worthy motives, some altogetherbad and some the exaggeration of what is good, and we get swallowedup in our own individual work, or in that of our 'denomination, ' andhave but a very tepid joy in anybody else's prosperity. 

In almost every town of England, your Churches, and those to which Ibelong, with Presbyterians and Wesleyans, stand side by side. Theconditions of our work make some rivalry inevitable, and none of us, I suppose, object to that. It helps to keep us all diligent: a sturdyadherence to our several 'distinctive principles' and an occasionalhard blow in fair fight on their behalf we shall all insist upon. Ourbrotherhood is all the more real for frank speech, and 'the animatedNo!' is an essential in all intercourse which is not stagnant ormawkish. There is much true fellowship and much good feeling amongall these. But we want far more of an honest rejoicing in eachother's success, a quicker and truer manly sympathy with each other'swork, a fuller consciousness of our solidarity in Christ, and aclearer exhibition of it before the world. 

And on a wider view, as our eyes travel over the wide field ofChristendom, and our memories go back over the long ages of the storyof the Church, let gladness, and not wonder or reluctance, be thetemper with which we see the graces of Christian character liftingtheir meek blossoms in corners strange to us, and breathing theirfragrance over the pastures of the wilderness. In many a cloister, inmany a hermit's cell, from amidst the smoke of incense, through thedust of controversies, we should see, and be glad to see, facesbright with the radiance caught from Christ. Let us set a jealouswatch over our hearts that self-absorption, or denominationalism, orenvy do not make the sight a pain instead of a joy; and let usremember that the eye-salve which will purge our dim sight to beholdthe grace of God in all its forms is that grace itself, which everrecognises its own kindred, and lives in the gladness of charity, andthe joy of beholding a brother's good. If we are to have eyes to knowthe grace of God when we see it, and a heart to rejoice when we knowit, we must get them as Barnabas got his, and be good men, because weare full of the Holy Ghost, and full of the Holy Ghost because we arefull of faith. 

III. What Barnabas said. 

'He exhorted them all, that with purpose of heart they would cleaveunto the Lord. ' The first thing that strikes one about this all-sufficient directory for Christian life is the emphasis with which itsets forth 'the Lord' as the one object to be grasped and held. Thesum of all objective Religion is Christ--the sum of all subjectiveReligion is cleaving to Him. A living Person to be laid hold of, anda personal relation to that Person, such is the conception ofReligion, whether considered as revelation or as inward life, whichunderlies this exhortation. Whether we listen to His own words aboutHimself, and mark the altogether unprecedented way in which He wasHis own theme, and the unique decisiveness and plainness with whichHe puts His own personality before us as the Incarnate Truth, thepattern for all human conduct, the refuge and the rest for the worldof weary ones; or whether we give ear to the teaching of HisApostles; from whatever point of view we approach Christianity, itall resolves itself into the person of Jesus Christ. He is the_Revelation_ of God; theology, properly so called, is but theformulating of the facts which He gives us; and for the modern worldthe alternative is, Christ the manifested God, or no God at all, other than the shadow of a name. He is the perfect _Exemplar_ ofhumanity! The law of life and the power to fulfil the law are both inHim; and the superiority of Christian morality consists not in thisor that isolated precept, but in the embodiment of all goodness inHis life, and in the new motive which He supplies for keeping thecommandment. Wrenched away from Him, Christian morality has no being. He is the sacrifice for the world, the salvation of which flows fromwhat He does, and not merely from what He taught or was. Hispersonality is the foundation of His work, and the gospel offorgiveness and reconciliation is all contained in the name of Jesus. 

There is a constant tendency to separate the results of Christ's lifeand death, whether considered as revelation, atonement, or ethics, from Him, and unconsciously to make these the sum of our Religion, and the object of our faith. Especially is this the case in times ofrestless thought and eager canvassing of the very foundations ofreligious belief, like the present. Therefore it is wholesome for usall to be brought back to the pregnant simplicity of the thoughtwhich underlies this text, and to mark how vividly these earlyChristians apprehended a living Lord as the sum and substance of allwhich they had to grasp. 

There is a whole world between the man to whom God's revelationconsists in certain doctrines given to us by Jesus Christ, and theman to whom it consists in that Christ Himself. Grasping a livingperson is not the same as accepting a proposition. True, thepropositions are about Him, and we do not know Him without them. Butequally true, we need to be reminded that _He_ is our Saviour and not_they_, and that God has revealed Himself to us not in words andsentences but in a life. 

For, alas! the doctrinal element has overborne the personal among allChurches and all schools of thought, and in the necessary process offormulating and systematising the riches which are in Jesus, we areall apt to confound the creeds with the Christ, and so to manipulateChristianity until, instead of being the revelation of a Person and agospel, it has become a system of divinity. Simple, devout souls haveto complain that they cannot find even a dead Christ, to say nothingof a living one, for the theologians have 'taken away their Lord, andthey know not where they have laid Him. '

It is, therefore, to be reckoned as a distinct gain that one resultof the course of more recent thought, both among friends and foes, has been to make all men feel more than before, that all revelationis contained in the living person of Jesus Christ. So did the Churchbelieve before creeds were. So it is coming to feel again, with aconsciousness enriched and defined by the whole body of doctrine, which has flowed from Him during all the ages. That solemn, graciousFigure rises day by day more clearly before men, whether they loveHim or no, as the vital centre of this great whole of doctrines, laws, institutions, which we call Christianity. Round the story ofHis life the final struggle is to be waged. The foe feels that, solong as that remains, all other victories count for nothing. We feelthat if that goes, there is nothing to keep. The principles and theprecepts will perish alike, as the fair palace of the old legend, that crumbled to dust when its builder died. But so long as He standsbefore mankind as He is painted in the Gospel, it will endure. If allelse were annihilated, Churches, creeds and all, leave us these fourGospels, and all else would be evolved again. The world knows now, and the Church has always known, though it has not always been trueto the significance of the fact, that Jesus Christ is Christianity, and that because He lives, it will live also. 

And consequently the sum of all personal religion is this simple actdescribed here as _cleaving to Him_. 

Need I do more than refer to the rich variety of symbols and forms ofexpression under which that thought is put alike by the Master and byHis servants? Deepest of all are His own great words, of which ourtext is but a feeble echo, 'Abide in Me, and I in you. ' Fairest ofall is that lovely emblem of the vine, setting forth the sweetmystery of our union with Him. Far as it is from the outmost plianttendril to the root, one life passes to the very extremities, andevery cluster swells and reddens and mellows because of itsmysterious flow. 'So also is Christ. ' We remember how often theinvitation flowed from His lips, _Come_ unto Me; how He was wont tobeckon men away from self and the world with the great command, _Follow_ Me; how He explained the secret of all true life to consistin _eating_ Him. We may recall, too, the emphasis and perpetualreiteration with which Paul speaks of being 'in Jesus' as thecondition of all blessedness, power, and righteousness; and theemblems which he so often employs of the building bound into a wholeon the foundation from which it derives its stability, of the bodycompacted and organised into a whole by the head from which itderives its life. 

We begin to be Christians, as this context tells us, when we 'turn tothe Lord. ' We continue to be Christians, as Barnabas reminded theseignorant beginners, by 'cleaving to the Lord. ' Seeing, then, that ourgreat task is to preserve that which we have as the very foundationof our Christian life, clearly the truest method of so keeping itwill be the constant repetition of the act by which we got it atfirst. In other words, faith joined us to Christ, and continuouslyreiterated acts of faith keep us united to Him. So, if I may venture, fathers and brethren, to cast my words into the form of exhortation, even to such an audience as the present, I would earnestly say, Letus cleave to Christ by continual renewal of our first faith in Him. 

The longest line may be conceived of as produced simply by the motionof its initial point. So should our lives be, our progress notconsisting in leaving our early acts of faith behind us, but inrepeating them over and over again till the points coalesce in oneunbroken line which goes straight to the Throne and Heart of Jesus. True, the repetition should be accompanied with fuller knowledge, with calmer certitude, and should come from a heart ennobled andencircled by a Christ-possessing past. As in some great symphony thetheme which was given out in low notes on one poor instrument recursover and over again, embroidered with varying harmonies, andunfolding a richer music, till it swells into all the grandeur of thetriumphant close, so our lives should be bound into a unity, and intheir unity bound to Christ by the constant renewal of our earlyfaith, and the fathers should come round again to the place whichthey occupied when as children they first knew Him that is 'from thebeginning' to the end one and the same. 

Such constant reiteration is needed, too, because yesterday's trusthas no more power to secure to-day's union than the shreds of clothand nails which hold last year's growth to the wall will fasten thisyear's shoots. Each moment must be united to Christ by its own act offaith, or it will be separated from Him. So living in the Lord weshall be strong and wise, happy and holy. So dying in the Lord weshall be of the dead who are blessed. So sleeping in Jesus we shallat the last be found in Him at that day, and shall be raised uptogether, and made to sit together in heavenly places in ChristJesus. 

But more specially let us cleave to Christ by habitual contemplation. There can be no real continuous closeness of intercourse with Him, except by thought ever recurring to Him amidst all the tumult of ourbusy days. I do not mean professional thinking or controversialthinking, of which we ministers have more than enough. There isanother mood of mind in which to approach our Lord than these, a moodsadly unfamiliar, I am afraid, in these days: when poor Mary hashardly a chance of a reputation for 'usefulness' by the side of busy, bustling Martha--that still contemplation of the truth which wepossess, not with the view of discovering its foundations, orinvestigating its applications, or even of increasing our knowledgeof its contents, but of bringing our own souls more completely underits influence, and saturating our being with its fragrance. TheChurch has forgotten how to meditate. We are all so occupied arguingand deducing and elaborating, that we have no time for retired, stillcontemplation, and therefore lose the finest aroma of the truth weprofess to believe. Many of us are so busy thinking aboutChristianity that we have lost our hold of Christ. Sure I am thatthere are few things more needed by our modern religion than the oldexhortation, 'Come, My people, enter into thy chambers and shut thydoors about thee. ' Cleave to the Lord by habitual play of meditativethought on the treasures hidden in His name, and waiting like gold inthe quartz, to be the prize of our patient sifting and close gaze. 

And when the great truths embodied in Him stand clear before us, thenlet us remember that we have not done with them when we have _seen_them. Next must come into exercise the moral side of faith, thevoluntary act of trust, the casting ourselves on Him whom we behold, the making our own of the blessings which He holds out to us. Flee toChrist as to our strong habitation to which we may continuallyresort. Hold tightly by Christ with a grasp which nothing can slacken(that whitens your very knuckles as you clutch Him), lean on Christall your weight and all your burdens. Cleave to the Lord with fullpurpose of heart. 

Let us cleave to the Lord by constant outgoings of our love to Him. That is the bond which unites human spirits together in the only realunion, and Scripture teaches us to see in the sweetest, sacredest, closest tie that men and women can know, a real, though faint, shadowof the far deeper and truer union between Christ and us. The samelove which is the bond of perfectness between man and man, is thebond between us and Christ. In no dreamy, semi-pantheistic fusion ofthe believer with his Lord do we find the true conception of theunity of Christ and His Church, but in a union which preserves theindividualities lest it should slay the love. Faith knits us toChrist, and faith is the mother of love, which maintains the blessedunion. So let us not be ashamed of the _emotional_ side of ourreligion, nor deem that we can cleave to Christ unless our heartstwine their tendrils round Him, and our love pours its odoroustreasures on His sacred feet, not without weeping and embraces. Coldnatures may carp, but Love is justified of her children, and Christaccepts the homage that has a heart in it. Cleaving to the Lord isnot merely love, but it is impossible without it. The order is Faith, Love, Obedience--that threefold cord knits men to Christ, and Christto men. For the understanding, a continuous grasp of Him as theobject of thought. For the heart, a continuous outgoing to Him as theobject of our love. For the will, a continuous submission to Him asthe Lord of our obedience. For the whole nature, a continuouscleaving to Him as the object of our faith and worship. 

Such is the true discipline of the Christian life. Such is the all-sufficient command; as for the newest convert from heathenism, withlittle knowledge and the taint of his old vices in his soul, so forthe saint fullest of wisdom and nearest the Light. 

It _is_ all-sufficient. If Barnabas had been like some of us, hewould have had a very different style of exhortation. He would havesaid, 'This irregular work has been well done, but there are noauthorised teachers here, and no provision has been made for the dueadministration of the sacraments of the Church. The very first thingof all is to give these people the blessing of bishops and priests. 'Some of us would have said, 'Valuable work has been done, but thesegood people are terribly ignorant. The best thing would be to getready as soon as possible some manual of Christian doctrine, and inthe meantime provide for their systematic instruction in at least theelements of the faith. ' Some of us would have said, 'No doubt theyhave been converted, but we fear there has been too much of theemotional in the preaching. The moral side of Christianity has notbeen pressed home, and what they chiefly need is to be taught that itis not feeling, but righteousness. Plain, practical instruction inChristian duty is the one thing they want. '

Barnabas knew better. He did not despise organisation, nor orthodoxy, nor practical righteousness, but he knew that all three, andeverything else that any man needed for his perfecting would come, ifonly the converts kept near to Christ, and that nothing else was ofany use if they did not. That same conviction should for us settlethe relative importance which we attach to these subordinate andderivative things, and to the primary and primitive duty. Obedienceto it will secure them. They, without it, are not worth securing. 

We spend much pains and effort nowadays in perfecting ourorganisations and consolidating our resources, and I have not a wordto say against that. But heavier machinery needs more power in theengine, and that means greater capacity in your boilers and more firein your furnace. The more complete our organisation, the more do weneed a firm hold of Christ, or we shall be overweighted by it, shallbe in danger of burning incense to our own net, shall be tempted totrust in drill rather than in courage, in mechanism rather than inthe life drawn from Christ. On the other hand, if we put as our firstcare the preservation of the closeness of our union with Christ, thatlife will shape a body for itself, and 'to every seed its own body. '

True conceptions of Him, and a definite theology, are good andneedful. Let us cleave to Him with mind and heart, and we shallreceive all the knowledge we need, and be guided into the deep thingsof God. In Him are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge, andthe basis of all theology is the personal possession of Him who is'the wisdom of God' and 'the Light of the world. ' Every one thatloveth is born of God and knoweth God. _Pectus facit Theologum_. 

Plain, straightforward morality and everyday righteousness are betterthan all emotion and all dogmatism and all churchism, says the world, and Christianity says much the same; but plain, straightforwardrighteousness and everyday morality come most surely when a man iskeeping close to Christ. In a word, everything that can adorn thecharacter with beauty, and clothe the Church with glorious apparel, whatsoever things are lovely and of good report, all that the worldor God calls virtue and crowns with praise, they are all in theirfulness in Him, and all are most surely derived from Him by keepingfast hold of His hand, and preserving the channels clear throughwhich His manifold grace may flow into our souls. The same life isstrength in the arm, pliancy in the fingers, swiftness in the foot, light in the eye, music on the lips; so the same grace is Protean inits forms, and to His servants who trust Him Christ ever says, 'Whatwould ye that I should do unto you? Be it even as thou wilt. ' Thesame mysterious power lives in the swaying branch, and in the veinedleaf, and in the blushing clusters. With like wondroustransformations of the one grace, the Lord pours Himself into ourspirits, filling all needs and fitting for all circumstances. Therefore for us all, individuals and Churches, this remains theprime command, 'With purpose of heart cleave unto the Lord. ' Dearbrethren in the ministry, how sorely we need this exhortation! Ourvery professional occupation with Christ and His truth is full ofdanger for us; we are so accustomed to handle these sacred themes asa means of instructing or impressing others that we get to regardthem as our weapons, even if we do not degrade them still further bythinking of them as our stock-in-trade and means of oratoricaleffect. We must keep very firm hold of Christ for ourselves by muchsolitary communion, and so retranslating into the nutriment of ourown souls the message we bring to men, else when we have preached toothers we ourselves may he cast away. All the ordinary tendencieswhich draw men from Him work on us, and a host of others peculiar toourselves, and all around us run strong currents of thought whichthreaten to sweep many away. Let us tighten our grasp of Him in theface of modern doubt; and take heed to ourselves that neither vanity, nor worldliness, nor sloth; neither the gravitation earthward commonto all, nor the temptations proper to our office; neither unbelievingvoices without nor voices within, seduce us from His side. There onlyis our peace, there our wisdom, there our power. 

Subtly and silently the separating forces are ever at work upon us, and all unconsciously to ourselves our hold may relax, and the flowof this grace into our spirits may cease, while yet we mechanicallykeep up the round of outward service, nor even suspect that ourstrength is departed from us. Many a stately elm that seems full ofvigorous life, for all its spreading boughs and clouds of dancingleaves, is hollow at the heart, and when the storm comes goes downwith a crash, and men wonder, as they look at the ruin, how such amere shell of life with a core of corruption could stand so long. Itrotted within, and fell at last, because its roots did not go deepdown to the rich soil, where they would have found nourishment, butran along near the surface among gravel and stones. If we would standfirm, be sound within, and bring forth much fruit, we must strike ourroots deep in Him who is the anchorage of our souls, and thenourisher of all our being. 

Hearken, beloved brethren, in this great work of the ministry, not tothe exhortation of the servant, but to the solemn command of theMaster, 'Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruitof itself, except it abide in the vine, no more can ye, except yeabide in Me. ' And let us, knowing our own weakness, take heed of theself-confidence that answers, 'Though all should forsake Thee, yetwill not I, ' and turn the vows which spring to our lips into thelowly prayer, 'My soul cleaveth unto the dust, quicken Thou meaccording to Thy word. ' Then, thinking rather of His cleaving to usthan of our cleaving to Him, let us resolutely take as the motto ofour lives the grand words: 'I follow after, if that I may lay hold ofthat for which I am also laid hold of by Christ Jesus!'

WHAT A GOOD MAN IS, AND HOW HE BECOMES SO

'He was a good man, and full of the Holy Ghost and of faith. '--ACTS xi, 24. 

'A good man. ' How easily that title is often gained! There is, perhaps, no clearer proof that men are bad than the sort of peoplewhom they consent to call good. 

It is a common observation that all words describing moral excellencetend to deteriorate and to contract their meaning, just as brightmetal rusts by exposure, or coins become light and illegible by use. So it comes to pass that any decently respectable man, especially ifhe has an easy temper and a dash of frankness and good humour, ischristened with this title 'good. ' The Bible, which is the verdict ofthe Judge, is a great deal more chary in its use of the word. Youremember how Jesus Christ once rebuked a man for addressing Him so, not that He repudiated the title, but that the giver had bestowed itlightly and out of mere conventional politeness. The word is toonoble to be applied without very good reason. 

But here we have a picture of Barnabas hung in the gallery ofScripture portraits, and this is the description of it in thecatalogue, 'He was a good man. '

You observe that my text is in the nature of an analysis. It beginsat the outside, and works inwards. 'He was a good man. ' Indeed;--howcame he to be so? He was 'full of the Holy Ghost. ' Full of the HolyGhost, was he? How came he to be that? He was 'full of faith. ' So thewriter digs down, as it were, till he gets to the bed-rock, on whichall the higher strata repose; and here is his account of the way inwhich it is possible for human nature to win this resplendent title, and to be adjudged of God as 'good, ' 'full of the Holy Ghost and offaith. '

So these three steps in the exposition of the character and itssecret will afford a framework for what I have to say now. 

I. Note, then, first, the sort of man whom the Judge will call'good. '

Now, I suppose I need not spend much time in massing together, inbrief outline, the characteristics of Barnabas. He was a Levite, belonging to the sacerdotal tribe, and perhaps having some slightconnection with the functions of the Temple ministry. He was not aresident in the Holy Land, but a Hellenistic Jew, a native of Cyprus, who had come into contact with heathenism in a way that had beatenmany a prejudice out of him. We first hear of him as taking a sharein the self-sacrificing burst of brotherly love, which, whether itwas wise or not, was noble. 'He, having land, sold it, and broughtthe money, and laid it at the Apostles' feet. ' And, as would appearfrom a reference in one of Paul's letters, he had to support himselfafterwards by manual labour. 

Then the next thing that we hear of him is that, when the young manwho had been a persecuting Pharisee, and the rising hope of the anti-Christian party, all at once came forward with some story of a visionwhich he had seen on the road to Damascus, and when the olderChristians were suspicious of a trick to worm himself into theirsecrets by a pretended conversion, Barnabas, with the generosity ofan unsuspicious nature, which often sees deeper into men than dosuspicious eyes, was the first to cast the aegis of his recognitionround him. In like manner, when Christianity took an entirelyspontaneous and, to the Church at Jerusalem, rather unwelcome newdevelopment and expansion, when some unofficial believers, withoutany authority from headquarters, took upon themselves to stride cleanacross the wall of separation, and to speak of Jesus Christ to blankheathens, and found, to the not altogether gratified surprise of theChristians at Jerusalem, 'that on the Gentiles also was poured outthe gift of the Holy Ghost, ' it was Barnabas who was sent down tolook into this surprising new phenomenon, and we read that 'when hecame and saw the grace of God, he was glad. ' The reason why herejoiced over the manifestation of the grace of God in such a strangeform was because 'he was a good man, ' and his goodness recognisedgoodness in others and was glad at the work of the Lord. The newcondition of affairs sent him to look for Paul, and to put him towork. Then we find him set apart to missionary service, and theleader of the first missionary band, in which he was accompanied byhis friend Saul. He acquiesced frankly, and without a murmur, in thesuperiority of the junior, and yielded up pre-eminence to him quitewillingly. The story of that missionary journey begins 'Barnabas andSaul, ' but very soon it comes to be 'Paul and Barnabas, ' and it keepsthat order throughout. He was an older man than Paul, for when atLystra the people thought that the gods had come down in the likenessof men; Barnabas was Jupiter, and Paul the quick-footed Mercury, messenger of the gods. He was in the work before Paul was thought of, and it must have taken a great deal of goodness to acquiesce in 'Hemust increase and I must decrease. ' Then came the quarrel betweenthem, the foolish fondness for his runaway nephew John Mark, whom heinsisted on retaining in a place for which he was conspicuouslyunfitted. And so he lost his friend, the confidence of the Church, and his work. He sulked away into Cyprus; he had his nephew, for whomhe had given up all these other things. A little fault may wreck alife, and the whiter the character the blacker the smallest stainupon it. 

We do not hear anything more of him. Apparently, from one casualallusion, he continued to serve the Lord in evangelistic work, butthe sweet communion of the earlier days, and the confident friendshipwith the Apostle, seem to have come to an end with that sharpcontention. So Barnabas drops out of the rank of Christian workers. And yet 'he was a good man, full of the Holy Ghost and of faith. '

Now I have spent more time than I meant over this brief outline ofthe sort of character here pointed at. Let me just gather into one ortwo sentences what seem to me to be the lessons of it. The first isthis, that the tap-root of all goodness is reference to God andobedience to Him. People tell us that morality is independent ofreligion. I admit that many men are better than their creeds, andmany men are worse than their creeds; but I would also venture toassert that morality is the garment of religion; the body of whichreligion is the soul; the expression of religion in daily life. Andalthough I am not going to say that nothing which a man does withoutreference to God has any comparative goodness in it, or that all theacts which are thus void of reference to Him stand upon one level ofevil, I do venture to say that the noblest deed, which is not done inconscious obedience to the will of God, lacks its supreme nobleness. The loftiest perfection of conduct is obedience to God. And whateverexcellence of self-sacrifice, 'whatsoever things lovely and of goodreport, ' there may be, apart from the presence of this perfectmotive, those deeds are imperfect. They do not correspond either tothe whole obligations or to the whole possibilities of man, and, therefore, they are beneath the level of the highest good. Good ismeasured by reference to God. 

Then, further, let me remark that one broad feature whichcharacterises the truest goodness is the suppression of self. That isonly another way of saying the same thing as I have been saying. Itis illustrated for us all through this story of Barnabas. Whosoevercan say, 'I think not of myself, but of others; of the cause; of thehelp I can give to men; and I lay not goods only, nor prejudicesonly, nor the pride of position and the supremacy of place only atthe feet of God, but I lay down my whole self; and I desire that selfmay be crucified, that God may live in me, '--he, and only he, hasreached the height of goodness. Goodness requires the suppression ofself. 

Further, note that the gentler traits of character are pre-eminent inChristian goodness. There is nothing about this man heroic orexceptional. His virtues are all of the meek and gracious sort--thosewhich we relegate sometimes to an inferior place in our estimates. These things make but a poor show by the side of some of the tawdrysplendours of what the vulgar world calls virtues. It requires aneducated eye to see the harmony of the sober colouring of some greatpainter. A child, a clown, a vulgar person--and there are such in allranks--will prefer flaring reds and blues and yellows heaped togetherin staring contrast. A thrush or a blackbird is but a soberly cladcreature by the side of macaws and paroquets; but the one has a songand the others have only a screech. The gentle virtues are the trulyChristian virtues--patience and meekness and long-suffering andsympathy and readiness to efface oneself for the sake of God and ofmen. 

So there is a bit of comfort for us commonplace, humdrum people, towhom God has only given one or two talents, and who can never expectto make a figure before men. We may be little violets below a stone, if we cannot be flaunting hollyhocks and tiger lilies. We may havethe beauty of goodness in us after Christ's example, and that isbetter than to be great. 

Barnabas was no genius. He was not even a genius in goodness; he didnot strike out anything original and out of the way. He seems to havebeen a commonplace kind of man enough; but 'he was a good man. ' Andthe weakest and the humblest of us may hope to have the same thingsaid of us, if we will. 

And then, note further, that true goodness, thank God! does notexclude the possibility of falling and sinning. There is a black spotin this man's history; and there are black spots in the histories ofall saints. Thank God! the Bible is, as some people would say, almostbrutally frank in telling us about the imperfections of the best. Very often imperfections are the exaggerations of characteristicgoodnesses, and warn us to take care that we do not push, as Barnabasdid, our facility to the point of criminal complicity withweaknesses; and that we do not indulge, instead of strenuouslyrebuking when need is. Never let our gentleness fall away, like abadly made jelly, into a trembling heap, and never let our strengthgather itself together into a repulsive attitude, but guard againstthe exaggeration of virtue into vice. 

Remember that whilst there may be good men who sin, there is Oneentire and flawless, in whom all types of excellence do meet, and whoalone of humanity can front the verdict of the world, and has frontedit now for nineteen centuries, with the question upon His lips, whichnone have dared to answer, 'Which of you convinceth Me of sin?'

II. Secondly, notice the divine Helper who makes men good. 

Luke, if he be the writer of the Acts, goes on with his analysis. Hehas done with the first fold, the outer garment, as it were; hestrips it off and shows us the next fold, 'full of the Holy Ghost. '

A divine Helper, not merely a divine influence, but a divine Person, who not only helps men from without, but so enters into a man as thatthe man's whole nature is saturated with Him--that is strangelanguage. Mystical and unreal I dare say some of you may think it, but let us consider whether some such divine Helper is not plainlypointed as necessary, by the experience of every man that everhonestly tried to make himself good. 

I have no doubt that I am speaking to many persons who, more or lessconstantly and courageously and earnestly, have laboured at the taskof self-improvement and self-culture. I venture to think that, iftheir standard of what they wish to attain is high, their confessionof what they have attained will be very low. Ah, brother! if we thinkof what it is that we need to make us good--viz. The strengthening ofthese weak wills of ours, which we cannot strengthen but to a verylimited degree by any tonics that we can apply, or any supports withwhich we may bind them round; if we consider the resistance whichourselves, our passions, our tastes, our habits, our occupationsoffer, and the resistance which the world around us, friends, companions, and all the aggregate, dread and formidable, of materialthings present to our becoming, in any lofty and comprehensive senseof the term, good men and women, I think we shall be ready to listen, as to a true Gospel, to the message that says, 'You do not need to doit by yourself. ' You have got the wolf by the ears, perhaps, for amoment, but there is tremendous strength in the brute, and your handsand wrists will ache in holding him presently, and what will happenthen? You do not need to try it yourself. There is a divine Helperstanding at your sides and waiting to strengthen you, and that Helperdoes not work from outside; He will pass within, and dwell in yourhearts and mould and strengthen your wills to what is good, andsuppress your inclinations to evil, and, by His inward presence, teach 'your hands to war and your fingers to fight. '

Surely, surely, the experience of the world from the beginning, confirmed by the consciousness and conscience of every one of us, tells us that of ourselves we are impotent, and that the good that iswithin the reach of our unaided efforts is poor and fragmentary andsuperficial indeed. 

The great promise of the Gospel is precisely this promise. Weterribly limit and misunderstand what we call the Gospel if we givesuch exclusive predominance to one part of it, as some of us areaccustomed to do. Thank God I the first word that Jesus Christ saysto any soul is, 'Thy sins be forgiven thee. ' But that first word hasa second that follows it, 'Arise! and walk!' and it is for the sakeof the second that the first is spoken. The gift of pardon, theconsciousness of acceptance, the fact of reconciliation with God, theclosing of the doors of the place of retribution, the quieting of thestings of accusing conscience, all these are but meant to beintroductory to that which Jesus Christ Himself, in the Gospel ofJohn, emphatically calls more than once '_the_ gift of God, ' which Hesymbolised by 'living water, ' which whosoever drank should neverthirst, and which whosoever possessed would give it forth in livingstreams of holy life and noble deeds. The promise of the Gospel isthe promise of new life, derived from Christ and maintained in us bythe indwelling Spirit, which will come like fresh reinforcements toan all but beaten army in some hard-fought field, which will standlike a stay behind a man, to us almost blown over by the gusts oftemptation, which will strengthen what is weak, raise what is low, illumine what is dark, and will make us who are evil good with agoodness given by God through His Son. 

Surely there is nothing more congruous with that divine characterthan that He who Himself is good, and good from Himself, shouldrejoice in making us, His poor children, into His own likeness. Surely He would not be good unless He delighted to make us good. Surely it is something very like presumption in men to assert thatthe direct communication of the Spirit of God with the spirits whomGod has made is an impossibility. Surely it is flying in the face ofScripture teaching to deny that such communication is a promise. Surely it is a flagrant contradiction of the depths of Christianexperience to falter in the belief that it is a very solid reality. 

'Full of the Holy Ghost, ' as a vessel might be to its brim of goldenwine; Christian men and women! does that describe you? Full? Adribbling drop or two in the bottom of the jar. Whose fault is it?Why, with that rushing mighty wind to fill our sails if we like, should we be lying in the sickly calms of the tropics, with the pitchoozing out of the seams, and the idle canvas flapping against themast? Why, with those tongues of fire hovering over our heads, shouldwe be cowering over grey ashes in which there lives a little spark?Why, with that great rushing tide of the river of the water of life, should we be like the dry watercourses of the desert, with bleachedand white stones baking where the stream should be running? 'O! Thouthat art named the House of Israel, is the Spirit of the Lordstraitened? Are these His doings?'

III. And so, lastly, we are shown how that divine Helper comes tomen. 

'Full of the Holy Ghost, and of faith. ' There is no goodness withoutthe impulse and indwelling of the divine Spirit, and there is nodivine Spirit to dwell in a man's heart without that man's trustingin Jesus Christ. The condition of receiving the gift that makes usgood is simply and solely that we should put our trust in JesusChrist the Giver. That opens the door, and the divine Spirit enters. 

True! there are convincing operations which He effects upon theworld; but these are not in question here. These come prior to, andindependent of, faith. But the work of the Spirit of God, presentwithin us to heal and hallow us, has as condition our trust in JesusChrist, the Great Healer. If you open a chink, the water will comein. If you trust in Jesus Christ, He will give you the new life ofHis Spirit, which will make you free from the law of sin and death. That divine Spirit 'which they that believe in Him should receive'delights to enter into every heart where His presence is desired. Faith is desire; and desires rooted in faith cannot be in vain. Faithis expectation; and expectations based upon the divine promise cannever be disappointed. Faith is dependence, and dependence thatreckons upon God, and upon God's gift of His Spirit, will surely berecompensed. 

The measure in which we possess the power that makes us good dependsaltogether upon ourselves. 'Open thy mouth wide and I will fill it. 'You may have as much of God as you want, and as little as you will. The measure of your faith will determine at once the measure of yourgoodness, and of your possession of the Spirit that makes good. Justas when the prophet miraculously increased the oil in the cruse, thegolden stream flowed as long as they brought vessels, and stayed whenthere were no more, so as long as we open our hearts for thereception, the gift will not be withheld, but God will not let it runlike water spilled upon the ground that cannot be gathered up. If wewill desire, if we will expect, if we will reckon on, if we will lookto, Jesus Christ, and, beside all this, if we will honestly use thepower that we possess, our capacity will grow, and the gift willgrow, and our holiness and purity will grow with it. 

Some of you have been trying more or less continuously, all yourlives, to mend your own characters and improve yourselves. Brethren, there is a better way than that. A modern poet says--

 'Self-reverence, self-knowledge, self-control, These three alone lift life to sovereign power. '

Taken by itself that is pure heathenism. Self cannot improve self. Put self into God's keeping, and say, 'I cannot guard, keep, purge, hallow mine own self. Lord, do Thou do it for me!' It is no use totry to build a tower whose top shall reach to heaven. A ladder hasbeen let down on which we may pass upwards, and by which God's angelsof grace and beauty will come down to dwell in our hearts. If theJudge is to say of each of us, 'He was a good man, ' He must also beable to say, 'He was full of the Holy Ghost and of faith. '

A NICKNAME ACCEPTED

'The disciples were called Christians first in Antioch'--ACTS xi. 26. 

Nations and parties, both political and religious, very often callthemselves by one name, and are known to the outside world byanother. These outside names are generally given in contempt; and yetthey sometimes manage to hit the very centre of the characteristicsof the people on whom they are bestowed, and so by degrees get to beadopted by them, and worn as an honour. 

So it has been with the name 'Christian. ' It was given at the firstby the inhabitants of the Syrian city of Antioch, to a new sort ofpeople that had sprung up amongst them, and whom they could not quitemake out. They would not fit into any of their categories, and sothey had to invent a new name for them. It is never used in the NewTestament by Christians about themselves. It occurs here in thistext; it occurs in Agrippa's half-contemptuous exclamation: 'You seemto think it is a very small matter to make me--me, a king!--aChristian, one of those despised people!' And it occurs once more, where the Apostle Peter is specifying the charges brought againstthem: 'If any man suffer as a Christian, let him not be ashamed; butlet him glorify God on this behalf (1 Peter iv. 16). That sounds likethe beginning of the process which has gone on ever since, by whichthe nickname, flung by the sarcastic men of Antioch, has been turnedinto the designation by which, all over the world, the followers ofJesus Christ have been proud to call themselves. 

Now in this text there are the outside name by which the world callsthe followers of Jesus Christ, and one of the many interior names bywhich the Church called itself. I have thought it might be profitablenow to put all the New Testament names for Christ's followerstogether, and think about them. 

I. So, to begin with, we deal with this name given by the world tothe Church, which the Church has adopted. 

Observe the circumstances under which it was given. A handful oflarge-hearted, brave men, anonymous fugitives belonging to the littleChurch in Jerusalem, had come down to Antioch; and there, withoutpremeditation, without authority, almost without consciousness--certainly without knowing what a great thing they were doing--theytook, all at once, as if it were the most natural thing in the world, a great step by preaching the Gospel to pure heathen Greeks; and sobegan the process by which a small Jewish sect was transformed into aworld-wide church. The success of their work in Antioch, amongst thepure heathen population, has for its crowning attestation this, thatit compelled the curiosity-hunting, pleasure-loving, sarcasticAntiocheans to find out a new name for this new thing; to write out anew label for the new bottles into which the new wine was being put. Clearly the name shows that the Church was beginning to attract theattention of outsiders. 

Clearly it shows, too, that there was a novel element in the Church. The earlier disciples had been all Jews, and could be lumped togetheralong with their countrymen, and come under the same category. Buthere was something that could not be called either Jew or Greek, because it embraced both. The new name is the first witness to thecosmopolitan character of the primitive Church. Then clearly, too, the name indicates that in a certain dim, confused way, even thesesuperficial observers had got hold of the right notion of what it wasthat _did_ bind these people together. They called them 'Christians'--Christ's men, Christ's followers. But it was only a very dimrefraction of the truth that had got to them; they had no notion that'Christ' was not a proper name, but the designation of an office; andthey had no notion that there was anything peculiar or strange in thebond which united its adherents to Christ. Hence they called Hisfollowers 'Christians, ' just as they would have called Herod'sfollowers 'Herodians, ' in the political world, or Aristotle'sfollowers 'Aristotelians' in the philosophical world. Still, in theirgroping way, they bad put their finger on the fact that the one powerthat held this heterogeneous mass together, the one bond that boundup 'Jew and Gentile, barbarian, Scythian, bond and free' into onevital unity, was a personal relation to a living Person. And so theysaid--not understanding the whole significance of it, but having gothold of the right end of the clue--they said, 'They are Christians!''Christ's people, ' 'the followers of this Christ. '

And their very blunder was a felicity. If they had called them'Jesuits' that would have meant the followers of the mere man. Theydid not know how much deeper they had gone when they said, notfollowers of Jesus, but 'followers of Christ'; for it is not Jesusthe Man, but Jesus Christ, the Man with His office, that makes thecentre and the bond of the Christian Church. 

These, then, are the facts, and the fair inferences from them. Aplain lesson here lies on the surface. The Church--that is to say, the men and women who make its members--should draw to itself thenotice of the outside world. I do not mean by advertising, andostentation, and sounding trumpets, and singularities, andaffectations. None of all these are needed. If you are liveChristians it will be plain enough to outsiders. It is a poor commenton your consistency, if, being Christ's followers, you can go throughlife unrecognised even by 'them that are without. ' What shall we sayof leaven which does _not_ leaven, or of light which does _not_shine, or of salt which does _not_ repel corruption? It is a pooraffair if, being professed followers of Jesus Christ, you do notimpress the world with the thought that 'here is a man who does notcome under any of our categories, and who needs a new entry todescribe _him_. ' The world ought to have the same impression aboutyou which Haman had about the Jews--'Their laws are diverse from allpeople. '

Christian professors, are the world's names for each other enough todescribe you by, or do you need another name to be coined for you inorder to express the manifest characteristics that you display? TheChurch that does not _provoke_ the attention--I use the word in itsetymological, not its offensive sense--the Church that does not callupon itself the attention and interest of outsiders, is not a Churchas Jesus Christ meant it to be, and it is not a Church that is worthkeeping alive; and the sooner it has decent burial the better foritself and for the world!

There is another thing here, viz. : this name suggests that the clearimpression made by our conduct and character, as well as by ourwords, should be that we belong to Jesus Christ. The eye of anoutside observer may be unable to penetrate the secret of the deepsweet tie uniting us to Jesus, but there should be no possibility ofthe most superficial and hasty glance overlooking the fact that we_are_ His. He should manifestly be the centre and the guide, theimpulse and the pattern, the strength and the reward, of our wholelives. We are Christians. That should be plain for all folks to see, whether we speak or be silent. Brethren, is it so with you? Does yourlife need no commentary of your words in order that men should knowwhat is the hidden spring that moves all its wheels; what is theinward spirit that co-ordinates all its motions into harmony andbeauty? Is it true that like 'the ointment of the right hand whichbewrayeth itself' your allegiance to Jesus Christ, and theovermastering and supreme authority which He exercises upon you, andupon your life, 'cannot be hid'? Do you think that, without yourwords, if you, living in the way you do, were put down into themiddle of Pekin, as these handful of people were put down into themiddle of the heathen city of Antioch, the wits of the Chinesemetropolis would have to invent a name for you, as the clever men ofAntioch did for these people; and do you think that if they had toinvent a name, the name that would naturally come to their lips, looking at you, would be 'Christians, ' 'Christ's men'? If it wouldnot, there is something wrong. 

The last word that I say about this first part of my text is this. Itis a very sad thing, but it is one that is always occurring, that theworld's inadequate notions of what makes a follower of Jesus Christget accepted by the Church. Why was it that the name 'Christian' ranall over Christendom in the course of a century and a half? I believevery largely because it was a conveniently vague name; because it didnot describe the deepest and sacredest of the bonds that unite us toJesus Christ. Many a man is quite willing to say, 'I am a Christian, 'who would hesitate a long time before he said, 'I am a believer, ' 'Iam a disciple. ' The vagueness of the name, the fact that it erred bydefect in not touching the central, deepest relation between man andJesus Christ, made it very appropriate to the declining spiritualityand increasing formalism of the Christian Church in the post-Apostolic age. It is a sad thing when the Church drops its standarddown to the world's notion of what It ought to be, and adopts theworld's name for itself and its converts. 

II. I turn now to set side by side with this vague, general, outsidename the more specific and _interior_ names--if I may so call them--by which Christ's followers at first knew themselves. 

The world said, 'You are Christ's men'; and the names which wereself-imposed and are now to be considered might be taken as being theChurch's explanation of what the world was fumbling at when it socalled them. There are four of them: of course, I can only just touchon them. 

(_a_) The first is in this verse-'_disciples_. ' The others are_believers_, _saints_, _brethren_. These four are the Church's ownchristening of itself; its explanation and expansion, its deepeningand heightening, of the vague name given by the world. 

As to the first, _disciples_, any concordance will show that the namewas employed almost exclusively during the time of Christ's life uponearth. It is the only name for Christ's followers in the Gospels; itoccurs also, mingled with others, in the Acts of the Apostles, and itnever occurs thereafter. 

The name 'disciple, ' then, carries us back to the historicalbeginning of the whole matter, when Jesus was looked upon as a Rabbihaving followers called disciples; just as were John the Baptist andhis followers, Gamaliel and his school, or Socrates and his. It setsforth Christ as being the Teacher, and His followers as being Hisadherents, His scholars, who learned at His feet. 

Now that is always true. _We_ are Christ's scholars quite as much aswere the men who heard and saw with their eyes and handled with theirhands, of the Word of Life. Not by words only, but by gracious deedsand fair, spotless life, He taught them and us and all men to the endof time, our highest knowledge of God of whom He is the finalrevelation, our best knowledge of what men should and shall be by Hisperfect life in which is contained all morality, our only knowledgeof that future in that He has died and is risen and lives to help andstill to teach. He teaches us still by the record of His life, and bythe living influence of that Spirit whom He sends forth to guide usinto all truth. He is the Teacher, the only Teacher, the Teacher forall men, the Teacher of all truth, the Teacher for evermore. Hespeaks from Heaven. Let us give heed to His voice. 

But that Name is not enough to tell all that He is to us, or we toHim, and so after He had passed from earth it unconsciously andgradually dropped out of use by the disciples, as they felt adeepened bond uniting them to Him who was not only their Teacher ofthe Truth which was Himself, but was their Sacrifice and Advocatewith the Father. And for all who hold the, as I believe, essentiallyimperfect conception of Jesus Christ as being mainly a Teacher, either by word or by pattern; whether it be put into the old form orinto the modern form of regarding Him as the Ideal and Perfect Man, it seems to me a fact well worthy of consideration, that the name ofdisciple and the relation expressed by it were speedily felt by theChristian Church to be inadequate as a representation of the bondthat knit them to Him. He is our Teacher, we His scholars. He is morethan that, and a more sacred bond unites us to Him. As our Master weowe Him absolute submission. When He speaks, we have to accept Hisdictum. What He says is truth, pure and entire. His utterance is thelast word upon any subject that He touches, it is the ultimateappeal, and the Judge that ends the strife. We owe Him submission, anopen eye for all new truth, constant docility, as conscious of ourown imperfections, and a confident expectation that He will bless uscontinuously with high and as yet unknown truths that come from Hisinexhaustible stores of wisdom and knowledge. 

(_b_) Teacher and scholars move in a region which, though it beimportant, is not the central one. And the word that was needed nextto express what the early Church felt Christ was to them, and they toHim, lifts us into a higher atmosphere altogether, --'_believers_, 'they who are exercising not merely intellectual submission to thedicta of the Teacher, but who are exercising living trust in theperson of the Redeemer. The belief which is faith is altogether ahigher thing than its first stage, which is the belief of theunderstanding. There is in it the moral element of trust. We believea truth, we trust a Person; and the trust which we are to exercise inJesus Christ, and which knits us to Him, is our trust in Him, not inany character that we may choose to ascribe to Him, but in thecharacter in which He is revealed in the New Testament--Redeemer, Saviour, Manifest God; and therefore, the Infinite Friend and Helperof our souls. 

That trust, my brethren, is the one bond that binds, men to God, andthe one thing that makes us Christ's men. Apart from it, we may bevery near Him, but we are not joined to Him. By it, and by it alone, the union is completed, and His power and His grace flow into ourspirits. Are you, not merely a 'Christian, ' in the world's notion, being bound in some vague way to Jesus Christ, but are you aChristian in the sense of trusting your soul's salvation to Him?

(_c_) Then, still further, there is another name--'_saints_. ' It hassuffered perhaps more at the hands both of the world and of theChurch than any other. It has been taken by the latter and restrictedto the dead, and further restricted to those who excel, according tothe fantastic, ascetic standard of mediaeval Christianity. It hassuffered from the world in that it has been used with a certainbitter emphasis of resentment at the claim of superior puritysupposed to be implied in it, and so has come to mean on the world'slips one who pretends to be better than other people and whoseactions contradict his claim. But the name belongs to all Christ'sfollowers. It makes no claim to special purity, for the central ideaof the word 'saint' is not purity. Holiness, which is the English forthe Latinised 'sanctity, ' holiness which is attributed in the OldTestament to God first, to men only secondarily, does not primarilymean _purity_, but _separation_. God is holy, inasmuch as by thatwhole majestic character of His, He is lifted above all bounds ofcreatural limitations, as well as above man's sin. A sacrifice, theSabbath, a city, a priest's garment, a mitre--all these things are'holy, ' not when they are pure, but when they are devoted to Him. Andmen are holy, not because they are clean, but because by free self-surrender they have consecrated themselves to Him. 

Holiness is consecration, that is to say, holiness is giving myselfup to Him to do what He will with. 'I am holy' is not the declarationof my estimate 'I am pure, ' but the declaration of the fact 'I amthine, O Lord. ' So the New Testament idea of saint has in it theseelements--consecration, consecration resting on faith in Christ, andconsecration leading to separation from the world and its sin. Andthat glad yielding of oneself to God, as wooed by His mercies, andthereby drawn away from communion with our evil surroundings and fromsubmission to our evil selves, must be a part of the experience ofevery true Christian. All His people are saints, not as being pure, but as being given up to Him, in union with whom alone will thecleansing powers flow into their lives and clothe them with 'therighteousness of saints. ' Have you thus consecrated yourself to God?

(_d_) The last name is '_brethren_, '--a name which has been muchmaltreated both by the insincerity of the Church, and by the sarcasmof the world. It has been an unreal appellation which has meantnothing and been meant to mean nothing, so that the world has saidthat our 'brethren' signified a good deal less than their 'brothers. '''Tis true, 'tis pity; pity 'tis, 'tis true. '

But what I ask you to notice is that the main thing about that name'brethren' is not the relation of the brethren to one another, buttheir common relation to their Father. 

When we call ourselves as Christian people 'brethren, ' we mean firstthis: that we are the possessors of a supernatural life, which hascome from one Father, and which has set us in altogether newrelations to one another, and to the world round about us. Do youbelieve that if you have any of that new life which comes throughfaith in Jesus Christ, then you are the brethren of all those thatpossess the same?

As society becomes more complicated, as Christian people grow unlikeeach other in education, in social position, in occupation, in theirgeneral outlook into the world, it is more and more difficult to feelwhat is nevertheless true: that any two Christian people, howeverunlike each other, are nearer each other in the very roots of theirnature, than a Christian and a non-Christian, however like eachother. It is difficult to feel that, and it is getting more and moredifficult, but for all that it is a fact. 

And now I wish to ask you, Christian men and women, whether you feelmore at home with people who love Jesus Christ--as you say that youlove Him--or whether you like better to be with people who do not?

There are some of you who choose your intimate associates, whom youask to your homes and introduce to your children as desirablecompanions, with no reference at all to their religious character. The duties of your position, of course, oblige each of you to be muchamong people who do not share your faith, and it is cowardly andwrong to shrink from the necessity. But for Christian people to makechoice of heart friends, or close intimates, among those who have nosympathy with their professed belief about, and love to, JesusChrist, does not say much for the depth and reality of theirreligion. A man is known by the company he keeps, and if your friendsare picked out for other reasons, and their religion is no part oftheir attraction, it is not an unfair conclusion that there are otherthings for which you care more than you do for faith in Jesus Christand love to Him. If you deeply feel the bond that knits you toChrist, and really live near to Him, you will be near to yourbrethren. You will feel that 'blood is thicker than water, ' andhowever like you may be to irreligious people in many things, youwill feel that the deepest bond of all knits you to the poorest, themost ignorant, the most unlike you in social position; ay! and themost unlike you in theological opinion, who love the Lord JesusChrist in sincerity. 

Now that is the sum of the whole matter. And my last word to you isthis: Do not you be contented with the world's vague notions of whatmakes Christ's man. I do not ask you if you are Christians; plenty ofyou would say: 'Oh yes! of course! Is not this a Christian country?Was not I christened when I was a child? Are we not all members ofthe Church of England by virtue of our birth? Yes! of course I am!'

I do not ask you that; _I_ do not ask you anything; but I pray you toask yourselves these four questions: Am I Christ's scholar? Am Ibelieving on Him? Am I consecrated to Him? Am I the possessor of anew life from Him? And never give yourselves rest until you can sayhumbly and yet confidently, 'Yes! thank God, I am!'

THE MARTYRDOM OF JAMES

'Herod killed James the brother of John with the sword. '--ACTS xii. 2. 

One might have expected more than a clause to be spared to tell thedeath of a chief man and the first martyr amongst the Apostles. James, as we know, was one of the group of the Apostles who were inespecially close connection with Jesus Christ. He is associated inthe Gospels with Peter and his brother John, and is always namedbefore John, as if he were the more important of the two, by reasonof age or of other circumstances unknown to us. But yet we know nextto nothing about him. In the Acts of the Apostles he is a mere layfigure; his name is only mentioned in the catalogue at the beginning, and here again in the brief notice of his death. The reticent andmerely incidental character of the notice of his martyrdom issufficiently remarkable. I think the lessons of the fact, and of the, I was going to say, slight way in which the writer of this bookrefers to it, may perhaps be most pointedly brought out if we takefour contrasts--James and Stephen, James and Peter, James and John, James and James. Now, if we take these four I think we shall learnsomething. 

I. First, then, James and Stephen. 

Look at the different scale on which the incidents of the deaths ofthese two are told: the martyrdom of the one is beaten out overchapters, the martyrdom of the other is crammed into a corner of asentence. And yet, of the two men, the one who is the less noticedfilled the larger place officially, and the other was only a simpledeacon and preacher of the Word. The fact that Stephen was the firstChristian to follow his Lord in martyrdom is not sufficient toaccount for the extraordinary difference. The difference is to besought for in another direction altogether. The Bible cares so littleabout the people whom it names because its true theme is the works ofGod, and not of man; and the reason why the 'Acts of the Apostles'kills off one of the chief Apostles in this fashion is simply that, as the writer tells us, his theme is 'all that _Jesus_' continued 'todo and to teach after He was taken up. ' Since it is Christ who is thetrue actor, it matters uncommonly little what becomes of James or ofthe other ten. This book is _not_ the 'Acts of the Apostles, ' but itis the Acts of Jesus Christ. 

I might suggest, too, in like manner, that there is another contrastwhich I have not included in my four, between the scale on which thedeath of Jesus Christ is told by Luke, and that on which this deathis narrated. What is the reason why so disproportionate a space ofthe Gospel is concerned with the last two days of our Lord's life onearth? What is the reason why years are leaped over in silence andmoments are spread out in detail, but that the death of a man is onlya death, but the death of the Christ is the life of the world? It islittle needful that we should have poetical, emotional, picturesquedescriptions of martyrdoms and the like in a book which is altogetherdevoted to tracking the footsteps of Christ in history; and whichregards men as nothing more than the successive instruments of Hispurpose, and the depositories of His grace. 

Another lesson which we may draw from the reticence in the case ofthe Apostle, and the expansiveness in the case of the protomartyr, isthat of a wise indifference to the utterly insignificant accident ofposthumous memory or oblivion of us and our deeds and sufferings. James sleeps none the less sweetly in his grave, or, rather, wakesnone the less triumphantly in heaven, because his life and death areboth so scantily narrated. If we 'self-infold the large results' offaithful service, we need not trouble ourselves about its record onearth. 

But another lesson which may be learned from this cursory notice ofthe Apostle's martyrdom is--how small a thing death really is! Lookedat from beside the Lord of life and death, which is the point of viewof the author of this narrative, 'great death' dwindles to a verylittle thing. We need to revise our notions if we would understandhow trivial it really is. To us it frowns like a black cliff blockingthe upper end of our valley, but there is a path round its base, andthough the throat of the pass be narrow, it has room for us to getthrough and up to the sunny uplands beyond. From a mountain top thecountry below seems level plain, and what looked like an impassableprecipice has dwindled to be indistinguishable. The triviality ofdeath, to those who look upon it from the heights of eternity, iswell represented by these brief words which tell of the first breachthereby in the circle of the Apostles. 

II. There is another contrast, James and Peter. 

Now this chapter tells of two things: the death of one of that pairof friends; the miracle that was wrought for the deliverance of theother from death. Why could not the parts have been exchanged, or whycould not the miraculous hand that was stretched out to save the onefisherman of Bethsaida have been put forth to save the other? Whyshould James be slain, and Peter miraculously delivered? A questioneasily asked; a question not to be answered by us. We may say thatthe one was more useful for the development of the Church than theother. But we have all seen lives that, to our poor vision, seemed tobe all but indispensable, ruthlessly swept away, and lives thatseemed to be, and were, perfectly profitless, prolonged to extremeold age. We may say that maturity of character, development ofChristian graces, made the man ready for glory. But we have all seensome struck down when anything but ready; and others left for theblessing of mankind many, many a day after they were far fitter forheaven than thousands that, we hope, have gone there. 

So all these little explanations do not go down to the bottom of thematter, and we are obliged just to leave the whole question in theloving Hands that hold the keys of life and death for us all. Only wemay be sure of this, that James was as dear to Christ as Peter was, and that there was no greater love shown in sending the angel thatdelivered the one out of the 'hand of Herod and from all theexpectation of the people of the Jews, ' than was shown in sending theangel that stood behind the headsman and directed the stroke of thefatal sword on the neck of the other. 

The one was as dear to the Christ as the other--ay, and the one wasas surely, and more blessedly, delivered 'from the mouth of the lion'as the other was, though the one seemed to be dragged from his teeth, and the other seemed to be crushed by his powerful jaws. Jamesescaped from Herod when Herod slew him but could not make himunfaithful to his Master, and his deliverance was not less completethan the deliverance of his friend. 

But let us remember, also, that if thus, to two equally beloved, there were dealt out these two different fates, it must be becausethat evil, which, as I said, is not so great as it looks, is also notso bitter as it tastes, and there is no real evil, for the lovingheart, in the stroke that breaks its bands and knits it to JesusChrist. If we are Christians, the deepest desire of our souls isfuller communion with our Lord. We realise that, in some stunted andscanty measure, by life; but oh! is it not strange that we shouldshrink from that change which will enable us to realise it fully andeternally? The contrast of James and Peter may teach us the equallove that presides over the life of the living and the death of thedying. 

III. Another contrast is that of James and John. 

The close union, and subsequent separation by this martyrdom, of thatpair of brothers is striking and pathetic. They seem to have togetherpursued their humble trade of fishermen in the little fishing villageof Bethsaida, apparently as working partners with their fatherZebedee. They were not divided by discipleship, as was the sad fateof many a brother delivered by a brother to death. If we may attachany weight to the suggestion that the expression in John's narrative, 'He first findeth _his own_ brother, Simon, ' implies that 'the otherdisciple' did the same by _his_ brother, James was brought to Jesusby John, and new tenderness and strength thereby given to theiraffection. They were closely associated in their Apostleship, andwere together the companions of Jesus in the chief incidents of Hislife. They were afterwards united in the leadership of the Church. Bydeath they were separated very far: the one the first of all theApostles to 'become a prey to Satan's rage, ' the other 'lingering outhis fellows all, ' and 'dying in bloodless age, ' living to be ahundred years old or more, and looking back through all the longparting to the brother who had joined with him in the wish that evenMessiah's Kingdom should not part them, and yet had been parted sosoon and parted so long. 

Ah! may we not learn the lesson that we should recognise the mercyand wisdom of the ministry of Death the separator, and should treadwith patience the lonely road, do calmly the day's work, and tarrytill He comes, though those that stood beside us be gone? We may lookforward with the assurance that 'God keeps a niche in heaven to hideour idols'; and 'albeit He breaks them to our face, ' yet shall wefind them again, like Memnon's statue, vocal in the rising sunshineof the heavens. 

The brothers, so closely knit, so soon parted, so long separated, were at last reunited. Even to us here, with the chronology of earthstill ours, the few years between the early martyrdom of James andthe death of the centenarian John seem but a span. The lapse of thecenturies that have rolled away since then makes the difference ofthe dates of the two deaths seem very small, even to us. What a merenothing it will have looked to them, joined together once more beforeGod!

IV. Lastly, James and James. In his hot youth, when he deserved thename of a son of thunder--so energetic, boisterous, I suppose, destructive perhaps, he was--he and his brother, and their foolishmother, whose name is kindly not told us, go to Christ and say, 'Grant that we may sit, the one on Thy right hand and the other onThy left, in Thy kingdom. ' That was what he wished and hoped for, andwhat he got was years of service, and a taste of persecution, andfinally the swish of the headsman's sword. 

And so our dreams get disappointed, and their disappointment is oftenthe road to their fulfilment, for Jesus Christ was answering James'prayer, 'Grant that we may sit on Thy right hand in Thy kingdom, 'when He called him to Himself, by the brief and bloody passage ofmartyrdom. James said, when he did not know what he meant, and thevow was noble though it was ignorant, 'we can drink of the cup thatThou drinkest. ' And all honour to him! he stuck to his vow; and whenthe cup was proffered to him he manfully, and like a Christian, tookit and drank it to the dregs; and, I suppose, went silently to hisgrave. But the change between his ardent anticipations and his calmresignation, and between his foolish dream and the stern reality, maywell teach us that, whether our wishes he fulfilled or disappointed, they all need to be purified, and that the disappointment of them onearth is often God's way of fulfilling them for us in higher fashionthan we dreamed or asked. 

So, brethren, let us leave for ourselves, and for all dear ones, thatquestion of living or dying, to His decision. Only let us be surethat whether our lives be long like John's, or short like James', 'living or dying we are the Lord's. ' And then, whatever be the lengthof life or the manner of death, both will bring us the fulfilment ofour highest wishes, and will lead us to His side at whose right handall those shall sit who have loved Him here, and, though long parted, shall be reunited in common enjoyment of the pleasures for evermorewhich bloom unfading there. 'And so shall we ever be with the Lord. '

PETER'S DELIVERANCE FROM PRISON

'Peter therefore was kept in the prison: but prayer was madeearnestly of the Church unto God for him. '--ACTS xii. 5 (R. V. )

The narrative of Peter's miraculous deliverance from prison is fullof little vivid touches which can only have come from himself. Thewhole tone of it reminds us of the Gospel according to St. Mark, which is in like manner stamped with peculiar minuteness andabundance of detail. One remembers that at a late period in the lifeof the Apostle Paul, Mark and Luke were together with him; and nodoubt in those days in Rome, Mark, who had been Peter's specialcompanion and is called by one of the old Christian writers his'interpreter, ' was busy in telling Luke the details about Peter whichappear in the first part of this Book of the Acts. 

The whole story seems to me to be full of instruction as well as ofpicturesque detail; and I desire to bring out the various lessonswhich appear to me to lie in it. 

I. The first of them is this: the strength of the helpless. 

Look at that eloquent 'but' in the verse that I have taken as astarting-point: 'Peter therefore was kept in prison, _but_ prayer wasmade earnestly of the Church unto God for him. ' There is anothersimilarly eloquent 'but' at the end of the chapter:

'Herod . .. Was eaten of worms, and gave up the ghost, _but_ the Wordof God grew and multiplied. ' Here you get, on the one hand, all thepompous and elaborate preparations--'four quaternions of soldiers'--four times four is sixteen--sixteen soldiers, two chains, three gateswith guards at each of them, Herod's grim determination, the people'smalicious expectation of having an execution as a pleasant sensationwith which to wind up the Passover Feast. And what had the handful ofChristian people? Well, they had prayer; and they had Jesus Christ. That was all, and that is more than enough. How ridiculous all thepreparation looks when you let the light of that great 'but' in uponit! Prayer, earnest prayer, 'was made of the Church unto God forhim. ' And evidently, from the place in which that fact is stated, itis intended that we should say to ourselves that it was _because_prayer was made for him that what came to pass did come to pass. Itis not jerked out as an unconnected incident; it is set in a logicalsequence. 'Prayer was made earnestly of the Church unto God for him'--and so when Herod would have brought him forth, behold, the angelof the Lord came, and the light shined into the prison. It is thesame sequence of thought that occurs in that grand theophany in theeighteenth Psalm, 'My cry entered into His ears; then the earth shookand trembled'; and there came all the magnificence of thethunderstorm and the earthquake and the divine manifestation; andthis was the purpose of it all--'He sent from above, He took me, Hedrew me out of many waters. ' The whole energy of the divine nature isset in motion and comes swooping down from highest heaven to thetrembling earth. And of that fact the one end is one poor man's cry, and the other end is his deliverance. The moving spring of the divinemanifestation was an individual's prayer; the aim of it was theindividual's deliverance. A little water is put into a hydraulic ramat the right place, and the outcome is the lifting of tons. So thehelpless men who could only pray are stronger than Herod and hisquaternions and his chains and his gates. 'Prayer was made, 'therefore all that happened was brought to pass, and Peter wasdelivered. 

Peter's companion, James, was killed off, as we read in a verse ortwo before. Did not the Church pray for him? Surely they did. Why wastheir prayer not answered, then? God has not any step-children. Jameswas as dear to God as Peter was. One prayer was answered; was theother left unanswered? It was the divine purpose that Peter, beingprayed for, should be delivered; and we may reverently say that, ifthere had not been the many in Mary's house praying, there would havebeen no angel in Peter's cell. 

So here are revealed the strength of the weak, the armour of theunarmed, the defence of the defenceless. If the Christian Church inits times of persecution and affliction had kept itself to the oneweapon that is allowed it, it would have been more conspicuouslyvictorious. And if we, in our individual lives--where, indeed, wehave to do something else besides pray--would remember the lesson ofthat eloquent 'but, ' we should be less frequently brought toperplexity and reduced to something bordering on despair. So my firstlesson is the strength of the weak. 

II. My next is the delay of deliverance. 

Peter had been in prison for some time before the Passover, and thepraying had been going on all the while, and there was no answer. Dayafter day 'of the unleavened bread' and of the festival was slippingaway. The last night had come; 'and the same night' the light shone, and the angel appeared. Why did Jesus Christ not hear the cry ofthese poor suppliants sooner? For their sakes; for Peter's sake; forour sakes; for His own sake. For the eventual intervention, at thevery last moment, and yet at a sufficiently early moment, testedfaith. And look how beautifully all bore the test. The Apostle whowas to be killed to-morrow is lying quietly sleeping in his cell. Nota very comfortable pillow he had to lay his head upon, with a chainon each arm and a legionary on each side of him. But he slept; andwhilst he was asleep Christ was awake, and the brethren were awake. Their faith was tested, and it stood the test, and thereby wasstrengthened. And Peter's patience and faith, being tested in likemanner and in like manner standing the test, were deepened andconfirmed. Depend upon it, he was a better man all his days, becausehe had been brought close up to Death and looked it in the fleshlesseye-sockets, unwinking and unterrified. And I dare say if, longafter, he had been asked, 'Would you not have liked to have escapedthose two or three days of suspense, and to have been let go at anearlier moment?' he would have said, 'Not for worlds! For I learnedin those days that my Lord's time is the best. I learned patience'--alesson which Peter especially needed--'and I learned trust. '

Do you remember another incident, singularly parallel in essence, though entirely unlike in circumstances, to this one? The two weepingsisters at Bethany send their messenger across the Jordan, grudgingevery moment that he takes to travel to the far-off spot where Jesusis. The message sent is only this: 'He whom Thou lovest is sick. 'What an infinite trust in Christ's heart that form of the messageshowed! They would not say 'Come!'; they would not ask Him to doanything; they did not think that to do so was needful: they werequite sure that what He would do would be right. 

And how was the message received? 'Jesus loved Martha and Mary andLazarus. ' Well, did that not make Him hurry as fast as He could tothe bedside? No; it rooted Him to the spot. 'He abode, _therefore_'--because He loved them--'two days still in the same place where Hewas, ' to give him plenty of time to die, and the sisters plenty oftime to test their confidence in Him. Their confidence does not seemto have altogether stood the test. 'Lord, if Thou hadst been here mybrother had not died. ' 'And why wast Thou _not_ here?' is implied. Christ's time was the best time. It was better to get a dead brotherback to their arms and to their house than that they should not havelost him for those dreary four days. So delay tests faith, and makesthe deliverance, when it comes, not only the sweeter, but the moreconspicuously divine. So, brother, 'men ought always to pray, and notto faint'--always to trust that 'the Lord will help them, and thatright early. '

III. The next lesson that I would suggest is the leisureliness of thedeliverance. 

A prisoner escaping might be glad to make a bolt for it, dressed orundressed, anyhow. But when the angel comes into the cell, and thelight shines, look how slowly and, as I say, leisurely, he goes aboutit. 'Put on thy shoes. ' He had taken them off, with his girdle andhis upper garment, that he might lie the less uncomfortably. 'Put onthy shoes; lace them; make them all right. Never mind about these twolegionaries; they will not wake. Gird thyself; tighten thy girdle. Put on thy garment. Do not be afraid. Do not be in a hurry; there isplenty of time. Now, are you ready? Come!' It would have been quiteas easy for the angel to have whisked him out of the cell and put himdown at Mary's door; but that was not to be the way. Peter was ledpast all the obstacles--'the first ward, ' and the soldiers at it;'the second ward, ' and the soldiers at it; 'and the third gate thatleads into the city, ' which was no doubt bolted and barred. There wasa leisurely procession through the prison. 

Why? Because Omnipotence is never in a hurry, and God, not only inHis judgments but in His mercies, very often works slowly, as becomesHis majesty. 'Ye shall not go out with haste; nor go by flight, forthe Lord will go before you; and the God of Israel shall be yourrereward. ' We are impatient, and hurry our work over; God worksslowly; for He works certainly. That is the law of the divine workingin all regions; and we have to regulate the pace of our eagerexpectation so as to fall in with the slow, solemn march of thedivine purposes, both in regard to our individual salvation and theprovidences that affect us individually, and in regard to the world'sdeliverance from the world's evils. 'An inheritance may be gottenhastily in the beginning, but the end thereof shall not be blessed. ''He that believeth shall not make haste. '

IV. We see here, too, the delivered prisoner left to act for himselfas soon as possible. 

As long as the angel was with Peter, he was dazed and amazed. He didnot know--and small blame to him--whether he was sleeping or waking;but he gets through the gates, and out into the empty street, glimmering in the morning twilight, and the angel disappears, and theslumbering city is lying around him. When he is _left_ to himself, he_comes_ to himself. He could not have passed the wards without amiracle, but he can find his way to Mary's house without one. Heneeded the angel to bring him as far as the gate and down into thestreet, but he did not need him any longer. So the angel vanishedinto the morning light, and then he felt himself, and steadiedhimself, when responsibility came to him. That is the thing to sobera man. So he stood in the middle of the unpeopled street, and 'heconsidered the thing, ' and found in his own wits sufficient guidance, so that he did not miss the angel. He said to himself, 'I will go toMary's house. ' Probably he did not know that there were any prayingthere, but it was near, and it was, no doubt, convenient in otherrespects that we do not know of. The economy of miraculous power is aremarkable feature in Scriptural miracles. God never does anythingfor us that we could do for ourselves. Not but that our doing forourselves is, in a deeper sense, His working on us and in us, but Hedesires us to take the share that belongs to us in completing thedeliverance which must begin by supernatural intervention of aMightier than the angel, even the Lord of angels. 

And so this little picture of the angel leading Peter through theprison, and then leaving him to his own common sense and courage assoon as he came out into the street, is just a practical illustrationof the great text, 'Work out your own salvation with fear andtrembling, for it is God that worketh in you. '

THE ANGEL'S TOUCH

'And, behold, the angel of the Lord . .. Smote Peter. .. . 23. And immediately the angel of the Lord smote him [Herod]. '--ACTS xii. 7, 23. 

The same heavenly agent performs the same action on Peter and onHerod. To the one, his touch brings freedom and the dropping off ofhis chains; to the other it brings gnawing agonies and a horribledeath. These twofold effects of one cause open out wide and solemnthoughts, on which it is well to look. 

I. The one touch has a twofold effect. 

So it is always when God's angels come, or God Himself lays His handon men. Every manifestation of the divine power, every revelation ofthe divine presence, all our lives' experiences, are charged with thesolemn possibility of bringing us one or other of two directlyopposite results. They all offer us an alternative, a solemn 'either--or. '

The Gospel too comes charged with that double possibility, and is theintensest and most fateful example of the dual effect of all God'smessages and dealings. Just as the ark maimed Dagon and decimated thePhilistine cities and slew Uzzah, but brought blessing and prosperityto the house of Obed-edom, just as the same pillar was light toIsrael all the night long, but cloud and darkness to the Egyptians, so is Christ set 'for the fall of' some and 'for the rising of'others amidst the 'many in Israel, ' and His Gospel is either 'thesavour of life unto life or of death unto death, ' but in both casesis in itself 'unto God, ' one and the same 'sweet savour in Christ. '

II. These twofold effects are parts of one plan and purpose. 

Peter's liberation and Herod's death tended in the same direction--tostrengthen and conserve the infant Church, and thus to prepare theway for the conquering march of the Gospel. And so it is in all God'sself-revelations and manifested energies, whatever may be theireffects. They come from one source and one motive, they arefundamentally the operations of one changeless Agent, and, as theyare one in origin and character, so they are one in purpose. We arenot to separate them into distinct classes and ascribe them todifferent elements in the divine nature, setting down this as thework of Love and that as the outcome of Wrath, or regarding the actsof deliverance as due to one part of that great whole and the acts ofdestruction as due to another part of it. The angel was the same, andhis celestial fingers were moved by the same calm, celestial willwhen he smote Peter into liberty and life, and Herod to death. 

God changes His ways, but not His heart. He changes His acts, but notHis purposes. Opposite methods conduce to one end, as winter stormsand June sunshine equally tend to the yellowed harvest. 

III. The character of the effects depends on the men who are touched. 

As is the man, so is the effect of the angel's touch. It could onlybring blessing to the one who was the friend of the angel's Lord, andit could bring only death to the other, who was His enemy. It coulddo nothing to the Apostle but cause his chains to drop from hiswrists, nor anything to the vainglorious king but bring loathsomedeath. 

This, too, is a universal truth. It is we ourselves who settle whatGod's words and acts will be to us. The trite proverb, 'One man'smeat is another man's poison, ' is true in the highest regions. It iseminently, blessedly or tragically true in our relation to theGospel, wherein all God's self-revelation reaches its climax, wherein'the arm of the Lord' is put forth in its most blessed energy, wherein is laid on each of us the touch, tender and more charged withblessing than that of the angel who smote the calmly sleepingApostle. That Gospel may either be to us the means of freeing us fromour chains, and leading us out of our prison-house into sunshine andsecurity, or be the fatal occasion of condemnation and death. Whichit shall be depends on ourselves. Which shall I make it for myself?

'SOBER CERTAINTY'

'And when Peter was come to himself, he said, Now I know of asurety, that the Lord hath sent His angel, and hath delivered meout of the hand of Herod, and from all the expectation of thepeople of the Jews. '--ACTS xii. 11. 

Where did Luke get his information of Peter's thoughts in that hour?This verse sounds like first-hand knowledge. Not impossibly John Markmay have been his informant, for we know that both were in Rometogether at a later period. In any case, it is clear that, throughwhatever channels this piece of minute knowledge reached Luke, itmust have come originally from Peter himself. And what a touch ofnaturalness and evident truth it is! No wonder that the Apostle washalf dazed as he came from his dungeon, through the prison corridorsand out into the street. To be wakened by an angel, and to have suchfollowing experiences, would amaze most men. 

I. The bewilderment of the released captive. 

God's mercies often come suddenly, and with a rush and a completenessthat outrun our expectations and our power of immediatecomprehension. And sometimes He sends us sorrows in such battalionsand so overwhelming that we are dazed for the moment. A Psalmisttouched a deep experience when he sang, 'When the Lord turned againthe captivity of Zion, we were like unto them that dream. '

The angel has to be gone before we are sure that he was really here. The tumult of emotion in an experience needs to be calmed down beforewe understand the experience. Reflection discovers more of heaven andof God in the great moments of our lives than was visible to us whilewe were living through them, There is one region in which this is especially true--that of thereligious life. There sometimes attend its beginnings in a soul acertain excitement and perturbation which disable from calm realisingof the greatness of the change which has passed. And it is well whenthat excitement is quieted down and succeeded by meditativereflection on the treasures that have been poured into the lap, almost as in the dark. No man understands what he has received whenhe first receives Christ and Christ's gifts. It occupies a lifetimeto take possession of that which we possess from the first in Him, and the oldest saint is as far from full possession of theunspeakable and infinite 'gift of God, ' as the babes in Christ are. 

But, looking more generally at this characteristic of not rightlyunderstanding the great epochs of our lives till they are past, wemay note that, while in part it is inevitable and natural, there isan element of fault in it. If we lived in closer fellowship with God, we should live in an atmosphere of continual calm, and nothing, either sorrowful or joyful, would be able so to sweep us off our feetthat we should be bewildered by it. Astonishment would never so fillour souls as that we could not rightly appraise events, nor should weneed any time, even in the thick of the most wonderful experiences, to 'come to' ourselves and discern the angel. 

But if it be so that our lives disclose their meanings best, when welook back on them, how much of the understanding of them, and thedrawing of all its sweetness out of each event in them, is entrustedto memory! And how negligent of a great means of happiness andstrength we are, if we do not often muse on 'all the way by which Godthe Lord has led us these many years in the wilderness'! It isneedful for Christian progress to 'forget the things that arebehind, ' and not to let them limit our expectations nor prescribe ourmethods, but it is quite as needful to remember our past, or ratherGod's past with us, in order to confirm our grateful faith andenlarge our boundless hope. 

II. The disappearance of the angel. 

Why did he leave Peter standing there, half dazed and with hisdeliverance incomplete? He 'led him through one street' only, and'straightway departed from him. ' The Apostle delivered by miracle hasnow to use his brains. One distinguishing characteristic of NewTestament miracles is their economy of miraculous power. Jesus raisedLazarus, for He alone could do that, but other hands must 'loose himand let him go, ' He gave life to Jairus's little daughter, but He bidothers 'give her something to eat' God does nothing for us that wecan do for ourselves. That economy was valuable as a preservative ofthe Apostles from the possible danger of expecting or relying onmiracles, and as stirring them to use their own energies. Reliance ondivine power should not lead us to neglect ordinary means. Alike inthe natural and in the spiritual life we have to do our part, and tobe sure that God will do His. 

III. The symbol here of a greater deliverance. 

Fancy may legitimately employ this story as setting forth for usunder a lovely image the facts of Christian death, if only weacknowledge that such a use is entirely the work of fancy. But, making that acknowledgment, may we not make the use? Is not Death, too, God's messenger to souls that love Him, 'mighty and beauteous, though his face be hid'? Would it not be more Christian-like, andmore congruous with our eternal hope, if we pictured him thus than bythe hideous emblems of our cemeteries and tombs? He comes to Christ'sservants, and his touch is gentle though his fingers are icy-cold. Heremoves only the chains that bind us, and we ourselves areemancipated by his touch. He leads us to 'the iron gate that leadethinto the city, ' and it opens to us 'of its own accord. ' But hedisappears as soon as our happy feet have touched the pavement ofthat street of the city which is 'pure gold, as transparent asglass, ' and in the midst of which flows the river of the crystal-bright 'water of life proceeding out of the throne of God and of theLamb. ' Then, when we see the Face as of the sun shining in hisstrength, we shall come to ourselves, and 'know of a surety that theLord hath sent His angel and delivered' us from all our foes and illsfor evermore. 

RHODA

'A damsel . .. Named Rhoda. '--ACTS xii 13. 

'Rhoda' means 'a rose, ' and _this_ rose has kept its bloom foreighteen hundred years, and is still sweet and fragrant! What alottery undying fame is! Men will give their lives to earn it; andthis servant-girl got it by one little act, and never knew that shehad it, and I suppose she does not know to-day that, everywherethroughout the whole world where the Gospel is preached, 'this thatshe hath done is spoken of as a memorial to her. ' Is the love of fameworthy of being called 'the last infirmity of noble minds'? Or is itthe delusion of ignoble ones? Why need we care whether anybody everhears of us after we are dead and buried, so long as God knows aboutus? The 'damsel named Rhoda' was little the better for theimmortality which she had unconsciously won. 

Now there is a very singular resemblance between the details of thisincident and those of another case, when Peter was recognised in dimlight by his voice, and the Evangelist Luke, who is the author of theActs of the Apostles, seems to have had the resemblance between thetwo scenes--that in the high priest's palace and that outside Mary'sdoor--in his mind, because he uses in this narrative a word whichoccurs, in the whole of the New Testament, only here and in hisaccount of what took place on that earlier occasion. In bothinstances a maid-servant recognises Peter by his voice, and in both'she constantly affirms' that it was so. I do not think that there isanything to be built upon the resemblance, but at all events I thinkthat the use of the same unusual word in the two cases, and nowhereelse, seems to suggest that Luke felt how strangely events sometimesdouble themselves; and how the Apostle who is here all but a martyris re-enacting, with differences, something like the former scene, when he was altogether a traitor. But, be that as it may, there aresome lessons which we may gather from this vivid picture of Rhoda andher behaviour on the one side of the door, while Peter stoodhammering, in the morning twilight, on the other. 

I. We may notice in the relations of Rhoda to the assembled believersa striking illustration of the new bond of union supplied by theGospel. 

Rhoda was a slave. The word rendered in our version 'damsel' means afemale slave. Her name, which is a Gentile name, and her servilecondition, make it probable that she was not a Jewess. If one mightventure to indulge in a guess, it is not at all unlikely that hermistress, Mary, John Mark's mother, Barnabas' sister, a well-to-dowoman of Jerusalem, who had a house large enough to take in themembers of the Church in great numbers, and to keep up a considerableestablishment, had brought this slave-girl from the island of Cyprus. At all events, she was a slave. In the time of our Lord, and longafter, these relations of slavery brought an element of suspicion, fear, and jealous espionage into almost every Roman household, because every master knew that he passed his days and nights amongmen and women who wanted nothing better than to wreak their vengeanceupon him. A man's foes were eminently those of his own household. Andnow here this child-slave, a Gentile, has been touched by the samemighty love as her mistress; and Mary and Rhoda were kneelingtogether in the prayer-meeting when Peter began to hammer at thedoor. Neither woman thought now of the unnatural, unwholesomerelation which had formerly bound them. In God's good time, and bythe slow process of leavening society with Christian ideas, thatdiabolical institution perished in Christian lands. Violentreformation of immoralities is always a blunder. 'Raw haste' is'half-sister to delay. ' Settlers in forest lands have found that itis endless work to grub up the trees, or even to fell them. 'Root andbranch' reform seldom answers. The true way is to girdle the tree bytaking off a ring of bark round the trunk, and letting nature do therest. Dead trees are easily dealt with; living ones blunt many axesand tire many arms, and are alive after all. Thus the Gospel waged nodirect war with slavery, but laid down principles which, once theyare wrought into Christian consciousness, made its continuanceimpossible. But, pending that consummation, the immediate action ofChristianity was to ameliorate the condition of the slave. The wholeaspect of the ugly thing was changed as soon as master and slavetogether became the slaves of the Lord Jesus Christ. The Gospel hasthe same sort of work to do to-day, and there are institutions infull flourishing existence in this and every other civilisedcommunity as entirely antagonistic to the spirit and principles ofChristianity as Roman slavery was. I, for my part, believe that theone uniting bond and healing medicine for society is found in JesusChrist; and that in Him, and that the principles deducible from Hisrevelation by word and work, applied to all social evils, are theircure, and their only cure. That slight, girlish figure standing atthe door of Mary, her slave and yet her sister in Christ, may betaken as pointing symbolically the way by which the social and civicevils of this day are to be healed, and the war of classes to cease. 

II. Note how we get here a very striking picture of the sacrednessand greatness of small common duties. 

Bhoda came out from the prayer-meeting to open the gate. It was herbusiness, as we say, 'to answer the door, ' and so she left offpraying to go and do it. So doing, she was the means of deliveringthe Apostle from the danger which still dogged him. It was of littleuse to be praying on one side of the shut door when on the other hewas standing in the street, and the day was beginning to dawn;Herod's men would be after him as soon as daylight disclosed hisescape. The one thing needful for him was to be taken in andsheltered. So the praying group and the girl who stops praying whenshe hears the knock, to which it was her business to attend, wereworking in the same direction. It is not necessary to insist that noheights or delights of devotion and secret communion are sufficientexcuses for neglecting or delaying the doing of the smallest and mostmenial task which is our task. If your business is to keep the door, you will not be leaving, but abiding in, the secret place of the MostHigh, if you get up from your knees in the middle of your prayer, andgo down to open it. The smallest, commonest acts of daily life aretruer worship than is rapt and solitary communion or united prayer, if the latter can only be secured by the neglect of the former. Better to be in the lower parts of the house attending to the humbleduties of the slave than to be in the upper chamber, uniting with thesaints in supplication and leaving tasks unperformed. 

Let us remember how we may find here an illustration of another greattruth, that the smallest things, done in the course of the quietdischarge of recognised duty, and being, therefore, truly worship ofGod, have in them a certain quality of immortality, and may beeternally commemorated. It was not only the lofty and uniqueexpression of devotion, which another woman gave when she broke thealabaster box to anoint the feet of the Saviour which were to bepierced with nails to-morrow, that has been held worthy of undyingremembrance. The name and act of a poor slave girl have beencommemorated by that Spirit who preserves nothing in vain, in orderthat we should learn that things which we vulgarly call great, andthose which we insolently call small, are regarded by Him, notaccording to their apparent magnitude, but according to their motiveand reference to Him. He says, 'I will never forget any of theirworks'; and this little deed of Rhoda's, like the rose petals thatcareful housekeepers in the country keep upon the sideboard in chinabowls to diffuse a fragance through the room, is given us to keep inmemory for ever, a witness of the sanctity of common life when filledwith acts of obedience to Him. 

III. The same figure of the 'damsel named Rhoda' may give us awarning as to the possibility of forgetting very plain duties underthe pressure of very legitimate excitement. 

'She opened not the door for gladness, ' but ran in and told them. Andif, whilst she was running in with her message, Herod's quaternionsof soldiers had come down the street, there would have been 'no smallstir' in the church as to 'what had become of Peter. ' He would havegone back to his prison sure enough. Her _first_ duty was to open thedoor; her _second_ one was to go and tell the brethren, 'we have gothim safe inside'; but in the rush of joyous emotions she naivelyforgot what her first business was, 'lost her head, ' as we say, andso went off to tell that he was outside, instead of letting him in. Now joy and sorrow are equally apt to make us forget plain andpressing duties, and we may learn from this little incident the old-fashioned, but always necessary advice, to keep feeling well undercontrol, to use it as impulse, not as guide, and never to letemotion, which should be down in the engine-room, come on deck andtake the helm. It is dangerous to obey feeling, unless its decreesare countersigned by calm common sense illuminated by Scripture. Sorrow is apt to obscure duty by its darkness, and joy to do so byits dazzle. It is hard to see the road at midnight, or at midday whenthe sun is in our eyes. Both need to be controlled. Duty remains thesame, whether my heart is beating like a sledge-hammer, or whether'my bosom's lord sits lightly on its throne. ' Whether I am sad orglad, the door that God has given me to watch has to be opened andshut by me. And whether I am a door-keeper in the house of the Lord, like Rhoda in Mary's, or have an office that people think larger andmore important, the imperativeness of my duties is equallyindependent of my momentary emotions and circumstances. Remember, then, that duty remains while feeling fluctuates, and that, sorrowfulor joyful, we have still the same Lord to serve and the same crown towin. 

IV. Lastly, we have here an instance of a very modest but positiveand fully-warranted trust in one's own experience in spite ofopposition. 

I need not speak about that extraordinary discussion which thebrethren got up in the upper room. They had been praying, as hasoften been remarked, for Peter's deliverance, and now that he isdelivered they will not believe it. I am afraid that there is often adash of unbelief in immediate answers to our prayers mingling withthe prayers. And although the petitions in this case were intense andfervent, as the original tells us, and had been kept up all nightlong, and although their earnestness and worthiness are guaranteed bythe fact that they were answered, yet when the veritable Peter, inflesh and blood, stood before the door, the suppliants first said tothe poor girl, 'Thou art mad, ' and then, 'It is his angel! It cannotbe he. ' Nobody seems to have thought of going to the door to seewhether it was he or not, but they went on arguing with Rhoda as towhether she was right or wrong. The unbelief that alloys even goldenfaith is taught us in this incident. 

Rhoda 'constantly affirmed that it was so, ' like the other porteressthat had picked out Peter's voice amongst the men huddled round thefire in the high priest's chamber. 

The lesson is--trust your own experience, whatever people may have tosay against it. If you have found that Jesus Christ can help you, andhas loved you, and that your sins have been forgiven, because youhave trusted in Him, do not let anybody laugh or talk you out of thatconviction. If you cannot argue, do like Rhoda, 'constantly affirmthat it is so. ' That is the right answer, especially if you can sayto the antagonistic party, 'Have you been down to the door, then, tosee?' And if they have to say 'No!' then the right answer is, 'You goand look as I did, and you will come back with the same belief whichI have. '

So at last they open the door and there he stands. Peter's hammer, hammer, hammer at the gate is wonderfully given in the story. It goeson as a kind of running accompaniment through the talk between Rhodaand the friends. It might have put a stop to the conversation, onewould have thought. But Another stands at the door knocking, stillmore persistently, still more patiently. 'Behold! I stand at the doorand knock. If any man open the door I will come in. '

PETER AFTER HIS ESCAPE

'But he, beckoning unto them with the hand to hold their peace, declared unto them how the Lord had brought him forth out of theprison. And he said, Go shew these things unto James, and to thebrethren, And he departed, and went into another place. '--ACTS xii. 17. 

When the angel 'departed from him, ' Peter had to fall back on his ownwits, and they served him well. He 'considered the thing, ' andresolved to make for the house of Mary. He does not seem to haveintended to remain there, so dangerously near Herod, but merely tohave told its inmates of his deliverance, and then to have hiddenhimself somewhere, till the heat of the hunt after him was abated. Apparently he did not go into the house at all, but talked to thebrethren, when they came trooping after Rhoda to open the gate. Thesigns of haste in the latter part of the story, where Peter has tothink and act for himself, contrast strikingly with the majesticleisureliness of the action of the angel, who gave his successivecommands to him to dress completely, as if careless of the sleepinglegionaries who might wake at any moment. There was need for haste, for the night was wearing thin, and the streets of Jerusalem were nosafe promenade for a condemned prisoner, escaped from his guards. 

We do not deal here with the scene in Mary's house and at the gate. We only note, in a word, the touch of nature in Rhoda's forgetting toopen 'for gladness, ' and so leaving Peter in peril, if a detachmentof his guards had already been told off to chase him. Equally true tonature, alas, is the incredulity of the praying 'many, ' when theanswer to their prayers was sent to them. They had rather believethat the poor girl was 'mad' or that, for all their praying, Peterwas dead, and this was his 'angel, ' than that their intense prayerhad been so swiftly and completely answered. Is their behaviour not amirror in which we may see our own?

Very like Peter, as well as very intelligible in the circumstances, is it that he 'continued knocking, ' Well he might, and evidently hisenergetic fusillade of blows was heard even above the clatter ofeager tongues, discussing Rhoda's astonishing assertions. Some one, at last, seems to have kept his head sufficiently to suggest thatperhaps, instead of disputing whether these were true or not, itmight be well to go to the door and see. So they all went in a body, Rhoda being possibly afraid to go alone, and others afraid to staybehind, and there they saw his veritable self. But we notice thatthere is no sign of his being taken in and refreshed or cared for. Hewaved an imperative hand, to quiet the buzz of talk, spoke two orthree brief words, and departed. 

I. Note Peter's account of his deliverance. 

We have often had occasion to remark that the very keynote of thisBook of Acts is the working of Christ from heaven, which to itswriter is as real and efficient as was His work on earth. Peter heretraces his deliverance to 'the Lord. ' He does not stay to mention theangel. His thoughts went beyond the instrument to the hand whichwielded it. Nor does he seem to have been at all astonished at hisdeliverance. His moment of bewilderment, when he did not know whetherhe was dreaming or awake, soon passed, and as soon as 'the sobercertainty of his waking bliss' settled on his mind, his deliveranceseemed to him perfectly natural. What else was it to be expected that'the Lord' would do? Was it not just like Him? There was nothing tobe astonished at, there was everything to be thankful for. That ishow Christian hearts should receive the deliverances which the Lordis still working for them. 

II. Note Peter's message to the brethren. 

James, the Lord's brother, was not an Apostle. That he should havebeen named to receive the message indicates that already he held someconspicuous position, perhaps some office, in the Church. It may alsoimply that there were no Apostles in Jerusalem then. We note alsothat the 'many' who were gathered in Mary's house can have been onlya small part of the whole. We here get a little glimpse into theconditions of the life of a persecuted Church, which a sympatheticimagination can dwell on till it is luminous. Such gatherings aswould attract notice had to be avoided, and what meetings were heldhad to be in private houses and with shut doors, through whichentrance was not easy. Mary's 'door' had a 'gate' in it, and onlythat smaller postern, which admitted but one at a time, was opened tovisitors, and that after scrutiny. But though assemblies wererestricted, communications were kept up, and by underground waysinformation of events important to the community spread through itsmembers. The consciousness of brotherhood was all the strongerbecause of the common danger, the universal peril had not made thebrethren selfish, but sympathetic. We may note, too, how great achange had come since the time when the Christians were in favourwith all the people, and may reflect how fickle are the world'ssmiles for Christ's servants. 

III. Note Peter's disappearance. 

All that is said of it is that he 'went into another place. ' ProbablyLuke did not know where he went. It would be prudent at the time toconceal it, and the habit of concealment may have survived the needfor it. But two points suggest themselves in regard to the Apostle'sflight. There may be a better use for an Apostle than to kill him, and Christ's boldest witnesses are sometimes bound to save themselvesby fleeing into another city. To hide oneself 'till the calamity beoverpast' may be rank cowardice or commendable prudence. All dependson the circumstances of each case. Prudence is an element in courage, and courage without it is fool-hardiness. There are outward dangersfrom which it is Christian duty to run, and there are outward dangerswhich it is Christian duty to face. There are inward temptationswhich it is best to avoid, as there are others which have to befought to the death. Peter was as brave and braver when he went andhid himself, than when he boasted, 'Though all should forsake Thee, yet will not I!' A morbid eagerness for martyrdom wrought much harmin the Church at a later time. The primitive Church was free from it. 

But we must not omit to note that here Peter is dropped out of thehistory, and is scarcely heard of any more. We have a glimpse of himin chapter xv. , at the Council in Jerusalem, but, with thatexception, this is the last mention of him in Acts. How little thisBook cares for its heroes! Or rather how it has only one Hero, andone Name which it celebrates, the name of that Lord to whom Peterascribed his deliverance, and of whom he himself declared that 'thereis none other Name under heaven, given among men, whereby we must besaved. '

END OF VOL. I. 

EXPOSITIONS OF HOLY SCRIPTURE

ALEXANDER MACLAREN, D. D. , Litt. D. 

THE ACTS

_CHAP. XIII TO END_

CONTENTS

TO THE REGIONS BEYOND (Acts xiii. 1-13)

WHY SAUL BECAME PAUL (Acts xiii. 9)

JOHN MARK (Acts xiii. 13)

THE FIRST PREACHING IN ASIA MINOR (Acts xiii. 26-39)

LUTHER--A STONE ON THE CAIRN (Acts xiii. 36, 37)

REJECTERS AND RECEIVERS (Acts xiii. 44-52; xiv. 1-7)

UNWORTHY OF LIFE (Acts xiii. 46)

'FULL OF THE HOLY GHOST' (Acts xiii. 52)

DEIFIED AND STONED (Acts xiv. 11-22)

DREAM AND REALITY (Acts xiv. 11)

'THE DOOR OF FAITH' (Acts xiv. 27)

THE BREAKING OUT OF DISCORD (Acts xv. 1-6)

THE CHARTER OF GENTILE LIBERTY (Acts xv. 12-29)

A GOOD MAN'S FAULTS (Acts xv. 37, 38)

HOW TO SECURE A PROSPEROUS VOYAGE (Acts xvi. 10, 11)

PAUL AT PHILIPPI (Acts xvi. 13, R. V. )

THE RIOT AT PHILIPPI (Acts xvi. 19-34)

THE GREAT QUESTION AND THE PLAIN ANSWER (Acts xvi. 30, 31)

THESSALONICA AND BEREA (Acts xvii. 1-12)

PAUL AT ATHENS (Acts xvii. 22-34)

THE MAN WHO IS JUDGE (Acts xvii. 31)

PAUL AT CORINTH (Acts xviii. 1-11)

'CONSTRAINED BY THE WORD' (Acts xviii. 5)

GALLIO (Acts xviii. 14, 15)

TWO FRUITFUL YEARS (Acts xix. 1-12)

WOULD-BE EXORCISTS (Acts xix. 15)

THE FIGHT WITH WILD BEASTS AT EPHESUS (Acts xix. 21-34)

PARTING COUNSELS (Acts xx. 22-85)

A FULFILLED ASPIRATION (Acts xx. 24; 2 Tim. Iv. 7)

PARTING WORDS (Acts xx. 32)

THE BLESSEDNESS OF GIVING (Acts xx. 35)

DRAWING NEARER TO THE STORM (Acts xxi. 1-15)

PHILIP THE EVANGELIST (Acts xxi. 8)

AN OLD DISCIPLE (Acts xxi. 16)

PAUL IN THE TEMPLE (Acts xxi. 27-39)

PAUL ON HIS OWN CONVERSION (Acts xxii. 6-16)

ROME PROTECTS PAUL (Acts xxii. 17-30)

CHRIST'S WITNESSES (Acts xxiii. 11)

A PLOT DETECTED (Acts xxiii. 12-22)

A LOYAL TRIBUTE (Acts xxiv. 2, 3)

PAUL BEFORE FELIX (Acts xxiv. 10-25)

FELIX BEFORE PAUL (Acts xxiv. 25)

CHRIST'S REMONSTRANCES (Acts xxvi. 14)

FAITH IN CHRIST (Acts xxvi. 18)

'BEFORE GOVERNORS AND KINGS' (Acts xxvi. 19-32)

'THE HEAVENLY VISION' (Acts xxvi. 19)

'ME A CHRISTIAN!' (Acts xxvi. 28)

TEMPEST AND TRUST (Acts xxvii 13-26)

A SHORT CONFESSION OF FAITH (Acts xxvii. 23)

A TOTAL WRECK, ALL HANDS SAVED (Acts xxvii. 30-44)

AFTER THE WRECK (Acts xxviii. 1-16)

THE LAST GLIMPSE OF PAUL (Acts xxviii. 17-31)

PAUL IN ROME (Acts xxviii. 30, 31)

TO THE REGIONS BEYOND

'Now there were in the church that was at Antioch certainprophets and teachers; as Barnabas, and Simeon that was calledNiger, and Lucius of Cyrene, and Manaen, which had been broughtup with Herod the tetrarch, and Saul. 2. As they ministered tothe Lord, and fasted, the Holy Ghost said, Separate me Barnabasand Saul for the work whereunto I have called them. 3. And whenthey had fasted and prayed, and laid their hands on them, theysent them away. A. So they, being sent forth by the Holy Ghost, departed unto Seleucia; and from thence they sailed to Cyprus. 5. And when they were at Salamis, they preached the word of God inthe synagogues of the Jews; and they had also John to theirminister. 6. And when they had gone through the isle unto Paphos, they found a certain sorcerer, a false prophet, a Jew, whose namewas Bar-jesus: 7. Which was with the deputy of the country, Sergius Paulus, a prudent man, who called for Barnabas and Saul, and desired to hear the word of God. 8. But Elymas the sorcerer(for so is his name by interpretation) withstood them, seeking toturn away the deputy from the faith. 9. Then Saul, (who also iscalled Paul, ) filled with the Holy Ghost, set his eyes on him, 10. And said, O full of all subtilty and all mischief, thou childof the devil, thou enemy of all righteousness, wilt thou notcease to pervert the right ways of the Lord? 11. And now, behold, the hand of the Lord is upon thee, and thou shalt be blind, notseeing the sun for a season. And immediately there fell on him amist and a darkness; and he went about seeking some to lead himby the hand. 12. Then the deputy, when he saw what was done, believed, being astonished at the doctrine of the Lord. 13. Nowwhen Paul and his company loosed from Paphos, they came to Pergain Pamphylia: and John departing from them returned toJerusalem. '--ACTS xiii. 1-13. 

We stand in this passage at the beginning of a great step forward. Philip and Peter had each played a part in the gradual expansion ofthe church beyond the limits of Judaism; but it was from the churchat Antioch that the messengers went forth who completed the process. Both its locality and its composition made that natural. 

I. The solemn designation of the missionaries is the first point inthe narrative. The church at Antioch was not left without signs ofChrist's grace and presence. It had its band of 'prophets andteachers. ' As might be expected, four of the five named areHellenists, --that is, Jews born in Gentile lands, and speakingGentile languages. Barnabas was a Cypriote, Simeon's byname of Niger('Black') was probably given because of his dark complexion, whichwas probably caused by his birth in warmer lands. He may have been aNorth African, as Lucius of Cyrene was. Saul was from Tarsus, andonly Manaen remains to represent the pure Palestinian Jew. His hadbeen a strange course, from being foster-brother of the Herod whokilled John to becoming a teacher in the church at Antioch. Barnabaswas the leader of the little group, and the younger Pharisee fromTarsus, who had all along been Barnabas's _protege_, brought up therear. 

The order observed in the list is a little window which shows a greatdeal. The first and last names all the world knows; the other threeare never heard of again. Immortality falls on the two, oblivionswallows up the three. But it matters little whether our names aresounded in men's ears, if they are in the Lamb's book of life. 

These five brethren were waiting on the Lord by fasting and prayer. Apparently they had reason to expect some divine communication, forwhich they were thus preparing themselves. Light will come to thosewho thus seek it. They were commanded to set apart two of theirnumber for 'the work whereunto I have called them. ' That work is notspecified, and yet the two, like carrier pigeons on being let loose, make straight for their line of flight, and know exactly whither theyare to go. 

If we strictly interpret Luke's words ('I _have_ called them'), aprevious intimation from the Spirit had revealed to them the sphereof their work. In that case, the _separation_ was only therecognition by the brethren of the divine appointment. The inwardcall must come first, and no ecclesiastical designation can do morethan confirm that. But the solemn designation by the Churchidentifies those who remain behind with the work of those who goforth; it throws responsibility for sympathy and support on theformer, and it ministers strength and the sense of companionship tothe latter, besides checking that tendency to isolation whichaccompanies earnestness. To go forth on even Christian service, unrecognised by the brethren, is not good for even a Paul. 

But although Luke speaks of the Church sending them away, he takescare immediately to add that it was the Holy Ghost who 'sent themforth. ' Ramsay suggests that 'sent them away' is not the meaning ofthe phrase in verse 3, but that it should be rendered 'gave themleave to depart. ' In any case, a clear distinction is drawn betweenthe action of the Church and that of the Spirit, which constitutedPaul's real commission as an Apostle. He himself says that he was anApostle, 'not from men, neither through man. '

II. The events in the first stage of the journey are next summarilypresented. Note the local colouring in 'went _down_ to Seleucia, ' theseaport of Antioch, at the mouth of the river. The missionaries werenaturally led to begin at Cyprus, as Barnabas's birthplace, and thatof some of the founders of the church at Antioch. 

So, for the first time, the Gospel went to sea, the precursor of somany voyages. It was an 'epoch-making moment' when that ship droppeddown with the tide and put out to sea. Salamis was the nearest porton the south-eastern coast of Cyprus, and there they landed, --Barnabas, no doubt, familiar with all he saw; Saul probably astranger to it all. Their plan of action was that to which Pauladhered in all his after work, --to carry the Gospel to the Jew first, a proceeding for which the manner of worship in the synagogues gavefacilities. No doubt, many such were scattered through Cyprus, andBarnabas would be well known in most. 

They thus traversed the island from east to west. It is noteworthythat only now is John Mark's name brought in as their attendant. Hehad come with them from Antioch, but Luke will not mention him, whenhe is telling of the sending forth of the other two, because Mark wasnot sent by the Spirit, but only chosen by his uncle, and hissubsequent defection did not affect the completeness of theirembassy. His entirely subordinate place is made obvious by the pointat which he appears. 

Nothing of moment happened on the tour till Paphos was reached. Thatwas the capital, the residence of the pro-consul, and the seat of thefoul worship of Venus. There the first antagonist was met. It is notSergius Paulus, pro-consul though he was, who is the central figureof interest to Luke, but the sorcerer who was attached to his train. His character is drawn in Luke's description, and in Paul's fieryexclamation. Each has three clauses, which fall 'like the beats of ahammer. ' 'Sorcerer, false prophet, Jew, ' make a climax of wickedness. That a Jew should descend to dabble in the black art of magic, andplay tricks on the credulity of ignorant people by his knowledge ofsome simple secrets of chemistry; that he should pretend to propheticgifts which in his heart he knew to be fraud, and should be recreantto his ancestral faith, proved him to deserve the penetratingsentence which Paul passed on him. He was a trickster, and knew thathe was: his inspiration came from an evil source; he had come to haterighteousness of every sort. 

Paul was not flinging bitter words at random, or yielding to passion, but was laying the black heart bare to the man's own eyes, that theseeing himself as God saw him might startle him into penitence. 'Thecorruption of the best is the worst. ' The bitterest enemies of God'sways are those who have cast aside their early faith. A Jew who hadstooped to be a juggler was indeed causing God's 'name to beblasphemed among the Gentiles. '

He and Paul each recognised in the other his most formidable foe. Elymas instinctively felt that the pro-consul must be kept fromlistening to the teaching of these two fellow-countrymen, and 'soughtto _pervert_ him from the faith, ' therein _perverting_ (the same wordis used in both cases) 'the right ways of the Lord'; that is, opposing the divine purpose. He was a specimen of a class whoattained influence in that epoch of unrest, when the more cultivatedand nobler part of Roman society had lost faith in the old gods, andwas turning wistfully and with widespread expectation to themysterious East for enlightenment. 

So, like a ship which plunges into the storm as soon as it clears thepier-head, the missionaries felt the first dash of the spray andblast of the wind directly they began their work. Since this wastheir first encounter with a foe which they would often have to meet, the duel assumes importance, and we understand not only the fulnessof the narrative, but the miracle which assured Paul and Barnabas ofChrist's help, and was meant to diffuse its encouragement along theline of their future work. For Elymas it was chastisement, whichmight lead him to cease to pervert the ways of the Lord, and himselfbegin to walk in them. Perhaps, after a season, he did see 'thebetter Sun. '

Saul's part in the incident is noteworthy. We observe the vividtouch, he 'fastened his eyes on him. ' There must have been somethingvery piercing in the fixed gaze of these flashing eyes. But Luketakes pains to prevent our thinking that Paul spoke from his owninsight or was moved by human passion. He was 'filled with the HolyGhost, ' and, as His organ, poured out the scorching words thatrevealed the cowering apostate to himself, and announced the mercifulpunishment that was to fall. We need to be very sure that we aresimilarly filled before venturing to imitate the Apostle's tone. 

III. The shifting of the scene to the mainland presents somenoteworthy points. It is singular that there is no preachingmentioned as having been attempted in Perga, or anywhere along thecoast, but that the two evangelists seem to have gone at once acrossthe great mountain range of Taurus to Antioch of Pisidia. 

A striking suggestion is made by Ramsay to the effect that the reasonwas a sudden attack of the malarial fever which is endemic in thelow-lying coast plains, and for which the natural remedy is to get upamong the mountains. If so, the journey to Antioch of Pisidia may nothave been in the programme to which John Mark had agreed, and hisreturn to Jerusalem may have been due to this departure from theoriginal intention. Be that as it may, he stands for us as a beacon, warning against hasty entrance on great undertakings of which we havenot counted the cost, no less than against cowardly flight from work, as soon as it begins to involve more danger or discomfort than we hadreckoned on. 

John Mark was willing to go a-missionarying as long as he was inCyprus, where he was somebody and much at home, by his relationshipto Barnabas; but when Perga and the climb over Taurus into strangelands came to be called for, his zeal and courage oozed out at hisfinger-ends, and he skulked back to his mother's house at Jerusalem. No wonder that Paul 'thought not good to take with them him whowithdrew from them. ' But even such faint hearts as Mark's may takecourage from the fact that he nobly retrieved his youthful error, andwon back Paul's confidence, and proved himself 'profitable to him forthe ministry. '

WHY SAUL BECAME PAUL

'Saul (who also is called Paul)' . .. --ACTS xiii. 9

Hitherto the Apostle has been known by the former of these names, henceforward he is known exclusively by the latter. Hitherto he hasbeen second to his friend Barnabas, henceforward he is first. In anearlier verse of the chapter we read that 'Barnabas and Saul' wereseparated for their missionary work, and again, that it was 'Barnabasand Saul' for whom the governor of Cyprus sent, to hear the word ofthe Lord. But in a subsequent verse of the chapter we read that 'Pauland his company loosed from Paphos. '

The change in the order of the names is significant, and the changein the names not less so. Why was it that at this period the Apostletook up this new designation? I think that the coincidence betweenhis name and that of the governor of Cyprus, who believed at hispreaching, Sergius Paulus, is too remarkable to be accidental. Andthough, no doubt, it was the custom for the Jews of that day, especially for those of them who lived in Gentile lands, to have, forconvenience' sake, two names, one Jewish and one Gentile--one for useamongst their brethren, and one for use amongst the heathen--still wehave no distinct intimation that the Apostle bore a Gentile namebefore this moment. And the fact that the name which he bears now isthe same as that of his first convert, seems to me to point theexplanation. 

I take it, then, that the assumption of the name of Paul instead ofthe name of Saul occurred at this point, stood in some relation tohis missionary work, and was intended in some sense as a memorial ofhis first victory in the preaching of the Gospel. 

I think that there are lessons to be derived from the substitution ofone of these names for the other which may well occupy us for a fewmoments. 

I. First of all, then, the new name expresses a new nature. 

Jesus Christ gave the Apostle whom He called to Himself in the earlydays, a new name, in order to prophesy the change which, by thediscipline of sorrow and the communication of the grace of God, should pass over Simon Barjona, making him into a Peter, a 'Man ofRock. ' With characteristic independence, Saul chooses for himself anew name, which shall express the change that he feels has passedover his inmost being. True, he does not assume it at his conversion, but that is no reason why we should not believe that he assumes itbecause he is beginning to understand what it is that has happened tohim at his conversion. 

The fact that he changes his name as soon as he throws himself intopublic and active life, is but gathering into one picturesque symbolhis great principle; 'If any man be in Christ Jesus, he is a newcreature. Old things are passed away and all things are become new. '

So, dear brethren, we may, from this incident before us, gather thisone great lesson, that the central heart of Christianity is thepossession of a new life, communicated to us through faith in thatSon of God, Who is the Lord of the Spirit. Wheresoever there is atrue faith, there is a new nature. Opinions may play upon the surfaceof a man's soul, like moonbeams on the silver sea, without raisingits temperature one degree or sending a single beam into its darkcaverns. And that is the sort of Christianity that satisfies a greatmany of you--a Christianity of opinion, a Christianity of surfacecreed, a Christianity which at the best slightly modifies some of ouroutward actions, but leaves the whole inner man unchanged. 

Paul's Christianity meant a radical change in his whole nature. Hewent out of Jerusalem a persecutor, he came into Damascus aChristian. He rode out of Jerusalem hating, loathing, despising JesusChrist; he groped his way into Damascus, broken, bruised, clingingcontrite to His feet, and clasping His Cross as his only hope. Hewent out proud, self-reliant, pluming himself upon his manyprerogatives, his blue blood, his pure descent, his Rabbinicalknowledge, his Pharisaical training, his external religiousearnestness, his rigid morality; he rode into Damascus blind in theeyes, but seeing in the soul, and discerning that all these thingswere, as he says in his strong, vehement way, 'but dung' incomparison with his winning Christ. 

And his theory of conversion, which he preaches in all his Epistles, is but the generalisation of his own personal experience, whichsuddenly, and in a moment, smote his old self to shivers, and raisedup a new life, with new tastes, views, tendencies, aspirations, withnew allegiance to a new King. Such changes, so sudden, sorevolutionary, cannot be expected often to take place amongst peoplewho, like us, have been listening to Christian teaching all ourlives. But unless there be this infusion of a new life into men'sspirits which shall make them love and long and aspire after newthings that once they did not care for, I know not why we shouldspeak of them as being Christians at all. The transition is describedby Paul as 'passing from death unto life. ' That cannot be a surfacething. A change which needs a new name must be a profound change. Hasour Christianity revolutionised our nature in any such fashion? It iseasy to be a Christian after the superficial fashion which passesmuster with so many of us. A verbal acknowledgment of belief intruths which we never think about, a purely external performance ofacts of worship, a subscription or two winged by no sympathy, and afairly respectable life beneath the cloak of which all evil mayburrow undetected--make the Christianity of thousands. Paul'sChristianity transformed him; does yours transform you? If it doesnot, are you quite sure that it _is_ Christianity at all?

II. Then, again, we may take this change of name as being expressiveof a life's work. 

_Paul_ is a Roman name. He strips himself of his Jewish connectionsand relationships. His fellow-countrymen who lived amongst theGentiles were, as I said at the beginning of these remarks, in thehabit of doing the same thing; but they carried _both_ their names;their Jewish for use amongst their own people, their Gentile one foruse amongst Gentiles. Paul seems to have altogether disused his oldname of Saul. It was almost equivalent to seceding from Judaism. Itis like the acts of the renegades whom one sometimes hears of, whoare found by travellers, dressed in turban and flowing robes, andbearing some Turkish name, or like some English sailor, lost to homeand kindred, who deserts his ship in an island of the Pacific, anddrops his English name for a barbarous title, in token that he hasgiven up his faith and his nationality. 

So Paul, contemplating for his life's work preaching amongst theGentiles, determines at the beginning, 'I lay down all of which Iused to be proud. If my Jewish descent and privileges stand in my wayI cast them aside. "Circumcised the eighth day, of the stock ofIsrael, of the tribe of Benjamin, an Hebrew of the Hebrews, astouching the law, a Pharisee, "--all these I wrap together in onebundle, and toss them behind me that I may be the better able to helpsome to whom they would have hindered my access. ' A man with a heartwill throw off his silken robes that his arm may be bared to rescue, and his feet free to run to succour. 

So we may, from the change of the Apostle's name, gather this lesson, never out of date, that the only way to help people is to go down totheir level. If you want to bless men, you must identify yourselfwith them. It is no use standing on an eminence above them, andpatronisingly talking down to them. You cannot scold, or hector, orlecture men into the possession and acceptance of religious truth ifyou take a position of superiority. As our Master has taught us, ifwe want to make blind beggars see we must take the blind beggars bythe hand. 

The spirit which led the Apostle to change the name of Saul, with itsmemories of the royal dignity which, in the person of its greatwearer, had honoured his tribe, for a Roman name is the same which heformally announces as a deliberately adopted law of his life. 'Tothem that are without law I became as without law . .. That I mightgain them that are without law . .. I am made all things to all men, that I might by all means save some. '

It is the very inmost principle of the Gospel. The principle thatinfluenced the servant in this comparatively little matter, is theprinciple that influenced the Master in the mightiest of all events. 'He who was in the form of God, and thought not equality with God athing to be eagerly snatched at, made Himself of no reputation, andwas found in fashion as a man and in form as a servant, and becameobedient unto death. ' 'For as much as the children were partakers offlesh and blood, He Himself likewise took part of the same'; and themystery of incarnation came to pass, because when the Divine wouldhelp men, the only way by which the Infinite love could reach its endwas that the Divine should become man; identifying Himself with thosewhom He would help, and stooping to the level of the humanity that Hewould lift. 

And as it is the very essence and heart of Christ's work, so, mybrother, it is the condition of all work that benefits our fellows. It applies all round. We must stoop if we would raise. We must putaway gifts, culture, everything that distinguishes us, and come tothe level of the men that we seek to help. Sympathy is the parent ofall wise counsel, because it is the parent of all true understandingof our brethren's wants. Sympathy is the only thing to which peoplewill listen, sympathy is the only disposition correspondent to themessage that we Christians are entrusted with. For a Christian man tocarry the Gospel of Infinite condescension to his fellows in a spiritother than that of the Master and the Gospel which he speaks, is ananomaly and a contradiction. 

And, therefore, let us all remember that a vast deal of so-calledChristian work falls utterly dead and profitless, for no other reasonthan this, that the doers have forgotten that they must come to thelevel of the men whom they would help, before they can expect tobless them. 

You remember the old story of the heroic missionary whose heartburned to carry the Gospel of Jesus Christ amongst captives, and asthere was no other way of reaching them, let himself be sold for aslave, and put out his hands to have the manacles fastened upon them. It is the law for all Christian service; become like men if you willhelp them, --'To the weak as weak, all things to all men, that wemight by all means save some. '

And, my brother, there was no obligation on Paul's part to doChristian work which does not lie on you. 

III. Further, this change of name is a memorial of victory. 

The name is that of Paul's first convert. He takes it, as I suppose, because it seemed to him such a blessed thing that at the very momentwhen he began to sow, God helped him to reap. He had gone out to hiswork, no doubt, with much trembling, with weakness and fear. And lo!here, at once, the fields were white already to the harvest, Great conquerors have been named from their victories; Africanus, Germanicus, Nelson of the Nile, Napier of Magdala, and the like. Paulnames himself from the first victory that God gives him to win; andso, as it were, carries ever on his breast a memorial of the wonderthat through him it had been given to preach, and that not withoutsuccess, amongst the Gentiles 'the unsearchable riches of Christ. '

That is to say, this man thought of it as his highest honour, and thething best worthy to be remembered about his life, that God hadhelped him to help his brethren to know the common Master. Is thatyour idea of the best thing about a life? What would you, aprofessing Christian, like to have for an epitaph on your grave? 'Hewas rich; he made a big business in Manchester'; 'He was famous, hewrote books'; 'He was happy and fortunate'; or, 'He turned many torighteousness'? This man flung away his literary tastes, his homejoys, and his personal ambition, and chose as that for which he wouldlive, and by which he would fain be remembered, that he should bringdark hearts to the light in which he and they together walked. 

His name, in its commemoration of his first success, would act as astimulus to service and to hope. No doubt the Apostle, like the restof us, had his times of indolence and languor, and his times ofdespondency when he seemed to have laboured in vain, and spent hisstrength for nought. He had but to say 'Paul' to find the antidote toboth the one and the other, and in the remembrance of the past tofind a stimulus for service for the future, and a stimulus for hopefor the time to come. His first convert was to him the first dropthat predicts the shower, the first primrose that prophesies thewealth of yellow blossoms and downy green leaves that will fill thewoods in a day or two. The first convert 'bears in his hand a glasswhich showeth many more. ' Look at the workmen in the streets tryingto get up a piece of the roadway. How difficult it is to lever outthe first paving stone from the compacted mass! But when once it hasbeen withdrawn, the rest is comparatively easy. We can understandPaul's triumph and joy over the first stone which he had worked outof the strongly cemented wall and barrier of heathenism; and hisconviction that having thus made a breach, if it were but wide enoughto let the end of his lever in, the fall of the whole was only aquestion of time. I suppose that if the old alchemists had turned butone grain of base metal into gold they might have turned tons, ifonly they had had the retorts and the appliances with which to do it. And so, what has brought one man's soul into harmony with God, andgiven one man the true life, can do the same for all men. In thefirst fruits we may see the fields whitening to the harvest. Let usrejoice then, in any little work that God helps us to do, and be surethat if so great be the joy of the first fruits, great beyond speechwill be the joy of the ingathering. 

IV. And now last of all, this change of name is an index of thespirit of a life's work. 

'Paul' means 'little'; 'Saul' means 'desired. ' He abandons the namethat prophesied of favour and honour, to adopt a name that bears uponits very front a profession of humility. His very name is thecondensation into a word of his abiding conviction: 'I am less thanthe least of all saints. ' Perhaps even there may he an allusion tohis low stature, which may be pointed at in the sarcasm of hisenemies that his letters were strong, though his bodily presence was'weak. ' If he was, as Renan calls him, 'an ugly little Jew, ' the namehas a double appropriateness. 

But, at all events, it is an expression of the spirit in which hesought to do his work. The more lofty the consciousness of hisvocation the more lowly will a true man's estimate of himself be. Thehigher my thought of what God has given me grace to do, the moreshall I feel weighed down by the consciousness of my unfitness to doit. And the more grateful my remembrance of what He has enabled me todo, the more shall I wonder that I have been enabled, and the moreprofoundly shall I feel that it is not my strength but His that haswon the victories. 

So, dear brethren, for all hope, for all success in our work, for allgrowth in Christian grace and character, this disposition of lowlyself-abasement and recognised unworthiness and infirmity isabsolutely indispensable. The mountain-tops that lift themselves tothe stars are barren, and few springs find their rise there. It is inthe lowly valleys that the flowers grow and the rivers run. And it isthey who are humble and lowly in heart to whom God gives strength toserve Him, and the joy of accepted service. 

I beseech you, then, learn your true life's task. Learn how to do itby identifying yourselves with the humbler brethren whom you wouldhelp. Learn the spirit in which it must be done; the spirit of lowlyself-abasement. And oh! above all, learn this, that unless you havethe new life, the life of God in your hearts, you have no life atall. 

Have you, my brother, that faith by which we receive into our spiritsChrist's own Spirit, to be our life? If you have, then you are a newcreature, with a new name, perhaps but dimly visible and faintlyaudible, amidst the imperfections of earth, but sure to shine out onthe pages of the Lamb's Book of Life; and to be read 'with tumults ofacclaim' before the angels of Heaven. 'I will give him a white stone, and in the stone a new name written, which no man knoweth save hethat receiveth it. '

JOHN MARK

'. .. John, departing from them, returned to Jerusalem. '--ACTS xiii. 13. 

The few brief notices of John Mark in Scripture are sufficient togive us an outline of his life, and some inkling of his character. Hewas the son of a well-to-do Christian woman in Jerusalem, whose houseappears to have been the resort of the brethren as early as theperiod of Peter's miraculous deliverance from prison. As the cousinof Barnabas he was naturally selected to be the attendant and secularfactotum of Paul and Barnabas on their first missionary journey. Forsome reason, faint-heartedness, lack of interest, levity ofdisposition, or whatever it may have been, he very quickly abandonedthat office and returned to his home. His kindly-natured andindulgent relative sought to reinstate him in his former position onthe second journey of Paul and himself. Paul's kinder severityrefused to comply with the wish of his colleague Barnabas, and sothey part, and Barnabas and Mark sail away to Cyprus, and drop out ofthe Acts of the Apostles. We hear no more about him until near theend of the Apostle Paul's life, when the Epistles to the Colossiansand Philemon show him as again the companion of Paul in hiscaptivity. He seems to have left him in Rome, to have gone to AsiaMinor for a space, to have returned to the Apostle during his lastimprisonment and immediately prior to his death, and then to haveattached himself to the Apostle Peter, and under his direction andinstruction to have written his Gospel. 

Now these are the bones of his story; can we put flesh and blood uponthem: and can we get any lessons out of them? I think we may; at anyrate I am going to try. 

I. Consider then, first, his--what shall I call it? well, if I mayuse the word which Paul himself designates it by, in its correctsignification, we may call it his--apostasy. 

It was not a departure from Christ, but it was a departure from veryplain duty. And if you will notice the point of time at which Markthrew up the work that was laid upon him, you will see the reason forhis doing so. The first place to which the bold evangelists went wasCyprus. Barnabas was a native of Cyprus, which was perhaps the reasonfor selecting it as the place in which to begin the mission. For thesame reason, because it was the native place of his relative, itwould be very easy work for John Mark as long as they stopped inCyprus, among his friends, with people that knew him, and with whomno doubt he was familiar. But as soon as they crossed the strait thatseparated the island from the mainland, and set foot upon the soil ofAsia Minor, so soon he turned tail; like some recruit that goes intobattle, full of fervour, but as soon as the bullets begin to 'ping'makes the best of his way to the rear. He was quite ready formissionary work as long as it was easy work; quite ready to do it aslong as he was moving upon known ground and there was no great callupon his heroism, or his self-sacrifice; he does not wait to test thedifficulties, but is frightened by the imagination of them, does notthrow himself into the work and see how he gets on with it, butbefore he has gone a mile into the land, or made any real experienceof the perils and hardships, has had quite enough of it, and goesaway back to his mother in Jerusalem. 

Yes, and we find exactly the same thing in all kinds of strenuouslife. Many begin to run, but one after another, as 'lap' after 'lap'of the racecourse is got over, has had enough of it, and drops on oneside; a hundred started, and at the end the field is reduced to threeor four. All you men that have grey hairs on your heads can remembermany of your companions that set out in the course with you, 'did runwell' for a little while: what has become of them? This thinghindered one, the other thing hindered another; the swiftly formedresolution died down as fast as it blazed up; and there are perhapssome three or four that, 'by patient continuance in well-doing, ' havebeen tolerably faithful to their juvenile ideal; and to use thehomely word of the homely Abraham Lincoln, kept 'pegging away' atwhat they knew to be the task that was laid upon them. 

This is very 'threadbare' morality, very very familiar and old-fashioned teaching; but I am accustomed to believe that no teachingis threadbare until it is practised; and that however well-worn theplatitudes may be, you and I want them once again unless we haveobeyed them, and done all which they enjoin. And so in regard toevery career which has in it anything of honour and of effort, letJohn Mark teach us the lesson not swiftly to begin andinconsiderately to venture upon a course, but once begun to letnothing discourage, 'nor bate one jot of heart or hope, but stillbear up and steer right onward. '

And still further and more solemnly still, how like this story is tothe experience of hundreds and thousands of young Christians! Any manwho has held such an office as I hold, for as many years as I havefilled it, will have his memory full--and, may I say, his eyes notempty--of men and women who began like this man, earnest, fervid, full of zeal, and who, like him, have slackened in their work; whowere Sunday-school teachers, workers amongst the poor, I know notwhat, when they were young men and women, and who now are idle andunprofitable servants. 

Some of you, dear brethren, need the word of exhortation and earnestbeseeching to contrast the sluggishness, the indolence of yourpresent, with the brightness and the fervour of your past. And Ibeseech you, do not let your Christian life be like that snow that ison the ground about us to-day--when it first lights upon the earth, radiant and white, but day by day gets more covered with a veil ofsooty blackness until it becomes dark and foul. 

Many of us have to acknowledge that the fervour of early days hasdied down into coldness. The river that leapt from its sourcerejoicing, and bickered amongst the hills in such swift and musicaldescent, creeps sluggish and almost stagnant amongst the flats oflater life, or has been lost and swallowed up altogether in thethirsty and encroaching sands of a barren worldliness. Oh! myfriends, let us all ponder this lesson, and see to it that norepetition of the apostasy of this man darken our Christian lives andsadden our Christian conscience. 

II. And now let me ask you to look next, in the development of thislittle piece of biography, to Mark's eclipse. 

Paul and Barnabas differed about how to treat the renegade. Which ofthem was right? Would it have been better to have put him back in hisold post, and given him another chance, and said nothing about thefailure; or was it better to do what the sterner wisdom of Paul did, and declare that a man who had once so forgotten himself andabandoned his work was not the man to put in the same place again?Barnabas' highest quality, as far as we know, was a certain kind ofbroad generosity and rejoicing to discern good in all men. He was a'son of consolation'; the gentle kindness of his natural disposition, added to the ties of relationship, influenced him in his wishregarding his cousin Mark. He made a mistake. It would have been thecruellest thing that could have been done to his relative to have puthim back again without acknowledgment, without repentance, withouthis riding quarantine for a bit, and holding his tongue for a while. He would not then have known his fault as he ought to have known it, and so there would never have been the chance of his conquering it. 

The Church manifestly sympathised with Paul, and thought that he tookthe right view; for the contrast is very significant between theunsympathising silence which the narrative records as attending thedeparture of Barnabas and Mark--'Barnabas took Mark, and sailed awayto Cyprus'--and the emphasis with which it tells us that the otherpartner in the dispute, Paul, 'took Silas and departed, beingrecommended by the brethren to the grace of God. '

The people at Antioch had no doubt who was right, and I think theywere right in so deciding. So let us learn that God treats Hisrenegades as Paul treated Mark, and not as Barnabas would havetreated him, He is ready, even infinitely ready, to forgive and torestore, but desires to see the consciousness of the sin first, anddesires, before large tasks are re-committed to hands that once havedropped them, to have some kind of evidence that the hands have grownstronger and the heart purified from its cowardice and itsselfishness. Forgiveness does not mean impunity. The infinite mercyof God is not mere weak indulgence which so deals with a man'sfailures and sins as to convey the impression that these are of nomoment whatsoever. And Paul's severity which said: 'No, such work isnot fit for such hands until the heart has been "broken and healed, "'is of a piece with God's severity which is love. 'Thou wast a Godthat forgavest them, though Thou tookest vengeance of theirinventions. ' Let us learn the difference between a weak charity whichloves too foolishly, and therefore too selfishly, to let a maninherit the fruit of his doings, and the large mercy which knows howto take the bitterness out of the chastisement, and yet knows how tochastise. 

And still further, this which I have called Mark's eclipse may teachus another lesson, viz. , that the punishment for shirking work is tobe denied work, just as the converse is true, that in God'sadministration of the world and of His Church, the reward forfaithful work is to get more to do, and the filling a narrower sphereis the sure way to have a wider sphere to fill. So if a man abandonsplain duties, then he will get no work to do. And that is why so manyChristian men and women are idle in this world; and stand in themarket-place, saying, with a certain degree of truth, 'No man hathhired us. ' No; because so often in the past tasks have been presentedto you, forced upon you, almost pressed into your unwilling hands, that you have refused to take; and you are not going to get any more. You have been asked to work, --I speak now to professing Christians--duties have been pressed upon you, fields of service have openedplainly before you, and you have not had the heart to go into them. And so you stand idle all the day now, and the work goes to otherpeople that will do it. Thus God honours them, and passes you by. 

Mark sails away to Cyprus, he does not go back to Jerusalem; he andBarnabas try to get up some little schismatic sort of mission oftheir own. Nothing comes of it; nothing ought to have come of it. Hedrops out of the story; he has no share in the joyful conflicts andsacrifices and successes of the Apostle. When he heard how Paul, byGod's help, was flaming like a meteor from East to West, do you notthink he wished that he had not been such a coward? When the Lord wasopening doors, and he saw how the work was prospering in the hands ofancient companions, and Silas filled the place that he might havefilled, if he had been faithful to God, do you not think the bitterthought occupied his mind, of how he had flung away what never couldcome back to him now? The punishment of indolence is absoluteidleness. 

So, my friends, let us learn this lesson, that the largest rewardthat God can give to him that has been faithful in a few things, isto give him many things to be faithful over. Beware, all of youprofessing Christians, lest to you should come the fate of theslothful servant with his one burled talent, to whom the punishmentof burying it unused was to lose it altogether; according to thatsolemn word which was fulfilled in the temporal sphere in this storyon which I am commenting: 'To him that hath shall be given, and fromhim that hath not, even that he hath shall be taken away. '

III. Again consider the process of recovery. 

Concerning it we read nothing indeed in Scripture; but concerning itwe know enough to be able at least to determine what its outline musthave been. The silent and obscure years of compulsory inactivity hadtheir fruit, no doubt. There is only one road, with well-markedstages, by which a backsliding or apostate Christian can return tohis Master. And that road has three halting-places upon it, throughwhich the heart must pass if it have wandered from its early faith, and falsified its first professions. The first of them is theconsciousness of the fall, the second is the resort to the Master forforgiveness; and the last is the deepened consecration to Him. 

The patriarch Abraham, in a momentary lapse from faith to sense, thought himself compelled to leave the land to which God had senthim, because a famine threatened; and when he came back from Egypt, as the narrative tells us with deep significance, he went to the'place where he had pitched his tent at the beginning; to the altarwhich lie had reared at the first. ' Yes, my friends, we must beginover again, tread all the old path, enter by the old wicket-gate, once more take the place of the penitent, once more make acquaintancewith the pardoning Christ, once more devote ourselves in renewedconsecration to His service. No man that wanders into the wildernessbut comes back by the King's highway, if he comes back at all. 

IV. And so lastly, notice the reinstatement of the penitent renegade. 

If you turn at your leisure to the remaining notices of John Mark inScripture, you will find, in two of Paul's Epistles of the captivity, viz. , those to the Colossians and Philemon, references to him; andthese references are of a very interesting and beautiful nature. Paulsays that in Rome Mark was one of the four born Jews who had been acordial and a comfort to him in his imprisonment. He commends him, inthe view of a probable journey, to the loving reception of the churchat Colosse, as if they knew something derogatory to his character, the impression of which the Apostle desired to remove. He sends toPhilemon the greetings of the repentant renegade in strangejuxtaposition with the greetings of two other men, one who was anapostate at the end of his career instead of at the beginning, and ofwhom we do not read that he ever came back, and one who all his lifelong is the type of a faithful friend and companion, 'Mark, Demas, Luke' are bracketed as greeting Philemon; the first a runaway thatcame back, the second a fugitive who, so far as we know, neverreturned, and the last the faithful friend throughout. 

And then in Paul's final Epistle, and in almost the last words of it, we read his request to Timothy. 'Take Mark, and bring him with thee, for he is profitable to me for the ministry. ' The first notice of himwas: 'They had John to their minister'; the last word about him is:'he is profitable for the ministry. ' The Greek words in the originalare not identical, but their meaning is substantially the same. Sonotwithstanding the failure, notwithstanding the wise refusal of Paulyears before to have anything more to do with him, he is nowreinstated in his old office, and the aged Apostle, before he dies, would like to have the comfort of his presence once more at his side. Is not the lesson out of that, this eternal Gospel that even earlyfailures, recognised and repented of, may make a man better fittedfor the tasks from which once he fled? Just as they tell us--I do notknow whether it is true or not, it will do for an illustration--justas they tell us that a broken bone renewed is stronger at the pointof fracture than it ever was before, so the very sin that we commit, when once we know it for a sin, and have brought it to Christ forforgiveness, may minister to our future efficiency and strength. TheIsraelites fought twice upon one battlefield. On the first occasionthey were shamefully defeated; on the second, on the same ground, andagainst the same enemies, they victoriously emerged from theconflict, and reared the stone which said, 'Ebenezer!' 'Hitherto theLord hath helped us. '

And so the temptations which have been sorest may be overcome, thesins into which we most naturally fall we may put our foot upon; thepast is no specimen of what the future may be. The page that is yetto be written need have none of the blots of the page that we haveturned over shining through it. Sin which we have learned to know forsin and to hate, teaches us humility, dependence, shows us where ourweak places are. Sin which is forgiven knits us to Christ with deeperand more fervid love, and results in a larger consecration. Think ofthe two ends of this man's life--flying like a frightened hare fromthe very first suspicion of danger or of difficulty, sulking in hissolitude, apart from all the joyful stir of consecration and ofservice; and at last made an evangelist to proclaim to the wholeworld the story of the Gospel of the Servant. God works with brokenreeds, and through them breathes His sweetest music. 

So, dear brethren, 'Take with you words, and return unto the Lord;say unto Him, Take away all iniquity, and receive us graciously, ' andthe answer will surely be:--'I will heal their backsliding; I willlove them freely; I will be as the dew unto Israel. '

THE FIRST PREACHING IN ASIA MINOR

'Men and brethren, children of the stock of Abraham, andwhosoever among you feareth God, to you is the word of thissalvation sent. 27. For they that dwell at Jerusalem, and theirrulers, because they knew Him not, nor yet the voices of theprophets which are read every Sabbath day, they have fulfilledthem in condemning Him. 28. And though they found no cause ofdeath in Him, yet desired they Pilate that he should be slain. 29. And when they had fulfilled all that was written of Him, theytook Him down from the tree, and laid Him in a sepulchre. 30. ButGod raised Him from the dead: 31. And He was seen many days ofthem which came up with Him from Galilee to Jerusalem, who areHis witnesses unto the people. 32. And we declare unto you gladtidings, how that the promise which was made unto the fathers, 33. God hath fulfilled the same unto us their children, in thatHe hath raised up Jesus again; as it is also written in thesecond psalm. Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten Thee. 34. And as concerning that He raised Him up from the dead, now nomore to return to corruption, He said on this wise, I will giveyou the sure mercies of David. 35. Wherefore He saith also inanother psalm, Thou shalt not suffer thine Holy One to seecorruption. 36. For David, after he had served his own generationby the will of God, fell on sleep, and was laid unto his fathers, and saw corruption: 37. But He, whom God raised again, saw nocorruption. 38. Be it known unto you therefore, men and brethren, that through this Man is preached unto you the forgiveness ofsins: 39. And by Him all that believe are justified from allthings, from which ye could not be justified by the law ofMoses. '--ACTS xiii. 26-39. 

The extended report of Paul's sermon in the synagogue at Antioch ofPisidia marks it, in accordance with Luke's method, as the first of aseries. It was so because, though the composition of the audience wasidentical with that of those in the synagogues of Cyprus, this wasthe beginning of the special work of the tour, the preaching in thecities of Asia Minor. The part of the address contained in thepassage falls into three sections, --the condensed narrative of theGospel facts (vs. 26-31), the proof that the resurrection wasprophesied (vs. 32-37), and the pungent personal application (v. 38to end). 

I. The substance of the narrative coincides, as it could not but do, with Peter's sermons, but yet with differences, partly due to thedifferent audience, partly to Paul's idiosyncrasy. After thepreceding historical _resume_, he girds himself to his proper work ofproclaiming the Gospel, and he marks the transition in verse 26 byreiterating his introductory words. 

His audience comprised the two familiar classes of Jews and Gentileproselytes, and he seeks to win the ears of both. His heart goes outin his address to them all as 'brethren, ' and in his classing himselfand Barnabas among them as receivers of the message which he has toproclaim. What skill, if it were not something much more sacred, evenhumility and warm love, lies in that 'to _us_ is the word of thissalvation sent'! He will not stand above them as if he had any otherpossession of his message than they might have. He, too, has receivedit, and what he is about to say is not his word, but God's message tothem and him. That is the way to preach. 

Notice, too, how skilfully he introduces the narrative of therejection of Jesus as the reason why the message has now come to themhis hearers away in Antioch. It is 'sent forth' 'to us, ' AsiaticJews, _for_ the people in the sacred city would not have it. Pauldoes not prick his hearers' consciences, as Peter did, by charginghome the guilt of the rejection of Jesus on them. They had no sharein that initial crime. There is a faint purpose of dissociatinghimself and his hearers from the people of Jerusalem, to whom theDispersion were accustomed to look up, in the designation, 'they thatdwell in Jerusalem, and _their_ rulers. ' Thus far the Antioch Jewshad had hands clean from that crime; they had now to choose whetherthey would mix themselves up with it. 

We may further note that Paul says nothing about Christ's life ofgentle goodness, His miracles or teaching, but concentrates attentionon His death and resurrection. From the beginning of his ministrythese were the main elements of his 'Gospel' (1 Cor. Xv. 3, 4). Thefull significance of that death is not declared here. Probably it wasreserved for subsequent instruction. But it and the Resurrection, which interpreted it, are set in the forefront, as they should alwaysbe. The main point insisted on is that the men of Jerusalem werefulfilling prophecy in slaying Jesus. With tragic deafness, they knewnot the voices of the prophets, clear and unanimous as they were, though they heard them every Sabbath of their lives, and yet theyfulfilled them. A prophet's words had just been read in thesynagogue; Paul's words might set some hearer asking whether a veilhad been over his heart while his ears had heard the sound of theword. 

The Resurrection is established by the only evidence for a historicalfact, the testimony of competent eyewitnesses. Their competence isestablished by their familiar companionship with Jesus during Hiswhole career; their opportunities for testing the reality of thefact, by the 'many days' of His appearances. 

Paul does not put forward his own testimony to the Resurrection, though we know, from 1 Corinthians xv. 8, that he regarded Christ'sappearance to him as being equally valid evidence with that affordedby the other appearances; but he distinguishes between the work ofthe Apostles, as 'witnesses unto the people'--that is, the Jews ofPalestine--and that of Barnabas and himself. They had to bear themessage to the regions beyond. The Apostles and he had the same work, but different spheres. 

II. The second part turns with more personal address to his hearers. Its purport is not so much to preach the Resurrection, which couldonly be proved by testimony, as to establish the fact that it was thefulfilment of the promises to the fathers. Note how the idea offulfilled prophecy runs in Paul's head. The Jews had _fulfilled_ itby their crime; God _fulfilled_ it by the Resurrection. Thisreiteration of a key-word is a mark of Paul's style in his Epistles, and its appearance here attests the accuracy of the report of hisspeech. 

The second Psalm, from which Paul's first quotation is made, isprophetic of Christ, inasmuch as it represents in vivid lyricallanguage the vain rebellion of earthly rulers against Messiah, andJehovah's establishing Him and His kingdom by a steadfast decree. Peter quoted its picture of the rebels, as fulfilled in the coalitionof Herod, Pilate, and the Jewish rulers against Christ. The Messianicreference of the Psalm, then, was already seen; and we may not begoing too far if we assume that Jesus Himself had included it amongthings written in the Psalms 'concerning Himself, ' which He hadexplained to the disciples after the Resurrection. It depicts Jehovahspeaking to Messiah, _after_ the futile attempts of the rebels: 'Thisday have I begotten Thee. ' That day is a definite point in time. TheResurrection was a birth from the dead; so Paul, in Colossians i. 18, calls Jesus 'the first begotten from the dead. ' Romans i. 4, 'declaredto be the Son of God . .. By the resurrection from the dead, ' is thebest commentary on Paul's words here. 

The second and third quotations must apparently be combined, for thesecond does not specifically refer to resurrection, but it promisesto 'you, ' that is to those who obey the call to partake in theMessianic blessings, a share in the 'sure' and enduring 'mercies ofDavid'; and the third quotation shows that not 'to see corruption'was one of these 'mercies. ' That implies that the speaker in thePsalm was, in Paul's view, David, and that his words were hisbelieving answer to a divine promise. But David was dead. Had the'sure mercy' proved, then, a broken reed? Not so: for Jesus, who isMessiah, and is God's 'Holy One' in a deeper sense than David was, has not seen corruption. The Psalmist's hopes are fulfilled in Him, and through Him, in all who will 'eat' that their 'souls may live, '

III. But Paul's yearning for his brethren's salvation is not contentwith proclaiming the fact of Christ's resurrection, nor with pointingto it as fulfilling prophecy; he gathers all up into a loving, urgentoffer of salvation for every believing soul, and solemn warning todespisers. Here the whole man flames out. Here the characteristicevangelical teaching, which is sometimes ticketed as 'Pauline' by wayof stigma, is heard. Already had he grasped the great antithesisbetween Law and Gospel. Already his great word 'justified' has takenits place in his terminology. The essence of the Epistles to Romansand Galatians is here. Justification is the being pronounced andtreated as not guilty. Law cannot justify. 'In Him' we are justified. Observe that this is an advance on the previous statement that'through Him' we receive remission of sins. 

'In Him' points, thought but incidentally and slightly, to the greattruth of incorporation with Jesus, of which Paul had afterwards somuch to write. The justifying in Christ is complete and absolute. Andthe sole sufficient condition of receiving it is faith. But thegreater the glory of the light the darker the shadow which it casts. The broad offer of complete salvation has ever to be accompanied withthe plain warning of the dread issue of rejecting it. Just because itis so free and full, and to be had on such terms, the warning has tobe rung into deaf ears, 'Beware _therefore_!' Hope and fear arelegitimately appealed to by the Christian evangelist. They are likethe two wings which may lift the soul to soar to its safe shelter inthe Rock of Ages. 

LUTHER--A STONE ON THE CAIRN

'For David, after he had served his own generation by thewill of God, fell on sleep, and was laid unto his fathers, and saw corruption: 37. But He, whom God raised again, sawno corruption. '--ACTS xiii. 36, 37. 

I take these words as a motto rather than as a text. You will haveanticipated the use which I purpose to make of them in connectionwith the Luther Commemoration. They set before us, in clear sharpcontrast, the distinction between the limited, transient work of theservants and the unbounded, eternal influence of the Master. Theformer are servants, and that but for a time; they do their work, they are laid in the grave, and as their bodies resolve into theirelements, so their influence, their teaching, the institutions whichthey may have founded, disintegrate and decay. He lives. His relationto the world is not as theirs; He is 'not for an age, but for alltime. ' Death is not the end of His work. His Cross is the eternalfoundation of the world's hope. His life is the ultimate, perfectrevelation of the divine Nature which can never be surpassed, orfathomed, or antiquated. Therefore the last thought, in allcommemorations of departed teachers and guides, should be of Him whogave them all the force that they had; and the final word should be:'They were not suffered to continue by reason of death, this Mancontinueth ever. '

In the same spirit then as the words of my text, and taking them asgiving me little more than a starting-point and a framework, I drawfrom them some thoughts appropriate to the occasion. 

I. First, we have to think about the limited and transient work ofthis great servant of God. 

The miner's son, who was born in that little Saxon village fourhundred years ago, presents at first sight a character singularlyunlike the traditional type of mediaeval Church fathers and saints. Their ascetic habits, and the repressive system under which they weretrained, withdraw them from our sympathy; but this sturdy peasant, with his full-blooded humanity, unmistakably a man, and a man allround, is a new type, and looks strangely out of place amongstdoctors and mediaeval saints. 

His character, though not complex, is many-sided and in some respectscontradictory. The face and figure that look out upon us from thebest portraits of Luther tell us a great deal about the man. Strong, massive, not at all elegant; he stands there, firm and resolute, onhis own legs, grasping a _Bible_ in a muscular hand. There is plentyof animalism--a source of power as well as of weakness--in the thickneck; an iron will in the square chin; eloquence on the full, looselips; a mystic, dreamy tenderness and sadness in the steadfast eyes--altogether a true king and a leader of men!

The first things that strike one in the character are the iron willthat would not waver, the indomitable courage that knew no fear, thesplendid audacity that, single-handed, sprang into the arena for acontest to the death with Pope, Emperors, superstitions, and devils;the insight that saw the things that were 'hid from the wise andprudent, ' and the answering sincerity that would not hide what hesaw, nor say that he saw what he did not. 

But there was a great deal more than that in the man. He was no merebrave revolutionary, he was a cultured scholar, abreast of all thelearning of his age, capable of logic-chopping and scholasticdisputation on occasion, and but too often the victim of his ownover-subtle refinements. He was a poet, with a poet's dreaminess andwaywardness, fierce alternations of light and shade, sorrow and joy. All living things whispered and spoke to him, and he walked incommunion with them all. Little children gathered round his feet, andhe had a big heart of love for all the weary and the sorrowful. 

Everybody knows how he could write and speak. He made the Germanlanguage, as we may say, lifting it up from a dialect of boors tobecome the rich, flexible, cultured speech that it is. And his Bible, his single-handed work, is one of the colossal achievements of man;like Stonehenge or the Pyramids. 'His words were half-battles, ' 'theywere living creatures that had hands and feet'; his speech, direct, strong, homely, ready to borrow words from the kitchen or the gutter, is unmatched for popular eloquence and impression. There was music inthe man. His flute solaced his lonely hours in his home atWittemberg; and the Marseillaise of the Reformation, as that grandhymn of his has been called, came, words and music, from his heart. There was humour in him, coarse horseplay often; an honest, hearty, broad laugh frequently, like that of a Norse god. There were coarsetastes in him, tastes of the peasant folk from whom he came, whichclung to him through life, and kept him in sympathy with the commonpeople, and intelligible to them. And withal there was aconstitutional melancholy, aggravated by his weary toils, perilousfightings, and fierce throes, which led him down often into the deepmire where there was no standing; and which sighs through all hislife. The penitential Psalms and Paul's wail: 'O wretched man that Iam, ' perhaps never woke more plaintive echo in any human heart thanthey did in Martin Luther's. 

Faults he had, gross and plain as the heroic mould in which he wascast. He was vehement and fierce often; he was coarse and violentoften. He saw what he did see so clearly, that he was slow to believethat there was anything that he did not see. He was oblivious ofcounterbalancing considerations, and given to exaggerated, incautious, unguarded statements of precious truths. He too oftenaspired to be a driver rather than a leader of men; and his strengthof will became obstinacy and tyranny. It was too often true that hehad dethroned the pope of Rome to set up a pope at Wittemberg. Andfoul personalities came from his lips, according to the badcontroversial fashion of his day, which permitted a licence toscholars that we now forbid to fishwives. 

All that has to be admitted; and when it is all admitted, what then?This is a fastidious generation; Erasmus is its heroic type a greatdeal more than Luther--I mean among the cultivated classes of ourday--and that very largely because in Erasmus there is no quicksensibility to religious emotion as there is in Luther, and noinconvenient fervour. The faults are there--coarse, plain, palpable--and perhaps more than enough has been made of them. Let us remember, as to his violence, that he was following the fashion of the day;that he was fighting for his life; that when a man is at death-gripswith a tiger he may be pardoned if he strikes without consideringwhether he is going to spoil the skin or not; and that on the wholeyou cannot throttle snakes in a graceful attitude. Men fought thenwith bludgeons; they fight now with dainty polished daggers, dippedin cold, colourless poison of sarcasm. Perhaps there was less malicein the rougher old way than in the new. 

The faults are there, and nobody who is not a fool would think ofpainting that homely Saxon peasant-monk's face without the warts andthe wrinkles. But it is quite as unhistorical, and a great deal morewicked, to paint nothing but the warts and wrinkles; to rake all thefaults together and make the most of them; and present them in answerto the question: 'What sort of a man was Martin Luther?'

As to the work that he did, like the work of all of us, it had itslimitations, and it will have its end. The impulse that hecommunicated, like all impulses that are given from men, will wearout its force. New questions will arise of which the dead leadersnever dreamed, and in which they can give no counsel. The perspectiveof theological thought will alter, the centre of interest willchange, a new dialect will begin to be spoken. So it comes to passthat all religious teachers and thinkers are left behind, and thattheir words are preserved and read rather for their antiquarian andhistorical interest than because of any impulse or direction for thepresent which may linger in them; and if they founded institutions, these too, in their time, will crumble and disappear. 

But I do not mean to say that the truths which Luther rescued fromthe dust of centuries, and impressed upon the conscience of TeutonicEurope, are getting antiquated. I only mean that his connection withthem and his way of putting them, had its limitations and will haveits end: 'This man, having served his own generation by the will ofGod, was gathered to his fathers, and saw corruption. '

What _were_ the truths, what was his contribution to the illuminationof Europe, and to the Church? Three great principles--which perhapscloser analysis might reduce to one; but which for popular use, onsuch an occasion as the present, had better be kept apart--will statehis service to the world. 

There were three men in the past who, as it seems to me, reach outtheir hands to one another across the centuries--Paul, St. Augustine, and Martin Luther, The three very like each other, all three of themjoining the same subtle speculative power with the same capacity ofreligious fervour, and of flaming up at the contemplation of divinetruth; all of them gifted with the same exuberant, and to fastidiouseyes, incorrect eloquence; all three trained in a school of religiousthought of which each respectively was destined to be the antagonistand all but the destroyer. 

The young Pharisee, on the road to Damascus, blinded, bewildered, with all that vision flaming upon him, sees in its light his past, which he thought had been so pure, and holy, and God-serving, andamazedly discovers that it had been all a sin and a crime, and apersecution of the divine One. Beaten from every refuge, and lyingthere, he cries: 'What wouldst Thou have me to do, Lord?'

The young Manichean and profligate in the fourth century, and theyoung monk in his convent in the fifteenth, passed through a similarexperience;--different in form, identical in substance--with that ofPaul the persecutor. And so Paul's Gospel, which was the descriptionand explanation, the rationale, of his own experience, became theirGospel; and when Paul said: 'Not by works of righteousness which ourown hands have done, but by His mercy He saved us' (Titus iii. 5), the great voice from the North African shore, in the midst of theagonies of barbarian invasions and a falling Rome, said 'Amen. Manlives by faith, ' and the voice from the Wittemberg convent, athousand years after, amidst the unspeakable corruption of thatphosphorescent and decaying Renaissance, answered across thecenturies, 'It is true!' 'Herein is the righteousness of God revealedfrom faith to faith. ' Luther's word to the world was Augustine's wordto the world; and Luther and Augustine were the echoes of Saul ofTarsus--and Paul learned his theology on the Damascus road, when thevoice bade him go and proclaim 'forgiveness of sins, and inheritanceamong them which are sanctified by faith that is in Me' (Acts xxvi. 18). That is Luther's first claim on our gratitude, that he took thistruth from the shelves where it had reposed, dust-covered, throughcenturies, that he lifted this truth from the bier where it had lain, smothered with sacerdotal garments, and called with a loud voice, 'Isay unto thee, arise!' and that now the commonplace of Christianityis this: All men are sinful men, justice condemns us all, our onlyhope is God's infinite mercy, that mercy comes to us all in JesusChrist that died for us, and he that gets that into his heart bysimple faith, he is forgiven, pure, and he is an heir of Heaven. 

There are other aspects of Christian truth which Luther failed toapprehend. The Gospel is, of course, not merely a way ofreconciliation and forgiveness. He pushed his teaching of theuselessness of good works as a means of salvation too far. He saidrash and exaggerated things in his vehement way about the 'justifyingpower' of faith alone. Doubtless his language was often overstrained, and his thoughts one-sided, in regard to subjects that need verydelicate handling and careful definition. But after all this isadmitted, it remains true that his strong arm tossed aside thebarriers and rubbish that had been piled across the way by whichprodigals could go home to their Father, and made plain once more theendless mercy of God, and the power of humble faith. He was rightwhen he declared that whatever heights and depths there may be inGod's great revelation, and however needful it is for a completeapprehension of the truth as it is in Jesus that these should findtheir place in the creed of Christendom, still the firmness withwhich that initial truth of man's sinfulness and his forgiveness andacceptance through simple faith in Christ is held, and the clearearnestness with which it is proclaimed, are the test of a standingor a falling Church. 

And then closely connected with this central principle, and yetsusceptible of being stated separately, are the other two; of neitherof which do I think it necessary to say more than a word. Followingon that great discovery--for it was a discovery--by the monk in hisconvent, of justification by faith, there comes the other principleof the entire sweeping away of all priesthood, and the direct accessto God of every individual Christian soul. There are no more externalrites to be done by a designated and separate class. There is onesacrificing Priest, and one only, and that is Jesus Christ, who hassacrificed Himself for us all, and there are no other priests, exceptin the sense in which every Christian man is a priest and minister ofthe most high God. And no man comes between me and my Father; and noman has power to do anything for me which brings me any grace, exceptin so far as mine own heart opens for the reception, and mine ownfaith lays hold of the grace given. 

Luther did not carry that principle so far as some of us modernNonconformists carry it. He left illogical fragments ofsacramentarian and sacerdotal theories in his creed and in hisChurch. But, for all that, we owe mainly to him the clear utteranceof that thought, the warm breath of which has thawed the ice chainswhich held Europe in barren bondage. Notwithstanding the presentportentous revival of sacerdotalism, and the strange turning again ofportions of society to these beggarly elements of the past, I believethat the figments of a sacrificing priesthood and sacramentalefficacy will never again permanently darken the sky in this land, the home of the men who speak the tongue of Milton, and owe much oftheir religious and political freedom to the reformation of Luther. 

And the third point, which is closely connected with these other two, is this, the declaration that every illuminated Christian soul has aright and is bound to study God's Word without the Church at hiselbow to teach him what to think about it. It was Luther's greatachievement that, whatever else he did, he put the Bible into thehands of the common people. In that department and region, his workperhaps bears more distinctly the traces of limitation andimperfection than anywhere else, for he knew nothing--how could he?--of the difficult questions of this day in regard to the compositionand authority of Scripture, nor had he thought out his own system ordone full justice to his own principle. 

He could be as inquisitorial and as dogmatic as any Dominican of themall. He believed in force; he was as ready as all his fellows were toinvoke the aid of the temporal power. The idea of the Church, ashelped and sustained--which means fettered, and weakened, andparalysed--by the civic government, bewitched him as it did hisfellows. We needed to wait for George Fox, and Roger Williams, andmore modern names still, before we understood fully what was involvedin the rejection of priesthood, and the claim that God's Word shouldspeak directly to each Christian soul. But for all that, we largelyowe to Luther the creed that looks in simple faith to Christ, aChurch without a priest, in which every man is a priest of the MostHigh, --the only true democracy that the world will ever see--and aChurch in which the open Bible and the indwelling Spirit are theguides of every humble soul within its pale. These are his claims onour gratitude. 

Luther's work had its limitations and its imperfections, as I havebeen saying to you. It will become less and less conspicuous as theages go on. It cannot be otherwise. That is the law of the world. Asa whole green forest of the carboniferous era is represented now inthe rocks by a thin seam of coal, no thicker than a sheet of paper, so the stormy lives and the large works of the men that have gonebefore, are compressed into a mere film and line, in the great cliffthat slowly rises above the sea of time and is called the history ofthe world. 

II. Be it so; be it so! Let us turn to the other thought of our text, the perpetual work of the abiding Lord. 

'He whom God raised up saw no corruption. ' It is a fact that thereare thousands of men and women in the world to-day who have a feelingabout that nineteen-centuries-dead Galilean carpenter's son that theyhave about no one else. All the great names of antiquity are butghosts and shadows, and all the names in the Church and in the world, of men whom we have not seen, are dim and ineffectual to us. They mayevoke our admiration, our reverence, and our wonder, but none of themcan touch our hearts. But here is this unique, anomalous fact thatmen and women by the thousand love Jesus Christ, the dead One, theunseen One, far away back there in the ages, and feel that there isno mist of oblivion between them and Him. 

That is because He does for you and me what none of these other mencan do. Luther preached about the Cross; Christ _died_ on it. 'WasPaul crucified for you?' there is the secret of His undying hold uponthe world. The further secret lies in this, that He is not a pastforce but a present one. He is no exhausted power but a power mightyto-day; working in us, around us, on us, and for us--a living Christ. 'This Man whom God raised up from the dead saw no corruption, ' theothers move away from us like figures in a fog, dim as they pass intothe mists, having a blurred half-spectral outline for a moment, andthen gone. 

Christ's death has a present and a perpetual power. He has 'offeredone sacrifice for sins for ever'; and no time can diminish theefficacy of His Cross, nor our need of it, nor the full tide ofblessings which flow from it to the believing soul. Therefore do mencling to Him today as if it was but yesterday that He had died forthem. When all other names carved on the world's records have becomeunreadable, like forgotten inscriptions on decaying grave-stones, Hisshall endure for ever, deep graven on the fleshly tables of theheart. His revelation of God is the highest truth. Till the end oftime men will turn to His life for their clearest knowledge andhappiest certainty of their Father in heaven. There is nothinglimited or local in His character or works. In His meek beauty andgentle perfectness, He stands so high above us all that, to-day, theinspiration of His example and the lessons of His conduct touch us asmuch as if He had lived in this generation, and will always shinebefore men as their best and most blessed law of conduct. Christ willnot be antiquated till He is outgrown, and it will be some timebefore that happens. 

But Christ's power is not only the abiding influence of His earthlylife and death. He is not a past force, but a present one. He isputting forth fresh energies to-day, working in and for and by allwho love Him. We believe in a living Christ. 

Therefore the final thought, in all our grateful commemoration ofdead helpers and guides, should be of the undying Lord. He sentwhatsoever power was in them. He is with His Church to-day, stillgiving to men the gifts needful for their times. Aaron may die onHor, and Moses be laid in his unknown grave on Pisgah, but the Angelof the Covenant, who is the true Leader, abides in the pillar ofcloud and fire, Israel's guide in the march, and covering shelter inrepose. That is our consolation in our personal losses when our dearones are 'not suffered to continue by reason of death. ' He who gavethem all their sweetness is with us still, and has all the sweetnesswhich He lent them for a time. So if we have Christ with us we cannotbe desolate. Looking on all the men, who in their turn have helpedforward His cause a little way, we should let their departure teachus His presence, their limitations His all-sufficiency, their deathHis life. 

Luther was once found, at a moment of peril and fear, when he hadneed to grasp unseen strength, sitting in an abstracted mood, tracingon the table with his finger the words '_Vivit_! _vivit_!'--'Helives! He lives!' It is our hope for ourselves, and for God's truth, and for mankind. Men come and go; leaders, teachers, thinkers speakand work for a season and then fall silent and impotent. He abides. They die, but He lives. They are lights kindled, and therefore sooneror later quenched, but He is the true light from which they draw alltheir brightness, and He shines for evermore. Other men are leftbehind and, as the world glides forward, are wrapped in ever-thickening folds of oblivion, through which they shine feebly for alittle while, like lamps in a fog, and then are muffled ininvisibility. We honour other names, and the coming generations willforget them, but 'His name shall endure for ever, His name shallcontinue as long as the sun, and men shall be blessed in Him; allnations shall call Him blessed. '

JEWISH REJECTERS AND GENTILE RECEIVERS

'And the next Sabbath day came almost the whole city together tohear the word of God. 45. But when the Jews saw the multitudes, they were filled with envy, and spake against those things whichwere spoken by Paul, contradicting and blaspheming. 46. Then Pauland Barnabas waxed bold, and said, It was necessary that the wordof God should first have been spoken to you: but seeing ye put itfrom you, and judge yourselves unworthy of everlasting life, lo, we turn to the Gentiles. 47. For so hath the Lord commanded us, saying, I have set thee to be a light of the Gentiles, that thoushouldest be for salvation unto the ends of the earth. 48. Andwhen the Gentiles heard this, they were glad, and glorified theword of the Lord: and as many as were ordained to eternal lifebelieved. 49. And the word of the Lord was published throughoutall the region. 50. But the Jews stirred up the devout andhonourable women, and the chief men of the city, and raisedpersecution against Paul and Barnabas, and expelled them out oftheir coasts. 51. But they shook off the dust of their feetagainst them, and came unto Iconium. 52. And the disciples werefilled with joy, and with the Holy Ghost. 

'And it came to pass in Iconium, that they went both togetherinto the synagogue of the Jews, and so spake, that a greatmultitude both of the Jews and also of the Greeks believed. 2. But the unbelieving Jews stirred up the Gentiles, and made theirminds evil affected against the brethren. 3. Long time thereforeabode they speaking boldly in the Lord, which gave testimony untothe word of His grace, and granted signs and wonders to be doneby their hands. 4. But the multitude of the city was divided: andpart held with the Jews, and part with the Apostles. 5. And whenthere was an assault made both of the Gentiles, and also of theJews with their rulers, to use them despitefully, and to stonethem, 6. They were ware of it, and fled unto Lystra and Derbe, cities of Lycaonia, and unto the region that lieth round about:7. And there they preached the Gospel. '--ACTS xiii. 44-52;xiv. 1-7. 

In general outline, the course of events in the two great cities ofAsia Minor, with which the present passage is concerned, was thesame. It was only too faithful a forecast of what was to be Paul'sexperience everywhere. The stages are: preaching in the synagogue, rejection there, appeal to the Gentiles, reception by them, a littlenucleus of believers formed; disturbances fomented by the Jews, whoswallow their hatred of Gentiles by reason of their greater hatred ofthe Apostles, and will riot with heathens, though they will not praynor eat with them; and finally the Apostles' departure to carry thegospel farther afield. This being the outline, we have mainly toconsider any special features diversifying it in each case. 

Their experience in Antioch was important, because it forced Paul andBarnabas to put into plain words, making very clear to themselves aswell as to their hearers, the law of their future conduct. It isalways a step in advance when circumstances oblige us to formulariseour method of action. Words have a wonderful power in clearing up ourown vision. Paul and Barnabas had known all along that they were sentto the Gentiles; but a conviction in the mind is one thing, and thesame conviction driven in on us by facts is quite another. Thediscipline of Antioch crystallised floating intentions into a clearstatement, which henceforth became the rule of Paul's conduct. Wellfor us if we have open eyes to discern the meaning of difficulties, and promptitude and decision to fix and speak out plainly the coursewhich they prescribe!

The miserable motives of the Jews' antagonism are forcibly stated invs. 44, 45. They did not 'contradict and blaspheme, ' because they hadtaken a week to think over the preaching and had seen its falseness, but simply because, dog-in-the-manger like, they could not bear that'the whole city' should be welcome to share the message. No doubtthere was a crowd of 'Gentile dogs' thronging the approach to thesynagogue; and one can almost see the scowling faces and hear therustle of the robes drawn closer to avoid pollution. Who were thesewandering strangers that they should gather such a crowd? And whathad the uncircumcised rabble of Antioch to do with 'the promises madeto the fathers'? It is not the only time that religious men havetaken offence at crowds gathering to hear God's word. Let us takecare that we do not repeat the sin. There are always some who--

 'Taking God's word under wise protection, Correct its tendency to diffusiveness. '

It needed some courage to front the wild excitement of such a mob, with calm, strong words likely to increase the rage. 

'Lo, we turn to the Gentiles. ' This is not to be regarded asannouncing a general course of action, but simply as applying to theactual rejecters in Antioch. The necessity that the word should firstbe spoken to the Jews continued to be recognised, in each new sphereof work, by the Apostle; but wherever, as here, men turned from themessage, the messengers turned from them without further waste oftime. Paul put into words here the law for his whole career. The fitpunishment of rejection is the withdrawal of the offer. There issomething pathetic in the persistence with which, in place afterplace, Paul goes through the same sequence, his heart yearning overhis brethren according to the flesh, and hoping on, after allrepulses. It was far more than natural patriotism; it was an offshootof Christ's own patient love. 

Note also the divine command. Paul bases his action on a prophecy asto the Messiah. But the relation on which prophecy insists betweenthe personal servant of Jehovah and the collective Israel, is suchthat the great office of being the Light of the world devolves fromHim on it and the true Israel is to be a light to the Gentiles. Thesevery Jews in Antioch, lashing themselves into fury because Gentileswere to be offered a share in Israel's blessings, ought to have beendischarging this glorious function. Their failure showed that theywere no parts of the real Israel. No doubt the two missionaries leftthe synagogue as they spoke, and, as the door swung behind them, itshut hope out and unbelief in. The air was fresh outside, and eagerhearts welcomed the word. Very beautifully is the gladness of theGentile hearers set in contrast with the temper of the Jews. It isstrange news to heathen hearts that there is a God who loves them, and a divine Christ who has died for them. The experience of many amissionary follows Paul's here. 

'As many as were ordained to eternal life believed. ' The din of manya theological battle has raged round these words, the writer of whichwould have probably needed a good deal of instruction before he couldhave been made to understand what the fighting was about. But it isto be noted that there is evidently intended a contrast between theenvious Jews and the gladly receptive Gentiles, which is made moreobvious by the repetition of the words 'eternal life. ' It would seemmuch more relevant and accordant with the context to understand theword rendered 'ordained' as meaning 'adapted' or 'fitted, ' than tofind in it a reference to divine foreordination. Such a meaning islegitimate, and strongly suggested by the context. The reference thenwould be to the 'frame of mind of the heathen, and not to the decreesof God. '

The only points needing notice in the further developments at Antiochare the agents employed by the Jews, the conduct of the Apostles, andthe sweet little picture of the converts. As to the former, piouslyinclined women in a heathen city would be strongly attracted byJudaism and easily lend themselves to the impressions of theirteachers. We know that many women of rank were at that periodpowerfully affected in this manner; and if a Rabbi could move aGentile of influence through whispers to the Gentile's wife, he wouldnot be slow to do it. The ease with which the Jews stirred up tumultseverywhere against the Apostle indicates their possession of greatinfluence; and their willingness to be hand in glove with heathen forso laudable an object as crushing one of their own people who hadbecome a heretic, measures the venom of their hate and the depth oftheir unscrupulousness. 

The Apostles had not to fear violence, as their enemies were contentwith turning them out of Antioch and its neighbourhood; but theyobeyed Christ's command, shaking off the dust against them, in tokenof renouncing all connection. The significant act is a trace of earlyknowledge of Christ's words, long before the date of our Gospels. 

While the preachers had to leave the little flock in the midst ofwolves, there was peace in the fold. Like the Ethiopian courtier whendeprived of Philip, the new believers at Antioch found that thewithdrawal of the earthly brought the heavenly Guide. 'They werefilled with joy. ' What! left ignorant, lonely, ringed about withenemies, how could they be glad? Because they were filled 'with theHoly Ghost. ' Surely joy in such circumstances was no lesssupernatural a token of His presence than rushing wind or partingflames or lips opened to speak with tongues. God makes us lonely thatHe may Himself be our Companion. 

It was a long journey to the great city of Iconium. According to somegeographers, the way led over savage mountains; but the two brethrentramped along, with an unseen Third between them, and that Presencemade the road light. They had little to cheer them in theirprospects, if they looked with the eye of sense; but they were ingood heart, and the remembrance of Antioch did not embitter ordiscourage them. Straight to the synagogue, as before, they went. Itwas their best introduction to the new field. There, if we take theplain words of Acts xiv. 1, they found a new thing, 'Greeks, 'heathens pure and simple, not Hellenists or Greek-speaking Jews, noreven proselytes, in the synagogue. This has seemed so singular thatefforts have been made to impose another sense on the words, or tosuppose that the notice of Greeks, as well as Jews, believing isloosely appended to the statement of the preaching in the synagogue, omitting notice of wider evangelising. But it is better to acceptthan to correct our narrative, as we know nothing of thecircumstances that may have led to this presence of Greeks in thesynagogue. Some modern setters of the Bible writers right would beall the better for remembering occasionally that improbable thingshave a strange knack of happening. 

The usual results followed the preaching of the Gospel. The Jews wereagain the mischief-makers, and, with the astuteness of their race, pushed the Gentiles to the front, and this time tried a new piece ofannoyance. 'The brethren' bore the brunt of the attack; that is, theconverts, not Paul and Barnabas. It was a cunning move to dropsuspicions into the minds of influential townsmen, and so to harass, not the two strangers, but their adherents. The calculation was thatthat would stop the progress of the heresy by making its adherentsuncomfortable, and would also wound the teachers through theirdisciples. 

But one small element had been left out of the calculation--the sortof men these teachers were; and another factor which had not hithertoappeared came into play, and upset the whole scheme. Paul andBarnabas knew when to retreat and when to stand their ground. Thistime they stood; and the opposition launched at their friends was thereason why they did so. 'Long time _therefore_ abode they. ' If theirown safety had been in question, they might have fled; but they couldnot leave the men whose acceptance of their message had brought theminto straits. But behind the two bold speakers stood 'the Lord, 'Christ Himself, the true Worker. Men who live in Him are made bold bytheir communion with Him, and He witnesses for those who witness forHim. 

Note the designation of the Gospel as 'the word of His grace. ' It hasfor its great theme the condescending, giving love of Jesus. Itssubject is grace; its origin is grace; its gift is grace. Observe, too, that the same connection between boldness of speech and signsand wonders is found in Acts iv. 29, 30. Courageous speech for Christis ever attended by tokens of His power, and the accompanying tokensof His power make the speech more courageous. 

The normal course of events was pursued. Faithful preaching provokedhostility, which led to the alliance of discordant elements, fusedfor a moment by a common hatred--alas! that enmity to God's truthshould be often a more potent bond of union than love!--and then to awise withdrawal from danger. Sometimes it is needful to fling awaylife for Jesus; but if it can be preserved without shirking duty, itis better to flee than to die. An unnecessary martyr is a suicide. The Christian readiness to be offered has nothing in common withfanatical carelessness of life, and still less with the morbidlonging for martyrdom which disfigures some of the most patheticpages of the Church's history. Paul living to preach in the regionsbeyond was more useful than Paul dead in a street riot in Iconium. Aheroic prudence should ever accompany a trustful daring, and both arebest learned in communion with Jesus. 

UNWORTHY OF LIFE

'. .. Seeing ye put it from you, and judge yourselves unworthy ofeverlasting life, lo, we turn to the Gentiles. '--ACTS xiii. 46. 

So ended the first attempt on Paul's great missionary journey topreach to the Jews. It is described at great length and the sermongiven in full because it is the first. A wonderful sermon it was;touching all keys of feeling, now pleading almost with tears, nowflashing with indignation, now calmly dealing with Scriptureprophecies, now glowing as it tells the story of Christ's death formen. It melted some of the hearers, but the most were wrought up tofurious passion--and with characteristic vehemence, like theirancestors and their descendants through long dreary generations, fellto 'contradicting and blaspheming. ' We can see the scene in thesynagogue, the eager faces, the vehement gestures, the hubbub oftongues, the bitter words that stormed round the two in the midst, Barnabas like Jupiter, grave, majestic, and venerable; Paul likeMercury, agile, mobile, swift of speech. They bore the brunt of thefury till they saw it to be hopeless to try to calm it, and thendeparted with these remarkable words. 

They are even more striking if we notice that 'judge' here may beused in its full legal sense. It is not merely equivalent to_consider_, for these Jews by no means thought themselves unworthy ofeternal life, but it means, 'ye adjudge and pass sentence onyourselves to be. ' Their rejection of the message was a self-pronounced sentence. It proved them to be, and made them, 'unworthyof eternal life. ' There are two or three very striking thoughts to begathered from these words which I would dwell on now. 

I. What constitutes worthiness and unworthiness. 

There are two meanings to the word 'worthy'--deserving or fit. Theyrun into each other and yet they may be kept quite apart. Forinstance you may say of a man that 'he is worthy' to be something orother, for which he is obviously qualified, not thinking at allwhether he deserves it or not. 

Now in the first of these senses--we are all unworthy of eternallife. That is just to state in other words the tragic truth ofuniversal sinfulness. The natural outcome and issue of the coursewhich all men follow is death. But yet there are men who are fit forand capable of eternal life. Who they are and what fitness is canonly be ascertained when we rightly understand what eternal life is. It is not merely future blessedness or a synonym for a vulgar heaven. That is the common notion of its meaning. Men think of that future asa blessed state to which God can admit anybody if He will, and, as Heis good, will admit pretty nearly everybody. But eternal life is apresent possession as well as a future one, and passing by its deeperaspects, it includes--

Deliverance from evil habits and desires. 

Purity, and love of all good and fair things. 

Communion with God. 

As well as forgiveness and removal of punishment. 

What then are the qualifications making a man worthy of, in the senseof fit for, such a state?

(_a_) To know oneself to be unworthy. 

He who judges himself to be worthy is unworthy. He who knows himselfto be unworthy is worthy. 

The first requisite is consciousness of sin, leading to repentance. 

(_b_) To abandon striving to make oneself worthy. 

By ourselves we never can do so. Many of us think that we must do ourbest, and then God will do the rest. 

There must be the entire cessation of all attempt to work out by ourown efforts characters that would entitle us to eternal life. 

(_c_) To be willing to accept life on God's terms. 

As a mere gift. 

(_d_) To desire it. 

God cannot give it to any one who does not want it. He cannot forceHis gifts on us. 

This then is the worthiness. 

II. How we pass sentence on ourselves as unworthy. 

It is quite clear that 'judge' here does not mean consider, for asense of unworthiness is not the reason which keeps men away from theGospel. Rather, as we have seen, a proud belief in our worthinesskeeps very many away. But 'judge' here means 'adjudicate' or'pronounce sentence on, ' and worthy means fit, qualified. 

Consider then--

(_a_) That our attitude to the Gospel is a revelation of our deepestselves. 

The Gospel is a 'discerner of thoughts and intents of the heart. ' Itjudges us here and now, and by their attitude to it 'the thoughts ofmany hearts shall be revealed. '

(_b_) That our rejection of it plainly shows that we have not thequalifications for eternal life. 

No doubt some men are kept from accepting Christ by intellectualdoubts and difficulties, but even these would alter their wholeattitude to Him if they had a profound consciousness of sin, and adesire for deliverance from it. 

But with regard to the great bulk of its hearers, no doubt thehindrance is chiefly moral. Many causes may combine to produce theabsence of qualification. The excuses in the parable'--farm, oxen, wife'--all amount to engrossment with this present world, and suchabsorption in the things seen and temporal deadens desire. So theGospel preached excites no longings, and a man hears the offer ofsalvation without one motion of his heart towards it, and thusproclaims himself 'unworthy of eternal life. '

But the great disqualification is the absence of all consciousness ofsin. This is the very deepest reason which keeps men away fromChrist. 

How solemn a thing the preaching and hearing of this word is!

How possible for you to make yourselves fit!

How simple the qualification! We have but to know ourselves sinnersand to trust Jesus and then we 'shall be counted worthy to obtainthat world and the resurrection from the dead. ' Then we shall be'worthy to escape and to stand before the Son of Man. ' Then shall webe 'worthy of this calling, ' and the Judge himself shall say: 'Theyshall walk with Me in white, for they are worthy. '

'FULL OF THE HOLY GHOST'

'And the disciples were filled with joy, and with the HolyGhost. '--Acts xiii. 52. 

That joy was as strange as a garden full of flowers would be inbitter winter weather. For everything in the circumstances of thesedisciples tended to make them sad. They had been but just won fromheathenism, and they were raw, ignorant, unfit to stand alone. Pauland Barnabas, their only guides, had been hunted out of Antioch by amob, and it would have been no wonder if these disciples had felt asif they had been taken on to the ice and then left, when they mostneeded a hand to steady them. Luke emphasises the contrast betweenwhat might have been expected, and what was actually the case, bythat eloquent 'and' at the beginning of our verse, which linkstogether the departure of the Apostles and the joy of the disciples. But the next words explain the paradox. These new converts, left in agreat heathen city, with no helpers, no guides, to work out as bestthey might a faith of which they had but newly received the barestrudiments, were 'full of joy' because they were 'full of the HolyGhost. '

Now that latter phrase, so striking here, is characteristic of thisbook of the Acts, and especially of its earlier chapters, which areall, as it were, throbbing with wonder at the new gift whichPentecost had brought. Let me for a moment, in the briefest possiblefashion, try to recall to you the instances of its occurrence, forthey are very significant and very important. 

You remember how at Pentecost 'all' the disciples were 'filled withthe Holy Ghost. ' Then when the first persecution broke over theChurch, Peter before the Council is 'filled with the Holy Spirit, 'and therefore he beards them, and 'speaks with all boldness. ' When hegoes back to the Church and tells them of the threatening cloud thatwas hanging over them, they too are filled with the Holy Spirit, andtherefore rise buoyantly upon the tossing wave, as a ship might dowhen it passes the bar and meets the heaving sea. Then again theApostles lay down the qualifications for election to the so-calledoffice of deacon as being that the men should be 'full of the HolyGhost and wisdom'; and in accordance therewith, we read of the firstof the seven, Stephen, that he was 'full of faith and of the HolyGhost, ' and therefore 'full of grace and power. ' When he stood beforethe Council he was 'full of the Holy Ghost, ' and therefore looked upinto heaven and saw it opened, and the Christ standing ready to helphim. In like manner we read of Barnabas that he 'was a good man, fullof the Holy Ghost and of faith. ' And finally we read in our text thatthese new converts, left alone in Antioch of Pisidia, were 'full ofjoy and of the Holy Ghost. '

Now these are the principal instances, and my purpose now is ratherto deal with the whole of these instances of the occurrence of thisremarkable expression than with the one which I have selected as atext, because I think that they teach us great truths bearing veryclosely on the strength and joyfulness of the Christian life whichare far too much neglected, obscured, and forgotten by us to-day. 

I wish then to point you, first, to the solemn thought that is here, as to what should be--

I. The experience of every Christian, Note the two things, the universality and the abundance of thisdivine gift. I have often had occasion to say to you, and so I merelyrepeat it again in the briefest fashion, that we do not grasp thecentral blessedness of the Christian faith unless, beyond forgivenessand acceptance, beyond the mere putting away of the dread ofpunishment either here or hereafter, we see that the gift of God inJesus Christ is the communication to every believing soul of thatdivine life which is bestowed by the Spirit of Christ granted toevery believing heart. But I would have you notice how theuniversality of the gift is unmistakably taught us by the instanceswhich I have briefly gathered together in my previous remarks. It wasno official class on which, on the day of Pentecost, the tongues offire fluttered down. It was to the whole Church that courage to frontthe persecutor was imparted. When in Samaria the preaching of Philipbrought about the result of the communication of the Holy Spirit, itwas to all the believers that it was granted, and when, in the Romanbarracks at Caesarea, Cornelius and his companion listened to Peter, it was upon them all that that Divine Spirit descended. 

I suppose I need not remind you of how, if we pass beyond this bookof the Acts into the Epistles of Paul, his affirmations do mostemphatically insist upon the fact that 'we are all made to drink intoone Spirit'; and so convinced is he of the universality of thepossession of that divine life by every Christian, that he does nothesitate to say that 'if any man have not the Spirit of Christ he isnone of His, ' and to clear away all possibility of misunderstandingthe depth and wonderfulness of the gift, he further adds in anotherplace, 'Know ye not that the Spirit is in you, except ye bereprobates?' Similarly another of the New Testament writers declares, in the broadest terms, that 'this spake he of the Holy Spirit, which'--Apostles? no; office-bearers? no; ordained men? no;distinguished and leading men? No--'_they that believe on Him_ shouldreceive. ' Christianity is the true democracy, because it declaresthat upon all, handmaidens and servants, young men and old men, therecomes the divine gift. The world thinks of a divine inspiration in amore or less superficial fashion, as touching only the lofty summits, the great thinkers and teachers and artists and mighty men of lightand leading of the race. The Old Testament regarded prophets andkings, and those who were designated to important offices, as thepossessors of the Divine Spirit. But Christianity has seen the sunrising so high in the heavens that the humblest floweret, in thedeepest valley, basks in its beams and opens to its light. 'We have_all_ been made to drink into the one Spirit. '

Let me remind you too of how, from the usage of this book, as well asfrom the rest of the New Testament teaching, there rises the otherthought of the abundance of the gift. 'Full of the Holy Spirit'--thecup is brimming with generous wine. Not that that fulness is such asto make inconsistencies impossible, as, alas, the best of us know. The highest condition for us is laid down in the sad words which yethave triumph in their sadness--'The flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh. ' But whilst the fulness is not suchas to exclude the need of conflict, it is such as to bring thecertainty of victory. 

Again if we turn to the instances to which I have already referred, we shall find that they fall into two classes, which aredistinguished in the original by a slight variation in the form ofthe words employed. Some instances refer to a habitual possession ofan abundant spiritual life moulding the character constantly, as inthe cases of Stephen and Barnabas. Others refer rather to occasionaland special influxes of special power on account of specialcircumstances, and drawn forth by special exigencies, as when therepoured into Peter's heart the Divine Spirit that made him bold beforethe Council; or as when the dying martyr's spirit was flooded with anew clearness of vision that pierced the heavens and beheld theChrist. So then there may be and ought to be, in each of us, afulness of the Spirit, up to the edge of our capacity, and yet ofsuch a kind as that it may be reinforced and increased when specialneeds arise. 

Not only so, but that which fills me to-day should not fill me to-morrow, because, as in earthly love, so in heavenly, no man can tellto what this thing shall grow. The more of fruition the more therewill be of expansion, and the more of expansion the more of desire, and the more of desire the more of capacity, and the more of capacitythe more of possession. So, brethren, the man who receives a spark ofthe divine life, through his most rudimentary and tremulous faith, ifhe is a faithful steward of the gift that is given to him, will findthat it grows and grows, and that there is no limit to its growth, and that in its limitless growth there lies the surest prophecy of aneternal growth in the heavens. 

A universal gift, that is to say, a gift to each of us if we areChristians, an abundant gift that fills the whole nature of a man, according to the measure of his present power to receive--that is theideal, that is what God means, that is what these first believershad. It did not make them perfect, it did not save them from faultsor from errors, but it was real, it was influential, it was mouldingtheir characters, it was progressive. And that is the ideal for allChristians. Is it our actual? We are meant to be full of the HolyGhost. Ah! how many of us have never realised that there is such athing as being thus possessed with a divine life, partly because wedo not understand that such a fulness will not be distinguishablefrom our own self, except by bettering of the works of self, andpartly because of other reasons which I shall have to touch uponpresently! Brethren, we may, every one of us, be filled with theSpirit. Let each of us ask, 'Am I? and if I am not, why thisemptiness in the presence of such abundance?'

And now let me ask you to look, in the second place, at what wegather from these instances as to--

II. The results of that universal, abundant life. 

Do not let us run away with the idea that the New Testament, or anypart of it, regards miracles and tongues and the like as being thenormal and chiefest gifts of that Divine Spirit. People read thisbook of the Acts of the Apostles and, averse from the supernatural, exaggerate the extent to which the primitive gift of the Holy Spiritwas manifested by signs and wonders, tongues of fire, and so on. Wehave only to look at the instances to which I have already referredto see that far more lofty and far more conspicuous than any suchexternal and transient manifestations, which yet have their place, are the permanent and inward results, moulding character, and makingmen. And Paul's First Epistle to the Corinthians goes as far in theway of setting the moral and spiritual effects of the divineinfluence above the merely miraculous and external ones, as the mostadvanced opponent of the supernatural could desire. 

Let us look, and it can only be briefly, at the various results whichare presented in the instances to which I have referred. The mostgeneral expression for all, which is the result of the Divine Spiritdwelling in a man, is that it makes him good. Look at one of theinstances to which we have referred. 'Barnabas was a good man'--washe? How came he to be so? Because he was 'full of the Holy Ghost. 'And how came he to be 'full of the Holy Ghost'? Because he was 'fullof faith. ' Get the divine life into you, and that will make you good;and, brethren, nothing else will. It is like the bottom heat in agreen-house, which makes all the plants that are there, whatevertheir orders, grow and blossom and be healthy and strong. Therein isthe difference between Christian morality and the world's ethics. They may not differ much, they do in some respects, in their ideal ofwhat constitutes goodness, but they differ in this, that the onesays, 'Be good, be good, be good!' but, like the Pharisees of old, puts out not a finger to help a man to bear the burdens that it laysupon him. The other says, 'Be good, ' but it also says, 'take this andit will make you good. ' And so the one is Gospel and the other istalk, the one is a word of good tidings, and the other is a beautifulspeculation, or a crushing commandment that brings death rather thanlife. 'If there had been a law given which could have given life, verily righteousness had been by the law. ' But since the clearestlaying down of duty brings us no nearer to the performance of duty, we need and, thank God! we have, a gift bestowed which invests withpower. He in whom the 'Spirit of Holiness' dwells, and he alone, willbe holy. The result of the life of God in the heart is a lifegrowingly like God's, manifested in the world. 

Then again let me remind you of how, from another of our instances, there comes another thought. The result of this majestic, supernatural, universal, abundant, divine life is practical sagacityin the commonest affairs of life. 'Look ye out from among you sevenmen, full of the Holy Ghost and of wisdom. ' What to do? To meetwisely the claims of suspicious and jealous poverty, and todistribute fairly a little money. That was all. And are you going toinvoke such a lofty gift as this, to do nothing grander than that?Yes. Gravitation holds planets in their orbits, and keeps grains ofdust in their places. And one result of the inspiration of theAlmighty, which is granted to Christian people, is that they will bewise for the little affairs of life. But Stephen was also 'full ofgrace and power, ' two things that do not often go together--grace, gentleness, loveliness, graciousness, on the one side, and strengthon the other, which divorced, make wild work of character, and whichunited, make men like God. So if we desire our lives to be full ofsweetness and light and beauty, the best way is to get the life ofChrist into them; and if we desire our lives not to be made placidand effeminate by our cult of graciousness and gracefulness, but tohave their beauty stiffened and strengthened by manly energy, thenthe best way is to get the life of the 'strong Son of God, immortallove, ' into our lives. 

The same Stephen, 'full of the Holy Ghost, ' looked up into heaven andsaw the Christ. So one result of that abundant life, if we have it, will be that even though as with him, when he saw the heavens opened, there may be some smoke-darkened roof above our heads, we can lookthrough all the shows of this vain world, and our purged eyes canbehold the Christ. Again the disciples in our text 'were full ofjoy, ' because 'they were full of the Holy Spirit, ' and we, if we havethat abundant life within us, shall not be dependent for our gladnesson the outer world, but like explorers in the Arctic regions, even ifwe have to build a hut of snow, shall be warm within it when thethermometer is far below zero; and there will be light there when thelong midnight is spread around the dwelling. So, dear friends, let usunderstand what is the main thing for a Christian to endeavourafter, --not so much the cultivation of special graces as thedeepening of the life of Christ in the spirit. 

We gather from some of these instances--

III. The way by which we may be thus filled. 

We read that Stephen was 'full of faith and of the Holy Spirit, ' andthat Barnabas was 'full of the Holy Ghost and of faith, ' and it isquite clear from the respective contexts that, though the order inwhich these fulnesses are placed is different in the two clauses, their relation to each other is the same. Faith is the condition ofpossessing the Spirit. And what do we mean in this connection byfaith? I mean, first, a belief in the truth of the possible abidingof the divine Spirit in our spirits, a truth which the superficialChristianity of this generation sorely needs to have forced upon itsconsciousness far more than it has it. I mean aspiration and desireafter; I mean confident expectation of. Your wish measures yourpossession. You have as much of God as you desire. If you have nomore, it is because you do not desire any more. The Christian peopleof to-day, many of whom are so empty of God, are in a very tragicsense, 'full, ' because they have as much as they can take in. If youbring a tiny cup, and do not much care whether anything pours into itor not, you will get it filled, but you might have had a gallonvessel filled if you had chosen to bring it. Of course there areother conditions too. We have to use the life that is given us. Wehave to see that we do not quench it by sin, which drives the dove ofGod from a man's heart. But the great truth is that if I open thedoor of my heart by faith, Christ will come in, in His Spirit. If Itake away the blinds the light will shine into the chamber. If I liftthe sluice the water will pour in to drive my mill. If I deepen thechannels, more of the water of life can flow into them, and thedeeper I make them the fuller they will be. 

Brethren, we have wasted much time and effort in trying to mend ourcharacters. Let us try to get that into them which will mend them. And let us remember that, if we are full of faith, we shall be fullof the Holy Spirit, and therefore full of wisdom, full of grace andpower, full of goodness, full of joy, whatever our circumstances. Andwhen death comes, though it may be in some cruel form, we shall beable to look up and see the opened heavens and the welcoming Christ. 

DEIFIED AND STONED

'And when the people saw what Paul had done, they lifted up theirvoices, saying in the speech of Lycaonia, The gods are come downto us in the likeness of men. 12. And they called Barnabas, Jupiter; and Paul, Mercurius, because he was the chief speaker. 13. Then the priest of Jupiter, which was before their city, brought oxen and garlands unto the gates, and would have donesacrifice with the people. 14. Which when the apostles, Barnabasand Paul, heard of, they rent their clothes, and ran in among thepeople, crying out. 15. And saying, Sirs, why do ye these things?We also are men of like passions with you, and preach unto youthat ye should turn from these vanities unto the living God, which made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and all things thatare therein: 16. Who in times past suffered all nations to walkin their own ways. 17. Nevertheless he left not himself withoutwitness, in that he did good, and gave us rain from heaven, andfruitful seasons, filling our hearts with food and gladness. 18. And with these sayings scarce restrained they the people, thatthey had not done sacrifice unto them. 19. And there came thithercertain Jews from Antioch and Iconium, who persuaded the people, and, having stoned Paul, drew him out of the city, supposing hehad been dead. 20. Howbeit, as the disciples stood round abouthim, he rose up, and came into the city: and the next day hedeparted with Barnabas to Derbe. 21. And when they had preachedthe gospel to that city, and had taught many, they returned againto Lystra, and to Iconium, and Antioch. 22. Confirming the soulsof the disciples, and exhorting them to continue in the faith, and that we must through much tribulation enter into the kingdomof God. '--ACTS xiv. 11-22. 

The scene at Lystra offers a striking instance of the impossibilityof eliminating the miraculous element from this book. The cure of alame man is the starting-point of the whole story. Without it therest is motiveless and inexplicable. There can be no explosionwithout a train and a fuse. The miracle, and the miracle only, supplies these. We may choose between believing and disbelieving it, but the rejection of the supernatural does not make this book easierto accept, but utterly chaotic. 

I. We have, first, the burst of excited wonder which floods the crowdwith the conviction that the two Apostles are incarnations ofdeities. It is difficult to grasp the indications of locality in thestory, but probably the miracle was wrought in some crowded place, perhaps the forum. At all events, it was in full view of 'themultitudes, ' and they were mostly of the lower orders, as theirspeaking in 'the speech of Lycaonia' suggests. 

This half-barbarous crowd had the ancient faith in the godsunweakened, and the legends, which had become dim to pure Greek andRoman, some of which had originated in their immediate neighbourhood, still found full credence among them. A Jew's first thought on seeinga miracle was, 'by the prince of the devils'; an average Greek's orRoman's was 'sorcery'; these simple people's, like many barbaroustribes to which white men have gone with the marvels of modernscience, was 'the gods have come down'; our modern superior person's, on reading of one, is 'hallucination, ' or 'a mistake of an excitedimagination. ' Perhaps the cry of the multitudes at Lystra gets nearerthe heart of the thing than those others. For the miracle is awitness of present divine power, and though the worker of it is notan incarnation of divinity, 'God _is_ with him. '

But that joyful conviction, which shot through the crowd, reveals howdeep lies the longing for the manifestation of divinity in the formof humanity, and how natural it is to believe that, if there is adivine being, he is sure to draw near to us poor men, and that in ourown likeness. Then is the Christian doctrine of the Incarnation butone more of the many reachings out of the heart to paint a fairpicture of the fulfilment of its longings? Well, since it is the onlysuch that is alleged to have taken place in historic times, and theonly one that comes with any body of historic evidence, and the onlyone that brings with it transforming power, and since to believe in aGod, and also to believe that He has never broken the awful silence, nor done anything to fulfil a craving which He has set in men'shearts, is absurd, it is reasonable to answer, No. 'The gods are comedown in the likeness of men' is a wistful confession of need, and adim hope of its supply. 'The Word became flesh, and dwelt among us'is the supply. 

Barnabas was the older man, and his very silence suggested hissuperior dignity. So he was taken for Jupiter (Zeus in the Greek), and the younger man for his inferior, Mercury (Hermes in the Greek), 'the messenger of the gods. ' Clearly the two missionaries did notunderstand what the multitudes were shouting in their 'barbarous'language, or they would have intervened. Perhaps they had left thespot before the excitement rose to its height, for they knew nothingof the preparations for the sacrifice till they '_heard_ of it, andthen they 'sprang forth, ' which implies that they were within someplace, possibly their lodging. 

If we could be sure what 'gates' are meant in verse 13, the course ofevents would be plainer. Were they those of the city, in which casethe priest and procession would be coming from the temple outside thewalls? or those of the temple itself? or those of the Apostles'lodging? Opinions differ, and the material for deciding is lacking. At all events, whether from sharing in the crowd's enthusiasm, orwith an eye to the reputation of his shrine, the priest hurriedlyprocured oxen for a sacrifice, which one reading of the textspecifies as an 'additional' offering--that is, over and above thestatutory sacrifices. Is it a sign of haste that the 'garlands, 'which should have been twined round the oxen's horns, are mentionedseparately? If so, we get a lively picture of the exultant hurry ofthe crowd. 

II. The Apostles are as deeply moved as the multitude is, but by whatdifferent emotions! The horror of idolatry, which was theirinheritance from a hundred generations, flamed up at the thought ofthemselves being made objects of worship. They had met many differentsorts of receptions on this journey, but never before anything likethis. Opposition and threats left them calm, but this stirred them tothe depths. 'Scoff at us, fight with us, maltreat us, and we willendure; but do not make gods of us. ' I do not know that their'successors' have always felt exactly so. 

In verse 14 Barnabas is named first, contrary to the order prevailingsince Paphos, the reason being that the crowd thought him thesuperior. The remonstrance ascribed to both, but no doubt spoken byPaul, contains nothing that any earnest monotheist, Jew or Gentilephilosopher, might not have said. The purpose of it was not to preachChrist, but to stop the sacrifice. It is simply a vehemently earnestprotest against idolatry, and a proclamation of one living God. Thecomparison with the speech in Athens is interesting, as showingPaul's exquisite felicity in adapting his style to his audience. There is nothing to the peasants of Lycaonia about poets, noargumentation about the degradation of the idea of divinity by takingimages as its likeness, no wide view of the course of history, noglimpse of the mystic thought that all creatures live and move inHim. All that might suit the delicate ears of Athenians, but wouldhave been wasted in Lystra amidst the tumultuous crowd. But we haveinstead of these the fearless assertion, flung in the face of thepriest of Jupiter, that idols are 'vanities, ' as Paul had learnedfrom Isaiah and Jeremiah; the plain declaration of the one God, 'living, ' and not like these inanimate images; of His universalcreative power; and the earnest exhortation to turn to Him. 

In verse 16 Paul meets an objection which rises in his mind as likelyto be springing in his hearers: 'If there is such a God, why have wenever heard of Him till now?' That is quite in Paul's manner. Theanswer is undeveloped, as compared with the Athenian address or withRomans i. But there is couched in verse 16 a tacit contrast between'the generations gone by' and the present, which is drawn out in thespeech on Mars Hill: 'but _now_ commandeth all men everywhere torepent, ' and also a contrast between the 'nations' left to walk intheir own ways, and Israel to whom revelation had been made. Theplace and the temper of the listeners did not admit of enlarging onsuch matters. 

But there was a plain fact, which was level to every peasant'sapprehension, and might strike home to the rustic crowd. God _had_left 'the nations to walk in their own ways, ' and yet not altogether. That thought is wrought out in Romans i. , and the difference betweenits development there and here is instructive. Beneficence is thesign-manual of heaven. The orderly sequence of the seasons, the rainfrom heaven, the seat of the gods from which the two Apostles werethought to have come down, the yearly miracle of harvest, and thegladness that it brings--all these are witnesses to a living Personmoving the processes of the universe towards a beneficent end forman. 

In spite of all modern impugners, it still remains true that thephenomena of 'nature, ' their continuity, their co-operation, andtheir beneficent issues, demand the recognition of a Person with aloving purpose moving them all. '_Thou_ crownest the year with Thygoodness; and _Thy_ paths drop fatness. '

III. The malice of the Jews of Antioch is remarkable. Not contentwith hounding the Apostles from that city, they came raging afterthem to Lystra, where there does not appear to have been a synagogue, since we hear only of their stirring up the 'multitudes. ' The mantleof Saul had fallen on them, and they were now 'persecuting' _him_'even unto strange cities. '

No note is given of the time between the attempted sacrifice and theaccomplished stoning, but probably some space intervened. Persuadingthe multitudes, however fickle they were, would take some time; andindeed one ancient text of Acts has an expansion of the verse: 'Theypersuaded the multitudes to depart from them [the Apostles], sayingthat they spake nothing true, but lied in everything. '

No doubt some time elapsed, but few emotions are more transient thansuch impure religious excitement as the crowd had felt, and the ebbis as great as the flood, and the oozy bottom laid bare is foul. Popular favourites in other departments have to experience the samefate--one day, 'roses, roses, all the way'; the next, rotten eggs andcurses. Other folks than the ignorant peasants at Lystra have haddevout emotion surging over them and leaving them dry. 

Who are 'they' who stoned Paul? Grammatically, the Jews, and probablyit was so. They hated him so much that they themselves began thestoning; but no doubt the mob, which is always cruel, because itneeds strong excitement, lent willing hands. Did Paul rememberStephen, as the stones came whizzing on him? It is an added touch ofbrutality that they dragged the supposed corpse out of the city, withno gentle hands, we may be sure. Perhaps it was flung down near thevery temple 'before the city, ' where the priest that wanted tosacrifice was on duty. 

The crowd, having wreaked their vengeance, melted away, but a handfulof brave disciples remained, standing round the bruised, unconsciousform, ready to lay it tenderly in some hastily dug grave. No previousmention of disciples has been made. The narrative of Acts does notprofess to be complete, and the argument from its silence isprecarious. 

Luke shows no disposition to easy belief in miracles. He does notknow that Paul was dead; his medical skill familiarised him withprotracted states of unconsciousness; so all he vouches for is thatPaul lay as if dead on some rubbish heap 'without the camp, ' andthat, with courage and persistence which were supernatural, whetherhis reviving was so or not, the man thus sorely battered went back tothe city, and next day went on with his work, as if stoning was atrifle not to be taken account of. 

The Apostles turned at Derbe, and coming back on their outward route, reached Antioch, encouraging the new disciples, who had now to beleft truly like shepherdless sheep among wolves. They did notencourage them by making light of the dangers waiting them, but theyplainly set before them the law of the Kingdom, which they had seenexemplified in Paul, that we must suffer if we would reign with theKing. That 'we' in verse 22 is evidently quoted from Paul, andtouchingly shows how he pointed to his own stoning as what they toomust be prepared to suffer. It is a thought frequently recurring inhis letters. It remains true in all ages, though the manner ofsuffering varies. 

DREAM AND REALITY

'The gods are come down to us in the likeness of men. '--ACTS xiv. 11. 

This was the spontaneous instinctive utterance of simple villagerswhen they saw a deed of power and kindness. Many an English travellerand settler among rude people has been similarly honoured. And inLycaonia the Apostles were close upon places that were celebrated inGreek mythology as having witnessed the very two gods, here spokenof, wandering among the shepherds and entertained with modesthospitality in their huts. 

The incident is a very striking and picturesque one. The shepherdpeople standing round, the sudden flash of awe and yet of gladnesswhich ran through them, the tumultuous outcry, which, being in theirrude dialect, was unintelligible to the Apostles till it wasinterpreted by the appearance of the priest of Jupiter with oxen andgarlands for offerings, the glimpse of the two Apostles--the older, graver, venerable Barnabas, the younger, more active, ready-tonguedPaul, whom their imaginations converted into the Father of gods andmen, and the herald Mercury, who were already associated in locallegends; the priest, eager to gain credit for his temple 'before thecity, ' the lowing oxen, and the vehement appeal of the Apostles, makea picture which is more vividly presented in the simple narrativethan even in the cartoon of the great painter whom the narrative hasinspired. 

But we have not to deal with the picturesque element alone. Thenarratives of Scripture are representative because they are sopenetrating and true. They go to the very heart of the men and thingswhich they describe: and hence the words and acts which they recordare found to contain the essential characteristics of whole classesof men, and the portrait of an individual becomes that of a class. This joyful outburst of the people of Lycaonia gives utterance to oneof the most striking and universal convictions of heathenism, andstands in very close and intimate relations with that greatest of allfacts in the history of the world, the Incarnation of the EternalWord. That the gods come down in the likeness of men is the dream ofheathenism. 'The Word was made flesh and dwelt among us, ' is thesober, waking truth which meets and vindicates and transcends thatcry. 

I. The heathen dream of incarnation. 

In all lands we find this belief in the appearance of the gods inhuman form. It inspired the art and poetry of Greece. Rome believedthat gods had charged in front of their armies and given their laws. The solemn, gloomy religion of Egypt, though it worshipped animalforms, yet told of incarnate and suffering gods. The labyrinthinemythologies of the East have their long-drawn stories of the avatarsof their gods floating many a rood on the weltering ocean of theirlegends. Tibet cherishes each living sovereign as a real embodimentof the divine. And the lowest tribes, in their degraded worship, havenot departed so far from the common type but that they too have somefaint echoes of the universal faith. 

Do these facts import anything at all to us? Are we to dismiss themas simply the products of a stage which we have left far behind, andto plume ourselves that we have passed out of the twilight?

Even if we listen to what comparative mythology has to say, it stillremains to account for the tendency to shape legends of the earthlyappearance of the gods; and we shall have to admit that, while theybelong to an early stage of the world's progress, the feelings whichthey express belong to all stages of it. 

Now I think we may note these thoughts as contained in this universalbelief:

The consciousness of the need of divine help. 

The certainty of a fellowship between heaven and earth. 

The high ideal of the capacities and affinities of man. 

We may note further what were the general characteristics of theseincarnations. They were transient, they were 'docetic, ' as they arecalled--that is, they were merely apparent assumptions of human formwhich brought the god into no nearer or truer kindred with humanity, and they were, for the most part, for very self-regarding and oftenmost immoral ends, the god's personal gratification of very ungodlikepassions and lust, or his winning victories for his favourites, orsatisfying his anger by trampling on those who had incurred his veryhuman wrath. 

II. The divine answer which transcends the human dream. 

We have to insist that the truth of the Incarnation is the corner-stone of Christianity. If that is struck out the whole fabric falls. Without it there may be a Christ who is the loftiest and greatest ofmen, but not the Christ who 'saves His people from their sins. '

That being so, and Christianity having this feature in common withall the religions of men, how are we to account for the resemblance?Are we to listen to the rude solution which says, 'All lies alike'?Are we to see in it nothing but the operation of like tendencies, orrather illusions, of human thought--man's own shadow projected on anilluminated mist? Are we to let the resemblance discredit theChristian message? Or are we to say that all these others areunconscious prophecies--man's half-instinctive expression of his deepneed and much misunderstood longing, and that the Christianproclamation that Jesus is 'God manifest in the flesh' is thetrumpet-toned announcement of Heaven's answer to earth's cry?

Fairly to face that question is to go far towards answering it. Foras soon as we begin to look steadily at the facts, we find that thedifferences between all these other appearances and the Incarnationare so great as to raise the presumption that their origins aredifferent. The 'gods' slipped on the appearance of humanity overtheir garment of deity in appearance only, and that for a moment. Jesus is 'bone of our bone and flesh of our flesh, ' and is not merely'found in fashion as a man, ' but is 'in all points like as we are. 'And that garb of manhood He wears for ever, and in His heavenly gloryis 'the Man Christ Jesus. '

But _the_ difference between all these other appearances of gods andthe Incarnation lies in the acts to which they and it respectivelyled, and the purposes for which they and it respectively took place. A god who came down to suffer, a god who came to die, a god who cameto be the supreme example of all fair humanities, a god who came tosuffer and to die that men might have life and be victors over sin--where is he in all the religions of the world? And does not the factthat Christianity alone sets before men such a God, such anIncarnation, for such ends, make the assertion a reasonable one, thatthe sources of the universal belief in gods who come down among menand of the Christian proclamation that the Eternal Word became fleshare not the same, but that these are men's half-understood cries, andthis is Heaven's answer?

'THE DOOR OF FAITH'

'And when they were come, and had gathered the church together, they rehearsed all that God had done with them, and how he hadopened the door of faith unto the Gentiles. '--ACTS xiv. 27. 

There are many instances of the occurrence of this metaphor in theNew Testament, but none is exactly like this. We read, for example, of 'a great door and effectual' being opened to Paul for the freeministry of the word; and to the angel of the Church in Philadelphia, 'He that openeth and none shall shut' graciously says, 'I have setbefore thee a door opened, which none can shut. ' But here the door isfaith, that is to say faith is conceived of as the means of entrancefor the Gentiles into the Kingdom, which, till then, Jews hadsupposed to be entered by hereditary rite. 

I. Faith is the means of our entrance into the Kingdom. 

The Jew thought that birth and the rite of circumcision were thedoor, but the 'rehearsing' of the experiences of Paul and Barnabas ontheir first missionary tour shattered that notion by the logic offacts. Instead of that narrow postern another doorway had been brokenin the wall of the heavenly city, and it was wide enough to admit ofmultitudes entering. Gentiles had plainly come in. How had they comein? By believing in Jesus. Whatever became of previous exclusivetheories, there was a fact that had to be taken into account. Itdistinctly proved that faith was 'the gate of the Lord into which, 'not the circumcised but the 'righteous, ' who were righteous becausebelieving, 'should enter. '

We must not forget the other use of the metaphor, by our LordHimself, in which. He declares that He is the Door. The tworepresentations are varying but entirely harmonious, for the onerefers to the objective fact of Christ's work as making it possiblethat we should draw near to and dwell with God, and the other to oursubjective appropriation of that possibility, and making it a realityin our own blessed experience. 

II. Faith is the means of God's entrance into our hearts. 

We possess the mysterious and awful power of shutting God out ofthese hearts. And faith, which in one aspect is our means of entranceinto the Kingdom of God, is, in another, the means of God's entranceinto us. The Psalm, which invokes the divine presence in the Temple, calls on the 'everlasting doors' to be 'lifted up, ' and promises thatthen 'the King of Glory will come in. ' And the voice of the ascendedChrist, the King of Glory, knocking at the closed door, calls on uswith our own hands to open the door, and promises that He 'will comein. '

Paul prayed for the Ephesian Christians 'that Christ may dwell inyour hearts through faith, ' and there is no other way by which Hisindwelling is possible. Faith is not constituted the condition ofthat divine indwelling by any arbitrary appointment, as a sovereignmight determine that he would enter a city by a certain route, chosenwithout any special reason from amongst many, but in the nature ofthings it is necessary that trust, and love which follows trust, andlonging which follows love should be active in a soul if Christ is toenter in and abide there. 

III. Faith is the means of the entrance of the Kingdom into us. 

If Christ comes in He comes with His pierced hands full of gifts. Through our faith we receive all spiritual blessings. But we mustever remember, what this metaphor most forcibly sets forth, thatfaith is but the means of entrance. It has no worth in itself, but isprecious only because it admits the true wealth. The door is nothing. It is only an opening. Faith is the pipe that brings the water, theflinging wide the shutters that the light may flood the dark room, the putting oneself into the path of the electric circuit. Salvationis not arbitrarily connected with faith. It is not the reward offaith but the possession of what comes through faith, and cannot comein any other way. Our 'hearts' are 'purified by faith, ' because faithadmits into our hearts the life, and instals as dominant in them thepowers, the motives, the Spirit, which purify. We are 'saved byfaith, ' for faith brings into our spirits the Christ who saves Hispeople from their sins, when He abides in them and they abide in Himthrough their faith. 

THE BREAKING OUT OF DISCORD

'And certain men which came down from Judaea taught the brethren, and said, Except ye be circumcised after the manner of Moses, yecannot be saved. 2. When therefore Paul and Barnabas had no smalldissension and disputation with them, they determined that Pauland Barnabas, and certain other of them, should go up toJerusalem unto the apostles and elders about this question. 3. And being brought on their way by the church, they passed throughPhenice and Samaria, declaring the conversion of the Gentiles:and they caused great joy unto all the brethren. 4. And when theywere come to Jerusalem, they were received of the church, and ofthe apostles and elders, and they declared all things that Godhad done with them. 5. But there rose up certain of the sect ofthe Pharisees which believed, saying, That it was needful tocircumcise them, and to command them to keep the law of Moses. 6. And the apostles and elders came together 'for to consider ofthis matter. '--ACTS xv. 1-6. 

The question as to the conditions on which Gentiles could be receivedinto Christian communion had already been raised by the case ofCornelius, but it became more acute after Paul's missionary journey. The struggle between the narrower and broader views was bound to cometo a head. Traces of the cleft between Palestinian and Hellenistbelievers had appeared as far back as the 'murmuring' about theunfair neglect of the Hellenist widows in the distribution of relief, and the whole drift of things since had been to widen the gap. 

Whether the 'certain men' had a mission to the Church in Antioch ornot, they had no mandate to lay down the law as they did. Lukedelicately suggests this by saying that they 'came down from Judaea, 'rather than from Jerusalem. We should be fair to these men, andremember how much they had to say in defence of their position. Theydid not question that Gentiles could be received into the Church, but'kept on teaching' (as the word in the Greek implies) that thedivinely appointed ordinance of circumcision was the 'door' ofentrance. God had prescribed it, and through all the centuries sinceMoses, all who came into the fold of Israel had gone in by that gate. Where was the commandment to set it aside? Was not Paul teaching mento climb up some other way, and so blasphemously abrogating a divinelaw?

No wonder that honest believers in Jesus as Messiah shrank withhorror from such a revolutionary procedure. The fact that they werePalestinian Jews, who had never had their exclusiveness rubbed off, as Hellenists like Paul and Barnabas had had, explains, and to someextent excuses, their position. And yet their contention struck afatal blow at the faith, little as they meant it. Paul saw what theydid not see--that if anything else than faith was brought in asnecessary to knit men to Christ, and make them partakers ofsalvation, faith was deposed from its place, and Christianity sankback to be a religion of 'works. ' Experience has proved that anythingwhatever introduced as associated with faith ejects faith from itsplace, and comes to be recognised as _the_ means of salvation. Itmust be faith _or_ circumcision, it cannot be faith _and_circumcision. The lesson is needed to-day as much as in Antioch. Thecontroversy started then is a perennial one, and the Church of thepresent needs Paul's exhortation, 'Stand fast therefore in theliberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangledagain with the yoke of bondage. '

The obvious course of appealing to Jerusalem was taken, and it isnoteworthy that in verse 2 the verb 'appointed' has no specifiedsubject. Plainly, however, it was the Church which acted, and sonatural did that seem to Luke that he felt it unnecessary to say so. No doubt Paul concurred, but the suggestion is not said to have comefrom him. He and Barnabas might have asserted their authority, anddeclined to submit what they had done by the Spirit's guidance to thedecision of the Apostles, but they seek the things that make forpeace. 

No doubt the other side was represented in the deputation. Jerusalemwas the centre of unity, and remained so till its fall. The Apostlesand elders were the recognised leaders of the Church. Elders hereappear as holding a position of authority; the only previous mentionof them is in Acts xi. 30, where they receive the alms sent fromAntioch. It is significant that we do not hear of their firstappointment. The organisation of the Church took shape as exigenciesprescribed. 

The deputation left Antioch, escorted lovingly for a little way bythe Church, and, journeying by land, gladdened the groups ofbelievers in 'Phenicia and Samaria' with the news that the Gentileswere turning to God. We note that they are not said to have spoken ofthe thorny question in these countries, and that it is not said thatthere was joy in Judaea. Perhaps the Christians in it were insympathy with the narrower view. 

The first step taken in Jerusalem was to call a meeting of the Churchto welcome the deputation. It is significant that the latter did notbroach the question in debate, but told the story of the success oftheir mission. That was the best argument for receiving Gentileconverts without circumcision. God had received them; should not theChurch do so? Facts are stronger than theories. It was Peter'sargument in the case of Cornelius: they 'have received the Holy Ghostas well as we, ' 'who was I, that I could withstand God?' It is theargument which shatters all analogous narrowing of the conditions ofChristian life. If men say, 'Except ye be' this or that 'ye cannot besaved, ' it is enough to point to the fruits of Christian character, and say, 'These show that the souls which bring them forth _are_saved, and you must widen your conceptions of the possibilities toinclude these actualities. ' It is vain to say 'Ye cannot be' whenmanifestly they are. 

But the logic of facts does not convince obstinate theorists, and sothe Judaising party persisted in their 'It is needful to circumcisethem. ' None are so blind as those to whom religion is mainly a matterof ritual. You may display the fairest graces of Christian characterbefore them, and you get no answer but the reiteration of 'It isneedful to circumcise you. ' But on their own ground, in Jerusalem, the spokesmen of that party enlarged their demands. In Antioch theyhad insisted on circumcision, in Jerusalem they added the demand forentire conformity to the Mosaic law. They were quite logical; theirprinciple demanded that extension of the requirement, and was therebycondemned as utterly unworkable. Now that the whole battery wasunmasked the issue was clear--Is Christianity to be a Jewish sect orthe universal religion? Clear as it was, few in that assembly saw it. But the parting of the ways had been reached. 

THE CHARTER OF GENTILE LIBERTY

'Then all the multitude kept silence, and gave audience to Barnabasand Paul, declaring what miracles and wonders God had wrought amongthe Gentiles by them. 13. And after they had held their peace, James answered, saying, Men and brethren, hearken unto me: 14. Simeon hath declared how God at the first did visit the Gentiles, to take out of them a people for His name. 15. And to this agreethe words of the prophets; as it is written, 16. After this I willreturn, and will build again the tabernacle of David, which isfallen down; and I will build again the ruins thereof, and I willset it up: 17. That the residue of men might seek after the Lord, and all the Gentiles, upon whom My name is called, saith the Lord, who doeth all these things. 18. Known unto God are all His worksfrom the beginning of the world. 19. Wherefore my sentence is, thatwe trouble not them, which from among the Gentiles are turned toGod: 20. But that we write unto them, that they abstain frompollutions of idols, and from fornication, and from thingsstrangled, and from blood. 21. For Moses of old time hath in everycity them that preach Him, being read in the synagogues everysabbath day. 22. Then pleased it the apostles and elders, with thewhole church, to send chosen men of their own company to Antiochwith Paul and Barnabas; namely, Judas surnamed Barsabas, and Silas, chief men among the brethren: 23. And they wrote letters by themafter this manner; The apostles and elders and brethren sendgreeting unto the brethren which are of the Gentiles in Antioch andSyria and Cilicia: 24. Forasmuch as we have heard, that certainwhich went out from us have troubled you with words, subvertingyour souls, saying, Ye must be circumcised, and keep the law: towhom we gave no such commandment: 25. It seemed good unto us, beingassembled with one accord, to send chosen men unto you with ourbeloved Barnabas and Paul, 26. Men that have hazarded their livesfor the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. 27. We have sent thereforeJudas and Silas, who shall also tell you the same things by mouth. 28. For it seemed good to the Holy Ghost, and to us, to lay uponyou no greater burden than these necessary things; 29. That yeabstain from meats offered to idols, and from blood, and fromthings strangled, and from fornication: from which if ye keepyourselves, ye shall do well. Fare ye well. '--ACTS xv. 12-29. 

Much was at stake in the decision of this gathering of the Church. Ifthe Jewish party triumphed, Christianity sank to the level of aJewish sect. The question brought up for decision was difficult, andthere was much to be said for the view that the Mosaic law wasbinding on Gentile converts. It must have been an uprooting ofdeepest beliefs for a Jewish Christian to contemplate the abrogationof that law, venerable by its divine origin, by its hoary antiquity, by its national associations. We must not be hard upon men who clungto it; but we should learn from their final complete drifting awayfrom Christianity how perilous is the position which insists on thenecessity to true discipleship of any outward observance. 

Our passage begins in the middle of the conference. Peter has, withcharacteristic vehemence, dwelt upon the divine attestation of thegenuine equality of the uncircumcised converts with the Jewish, givenby their possession of the same divine Spirit, and has flung fieryquestions at the Judaisers, which silenced them. Then, after theimpressive hush following his eager words, Barnabas and Paul telltheir story once more, and clinch the nail driven by Peter byasserting that God had already by 'signs and wonders' given Hissanction to the admission of Gentiles without circumcision. Characteristically, in Jerusalem Barnabas is restored to his placeabove Paul, and is named first as speaking first, and regarded by theJerusalem Church as the superior of the missionary pair. 

The next speaker is James, not an Apostle, but the bishop of theChurch in Jerusalem, of whom tradition tells that he was a zealousadherent to the Mosaic law in his own person, and that his knees wereas hard as a camel's through continual prayer. It is singular thatthis meeting should be so often called 'the Apostolic council, ' when, as a fact, only one Apostle said a word, and he not as an Apostle, but as the chosen instrument to preach to the Gentiles. 'The elders, 'of whose existence we now hear for the first time in this whollyincidental manner, were associated with the Apostles (ver. 6), andthe 'multitude' (ver. 12) is most naturally taken to be 'the wholeChurch' (ver. 22). James represents the eldership, and as bishop inJerusalem and an eager observer of legal prescriptions, fittinglyspeaks. His words practically determined the question. Like a wiseman, he begins with facts. His use of the intensely Jewish form ofthe name Simeon is an interesting reminiscence of old days. So he hadbeen accustomed to call Peter when they were all young together, andso he calls him still, though everybody else named him by his newname. What God had done by him seems to James to settle the wholequestion; for it was nothing else than to put the Gentile convertswithout circumcision on an equality with the Jewish part of theChurch. 

Note the significant juxtaposition of the words 'Gentiles' and'people'--the former the name for heathen, the latter the sacreddesignation of the chosen nation. The great paradox which, throughPeter's preaching at Caesarea, had become a fact was that the 'peopleof God' were made up of Gentiles as well as Jews--that His name wasequally imparted to both. If God had made Gentiles His people, had Henot thereby shown that the special observances of Israel were putaside, and that, in particular, circumcision was no longer thecondition of entrance? The end of national distinction and theopening of a new way of incorporation among the people of God wereclearly contained in the facts. How much Christian narrowness wouldbe blown to atoms if its advocates would do as James did, and letGod's facts teach them the width of God's purposes and thecomprehensiveness of Christ's Church! We do wisely when we square ourtheories with facts; but many of us go to work in the opposite way, and snip down facts to the dimension of our theories. 

James's next step is marked equally by calm wisdom and open-mindedness. He looks to God's word, as interpreted by God's deeds, tothrow light in turn on the deeds and to confirm the interpretation ofthese. Two things are to be noted in considering his quotation fromAmos--its bearing on the question in hand, and its divergence fromthe existing Hebrew text. As to the former, there seems at firstsight nothing relevant to James's purpose in the quotation, whichsimply declares that the Gentiles will seek the Lord when the fallentabernacle of David is rebuilt. That period of time has at leastbegun, thinks James, in the work of Jesus, in whom the decayeddominion of David is again in higher form established. The return ofthe Gentiles does not merely synchronise with, but is the intendedissue of, Christ's reign. Lifted from the earth, He will draw all menunto Him, and they shall 'seek the Lord, ' and on them His name willbe called. 

Now the force of this quotation lies, as it seems, first in the factthat Peter's experience at Caesarea is to be taken as an indicationof how God means the prophecy to be fulfilled, namely, withoutcircumcision; and secondly, in the _argumentum a silentio_, since theprophet says nothing about ritual or the like, but declares thatmoral and spiritual qualifications--on the one hand a true desireafter God, and on the other receiving the proclamation of His nameand calling themselves by it--are all that are needed to makeGentiles God's people. Just because there is nothing in the prophecyabout observing Jewish ceremonies, and something about longing andfaith, James thinks that these are the essentials, and that theothers may be dropped by the Church, as God had dropped them in thecase of Cornelius, and as Amos had dropped them in his vision of thefuture kingdom. God knew what He meant to do when He spoke throughthe prophet, and what He has done has explained the words, as Jamessays in verse 18. 

The variation from the Hebrew text requires a word of comment. Thequotation is substantially from the Septuagint, with a slightalteration. Probably James quoted the version familiar to many of hishearers. It seems to have been made from a somewhat different Hebrewtext in verse 17, but the difference is very much slighter than anEnglish reader would suppose. Our text has 'Edom' where theSeptuagint has 'men'; but the Hebrew words without vowels areidentical but for the addition of one letter in the former. Our texthas 'inherit' where the Septuagint has 'seek after'; but there againthe difference in the two Hebrew words would be one letter only, sothat there may well have been a various reading as preserved in theSeptuagint and Acts. James adds to the Septuagint 'seek' theevidently correct completion 'the Lord. '

Now it is obvious that, even if we suppose his rendering of the wholeverse to be a paraphrase of the same Hebrew text as we have, it is acorrect representation of the meaning; for the 'inheriting of Edom'is no mere external victory, and Edom is always in the Old Testamentthe type of the godless man. The conquest of the Gentiles by therestorer of David's tabernacle is really the seeking after the Lord, and the calling of His name upon the Gentiles. 

The conclusion drawn by James is full of practical wisdom, and wouldhave saved the Church from many a sad page in its history, if itsspirit had been prevalent in later 'councils. ' Note how the verydesignation given to the Gentile converts in verse 19 carriesargumentative force. 'They turn to God from among the Gentiles'--ifthey have done that, surely their new separation and new attachmentare enough, and make insistence on circumcision infinitelyridiculous. They have the thing signified; what does it matter aboutthe sign, which is good for us Jews, but needless for them? If Churchrulers had always been as open-eyed as this bishop in Jerusalem, andhad been content if people were joined to God and parted from theworld, what torrents of blood, what frowning walls of division, whatscandals and partings of brethren would have been spared!

The observances suggested are a portion of the precepts enjoined byJudaism on proselytes. The two former were necessary to the Christianlife; the two latter were not, but were concessions to the Jewishfeelings of the stricter party. The conclusion may be called acompromise, but it was one dictated by the desire for unity, and hadnothing unworthy in it. There should be giving and taking on bothsides. If the Jewish Christians made the, to them, immense concessionof waiving the necessity of circumcision, the Gentile section mightsurely make the small one of abstinence from things strangled andfrom blood. Similarities in diet would daily assimilate the lives ofthe two parties, and would be a more visible and continuous token oftheir oneness than the single act of circumcision. 

But what does the reason in verse 21 mean? Why should the reading ofMoses every Sabbath be a reason for these concessions? Variousanswers are given: but the most natural is that the constantpromulgation of the law made respect for the feelings (even ifmistaken) of Jewish Christians advisable, and the course suggestedthe most likely to win Jews who were not yet Christians. Both classeswould be flung farther apart if there were not some yielding. Thegeneral principle involved is that one cannot be too tender with oldand deeply rooted convictions even if they be prejudices, and thatChristian charity, which is truest wisdom, will consent tolimitations of Christian liberty, if thereby any little one whobelieves in Him shall be saved from being offended, or any unbelieverfrom being repelled. 

The letter embodying James's wise suggestion needs little furthernotice. We may observe that there was no imposing and authoritativedecision of the Ecclesia, but that the whole thing was threshed outin free talk, and then the unanimous judgment of the community, 'Apostles, elders and the whole Church, ' was embodied in the epistle. Observe the accurate rendering of verse 25 (R. V. ), 'having _come_ toone accord, ' which gives a lively picture of the process. Note toothat James's proposal of a letter was mended by the addition of adeputation, consisting of an unknown 'Judas called Barsabas' (perhapsa relative of 'Joseph called Barsabas, ' the unsuccessful nominee forApostleship in chap. I. ), and the well-known Silas or Silvanus, ofwhom we hear so much in Paul's letters. That journey was the turning-point in his life, and he henceforward, attracted by the mass andmagnetism of Paul's great personality, revolved round him, andforsook Jerusalem. 

Probably James drew up the document, which has the same somewhatunusual 'greeting' as his Epistle. The sharp reference to theJudaising teachers would be difficult for their sympathisers toswallow, but charity is not broken by plain repudiation of error andits teachers. 'Subverting your souls' is a heavy charge. The word isonly here found in the New Testament, and means to unsettle, theimage in it being that of packing up baggage for removal. Thedisavowal of these men is more complete if we follow the RevisedVersion in reading (ver. 24) 'no commandment' instead of 'no suchcommandment. '

These unauthorised teachers 'went'; but, in strong contrast withthem, Judas and Silas are chosen out and sent. Another thrust at theJudaising teachers is in the affectionate eulogy of Paul and Barnabasas 'beloved, ' whatever disparaging things had been said about them, and as having 'hazarded their lives, ' while these others had takenvery good care of themselves, and had only gone to disturb convertswhom Paul and Barnabas had won at the peril of their lives. 

The calm matter-of-course assertion that the decision which commendeditself to 'us' is the decision of 'the Holy Ghost' was warranted byChrist's promises, and came from the consciousness that they hadobserved the conditions which He had laid down. They had broughttheir minds to bear upon the question, with the light of facts and ofScripture, and had come to a unanimous conclusion. If they believedtheir Lord's parting words, they could not doubt that His Spirit hadguided them. If we lived more fully in that Spirit, we should knowmore of the same peaceful assurance, which is far removed from thedelusion of our own infallibility, and is the simple expression oftrust in the veracious promises of our Lord. 

The closing words of the letter are beautifully brotherly, sinkingauthority, and putting in the foreground the advantage to the Gentileconverts of compliance with the injunctions. 'Ye shall do well, 'rightly and conformably with the requirements of brotherly love toweaker brethren. And thus doing well, they will 'fare well, ' and bestrong. That is not the way in which 'lords over God's heritage' areaccustomed to end their decrees. Brotherly affection, rather thanauthority imposing its will, breathes here. Would that all succeeding'Councils' had imitated this as well as 'it seemed good to the HolyGhost, and to us'!

A GOOD MAN'S FAULTS

'And Barnabas determined to take with them John, whose surnamewas Mark. 38. But Paul thought not good to take him with them, who departed from them from Pamphylia, and went not with them tothe work. '--ACTS xv. 37, 38. 

Scripture narratives are remarkable for the frankness with which theytell the faults of the best men. It has nothing in common with thecynical spirit in historians, of which this age has seen eminentexamples, which fastens upon the weak places in the noblest natures, like a wasp on bruises in the ripest fruit, and delights in showinghow all goodness is imperfect, that it may suggest that none isgenuine. Nor has it anything in common with that dreary melancholywhich also has its representatives among us, that sees everywhereonly failures and fragments of men, and has no hope of ever attaininganything beyond the common average of excellence. But Scripturefrankly confesses that all its noblest characters have fallen shortof unstained purity, and with boldness of hope as great as itsfrankness teaches the weakest to aspire, and the most sinful toexpect perfect likeness to a perfect Lord, It is a plane mirror, giving back all images without distortion. 

We recall how emphatically and absolutely it eulogised Barnabas as 'agood man, full of the Holy Ghost and of faith'--and now we have tonotice how this man, thus full of the seminal principle of allgoodness, derived into his soul by deep and constant communionthrough faith, and showing in his life practical righteousness andholiness, yet goes sadly astray, tarnishes his character, and marshis whole future. 

The two specific faults recorded of him are his over-indulgence inthe case of Mark, and his want of firmness in opposition to theJudaising teachers who came down to Antioch. They were neither ofthem grave faults, but they were real. In the one he was too facilein overlooking a defect which showed unfitness for the work, andseems to have yielded to family affection and to have sacrificed theefficiency of a mission to it. Not only was he wrong in proposing tocondone Mark's desertion, but he was still more wrong in hisreception of the opposition to his proposal. With the firmness whichweak characters so often display at the wrong time, he was resolved, come what would, to have his own way. Temper rather than principlemade him obstinate where he should have been yielding, as it had madehim in Antioch yielding, where he should have been firm. Paul'sremonstrances have no effect. He will rather have his own way thanthe companionship of his old friend, and so there come alienation andseparation. The Church at Antioch takes Paul's view--all the brethrenare unanimous in disapproval. But Barnabas will not move. He sets uphis own feeling in opposition to them all. The sympathy of hisbrethren, the work of his life, the extension of Christ's kingdom, are all tossed aside. His own foolish purpose is more to him in thatmoment of irritation than all these. So he snaps the tie, abandonshis work, and goes away without a kindly word, without a blessing, without the Church's prayers--but with his nephew for whom he hadgiven up all these. Paul sails away to do God's work, and the Church'recommends him to the grace of God, ' but Barnabas steals away hometo Cyprus, and his name is no more heard in the story of the plantingof the kingdom of Christ. 

One hopes that his work did not stop thus, but his recorded workdoes, and in the band of friends who surrounded the great Apostle, the name of his earliest friend appears no more. Other companions andassociates in labour take his place; he, as it appears, is gone forever. One reference (1 Cor. Ix. 6) at a later date seems mostnaturally to suggest that he still continued in the work of anevangelist, and still practised the principle to which he and Paulhad adhered when together, of supporting himself by manual labour. The tone of the reference implies that there were relations of mutualrespect. But the most we can believe is that probably the two menstill thought kindly of each other and honoured each other for theirwork's sake, but found it better to labour apart, and not to seek torenew the old companionship which had been so violently torn asunder. 

The other instance of weakness was in some respects of a still graverkind. The cause of it was the old controversy about the obligationsof Jewish law on Gentile Christians. Paul, Peter, and Barnabas allconcurred in neglecting the restrictions imposed by Judaism, and inliving on terms of equality and association in eating and drinkingwith the heathen converts at Antioch. A principle was involved, towhich Barnabas had bean the first to give in his adhesion, in thefrank recognition of the Antioch Church. But as soon as emissariesfrom the other party came down, Peter and he abandoned theirassociation with Gentile converts, not changing their convictions butsuppressing the action to which their convictions should have led. They pretended to be of the same mind with these narrow Jews fromJerusalem. They insulted their brethren, they deserted Paul, theybelied their convictions, they imperilled the cause of Christianliberty, they flew in the face of what Peter had said that GodHimself had showed him, they did their utmost to degrade Christianityinto a form of Judaism--all for the sake of keeping on good termswith the narrow bigotry of these Judaising teachers. 

Now if we take these two facts together, and set them side by sidewith the eulogy pronounced on Barnabas as 'a good man, full of theHoly Ghost and of faith, ' we have brought before us in a strikingform some important considerations. 

I. The imperfect goodness of good men. 

A good man does not mean a faultless man. Of course the power whichworks on a believing soul is always tending to produce goodness andonly goodness. But its operation is not such that we are alwaysequally, uniformly, perfectly under its influence. Power in germ isone thing, in actual operation another. There may be but a littleragged patch of green in the garden, and yet it may be on its way tobecome a flower-bed. A king may not have established dominion overall his land. The actual operation of that transforming Spirit at anygiven moment is limited, and we can withdraw ourselves from it. Itdoes not begin by leavening all our nature. 

So we have to note--

The root of goodness. 

The main direction of a life. 

The progressive character of goodness. 

The highest style of Christian life is a struggle. So we drawpractical inferences as to the conduct of life. 

This thought of imperfection does not diminish the criminality ofindividual acts. 

It does not weaken aspiration and effort towards higher life. 

It does alleviate our doubts and fears when we find evil inourselves. 

II. The possible evil lurking in our best qualities. 

In Barnabas, his amiability and openness of nature, the verycharacteristics that had made him strong, now make him weak andwrong. 

How clearly then there is brought out here the danger that lurks evenin our good! I need not remind you how every virtue may be run to anextreme and become a vice. Liberality is exaggerated intoprodigality; firmness, into obstinacy; mercy, into weakness; gravity, into severity; tolerance, into feeble conviction; humility, intoabjectness. 

And these extremes are reached when these graces are developed at theexpense of the symmetry of the character. 

We are not simple but complex, and what we need to aim at is acharacter, not an excrescence. Some people's goodness is like a wartor a wen. Their virtues are cases of what medical technicality callshypertrophy. But our goodness should be like harmonious Indianpatterns, where all colours blend in a balanced whole. 

Such considerations enforce the necessity for rigid self-control. Andthat in two directions. 

(_a_) Beware of your excellences, your strong points. 

(_b_) Cultivate sedulously the virtues to which you are not inclined. 

The special form of error into which Barnabas fell is worth notice. It was over-indulgence, tolerance of evil in a person; feebleness ofgrasp, a deficiency of boldness in carrying out his witness to adisputed truth. In this day liberality, catholicity, are pushed sofar that there is danger of our losing the firmness of our grasp ofprinciples, and indulgence for faults goes so far that we are apt tolose the habit of unsparing, though unangry, condemnation of unworthycharacters. This generation is like Barnabas; very quick in sympathy, generous in action, ready to recognise goodness where-ever it isbeheld. But Barnabas may be a beacon, warning us of the possibleevils that dog these excellences like their shadows. 

III. The grave issues of small faults. 

Comparatively trivial as was Barnabas's error, it seems to havewrecked his life, at least to have marred it for long years, and tohave broken his sweet companionship with Paul. I think we may gofurther and say, that most good men are in more danger from trivialfaults than from great ones. No man reaches the superlative degree ofwickedness all at once. Few men spring from the height to the abyss, they usually slip down. The erosive action of the sand of the desertis said to be gradually cutting off the Sphinx's head. The smallfaults are most numerous. We are least on our guard against them. There is a microscopic weed that chokes canals. Snow-flakes make thesky as dark as an eclipse does. White ants eat a carcase quicker thana lion does. 

So we urge the necessity for bringing ordinary deeds and smallactions to be ruled and guided by God's Spirit. 

How the contemplation of the imperfection, which is the law of life, should lead us to hope for that heaven where perfection is. 

How the contemplation of the limits of all human goodness should leadus to exclusive faith in, and imitation of, the one perfect Lord. Hestands stainless among the stained. In Him alone is no sin, from Himalone like goodness may be ours. 

HOW TO SECURE A PROSPEROUS VOYAGE

'And after [Paul] had seen the vision, immediately we endeavouredto go into Macedonia, assuredly gathering that the Lord hadcalled us for to preach the gospel unto them. 11. Therefore . .. We came with a straight course. '--ACTS xvi. 10, 11. 

This book of the Acts is careful to point out how each fresh step inthe extension of the Church's work was directed and commanded byJesus Christ Himself. Thus Philip was sent by specific injunction to'join himself' to the chariot of the Ethiopian statesman. Thus Peteron the house-top at Joppa, looking out over the waters of the westernsea, had the vision of the great sheet, knit at the four corners. Andthus Paul, in singularly similar circumstances, in the little seaportof Troas, looking out over the narrower sea which there separatesAsia from Europe, had the vision of the man of Macedonia, with hiscry, 'Come over and help _us_!' The whole narrative before us bearsupon the one point, that Christ Himself directs the expansion of Hiskingdom. And there never was a more fateful moment than that at whichthe Gospel, in the person of the Apostle, crossed the sea, andeffected a lodgment in the progressive quarter of the world. 

Now what I wish to do is to note how Paul and his little companybehaved themselves when they had received Christ's commandment. For Ithink there are lessons worth the gathering to be found there. Therewas no doubt about the vision; the question was what it meant. Sonote three stages. First, careful consideration, with one's owncommon sense, of what God wants us to do--'Assuredly gathering thatthe Lord had called us. ' Then, let no grass grow under our feet--immediate obedience--'Straightway we endeavoured to go intoMacedonia. ' And then, patient pondering and instantaneous submissionget the reward--'We came with a straight course. ' He gave the windsand the waves charge concerning them. Now there are three lessons forus. Taken together, they are patterns of what ought to be in ourexperience, and will be, if the conditions are complied with. 

I. First, Careful Consideration. 

Paul had no doubt that what he saw was a vision from Christ, and nota mere dream of the night, born of the reverberation of wakingthoughts and anxieties, that took the shape of the plaintive cry ofthe man of Macedonia. But then the next step was to be quite sure ofwhat the vision meant. And so, wisely, he does not make up his mindhimself, but calls in the three men who were with him. And what asignificant little group it was! There were Timothy, Silas, and Luke--Silas, from Jerusalem; Timothy, half a Gentile; Luke, altogether aGentile; and Paul himself--and these four shook the world. They cometogether, and they talk the matter over. The word of my text rendered'assuredly gathering' is a picturesque one. It literally means'laying things together. ' They set various facts side by side, or aswe say in our colloquial idiom, 'They put this and that together, 'and so they came to understand what the vision meant. 

What had they to help them to understand it? Well, they had thisfact, that in all the former part of their journey they had been metby hindrances; that their path had been hedged up here, there, andeverywhere. Paul set out from Antioch, meaning a quiet little tour ofvisitation amongst the churches that had been already established. Jesus Christ meant Philippi and Athens and Corinth and Ephesus, before Paul got back again. So we read in an earlier portion of thechapter that the Spirit of Jesus forbade them to speak the Word inone region, and checked and hindered them when, baffled, they triedto go to another. There then remained only one other road open tothem, and that led to the coast. Thus putting together theirhindrances and their stimuluses, they came to the conclusion thatunitedly the two said plainly, 'Go across the sea, and preach theword there. '

Now it is a very commonplace and homely piece of teaching to remindyou that time is not wasted in making quite sure of the meaning ofprovidences which seem to declare the will of God, before we begin toact. But the commonest duties are very often neglected; and wepreachers, I think, would very often do more good by hammering atcommonplace themes than by bringing out original and fresh ones. Andso I venture to say a word about the immense importance to Christianlife and Christian service of this preliminary step--'assuredlygathering that the Lord had called us. ' What have we to do in orderto be quite sure of God's intention for us?

Well, the first thing seems to me to make quite sure that we want toknow it, and that we do not want to force our intentions upon Him, and then to plume ourselves upon being obedient to His call, when weare only doing what we like. There is a vast deal of unconsciousinsincerity in us all; and especially in regard to Christian workthere is an enormous amount of it. People will say, 'Oh, I have sucha strong impulse in a given direction, to do certain kinds ofChristian service, that I am quite sure that it is God's will. ' Howare you sure? A strong impulse may be a temptation from the devil aswell as a call from God. And men who simply act on untested impulses, even the most benevolent which spring directly from large Christianprinciples, may be making deplorable mistakes. It is not enough tohave pure motives. It is useless to say, 'Such and such a course ofaction is clearly the result of the truths of the Gospel. ' That maybe all perfectly true, and yet the course may not be the course foryou. For there may be practical considerations, which do not comeinto our view unless we carefully think about them, which forbid usto take such a path. So remember that strong impulses are not guidinglights; nor is it enough to vindicate our pursuing some mode ofChristian service that it is in accordance with the principles of theGospel. 'Circumstances alter cases' is a very homely old saying; butif Christian people would only bring the common sense to bear upontheir religious life which they need to bring to bear upon theirbusiness life, unless they are going into the _Gazette_, there wouldbe less waste work in the Christian Church than there is to-day. I donot want less zeal; I want that the reins of the fiery steed shall bekept well in hand. The difference between a fanatic, who is a fool, and an enthusiast, who is a wise man, is that the one brings calmreason to bear, and an open-eyed consideration of circumstances allround; and the other sees but one thing at a time, and shuts hiseyes, like a bull in a field, and charges at that. So let us be sure, to begin with, that we want to know what God wants us to do; and thatwe are not palming our wishes upon Him, and calling them Hisprovidences. 

Then there is another plain, practical consideration that comes outof this story, and that is, Do not be above being taught by failuresand hindrances. You know the old proverb, 'It is waste time to flog adead horse. ' There is not a little well-meant work flung away, because it is expended on obviously hopeless efforts to revivify, perhaps, some moribund thing or to continue, perhaps, in some old, well-worn rut, instead of striking out into a new path. Paul was fullof enthusiasm for the evangelisation of Asia Minor, and he might havesaid a great deal about the importance of going to Ephesus. He triedto do it, but Christ said 'No. ' and Paul did not knock his headagainst the stone wall that lay between him and the accomplishment ofhis purpose, but he gave it up and tried another tack. He next wishedto go up into Bithynia, and he might have said a great deal about theneeds of the people by the Euxine; but again down came the barrier, and he had once more to learn the lesson, 'Not as thou wilt, but as Iwill. ' He was not above being taught by his failures. Some of us are;and it is very difficult, and needs a great deal of Christian wisdomand unselfishness, to distinguish between hindrances in the way ofwork which are meant to evoke larger efforts, and hindrances whichare meant to say, 'Try another path, and do not waste time here anylonger. '

But if we wish supremely to know God's will, He will help us todistinguish between these two kinds of difficulties. Some one hassaid, 'Difficulties are things to be overcome. ' Yes, but not always. They very often are, and we should thank God for them then; but theysometimes are God's warnings to us to go by another road. So we needdiscretion, and patience, and suspense of judgment to be brought tobear upon all our purposes and plans. 

Then, of course, I need not remind you that the way to get light isto seek it in the Book and in communion with Him whom the Bookreveals to us as the true Word of God: 'He that followeth Me shallnot walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life. ' So carefulconsideration is a preliminary to all good Christian work. And, ifyou can, talk to some Timothy and Silas and Luke about your course, and do not be above taking a brother's advice. 

II. The next step is Immediate Submission. 

When they had assuredly gathered that the Lord had called them, 'immediately'--there is great virtue in that one word--'weendeavoured to go into Macedonia. ' Delayed obedience is the brother--and, if I may mingle metaphors, sometimes the father--ofdisobedience. It sometimes means simple feebleness of conviction, indolence, and a general lack of fervour. It means very often areluctance to do the duty that lies plainly before us. And, dearbrethren, as I have said about the former lesson, so I say aboutthis. The homely virtue, which we all know to be indispensable tosuccess in common daily life and commercial undertakings, is no lessindispensable to all vigour of Christian life and to all nobleness ofChristian service. We have no hours to waste; the time is short. Inthe harvest-field, especially when it is getting near the end of theweek, and the Sunday is at hand, there are little leisure and littletolerance of slow workers. And for us the fields are white, thelabourers are few, the Lord of the harvest is imperative, the sun ishurrying to the west, and the sickles will have to be laid downbefore long. So, '_immediately_ we endeavoured. '

Delayed duty is present discomfort. As long as a man has aconscience, so long will he be restless and uneasy until he has, asthe Quakers say, 'cleared himself of his burden, ' and done what heknows that he ought to do, and got done with it. Delayed obediencemeans wasted possibilities of service, and so is ever to be avoided. The more disagreeable anything is which is plainly a duty, the morereason there is for doing it right away. 'I made haste, and delayednot, but made haste to keep Thy commandments. '

Did you ever count how many '_straightways_' there are in the firstchapter of Mark's Gospel? If you have not, will you do it when you gohome; and notice how they come in? In the story of Christ's openingministry every fresh incident is tacked on to the one before it, inthat chapter, by that same word 'straightway. ' 'Straightway' He doesthat; 'anon' He does this; 'immediately' He does the other thing. Allis one continuous stream of acts of service. The Gospel of Mark isthe Gospel of the servant, and it sets forth the pattern to which allChristian service ought to be conformed. 

So if we take Jesus Christ for our Example, unhasting and unrestingin the work of the Lord, we shall let no moment pass burdened withundischarged duty; and we shall find that all the moments are fewenough for the discharge of the duties incumbent upon us. 

III. So, lastly, careful consideration and unhesitating obediencelead to a Straight Course. 

Well, it is not so always, but it is so generally. There is awonderful power in diligent doing of God's known will to smooth awaydifficulties and avoid troubles. I do not, of course, mean that a manwho thus lives, patiently ascertaining and then promptly doing whatGod would have him do, has any miraculous exemption from the ordinarysorrows and trials of life. But sure I am that a very, very largeproportion of all the hindrances and disappointments, storms andquicksands, calms which prevent progress and headwinds that beat inour faces, are directly the products of our negligence in one orother of these two respects, and that although by no meansabsolutely, yet to an extent that we should not believe if we had notthe experience of it, the wish to do God's will and the doing of itwith our might when we know what it is have a talismanic power incalming the seas and bringing us to the desired haven. 

But though this is not always absolutely true in regard of outwardthings, it is, without exception or limitation, true in regard of theinward life. For if my supreme will is to do God's will then nothingwhich is His will, and comes to me because it is can be a hindrancein my doing that. 

As an old proverb says, 'Travelling merchants can never be out oftheir road. ' And a Christian man whose path is simple obedience tothe will of God can never be turned from that path by whateverhindrances may affect his outward life. So, in deepest truth, thereis always a calm voyage for the men whose eyes are open to discern, and whose hands are swift to fulfil, the commandments of their Fatherin heaven. For them all winds blow them to their port; for them 'allthings work together for good'; with them God's servants who hearkento the voice of His commandments, and are His ministers to do Hispleasure, can never be other than in amity and alliance. He who isGod's servant is the world's master. 'All things are yours if ye areChrist's. '

So, brethren, careful study of providences and visions, of hindrancesand stimulus, careful setting of our lives side by side with theMaster's, and a swift delight in doing the will of the Lord, willsecure for us, in inmost truth, a prosperous voyage, till all stormsare hushed, 'and they are glad because they be quiet; so He bringeththem to their desired haven. '

PAUL AT PHILIPPI

'And on the sabbath day we went forth without the gate, by ariver side, where we supposed there was a place of prayer; and wesat down, and spake unto the women which were come together. '--ACTS xvi. 13 (R. V. ). 

This is the first record of the preaching of the Gospel in Europe, and probably the first instance of it. The fact that the vision ofthe man of Macedonia was needed in order to draw the Apostle acrossthe straits into Macedonia, and the great length at which theincidents at Philippi are recorded, make this probable. If so, we arehere standing, as it were, at the wellhead of a mighty river, and thethin stream of water assumes importance when we remember the thousandmiles of its course, and the league-broad estuary in which it poursitself into the ocean. Here is the beginning; the Europe of to-day iswhat came out of it. There is no sign whatever that the Apostle wasconscious of an epoch in this transference of the sphere of hisoperations, but we can scarcely help being conscious of such. 

And so, looking at the words of my text, and seeing here howunobtrusively there stole into the progressive part of the world thepower which was to shatter and remould all its institutions, to guideand inform the onward march of its peoples, to be the basis of theirliberties, and the starting-point of their literature, we canscarcely avoid drawing lessons of importance. 

The first point which I would suggest, as picturesquely enforced forus by this incident, is--

I. The apparent insignificance and real greatness of Christian work. 

There did not seem in the whole of that great city that morning amore completely insignificant knot of people than the little weather-beaten Jew, travel-stained, of weak bodily presence, and ofcontemptible speech, with the handful of his attendants, who slippedout in the early morning and wended their way to the quiet littleoratory, beneath the blue sky, by the side of the rushing stream, andthere talked informally and familiarly to the handful of women. Thegreat men of Philippi would have stared if any one had said to them, 'You will be forgotten, but two of these women will have their namesembalmed in the memory of the world for ever. Everybody will knowEuodia and Syntyche. Your city will be forgotten, although a battlethat settled the fate of the civilised world was fought outside yourgates. But that little Jew and the letter that he will write to thathandful of believers that are to be gathered by his preaching willlast for ever. ' The mightiest thing done in Europe that morning waswhen the Apostle sat down by the riverside, 'and spake to the womenwhich resorted thither. '

The very same vulgar mistake as to what is great and as to what issmall is being repeated over and over again; and we are all temptedto it by that which is worldly and vulgar in ourselves, to theenormous detriment of the best part of our natures. So it is worthwhile to stop for a moment and ask what is the criterion of greatnessin our deeds? I answer, three things--their motive, their sphere, their consequences. What is done for God is always great. You take apebble and drop it into a brook, and immediately the dull colouringupon it flashes up into beauty when the sunlight strikes through theripples, and the magnitude of the little stone is enlarged. If I maymake use of such a violent expression, drop your deeds into God, andthey will all be great, however small they are. Keep them apart fromHim, and they will be small, though all the drums of the world beatin celebration, and all the vulgar people on the earth extol theirmagnitude. This altar magnifies and sanctifies the giver and thegift. The great things are the things that are done for God. 

A deed is great according to its sphere. What bears on and isconfined to material things is smaller than what affects theunderstanding. The teacher is more than the man who promotes materialgood. And on the very same principle, above both the one and theother, is the doer of deeds which touch the diviner part of a man'snature, his will, his conscience, his affections, his relations toGod. Thus the deeds that impinge upon these are the highest and thegreatest; and far above the scientific inventor, and far above themere teacher, as I believe, and as I hope you believe, stands thehumblest work of the poorest Christian who seeks to draw any othersoul into the light and liberty which he himself possesses. Thegreatest thing in the world is charity, and the purest charity in theworld is that which helps a man to possess the basis and mother-tincture of all love, the love towards God who has first loved us, inthe person and the work of His dear Son. 

That which being done has consequences that roll through souls, 'andgrow for ever and for ever, ' is a greater work than the deed whoseissues are more short-lived. And so the man who speaks a word whichmay deflect a soul into the paths which have no end until they areswallowed up in the light of the God who 'is a Sun, ' is a workerwhose work is truly great. Brethren, it concerns the nobleness of thelife of us Christian people far more closely than we sometimessuppose, that we should purge our souls from the false estimate ofmagnitudes which prevails so extensively in the world's judgment ofmen and their doings. And though it is no worthy motive for a man toseek to live so that he may do great things, it is a part of thediscipline of the Christian mind, as well as heart, that we should beable to reduce the swollen bladders to their true flaccidity andinsignificance, and that we should understand that things done forGod, things done on men's souls, things done with consequences whichtime will not exhaust, nor eternity put a period to, are, after all, the great things of human life. 

Ah, there will be a wonderful reversal of judgments one day! Namesthat now fill the trumpet of fame will fall silent. Pages that noware read as if they were leaves of the 'Book of Life' will beobliterated and unknown, and when all the flashing cressets in VanityFair have smoked and stunk themselves out, 'They that be wise shallshine as the brightness of the firmament, and they that turn many torighteousness as the stars for ever and ever. ' The great things arethe Christian things, and there was no greater deed done that day, onthis round earth, than when that Jewish wayfarer, travel-stained andinsignificant, sat himself down in the place of prayer, and 'spakeunto the women which resorted thither. ' Do not be over-cowed by theloud talk of the world, but understand that Christian work is themightiest work that a man can do. 

Let us take from this incident a hint as to--

II. The law of growth in Christ's Kingdom. 

Here, as I have said, is the thin thread of water at the source. Weto-day are on the broad bosom of the expanded stream. Here is thelittle beginning; the world that we see around us has come from this, and there is a great deal more to be done yet before all the powerthat was transported into Europe, on that Sabbath morning, haswrought its legitimate effects. That is to say, 'the Kingdom of Godcometh not by observation. ' Let me say a word, and only a word, basedon this incident, about the law of small beginnings and the law ofslow, inconspicuous development. 

We have here an instance of the law of small, silent beginnings. Letus go back to the highest example of everything that is good; thelife of Jesus Christ. A cradle at Bethlehem, a carpenter's shop inNazareth, thirty years buried in a village, two or three years, atmost, going up and down quietly in a remote nook of the earth, andthen He passed away silently and the world did not know Him. 'Heshall not strive nor cry, nor cause His voice to be heard in thestreets. ' And as the Christ so His Church, and so His Gospel, and soall good movements that begin from Him. Destructive preparations maybe noisy; they generally are. Constructive beginnings are silent andsmall. If a thing is launched with a great beating of drums andblowing of trumpets, you may be pretty sure there is very little init. Drums are hollow, or they would not make such a noise. Trumpetsonly catch and give forth wind. They say--I know not whether it istrue--that the _Wellingtonia gigantea_, the greatest of forest trees, has a smaller seed than any of its congeners. It may be so, at anyrate it does for an illustration. The germ-cell is alwaysmicroscopic. A little beginning is a prophecy of a great ending. 

In like manner there is another large principle suggested here which, in these days of impatient haste and rushing to and fro, andreligious as well as secular advertising and standing at streetcorners, we are very apt to forget, but which we need to remember, and that is that the rate of growth is swift when the duration ofexistence is short. A reed springs up in a night. How long does anoak take before it gets too high for a sheep to crop at? The mothlives its full life in a day. There is no creature that has helplessinfancy so long as a man. We have the slow work of mining; thedynamite will be put into the hole one day, and the spark applied--and then? So 'an inheritance may be gotten hastily at the beginning, but the end thereof shall not be blessed. '

Let us apply that to our own personal life and work, and to thegrowth of Christianity in the world, and let us not be staggeredbecause either are so slow. 'The Lord is not slack concerning Hispromises, as some men count slackness. One day is with the Lord as athousand years, and a thousand years as one day. ' How long will thatday be of which a thousand years are but as the morning twilight?Brethren, you have need of patience. You Christian workers, and Ihope I am speaking to a great many such now; how long does it takebefore we can say that we are making any impression at all on thevast masses of evil and sin that are round about us? God waited, nobody knows how many millenniums and more than millenniums, beforeHe had the world ready for man. He waited for more years than we cantell before He had the world ready for the Incarnation. His march isvery slow because it is ever onwards. Let us be thankful if we forgeahead the least little bit; and let us not be impatient for swiftresults which are the fool's paradise, and which the man who knowsthat he is working towards God's own end can well afford to dowithout. 

And now, lastly, let me ask you to notice, still further as drawnfrom this incident--

III. The simplicity of the forces to which God entrusts the growth ofHis Kingdom. 

It is almost ludicrous to think, if it were not pathetic and sublime, of the disproportion between the end that was aimed at and the waythat was taken to reach it, which the text opens before us. 'We wentout to the riverside, and we spake unto the women which resortedthither. ' That was all. Think of Europe as it was at that time. Therewas Greece over the hills, there was Rome ubiquitous and ready toexchange its contemptuous toleration for active hostility. There wasthe unknown barbarism of the vague lands beyond. Think of theestablished idolatries which these men had to meet, around which hadgathered, by the superstitious awe of untold ages, everything thatwas obstinate, everything that was menacing, everything that wasvenerable. Think of the subtleties to which they had to oppose theirunlettered message. Think of the moral corruption that was eatinglike an ulcer into the very heart of society. Did ever a Cortez onthe beach, with his ships in flames behind him, and a continent inarms before, cast himself on a more desperate venture? And theyconquered! How? What were the small stones from the brook that slewGoliath? Have we got them? Here they are, the message that theyspoke, the white heat of earnestness with which they spoke it, andthe divine Helper who backed them up. And we have this message. Brethren, that old word, 'God was in Christ reconciling the world toHimself, ' is as much needed, as potent, as truly adapted to thecomplicated civilisation of this generation, as surely reaching thedeepest wants of the human soul, as it was in the days when first themessage poured, like a red-hot lava flood, from the utterances ofPaul. Like lava it has gone cold to-day, and stiff in many places, and all the heat is out of it. That is the fault of the speaker, never of the message. It is as mighty as ever it was, and if theChristian Church would keep more closely to it, and would realisemore fully that the Cross does not need to be propped up so much asto be proclaimed, I think we should see that it is so. That sword hasnot lost its temper, and modern modes of warfare have not antiquatedit. As David said to the high priests at Nob, when he was told thatGoliath's sword was hid behind the ephod, 'Give me that. There isnone like it. ' It was not miracles, it was the Gospel that waspreached, which was 'the power of God unto salvation. '

And that message was preached with earnestness. There is one point inwhich every successful servant of Jesus Christ who has done work forHim, winning men to Him, has been like every other successfulservant, and there is only one point. Some of them have been wisemen, some of them have been foolish. Some of them have been clad withmany puerile notions and much rubbish of ceremonial and sacerdotaltheories. Some of them have been high Calvinists, some of them lowArminians; some of them have been scholars, some of them could hardlyread. But they have all had this one thing: they believed with alltheir hearts what they spake. They fulfilled the Horatian principle, 'If you wish me to weep, your own eyes must overflow'--and if youwish me to believe, you must speak, not 'with bated breath andwhispering humbleness, ' but as if you yourself believed it, and weredead set on getting other people to believe it, too. 

And then the third thing that Paul had we have, and that is thepresence of the Christ. Note what it says in the context about oneconvert who was made that morning, Lydia, 'whose heart the Lordopened. ' Now I am not going to deduce Calvinism or any other 'ism'from these words, but I pray you to note that there is emerging onthe surface here what runs all through this book of Acts, andanimates the whole of it, viz. , that Jesus Christ Himself is working, doing all the work that is done through His servants. Wherever thereare men aflame with that with which every Christian man and womanshould be aflame, the consciousness of the preciousness of theirMaster, and their own responsibility for the spreading of His Name, there, depend upon it, will be the Christ to aid them. The picturewith which one of the Evangelists closes his Gospel will be repeated:'They went everywhere preaching the word, the Lord working with them, and confirming the word with signs following. '

Dear brethren, the vision of the man of Macedonia which drew Paulacross the water from Troas to Philippi speaks to us. 'Come over andhelp us, ' comes from many voices. And if we, in however humble andobscure, and as the foolish purblind world calls it, 'small, ' way, yield to the invitation, and try to do what in us lies, then we shallfind that, like Paul by the riverside in that oratory, we arebuilding better than we know, and planting a little seed, thespringing whereof God will bless. 'Thou sowest not that which shallbe, but bare grain . .. And God giveth it a body as it hath pleasedHim. '

THE RIOT AT PHILIPPI

'And when her masters saw that the hope of their gains was gone, they caught Paul and Silas, and drew them into the marketplaceunto the rulers, 20. And brought them to the magistrates, saying, These men, being Jews, do exceedingly trouble our city, 21. Andteach customs, which are not lawful for us to receive, neither toobserve, being Romans. 22. And the multitude rose up togetheragainst them: and the magistrates rent off their clothes, andcommanded to beat them. 23. And when they had laid many stripesupon them, they cast them into prison, charging the jailer tokeep them safely: 24. Who, having received such a charge, thrustthem into the inner prison, and made their feet fast in thestocks. 25. And at midnight Paul and Silas prayed, and sangpraises unto God: and the prisoners heard them. 26. And suddenlythere was a great earthquake, so that the foundations of theprison were shaken: and immediately all the doors were opened, and every one's bands were loosed. 27. And the keeper of theprison awaking out of his sleep, and seeing the prison doorsopen, he drew out his sword, and would have killed himself, supposing that the prisoners had been fled. 28. But Paul criedwith a loud voice, saying, Do thyself no harm: for we are allhere. 29. Then he called for a light, and sprang in, and cametrembling, and fell down before Paul and Silas, 30. And broughtthem out, and said, Sirs, what must I do to be saved? 31. Andthey said, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt besaved, and thy house. 32. And they spake unto him the word of theLord, and to all that were in his house. 33. And he took them thesame hour of the night, and washed their stripes; and wasbaptized, he and all his, straightway. 34. And when he hadbrought them into his house, he set meat before them, andrejoiced, believing In God with all his house. '--ACTS xvi. 19-34. 

This incident gives us the Apostle's first experience of purelyGentile opposition. The whole scene has a different stamp from thatof former antagonisms, and reminds us that we have passed intoEurope. The accusers and the grounds of accusation are new. FormerlyJews had led the attack; now Gentiles do so. Crimes against religionwere charged before; now crimes against law and order. Hence thenarrative is more extended, in accordance with the prevailing habitof the book, to dilate on the first of a series and to summarisesubsequent members of it. We may note the unfounded charge and unjustsentence; the joyful confessors and the answer to their trust; thegreat light that shone on the jailer's darkness. 

I. This was a rough beginning of the work undertaken at the call ofChrist. Less courageous and faithful men might have thought, 'Were weright in "assuredly gathering" that His hand pointed us hither, sincethis is the reception we find?' But though the wind meets us as soonas we clear the harbour, the salt spray dashing in our faces is nosign that we should not have left shelter. A difficult beginningoften means a prosperous course; and hardships are not tokens ofhaving made a mistake. 

The root of the first antagonism to the Gospel in Europe was purelymercenary. The pythoness's masters had no horror of Paul's doctrines. They were animated by no zeal for Apollo. They only saw a source ofprofit drying up. Infinitely more respectable was Jewish opposition, which was, at all events, the perverted working of noble sentiments. Zeal for religion, even when the zeal is impure and the notions ofreligion imperfect, is higher than mere anger at pecuniary loss. Howmuch of the opposition since and to-day comes from the same meansource! Lust and appetite organise profitable trades, in which 'themoney has no smell, ' however foul the cesspool from which it has beenbrought. And when Christian people set themselves against theseabominations, capital takes the command of the mob of drink-sellersand consumers, or of those from haunts of fleshly sin, and shrieksabout interfering with honest industry, and seeking to enforce sour-faced Puritanism on society. The Church may be very sure that it isfailing in some part of its duty, if there is no class of those whofatten on providing for sin howling at its heels, because it isinterfering with the hope of their gains. 

The charge against the little group took no heed of the realcharacter of their message. It artfully put prominent theirnationality. These early anti-Semitic agitators knew the value of agood solid prejudice, and of a nickname. 'Jews'--that was enough. Therioters were 'Romans'--of a sort, no doubt, but it was poor pride fora Macedonian to plume himself on having lost his nationality. Thegreat crime laid to Paul's charge was--troubling the city. So italways is. Whether it be George Fox, or John Wesley, or the SalvationArmy, the disorderly elements of every community attack the preachersof the Gospel in the name of order, and break the peace in theireagerness to have it kept. There was no 'trouble' in Philippi, butthe uproar which they themselves were making. The quiet praying-placeby the riverside, and the silencing of the maiden's shout in thestreets, were not exactly the signs of disturbers of civictranquillity. 

The accuracy of the charge may be measured by the ignorance of theaccusers that Paul and his friends were in any way different from therun of Jews. No doubt they were supposed to be teaching Jewishpractices, which were supposed to be inconsistent with Romancitizenship. But if the magistrates had said, 'What customs?' thecharge would have collapsed. Thank God, the Gospel has a witness tobear against many 'customs'; but it does not begin by attacking eventhese, much less by prescribing illegalities. Its errand was and isto the individual first. It sets the inner man right with God, andthen the new life works itself out, and will war against evils whichthe old life deemed good; but the conception of Christianity as acode regulating actions is superficial, whether it is held by friendsor foes. 

There is always a mob ready to follow any leader, especially if thereis the prospect of hurting somebody. The lovers of tranquillityshowed how they loved it by dragging Paul and Silas into the forum, and bellowing untrue charges against them. The mob seconded them;'they rose up together [with the slave-owners] against Paul andSilas. ' The magistrates, knowing the ticklish material that they hadto deal with, and seeing only a couple of Jews from nobody knewwhere, did not think it worth while to inquire or remonstrate. Theywere either cowed or indifferent; and so, to show how zealous theyand the mob were for Roman law, they drove a coach-and-six cleanthrough it, and without the show of investigation, scourged and threwinto prison the silent Apostles. It was a specimen of what hashappened too often since. How many saints have been martyred to keeppopular feeling in good tune! And how many politicians will strainconscience to-day, because they are afraid of what Luke hereunpolitely calls 'the multitude, ' or as we might render it, 'themob, ' but which we now fit with a much more respectful appellation!

The jailer, on his part, in the true spirit of small officials, wasready to better his instructions. It is dangerous to give vaguedirections to such people. When the judge has ordered unlawfulscourging, the turnkey is not likely to interpret the requirement ofsafe keeping too leniently. One would not look for much humankindness in a Philippian jail. So it was natural that the deepest, darkest, most foul-smelling den should he chosen for the two, andthat they should he thrust, bleeding backs and all, into the stocks, to sleep if they could. 

II. These birds could sing in a darkened cage. The jailer's treatmentof them after his conversion shows what he had neglected to do atfirst. They had no food; their bloody backs were unsponged; they werethrust into a filthy hole, and put in a posture of torture. No wonderthat they could not sleep! But what hindered sleep would, with mostmen, have sorely dimmed trust and checked praise. Not so with them. God gave them 'songs in the night. ' We can hear the strains throughall the centuries, and they bid us be cheerful and trustful, whateverbefalls. Surely Christian faith never is more noble than when ittriumphs over circumstances, and brings praises from lips which, ifsense had its way, would wail and groan. 'This is the victory thatovercometh the world. ' The true anaesthetic is trust in God. Nowonder that the baser sort of prisoners--and base enough theyprobably were--'were listening to them, ' for such sounds had neverbeen heard there before. In how many a prison have they been heardsince!

We are not told that the Apostles prayed for deliverance. Suchdeliverance had not been always granted. Peter indeed had been setfree, but Stephen and James had been martyred, and these two heroeshad no ground to expect a miracle to free them. But thankful trust isalways an appeal to God. And it is always answered, whether bydeliverance from or support in trial. 

This time deliverance came. The tremor of the earth was the token ofGod's answer. It does not seem likely that an earthquake could loosenfetters in a jail full of prisoners, but more probably the opening ofthe doors and the falling off of the chains were due to a separateact of divine power, the earthquake being but the audible tokenthereof. At all events, here again, the first of a series hasdistinguishing features, and may stand as type of all its successors. God will never leave trusting hearts to the fury of enemies. Hesometimes will stretch out a hand and set them free, He sometimeswill leave them to bear the utmost that the world can do, but He willalways hear their cry and save them. Paul had learned the lessonwhich Philippi was meant to teach, when he said, though anticipatinga speedy death by martyrdom, 'The Lord will deliver me from everyevil work, and will save me into His heavenly Kingdom. '

III. The jailer behaves as such a man in his position would do. Heapparently slept in a place that commanded a view of the doors; andhe lay dressed, with his sword beside him, in case of riot orattempted escape. His first impulse on awaking is to look at thegates. They are open; then some of his charge have broken them. Hisimmediate thought of suicide not only shows the savage severity ofpunishment which he knew would fall on him, but tells a dreary taleof the desperate sense of the worthlessness of life and blankignorance of anything beyond which then infected the Roman world. Suicide, the refuge of cowards or of pessimists, sometimes becomesepidemic. Faith must have died and hope vanished before a man cansay, 'I will take the leap into the dark. '

Paul's words freed the man from one fear, but woke a less selfish andprofounder awe. What did all this succession of strange things mean?Here are doors open; how came that? Here are prisoners with thepossibility of escape refusing it; how came that? Here is one of hisvictims tenderly careful of his life and peacefulness, and taking theupper hand of him; how came that? A nameless awe begins to creep overhim; and when he gets lights, and sees the two whom he had made fastin the stocks standing there free, and yet not caring to go forth, his rough nature is broken down. He recognises his superiors. Heremembers the pythoness's testimony, that they told 'the way ofsalvation. '

His question seems 'psychologically impossible' to critics, who haveprobably never asked it themselves. Wonderful results follow from thejudicious use of that imposing word 'psychologically'; but while weare not to suppose that this man knew all that 'salvation' meant, there is no improbability in his asking such a question, if dueregard is paid to the whole preceding events, beginning with themaiden's words, and including the impression of Paul's personalityand the mysterious freeing of the prisoners. 

His dread was the natural fear that springs when a man is broughtface to face with God; and his question, vague and ignorant as itwas, is the cry of the dim consciousness that lies dormant in allmen--the consciousness of needing deliverance and healing. It erredin supposing that he had to 'do' anything; but it was absolutelyright in supposing that he needed salvation, and that Paul could tellhim how to get it. How many of us, knowing far more than he, havenever asked the same wise question, or have never gone to Paul for ananswer? It is a question which we should all ask; for we all needsalvation, which is deliverance from danger and healing for soul-sickness. 

Paul's answer is blessedly short and clear. Its brevity and decisiveplainness are the glory of the Gospel. It crystallises into a shortsentence the essential directory for all men. 

See how little it takes to secure salvation. But see how much ittakes; for the hardest thing of all is to be content to accept it asa gift, 'without money and without price. ' Many people have listenedto sermons all their lives, and still have no clear understanding ofthe way of salvation. Alas that so often the divine simplicity andbrevity of Paul's answer are darkened by a multitude of irrelevantwords and explanations which explain nothing!

The passage ends with the blessing which we may all receive. Ofcourse the career begun then had to be continued by repeated acts offaith, and by growing knowledge and obedience. The incipientsalvation is very incomplete, but very real. There is no reason todoubt that, for some characters, the only way of becoming Christiansis to become so by one dead-lift of resolution. Some things are bestdone slowly; some things best quickly. One swift blow makes a cleanerfracture than filing or sawing. The light comes into some lives likesunshine in northern latitudes, with long dawn and slowly growingbrightness; but in some the sun leaps into the sky in a moment, as inthe tropics. What matter how long it takes to rise, if it does rise, and climb to the zenith?

THE GREAT QUESTION AND THE PLAIN ANSWER

'He brought them out, and said, Sirs, what must I do to be saved?31. And they said, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thoushall be saved. '--ACTS xvi. 30, 31. 

The keeper of a Macedonian jail was not likely to be a very nervousor susceptible person. And so the extraordinary state of agitationand panic into which this rough jailer was cast needs some kind ofexplanation. There had been, as you will all remember, an earthquakeof a strange kind, for it not only opened the prison doors, but shookthe prisoner's chains off. The doors being opened, there was on thepart of the jailer, who probably ought not to have been asleep, avery natural fear that his charge had escaped. 

So he was ready, with that sad willingness for suicide which markedhis age, to cast himself on his sword, when Paul encouraged him. 

That fear then was past; what was he afraid of now? He knew theprisoners were all safe; why should he have come pale and trembling?Perhaps we shall find an answer to the question in another one. Whyshould he have gone to Paul and Silas, his two prisoners, for ananodyne to his fears?

The answer to that may possibly be found in remembering that for manydays before this a singular thing had happened. Up and down thestreets of Philippi a woman possessed with 'a spirit of divination'had gone at the heels of these two men, proclaiming in such a way asto disturb them: 'These are the servants of the Most High God, whichshow unto us the way of salvation. ' It was a new word and a new ideain Philippi or in Macedonia. This jailer had got it into his mindthat these two men had in their hands a good which he only dimlyunderstood. The panic caused by the earthquake deepened into aconsciousness of some supernatural atmosphere about him, and stirredin his rude nature unwonted aspirations and terrors other than he hadknown, which cast him at Paul's feet with this strange question. 

Now do you think that the jailer's question was a piece of foolishsuperstition? I daresay some of you do, or some of you may supposetoo that it was one very unnecessary for him or anybody to ask. So Iwish now, in a very few words, to deal with these three points--thequestion that we should all ask, the answer that we may all take, theblessing that we may all have. 

I. The question that we should all ask. 

I know that it is very unfashionable nowadays to talk about'salvation' as man's need. The word has come to be so worn andcommonplace and technical that many men turn away from it; but forall that, let me try to stir up the consciousness of the deepnecessity that it expresses. 

What is it to be saved? Two things; to be healed and to be safe. Inboth aspects the expression is employed over and over again inScripture. It means either restoration from sickness or deliverancefrom peril. I venture to press upon every one of my hearers these twoconsiderations--we all need healing from sickness; we all need safetyfrom peril. 

Dear brethren, most of you are entire strangers to me; I daresay manyof you never heard my voice before, and probably may never hear itagain. But yet, because 'we have all of us one human heart, ' abrother-man comes to you as possessing with you one commonexperience, and ventures to say on the strength of his knowledge ofhimself, if on no other ground, 'We have all sinned and come short ofthe glory of God. '

Mind, I am not speaking about vices. I have no doubt you are aperfectly respectable man, in all the ordinary relations of life. Iam not speaking about crimes. I daresay there may be a man or twohere that has been in a dock in his day. Possibly. It does not matterwhether there is or not. But I am not speaking about either vices orcrimes; I am speaking about how we stand in reference to God. And Ipray you to bring yourselves--for no one can do it for you, and nowords of mine can do anything but stimulate you to the act--face toface with the absolute and dazzlingly pure righteousness of yourFather in Heaven, and to feel the contrast between your life and whatyou know He desires you to be. Be honest with yourselves in askingand answering the question whether or not _you_ have this sickness ofsin, its paralysis in regard to good or its fevered inclination toevil. If salvation means being healed of a disease, we all have thedisease; and whether we wish it or no, we want the healing. 

And what of the other meaning of the word? Salvation means beingsafe. Are you safe? Am I safe? Is anybody safe standing in front ofthat awful law that rules the whole universe, 'Whatsoever a mansoweth, that shall he also reap'? I am not going to talk about any ofthe moot points which this generation has such a delight indiscussing, as to the nature, the duration, the purpose, or the like, of future retribution. All that I am concerned in now is that allmen, deep down in the bottom of their consciousness--and you and Iamongst the rest--know that there _is_ such a thing as retributionhere; and if there be a life beyond the grave at all, necessarily inan infinitely intenser fashion there. Somewhere and somehow, men willhave to lie on the beds that they have made; to drink as they havebrewed. If sin means separation from God, and separation from Godmeans, as it assuredly does, death, then I ask you--and there is noneed for any exaggerated words about it--Are we not in danger? And ifsalvation be a state of deliverance from sickness, and a state ofdeliverance from peril, do we not need it?

Ah, brethren, I venture to say that we need it more than anythingelse. You will not misunderstand me as expressing the slightestdepreciation of other remedies that are being extensively offered nowfor the various evils under which society and individuals groan. Iheartily sympathise with them all, and would do my part to help themforward; but I cannot but feel that whilst culture of the intellect, of the taste, of the sense of beauty, of the refining agenciesgenerally, is very valuable; and whilst moral and social andeconomical and political changes will all do something, and some ofthem a great deal, to diminish the sum of human misery, you have togo deeper down than these reach. It is not culture that we want most;it is salvation. Brethren, you and I are wrong in our relation toGod, and that means death and--if you do not shrink from the vulgarold word--damnation. We are wrong in our relation to God, and thathas to be set right before we are fundamentally and thoroughly right. That is to say, salvation is our deepest need. 

Then how does it come that men go on, as so many of my friends herenow have gone on, all their days paying no attention to that need? Isthere any folly, amidst all the irrationalities of that irrationalcreature man, to be matched with the folly of steadily refusing tolook forward and settle for ourselves the prime element in ourcondition--viz. , our relation to God? Strange is it not--that powerthat we have of refusing to look at the barometer when it is goingdown, of turning away from unwholesome subjects just because we knowthem to be so unwelcome and threatening, and of buying a moment'sexemption from discomfort at the price of a life's ruin?

Do you remember that old story of the way in which the prisoners inthe time of the French Revolution used to behave? The tumbrils cameevery morning and carried off a file of them to the guillotine, andthe rest of them had a ghastly make-believe of carrying on the oldfrivolities of the life of the _salons_ and of society. And it lastedfor an hour or two, but the tumbril came next morning all the same, and the guillotine stood there gaping in the _Place_. And so it isuseless, although it is so frequently done by so many of us, to tryto shut out facts instead of facing them. A man is never so wise aswhen he says to himself, 'Let me fairly know the whole truth of myrelation to the unseen world in so far as it can be known here, andif that is wrong, let me set about rectifying it if it be possible. ''What will ye do in the end?' is the wisest question that a man canask himself, when the end is as certain as it is with us, and asunsatisfactory as I am afraid it threatens to be with some of us ifwe continue as we are. 

Have I not a right to appeal to the half-sleeping and half-wakingconsciousness that endorses my words in some hearts as I speak? Obrethren, you would be far wiser men if you did like this jailer inthe Macedonian prison, came and gave yourselves no rest till you havethis question cleared up, 'What must I do to be saved?'

There was an old Rabbi who used to preach to his disciples, 'Repentthe day before you die. ' And when they said to him, 'Rabbi, we do notknow what day we are going to die. ' 'Then, ' said he, 'repent to-day. 'And so I say to you, 'Settle about the end before the end comes, andas you do not know when it may come, settle about it now. '

II. That brings me to the next point here, viz. , the blessed, clearanswer that we may all take. 

Paul and Silas were not non-plussed by this question, nor did theyreply to it in the fashion in which many men would have answered it. Take a specimen of other answers. If anybody were so far left tohimself as to go with this question to some of our modern wise menand teachers, they would say, 'Saved? My good fellow, there isnothing to be saved from. Get rid of delusions, and clear your mindof cant and superstition. ' Or they would say, 'Saved? Well, if youhave gone wrong, do the best you can in the time to come. ' Or if youwent to some of our friends they would say, 'Come and be baptized, and receive the grace of regeneration in holy baptism; and then cometo the sacraments, and be faithful and loyal members of the Churchwhich has Apostolic succession in it. ' And some would say, 'Setyourselves to work and toil and labour. ' And some would say, 'Don'ttrouble yourselves about such whims. A short life and a merry one;make the best of it, and jump the life to come. ' Neither coldmorality, nor godless philosophy, nor wild dissipation, nor narrowecclesiasticism prompted Paul's answer. He said, 'Believe on the LordJesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved. '

What did that poor heathen man know about the Lord Jesus Christ? Nextto nothing. How could he believe upon Him if he knew so little aboutHim? Well, you hear in the context that this summary answer to thequestion was the beginning, and not the end, of a conversation, whichconversation, no doubt, consisted largely in extending and explainingthe brief formulary with which it had commenced. But it is a grandthing that we can put the all-essential truth into half a dozensimple words, and then expound and explain them as may be necessary. And I come to you now, dear brethren, with nothing newer or morewonderful, or more out of the ordinary way than the old threadbaremessage which men have been preaching for nineteen hundred years, andhave not exhausted, and which some of you have heard for a lifetime, and have never practised, 'Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. '

Now I am not going to weary you with mere dissertations upon thesignificance of these words. But let me single out two points aboutthem, which perhaps though they may be perfectly familiar to you, maycome to you with fresh force from my lips now. 

Mark, first, whom it is that we are to believe on. '_The Lord_, ' thatis the divine Name; '_Jesus_, ' that is the name of a Man; '_Christ_, 'that is the name of an office. And if you put them all together, theycome to this, that He on whom we sinful men may put our sole trustand hope for our healing and our safety, is the Son of God, who camedown upon earth to live our life and to die our death that He mightbear on Himself our sins, and fulfil all which ancient prophecy andsymbol had proclaimed as needful, and therefore certain to be done, for men. It is not a starved half-Saviour whose name is only Jesus, and neither Lord nor Christ, faith in whom will save you. You mustgrasp the whole revelation of His nature and His power if from Himthere is to flow the life that you need. 

And note what it is that we are to exercise towards Jesus Christ. To'believe on Him' is a very different thing from _believing Him_. Youmay accept all that I have been saying about who and what He is, andbe as far away from the faith that saves a soul as if you had neverhoard His name. To believe on the Lord Jesus Christ is to lean thewhole weight of yourselves upon Him. What do you do when you trust aman who promises you any small gift or advantage? What do you do whendear ones say, 'Rest on my love'? You simply trust them. And the verysame exercise of heart and mind which is the blessed cement thatholds human society together, and the power that sheds peace andgrace over friendships and love, is the power which, directed toJesus Christ, brings all His saving might into exercise in our lives. Brethren, trust Him, trust Him as Lord, trust Him as Jesus, trust Himas Christ. Learn your sickness, learn your danger; and be sure ofyour Healer and rejoice in your security. 'Believe on the Lord JesusChrist, and thou shalt be saved. '

III. Lastly, consider the blessing we may all receive. This jailerabout whom we have been speaking was a heathen when the sun set and aChristian when it rose. On the one day he was groping in darkness, aworshipper of idols, without hope in the future, and ready indesperation to plunge himself into the darkness beyond, when hethought his prisoners had fled. In an hour or two 'he rejoiced, believing in God with all his house. '

A sudden conversion, you say, and sudden conversions are alwayssuspicious. I am not so sure about that; they may be, or they may notbe, according to circumstances. I know very well that it is notfashionable now to preach the possibility or the probability of menturning all at once from darkness to light, and that people shrugtheir shoulders at the old theory of sudden conversions. I think, somuch the worse. There are a great many things in this world that haveto be done suddenly if they are ever to be done at all. And I, for mypart, would have far more hope for a man who, in one leap, sprungfrom the depth of the degradation of that coarse jailer into thelight and joy of the Christian life, than for a man who tried to getto it by slow steps. You have to do everything in this world worthdoing by a sudden resolution, however long the preparation may havebeen which led up to the resolution. The act of resolving is alwaysthe act of an instant. And when men are plunged in darkness andprofligacy, as are, perhaps, some of my hearers now, there is farmore chance of their casting off their evil by a sudden jerk than oftheir unwinding the snake by slow degrees from their arms. There isno reason whatever why the soundest and solidest and most lastingtransformation of character should not begin in a moment's resolve. 

And there is an immense danger that with some of you, if that changedoes not begin in a moment's resolve now, you will be further awayfrom it than ever you were. I have no doubt there are many of youwho, at any time for years past, have known that you ought to beChristians, and who, at any time for years past, have been saying toyourselves: 'Well, I will think about it, and I am tending towardsit, but I cannot quite make the plunge. ' Why not; and why not now?You can if you will; you ought; you will be a better and happier manif you do. You will be saved from your sickness and safe from yourdanger. 

The outcast jailer changed nationalities in a moment. You who havedwelt in the suburbs of Christ's Kingdom all your lives--why cannotyou go inside the gate as quickly? For many of us the gradual'growing up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord' has been theappointed way. For some of us I verily believe the sudden change isthe best. Some of us have a sunrise as in the tropics, where the onemoment is grey and cold, and next moment the seas are lit with theglory. Others of us have a sunrise as at the poles, where a longslowly-growing light precedes the rising, and the rising itself isscarce observable. But it matters little as to how we get to Christ, if we are there, and it matters little whether a man's faith grows upin a moment, or is the slow product of years. If only it be rooted inChrist it will bear fruit unto life eternal. 

And so, dear brethren, I come to you with my last question, this manrejoiced, believing in the Lord; why should not you; and why shouldnot you now? 'Look unto Me, and be ye saved, all the ends of theearth. ' A look is a swift act, but if it be the beginning of alifelong gaze, it will be the beginning of salvation and of a glorylonger than life. 

THESSALONICA AND BEREA

'Now, when they had passed through Amphipolis and Apollonia, theycame to Thessalonica, where was a synagogue of the Jews: 2. AndPaul, as his manner was, went in unto them, and three sabbath-days reasoned with them out of the scriptures, 3. Opening andalleging, that Christ must needs have suffered, and risen againfrom the dead; and that this Jesus, whom I preach unto you, isChrist. 4. And some of them believed, and consorted with Paul andSilas; and of the devout Greeks a great multitude, and of thechief women not a few. 5. But the Jews which believed not, movedwith envy, took unto them certain lewd fellows of the baser sort, and gathered a company, and set all the city on an uproar, andassaulted the house of Jason, and sought to bring them out to thepeople, 6. And when they found them not, they drew Jason andcertain brethren unto the rulers of the city, crying, These thathave turned the world upside down are come hither also; 7. WhomJason hath received; and these all do contrary to the decrees ofCaesar, saying that there is another king, one Jesus. 8. And theytroubled the people and the rulers of the city, when they heardthese things. 9. And when they had taken security of Jason, andof the other, they let them go. 10. And the brethren immediatelysent away Paul and Silas by night unto Berea: who coming thitherwent into the synagogue of the Jews. 11. These were more noblethan those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word withall readiness of mind, and searched the scriptures daily, whetherthose things were so. 12. Therefore many of them believed; alsoof honourable women which were Greeks, and of men, not a few. '--ACTS xvii. 1-12. 

'Shamefully entreated at Philippi, ' Paul tells the Thessalonians, he'waxed bold in our God to' preach to them. His experience in theformer city might well have daunted a feebler faith, but oppositionaffected Paul as little as a passing hailstorm dints a rock. Tochange the field was common sense; to abandon the work would havebeen sin. But Paul's brave persistence was not due to his owncourage; he drew it from God. Because he lived in communion with Him, his courage 'waxed' as dangers gathered. He knew that he was doing adaring thing, but he knew who was his helper. So he went steadily on, whatever might front him. His temper of mind and the source of it arewonderfully revealed in his simple words. 

The transference to Thessalonica illustrates another principle of hisaction; namely, his preference of great centres of population asfields of work. He passes through two less important places toestablish himself in the great city. It is wise to fly at the head. Conquer the cities, and the villages will fall of themselves. Thatwas the policy which carried Christianity through the empire like aprairie fire. Would that later missions had adhered to it!

The methods adopted in Thessalonica were the usual ones. Luke bids usnotice that Paul took the same course of action in each place:namely, to go to the synagogue first, when there was one, and thereto prove that Jesus was the Christ. The three Macedonian townsalready mentioned seem not to have had synagogues. Probably therewere comparatively few Jews in them, and these were ecclesiasticallydependent on Thessalonica. We can fancy the growing excitement in thesynagogue, as for three successive Sabbaths the stranger urged hisproofs of the two all-important but most unwelcome assertions, thattheir own scriptures foretold a suffering Messiah, --a side ofMessianic prophecy which was ignored or passionately denied--and thatJesus was that Messiah. Many a vehement protest would be shriekedout, with flashing eyes and abundant gesticulation, as he 'opened'the sense of Scripture, and 'quoted passages'--for that is themeaning here of the word rendered 'alleging. ' He gives us a glimpseof the hot discussions when he says that he preached 'in muchconflict'(1 Thess. Ii. 2). 

With whatever differences in manner of presentation, the true messageof the Christian teacher is still the message that woke suchopposition in the synagogue of Thessalonica, --the bold proclamationof the personal Christ, His death and resurrection. And with whateverdifferences, the instrument of conviction is still the Scriptures, 'the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God. ' The more closelywe keep ourselves to that message and that weapon the better. 

The effects of the faithful preaching of the gospel are as uniform asthe method. It does one of two things to its hearers--either it meltstheir hearts and leads them to faith, or it stirs them to moreviolent enmity. It is either a stone of stumbling or a sure corner-stone. We either build on or fall over it, and at last are crushed byit. The converts included Jews and proselytes in larger numbers, asmay be gathered from the distinction drawn by 'some'--referring tothe former, and 'a great multitude'--referring to the latter. Besidesthese there were a good many ladies of rank and refinement, as wasalso the case presently at Beroea. Probably these, too, wereproselytes. 

The prominence of women among the converts, as soon as the gospel isbrought into Europe, is interesting and prophetic. The fact of thesocial position of these ladies may suggest that the upper classeswere freer from superstition than the lower, and may point a notfavourable contrast with present social conditions, which do notresult in a similar accession of women of 'honourable estate' to theChurch. 

Opposition follows as uniform a course as the preaching. The broadoutlines are the same in each case, while the local colouring varies. If we compare Paul's narrative in I Thessalonians, which throbs withemotion, and, as it were, pants with the stress of the conflict, withLuke's calm account here, we see not only how Paul felt, but why theJews got up a riot. Luke says that they 'became jealous. ' Paulexpands that into 'they are contrary to all men; forbidding us tospeak to the Gentiles that they may be saved. ' Then it was not somuch dislike to the preaching of Jesus as Messiah as it was rage thattheir Jewish prerogative was infringed, and the children's breadoffered to the dogs, that stung them to violent opposition. Israelhad been chosen, that it might be God's witness, and diffuse thetreasure it possessed through all the world. It had become, not thedispenser, but the would-be monopolist, of its gift. Have there beenno Christian communities in later days animated by the same spirit?

There were plenty of loafers in the market-place ready for anymischief, and by no means particular about the pretext for a riot. Anything that would give an opportunity for hurting somebody, and forloot, would attract them as corruption does flesh-flies. So theJewish ringleaders easily got a crowd together. To tell their realreasons would scarcely have done, but to say that there was a houseto be attacked, and some foreigners to be dragged out, was enough forthe present. Jason's house was probably Paul's temporary home, where, as he tells us in 1 Thessalonians ii. 9, he had worked at his trade, that he might not be burdensome to any. Possibly he and Silas hadbeen warned of the approach of the rioters and had got awayelsewhere. At all events, the nest was empty, but the crowd must haveits victims, and so, failing Paul, they laid hold of Jason. Hisoffence was a very shadowy one. But since his day there have beenmany martyrs, whose only crime was 'harbouring' Christians, orheretics, or recusant priests, or Covenanters. If a bull cannot gorea man, it will toss his cloak. 

The charge against Jason is that he receives the Apostle and hisparty, and constructively favours their designs. The charge againstthem is that they are revolutionists, rebels against the Emperor, andpartisans of a rival. Now we may note three things about the charge. First, it comes with a very distinct taint of insincerity from Jews, who were, to say the least, not remarkable for loyalty or peacefulobedience. The Gracchi are complaining of sedition! A Jew zealous forCaeesar is an anomaly, which might excite the suspicions of the leastsuspicious ruler. The charge of breaking the peace comes withremarkable appropriateness from the leaders of a riot. They were thetroublers of the city, not Paul, peacefully preaching in thesynagogue. The wolf scolds the lamb for fouling the river. 

Again, the charges are a violent distortion of the truth. Possiblythe Jewish ringleaders believed what they said, but more probablythey consciously twisted Paul's teachings, because they knew that noother charges would excite so much hostility or be so damning asthose which they made. The mere suggestion of treason was oftenfatal. The wild exaggeration that the Christians had 'turned thewhole civilised world upside down' betrays passionate hatred andalarm, if it was genuine, or crafty determination to rouse the mob, if it was consciously trumped up. But whether the charges werebelieved or not by those who made them, here were Jews disclaimingtheir nation's dearest hope, and, like the yelling crowd at theCrucifixion, declaring they had no king but Caesar. The degradationof Israel was completed by these fanatical upholders of itsprerogatives. 

But, again, the charges were true in a far other sense than theirbringers meant. For Christianity is revolutionary, and its very aimis to turn the world upside down, since the wrong side is uppermostat present, and Jesus, not Caesar, or any king or emperor or czar, isthe true Lord and ruler of men. But the revolution which He makes isthe revolution of individuals, turning them from darkness to light;for He moulds single souls first and society afterwards. Violence isalways a mistake, and the only way to change evil customs is tochange men's natures, and then the customs drop away of themselves. The true rule begins with the sway of hearts; then wills aresubmissive, and conduct is the expression of inward delight in a lawwhich is sweet because the lawgiver is dear. 

Missing Paul, the mob fell on Jason and the brethren. They were'bound over to keep the peace. ' Evidently the rulers had little fearof these alleged desperate revolutionaries, and did as little as theydared, without incurring the reproach of being tepid in theirloyalty. 

Probably the removal of Paul and his travelling companions from theneighbourhood was included in the terms to which Jason had to submit. Their hurried departure does not seem to have been caused by arenewal of disturbances. At all events, their Beroean experiencerepeated that of Philippi and of Thessalonica, with one great andwelcome difference. The Beroean Jews did exactly what theircompatriots elsewhere would not do--they looked into the subject withtheir own eyes, and tested Paul's assertions by Scripture. 'Therefore, ' says Luke, with grand confidence in the impregnablefoundations of the faith, 'many of them believed. ' True nobility ofsoul consists in willingness to receive the Word, combined withdiligent testing of it. Christ asks for no blind adhesion. The trueChristian teacher wishes for no renunciation, on the part of hishearers, of their own judgments. 'Open your mouth and shut your eyes, and swallow what I give you, ' is not the language of Christianity, though it has sometimes been the demand of its professedmissionaries, and not the teacher only, but the taught also, havebeen but too ready to exercise blind credulity instead of intelligentexamination and clear-eyed faith. If professing Christians to-daywere better acquainted with the Scriptures, and more in the habit ofbringing every new doctrine to them as its touchstone, there would beless currency of errors and firmer grip of truth. 

PAUL AT ATHENS

'Then Paul stood In the midst of Mars-hill, and said, Ye men ofAthens, I perceive that in all things ye are too superstitious. 23. For as I passed by, and beheld your devotions, I found analtar with this inscription, To the Unknown God. Whom thereforeye ignorantly worship, him declare I unto you. 24. God, that madethe world, and all things therein, seeing that He is Lord ofheaven and earth, dwelleth not in temples made with hands; 25. Neither is worshipped with men's hands, as though He needed anything, seeing He giveth to all life, and breath, and all things;26. And hath made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell onall the face of the earth, and hath determined the times beforeappointed, and the bounds of their habitation; 27. That theyshould seek the Lord, if haply they might feel after Him, andfind Him, though He be not far from every one of us: 28. For inHim we live, and move, and have our being; as certain also ofyour own poets have said, For we are also His offspring. 29. Forasmuch then as we are the offspring of God, we ought not tothink that the Godhead is like unto gold, or silver, or stone, graven by art and man's device. 30. And the times of thisignorance God winked at; but now commandeth all men every whereto repent: 31. Because he hath appointed a day, in the which Hewill judge the world in righteousness by that Man whom He hathordained; whereof He hath given assurance unto all men, in thatHe hath raised Him from the dead. 32. And when they heard of theresurrection of the dead, some mocked: and others said, We willhear thee again of this matter. 33. So Paul departed from amongthem. 34. Howbeit certain men clave unto him, and believed: amongthe which was Dionysius the Areopagite, and a woman namedDamaris, and others with them. '--ACTS xvii. 22-34. 

'I am become all things to all men, ' said Paul, and his address atAthens strikingly exemplifies that principle of his action. Contrastit with his speech in the synagogue of Pisidian Antioch, whichappeals entirely to the Old Testament, and is saturated with Jewishideas, or with the remonstrance to the rude Lycaonian peasants (Actsxiv. 15, etc. ), which, while handling some of the same thoughts as atAthens, does so in a remarkably different manner. There he appealedto God's gifts of 'rain from heaven, and fruitful seasons, ' thethings most close to his hearers' experience; here, speaking toeducated 'philosophers, ' he quotes Greek poetry, and sets forth areasoned declaration of the nature of the Godhead and the relationsof a philosophy of history and an argument against idolatry. Theglories of Greek art were around him; the statues of Pallas Atheneand many more fair creations looked down on the little Jew who daredto proclaim their nullity as representations of the Godhead. 

Paul's flexibility of mind and power of adapting himself to everycircumstance were never more strikingly shown than in that greataddress to the quick-witted Athenians. It falls into three parts: theconciliatory prelude (vers. 22, 23); the declaration of the UnknownGod (vers. 24-29); and the proclamation of the God-ordained Man(vers. 30, 31). 

I. We have, first, the conciliatory prelude. It is always a mistakefor the apostle of a new truth to begin by running a tilt at olderrors. It is common sense to seek to find some point in the presentbeliefs of his hearers to which his message may attach itself. Anorator who flatters for the sake of securing favour for himself isdespicable; a missionary who recognises the truth which lies underthe system which he seeks to overthrow, is wise. 

It is incredible that Paul should have begun his speech to socritical an audience by charging them with excessive superstition, asthe Authorised Version makes him do. Nor does the modifiedtranslation of the Revised Version seem to be precisely what ismeant. Paul is not blaming the Athenians, but recording a fact whichhe had noticed, and from which he desired to start. Ramsay'stranslation gives the truer notion of his meaning--'more than othersrespectful of what is divine. ' 'Superstition' necessarily conveys asense of blame, but the word in the original does not. 

We can see Paul as a stranger wandering through the city, and notingwith keen eyes every token of the all-pervading idolatry. He does nottell his hearers that his spirit burned within him when he saw thecity full of idols; but he smothers all that, and speaks only of theinscription which he had noticed on one, probably obscure andforgotten, altar: 'To the Unknown God. ' Scholars have giventhemselves a great deal of trouble to show from other authors thatthere were such altars. But Paul is as good an 'authority' as these, and we may take his word that he did see such an inscription. Whetherit had the full significance which he reads into it or not, itcrystallised in an express avowal that sense of Something behind andabove the 'gods many' of Greek religion, which found expression inthe words of their noblest thinkers and poets, and lay like anightmare on them. 

To charge an Athenian audience, proud of their knowledge, withignorance, was a hazardous and audacious undertaking; to make themcharge themselves was more than an oratorical device. It appealed tothe deepest consciousness even of the popular mind. Even with thisprelude, the claims of this wandering Jew to pose as the instructorof Epicureans and Stoics, and to possess a knowledge of the Divinewhich they lacked, were daring. But how calmly and confidently Paulmakes them, and with what easy and conciliatory adoption of their ownterminology, if we adopt the reading of verse 23 in Revised Version('What ye worship . .. This, ' etc. ), which puts forward the abstractconception of divinity rather than the personal God. 

The spirit in which Paul approached his difficult audience teachesall Christian missionaries and controversialists a needed andneglected lesson. We should accentuate points of resemblance ratherthan of difference, to begin with. We should not run a tilt againsteven errors, and so provoke to their defence, but rather find increeds and practices an ignorant groping after, and so a door ofentrance for, the truth which we seek to recommend. 

II. The declaration of the Unknown God has been prepared for, and nowfollows, and with it is bound up a polemic against idolatry. Conciliation is not to be carried so far as to hide the antagonismbetween the truth and error. We may give non-Christian systems ofreligion credit for all the good in them, but we are not to blinktheir contrariety to the true religion. Conciliation and controversyare both needful; and he is the best Christian teacher who hasmastered the secret of the due proportion between them. 

Every word of Paul's proclamation strikes full and square at somecounter belief of his hearers. He begins with creation, which hedeclares to have been the act of one personal God, and neither of amultitude of deities, as some of his hearers held, nor of animpersonal blind power, as others believed, nor the result of chance, nor eternal, as others maintained. He boldly proclaims there, belowthe shadow of the Parthenon, that there is but one God, --theuniversal Lord, because the universal Creator. Many consequences fromthat fact, no doubt, crowded into Paul's mind; but he swiftly turnsto its bearing on the pomp of temples which were the glory of Athens, and the multitude of sacrifices which he had beheld on their altars. The true conception of God as the Creator and Lord of all things cutsup by the roots the pagan notions of temples as dwelling-places of agod and of sacrifices as ministering to his needs. With one crushingblow Paul pulverises the fair fanes around him, and declares thatsacrifice, as practised there, contradicted the plain truth as toGod's nature. To suppose that man can give anything to Him, or thatHe needs anything, is absurd. All heathen worship reverses the partsof God and man, and loses sight of the fact that He is the givercontinually and of everything. Life in its origination, thecontinuance thereof (breath), and all which enriches it, are fromHim. Then true worship will not be giving to, but thankfullyaccepting from and using for, Him, His manifold gifts. 

So Paul declares the one God as Creator and Sustainer of all. He goeson to sketch in broad outline what we may call a philosophy ofhistory. The declaration of the unity of mankind was a wholly strangemessage to proud Athenians, who believed themselves to be a raceapart, not only from the 'barbarians, ' whom all Greeks regarded asmade of other clay than they, but from the rest of the Greek world. It flatly contradicted one of their most cherished prerogatives. Notonly does Paul claim one origin for all men, but he regards allnations as equally cared for by the one God. His hearers believedthat each people had its own patron deities, and that the wars ofnations were the wars of their gods, who won for them territory, andpresided over their national fortunes. To all that way of thinkingthe Apostle opposes the conception, which naturally follows from hisfundamental declaration of the one Creator, of His providentialguidance of all nations in regard to their place in the world and theepochs of their history. 

But he rises still higher when he declares the divine purpose in allthe tangled web of history--the variety of conditions of nations, their rise and fall, their glory and decay, their planting in theirlands and their rooting out, --to be to lead all men to 'seek God. 'That is the deepest meaning of history. The whole course of humanaffairs is God's drawing men to Himself. Not only in Judea, nor onlyby special revelation, but by the gifts bestowed, and the schoolingbrought to bear on every nation, He would stir men up to seek forHim. 

But that great purpose has not been realised. There is a tragic 'ifhaply' inevitable; and men may refuse to yield to the impulsestowards God. They are the more likely to do so, inasmuch as to findHim they must 'feel after Him, ' and that is hard. The tendrils of aplant turn to the far-off light, but men's spirits do not thus gropeafter God. Something has come in the way which frustrates the divinepurpose, and makes men blind and unwilling to seek Him. 

Paul docs not at once draw the two plain inferences, that there mustbe something more than the nations have had, if they are to find God, even His seeking them in some new fashion; and that the power whichneutralises God's design in creation and providence is sin. He has aword to say about both these, but for the moment he contents himselfwith pointing to the fact, attested by his hearers' consciousness, and by many a saying of thinkers and poets, that the failure to findGod does not arise from His hiding Himself in some remote obscurity. Men are plunged, as it were, in the ocean of God, encompassed by Himas an atmosphere, and--highest thought of all, and not strange toGreek thought of the nobler sort--kindred with Him as both drawinglife from Him and being in His image. Whence, then, but from theirown fault, could men have failed to find God? If He is 'unknown, ' itis not because He has shrouded Himself in darkness, but because theydo not love the light. One swift glance at the folly of idolatry, asdemonstrated by this thought of man's being the offspring of God, leads naturally to the properly Christian conclusion of the address. 

III. It is probable that this part of it was prematurely ended by themockery of some and the impatience of others, who had had enough ofPaul and his talk, and who, when they said, 'We will hear theeagain, ' meant, 'We will not hear you now. ' But, even in the compasspermitted him, he gives much of his message. 

We can but briefly note the course of thought. He comes back to hisformer word 'ignorance, ' bitter pill as it was for the Atheniancultured class to swallow. He has shown them how their religionignores or contradicts the true conceptions of God and man. But he nosooner brings the charge than he proclaims God's forbearance. And heno sooner proclaims God's forbearance than he rises to the fullheight of his mission as God's ambassador, and speaks inauthoritative tones, as bearing His 'commands. '

Now the hint in the previous part is made more plain. The demand forrepentance implies sin. Then the 'ignorance' was not inevitable orinnocent. There was an element of guilt in men's not feeling afterGod, and sin is universal, for 'all men everywhere' are summoned torepent. Philosophers and artists, and cultivated triflers, andsincere worshippers of Pallas and Zeus, and all 'barbarian' people, are alike here. That would grate on Athenian pride, as it grates nowon ours. The reason for repentance would be as strange to the hearersas the command was--a universal judgment, of which the principle wasto be rigid righteousness, and the Judge, not Minos or Rhadamanthus, but 'a Man' ordained for that function. 

What raving nonsense that would appear to men who had largely lostthe belief in a life beyond the grave! The universal Judge a man! Nowonder that the quick Athenian sense of the ridiculous began to riseagainst this Jew fanatic, bringing his dreams among cultured peoplelike them! And the proof which he alleged as evidence to all men thatit is so, would sound even more ridiculous than the assertion meantto be proved. 'A man has been raised from the dead; and thisanonymous Man, whom nobody ever heard of before, and who is no doubtone of the speaker's countrymen, is to judge us, Stoics, Epicureans, polished people, and we are to be herded to His bar in company withBoeotians and barbarians! The man is mad. '

So the assembly broke up in inextinguishable laughter, and Paulsilently 'departed from among them, ' having never named the name ofJesus to them. He never more earnestly tried to adapt his teaching tohis audience; he never was more unsuccessful in his attempt by allmeans to gain some. Was it a remembrance of that scene in Athens thatmade him write to the Corinthians that his message was 'to the Greeksfoolishness'?

THE MAN WHO IS JUDGE

'. .. He will judge the world in righteousness by that Man whom Hehath ordained; whereof He hath given assurance unto all men, inthat He hath raised Him from the dead. '--ACTS xvii. 31. 

I. The Resurrection of Jesus gives assurance of judgment. 

(_a_) Christ's Resurrection is the pledge of ours. 

The belief in a future life, as entertained by Paul's hearers on MarsHill, was shadowy and dashed with much unbelief. Disembodied spiritswandered ghostlike and spectral in a shadowy underworld. 

The belief in the Resurrection of Jesus converts the Greekperadventure into a fact. It gives that belief solidity and makes iteasier to grasp firmly. Unless the thought of a future life iscompleted by the belief that it is a corporeal life, it will neverhave definiteness and reality enough to sustain itself as acounterpoise to the weight of things seen. 

(_b_) Resurrection implies judgment. 

A future bodily life affirms individual identity as persisting beyondthe accident of death, and can only be conceived of as a state inwhich the earthly life is fully developed in its individual results. The dead, who are raised, are raised that they may 'receive thethings done in the body, according to that they have done, whether itbe good or bad. ' Historically, the two thoughts have always gonetogether; and as has been the clearness with which a resurrection hasbeen held as certain, so has been the force with which theanticipation of judgment to come has impinged on conscience. 

Jesus is, even in this respect, our Example, for the glory to whichHe was raised and in which He reigns now is the issue of His earthlylife; and in His Resurrection and Ascension we have the historicalfact which certifies to all men that a life of self-sacrifice herewill assuredly flower into a life of glory there, 'Ours the Cross, the grave, the skies. '

II. The Resurrection of Jesus gives the assurance that He is Judge. 

The bare fact that He is risen does not carry that assurance; we haveto take into account that He has risen. 

After such a life. 

His Resurrection was God's setting the seal of His approval andacceptance on Christ's work; His endorsement of Christ's claims tospecial relations with Him; His affirmation of Christ's sinlessness. Jesus had declared that He did always the things that pleased theFather; had claimed to be the pure and perfect realisation of thedivine ideal of manhood; had presented Himself as the legitimateobject of utter devotion and of religious trust, love, and obedience, and as the only way to God. Men said that He was a blasphemer; Godsaid, and said most emphatically, by raising Him from the dead: 'Thisis My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. '

With such a sequel. 

'Christ being raised from the dead, dieth no more, ' and that factsets Him apart from others who, according to Scripture, have beenraised. His resurrection is, if we may use such a figure, a point;His Ascension and Session at the right hand of God are the line intowhich the point is prolonged. And from both the point and the linecome the assurance that He is the Judge. 

III. The risen Jesus is Judge because He is Man. 

That seems a paradox. It is a commonplace that we are incompetent tojudge another, for human eyes cannot read the secrets of a humanheart, and we can only surmise, not know, each other's motives, whichare the all-important part of our deeds. But when we rightlyunderstand Christ's human nature, we understand how fitted He is tobe our Judge, and how blessed it is to think of Him as such. Paultells the Athenians with deep significance that He who is to be theirand the world's Judge is 'the Man. ' He sums up human nature inHimself, He is the ideal and the real Man. 

And further, Paul tells his hearers that God judges 'through' Him, and does so 'in righteousness. ' He is fitted to be our Judge, becauseHe perfectly and completely bears our nature, knows by experience allits weaknesses and windings, as from the inside, so to speak, and is'wondrous kind' with the kindness which 'fellow-feeling' enkindles. He knows us with the knowledge of a God; He knows us with thesympathy of a brother. 

The Man who has died for all men thereby becomes the Judge of all. Even in this life, Jesus and His Cross judge us. Our dispositiontowards Him is the test of our whole character. By their attitude toHim, the thoughts of many hearts are revealed. 'What think ye ofChrist?' is the question, the answer to which determines our fate, because it reveals our inmost selves and their capacities forreceiving blessing or harm from God and His mercy. Jesus Himself hastaught us that 'in that day' the condition of entrance into theKingdom is 'doing the will of My Father which is in heaven. ' He hasalso taught us that 'this is the work of God, that ye believe on Himwhom He hath sent. ' Faith in Jesus as our Saviour is the root fromwhich will grow the good tree which will bring forth good fruit, bearing which our love will be 'made perfect, that we may haveboldness before Him in the day of judgment. '

PAUL AT CORINTH

'After these things Paul departed from Athens, and came toCorinth; 2. And found a certain Jew named Aquila, born in Pontus, lately come from Italy, with his wife Priscilla; (because thatClaudius had commanded all Jews to depart from Rome:) and cameunto them. 3. And because he was of the same craft, he abode withthem, and wrought: for by their occupation they were tent-makers. 4. And he reasoned in the synagogue every sabbath, and persuadedthe Jews and the Greeks. 5. And when Silas and Timotheus werecome from Macedonia, Paul was pressed in the spirit, andtestified to the Jews that Jesus was Christ. 6. And when theyopposed themselves, and blasphemed, he shook his raiment, andsaid unto them, Your blood be upon your own heads; I am clean:from henceforth I will go unto the Gentiles. 7. And he departedthence, and entered into a certain man's house, named Justus, onethat worshipped God, whose house joined hard to the synagogue. 8. And Crispus, the chief ruler of the synagogue, believed on theLord with all his house; and many of the Corinthians hearingbelieved, and were baptized. 9. Then spake the Lord to Paul inthe night by a vision, Be not afraid, but speak, and hold not thypeace: 10. For I am with thee, and no man shall set on thee tohurt thee: for I have much people in this city. 11. And hecontinued there a year and six months, teaching the word of Godamong them. '--ACTS xviii. 1-11. 

Solitude is a hard trial for sensitive natures, and tends to weakentheir power of work. Paul was entirely alone in Athens, and appearsto have cut his stay there short, since his two companions, who wereto have joined him in that city, did not do so till after he had beensome time in Corinth. His long stay there has several well-markedstages, which yield valuable lessons. 

I. First, we note the solitary Apostle, seeking friends, toiling forbread, and withal preaching Christ. Corinth was a centre of commerce, of wealth, and of moral corruption. The celebrated local worship ofAphrodite fed the corruption as well as the wealth. The Apostle metthere with a new phase of Greek life, no less formidable inantagonism to the Gospel than the culture of Athens. He tells us thathe entered on his work in Corinth 'in weakness, and in fear, and inmuch trembling, ' but also that he did not try to attract byadaptation of his words to the prevailing tastes either of Greek orJew, but preached 'Jesus Christ, and Him crucified, ' knowing that, while that appeared to go right in the teeth of the demands of both, it really met their wants. This ministry was begun, in his usualfashion, very unobtrusively and quietly. His first care was to find ahome; his second, to provide his daily bread; and then he was free totake the Sabbath for Christian work in the synagogue. 

We cannot tell whether he had had any previous acquaintance withAquila and his wife, nor indeed is it certain that they hadpreviously been Christians. Paul's reason for living with them wassimply the convenience of getting work at his trade, and it seemsprobable that, if they had been disciples, that fact would have beennamed as part of his reason. Pontus lay to the north of Cilicia, andthough widely separated from it, was near enough to make a kind ofbond as of fellow-countrymen, which would be the stronger becausethey had the same craft at their finger-ends. 

It was the wholesome practice for every Rabbi to learn some trade. Ifall graduates had to do the same now there would be fewer educatedidlers, who are dangerous to society and burdens to themselves andtheir friends. What a curl of contempt would have lifted the lips ofthe rich men of Corinth if they had been told that the greatest manin their city was that little Jew tent-maker, and that in thisunostentatious fashion he had begun to preach truths which would belike a charge of dynamite to all their social and religious order!True zeal can be patiently silent. 

Sewing rough goat's-hair cloth into tents may be as truly servingChrist as preaching His name. All manner of work that contributes tothe same end is the same in worth and in recompense. Perhaps thewholesomest form of Christian ministry is that after the Apostolicpattern, when the teacher can say, as Paul did to the people ofCorinth, 'When I was present with you and was in want, I was not aburden on any man. ' If not in letter, at any rate in spirit, hisexample must be followed. If the preacher would win souls he must befree from any taint of suspicion as to money. 

II. The second stage in Paul's Corinthian residence is the increasedactivity when his friends, Silas and Timothy, came from Beroea. Welearn from Philippians iv. 15, and 2 Corinthians xi. 9, that theybrought gifts from the Church at Philippi; and from 1 Thessaloniansiii. 6, that they brought something still more gladdening namely, good accounts of the steadfastness of the Thessalonian converts. Themoney would make it less necessary to spend most of the week inmanual labour; the glad tidings of the Thessalonians' 'faith andlove' did bring fresh life, and the presence of his helpers wouldcheer him. So a period of enlarged activity followed their coming. 

The reading of verse 5, 'Paul was constrained by the word, ' bringsout strikingly the Christian impulse which makes speech of the Gospela necessity. The force of that impulse may vary, as it did with Paul;but if we have any deep possession of the grace of God for ourselves, we shall, like him, feel it pressing us for utterance, as soon as theneed of providing daily bread becomes less stringent and our heartsare gladdened by Christian communion. It augurs ill for a man's holdof the word if the word does not hold him. He who never felt that hewas weary of forbearing, and that the word was like a fire, if it was'shut up in his bones, ' has need to ask himself if he has any beliefin the Gospel. The craving to impart ever accompanies realpossession. 

The Apostle's solemn symbolism, announcing his cessation of effortsamong the Jews, has of course reference only to Corinth, for we findhim in his subsequent ministry adhering to his method, 'to the Jewfirst. ' It is a great part of Christian wisdom in evangelical work torecognise the right time to give up efforts which have beenfruitless. Much strength is wasted, and many hearts depressed, byobstinate continuance in such methods or on such fields as have costmuch effort and yielded no fruit. We often call it faith, when it isonly pride, which prevents the acknowledgment of failure. Better tolearn the lessons taught by Providence, and to try a new 'claim, 'than to keep on digging and washing when we only find sand and mud. God teaches us by failures as well as by successes. Let us not be tooconceited to learn the lesson or to confess defeat, and shift ourground accordingly. 

It is a solemn thing to say 'I am clean. ' We need to have been verydiligent, very loving, very prayerful to God, and very persuasive inpleading with men, before we dare to roll all the blame of theircondemnation on themselves. But we have no right to say, 'HenceforthI go to' others, until we can say that we have done all that man--or, at any rate, that we--can do to avert the doom. 

Paul did not go so far away but that any whose hearts God had touchedcould easily find him. It was with a lingering eye to his countrymenthat he took up his abode in the house of 'one that feared God, ' thatis, a proselyte; and that he settled down next door to the synagogue. What a glimpse of yearning love which cannot bear to give Israel upas hopeless, that simple detail gives us! And may we not say that theyearning of the servant is caught from the example of the Master?'How shall I give thee up, Ephraim?' Does not Christ, in His long-suffering love, linger in like manner round each closed heart? and ifHe withdraws a little way, does He not do so rather to stimulatesearch after Him, and tarry near enough to be found by every seekingheart?

Paul's purpose in his solemn warning to the Jews of Corinth waspartly accomplished. The ruler of the synagogue 'believed in the Lordwith all his house. ' Thus men are sometimes brought to decision forChrist by the apparently impending possibility of His Gospel leavingthem to themselves. 'Blessings brighten as they take their flight. 'Severity sometimes effects what forbearance fails to achieve. If thetrain is on the point of starting, the hesitating passenger willswiftly make up his mind and rush for a seat. It is permissible topress for immediate decision on the ground that the time is short, and that soon these things 'will be hid from the eyes. '

We learn from 1 Corinthians i. 14, that Paul deviated from his usualpractice, and himself baptized Crispus. We may be very sure that hisdoing so arose from no unworthy subserviency to an important convert, but indicated how deeply grateful he was to the Lord for giving him, as a seal to a ministry which had seemed barren, so encouraging atoken. The opposition and blasphemy of many are outweighed, to a trueevangelist, by the conversion of one; and while all souls are in oneaspect equally valuable, they are unequal in the influence which theymay exert on others. So it was with Crispus, for 'many of theCorinthians hearing' of such a signal fact as the conversion of thechief of the synagogue, likewise 'believed. ' We may distinguish inour estimate of the value of converts, without being untrue to thegreat principle that all men are equally precious in Christ's eyes. 

III. The next stage is the vision to Paul and his consequentprotracted residence in Corinth. God does not waste visions, nor bidmen put away fears which are not haunting them. This vision enablesus to conceive Paul's state of mind when it came to him. He was forsome reason cast down. He had not been so when things looked muchmore hopeless. But though now he had his friends and many converts, some mood of sadness crept over him. Men like him are often swayed byimpulses rising within, and quite apart from outward circumstances. Possibly he had reason to apprehend that his very success hadsharpened hostility, and to anticipate danger to life. The contentsof the vision make this not improbable. 

But the mere calming of fear, worthy object as it is, is by no meansthe main part of the message of the vision. 'Speak, and hold not thypeace, ' is its central word. Fear which makes a Christian dumb isalways cowardly, and always exaggerated. Speech which comes fromtrembling lips may be very powerful, and there is no better remedyfor terror than work for Christ. If we screw ourselves up to do whatwe fear to do, the dread vanishes, as a bather recovers himself assoon as his head has once been under water. 

Why was Paul not to be afraid? It is easy to say, 'Fear not, ' butunless the exhortation is accompanied with some good reason shown, itis wasted breath. Paul got a truth put into his heart which ends allfear--'For I am with thee. ' Surely that is enough to exorcise alldemons of cowardice or despondency, and it is the assurance that allChrist's servants may lay up in their hearts, for use at all momentsand in all moods. His presence, in no metaphor, but in deepest inmostreality, is theirs, and whether their fears come from without orwithin, His presence is more than enough to make them brave andstrong. 

Paul needed a vision, for Paul had never seen Christ 'after theflesh, ' nor heard His parting promise. We do not need it, for we havethe unalterable word, which He left with all His disciples when Heascended, and which remains true to the ends of the world and tillthe world ends. 

The consequence of Christ's presence is not exemption from attacks, but preservation in them. Men may 'set on' Paul, but they cannot'hurt' him. The promise was literally fulfilled when the would-beaccusers were contemptuously sent away by Gallio, the embodiment ofRoman even-handedness and despising of the deepest things. It isfulfilled no less truly to-day; for no hurt can come to us if Christis with us, and whatever does come is not hurt. 

'I have much people in this city. ' Jesus saw what Paul did not, thesouls yet to be won for Him. That loving Eye gladly beholds His ownsheep, though they may be yet in danger of the wolves, and far fromthe Shepherd. 'Them also He must bring'; and His servants are wiseif, in all their labours, they cherish the courage that comes fromthe consciousness of His presence, and the unquenchable hope, whichsees in the most degraded and alienated those whom the Good Shepherdwill yet find in the wilderness and bear back to the fold. Such ahope will quicken them for all service, and such a vision willembolden them in all peril. 

'CONSTRAINED BY THE WORD'

'And when Silas and Timotheus were come from Macedonia, Paul waspressed in the spirit, and testified. '--ACTS xviii. 5. 

The Revised Version, in concurrence with most recent authorities, reads, instead of 'pressed in the spirit, ' 'constrained by the word. 'One of these alterations depends on a diversity of reading, the otheron a difference of translation. The one introduces a significantdifference of meaning; the other is rather a change of expression. The word rendered here 'pressed, ' and by the Revised Version'constrained, ' is employed in its literal use in 'Master, themultitude throng Thee and _press_ Thee, ' and in its metaphoricalapplication in 'The love of Christ _constraineth us_. ' There is notmuch difference between 'constrained' and 'pressed, ' but there is alarge difference between 'in the spirit' and 'by the word. ' 'Pressedin the spirit' simply describes a state of feeling or mind;'constrained by the word' declares the force which brought about thatcondition of pressure or constraint. What then does 'constrained bythe word' refer to? It indicates that Paul's message had a grip ofhim, and held him hard, and forced him to deliver it. 

One more preliminary remark is that our text evidently brings thisstate of mind of the Apostle, and the coming of his two friends Silasand Timothy, into relation as cause and effect. He had been alone inCorinth. His work of late had not been encouraging. He had beencomparatively silent there, and had spent most of his time in tent-making. But when his two friends came a cloud was lifted off hisspirit, and he sprang back again, as it were, to his old form and tohis old work. 

Now if we take that point of view with regard to the passage beforeus, I think we shall find that it yields valuable lessons, some ofwhich I wish to try to enforce now. 

I. Let me ask you to look with me at the downcast Apostle. 

'Downcast, ' you say; 'is not that an unworthy word to use about aminister of Jesus Christ inspired as Paul was?' By no means. We shallvery much mistake both the nature of inspiration and the character ofthis inspired Apostle, if we do not recognise that he was a man ofmany moods and tremulously susceptible to external influences. Suchmusic would never have come from him if his soul had not been like anAeolian harp, hung in a tree and vibrating in response to everybreeze. And so we need not hesitate to speak of the Apostle's mood, as revealed to us in the passage before us, as being downcast. 

Now notice that in the verses preceding my text his conduct isextremely abnormal and unlike his usual procedure. He goes intoCorinth, and he does next to nothing in evangelistic work. He repairsto the synagogue once a week, and talks to the Jews there. But thatis all. The notice of his reasoning in the synagogue is quitesubordinate to the notice that he was occupied in finding a lodgingwith another pauper Jew and stranger in the great city, and thatthese two poor men went into a kind of partnership, and tried to earna living by hard work. Such procedure makes a singular contrast toPaul's usual methods in a strange city. 

Now the reason for that slackening of impulse and comparativecessation of activity is not far to seek. The first Epistle toThessalonica was written immediately after these two brethrenrejoined Paul. And how does the Apostle describe in that letter hisfeelings before they came? He speaks of 'all our distress andaffliction. ' He tells that he was tortured by anxiety as to how thenew converts in Thessalonica were getting on, and could not forbearto try to find out whether they were still standing steadfast. Againin the first Epistle to the Corinthians, you will find that there, looking back to this period, he describes his feelings in similarfashion and says: 'I was with you in weakness, and in fear, and inmuch trembling. ' And if you look forward a verse or two in ourchapter you will see that a vision came to Paul, which presupposesthat some touch of fear, and some temptation to silence, were busy inhis heart. For God shapes His communications according to our need, and would not have said, 'Do not be afraid, and hold not thy peace, but speak, ' unless there had been a danger both of Paul's beingfrightened and of his being dumb. 

And what thus brought a cloud over his sky? A little exercise ofhistorical imagination will very sufficiently answer that. A fewweeks before, in obedience, as he believed, to a direct divinecommand, Paul had made a plunge, and ventured upon an altogether newphase of work. He had crossed into Europe, and from the moment thathe landed at the harbour of Philippi, up to the time when he tookrefuge in some quiet little room in Corinth, he had had nothing buttrouble and danger and disappointment. The prison at Philippi, theriots that hounded him out of Thessalonica, the stealthy, hurriedescape from Beroea, the almost entire failure of his first attempt topreach the Gospel to Greeks in Athens, his loneliness, and thestrangeness of his surroundings in the luxurious, wicked, wealthyGreek city of Corinth--all these things weighed on him, and there isno wonder that his spirits went down, and he felt that now he mustlie fallow for a time and rest, and pull himself together again. 

So here we have, in this great champion of the faith, in this strongrunner of the Christian race, in this chief of men, an example of thefluctuation of mood, the variation in the way in which we look at ourduties and our obligations and our difficulties, the slackening ofthe impulse which dominates our lives, that are too familiar to usall. It brings Paul nearer us to feel that he, too, knew these upsand downs. The force that drove this meteor through the darknessvaried, as the force that impels us varies to our consciousness. Itis the prerogative of God to be immutable; men have their moods andtheir fluctuations. Kindled lights flicker; the sun burns steadily. An Elijah to-day beards Ahab and Jezebel and all their priests, andto-morrow hides his head in his hands, and says, 'Take me away, I amnot better than my fathers. ' There will be ups and down in theChristian vigour of our lives, as well as in all other regions, solong as men dwell in this material body and are surrounded by theirpresent circumstances. 

Brethren, it is no small part of Christian wisdom and prudence torecognise this fact, both in order that it may prevent us frombecoming unduly doubtful of ourselves when the ebb tide sets in onour souls, and also in order that we may lay to heart this othertruth, that because these moods and changes of aspect and of vigour_will_ come to us, therefore the law of life must be effort, and theduty of every Christian man be to minimise, in so far as possible, the fluctuations which, in some degree, are inevitable. No human handhas ever drawn an absolutely straight line. That is the ideal of themathematician, but all ours are crooked. But we may indefinitelydiminish the magnitude of the curves. No two atoms are so closetogether as that there is no film between them. No human life hasever been an absolutely continuous, unbroken series of equally holyand devoted thoughts and acts, but we may diminish the intervalsbetween kindred states, and may make our lives so far uniform as thatto a bystander they shall look like the bright circle, which a brandwhirled round in the air makes the impression of, on the eye thatbeholds. We shall have times of brightness and of less brilliancy, ofvigour and of consequent reaction and exhaustion. But Christianityhas, for one of its objects, to help us to master our moods, and tobring us nearer and nearer, by continual growth, to the steadfast, immovable attitude of those whose faith is ever the same. 

Do not forget the plain lesson which comes from the incident beforeus--viz. , that the wisest thing that a man can do, when he feels thatthe wheels of his religious being are driving heavily, is to sethimself doggedly to the plain, homely work of daily life. Paul didnot sit and bemoan himself because he felt this slackening ofimpulse, but he went away to Aquila, and said, 'Let us set to workand make camel's-hair cloth and tents. ' Be thankful for your homely, prosaic, secular, daily task. You do not know from how many sicklyfancies it saves you, and how many breaches in the continuity of yourChristian feeling it may bridge over. It takes you away from thinkingabout yourselves, and sometimes you cannot think about anything lessprofitably. So stick to your work; and if ever you feel, as Paul did, 'cast down, ' be sure that the workshop, the office, the desk, thekitchen will prevent you from being 'destroyed, ' if you giveyourselves to the plain duties which no moods alter, but which canalter a great many moods. 

II. And now note the 'constraining word. '

I have already said that the return of the two, who had been sent tosee how things were going with the recent converts in the infantChurches, brought the Apostle good tidings, and so lifted off a greatload of anxiety from his heart. No wonder! He had left raw recruitsunder fire, with no captain, and he might well doubt whether theywould keep their ranks. But they did. So the pressure was lifted off, and the pressure being lifted off, spontaneously the old impulsegripped him once more; like a spring which leaps back to its ancientcurve when some alien force is taken from it. It must have been avery deep and a very habitual impulse, which thus instantlyreasserted itself the moment that the pressure of anxiety was takenout of the way. 

The word constrained him. What to do? To declare it. Paul's examplebrings up two thoughts--that that impulse may vary at times, according to the pressure of circumstances, and may even be held inabeyance for a while; and that if a man is honestly and really aChristian, as soon as the incumbent pressure is taken away, he willfeel, 'Necessity is laid upon me; yea, woe is me if I preach not theGospel. ' For though Paul's sphere of work was different from ours, his obligation to work and his impulse to work were such as are, orshould be, common to all Christians. The impulse to utter the wordthat we believe and live by seems to me to be, in its very nature, inseparable from earnest Christian faith. All emotion demandsexpression; and if a man has never felt that he must let hisChristian faith have vent, it is a very bad sign. As certainly asfermentation or effervescence demands outgush, so certainly doesemotion demand expression. We all know that. The same impulse thatmakes a mother bend over her babe with unmeaning words and tokensthat seem to unsympathetic onlookers foolish, ought to influence allChristians to speak the Name they love. All conviction demandsexpression. There may be truths which have so little bearing uponhuman life that he who perceives them feels little obligation to sayanything about them. But these are the exceptions; and the moreweighty and the more closely affecting human interests anything thatwe have learned to believe as truth is, the more do we feel in ourhearts that, in making us its believers, it has made us its apostles. Christ's saying, 'What ye hear in the ear, that preach ye on thehousetops, ' expresses a universal truth which is realised in manyregions, and ought to be most emphatically realised in the Christian. For surely of all the truths that men can catch a glimpse of, orgrapple to their hearts, or store in their understandings, there arenone which bring with them such tremendous consequences, andtherefore are of so solemn import to proclaim to all the children ofmen, as the truth, which we profess we have received, of personalsalvation through Jesus Christ. 

If there never had been a single commandment to that effect, I knownot how the Christian Church or the Christian individual could haveabstained from declaring the great and sweet Name to which it and heowe so much. I do not care to present this matter as a commandment, nor to speak now of obligation or responsibility. The _impulse_ iswhat I would fix your attention upon. It is inseparable from theChristian life. It may vary in force, as we see in the incidentbefore us. It will vary in grip, according as other circumstances andduties insist upon being attended to. The form in which it is yieldedto will vary indefinitely in individuals. But if they are Christianpeople it is always there. 

Well then, what about the masses of so-called Christians who feelnothing of any such constraining force? And what about the many whofeel enough of it to make them also feel that they are wrong in notyielding to it, but not enough to make their conduct be influenced byit? Brethren, I venture to believe that the measure in which thisimpulse to speak the word and use direct efforts for somebody'sconversion is felt by Christians, is a very fair test of the depth oftheir own religion. If a vessel is half empty it will not run over. If it is full to the brim, the sparkling treasure will fall on allsides. A weak plant may never push its green leaves above the ground, but a strong one will rise into the light. A spark may be smotheredin a heap of brushwood, but a steady flame will burn its way out. Ifthis word has not a grip of you, impelling you to its utterance, Iwould have you not to be too sure that you have a grip of it. 

III. Lastly, we have here the witness to the word. 

'He was constrained by the word, _testifying_. ' Now I do not knowwhether it is imposing too much meaning upon a non-significantdifference of expression, if I ask you to note the difference betweenthat phrase and the one which describes his previous activity: 'He_reasoned_ in the synagogue every Sabbath, and tried to persuade' theJews and the Greeks, but when the old impulse came back in new force, _reasoning_ was far too cold a method, and Paul took to _testifying_. Whether that be so or no, mark that the witness of one's own personalconviction and experience is the strongest weapon that a Christiancan use. I do not despise the place of reasoning, but arguments donot often change opinions; they never change hearts. Logic andcontroversial discoursing may 'prepare the way of the Lord, ' but itis 'in the wilderness. ' But when a man calls aloud, 'Come and hearall ye, and I will declare what God hath done for my soul'; or whenhe tells his brother, 'We have found the Messias'; or when he sticksto 'One thing I know, that whereas I was blind, now I see, ' it isdifficult for any one to resist, and impossible for any one toanswer, that way of testifying, It is a way that we can all adopt if we will. Christian men and womencan all say such things. I do not forget that there are indirect waysof spreading the Gospel. Some of you think that you do enough whenyou give your money and your interest in order to diffuse it. You canbuy a substitute in the militia, but you cannot buy a substitute inChrist's service. You have each some congregation to which you canspeak, if it is no larger than Paul's--namely, two people, Aquila andPriscilla. What talks they would have in their lodging, as theyplaited the wisps of black hair into rough cloth, and stitched thestrips into tents! Aquila was not a Christian when Paul picked himup, but he became one very soon; and it was the preaching in theworkshop, amidst the dust, that made him one. If we long to speakabout Christ we shall find plenty of people to speak to. 'Ye are mywitnesses, saith the Lord. '

Now, dear friends, I have only one word more. I have no doubt thereare some among us who have been saying, 'This sermon does not applyto me at all. ' Does it not? If it does not, what does that mean? Itmeans that you have not the first requisite for spreading the word--viz. Personal faith in the word. It means that you have put away, orat least neglected to take in, the word and the Saviour of whom itspeaks, into your own lives. But it does _not_ mean that you have gotrid of the word thereby. It will not in that case lay the grip ofwhich I have been speaking upon you, but it will not let you go. Itwill lay on you a far more solemn and awful clutch, and like a jailerwith his hand on the culprit's shoulder, will 'constrain' you intothe presence of the Judge. You can make it a savour of life untolife, or of death unto death. And though you do not grasp it, itgrasps and holds you. 'The word that I speak unto him, the same shalljudge him at the last day. '

GALLIO

'And when Paul was now about to open his mouth, Gallio said untothe Jews, If it were a matter of wrong: or wicked lewdness, O yeJews, reason would that I should bear with you: 15. But if it bea question of words and names, and of your law, look ye to it;for I will be no judge of such matters. '--ACTS xviii. 14, 15. 

There is something very touching in the immortality of fame whichcomes to the men who for a moment pass across the Gospel story, likeshooting stars kindled for an instant as they enter our atmosphere. How little Gallio dreamed that he would live for ever in men's mouthsby reason of this one judicial dictum! He was Seneca's brother, andwas possibly leavened by his philosophy and indisposed to severity. He has been unjustly condemned. There are some striking lessons fromthe story. 

I. The remarkable anticipation of the true doctrine as to thefunctions of civil magistrates. 

Gallio draws a clear distinction between conduct and opinion, andexcepts the whole of the latter region from his sway. It is the firstcase in which the civil authorities refused to take cognisance of acharge against a man on account of his opinions. Nineteen hundredyears have not brought all tribunals up to that point yet. Gallioindeed was influenced mainly by philosophic contempt for thetrivialities of what he thought a superstition. We are influenced byour recognition of the sanctity of individual conviction, and stillmore by reverence for truth and by the belief that it should dependonly on its own power for progress and on itself for the defeat ofits enemies. 

II. The tragic mistake about the nature of the Gospel which men make. 

There is something very pathetic in the erroneous estimates made bythose persons mentioned in Acts who some once or twice come incontact with the preachers of Christ. How little they recognise whatwas before them! Their responsibility is in better hands than ours. But in Gallio there is a trace of tendencies always in operation. 

We see in him the practical man's contempt for mere ideas. The man ofaffairs, be he statesman or worker, is always apt to think thatthings are more than thoughts. Gallio, proconsul in Corinth, and hisbrother official, Pilate, in Jerusalem, both believed in powers thatthey could see. The question of the one, for an answer to which hedid not wait, was not the inquiry of a searcher after truth, but theexclamation of a sceptic who thought all the contradictory answersthat rang through the world to be demonstrations that the questionhad no answer. The impatient refusal of the other to have any concernin settling 'such matters' was steeped in the same characteristicallyRoman spirit of impatient distrust and suspicion of mere ideas. Hebelieved in Roman force and authority, and thought that such harmlessvisionaries as Paul and his company might be allowed to go their ownway, and he did not know that they carried with them a solvent andconstructive power before which the solid-seeming structure of theEmpire was destined to crumble, as surely as thick-ribbed ice beforethe sirocco. 

And how many of us believe in wealth and material progress, andregard the region of truth as very shadowy and remote! This is adanger besetting us all. The true forces that sway the world areideas. 

We see in Gallio supercilious indifference to mere 'theologicalsubtleties. ' To him Paul's preaching and the Jews' passionate denialsof it seemed only a squabble about 'words and names. ' Probably he hadgathered his impression from Paul's eager accusers, who would chargehim with giving the name of 'Christ' to Jesus. 

Gallio's attitude was partly Stoical contempt for all superstitions, partly, perhaps, an eclectic belief that all these warring religionswere really saying the same thing and differed only in words andnames; and partly sheer indifference to the whole subject. ThusChristianity appears to many in this day. 

What is it in reality? Not words but power: a Name, indeed, but aName which is life. Alas for us, who by our jangling have givencolour to this misconception!

We see in Gallio the mistake that the Gospel has little relation toconduct. Gallio drew a broad distinction between conduct and opinion, and there he was right. But he imagined that this opinion had nothingto do with conduct, and how wrong he was there we need not elaborate. 

The Gospel is the mightiest power for shaping conduct. 

III. The ignorant levity with which men pass the crisis of theirlives. 

How little Gallio knew of what a possibility was opened out beforehim! Angels were hovering unseen. We seldom recognise the fatefulmoments of our lives till they are past. 

The offer of salvation in Christ is ever a crisis. It may never berepeated. Was Gallio ever again brought into contact with Paul orPaul's Lord? We know not. He passes out of sight, the search-light isturned in another direction, and we lose him in the darkness. Theextent of his criminality is in better hands than ours, though wecannot but let our thoughts go forward to the time when he, like usall, will stand at the judgment bar of Jesus, no longer a judge butjudged. Let us hope that before he passed hence, he learned how fullof spirit and of life the message was, which he once took for a meresquabble about 'words and names, ' and thought too trivial to occupyhis court. And let us remember that the Jesus, whom we are sometimestempted to judge as of little importance to us, will one day judgeus, and that His judgment will settle our fate for evermore. 

TWO FRUITFUL YEARS

'And it came to pass, that, while Apollos was at Corinth, Paulhaving passed through the upper coasts came to Ephesus: andfinding certain disciples. 2. He said unto them, Have ye receivedthe Holy Ghost since ye believed? And they said unto him, We havenot so much as heard whether there be any Holy Ghost. 3. And hesaid unto them, Unto what then were ye baptized? And they said, Unto John's baptism. 4. Then said Paul, John verily baptized withthe baptism of repentance, saying unto the people, that theyshould believe on Him which should come after him, that is, onChrist Jesus. 5. When they heard this, they were baptized in thename of the Lord Jesus. 6. And when Paul had laid his hands uponthem, the Holy Ghost came on them; and they spake with tongues, and prophesied. 7. And all the men were about twelve. 8. And hewent into the synagogue, and spake boldly for the space of threemonths, disputing and persuading the things concerning thekingdom of God. 9. But when divers were hardened, and believednot, but spake evil of that way before the multitude, he departedfrom them, and separated the disciples, disputing daily in theschool of one Tyrannus. 10. And this continued by the space oftwo years; so that all they which dwelt in Asia heard the word ofthe Lord Jesus, both Jews and Greeks. 11. And God wrought specialmiracles by the hands of Paul: 12. So that from his body werebrought unto the sick handkerchiefs or aprons, and the diseasesdeparted from them, and the evil spirits went out of them. '--ACTS xix. 1-12. 

This passage finds Paul in Ephesus. In the meantime he had paid thatcity a hasty visit on his way back from Greece, had left his friends, Aquila and Priscilla, in it, and had gone on to Jerusalem, thencereturning to Antioch, and visiting the churches in Asia Minor whichhe had planted on his former journeys. From the inland and higherdistricts he has come down to the coast, and established himself inthe great city of Ephesus, where the labours of Aquila, and perhapsothers, had gathered a small band of disciples. Two points areespecially made prominent in this passage--the incorporation ofJohn's disciples with the Church, and the eminent success of Paul'spreaching in Ephesus. 

The first of these is a very remarkable and, in some respects, puzzling incident. It is tempting to bring it into connection withthe immediately preceding narrative as to Apollos. The same stage ofspiritual development is presented in these twelve men and in thateloquent Alexandrian. They and he were alike in knowing only ofJohn's baptism; but if they had been Apollos' pupils, they would mostprobably have been led by him into the fuller light which he receivedthrough Priscilla and Aquila. More probably, therefore, they had beenJohn's disciples, independently of Apollos. Their being recognised as'disciples' is singular, when we consider their very small knowledgeof Christian truth; and their not having been previously instructedin its rudiments, if they were associating with the Church, is notless so. But improbable things do happen, and part of the reason foran event being recorded is often its improbability. Luke seems tohave been struck by the singular similarity between Apollos and thesemen, and to have told the story, not only because of its importancebut because of its peculiarity. 

The first point to note is the fact that these men were disciples. Paul speaks of their having 'believed, ' and they were evidentlyassociated with the Church. But the connection must have been loose, for they had not received baptism. Probably there was a fringe ofpartial converts hanging round each church, and Paul, knowing nothingof the men beyond the fact that he found them along with the others, accepted them as 'disciples. ' But there must have been some reasonfor doubt, or his question would not have been asked. They 'believed'in so far as John had taught the coming of Messiah. But they did notknow that Jesus was the Messiah whose coming John had taught. 

Paul's question is, 'Did you receive the Holy Spirit when youbelieved?' Obviously he missed the marks of the Spirit in them, whether we are to suppose that these were miraculous powers or moraland religious elevation. Now this question suggests that thepossession of the Holy Spirit is the normal condition of allbelievers; and that truth cannot be too plainly stated or urgentlypressed to-day. He is 'the Spirit, which they that believe on Him'shall 'receive. ' The outer methods of His bestowment vary: sometimesHe is given after baptism, and sometimes, as to Cornelius, before it;sometimes by laying on of Apostolic hands, sometimes without it. Butone thing constantly precedes, namely, faith; and one thingconstantly follows faith, namely, the gift of the Holy Spirit. ModernChristianity does not grasp that truth as firmly or make it asprominent as it ought. 

The question suggests, though indirectly, that the signs of theSpirit's presence are sadly absent in many professing Christians. Paul asked it in wonder. If he came into modern churches, he wouldhave to ask it once more. Possibly he looked for the visible tokensin powers of miracle-working and the like. But these were temporaryaccidents, and the permanent manifestations are holiness, consciousness of sonship, God-directed longings, religiousillumination, victory over the flesh. These things should be obviousin disciples. They will be, if the Spirit is not quenched. Unlessthey are, what sign of being Christians do we present?

The answer startles. They had not heard whether the Holy Ghost hadbeen _given_; for that is the true meaning of their reply. John hadforetold the coming of One who should baptize with the fire of thatdivine Spirit. His disciples, therefore, could not be ignorant of theexistence thereof; but they had never heard whether their Master'sprophecy had been fulfilled. What a glimpse that gives us of thesmall publicity attained by the story of Jesus!

Paul's second question betrays even more astonishment than did hisfirst. He had taken for granted that, as disciples, the men had beenbaptized; and his question implies that a pre-requisite of Christianbaptism was the teaching which they said that they had not had, andthat a consequence of it was the gift of the Spirit, which he sawthat they did not possess. Of course Paul's teaching is butsummarised here. Its gist was that Jesus was the Messiah whom Johnhad heralded, that John had himself taught that his mission waspreliminary, and that therefore his true disciples must advance tofaith in Christ. 

The teaching was welcomed, for these men were not of the sort who sawin Jesus a rival to John, as others of his disciples did. They became'disciples indeed, ' and then followed baptism, apparently notadministered by Paul, and imposition of Paul's hands. The Holy Spiritthen came on them, as on the disciples on Pentecost, and 'they spokewith tongues and prophesied. ' It was a repetition of that day, as atestimony that the gifts were not limited by time or place, but werethe permanent possession of believers, as truly in heathen Ephesus asin Jerusalem; and we miss the meaning of the event unless we add, astruly in Britain to-day as in any past. The fire lit on Pentecost hasnot died down into grey ashes. If we 'believe, ' it will burn on ourheads and, better, in our spirits. 

Much ingenuity has been expended in finding profound meanings in thenumber of 'twelve' here. The Apostles and their supernatural gifts, the patriarchs as founders of Israel, have been thought of asexplaining the number, as if these men were founders of a new Israel, or Apostolate. But all that is trifling with the story, which givesno hint that the men were of any special importance, and it omits thefact that they were '_about_ twelve, ' not precisely that number. Lukesimply wishes us to learn that there was a group of them, but howmany he does not exactly know. More important is it to notice thatthis is the last reference to John or his disciples in the NewTestament. The narrator rejoices to point out that some at least ofthese were led onwards into full faith. 

The other part of the section presents mainly the familiar featuresof Apostolic ministration, the first appeal to the synagogue, therejection of the message by it, and then the withdrawal of Paul andthe Jewish disciples. The chief characteristics of the narrative arePaul's protracted stay in Ephesus, the establishment of a centre ofpublic evangelising in the lecture hall of a Gentile teacher, theunhindered preaching of the Gospel, and the special miraclesaccompanying it. The importance of Ephesus as the eye and heart ofproconsular Asia explains the lengthened stay. 'A great door andeffectual, ' said Paul, 'is opened unto me'; and he was not the man torefrain from pushing in at it because 'there are many adversaries. 'Rather opposition was part of his reason for persistence, as itshould always he. 

There comes a point in the most patient labour, however, when it isbest no longer to 'cast pearls' before those who 'trample them underfoot, ' and Paul set an example of wise withdrawal as well as of bravepertinacity, in leaving the synagogue when his remaining there onlyhardened disobedient hearts. Note that word _disobedient_. It teachesthat the moral element in unbelief is resistance of the will. The twowords are not synonyms, though they apply to the same state of mind. Rather the one lays bare the root of the other and declares itsguilt. Unbelief comes from disobedience, and therefore is fit subjectfor punishment. Again observe that expression for Christianity, 'theWay, ' which occurs several times in the Acts. The Gospel points thepath for us to tread. It is not a body of truth merely, but it is aguide for practice. Discipleship is manifested in conduct. ThisGospel points the way through the wilderness to Zion and to rest. Itis '_the_ Way, ' the only path, 'the Way everlasting. '

It was a bold step to gather the disciples in 'the school ofTyrannus. ' He was probably a Greek professor of rhetoric or lectureron philosophy, and Paul may have hired his hall, to the horror, nodoubt, of the Rabbis. It was a complete breaking with the synagogueand a bold appeal to the heathen public. Ephesus must have beenbetter governed than Philippi and Lystra, and the Jewish element musthave been relatively weaker, to allow of Paul's going on preachingwith so much publicity for two years. 

Note the flexibility of his methods, his willingness to use even aheathen teacher's school for his work, and the continuous energy ofthe man. Not on Sabbath days only, but daily, he was at his post. Themultitudes of visitors from all parts to the great city supplied aconstant stream of listeners, for Ephesus was a centre for the wholecountry. We may learn from Paul to concentrate work in importantcentres, not to be squeamish about where we stand to preach theGospel, and not to be afraid of making ourselves conspicuous. Paul'smessage hallows the school of Tyrannus; and the school of Tyrannus, where men have been accustomed to go for widely different teaching, is a good place for Paul to give forth his message in. 

The 'special miracles' which were wrought are very remarkable, andunlike the usual type of miracles. It does not appear that Paulhimself sent the 'handkerchiefs and aprons, ' which conveyed healingvirtue, but that he simply permitted their use. The converts hadfaith to believe that such miracles would be wrought, and Godhonoured the faith. But note how carefully the narrative puts Paul'spart in its right place. God 'wrought'; Paul was only the channel. Ifthe eager people, who carried away the garments, had superstitiouslyfancied that there was virtue in Paul, and had not looked beyond himto God, it is implied that no miracles would have been wrought. Butstill the cast of these healings is anomalous, and only paralleled bythe similar instances in Peter's case. 

The principle laid down by Peter (ch. Iii. 12) is to be kept in viewin the study of all the miracles in the Acts. It is Jesus Christ whoworks, and not His servants who heal by their 'own power orholiness. ' Jesus can heal with or without material channels, butsometimes chooses to employ such vehicles as these, just as on earthHe chose to anoint blind eyes with clay, and to send the man to washit off at the pool. Sense-bound faith is not rejected, but is helpedaccording to its need, that it may be strengthened and elevated. 

WOULD-BE EXORCISTS

'. .. Jesus I know, and Paul I know; but who are ye?'--ACTS xix. 15. 

These exorcists had no personal union with Jesus. To them He was only'Jesus whom Paul preached. ' They spoke His name tentatively, as anexperiment, and imitatively. To command 'in the name of Jesus' was anappeal to Jesus to glorify His name and exert His power, and so whenthe speaker had no real faith in the name or the power, there was noanswer, because there was really no appeal. 

I. The only power which can cast out the evil spirits is the name ofJesus. 

That is a commonplace of Christian belief. But it is often held in adangerously narrow way and leads to most unwise pitting of the Gospelagainst other modes of bettering and elevating men, instead ofrecognising them as allies. Earnest Christian workers are tempted toforget Jesus' own word: 'He that is not against us is for us. ' Thereis no need to disparage other agencies because we believe that it isthe Gospel which is 'the power of God unto salvation. ' Many of thepopular philanthropic movements of the day, many of its curbing andenlightening forces, many of its revolutionary social ideas, arereally in their essence and historically in their origin, profoundlyChristian, and are the application of the principles inherent in 'theName' to the evils of society. No doubt many of their eager apostlesare non-Christian or even anti-Christian, but though some of themhave tried violently to pluck up the plant by the root from the soilin which it first flowered, much of that soil still adheres to it, and it will not live long if torn from its native 'habitat. '

It is not narrowness or hostility to non-Christian efforts to castout the demons from humanity, but only the declaration of a truthwhich is taught by the consideration of what is the differencebetween all other such efforts and Christianity, and is confirmed byexperience, if we maintain that, whatever good results may followfrom these other influences, it is the powers lodged in the Name ofJesus, and these alone which can, radically and completely, conquerand eject the demons from a single soul, and emancipate society fromtheir tyranny. 

For consider that the Gospel which proclaims Jesus as the Saviour isthe only thing which deals with the deepest fact in our natures, thefact of sin; gives a personal Deliverer from its power; communicatesa new life of which the very essence is righteousness, and whichbrings with it new motives, new impulses, and new powers. 

Contrast with this the inadequate diagnosis of the disease and theconsequent imperfection of the remedy which other physicians of theworld's sickness present. Most of them only aim at repressing outwardacts. None of them touch more than a part of the whole dreadfulcircumference of the dark orb of evil. Law restrains actions. Ethicsproclaims principles which it has no power to realise. It shows men ashining height, but leaves them lame and grovelling in the mire. Education casts out the demon of ignorance, and makes the demons whomit does not cast out more polite and perilous. It brings its ownevils in its train. Every kind of crop has weeds which spring withit. The social and political changes, which are eagerly preached now, will do much; but one thing, which is the all-important thing, theywill not do, they will not change the nature of the individuals whomake up the community. And till that nature is changed any form ofsociety will produce its own growth of evils. A Christless democracywill be as bad as, if not worse than, a Christless monarchy oraristocracy. If the bricks remain the same, it does not much matterinto what shape you build them. 

These would-be exorcists but irritated the demons by their vainattempts at ejecting them, and it is sometimes the case that effortsto cure social diseases only result in exacerbating them. If one holein a Dutch dyke is stopped up, more pressure is thrown on anotherweak point and a leak will soon appear there. There is but one Namethat casts a spell over all the ills that flesh is heir to. There isbut one Saviour of society--Jesus who saves from sin through Hisdeath, and by participation in His life delivers men from that lifeof self which is the parent of all the evils from which societyvainly strives to be delivered by any power but His. 

II. That Name must be spoken by believing men if it is to put forthits full power. 

These exorcists had no faith. All that they knew of Jesus was that Hewas the one 'whom Paul preached. ' Even the name of Jesus is spoiledand is powerless on the lips of one who repeats it, parrot-like, because he has seen its power when it came flame-like from the fierylips of some man of earnest convictions. 

In all regions, and especially in the matter of art or literature, imitators are poor creatures, and men are quick to detect thedifference between the original and the copy. The copyists generallyimitate the weak points, and seldom get nearer than the imitation ofexternal and trivial peculiarities. It is more feasible to reproducethe 'contortions of the Sibyl' than to catch her 'inspiration. '

This absence or feebleness of personal faith is the explanation ofmuch failure in so-called Christian work. No doubt there may be othercauses for the want of success, but after all allowance is made forthese, it still remains true that the chief reason why the Gospelmessage is often proclaimed without casting out demons is that it isproclaimed with faltering faith, tentatively and without assuredconfidence in its power, or imitatively, with but little, if any, inward experience of the magic of its spell. The demons have earsquick to discriminate between Paul's fiery accents and the coldrepetition of them. Incomparably the most powerful agency which anyman can employ in producing conviction in others is the utterance ofhis own intense conviction. 'If you wish me to weep, your own tearsmust flow, ' said the Roman poet. Other factors may powerfully aid theexorcising power of the word spoken by faith, and no wise man willdisparage these, but they are powerless without faith and it ispowerful without them. 

Consider the effect of that personal faith on the speaker--inbringing all his force to bear on his words; in endowing him for atime with many of the subsidiary qualities which make our wordswinged and weighty; in lifting to a height of self-oblivion, whichitself is magnetic. 

Consider its effect on the hearers--how it bows hearts as trees arebent before a rushing wind. 

Consider its effect in bringing into action God's own power. Of theman, all aflame with Christian convictions and speaking them with theconfidence and urgency which become them and him, it may truly besaid, 'It is not ye that speak, but the Spirit of your Father thatspeaketh in you. '

Here then we have laid bare the secret of success and a cause offailure, in Christian enterprise. Here we see, as in a concreteexample, the truth exemplified, which all who long for theemancipation of demon-ridden humanity would be wise to lay to heart, and thereby to be saved from much eager travelling on a road thatleads nowhither, and much futile expenditure of effort and sympathy, and many disappointments. It is as true to-day as it was long ago inEphesus, that the evil spirits 'feel the Infant's hand from farJudea's land, ' and are forced to confess, 'Jesus we know and Paul weknow'; but to other would-be exorcists their answer is, 'Who are ye?''When a strong man armed keepeth his house, his goods are in peace. 'There is but 'One stronger than he who can come upon him, and havingovercome him, can take from him all his armour wherein he trusted anddivide the spoils, ' and that is the Christ, at whose name, faithfullyspoken, 'the devils fear and fly. '

THE FIGHT WITH WILD BEASTS AT EPHESUS

'After these things were ended, Paul purposed in the spirit, whenhe had passed through Macedonia and Achaia, to go to Jerusalem, saying, After I have been there, I must also see Rome. 22. So hesent into Macedonia two of them that ministered unto him, Timotheus and Erastus; but he himself stayed in Asia for aseason. 23. And the same time there arose no small stir aboutthat way. 24. For a certain man named Demetrius, a silversmith, which made silver shrines for Diana, brought no small gain untothe craftsmen; 25. Whom he called together with the workmen oflike occupation, and said, Sirs, ye know that by this craft wehave our wealth. 26. Moreover ye see and hear, that not alone atEphesus, but almost throughout all Asia, this Paul hath persuadedand turned away much people, saying that they be no gods, whichare made with hands: 27. So that not only this our craft is indanger to be set at nought; but also that the temple of the greatgoddess Diana should be despised, and her magnificence should bedestroyed, whom all Asia and the world worshippeth. 28. And whenthey heard these sayings, they were full of wrath, and cried out, saying, Great is Diana of the Ephesians. 29. And the whole citywas filled with confusion: and having caught Gaius andAristarchus, men of Macedonia, Paul's companions in travel, theyrushed with one accord into the theatre. 30. And when Paul wouldhave entered in unto the people, the disciples suffered him not. 31. And certain of the chief of Asia, which were his friends, sent unto him, desiring him that he would not adventure himselfinto the theatre. 32. Some therefore cried one thing, and someanother: for the assembly was confused; and the more part knewnot wherefore they were come together. 33. And they drewAlexander out of the multitude, the Jews putting him forward. AndAlexander beckoned with the hand, and would have made his defenceunto the people. 34. But when they knew that he was a Jew, allwith one voice about the space of two hours cried out, Great isDiana of the Ephesians. '--ACTS xix. 21-34. 

Paul's long residence in Ephesus indicates the importance of theposition. The great wealthy city was the best possible centre forevangelising all the province of Asia, and that was to a large extenteffected during the Apostle's stay there. But he had a wider schemein his mind. His settled policy was always to fly at the head, as itwere. The most populous cities were his favourite fields, and alreadyhis thoughts were travelling towards the civilised world's capital, the centre of empire--Rome. A blow struck there would echo throughthe world. Paul had his plan, and God had His, and Paul's was notrealised in the fashion he had meant, but it was realised insubstance. He did not expect to enter Rome as a prisoner. God shapedthe ends which Paul had only rough-hewn. 

The programme in verses 21 and 22 was modified by circumstances, assome people would say; Paul would have said, by God. The riothastened his departure from Ephesus. He did go to Jerusalem, and hedid see Rome, but the chain of events that drew him there seemed tohim, at first sight, the thwarting, rather than the fulfilment, ofhis long-cherished hope. Well it is for us to carry all our schemesto God, and to leave them in His hands. 

The account of the riot is singularly vivid and lifelike. It revealsa new phase of antagonism to the Gospel, a kind of trades-uniondemonstration, quite unlike anything that has met us in the Acts. Itgives a glimpse into the civic life of a great city, and showsdemagogues and mob to be the same in Ephesus as in England. It hasmany points of interest for the commentator or scholar, and lessonsfor all. Luke tells the story with a certain dash of covert irony. 

We have, first, the protest of the shrine-makers' guild or trades-union, got up by the skilful manipulation of Demetrius. He wasevidently an important man in the trade, probably well-to-do. As hisspeech shows, he knew exactly how to hit the average mind. The smallshrines which he and his fellow-craftsmen made were of variousmaterials, from humble pottery to silver, and were intended for'votaries to dedicate in the temple, ' and represented the goddessArtemis sitting in a niche with her lions beside her. Making thesewas a flourishing industry, and must have employed a large number ofmen and much capital. Trade was beginning to be slack, and sales werefalling off. No doubt there is exaggeration in Demetrius's rhetoric, but the meeting of the craft would not have been held unless aperceptible effect had been produced by Paul's preaching. ProbablyDemetrius and the rest were more frightened than hurt; but men arevery quick to take alarm when their pockets are threatened. 

The speech is a perfect example of how self-interest masquerades inthe garb of pure concern for lofty objects, and yet betrays itself. The danger to 'our craft' comes first, and the danger to the'magnificence' of the goddess second; but the precedence given to thetrade is salved over by a 'not only, ' which tries to make thereligious motive the chief. No doubt Demetrius was a devoutworshipper of Artemis, and thought himself influenced by high motivesin stirring up the craft. It is natural to be devout or moral orpatriotic when it pays to be so. One would not expect a shrine-makerto be easily accessible to the conviction that 'they be no gods whichare made with hands. '

Such admixture of zeal for some great cause, with a shrewd eye toprofit, is very common, and may deceive us if we are not alwayswatchful. Jehu bragged about his 'zeal for the Lord' when it urgedhim to secure himself on the throne by murder; and he may have beenquite honest in thinking that the impulse was pure, when it wasreally mingled. How many foremost men in public life everywhere poseas pure patriots, consumed with zeal for national progress, righteousness, etc. , when all the while they are chiefly concernedabout some private bit of log-rolling of their own! How often inchurches there are men professing to be eager for the glory of God, who are, perhaps half-unconsciously, using it as a stalking-horse, behind which they may shoot game for their own larder! A drop ofquicksilver oxidises and dims as soon as exposed to the air. Thepurest motives get a scum on them quickly unless we constantly keepthem clear by communion with God. 

Demetrius may teach us another lesson. His opposition to Paul wasbased on the plain fact that, if Paul's teaching prevailed, no moreshrines would be wanted. That was a new ground of opposition to theGospel, resembled only by the motive for the action of the owners ofthe slave girl at Philippi; but it is a perennial source ofantagonism to it. In our cities especially there are many tradeswhich would be wiped out if Christ's laws of life were universallyadopted. So all the purveyors of commodities and pleasures which theGospel forbids a Christian man to use are arrayed against it. We haveto make up our minds to face and fight them. A liquor-seller, forinstance, is not likely to look complacently on a religion whichwould bring his 'trade into disrepute'; and there are otheroccupations which would be gone if Christ were King, and whichtherefore, by the instinct of self-preservation, are set against theGospel, unless, so to speak, its teeth are drawn. 

According to one reading, the shouts of the craftsmen which told thatDemetrius had touched them in the tenderest part, their pockets, wasan invocation, 'Great Diana!' not a profession of faith; and we havea more lively picture of an excited crowd if we adopt the alteration. It is easy to get a mob to yell out a watchword, whether religious orpolitical; and the less they understand it, the louder are theylikely to roar. In Athanasius' days the rabble of Constantinople madethe city ring with cries, degrading the subtlest questions as to theTrinity, and examples of the same sort have not been wanting nearerhome. It is criminal to bring such incompetent judges into religiousor political or social questions, it is cowardly to be influenced bythem. 'The voice of the people' is not always 'the voice of God. ' Itis better to 'be in the right with two or three' than to swell thehowl of Diana's worshippers, II. A various reading of verse 28 gives an additional particular, which is of course implied in the received text, but makes thenarrative more complete and vivid if inserted. It adds that thecraftsmen rushed 'into the street, ' and there raised their wild cry, which naturally 'filled' the city with confusion. So the howling mob, growing larger and more excited every minute, swept through Ephesus, and made for the theatre, the common place of assembly. 

On their road they seem to have come across two of Paul's companions, whom they dragged with them. What they meant to do with the two theyhad probably not asked themselves. A mob has no plans, and its mostsavage acts are unpremeditated. Passion let loose is almost sure toend in bloodshed, and the lives of Gaius and Aristarchus hung by athread. A gust of fury storming over the mob, and a hundred handsmight have torn them to atoms, and no man have thought himself theirmurderer. 

What a noble contrast to the raging crowd the silent submission, nodoubt accompanied by trustful looks to Heaven and unspoken prayers, presents! And how grandly Paul comes out! He had not been found, probably had not been sought for, by the rioters, whose rage was tooblind to search for him, but his brave soul could not bear to leavehis friends in peril and not plant himself by their sides. So he 'wasminded to enter in unto the people, ' well knowing that there he hadto face more ferocious 'wild beasts' than if a cageful of lions hadbeen loosed on him. Faith in God and fellowship with Christ lift asoul above fear of death. The noblest kind of courage is not thatborn of flesh or temperament, or of the madness of battle, but thatwhich springs from calm trust in and absolute surrender to Christ. 

Not only did the disciples restrain Paul as feeling that if theshepherd were smitten the sheep would be scattered, but interestedfriends started up in an unlikely quarter. The 'chief of Asia' orAsiarchs, who sent to dissuade him, 'were the heads of the imperialpolitical-religious organisation of the province, in the worship of"Rome and the emperors"; and their friendly attitude is a proof boththat the spirit of the imperial policy was not as yet hostile to thenew teaching, and that the educated classes did not share thehostility of the superstitious vulgar' (Ramsay, _St. Paul theTraveller_, p. 281). It is probable that, in that time of crumblingfaith and religious unrest, the people who knew most about the insideof the established worship believed in it least, and in their heartsagreed with Paul that 'they be no gods which are made with hands. '

So we have in these verses the central picture of calm Christianfaith and patient courage, contrasted on the one hand with theferocity and excitement of heathen fanatical devotees, and on theother with the prudent regard to their own safety of the Asiarchs, who had no such faith in Diana as to lead them to joining therioters, nor such faith in Paul's message as to lead them to opposethe tumult, or to stand by his side, but contented themselves with_sending_ to warn him. Who can doubt that the courage of theChristians is infinitely nobler than the fury of the mob or thecowardice of the Asiarchs, kindly as they were? If they were hisfriends, why did they not do something to shield him? 'A plague onsuch backing!'

III. The scene in the theatre, to which Luke returns in verse 32, isdescribed with a touch of scorn for the crowd, who mostly knew notwhat had brought them together. One section of it keptcharacteristically cool and sharp-eyed for their own advantage. Anumber of Jews had mingled in it, probably intending to fan the flameagainst the Christians, if they could do it safely. As in so manyother cases in Acts, common hatred brought Jew and Gentile together, each pocketing for the time his disgust with the other. The Jews sawtheir opportunity. Half a dozen cool heads, who know what they want, can often sway a mob as they will. Alexander, whom they 'putforward, ' was no doubt going to make a speech disclaiming for theJews settled in Ephesus any connection with the obnoxious Paul. Wemay be very sure that his 'defence' was of the former, not of thelatter. 

But the rioters were in no mood to listen to fine distinctions amongthe members of a race which they hated so heartily. Paul was a Jew, and this man was a Jew; that was enough. So the roar went up again toGreat Diana, and for two long hours the crowd surged and shoutedthemselves hoarse, Gaius and Aristarchus standing silent all thewhile and expecting every moment to be their last. The scene remindsone of Baal's priests shrieking to him on Carmel. It is but too truea representation of the wild orgies which stand for worship in allheathen religions. It is but too lively an example of what mustalways happen when excited crowds are ignorantly stirred by appealsto prejudice or self-interest. 

The more democratic the form of government under which we live, themore needful is it to distinguish the voice of the people from thevoice of the mob, and to beware of exciting, or being governed by, clamour however loud and long. 

PARTING COUNSELS

'And now, behold, I go bound in the spirit unto Jerusalem, notknowing the things that shall befall me there: 23. Save that theHoly Ghost witnesseth in every city, saying that bonds andafflictions abide me. 24. But none of these things move me, neither count I my life dear unto myself, so that I might finishmy course with joy, and the ministry, which I have received ofthe Lord Jesus, to testify the gospel of the grace of God. 25. And now, behold, I know that ye all, among whom I have gonepreaching the kingdom of God, shall see my face no more. 26. Wherefore I take you to record this day, that I am pure from theblood of all men. 27. For I have not shunned to declare unto youall the counsel of God. 28. Take heed therefore unto yourselves, and to all the flock, over the which the Holy Ghost hath made youoverseers, to feed the church of God, which He hath purchasedwith His own blood. 29. For I know this, that after my departingshall grievous wolves enter in among you, not sparing the flock. 30. Also of your own selves shall men arise, speaking perversethings, to draw away disciples after them. 31. Therefore watch, and remember, that by the space of three years I ceased not towarn every one night and day with tears. 32. And now, brethren, Icommend you to God, and to the word of His grace, which is ableto build you up, and to give you an inheritance among all themwhich are sanctified. 33. I have coveted no man's silver, orgold, or apparel. 34. Yea, ye yourselves know, that these handshave ministered unto my necessities, and to them that were withme. 35. I have shewed you all things, how that so labouring yeought to support the weak, and to remember the words of the LordJesus, how He said, It is more blessed to give than to receive. '--ACTS xx. 22-35. 

This parting address to the Ephesian elders is perfect in simplicity, pathos, and dignity. Love without weakness and fervent yet restrainedself-devotion throb in every line. It is personal without egotism, and soars without effort. It is 'Pauline' through and through, and ifLuke or some unknown second-century Christian made it, the world haslost the name of a great genius. In reading it, we have to rememberthe Apostle's long stay in Ephesus, and his firm conviction that hewas parting for ever from those over whom he had so long watched, andso long loved, as well as guided. Parting words should be tender andsolemn, and these are both in the highest degree. 

The prominence given to personal references is very marked andequally natural. The whole address down to verse 27 inclusive is ofthat nature, and the same theme recurs in verse 31, is caught upagain in verse 33, and continues thence to the end. That abundance ofallusions to himself is characteristic of the Apostle, even in hisletters; much more is it to be looked for in such an outpouring ofhis heart to trusted friends, seen for the last time. Few religiousteachers have ever talked so much of themselves as Paul did, and yetbeen as free as he is from taint of display or self-absorption. 

The personal references in verses 22 to 27 turn on two points--hisheroic attitude in prospect of trials and possible martyrdom, and hissolemn washing his hands of all responsibility for 'the blood' ofthose to whom he had declared all the counsel of God. He looks back, and his conscience witnesses that he has discharged his ministry; helooks forward, and is ready for all that may confront him in stilldischarging it, even to the bloody end. 

Nothing tries a man's mettle more than impending evil which isequally certain and undefined. Add that the moment of the sword'sfalling is unknown, and you have a combination which might shake thefirmest nerves. Such a combination fronted Paul now. He told theelders, what we do not otherwise know, that at every halting-placesince setting his face towards Jerusalem he had been met by the sameprophetic warnings of 'bonds and afflictions' waiting for him. Thewarnings were vague, and so the more impressive. Fear has a vividimagination, and anticipates the worst. 

Paul was not afraid, but he would not have been human if he had notrecognised the short distance for him between a prison and ascaffold. But the prospect did not turn him a hairsbreadth from hiscourse. True, he was 'bound in the spirit, ' which may suggest that hewas not so much going joyfully as impelled by a constraint felt to beirresistible. But whatever his feelings, his will was iron, and hewent calmly forward on the road, though he knew that behind some turnof it lay in wait, like beasts of prey, dangers of unknown kinds. 

And what nerved him thus to front death itself without a quiver? Thesupreme determination to do what Jesus had given him to do. He knewthat his Lord had set him a task, and the one thing needful was toaccomplish that. We have no such obstacles in our course as Paul hadin his, but the same spirit must mark us if we are to do our work. Consciousness of a mission, fixed determination to carry it out, andconsequent contempt of hindrances, belong to all noble lives, andespecially to true Christian ones. Perils and hardships and possibleevils should have no more power to divert us from the path whichChrist marks for us than storms or tossing of the ship have todeflect the needle from pointing north. 

It is easy to talk heroically when no foes are in sight; but Paul waslooking dangers in the eyes, and felt their breath on his cheeks whenhe spoke. His longing was to 'fulfil his course. ' 'With joy' is aweakening addition. It was not 'joy, ' but the discharge of duty, which seemed to him infinitely desirable. What was aspiration atMiletus became fact when, in his last Epistle, he wrote, 'I havefinished my course. '

In verses 25 to 27 the Apostle looks back as well as forward. Hisanticipation that he was parting for ever from the Ephesian elderswas probably mistaken, but it naturally leads him to think of thelong ministry among them which was now, as he believed, closed. Andhis retrospect was very different from what most of us, who areteachers, feel that ours must be. It is a solemn thought that if welet either cowardice or love of ease and the good opinion of men holdus back from speaking out all that we know of God's truth, our handsare reddened with the blood of souls. 

We are all apt to get into grooves of favourite thoughts, and toteach but part of the whole Gospel. If we do not seek to widen ourminds to take in, and our utterances to give forth, all the will ofGod as seen by us, our limitations and repetitions will repel somefrom the truth, who might have been won by a completer presentationof it, and their blood will be required at our hands. None of us canreach to the apprehension, in its full extent and due proportion ofits parts, of that great gospel; but we may at least seek to comenearer the ideal completeness of a teacher, and try to remember thatwe are 'pure from the blood of all men, ' only when we have not'shrunk from declaring all God's counsel. ' We are not required toknow it completely, but we are required not to shrink from declaringit as far as we know it. 

Paul's purpose in this retrospect was not only to vindicate himself, but to suggest to the elders their duty. Therefore he passesimmediately to exhortation to them, and a forecast of the future ofthe Ephesian Church. 'Take heed to yourselves. ' The care of one's ownsoul comes first. He will be of little use to the Church whose ownpersonal religion is not kept warm and deep. All preachers andteachers and men who influence their fellows need to lay to heartthis exhortation, especially in these days when calls to outwardservice are so multiplied. The neglect of it undermines all realusefulness, and is a worm gnawing at the roots of the vines. 

We note also the condensed weightiness of the following exhortation, in which solemn reasons are suggested for obeying it. The divineappointment to office, the inclusion of the 'bishops' in the flock, the divine ownership of the flock, and the cost of its purchase, areall focussed on the one point, 'Take heed to all the flock. ' Ofcourse a comparison with verse 17 shows that _elder_ and _bishop_were two designations for one officer; but the question of theprimitive organisation of church offices, important as it is, is lessimportant than the great thoughts as to the relation of the Church toGod, and as to the dear price at which men have been won to be trulyHis. 

We note the reading in the Revised Version of v. 28 (margin), 'theflock of the Lord, ' but do not discuss it. The chief thought of theverse is that the Church is God's flock, and that the death of Jesushas bought it for His, and that negligent under-shepherds aretherefore guilty of grievous sin. 

The Apostle had premonitions of the future for the Church as well asfor himself, and the horizons were dark in both outlooks. He foresawevils from two quarters, for 'wolves' would come from without, andperverse teachers would arise within, drawing the disciples afterthem and away from the Lord. The simile of wolves may be an echo ofChrist's warning in Matthew vii 15. How sadly Paul's anticipationswere fulfilled the Epistle to the Church in Ephesus (Revelation ii. )shows too clearly. Unslumbering alertness, as of a sentry in front ofthe enemy, is needed if the slinking onset of the wolf is to bebeaten back. Paul points to his own example, and that in novainglorious spirit, but to stimulate and also to show howwatchfulness is to be carried out. It must be unceasing, patient, tenderly solicitous, and grieving over the falls of others as overpersonal calamities. If there were more such 'shepherds, ' there wouldbe fewer stray sheep. 

Anxious forebodings and earnest exhortations naturally end in turningto God and invoking His protecting care. The Apostle's heart runsover in his last words (vs. 32-35). He falls back for himself, in theprospect of having to cease his care of the Church, on the thoughtthat a better Guide will not leave it, and he would comfort theelders as well as himself by the remembrance of God's power to keepthem. So Jacob, dying, said, 'I die, but God shall be with you. ' SoMoses, dying, said, 'The Lord hath said unto me, thou shalt not goover this Jordan. The Lord thy God, He will go before thee. ' Not evenPaul is indispensable. The under-shepherds die, _the_ Shepherd lives, and watches against wolves and dangers. Paul had laid the foundation, and the edifice would not stand unfinished, like some half-rearedpalace begun by a now dead king. The growth of the Church and of itsindividual members is sure. It is wrought by God. 

His instrument is 'the word of His grace. ' Therefore if we wouldgrow, we must use that word. Christian progress is no more possible, if the word of God is not our food, than is an infant's growth if itrefuses milk. That building up or growth or advance (for all threemetaphors are used, and mean the same thing) has but one natural end, the entrance of each redeemed soul into its own allotment in the trueland of promise, the inheritance of those who are sanctified. If wefaithfully use that word which tells of and brings God's grace, thatwe may grow thereby, He will bring us at last to dwell among thosewho here have growingly been made saints. He is able to do thesethings. It is for us to yield to His power, and to observe theconditions on which it will work on us. 

Even at the close Paul cannot refrain from personal references. Hepoints to his example of absolute disinterestedness, and with adramatic gesture holds out 'these hands' to show how they arehardened by work. Such a warning against doing God's work for moneywould not have been his last word, at a time when all hearts werestrung up to the highest pitch, unless the danger had been very real. And it is very real to-day. If once the suspicion of being influencedby greed of gain attaches to a Christian worker, his power ebbs away, and his words lose weight and impetus. 

It is that danger which Paul is thinking of when he tells the eldersthat by 'labouring' they 'ought to support the weak'; for by _weak_he means not the poor, but those imperfect disciples who might berepelled or made to stumble by the sight of greed in an elder. Shepherds who obviously cared more for wool than for the sheep havedone as much harm as 'grievous wolves. '

Paul quotes an else unrecorded saying of Christ's which, like asovereign's seal, confirms the subject's words. It gathers into asentence the very essence of Christian morality. It reveals theinmost secret of the blessedness of the giving God. It is foolishnessand paradox to the self-centred life of nature. It is blessedly truein the experience of all who, having received the 'unspeakable gift, 'have thereby been enfranchised into the loftier life in which self isdead, and to which it is delight, kindred with God's own blessedness, to impart. 

A FULFILLED ASPIRATION

'So that I might finish my course. .. . '--ACTS xx. 24. 

'I have finished my course. .. . '--2 TIM. Iv. 7. 

I do not suppose that Paul in prison, and within sight of martyrdom, remembered his words at Ephesus. But the fact that what wasaspiration whilst he was in the very thick of his difficulties cameto be calm retrospect at the close is to me very beautiful andsignificant. 'So that I may finish my course, ' said he wistfully;whilst before him there lay dangers clearly discerned and others thathad all the more power over the imagination because they were butdimly discerned--'Not knowing the things that shall befall me there, 'said he, but knowing this, that 'bonds and afflictions abide me. 'When a man knows exactly what he has to be afraid of he can face it. When he knows a little corner of it, and also knows that there is agreat stretch behind that is unknown, that is a state of things thattries his mettle. Many a man will march up to a battery without atremor who would not face a hole where a snake lay. And so Paul'signorance, as well as Paul's knowledge, made it very hard for him tosay 'None of these things move me' if only 'I might finish mycourse. '

Now there are in these two passages, thus put together, three pointsthat I touch for a moment. These are, What Paul thought that lifechiefly was; what Paul aimed at; and what Paul won thereby. 

I. What he thought that life chiefly was. 

'That I may finish my course. ' Now 'course, ' in our modern English, is far too feeble a word to express the Apostle's idea here. It hascome to mean with us a quiet sequence or a succession of actionswhich, taken together, complete a career; but in its original forcethe English word 'course, ' and still more the Greek, of which it is atranslation, contain a great deal more than that. If we were to read'race, ' we should get nearer to at least one side of the Apostle'sthought. This was the image under which life presented itself to him, as it does to every man that does anything in the world worth doing, whether he be Christian or not--as being not a place for enjoyment, for selfish pursuits, making money, building family, satisfying love, seeking pleasure, or the like; but mainly as being an appointed fieldfor a succession of efforts, all in one direction, and leadingprogressively to an end. In that image of life as a race, threadbareas it is, there are several grave considerations involved, which itwill contribute to the nobleness of our own lives to keep steadily inview. 

To begin with, the metaphor regards life as a track or path markedout and to be kept to by us. Paul thought of his life as aracecourse, traced for him by God, and from which it would beperilous and rebellious to diverge. The consciousness of definiteduties loomed larger than anything else before him. His first wakingthought was, 'What is God's will for me to-day? What stage of thecourse have I to pass over to-day?' Each moment brought to him anappointed task which at all hazards he must do. And this elevating, humbling, and bracing ever-present sense of responsibility, notmerely to circumstances, but to God, is an indispensable part of anylife worth the living, and of any on which a man will ever dare tolook back. 

'My course. ' O brethren! if we carried with us, always present, thatsolemn, severe sense of all-pervading duty and of obligation laidupon us to pursue faithfully the path that is appointed us, therewould be less waste, less selfishness, less to regret, and less thatweakens and defiles, in the lives of us all. And blessed be His name!however trivial be our tasks, however narrow our spheres, howeversecular and commonplace our businesses or trades, we may write uponthem, as on all sorts of lives, except weak and selfish ones, thisinscription, 'Holiness to the Lord. '

The broad arrow stamped on Crown property gives a certain dignity towhatever bears it, and whatever small duty has the name of Godwritten across it is thereby ennobled. If our days are to be full-fraught with the serenity and purity which it is possible for them toattain, and if we ourselves are to put forth all our powers and makethe most of ourselves, we must cultivate the continual sense thatlife is a course--a series of definite duties marked out for us byGod. 

Again, the image suggests the strenuous efforts needed for dischargeof our appointed tasks. The Apostle, like all men of imaginative andsensitive nature, was accustomed to speak in metaphors, whichexpressed his fervid convictions more adequately than more abstractexpressions would have done. That vigorous figure of a 'course'speaks more strongly of the stress of continual effort than manywords. It speaks of the straining muscles, and the intenseconcentration, and the forward-flung body of the runner in the arena. Paul says in effect, 'I, for my part, live at high pressure. I getthe most that I can out of myself. I do the very best that is in me. 'And that is a pattern for us. 

There is nothing to be done unless we are contented to live on thestretch. Easygoing lives are always contemptible lives. A man whonever does anything except what he can do easily never comes to doanything greater than what he began with, and never does anythingworth doing at all. Effort is the law of life in all departments, aswe all of us know and practise in regard to our daily business. Butwhat a strange thing it is that we seem to think that our Christiancharacters can be formed and perfected upon other conditions, and inother fashions, than those by which men make their daily bread ortheir worldly fortunes!

The direction which effort takes is different in these two regions. The necessity for concentration and vigorous putting into operationof every faculty is far more imperative in the Christian course thanin any other form of life. 

I believe most earnestly that we grow Christlike, not by effort only, but by faith. But I believe that there is no faith without effort, and that the growth which comes from faith will not be appropriatedand made ours without it. And so I preach, without in the leastdegree feeling that it impinges upon the great central truth that weare cleansed and perfected by the power of God working upon us, thesister truth that we must 'work out our own salvation with fear andtrembling. '

Brethren, unless we are prepared for the dust and heat of the race, we had better not start upon the course. Christian men have anappointed task, and to do it will take all the effort that they canput forth, and will assuredly demand continuous concentration and thesummoning of every faculty to its utmost energy. 

Still further, there is another idea that lies in the emblem, andthat is that the appointed task which thus demands the whole man invigorous exercise ought in fact to be, and in its nature is, progressive. Is the Christianity of the average church member andprofessing Christian a continuous advance? Is to-day better thanyesterday? Are former attainments continually being left behind? Doesit not seem the bitterest irony to talk about the usual life of aChristian as a course? Did you ever see a squad of raw recruits beingdrilled in the barrack-yard? The first thing the sergeants do is toteach them the 'goose-step, ' which consists in lifting up one footand then the other, _ad infinitum_, and yet always keeping on thesame bit of ground. That is the kind of 'course' which hosts of so-called Christians content themselves with running--a vast deal ofapparent exercise and no advance. They are just at the same spot atwhich they stood five, ten, or twenty years ago; not a bit wiser, more like Christ, less like the devil and the world; having gained nomore mastery over their characteristic evils; falling into preciselythe same faults of temper and conduct as they used to do in the far-away past. By what right can _they_ talk of running the Christianrace? Progress is essential to real Christian life. 

II. Turn now to another thought here, and consider what Paul aimedat. 

It is a very easy thing for a man to say, 'I take the discharge of myduty, given to me by Jesus Christ, as my great purpose in life, ' whenthere is nothing in the way to prevent him from carrying out thatpurpose. But it is a very different thing when, as was the case withPaul, there lie before him the certainties of affliction and bonds, and the possibilities which very soon consolidated themselves intocertainties, of a bloody death and that swiftly. To say _then_, without a quickened pulse or a tremor in the eyelid, or a quiver inthe voice, or a falter in the resolution, to say then, 'none of thesethings move me, if only I may do what I was set to do'--that is to bein Christ indeed; and that is the only thing worth living for. 

Look how beautifully we see in operation in these heartfelt and fewwords of the Apostle the power that there is in an absolute devotionto God-enjoined duty, to give a man 'a solemn scorn of ills, ' and tolift him high above everything that would bar or hinder his path. Isit not bracing to see any one actuated by such motives as these? Andwhy should they not be motives for us all? The one thing worth ourmaking our aim in life is to accomplish our course. 

Now notice that the word in the original here, 'finish, ' does notmerely mean 'end, ' which would be a very poor thing. Time will dothat for us all. It will end our course. But an ended course may yetbe an unfinished course. And the meaning that the Apostle attaches tothe word in both of our texts is not merely to scramble throughanyhow, so as to get to the last of it; but to complete, accomplishthe course, or, to put away the metaphor, to do all that it was meantby God that he should do. 

Now some very early transcriber of the Acts of the Apostles mistookthe Apostle's meaning, and thought that he only said that he desiredto end his career; and so, with the best intentions in the world, heinserted, probably on the margin, what he thought was a necessaryaddition--that unfortunate 'with joy, ' which appears in ourAuthorised Version, but has no place in the true text. If we put itin we necessarily limit the meaning of the word 'finish' to that low, superficial sense which I have already dismissed. If we leave it outwe get a far nobler thought. Paul was not thinking about the joy atthe end. What he wanted was to do his work, all of it, right throughto the very last. He knew there would be joy, but he does not speakabout it. What he wanted, as all faithful men do, was to do the work, and let the joy take care of itself. 

And so for all of us, the true anaesthetic or 'painkiller' is thatall-dominant sense of obligation and duty which lays hold upon us, and grips us, and makes us, not exactly indifferent to, but verypartially conscious of, the sorrows or the hindrances or the painsthat may come in our way. You cannot stop an express train bystretching a rope across the line, nor stay the flow of a river witha barrier of straw. And if a man has once yielded himself fully tothat great conception of God's will driving him on through life, andprescribing his path for him, it is neither in sorrow nor in joy toarrest his course. They may roll all the golden apples out of thegarden of the Hesperides in his path, and he will not stop to pickone of them up; or Satan may block it with his fiercest flames, andthe man will go into them, saying, 'When I pass through the fires Hewill be with me. '

III. Lastly, what Paul won thereby. 

'That I _may_ finish my course . .. I _have_ finished my course'; inthe same lofty meaning, not merely _ended_, though that was true, but'completed, accomplished, perfected. '

Now some hyper-sensitive people have thought that it was very strangethat the Apostle, who was always preaching the imperfection of allhuman obedience and service, should, at the end of his life, indulgein such a piece of what they fancy was self-complacent retrospect asto say 'I have kept the faith; I have fought a good fight; I havefinished my course. ' But it was by no means complacent self-righteousness. Of course he did not mean that he looked back upon acareer free from faults and flecks and stains. No. There is only onepair of human lips that ever could say, in the full significance ofthe word, 'It is finished! . .. I have completed the work which Thougavest Me to do. ' Jesus Christ's retrospect of a stainless career, without defect or discordance at any point from the divine ideal, isnot repeated in any of His servants' experiences. But, on the otherhand, if a man in the middle of his difficulties and his conflictpulls himself habitually together and says to himself, 'Nothing shallmove me, so that I may complete this bit of my course, ' depend uponit, his effort, his believing effort, will not be in vain; and at thelast he will be able to look back on a career which, though stainedwith many imperfections, and marred with many failures, yet on thewhole has realised the divine purpose, though not with absolutecompleteness, at least sufficiently to enable the faithful servant tofeel that all his struggle has not been in vain. 

Brethren, no one else can. And oh! how different the two 'courses' ofthe godly man and the worldling look, in their relative importance, when seen from this side, as we are advancing towards them, and fromthe other as we look back upon them! Pleasures, escape from pains, ease, comfort, popularity, quiet lives--all these things seem veryattractive; and God's will often seems very hard and very repulsive, when we are advancing towards some unwelcome duty. But when we getbeyond it and look back, the two careers have changed theircharacters; and all the joys that could be bought at the price of thesmallest neglected duty or the smallest perpetrated sin, dwindle anddwindle and dwindle, and the light is out of them, and they show forwhat they are--nothings, gilded nothings, painted emptinesses, liesvarnished over. And on the other hand, to do right, to discharge thesmallest duty, to recognise God's will, and with faithful effort toseek to do it in dependence upon Him, that towers and towers andtowers, and there seems to be, as there really is, nothing else worthliving for. 

So let us live with the continual remembrance in our minds that allwhich we do has to be passed in review by us once more, from anotherstandpoint, and with another illumination falling upon it. And besure of this, that the one thing worth looking back upon, andpossible to be looked back upon with peace and quietness, is thehumble, faithful, continual discharge of our appointed tasks for thedear Lord's sake. If you and I, whilst work and troubles last, dotruly say, 'None of these things move me, so that I _might_ finish mycourse, ' we too, with all our weaknesses, may be able to say at thelast, 'Thanks be to God! I _have_ finished my course. '

PARTING WORDS[Footnote: Preached prior to a long absence in Australia. ]

'And now, brethren, I commend you to God, and to the word of Hisgrace. .. . '--ACTS xx. 32. 

I may be pardoned if my remarks now should assume somewhat of a morepersonal character than is my wont. I desire to speak mainly to myown friends, the members of my own congregation; and other friendswho have come to give me a parting 'Godspeed' will forgive me if myobservations have a more special bearing on those with whom I am moreimmediately connected. 

The Apostle whose words I have taken for my text was leaving, as hesupposed, for the last time, the representatives of the Church inEphesus, to whom he had been painting in very sombre colours thedangers of the future and his own forebodings and warnings. Exhortations, prophecies of evil, expressions of anxious solicitude, motions of Christian affection, all culminate in this partingutterance. High above them all rises the thought of the present God, and of the mighty word which in itself, in the absence of all humanteachers, had power to 'build them up, and to give them aninheritance amongst them that are sanctified. '

If we think of that Church in Ephesus, this brave confidence of theApostle's becomes yet more remarkable. They were set in the midst ofa focus of heathen superstition, from which they themselves had onlyrecently been rescued. Their knowledge was little, they had noApostolic teacher to be present with them; they were left alone thereto battle with the evils of that corrupt society in which they dwelt. And yet Paul leaves them--'sheep in the midst of wolves, ' with a veryimperfect Christianity, with no Bible, with no teachers--in the sureconfidence that no harm will come to them, because God is with them, and the 'word of His grace' is enough. 

And that is the feeling, dear brethren, with which I now look you inthe face for the last time for a little while. I desire that you andI should together share the conviction that each of us is safebecause God and the 'word of His grace' will go and remain with us. 

I. So then, first of all, let me point you to the one source ofsecurity and enlightenment for the Church and for the individual. 

We are not to separate between God and the 'word of His grace, ' butrather to suppose that the way by which the Apostle conceived of Godas working for the blessing and the guardianship of that littlecommunity in Ephesus was mainly, though not exclusively, through thatwhich he here designates 'the word of His grace. ' We are not toforget the ever-abiding presence of the indwelling Spirit who guardsand keeps the life of the individual and of the community. But whatis in the Apostle's mind here is the objective revelation, the actualspoken word (not yet written) which had its origin in God'scondescending love, and had for its contents, mainly, the settingforth of that love. Or to put it into other words, the revelation ofthe grace of God in Jesus Christ, with all the great truths thatcluster round and are evolved from it, is the all-sufficient sourceof enlightenment and security for individuals and for Churches. Andwhosoever will rightly use and faithfully keep that great word, noevil shall befall him, nor shall he ever make shipwreck of the faith. It is 'able to build you up, ' says Paul. In God's Gospel, in thetruth concerning Jesus Christ the divine Redeemer, in the principlesthat flow from that Cross and Passion, and that risen life and thatascension to God, there is all that men need, all that they want forlife, all that they want for godliness. The basis of their creed, thesufficient guide for their conduct, the formative powers that willshape into beauty and nobleness their characters, all lie in the germin this message, 'God was in Christ reconciling the world untoHimself. ' Whoever keeps that in mind and memory, ruminates upon ittill it becomes the nourishment of his soul, meditates on it till theprecepts and the promises and the principles that are enwrapped in itunfold themselves before Him, needs none other guide for life, noneother solace in sorrow, none other anchor of hope, none other stay intrial and in death. 'I commend you to God and the word of His grace, 'which is a storehouse full of all that we need for life and forgodliness. Whoever has it is like a landowner who has a quarry on hisestate, from which at will he can dig stones to build his house. Ifyou truly possess and faithfully adhere to this Gospel, you haveenough. 

Remember that these believers to whom Paul thus spoke had no NewTestament, and most of them, I dare say, could not read the Old. There were no written Gospels in existence. The greater part of theNew Testament was not written; what was written was in the shape oftwo or three letters that belonged to Churches in another part of theworld altogether. It was to the spoken word that he commended them. How much more securely may we trust one another to that permanentrecord of the divine revelation which we have here in the pages ofScripture!

As for the individual, so for the Church, that written word is theguarantee for its purity and immortality. Christianity is the onlyreligion that has ever passed through periods of decadence andpurified itself again. They used to say that Thames water was thebest to put on shipboard because, after it became putrid, it cleareditself and became sweet again. I do not know anything about whetherthat is true or not, but I know that it is true about Christianity. Over and over again it has rotted, and over and over again it hascleared itself, and it has always been by the one process. Men havegone back to the word and laid hold again of it in its simpleomnipotence, and so a decadent Christianity has sprung up again intopurity and power. The word of God, the principles of the revelationcontained in Christ and recorded for ever in this New Testament, arethe guarantee of the Church's immortality and of the Church's purity. This man and that man may fall away, provinces may be lost from theempire for a while, standards of rebellion and heresy may be lifted, but 'the foundation of God standeth sure, ' and whoever will hark backagain and dig down through the rubbish of human buildings to theliving Rock will build secure and dwell at peace. If all our churcheswere pulverised to-morrow, and every formal creed of Christendom weretorn in pieces, and all the institutions of the Church wereannihilated--if there was a New Testament left they would all bebuilt up again. 'I commend you to God, and to the word of His grace. '

II. Secondly, notice the possible benefit of the silencing of the_human_ voice. 

Paul puts together his absence and the power of the word. 'Now I knowthat you will see my face no more'--'I commend you to God. ' That isto say, it is often a good thing that the voice of man may be hushedin order that the sweeter and deeper music of the word of God, sounding from no human lips, may reach our hearts. Of course I am notgoing to depreciate preachers and books and religious literature andthe thought and the acts of good and wise men who have beeninterpreters of God's meaning and will to their brethren, but thehuman ministration of the divine word, like every other help toknowing God, may become a hindrance instead of a help; and in allsuch helps there is a tendency, unless there be continual jealouswatchfulness on the part of those who minister them, and on the partof those who use them, to assert themselves instead of leading toGod, and to become not mirrors in which we may behold God, butobscuring _media_ which come between us and Him. This danger belongsto the great ordinance and office of the Christian ministry, large asits blessings are, just as it belongs to all other offices which areappointed for the purpose of bringing men to God. We may make themladders or we may make them barriers; we may climb by them or we mayremain in them. We may look at the colours on the painted glass untilwe do not see or think of the light which strikes through thecolours. 

So it is often a good thing that a human voice which speaks thedivine word, should be silenced; just as it is often a good thingthat other helps and props should be taken away. No man ever leansall his weight upon God's arm until every other crutch on which heused to lean has been knocked from him. 

And therefore, dear brethren, applying these plain things toourselves, may I not say that it may and should be the result of mytemporary absence from you that some of you should be driven to amore first-hand acquaintance with God and with His word? I, like allChristian ministers, have of course my favourite ways of looking attruth, limitations of temperament, and idiosyncrasies of varioussorts, which colour the representations that I make of God's greatword. All the river cannot run through any pipe; and what does run issure to taste somewhat of the soil through which it runs. And forsome of you, after thirty years of hearing my way of putting things--and I have long since told you all that I have got to say--it will bea good thing to have some one else to speak to you, who will comewith other aspects of that great Truth, and look at it from otherangles and reflect other hues of its perfect whiteness. So partlybecause of these limitations of mine, partly because you have grownso accustomed to my voice that the things that I say do not producehalf as much effect on many of you as if I were saying them tosomebody else, or somebody else were saying them to you, and partlybecause the affection, born of so many years of united worship, forwhich in many respects I am your debtor, may lead you to look at thevessel rather than the treasure, do you not think it may be a meansof blessing and help to this congregation that I should step asidefor a little while and some one else should stand here, and youshould be driven to make acquaintance with 'God and the word of Hisgrace' a little more for yourselves? What does it matter though youdo not have nay sermons? You have your Bibles and you have God'sSpirit. And if my silence shall lead any of you to prize and to use_these_ more than you have done, then my silence will have done agreat deal more than my speech. Ministers are like doctors, the testof their success is that they are not needed any more. And when wecan say, 'They can stand without us, and they do not need us, ' thatis the crown of our ministry. 

III. Thirdly, notice the best expression of Christian solicitude andaffection. 

'I commend you, ' says Paul, 'to God, and to the word of His grace. 'If we may venture upon a very literal translation of the word, it is, 'I lay you down beside God. ' That is beautiful, is it not? Here hadPaul been carrying the Ephesian Church on his back for a long timenow. He had many cares about them, many forebodings as to theirfuture, knowing very well that after his departure grievous wolveswere going to enter in. He says, 'I cannot carry the load any longer;here I lay it down at the Throne, beneath those pure Eyes, and thatgentle and strong Hand. ' For to commend them to God is in fact aprayer casting the care which Paul could no longer exercise, uponHim. 

And that is the highest expression of, as it is the only soothingfor, manly Christian solicitude and affection. Of course you and I, looking forward to these six months of absence, have all of us ouranxieties about what may be the issue. I may feel afraid lest thereshould be flagging here, lest good work should be done a little morelanguidly, lest there should be a beggarly account of empty pews manya time, lest the bonds of Christian union here should be loosened, and when I come back I may find it hard work to reknit them. Allthese thoughts must be in the mind of a true man who has put most ofhis life, and as much of himself as during that period he couldcommand, into his work. What then? 'I commend you to God. ' You mayhave your thoughts and anxieties as well as I have mine. Dearbrethren, let us make an end of solicitude and turn it into petitionand bring one another to God, and leave one another there. 

This 'commending, ' as it is the highest expression of Christiansolicitude, so it is the highest and most natural expression ofChristian affection. I am not going to do what is so easy to do--bring tears at such a moment. I do not purpose to speak of the depth, the sacredness of the bond that unites a great many of us together. Ithink we can take that for granted without saying any more about it. But, dear brethren, I do want to pledge you and myself to this, thatour solicitude and our affection should find voice in prayer, andthat when we are parted we may be united, because the eyes of bothare turned to the one Throne. There is a reality in prayer. Do youpray for me, as I will for you, when we are far apart. And as thevapour that rises from the southern seas where I go may fall inmoisture, refreshing these northern lands, so what rises on one sideof the world from believing hearts in loving prayers may fall uponthe other in the rain of a divine blessing. 'I commend you to God, and the word of His grace. '

IV. Lastly, notice the parting counsels involved in the commendation. 

If it be true that God and His Word are the source of all securityand enlightenment, and are so, apart altogether from human agencies, then to commend these brethren to God was exhortation as well asprayer, and implied pointing them to the one source of security thatthey might cling to that source. I am going to give no advices aboutlittle matters of church order and congregational prosperity. Thesewill all come right, if the two main exhortations that are involvedin this text are laid to heart; and if they are not laid to heart, then I do not care one rush about the smaller things, of full pewsand prosperous subscription lists and Christian work. These aresecondary, and they will be consequent if you take these two advicesthat are couched in my text:--

(_a_) 'Cleave to the Lord with full purpose of heart, ' as the limpetdoes to the rock. Cling to Jesus Christ, the revelation of God'sgrace. And how do we cling to Him? What is the cement of souls? Loveand trust; and whoever exercises these in reference to Jesus Christis built into Him, and belongs to Him, and has a vital unity knittinghim with that Lord. Cleave to Christ, brother, by faith and love, bycommunion and prayer, and by practical conformity of life. Forremember that the union which is effected by faith can be broken bysin, and that there will be no reality in our union to Jesus unlessit is manifested and perpetuated by righteousness of conduct andcharacter. Two smoothly-ground pieces of glass pressed together willadhere. If there be a speck of sand, microscopic in dimensions, between the two, they will fall apart; and if you let tiny grains ofsin come between you and your Master, it is delusion to speak ofbeing knit to Him by faith and love. Keep near Jesus Christ and youwill be safe. 

(_b_) Cleave to 'the word of His grace. ' Try to understand itsteachings better; study your Bibles with more earnestness; believemore fully than you have ever done that in that great Gospel therelie every truth that we need and guidance in all circumstances. Bringthe principles of Christianity into your daily life; walk by thelight of them; and live in the radiance of a present God. And thenall these other matters which I have spoken of, which are important, highly important but secondary, will come right. 

Many of you, dear brethren, have listened to my voice for long years, and have not done the one thing for which I preach--viz. Set yourfaith, as sinful men, on the great atoning Sacrifice and IncarnateLord. I beseech you let my last word go deeper than its predecessors, and yield yourselves to God in Christ, bringing all your weakness andall your sin to Him, and trusting yourselves wholly and utterly toHis sacrifice and life. 

'I commend you to God and to the word of His grace, ' and beseech you'that, whether I come to see you or else be absent, I may hear ofyour affairs, that ye stand fast in one spirit, with one mindstriving together for the faith of the Gospel. '

THE BLESSEDNESS OF GIVING

'. .. It is more blessed to give than to receive. '--ACTS xx. 35. 

How 'many other things Jesus did' and said 'which are not written inthis book'! Here is one precious unrecorded word, which was floatingdown to the ocean of oblivion when Paul drew it to shore and soenriched the world. There is, however, a saying recorded, which isessentially parallel in content though differing in garb, 'The Son ofMan came not to be ministered unto, but to minister. ' It is temptingto think that the text gives a glimpse into the deep fountains of thepure blessedness of Jesus Himself, and was a transcript of His ownhuman experience. It helps us to understand how the Man of Sorrowscould give as a legacy to His followers 'My joy, ' and could speak ofit as abiding and full. 

I. The reasons on which this saying rests. 

It is based not only on the fact that the act of giving has in it asense of power and of superiority, and that the act of receiving mayhave a painful consciousness of obligation, though a cynic mightendorse it on that ground, but on a truth far deeper than these, thatthere is a pure and godlike joy in making others blessed. 

The foundation on which the axiom rests is that giving is the resultof love and self-sacrifice. Whenever they are not found, the givingis not the giving which 'blesses him that gives. ' If you give withsome _arriere pensee_ of what you will get by it, or for the sake ofputting some one under obligation, or indifferently as a matter ofcompulsion or routine, if with your alms there be contempt to whichpity is ever near akin, then these are not examples of the giving onwhich Christ pronounced His benediction. But where the heart is fullof deep, real love, and where that love expresses itself by acheerful act of self-sacrifice, then there is felt a glow of calmblessedness far above the base and greedy joys of self-centred soulswho delight only in keeping their possessions, or in using them forthemselves. It comes not merely from contemplating the relief orhappiness in others of which our gifts may have been the source, butfrom the working in our own hearts of these two godlike emotions. Tobe delivered from making myself my great object, and to be deliveredfrom the undue value set upon having and keeping our possessions, arethe twin factors of true blessedness. It is heaven on earth to loveand to give oneself away. 

Then again, the highest joy and noblest use of all our possessions isfound in imparting them. 

True as to this world's goods. 

The old epitaph is profoundly true, which puts into the dead lips thedeclaration: 'What I kept I lost. What I gave I kept. ' Better tolearn that and act on it while living!

True as to truth, and knowledge. 

True as to the Gospel of the grace of God. 

II. The great example in God of the blessedness of giving. 

God gives--gives only--gives always--and He in giving has joy, blessedness. He would not be 'the ever-blessed God' unless He were'the giving God. ' Creation we are perhaps scarcely warranted inaffirming to be a necessity to the divine nature, and we run onperilous heights of speculation when we speak of it as contributingto His blessedness; but this at least we may say, that He, in thedeep words of the Psalmist, 'delights in mercy. ' Before creation wasrealised in time, the divine Idea of it was eternal, inseparable fromHis being, and therefore from everlasting He 'rejoiced in thehabitable parts of the earth, and His delights were with the sons ofmen. '

The light and glory thus thrown on His relation to us. 

He gives. He does not exact until He has given. He gives what Herequires. The requirement is made in love and is itself a 'gracegiven, ' for it permits to God's creatures, in their relation to Him, some feeble portion and shadow of the blessedness which He possesses, by permitting them to bring offerings to His throne, and so to havethe joy of giving to Him what He has given to them. 'All things comeof Thee, and of Thine own have we given Thee. ' Then how this thoughtputs an end to all manner of slavish notions about God's commands anddemands, and about worship, and about merits, or winning heaven byour own works. 

Notice that the same emotions which we have found to make theblessedness of giving are those which come into play in the act ofreceiving spiritual blessings. We receive the Gospel by faith, whichassuredly has in it love and self-sacrifice. 

Having thus the great Example of all giving in heaven, and the shadowand reflex of that example in our relations to Him on earth, we arethereby fitted for the exemplification of it in our relation to men. To give, not to get, is to be our work, to love, to sacrificeourselves. 

This axiom should regulate Christians' relation to the world, and toeach other, in every way. It should shape the Christian use of money. It should shape our use of all which we have. 

DRAWING NEARER TO THE STORM

'And it came to pass, that, after we were gotten from them, andhad launched, we came with a straight course unto Coos, and theday following unto Rhodes, and from thence unto Patara: 2. Andfinding a ship sailing over unto Phenicia, we went aboard, andset forth. 3. Now when we had discovered Cyprus, we left it onthe left hand, and sailed into Syria, and landed at Tyre: forthere the ship was to unlade her burden. 4. And findingdisciples, we tarried there seven days: who said to Paul throughthe Spirit, that he should not go up to Jerusalem. 5. And when wehad accomplished those days, we departed and went our way; andthey all brought us on our way, with wives and children, till wewere out of the city: and we kneeled down on the shore, andprayed. 6. And when we had taken our leave one of another, wetook ship; and they returned home again. 7. And when we hadfinished our course from Tyre, we came to Ptolemais, and salutedthe brethren, and abode with them one day. 8. And the next day wethat were of Paul's company departed, and came unto Caesarea: andwe entered into the house of Philip the evangelist, which was oneof the seven; and abode with him. 9. And the same man had fourdaughters, virgins, which did prophesy. 10. And as we tarriedthere many days, there came down from Judaea a certain prophet, named Agabus. 11. And when he was come unto us, he took Paul'sgirdle, and bound his own hands and feet, and said, Thus saiththe Holy Ghost, So shall the Jews at Jerusalem bind the man thatowneth this girdle, and shall deliver him into the hands of theGentiles. 12. And when we heard these things, both we, and theyof that place, besought him not to go up to Jerusalem. 13. ThenPaul answered, What mean ye to weep and to break mine heart? forI am ready not to be bound only, but also to die at Jerusalem forthe name of the Lord Jesus. 14. And when he would not bepersuaded, we ceased, saying, The will of the Lord be done. 15. And after those days we took up our carriages, and went up toJerusalem. '--ACTS xxi. 1-15. 

Paul's heroic persistency in disregarding the warnings of 'bonds andafflictions' which were pealed into his ears in every city, is themain point of interest in this section. But the vivid narrativeabounds with details which fill it with life and colour. We maygather it all round three points--the voyage, Tyre, and Caesarea. 

I. The log of the voyage, as given in verses 1-3, shows the leisurelyway of navigation in those days and in that sea. Obviously thecoaster tied up or anchored in port at night. Running down the coastfrom Miletus, they stayed overnight, first at the small island ofCoos, then stretched across the next day to Rhodes, and on the thirdstruck back to the mainland at Patara, from which, according to onereading, they ran along the coast a little further east to Myra, theusual port of departure for Syria. Ramsay explains that the prevalentfavourable wind for a vessel bound for Syria blows steadily in earlymorning, and dies down towards nightfall, so that there would havebeen no use in keeping at sea after sundown. 

At Patara (or Myra) Paul and his party had to tranship, for theirvessel was probably of small tonnage, and only fit to run along thecoast. In either port they would have no difficulty in finding somemerchantman to take them across to Syria. Accordingly they shiftedinto one bound for Tyre, and apparently ready to sail. The secondpart of their voyage took them right out to sea, and their course layto the west, and then to the south of Cyprus, which Luke mentions asif to remind us of Paul's visit there when he was beginning hismissionary work. How much had passed since that day at Paphos (whichthey might have sighted from the deck)! He had left Paphos withBarnabas and John Mark--where were they? He had sailed away fromCyprus to carry the Gospel among Gentiles; he sails past it, accompanied by a group of these whom he had won for Christ. There hehad begun his career; now the omens indicated that possibly its endwas near. Many a thought would be in his mind as he looked out overthe blue waters and saw the glittering roofs and groves of Paphos. 

Tyre was the first port of call, and there the cargo was to belanded. The travellers had to wait till that was done, and probablyanother one shipped. The seven days' stay is best understood as dueto that cause; for we find that Paul re-embarked in the same ship, and went in her as far as Ptolemais, at all events, perhaps toCaesarea. 

We note that no brethren are mentioned as having been met at any ofthe ports of call, and no evangelistic work as having been done inthem. The party were simple passengers, who had to shape theirmovements to suit the convenience of the master of the vessel, andwere only in port at night, and off again next morning early. Nodoubt the leisure at sea was as restorative to them as it often is tojaded workers now. 

II. Tyre was a busy seaport then, and in its large population the fewdisciples would make but little show. They had to be sought outbefore they were 'found. ' One can feel how eagerly the travellerswould search, and how thankfully they would find themselves againamong congenial souls. Since Miletus they had had no Christiancommunion, and the sailors in such a ship as theirs would not beexactly kindred spirits. So that week in Tyre would be a blessedbreak in the voyage. We hear nothing of visiting the synagogue, norof preaching to the non-Christian population, nor of instruction tothe little Church. 

The whole interest of the stay at Tyre is, for Luke, centred on thefact that here too the same message which had met Paul everywhere wasrepeated to him. It was 'through the Spirit. ' Then was Paul flying inthe face of divine prohibitions when he held on his way in spite ofall that could be said? Certainly not. We have to bring common senseto bear on the interpretation of the words in verse 4, and mustsuppose that what came from 'the Spirit' was the prediction ofpersecutions waiting Paul, and that the exhortation to avoid these bykeeping clear of Jerusalem was the voice of human affection only. Such a blending of clear insight and of mistaken deductions from itis no strange experience. 

No word is said as to the effect of the Tyrian Christians'dissuasion. It had none. Luke mentions it in order to show howcontinuous was the repetition of the same note, and his silence as tothe manner of its reception is eloquent. The parting scene at Tyre islike, and yet very unlike, that at Miletus. In both the Christiansaccompany Paul to the beach, in both they kneel down and pray. Itwould scarcely have been a Christian parting without that. In bothloving farewells are said, and perhaps waved when words could nolonger be heard. But at Tyre, where there were no bonds of oldcomradeship nor of affection to a spiritual father, there was none ofthe yearning, clinging love that could not bear to part, none of thehanging on Paul's neck, none of the deep sorrow of final separation. The delicate shades of difference in two scenes so similar tell ofthe hand of an eye-witness. The touch that 'all' the TyrianChristians went down to the beach, and took their wives and childrenwith them, suggests that they can have been but a small community, and so confirms the hint given by the use of the word 'found' inverse 4. 

III. The vessel ran down the coast to Ptolemais where one day's stopwas made, probably to land and ship cargo, if, as is possible, thefurther journey to Caesarea was by sea. But it may have been by land;the narrative is silent on that point. At Ptolemais, as at Tyre, there was a little company of disciples, the brevity of the stay withwhom, contrasted with the long halt in Caesarea, rather favours thesupposition that the ship's convenience ruled the Apostle's movementstill he reached the latter place. There he found a haven of rest, and, surrounded by loving friends, no wonder that the burdenedApostle lingered there before plunging into the storm of which he hadhad so many warnings. 

The eager haste of the earlier part of the journey, contrasted withthe delay in Caesarea at the threshold of his goal, is explained bysupposing that at the beginning Paul's one wish had been to get toJerusalem in time for the Feast, and that at Caesarea he found that, thanks to his earlier haste and his good passages, he had a margin tospare. He did not wish to get to the Holy City much before the Feast. 

Two things only are told as occurring in Caesarea--the intercoursewith Philip and the renewed warnings about going to Jerusalem. Apparently Philip had been in Caesarea ever since we last heard ofhim (chap. Viii. ). He had brought his family there, and settled downin the headquarters of Roman government. He had been used by Christto carry the Gospel to men outside the Covenant, and for a time itseemed as if he was to be the messenger to the Gentiles; but thatmission soon ended, and the honour and toil fell to another. Butneither did Philip envy Paul, nor did Paul avoid Philip. The Masterhas the right to settle what each slave has to do, and whether Hesets him to high or low office, it matters not. 

Philip might have been contemptuous and jealous of the younger man, who had been nobody when he was chosen as one of the Seven, but hadso far outrun him now. But no paltry personal feeling marred theChristian intercourse of the two, and we can imagine how much eachhad to tell the other, with perhaps Cornelius for a third in company, during the considerably extended stay in Caesarea. No doubt Luke toomade good use of the opportunity of increasing his knowledge of thefirst days, and probably derived much of the material for the firstchapters of Acts from Philip, either then or at his subsequent longerresidence in the same city. 

We have heard of the prophet Agabus before (chap, xi. 28). Why he isintroduced here, as if a stranger, we cannot tell, and it is uselessto guess, and absurd to sniff suspicion of genuineness in thepeculiarity. His prophecy is more definite than any that preceded it. That is God's way. He makes things clearer as we go on, and warningsmore emphatic as danger approaches. The source of the 'afflictions'was now for the first time declared, and the shape which they wouldtake. Jews would deliver Paul to Gentiles, as they had deliveredPaul's Master. 

But there the curtain falls. What would the Gentiles do with him?That remained unrevealed. Half the tragedy was shown, and thendarkness covered the rest. That was more trying to nerves and couragethan full disclosure to the very end would have been. Imagination hadjust enough to work on, and was stimulated to shape out all sorts ofhorrors. Similarly incomplete and testing to faith are the glimpsesof the future which we get in our own lives. We see but a little wayahead, and then the road takes a sharp turn, and we fancy dreadfulshapes hiding round the corner. 

Paul's courage was unmoved both by Agabus's incomplete prophecy andby the tearful implorings of his companions and of the CaesareanChristians. His pathetic words to them are misunderstood if we take'break my heart' in the modern sense of that phrase, for it reallymeans 'to melt away my resolution, ' and shows that Paul felt that thepassionate grief of his brethren was beginning to do what no fear forhimself could do--shake even his steadfast purpose. No more lovelyblending of melting tenderness and iron determination has ever beenput into words than that cry of his, followed by the great utterancewhich proclaimed his readiness to bear all things, even death itself, for 'the name of the Lord Jesus. ' What kindled and fed that nobleflame of self-devotion? The love of Jesus Christ, built on the sensethat He had redeemed the soul of His servant, and had thereby boughthim for His own. 

If we feel that we have been 'bought with a price, ' we too, in oursmall spheres, shall be filled with that ennobling passion of devotedlove which will not count life dear if He calls us to give it up. Letus learn from Paul how to blend the utmost gentleness and tenderresponsiveness to all love with fixed determination to glorify theName. A strong will and a loving heart make a marvellously beautifulcombination, and should both abide in every Christian. 

PHILIP THE EVANGELIST

'. .. We entered into the house of Philip the evangelist, whichwas one of the seven; and abode with him. '--ACTS xxi. 8. 

The life of this Philip, as recorded, is a very remarkable one. It isdivided into two unequal halves: one full of conspicuous service, onepassed in absolute obscurity. Like the moon in its second quarter, part of the disc is shining silver and the rest is invisible. Let usput together the notices of him. 

He bears a name which makes it probable that he was not a PalestinianJew, but one of the many who, of Jewish descent, had lived in Gentilelands and contracted Gentile habits and associations. We first hearof him as one of the Seven who were chosen by the Church, at thesuggestion of the Apostles, in order to meet the grumbling of thatsection of the Church, who were called 'Hellenists, ' about theirpeople being neglected in the distribution of alms. He stands in thatlist next to Stephen, who was obviously the leader. Then afterStephen's persecution, he flies from Jerusalem, like the rest of theChurch, and comes down to Samaria and preaches there. He did thatbecause circumstances drove him; he had become one of the Sevenbecause his brethren appointed him, but his next step was inobedience to a specific command of Christ. He went and preached theGospel to the Ethiopian eunuch, and then he was borne away from thenew convert, and after the Spirit had put him down at Ashdod he hadto tramp all the way up the Palestinian coast, left to the guidanceof his own wits, until he came to Caesarea. There he remained fortwenty years; and we do not hear a word about him in all that time. But at last Paul and his companions, hurrying to keep the Feast atJerusalem, found that they had a little time to spare when theyreached Caesarea, and so they came to 'the house of Philip theevangelist, ' whom we last heard of twenty years before, and spent'many days' with him. That is the final glimpse that we have ofPhilip. 

Now let us try to gather two or three plain lessons, especially thosewhich depend on that remarkable contrast between the first and thesecond periods of this man's life. There is, first, a brief space ofbrilliant service, and then there are long years of obscure toil. 

I. The brief space of brilliant service. 

The Church was in a state of agitation, and there was murmuring goingon because, as I have already said, a section of it thought thattheir poor were unfairly dealt with by the native-born Jews in theChurch. And so the Apostles said: 'What is the use of your squabblingthus? Pick out any seven that you like, of the class that considersitself aggrieved, and we will put the distribution of theseeleemosynary grants into their hands. That will surely stop yourmouths. Do you choose whom you please, and we will confirm yourchoice. ' So the Church selected seven brethren, all apparentlybelonging to the 'Grecians' or Greek-speaking Jews, as the Apostleshad directed that they should be, and one of them, not a Jew bybirth, but a 'proselyte of Antioch. ' These men's partialities wouldall be in favour of the class to which they belonged, and to securefair play for which they were elected by it. 

Now these seven are never called 'deacons' in the New Testament, though it is supposed that they were the first holders of thatoffice. It is instructive to note how their office came intoexistence. It was created by the Apostles, simply as the handiest wayof getting over a difficulty. Is that the notion of Churchorganisation that prevails among some of our brethren who believethat organisation is everything, and that unless a Church has thethree orders of bishops, priests, and deacons, it is not worthcalling a Church at all? The plain fact is that the Church at thebeginning had no organisation. What organisation it had grew up ascircumstances required. The only two laws which governed organisationwere, first, 'One is your Master, even Christ, and all ye arebrethren'; and second, 'When the Spirit of the Lord is come uponthee, thou shalt do as occasion shall serve thee. ' Thus these sevenwere appointed to deal with a temporary difficulty and to distributealms when necessary; and their office dropped when it was no longerrequired, as was probably the case when, very soon after, theJerusalem Church was scattered. Then, by degrees, came elders anddeacons. People fancy that there is but one rigid, unalterable typeof Church organisation, when the reality is that it is fluent andflexible, and that the primitive Church never was meant to be thepattern according to which, in detail, and specifically, otherChurches in different circumstances should be constituted. There aregreat principles which no organisation must break, but if these bekept, the form is a matter of convenience. 

That is the first lesson that I take out of this story. Although ithas not much to do with Philip himself, still it is worth saying inthese days when a particular organisation of the Church is supposedto be essential to Christian fellowship, and we Nonconformists, whohave not the 'orders' that some of our brethren seem to thinkindispensable, are by a considerable school unchurched, because weare without them. But the primitive Church also was without them. 

Still further and more important for us, in these brief years ofbrilliant service I note the spontaneous impulse which sets aChristian man to do Christian work. It was his brethren that pickedout Philip, and said, 'Now go and distribute alms, ' but his brethrenhad nothing to do with his next step. He was driven by circumstancesout of Jerusalem, and he found himself in Samaria, and perhaps heremembered how Jesus Christ had said, on the day when He went up intoHeaven, 'Ye shall be witnesses unto Me, both in Jerusalem _and inSamaria_, and unto the uttermost parts of the earth. ' But whether heremembered that or not, he was here in Samaria, amongst the ancestralenemies of his nation. Nobody told him to preach when he went toSamaria. He had no commission from the Apostles to do so. He did nothold any office in the Church, except that which, according to theApostles' intention in establishing it, ought to have stopped hismouth from preaching. For they said, when they appointed these seven, 'Let _them_ serve tables, and we will give ourselves to the ministryof the word. ' But Jesus Christ has a way of upsetting men'srestrictions as to the functions of His servants. And so Philip, without a commission, and with many prejudices to stop his mouth, wasthe first to break through the limitations which confined the messageof salvation to the Jews. Because he found himself in Samaria, andthey needed Christ there, he did not wait for Peter and James andJohn to lay their hands upon his head, and say, 'Now you are entitledto speak about Him'; he did not wait for any appointment, but yieldedto his own heart, a heart that was full of Jesus Christ, and _must_speak about Him; find he proclaimed the Gospel in that city. 

So he has the noble distinction of being the very first Christian manwho put a bold foot across the boundary of Judaism, and showed alight to men that were in darkness beyond. Remember he did it as asimple private Christian; uncalled, uncommissioned, unordained byanybody; and he did it because he could not help it, and he neverthought to himself, 'I am doing a daring, new thing. ' It seemed themost natural thing in the world that he should preach in Samaria. Soit would be to us, if we were Christians with the depth of faith andof personal experience which this man had. 

There is another lesson that I take from these first busy years ofPhilip's service. Christ provides wider spheres for men who have beenfaithful in narrower ones. It was because he had 'won his spurs, ' ifI may so say, in Samaria, and proved the stuff he was made of, thatthe angel of the Lord came and said to Philip, 'Go down on the roadto Gaza, which is desert. Do not ask now what you are to do when youget there. Go!' So with his sealed orders be went. No doubt hethought to himself, 'Strange that I should be taken from thisprosperous work in Samaria, and sent to a desert road, where there isnot a single human being!' But he went; and when he struck the pointof junction of the road from Samaria with that from Jerusalem, lookedabout to discover what he had been sent there for. The only thing insight was one chariot, and he said to himself, 'Ah, that is it, ' andhe drew near to the chariot, and heard the occupant reading aloudIsaiah's great prophecy. The Ethiopian chamberlain was probably notvery familiar with the Greek translation of the Old Testament, whichhe seems to have been using and, as poor readers often do, helped hiscomprehension by speaking the words he sees on the page. Philip knewat once that here was the object of his mission, and so 'joinedhimself to the chariot, ' and set himself to his work. 

So Christ chooses His agents for further work from those who, out oftheir own spontaneous love of Him, have done what lay at their hands. 'To him that hath shall be given. ' If you are ambitious of a widersphere, be sure that you fill your narrow one. It will widen quitefast enough for your capacities. 

II. Now let me say a word about the long years of obscurity. 

Philip went down to Caesarea, and, as I said, he drops out of thestory for twenty years. I wonder why it was that when Jesus Christdesired that Cornelius, who lived in Caesarea, should hear thegospel, He did not direct him to Philip, who also was in Caesarea, but bid him send all the way to Joppa to bring Peter thence? I wonderwhy it was that when Barnabas at Antioch turned his face northwardsto seek for young Saul at Tarsus, he never dreamed of turningsouthwards to call out Philip from Caesarea? I wonder how it came topass that this man, who at one time looked as if he was going to bethe leader in the extension of the Church to the Gentiles, and who, as a matter of fact, was the first, not only in Samaria but on thedesert road, to press beyond the narrow bounds of Judaism, was passedover in the further stages by Jesus, and why his brethren passed himover, and left him there all these years in Caesarea, whilst therewas so much going on that was the continuation and development of thevery movement that he had begun. We do not know why, and it isuseless to try to speculate, but we may learn lessons from the fact. 

Here is a beautiful instance of the contented acceptance of a lotvery much less conspicuous, very much less brilliant, than the earlybeginnings had seemed to promise. I suppose that there are very fewof us but have had, back in the far-away past, moments when we seemedto have opening out before us great prospects of service which havenever been realised; and the remembrance of the brief moments ofdawning splendour is very apt to make the rest of the life look greyand dull, and common things flat, and to make us sour. We look backand we think, 'Ah, the gates were opened for me then, but how theyhave slammed to since! It is hard for me to go on in this lowlycondition, and this eclipsed state into which I have been brought, without feeling how different it might have been if those early dayshad only continued. ' Well, for Philip it was enough that Jesus Christsent him to the eunuch and did not send him to Cornelius. He took theposition that his Master put him in and worked away therein. 

And there is a further lesson for us, who, for the most part, have tolead obscure lives. For there was in Philip not only a contentedacceptance of an obscure life, but there was a diligent doing ofobscure work. Did you notice that one significant little word in theclause that I have taken for my text: 'We entered into the house ofPhilip _the evangelist_, which was one of the seven'? Luke does notforget Philip's former office, but he dwells rather on what his otheroffice was, twenty years afterwards. He was 'an evangelist' now, although the evangelistic work was being done in a very quiet corner, and nobody was paying much attention to it. Time was when he had agreat statesman to listen to his words. Time was when a whole citywas moved by his teaching. Time was when it looked as if he was goingto do the work that Paul did. But all these visions were shattered, and he was left to toil for twenty long years in that obscure corner, and not a soul knew anything about his work except the people to whomit was directed and the four unmarried girls at home whom his examplehad helped to bring to Jesus Christ, and who were 'prophetesses. ' Atthe end of the twenty years he is 'Philip the evangelist. '

_There_ is patient perseverance at unrecompensed, unrecorded, andunnoticed work. 'Great' and 'small' have nothing to do with the workof Christian people. It does not matter who knows our work or whodoes not know it, the thing is that _He_ knows it. Now the most of ushave to do absolutely unnoticed Christian service. Those of us whoare in positions like mine have a little more notoriety--and it is noblessing--and a year or two after a man's voice ceases to sound froma pulpit he is forgotten. What does it matter? 'Surely I will neverforget any of their works. ' And in these advertising days, whenpublicity seems to be the great good that people in so many casesseek after, and no one is contented to do his little bit of workunless he gets reported in the columns of the newspapers, we may alltake example from the behaviour of Philip, and remember the man whobegan so brilliantly, and for twenty years was hidden, and was 'theevangelist' all the time. 

III. Now, there is one last lesson that I would draw, and that is theultimate recognition of the work and the joyful meeting of theworkers. 

I think it is very beautiful to see that when Paul entered Philip'shouse he came into a congenial atmosphere; and although he had beenhurrying, out of breath as it were, all the way from Corinth to getto Jerusalem in time for the Feast, he slowed off at once; partly, nodoubt, because he found that he was in time, and partly, no doubt, that he felt the congeniality of the society that he met. 

So there was no envy in Philip's heart of the younger brother thathad so outrun him. He was quite content to share the fate ofpioneers, and rejoiced in the junior who had entered into his labour. 'One soweth and another reapeth'; he was prepared for that, andrejoiced to hear about what the Lord had done by his brother, thoughonce he had thought it might have been done by him. How they wouldtalk! How much there would be to tell! How glad the old man would beat the younger man's success!

And there was one sitting by who did not say very much, but had hisears wide open, and his name was Luke. In Philip's long, confidentialconversations he no doubt got some of the materials, which have beenpreserved for us in this book, for his account of the early days ofthe Church in Jerusalem. 

So Philip, after all, was not working in so obscure a corner as hethought. The whole world knows about him. He had been working behinda curtain all the while, and he never knew that 'the belovedphysician, ' who was listening so eagerly to all he had to tell aboutthe early days, was going to twitch down the curtain and let thewhole world see the work that he thought he was doing, all unknownand soon to be forgotten. 

And that is what will happen to us all. The curtain will be twitcheddown, and when it is, it will be good for us if we have the samerecord to show that this man had--namely, toil for the Master, indifferent to whether men see or do not see; patient labour for Him, coming out of a heart purged of all envy and jealousy of those whohave been called to larger and more conspicuous service. 

May we not take these many days of quiet converse in Philip's house, when the pioneer and the perfecter of the work talked together, asbeing a kind of prophetic symbol of the time when all who had a sharein the one great and then completed work will have a share in itsjoy? No matter whether they have dug the foundations or laid theearly courses or set the top stone and the shining battlements thatcrown the structure, they have all their share in the building andtheir portion in the gladness of the completed edifice, 'that he thatsoweth and he that reapeth may rejoice together. '

AN OLD DISCIPLE

'. .. One Mnason of Cyprus, an old disciple, with whom we shouldlodge. '--ACTS xxi. 16. 

There is something that stimulates the imagination in these mereshadows of men that we meet in the New Testament story. What astrange fate that is to be made immortal by a line in this book--immortal and yet so unknown! We do not hear another word about thishost of Paul's, but his name will be familiar to men's ears till theworld's end. This figure is drawn in the slightest possible outline, with a couple of hasty strokes of the pencil. But if we take eventhese few bare words and look at them, feeling that there is a manlike ourselves sketched in them, I think we can get a real pictureout of them, and that even this dim form crowded into the backgroundof the Apostolic story may have a word or two to say to us. 

His name and his birthplace show that he belonged to the same classas Paul, that is, he was a Hellenist, or a Jew by descent, but bornon Gentile soil, and speaking Greek. He came from Cyprus, the nativeisland of Barnabas, who may have been a friend of his. He was an 'olddisciple, ' which does not mean simply that he was advanced in life, but that he was 'a disciple from the beginning, ' one of the originalgroup of believers. If we interpret the word strictly, we mustsuppose him to have been one of the rapidly diminishing nucleus, whothirty years or more ago had seen Christ in the flesh, and been drawnto Him by His own words. Evidently the mention of the early date ofhis conversion suggests that the number of his contemporaries wasbecoming few, and that there were a certain honour and distinctionconceded by the second generation of the Church to the survivors ofthe primitive band. Then, of course, as one of the earliestbelievers, he must, by this time, have been advanced in life. ACypriote by birth, he had emigrated to, and resided in a village onthe road to Jerusalem; and must have had means and heart to exercisea liberal hospitality there. Though a Hellenist like Paul he does notseem to have known the Apostle before, for the most probablerendering of the context is that the disciples from Caesarea, whowere travelling with the Apostle from that place to Jerusalem, 'brought us to Mnason, ' implying that this was their firstintroduction to each other. But though probably unacquainted with thegreat teacher of the Gentiles--whose ways were looked on with muchdoubt by many of the Palestinian Christians--the old man, relic ofthe original disciples as he was, had full sympathy with Paul, andopened his house and his heart to receive him. His adhesion to theApostle would no doubt carry weight with 'the many thousands of Jewswhich believed, and were all zealous of the law, ' and was ashonourable to him as it was helpful to Paul. 

Now if we put all this together, does not the shadowy figure begin tobecome more substantial? and does it not preach to us some lessonsthat we may well take to heart?

I. The first thing which this old disciple says to us out of themisty distance is: Hold fast to your early faith, and to the Christwhom you have known. 

Many a year had passed since the days when perhaps the beauty of theMaster's own character and the sweetness of His own words had drawnthis man to Him. How much had come and gone since then--Calvary andthe Resurrection, Olivet and the Pentecost! His own life and mind hadchanged from buoyant youth to sober old age. His whole feelings andoutlook on the world were different. His old friends had mostly gone. James indeed was still there, and Peter and John remained until thispresent, but most had fallen on sleep. A new generation was risinground about him, and new thoughts and ways were at work. But onething remained for him what it had been in the old days, and that wasChrist. 'One generation cometh and another goeth, but the "Christ"abideth for ever. '

 'We all are changed by still degrees; All but the basis of the soul, '

and the 'basis of the soul, ' in the truest sense, is that one God-laid foundation on which whosoever buildeth shall never beconfounded, nor ever need to change with changing time. Are webuilding there? and do we find that life, as it advances, buttightens our hold on Jesus Christ, who is our hope?

There is no fairer nor happier experience than that of the old manwho has around him the old loves, the old confidences, and somemeasure of the old joys. But who can secure that blessed unity in hislife if he depend on the love and help of even the dearest, or on thelight of any creature for his sunshine? There is but one way ofmaking all our days one, because one love, one hope, one joy, one aimbinds them all together, and that is by taking the abiding Christ forours, and abiding in Him all our days. Holding fast by the earlyconvictions does not mean stiffening in them. There is plenty of roomfor advancement in Christ. No doubt Mnason, when he was first adisciple, knew but very little of the meaning and worth of his Masterand His work, compared with what he had learned in all these years. And our true progress consists, not in growing away from Jesus but ingrowing up into Him, not in passing through and leaving behind ourfirst convictions of Him as Saviour, but in having these verified bythe experience of years, deepened and cleared, unfolded and orderedinto a larger, though still incomplete, whole. We may make our wholelives helpful to that advancement and blessed shall we be if theearly faith is the faith that brightens till the end, and brightensthe end. How beautiful it is to see a man, below whose feet time iscrumbling away, holding firmly by the Lord whom he has loved andserved all his days, and finding that the pillar of cloud, whichguided him while he lived, begins to glow in its heart of fire as theshadows fall, and is a pillar of light to guide him when he comes todie! Dear friends, whether you be near the starting or near the prizeof your Christian course, 'cast not away your confidence, which hathgreat recompense of reward. ' See to it that the 'knowledge of theFather, ' which is the 'little children's' possession, passes throughthe strength of youth, and the 'victory over the world' into the calmknowledge of Him 'that is from the beginning, ' wherein the fathersfind their earliest convictions deepened and perfected, 'Grow ingrace and in the knowledge' of Him, whom to know ever so imperfectlyis eternal life, whom to know a little better is the true progressfor men, whom to know more and more fully is the growth and gladnessand glory of the heavens. Look at this shadowy figure that looks outon us here, and listen to his far-off voice 'exhorting us all thatwith purpose of heart we should cleave unto the Lord. '

II. But there is another and, as some might think, opposite lesson tobe gathered from this outline sketch, namely, The welcome which weshould be ready to give to new thoughts and ways. 

It is evidently meant that we should note Mnason's position in theChurch as significant in regard to his hospitable reception of theApostle. We can fancy how the little knot of 'original disciples'would be apt to value themselves on their position, especially astime went on, and their ranks were thinned. They would be tempted tosuppose that they must needs understand the Master's meaning a greatdeal better than those who had never known Christ after the flesh;and no doubt they would be inclined to share in the suspicion withwhich the thorough-going Jewish party in the Church regarded thisPaul, who had never seen the Lord. It would have been very naturalfor this good old man to have said, 'I do not like these new-fangledways. There was nothing of this sort in my younger days. Is it notlikely that we, who were at the beginning of the Gospel, shouldunderstand the Gospel and the Church's work without this new mancoming to set us right? I am too old to go in with these changes. 'All the more honourable is it that he should have been ready with anopen house to shelter the great champion of the Gentile Churches;and, as we may reasonably believe, with an open heart to welcome histeaching. Depend on it, it was not every 'old disciple' that wouldhave done as much. 

Now does not this flexibility of mind and openness of nature towelcome new ways of work, when united with the persistent constancyin his old creed, make an admirable combination? It is one rareenough at any age, but especially in elderly men. We are alwaysdisposed to rend apart what ought never to be separated, theinflexible adherence to a fixed centre of belief, and the freestranging around the whole changing circumference. The man of strongconvictions is apt to grip every trifle of practice and everyunimportant bit of his creed with the same tenacity with which heholds its vital heart, and to take obstinacy for firmness, and doggedself-will for faithfulness to truth. The man who welcomes new light, and reaches forward to greet new ways, is apt to delight in havingmuch fluid that ought to be fixed, and to value himself on a'liberality' which simply means that he has no central truth and norooted convictions. And as men grow older they stiffen more and more, and have to leave the new work for new hands, and the new thoughtsfor new brains. That is all in the order of nature, but so much thefiner is it when we do see old Christian men who join to their firmgrip of the old Gospel the power of welcoming, and at least biddingGod-speed to, new thoughts and new workers and new ways of work. 

The union of these two characteristics should be consciously aimed atby us all. Hold unchanging, with a grasp that nothing can relax, byChrist our life and our all; but with that tenacity of mind, try tocultivate flexibility too. Love the old, but be ready to welcome thenew. Do not invest your own or other people's habits of thought orforms of work with the same sanctity which belongs to the centraltruths of our salvation; do not let the willingness to entertain newlight lead you to tolerate any changes there. It is hard to blend thetwo virtues together, but they are meant to be complements, notopposites, to each other. The fluttering leaves and bending branchesneed a firm stem and deep roots. The firm stem looks noblest in itsunmoved strength when it is contrasted with a cloud of light foliagedancing in the wind. Try to imitate the persistency and the open mindof that 'old disciple' who was so ready to welcome and entertain theApostle of the Gentile Churches. 

III. But there is still another lesson which, I think, this portraitmay suggest, and that is, the beauty that may dwell in an obscurelife. 

There is nothing to be said about this old man but that he was adisciple. He had done no great thing for his Lord. No teacher orpreacher was he. No eloquence or genius was in him. No great heroicdeed or piece of saintly endurance is to be recorded of him, but onlythis, that he had loved and followed Christ all his days. And is notthat record enough? It is his blessed fate to live for ever in theworld's memory, with only that one word attached to his name--adisciple. 

The world may remember very little about us a year after we are gone. No thought, no deed may be connected with our names but in somenarrow circle of loving hearts. There may be no place for us in anyrecord written with a man's pen. But what does that matter, if ournames, dear friends, are written in the Lamb's Book of Life, withthis for sole epitaph, 'a disciple'? That single phrase is thenoblest summary of a life. A thinker? a hero? a great man? amillionaire? No, a 'disciple. ' That says all. May it be your epitaphand mine!

What Mnason could do he did. It was not his vocation to go into the'regions beyond, ' like Paul; to guide the Church, like James; to puthis remembrances of his Master in a book, like Matthew; to die forJesus, like Stephen. But he could open his house for Paul and hiscompany, and so take his share in their work. 'He that receiveth aprophet in the name of a prophet shall receive a prophet's reward. 'He that with understanding and sympathy welcomes and sustains theprophet, shows thereby that he stands on the same spiritual level, and has the makings of a prophet in him, though he want theintellectual force and may never open his lips to speak the burden ofthe Lord. Therefore he shall be one in reward as he is in spirit. Theold law in Israel is the law for the warfare of Christ's soldiers. 'As his part is that goeth down to the battle, so shall his part bethat abideth by the stuff: they shall part alike. ' The men in therear who guard the camp and keep the communications open, may deservehonours, and crosses, and prize-money as much as their comrades wholed the charge that cut through the enemy's line and scattered theirranks. It does not matter, so far as the real spiritual worth of theact is concerned, what we do, but only why we do it. All deeds arethe same which are done from the same motive and with the samedevotion; and He who judges, not by our outward actions but by thesprings from which they come, will at last bracket together as equalsmany who were widely separated here in the form of their service andthe apparent magnitude of their work. 

'She hath done what she could. ' Her power determined the measure andthe manner of her work. One precious thing she had, and only one, andshe broke her one rich possession that she might pour the fragrantoil over His feet. Therefore her useless deed of utter love anduncalculating self-sacrifice was crowned by praise from His lipswhose praise is our highest honour, and the world is still 'filledwith the odour of the ointment. '

So this old disciple's hospitality is strangely immortal, and therecord of it reminds us that the smallest service done for Jesus isremembered and treasured by Him. Men have spent their lives to win aline in the world's chronicles which are written on sand, and havebroken their hearts because they failed; and this passing act of oneobscure Christian, in sheltering a little company of travel-stainedwayfarers, has made his name a possession for ever. 'Seekest thougreat things for thyself? seek them not'; but let us fill our littlecorners, doing our unnoticed work for love of our Lord, carelessabout man's remembrance or praise, because sure of Christ's, whosepraise is the only fame, whose remembrance is the highest reward. 'God is not unrighteous to forget your work and labour of love. '

PAUL IN THE TEMPLE

'And when the seven days were almost ended, the Jews which wereof Asia when they saw him in the temple, stirred up all thepeople, and laid hands on him. 28. Crying out, Men of Israel, help: This is the man, that teacheth all men everywhere againstthe people, and the law, and this place: and further broughtGreeks also into the temple, and hath polluted this holy place. 29. (For they had seen before with him in the city Trophimus anEphesian, whom they supposed that Paul had brought into thetemple. ) 30. And all the city was moved, and the people rantogether: and they took Paul, and drew him out of the temple:and forthwith the doors were shut. 31. And as they went about tokill him, tidings came unto the chief captain of the band, thatall Jerusalem was in an uproar. 32. Who immediately tooksoldiers and centurions, and ran down unto them: and when theysaw the chief captain and the soldiers, they left beating ofPaul. 33. Then the chief captain came near, and took him, andcommanded him to be bound with two chains; and demanded who hewas, and what he had done. 34. And some cried one thing, someanother, among the multitude: and when he could not know thecertainty for the tumult, he commanded him to be carried intothe castle. 35. And when he came upon the stairs, so it was, that he was borne of the soldiers for the violence of thepeople. 36. For the multitude of the people followed after, crying, Away with him. 37. And as Paul was to be led into thecastle, he said unto the chief captain, May I speak unto thee?Who said, Canst thou speak Greek? 38. Art not thou thatEgyptian, which before these days madest an uproar, and leddestout into the wilderness four thousand men that were murderers?39. But Paul said, I am a man which am a Jew of Tarsus, a cityin Cilicia, a citizen of no mean city: and, I beseech thee, suffer me to speak unto the people. '--ACTS xxi. 27-39. 

The stronger a man's faith, the greater will and should be hisdisposition to conciliate. Paul may seem to have stretchedconsideration for weak brethren to its utmost, when he consented tothe proposal of the Jerusalem elders to join in performing the vow ofa Nazarite, and to appear in the Temple for that purpose. But he wasquite consistent in so doing; for it was not Jewish ceremonial towhich he objected, but the insisting on it as necessary. For himself, he lived as a Jew, except in his freedom of intercourse withGentiles. No doubt he knew that the death-warrant of Jewishceremonial had been signed, but he could leave it to time to carryout the sentence. The one thing which he was resolved should not bewas its imposition on Gentile Christians. Their road to Jesus was notthrough Temple or synagogue. As for Jewish Christians, let them keepto the ritual if they chose. The conciliatory plan recommended by theelders, though perfectly consistent with Paul's views and successfulwith the Jewish Christians, roused non-Christian Jews as might havebeen expected. 

This incident brings out very strikingly the part played by each ofthe two factors in carrying out God's purposes for Paul. They areunconscious instruments, and co-operation is the last thing dreamedof on either side; but Jew and Roman together work out a design ofwhich they had not a glimpse. 

I. Note the charge against Paul. The 'Jews from Asia' knew him bysight, as they had seen him in Ephesus and elsewhere; and possiblysome of them had been fellow-passengers with him from Miletus. Nowonder that they construed his presence in the Temple into an insultto it. If Luther or John Knox had appeared in St. Peter's, he wouldnot have been thought to have come as a worshipper. Paul's teachingmay very naturally have created the impression in hot-temperedpartisans, who could not draw distinctions, that he was the enemy ofTemple and sacrifice. 

It has always been the vice of religious controversy to treatinferences from heretical teaching, which appear plain to thecritics, as if they were articles of the heretic's belief. TheseJewish zealots practised a very common method when they fathered onPaul all which they supposed to be involved in his position. Theircharges against him are partly flat lies, partly conclusions drawnfrom misapprehension of his position, partly exaggeration, and partlyhasty assumptions. He had never said a word which could be construedas 'against the people. ' He had indeed preached that the law was notfor Gentiles, and was not the perfect revelation which broughtsalvation, and he had pointed to Jesus as in Himself realising allthat the Temple shadowed; but such teaching was not 'against' either, but rather for both, as setting both in their true relation to thewhole process of revelation. He had not brought 'Greeks' into theTemple, not even the one Greek whom malice multiplied into many. Whenpassion is roused, exaggerations and assumptions soon become definiteassertions. The charges are a complete object-lesson in the baserarts of religious (!) partisans; and they have been but toofaithfully reproduced in all ages. Did Paul remember how he had been'consenting' to the death of Stephen on the very same charges? Howfar he has travelled since that day!

II. Note the immediately kindled flame of popular bigotry. The alwaysinflammable population of Jerusalem was more than usually excitableat the times of the Feasts, when it was largely increased by zealousworshippers from a distance. Noble teaching would have left the mobas stolid as it found them; but an appeal to the narrow prejudiceswhich they thought were religion was a spark in gunpowder, and anexplosion was immediate. It is always easier to rouse men to fightfor their 'religion' than to live by it. Jehu was proud of what hecalls his 'zeal for the Lord, ' which was really only ferocity with amask on. The yelling crowd did not stop to have the charges proved. That they were made was enough. In Scotland people used to talk of'Jeddart justice, ' which consisted in hanging a man first, and tryinghim leisurely afterwards. It was usually substantially just whenapplied to moss-troopers, but does not do so well when administeredto Apostles. 

Notice the carefulness to save the Temple from pollution, which isshown by the furious crowds dragging Paul outside before they killhim. They were not afraid to commit murder, but they were horror-struck at the thought of a breach of ceremonial etiquette. Of course!for when religion is conceived of as mainly a matter of outwardobservances, sin is reduced to a breach of these. We are all temptedto shift the centre of gravity in our religion, and to make too muchof ritual etiquette. Kill Paul if you will, but get him outside thesacred precincts first. The priests shut the doors to make sure thatthere should be no profanation, and stopped inside the Temple, wellpleased that murder should go on at its threshold. They had betterhave rescued the victim. Time was when the altar was a sanctuary forthe criminal who could grasp its horns, but now its ministers wink atbloodshed with secret approval. Paul could easily have been killed inthe crowd, and no responsibility for his death have clung to anysingle hand. No doubt that was the cowardly calculation which theymade, and they were well on the way to carry it out when the otherfactor comes into operation. 

III. Note the source of deliverance. The Roman garrison was posted inthe fortress of Antonia, which commanded the Temple from a higherlevel at the north-west angle of the enclosure. Tidings 'came _up_'to the officer in command, Claudius Lysias by name (Acts xxiii. 26), that all Jerusalem was in confusion. With disciplined promptitude heturned out a detachment and 'ran down upon them. ' The contrastbetween the quiet power of the legionaries and the noisy feeblenessof the mob is striking. The best qualities of Roman sway are seen inthis tribune's unhesitating action, before which the excited mobcowers in fright. They 'left beating of Paul, ' as knowing that aheavier hand would fall on them for rioting. With swift decisionLysias acts first and talks afterwards, securing the man who wasplainly the centre of disturbance, and then having got him fast withtwo chains on him, inquiring who he was, and what he had been doing. 

Then the crowd breaks loose again in noisy and contradictoryexplanations, all at the top of their voices, and each drowning theother. Clearly the bulk of them could not answer either of Lysias'questions, though they could all bellow 'Away with him!' till theirthroats were sore. It is a perfect picture of a mob, which is alwaysferocious and volubly explanatory in proportion to its ignorance. Oneman kept his head in the hubbub, and that was Lysias, who determinedto hold his prisoner till he did know something about him. So heordered him to be taken up into the castle; and as the crowd sawtheir prey escaping they made one last fierce rush, and almost sweptaway the soldiers, who had to pick Paul up and carry him. Once on thestairs leading to the castle they were clear of the crowd, whichcould only send a roar of baffled rage after them, and to this thestolid legionaries were as deaf as were their own helmets. 

The part here played by the Roman authority is that which it performsthroughout the Acts. It shields infant Christianity from Jewishassailants, like the wolf which, according to legend, suckledRomulus. The good and the bad features of Roman rule were bothvaluable for that purpose. Its contempt for ideas, and above all forspeculative differences in a religion which it regarded as a hurtfulsuperstition, its unsympathetic incapacity for understanding itssubject nations, its military discipline, its justice, which thoughoften tainted was yet better than the partisan violence which itcoerced, all helped to make it the defender of the first Christians. Strange that Rome should shelter and Jerusalem persecute!

Mark, too, how blindly men fulfil God's purposes. The two bitterantagonists, Jew and Roman, seem to themselves to be working indirect opposition; but God is using them both to carry out Hisdesign. Paul has to be got to Rome, and these two forces are combinedby a wisdom beyond their ken, to carry him thither. Two cogged wheelsturning in opposite directions fit into each other, and grind out aresultant motion, different from either of theirs. These soldiers andthat mob were like pawns on a chessboard, ignorant of the intentionsof the hand which moves them. 

IV. Note the calm courage of Paul. He too had kept his head, andthough bruised and hustled, and having but a minute or two beforehandlooked death in the face, he is ready to seize the opportunity tospeak a word for his Master. Observe the quiet courtesy of hisaddress, and his calm remembrance of the tribune's right to preventhis speaking. There is nothing more striking in Paul's character thanhis self-command and composure in all circumstances. This ship couldrise to any wave, and ride in any storm. It was not by virtue ofhappy temperament but of a fixed faith that his heart and mind werekept in perfect peace. It is not easy to disturb a man who counts nothis life dear if only he may complete his course. So these two menfront each other, and it is hard to tell which has the quieter pulseand the steadier hand. The same sources of tranquil self-control andcalm superiority to fortune which stood Paul in such good stead areopen to us. If God is our rock and our high tower we shall not bemoved. 

The tribune had for some unknown reason settled in his mind that theApostle was a well-known 'Egyptian, ' who had headed a band of'Sicarii' or 'dagger-men, ' of whose bloody doings Josephus tells us. How the Jews should have been trying to murder such a man Lysias doesnot seem to have considered. But when he heard the courteous, respectful Greek speech of the Apostle he saw at once that he had gotno uncultured ruffian to deal with, and in answer to Paul's requestand explanation gave him leave to speak. That has been thought animprobability. But strong men recognise each other, and the braveRoman was struck with something in the tone and bearing of the braveJew which made him instinctively sure that no harm would come of thepermission. There ought to be that in the demeanour of a Christianwhich is as a testimonial of character for him, and sways observersto favourable constructions. 

PAUL ON HIS OWN CONVERSION

'And it came to pass, that, as I made my journey, and was come nighunto Damascus about noon, suddenly there shone from heaven a greatlight round about me. 7. And I fell unto the ground, and heard avoice saying unto me, Saul, Saul, why perseoutest thou Me? 8. And Ianswered, Who art Thou, Lord? And He said unto me, I am Jesus ofNazareth, whom thou persecutest. 9. And they that were with me sawindeed the light, and were afraid; but they heard not the voice ofHim that spake to me. 10. And I said, What shall I do, Lord? And theLord said unto me, Arise, and go into Damascus; and there itshall be told thee of all things which are appointed for thee todo. 11. And when I could not see for the glory of that light, being led by the hand of them that were with me, I came intoDamascus. 12. And one Ananias, a devout man according to the law, having a good report of all the Jews which dwelt there, 13. Cameunto me, and stood, and said unto me, Brother Saul, receive thysight. And the same hour I looked up upon him. 14. And he said, The God of our fathers hath chosen thee, that thou shouldest knowHis will, and see that Just One, and shouldest hear the voice ofHis mouth. 15. For thou shalt be His witness unto all men of whatthou hast seen and heard. 16. And now why tarriest thou? arise, and be baptized, and wash away thy sins, calling on the name ofthe Lord. '--ACTS xxii. 6-16. 

We follow Paul's example when we put Jesus' appearance to him fromheaven in a line with His appearances to the disciples on earth. 'Last of all, He appeared to me also. ' But it does not follow thatthe appearances are all of the same kind, or that Paul thought thatthey were. They were all equally real, equally 'objective, ' equallyvalid proofs of Jesus' risen life. On two critical occasions Paultold the story of Jesus' appearance as his best 'Apologia. ' 'I sawand heard Him, and that revolutionised my life, and made me what Iam. ' The two accounts are varied, as the hearers were, but thedifferences are easily reconciled, and the broad facts are the samein both versions, and in Luke's rendering in chapter ix. 

A favourite theory in some quarters is that Paul's conversion was notsudden, but that misgivings had been working in him ever sinceStephen's death. Surely that view is clean against facts. Persecutingits adherents to the death is a strange result of dawning belief in'this way. ' Paul may be supposed to have known his state of mind aswell as a critic nineteen centuries off does, and he had no doubtthat he set out from Jerusalem a bitter hater of the convictedimpostor Jesus, and stumbled into Damascus a convinced disciplebecause he had seen and heard Him. That is his account of the matter, which would not have been meddled with if the meddlers had not takenoffence at 'the supernatural element. ' We note the emphasis whichPaul puts on the suddenness of the appearance, implying that thelight burst all in a moment. A little bit of personal reminiscencecomes up in his specifying the time as 'about noon, ' the brightesthour. He remembers how the light outblazed even the blindingbrilliance of a Syrian noontide. He insists too on the fact that hissenses were addressed, both eye and ear. He saw the glory of thatlight, and heard the voice. He does not say here that he saw Jesus, but that he did so is clear from Ananias' words, 'to see theRighteous One' (ver. 14), and from I Corinthians xv. 8. Further, hemakes it very emphatic that the vision was certified as no morbidfancy of his own, but yet was marked as meant for him only, by thedouble fact that his companions did share in it, but only in part. They did see the light, but not 'the Righteous One'; they did hearthe sound of the voice, but not so as to know what it said. Thedifference between merely hearing a noise and discerning the sense ofthe words is probably marked by the construction in the Greek, and iscertainly to be understood. 

The blaze struck all the company to the ground (Acts xxvi. 14). Proneon the earth, and probably with closed eyes, their leader heard hisown name twice sounded, with appeal, authority, and love in thetones. The startling question which followed not only piercedconscience, and called for a reasonable vindication of his action, but flashed a new light on it as being persecution which struck atthis unknown heavenly speaker. So the first thought in Saul's mind isnot about himself or his doings but about the identity of thatSpeaker. Awe, if not actual worship, is expressed in addressing Himas Lord. Wonder, with perhaps some foreboding of what the answerwould be, is audible in the question, 'Who art Thou?' Who can imaginethe shock of the answer to Saul's mind? Then the man whom he hadthought of as a vile apostate, justly crucified and not risen as hisdupes dreamed, lived in heaven, knew him, Saul, and all that he hadbeen doing, was 'apparelled in celestial light, ' and yet in heavenlyglory was so closely identified with these poor people whom he hadbeen hunting to death that to strike them was to hurt Him! Abombshell had burst, shattering the foundation of his fortifications. A deluge had swept away the ground on which he had stood. His wholelife was revolutionised. Its most solid elements were dissolved intovapour, and what he had thought misty nonsense was now the solidthing. To find a 'why' for his persecuting was impossible, unless hehad said (what in effect he did say), 'I did it ignorantly. ' When aman has a glimpse of Jesus exalted to heaven, and is summoned by Himto give a reason for his life of alienation, that life looks verydifferent from what it did, when seen by dimmer light. Clothes arepassable by candle-light that look very shabby in sunshine. WhenJesus comes to us, His first work is to set us to judge our past, andno man can muster up respectable answers to His question, 'Why?' forall sin is unreasonable, and nothing but obedience to Him canvindicate itself in His sight. 

Saul threw down his arms at once. His characteristic impetuosity andeagerness to carry out his convictions impelled him to a surrender ascomplete as his opposition. The test of true belief in the ascendedJesus is to submit the will to Him, to be chiefly desirous of knowingHis will, and ready to do it. 'Who art Thou, Lord?' should befollowed by 'What shall I do, Lord?'

Blind Saul, led by the hand into the city which he had expected toenter so differently, saw better than ever before. 'The glory of thatlight' blinds us to things seen, but makes us able to see afar offthe only realities, the things unseen. Speaking to Jews, as here, Paul described Ananias as a devout adherent of the law, in order toconciliate them and to suggest his great principle that a Christianwas not an apostate but a complete Jew. To Agrippa he drops allreference to Ananias as irrelevant, and throws together the words onthe road and the commission received through Ananias as equallyChrist's voice. Here he lays stress on his agency in restoring sight, and on his message as including two points--that it was 'the God ofour fathers' who had 'appointed' the vision, and that the purpose ofthe vision was to make Saul a witness to all men. The bearing of thison the conciliatory aim of the discourse is plain. We note also theprecedence given in the statement of the particulars of the vision to'knowing his will'--that was the end for which the light and thevoice were given. Observe too how the twofold evidence of sense issignalised, both in the reference to seeing the Righteous One and tohearing His voice and in the commission to witness what Saul had seenand heard. The personal knowledge of Jesus, however attained, constitutes the qualification and the obligation to be His witness. And the convincing testimony is when we can say, as we all can say ifwe are Christ's, 'That which we have heard, that which we have seenwith our eyes, that . .. Declare we unto you. '

ROME PROTECTS PAUL

'And it came to pass, that, when I was come again to Jerusalem, even while I prayed in the Temple, I was in a trance; 18. And sawHim saying unto me, Make haste, and get thee quickly out ofJerusalem: for they will not receive thy testimony concerning Me. 19. And I said, Lord, they know that I imprisoned and beat inevery synagogue them that believed on Thee: 20. And when theblood of Thy martyr Stephen was shed, I also was standing by, andconsenting unto his death, and kept the raiment of them that slewhim. 21. And He said unto me, Depart: for I will send thee farhence unto the Gentiles. 22. And they gave him audience unto thisword, and then lifted up their voices, and said, Away with such afellow from the earth: for it is not fit that he should live. 23. And as they cried out, and cast off their clothes, and threw dustinto the air, 24. The chief captain commanded him to be broughtinto the castle, and bade that he should be examined byscourging; that he might know wherefore they cried so againsthim. 25. And as they bound him with thongs, Paul said unto thecenturion that stood by, Is it lawful for you to scourge a manthat is a Roman, and uncondemned? 26. When the centurion heardthat, he went and told the chief captain, saying, Take heed whatthou doest: for this man is a Roman. 27. Then the chief captaincame, and said, Tell me, art thou a Roman? He said, Yea. 28. Andthe chief captain answered, With a great sum obtained I thisfreedom. And Paul said, But I was free born. 29. Then straightwaythey departed from him which should have examined him: and thechief captain also was afraid, after he knew that he was a Roman, and because he had bound him. 30. On the morrow, because he wouldhave known the certainty wherefore he was accused of the Jews, heloosed him from his bands, and commanded the chief priests andall their council to appear, and brought Paul down, and set himbefore them. '--ACTS xxii. 17-30. 

The threatened storm soon burst on Paul in Jerusalem. On the thirdday after his arrival he began the ceremonial recommended by theelders to prove his adherence to the law. Before the seven daysduring which it lasted were over the riot broke out, and he was savedfrom death only by the military tribune hurrying down to the Templeand dragging him from the mob. 

The tribune's only care was to stamp out a riot, and whether thevictim was 'that Egyptian' or not, to prevent his being murdered. Heknew nothing, and cared as little, about the grounds of the tumult, but he was not going to let a crowd of turbulent Jews take the lawinto their own hands, and flout the majesty of Roman justice. So helets the nearly murdered man say his say and keeps the mob off him. It was a strange scene--below, the howling zealots; above, on thestairs, the Christian apologists guarded from his countrymen by adetachment of legionaries; and the assembly presided over by a Romantribune. 

It is very characteristic of Paul that he thought that his ownconversion was the best argument that he could use with his fellow-Israelites. So he tells his story, and this section strikes into hisspeech at the point where he is coming to very thin ice indeed, andis about to vindicate his work among the Gentiles by declaring thatit was done in obedience to a command from heaven. We need notdiscuss the date of the trance, whether it was in his first visit toJerusalem after his conversion or, as Ramsay strongly argues, is tobe put at the visit mentioned in Acts xi. 30 and xii. 25. 

We note the delicate, conciliatory skill with which he brings outthat his conversion had not made him less a devout worshipper in theTemple, by specifying it as the scene of the trance, and prayer ashis occupation then. The mention of the Temple also invested thevision with sanctity. 

Very noticeable too is the avoidance of the name of Jesus, whichwould have stirred passion in the crowd. We may also observe that thefirst words of our Lord, as given by Paul, did not tell him whitherhe was to go, but simply bade him leave Jerusalem. The fullannouncement of the mission to the Gentiles was delayed both by Jesusto Paul and by Paul to his brethren. He was to 'get quickly out ofJerusalem'; that was tragic enough. He was to give up working for hisown people, whom he loved so well. And the reason was their rootedincredulity and their hatred of him. Other preachers might dosomething with them, but Paul could not. 'They will not receivetestimony of _thee_. '

But the Apostle's heart clung to his nation, and not even his Lord'scommand was accepted without remonstrance. His patriotism led him tothe verge of disobedience, and encouraged him to put in his 'But, Lord, ' with boldness that was all but presumption. He ventures tosuggest a reason why the Jews _would_, as he thinks, receive histestimony. They knew what he had been, and they must bethinkthemselves that there must be something real and mighty in the powerwhich had turned his whole way of thinking and living right round, and made him love all that he had hated, and count all that he hadprized 'but dung. ' The remonstrance is like Moses', like Jeremiah's, like that of many a Christian set to work that goes against thegrain, and called to relinquish what he would fain do, and do what hewould rather leave undone. 

But Jesus does not take His servants' remonstrances amiss, if onlythey will make them frankly to Him, and not keep muttering them undertheir breath to themselves. Let us say all that is in our hearts. Hewill listen, and clear away hesitations, and show us our path, andmake us willing to walk in it. Jesus did not discuss the matter withPaul, but reiterated the command, and made it more pointed and clear;and then Paul stopped objecting and yielded his will, as we shoulddo. 'When he would not be persuaded, we ceased, saying, The will ofthe Lord be done. ' The Apostle had kept from the obnoxious word aslong as he could, but it had to come, and he tells the enragedlisteners at last, without circumlocution, that he is the Apostle ofthe Gentiles, that Jesus has made him so against his will, and thattherefore he must do the work appointed him, though his heart-stringscrack with seeming to be cold to Israel. 

The burst of fury, expressed in gestures which anybody who has everseen two Easterns quarrelling can understand, looks fitter for amadhouse than an audience of men in their senses. They yelled andtore their garments (and their beards, no doubt), and clutchedhandfuls of dust and tossed it in the air, like Shimei cursing David. What a picture of frenzied hate! And what was it all for? BecauseGentiles were to be allowed to share in Israel's privileges. And whatwere the privileges which they thus jealously monopolised? The favourand protection of the God who, as their own prophets had taught them, was the God of the whole earth, and revealed Him to Israel thatIsrael might reveal Him to the world. 

The less they entered into the true possession of their heritage, themore savagely they resented sharing it with the nations. The moretheir prerogative became a mere outward thing, the more they snarledat any one who proposed to participate in it. To seek to keepreligious blessings to one's self is a conclusive proof that they arenot really possessed. If we have them we shall long to impart them. Formal religionists always dislike missionary enterprise. 

The tribune no doubt had been standing silently watching, in hisstrong, contemptuous Roman way, the paroxysm of rage sweeping overhis troublesome charge. Of course he did not understand a word thatthe culprit had been saying, and could not make out what had producedthe outburst. He felt that there was something here that he had notfathomed, and that he must get to the bottom of. It was useless tolay hold of any of these shrieking maniacs and try to get areasonable word out of them. So he determined to see what he couldmake of the orator, who had already astonished him by traces ofsuperior education, and was evidently no mere vulgar firebrand orsedition-monger. He might have tried gentler means of extracting thetruth than scourging, but that process of 'examination, ' as it isflatteringly called, was common, and has not been antiquated for somany centuries that we need wonder at this Roman officer using it. 

Paul submitted, and was already tied up to some whipping-post, in anattitude which would expose his back to the lash, when he quietlydropped, to the inferior officer detailed to superintend theflogging, the question which fell like a bombshell. Possibly theApostle had not known what the soldiers were ordered to do with himtill he was tied up. We cannot tell why he did not plead hiscitizenship sooner. But we may remember that at Philippi he did notplead it at all till after the scourging. Why he delayed so long inthe present instance, and why he at last spoke the magic words, 'I ama Roman citizen, ' we cannot say. But we may gather the two lessonsthat Christ's servants are often wise in submitting silently towrongs, and that they are within their rights in availing themselvesof legal defences against illegal treatment. Whether silence orprotest is the more expedient must be determined in each case byconscience, guided by the sought-for guidance of the enlighteningSpirit. The determining consideration should be, Which course willbest glorify my Master?

The information brought the tribune in haste to the place where theApostle was still tied up. The tables were turned indeed. His briefanswer, 'Yea, ' was accepted at once, for to claim the sacred name ofRoman falsely would have been too dangerous, and no doubt Paul'sbearing impressed the tribune with a conviction of his truthfulness. A hint of contempt and doubt lies in his remark that he had paiddearly for the franchise, which remark implies, 'Where did a poor manlike you get the money then?' A shameful trade in selling citizens'rights was carried on in the degraded days of the Empire byunderlings at court, and no doubt the tribune had procured hiscitizenship in that way. Paul's answer explains that he was bornfree, and so was above his questioner. 

That discovery put an end to all thought of scourging. Paul was atonce liberated, and the tribune, terrified that he might be reported, seeks to repair his error and changes his tactics, retaining Paul forsafety in the castle, and summoning the Sanhedrim, to try to find outmore of this strange affair through them. The great council of thenation had sunk low indeed when it had to obey the call of a Romansoldier. 

Thus once more, as so continually in the Acts, Rome is friendly tothe Christian teachers and saves them from Jewish fury. To point outthat early protection and benevolent sufferance is one purpose of thewhole book. The days of Roman persecution had not yet come. TheEmpire was favourable to Christianity, not only because its officialswere too proud to take interest in petty squabbles between two sectsof Jews about their absurd superstitions, but reasons of politicalwisdom combined with supercilious indifference to bring about thisattitude. 

The strong hand of Rome, too, if it crushed national independence, also suppressed violence, kept men from flying at each other'sthroats, spread peace over wide lands, and made the journeyings ofPaul and the planting of the early Christian Churches possible. Itwas a God-appointed, though an imperfect, and in some aspects, mischievous unity, and prepared the way for that higher form of unityrealised in the Church which finally shattered the coarser Empirewhich had at first sheltered it. The Caesars were doing God's workwhen they were following their own lust of empire. They were yoked toChrist's chariot, though unwitting and unwilling. To them, as trulyas to Cyrus, might the divine voice have said, 'I girded thee, thoughthou hast not known Me. '

CHRIST'S WITNESSES

'And the night following the Lord stood by him, and said, Be ofgood cheer, Paul: for as thou hast testified of Me in Jerusalem, so must thou bear witness also at Rome. '--ACTS xxiii. 11. 

It had long been Paul's ambition to 'preach the Gospel to you thatare at Rome also. ' His settled policy, as shown by this Book of theActs, was to fly at the head, to attack the great centres ofpopulation. We trace him from Antioch to Philippi, Thessalonica, Athens, Corinth, Ephesus; and of course Rome was the goal, where ablow struck at the heart might reverberate through the empire. So hehad planned for it, and prayed about it, and thought about it, andspoken about it. But his wish was accomplished, as our prayers andpurposes so often are, in a manner very strange to him. A popularriot in Jerusalem, a half-friendly arrest by the contemptuousimpartiality of a Roman officer, a final rejection by the Sanhedrim, a prison in Caesarea, an appeal to Caesar, a weary voyage, ashipwreck: this was the chain of circumstances which fulfilled hisdesire, and brought him to the imperial city. 

My text comes at the crisis of his fate. He has just been rejected byhis people, and for the moment is in safety in the castle under thecharge of the Roman garrison. One can fancy how, as he lay there inthe barrack that night, he felt that he had come to a turning-point;and the thoughts were busy in his mind, 'Is this for life or fordeath? Am I to do any more work for Christ, or am I silenced forever?'--'And the Lord stood by him and said, Be of good cheer, Paul!'The divine message assured him that he should live; it testified ofChrist's approbation of his past, and promised him that, inrecompense for that past, he should have wider work to do. So hepassed to the unknown future quietly; and went on his way with theMaster by his side. 

Now, dear friends, it seems to me that in these great words there lielessons applying to all Christian people as truly, though indifferent fashion, as they did to the Apostle, and having an especialbearing on that great enterprise of Christian missions, with which Iwould connect them in this sermon. I desire, then, to draw out thelessons which seem to me to lie under the surface of this greatpromise. 

I. To live ought to be, for a Christian, to witness. 

The promise in form is a promise of continued testimony-bearing; inits substance, one might say, it is a promise of continued life. Paulis cheered, not by being told that the wrath of the enemy will launchitself at his head in vain, and that he will bear a charmed lifethrough it all, but by being told that there is work for him to doyet. That is the shape in which the promise of life is held out tohim. So it always ought to be; a Christian man's life ought to be onecontinuous witnessing for that Lord Christ who stood by the Apostlein the castle at Jerusalem. 

Let me just urge this upon you for a few moments. It seems to me thatto raise up witnesses for Himself is, in one aspect, the very purposeof all Christ's work. You and I, dear brethren, if we have any livinghold of that Lord, have received Him into our hearts, not only inorder that for ourselves we may rejoice in Him, but in order that, for ourselves rejoicing in Him, we may 'show forth the virtues of Himwho hath called us out of darkness into His marvellous light. ' Thereis no creature so great as that he is not regarded as a means to afurther end; and there is no creature so small but that he has theright to claim happiness and blessing from the Hand that made him. Jesus Christ has drawn us to Himself, that we may know the sweetnessof His presence, the cleansing of His blood, the stirring and impulseof His indwelling life in us for our own joy and our own completion, but also that we may be His witnesses and weapons, according to thatgreat word: 'This people have I formed for Myself. They shall shewforth My praise. '

God has 'shined into our hearts in order that we may give, 'reflecting the beams that fall upon them, 'the light of the knowledgeof the glory of God, in the face of Jesus Christ. ' Brother andsister, if you have the Christian life in your souls, one purpose ofyour possessing it is that you may bear witness for Him. 

Again, such witness-bearing is the result of all true, deep, Christian life. All life longs to manifest itself in action. Everyconviction that a man has seeks for utterance; especially so do thebeliefs that go deepest and touch the moral and spiritual nature andrelationships of a man. He that perceives them is thereby impelled todesire to utter them. There can be no real, deep possession of thatgreat truth of the Gospel which we profess to be the foundation ofour personal lives, unless we have felt the impulse to spread thename and to declare the sweetness of the Lord. The very same impulsethat makes the loving heart carve the beloved name on the smooth rindof the tree makes it sweet to one who is in real touch and livingfellowship with Jesus Christ to speak about Him. O brother! _there_is a very sharp test for us. I know that there are hundreds ofprofessing Christians--decent, respectable sort of people, with atepid, average amount of Christian faith and principle in them--whonever felt that overmastering desire, 'I _must_ let this thing outthrough my lips. ' Why? Why do they not feel it? Because their ownpossession of Christ is so superficial and partial. Jeremiah'sexperience will be repeated where there is vigorous Christian life:'Thy word shut up in my bones was like a fire'--that burned itselfthrough all the mass that was laid upon it, and ate its wayvictoriously into the light--'and I was weary with forbearing, and Icould not stay. ' Christian men and women, do you know anything ofthat o'er-mastering impulse? If you do not, look to the depth andreality of your Christian profession. 

Again, this witnessing is the condition of all strong life. If youkeep nipping the buds off a plant you will kill it. If you never saya word to a human soul about your Christianity, your Christianitywill tend to evaporate. Action confirms and strengthens convictions;speech deepens conviction; and although it is possible for any one--and some of us ministers are in great danger of making thepossibility a reality--to talk away his religion, for one of us wholoses it by speaking too much about it, there are twenty that damageit by speaking too little. Shut it up, and it will be like some wildcreature put into a cellar, fast locked and unventilated; when youopen the door it will be dead. Shut it up, as so many of our averageChristian professors and members of our congregations and churchesdo, and when you come to take it out, it will be like some volatileperfume that has been put into a vial and locked away in a drawer andforgotten; there will be nothing left but an empty bottle, and arotten cork. Speak your faith if you would have your faithstrengthened. Muzzle it, and you go a long way to kill it. You arewitnesses, and you cannot blink the obligation nor shirk the dutieswithout damaging that in yourselves to which you are to witness. 

Further, this task of witnessing for Christ can be done by all kindsof life. I do not need to dwell upon the distinction between the twogreat methods which open themselves out before every one of us. Theydo so; for direct work in speaking the name of Jesus Christ ispossible for every Christian, whoever he or she is, however weak, ignorant, uninfluential, with howsoever narrow a circle. There isalways somebody that God means to be the audience of His servantwhenever that servant speaks of Christ. Do you not know that thereare people in this world, as wives, children, parents, friends ofdifferent sorts, who would listen to you more readily than they wouldlisten to any one else speaking about Jesus Christ? Friend, have youutilised these relationships in the interests of that great Name, andin the highest interests of the persons that sustain them to you, andof yourselves who sustain these to them?

And then there is indirect work that we can all do in various ways, Ido not mean only by giving money, though of course that is important, but I mean all the manifold ways in which Christian people can showtheir sympathy with, and their interest in, the various forms inwhich adventurous, chivalrous, enterprising Christian benevolenceexpresses itself. It was an old law in Israel that 'as his part wasthat went down into the battle, so should his part be that tarried bythe stuff. ' When victory was won and the spoil came to be shared, themen who had stopped behind and looked after the base of operationsand kept open the communications received the same portion as the manthat, in the front rank of the battle, had rushed upon the spears ofthe Amalekites. Why? Because from the same motive they had been co-operant to the same great end. The Master has taken up that verythought, and has applied it in relation to the indirect work of Hispeople, when He says, 'He that receiveth a prophet in the name of aprophet shall receive a prophet's reward. ' The motive is the same;therefore the essential character of the act is the same; thereforethe recompense is identical. You can witness for Christ directly, ifyou can say--and you can all say if you like--'We have found theMessias, ' and you can witness for Christ by casting yourselvesearnestly into sympathy with and, so far as possible, help to thework that your brethren are doing. Dear friends, I beseech you toremember that we are all of us, if we are His followers, bound in ourhumble measure and degree, and with a reverent apprehension of thegulf between us and Him, still to take up His words and say, 'To thisend was I born, and for this cause came I into the world, that Imight bear witness to the truth. '

II. There is a second thought that I would suggest from these words, and that is that secular events are ordered with a view to thiswitnessing. 

Take the case before us. Here are two independent and hostile powers;on the one hand the bigoted Jewish Sanhedrim, hating the Roman yoke;and on the other hand the haughty and cruel pressure of that yoke ona recalcitrant and reluctant people: and these two internecineenemies are working on their own lines, each very willing to thwartthe other, Mechanicians talk of the 'composition of forces, ' by whichtwo pressures acting at right angles to each other on a given object, impart to it a diagonal motion. The Sanhedrim on the one side, representing Judaism, and the captain of the castle on the other, representing the Roman power, work into each other's hands, althoughneither of them knows it; and work out the fulfilment of a purposethat is hidden from them both. 

No doubt it would be a miserably inadequate account of things to saythat the Roman Empire came into existence for the sake of propagatingChristianity. No doubt it is always dangerous to account for anyphenomenon by the ends which, to our apprehension, it serves. But atthe same time the study of the purposes which a given thing, being inexistence, serves, and the study of the forces which brought it intoexistence, ought to be combined, and when combined, they present adouble reason for adoring that great Providence which 'makes thewrath of men to praise' it, and uses for moral and spiritual ends thecreatures that exist, the events that emerge, and even the godlessdoings of godless men. 

So here we have a standing example of the way in which, like silk-worms that are spinning threads for a web that they have no notionof, the deeds of men that think not so are yet grasped and twinedtogether by Jesus Christ, the Lord of providence, so as to bringabout the realisation of His great purposes. And that is always so, more or less clearly. 

For instance, if we wish to understand our own lives, do not let usdwell upon the superficialities of joy or sorrow, gain or loss, butlet us get down to the depth, and see that all these externals havetwo great purposes in view--first, that we may be made like our Lord, as the Scripture itself says, 'That we may be partakers of Hisholiness, ' and then that we may bear our testimony to His grace andlove. Oh, if we would only look at life from that point of view, weshould be brought to a stand less often at what we choose to call themysteries of providence! Not enjoyment, not sorrow, but ourperfecting in godliness and of the increase of our power andopportunities to bear witness to Him, are the intention of all thatbefalls us. 

I need not speak about how this same principle must be applied, byevery man who believes in a divine providence, to the wider events ofthe world's history, I need not dwell upon that, nor will your timeallow me to do it, but one word I should like to say, and that isthat surely the two facts that we, as Christians, possess, as webelieve, the pure faith, and that we, as Englishmen, are members of acommunity whose influence is world-wide, do not come together fornothing, or only that some of you might make fortunes out of the EastIndian and China trade, but in order that all we English Christiansmight feel that, our speaking as we do the language which isdestined, as it would appear, to run round the whole world, and ourhaving, as we have, the faith which we believe brings salvation toevery man of every race and tongue who accepts it, and our havingthis responsible necessary contact with the heathen races, lay uponus English Christians obligations the pressure and solemnity of whichwe have yet failed to appreciate. 

Paul was immortal till his work was done. 'Be of good cheer, Paul;thou must bear witness at Rome. ' And so, for ourselves and for theGospel that we profess, the same divine Providence which ordersevents so that His servants may have the opportunities of witnessingto it, will take care that it shall not perish--notwithstanding allthe premature jubilation of anti-Christian literature and thought inthis day--until it has done its work. We need have no fear forourselves, for though our blind eyes often fail to see, and ourbleeding hearts often fail to accept, the conviction that there areno unfinished lives for His servants, yet we may be sure that He willwatch over each of His children till they have finished the work thatHe gives them to do. And we may be sure, in regard to His greatGospel, that nothing can sink the ship that carries Christ and Hisfortunes. 'Be of good cheer . .. Thou hast borne witness . .. Thou mustbear witness. '

III. Lastly, we have here another principle--namely that faithfulwitnessing is rewarded by further witnessing. 

'Thou hast . .. In Jerusalem, ' the little city perched upon its crag;'Thou must . .. In Rome, ' the great capital seated on its seven hills. The reward for work is more work. Jesus Christ did not say to theApostle, though he was 'wearied with that which came upon him daily, the care of all the churches, ' 'Thou hast borne witness, and now comeapart and rest'; but He said to him, 'Thou hast filled the smallersphere; for recompense I put thee into a larger. '

That is the law for life and everywhere, the tools to the hand thatcan use them. The man that can do a thing gets it to do in too largea measure, as he sometimes thinks; but he gets it, and it is allright that he should. 'To him that hath shall be given. ' And it isthe law for heaven. 'Thou hast borne witness down on the little darkearth; come up higher and witness for Me here, amid the blaze. '

It is the law for this Christian work of ours. If you have shonefaithfully in your 'little corner, ' as the child's hymn says, youwill be taken out and set upon the lamp-stand, that you 'may givelight to all that are in the house. ' And it is the law for this greatenterprise of Christian missions, as we all know. We are overwhelmedwith our success. Doors are opening around us on every side. There isno limit to the work that English Churches can do, except theirinclination to do it. But the opportunities open to us require a fardeeper consecration and a far closer dwelling beside our Master thanwe have ever realised. We are half asleep yet; we do not know ourresources in men, in money, in activity, in prayer. 

Surely there can be no sadder sign of decadence and no surerprecursor of extinction than to fall beneath the demands of our day;to have doors opening at which we are too lazy or selfish to go in;to be so sound asleep that we never hear the man of Macedonia when hestands by us and cries, 'Come over and help us!' We are members of aChurch that God has appointed to be His witnesses to the ends of theearth. We are citizens of a nation whose influence is ubiquitous andfelt in every land. By both characters, God summons us to tasks whichwill tax all our resources worthily to do. We inherit a work from ourfathers which God has shown that He owns by giving us these goldenopportunities. He summons us: 'Lengthen thy cords and strengthen thystakes. Come out of Jerusalem; come into Rome. ' Shall we respond? Godgive us grace to fill the sphere in which He has set us, till Helifts us to the wider one, where the faithfulness of the steward isexchanged for the authority of the ruler, and the toil of the servantfor the joy of the Lord!

A PLOT DETECTED

'And when it was day, certain of the Jews banded together, andbound themselves under a curse, saying that they would neithereat nor drink till they bad killed Paul. 13. And they were morethan forty which had made this conspiracy. 14. And they came tothe chief priests and elders, and said, We have bound ourselvesunder a great curse, that we will eat nothing until we have slainPaul. 15. Now therefore ye with the council signify to the chiefcaptain that he bring him down unto you to-morrow, as though yewould inquire something more perfectly concerning him: and we, orever he come near, are ready to kill him. 16. And when Paul'ssister's son heard of their lying in wait, he went and enteredinto the castle, and told Paul. 17. Then Paul called one of thecenturions unto him, and said, Bring this young man unto thechief captain: for he hath a certain thing to tell him. 18. So hetook him, and brought him to the chief captain, and said, Paulthe prisoner called me unto him, and prayed me to bring thisyoung man unto thee, who hath something to say unto thee. 19. Then the chief captain took him by the hand, and went with himaside privately, and asked him, What is that thou hast to tellme? 20. And he said, The Jews have agreed to desire thee thatthou wouldest bring down Paul to-morrow into the council, asthough they would enquire somewhat of him more perfectly. 21. Butdo not thou yield unto them: for there lie in wait for him ofthem more than forty men, which have bound themselves with anoath, that they will neither eat nor drink till they have killedhim: and now are they ready, looking for a promise from thee. 22. So the chief captain then let the young man depart, and chargedhim, See thou tell no man that thou hast shewed these things tome. '--ACTS xxiii. 12-22. 

'The wicked plotteth against the just. .. . The Lord will laugh athim. ' The Psalmist's experience and his faith were both repeated inPaul's case. His speech before the Council had set Pharisees andSadducees squabbling, and the former had swallowed his Christianityfor the sake of his being 'a Pharisee and the son of a Pharisee. 'Probably, therefore, the hatchers of this plot were Sadducees, whohated Pharisees even more than they did Christians. The Apostlehimself was afterwards not quite sure that his skilful throwing ofthe apple of discord between the two parties was right (Acts xxiv. 21), and apparently it was the direct occasion of the conspiracy. AChristian man's defence of himself and his faith gains nothing byclever tactics. It is very doubtful whether what Paul spoke 'in thathour' was taught him by the Spirit. 

'The corruption of the best is the worst. ' There is a close andstrange alliance between formal religion and murderous hatred andvulpine craft, as the history of ecclesiastical persecution shows;and though we have done with fire and faggot now, the same evilpassions and tempers do still in modified form lie very near to aChristianity which has lost its inward union with Jesus and lives onsurface adherence to forms. In that sense too 'the letter killeth. 'We lift up our hands in horror at these fierce fanatics, 'ready tokill' Paul, because he believed in resurrection, angel, and spirit. We need to guard ourselves lest something of their temper should bein us. There is a devilish ingenuity about the details of the plot, and a truly Oriental mixture of murderous passion and calculatingcraft. The serpent's wisdom and his poison fangs are both apparent. The forty conspirators must have been 'ready, ' not only to kill Paul, but to die in the attempt, for the distance from the castle to thecouncil-chamber was short, and the detachment of legionariesescorting the prisoner would have to be reckoned with. 

The pretext of desiring to inquire more fully into Paul's opinionsderived speciousness from his ambiguous declaration, which had setthe Council by the ears and had stopped his examination. Luke doesnot tell us what the Council said to the conspirators, but we learnfrom what Paul's nephew says in verse 20 that it 'agreed to ask theeto bring down Paul. ' So once more the tail drove on the head, and theCouncil became the tool of fierce zealots. No doubt most of itsmembers would have shrunk from themselves killing Paul, but they didnot shrink from having a hand in his death. They were most religiousand respectable men, and probably soothed their consciences withthinking that, after all, the responsibility was on the shoulders ofthe forty conspirators. How men can cheat themselves for a while asto the criminality of indirectly contributing to criminal acts, andhow rudely the thin veil will be twitched aside one day!

II. The abrupt introduction of Paul's nephew into the story piquescuriosity, but we cannot say more about him than is told us here. Wedo not know whether he was moved by being a fellow-believer in Jesus, or simply by kindred and natural affection. Possibly he was, as hisuncle had been, a student under some distinguished Rabbi. At allevents, he must have had access to official circles to have come onthe track of the plot, which would, of course, be covered up as muchas possible. The rendering in the margin of the Revised Version givesa possible explanation of his knowledge of it by suggesting that hehad 'come in upon them'; that is, upon the Council in theirdeliberations. But probably the rendering preferred in the text ispreferable, and we are left to conjecture his source of information, as almost everything else about him. But it is more profitable tonote how God works out His purposes and delivers His servants by'natural' means, which yet are as truly divine working as was thesending of the angel to smite off Peter's chains, or the earthquakeat Philippi. 

This lad was probably not an inhabitant of Jerusalem, and that heshould have been there then, and come into possession of thecarefully guarded secret, was more than a fortunate coincidence. Itwas divinely ordered, and God's finger is as evident in theconcatenation of co-operating natural events as in any 'miracle. ' Toco-ordinate these so that they concur to bring about the fulfilmentof His will may be a less conspicuous, but is not a less veritable, token of a sovereign Will at work in the world than any miracle is. And in this case how wonderfully separate factors, who thinkthemselves quite independent, are all handled like pawns on achessboard by Him who 'makes the wrath of man to praise Him, andgirds Himself with the remainder thereof!' Little did the fieryzealots who were eager to plunge their daggers into Paul's heart, orthe lad who hastened to tell him the secret he had discovered, or theRoman officer who equally hastened to get rid of his troublesomeprisoner, dream that they were all partners in bringing about oneGod-determined result--the fulfilment of the promise that had calmedPaul in the preceding night: 'So must thou bear witness also atRome. '

III. Paul had been quieted after his exciting day by the vision whichbrought that promise, and this new peril did not break his peace. With characteristic clear-sightedness he saw the right thing to do inthe circumstances, and with characteristic promptitude he did it atonce. Luke wastes no words in telling of the Apostle's emotions whenthis formidable danger was sprung on him, and the very reticencedeepens the impression of Paul's equanimity and practical wisdom. Aman who had had such a vision last night might well possess his soulin patience, even though such a plot was laid bare this morning; andeach servant of Jesus may be as well assured, as was Paul theprisoner, that the Lord shall 'keep him from all evil, ' and that ifhis life is 'witness' it will not end till his witness is complete. Our faith should work in us calmness of spirit, clearness ofperception of the right thing to do, swift seizing of opportunities. Paul trusted Jesus' word that he should be safe, whatever dangersthreatened, but that trust stimulated his own efforts to provide forhis safety. 

IV. The behaviour of the captain is noteworthy, as showing that hehad been impressed by Paul's personal magnetism, and that he had inhim a strain of courtesy and kindliness. He takes the lad by the handto encourage him, and he leads him aside that he may speak freely, and thereby shows that he trusted him. No doubt the youth would besomewhat flustered at being brought into the formidable presence andby the weight of his tidings, and the great man's gentleness would bea cordial. A superior's condescension is a wonderful lip-opener. Weall have some people who look up to us, and to whom smallkindlinesses from us are precious. We do not 'render to all theirdues, ' unless we give gracious courtesy to those beneath, as well as'honour' to those above, us. But the captain could clothe himself toowith official reserve and keep up the dignity of his office. Hepreserved an impenetrable silence as to his intentions, and simplysealed the young man's lips from tattling about the plot or theinterview with him. Promptly he acted, without waiting for theCouncil's application to him. At once he prepared to despatch Paul toCaesarea, glad enough, no doubt, to wash his hands of so troublesomea charge. Thus he too was a cog in the wheel, an instrument to fulfilthe promise made in vision, God's servant though he knew it not. 

A LOYAL TRIBUTE[Footnote: Preached on the occasion of the Jubilee of QueenVictoria. ]

'. .. Seeing that by thee we enjoy great quietness, and that veryworthy deeds are done unto this nation by thy providence, 3. Weaccept it always . .. With all thankfulness. '--ACTS xxiv. 2-3. 

These words were addressed by a professional flatterer to one of theworst of the many bad Roman governors of Syria. The speaker knew thathe was lying, the listeners knew that the eulogium was undeserved;and among all the crowd of bystanders there was perhaps not a man whodid not hate the governor, and would not have been glad to see himlying dead with a dagger in his breast. 

But both the fawning Tertullus and the oppressor Felix knew in theirheart of hearts that the words described what a governor ought to be. And though they are touched with the servility which is not loyalty, and embrace a conception of the royal function attributing far moreto the personal influence of a monarch than our State permits, stillwe may venture to take them as the starting-point for two or threeconsiderations suggested to us, by the celebrations of the past week. 

I almost feel that I owe an apology for turning to that subject, foreverything that can be said about it has been said far better than Ican say it. But still, partly because my silence might bemisunderstood, and partly because an opportunity is thereby affordedfor looking from a Christian point of view at one or two subjectsthat do not ordinarily come within the scope of one's ministry, Iventure to choose such a text now. 

I. The first thing that I would take it as suggesting is the gratefulacknowledgment of personal worth. 

I suppose the world never saw a national rejoicing like that throughwhich we have passed. For the reigns that have been long enough toadmit of it have been few, and those in which intelligently andsincerely a whole nation of freemen could participate have been fewerstill. But now all England has been one; whatever our divisions ofopinion, there have been no divisions here. Not only have thebonfires flared from hill to hill in this little island of ours, butall over the world, into every out of the way corner where ourwidely-spread race has penetrated, the same sentiment has extended. All have yielded to the common impulse, the rejoicing of a freepeople in a good Queen. 

That common sentiment has embraced two things, the office and theperson. There was a pathetic contrast between these two when thatsad-hearted widow walked alone up the nave of Westminster Abbey, andtook her seat on the stone of destiny on which for a millennium kingshave been crowned. The contrast heightened both the reverence due tothe office and the sympathy due to the woman. The Sovereign is thevisible expression of national power, the incarnation of England, living history, the outcome of all the past, the representative ofharmonised and blended freedom and law, a powerful social influencefrom which much good might flow, a moderating and uniting poweramidst fierce partisan bitterness and hate, a check against rashchange. There is no nobler office upon earth. 

And when, as is the case in this long reign, that office has beenfilled with some consciousness of its responsibilities, therecognition of the fact is no flattery but simple duty. We cannotattribute to the personal initiative of the Queen the great andbeneficent changes which have coincided with her reign. Thank God, nomonarch can make or mar England now. But this we can say, 'Her court was pure, her life serene. '

A life touched with many gracious womanly charities, delighting insimple country pleasures, not strange to the homes of the poor, quickto sympathise with sorrow, especially the humblest, as many a weepingwidow at a pit mouth has thankfully felt; sternly repressive of someforms of vice in high places, and, as we may believe, not ignorant ofthe great Comforter nor disobedient to the King of kings, --for such aroyal life a nation may well be thankful. We outsiders do not knowhow far personal influence from the throne has in any case restrainedor furthered national action, but if it be true, as is alleged, thattwice in her reign the Queen has kept England from the sin and follyof war, once from a fratricidal conflict with the great new Englandacross the Atlantic, then we owe her much. If in later years thatlife has somewhat shrunk into itself and sat silent, with Grief for acompanion, those who know a like desolation will understand, and eventhe happy may honour an undying love and respect the seclusion of anundying sorrow. So I say: 'Forasmuch as under thee we enjoy greatquietness, we accept it with all thankfulness. '

II. My text may suggest for us a wider view of progress which, although not initiated by the Queen, has coincided with her fiftyyears' reign. 

In the Revised Version, instead of 'worthy deeds are done, ' we read'_evils are corrected_'; and that is the true rendering. The doublefunction which is here attributed falsely to an oppressive tyrant isthe ancient ideal of monarchy--first, that it shall repress disordersand secure tranquillity within the borders and across the frontiers;and second, that abuses and evils shall be corrected by the foresightof the monarch. 

Now, in regard to both these functions we have learned that a nationcan do them a great deal better than a sovereign. And so when wespeak of progress during this fifty years' reign, we largely mean theprogress which England in its toiling millions and in its thinkingfew has won for itself. Let me in very brief words try to touch uponthe salient points of that progress for which as members of thenation it becomes us as Christian people to be thankful. Enoughhosannas have been sung already, and I need not add my poor voice tothem, about material progress and commercial prosperity and thegrowth of manufacturing industry and inventions and all the rest ofit. I do not for a moment mean to depreciate these, but it is of moreimportance that a telegraph should have something to say than that itshould be able to speak across the waters, and 'man doth not live bybread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth ofGod. ' We who live in a great commercial community and know how solidcomfort and hope and gladness are all contingent, in millions ofhumble homes, upon the manufacturing industry of these districts, shall never be likely to underrate the enormous expansion in nationalindustry, and the consequent enormous increase in national wealth, which belongs to this last half century. I need say nothing aboutthese. 

Let me remind you, and I can only do it in a sentence or two, of moreimportant changes in these fifty years. English manners and moralshave been bettered, much of savagery and coarseness has been got ridof; low, cruel amusements have been abandoned. Thanks to the greatTotal Abstinence movement very largely, the national conscience hasbeen stirred in regard to the great national sin of intoxication. Anational system of education has come into operation and is workingwonders in this land. Newspapers and books are cheapened; politicalfreedom has been extended and 'broadened slowly down, ' as is safe, 'from precedent to precedent, ' so that no party thinks now ofreversing any of the changes, howsoever fiercely they were contestedere they were won. Religious thought has widened, the sects have comenearer each other, men have passed from out of a hard doctrinalChristianity, in which the person of Christ was buried beneath thecobwebs of theology, into a far freer and a far more Christ-regardingand Christ-centred faith. And if we are to adopt such a point of viewas the brave Apostle Paul took, the antagonism against religion, which is a marked feature of our generation, and contrasts singularlywith the sleepy acquiescence of fifty years ago, is to be put down tothe credit side of the account. 'For, ' he said, like a bold manbelieving that he had an irrefragable truth in his hands, 'I willtarry here, for a great door and an effectual is opened, and thereare many adversaries. ' Wherever a whole nation is interested andstirred about religious subjects, even though it may be incontradiction and antagonism, God's truth can fight opposition farbetter than it can contend with indifference. Then if we look uponour churches, whilst there is amongst them all abounding worldlinessmuch to be deplored, there is also, thank God, springing up amongstus a new consciousness of responsibility, which is not confined toChristian people, for the condition of the poor and the degradedaround us; and everywhere we see good men and women trying to stretchtheir hands across these awful gulfs in our social system which makesuch a danger in our modern life, and to reclaim the outcasts of ourcities, the most hopeless of all the heathen on the face of theearth. These things, on which I have touched with the lightest hand, all taken together do make a picture for which we may be heartilythankful. 

Only, brethren, let us remember that that sort of talk aboutEngland's progress may very speedily become offensive self-conceit, and a measuring of ourselves with ludicrous self-satisfaction againstall other nations. There is a bastard patriotism which has been veryloud-mouthed in these last days, of which wise men should beware. 

Further, such a contemplation of the elements of national progress, which we owe to no monarch and to no legislature, but largely to theindomitable pluck and energy of our people, to Anglo-Saxonpersistence not knowing when it is beaten, and to the patientmeditation of thoughtful minds and the self-denying efforts of goodphilanthropical and religious people--such a contemplation, I say, may come between us and the recognition of the highest source fromwhich it flows, and be corrupted into forgetfulness of God. 'Bewarelest when thou hast eaten and art full, and thy silver and thy goldis multiplied, and all that thou hast is multiplied, then thine heartbe lifted up, and thou forget the Lord thy God. .. And thou say inthine heart, My power, and the might of mine hand, hath gotten methis wealth. But thou shalt remember the Lord thy God, for it is Hethat giveth thee power to get wealth. '

And the last caution that I would put in here is, let us beware lestthe hosannas over national progress shall be turned into 'Rest and bethankful, ' or shall ever come in the way of the strenuous andpersistent reaching forth to the fair ideal that lies so far beforeus. 

III. That leads me to the last point on which I would say a word, viz. , that my text with its reference to the correction of evils, asone of the twin functions of the monarch, naturally suggests to usthe thought which should follow all recognition of progress in thepast--the consideration of what yet remains to be done. 

A great controversy has been going on, or at least a remarkabledifference of opinion has been expressed in recent months by two ofthe greatest minds and clearest heads in England; one of our greatestpoets and one of our greatest statesmen. The one looking back oversixty years sees but foiled aspirations and present devildom andmisery. The other looking back over the same period sees accomplisheddreams and the prophecy of further progress. It is not for me toenter upon the strife between such authorities. Both are right. Muchhas been achieved. 'There remaineth yet very much land to bepossessed. ' Whatever have been the victories and the blessings of thepast, there are rotten places in our social state which, if notcauterised and healed, will break out into widespread and virulentsores. There are dangers in the near future which may well task theskill of the bravest and the faith of the most trustful. There areclouds on the horizon which may speedily turn jubilations intolamentations, and the best security against these is that each of usin his place, as a unit however insignificant in the great bodypolitic, should use our little influence on the side that makes forrighteousness, and see to it that we leave some small corner of thisEngland, which God has given us in charge, sweeter and holier becauseof our lives. The ideal for you Christian men and women is theorganisation of society on Christian principles. Have we got to thatyet, or within sight of it, do you suppose? Look round you. Doesanybody believe that the present arrangements in connection withunrestricted competition and the distribution of wealth coincideaccurately with the principles of the New Testament? Will anybodytell me that the state of a hundred streets within a mile of thisspot is what it would be if the Christian men of this nation livedthe lives that they ought to live? Could there be such rottenness andcorruption if the 'salt' had not 'lost his savour'? Will anybody tellme that the disgusting vice which our newspapers do not thinkthemselves degraded by printing in loathsome detail, and so bringingthe foulness of a common sewer on to every breakfast-table in thekingdom, is in accordance with the organisation of society onChristian principles? Intemperance, social impurity, wide, drearytracts of ignorance, degradation, bestiality, the awful condition ofthe lowest layer in our great cities, crushed like some crumblingbricks beneath the ponderous weight of the splendid superstructure, the bitter partisan spirit of politics, where the followers of eachchief think themselves bound to believe that he is immaculate andthat the other side has no honour or truth belonging to it--thesethings testify against English society, and make one almost despairwhen one thinks that, after a thousand years and more of professingChristianity, that is all that we can show for it. 

O brethren! we may be thankful for what has been accomplished, butsurely there had need also to be penitent recognition of failure anddefect. And I lay it on the consciences of all that listen to me nowto see to it that they do their parts as members of this body politicof England. A great heritage has come down from our fathers; pass iton bettered by your self-denial and your efforts. And remember thatthe way to mend a kingdom is to begin by mending yourselves, andletting Christ's kingdom come in your own hearts. Next we are boundto try to further its coming in the hearts of others, and so topromote its leavening society and national life. No Christian isclear from the blood of men and the guilt of souls who does not, according to opportunity and capacity, repair before his own door, and seek to make some one know the unsearchable riches of the Gospelof Christ. 

There is no finality for a Christian patriot until his country beorganised on Christian principles, and so from being merely a'kingdom of the world' become 'a Kingdom of our God and of HisChrist. ' To help forward that consummation, by however little, is thenoblest service that prince or peasant can render to his country. Byconformity to the will of God and not by material progress orintellectual enlightenment is a state prosperous and strong. To keepHis statutes and judgments is 'your wisdom and understanding in thesight of the nations, which shall hear all these statutes and say, Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people. '

PAUL BEFORE FELIX

'Then Paul, after that the governor had beckoned unto him tospeak, answered, Forasmuch as I know that thou hast been of manyyears a judge unto this nation, I do the more cheerfully answerfor myself: 11. Because that thou mayest understand, that thereare yet but twelve days since I went up to Jerusalem for toworship. 12. And they neither found me in the temple disputingwith any man, neither raising up the people, neither in thesynagogues, nor in the city: 13. Neither can they prove thethings whereof they now accuse me. 14. But this I confess untothee, that after the way which they call heresy, so worship I theGod of my fathers, believing all things which are written in thelaw and in the prophets: 15. And have hope toward God, which theythemselves also allow, that there shall be a resurrection of thedead, both of the just and unjust. 16. And herein do I exercisemyself, to have always a conscience void of offence toward God, and toward men. 17. Now after many years I came to bring alms tomy nation, and offerings. 18. Whereupon certain Jews from Asiafound me purified in the temple, neither with multitude, nor withtumult 19. Who ought to have been here before thee, and object, if they had ought against me. 20. Or else let these same heresay, if they have found any evil-doing in me, while I stoodbefore the council, 21. Except it be for this one voice, that Icried standing among them, Touching the resurrection of the deadI am called in question by you this day. 22. And when Felix heardthese things, having more perfect knowledge of that way, hedeferred them, and said, When Lysias the chief captain shall comedown, I will know the uttermost of your matter. 23. And hecommanded a centurion to keep Paul, and to let him have liberty, and that he should forbid none of his acquaintance to minister orcome unto him. 24. And after certain days, when Felix came withhis wife Drusilla, which was a Jewess, he sent for Paul, andheard him concerning the faith in Christ. 25. And as he reasonedof righteousness, temperance, and judgment to come, Felixtrembled, and answered, Go thy way for this time; when I have aconvenient season, I will call for thee. '--ACTS xxiv. 10-25. 

Tertellus made three charges against Paul: first, that he incited torebellion; second, that he was a principal member of a 'sect'; third(with a 'moreover, ' as if an afterthought), that he had profaned theTemple. It was more clever than honest to put the real cause ofJewish hatred last, since it was a trifle in Roman eyes, and to putfirst the only thing that Felix would think worth notice. A dullerman than he might have scented something suspicious in Jewishofficials being so anxious to suppress insurrection against Rome, andprobably he had his own thoughts about the good faith of theaccusers, though he said nothing. Paul takes up the three points inorder. Unsupported charges can only be met by emphatic denials. 

I. Paul's speech is the first part of the passage. Its dignified, courteous beginning contrasts well with the accuser's dishonestflattery. Paul will not lie, but he will respect authority, and willconciliate when he can do so with truth. Felix had been 'judge' forseveral years, probably about six. What sort of a judge he had beenPaul will not say. At any rate he had gained experience which mighthelp him in picking his way through Tertullus's rhetoric. 

The Apostle answers the first charge with a flat denial, with theremark that as the whole affair was less than a fortnight old thetruth could easily be ascertained, and that the time was very shortfor the Jews to have 'found' him such a dangerous conspirator, andwith the obviously unanswerable demand for proof to back up thecharge. In the absence of witnesses there was nothing more to be doneabout number one of the accusations, and a just judge would have saidso and sent Tertullus and his clients about their business. 

The second charge Paul both denies and admits. He does belong to thefollowers of Jesus of Nazareth. But that is not a 'sect'; it is 'theWay. ' It is not a divergence from the path in which the fathers havewalked, trodden only by some self-willed schismatics, but it is theone God-appointed path of life, 'the old way, ' the only road by whicha man can walk nobly and travel to the skies. Paul's whole doctrineas to the relation of Judaism to Christianity is here in germ and ina form adapted to Felix's comprehension. This so-called sect (ver. 14takes up Tertullus's word in ver. 5) is the true Judaism, and itsmembers are more truly 'Jews' than they who are such 'outwardly. ' Forwhat has Paul cast away in becoming a Christian? Not the worship ofthe God of Abraham and of Isaac and of Jacob, not the law, not theprophets, not the hope of a resurrection. 

He does not say that he practises all the things written in the law, but that he 'believes' them. Then the law was revelation as well asprecept, and was to be embraced by faith before it could be obeyed inpractice; it was, as he says elsewhere, a 'schoolmaster to bring usunto Christ. ' Judaism is the bud; Christianity is the brightconsummate flower. Paul was not preaching his whole Gospel, butdefending himself from a specific charge; namely that, as being a'Nazarene, ' he had started off from the main line of Jewish religion. He admits that he is a 'Nazarene, ' and he assumes correctly thatFelix knew something about them, but he denies that he is a sectary, and he assumes that the charge would be more truly made against thosewho, accusing him, disbelieved in Christ. He hints that they did notbelieve in either law or prophets, else they would have beenNazarenes too. 

The practical results of his faith are stated. 'Herein'; that is inthe faith and hope just spoken of. He will not say that these makehim blameless towards God and men, but that such blamelessness is hisaim, which he pursues with earnest toil and self-control. AChristianity which does not sovereignly sway life and brace itsprofessor up to the self-denial needful to secure a conscience voidof offence is not Paul's kind of Christianity. If we move in thecircle of the great Christian truths we shall gird ourselves tosubdue the flesh, and will covet more than aught else the peace of agood conscience. But, like Paul, we shall be slow to say that we haveattained, yet not afraid to say that we strive towards, that ideal. 

The third charge is met by a plain statement of his real purpose incoming to Jerusalem and frequenting the Temple. 'Profane the Temple!Why, I came all the way from Greece on purpose to worship at theFeast; and I did not come empty-handed either, for I brought alms formy nation'--the contributions of the Gentiles to Jews--'and I was aworshipper, discharging the ceremonial purifications. ' They calledhim a 'Nazarene'; he was in the Temple as a 'Nazarite. ' Was it likelythat, being there on such an errand, he should have profaned it?

He begins a sentence, which would probably have been an indignantone, about the 'certain Jews from Asia, ' the originators of the wholetrouble, but he checks himself with a fine sense of justice. He willsay nothing about absent men. And that brings him back to his strongpoint, already urged, the absence of proof of the charges. Tertullusand company had only hearsay. What had become of the people who saidthey saw him in the Temple? No doubt they had thought discretion thebetter part of valour, and were not anxious to face the Romanprocedure. 

The close of the speech carries the war into the enemy's quarters, challenging the accusers to tell what they had themselves heard. They_could_ be witnesses as to the scene at the Council, which Tertullushad wisely said nothing about. Pungent sarcasm is in Paul's closingwords, especially if we remember that the high officials, likeAnanias the high-priest, were Sadducees. The Pharisees in the Councilhad acquitted him when they heard his profession of faith in aresurrection. That was his real crime, not treason against Rome orprofanation of the Temple. The present accusers might be eager forhis condemnation, but half of their own Sanhedrim had acquitted him. 'And these unworthy Jews, who have cast off the nation's hope andbelieve in no resurrection, are accusing me of being an apostate! Whois the sectary--I or they?'

II. There was only one righteous course for Felix, namely, todischarge the prisoner. But he yielded to the same temptation as hadmastered Pilate, and shrank from provoking influential classes bydoing the right thing. He was the less excusable, because his longtenure of office had taught him something, at all events, of 'theWay. ' He had too many crimes to venture on raising enemies in hisgovernment; he had too much lingering sense of justice to give up aninnocent man. So like all weak men in difficult positions hetemporised, and trusted to accident to make the right thing easierfor him. 

His plea for delay was conveniently indefinite. When was Lysiascoming? His letter said nothing about such an intention, and took forgranted that all the materials for a decision would be before Felix. Lysias could tell no more. The excuse was transparent, but it servedto stave off a decision, and to-morrow would bring some other excuse. Prompt carrying out of all plain duty is the only safety. Theindulgence given to Paul, in his light confinement, only showed howclearly Felix knew himself to be doing wrong, but small alleviationsdo not patch up a great injustice. 

III. One reading inserts in verse 24 the statement that Drusillawished to see Paul, and that Felix summoned him in order to gratifyher. Very probably she, as a Jewess, knew something of 'the Way, ' andwith a love of anything odd and new, which such women cannot dowithout, she wanted to see this curious man and hear him talk. Itmight amuse her, and pass an hour, and be something to gossip about. 

She and Felix got more than they bargained for. Paul was not now theprisoner, but the preacher; and his topics were not wanting indirectness and plainness. He 'reasoned of righteousness' to one ofthe worst of unrighteous governors; of 'temperance' to the guiltycouple who, in calling themselves husband and wife, were showingthemselves given over to sinful passions; and of 'judgment to come'to a man who, to quote the Roman historian, 'thought that he couldcommit all evil with impunity. '

Paul's strong hand shook even that obdurate soul, and roused one ofthe two sleeping consciences. Drusilla may have been too frivolous tobe impressed, but Felix had so much good left that he could beconscious of evil. Alas! he had so much evil that he suppressed thegood. His 'convenient season' was then; it never came again. Forthough he communed with Paul often, he trembled only once. So hepassed into the darkness. 

FELIX BEFORE PAUL

_A Sermon to the Young_

'And as Paul reasoned of righteousness, temperance, and judgmentto come, Felix trembled, and answered, Go thy way for this time;when I have a convenient season, I will call for thee. '--ACTS xxiv. 25. 

Felix and his brother had been favourite slaves of the Emperor, andso had won great power at court. At the date of this incident he hadbeen for some five or six years the procurator of the Roman provinceof Judaea; and how he used his power the historian Tacitus tells usin one of his bitter sentences, in which he says, 'He wielded hiskingly authority with the spirit of a slave, in all cruelty andlust. '

He had tempted from her husband, Drusilla, the daughter of that Herodwhose dreadful death is familiar to us all; and his court reeked withblood and debauchery. He is here face to face with Paul for thesecond time. On a former interview he had seen good reason toconclude that the Roman Empire was not in much danger from this oneJew whom his countrymen, with suspicious loyalty, were charging withsedition; and so he had allowed him a very large margin of liberty. 

On this second occasion he had sent for him evidently not as a judge, but partly with a view to try to get a bribe out of him, and partlybecause he had some kind of languid interest, as most Romans thenhad, in Oriental thought--some languid interest perhaps too in thisstrange man. Or he and Drusilla were possibly longing for a newsensation, and not indisposed to give a moment's glance at Paul withhis singular ideas. 

So they called for the Apostle, and the guilty couple found a judgein their prisoner. Paul does not speak to them as a Greekphilosopher, anxious to please high personages, might have done, buthe goes straight at their sins: he reasons 'of righteousness' withthe unjust judge, 'of temperance' with the self-indulgent, sinfulpair, 'of the judgment to come' with these two who thought that theycould do anything they liked with impunity. Christianity hassometimes to be exceedingly rude in reference to the sins of theupper classes. 

As Paul went on, a strange fear began to creep about the heart ofFelix. It is the watershed of his life that he has come to, thecrisis of his fate. Everything depends on the next five minutes. Willhe yield? Will he resist? The tongue of the balance trembles andhesitates for a moment, and then, but slowly, the wrong scale goesdown; 'Go thy way for this time. ' Ah! if he had said, 'Come and helpme to get rid of this strange fear, ' how different all might havebeen! The metal was at the very point of melting. What shape would ittake? It ran into the wrong mould, and, as far as we know, it washardened there. 'It might have been once, and he missed it, lost itfor ever. No sign marked out that moment from the common uneventfulmoments, though it saw the death of a soul. '

Now, my dear young friends, I do not intend to say anything more toyou of this man and his character, but I wish to take this incidentand its lessons and urge them on your hearts and consciences. 

I. Let me say a word or two about the fact, of which this incident isan example, and of which I am afraid the lives of many of you wouldfurnish other examples, that men lull awakened consciences to sleepand excuse delay in deciding for Christ by half-honest promises toattend to religion at some future time. 

'Go thy way for this time' is what Felix is really anxious about. Hisone thought is to get rid of Paul and his disturbing message for thepresent. But he does not wish to shut the door altogether. He gives asop to his conscience to stop its barking, and he probably deceiveshimself as to the gravity of his present decision by the lightlygiven promise and its well-guarded indefiniteness, 'When I have aconvenient season I will send for thee. ' The thing he really meansis--Not now, at all events; the thing he hoodwinks himself with is--By and by. Now that is what I know that some of you are doing; and mypurpose and earnest prayer are to bring you now to the decisionwhich, by one vigorous act of your wills, will settle the questionfor the future as to which God you are going to follow. 

So then I have just one or two things to say about this first part ofmy subject. Let me remind you that however beautiful, howevergracious, however tender and full of love and mercy and good tidingsthe message of God's love in Jesus Christ is, there is another sideto it, a side which is meant to rouse men's consciences and to awakenmen's fears. 

If you bring a man like the man in the story, Felix, or a very muchbetter man than he--any of you who hear me now--into contact withthese three thoughts, 'Righteousness, temperance, judgment to come, 'the effect of such a direct appeal to moral convictions will alwaysbe more or less to awaken a sense of failure, insufficiency, defect, sin, and to create a certain creeping dread that if I set myselfagainst the great law of God, that law of God will have a way ofcrushing me. The fear is well founded, and not only does thecontemplation of God's _law_ excite it. God's gospel comes to us, andjust because it is a gospel, and is intended to lead you and me tolove and trust Jesus Christ, and give our whole hearts and souls toHim--just because it is the best 'good news' that ever came into theworld, it begins often (not always, perhaps) by making a man feelwhat a sinful man he is, and how he has gone against God's law, andhow there hang over him, by the very necessities of the case and theconstitution of the universe, consequences bitter and painful. Now Ibelieve that there are very few people who, like you, comeoccasionally into contact with the preaching of the truth, who havenot had their moments when they felt--'Yes, it is all true--it is alltrue. I _am_ bad, and I _have_ broken God's law, and there _is_ adark lookout before me!' I believe that most of us know what thatfeeling is. 

And now my next step is--that the awakened conscience is just likethe sense of pain in the physical world, it has a work to do and amission to perform. It is meant to warn you off dangerous ground. Thank God for pain! It keeps off death many a time. And in likemanner thank God for a swift conscience that speaks! It is meant toring an alarm-bell to us, to make us, as the Bible has it, 'flee forrefuge to the hope that is set before us. ' My imploring question tomy young friends now is: 'Have you used that sense of evil andwrongdoing, when it has been aroused in your consciences, to lead youto Jesus Christ, or what have you done with it?'

There are two persons in this Book of the Acts of the Apostles whopass through the same stages of feeling up to a certain point, andthen they diverge. And the two men's outline history is the bestsermon that I can preach upon this point. Felix becoming afraid, recoils, shuts himself up, puts away the message that disturbs him, and settles himself back into his evil. The Philippian jailerbecoming afraid (the phrases in the original being almost identical), like a sensible man tries to find out the reason of his fear and howto get rid of it; and falls down at the Apostles' feet and says, 'Sirs, what must I do to be saved?'

The fear is not meant to last; it is of no use in itself. It is onlyan impelling motive that leads us to look to the Saviour, and the manthat uses it so has used it rightly. Yet there rises in many a heartthat transparent self-deception of delay. 'They all with one consentbegan to make excuse'; that is as true to-day as it was true then. Myexperience tells me that it will be true in regard to a sad number ofyou who will go away feeling that my poor word has gone a little wayinto their hardened hide, but settling themselves back into theircarelessness, and forgetting all impressions that have been made. Odear young friend, do not do that, I beseech you! Do not stifle thewholesome alarm and cheat yourself with the notion of a little delay!

II. And now I wish next to pass very swiftly in review before yousome of the reasons why we fall into this habit of self-deceiving, indecision, and delay--'Go thy way' would be too sharp andunmistakable if it were left alone, so it is fined off. 'I will notcommit myself beyond to-day, ' 'for this time go thy way, and when Ihave a convenient season I will call for thee. '

What are the reasons for such an attitude as that? Let me enumerateone or two of them as they strike me. First, there is theinstinctive, natural wish to get rid of a disagreeable subject--muchas a man, without knowing what he is doing, twitches his hand awayfrom the surgeon's lancet. So a great many of us do not like--and nowonder that we do not like--these thoughts of the old Book about'righteousness and temperance and judgment to come, ' and make anatural effort to turn our minds away from the contemplation of thesubject, because it is painful and unpleasant. Do you think it wouldbe a wise thing for a man, if he began to suspect that he wasinsolvent, to refuse to look into his books or to take stock, and letthings drift, till there was not a halfpenny in the pound foranybody? What do you suppose his creditors would call him? They wouldnot compliment him on either his honesty or his prudence, would they?And is it not the part of a wise man, if he begins to see thatsomething is wrong, to get to the bottom of it and, as quickly aspossible, to set it right? And what do you call people who, suspecting that there may be a great hole in the bottom of the ship, never man the pumps or do any caulking, but say, 'Oh, she will verylikely keep afloat until we get into harbour'?

Do you not think that it would be a wiser thing for you if, _because_the subject is disagreeable, you would force yourself to think aboutit until it became agreeable to you? You can change it if you will, and make it not at all a shadow or a cloud or a darkness over you. And you can scarcely expect to claim the designation of wise andprudent orderers of your lives until you do. Certainly it is not wiseto shuffle a thing out of sight because it is not pleasing to thinkabout. 

Then there is another reason. A number of our young people say, 'Gothy way for this time, ' because you have a notion that it is timeenough for you to begin to think about serious things and bereligious when you grow a bit older. And some of you even, I daresay, have an idea that religion is all very well for people that areturned sixty and are going down the hill, but that it is quiteunnecessary for you. Shakespeare puts a grim word into the mouth ofone of his characters, which sets the theory of many of us in itstrue light, when, describing a dying man calling on God, he makes thenarrator say: 'I, to comfort him, bid him he should not think of God. I hoped there was no need to trouble himself with any such thoughtsyet. '

Some of my hearers practically live on that principle, and aretempted to regard thoughts of God as in place only among medicinebottles, or when the shadows of the grave begin to fall cold and dampon our path. 'Young men will be young men, ' 'We must sow our wildoats, ' 'You can't put old heads on young shoulders'--and such likesayings, often practically mean that vice and godlessness belong toyouth, and virtue and religion to old age, just as flowers do tospring and fruit to autumn. Let me beseech you not to be deceived bysuch a notion; and to search your own thoughts and see whether it beone of the reasons which leads you to say, 'Go thy way for thistime. '

Then again some of us fall into this habit of putting off thedecision for Christ, not consciously, not by any distinct act ofsaying, 'No, I will not, ' but simply by letting the impressions madeon our hearts and consciences be crowded out of them by cares andenjoyments and pleasures and duties of this world. If you had not somuch to study at College, you would have time to think aboutreligion. If you had not so many parties and balls to go to, youwould have time to nourish and foster these impressions. If you hadnot your place to make in the warehouse, if you had not this, that, and the other thing to do; if you had not love and pleasure andambition and advancement and mental culture to attend to, you wouldhave time for religion; but as soon as the seed is sown and thesower's back is turned, hovering flocks of light-winged thoughts andvanities pounce down upon it and carry it away, seed by seed. And ifsome stray seed here and there remains and begins to sprout, the illweeds which grow apace spring up with ranker stems and choke it. 'Thecares of this world, and the deceitfulness of riches, and the lustsof other things entering in, choke the word, and efface theimpression made upon your hearts. 

Here as I speak some serious thought is roused; by to-morrow atmidday it has all gone. You did not intend it to go, you did not setyourself to banish it, you simply opened the door to the flocking inof the whole crowd of the world's cares and occupations, and awaywent the shy, solitary thought that, if it had been cared for andtended, might have led you at last to the Cross of Jesus Christ. Donot allow yourselves to be drifted, by the rushing current of earthlycares, from the impressions that are made upon your consciences andfrom the duty that you know you ought to do!

And then some of you fall into this attitude of delay, and say to themessenger of God's love, 'Go thy way for this time, ' because you donot like to give up something that you know is inconsistent with Hislove and service. Felix would not part with Drusilla nor disgorge theill-gotten gains of his province. Felix therefore was obliged to putaway from him the thoughts that looked in that direction. I wonder ifthere is any young man listening to me now who feels that if he letsmy words carry him where they seek to carry him, he will have to giveup 'fleshly lusts which war against the soul'? I wonder if there isany young woman listening to me now who feels that if she lets mywords carry her where they would carry her, she will have to live adifferent life from that which she has been living, to have more of ahigh and a noble aim in it, to live for something else than pleasure?I wonder if there are any of you who are saying, 'I cannot give upthat'? My dear young friend, 'If thine eye offend thee, pluck it outand cast it from thee. It is better for thee to enter into life blindthan with both eyes to be cast into hell-fire. '

Reasons for delay, then, are these: first, getting rid of anunpleasant subject; second, thinking that there is time enough;third, letting the world obliterate the impressions that have beenmade; and fourth, shrinking from the surrender of something that youknow you will have to give up. 

III. And now let me very briefly, as my last point, put before youone or two of the reasons which I would fain might be conclusive withyou for present decision to take Christ for your Saviour and yourMaster. 

And I say, Do not delay, but _now_ choose Him for your Redeemer, yourFriend, your Helper, your Commander, your All; because delay isreally decision in the wrong way. Do not delay, but take Jesus Christas the Saviour of your sinful souls, and rest your hearts upon Himto-night before you sleep; because there is no real reason for delay. No season will be more convenient than the present season. Every timeis the right time to do the right thing, every time is the right timeto begin following Him. There is nothing to wait for. There is noreason at all, except their own disinclination, why every man andwoman listening to me should not now grasp the Cross of Christ astheir only hope for forgiveness and acceptance, and yield themselvesto that Lord, to live in His service for ever. Let not this day passwithout your giving yourselves to Jesus Christ, because every timethat you have this message brought to you, and you refuse to acceptit, or delay to accept it, you make yourselves less capable ofreceiving it another time. 

If you take a bit of phosphorus and put it upon a slip of wood andignite the phosphorus, bright as the blaze is, there drops from it awhite ash that coats the wood and makes it almost incombustible. Andso when the flaming conviction laid upon your hearts has burnt itselfout, it has coated the heart, and it will be very difficult to kindlethe light there again. Felix said, 'Go thy way, when I have a moreconvenient season I will send for thee. ' Yes, and he did send forPaul, and he talked with him often--he repeated the conversation, butwe do not know that he repeated the trembling. He often communed withPaul, but it was only once that he was alarmed. You are less likelyto be touched by the Gospel message for every time that you haveheard it and put it away. That is what makes my place here soterribly responsible, and makes me feel that my words are so veryfeeble in comparison with what they ought to be. I know that I may bedoing harm to men just because they listen and are not persuaded, andso go away less and less likely to be touched. 

Ah, dear friends! you will perhaps never again have as deepimpressions as you have now; or at least they are not to be reckonedupon as probable, for the tendency of all truth is to lose its powerby repetition, and the tendency of all emotion which is not actedupon is to become fainter and fainter. And so I beseech you that nowyou would cherish any faint impression that is being made upon yourhearts and consciences. Let it lead you to Christ; and take Him foryour Lord and Saviour now. 

I say to you: Do that now because delay robs you of large blessing. You will never want Jesus Christ more than you do to-day. You needHim in your early hours. Why should it be that a portion of yourlives should be left unfilled by that rich mercy? Why should youpostpone possessing the purest joy, the highest blessing, thedivinest strength? Why should you put off welcoming your best Friendinto your heart? Why should you?

I say to you again, Take Christ for your Lord, because delayinevitably lays up for you bitter memories and involves dreadfullosses. There are good Christian men and women, I have no doubt, inthis world now, who would give all they have, if they could blot outof the tablets of their memories some past hours of their lives, before they gave their hearts to Jesus Christ. I would have youignorant of such transgression. O young men and women! if you grow upinto middle life not Christians, then should you ever become so, youwill have habits to fight with, and remembrances that will smart andsting; and some of you, perhaps, remembrances that will pollute, eventhough you are conscious that you are forgiven. It is a better thingnot to know the depths of evil than to know them and to have beenraised from them. You will escape infinite sorrows by an earlycleaving to Christ your Lord. 

And last of all I say to you, give yourselves now to Jesus Christ, because no to-morrow may be yours. Delay is gambling, veryirrationally, with a very uncertain thing--your life and your futureopportunities. 'You know not what shall be on the morrow. '

For a generation I have preached in Manchester these annual sermonsto the young. Ah, how many of those that heard the early ones arelaid in their graves; and how many of them were laid in _early_graves; and how many of them said, as some of you are saying, 'When Iget older I will turn religious'! And they never got older. It is acommonplace word that, but I leave it on your hearts. You have notime to lose. 

Do not delay, because delay is decision in the wrong way; do notdelay, because there is no reason for delay; do not delay, becausedelay robs you of a large blessing; do not delay, because delay laysup for you, if ever you come back, bitter memories; do not delay, because delay may end in death. And for all these reasons, come as asinful soul to Christ the Saviour; and ask Him to forgive you, andfollow in His footsteps, and do it now! 'To-day, if ye will hear Hisvoice, harden not your hearts. '

CHRIST'S REMONSTRANCES

'And when we were all fallen to the earth, I heard a voicespeaking unto me, and saying in the Hebrew tongue, Saul, Saul, why perseoutest thou Me! it is hard for thee to kick against thepricks. '--ACTS xxvi. 14. 

'Can the Ethiopian change his skin, or the leopard his spots?' No. But God can change the skin, because He can change the nature. Inthis story of the conversion of the Apostle Paul--the most importantthing that happened that day--we have an instance how brambles maybecome vines; tares may become wheat; and a hater of Jesus Christ maybe changed in a moment into His lover and servant, and, if need be, His martyr. 

Now the very same motives and powers which were brought to bear uponthe Apostle Paul by miracle are being brought to bear upon every oneof us; and my object now is just to trace the stages of the processset forth here, and to ask some of you, if you, like Paul, have been'obedient to the heavenly vision. ' Stages, I call them, though theywere all crowded into a moment, for even the lightning has to passthrough the intervening space when it flashes from one side of theheavens to another, and we may divide its path into periods. Time isvery elastic, as any of us whose lives have held great sorrows orgreat joys or great resolutions well know. 

I. The first of these all but simultaneous and yet separable stageswas the revelation of Jesus Christ. 

Of course to the Apostle it was mediated by miracle; but real as hebelieved that appearance of the risen Lord in the heavens to be, andvalid as he maintained that it was as the ground of his Apostleship, he himself, in one of his letters, speaks of the whole incident asbeing the revelation of God's Son in him. The revelation in heart andmind was the main thing, of which the revelation to eye and ear werebut means. The means, in his case, are different from those in ours;the end is the same. To Paul it came like the rush of a cataract thatthe Christ whom he had thought of as lying in an unknown grave wasliving in the heavens and ruling there. You and I, I suppose, do notneed to be convinced by miracle of the resurrection of Jesus Christ;but the bare fact that Jesus was living in the heavens would have hadlittle effect upon Saul, unless it had been accompanied with therevelation of the startling fact that between him and Jesus Christthere were close personal relations, so that he had to do with Jesus, and Jesus with him. 

'Saul, Saul! why persecutest thou Me?' They used to think that theycould wake sleep-walkers by addressing them by name. Jesus Christ, byspeaking His name to the Apostle, wakes him out of his diseasedslumber, and brings him to wholesome consciousness. There arestringency and solemnity of address in that double use of the name'Saul, Saul!'

What does such an address teach you and me? That Jesus Christ, theliving, reigning Lord of the universe, has perfect knowledge of eachof us, and that we each stand isolated before Him, as if all thelight of omniscience were focussed upon us. He knows our characters;He knows all about us, and more than that, He directly addressesHimself to each man and woman among us. 

We are far too apt to hide ourselves in the crowd, and let all themessages of God's love, the warnings of His providences, as well asthe teachings and invitations and pleadings of His gospel, fly overour heads as if they were meant vaguely for anybody. But they are allintended for _thee_, as directly as if thou, and thou only, wert inthe world. I beseech you, lay this to heart, that although no audiblesounds may rend the silent heavens, nor any blaze may blind thineeye, yet that as really, though not in the same outward fashion asSaul, when they were all fallen to the earth, felt himself to besingled out, and heard a voice 'speaking to _him_ in the Hebrewtongue, saying, Saul, Saul!' _thou_ mayest hear a voice speaking tothee in the English tongue, by thy name, and directly addressing itsgracious remonstrances and its loving offers to thy listening ear. Iwant to sharpen the blunt 'whosoever' into the pointed 'thou. ' And Iwould fain plead with each of my friends hearing me now to believethat the gospel of Jesus Christ is meant for thee, and that Christspeaks to _thee_. 'I have a message from God unto thee, ' just asNathan said unto David. '_Thou_ art the man!'

Do not lose yourselves in the crowd or hide yourselves from thepersonal incidence of Christ's offer, but feel that you stand, as youdo indeed, alone the hearer of His voice, the possible recipient ofHis saving mercy. 

II. Secondly, notice, as another stage in this process the discoveryof the true character of the past. 

'Why persecutest thou Me?' Now I am not going to be tempted from mymore direct purpose in this sermon to dwell even for a moment on thebeautiful, affecting, strengthening thought here, of the unity ofJesus Christ with all the humble souls that love Him, so as that, whatsoever any member suffers, the Head suffers with it. I must leavethat truth untouched. 

Saul was brought to look at all his past life as standing inimmediate connection with Jesus Christ. Of course he knew before thevision that he had no love to Him whom he thought to be a Galileanimpostor, and that the madness with which he hated the servants wasonly the glancing off of the arrow that he would fain have aimed atthe Master. But he did not know that Jesus Christ counted every blowstruck at one of His servants as being struck at Him. Above all hedid not know that the Christ whom he was persecuting was reigning inthe heavens. And so his whole past life stood before him in a newaspect when it was brought into close connection with Christ, andlooked at as in relation to Him. 

The same process would yield very remarkable results if applied toour lives. If I could only get you for one quiet ten minutes, to layall your past, as far as memory brought it to your minds, rightbefore that pure and loving Face, I should have done much. Oneinfallible way of judging of the rottenness or goodness of ouractions is that we should bring them where they will all be broughtone day, into the brightness of Christ's countenance. If you want tofind out the flaws in some thin, badly-woven piece of cloth, you holdit up against the light, do you not? and then you see all the specksand holes, and the irregular threads. Hold up your lives in likefashion against the light, and I shall be surprised if you do notfind enough there to make you very much ashamed of yourselves. Wereyou ever on the stage of a theatre in the daytime? Did you ever seewhat miserable daubs the scenes look, and how seamy it all is whenthe pitiless sunshine comes in? Let that great light pour on yourlife, and be thankful if you find out what a daub it has been, whilstyet colours and brushes and time are at your disposal, and you maypaint the future fairer than the past. 

Again, this revelation of Saul's past life disclosed its utterunreasonableness. That one question, '_Why_ persecutest thou Me?'pulverised the whole thing. It was like the wondering question sounanswerable in the Psalm, 'Why do the heathen rage, and the peopleimagine a vain thing?' If you take into account what you are, andwhere you stand, you can find no reason, except utterly unreasonableones, for the lives that I fear some of us are living--lives ofgodlessness and Christlessness. There is nothing in all the world atithe so stupid as sin. There is nothing so unreasonable, if there bea God at all, and if we depend upon Him, and have duties to Him, asthe lives that some of you are living. You admit, most of you, thatthere is such a God; you admit, most of you, that you do hang uponHim; you admit, in theory, that you ought to love and serve Him. Thebulk of you call yourselves Christians. That is to say, you believe, as a piece of historical fact, that Jesus Christ, the Son of God, came into this world and died for men. And, believing that, you turnyour back on Him, and neither love nor serve nor trust Him nor turnaway from your iniquity. Is there anything outside a lunatic asylummore madlike than that? 'Why persecutest thou?' 'And he wasspeechless, ' for no answer was possible. Why neglectest thou? Whyforgettest thou? Why, admitting what thou dost, art thou not an out-and-out Christian? If we think of all our obligations and relations, and the facts of the universe, we come back to the old saying, 'Thefear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, ' and any man who, likemany of my hearers, fails to give his heart and life to Jesus Christwill one day have to say, 'Behold, I have played the fool, and erredexceedingly. ' Wake up, my brother, to apply calm reason to your liveswhile yet there is time, and face the question, Why dost thou standas thou dost to Jesus Christ? There is nothing sadder than the smallshare that deliberate reason and intelligent choice have in theordering of most men's lives. You live by impulse, by habit, byexample, by constraint of the outward necessities of your position. But I am sure that there are many amongst us now who have veryseldom, if ever, sat down and said, 'Now let me think, until I get tothe ultimate grounds of the course of life that I am pursuing. ' Youcan carry on the questions very gaily for a step or two, but then youcome to a dead pause. 'What do I do so-and-so for?' 'Because I likeit. ' 'Why do I like it?' 'Because it meets my needs, or my desires, or my tastes, or my intellect. ' Why do you make the meeting of yourneeds, or your desires, or your tastes, or your intellect your soleobject? Is there any answer to that? The Hindoos say that the worldrests upon an elephant, and the elephant rests upon a tortoise. Whatdoes the tortoise rest on? Nothing! Then that is what the world andthe elephant rest on. And so, though you may go bravely through thefirst stages of the examination, when you come to the last questionof all, you will find out that your whole scheme of life is builtupon a blunder; and the blunder is this, that anybody can be blessedwithout God. 

Further, this disclosure of the true character of his life revealedto Saul, as in a lightning flash, the ingratitude of it. 

'Why persecutest thou Me?' That was as much as to say, 'What have Idone to merit thy hate? What have I _not_ done to merit rather thylove?' Paul did not know all that Jesus Christ had done for him. Ittook him a lifetime to learn a little of it, and to tell his brethrensomething of what he had learned. And he has been learning it eversince that day when, outside the walls of Rome, they hacked off hishead. He has been learning more and more of what Jesus Christ hasdone for him, and why he should not persecute Him but love Him. 

But the same appeal comes to each of us. What has Jesus Christ donefor thee, my friend, for me, for every soul of man? He has loved mebetter than His own life. He has given Himself for me. He haslingered beside me, seeking to draw me to Himself, and He stilllingers. And this, at the best, tremulous faith, this, at thewarmest, tepid love, this, at the completest, imperfect devotion andservice, are all that we bring to Him; and some of us do not bringeven these. Some of us have never known what it was to sacrifice oneinclination for the sake of Christ, nor to do one act for His dearlove's sake, nor to lean our weakness upon Him, nor to turn to Himand say, 'I give Thee myself, that I may possess Thee. ' 'Do ye thusrequite the Lord, O foolish people and unwise?' I have heard ofwounded soldiers striking with their bayonets at the ambulance menwho came to help them. That is like what some of you do to the Lordwho died for your healing, and comes as the Physician, with bandagesand with balm, to bind up the brokenhearted. 'Saul, Saul, whypersecutest thou Me?'

III. Lastly, we have here a warning against self-inflicted wounds. 

That second clause of the remonstrance on the lips of Christ in mytext is, according to the true reading, not found in the account ofPaul's conversion in the ninth chapter of this book. My text is fromPaul's own story; and it is interesting to notice that he adds thiseminently pathetic and forcible appeal to the shorter account givenby the writer of the book. It had gone deep into his heart, and hecould not forget. 

The metaphor is a very plain one. The ox-goad was a formidableweapon, some seven or eight feet in length, shod with an iron point, and capable of being used as a spear, and of inflicting deadly woundsat a pinch. Held in the firm hand of the ploughman, it presented asharp point to the rebellious animal under the yoke. If the ox hadreadily yielded to the gentle prick, given, not in anger, but forguidance, it had been well. But if it lashes out with its hoofsagainst the point, what does it get but bleeding flanks? Paul hadbeen striking out instead of obeying, and he had won by it onlybloody hocks. 

There are two truths deducible from this saying, which may have beena proverb in common use. One is the utter futility of lives that arespent in opposing the divine will. There is a strong current running, and if you try to go against it you will only be swept away by it. Think of some little fishing coble coming across the bow of a greatocean-going steamer. What will be the end of that? Think of a pony-chaise jogging up the line, and an express train thundering down it. What will be the end of that? Think of a man lifting himself up andsaying to God, 'I will _not_!' when God says, 'Do thou this!' or 'Bethou this!' What will be the end of that? 'The world passeth away, and the lusts thereof, but he that doeth the will of God abideth forever. ' 'It is hard for thee to kick against the pricks'--hard inregard to breaches of common morality, as some of my friends sittingquietly in these pews very well know. It is hard to indulge insensual sin. You cannot altogether dodge what people call the'natural consequences'; but it was God who made Nature; and so I callthem God-inflicted penalties. It is hard to set yourselves againstChristianity. I am not going to speak of that at all now, only whenwe think of the expectations of victory with which so manyantagonists of the Cross have gaily leaped into the arena, and of howthe foes have been forgotten and there stands the Cross still, we maysay of the whole crowd, beginning with the earliest, and coming downto the latest brand-new theory that is going to explode Christianity--'it is hard to kick against the pricks. ' Your own limbs you maywound; you will not do the goad much harm. 

But there is another side to the proverb of my text, and that is theself-inflicted harm that comes from resisting the pricks of God'srebukes and remonstrances, whether inflicted by conscience or by anyother means; including, I make bold to say, even such poor words asthese of mine. For if the first little prick of conscience, a warningand a guide, be neglected, the next will go a great deal deeper. Thevoice which, before you do the wrong thing, says to you, 'Do not doit, ' in tones of entreaty and remonstrance, speaks, after you havedone it, more severely and more bitterly. The Latin word _remorse_, and the old English name for conscience, 'again-bite'--which latteris a translation of the other--teach us the same lesson, that thegnawing which comes after wrong done is far harder to bear than thetouch that should have kept us from the evil. The stings of marinejelly-fish will burn for days after, if you wet them. And so allwrong-doing, and all neglect of right-doing of every sort, carrieswith it a subsequent pain, or else the wounded limb _mortifies_, andthat is worse. There is no pain then; it would be better if therewere. There is such a possibility as to have gone on so obstinatelykicking against the pricks and leaving the wounds so unheeded, asthat they mortify and feeling goes. A conscience 'seared with a hotiron' is ten times more dreadful than a conscience that pains andstings. 

So, dear brethren, let me beseech you to listen to the pityingChrist, who says to us each, more in sorrow than in anger, 'It ishard for thee to kick against the pricks. ' It is no pleasure to Himto hold the goad, nor that we should wound ourselves upon it. He hasanother question to put to us, with another 'why, ' 'Why should ye bestricken any more? Turn ye, turn ye; why will ye die, O house ofIsrael?'

There is another metaphor drawn from the employment of oxen which wemay set side by side with this of my text: 'Take My yoke upon you, and ye shall find rest unto your souls. ' The yoke accepted, the goadis laid aside; and repose and healing from its wounds are granted tous. Dear brethren, if you will listen to the Christ revealed in theheavens, as knowing all about you, and remonstrating with you foryour unreasonableness and ingratitude, and setting before you themiseries of rebellion and the suicide of sin, then you will havehealing for all your wounds, and your lives will neither be self-tormenting, futile, nor unreasonable. The mercy of Jesus Christlavished upon you makes your yielding yourselves to Him your onlyrational course. Anything else is folly beyond comparison and harmand loss beyond count. 

FAITH IN CHRIST

'. .. Faith that is in Me. '--ACTS xxvi. 18. 

It is commonly said, and so far as the fact is concerned, said truly, that what are called the distinguishing doctrines of Christianity arerather found in the Epistles than in the Gospels. If we wish theclearest statements of the nature and person of Christ, we turn toPaul's Epistle to the Colossians. If we wish the fullest dissertationupon Christ's work as a sacrifice, we go to the Epistle to theHebrews. If we seek to prove that men are justified by faith, and notby works, it is to the Epistles to Romans and Galatians that webetake ourselves, --to the writings of the servant rather than thewords of the Master. Now this fuller development of Christiandoctrine contained in the teaching of the Apostles cannot be denied, and need not be wondered at. The reasons for it I am not going toenter upon at present; they are not far to seek. Christ came not to_speak_ the Gospel, but _to be_ the Gospel. But then, this truth of afuller development is often over-strained, as if Christ 'spakenothing concerning priesthood, ' sacrifices, faith. He _did_ so speakwhen on earth. It is often misused by being made the foundation of aninference unfavourable to the authority of the Apostolic teaching, when we are told, as we sometimes are, that not Paul but Jesus speaksthe words which we are to receive. 

Here we have Christ Himself speaking from the heavens to Paul at thevery beginning of the Apostle's course, and if any one asks us wheredid Paul get the doctrines which he preached, the answer is, Here, onthe road to Damascus, when blind, bleeding, stunned, with all hisself-confidence driven out of him--with all that he had been crushedinto shivers--he saw his Lord, and heard Him speak. These wordsspoken then are the germ of all Paul's Epistles, the keynote to whichall his writings are but the melody that follows, the mighty voice ofwhich all his teaching is but the prolonged echo. 'Delivering thee, 'says Christ to him, 'from the people, and from the Gentiles, untowhom now I send thee, to open their eyes, to turn them from darknessto light, and from the power of Satan unto God; that they may receiveforgiveness of sins, and inheritance among them that are sanctifiedby faith that is in Me. ' Now, I ask you, what of Paul's Gospel is nothere? Man's ruin, man's depravity and state of darkness, the power ofSatan, the sole redemptive work of Christ, justification by belief inthat, sanctification coming with justification, and glory and restand heaven at last--there they all are in the very first words thatsounded upon the quickened ear of the blinded man when he turned fromdarkness to light. 

It would be foolish, of course, to try to exhaust such a passage asthis in a sermon. But notice, what a complete summary of Christiantruth there lies in that one last clause of the verse, 'Inheritanceamong them which are sanctified by faith that is in Me. ' Translatethat into distinct propositions, and they are these: Faith refers toChrist; that is the first thing. Holiness depends on faith; that isthe next: '_sanctified_ by faith. ' Heaven depends on holiness: thatis the last: '_inheritance_ among them which are sanctified by faiththat is in Me. ' So there we have the whole gospel!

To the one part of this comprehensive summary which is contained inmy text I desire to turn now, in hope of gathering from it sometruths as to that familiar word 'faith' which may be of use to usall. The expression is so often on our lips that it has come to bealmost meaningless in many minds. These keywords of Scripture meetthe same fate as do coins that have been long in circulation. Theypass through so many fingers that the inscriptions get worn off them. We can all talk about faith and forgiveness and justifying andsanctifying, but how few of us have definite notions as to what thesewords that come so easily from our lips mean! There is a vast deal ofcloudy haze in the minds of average church and chapel goers as towhat this wonder-working faith may really be. Perhaps we may then beable to see large and needful truths gleaming in these weightysyllables which Christ Jesus spoke from heaven to Paul, 'faith thatis in Me. '

I. In the first place, then, the object of faith is Christ. 

'Faith that is in Me' is that which is directed towards Christ as itsobject. Christianity is not merely a system of truths about God, nora code of morality deducible from these. In its character of arevelation, it is the revelation of God in the person of His Son. Christianity in the soul is not the belief of these truths about God, still less the acceptance and practice of these pure ethics, but theaffiance and the confidence of the whole spirit fixed upon theredeeming, revealing Christ, True, the object of our faith is Christ as made known to us in thefacts of His recorded life and the teaching of His Apostles. True, our only means of knowing Him as of any other person whom we havenever seen, are the descriptions of Him, His character and work, which are given. True, the empty name 'Christ' has to be filled withthe doctrinal and biographical statements of Scripture before thePerson on whom faith is to fix can be apprehended or beheld. True, itis Christ as He is made known to us in the word of God, the IncarnateSon, the perfect Man, the atoning Sacrifice, the risen Lord, theascended Intercessor in whom we have to trust. The characteristicsand attributes of Christ are known to us only by biographicalstatements and by doctrinal propositions. These must be understood insome measure and accepted, ere there can be faith in Him. Apart fromthem, the image of Christ must stand a pale, colourless phantombefore the mind, and the faith which is directed towards such anebula will be an unintelligent emotion, as nebulous and impotent asthe vagueness towards which it turns. 

Thus far, then, the attempt which is sometimes made to establish aChristianity without doctrines on the plea that the object of faithis not a proposition, but a person, must be regarded as nugatory; forhow can the 'person' be an object of thought at all, but through thedespised 'propositions'?

But while on the one hand it is true that Christ as revealed in thesedoctrinal statements of Scripture, the divine human Saviour, is theObject of faith, on the other hand it is to be remembered that it isHe, and not the statements about Him, who is the Object. 

Look at His own words. He does not merely say to us, 'Believe this, that, and the other thing about Me; put your credence in this and theother doctrine; accept this and the other promise; hope for this andthe other future thing. ' All these come with but are not the centralact. He says, 'Believe: believe in Me! "_I_ am the Way, and theTruth, and the Life": He that cometh to _Me_ shall never hunger, andhe that believeth in _Me_ shall never thirst. ' Do we rightlyappreciate that? I think that if people firmly grasped this truth--that Christ is the Gospel, and that the Object of faith is not simplythe truths that are recorded here in the word, but He with regard towhom these truths are recorded--it would clear away rolling wreathsof fog and mist from their perceptions. The whole feeling andattitude of a man's mind is different, according as he is trusting aperson, or according as he is believing something about a person. Andthis, therefore, is the first broad truth that lies here. Faith hasreference not merely to a doctrine, not to a system; but deeper thanall these, to a living Lord--'faith that is _in Me_. '

I cannot help observing, before I go on--though it may be somewhat ofa digression--what a strong inference with regard to the divinity ofChrist is deducible from this first thought that He is the Object towhom faith has reference. If you look into the Old Testament, youwill find constantly, 'Trust ye in the Lord for ever'; 'Put thy trustin Jehovah!' There, too, though under the form of the Law, there, too, faith was the seed and germ of all religion. There, too, thoughunder the hard husk of apparently external obedience and ceremonialsacrifices, the just lived by faith. Its object was the Jehovah ofthat ancient covenant. Religion has always been the same in everydispensation. At every time, that which made a man a devout man hasbeen identically the same thing. It has always been true that it hasbeen faith which has bound man to God, and given man hope. But whenwe come to the New Testament, the centre is shifted, as it wouldseem. What has become of the grand old words, 'Trust ye in the LordJehovah'? Look! Christ stands there, and says, 'Believe upon Me'!With calm, simple, profound dignity, He lays His hand upon all theancient and consecrated words, upon all the ancient and hallowedemotions that used to set towards the unseen God between thecherubim, throned above judgment and resting upon mercy; and He says, 'They are Mine--give them to Me! That ancient trust, I claim theright to have it. That old obedience, it belongs to Me. I am He towhom in all time the loving hearts of them that loved God, have set. I am the Angel of the Covenant, in whom whoever trusteth shall neverbe confounded. ' And I ask you just to take that one simple fact, thatChrist thus steps, in the New Testament--in so far as the directionof the religious emotions of faith and love are concerned--thatChrist steps into the place filled by the Jehovah of the Old; and askyourselves honestly what theory of Christ's nature and person andwork explains that fact, and saves Him from the charge of folly andblasphemy? 'He that believeth upon Me shall never hunger. ' Ah, mybrother! He was no mere _man_ who said that. He that spake from outof the cloud to the Apostle on the road to Damascus, and said, 'Sanctified by faith that is in Me, ' was no mere _man_. Christ wasour brother and a man, but He was the Son of God, the divineRedeemer. The Object of faith is Christ; and as Object of faith Hemust needs be divine. 

II. And now, secondly, closely connected with and springing from thisthought as to the true object of faith, arises the consideration asto the nature and the essence of the act of faith itself. 

_Whom_ we are to trust in we have seen: what it is to _have_ faithmay be very briefly stated. If the Object of faith were certaintruths, the assent of the understanding would be enough. If theObject of faith were unseen things, the confident persuasion of themwould be sufficient. If the Object of faith were promises of futuregood, the hope rising to certainty of the possession of these wouldbe sufficient. But if the Object be more than truths, more thanunseen realities, more than promises; if the Object be a livingPerson, --then there follows inevitably this, that faith is not merelythe assent of the understanding, that faith is not merely thepersuasion of the reality of unseen things, that faith is not merelythe confident expectation of future good; but that faith is thepersonal relation of him who has it to the living Person its Object, --the relation which is expressed not more clearly, perhaps a littlemore forcibly to us, by substituting another word, and saying, Faithis _trust_. 

And I think that there again, by laying hold of that simpleprinciple, Because Christ is the Object of Faith, therefore Faithmust be trust, we get bright and beautiful light upon the grandesttruths of the Gospel of God. If we will only take that as ourexplanation, we have not indeed defined faith by substituting theother word for it, but we have made it a little more clear to ourapprehensions, by using a non-theological word with which our dailyacts teach us to connect an intelligible meaning. If we will onlytake that as our explanation, how simple, how grand, how familiar tooit sounds, --to _trust_ Him! It is the very same kind of feeling, though different in degree, and glorified by the majesty and glory ofits Object, as that which we all know how to put forth in ourrelations with one another. We trust each other. That is faith. Wehave confidence in the love that has been around us, breathingbenedictions and bringing blessings ever since we were littlechildren. When the child looks up into the mother's face, the symbolto it of all protection, or into the father's eye, the symbol to itof all authority, --that emotion by which the little one hangs uponthe loving hand and trusts the loving heart that towers above it inorder to bend over it and scatter good, is the same as the one which, glorified and made divine, rises strong and immortal in its power, when fixed and fastened on Christ, and saves the soul. The Gospelrests upon a mystery, but the practical part of it is no mystery. When we come and preach to you, 'Trust in Christ and thou shalt besaved, ' we are not asking you to put into exercise some mysteriouspower. We are only asking you to give to Him that which you give toothers, to transfer the old emotions, the blessed emotions, theexercise of which makes gladness in life here below, to transfer themto Him, and to rest safe in the Lord. Faith is trust. The livingPerson as its Object rises before us there, in His majesty, in Hispower, in His gentleness, and He says, 'I shall be contented if thouwilt give to Me these emotions which thou dost fix now, to thy deathand loss, on the creatures of a day. ' Faith is mighty, divine, thegift of God; but Oh! it is the exercise of a familiar habit, onlyfixed upon a divine and eternal Person. 

And if this be the very heart and kernel of the Christian doctrine offaith--that it is simple personal trust in Jesus Christ; it is worthyof notice, how all the subsidiary meanings and uses of the word flowout of that, whilst it cannot be explained by any of them. People arein the habit of setting up antitheses betwixt faith and reason, betwixt faith and sight, betwixt faith and possession. They say, 'Wedo not _know_, we must _believe_'; they say, 'We do not _see_, wemust have faith'; they say, 'We do not _possess_, we must trust. ' Nowfaith--the trust in Christ--the simple personal relation ofconfidence in Him--_that_ lies beneath all these other meanings ofthe word. For instance, faith is, in one sense, the opposite andantithesis of sight; because Christ, unseen, having gone into theunseen world, the confidence which is directed towards Him must needspass out beyond the region of sense, and fix upon the immortalverities that are veiled by excess of light at God's right hand. Faith is the opposite of sight; inasmuch as Christ, having given usassurance of an unseen and everlasting world, we, trusting in Him, believe what He says to us, and are persuaded and know that there arethings yonder which we have never seen with the eye nor handled withthe hand. Similarly, faith is the completion of reason; because, trusting Christ, we believe what He says, and He has spoken to ustruths which we in ourselves are unable to discover, but which, whenrevealed, we accept on the faith of His truthfulness, and because werely upon Him. Similarly, faith is contrasted with presentpossession, because Christ has promised us future blessings andfuture glories; and having confidence in the Person, we believe whatHe says, and know that we shall possess them. But the root from whichspring the power of faith as the opposite of sight, the power offaith as the telescope of reason, the power of faith as the'confidence of things not possessed, ' is the deeper thing--faith inthe Person, which leads us to believe Him whether He promises, reveals, or commands, and to take His words as verity because He _is_'the Truth. '

And then, again, if this, the personal trust in Christ as our livingRedeemer--if this be faith, then there come also, closely connectedwith it, certain other emotions or feelings in the heart. Forinstance, if I am trusting to Christ, there is inseparably linkedwith it self-distrust. There are two sides to the emotion; wherethere is reliance upon another, there must needs be non-reliance uponself. Take an illustration. There is the tree: the trunk goes upwardfrom the little seed, rises into the light, gets the sunshine uponit, and has leaves and fruit. That is the upward tendency of faith--trust in Christ. There is the root, down deep, buried, dark, unseen. Both are springing, but springing in apposite directions, from theone seed. That is, as it were, the negative side, the downwardtendency--self-distrust. The two things go together--the positivereliance upon another, the negative distrust of myself. There must bedeep consciousness not only of my own impotence, but of my ownsinfulness. The heart must be emptied that the seed of faith maygrow; but the entrance in of faith is itself the means for theemptying of the heart. The two things co-exist; we can divide them inthought. We can wrangle and squabble, as divided sects hare done, about which comes first, the fact being, that though you can partthem in thought, you cannot part them in experience, inasmuch as theyare but the obverse and the reverse, the two sides of the same coin. Faith and repentance--faith and self-distrust--they are done in oneand the same indissoluble act. 

And again, faith, as thus conceived of, will obviously have for itscertain and immediate consequence, love. Nay, the two emotions willbe inseparable and practically co-existent. In thought we canseparate them. Logically, faith comes first, and love next, but inlife they will spring up together. The question of their order ofexistence is an often-trod battle-ground of theology, all strewedwith the relics of former fights. But in the real history of thegrowth of religious emotions in the soul, the interval whichseparates them is impalpable, and in every act of trust, love ispresent, and fundamental to every emotion of love to Christ is trustin Christ. 

But without further reference to such matters, here is the broadprinciple of our text. Trust in Christ, not mere assent to aprinciple, personal dependence upon Him revealed as the 'Lamb of Godthat taketh away the sin of the world, ' an act of the will as well asof the understanding, and essentially an act of the will and not ofthe understanding--that is the thing by which a soul is saved. Andmuch of the mist and confusion about saving faith, and non-savingfaith, might be lifted and dispersed if we once fully apprehended andfirmly held by the divine simplicity of the truth, that faith istrust in Jesus Christ. 

III. Once more: from this general definition there follows, in thethird place, an explanation of the power of faith. 

'We are justified, ' says the Bible, 'by faith. ' If a man believes, heis saved. Why so? Not, as some people sometimes seem to fancy, as ifin faith itself there was any merit. There is a very strange andsubtle resurrection of the whole doctrine of works in reference tothis matter; and we often hear belief in the Gospel of Christ spokenabout as if _it_, the work of the man believing, was, in a certainway and to some extent, that which God rewarded by giving himsalvation. What is that but the whole doctrine of works come up againin a new form? What difference is there between what a man does withhis hands and what a man feels in his heart? If the one meritsalvation, or if the other merit salvation, equally we are shut up tothis, --Men get heaven by what they do; and it does not matter a bitwhat they do it with, whether it be body or soul. When we say we aresaved by faith, we mean accurately, _through_ faith. It is God thatsaves. It is Christ's life, Christ's blood, Christ's sacrifice, Christ's intercession, that saves. Faith is simply the channelthrough which there flows over into my emptiness the divine fulness;or, to use the good old illustration, it is the hand which is held upto receive the benefit which Christ lays in it. A living trust inJesus has power unto salvation, only because it is the means by which'the power of God unto salvation' may come into my heart. On one sideis the great ocean of Christ's love, Christ's abundance, Christ'smerits, Christ's righteousness; or, rather, there is the great oceanof Christ Himself, which includes them all; and on the other is theempty vessel of my soul--and the little narrow pipe that has nothingto do but to bring across the refreshing water, is the act of faithin Him. There is no merit in the dead lead, no virtue in the mereemotion. It is not faith that saves us; it is Christ that saves us, and saves us through faith. 

And now, lastly, these principles likewise help us to understandwherein consists the guilt and criminality of unbelief. People aresometimes disposed to fancy that God has arbitrarily selected thisone thing, believing in Jesus Christ, as the means of salvation, anddo not distinctly see why and how non-belief is so desperate andcriminal a thing. I think that the principles that I have been tryingfeebly to work out now, help us to see how faith is not arbitrarilyselected as the instrument and means of our salvation. There is noother way of effecting it. God could not save us in any other waythan that, salvation being provided, the condition of receiving itshould be trust in His Son. 

And next they show where the guilt of unbelief lies. Faith is notfirst and principally an act of the understanding; it is not the mereassent to certain truths. I believe, for my part, that men areresponsible even for their intellectual processes, and for thebeliefs at which they arrive by the working of these; and I think itis a very shallow philosophy that stands up and says--(it is almostexploded now, and perhaps not needful even to mention it)--that menare 'no more responsible for their belief than they are for thecolour of their hair. ' Why, if faith were no more than anintellectual process, it would still be true that they areresponsible for it; but the faith that saves a man, and unbelief thatruins a man, are not processes of the understanding alone. It is thewill, the heart, the whole moral being, that is concerned. Why doesany one not trust Jesus Christ? For one reason only: because _he willnot_. Why has any one not faith in the Lamb of God? Because his wholenature is turning away from that divine and loving Face, and issetting itself in rebellion against it. Why does any one refuse tobelieve? Because he has confidence in himself; because he has not asense of his sins; because he has not love in his heart to his Lordand Saviour. Men are responsible for unbelief. Unbelief is criminal, because it is a moral act--an act of the whole nature. Belief orunbelief is the test of a man's whole spiritual condition, justbecause it is the whole being, affections, will, conscience and all, as well as the understanding, which are concerned in it. Andtherefore Christ, who says, 'Sanctified by faith that is in Me, ' sayslikewise, 'He that believeth not, shall be condemned. '

And now, brethren, take this one conviction into your hearts, thatwhat makes a man a Christian--what saves my soul and yours--whatbrings the love of Christ into any life, and makes the sacrifice ofChrist a power to pardon and purify, --that that is not merelybelieving this Book, not merely understanding the doctrines that arethere, but a far more profound act than that. It is the casting ofmyself upon Himself, the bending of my willing heart to His lovingSpirit; the close contact, heart to heart, soul to soul, will towill, of my emptiness with His fulness, of my sinfulness with Hisrighteousness, of my death with His life: that I may live by Him, besanctified by Him, be saved by Him, 'with an everlasting salvation. 'Faith is trust: Christ is the Objeet of faith. Faith is the conditionof salvation; and unbelief is your fault, your loss--the crime whichruins men's souls!

'BEFORE GOVERNORS AND KINGS'

'Whereupon, O king Agrippa, I was not disobedient unto theheavenly vision: 20. But shewed first unto them of Damascus, andat Jerusalem, and throughout all the coasts of Judsea, and thento the Gentiles, that they should repent and turn to God, and doworks meet for repentance. 21. For these causes the Jews caughtme in the temple, and went about to kill me. 22. Having thereforeobtained help of God, I continue unto this day, witnessing bothto small and great, saying none other things than those which theprophets and Moses did say should come; 23. That Christ shouldsuffer, and that He should be the first that should rise from thedead, and should show light unto the people, and to the Gentiles. 24. And as he thus spake for himself, Festus said with a loudvoice, Paul, thou art beside thyself; much learning doth makethee mad. 25. But he said, I am not mad, most noble Festus; butspeak forth the words of truth and soberness. 26. For the kingknoweth of these things, before whom also I speak freely: for Iam persuaded that none of these things are hidden from him; forthis thing was not done in a corner. 27. King Agrippa, believestthou the prophets? I know that thou believest. 28. Then Agrippasaid unto Paul, Almost thou persuadest me to be a Christian. 29. And Paul said, I would to God, that not only thou, but also allthat hear me this day, were both almost and altogether such as Iam, except these bonds. 30. And when he had thus spoken, the kingrose up, and the governor, and Bernice, and they that sat withthem: 31. And when they were gone aside, they talked betweenthemselves, saying, This man doeth nothing worthy of death or ofbonds. 32. Then said Agrippa unto Festus, This man might havebeen set at liberty, if he had not appealed unto Caesar. '--ACTS xxvi. 19-32. 

Festus was no model of a righteous judge, but he had got hold of thetruth as to Paul, and saw that what he contemptuously called 'certainquestions of their own superstition, ' and especially his assertion ofthe Resurrection, were the real crimes of the Apostle in Jewish eyes. But the fatal wish to curry favour warped his course, and led him topropose a removal of the 'venue' to Jerusalem. Paul knew that toreturn thither would seal his death-warrant, and was therefore drivento appeal to Rome. 

That took the case out of Festus's jurisdiction. So that the hearingbefore Agrippa was an entertainment, got up for the king's diversion, when other amusements had been exhausted, rather than a regularjudicial proceeding. Paul was examined 'to make a Roman holiday. 'Festus's speech (chap. Xxv. 24-27) tries to put on a colour of desireto ascertain more clearly the charges, but that is a very thinpretext. Agrippa had said that he would like 'to hear the man, ' andso the performance was got up 'by request. ' Not a very sympatheticaudience fronted Paul that day. A king and his sister, a Romangovernor, and all the elite of Caesarean society, ready to take theircue from the faces of these three, did not daunt Paul. The man whohad seen Jesus on the Damascus road could face 'small and great. '

The portion of his address included in the passage touchessubstantially the same points as did his previous 'apologies. ' We maynote how strongly he puts the force that impelled him on his course, and lays bare the secret of his life. 'I was not disobedient to theheavenly vision'; then the possibility of disobedience was open afterhe had heard Christ ask, 'Why persecutest thou Me?' and had receivedcommands from His mouth. Then, too, the essential character of thecharge against him was that, instead of kicking against the owner'sgoad, he had bowed his neck to his yoke, and that his obstinate willhad melted. Then, too, the 'light above the brightness of the sun'still shone round him, and his whole life was one long act ofobedience. 

We note also how he sums up his work in verse 20, representing hismission to the Gentiles as but the last term in a continuous wideningof his field, from Damascus to Jerusalem, from Jerusalem to Judaea (aphase of his activity not otherwise known to us, and for which, withour present records, it is difficult to find a place), from Judaea tothe Gentiles. Step by step he had been led afield, and at each stepthe 'heavenly vision' had shone before him. 

How superbly, too, Paul overleaps the distinction of Jew and Gentile, which disappeared to him in the unity of the broad message, which wasthe same to every man. Repentance, turning to God, works worthy ofrepentance, are as needful for Jew as for Gentile, and as open toGentile as to Jew. What but universal can such a message be? To limitit would be to mutilate it. 

We note, too, the calmness with which he lays his finger on the realcause of Jewish hate, which Festus had already found out. He does notcondescend to rebut the charge of treason, which he had alreadyrepelled, and which nobody in his audience believed. He is neitherafraid nor angry, as he quietly points to the deadly malice which hadno ground but his message. 

We further note the triumphant confidence in God and assurance of Hishelp in all the past, so that, like some strong tower after the mostcrashing blows of the battering-ram, he still 'stands. ' 'His stepshad wellnigh slipped, ' when foe after foe stormed against him, but'Thy mercy, O Lord, held me up. '

Finally, Paul gathers himself together, to leave as his last word themighty sentence in which he condenses his whole teaching, in itsaspect of witness-bearing, in its universal destination and identityto the poorest and to loftily placed men and women, such as satlanguidly looking at him now, in its perfect concord with the earlierrevelation, and in its threefold contents, that it was the message ofthe Christ who suffered, who rose from the dead, who was the Light ofthe world. Surely the promise was fulfilled to him, and it was 'givenhim in that hour what he should speak. '

The rustle in the crowd was scarcely over, when the strong masterfulvoice of the governor rasped out the coarse taunt, which, accordingto one reading, was made coarser (and more lifelike) by repetition, 'Thou art mad, Paul; thou art mad. ' So did a hard 'practical man'think of that strain of lofty conviction, and of that story of theappearance of the Christ. To be in earnest about wealth or power orscience or pleasure is not madness, so the world thinks; but to be inearnest about religion, one's own soul, or other people's, is. Whichwas the saner, Paul, who 'counted all things but dung that he mightwin Christ, ' or Festus, who counted keeping his governorship, andmaking all that he could out of it, the one thing worth living for?Who is the madman, he who looks up and sees Jesus, and bows beforeHim for lifelong service, or he who looks up and says, 'I see nothingup there; I keep my eyes on the main chance down here'? It would be asaner and a happier world if there were more of us mad after Paul'sfashion. 

Paul's unruffled calm and dignity brushed aside the rude exclamationwith a simple affirmation that his words were true in themselves, andspoken by one who had full command over his faculties; and then heturned away from Festus, who understood nothing, to Agrippa, who, atany rate, did understand a little. Indeed, Festus has to take thesecond place throughout, and it may have been the ignoring of himthat nettled him. For all his courtesy to Agrippa, he knew that thelatter was but a vassal king, and may have chafed at Paul'saddressing him exclusively. 

The Apostle has finished his defence, and now he towers above thepetty dignitaries before him, and goes straight at the conscience ofthe king. Festus had dismissed the Resurrection of 'one Jesus' asunimportant: Paul asserted it, the Jews denied it. It was not worthwhile to ask which was right. The man was dead, that was agreed. IfPaul said He was alive after death, that was only another proof ofmadness, and a Roman governor had more weighty things to occupy himthan investigating such obscure and absurd trifles. But Agrippa, though not himself a Jew, knew enough of the history of the lasttwenty years to have heard about the Resurrection and the rise of theChurch. No doubt he would have been ready to admit his knowledge, butPaul shows a disposition to come to closer quarters by his swiftthrust, 'Believest thou the prophets?' and the confident answer whichthe questioner gives. 

What was the Apostle bringing these two things--the publicity givento the facts of Christ's life, and the belief in the prophets--together for? Obviously, if Agrippa said Yes, then the next questionwould be, 'Believest thou the Christ, whose life and death andresurrection thou knowest, and who has fulfilled the prophetsthereby?' That would have been a hard question for the king toanswer. His conscience begins to be uncomfortable, and his dignity iswounded by this extremely rude person, who ventures to talk to him asif he were a mere common man. He has no better answer ready than asarcasm; not a very forcible one, betraying, however, his penetrationinto, and his dislike of, and his embarrassment at, Paul's drift. Hisironical words are no confession of being 'almost persuaded, ' but ataunt. 'And do you really suppose that it is so easy a matter to turnme--the great Me, a Herod, a king, ' and he might have added, asensual bad man, 'into a Christian?'

Paul met the sarcastic jest with deep earnestness, which must havehushed the audience of sycophants ready to laugh with the king, andevidently touched him and Festus. His whole soul ran over in yearningdesire for the salvation of them all. He took no notice of the gibein the word _Christian_, nor of the levity of Agrippa. He showed thatpurest love fills his heart, that he has found the treasure whichenriches the poorest and adds blessedness to the highest. So peacefuland blessed is he, a prisoner, that he can wish nothing better forany than to be like him in his faith. He hints his willingness totake any pains and undergo any troubles for such an end; and, withalmost a smile, he looks at his chains, and adds, 'except thesebonds. '

Did Festus wince a little at the mention of these, which ought not tohave been on his wrists? At all events, the entertainment had takenrather too serious a turn for the taste of any of the three, --Festus, Agrippa, or Bernice. If this strange man was going to shake theirconsciences in that fashion, it was high time to end what was, afterall, as far as the rendering of justice was concerned, something likea farce. 

So with a rustle, and amid the obeisances of the courtiers, the threerose, and, followed by the principal people, went through the form ofdeliberation. There was only one conclusion to be come to. He wasperfectly innocent. So Agrippa solemnly pronounced, what had beenknown before, that he had done nothing worthy of death or bonds, though he had 'these bonds' on his arms; and salved the injustice ofkeeping an innocent man in custody by throwing all the blame on Paulhimself for appealing to Csesar. But the person to blame was Festus, who had forced Paul to appeal in order to save his life. 

'THE HEAVENLY VISION'

'Whereupon, O King Agrippa, I was not disobedient unto theheavenly vision. ' Acts xxvi. 19. 

This is Paul's account of the decisive moment in his life on whichall his own future, and a great deal of the future of Christianityand of the world, hung. The gracious voice had spoken from heaven, and now everything depended on the answer made in the heart of theman lying there blind and amazed. Will he rise melted by love, andsoftened into submission, or hardened by resistance to the call ofthe exalted Lord? The somewhat singular expression which he employsin the text, makes us spectators of the very process of his yielding. For it might be rendered, with perhaps an advantage, 'I _became_ notdisobedient'; as if the 'disobedience' was the prior condition, fromwhich we see him in the very act of passing, by the melting of hisnature and the yielding of his will. Surely there have been fewdecisions in the world's history big with larger destinies than thatwhich the captive described to Agrippa in the simple words: 'I becamenot disobedient unto the heavenly vision. '

I. Note, then, first, that this heavenly vision shines for us too. 

Paul throughout his whole career looked back to the miraculousappearance of Jesus Christ in the heavens, as being equally availablyas valid ground for his Christian convictions as were the appearancesof the Lord in bodily form to the Eleven after His resurrection. AndI may venture to work the parallel in the inverse direction, and tosay to you that what we see and know of Jesus Christ is as valid aground for our convictions, and as true and powerful a call for ourobedience, as when the heaven was rent, and the glory above themidday sun bathed the persecutor and his followers on the stony roadto Damascus. For the revelation that is made to the understanding andthe heart, to the spirit and the will, is the same whether it bemade, as it was to Paul, through a heavenly vision, or, as it was tothe other Apostles, through the facts of the life, death, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus, which their senses certified tothem, or, as it is to us, by the record of the same facts, permanently enshrined in Scripture. Paul's sight of Christ was for amoment; we can see Him as often and as long as we will, by turning tothe pages of this Book. Paul's sight of Christ was accompanied withbut a partial apprehension of the great and far-reaching truths whichhe was to learn and to teach, as embodied in the Lord whom he saw. Tosee Him was the work of a moment, to 'know Him' was the effort of alifetime. We have the abiding results of the lifelong process lyingready to our hands in Paul's own letters, and we have not only thepermanent record of Christ in the Gospels instead of the transientvision in the heavens, and the unfolding of the meaning and bearingsof the historical facts, in the authoritative teaching of theEpistles, but we have also, in the history of the Church founded onthese, in the manifest workings of a divine power for and through thecompany of believers, as well as in the correspondence between thefacts and doctrines of Christianity and the wants of humanity, avision disclosed and authenticated as heavenly, more developed, fuller of meaning and more blessed to the eyes which see it, thanthat which was revealed to the persecutor as he reeled from his horseon the way to the great city. 

Dear brethren, they who see Christ in the word, In the history of theworld, in the pleading of the preacher, in the course of the ages, and who sometimes hear His voice in the warnings which He breathesinto their consciences, and in the illuminations which He flashes ontheir understanding, need ask for no loftier, no more valid andirrefragable manifestation of His gracious self. To each of us thisvision is granted. May I say, without seeming egotism to you it isgranted even through the dark and cloudy envelope of my poor words?

II. The vision of Christ, howsoever perceived, comes demandingobedience. 

The purpose for which Jesus Christ made Himself known to Paul was togive him a charge which should influence his whole life. And themanner in which the Lord, when He had appeared, prepared the way forthe charge was twofold. He revealed Himself in His radiant glory, inHis exalted being, in His sympathetic and mysterious unity with themthat loved Him and trusted Him, in His knowledge of the doings of thepersecutor; and He disclosed to Saul the inmost evil that lurked inhis own heart, and showed him to his bewilderment and confusion, howthe course that he thought to be righteousness and service wasblasphemy and sin. So, by the manifestation of Himself enthronedomniscient, bound by the closest ties of identity and of sympathywith all that love Him, and by the disclosure of the amazed gazer'sevil and sin, Jesus Christ opened the way for the charge which borein its very heart an assurance of pardon, and was itself amanifestation of His love. 

In like manner all heavenly visions are meant to secure humanobedience. We have not done what God means us to do with anyknowledge of Him which He grants, unless we utilise it to drive thewheels of life and carry it out into practice in our daily conduct. Revelation is not meant to satisfy mere curiosity or the idle desireto know. It shines above us like the stars, but, unlike them, itshines to be the guide of our lives. And whatsoever glimpse of thedivine nature, or of Christ's love, nearness, and power, we have evercaught, was meant to bow our wills in glad submission, and to animateour hands for diligent service and to quicken our feet to run in theway of His commandments. 

There is plenty of idle gazing, with more or less of belief, at theheavenly vision. I beseech you to lay to heart this truth, thatChrist rends the heavens and shows us God, not that men may know, butthat men may, knowing, do; and all His visions are the bases ofcommandments. So the question for us all is, What are we doing withwhat we know of Jesus Christ? Nothing? Have we translated ourthoughts of Him into actions, and have we put all our actions underthe control of our thoughts of Him? It is not enough that a manshould say, 'Whereupon I _saw_ the vision, ' or, 'Whereupon I was_convinced_ of the vision, ' or, 'Whereupon I _understood_ thevision. ' Sight, apprehension, theology, orthodoxy, they are all verywell, but the right result is, 'Whereupon I was _not disobedient_ tothe heavenly vision. ' And unless your knowledge of Christ makes youdo, and keep from doing, a thousand things, it is only an idlevision, which adds to your guilt. 

But notice, in this connection, the peculiarity of the obediencewhich the vision requires. There is not a word, in this story ofPaul's conversion, about the thing which Paul himself always puts inthe foreground as the very hinge upon which conversion turns--viz. Faith. Not a word. The name is not here, but the thing is here, ifpeople will look. For the obedience which Paul says that he renderedto the vision was not rendered with his hands. He got up to his feeton the road there, 'not disobedient, ' though he had not yet doneanything. This is to say, the man's will had melted. It had all gonewith a run, so to speak, and the inmost being of him was subdued. Theobedience was the submission of self to God, and not the more or lessdiligent and continuous consequent external activity in the way ofGod's commandments. 

Further, Paul's obedience is also an obedience based upon the visionof Jesus Christ enthroned, living, bound by ties that thrill at theslightest touch to all hearts that love Him, and making common causewith them. 

And furthermore, it is an obedience based upon the shudderingrecognition of Paul's own unsuspected evil and foulness, how all thelife, that he had thought was being built up into a temple that Godwould inhabit, was rottenness and falsehood. 

And it is an obedience, further, built upon the recognition of pityand pardon in Christ, who, after His sharp denunciation of the sin, looks down from Heaven with a smile of forgiveness upon His lips, andsays: 'But rise and stand upon thy feet, for I will send thee to makeknown My name. '

An obedience which is the inward yielding of the will, which is allbuilt upon the revelation of the living Christ, who was dead and isalive for evermore, and close to all His followers; and is, further, the thankful tribute of a heart that knows itself to be sinful, andis certain that it is forgiven--what is that but the obedience whichis of faith? And thus, when I say that the heavenly vision demandsobedience, I do not mean that Christ shows Himself to you to set youto work, but I mean that Christ shows Himself to you that you mayyield yourselves to Him, and in the act may receive power to do allHis sweet and sacred will. 

III. Thirdly, this obedience is in our own power to give or towithhold. 

Paul, as I said in my introductory remarks, puts us here asspectators of the very act of submission. He shows it to us in itsbeginning--he shows us the state from which he came and that intowhich he passed, and he tells us, 'I _became_--not disobedient. ' Inhis case it was a complete, swift, and permanent revolution, as ifsome thick-ribbed ice should all at once melt into sweet water. Butwhether swift or slow it was his own act, and after the Voice hadspoken it was possible that Paul should have resisted and risen fromthe ground, not a servant, but a persecutor still. For God's graceconstrains no man, and there is always the possibility open that whenHe calls we refuse, and that when He beseeches we say, 'I will not. '

There is the mystery on which the subtlest intellects have taskedtheir powers and blunted the edge of their keenness in allgenerations; and it is not likely to be settled in five minutes of asermon of mine. But the practical point that I have to urge is simplythis: there are two mysteries, the one that men _can_, and the otherthat men _do_, resist Christ's pleading voice. As to the former, wecannot fathom it. But do not let any difficulty deaden to you theclear voice of your own consciousness. If I cannot trust my sensethat I can do this thing or not do it, as I choose, there is nothingthat I can trust. Will is the power of determining which of two roadsI shall go, and, strange as it is, incapable of statement in any moregeneral terms than the reiteration of the fact; yet here stands thefact, that God, the infinite Will, has given to men, whom He made inHis own image, this inexplicable and awful power of coinciding withor opposing His purposes and His voice. 

 'Our wills are ours, we know not how; Our wills are ours, to make them Thine. '

For the other mystery is, that men _do_ consciously set themselvesagainst the will of God, and refuse the gifts which they know all thewhile are for their good. It is of no use to say that sin isignorance. No; that is only a surface explanation. You and I know toowell that many a time when we have been as sure of what God wanted usto do as if we had seen it written in flaming letters on the skythere, we have gone and done the exact opposite. I know that thereare men and women who are convinced in their inmost souls that theyought to be Christians, and that Jesus Christ is pleading with themat the present hour, and yet in whose hearts there is no yielding towhat, they yet are certain, is the will and voice of Jesus Christ. 

IV. Lastly, this obedience may, in a moment, revolutionise a life. 

Paul rode from Jerusalem 'breathing out threatenings and slaughters. 'He fell from his warhorse, a persecutor of Christians, and a bitterenemy of Jesus. A few moments pass. There was one moment in which thecrucial decision was made; and he staggered to his feet, loving allthat he had hated, and abandoning all in which he had trusted. Hisown doctrine that 'if any man be in Christ he is a new creature, oldthings are passed away and all things are become new, ' is but ageneralisation of what befell himself on the Damascus road. It is ofno use trying to say that there had been a warfare going on in thisman's mind long before, of which his complete capitulation was onlythe final visible outcome. There is not a trace of anything of thekind in the story. It is a pure hypothesis pressed into the serviceof the anti-supernatural explanation of the fact. 

There are plenty of analogies of such sudden and entire revolution. All reformation of a moral kind is best done quickly. It is a veryhopeless task, as every one knows, to tell a drunkard to break offhis habits gradually. There must be one moment in which he definitelyturns himself round and sets his face in the other direction. Somethings are best done with slow, continuous pressure; other thingsneed to be done with a wrench if they are to be done at all. 

There used to be far too much insistence upon one type of religiousexperience, and all men that were to be recognised as Christianswere, by evangelical Nonconformists, required to be able to point tothe moment when, by some sudden change, they passed from darkness tolight. We have drifted away from that very far now, and there is needfor insisting, not upon the necessity, but upon the possibility, ofsudden conversions. However some may try to show that suchexperiences cannot be, the experience of every earnest Christianteacher can answer--well! whether they can be or not, they are. JesusChrist cured two men gradually, and all the others instantaneously. No doubt, for young people who have been born amidst Christianinfluences, and have grown up in Christian households, the usual wayof becoming Christians is that slowly and imperceptibly they shallpass into the consciousness of communion with Jesus Christ. But forpeople who have grown up irreligious and, perhaps, profligate andsinful, the most probable way is a sudden stride out of the kingdomof darkness into the kingdom of God's dear Son. So I come to you allwith this message. No matter what your past, no matter how much ofyour life may have ebbed away, no matter how deeply rooted andobstinate may be your habits of evil, no matter how often you mayhave tried to mend yourself and have failed, it is possible by oneswift act of surrender to break the chains and go free. In everyman's life there have been moments into which years have beencrowded, and which have put a wider gulf between his past and hispresent self than many slow, languid hours can dig. A great sorrow, agreat joy, a great, newly discerned truth, a great resolve will make'one day as a thousand years. ' Men live through such moments and feelthat the past is swallowed up as by an earthquake. The highestinstance of thus making time elastic and crowding it with meaning iswhen a man forms and keeps the swift resolve to yield himself toChrist. It may be the work of a moment, but it makes a gulf betweenpast and future, like that which parted the time before and the timeafter that in which 'God said, Let there be light: and there waslight. ' If you have never yet bowed before the heavenly vision andyielded yourself as conquered by the love which pardons, to be theglad servant of the Lord Jesus who takes all His servants intowondrous oneness with Himself, do it now. You can do it. Delay isdisobedience, and may be death. Do it now, and your whole life willbe changed. Peace and joy and power will come to you, and you, made anew man, will move in a new world of new relations, duties, energies, loves, gladnesses, helps, and hopes. If you take heed to prolong thepoint into a line, and hour by hour to renew the surrender and thecry, 'Lord, what wilt Thou have me to do?' you will ever have thevision of the Christ enthroned, pardoning, sympathising, andcommanding, which will fill your sky with glory, point the path ofyour feet, and satisfy your gaze with His beauty, and your heart withHis all-sufficing and ever-present love. 

'ME A CHRISTIAN!'

'Then Agrlppa said unto Paul, Almost thou persuadest me to be aChristian. '--ACTS xxvi 28. 

This Agrippa was son of the other Herod of whom we hear in the Actsas a persecutor. This one appears from other sources, to have had thevices but not the force of character of his bad race. He was weak andindolent, a mere hanger-on of Rome, to which he owed his kingdom, andto which he stoutly stuck during all the tragedy of the fall ofJerusalem. In position and in character (largely resulting from theposition) he was uncommonly like those semi-independent rajahs inIndia, who are allowed to keep up a kind of shadow of authority oncondition of doing what Calcutta bids them. Of course frivolity anddebauchery become the business of such men. What sort of a man thiswas may be sufficiently inferred from the fact that Bernice was hissister. 

But he knew a good deal about the Jews, about their opinions, theirreligion, and about what had been going on during the last halfcentury amongst them. Or grounds of policy he professed to accept theJewish faith--of which an edifying example is given in the fact that, on one occasion, Bernice was prevented from accompanying him to Romebecause she was fulfilling a Nazarite vow in the Temple at Jerusalem!

So the Apostle was fully warranted in appealing to Agrippa'sknowledge, not only of Judaism, but of the history of Jesus Christ, and in his further assertion, 'I know that thou believest. ' But thehome-thrust was too much for the king. His answer is given in thewords of our text. 

They are very familiar words, and they have been made the basis of agreat many sermons upon being all but persuaded to accept of Christas Saviour. But, edifying as such a use of them is, it can scarcelybe sustained by their actual meaning. Most commentators are agreedthat our Authorised Version does not represent either Agrippa's wordsor his tone. He was not speaking in earnest. His words are sarcasm, not a half melting into conviction, and the Revised Version giveswhat may, on the whole, be accepted as being a truer representationof their intention when it reads, 'With but little persuasion thouwouldst fain make me a Christian. '

He is half amused and half angry at the Apostle's presumption insupposing that so easily or so quickly he was going to land his fish. 'It is a more difficult task than you fancy, Paul, to make aChristian of a man like me. ' That is the real meaning of his words, and I think that, rightly understood, they yield lessons of no lessvalue than those that have been so often drawn from them as theyappear in our Authorised Version. So I wish to try and gather up andurge upon you now these lessons:--

I. First, then, I see here an example of the danger of a superficialfamiliarity with Christian truth. 

As I said, Agrippa knew, in a general way, a good deal not only aboutthe prophets and the Jewish religion, but of the outstanding facts ofthe death and Resurrection of Jesus Christ. Paul's assumption that heknew would have been very quickly repudiated if it had not been basedupon fact. And the inference from his acceptance withoutcontradiction of the Apostle's statement is confirmed by his use ofthe word 'Christian, ' which had by no means come into generalemployment when he spoke; and in itself indicates that he knew a gooddeal about the people who were so named. Mark the contrast, forinstance, between him and the bluff Roman official at his side. ToFestus, Paul's talking about a dead man's having risen, and a risenJew becoming a light to all nations, was such utter nonsense that, with characteristic Roman contempt for men with ideas, he breaks in, with his rough, strident voice, 'Much learning has made thee mad. 'There was not much chance of that cause producing that effect onFestus. But he was apparently utterly bewildered at this entirelynovel and unintelligible sort of talk. Agrippa, on the other hand, knows all about the Resurrection; has heard that there was such athing, and has a general rough notion of what Paul believed as aChristian. 

And was he any better for it? No; he was a great deal worse. It tookthe edge off a good deal of his curiosity. It made him fancy that heknew beforehand all that the Apostle had to say. It stood in the wayof his apprehending the truths which he thought that he understood. 

And although the world knows a great deal more about Jesus Christ andthe Gospel than he did, the very same thing is true about hundredsand thousands of people who have all their lives long been broughtinto contact with Christianity. Superficial knowledge is the worstenemy of accurate knowledge, for the first condition of knowing athing is to know that we do not know it. And so there are a greatmany of us who, having picked up since childhood vague and partiallyinaccurate notions about Christ and His Gospel and what He has done, are so satisfied on the strength of these that we know all about it, that we listen to preaching about it with a very languid attention. The ground in our minds is preoccupied with our own vague andimperfect apprehensions. I believe that there is nothing that standsmore in the way of hundreds of people coming into real intelligentcontact with Gospel truth than the half knowledge that they have hadof it ever since they were children. You fancy that you know all thatI can tell you. Very probably you do. But have you ever taken a firmhold of the plain central facts of Christianity--your own sinfulnessand helplessness, your need of a Saviour, the perfect work of JesusChrist who died on the Cross for you, and the power of simple faiththerein to join you to Him, and, if followed by consecration andobedience, to make you partakers of His nature, and heirs of theinheritance that is above? These are but the fundamentals, theoutlines of Gospel truth. But far too many of you see them, in such amanner as you see the figures cast upon a screen when the lantern isnot rightly focussed, with a blurred outline, and the blurred outlinekeeps you from seeing the sharp-cut truth as it is in Jesus. In allregions of thought inaccurate knowledge is the worst foe to furtherunderstanding, and eminently is this the case in religion. Brethren, some of you are in that position. 

Then there is another way in which such knowledge as that of whichthe king in our text is an example is a hindrance, and that is, thatit is knowledge which has no effect on character. What do hundreds ofus do with our knowledge of Christianity? Our minds seem built inwatertight compartments, and we keep the doors of them shut veryclose, so that truths in the understanding have no influence on thewill. Many of you believe the Gospel intellectually, and it does notmake a hairsbreadth of difference to anything that you ever eitherthought or wished or did. And because you so believe it, it isutterly impossible that it should ever be of any use to you. 'Agrippa, believest thou the prophets? I know that thou believest. ''Yes, believest the prophets, and Bernice sitting by thy side there--believest the prophets, and livest in utter bestial godlessness. 'What is the good of a knowledge of Christianity like that? And is itnot such knowledge of Christianity that blocks the way with some ofyou for anything more real and more operative? There is nothing moreimpotent than a firmly believed and utterly neglected truth. And thatis what the Christianity of some of you is when it is analysed. 

II. Now, secondly, notice how we have here the example of a proud manindignantly recoiling from submission, There is a world of contempt in Agrippa's words, in the very puttingside by side of the two things. 'Me! _Me_, ' with a very large capitalM--'Me a Christian?' He thinks of his dignity, poor creature. It wasnot such a very tremendous dignity after all. He was a petty kinglet, permitted by the grace of Rome to live and to pose as if he were thereal thing, and yet he struts and claps his wings and crows on hislittle hillock as if it were a mountain. '_Me_ a Christian?' 'Thegreat Agrippa a _Christian_!' And he uses that word 'Christian' withthe intense contempt which coined it and adhered to it, until the mento whom it was applied were wise enough to take it and bind it as acrown of honour upon their head. The wits at Antioch first of all hitupon the designation. They meant a very exquisite piece of sarcasm bytheir nickname. These people were 'Christians, ' just as some otherpeople were Herodians--Christ's men, the men of this impostor whopretended to be a Messiah. That seemed such an intensely ludicrousthing to the wise people in Antioch that they coined the name; and nodoubt thought they had done a very clever thing. It is only used inthe Bible in tike notice of its origin; here, with a very evidentconnotation of contempt; and once more when Peter in his letterrefers to it as being the indictment on which certain disciplessuffered. So when Agrippa says, 'Me a Christian, ' he puts all thebitterness that he can into that last word. As if he said, 'Do youreally think that I--I--am going to bow myself down to be a followerand adherent of that Christ of yours? The thing is too ridiculous!With but little persuasion you would fain make me a Christian. Butyou will find it a harder task than you fancy. '

Now, my dear friends, the shape of this unwillingness is changed butthe fact of it remains. There are two or three features of what Itake to be the plain Gospel of Jesus Christ which grate very muchagainst all self-importance and self-complacency, and operate verylargely, though not always consciously, upon very many amongst us. Ijust run them over, very briefly. 

The Gospel insists on dealing with everybody in the same fashion, andon regarding all as standing on the same level. Many of us do notlike that. Translate Agrippa's scorn into words that fit ourselves:'I am a well-to-do Manchester man. Am I to stand on the same level asmy office-boy?' Yes! the very same. 'I, a student, perhaps a teacherof science, or a cultivated man, a scholar, a lawyer, a professionalman--am I to stand on the same level as people that scarcely know howto read and write?' Yes, exactly. So, like the man in the OldTestament, 'he turned and went away in a rage. ' Many of us would likethat there should be a little private door for us in consideration ofour position or acquirements or respectability, or this, that, or theother thing. At any rate we are not to be classed in the samecategory with the poor and the ignorant and the sinful and the savageall over the world. But we are so classed. Do not you and the men inPatagonia breathe the same air? Are not your bodies subject to thesame laws? Have you not to be contented to be fed in the samefashion, and to sleep and eat and drink in the same way? 'We have allof us one human heart'; and 'there is no difference, for all havesinned and come short of the glory of God. ' The identities ofhumanity, in all its examples, are deeper than the differences inany. We have all the one Saviour and are to be saved in the samefashion. That is a humbling thing for those of us who stand upon somelittle elevation, real or fancied, but it is only the other side ofthe great truth that God's love is world-wide, and that Christ'sGospel is meant for humanity. Naaman, to whom I have already referredin passing, wanted to be treated as a great man who happened to be aleper; Elisha insisted on treating him as a leper who happened to bea great man. And that makes all the difference. I remember seeingsomewhere that a great surgeon had said that the late Emperor ofGermany would have had a far better chance of being cured if he hadgone _incognito_ to the hospital for throat diseases. We all need thesame surgery, and we must be contented to take it in the samefashion. So, some of us recoil from humbling equality with the lowestand worst. 

Then again, another thing that sometimes makes people shrink backfrom the Gospel is that it insists upon every one being saved solelyby dependence on Another. We would like to have a part in oursalvation, and many of us had rather do anything in the way ofsacrifice or suffering or penance than take this position:

 'Nothing in my hand I bring, Simply to Thy Cross I cling. '

Corrupt forms of Christianity have taken an acute measure of theworst parts of human nature, when they have taught men that they caneke out Christ's work by their own, and have some kind of share intheir own salvation. Dear brethren, I have to bring to you anotherGospel than that, and to say, All is done for us, and all will bedone in us, and nothing has to be done by us. Some of you do not likethat. Just as a man drowning is almost sure to try to help himself, and get his limbs inextricably twisted round his would-be rescuer anddrown them both, so men will not, without a struggle, consent to oweeverything to Jesus Christ, and to let Him draw them out of manywaters and set them on the safe shore. But unless we do so, we havelittle share in His Gospel. 

And another thing stands in the way--namely, that the Gospel insistsupon absolute obedience to Jesus Christ. Agrippa fancied that it wasan utterly preposterous idea that he should lower his flag, and doffhis crown, and become the servant of a Jewish peasant. A great manyof us, though we have a higher idea of our Lord than his, do yet findit quite as hard to submit our wills to His, and to accept thecondition of absolute obedience, utter resignation to Him, and entiresubjection to His commandment. We say, 'Let my own will have a littlebit of play in a corner. ' Some of us find it very hard to believethat we are to bring all our thinking upon religious and moralsubjects to Him, and to accept His word as conclusive, settling allcontroversies. 'I, with my culture; am I to accept what Christ saysas the end of strife?' Yes, absolute submission is the plainestcondition of real Christianity. The very name tells us that. We areChristians, _i. E. _ Christ's men; and unless we are, we have no rightto the name. But some of us had rather be our own masters and enjoythe miseries of independence and self-will, and so be the slaves ofour worse selves, than bow ourselves utterly before that dear Lord, and so pass into the freedom of a service love-inspired, and by loveaccepted, 'Thou wouldst fain persuade _me_ to be a _Christian_, ' isthe recoil of a proud heart from submission. Brethren, let me beseechyou that it may not be yours. 

III. Again, we have here an example of instinctive shrinking from thepersonal application of broad truths. 

Agrippa listened, half-amused and a good deal interested, to Paul aslong as he talked generalities and described his own experience. Butwhen he came to point the generalities and to drive them home to thehearer's heart it was time to stop him. That question of theApostle's, keen and sudden as the flash of a dagger, went straighthome, and the king at once gathered himself together into an attitudeof resistance. Ah, that is what hundreds of people do! You will letme preach as long as I like--only you will get a little wearysometimes--you will let me preach generalities _ad libitum_. But whenI come to 'And thou?' then I am 'rude' and 'inquisitorial' and'personal' and 'trespassing on a region where I have no business, 'and so on and so on. And so you shut up your heart if not your ears. 

And yet, brethren, what is the use of toothless generalities? What amI here for if I am not here to take these broad, blunt truths andsharpen them to a point, and try to get them in between the joints ofyour armour? Can any man faithfully preach the Gospel who is alwaysflying over the heads of his hearers with universalities, and nevergoes straight to their hearts with 'Thou--thou art the man!''Believest _thou_?'

And so, dear friends, let me press that question upon you. Never mindabout other people. Suppose you and I were alone together and mywords were coming straight _to thee_. Would they not have more powerthan they have now? They are so coming. Think away all these otherpeople, and this place, ay, and me too, and let the word of Christ, which deals with no crowds but with single souls, come to you in itsindividualising force: 'Believest _thou_?' You will have to answerthat question one day. Better to face it now and try to answer itthan to leave it all vague until you get yonder, where 'each one ofus shall give account of _himself_ to God. 

IV. Lastly, we have here an example of a soul close to the light, butpassing into the dark. 

Agrippa listens to Paul; Bernice listens; Festus listens. And whatcomes of it? Only this, 'And when they were gone aside, they talkedbetween themselves, saying, This man hath done nothing worthy ofdeath or of bonds. ' May I translate into a modern equivalent: Andwhen they were gone aside, they talked between themselves, saying, 'This man preached a very impressive sermon, ' or, 'This man preacheda very wearisome sermon, ' and there an end. 

Agrippa and Bernice went their wicked way, and Festus went his, andnone of them knew what a fateful moment they had passed through. Ah, brethren! there are many such in our lives when we make decisionsthat influence our whole future, and no sign shows that the moment isany way different from millions of its undistinguished fellows. It iseminently so in regard to our relation to Jesus Christ and HisGospel. These three had been in the light; they were never so near itagain. Probably they never heard the Gospel preached any more, andthey went away, not knowing what they had done when they silencedPaul and left him. Now you will probably hear plenty of sermons infuture. You may or you may not. But be sure of this, that if you goaway from this one, unmelted and unbelieving, you have not done atrivial thing. You have added one more stone to the barrier that youyourself build to shut you out from holiness and happiness, from hopeand heaven. It is not I that ask you the question, it is not Paulthat asks it, Jesus Christ Himself says to you, as He said to theblind man, 'Dost thou believe on the Son of God?' or as He said tothe weeping sister of Lazarus, 'Believest thou this?' O dear friends, do not answer like this arrogant bit of a king, but cry with tears, 'Lord, I believe; help Thou mine unbelief!'

TEMPEST AND TRUST

And when the south wind blew softly, supposing that they hadobtained their purpose, loosing thence, they sailed close byCrete. 14. But not long after there arose against it atempestuous wind, called Euroclydon. 15. And when the ship wascaught, and could not bear up into the wind, we let her drive. 16. And running under a certain island which is called Clauda, wehad much work to come by the boat: 17. Which when they had takenup, they used helps, undergirding the ship; and, fearing lestthey should fall into the quicksands, strake sail, and so weredriven. 18. And we being exceedingly tossed with a tempest, thenext day they lightened the ship; 19. And the third day we castout with our own hands the tackling of the ship. 20. And whenneither sun nor stars in many days appeared, and no small tempestlay on us, all hope that we should be saved was then taken away. 21. But after long abstinence Paul stood forth in the midst ofthem, and said, Sirs, ye should have hearkened unto me, and nothave loosed from Crete, and to have gained this harm and loss. 22. And now I exhort you to be of good cheer: for there shall beno loss of any man's life among you, but of the ship. 23. Forthere stood by me this night the angel of God, whose I am, andwhom I serve, 24. Saying, Fear not, Paul; thou must be broughtbefore Caesar: and, lo, God hath given thee all them that sailwith thee. 25. Wherefore, sirs, be of good cheer: for I believeGod, that it shall be even as it was told me. 26. Howbeit we mustbe cast upon a certain island. '--ACTS xxvii. 13-26. 

Luke's minute account of the shipwreck implies that he was not a Jew. His interest in the sea and familiarity with sailors' terms are quiteunlike a persistent Jewish characteristic which still continues. Wehave a Jew's description of a storm at sea in the Book of Jonah, which is as evidently the work of a landsman as Luke's is of one who, though not a sailor, was well up in maritime matters. His narrativelays hold of the essential points, and is as accurate as it is vivid. This section has two parts: the account of the storm, and the grandexample of calm trust and cheery encouragement given in Paul's words. 

I. The consultation between the captain of the vessel and thecenturion, at which Paul assisted, strikes us, with our modernnotions of a captain's despotic power on his own deck, and singleresponsibility, as unnatural. But the centurion, as a militaryofficer, was superior to the captain of an Alexandrian corn-ship, andPaul had already made his force of character so felt that it is notwonderful that he took part in the discussion. Naturally thecenturion was guided by the professional rather than by the amateurmember of the council, and the decision was come to to push on as farand fast as possible. 

The ship was lying in a port which gave scanty protection against thewinter weather, and it was clearly wise to reach a more secureharbour if possible. So when a gentle southerly breeze sprang up, which would enable them to make such a port, westward from their thenposition, they made the attempt. For a time it looked as if theywould succeed, but they had a great headland jutting out in frontwhich they must get round, and their ability to do this was doubtful. So they kept close in shore and weathered the point. But before theyhad made their harbour the wind suddenly chopped round, as isfrequent of that coast, and the gentle southerly breeze turned into afierce squall from the north-east or thereabouts, sweeping down fromthe Cretan mountains. That began their troubles. To make the port wasimpossible. The unwieldy vessel could not 'face the wind, ' and sothey had to run before it. It would carry them in a south-westerlydirection, and towards a small island, under the lee of which theymight hope for some shelter. Here they had a little breathing time, and could make things rather more ship-shape than they had been ableto do when suddenly caught by the squall. Their boat had been towingbehind them, and had to be hoisted on deck somehow. 

A more important, and probably more difficult, task was to get stronghawsers under the keel and round the sides, so as to help to hold thetimbers together. The third thing was the most important of all, andhas been misunderstood by commentators who knew more about Greeklexicons than ships. The most likely explanation of 'lowering thegear' (Rev. Ver. ) is that it means 'leaving up just enough of sail tokeep the ship's head to the wind, and bringing down everything elsethat could be got down' (Ramsay, _St. Paul_, p. 329). 

Note that Luke says 'we' about hauling in the boat, and 'they' aboutthe other tasks. He and the other passengers could lend a hand in theformer, but not in the latter, which required more skilled labour. The reason for bringing down all needless top-hamper, and leaving upa little sail, was to keep the vessel from driving on to the greatquicksands off the African coast, to which they would certainly havebeen carried if the wind held. 

As soon as they had drifted out from the lee of the friendly littleisland they were caught again in the storm. They were in danger ofgoing down. As they drifted they had their 'starboard' broadside tothe force of the wild sea, and it was a question how long thevessel's sides would last before they were stove in by the hammeringof the waves, or how long she would be buoyant enough to ship seaswithout foundering. The only chance was to lighten her, so first thecrew 'jettisoned' the cargo, and next day, as that did not giverelief enough, 'they, ' or, according to some authorities, 'we'--thatis passengers and all--threw everything possible overboard. 

That was the last attempt to save themselves, and after it there wasnothing to do but to wait the apparently inevitable hour when theywould all go down together. Idleness feeds despair, and despairnourishes idleness. Food was scarce, cooking it was impossible, appetite there was none. The doomed men spent the long idle days--which were scarcely day, so thick was the air with mist and foam andtempest--crouching anywhere for shelter, wet, tired, hungry, andhopeless. So they drifted 'for many days, ' almost losing count of thelength of time they had been thus. It was a gloomy company, but therewas one man there in whom the lamp of hope burned when it had goneout in all others. Sun and stars were hidden, but Paul saw a betterlight, and his sky was clear and calm. 

II. A common danger makes short work of distinctions of rank. In sucha time some hitherto unnoticed man of prompt decision, resource, andconfidence, will take the command, whatever his position. Hope, aswell as timidity and fear, is infectious, and one cheery voice willrevive the drooping spirits of a multitude. Paul had alreadyestablished his personal ascendency in that motley company of Romansoldiers, prisoners, sailors, and disciples. Now he stands forwardwith calm confidence, and infuses new hope into them all. What amiraculous change passes on externals when faith looks at them! Thecircumstances were the same as they had been for many days. The windwas howling and the waves pounding as before, the sky was black withtempest, and no sign of help was in sight, but Paul spoke, and allwas changed, and a ray of sunshine fell on the wild waters that beaton the doomed vessel. 

Three points are conspicuous in his strong tonic words. First, thereis the confident assurance of safety. A less noble nature would havesaid more in vindication of the wisdom of his former advice. It isvery pleasant to small minds to say, 'Did I not tell you so? You seehow right I was. ' But the Apostle did not care for petty triumphs ofthat sort. A smaller man might have sulked because his advice had notbeen taken, and have said to himself, 'They would not listen to mebefore, I will hold my tongue now. ' But the Apostle only refers tohis former counsel and its confirmation in order to induce acceptanceof his present words. 

It is easy to 'bid' men 'be of good cheer, ' but futile unless somereason for good cheer is given. Paul gave good reason. No man's lifewas to be lost though the ship was to go. He had previously predictedthat life, as well as ship and lading, would be lost if they put tosea. That opinion was the result of his own calculation ofprobabilities, as he lets us understand by saying that he 'perceived'it (ver. 10). Now he speaks with authority, not from his perception, but from God's assurance. The bold words might well seem folly to thedespairing crew as they caught them amidst the roar of tempest andlooked at their battered hulk. So Paul goes at once to tell theground of his confidence--the assurance of the angel of God. 

What a contrast between the furious gale, the almost foundering ship, the despair in the hearts of the sleeping company, and the brightvision that came to Paul! Peter in prison, Paul in Caesarea and nowin the storm, see the angel form calm and radiant. God's messengersare wont to come into the darkest of our hours and the wildest of ourtempests. 

Paul's designation of the heavenly messenger as 'an angel of the Godwhose I am, whom also I serve, ' recalls Jonah's confession of faith, but far surpasses it, in the sense of belonging to God, and in theardour of submission and of active obedience, expressed in it. WhatPaul said to the Corinthians (1 Cor. Vi. 19) he realised for himself:'Ye are not your own; for ye were bought with a price. ' To recognisethat we are God's, joyfully to yield ourselves to Him, and with allthe forces of our natures to serve Him, is to bring His angel to oursides in every hour of tempest and peril, and to receive assurancethat nothing shall by any means harm us. To yield ourselves to beGod's is to make God ours. It was because Paul owned that he belongedto God, and served Him, that the angel came to him, and he explainsthe vision to his hearers by his relation to God. Anything waspossible rather than that his God should leave him unhelped at suchan hour of need. 

The angel's message must have included particulars unnoticed inLuke's summary; as, for instance, the wreck on 'a certain island. 'But the two salient points in it are the certainty of Paul's ownpreservation, that the divine purpose of his appearing before Caesarmight be fulfilled, and the escape of all the ship's company. As tothe former, we may learn how Paul's life, like every man's, is shapedaccording to a divine plan, and how we are 'immortal till our work isdone, ' and till God has done His work in and on and by us. As to thelatter point, we may gather from the word 'has _given_' the certaintythat Paul had been praying for the lives of all that sailed with him, and may learn, not only that the prayers of God's servants are a realelement in determining God's dealings with men, but that a trueservant of God's will ever reach out his desires and widen hisprayers to embrace those with whom he is brought into contact, bethey heathens, persecutors, rough and careless, or fellow-believers. If Christian people more faithfully discharged the duty ofintercession, they would more frequently receive in answer the livesof 'all them that sail with' them over the stormy ocean of life. 

The third point in the Apostle's encouraging speech is the example ofhis own faith, which is likewise an exhortation to the hearers toexercise the same. If God speaks by His angel with such firmpromises, man's plain wisdom is to grasp the divine assurance with afirm hand. We must build rock upon rock. 'I believe God, ' that surelyis a credence demanded by common sense and warranted by the sanestreason. If we do so believe, and take His word as the infallibleauthority revealing present duty and future blessings, then, howeverlowering the sky, and wild the water, and battered the vessel, andempty of earthly succour the gloomy horizon, and heavy our hearts, weshall 'be of good cheer, ' and in due time the event will warrant ourfaith in God and His promise, even though all around us seems to makeour faith folly and our hope a mockery. 

A SHORT CONFESSION OF FAITH

'. .. There stood by me this night the angel of God, whose I am, and whom I serve. '--ACTS xxvii. 23. 

I turn especially to those last words, 'Whose I am and whom I serve. '

A great calamity, borne by a crowd of men in common, has a wonderfulpower of dethroning officials and bringing the strong man to thefront. So it is extremely natural, though it has been thought to bevery unhistorical, that in this story of Paul's shipwreck he shouldbecome guide, counsellor, inspirer, and a tower of strength; and thatcenturions and captains and all the rest of those who held officialpositions should shrink into the background. The natural force of hischaracter, the calmness and serenity that came from his faith--thesethings made him the leader of the bewildered crowd. One can scarcelyhelp contrasting this shipwreck--the only one in the New Testament--with that in the Old Testament. Contrast Jonah with Paul, the guiltystupor of the one, down 'in the sides of the ship' cowering beforethe storm, with the calm behaviour and collected courage of theother. 

The vision of which the Apostle speaks does not concern us here, butin the words which I have read there are several noteworthy points. They bring vividly before us the essence of true religion, the boldconfession which it prompts, and the calmness and security which itensures. Let us then look at them from these points of view. 

I. We note the clear setting forth of the essence of true religion. 

Remember that Paul is speaking to heathens; that his present purposeis not to preach the Gospel, but to make his own position clear. Sohe says 'the God'--never mind who _He_ is at present--'the God towhom I belong '--that covers all the inward life--'and whom I serve'--that covers all the outward. 

'Whose I am. ' That expresses the universal truth that men belong toGod by virtue of their being the creatures of His hand. As the 100thPsalm says, according to one, and that a probably correct reading, 'It is He that hath made us, and _we are His_. ' But the Apostle isgoing a good deal deeper than any such thoughts, which he, no doubt, shared in common with the heathen men around him, when he declaresthat, in a special fashion, God had claimed him for His, and he hadyielded to the claim. 'I am Thine, ' is the deepest thought of thisman's mind and the deepest feeling of his heart. And that isgodliness in its purest form, the consciousness of belonging to God. We must interpret this saying by others of the Apostle's, such as, 'Ye are not your own, ye are bought with a price. Therefore, glorifyGod in your bodies and spirits which are His. ' He traces God'spossession of him, not to that fact of creation (which establishes acertain outward relationship, but nothing more), nor even to thecontinuous facts of benefits showered upon his head, but to the onetranscendent act of the divine Love, which gave itself to us, and soacquired us for itself. For we must recognise as the deepest of allthoughts about the relations of spiritual beings, that, as in regardto ourselves in our earthly affections, so in regard to our relationswith God, there is only one way by which a spirit can own a spirit, whether it be a man on the one side and a woman on the other, orwhether it be God on the one side and a man on the other, and thatone way is by the sweetness of complete and reciprocal love. He whogives himself to God gets God for himself. So when Paul said, 'WhoseI am, ' he was thinking that he would never have belonged either toGod or to himself unless, first of all, God, in His own Son, hadgiven Himself to Paul. The divine ownership of us is only realisedwhen we are consciously His, because of the sacrifice of JesusChrist. 

Brethren, God does not count that a man belongs to Him simply becauseHe made him, if the man does not feel his dependence, his obligation, and has not surrendered himself. He in the heavens loves you and metoo well to care for a formal and external ownership. He desireshearts, and only they who have yielded themselves unto God, movedthereto by the mercies of God, and especially by the encyclopaediacalmercy which includes all the rest in its sweep, only they belong toHim, in the estimate of the heavens. 

And if you and I are His, then that involves that we have deposedfrom his throne the rebel Self, the ancient Anarch that disturbs andruins us. They who belong to God cease to live to themselves. Thereare two centres for human life, and I believe there are only two--theone is God, the other is my wretched self. And if we are swept, as itwere, out of the little orbit that we move in, when the latter is ourcentre, and are drawn by the weight and mass of the great central sunto become its satellites, then we move in a nobler orbit and receivefuller and more blessed light and warmth. They who have themselvesfor their centres are like comets, with a wide elliptical course, which carries them away out into the cold abysses of darkness. Theywho have God for their sun are like planets. The old fable is true ofthese 'sons of the morning'--they make music as they roll and theyflash back His light. 

And then do not let us forget that this yielding of one's self toHim, swayed by His love, and this surrendering of will and purposeand affection and all that makes up our complex being, lead directlyto the true possession of Him and the true possession of ourselves. 

I have said that the only way by which spirit possesses spirit is bylove, and that it must needs be on both sides. So we get God forourselves when we give ourselves to God. There is a wonderfulalternation of giving and receiving between the loving God and hisbeloved lovers; first the impartation of the divine to the human, then the surrender of the human to the divine, and then the largergift of God to man, just as in some series of mirrors the light isflashed back from the one to the other, in bewildering manifoldnessand shimmering of rays from either polished surface. God is ours whenwe are God's. 'And this is the covenant that I will make with themafter these days, saith the Lord. I will be their God, and they shallbe My people. '

And, in like manner, we never own ourselves until we have givenourselves to God. Each of us is like some feudatory prince, dependentupon an overlord. His subjects in his little territory rebel, and hehas no power to subdue the insurgents, but he can send a message tothe capital, and get the army of the king, who is his sovereign andtheirs, to come down and bring them back to order, and establish histottering throne. So if you desire to own yourself or to know thesweetness that you may get out of your own nature and the exercise ofyour powers, if you desire to be able to govern the realm within, putyourself into God's hands and say, 'I am Thine; hold Thou me up, andI shall be safe. '

I need not say more than just a word about the other side of Paul'sconfession of faith, 'Whom I serve. ' He employs the word which meansthe service of a worshipper, or even of a priest, and not that whichmeans the service of a slave. His purpose was to represent how, ashis whole inward nature bowed in submission to, and was under theinfluence of, God to whom he belonged, so his whole outward life wasa life of devotion. He was serving Him there in the ship, amidst thestorm and the squalor and the terror. His calmness was service; hisconfidence was service; the cheery words that he was speaking tothese people were service. And on his whole life he believed thatthis was stamped, that he was devoted to God. So _there_ is the trueidea of a Christian life, that in all its aspects, attitudes, andacts it is to be a manifestation, in visible form, of inward devotionto, and ownership by, God. All our work may be worship, and we may'pray without ceasing, ' though no supplications come from our lips, if our hearts are in touch with Him and through our daily life weserve and honour Him. God's priests never are far away from theiraltar, and never are without, somewhat to offer, as long as they havethe activities of daily duty and the difficulties of daily conflictto bring to Him and spread before Him. 

II. So let me turn for a moment to some of the other aspects of thesewords to which I have already referred, I find in them, next, thebold confession which true religion requires. 

Shipboard is a place where people find out one another very quickly. Character cannot well be hid there. And such circumstances as Paulhad been in for the last fortnight, tossing up and down in _Adria_, with Death looking over the bulwarks of the crazy ship every moment, were certain to have brought out the inmost secrets of character. Paul durst not have said to these people 'the God whose I am and whomI serve' if he had not known that he had been living day by day aconsistent and godly life amongst them. 

And so, I note, first of all, that this confession of individual andpersonal relationship to God is incumbent on every Christian. We donot need to be always brandishing it before people's faces. There isvery little fear of the average Christian of this day blundering onthat side. But we need, still less, to be always hiding it away. Onehears a great deal from certain quarters about a religion that doesnot need to be vocal but shows what it is, without the necessity forwords. Blessed be God! there is such a religion, but you willgenerally find that the people who have most of it are the people whoare least tongue-tied when opportunity arises; and that if they havebeen witnessing for God in their quiet discharge of duty, with theirhands instead of their lips, they are quite as ready to witness withtheir lips when it is fitting that they should do so. And surely, surely, if a man belongs to God, and if his whole life is to be themanifestation of the ownership that he recognises, that whichspecially reveals him--viz. , his own articulate speech--cannot beleft out of his methods of manifestation. 

I am afraid that there are a great many professing Christian peoplenowadays who never, all their lives, have said to any one, 'The Godwhose I am and whom I serve. ' And I beseech you, dear brethren, suffer this word of exhortation. To say so is a far more effectual, or at least more powerful, means of appeal than any direct invitationto share in the blessings. You may easily offend a man by saying tohim, 'Won't you be a Christian too?' But it is hard to offend if yousimply say that you are a Christian. The statement of personalexperience is more powerful by far than all argumentation oreloquence or pleading appeals. We do more when we say, 'That which wehave tasted and felt and handled of the Word of Life, declare we untoyou, ' than by any other means. 

Only remember that the avowal must be backed up by a life, as Paul'swas backed up on board that vessel. For unless it is so, theprofession does far more harm than good. There are always keencritics round us, especially if we say that we are Christians. Therewere keen critics on board that ship. Do you think that these Romansoldiers, and the other prisoners, would not have smiledcontemptuously at Paul, if this had been the first time that they hadany reason to suppose that he was at all different from them? Theywould have said, 'The God whose _you_ are and whom _you_ serve? Why, you are just the same sort of man as if you worshipped Jupiter likethe rest of us!' And that is what the world has a right to say toChristian people. The clearer our profession, the holier must be ourlives. 

III. Last of all, I find in these words the calmness and securitywhich true religion secures. 

The story, as I have already glanced at it in my introductoryremarks, brings out very wonderfully and very beautifully Paul'spromptitude, his calmness in danger, his absolute certainty ofsafety, and his unselfish thoughtfulness about his companions inperil. And all these things were the direct results of his entiresurrender to God, and of the consistency of his daily life. It neededthe angel in the vision to assure him that his life would be spared. But whether the angel had ever come or not, and though death had beenclose at his hand, the serenity and the peaceful assurance of safetywhich come out so beautifully in the story would have been there allthe same. The man who can say 'I belong to God' does not need totrouble himself about dangers. He will have to exercise his commonsense, as the Apostle shows us; he will have to use all the meansthat are in his power for the accomplishment of ends that he knows tobe right and legitimate. But having done all that, he can say, 'Ibelong to Him, ' it is His business to look after His own property. Heis not going to hold His possessions with such a slack hand as thatthey shall slip between His fingers, and be lost in the mire. 'Thouwilt not lose the souls that are Thine in the grave, neither wiltThou suffer the man whom Thou lovest to see corruption. ' God keepsHis treasures, and the surer we are that He is able to keep them untothat day, the calmer we may be in all our trouble. 

And the safety that followed was also the direct result of therelationship of mutual possession and love established between Godand the Apostle. We do not know to which of the two groups of theshipwrecked Paul belonged; whether he could swim or whether he had tohold on to some bit of floating wreckage or other, and so got 'safeto land. ' But whichever way it was, it was neither his swimming northe spar to which, perhaps, he clung, that landed him safe on shore. It was the God to whom he belonged. Faith is the true lifebelt thatkeeps us from being drowned in any stormy sea. And if you and I feelthat we are His, and live accordingly, we shall be calm amid allchange, serene when others are troubled, ready to be helpers ofothers even when we ourselves are in distress. And when the crashcomes, and the ship goes to pieces: 'so it will come to pass that, some on boards, and some on broken pieces of the ship, they all comesafe to land, ' and when the Owner counts His subjects and possessionson the quiet shore, as the morning breaks, there will not be one whohas been lost in the surges, or whose name will be unanswered to whenthe muster-roll of the crew is called. 

A TOTAL WRECK, ALL HANDS SAVED

'And as the shipmen were about to flee out of the ship, when theyhad let down the boat into the sea, under colour as though theywould have cast anchors out of the foreship, 31. Paul said to thecenturion and to the soldiers, Except these abide in the ship, yecannot be saved. 32. Then the soldiers cut off the ropes of theboat, and let her fall off. 33. And while the day was coming on, Paul besought them all to take meat, saying, This day is thefourteenth day that ye have tarried and continued fasting, havingtaken nothing. 34. Wherefore I pray you to take some meat; forthis is for your health; for there shall not an hair fall fromthe head of any of you. 35. And when he had thus spoken, he tookbread, and gave thanks to God in presence of them all; and whenhe had broken it, he began to eat. 36. Then were they all of goodcheer, and they also took some meat. 37. And we were in all inthe ship two hundred threescore and sixteen souls. 38. And whenthey had eaten enough, they lightened the ship, and cast out thewheat into the sea. 39. And when it was day, they knew not theland; but they discovered a certain creek with a shore, into thewhich they were minded, if it were possible, to thrust in theship. 40. And when they had taken up the anchors, they committedthemselves unto the sea, and loosed the rudder-bands, and noisedup the main-sail to the wind, and made toward shore. 41. Andfalling into a place where two seas met, they ran the shipaground: and the fore part stuck fast, and remained unmoveable, but the hinder part was broken with the violence of the waves. 42. And the soldiers' counsel was to kill the prisoners, lestany-of them should swim out, and escape. 43. But the centurion, willing to save Paul, kept them from their purpose: and commandedthat they which could swim should cast themselves first into thesea, and get to land: 44. And the rest some on boards, and someon broken pieces of the ship. And so it came to pass, that theyescaped all safe to land. '--ACTS xxvii 30-44. 

The Jews were not seafaring people. Their coast had no safe harbours, and they seldom ventured on the Mediterranean. To find Paul in a shipwith its bow pointed westwards is significant. It tells of theexpansion of Judaism into a world-wide religion, and of the futurecourse of Christianity. The only Old Testament parallel is Jonah, andthe dissimilarities of the two incidents are as instructive as aretheir resemblances. 

This minute narrative is evidently the work of one of the passengerswho knew a good deal about nautical matters. It reads like a log-book. But as James Smith has well noted in his interesting monographon the chapter, the writer's descriptions, though accurate, areunprofessional, thus confirming Luke's authorship. Where had the'beloved physician' learned so much about the sea and ships? Did thegreat galleys carry surgeons as now? At all events the story is oneof the most graphic accounts ever written. This narrative begins whenthe doomed ship has cast anchor, with a rocky coast close under herlee. The one question is, Will the four anchors hold? No wonder thatthe passengers longed for daylight!

The first point is the crew's dastardly trick to save themselves, frustrated by Paul's insight and promptitude. The pretext for gettinginto the boat was specious. Anchoring by the bow as well as by thestern would help to keep the ship from driving ashore; and if oncethe crew were in the boat and pulled as far as was necessary to layout the anchors, it would be easy, under cover of the darkness, tomake good their escape on shore and leave the landsmen on board toshift for themselves. The boat must have been of considerable size tohold the crew of so large a ship. It was already lying alongside, andlandsmen would not suspect what lay under the apparently braveattempt to add to the vessel's security, but Paul did so. Hispractical sagacity was as conspicuous a trait as his loftyenthusiasm. Common sense need not be divorced from high aims or fromthe intensest religious self-devotion. The idealist beat thepractical centurion in penetrating the sailors' scheme. 

That must have been a great nature which combined such differentcharacteristics as the Apostle shows. Unselfish devotion is oftenwonderfully clear-sighted as to the workings of its opposite. TheApostle's promptitude is as noticeable as his penetration. He wastesno time in remonstrance with the cowards, who would have been overthe side and off in the dark while he talked, but goes straight tothe man in authority. Note, too, that he keeps his place as aprisoner. It is not his business to suggest what is to be done. Thatmight have been resented as presumptuous; but he has a right to pointout the danger, and he leaves the centurion to settle how to meet it. Significantly does he say 'ye, ' not 'we. ' He was perfectly certainthat he 'must be brought before Caesar'; and though he believed thatall on board would escape, he seems to regard his own safety as evenmore certain than that of the others. 

The lesson often drawn from his words is rightly drawn. They implythe necessity of men's action in order to carry out God's purpose. The whole shipful are to be saved, but 'except these abide . .. Yecannot be saved, ' The belief that God wills anything is a reason forusing all means to effect it, not for folding our hands and saying, 'God will do it, whether we do anything or not. ' The line betweenfatalism and Christian reliance on God's will is clearly drawn inPaul's words. 

Note too the prompt, decisive action of the soldiers. They waste nowords, nor do they try to secure the sailors, but out with theirknives and cut the tow-rope, and away into the darkness drifts theboat. It might have been better to have kept it, as affording achance of safety for all; but probably it was wisest to get rid of itat once. Many times in every life it is necessary to sacrificepossible advantages in order to secure a more necessary good. Theboat has to be let go if the passengers in the ship are to be saved. Misused good things have sometimes to be given up in order to keeppeople from temptation. 

The next point brings Paul again to the front. In the night he hadbeen the saviour of the whole shipload of people. Now as the twilightis beginning, and the time for decisive action will soon be here withthe day, he becomes their encourager and counsellor. Again his savingcommon sense is shown. He knew that the moment for intense strugglewas at hand, and so he prepares them for it by getting them to eat asubstantial breakfast. It was because of his faith that he did so. His religion did not lead him to do as some people would have done--begin to talk to the soldiers about their souls--but he looked aftertheir bodies. Hungry, wet, sleepless, they were in no condition toscramble through the surf, and the first thing to be done was to getsome food into them. Of course he does not mean that they had eatenabsolutely nothing for a fortnight, but only that they had had scantynourishment. But Paul's religion went harmoniously with his care formen's bodies. He 'gave thanks to God in presence of them all'; andwho shall say that that prayer did not touch hearts more deeply thanreligious talk would have done? Paul's calmness would be contagious;and the root of it, in his belief in what his God had told him, wouldbe impressively manifested to all on board. Moods are infectious; so'they were all of good cheer, ' and no doubt things looked less blackafter a hearty meal, A little point may be noticed here, namely, the naturalness of theinsertion of the numbers on board at this precise place in thenarrative. There would probably be a muster of all hands for themeal, and in view of the approaching scramble, in order that, if theygot to shore, there might be certainty as to whether any were lost. So here the numbers come in. They were still not without hope ofsaving the ship, though Paul had told them it would be lost; and sothey jettison the cargo of wheat from Alexandria. By this time it isbroad day and something must be done. 

The next point is the attempt to beach the vessel. 'They knew not theland, ' that is, the part of the coast where they had been driven; butthey saw that, while for the most part it was iron-bound, there was ashelving sandy bay at one point on to which it might be possible torun her ashore. The Revised Version gives a much more accurate andseaman-like account than the Authorised Version does. The anchorswere not taken on board, but to save time and trouble were 'left inthe sea, ' the cables being simply cut. The 'rudder-bands'--that is, the lashings which had secured the two paddle-like rudders, one oneither beam, which had been tied up to be out of the way when thestern anchors were put out--are loosed, and the rudders drop intoplace. The foresail (not 'mainsail, ' as the Authorised Version hasit) is set to help to drive the ship ashore. It is all exactly whatwe should expect to be done. 

But an unexpected difficulty met the attempt, which is explained bythe lie of the coast at St. Paul's Bay, Malta, as James Smith fullydescribes in his book. A little island, separated from the mainlandby a channel of not more than one hundred yards in breadth, lies offthe north-east point of the bay, and to a beholder at the entrance tothe bay looks as if continuous with it. When the ship got farther in, they would see the narrow channel, through which a strong currentsets and makes a considerable disturbance as it meets the run of thewater in the bay. A bank of mud has been formed at the point ofmeeting. Thus not only the water shoals, but the force of the currentthrough the narrows would hinder the ship from getting past it to thebeach. The two things together made her ground, 'stem on' to thebank; and then, of course, the heavy sea running into the bay, instead of helping her to the shore, began to break up the sternwhich was turned towards it. 

Common peril makes beasts of prey and their usual victims crouchtogether. Benefits received touch generous hearts. But thelegionaries on board had no such sentiments. Paul's helpfulness wasforgotten. A still more ignoble exhibition of the instinct of self-preservation than the sailors had shown dictated that cowardly, cruelsuggestion to kill the prisoners. Brutal indifference to human life, and Rome's iron discipline holding terror over the legionaries'heads, are vividly illustrated in the 'counsel, ' So were Paul'skindnesses requited! It is hard to melt rude natures even bykindness; and if Paul had been looking for gratitude he would havebeen disappointed, as we so often are. But if we do good to menbecause we expect requital, even in thankfulness, we are not pure inmotive. 'Looking for nothing again' is the spirit enforced by God'spattern and by experience. 

The centurion had throughout, like most of his fellows in Scripture, been kindly disposed, and showed more regard for Paul than the rankand file did. He displays the good side of militarism, while theyshow its bad side; for he is collected, keeps his head inextremities, knows his own mind, holds the reins in a firm hand, evenin that supreme moment, has a quick eye to see what must be done, anddecision to order it at once. It was prudent to send first those whocould swim; they could then help the others. The distance was short, and as the bow was aground, there would be some shelter under the leeof the vessel, and shoal water, where they could wade, would bereached in a few minutes or moments. 

'And so it came to pass, that they all escaped safe to the land. ' SoPaul had assured them they would. God needs no miracles in order tosway human affairs. Everything here was perfectly 'natural, ' and yetHis hand wrought through all, and the issue was His fulfilment of Hispromises. If we rightly look at common things, we shall see Godworking in them all, and believe that He can deliver us as trulywithout miracles as ever He did any by miracles. Promptitude, prudence, skill, and struggle with the waves, saved the whole twohundred and seventy-six souls in that battered ship; yet it was Godwho saved them all. Whether Paul was among the party that could swim, or among the more helpless who had to cling to anything that wouldfloat, he was held up by God's hand, and it was He who 'sent fromabove, took him, and drew him out of many waters. '

AFTER THE WRECK

'And when they were escaped, then they knew that the island wascalled Melita. 2. And the barbarous people showed us no littlekindness: for they kindled a fire, and received us every one, because of the present rain, and because of the cold. 3. And whenPaul had gathered a bundle of sticks, and laid them on the fire, there came a viper out of the heat, and fastened on his hand. 4. And when the barbarians saw the venomous beast hang on his hand, they said among themselves, No doubt this man is a murderer, whom, though he hath escaped the sea, yet vengeance suffereth notto live. 5. And he shook off the beast into the fire, and felt noharm. 6. Howbeit they looked when he should have swollen, orfallen down dead suddenly: but after they had looked a greatwhile, and saw no harm come to him, they changed their minds, andsaid that he was a god. 7. In the same quarters were possessionsof the chief man of the island, whose name was Publius: whoreceived us, and lodged us three days courteously. 8. And it cameto pass, that the father of Publius lay sick of a fever, and of abloody flux: to whom Paul entered in, and prayed, and laid hishands on him, and healed him. 9. So when this was done, othersalso, which had diseases in the island, came, and were healed:10. Who also honoured us with many honours: and when we departed, they laded us with such things as were necessary. 11. And afterthree months we departed in a ship of Alexandria, which hadwintered in the isle, whose sign was Castor and Pollux. 12. Andlanding at Syracuse, we tarried there three days. 13. And fromthence we fetched a compass, and came to Rhegium: and after oneday the south wind blew, and we came the next day to Puteoli; 14. Where we found brethren, and were desired to tarry with themseven days: and so we went toward Rome. 15. And from thence, whenthe brethren heard of us, they came to meet us as far as AppiiForum, and The three taverns: whom when Paul saw, he thanked God, and took courage. 16. And when we came to Rome, the centuriondelivered the prisoners to the captain of the guard: but Paul wassuffered to dwell by himself with a soldier that kept him. '--ACTS xxviii. 1-16. 

'They _all_ escaped safe to land, ' says Luke with emphasis, pointingto the verification of Paul's assurance that there should be no lossof life. That two hundred and seventy-six men on a wreck should allbe saved was very improbable, but the angel had promised, and Paulhad believed that it should be 'even so as it had been spoken untohim. ' Therefore the improbable came to pass, and every man of theship's company stood safe on the shore. Faith which grasps God'spromise 'laughs at impossibilities' and brings them into the regionof facts. 

Wet, cold, weary, and anxious, the rescued men huddled together onthe shore in the early morning, and no doubt they were doubtful whatreception they would have from the islanders who had been attractedto the beach. Their first question was, 'Where are we?' so completelyhad they lost their reckoning. Some of the inhabitants could speakGreek or Latin, and could tell them that they were on Melita, but themost part of the crowd that came round them could only speak in atongue strange to Luke, and are therefore called by him 'barbarians, 'not as being uncivilised, but as not speaking Greek. But they couldspeak the eloquent language of kindness and pity. They were heathens, but they were men. They had not come down to the wreck for plunder, as might have been feared, but to help the unfortunates who wereshivering on the beach in the downpour of rain, and chilled to thebone by exposure. 

As always, Paul fills Luke's canvas; the other two hundred andseventy-five were ciphers. Two incidents, in which the Apostleappears as protected by God from danger, and as a fountain of healingfor others, are all that is told of the three months' stay in Malta. Taken together, these cover the whole ground of the Christian's placein the world; he is an object of divine care, he is a medium ofdivine blessing. In the former one, we see in Paul's activity ingathering his bundle of brushwood an example of how he took thehumblest duties on himself, and was not hindered either by the falsesense of dignity which keeps smaller men from doing small things, asChinese gentlemen pride themselves on long nails as a token that theydo no work, or by the helplessness in practical matters which issometimes natural to, and often affected by, men of genius, fromtaking his share in common duties. 

The shipwreck took place in November probably, and the 'viper' hadcurled itself up for its winter sleep, and had been lifted with thetwigs by Paul's hasty hand. Roused by the warmth, it darted at Paul'shand before it could be withdrawn, and fixed its fangs. The sight ofit dangling there excited suspicions in the mind of the natives, whowould know that Paul was a prisoner, and so jumped to the conclusionthat he was a murderer pursued by the Goddess of Justice. These rudeislanders had consciences, which bore witness to a divine law ofretribution. 

However mistaken may be heathens' conceptions of what constitutesright and wrong, they all know that it is wrong to do wrong, and thedim anticipation of God-inflicted punishment is in their hearts. Theswift change of opinion about Paul is like, though it is the reverseof, what the people of Lystra thought of him. _They_ first took himfor a god, and then for a criminal, worshipping him to-day andstoning him to-morrow. This teaches us how unworthy the heathenconception of a deity is, and how lightly the name was given. It mayteach us too how fickle and easily led popular judgments are, and howthey are ever prone to rush from one extreme to another, so that thepeople's idol of one week is their abhorrence the next, and theapplause and execration are equally undeserved. These Maltese criticsdid what many of us are doing with less excuse--arguing as to men'smerits from their calamities or successes. A good man may be stung bya serpent in the act of doing a good thing; that does not prove himto be a monster. He may be unhurt by what seems fatal; that does notprove him to be a god or a saint. 

The other incident recorded as occurring in Malta brings out theChristian's relation to others as a source of healing. An interestingincidental proof of Luke's accuracy is found in the fact thatinscriptions discovered in Malta show that the official title of thegovernor was 'First of the Melitaeans. ' The word here rendered'chief' is literally 'first. ' Luke's precision is shown in anotherdirection in his diagnosis of the diseases of Publius's father, whichare described by technical medical terms. The healing seems to havebeen unasked. Paul 'went in, ' as if from a spontaneous wish to renderhelp. There is no record of any expectation or request from Publius. 

Christians are to be 'like the dew on the grass, which waiteth notfor man, ' but falls unsought. The manner of the healing brings outvery clearly its divine source, and Paul's part as being simply thatof the channel for God's power. He prays, and then lays his hands onthe sick man. There are no words assuring him of healing. God isinvoked, and then His power flows through the hands of the suppliant. So with all our work for men in bringing the better cure with whichwe are entrusted, we are but channels of the blessing, pipes throughwhich the water of life is brought to thirsty lips. Therefore prayermust precede and accompany all Christian efforts to communicate thehealing of the Gospel; and the most gifted are but, like Paul, 'ministers through whom' faith and salvation come. 

The argument from silence is precarious, but the entire omission ofnotice of evangelistic work in Melita is noteworthy. Probably theApostle as a prisoner was not free to preach Christ in any publicmanner. 

Ancient navigation was conducted in a leisurely fashion very strangeto us. Three months' delay in the island, rendered necessary bywintry storms, would end about the early part of March, when theseason for safe sailing began. So the third ship which was used inthis voyage set sail. Luke notices its 'sign' as being that of theTwin Brethren, the patrons of sailors, whose images were, no doubt, displayed on the bow, just as to-day boats in that region often havea Madonna nailed on the mast. Strange conjunction--Castor and Polluxon the prow, and Paul on the deck!

Puteoli, on the bay of Naples, was the landing-place, and there, after long confinement with uncongenial companions, the threeChristians, Paul, Aristarchus, and Luke, found brethren. We canunderstand the joy of such a meeting, and can almost hear thenarrative of perils which would be poured into sympathetic ears. Observe that, according to what seems the true reading, verse 14says, 'We were consoled among them, remaining seven days. ' Thecenturion could scarcely delay his march to please the Christians atPuteoli; and the thought that the Apostle, whose spirit had neverflagged while danger was near and effort was needed, felt sometendency to collapse, and required cheering when the strain was off, is as natural as it is pathetic. 

So the whole company set off on their march to Rome--about a hundredand forty miles. The week's delay in Puteoli would give time forapprising the church in Rome of the Apostle's coming, and two partiescame out to meet him, one travelling as far as Appii Forum, aboutforty Roman miles from the city; the other as far as 'The ThreeTaverns, ' some ten miles nearer it. The simple notice of the meetingis more touching than many words would have been. It brings out againthe Apostle's somewhat depressed state, partly due, no doubt, tonervous tension during the long and hazardous voyage, and partly tohis consciousness that the decisive moment was very near. But when hegrasped the hands and looked into the faces of the Roman brethren, whom he had so long hungered to see, and to whom he had poured outhis heart in his letter, he 'thanked God, and took courage. ' The mostheroic need, and are helped by, the sympathy of the humble. Lutherwas braced for the Diet of Worms by the knight who clapped him on theback as he passed in and spoke a hearty word of cheer. 

There would be some old friends in the delegation of RomanChristians, perhaps some of those who are named in Romans xvi. , suchas Priscilla and Aquila, and the unnamed matron, Rufus's mother, whomPaul there calls 'his mother and mine. ' It would be an hour of loveand effusion, and the shadow of appearing before Caesar would notsensibly dim the brightness. Paul saw God's hand in that gladmeeting, as we should do in all the sweetness of congenialintercourse. It was not only because the welcomers were his friendsthat he was glad, but because they were Christ's friends andservants. The Apostle saw in them the evidence that the kingdom wasadvancing even in the world's capital, and under the shadow ofCaesar's throne, and that gladdened him and made him forget personalanxieties. We too should be willing to sink our own interests in thejoy of seeing the spread of Christ's kingdom. 

Paul turned thankfulness for the past and present into calm hope forthe future: 'He took courage. ' There was much to discourage and toexcuse tremors and forebodings, but he had God and Christ with him, and therefore he could front the uncertain future without flinching, and leave all its possibilities in God's hands. Those who have such apast as every Christian has should put fear far from them, and goforth to meet any future with quiet hearts, and minds kept in perfectpeace because they are stayed on God. 

THE LAST GLIMPSE OF PAUL

'And it came to pass, that, after three days, Paul called thechief of the Jews together: and when they were come together, hesaid unto them, Men and brethren, though I have committed nothingagainst the people or customs of our fathers, yet was I deliveredprisoner from Jerusalem into the hands of the Romans; 18. Who, when they had examined me, would have let me go, because therewas no cause of death in me. 19. But when the Jews spake againstit, I was constrained to appeal unto Caesar; not that I had oughtto accuse my nation of. 20. For this cause therefore have Icalled for you, to see you, and to speak with you: because thatfor the hope of Israel I am bound with this chain. 21. And theysaid unto him, We neither received letters out of Judaeaconcerning thee, neither any of the brethren that came shewed orspake any harm of thee. 22. But we desire to hear of thee whatthou thinkest: for as concerning this sect, we know thateverywhere it is spoken against. 23. And when they had appointedhim a day, there came many to him into his lodging; to whom heexpounded and testified the kingdom of God, persuading themconcerning Jesus, both out of the law of Moses, and out of theprophets, from morning till evening. 24. And some believed thethings which were spoken, and some believed not. 25. And whenthey agreed not among themselves, they departed, after that Paulhad spoken one word, Well spake the Holy Ghost by Esias theprophet unto our fathers, 26. Saying, Go unto this people, andsay. Hearing ye shall hear, and shall not understand; and seeingye shall see, and not perceive: 27. For the heart of this peopleis waxed gross, and their ears are dull of hearing, and theireyes have they closed; lest they should see with their eyes, andhear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and shouldbe converted, and I should heal them. 28. Be it known thereforeunto you, that the salvation of God is sent unto the Gentiles, and that they will hear it. 29. And when he had said these words, the Jews departed, and had great reasoning among themselves. 30. And Paul dwelt two whole years in his own hired house, andreceived all that came in unto him, 31. Preaching the kingdomof God, and teaching those things which concern the Lord JesusChrist, with all confidence, no man forbidding him. '--ACTS xxviii. 17-31. 

We have here our last certain glimpse of Paul. His ambition had longbeen to preach in Rome, but he little knew how his desire was to befulfilled. We too are often surprised at the shape which God'sanswers to our wishes take. Well for us if we take the unexpected orpainful events which accomplish some long-cherished purpose ascheerfully and boldly as did Paul. We see him in this last glimpse asthe centre of three concentric widening circles. 

I. We have Paul and the leaders of the Roman synagogue. He was notthe man to let the grass grow under his feet. After such a voyage apause would have been natural for a less eager worker; but three dayswere all that he allowed himself, and these would, no doubt, belargely occupied by intercourse with the Roman Christians, and withthe multitude of little things to be looked after on entering on hisnew lodging. Paul had gifts that we have not, he exemplified manyheroic virtues which we are not called on to repeat; but he hademinently the prosaic virtue of diligence and persistence in work, and the humblest life affords a sphere in which that indispensablethough homely excellence of his can be imitated. What a long holidaysome of us would think we had earned, if we had come through whatPaul had encountered since he left Caesarea!

The summoning of the 'chief of the Jews' to him was a prudentpreparation for his trial rather than an evangelistic effort. It wasimportant to ascertain their feelings, and if possible to securetheir neutrality in regard to the approaching investigation. Hencethe Apostle seeks to put his case to them so as to show his trueadherence to the central principles of Judaism, insisting that he isguiltless of revolt against either the nation or the law andtraditional observances; that he had been found innocent by thePalestinian representatives of Roman authority; that his appeal toCaesar, which would naturally seem hostile to the rulers inJerusalem, was not meant as an accusation of the nation to which hefelt himself to belong, and so was no sign of deficient patriotism, but had been forced on him as his only means of saving his life. 

It was a difficult course which he had to steer, and he picked hisway between the shoals with marvellous address. But his explanationof his position is not only a skilful piece of _apologia_, but itembodies one of his strongest convictions, which it is worth ourwhile to grasp firmly; namely, that Christianity is the truefulfilment and perfecting of the old revelation. His declarationthat, so far from his being a deserter from Israel, he was a prisonerjust because he was true to the Messianic hope which was Israel'shighest glory, was not a clever piece of special pleading meant forthe convincing of the Roman Jews, but was a principle which runsthrough all his teaching. Christians were the true Jews. He was not arecreant in confessing, but they were deserters in denying, thefulfilment in Jesus of the hope which had shone before the generationof 'the fathers. ' The chain which bound him to the legionary who'kept him, ' and which he held forth as he spoke, was the witness thathe was still 'an Hebrew of the Hebrews. '

The heads of the Roman synagogue went on the tack of non-committal, as was quite natural. They were much too astute to accept at once an_ex parte_ statement, and so took refuge in professing ignorance. Probably they knew a good deal more than they owned. Their statementhas been called 'unhistorical, ' and, oddly enough, has been used todiscredit Luke's narrative. It is a remarkable canon of criticismthat a reporter is responsible for the truthfulness of assertionswhich he reports, and that, if he has occasion to report truthfullyan untruth, he is convicted of the untruth which he truthfullyreports. Luke is responsible for telling what these people found itconvenient to say; they are responsible for its veracity. But theydid not say quite as much as is sometimes supposed. As the RevisedVersion shows, they simply said that they had not had any officialdeputation or report about Paul, which is perfectly probable, as itwas extremely unlikely that any ship leaving after Paul's could havereached Italy. They may have known a great deal about him, but theyhad no information to act upon about his trial. Their reply isplainly shaped so as to avoid expressing any definite opinion orpledging themselves to any course of action till they do hear from'home. '

They are politely cautious, but they cannot help letting out some oftheir bile in their reference to 'this sect. ' Paul had said nothingabout it, and their allusion betrays a fuller knowledge of him and itthan it suited their plea for delay to own. Their wish to hear whathe thought sounded very innocent and impartial, but was scarcely thevoice of candid seekers after truth. They must have known of theexistence of the Roman Church, which included many Jews, and theycould scarcely be ignorant of the beliefs on which it was founded;but they probably thought that they would hear enough from Paul inthe proposed conference to enable them to carry the synagogue withthem in doing all they could to procure his condemnation. He hadhoped to secure at least their neutrality; they seem to have beenpreparing to join his enemies. The request for full exposition of aprisoner's belief has often been but a trap to ensure his martyrdom. But we have to 'be ready to give to every man a reason for the hopethat is in us, ' even when the motive for asking it may be anythingbut the sincere desire to learn. 

II. Therefore Paul was willing to lay his heart's belief open, whatever doing so might bring. So the second circle forms round him, and we have him preaching the Gospel to 'many' of the Jews. He couldnot go to the synagogue, so much of the synagogue came to him. Theusual method was pursued by Paul in arguing from the old revelation, but we may note the twofold manner of his preaching, 'testifying' and'persuading, ' the former addressed more to the understanding, and thelatter to the affections and will, and may learn how Christianteachers should seek to blend both--to work their arguments, not infrost, but in fire, and not to bully or scold or frighten men intothe Kingdom, but to draw them with cords of love. Persuasion withouta basis of solid reasoning is puerile and impotent; reasoning withoutthe warmth of persuasion is icy cold, and therefore nothing growsfrom it. 

Note too the protracted labour 'from morning till evening. ' One canalmost see the eager disputants spending the livelong day over therolls of the prophets, relays of Rabbis, perhaps, relieving oneanother in the assault on the one opponent's position, and he holdinghis ground through all the hours--a pattern for us teachers of alldegrees. 

The usual effects followed. The multitude was sifted by the Gospel, as its hearers always are, some accepting and some rejecting. Thesedouble effects ever follow it, and to one or other of these twoclasses we each belong. The same fire melts wax and hardens clay; thesame light is joy to sound eyes and agony to diseased ones; the sameword is a savour of life unto life and a savour of death unto death;the same Christ is set for the fall and for the rising of men, and isto some the sure foundation on which they build secure, and to somethe stone on which, stumbling, they are broken, and which, falling onthem, grinds them to powder. 

Paul's solemn farewell takes up Isaiah's words, already used byJesus. It is his last recorded utterance to his brethren after theflesh, weighty, and full of repressed yearning and sorrow. It isheavy with prophecy, and marks an epoch in the sad, strange historyof that strange nation. Israel passes out of sight with that dreadsentence fastened to its breast, like criminals of old, on whosefront was fixed the record of their crimes and their condemnation. Sothis tragic self-exclusion from hope and life is the end of all thatwondrous history of ages of divine revelation and patience, and ofman's rebellion. The Gospel passes to the Gentiles, and the Jew shutshimself out. So it has been for nineteen centuries. Was not thatscene in Paul's lodging in Rome the end of an epoch and theprediction of a sad future?

III. Not less significant and epoch-making is the glimpse of Paulwhich closes the Acts. We have the third concentric circle--Paul andthe multitudes who came to his house and heard the Gospel. We notetwo points here. First, that his unhindered preaching in the veryheart of the world's capital for two whole years is, in one aspect, the completion of the book. As Bengel tersely says, 'The victory ofthe word of God, Paul at Rome. The apex of the Gospel, the end ofActs. '

But, second, as clearly, the ending is abrupt, and is not asatisfying close. The lengthened account of the whole process ofPaul's imprisonments and hearings before the various Romanauthorities is most unintelligible if Luke intended to break off atthe very crucial point, and say nothing about the event to which hehad been leading up for so many chapters. There is much probabilityin Ramsay's suggestion that Luke intended to write a third book, containing the account of the trial and subsequent events, but wasprevented by causes unknown, perhaps by martyrdom. Be that as it may, these two verses, with some information pieced out of the Epistleswritten during the imprisonment, are all that we know of Paul's lifein Rome. From Philippians we learn that the Gospel spread by reasonof the earlier stages of his trial. From the other Epistles we cancollect some particulars of his companions, and of the oversightwhich he kept up of the Churches. 

The picture here drawn lays hold, not on anything connected with histrial, but on his evangelistic activity, and shows us how, notwithstanding all hindrances, anxieties about his fate, weariness, and past toils, the flame of evangelistic fervour burned undimmed in'Paul the aged, ' as the flame of mistaken zeal had burned in the'young man named Saul, ' and how the work which had filled so manyyears of wandering and homelessness was carried on with all the oldjoyfulness, confidence, and success, from the prisoner's lodging. Insuch unexpected fashion did God fulfil the Apostle's desire to'preach the Gospel to you that are at Rome also. ' To preach the wordwith all boldness is the duty of us Christians who have entered intothe heritage of fuller freedom than Paul's, and of whom it is truerthan of him that we can do it, 'no man forbidding' us. 

PAUL IN ROME

And Paul dwelt two whole years in his own hired house, andreceived all that came in unto him, 31. Preaching the kingdomof God, and teaching those things which concern the Lord JesusChrist, with all confidence, no man forbidding him. '--ACTS xxviii. 30, 31. 

So ends this book. It stops rather than ends. Many reasons might besuggested for closing here. Probably the simplest is the best, thatnothing more is said for nothing more had yet been done. Probably thebook was written during these two years. This abrupt close suggestsseveral noteworthy thoughts. 

I. The true theme of the book. 

How convenient if Luke had told us a little more! But Paul's historyis unfinished, like Peter's and John's. This book's treatment of allthe Apostles teaches, as we have often had to remark, that Christ andHis acts are its true subject. 

We are wise if we learn the lesson of keeping all human teachers, even a Paul, in their inferior place, and if we say of each of them:'He was not the Light, but came that he might bear witness of theLight. '

II. God's unexpected and unwelcome ways of fulfilling our desires, and His purposes. 

It had long been Paul's dream to 'see Rome. ' How little he knew thesteps by which his dream was to be fulfilled! He told the Ephesianelders that he was going up to Jerusalem under compulsion of theSpirit, and 'not knowing the things that should befall him there, 'except that he was certain of 'bonds and imprisonment. ' He did notknow that these were God's way of bringing him to Rome. Jewish fury, Roman statecraft and law-abidingness, two years of a prison, a stormyvoyage, a shipwreck, led him to his long-wished-for goal. God useseven man's malice and opposition to the Gospel to advance theprogress of the Gospel. Men, like coral insects, build their littlebit, all unaware of the whole of which it is a part, but the reefrises above the waves and ocean breaks against it in vain. 

So we may gather lessons of submission, of patient acceptance ofapparently adverse circumstances, and of quiet faith that He who'makes stormy winds to fulfil His word and flaming fires Hisministers, ' will bend to the carrying out of His designs all things, be they seemingly friendly or hostile, and will realise our dreams, if in accordance with His will, even through events which seem toshatter them. Let us trust and be patient till we see the issues ofevents. 

III. The world's mistaken estimate of greatness. 

Who was the greatest man in Rome at that hour? Not the Caesar but thepoor Jewish prisoner. How astonished both would have been if they hadbeen told the truth! The two kingdoms were, so to speak, set face toface in these two, their representatives, and neither of them knewhis own relative importance. The Caesar was all unaware that, for allhis legions and his power, he was but 'a noise'; Paul was asunconscious that he was incomparably the most powerful of theinfluences that were then at work in the world. The haughty andstolid eyes of Romans saw in him nothing but a prisoner, sent up froma turbulent subject land on some obscure charge, a mere nobody. Thecrowds in forum and amphitheatre would have laughed at any one whohad pointed to that humble 'hired house, ' and said, 'There lodges aman who bears a word that will shatter and remould the city, theEmpire, the world. '

Let us have confidence in the greatness of the word, though the worldmay be deaf to its music and blind to its power, and let us neverfear to ally ourselves with a cause which we know to be God's, however it may be unpopular and made light of by the 'leaders ofopinion. '

IV. The true relation between the Church and the State. 

'None forbidding him' marks a great step forward. Paul's unhinderedfreedom of speech in Rome itself marks 'the victory of the word, theapex of the Gospel. ' The neutral attitude of the imperial power was, indeed, broken by subsequent persecutions, but we may say that on thewhole Rome let Christianity alone. That is the best service that theState can render to the Church. Anything more is help which encumbersand is harmful to the true spiritual power of the Gospel. The realrequirement which it makes on the civil power is simply what theGreek philosopher asked of the king who was proffering his goodoffices, 'Stand out of the sunshine!'